"Egon! What have you done?" Peter Venkman called as he waved the request list for official merchandising at the firehouses stairway. Dr. Egon Spengler poked his head over the banister and gave him an inquiring look.

Sighing theatrically Peter marched up the stairs and presented the request form to him, pointing out the underlined and highlighted item he wished to discuss.

"Hmm." Egon murmured, taking the form and walking back to the rec. rooms lounge where he sat and perused the document with interest. Ray and Winston glanced over curiously from the game of Vulcan chess they were playing on Winston's new board. When all Egon did was sit and think they shrugged and went back to their battle of wits.

Adjusting his red glasses Egon studied the application form a moment longer before announcing. "Ah, yes. A play on words. Probably referring to the empirical tests I run whilst 'busting."

"Empirical Tests? What empirical tests?" Peter snatched the document back and glared at it accusingly, as if expecting an answer to leap out from the page.

Egon however, had caught the shuttering in Peter's green eyes before he fully looked away. Certain that something was up his genius class mind quickly worked to ascertain what really had Dr. Venkman so upset. Ah, yes. Years of knowing how to unravel the Venkman psyche came to his assistance. The corners of his mouth quirked as he thought fondly how much he loved this clever, caring man.

Egon schooled his features to neutrality, remarking lightly, "The touch test, of course, Peter. You are always telling me not to rely so heavily on the meter readings. Therefore when I come across an entity that does not register as a spook, I do a 'reality check' as they say." He stood and stretched his entire six foot four frame provocatively, before continuing. "I extend my hand and touch the individual to make certain that they are mortal entities and not ectoplasmic ones."

"Uh, mortals...like, people, right..." Peter agreed distractedly. All that stretching physicist had him feeling a little ...preoccupied.

"Go ahead and sanction the T-shirts." Egon added mildly. "I think they will prove very amusing." The tall blond then lent over and planted a gentle kiss on his lover's lips before heading off towards his laboratory.

Peter stood there with a dopey look on his face for about five seconds before whirling and yelling "We'll just see if I don't, buster!" after the departing scientist. Egon's deep chuckle was all the reply he got.

"What do they wanna do?" Ray asked for Winston and himself, as they both looked up again from their game. "Not another glow in the dark portrait series, I hope."

"Amen." Winston agreed.

Peter posed importantly, gave a quick look in Spenglers direction to make sure he had really left, then started unbuttoning his shirt. They were tiny little buttons and slippery as all hell, so he abandoned the pose to deal with the blasted things in a more natural hunched position.

"The latest T-shirt they want to market is a doozey, it's got a head and shoulders shot of Egon pointing out at ya. It's rather stylishly rendered, I might add - they captured his hair just right and his eyes..." Ray and Winston grimaced at each other, Peter in love was a terribly thing to have to deal with. Peter in true love was sickening.

"Yeah, well." Peter pulled a face at them and continued, still undoing his shirts little buttons. "The media have picked up on one of our mad scientist's little habits and made a nifty slogan out of it to put on the front, complete with another pic of my favourite man doing his thing. I don't think we'd be able to stop these baby's going on the market if we tried," he confided, letting his trepidation show through. "But by making them official merchandise we at least get to see some of the profits."

"So this little scene was about getting Egon to agree to something that was gonna happen anyway, whether he liked it or not." Winston surmised as Peter struggled with his cuffs.

"Right." Venkman agreed with a pained smile. Sometimes the publicity didn't sit well with the other guys, he'd found it was easier to get them to cope with it if he helped break stuff to them, er, gently. Fame, after all, did have its price. "Hey, at least this T isn't from some shoddy back street operation. They sent me a sample, it's good quality, a nice cotton blend, even screen printing, double seam stitching..."

"But what does it say?" Ray interrupted impatiently.

"Weren't you listening?" Winston teased, "It's something about the way Egon pokes folks to see if they are real or not when we're on a 'bust. Something like, er, - nudge nudge, wink wink, haunt no more..."

"That's bad, Winston. How about - PokeEgon, he's gonna catch 'em all!" They groaned at that one together, then turned to Peter to find out what the real slogan was.

 Empirical testing, indeed! Peter was going to have to order a T-shirt in every colour so he could wear a different one for every day of the week.

"That's, wow. Innuendo." Ray shook his head in wonder.

"That's InMyEnd...<mph>" Peter was interrupted by Winston slapping a hand over his mouth.

"Peter, if you finish that sentence I'll have to kill you," he said calmly, before letting his friend go.

"Repressed, you're both repressed!" Peter smirked, dancing out of arms reach towards the doorway. "Anyhow, think I'll just go and get Egon to help me with some testing I want done. Don't worry if you hear any strange noises from the lab. It'll just be me an Spengler, working on our empirical study of bodies in motion. Bye-bye!" and he ducked out the room seconds before the couch cushion hit the spot where he'd been standing.

"Nothing I hate more than a smug Venkman." Winston groused.

"Checkmate." Said Ray.

"And that. I hate that, too." Zed gave the chess board a look of betrayal.

"You've just been 'mated' by a Ghostbuster." Ray smirked at him.

"Come here, Stantz! I'll show you mated!" Winston growled, but Ray was already up and running.