The Doctor is In
Writers block is such a B word. Apologies for this taking so long to come out. One more chapter, though. Then I'll be finished and be able to move on to writing new stories.
Also, Tomorrow is the new Smash reveal. Crash Bandicoot, anyone? I hope that that's the character.
Luigi's Mansion 3 is owned by Nintendo.
Right outside the fake village, which now that they looked at it closer, was an incredibly obvious fact, was a large field of beautiful flowers, all in a wide variety of colors. A beautiful sight, for sure. And according to the good doctor's map, was what held all of the answers to all of their questions. The solution to all of their problems. The light at the end of their metaphorical tunnel.
"... I don't get it." Fishook helpfully commented.
Well, it'd be the answer if they actually knew what they were supposed to look for exactly. But unfortunately, neither of the two ghosts had an inkling of that fact. It paid to be in jail for this kind of information.
"Well, given the fact that the Doctor is a botanist means that the flowers might hold the key ta are answers." The ghostly king stroked his beard pensively. "Hmmm, maybe." He reached out to pluck one of the flowers of the ground.
The "villagers" responded to the sight by immediately pulling out spears and pointing it at him threateningly.
Neither of the two ghosts were even the slightest bit intimidated by the display. "Oh, calm yerselves, we just wanna take a look at yer flowers." Fishook dryly declared. Something about the spears caught his one good eye, however. "What the… oh, fer the ocean's sake, these aren't even real spears!"
The ghost shark proved his point by pulling on one of the jungle guys' spears. As expected, the "weapon" bent like if it was made out of rubber, because it was in fact made out of said substance. "How did we let these losers capture us, anyway?"
"Aye, it's humiliating. I have fought actual dragons before in my lifetime, and ta be captured by a buncha… what's the word I'm lookin fer… Cosplayers! Ta be captured by cosplayers is nothin short a humiliating."
"I tell ya, Morty would have done a way better job at this."
As the two ghosts continued to heckle the crowd, not showing any fear in the slightest, the crowd grew angrier. Not enough to break their characters, of course, they were well trained in their craft. They took the insults in stride, never breaking, never buckling, never-
"Oh, come on! Do you people have any idea how hard this job is?"
Oh, never mind, one just slammed their spear on the ground in anger. So much for a professional.
"We had to show up here on short notice, okay! Someone, who's name will not be mentioned, Carol!" The green Guy definitely did not glare through their mask at another Shy Guy. "Mixed up the dates, and we showed up here only two days ago!"
"Oh for the love of the Grand Star, Edwin." Another shy guy, possibly the leader, yelled suddenly. "Everybody stop. Let's all take five." He said to all the others. Without missing a beat, the actors went from threatening them with their spears, to amiably chatting with each other as if they hadn't just tried to kidnap a bunch of people. None seemed to notice the very confused (and annoyed) looks that their current spectators were giving them.
That probably explained some things, when one thought about it.
"Yeah, great job, Edwin. Don't you remember what we talked about on the plane ride here?" The red Shy Guy said to the green one, who was currently giving him a glare through his mask. "Under no circumstances do we ever break character. That's the number one rule at the Bean Bean Academy of Acting, and you broke it."
"Whatever, man. I'm gonna go take my coffee break." The shy guy walked away without caring about his angry leader.
"And as for you two!" The red Shy Guy pointed an accusatory nub at MacFrights and Fishook, who looked like they could care less about the situation. "I thought we were working with professionals, but I guess my faith was misplaced. You're just a bunch of amateurs who decided to break into our performance and ruin it with your unwarranted criticisms and tacky, period inaccurate costumes. What do you have to say for yourselves?!"
The Shy Guy glared at the offending party, who simply looked at each other in annoyance. "Look, laddie." Fishook went. "We're not actors. We're just some passers by who you little weirdos decided was a good idea to kidnap." The glare was dropped. "And fer the record." And it was replaced by a fearful look as the giant ghost shark came uncomfortably close to his face, teeth bared and giant hook aimed threateningly at him. "This is as real as it gets."
"Come on, Fishook. You don't have to threaten the poor guy just because of a dumb comment." And there came Gloria with her posse of Ug and Johnny, wandering out of the tent to the scene of a bunch of Shy Guys behaving like Morty's actors when they were on break. The clearest sign that they had broken out of character. "Remember what happened to Melvin, back in March?"
The pirate drooped and dragged his hook on the ground. "Yeah, yeah, I remember. But fer the record, I apologized to the guy after we got him out of me stomach. You can't say that I'm not a forgiving person."
"Yeah, but you are the type to eat people that don't like you."
"That was one time and ye know it."
The back and forth banter between the two ghosts throve the poor Shy Guy leader into a deeper confusion. How did their head actress, a ghost dressed in the regalia of an ancient queen, know some random ghost shark dressed like a pirate; another dressed like a scottish king; a caveman looking fellow and a very attractive swimmer ghost he could swear he's seen in a magazine before?..
"Oh." And then he realized. "You're not the one of our actors, aren't you?"
"You're just realizing that now?" Gloria simply deadpanned at him.
The Shy Guy gripped his mask in shame. "Oh, that means that our actual queen took the wrong plane. Oh for the love off… Alright everyone!" He grabbed the attention of all of the other actors, who stopped to look at him. "The reenactment is canceled. Pack up everything, grab your stuff and let's go home. I'm pretty sure we left some of our people back at Beanbean airport."
The actors murmured amongst each other as they began to dismantle everything. Fake spears were thrown into crates, the huts were taken down, and all the decor was slowly removed from the area. The leader turned towards the ghosts to address them again, this time with a look of embarrassment visible in his mask. "We are very sorry for everything. My guys aren't normally this stupid as to kidnap the first random people we see pass by. I promise that this won't happen again, and that we'll find a way to make up for it to you. Please don't eat me." He whispered that last part in fear.
"Oh, calm down, I won't eat ya." Fishook bared a malicious, tooth filled grin at the Shy Guy. "I'm not hungry right now."
"Ah, stop scaring the guy, he's learned his lesson." MacFrights chuckled as he patted his shark friend on the back to calm him down. "I suppose ya can't help us in looking for a friend of ours? As a way ta make it up for everything?"
"Yeah, yeah!" Johnny popped in between in a burst of excitement. "Yeah, did your dudes happen to see this nerd friend of ours? He's green, got a huge bushy beard, smells vaguely of fertilizer and tea leaves? You've seen him?"
The Shy Guy hummed to himself as he scratched his cloak covered head, trying to jog his memories. "Umm, hmmm, lemme see… Oh! I remember that around the time we found you ma'am." He addressed Gloria, who gave a casual "yo" in response. "When we encountered you, one of my fellow guys told me they saw a glowing green man heading southward. We didn't bother following him there for very reasonable reasons."
"Uh?" Ug inquired, tilting his head curiously.
"We knew that there was a sewage treatment plant there, and we didn't want to be there due to the smell, so we didn't follow him."
"He went to the sewers?" Johnny voiced his thoughts. "That seems more of a Clem thing to do than a Potter thing to do, right?"
The name Clem echoed inside Gloria's head when she heard it. It sent her into deep thought as she racked her brain over what it was supposed to remind her of. And then, she remembered.
"Oh yeah, Clem! I remember now."
That exclamation moved everyone's attention on her, clearly waiting for her to explain. "Okay, so, I remember that Clem actually came with me to look for Potter. He said something about "wanting everyone to see his plan." or something along those lines. He probably kept following the doctor when I got caught up in this whole acting gig."
MacFrights immediately pointed at the Shy Guy with an authoritative finger. "You, whatever your name is!"
"It's Marlin." He answered quietly.
"Take us to where ya last saw the doctor!"
"Yes sir!"
Meanwhile, within the sewers of the island, the strums of a banjo echoed across it's walls as Clem floated by, singing a little ditty to himself. Following behind him were Serpci, Morty and Amadeus, who he had found suddenly coming out of a pipe while exploring. If he had a coin for every time that had ended up happening, he'd have at least two extra lives.
"You guys are lucky you found me. I've been looking fer Potter myself with Gloria."
"Oh, thank goodness. This entire day has been nothing but a dreadful dredge. Running away from the police inside a garbage can has pretty much destroyed any sense of pride I had left in myself." The queen stared despondently at the state of herself, and felt at the unknown sticky substance stuck in her hair. "I think I owe Gloria new clothes."
"Oh, it hasn't been that dreadful." Morty said as he wrote things down on a notepad. "I think I could make a movie out of this series of adventures we've had. Get the rest of our coworker's story, figure out a narrative structure. We could be looking at a best comedy award right here if it does well."
"Promise me one thing, Morty." Clem turned to face the filmmaker with a serious look in his eye. "When you do that, I want ya ta cast Danny DeVito as me. I will settle fer nothing less."
Trailing behind them, Amadeus rolled his eyes at the mechanic ghost's typical eccentricness. "In the hopes of moving this conversation forward, how did you find the doctor?" He asked.
"Oh, well that's a lovely little story. Ya see, I was actually following after him with Gloria. Somethin about flowers that he knew somethin about or whatever. At some point I lost Gloria, but I did manage ta find the doc asleep face first in a river bank. I didn't wanna wake him up, so I went exploring and found this little sewer hole. And that's how I found you all."
"Well that solves one of our problems. Now there's the question of where everyone else is." The queen commented.
"Don't forget about the local law enforcement being on our tails." Amadeus added.
"Yes, that too."
"Well someone's been busy. I didn't expect ya guys to commit yer first felonies on vacation. Well, outside maybe Amadeus. But fer the two of ya, this is unexpected. Ya've really made me proud today." Clem laughed a little as he said that.
"Ah, no need to praise us for that, Clem. I'm not sure if that is praise worthy, but I assure you that you don't have to praise us." Morty said.
After a while, the group were met with a light at the end of the tunnel. The hole led them to a nice, pretty looking clearing, decorated with a clear river, colorful flora... and a sewage treatment plant as background. Beautiful.
"Potter should be right over- yep, there he is."
Where Clem was pointing was a clearing, a ray of sunshine shining a spotlight on Potter's sleeping form, laying face first in the river. It was a scene straight out of a fantasy movie.
"Alright. How do we wake him up? Do we kiss him, or something? Clem asked the others. "It's not that I mind, it's just that it seems nonconsensual and stuff."
Amadeus wordlessly floated forward, catching everyone's attention. The pianist hovered above the sleeping form of Potter, stared at him for a few seconds, and then spoke the magic words.
"It's 9 AM Dr. Potter."
The botanist shot awake with a panicked shout, startling everyone but the pianist. "My flowers!" He flew around, looking for his tools to care for the plants he loved so much and made specific efforts to schedule very strict time stamps about when they should be cared for. He slowed down as he realized that he was not back home in the Garden Suites, but in a forest on a tropical island while his coworkers stared at him. "...what happened?"
"I couldn't begin to tell you other than the cops are onto us, someone drugged our drinks, and that you apparently have the answers to our questions." Serpci commented dryly. "Not to rush you, by the way, but perhaps you could tell us said answers, if you would?"
"Answers? To what- oh wait a minute, now I remember." The doctor began heading into the woods, the rest following after him. "As I was drinking, I noticed that the drinks tasted odd. I shrugged it off for a bit, but at some point my brain finally made the connection that the flower petal they put in the drinks was not the one you're supposed to use for drinks. Obviously, I wasn't in the best state of mind, so I decided that I would go to where the flowers are grown to prove my theory, instead of confronting the bartender about it."
"And I'm to assume that around here is the place you've been looking for, correct?" Morty asked.
"I'm assuming, yes. I dropped my map at some point, but I just kept going until I passed out."
With that said, the group continued their trek in silence.
"There are several variants to the Hibiscus Delfinae species, each which provides unique abilities, not unlike the Transformatus Nintendus flowers endemic to the Mushroom Kingdom. Unlike these kinds of flowers, the Hibiscus Delfinae species cause a wide variety of effects, each corresponding to a particular color of flower." Is what the book had written within. The ghosts were all huddled over Soulfflé, all trying to get a peek at the book, to the chefs immense annoyance.
"Yellow flowers are known to give users electric powers. Green flowers give the power of limited flight. Orange flowers cause explosive diarrhea. Blue flowers give no powers, but are frequently used as a drink flavoring."
"Like the drinks we had last night!" Chambrea pointed out excitedly. "Except I remember the petals in the drink were a different color."
The chef ghost quickly scanned the book for the relevant information. He read it aloud when he found it. "Red petals are dangerous to use, since ingesting zem can cause symptoms comparable to alcohol consumption."
The ghosts processed this revelation. Red petals were used in their drinks on purpose.
"That stupid bartender tainted our drinks on purpose! I knew it!" Nikki exclaimed.
"But why? Why would some random bartender go out of their way to frame a bunch of hotel workers for a crime they didn't commit?" Poor Kruller scratched his head.
The only possible explanation for these actions was that this was all revenge for some of the mocking comments they made against the hotel. Sure, they were being a bit rude with that, but that didn't warrant such a reaction.
"Well, what do we do now? How are we going to convince these people that the bartender is the one that drugged us? We're already in jail, our cell is ghost proof, and we only know that Gloria and the others are at that reenactment thing?"
Kruller's question got everyone thinking. They needed a foolproof plan to get them out of jail and prove their innocence. A plan sufficiently crazy, but with strong enough logic to it that it just could work.
Chambrea looked around the room for a bit, her gaze landing on the napping security guard. "Hmmm, what if." That caught the other's attention. "What if we have the cops take us to the others?"
"That would mean the cops would be good at their jobs." Nikki deadpanned.
"True, but they're also looking for Potter. He's the one who knows where the flowers are, right? If we help them find the Doctor, we can work with Potter to explain the whole situation to them. We'll have all the proof we need right then and there."
Soulfflé opened his mouth to call out the idea as stupid. "Zat… is actually not zat bad of an idea."
"Yeah, these guys do seem pretty suggestible." Ginny pointed out, reminding everyone of how easy it was for Nikki to confuse the guard with a simple mind trick. It gave the impression that the local law enforcement was nowhere near as competent as they liked to think.
Time to take that to their advantage.
The pianta guard was snoozing the day away when a phone was thrown at his face, startling him awake. Rubbing his face in pain, he glared at the offending thrower, one of the ghost magicians, as she and the other ghosts in the cell stared back.
"We have a proposition for you."
The grand finale is up next. Hopefully I can manage a consistent writing schedule this time.
And merry spooky month tomorrow, everyone.