Chapter 2: The Preparations

... I have a good explanation for why this is late.

College

Ok, that should be a good enough explanation. Plus, since I'm in break, I can write the next chapter faster. So Yay!

Luigi's Mansion 3 is not owned by me. It's owned by Nintendo and Next Level Games.

The hotel was buzzing with activity as goobs floated about carrying cleaning supplies and the like across the many floors of the hotel. The building had to be in tip top shape for their undead guest. Sure, most ghosts find wear and tear in their buildings to be very appealing, but since their guest was on the younger side of being dead, they had to actually fix up the suite to make it look appealing for once.

"So, Chambrea, got any juicy gossip ta spill today?" Clem asked the maid ghost while he was fixing up the bathroom sink. The ghostly maid had a pensive look on her face as she thought about what she could spill.

"Hmmmm, I remember hearing in the news about how someone broke into Mr. Graves house last week. Nothing was taken, but the robber never showed up on security footage." She leaned in closer to whisper into Clem's ear. "Personally, I think it's his ex-girlfriend who's trying to make him go crazy."

"Didn't they break up on good terms or somethin?"

"You know how celebrity relationships are like, you think they part ways amicably, then suddenly you hear that one tried to stab the other in a jealous rage." As she mopped the floor of the bathroom, she noticed a rubber ducky hiding in the tub. But just not any rubber duck. "Clem? Is that Jennifer?"

"Yup." Clem pulled out the ducky from the tub. The duck was dressed in regal clothing, consisting of a tiara, a necklace, earrings and even a blue dress. "Since our guest is on the influential side, Ah decided that he deserved the rarest of all rubber ducks. Ah actually died fer this thing, did ya know that?"

"But she's your most prized ducky. Are you sure she'll be alright?"

"Of course. This Ghoulanu fella is a nice guy, so he should know how ta treat a dame with respect. Sides, Ah ain't allowed in the hotel while he's here, so I'm leaving her around so that she'll tell all the juicy facts. Ain't that right, Jenny?"

"…" Jennifer responded with nothing, for obvious reasons.

"Heh, classic Jenny." The two resumed fixing up the bathroom, Jennifer going back to her place in the tub; Clem finishing up repairing the sink, and Chambrea deciding to leave getting Clem a therapist for a later date as she continued to mop the floor.

Chef Soulfflé was in a bad mood. Sure, his kitchen was in great condition; the goobs were doing their jobs well, and absolutely no food had been dropped on the floor. No, the real problem was the musclebound idiot invading his personal space!

"Oh yeah, and make sure that your food doesn't have too many carbs in them. Celebrities like him need to keep their bodies in perfect shape, otherwise they get all fat. Not that there's anything wrong with being fat, they just got an image they gotta keep up. Kinda like with me and my," Johnny flexed his muscles in front of the more than annoyed ghost chef. "awesome muscles."

"Ok, that's good. Now please get ze hell out of my kitchen!" He pointed his frying pan threateningly at Johnny. Unfortunately for him, Johnny was not the least bit intimidated as he slung his arm over the chef's shoulder.

"Nah, dude, I gotta keep an eye on you. You heard what the prof said, we all gotta be on our best behavior. You got a bit of a temper on ya, so I'm taking time off from my exercise regime so I can help you out and make sure you don't mess things up for us. No need to thank me." Johnny chuckled and took note of Soulfflé's irritated stare. It finally dawned on him what the chef was mad about. "Wait, now I get why you're mad at me!... You don't think I can cook!" He patted the chef's shoulder reassuringly. "No worries bro, I might not look like it, but I'm actually a pretty decent cook. I'm a fast learner too, so we'll get through any problems we face in the kitchen in no time."

Soulfflé could only sigh in defeat, realizing that there was no possible way to get the muscle-bound ghost out of his kitchen. "Fine, grab a frying pan. Drop any food, however, and your face will meet my pans hot bottom."

"Alright girls!" Lindsey said to her sisters. They were all sitting in their dressing room, planning out their performance for the new guest. "To recap: Nikki is gonna start us of with her "Wallet of Illusion" trick. Ginny, make sure to be ready when Nikki has the mustache on to pull of the switcheroo."

"You can count on me, sis!" Ginny gave a mock salute while Nikki was less than enthused about the plan.

"You better not mess it up like last time, Ginny!"

"Hey, that was one time! I said I was sorry?!"

"Focus, girls! Anyway, after that I will go next and pull the guest himself out of my hat. Then, Ginny will do her sword throwing routine,"

"While blindfolded."

"Yes, while blindfolded, and for the grand finale, we will be doing the "Davy Jones Experience". Remember, I set up the illusion, Nikki keeps the guys focus while Ginny gets everything else ready. Understood?"

"Yup"

"Crystal."

"Alright." Lindsey clapped her hands together, entering full schemer mode. "Now I know we are all a little wound up, so let's go prank Mister Wolfgeist again to unwind. Any ideas?"

"Like you even have to ask. We pour jell-o into his piano. Duh." Nikki offered.

"Mmmm, ok, but let's not put too much into it. You know he's still angry after we replaced all of his hair gel with ketchup sauce." Ginny pointed out.

"Eh, he'll be fine."

The triplets flocked towards the toilet and pulled the handle. A few seconds after, Clem popped out of the toilet, arms crossed as if he were a genie of the lamp.

"Ya'll need ma wisdom?"

Amadeus considered the musical sheets in front of him, wondering what he should play on the big day of the guests' arrival. Yes, he had written many a great composition in his career, when alive and when dead, but finding the perfect one was always such a hassle. Sighing to himself, he looked at his auditorium, spotting the disc jockey and his musical rival, Gloria, putting her headphones on the head of the self-proclaimed pharaoh queen of the sands, Serpci, who looked very nervous at the moment.

"Alright babe, tell me what ya think of this." She turned on the little device attached to the headphones, and he could immediately see Serpci's reaction. Being a rather ancient ghost that hadn't fully adapted to the new music of the modern era, her expression was that of someone desperately trying to pretend they were enjoying something they really didn't.

And there she went again, with that "please help me" look she usually gave him whenever her girlfriend insisted, she listened to her music while in his auditorium. It was honestly kind of sad, if a little bit funny. Oh well, might as well stomp two goombas with one jump and divert Gloria's attention.

"Miss Gloria, would you mind giving me a hand with this?" The DJ noted his request, turning towards the pharaoh to tell her to wait for her as she flew over towards Wolfgeist's piano. Serpci herself took the chance to grab the device and desperately try to figure out how to turn the damn thing off, which earned a chuckle out of the pianist. Oh, how he enjoyed seeing people squirm.

"Whatcha need?" Gloria asked the pianist, leaning on the piano and ignoring Amadeus' small glare at her rudeness.

"I'd like your opinion on something. What would you find would be best to play, something from Boothoven's composition list, or one of my older pieces?"

"Why would you want to play someone else's piece?"

"Well it would be rather remiss of me to ignore someone who is my superior in the musical arts."

The two musicians stared at each other for a few seconds, only to burst out into uproarious laughter. The pianist wiped a single tear from his eye as he composed himself. "Ah, but really, do you have any advice?"

"Eh, I'd say go for "Dark Moon Sonata". It's got pep, and we wanna entertain our guest instead of boring him to sleep."

Wollfgeist glared at the DJ. "Not unless your mindless cacophony of noise you call music ends up scaring him off." Gloria glared back at him, only to gain a malicious smile on her face.

"You wanna bet on that, old man?" She took the pianists quirked eyebrow as a yes. "Dr. E set up a new review website last week. Apparently, people can give their individual opinion on each separate floor now. My bet is simple, the person whose floor gets the best review compared to the other gets to watch as the loser has to write and present an essay about how the winner's music is better than the loser's." She offered her hand to Amadeus. "Sound like a deal?"

The pianist considered the offer. Getting his musical rival to boast about how his music was better than hers was tempting. And having her do it in front of the rest of the staff was just the cherry on top. Although was he willing to take the risk? He would never admit it to her face, but her music did seem to be appealing to the modern people. Should he accept?

Amadeus took one long look at the DJ's outstretched hand…

And he grasped it, sealing the deal made by the DJ. "You have yourself a deal. May the best musician, which is clearly me, win"

"Oh, it's on old man." She floated back towards the seats and grabbed Serpci's arm, dragging her towards the exit. "Come on, babe. I need ya to help me test some good mixes."

"So you're sure he won't beat me- I mean beat us up on sight?" Steward trembled as he and Chambrea stood in front of a particular exhibit: a cavern adorned with cave paintings that housed the resident caveghost, Ug. Chambrea simply chuckled as she casually floated into the cavern, a trembling bellhop in tow.

"You worry too much, Steward. I've been helping him out with his anger issues ever since the hotel was rebuilt. He's been making great improvements ever since. So trust me, he won't do anything to us."

Steward was most definitely not reassured by this.

At the very end of the display, surrounded by crudely drawn "keep away" signs on the walls, was the makeshift bedroom of Ug. The titular caveghost was asleep on a stone slab, ignorant of the two having entered his sleeping space.

Steward stared at the caveghosts sleeping form, fear noticeable in his expression. Ug was known amongst the staff for having a nasty temper, second only to Wolfgeist. He could still remember the goobs screaming in terror when he first woke up. At least he wasn't awake right now.

"Wakey, wakey, Ug!"

Chambrea ignored Steward's withering glare as the caveghost stirred from his nap, grumbling to himself as he got off the stone slab he called a bed. He looked around his room until he spotted the bellhop and maid, the former flinching in fear and hiding behind the latter, who gave him a cheerful smile.

"Good morning, Ug. I have some big news I want you to hear." Ug simply lumbered over towards the two, giving no indication of having heard the maid. He gave the two a once over, before, to the surprise of Steward, talking to them.

"Hello, clean lady. Hello, skinny man."

"Hello to you too, Ug. Steward has a favor to ask of you." The maid casually pushed the bellhop forward. She ignored the glare he gave her, mouthing the words "he needs practice" to him. Steward turned towards Ug, gulping in air as he adjusted his bowtie, clearly not being confident in not angering the caveghost that was now staring at him intently.

"Um, well, Mr. Ug. We have someone coming over here that will be making sure we don't lose our home. So, uuuhhhh, we would all really appreciate if you didn't leave the cave when he arrives. We promise to make it worth your while sir, so please don't crush me into paste!" Steward curled up into himself, dreading the caveghost losing his temper and taking it out on him. The pain never came, however. Slightly opening his eyes, he was baffled as he saw Ug… contemplate the offer.

"Hmmmm… Ok. But Ug have demand."

Steward stared at the caveghost for a few seconds before realizing what he had said. He was actually asking him something! That was something he was used to! "Yes, sir! What is it that you want?"

"Food." Ug bellowed, slapping his stomach with vigor. "Ug smell good food. But Ug only get leftovers. Ug want real food!"

The caveghost had a point. They usually appeased him with the leftovers of their meals and those of the guests. They never really knew he actually wanted the regular food, given the fact he never actually spoke English until now. Regardless of the fact, Steward put on his best "customer service" smile, agreeing to the demand.

"No problem, sir. We'll make sure to send in regular meals to your room from now on!"

"Thank you."

Steward turned to Chambrea and gave her a high five for a negotiation well done. They did not notice Ug float out of the cave, however. The scream of terror from several goobs and the sound of someone breaking one of the displays was harder to ignore. They both immediately rushed out of Ug's room to mitigate the damages.

Chambrea made a mental note to teach Ug that the displays were not actual dinosaurs intruding in his territory.

A pharaoh, a Scottish king and a shark pirate were sitting in the hotel bar, drinking and chatting with each other as they usually did in weekends. The oozer who was serving them their drinks was floating behind the counter, definitely doing his job and not writing down what the ghosts were talking about to share with his gossip club. Definitely not that.

"I'm tellin ya, lass. Ya gotta talk to her about it, otherwise yer just gonna be sufferin whenever she asks ya to test out her music."

"Don't tell me how to work my relationships, Fishook. I would rather spend an eternity wandering Duat than hurt my beloved's feelings." Serpci glared at Fishook. "Now could we please move on from my personal life and onto some more important matters?"

"Yes, we should change ta more important topics." Macfrights piped up. "Like talking about what I'll be doin on the day of the guests stay."

Once he saw the other two put their attention on him, he started to explain. "You see, back when I was alive, there was this trick I used ta perform when it came ta dealing with invading armies." He floated high up into the air, waving his arms around in an attempt to give visuals of his stunt. "I would get on my horse and ride full speed towards the invaders. Then, at the proper distance, I would get my horse ta stop suddenly and buck me off, sendin me flying off into the air! I would pull out ma sword, and in one fell swoop, I would land on top of their leader, stabbing em right in the head and downin him in one hit!" He posed in the air and looked at his fellow drinking buddies, trying to gouge their reactions to see how impressed they were by his incredibleness.

He was met with looks of disbelief from the pharaoh and the pirate.

"That sounds impossible."

"And very impractical. Ya sure ya weren't drunk when that happened and ya just ran into the fella and stabbed him by accident?"

Macfrights glared at the shark, but instead of losing his temper as he usually did whenever someone questioned his achievements, he simply answered the question.

"Oh, believe me when I say that it happened. Granted, it only actually worked once, but it won me a war. I can understand were your coming from though, which is why I'm inviting you two ta witness my stunt on the day of the guests stay. Will it be staged? Yes. But will it be glorious?... Also yes." He sat back down on his chair, signaling for them to continue talking after his speech.

Fishook decided to continue after the king, waving his hook around as he spoke. "Well as impractical as that sounds, I meself have a crazy performance I'll be doin. Ya see, back in the days of pirating, they used ta sing a song about me. About the time me and me crew were sailing the ocean's and fought the great King Blooper, the devourer of the seven seas. As ye can tell, I asked Morty ta help me out with setting up my ship… so I can perform the shanty with me crew." The captain declared.

"So, you're not gonna re-enact your great battle with the beast?"

"Nah, way too expensive. Besides, I prefer musicals meself and I really wanted ta perform in one. Morty says I have talent, like a star in the process o' being birthed." He took a sip from his mug of rum, before staring at Serpci and giving her her turn on to speak. "So, what will ye be doin on the day, lass?"

"Not much. I'll probably be in my floor, taking care of my snakes and checking in on you all every once in a while." Serpci stirred her glass as she said this. "It's a shame that E Gadd doesn't consider my honorary staff member position as enough to allow me to help you all."

"Well if ya keep up with those outrageous tips you've been giving us all, then ya don't have ta do anything else for us." The trio chuckled at Macfrighst statement.

"Oh, you know I do my best to help keep the hotel well-funded. I have a lot of money to burn, anyway. An advantage to being dead for hundreds of years is that everything you own is valuable to people. Even if it's just a vase you were scammed into buying by some back-alley bootlegger." Serpci started chuckling to herself. "That reminds me of this hilarious thing Steward told me a while ago."

"Oh, I think I heard this one too. Go on."

"Ok, so Steward comes to my floor while I was feeding my snakes. He floats up to me and says what I consider to be the most outrageous thing I've ever heard." She gestures the other two to come closer. "He tells me, that if I would kindly get rid of the traps in my pyramid!"

The three of them were silent for a few seconds, only to burst out in uproarious laughter at the insane concept Steward had presented.

"HAHAHAHA! That has to be the stupidest thing Steward has ever told us! What next? Is he gonna ask Clem to take away the toilets from the bathroom?" Fishook slammed his hook hand on the counter, startling the Oozer into dropping his glass.

"Yeah, he asked me the same thing. What's a castle without it's death traps anyway? That just doesn't make any sense!" Macfrights said as well.

"Heh, Steward is stupid sometimes."

The other two agreed to Fishook's statement, clinking their mugs and glass together to toast to it.

"Thank you all for joining tonight's screening, ladies and gentlemen." Morty said to the gathered crowd of ghosts in his screening room. At the front were the more recognizable ghosts, while in the back were the assorted goobs, hammers, oozers and slinkers. They all stopped talking to each other to listen to the film maker speak. "As a way to both commemorate and prepare for our celebrity guests' arrival at the hotel, I have decided to organize this marathon screening of the entire John Wicker series. You will all be witness to the incredible drama, beautiful choreography and mind-blowing action present in this series so that all of you, especially some of the less film savvy among us can understand just how great of an actor Ghoulanu Graves truly is!" The ghosts gave Morty a round of applause while they watched him float towards the projector. Once the noise died down, he turned on the projector, and all of the ghosts turned their attention towards the screen.

At the seats closest to the screen, Dr. Potter was staring at the more ancient ghosts, seated further behind him. He turned towards Kruller to ask him something. "Say, sonny, they do know that none of what happens in the movie is real, right?" He said as he pointed towards the aforementioned ghosts.

Kruller simply chuckled. "Don't worry doctor. Me and Morty made sure to explain the whole thing to them." Kruller turned back towards the screen.

The good botanist himself wasn't fully convinced about the fact. After a while, he simply shrugged to himself and started watching the movie. The weekend felt so close already.

On the next, the guest makes his arrival.

Thank you to evils-corner for beta reading this.