Lacey always considered herself perceptive. She always knew which tourists would stop to take a picture with her – and tip well – and which would blow past. Tonight she was wearing her orange showgirl outfit, complete with enormous sparkly feathered headdress,  hoping to capitalize a little bit from Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” orange look.

Georgia had agreed to come out tonight and the two were milking the strip – Lacey’s favorite spot in front of the Paris casino. Even Jared’s janky Spiderman couldn’t put a damper on her mostly-genuine smile tonight. Joey turned up in his plush Bluey character suit. A few other mascot performers came and went – Lacey figured they could tell she and Georgia were owning this block and they decided to move on down by the Linq.

And then the Labubu showed up.

No, Labubu have been showing up on the strip for more than a year now. Joey got a big rip right in the ass of his Labubu costume and hasn’t had a chance to fix it yet, so a Labubu showing up shouldn’t have been odd, but this specific Labubu with its huge grinning gremlin face, and pointed ears, seemed off. Lacey could feel it.

He acted fine – Lacey knew it was a guy, she just knew. He interacted with tourists perfectly. There was even a moment when a tourist wanted Lacy and Georgia to hug the Labubu. So, right there in front of Paris, two sequined, orange-feathered showgirls hugged a Labubu – and everyone around tipped.

Lacey and Georgia were thanking everyone when Lacey noticed the Labubu had slipped away.

“Hey, where’d Labubu go?” Lacey asked Georgia.

“I… he.. it… was right here…” she looked around.

Lacey spotted a brown ear disappear around a corner. “There!” she pointed. “Follow that Labubu!”

And they took off as fast as their stilettos would take them – which, let’s be fair, as veterans of the Strip, they could haul ass in heels. Feathers waving, they came around the corner only to see the Labubu duck around another corner into a parking garage. “Jesus, where is this Labubu going?” she huffed. Then louder, “Hey, Labubu! Wait up!”

The Labubu did not wait up.

But these girls could move better than the Labubu costume and they cornered him by a service elevator.

“Hey, hold up, man!” Lacey panted as she tried to catch her breath. “We just want to give you your portion of the tips on that last shot.”

“Yeah,” Georgia added. “You were working those folks. You earned it.”

The Labubu shook its head then looked around frantically for a way out of the corner.

“Will you chill out, dude?” Lacey said. “Look, what’s your name? You’re new, aren’t you?”

The Labubu just seemed more panicked at their questions. Finally, he realized there was no way out and even in a big Labubu costume, seemed to sigh. He reached up unsnapped the head of the Labubu costume and removed it.

And he had no head.

Well, kind of. There was a head – but it was a translucent one and it was kind of washed out by the fluorescent light of the service area, and—

Georgia screamed, turned, and sprinted away.

Lacey and the translucent head guy watched wordlessly as she ran off screaming.

“Is… she going to be okay?” translucent Labubu guy asked.

Lacey nodded seriously. “Yeah… she’ll be fine. I’ve seen her do worse when a dude spilled beer on her.”

“Huh,” he responded.

“So, ghost, huh?” Lacey asked nonchalantly.

“You’re not terrified?” He asked surprised.

“Dude, I’ve seen some shit out here.” Lacey rolled her eyes. “You’re kinda cool, honestly. But what the hell are you doing out here? After I die, the last place I’ll be is on the Strip!”

“I’ve been… around town for a while… maybe… ten years…”

“Ten years?! Jesus! Can you not leave?”

“No, not really,” he said sheepishly. “I mean I tried after I realized I was dead… I can’t seem to get out of the desert. I go so far and then poof, I’m right back in Vegas. I got tired of just, you know, haunting. I managed to find this Labubu outfit and I figured it’d give me a chance to interact with people.” He demeanor brightened. “And it worked,” he grinned.

“And you’re good at it,” Lacey said nodding. “But why’d you duck out like that?”

“I… I figured you guys would want to, you know, talk.”

“You mean like this?” Lacey laughed.

“Just like this,” he said.

“Well, here we are. I’m Lacey, by the way.”

“Eddie,” he responded.

“Well, Eddie, you seem like a good guy – or ghost, as the case may be,” she patted his fuzzy arm. “You wanna get back out there and ham it up with a showgirl?”

“Really?”

“Put your head back on and let’s get out there before Jared slinks back in that ratty spiderman costume.”

And the orange feathered showgirl and the Labubu headed back to the Strip.