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After a brief nod towards their partner, Yuki took quick, purposeful steps across the porch. They wasted no time in grabbing the broom and bringing it back to Cee. They lightly brushed one hand against Cee's shoulder, a gesture that was meant to be a comfort and a reassurance. Half of Yuki's attention was on them, and the rest was split between the various guests. Under any other circumstances, they'd probably want to rush over and pet the cute dog, but they knew now was not the time for that. So instead, they just observed, and waited for further instructions.

Hammond walks by with a large sack filled with something in one hand/front paw, but stops and reaches in

This whole day was going quite... surprisingly.She certainly hadn't thought she would be getting candy. Still, she turned since the door had been slammed in her face and smiled into the bowl with various... items. Gerald happily stuck out his tongue at one of the eyeballs, Currach simply took a Reeses. "Thank you very much for your generosity." Being generous to fae could be problematic at times but she didn't mind. All in all. A good holiday. Gerald happily settling back in on her shoulder as she carefully turned once more to leave. Spoils in hand.

The sound of snapping changed places several times, slowly but surely.

Sometimes it was outside, concealed by bushes. Other times it was inside Cee's house, shrouded in shadow.

There was a knock on the door. Whoever it was had seemingly gotten back into the house.

That was when one of the boarded-down windows burst open from the inside, and a long-limbed monstrosity made herself present.

It was those limbs, rather than snapping tree branches, that were making those noises.

Climbing out of the window on all fours, the monster's long neck was craned towards Cee...

And then she swiftly plucked an eyeball out of the bucket of candy with a crooked finger and popped it into her mouth, her teeth closing behind it with a snap.

Her yellow eyes returned to being fixated on Cee. Did she know them? Probably, from how her eyes narrowed. Her wide grin didn't falter.

"A bit rude to try trapping your guests inside, don't you think?"

Her mouth didn't move, but everyone in the area could hear a voice in their heads.

She probably could have just projected it to Cee only, but she definitely wanted others to hear.

"I mean, probably wouldn't have stopped me. I love what you've done with the place, by the way. Well, that's what I would say if you actually had anything to do with it."

Cedar had heard it long before they saw it.

The snap of a branch over here, a bit further over there... inside the house. A knocking sound followed, but it sounded like it was coming from indoors rather than outdoors.

But it wasn't the sound of twigs getting stepped on. No, Cee knew what it was the whole time. Pretending that it was broken tree branches was just something to ease the sense of dread lingering in the air.

Then there was the sound of crashing and wood clattering on the porch.

They almost didn't want to look. Teeth clenched together, Cedar slowly turned their head to peek over their shoulder to see what was creeping out from the window-

"HOLY-" Cee held back a slew of profanity as a clawed hand dove into their bucket of candy to retrieve one of the many eyeballs within. They dropped the bucket out of fear (and a bit of PTSD to top it off).

Unfortunately, yes. This monster did know Cedar personally. And it was safe to say that neither of them were very fond of each other.
Not very surprising, considering how her actions put Cedar in the hospital that one time.

Quickly, Cee signalled to Yuki to get behind them, presumably to watch their back and keep an eye on Vincent, before turning to the yellow-eyed monstrosity giving them a not-so-friendly greeting.

"Hm. Yeah, you're right," Cee raised their eyebrow, unamused despite the smirk on their face. "You wanna know what else is rude? Breaking into my goddamn house!"

Cee pointed at the window, no longer smiling. "How'd you even get in there in the first place?!" They paused. "Actually, no, don't answer that."

Cedar was this close to filing a restraining order.

"Ha-haaa, thank you, Hellspawnika," Cedar spat, picking their candy bucket up off the ground, leaving the eyeballs scattered. "I'm glad someone likes it. Very, uh, what's the word? Abstract? Yeah, that."

They straightened up, looking her in the eyes, deadpan. "..By the way, I dunno if you forgot, but you're supposed to say 'Trick or Treat!' before you help yourself to the candy bucket."

To be fair, Yuki hadn't said it either- Cedar was just looking for a reason to complain. They were exhausted. "So what can I do for you? I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, so if you were looking to put me on yours, I'll pass."

"I'd have thought you'd be glad you're down a not-candy offering." The monster, properly known as Monika, went as deadpan as her frozen mouth would allow.

"The other things in your house were here first, by the way. They opened the door, I just walked through it. And back out again. Y'know, to keep you on your toes."

Wasn't the first time she'd teleported into someone's house, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"But anyways, what does it look like I'm doing here? I'm just here to have a good time, like the rest of you. I'll keep any snacks I have to whatever's in the bucket."

Speaking of, in a series of snaps and cracks she had picked it up and handed it back to Cee.

"I'm feeling surprisingly put-together, all things considered. If not a bit more mischievous than normal."

Well... Better the devil you know than the devil you don't, as they say. And if the devil they knew was going to play (somewhat) nicely tonight...

"Yeah... Appreciate it," Cee reluctantly took the bucket back, occasionally looking for any other unfortunate trick or treaters that might be passing by. "If you're not here to eat me or the other people around here, by all means! Eat as many eyeballs as you want! I don't know where they keep coming from..."

Where the eyeballs kept showing up from wasn't important right now- the trick or treaters didn't like them and Cedar wanted them gone as quickly as possible.

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," Cee glanced past Monika to look back at the window. "Thanks for breaking my window, by the way. Love it. Now I've gotta board it back up again! All those things are gonna get back in!"

They sighed. What a mess...

"...Well, I guess it's better the boards getting busted over someone getting nommed," Cee then boldly wagged a finger at the crooked monster. "I'm fine with mischief, but no chasing anyone. Got it?"

Cee held out their cryptid-whacking broom. "I will smack you."

No, they wouldn't. That would require getting close to the living meatgrinder.

"No you won't." Monika replied confidently, eyeing the broom the same way she did Cee's finger when they wagged it at her: like she was going to bite it.

It ended up just being a morbid joke, though. The most she would have done was snap her jaws at a safe distance to spook them, but she didn't even get that far.

"I'd probably need a lot of them just to be some semblance of normal here." Monika said, referring to the eyeballs. "I'll probably just appreciate how lucid I am right now rather than trying to go further."

She didn't even seem to be wearing a costume, upon closer inspection.

"Besides, at least I'm festive like this. Hence why I made the most of it by coming to see you."

If one were to tilt their head and squint just right, they could almost see a buffering .gif spinning slowly behind Vincent's glossy black dome. That is to say, it goes quiet for a long time. A very, very long time.

Then it tilts its head with an audible crack, its grin widening until its face nearly splits in two. Its mouth doesn't move as it speaks. "I am...well."

It stoops to pluck the offered eyeball from the ground. Pinching it between its claws, Vincent lifts the offering over its head and opens its jaws wide, unfurling a long, wet tongue. It drops the eye into the eager maw which snaps shut like a bear trap, and it devours the treat in one swallow.

"I...thank...you," it rasps.

It watches as the host's....friend? -retrieves the broom. It makes a noise vaguely reminiscent of an amused chuckle- imagine trying to laugh while choking on your own spit. "Are you....afraid? Ressst asssured-" Its next sentence is cut off by a low, garbled hiss as a broken and breaking tangle of limbs bursts through the window. Vincent admires the entrance, but hates the potential competition. It lowers to all fours and eyes the thing warily while she converses with their host, maybe sneaking a few of the dropped eyeballs while they do.

When the opportunity arrives, it slithers up beside Cedar. Its forked tongue brushes their ear as it asks. "Do you...know...one another?"

Yuki has decided that Halloween is overrated and they really want to go home now. But. They're still not going to abandon Cee at a time like this. Still, their usually stoic expression is starting to crack a little; their eyes are just a bit too wide and their lips are twisted into the faintest hint of a grimace. They're completely frozen, looking rather more like a statue than a living being. They're just... watching. ... And hoping nothing goes horribly wrong. ... And trying to figure out what they'll do if things do, in fact, go horribly wrong.
They're far more concerned by Monika than anyone else present; in their opinion, she makes Vincent look like a harmless puppy. Well, that's mostly because they know what Monika has done to Cee. Needless to say, they don't much care for her, and they certainly don't fully trust her to keep her word and behave.

"OHMYGO-" Cedar flinches at the tickling of their ear and the hissing voice that sent a shiver down their spine. Doing a complete 180, they turn to address the other living beartrap present.

As if one smiling cannibal in their life wasn't stressful enough.

"Ugh... Yeah, we do," Cee sounds completely exasperated, shooting a passive-aggressive glare at their crooked 'friend'. "Y'know, sometimes I wish we didn't!"

Cedar was actively trying to make sure their back wasn't completely turned on either of them, out of fear one might feel the need to pounce.

"She's great, if you don't mind people that try to bite your face off!"

Nevermind the fact that Vincent was probably looking to do the same thing.

Vincent's shoulders roll with a crackle as its throat makes that weird, garbled sound which might be its facsimile of laughter. "Ssssoundsss like you two have...a hisstory..."

It tilts its head curiously at Monika. "You went for...the face? Not bad, though...I prefer to ssstart with their limbsss."

Vincent retreats and crawls a long, thoughtful circle around the group. An airy hiss seethes from between its teeth as it considers someone it has yet to address. It turns its eyeless head toward Yuki. They look like they're about to snap.

So, naturally, Vincent starts to pry.

"What of...you? Do you know our friend here?"

It takes a moment for them to gather their thoughts enough to form any kind of response. Yuki isn't sure if Vincent is referring to Cedar or Monika with the question, so they decide to just account for both. They point at Cee and make a heart shape with their hands, which are definitely not shaking thank you very much- and then they point at Monika and just shake their head. Whether they're saying "no, I don't know her", or "I know her and she's a big nope" is a little hard to tell, and they can't exactly speak to elaborate... They're too frazzled to even consider getting their notebook and a pen to write out an explanation. They're not even sure if Vincent can read... or understand sign language.
Sheesh, Halloween was stressful...

"It depends. I don't really have a consistent way of killing." She replied to Vincent. "The first victim lost her face and innards, from what I recall. The second one lost only a leg, she'd managed to convince me to spare her. And the last one I didn't even try to eat or anything, just stabbed to death and decapitated."

Monika wasn't exactly proud of the killings she'd done, especially not while she was lucid like this. In a perfect world, she wouldn't have turned into this at all. But it happened, so there's not really anything she can do about it.

She has chosen to not pay attention to Yuki at all. Not because she dislikes them, but rather because they dislike her. And so does Cee.

Honestly, good for Cee. She hopes they're happy together.

...Maybe it'd be better for everyone if she just left, she got the reaction she wanted by coming out of the house.

"A little bit, yeah." Cedar shrugged, trying their best to regain some of the composure they had lost a few minutes ago.

While the casual conversation was certainly helping them to relax, Cedar couldn't deny the sense of dread lingering around Vincent.They way it moved, the way it spoke... about how it killed its prey slowly by starting with the limbs...

Just thinking about it made them shudder. Of course, it didn't help that Monika casually started a discussion about her various murder methods.

"Uh, hey, let's not forget the kickass scar you gave me," Cee piped up, not wanting to encourage her, but at the same time not wanting to feel left out. "You have any idea how many stitches I needed?"

In response, Cee plucked one of the loose ends of the linen wrap around their arm and gently unfurled it, slowly revealing the length of their forearm. There, four clean lines of scar tissue stood out on their pale skin in a slightly shiny, pinkish hue. "That hospital bill wasn't fun. You owe me!"

Hearing the low hissing and lack of response afterwards had Cee take their attention away from Monika and right back to Vincent, who was in the middle of interrogating poor Yuki.

"Oh, this is Yuki!" Cee quickly wrapped their scarred arm around Yuki's shoulder. "They're my partner! Not one for making mouth sounds, though."

That was just Cedar's sarcastic, roundabout way of explaining that Yuki was mute. As much as Cee didn't like or want to speak for them, it was hard to tell if Vincent was capable of understanding signs.

And honestly? Cedar couldn't tell if they wanted Vincent to know ASL. Having a quiet method of communicating was nice, especially in the presence of something that definitely hunted humanoids.

Monika looked at the scars as if their presence was completely new to her, but otherwise didn't answer.

As Cee's attention was pulled towards Yuki and Vincent, Monika was left to her thoughts. Which she wouldn't have minded, if her eyes hadn't kept wandering to Cee's arm.

When had that happened? She honestly didn't remember anything after paying Natsuki a visit, all those months ago. Had they fought? Clearly, if Cee had been scratched so deeply.

Not that it mattered now, she put back what she could. But there was more than enough mental and physical scarring that she wasn't able to repair, it seemed. And she still couldn't make herself go back to normal.

Limbs aching, Monika sat down to take some of the weight off of her arms and legs. She knew Cee, and she wouldn't be conversing with Yuki anytime soon, but Vincent was a new one.

She was interested in talking to it. Seemed she wouldn't be leaving for a bit, then.

Vincent was starting to put the pieces together through Yuki's rudimentary gestures, then Cedar's statement confirms its suspicions. So, these two are a couple? That's...

"Cute." it breathes, punctuating the word with an airy and eerily human giggle. It will remember that.

It taps its chin with one claw, humming thoughtfully. Then it slithers beside Monika, curling into a ball to her left and laying down in a decidedly animal-like fashion. Propping its head up in one hand, it smiles at her- or, given that Vincent's smile seems to also be a permanent fixture of its face, it merely turns its head in her direction.

"I'm curiousss..." it prods. "What convinced you to ssspare the sssecond one? Oh, don't tell me- let me guesss...did she beg? Bargain? Are you sssaving the rest for later?"

Monika's matter-of-fact manner of recounting her murders, followed by the extended period of silence that'd elapsed between her doing so and now, leads Vincent to the conclusion that's she's not exactly bloodthirsty and proud. Which...it gets, sort of. Vincent has memories of regretting its past deeds, but they tend to be hazy at best. Recalling them is like reliving an unpleasant dream. It much prefers not to do that. Why would it want to do that when it could revel vicariously in the violent escapades of a fellow monster? The beast is a sucker for the juicy details.

"Right on the money. She offered me her leg in exchange for letting her continue living. And because we used to be friends, I accepted. Understandably, that kind of bargain is a pretty good way to end a friendship."

Monika recalled the details easily, mostly because she'd been thinking about it. Even after mostly restarting the world, she didn't have the heart to erase their memories of the experience. At that point, they wouldn't really be her friends anymore.

None of them forgave her, why should they, but at least they were alive again.

"Well, it's been fun, but I think I've lingered long enough for today."

With that, she shambled off. Now Cee only had one cannibalistic monster to worry about. Yay?

"Hello! Trick or treat!" The twins exclaimed, approaching the door. One of them held out a soft mesh bag filled with faintly-scented products. "Please enjoy a free sample, and have a happy Halloween!!"