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Madison stood very still, trying to get her bearings - using a golem was strange to her, still disorienting. She couldn't for the life of her figure out how she hadn't realized she'd been in one for candidate selection... except that she'd had no idea such a thing was even possible, back then.

When the light clicked on she recoiled. "Augh! Get aw- oh right okay phew." And then she realized she couldn't feel her heartbeat, which should by all rights have been practically jumping up and down, toddler-style, in her chest.

"O-oh... ew." She lifted her hands and saw bones - but not the clean remains of her first trip to Halloween, where she'd been in a massive, 8-foot tall skeleton golem. These bones were set in rotting flesh, tendons flexing underneath peeling skin that was an unappealing green color. "Oh god. Why do I always get the dead ones? Ew, ew, ew," though the ews seemed more resigned than actually concerned and panicking.

Was she male or female? God, she had no idea. This body was pretty damn rotten, but there seemed to be more stuff down there than up here, so... male? Probably? Either that or baby got back in all the wrong places.

"Ew. Okay. I'm okay." She looked around the tiny earthen room. "Now what?"

"Bubble bath? Oh, man, that sounds like a great idea," Madison sighed wistfully. Every time she looked down at 'her' arms her skin started to crawl. Metaphorically, anyway.

But it wasn't time to focus on her golem. She watched what Clarice was doing carefully, trying to absorb every bit of information. "Skelephone? Wow, they really do love the stupid puns here. I kinda thought they were kidding in class..." She took the thing and, after a moment's fumbling, tucked it gingerly into the one intact pocket she could find on her stupid stupid golem. Fortunately, she remembered seeds from last time.

"Okay, I think I'm ready," she said, then grimaced at the sound of her own voice. "Oh, man, I still sound like a freakin' valley girl. Uh." She tried to rough up her voice a little, pitching it lower and trying to growl a bit more. "Rrrgh. Braiiins....?"

Truly you are a master of disguise, Kouki said, dryly.

"Got it," Madison growled, then grimaced. She was going to end up with a sore throat when all this was done, she just knew it. She followed Clarice up and out, mentally running over the 'field signs' in her head and shifting 'her' rotting fingers about in sync.

Ahh~ Halloween, Kouki said; she couldn't quite tell if the serpent-sword was pleased or not from the guarded tone. Observe everything closely. Someday we will come here alone and make our own way.

Right, she thought back, taking surreptitious glances at everything they passed. Oh god, so many monsters, ghosts, demons, other undead, just about everything she could think of. Even the human-looking ones, some of which looked so normal that they were almost weirdly comforting. A false comfort, though, she reminded herself firmly.

The vat of acid was duly dodged, though Madison privately thought getting doused in acid might have helped her golem's appearance... even though it probably would have hurt. She needed no encouragement to avoid looking at said tentacles, either; ew, ew, ew, ew.

And she barely managed not to recoil visibly from the way Clarice's golem translated Clarice's grin. Man, if she'd met Clarice in a dark alley not knowing who or what she was... well. She looked at the offered paper, though, and quickly understood why Clarice had smiled.

"Serves 'em right," she muttered under her breath. So Hunters were practically urban legends here, huh? Just like monsters were in their world. "I like this news," she growled at Clarice, tucking the paper away. "I like this news a lot." I'm in your town, when you least expect it, popping up to scare you~ who's the monster now?

Kouki was silent, as he had been since they first emerged. Fine.

"Hey, is that what we're looking for?" she said, pointing at a shop across the street. It looked like there were neat cages in the windows, sporting what she hoped were the pets they sought.

"Got it," Madison grunted, taking a moment to peer around the shop with interest. It was so freakin' weird how some things were so similar to how they were in the Human World, just slightly off... and then some things were really off, all of a sudden. Like that thing in the window that looked like a half-rotted pomeranian, except it was still moving.

... Then again, she currently appeared to be a half-rotted human who was still moving. Really, she shouldn't have been surprised.

Madison shambled over to the dispensers and started filling bags, switching flavors now and then to get a nice variety. Who knew what the weird critters like the best? Hearts, gizzards, rotting bones, spiderweb...

And then the voice spoke to her, quite suddenly; she'd been distracted by the candy selection and not noticed the figure's entrance. She glanced over her shoulder and steeled herself to not react beyond that brief jump of startlement. And really, just about anyone anywhere would be startled by some random cloaked dude coming up behind them, right?

Boogeyman, Kouki said, just as suddenly. Like the Halloween... what is the human word? Po-leez?

Police... Right, like they'd read in that article. Okay. "What, Amityville student? Nope. Not gonna go there," Madison grunted, showing her rotting teeth to the Boogeyman. "They fulla crazy there. Gonna let Mama teach me instead. We seen the papers."

Wow, she was kind of glad that her golem was undead so she couldn't feel the pounding of her heart.

No, we haven't, we're not from around here, Kouki said, and Madison got the distinct impression of eight serpentine eyes narrowing with pleasure. Work with us~

"Ain't," Madison grunted, following Kouki's lead. "Just came into town today. Supplies for the critters. Live out country-wise. Don't care what crazy people do. If it ain't rotten, I don't care." She punctuated the sentence by dispensing half a bag full of candy, Rotten Guts flavor.

Yes, Kouki preened.

"Yup," Madison grunted in answer; then the Boogeyman walked off, taking only a moment to sniff in Clarice's direction before leaving. Instantly, Madison relaxed, then recoiled as she realized her bag of Rotten Guts-flavor fear candy was now overflowing. Ew.

Still, Clarice's response was gratifying, as was Kouki's pride; the weapon was definitely preening now, delighted at having successfully fooled the Boogeyman. We did well. See, it is not so hard to fool them.

Madison wanted to babble at Clarice, but that would be completely crazy given the circumstances, so she just went "Yup," again and shouldered the bags of candy, shuffling up towards the register (or whatever it was) to pay. "Got lotsa Rotten Guts."

Okay, next time she was going to be something articulate. Though maybe this pretense was easier to keep up?