The last thing Chel remembered was hopping into a pod she wasn't supposed to, in an area she wasn't supposed to be in. She'd been scheduled for training duty that day, but instead of following orders, she'd decided to experiment, like a bonafide lifer.

She'd had this planned for days in advance, it was just that today had provided the perfect opportunity to execute it.

Chel wasn't asking for much out of this excursion. In fact, she honestly had no goal with this trip. Maybe she just wanted to get off the suffocating island for a while. Maybe she needed some time to think. Looking down at her stomach, she noted the distinct lack of scarring and bruising- a welcome change from her body back on deus.

Either way, her plan was to find some people and randomly ask them about how much they wanted an alliance with hunters.

...

Okay maybe she needed to think this plan through a little more.

Right now she was too captivated with her own appearance though. She'd been placed in a tiny cottage outside the city limits. A life tech had told her that was one of the normal "checkpoints" of sorts for these missions. There was a mirror placed in the room, which she used to examine herself. A very tall, very green looking pale creature with pink accents. Somewhat brushed back black hair, and two very large, curling horns. The weirdest thing was having a tail though- feeling it twitch and sway as she circled herself, inspecting every angle of her new, male, lanky body. Chel quietly lifted the band of her pants. Yup. Definitely male.

At the very least, she'd been granted a nice dress shirt and formal slacks. While they were very stifling, they definitely aided to the appearance of someone in charge. Someone mature. Someone who was definitely not a hunter and definitely not there to stir the pot!

Well, if she was going to be professional and businesslike, she would need a reason to talk to students. Salesman? No, she'd get the door shut in her face. Plus it wouldn't make sense for a businessman to ask about hunters at all. Let's see, what job asked questions of people? Particularly pointed ones?

Journalism?

Journalism could work.

Chel surveyed herself once more, paying special attention to her very fine butt. "That I don't mind at all." She blinked, hearing her normal voice coming out of a male adult's lips. Well that wouldn't do. That would blow her cover up in two seconds flat like a grenade in a bomb factory. "Hi, I'm ... Trevor," she said in a lower voice, frowning at the effect it had. She was just going to have to convince everyone that she had a particularly girly sounding voice. Tons of dudes had girly voices, right? Then again, she was in Halloween now. Did Halloween guys have girly voices? s**t she really wished they'd strapped her up in a girl golem. It would make this mission a lot easier.

She moved towards the door, opening the creaky screen with annoyance. She peeked around to see if anyone was there, but the field seemed particularly empty. There was a single dirt road, which led towards the city bus stop. "Creepy. Guess that's kind of the point though, huh?"

< Quit flitting your tail about like that. It is very undignified. >

You're still with me, eh? Chel said, calming her tail to a looping swagger. How's that?

< Acceptable. It is good you were not given wings. As a demon there is an 80.4930 percent chance your golem would have wings, as 74823613098.9 out of 93029482903 demon species possess wings or winglike structures. >

That many? Well damn.

Chel boarded the bus, and with time she reached the city. It was a bit jarring, having to navigate the streets next to slime creatures and ogres and ghouls who's hair was lit on fire. 'Least your girls are still fine as hell.

< Ghouls, we say ghouls. >

With Tenebrae's help she eventually navigated to what she assumed was a stationary shop. As far as she could see, it had papers and pens pretty much just the same as Deus did. Only their pens were snakes. Which was pretty metal.

Once equipped with semi-professional looking equipment (a simple tape-recorder, a few notebooks, a few pens- two of which were snakes, of course- and some snacks). The snacks she attempted to eat once she'd exited the shop, only to find they tasted like ashes and dust. Like pixie sticks without the flavor and joy and goodness. She quietly handed them to a homeless person who was sitting on the sideway, all while wiping her own tongue off. Gross, gross gross. Why didn't you warn me??

< I was curious myself to see the effects of Halloween food upon an artificially synthesized tongue. >

Yeah right! You big fat liar. Just say you thought it was funny and move on with it!.

< Very well. It was most humorous to watch you have blind faith in Halloween's creations. >

Chel, at this point, was feeling very tired of Halloween's hijinks, but not necessarily threatened. She'd expected Halloween to be a lot more ... hostile. Like a military camp or a barracks or something. This just seemed like a really dark, really dirty version of Earth, honestly. Yeah they had pink skin and horns and scales, but if you got past that it wasn't so bad. She still wished they would stay on their home turf though. There was no reason for them to come to the human world and start killing s**t. That was still the part she didn't understand.

Eventually, after asking a few people where the closest school was, she found that most students allocated themselves to a school called Amityville. She was more interested in the youth of Halloween. Adults were hard to sway, and it was even harder to get them to talk in the first place. Younger people often blindly trusted in authority figures and would spill their guts to anyone with a pack of fruit snacks. Of course, Chel had no idea if it was the same here, but she was hopeful.

As long as they had some food she could eat somewhere, she figured she could make it through the day.