Being a host family to a demi-human or a liminal always has its bumps but being a host family to an eldritch monster from beyond the stars had been a wild fucking ride for Henri. He quickly learned that Celeste didn't sleep but instead only tranced and had a habit of letting herself "melt" while trancing, a fact he experienced firsthand when he walked over a little bit of her that pooled up one morning and nearly fell into a pocket dimension of infinite darkness. While trying to find something to do one night, Henri discovered that Celeste found Lovecraft to be hilarious but certain CGI effects to be terrifying for no particular reason. And the simple fact that he never saw Celeste eat since she arrived.

"Do you just not need food or something?" Henri stuffed a spoonful of breakfast cereal in his mouth, staring at Celeste as she stood in front of the balcony window with her arms out like a naked house plant absorbing sunlight.

"I am capable of obtaining sustenance from celestial objects and ambient radiation if that is what you are asking." Celeste replied, "Although the few times I have been presented with 'food' I found it to be pleasant."

"Well, what kind of food have you eaten?" Henri looked up and pointed his spoon at her.

"When I was still in the realm of the Old Ones, I had previously been allowed to sample the ritual offerings that we were presented with. I found the unborn progeny of a blind Erzkaj and the essence of a castrated Uulmakc to be rather pleasant."

Celeste turned to present a representation of such "food" by morphing her hand into a platter with said items. There was a small, smooth, fleshy sac that was attached to a veiny looking placenta-like organ and four fetid spheres which were all pierced and oozing something foul.

Henri dropped the spoon and clasped both hands to his mouth as he threw up in it, "P-Please for the love of god put that away… UERRGH! … I can practically see the censorship pixelation."

Henri swore he could see Celeste smirk before flicking her hand away back into its normal shape. In an act of food faith, she got him a bottle of water from the kitchen for Henri to chug to try and keep his breakfast down. He might be immune to the insanity aura Celeste constantly projected, but no amount of fearlessness was going to stop him from being disgusted at whatever the fuck Celeste thought was "food".

"Gahhh…." Henri drank half the bottle in one go and felt like it wasn't enough, "Aside from the absolutely terrifying and revolting charcuterie board of reproductive… things, is there anything you can digest or eat? Given your alien biology and all of that, most liminals already have different digestive systems than humans, I imagine that yours must be even more distinct."

"It is possible in theory. I do not think there is anything in this plane of existence which is beyond my ability to consume." Celeste theorized as Henri finished up his breakfast and opened up his fridge.

"Then let's test that." Henri turned around with a bar of chocolate and offered it to Celeste. She ate half of it in one bite with the wrapper still on. Henri was kind of impressed.

"Hmm… fish!" Henri threw out a piece of raw salmon that Celest jumped up like a puppy to consume.

"Leftover takeout!"

Nom!

"Old bread!"

Nom!

"Bottle of Mustard!"

Om Nom!

"Spicy peppers!"

Nom!

"Frozen pizza!"

Nom Nom!

"Half a bar of soap!"

Nom!

"Batteries!"

Om Nom Nom!

"Fish Sauce!"

Om Nom—blurrghhhhh...

Henri turned around to see Celeste on the floor, her lower half completely in goo form as several mouths appeared on her body, all of them foaming at the edges while a lot of her orb-eyes turned back into actual eyes and looked severely dizzy, spinning around and around in the ooze that had much more pronounced colors and shapes then before. Celeste's face went funny, and her expression softened as her mouth opened a bit too much than a normal human jaw was supposed to.

"Ahhh…~~ I can see da quarks aaaalllllll around 'n Misher Planck lil 'uns says hiiiiiiiii~~~~" Celeste drooled a little as she stared at the ceiling, her normally abyssal pupils now wide and dancing with color, "Enly, do you see da photons in em atums tooooo~~?"

"Oi! Don't you start tripping on fish sauce of all things!" Henri tried to drag Celeste on to the couch but found that trying to pull a girl literally melting into a puddle of psychedelic slime was next to impossible. Realizing that all he was doing was pulling his hands through her armpits and out her shoulders, Henri looked for another solution.

Come on, think! What can I use to remove fish sauce? Fish? Bread? A mop? Wait, fish sauce is acidic, maybe I can use something basic to balance it out? Okay what do I have that's basic? Baking soda? Soap? Bleach? Pumpkin spice? Wait, dish soap! There's dish soap right there on the sink!

Henri rushed over to the sink and grabbed the dish soap. He unscrewed the top off before inverting the whole thing into Celest's mouth, watching the bubbles float back up the bottle as the goo girl chugged a bottle of apple-scented dish soap. A few of her mouths let out burps that smelled like fruit until the entire kitchen smelled like an apple orchard. For as stupid (and possibly deadly) idea it was, the dish soap seemed to work as Celeste slowly went from half-eldritch slime half-human woman laying on Henri's floor, to just a naked woman laying on Henri's floor.

"Hey, Celeste, are you okay?" Henri knelt down and poked Celeste in the side with a worried look, at least his finger wasn't going through her skin.

"What… is in this… 'fish sauce' you gave me?" Celeste grumbled.

"I'd love to tell you, but you've eaten the bottle so honestly you probably have a better idea of the ingredients list than I do." Henri bluntly stated before both of them started to giggle at the ridiculousness.

A thought hit Henri in the back of the head, just how long had it been since he had an interaction like this? Ever since he started working professionally, his life was entirely about business and his unique skills. Sure, he smiled and politely laughed at meetings, but it had been long enough that genuine giggles felt strange to him.

"Well… at any rate, I'm going to have to go shopping." Henri helped Celeste off the floor, "Not keen on trying to live on crackers and ramen again."

"Maybe I could accompany you? See more of what humans are like?" Celeste innocently suggested.

"You know what. Sure, you can take my jackets to cover yourself up." Henri smiled as he threw some jackets towards Celeste, so she'd have something to wear. Something inside Henri just said that today was going to be a good day.

Today there was mass panic and pandemonium on Westerlan Lane as several eyewitness accounts reported people nearby suffered sudden onset paranoia and an indescribable, uneasy feeling. There are reports that many victims suffered mass hallucinations or started speaking in an unknown language. One woman said that her newborn child started praising Yog-Sothoth in quote "upside-down English''. Investigations are ongoing but so far 28 have be hospitalized while—

Agent Broth turned off the TV and took a deep breath before the walls started shaking, "DID YOU FORGET SUBJECT E IS A WALKING COGNITO-HAZARD OF LITERAL LOVECRAFTIAN PROPORTIONS?"

The DLA agent's rant continued on for several minutes, slowly turning into a profanity-laden criticism of Henri's intelligence, lack of common sense, and choice of foodstuff. Henri for his part just sat on his couch stoically and accepted the ranting like a statue, it wasn't the first time he got chewed out by a raving old man. However, he was pretty sure that Celeste put fake eyes on her face and wasn't paying attention at all.

Henri couldn't really blame her. Even as Agent Broth started going on a boomer tangent about young people, Henri's eyes wandered and noticed the return of the "hidden" observers. They showed improvements, picking out new positions from which to observe Henri's apartment. Unfortunately, the concealment provided from moving a potted plant that didn't hide a man at all from one side of a balcony to the other was of very limited effect.

The pair had made it exactly three steps outside of the apartment building before all hell broke loose; people started screaming and crying, some fell over and started convulsing. One guy even started speaking Polish but using Japanese grammar rules. All in all, Agent Broth was probably right in that taking Celeste out in public was a bad idea given the situation she caused when her containment in the convoy broke.

"Do I. Need. To. Say. ANYTHING. More?" Agent Broth huffed, the brow above his sunglasses covered in sweat.

"No sir." Henri stared right past Broth and directly into the wall.

"Agent Broth, if I may." Celeste suddenly spoke up, "If my presence is so disturbing, then why have the other inhabitants of this building reported nothing?"

"Because the entire building is now owned by the Department of Liminal Affairs." Agent Broth took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead as he walked past the two idiots on the couch, "Previous residents were given generous incentives to move out as quickly as possible. Those who didn't do well… eminent domain is a beautiful thing."

"Okay look, I just forgot. I know you all see Celeste as a terrifying octopus of goo or something but in my defense—What the fuck are you doing in my kitchen again." Henri's tone changed completely as he turned around to see Agent Broth stuff chocolate bars into his pants while carrying a jar of marinara sauce under one arm.

"Don't worry, the DLA is willing to compensate you for any additional living expenses and food expenditures, just save the receipts." Agent Broth grunted as he strained to reach for the bag of white chocolate chips Henri kept hidden in the corner of the cabinet.

"Thank you, but I don't think that's the problem here." Henri recalled the intense lecture on responsibility and common sense he just received moments ago given by the same man who was now climbing on to his countertop for a container of oatmeal, "Why do you keep stealing my food whenever you come into my apartment?"

Agent Broth looked Henry straight in the eye with the thousand-mile stare only a veteran of a thousand black ops missions could pull off and said: "Eminent domain."

Celeste snickered for a second before she absorbed her mouth into her face. Henri was less amused, "I'm like 90% sure this is not how eminent domain works."

Unfortunately for hapless Henri, he wasn't exactly in any position to challenge an old man who worked for the Department of Liminal Affairs in a fist fight over pasta sauce and breakfast food. It wouldn't even have been worth the resulting fallout. Plus, Broth did say that the DLA would reimburse him for food expenses so ultimately it was like Broth was stealing from himself in a way.

"Okay, if you're going to take my chocolate and stuff, can you at least tell me a way we could have it so that Celeste can go outside? According to Section 3 of the Melting Pot Initiative Charter, 'Host families are to immerse the visiting homestay guests in as much local culture and custom as is possible and appropriate'. Do you just want me to show her online videos or something? Because that is going against the spirit of the charter, just saying." Henri threw a page of the DLA's own document at Agent Broth who actually had to think for a second.

"Well… according to my reports, when eldritch beings such as Subject E make an appearance in our reality, as rare as it is, it is usually done through a ritual. Where -they don't get eaten first- the summoner binds the being to their will, taking on enough of their otherworldly energy that the summoned being can move about largely unnoticed by the general population. You could do something like that and see if it helps" Both Henri and Celeste were very interested in hearing about this lore, looking at Broth like eager students, "I can send you some files that could help with creating a pact."

"Why only some files? Why not all of the available information?" Henri asked.

"It's classified." Broth replied.

"The information? Or the reason?" Henri raised an eyebrow.

There was a pause.

...

...

Broth opened his mouth, "Yes."

The DLA agent was almost out the door before he turned back for one final statement, "Oh yeah, I know that you're young and you've probably always wanted a naked woman just laying around your house, but you really should get some clothes for her. Especially if you want to go out in public at some point; homestay guests can still be arrested for public intendency."

"Ehh, I'm sure that Celeste can conjure some clothing on her body." Henri looked back at Celeste who was moving and coloring ooze around to try and form a shirt, only to end up with a second skin of leather with mismatched eyes for uneven buttons and jagged teeth for a collar. Henri turned back to Agent Broth, "I can write off online clothing purchases as part of living expenses, right?"

A/N: If you're wondering why I have this as M, its because: 1) I do plan on introducing "fanservice" into the story once I figure out a way that fits (this is a Monster Musume fic after all) and 2) You probably shouldn't be reading Monster Musume if you are younger.

If you happen to know of a monster/creature/mythological being that would fit as a liminal or demi-human in the MonMu setting, let me know! I already have some less traditional monster girls/boys planned but I'd love to hear about cultural monsters that I might not know.

Thanks for reading and following, favoriting and commenting! o/