A generously stacked sandwich plate clinked down on the table, promptly ignored. A few smiles and thank-you's, sure, but their maker was briefly put-out when no-one dived in eagerly, too into their conversation at the moment. She brushed it off with a good-natured mental shrug, thinking she probably did the same sort of thing when it was someone else's turn to host, and pulled a chair to join in. She was just very happy to help! As long as everyone didn't get too rowdy chatting away tonight. Her babies were asleep after all.
Mack's relaxed tone rose above the chatter at Jo's kitchen table, "...Casualdoessound like the best way to go about this for now," he said, with a loud scrape of his chair against the floor as he leaned his weight back and placed a big palm on the bare pine of the table as if the statement was on paper there. "We're no gated community, and how many wanna pay a share of hiring a security company to just wander round? Much as everybody round here's supposedly loaded, not much support for coughin' up for a regular thing." His chuckle and smirk joined the other smiles at that.
Mandy, whose suggestion it had been previously, joined in the laughter and sportingly held up both hands in surrender. Most of those present were oblivious to or ignored the fact that she had sat midway along the table with her chair turned to directly face those preferable to speak to, while presenting the person beside her with a flat expanse of back, like a concrete pillar in a blouse. A big smile plastered on her face joined an exaggerated head nod and sing-song; "Oh you're right Mack!"
"So what're the options we got so far?" he said.
A blonde bob leaned into view as Amanda glanced round to check no one else was about to speak before putting in her take on things, pausing a moment on Prisha, who was sat the other side of herself. Prisha hadn't really said much today. Just a nonchalant blink of eye contact before going back to observing the conversation without joining in. An elbow on the table edge supporting her while she chewed on a finger joint intently. It drew Amanda's eye to a few plasters joining the mish-mash of rings today, but Amanda couldn't tell if they were for injury or grunge fashion. She could ask later out of concern, maybe offer some ointment? Ugh she felt lame for that.
"Sam and me talked about it all the other night," the young housewife started. "We got a pretty good quality security system ourselves but we both kinda felt it's not just about us, you know? Sam's not comfortable with the idea some racist A-holes ever thinking they can harass our neighbors. -I mean! Not that that's what happened, but just in case?"
Jo-Ann nodded enthusiastically at this across the table, while others murmured ascent, encouraging Amanda to go on. "Some of you already know I used to do stuff that included network and scheduling at my old regional job, so even if none of us are gonna exactly go out patrolling, we could keep track of times of day we can each be around and keep eyes out across the day. To know who might be around. Not full schedules because we wont all be around the exact same times every single day, plus it's best to avoid letting anyone who sees the forum pages know when houses will be empty you know? We can update the forum page if anything's odd, and all keep the sheriffs department number for Neighborhood Watches in our phones in case of anything serious… " Myself, I go jogging every morning at 6am and walk the dogs before noon, and Sam takes them out in the evening. He said he's happy to make an extra route if it helps anyone."
Rick cut in, "Yeah, I think I'd appreciate that if it's not too much trouble? I can't get out so quick myself anymore and just knowing there's someone passing by in the evening is great. Not that I'm expecting to fall on my face, haha, but yeah. Good to know if anyone shifty's hanging round or any wildlife wreaking my bins come to think of it. Saves me wheeling out there so much and leaving the door wide open."
Mack warmly remembered there was a time when the guy was stubbornly proud of not asking for help. So he expressed his pride in his friend's growth by bursting out with -"Heeey, hehe, if you're feeling your age don't be afraid of getting us youngins to help… need a piggyback?" Rick's fought against smile and dead-pan glare spoke the word "Fucker" right back at his neighbor. This only encouraged him. "What, you know you want to be carried in my loving embrace!"
Rick quipped back with a wink, "Always! But we'd have to worry about your poor old back! Looks like these actual young people here will have to carry me lovingly instead!" He turned his exaggerated flirty face to the ladies of the table to comical effect and a few laughs.
"Sam would be happy to drop in if you want, Rick?" smiled Amanda, her styled hair gleaming under the kitchen light as she turned to respond. "I mean, aside from all these loving embraces and all, I know you guys get on when there's a sports season to watch."
Rick went from smiling placidly to a little startled, raising a few eyebrows, and Mack added, "Hell yeah! You know I'm happy to drop by too and not just card night. You gotta admit it's fun to just shoot the shit. Deb don't mind do ya Debs?"
"Eh-ha!" Rick's response spluttered over Deborah's happy agreement. "Thhaat's okay thanks guys, I actually have a kinda project on for now so just a drive-by check past my house is great for now. That's what I meant more. Gonna prolly have some more adaptions in, you know? Been thinking of starting a little art studio thing in my place, keep me busy for a while and all… Thinking I need a hobby lately and now. Now… just seems a good time to start. Good point on security too, 'bout time I got some cameras over my yard, for door alerts." He mused as an afterthought.
A few murmurs of "That sounds great!", and "You gonna need any-" were cut off by Rick scratching the tiny curls of his peppered gray beard sheepishly and noting he would be having old trade friends in to do whatever he needed, but thanks for the offers. "Just sayin' I might be a little busy to have people over for a while. Might hit you up for tech help if I get stuck though Prisha if you're still offerin' that for us old fogeys?" He got a friendly grin and a "Sure! No prob."
Charlie finished chewing a bite of his second sandwich and to Jo-Ann's surprise, narrowed his eyes a little at Rick. Did she mistake that or did the old guy just look a little suspicious? He swallowed and looked Rick straight in the eyes as he said, "Yes, good time for projects Rick, you and me both. I'm busy bringing in my little garden friends who might not do so well in winter, myself." It was said so friendly yet he seemed to keep a questioning eye contact as if looking for something from Rick. Prisha straightened up a little, but Rick didn't seem to notice and didn't really add anything so the conversation carried on.
Deborah was talking in a lowered tone with her husband Mack, who grabbed a sandwich and gestured with it, "So has anyone knocked round our newest neighbor's yet to invite them to this?"
Now everyone looked a little shifty, as they all smiled and coughed in amusement. "Come on now, Debs says none of them are on the forum. Has anyone even mentioned we got a community page yet? -Ah never-mind for now, just means we gotta go knock and see if anyone over there is available right now, right? See if the boys over there want to join this neighborhood watch group and be all official." A few nods and "yup"s.
"So who wants to go?"
The room went quiet for two seconds, before some of them burst into subdued huffs of laughter and giggles, self-aware of the absurd childishness of no-one wanting to be in the spotlight.
Jo-Ann started to perk up eagerly as she got the courage to volunteer, but if anyone noticed they pretended not to. She was sweet but made things pretty darn awkward at the spring barbeque trying too hard to be monster friendly. Lady made every conversation monster related and about monster rights and hardships. She meant well, but Travis had to distract his wife by steering her away once she got to the point of talking to that Blue in a baby voice. Had the guy cornered. It was getting so bad he'd even started throwing hints about his maturity by asking for advice on clothes to wear on a date with his girlfriend, which Jo masterfully derailed by enthusing about Kid's Warehouse and how he'd be so cute on his play-date. He got a laugh out of the guys when he joked he'd been about to punch through the fence to escape.
Travis didn't mind though. He was sat to the side of the kitchen by a counter to make room as more neighbors had turned up at their home, and content himself with just the odd comment thrown in, while reaching behind himself to awkwardly 'help' pass the plated up snacks, cups, and whatever else Jo needed which all seemed to be located with him in the way. Neither of them minded. It was one of the things he loved about her, trying so joyfully any chance she got.
That included dragging him outside earlier today to 'help' when Sans and Mutt appeared outside old Mabel's house after that bang, only to end up bored to hell while he and Sans talked about car maintenance. Mabel must still be dealing with that, whatever happened there, he thought. Hadn't been online today or responded to the Neighborhood Watch meet-up invite apparently. Out of the neighbors who might respond to these community things G- oh what's his name, the old engineer round the corner, was unavailable too it seemed. Maybe catch him next time.
"I'll go, I'll go," Mack chuckled, seemingly oblivious to Jo looking about ready to hop up and down. But Mandy's husband John was already grabbing his jacket and waving him to stay sat.
The diminutive man spoke with the slight rasp of an aging former smoker, "You gents and ladies stay here, I'll walk over. You guys all keep the ideas coming, I'll do my part. I haven't gotten to know our skeleton friends that well yet so it gives me my chance here." he smiled as he went. "Wont be long."
The plate still had a hand attached when all the sandwiches flew off.
Mabel paused, huffed in mock annoyance, then slid the plate away again to go make some more snacks. From where they were sat in a rough circle on the kitchen table, Orange and Papy, leaning to the side to peer up at her in worry, both caught the little smile as she marched off despite grumbling as she went. They looked at each other, then at Sansy, who shrugged and inspected the triangle held across his body happily. She'd cut the crusts off.
Their host was diving into the cupboards and fridge to distract herself as best she could from listening in, and the hungry little guests were helping keep her busy on that note. Boss was currently sat cross legged in front of his own plate on the counter near the sink, where he had been stood scowling at everything with his arms folded, overseeing as promised. But he seemed satisfied enough now to be lifting his own food to tackle a corner. To save time, chocolate filling had been settled on for all of them, so Mabel was able to whip up a batch with practiced ease. The little monster turned the bread this way and that in front of him before settling on grasping a corner to tear a chunk off at a time in his clawed hands. Tear-eat-tear-eat, and as he started to enjoy himself a soft little diabolical "Nya!" as he carried on tearing it apart.
He was one of the more dainty eaters. His brother, now glaring at anyone who didn't call him Arc, could only glare because he was busy stuffing as much as he could of his sandwich into his jaws in one go. So were Papy and Blue, with the difference that they weren't tearing into theirs like the sandwich had personally insulted them, or crouching over it like a possessive kitten. Sansy had to laugh as Orange cuddled his to his hoody lovingly as he took bites.
The only one not eating was Spooky. Sansy wasn't even sure if the guy needed to eat. He had been taking interest in the fruit bowl centerpiece when they all reached the kitchen. He had declined a ride, just grinning and stepping to float backwards down through the floor, and they found him waiting for them. He only seemed to find it amusing when half the group had freaked out as he pulled a grape off the bunch in the bowl, only for it to disintegrate into ashy mold a moment later in his skeletal hand.
Arc, Blue and Papy dragged the whole bowl away from him across the table. He took one more grape with his magic as they did so, which he floated towards himself to drop directly into the void in his mouth without touching it. Whether he got anything out of this he didn't say, but did appear to enjoy the taste. He declined anything else to eat this time.
For now he was content to sit perched on the top of a chair-back and take part in the conversation a little separate from those eating. The rest of the fruit apart from the oranges had gone while they all waited for Mabel to finish the spreads, and a single large bite mark dented the skin on one of those. The strawberries she grabbed from the fridge when she noticed everyone starting on the grapes, and she jotted those on the shopping list after seeing how much her little friends were thrilled by holding giant berries in their hands to devour. Little Orange looked almost teary when he held one, and she could've sworn Papy sparkled in happiness as he held his giant strawberry up to his face to admire.
Sansy had an easy enough time catching them all up on what he thought had happened to them all, thanks to them all being too busy stuffing their skulls to interrupt. Once Mabel bought over the next plates, this time six shot glasses filled with milk on one plate, which was hopefully a good idea for skeletons, six soft brioche rolls with a cheesy filling, and half of the warmed up cheese quiche spare from her own lunch cut up into little cubes, he called Boss over to join them.
Mabel heard this and offered her hands up to the counter, but Boss dramatically threw his head to one side to refuse that, then after looking around for himself, stomped over to the fridge, squatted and thought for a moment, then swung round to the handle and slide down with his foot and hands in the door seal to the floor. Being quite proud of himself for this, he posed coolly with hands on hips, then ran over to look up at the table.
After some more thinking next to the polished chair legs, he had to concede to a lift up this time. Before hopping off from where he crouched in Mabel's cupped hands he looked up at her face to thank her, but to his shame couldn't bring himself to do it and highlight that he had needed help, so turned to get down, then got the idea to instead very subtly hug a finger before going.
As Mabel was busying herself between her fridge and microwave, Sansy reiterated for Boss in a hushed tone, "your bro and orange just backed up my theory. the three of us all got vague memories we were gonna be working on the machine for the monster locating test-run. was part of arcs, -reds, job to monitor the real-time logs and arc says the last thing he remembers is a flash of that. the machine was tracking through every monster it could detect but there was bounce-back from the energy we blocked it from using… it was still doin' the grabbing thing, just not able to grab whole sized monsters"
He looked round the kitchen instead of the faces of the group to finish, "so looks like it reconstituted us from the samples of each targets magic"
The others were all looking at him. Thoughts crowded out words so that the only sound was Mabel's humming in the background until Spooky was the one to break the bittie's silence. By laughing of all things. "So…" he managed to compose himself to continue, "You're telling me I got caught up with your backfiring science experiment thanks to passing through your world at just the right day?" If anyone thought he was angry, he wasn't. Kinda impressed actually, by their apparent knack for top notch accidental results. Creating -themselves- and capturingHimof all people up in their attempt. He placed a hand over his sockets "Haha, so that's kinda a relief. Should mean my original self carried on to my home realm like I was going to. Something so small as me… I've barely got the level of power that he'd notice he lost any."
They watched as he pulled the hand away from his face to stare at it a moment as he paused. A small niggle in his mind had occurred as he said that. While his future was now filled with something bright and wonderful that came with being able to touch without killing other beings. Well. Even in miniature he was still an incarnation of death. It just didn't sit right that nothing would perish before Him. Was it petty? Maybe, but still. A small thought formed, as he turned to set his gaze over the fruit bowl. Something for later.
"So what do we do now?" Spooky directed at the group. "I'm kinda out of a job, since my original self has that covered. Not that I mind. 'Retirement's something I never considered a possibility I have to say. I mean, what am I meant to do like this?" He swept a hand down at himself.
A few looks of mutual understanding were exchanged across the table. The same could be said for all of them.
"chill here with us…" Sansy softly stated. And there it was. The reality of the situation laid out before them. Each wondering what the others thought and waiting for the first to decry the loss of their old lives. And yet…
Blue loved his work, loved making friends with lots of humans. His current builders apprenticing job was demanding but fulfilling!- Ugh who was he kidding it was fun for a while but so boring sticking to a schedule, and they wouldn't let him use his impromptu improvements to add a tower here or a moving walkway there! It was nice to make friends, but what filled his mind right now was excitement at exploring Mabel's house and maybe would she let him see what toys her grand-kids left? You know- not to be childish and all but all the toys would be GIGANTIC now! What adult wouldn't have a blast with that?
Papy thought of college. He was studying three subjects for a career in childcare, (since he was already an expert at not killing Frisk he felt not killing multiple children was the next logical step), as well as a potential culinary career to suit his clear unnatural talent as a chef, and thirdly accounting. It was great and he fit right in at college! He had coursework and tests coming up. Papy got over college. With Papyrus covering all that anyway Papy would not count as a dropout!
Boss was proud of his progress as a legal aide. But… He'd been there, done that now. - He was needed here thanks to these new events! What a shame. Anyway, the size he now was, he of course needed to get some sort of armor again. If not to serve the King anymore, since he had been secretly grateful to be released from the burden of orders to kill humans instead of making friends with them, he certainly was needed here to protect the others in such a vulnerable state!
The three looked at each other in silent agreement. Then they looked at Orange, Arc, and Sansy. Papy put his hands on his hips decisively and spoke up, "WE WILL ALL HAVE TO STRIVE TO ADAPT! IT IS A TERRIBLE THING YOU THREE HAVE DONE TO FORCE MYSELF, BOSS AND BLUE HERE INTO SUCH SHOCKING IDLENESS! WE DON'T HAVE WORK FROM HOME JOBS LIKE YOU ALL DO NOW, DO WE, THAT YOU CAN CONTINUE EVEN IN SUCH A BITTY STATE IF YOU GET A LAPTOP!"
Orange and Sansy looked at each other in defeat, while Arc grimaced and flopped face-forward on the bun in front of him. No fair! His was only a side-job. This was truly their punishment.
Mabel, having utterly failed to stay out of it by this point, hovered over them all to throw in the most beautiful lifeline they had ever known possible. The little old lady deadpanned over the three and said conspiratorially-
"Don't worry, no need if you can't, I'm loaded."
Unfortunately, common decency demanded they just could not accept living a life mooching off an old lady.
Fortunately, the old lady was one step ahead of common decency, and threw in something to present the offer as one to have to suffer instead, with a wicked expression morphing onto that sweet face, adding with a finger poke in Sansy's direction, "AH-ha-ha! You can all be my little sugar babies!" Giggling to herself manically some more as she wandered off for a moment. "I'll be your sugar granma! Hehehe!"
Orange got the grateful attention of the table as he bought up something to change the subject with whatever came to mind; "hey bro, so what are we gonna call you now?"
"-Ehehehe gram'a sugar… ehehee-"
"HMMM… THAT IS A GOOD POINT BROTHER! ANY GOOD HERO MUST HAVE A NEW ALIAS FOR A NEW ADVENTURE!" Blue stood holding his chin in thought as the other hand motioned with a cocktail stick with a square of quiche on the end.
"yeah baby blue, what are we gonna call ya?" Came from the smugly grinning Arc.
Blue spluttered indignantly, but recovered to put both hands on his hips and scowl back, "ACTUALLY I THINK I'LL GO WITH SCOUT! I THINK IT SUITS ME!"
"whatever ya say baby blue"
"..."
"EDGY…"
It was Arc's turn to splutter as he opened his sockets to yield, "scout! okay?! ya happy?" He buried his face back in the soft top of the bun.
He was. Scout, now, turned to Orange as his brother gave a happy thumbs-up, and looked up above to Mabel who had stepped back in time to see this and add her own thumbs-up, to his joy.
Sansy spoke as Scout faced his brother, "last one to give a name, huh? orange… orange…" he mumbled, while Scout stepped closer to look up and scrutinize his brother. "oranger, how about ranger? you guys could match you know"
It wasn't a bad name, thought Orange, he kinda liked the idea, and he narrowed his eyes in consideration but was interrupted by his brother stepping right in front of his face and holding the cocktail stick above his head, before bringing it back down and measuring with his hand, and a frown.
"YOU'RE SHORTER, BROTHER."
Orange raised a finger to state the obvious, but Scout elaborated, "NO! REALLY! YOU WERE ALWAYS THIS MUCH TALLER THAN ME!" He made a cutting motion on the section of stick. "AND NOW YOU'RE ONLY THIS MUCH! THE MACHINE MADE YOU SMALLER IN SCALE THAN IT MADE ME!"
Orange stood with his hand in mid air with the finger lowered, a little too blind-sided to be exactly devastated by the revelation, instead sheepishly coming under the scrutiny of the rest of the tables skeletons.
Scout had it figured out, "IF I HAVE A BIG BROTHER STILL IN THAT HOUSE THEN THAT MUST MAKE YOU THE LITTLE ONE NOW! YOU'RE MY LITTLE BRO!" He motioned grandly with his sockets shut and grinned happily at the twist of logic.
Orange looked down at the smaller Scout.
"lil bro"
Several heads out of those present, some monster, one human, tilted to the side in question.
He smiled. "my name. 'm gonna go with lil bro" he said as his eyelights twinkled slightly in his sockets.
It occurred to them all after a moment to turn to see what smart-assery Arc was going to come out with to that easy one. But Arc wasn't even turning around from where he was now curled up fully on top of his soft bread roll.
"zzzzzzzzz"
John made his way in a consciously confident, but casual walk up to the house across the road. The sort of walk made by a neighbor aware they could be observed approaching the house by anyone who might be looking out of a window at that moment, or by a porch camera, and therefore feeling the self-conscious need to appear both friendly, and normal. Like exiting a shop you haven't purchased anything in and having to try not to look suspicious. 'Act casual', he thought with a small chuckle.
It was silly, he chided himself, as he tugged the collar of his checkered fleece up and dug his hands into the pockets. He wasn't having this trepidation because they were monsters, was he? He hoped not. He wasn't like that. The house grew bigger as he neared, looking up with a slight grimace echoing his self-doubt. He shook his head to banish the line of thought his nerves had conjured up unfairly against himself, relieved when honest reflection easily won out. No, don't do that to yourself John, he thought. It's impostor syndrome to think you're only pretending to be good, man, like the therapist says.
He reached the door and rang the bell, practicing the greeting inside his head.
The lights repeatedly streaming from the house entryway as multiple neighbors were earlier entering were hardly inconspicuous, even if no-one had been paying any particular attention to the street that evening.
Black had been paying attention. And by the time the stocky human male sauntered up to their door, the monitor with the doorbell camera video had a small, grave audience.
"heh! look at the cocky fucker"
"RED, ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY OR NOT?" scolded Blue.
"eh… not"
"WELL AT LEAST GET YOUR HEAD OFF THE DESK SO WE CAN REACH THE KEYBOARD."
"BROTHER."
"ugh, fine. but 'm keepin' the seat." Red leaned back with his arms behind his head and relaxed further in the padded computer chair with one socket open. "so looks like he's about to ring, anyone gonna answer?"
Black was already moving to leave the room before the doorbell chimed. "SINCE I AM THE ONLY ONE APPARENTLY WHO SEES THE POTENTIAL DANGEROUS INTENT IN THIS STREET I WILL DEAL WITH THIS."
"hate to say it but i think vanilla's right, black" Red called after him. "these humans aren't like sweetheart's ex and even that sleazebag's all talk. these 'r just a buncha harmless old homebodies"
Fell was inclined to agree, but stayed to observe the video, as did Blue, although he was barely interested and was there more to hang out.
Rus raised his head from where he was sat slouched against the foot of his bed, "so are ya'all gonna be stayin' in my room again?" he asked resignedly.
Black knew he might be wrong. In fact he hoped he was. Under it all he wanted no more than to be friends with the humans and monsters around here. But how could he fully let his guard down and have no-one left to cover the 'what-ifs'. It was a hard-learned lesson in his life that there were few people you could ever truly let your guard down around.
With his descent of the staircase he went over the facts in his mind. The strangely behaving old woman. Her 'friendly' visit so soon after the event with the human male being violently dealt with by himself and the others, visible to the whole street. Monsters hostile against a human and disturbing the peace in a place where the locals so loved their peace.
She was watching wasn't she?
And now a meeting with apparently everyone but the monsters invited? As soon as they noticed this he had sent Rus over to skulk where he could, and of the little he could catch out of view of any cameras as people entered the house was that the meeting was indeed about the incident. Some sort of planning.
Well, so here comes their grim faced representative, Black thought on the camera feed of the man approaching shiftily. Collar up like he was hiding his face, laughing to himself scornfully as he came.
Shaking his head at their house.
Pinpoint focused purple eyelights stalked through the warm light of the entryway, Black's grin growing as the distance to the door shrank before him. Disapprove, do you? Here to 'deal' with the troublemaking monsters on your street, are you? Accuse us? Blame us?
How. Dare you.
Black might have seen the face of the Neighborhood Watch man finally relaxing into a more natural, friendly smile just before the door opened; if Black hadn't ripped the door open quite as shockingly. The face he was presented with was instead a slightly scary look of wide eyes glaring down at him from a stony, jaw-clenched mans face.
Black attempted to get a read on his adversary, which didn't work on such a frozen expression, as John's mind was near enough blue-screening at that moment, grasping for a mentally repeated greeting which was now no longer there, and this led to them both giving the appearance of darkly staring each other down.
Thinking this behavior might just be a normal monster door greeting, and that he was actually about to screw up the simple task of an invitation, John made an admirable come-back to snap himself out of it with salvaged parts of his forgotten greeting, and somehow calmly stated, "I've been sent by the Neighborhood Watch-"
"OH. HAVE YOU NOW."
"Uh. Well yes, you see we want, …"
"NOT INTERESTED."
"Oh, uh…"
Black's clawed hold on the door gripped so tightly it started to create gouges in the wood, and the neighbor stepped back a pace. Black cocked his skull to the side, "HUMAN… If ONE OF YOUR KIND COMES TO OUR HOME TO ATTEMPT TO THREATEN US AND HARASS US, IT DOES NOT GIVE A VERY GOOD IMPRESSION OF HUMANITY AS A WHOLE, DOES IT? THERE ARE SOME AMONG MY HOUSEHOLD WHO BELIEVE HUMANS TO BE CAPABLE OF… BETTER. AND I WOULD LIKE TO COUNT MYSELF AMONG THEM, BUT WHAT ARE YOU ACHIEVING WITH BRINGING THIS 'WATCH' TO OUR DOOR? ARE YOU TRULY INTENDING TO 'THROW OUT' THE TROUBLEMAKERS?"
John honestly didn't know what to say to that. They'd only just started up, so it wasn't like they had a lot to show for themselves yet. But no-one had come to the monsters aid when that youth drove over their lawn and was yelling at them that night, did they?
He couldn't leave this as the monsters impression of them though! With a burst of determination he blurted, "Don't you worry! We'll show you what we're capable of when we all stick together. -We'll defend this street!" He finished with a rousing fist raise, which the slightly startled purple eyed skeleton focused on, before raising his eyelights back to the man.
"OH?" He grinned dangerously, not that John knew to interpret that expression on a skeleton. "IACCEPTYOUR CHALLENGE HUMAN, IF THAT IS WHAT YOU TRULY WANT. UNTIL THAT TIME, I WILL BE WAITING. BUT UNTIL THAT TIME?..." The purple eyelights vanished,"BEGONE."
Deborah had stepped outside to check where he had got to, in time to witness John stumbling almost into a run on the way back from across the street. He looked a little paler than his usual skin tone. The newly formed Neighborhood Watch group was informed of his encounter. Apparently the monster neighbors were still very upset about the man who attacked their household, and didn't seem to have much faith in their neighbors looking out for them, so they wouldn't be joining. Oh dear. Everyone felt a little guilty about this. Well! It was best they made a good start on forming a great Neighborhood Watch and giving their neighbors faith back in their community!
End Note:
Oh what a difference the addition of his originally planned start of "It's very nice to meet you," would have made to poor John's first impression.
Tumblr link should be in my profile for questions, requests, and anything