Fanfic / It's Always Spooky Month

It's Always Spooky Month is a crossover between Friday Night Funkin' and Spooky Month, set after the events of Week 2.

After Monster's ploy to eat some humans fails spectacularly, the little children he used as bait won't leave him alone, and with the two apparently having nowhere to go, he finds himself thrust into taking care of them.

The same day the final chapter was posted, the sequel, You Can't Escape Spooky Month, began. Months after the conclusion of that fic, the final fic of the trilogy, Eternal Spooky Month, began on October 1st, 2022.

Note: spoilers for It's Always Spooky Month are unmarked in You Can't Escape Spooky Month's trope section, and the same applies for both previous fics on Eternal Spooky Month's trope section.

---

The Spooky Trilogy In General

• Adaptational Personality Change:
  • Downplayed: Pump is portrayed close to how he is in the show, but is a bit more shy and timid to better contrast with the loud and boisterous Skid.
  • Dexter is portrayed post-death as he is while alive in "Unwanted Guest", being cheerful and eccentric with hints of something darker under the surface, compared to the manic bloodlust-fueled frenzy he's in during "Deadly Smiles". He's also very clingy, staying by Lila's side for the entire day after their reintroduction.
• Ascended Extra: Kevin, a side character in Spooky Month, plays a major role in chapter 5 of It's Always Spooky Month and becomes a semi-reoccurring character afterwards. In You Can't Escape Spooky Month, he gets evicted from his apartment and is forced to move into Monster's house, becoming a major character in the process.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The fic takes place in an Alternate Universe where... something happened to Skid's and Pump's families, leading to the Spooky Boys deciding to stay with Monster because they think he's really spooky. While certain events from the Spooky Month shorts happened as they did in canon, such as them meeting The Eyes of the Universe, others, such as them buying a Happy Fella, didn't occur and instead happen during the fic, if they happen at all. The mansion Week 2 takes place in also belongs to Monster, rather than it belonging to Girlfriend's parents.
• Black Comedy: A lot of the series' humor runs on darker or more serious topics being spun into a more amusing light, or serious situations immediately followed by a silly one.
• Canon Foreigner: Whitty, Carol, Hex, Sarvente, Ruv, Selever, Razasy, Garcello, Bob, Ron, Little Man, and Myra all originated from Friday Night Funkin' mods.
• Call-Back:
  • In chapter 5 of It's Always Spooky Month, Pump turns the Candy Club's open sign to closed to convince Kevin to come with him and Skid for a walk. In chapter 1 of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Lila flips the open sign to closed while convincing Kevin to come with her and the boys.
  • In You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Lila attacks Monster with a rake upon first meeting him. In Eternal Spooky Month, Susie does the same thing with the same rake.
    Monster: Again?!
• Greater-Scope Villain: While the series primarily has no antagonists save for the occasional kidnapper or possessed doll, the Eyes cult is revealed to be responsible for Lila being sent to another dimension and Pump's family losing their memories of him, ultimately leading to Skid and Pump living with Monster.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Chapter 14 of It's Always Spooky Month is when Monster finally finds out the two "monster" children he's been taking care of are actually human kids in costumes.
  • During the flashback in chapter 2 of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Pump tells Lila what happened to his family.
  • In the final chapter of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Pump finally tells the rest of the house about his secret spell conjuring, and about his family losing their memories of him.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: It's revealed that the ritual the cult performed at Lila's house erased Pump from the memories of his family, and only his family were effected. They feel like something is missing, but none of them can tell what.
• Mundane Utility:
  • In chapter 8 of It's Always Spooky Month, Eyes uses its tentacles to lift people up like an amusement park ride during Robert's sister's birthday party.
  • In chapter 1 of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Garcello offers up his Supernatural Light to help Lila sleep.
• Our Monsters Are Weird: Monster is a tall, black figured thing with a lemon-shaped head and pink teeth, can run on all fours, and can devour at least a human teenager whole. In chapter 7 of It's Always Spooky Month, he mentions that he's had three heart attacks over the course of the night, and if he were human, he'd be dead; in chapter 2 of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Lila compares him to a gecko, he mentions Skid and Pump called him an octopus due to how he can squeeze into tight spaces, and he curls onto the bed like a cat - and when Lila decides on a whim to pet him, they both find he can purr.
  A low, rumbling purr emanated from the Monster and Lila jumped back in surprise. "What the..."
  The Monster looked equally surprised. "I didn't know I could do that."
• Perverse Puppet: The series contains two possessed Happy Fella dolls, both described as psychotic by Skid:
  • The first one, Todd, breaks many things and scares Monster multiple times, all while getting Skid blamed for it. It also moves, usually when nobody is looking at it. According to Pump, it kills people that it doesn't consider its best friend, and attempts to murder all three of them after Monster throws it out.
  • The second goes unnamed, but is much more aggressive, trying to violently murder everyone in the house to satisfy his own bloodlust.
• Rouge Angles of Satin:
  • In chapter 7 of It's Always Spooky Month, Skid put up a sign so they wouldn't step on the bear trap they set up outside his and Pump's room, with "beware" and "outside" misspelled.
  "Bewar: Bear trap out sid."
  • In chapter 4 of You Can't Escape Spooky Month, Skid and Pump make a LinkedIn profile for Monster; being two young children, the profile is filled with numerous grammar and spelling errors and isn't professional in the slightest.
• Ship Tease: The second and third fics have occasional teasing for multiple pairings, put in for fun with no real bearing on the overall plot — "see what you wanna see", in the author's words. A prime example of this is in chapter 7, where Spirit insinuating Kevin and Senpai were getting freaky in a closet (Little Man trapped them in there) is immediately followed by Skid assuming Kevin wanted to clean the house to impress Lila (Little Man wrecked the house and Kevin knew Monster would kill them if they didn't fix it).
• To Serve Man: Monster regularly eats humans, and him doing so is repeatedly either mentioned or outright shown. He is also an expert chef with human meat, making delicious food one would never tell was made with human remains.
• Trapped in Another World: The ritual the cult performed destroyed Lila's house and sent her into another dimension, and it takes Selever and the pond at Zardy's maze to bring her back. The dimension is never described in detail, only that it was very, very dangerous.
• Was Once a Man: There are multiple allusions to Monster once being a human in the first fic, which is explicitly confirmed in "Lemon Sister", but as he's spent far longer as a monster than a human, it doesn't really matter to him.

It's Always Spooky Month

• A Day in the Limelight: After being demoted to The Cameo, Boyfriend and Girlfriend appear prominently in chapter 11.
• A Rare Sentence: Chapter 3 has Pico taking the organ-shaped cookies, with him taking a bite of one described as him biting into a kidney. The narration then lampshades that that wasn't a normal sentence.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Selever, despite still swearing a lot and being a Jerkass, promises Skid that he'll help him find his mother.
• Agent Scully: Roy spends most of chapter 8 believing Monster and Tricky are just other people in costumes, and thinks Eyes is a giant puppet. It takes Robert and Ross point blank telling him that Eyes cannot be a puppet that it finally hits him. Later chapters have him accept that things like them exist, albeit not without confusion and sarcasm.
• Bad Moon Rising: Chapter 9 sees Monster dropping Skid and Pump off Sarvente's church while he goes off hunting during the blood moon, as he doesn't want them getting hurt by any of the other monsters roaming about. The blood moon is actually Exploited by the monster population, as due to the history and general associations behind it, police are less willing to go out and stop crime since there's already going to be a lot of it, thus allowing more crime to occur.
• Brick Joke: In the beginning of chapter 7, Skid and Pump put two bags of marshmallows into their shopping cart, to which Monster questions why they would need them. At the end of the chapter, Monster pulls the bags out, and the three roast marshmallows over the burning remains of the Happy Fella.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Roy happily cheers when one of the girls who made fun of him pees her pants after Zardy terrifies her.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Chapter 8 marks the return of the Hatzgang, as well as The Eyes Of The Universe, both from the original Spooky Month.
  • The Boyfriend and Girlfriend both become somewhat important in chapter 11 after only making cameos before.
• The Cameo: Daddy Dearest appears once in chapter 6, though is not mentioned by name. Monster doesn't like him.
• Cassandra Truth: In chapter 7, Skid keeps getting blamed for things breaking by both Pump and Lemon Monster, when he was really innocent. It was actually the Happy Fella doll who broke them.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The squirrel from the beginning of chapter 6 later returns near the end of the chapter, which ends up making the rival team lose the basketball game.
• Christmas in July: Like in Spooky Month, Skid and Pump celebrate Spooky Month even when it's not October.
  "IT'S SPOOKY MONTH!" Skid and Pump yelled, leaping into the room and launching into their signature spooky dance.
  After recovering from a minor heart attack, the Monster removed his reading glasses and glanced at the calendar. "No, it's still April."
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Monster begins wearing a trench coat and hat while out during the day to avoid suspicion. Skid remarks that it makes him look like the Candy Dealer from "Unwanted Guest".
• Continuity Nod: In chapter 2, Skid and Pump talk about riding in a white van, "dying", and delivering a package of sugar, referencing the events of "Unwanted Guest".
• Curse Cut Short:
  • In chapter 4, Monster almost swears when he tries to get the Wifi to work, before getting electrocuted by the router.
    Monster: "Come on you piece of shi-EEEK!"
  • When Monster gets up close and personal to one of the players on the opposing team in chapter 6, he almost says "what the fuck" before the ball is swiped out of his hands.
• Demoted to Extra: Boyfriend and Girlfriend only appear in a few sparse cameos, though it's likely that the events of the main game are still happening, Monster and the Spookies just aren't part of it. They later have a major role in chapter 11.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In chapter 1, Monster kills and eats the bullies that were harassing Skid and Pump.
• Dramatic Irony: The audience knows Skid and Pump are human, but Monster initially doesn't, and had he known when he first met them he probably would have eaten them due to how hungry he was at the time.
• Eldritch Abomination: Like in canon, The Eyes of the Universe is a giant, multi-tentacled creature whose many eyes make up the stars above, and its hypnosis abilities are so powerful even Monster falls under its spell.
• Fearless Fool: Like canon, Skid blindly walks into situations without realizing how dangerous they are. Pump has a bit more common sense, but not much.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Chapter 8 ends with Monster and Tricky visiting a party with a theme of 'monsters', allowing them to casually go among humans without concern.
• Frustrated Overhead Scribble: While Senpai is going on an angry rant against Monster, there's a scribbly line over his head. As they're all currently in a video game, it's something actually above his head, rather than just a visual detail.
  Pump: He seems angry. There's a little scribbly over his head.
  Senpai: AND I HATE THIS ANIMATION!
• Gave Up Too Soon: In chapter 15, after spending most of the day at the lake in Zardy's cornmaze, Tankman and Steve take Skid and Pump home despite the former's protests due to it getting late. Had they waited until after the sun set, they would have witnessed Lila getting thrown out of the lake. Thankfully, Zardy was watching the whole thing and guides Lila to Monster's house, allowing her to reunite with Skid.
• Gilligan Cut: When Skid says Kevin isn't with them, Monster says Kevin is an adult and he'll be fine on his own. The narration then cuts to six hours later, where Kevin has gotten hopelessly lost in Zardy's cornmaze.
• Hell Is That Noise: Skid can apparently make a high pitched shriek, and Pump can make what sounds like lawnmower noises. The narration lampshades it.
  The Monster wasn't exactly sure how he was able to make those sounds, but he wasn't one to question.
• Horrifying the Horror: The Happy Fella is so unnerving it scares Monster multiple times.
• Hypocritical Humor: Tankman chastises Kevin for saying "fudging" instead of "fucking", then immediately after uses "effing".
• I'm a Humanitarian:
  • When talking about using a Ouija board to contact something spooky, Skid mentions they once spoke to the ghost of a serial killer who ate his victim's livers.
  • Due to believing they are also monsters, Monster feeds Skid and Pump cooked human. They don't mind. This is referenced in chapter 14, where after realizing Skid and Pump are human, Monster then realizes he's unknowingly made them into cannibals and takes human meat out of their diet.
• Innocently Insensitive: While Skid is trying to convince Selever to look for Lila, Selever sarcastically remarks if Skid lost his mom in another dimension. Skid replies "Yes" and begins to cry.
• Interspecies Adoption: The monster... Monster takes care of Skid and Pump, who are human.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Selever is incredibly rude and vulgar, but immediately shows remorse after accidentally making Skid cry and awkwardly offers him a hug.
  • In chapter 15, Garcello describes Roy as "a little shit, but a little shit with a good heart"; he knows Roy is a good person deep down, he just needs some guidance and the reminder that making someone feel worse to make yourself feel better doesn't solve anything.
• Jump Scare: Ironically, Skid and Pump jumping into the room and yelling about Spooky Month scares Monster into a minor heart attack.
• Last-Second Word Swap:
  • Upon realizing he's talking to a pair of kids, Whitty stops himself from saying "fucking" and instead uses "fudging".
  • Monster nearly refers to Daddy Dearest as a bastard before stopping himself, instead calling him awful.
  Monster: "Never mind. Just stay away from that bastaa...awful man."
  Pump: "You almost said a swear."
• Kill It with Fire: After slicing it with a bear trap, Monster, Skid, and Pump burn the Happy Fella to make sure it's dead.
• Literal Metaphor: In chapter 3, Skid asks where Monster's going. Monster replies he's going to visit a friend "Somewhere in Nevada", before pointing to a section on the map actually labeled "Somewhere in Nevada".
• Literal-Minded:
  • In chapter 6, Monster thinks that basketball literally involves a basket.
  "I see you have a ball, but where is your basket?" the Monster asked, looking around. "You said this game is called "basketball" right?"
  • When talking about the girl and her friends who bad talked Roy behind his back, one of the Hatzgang mentions they made fun of his "tiny sausage"; Skid then says that's rude because cooking is hard, thinking they're talking about actual sausages. Roy considers correcting him but decides against it.
• Nightmare Face: Exploited by Monster in chapter 6. He gives a wide smile to distract the opponent team in a basketball game, lurching them so they can get a good look at it, so he can snatch the ball.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book:
  • Downplayed. The drawing at the end of chapter one is slightly disturbing, being at a graveyard with Lemon Monster being present, but it's still overall pretty happy.
  • Played straight in chapter 3, where Pump colours in a picture of a corpse, which humorously enough was part of an actual spooky coloring book that Lemon Monster packed with their stuff.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In chapter 1, Skid and Pump ask Monster to check the closet for other monsters, to which he responds that he doesn't rent it out anymore after the last one that stayed there. This is later elaborated on in chapter 12, revealing the one who mooched off him was the Mechanical Abomination in the body of a poor children's drawing, i.e. Bob.
  • In chapter 2, Skid suggests they should find a Ouija board to contact ghosts, reminiscing about the time they talked to a serial killer who ate his victims' livers.
  • In chapter 4, Skid tells Pump they had to get Monster a disguise on their way to find him so the animal control worker would stop chasing the two.
  • In chapter 6, Skid and Pump mention the only game they played in gym was "Run Away While Bullies Throw Things," which is presumably dodgeball.
    "That's a fun game." Skid said cheerfully. "I only went to the nurse's office once."
  • In chapter 8, Roy says his night has been weirder than the time the Hatzgang tried taking drugs.
  • In chapter 9, the narration mentions that Monster "was staying far away from that electric fence" during the blood moon.
  • Near the end of chapter 9, Monster quickly ushers Skid and Pump home, partially because he wants to watch the blood moon set, but also because he wants to get home before the zombie he sucker punched finds him again.
    "Let's get going now, before the zombie I sucker punched comes back for revenge."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Upon realizing the gravity of the situation after being kidnapped, Skid and Pump become genuinely scared.
  • Skid loses his normally cheery mood in chapter 7 after being blamed despite his innocence, when the Happy Fella doll actually did them.
  • After accidentally making Skid cry, Selever instantly drops his usual rude and vulgar attitude and attempts to comfort him.
• Offscreen Teleportation:
  • A common trait of Skid and Pump is the two ending up someplace else the moment someone takes their eyes off them, like Monster finding Pump in his kitchen cabinets.
  • Played for Horror with the Happy Fella doll, who constantly moves when no one looks at it, usually to scare Monster.
• Oh, Crap!: Lemon Monster has multiple of these moments throughout the story, especially in chapter 2, where the Spookids sneak out of the house without him knowing and end up getting kidnapped.
• Ouija Board:
  • While discussing what they could do for fun, Skid reminisces about the time they contacted the spirit of a serial killer using a Ouija board.
  • In chapter 10, Skid and Pump use a homemade Ouija board to talk to the dead, and end up contacting Garcello's ghost.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Garcello is contacted through the use of a homemade Ouija board and summoned through the use of a conduit cigarette. While he does close up some Unfinished Business, it's purely to tie up lose ends and doesn't affect his connection in any way. He is unable to touch physical objects, but the end of chapter 14 has him reading "The Afterlife and how to Master it", a book dedicated to helping ghosts figure out how to deal with the physical world, implying it can be learned.
• Parental Abandonment: Where Pump's family and Skid's mother Lila are during all this is left unclear, and when Monster outright asks the two where their parents are, Skid simply replies "what parents?". The whereabouts of their families are later revealed - the Eyes cult broke into Lila's house and performed some sort of ritual, causing the house to explode, sending Lila into a another dimension and making Pump's family lose all their memories of him.
• Robbing the Dead: Monster steals the wallets off the people he kills so he can use their cash and credit cards.
  "Who's identity shall we steal today?" the Monster asked, flipping through various victims' wallets.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Pico eats some of Monster's organ-shaped cookies and finds them so delicious he immediately assumes they're made with crack. Even after finding out one of the ingredients is blood, he asks for more cookies as part of his payment for babysitting Skid and Pump.
• Shout-Out:
  • Upon meeting Hex, Garcello asks if he can call him Mr. Roboto.
  • After Roy summarizes the various weird things he's encountered in his last two outings with Skid and Pump, the two ask if he'd like to meet a spooky scarecrow, referencing Zardy.
  • After being transported to the Hating Simulator, Pump excitedly asks if they ended up in Minecraft.
• Shower of Awkward: Implied; in chapter 14, Garcello leaves to go check on Kevin, only to immediately come back and state he was going to add "don't show up when people are showering" to the ghost manners book.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot:
  • Pico swears. A lot. It rubs off on Skid, much to Monster's disapproval.
  • Over the course of his appearances, Selever swears in nearly every sentence, only dropping it while apologizing to Skid.
• Slasher Smile: Monster usually makes wide, teeth-baring smiles throughout the story, most notably in chapters 3 (when threatening an employee to get him some spooky stuff despite it not being October) and 8 (when Skid is introducing him to Roy, though in that case he's trying to be friendly).
• Spoof Aesop: At the end of chapter 6, Monster asks Skid and Pump what they learned today, to which Skid and Pump list off a bunch of not-good lessons, including, "if you're going to cheat, do it better than the other team", "robots are different from TVs", and "don't touch the acorns".
• Scary Scarecrows: Zardy, as per canon, is a living scarecrow that tends to kill those who trespass in his cornmaze. In chapter 12, Skid, Pump, and the Hatzgang contract Zardy to scare a girl and her friends who had been playing Roy for a fool and making fun of him behind his back.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: A good portion of the fic takes place in April, yet Skid and Pump don't go to school despite being two young children. This is lampshaded in chapter 15, where after saying the Hatzgang can't take them to the lake because they're at school, Monster asks if shouldn't they be at school as well. Pump tells him not to worry about it.
• Squirrels in My Pants: Played for Laughs. An angry squirrel gets inside Monster's trench coat after he steals its acorn.
• Stepford Smiler:
  • Downplayed: Skid and Pump are their normal, cheerful selves, but both are weighed down by what happened to their families, they just hide it - when Pump reflects on what happened in chapter 15, the narration mentions he cried for three days straight after learning his family forgot him, and he notes that with the hope of getting his mom back dangling in front of him, Skid has become reckless and desperate.
  • Despite acting like the Comedic Sociopath he is in canon, when first meeting the boys and Kevin, Tankman whispers to Pump that he actually hates war and doesn't truly like all the violent things he does on a regular basis, yet keeps the mask of a funny Large Ham Blood Knight to keep his troops happy.
• Suddenly Speaking: After being silent for the whole chapter, Todd says "F...frrriend." before lunging at Pump.
• Tempting Fate: When Skid says Kevin isn't with them, Monster says Kevin is an adult and he'll be fine on his own. Cut to six hours later and Kevin is hopelessly lost in Zardy's cornmaze.
• Wham Line:
  • When Pump finally speaks up about what's going on, he reveals the Happy Fella is either possessed or sentient, and it's been the one causing trouble. Pump blamed Skid because he was afraid Todd would hurt him otherwise.
  Pump: It's not your fault. It's what Todd wanted. We're not the first people he's done this to. He picks one person to be his best friend, and he causes trouble for the others. Otherwise...He kills them.
  Monster: And...Todd told you this?
  Pump: That's why I tried to stay away from Skid. S-so Todd wouldn't hurt him...
  • In chapter 8, Ross asks Skid where Lila is, which Skid quickly brushes off with "she's on vacation". Afterward, Pump asks Monster how hard it would be to travel to another dimension only to drop it once Skid gives him a look, implying that somehow, Lila got stuck in another dimension.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: According to some reviews Monster reads, the Happy Fella dolls can steal souls.

You Can't Escape Spooky Month

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Lila has trauma from her time in the alternate dimension, needing to sleep with a nightlight at first and attempting to express her emotions through drawing.
  • While Senpai is still his egotistical self, part of his behavior comes from genuinely not knowing how to react while "off-script". He also has a deep fear of ending up in the game again, and in general hates that he became sentient, feeling things were easier when he was just normal code.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Lila is much more assertive in dealing with Monster than any of the supernatural creeps and weirdos she deals with in canon, attacking him when she thinks he's going to hurt Skid and responding to his attempts to intimidate her with annoyance. This is justified: as Lila spent months in a dangerous alternate dimension, she had to become stronger and braver or be killed otherwise.
  • Due to being in just a single song at the time of the fic's release, Spirit didn't have much going for him in the way of powers, only being shown to distort the Hating Simulator with his presence. The fic gives him strong telekinesis capable of moving multiple objects and people.
• Adaptational Sympathy: In "The Stars", the two thieves were simple crooks meant to provide comedy to the episode, with no reason given as to why they were breaking into Lila's house. "Breaking and Entering" gives them understandable (albeit still immoral) reasons: the short one needed money to get his dog out of the pound, while the taller one wanted to go law school and make his father proud.
• Ambiguously Human: The Candy Dealer is an abnormally tall man in a trench coat and hat that hides everything except his pink eyes, and he's introduced sneaking up on Kevin and Senpai while the two were arguing. Both them and the narration are unsure what the Candy Dealer actually is, and his behavior doesn't lean one way or the other.
• Ass Shove: After Senpai gets smart with him one too many times, Kevin points out a pack of fudge and threatens to shove it up his ass.
• Chekhov's Gag: While trying to convince everyone else to let Little Man stay, Skid and Pump reveal they've taught them to imitate a siren in case someone breaks in, with everyone covering their ears as Little Man demonstrates. Sure enough, when the thieves later break into Monster's house and end up in Little Man's room, they immediately begin blaring like a siren to warn everyone.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Candy Club has four different brooms each with a different purpose, denoted by the color of the handle: the red one is for sweeping the bathroom, the blue one for the main room, green for outside, and the purple one is for chasing out the crazy people.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Little Man, like in their mod of origin, is a tiny creature that can emulate high-pitched sounds. Skid and Pump use this to their advantage when trying to convince the rest of the house to let Little Man stay, showing that they've taught them to imitate a siren on the off chance someone breaks in.
• Decomposite Character: Dexter's cheerful persona from "Unwanted Guest" and his unhinged state while in the Happy Fella during "Deadly Smiles" are split between two characters: Dexter's ghost is still friendly, albeit weird, while the Happy Fella is an unrelated murderous ghost stuck in a doll that belonged to Robert's little sister.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Played for Laughs with Ron, who is randomly killed by Bob at the end of chapter 5.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Lila asks if Monster actually is part cat, he remarks "They combined so many things I lost count." Right after the audience is introduced to Becky and the reveal of Monster being a genetic experiment.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Senpai equates his time in the Hating Simulator post-gaining sentience to an endless loop, and that no matter what he did, the game would reset and he'd end up back at the start to do it all over again. He confides in Kevin over a fear of waking up in the game again after experiencing the much more rich and unique real world.
• Irony: The heavily associated with roses Senpai is allergic to flowers, which he finds out when the group visits a botanical garden.
  "I find it ironic that a character from a romance game has an allergy to flowers." Kevin commented.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Zig-Zagged: it's left ambiguous if the "sugar" the Candy Dealer is pedaling is actually sugar or some kind of drug, possibly even both, as it tastes like sugar but just a pinch sends Kevin into such a deep trip Senpai had to carry him home.
• LEGO Genetics: In "Lemon Sister", Monster is revealed to have been created in a lab, made from splicing the DNA of numerous creatures onto a human and seeing how they would react. Even he doesn't know the exact amount of DNA used, just that it was a lot.
• Likes Older Women: A running joke with Roy is him trying to find hot single ladies, with his continued use of the term MILF despite never using it to refer to moms.
• Must Have Caffeine: After Kevin gives them coffee, Little Man goes on a caffeinated rampage and consumes the rest of the coffee in the house, locking Kevin and Senpai in a closet when the two try to stop them.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted: Lila's boss is named Hank, and the mere mention of the name sends Tricky flying into a rage. It is only when he is about to kill him does Tricky realize Lila's boss isn't his Hank, and he goes back to DJing like nothing happened.
• Original Character: "Lemon Sister" introduces Becky, a being similar to Monster and his "sister by choice" who he cared while she was still learning to be, well, a monster. The author even prefaces the chapter by saying the fic is going to start deviating from the canons a bit and be more concretely in its own universe.
• Pyromaniac:
  • While looking through the items inside Pump's shoebox collection, Garcello points out a book titled The Arsonist's Guide to Mayhem.
  • Little Man creates a homemade flamethrower in chapter 11, and tries to kill Boyfriend with it.
• Really 700 Years Old: Monster's "species" ages tremendously slower than humans: when Skid and Pump ask Becky how old Monster is, she tells them to multiply eight and seven and then times that by one hundred,^note If you're wondering, that would be 5600 years and that would probably be around his age. Later when Lila asks Monster about Becky's age, Monster says she's young by his standards, comparing himself to an adult and her to a sorority girl.
• Sharing a Body: When Spirit is ejected out of the Hating Simulator, Senpai is dragged along with him, as Spirit no longer has a body of his own to return to. The two share control of Senpai's body and can freely take control whenever, to Senpai's annoyance.
  Senpai: STOP DOING THAT! YOU'RE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Spooky Month, Skid's missing father is heavily implied to be dead. In the fic, he had instead simply up and left a few years back.
• Stronger Than They Look: Little Man was apparently strong enough to drag Pico through several bushes with the strength of a creature eight times his size.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Monster and Lila start off barely being able to stand each other, only co-parenting because Skid and Pump love them both so much that getting rid of the other is not an option. The two eventually grow past it and genuinely bond.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: To differentiate her from Monster, Becky is described as having eyelashes, a full head of hair, and boobs. Big boobs, if Roy's and Lila's reactions are any indication.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Becky is Monster's "sister", having a similar appearance to him and the same desire for human flesh, even commenting on how delicious the human residents of the house look. When Skid and Pump ask, Becky reveals that it isn't her actual name, but one she prefers.
• Unexplained Recovery: Ron shows up at the Christmas party in chapter 13 alive and well again with no explanation, just with a big bandaid over his wound. In the following fic, Senpai posits that this was seemingly just Bob being nice for the holidays, as Ron goes back to being dead once the party is over.
• Wham Episode: "Lemon Sister" reveals that Monster isn't just some run of the mill creature, but rather something specifically created via rampant gene splicing, there are a few others like him, and they have all long outlived their creators. All the times Monster has portrayed weird animal behavior are thus put through the lens of a lab experiment acting on implanted instincts.

Eternal Spooky Month

• An Arm and a Leg: While trying to escape permadeath by spell circle, the Happy Fella's arm catches fire, and he accidentally slices it off with a fire poker while trying to put it out. The severed arm ends up working for the ritual, opening a portal long enough for Selever to escape the dimension he was trapped in.
• Big Sister Instinct: The moment Susie regains her memories of Pump, she runs out of class in the middle of a test to go find him.
• Deader than Dead: The ritual to open a portal to Selever and Razasy's dimension requires the use of a soul, which would kill whoever was the unlucky sacrifice. The Happy Fella the group plans to use notes that usually he would just possess another doll when his old one became unusable, but if the ritual works as intended, it'd be lights out for him, forever.
• Delayed Reaction: After Susie comes into the Candy Club looking for Pump, Kevin points her in the direction of Monster's house. It takes until after Susie leaves for him and Senpai to realize that oh wait, Susie remembers Pump now. Spirit is summarily disappointed in both of them for taking so long to realize it.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After reading Bob's letter reminding him of Ron's death (and promptly shredding it), Little Man raids the fridge and downs three beers in two minutes, to the disappointment of everyone in the house since he was sober up until that point.
• Downer Beginning: The first chapter has a much more melancholic tone than the hopeful end of the last fic, with everyone stressed as all of their attempts to either bring Selever and Razasy into their dimension or restore the memories of Pump's family have failed, with each failed attempt bringing the possibility that something else will go wrong in the process. It's also mentioned that the murderous Happy Fella escaped at some point and is currently who knows where.
• Family of Choice: The fic has a large emphasis on how close everyone has become over the course of the series, despite their immense differences in personalities, backgrounds, and even species; there might be fights now and then, but push comes to shove they will be there to support and care for one another, no matter what.
• Kick the Dog: Bob sends Little Man a letter "celebrating" the anniversary of Ron's death just to screw with him. Little Man spirals into an alcoholic depression after reading it.
• Self-Deprecation: After being caught up to speed, Susie compares the events of the previous two fics to a shitty fanfic filled with plot holes.

---