Well, that's just about archetypal enough to work. Nursery rhyme monster and small, toy-hugging child. But there's an element that doesn't really fit, and it's been hanging about his head, quite literally, in fact. He can just spot it if he stares, probably the same unsettling way cats can. What is this?

"Hello. Are you having a bad dream about ghosts?" Zagreus has that in common with small children, that he doesn't care about social niceties and introductions.