Blue Raspberry and Astrid slogged through the soggy marshes toward the abandoned ruins they'd been told about. The nearest village had been plagued by sightings of spooky ghosts haunting the area and wanted them dealt with by a couple of brave adventurers! Astrid had been all for it, wanting to help people and excited to brave dangers as usual. Blue Raspberry had a different reason for being so excited to go. A very important, secret reason that no one would ever possibly guess.

They wanted to eat a ghost!

What could a ghost taste like? They'd never seen a ghost before, but they were told they were scary creatures with the ability to pass through walls, turn invisible, fly, and some even said they could scream really loud. Like, really really loud! Blue Raspberry wanted a taste. They weren't actually sure if they could eat something incorporeal, but they'd give it their best shot. Every shot not taken was another door closing on a missed opportunity under a bridge, or something like that! They had to try!

They got awfully tired pretty quickly though. Their metal armor was heavy and made them sink deep into the mud. They didn't like the swamp. Suddenly, they realized they couldn't pull their boot back out of the mud. They looked back at Astrid, turning their torso entirely backward to face her while their legs remained in place.

"Astrid, I'm stuck..." they said, like a child telling their parent about a mistake they'd just made.

After some months apart, Astrid is more than happy to be adventuring with her ooze knight best friend again. They reconvened around the time of the Black Harvest Ball, and THAT event was certainly a whirlwind of emotions. Sure, some political stuff happened, but neither she nor the ooze knight cared much about that. Instead, Astrid recounted her personal events to Blue Raspberry while they traveled out to the Marshes.

Ugh, the Marshes. Last time she was here, she was researching oozes for a man named Llyod. It was odd to be traveling with a different adventuring partner during that time, but she liked the experience. She told Blue Raspberry about that, too and how her knowledge of oozes because of their friendship probably saved her skin literally.

Finally, the two of them trek into the muck, careful as they can possibly be to avoid any mud pits and get stuck. But one misplaced step leads her boot to sink in uncomfortably. Schlorp. Crap. Charles, her faithful nannybot, isn't far behind and without even being prompted, mechanically tromps over and starts to pull her out.

"Astrid, I'm stuck..."

Astrid looks at the twisted form of the ooze knight with an equal amount of embarrassment. ".....Me too." After a moment to acknowledge the ridiculous situation, she breaks down laughing as Charles yanks her up with a satisfying pop from the mud and sets her upon solid ground. Astrid's legs are weak from laughing, and she barely manages to get her boot back on lest she fall over. Charles scans Blue Raspberry and then the ground, looking for the safest path to traverse.

"Conscript Blue Raspberry, query: What best describes your confidence rate that you will maintain connection with your boot should this Blixtbot^TM pull you free of the muck: 10%, 25%, 50%, 85%, or 99%?"

Blue Raspberry had to put a lot more thought into their answer to that question than anyone would care to admit. They weren't very good with math or percentages or numbers in general. They just gave a thumbs up to Charles with their other hand on their hip and a nod, their torso still on backwards.

"Yes!" they replied confidently.

"By stating an affirmative, you make an agreement that you are 100% confident in your ability to retain your footwear. If this statement is accurate, I will begin extraction." the robot babysitter replied, uh, robotically.

Before Charles could move to aid the ooze knight in their extraction, Blue Raspberry's arm extended upwards and grabbed a thick tree branch above them before retracting and pulling the ooze out of the muck. Their boots remained on their feet as well.

Still hanging from the branch, and their torso still backwards, Blue Raspberry gave Astrid a thumbs up as well before swinging themself to land outside of the muck they'd just extracted themself from. With a wet squelch, they landed and did a spectacular (unintentional) backflip before landing flat on their back, their limbs splayed out, one arm still incredibly long.

"Stuck the landing." Blue Raspberry called from the ground before starting to stand up, covered in mud.

"Ya sure did!" Astrid called back with a laugh, kicking mud off her shoes. She looks at the twisty ooze in their armor. "What, ya didn't want any help from Charles?" she asks. The Blixtbot^TM seems unbothered by this, though his arms are still outstretched and awaiting the moment to pull the knight from the mud. Astrid finds this funny and laughs again. She's pretty sure Blue Raspberry isn't the biggest fan of the bot. 

"Right, so, we've got ta watch our steps a bit better," she says, getting her boot situated and placing her hands on her hips. She peruses the spooky swamp forest for any signs of life... er, unlife, really. "Where do ya suppose a ghost would be hidin' in here, huh? There's lots of old ruins." Her voice drops to a murmur. "I wonder if that Kamille lady lives in the swamp." She recalls the story Cantio told her about how they crashed a teaparty, and honestly the chaotic nature of the story makes her wonder if the powerful witch of Moonglade could be behind this. Or perhaps not. They'll find out, she supposes!

"Charles, will ya look ahead fer the studiest path?" she asks, looking to the bot. 

"Mistress Astrid, request received." Charles says, dropping his arms robotically with little bursts of steam escaping the joints. His bright red eyes scan the area. "I have determined the path with the highest probability of success, the lowest probability of mud pits and sink holes." With that, the bot continues into the swamp, occasionally pausing, reevaluating the path, then continuing through.

"I think we're lookin' fer some spooky shack," Astrid says, trying to keep her eyes open for any buildings that might house a ghost.

Blue Raspberry really didn't like Charles for some reason. The bot reminded them of something they couldn't quite place, but they felt like it was dangerous and that they didn't want it to touch them. But, Astrid trusted it. The ooze was left conflicted and a bit confused. They chose to trust the robot, since it was helpful and didn't seem aggressive, but they also didn't want it to touch them. They felt bad telling Astrid how uncomfortable their other friend made them, though.

"Oh, uh, I just wanted to do it myself. I've been practicing stretching my limbs, see?" they said.

Their elongated arm was still dragging on the ground behind them as they walked, the blue ooze's arm visible with their gauntlet on the end. They'd been practicing a lot of things in their free time and stretching their limbs was just one of these things. They still weren't an expert at retracting the limb again though. They pulled the noodly appendage with their other hand and threw it over their shoulders until they could figure out how to fix it while they walked behind Astrid, following the path being layed out by Charles.

"I never met Kamille. Was she at that ball we went to? There was a lot of good food there! Let's go to another one when this is over! I can wear a way better costume next time." Blue Raspberry said excitedly.

If the ooze could drool, they would thinking about all the finger foods they'd eaten at the ball. Their hands clenched into fists, including the one still at the end of the long, blue noodle that was their right arm.

"I thought we were looking for ruins. Are those the same as a spooky shack?"

"Yeah, she was at the ball! They call her the witch of Moonglade or somethin' of the sort," Astrid explains while they walk behind Charles. "Apparently, she's real good at magic and pranks. At least, that's what Cantio told me." She looks back and sees Blue Raspberry struggling with the retraction part of their stretchy form, and she stifles a laugh. Without bothering to offer, she pulls the gauntlet off their shoulder and helps fit the pieces of armor back together to appear more man than Flubber. "I'll make ya a perfect costume. We can be a costume duo! Though next time I definitely want somethin' that ain't as heavy. Me shoulders were killin' me at the end of the night!" 

She turns back and continues their trek into the swamp. Long tendrils of moss hang from twisted trees. "Spooky shack, ruins, whatever of the sort seems ta fit a place where a ghost might be hidin'," she says. Then she remembers they have a map, though crude, so she pulls it out. An X indicates the general area of the sightings. "I think we're lookin' fer this spot. Looks like there's an especially big tree in the area near the ruins or shack or whatever it is. Should be along the... road, if ya could call it that."

The path through the swamp is most assuredly not very much of a road at all. There are plenty of potholes filled with water littered with broken wagon wheels - trophies of damages past.  

Blue Raspberry bent down a bit to accept Astrid's help in refitting their arm. The ooze noodle slipped back into the cuirass and the gauntlet clinked back into place, making their arm look normal again. They absentmindedly wiggled their fingers to see how they worked despite them working perfectly fine while the arm was stretched out.

Astrid continued walking and talking, but Blue Raspberry placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"No, no, you don't have to make me a costume! Look, I've been practicing. You know how I change my color and stuff to look like animals? I'm getting better at it. I can do this now!"

With that, Blue Raspberry removed their helmet to expose their faceless, blue head. They stood with their helmet tucked under one arm and concentrated, their hands clenching into fists.

Gradually, the blue ooze of their head changed color to a tanned skin tone. Blue hairs grew from the skin into a short beard and short, messy head of hair. The ooze slowly morphed itself to have facial features, including a mouth, nose, and two eyes with electric blue irises. They looked to be a young adult human man with a friendly face.

Blue Raspberry looked relaxed for a moment, and had a happy face full of pride. They'd done it! Wait. They looked at Astrid and noticed they'd forgotten something. They resumed their concentration and two ears popped out of the sides of their head, though they were a bit pointed. With that finished, they gave a big, toothy smile, revealing their enlarged canines. It seemed their human transformation may have unconsciously taken some inspiration from their favorite animal to change into, the dire wolf.

"See? I look like a human now, right?"

With great interest, Astrid watches Blue Raspberry morph into what looks like a real person! Her jaw drops as she watches the transformation, and when it finishes, she clasps her hands together. "That's incredible, Blue!" she squeals. "Ya look like a bonafide person!" She walks around the ooze knight, observing the changes with interest. "Yer real close, I wouldn't call it human, definitely humanoid! Like a half-elf! Or a half... somethin'?" Astrid bares her teeth up at Blue Raspberry and shows off her own pronounced canines then pulls on her partially pointed ears. "We're lookin' related alright!" She steps back with a proud smile. "Ya've really gotten it down. Ya look great! Mister Blue Raspberry," she says with certain prominence.

But she looks thoughtful while she thinks back to the times they've gotten weird looks when introducing the ooze. "Maybe we need a fake name fer ya though? T'avoid any of the confusion when ya walk up ta someone with a regular lookin' face with a not so regular soundin' name? I dunno, just a thought."

Astrid looks ahead where Charles is still just bootin' along through the swamp and decides they should hurry up and catch up, so they do. She follows Charles' steps while they continue their chat. 

"You're right. People always do think my name is weird, don't they? Hmmmmm..." Blue Raspberry pondered.

People did always say their name was strange, or odd, or even unique whenever they introduced themself to anyone new. Maybe it would be a good idea to come up with a nickname or a codename, or just a regular name. But, thinking of a good one was hard, and they had other things to be doing right now.

"Well, we can think of something later. Let's go eat a ghost!" Blue Raspberry said excitedly, deciding to forget about the name situation for now.

They went to put their helmet back on, but changed their mind. They'd just managed to make their head look humanoid, they didn't want to just change it back or cover it up now. Instead, they just stored the helmet away. If they needed it for some reason, they could easily retrieve it and put it back on. They couldn't stop smiling as they walked and chatted with Astrid.

"Do we really look related? Are you a half something? I want to be a half wolf! Wolves are cool! Or a half fish might work, since I can breathe underwater. Do half oozes exist? That'd be easy to do. Oh, we might look more related if I had horns. Should I try and make horns?" Blue Raspberry said as they walked along.

Eventually, the two could finally see a dilapidated building through the trees. It looked like it was made mostly of stone, but in actuality the building had mostly been wood. The wood simply didn't survive like the stone parts had. It was like the outline of a building, with none of the rooves or most of the walls. Several stone chimneys stuck up out of the foundation here and there. Attached to this ruin was a fully functional stone house that was covered in moss and vines. The roof was in disrepair, but still present. The windows had no glass in them anymore. A set of stone stairs led up to the wooden front door that looked as if it had been used. Vines around the edges were ripped apart to allow it to open.

"That must be it!" the ooze man said excitedly in a hushed tone. Finally, they found the shack, and hopefully, a spooky snack!

"Oh yeah, ya made some of yer features similar ta mine," she agrees with a grin. "The ears and teeth, anyway. If ya want horns, that'd probably really cement it! Mister uncle Blue Raspberry." That's mostly a joke, she wouldn't pressure the ooze to be anything they don't want to be. Then again, she literally dared Cantio to be her dad. Unexpectedly, that worked. She grins wider at the thought. "Yeah, I'm a half-somethin'," she continues. "At least, that's me best guess. I've never seen another dwarf with horns. I figure me other half is a tieflin', honestly. It'd make a lotta sense ta me." 

After a while, they trek through, and Blue Raspberry points out the shack. "Oh yeah, that shack's super spooky. Fits the description perfectly!" She stops and squints her eyes to look at the place in the distance. "What'dya think a ghost tastes like, huh? Ya really gonna try ta eat it?" 

Charles speaks up, his voice whirring mechanically. "Mistress Astrid, report: I am detecting more structures in the swamp near this "shack." There seem to be foundations and stone walls, old ruins of other older buildings. One clear path between these structures and the road. Additional report: Possible movement at the destination. Likelihood of humanoid inhabitants: 15%. Likelihood of animal or monster inhabitants: 62.3%. Conclusion: Tread with caution."

"Welp, s'pose I'll have me hammer ready fer kickin' ghost butt," Astrid says, whipping out her one-handed battle hammer. 

"Uncle Mister Blue Raspberry" They responding, laughing. "I dunno what all that means, but sure! So Teathlings have horns? I would have expected them to have teeth, but I guess humans have teeth too. Maybe you're a half wolf. Wait, wolves don't have horns. A half... hmmm... what has horns...?"

Blue Raspberry realized none of the animals they'd ever turned into actually had horns. They also weren't very learned in different humanoid races. It might be a good idea to go read some books. If not, they could try eating books. That was much more likely to happen, though not very likely to impart them with any knowledge as a result.

"I have no idea what a ghost might taste like. That's why I'm so excited to try one. Let's go!" Blue Raspberry replied happily.

The humanish looking ooze ran forward toward the spooky shack, and up the stairs to the door. They turned the knob and opened the door, leading to a slightly darker space than the swamp. The inside of the shack consisted of only a single room, lit by the moonlight filtering through the holes in the dilapidated roof above. The floor looked nearly as damaged as the roof, full of holes and rotted spots. Another door led from the shack to the remnants of whatever grand building it used to be part of, off to the side. The room looked like it had been the kitchen of the home, with many cabinets and counters for many people to cook on.

Suddenly, as they stood in the doorway, a flowing white figure dropped down and flew toward them, stopping just in front of them while the sound of screaming came from every corner of the small building.

Blue Raspberry was just a dark humanoid silhouette in the door from the inside. That figure rapidly warped and morphed into something monstrous, vaguely humanoid shaped but taller and more amorphous. They reached forward and grabbed the white figure, pulling it in and engulfing it. They then turned around and looked outside.

"I think I found a ghost, but it tasted a lot like a bed sheet!"

"Blue, I'm afraid ta ask why ya know what a bed sheet tastes like," Astrid says with a laugh, following the ooze knight into the ramshackle building. "Didja eat the ghost??" Looking in past Blue Raspberry at the dilapidated building, she does not see a ghost, and the only remnant of it she sees is a broken rope dangling from what remains of the rafters above. It's moving, swinging, like it was just affected by something. Her head tilts in confusion, and she looks at the knight. "Erm, ya said it tasted like a bed sheet...?" That doesn't sound like a ghost at all. Maybe it was just something ghost-like suspended by a rope. She certainly didn't get a good look at it. 

Then she hears the sound of someone hushing, a loud "Shh!" so she steps in on the creaky wood and investigates. "Hello? Anyone in here? A ghost, maybe?" There's murmurs from behind a broken table turned on its side. Coincidentally, the rope leads towards that table too, so she steps over to it. "Helloooo?" As Astrid peeks around the table, the broken leg of a chair hits her in the nose, wielded like a bat by a kid who can't be much older than her.

"B-Back, monster!" says a meek child's voice.

Completely caught off guard, Astrid stumbles back with a bloody nose, her war hammer suddenly flying into her hand. "Ow, oi! What the heck's yer problem?!" She nearly swings, but catches herself and sees that there's three kids, including the one shakily gripping the chair leg. Astrid lets herself relax and grimaces at the pain of being absolutely bonked in the nose. "Owwww....." 

The kid realizes that she's also just a kid, and he immediately apologizes. He appears to be an elf of about thirteen or fourteen, the oldest of the group. "You're not a monster... S-Sorry..." 

"It's fine, it's fine," Astrid says through a stuffy nose. It's not fine. Being bashed in the face does not feel good. 

Blue Raspberry stepped forward behind Astrid and tapped her on the shoulder. They saw her get hit in the face and were concerned if she was really fine. Her nose was bleeding. The movement drew the attention of the Elven boy who looked at the ooze with pure horror.

"Are you o-" they started to ask, but were cut off by the scream of the kids that could now see the blue, oozey monster coming up behind Astrid menacingly and trying to grab her.

The boy that had hit her in the face grabbed Astrid's hand and began to run to the side door, leading into the remains of the rest of the building. The other children that had been hiding behind furniture throughout the room also screamed and made for the door, wanting to escape from the blue ooze. Blue Raspberry was surprised, not really knowing how to react to all the sudden screaming and running. They also had no idea there was a bunch of children hiding here. These children weren't ghosts! Probably. They didn't look like ghosts, though the ooze had never seen a ghost in person, so they couldn't actually tell. Maybe ghosts just looked like children.

The boy dragged Astrid along behind him as he ran through the door and into the maze-like remains of the ruins.

Blue Raspberry stood in the now deserted room, still confused.

"Astrid...? Where'd you go?"

They made their way through the door, wanting to find their friend.

With barely a moment to notice Blue Raspberry approach her, their shadow looming past her, Astrid gets yanked to follow by the screaming kids. "Huh? What the- AH!" She stumbles along after them in her armor, clanking loudly through the abandoned building with the freaked out kids. "What's happenin' now??"

"The monster was going to eat you!" the elf cries. 

Astrid wipes her nose and looks back. "What monster??" Suddenly her warhammer flies into her free hand, crackling with electricity, and she stops running and readies herself. "Blue? Blue where'd ya go??" The ooze knight is nowhere to be seen. Most of the kids keep running, but the elf boy stops. 

"What are you doing??" he asks frantically, stopping and trying to pull on her. "Wait, is this real armor??"

"Of course it's real armor, ya dingus!" Astrid says. "Get back, if there's a real monster, I'll take it down and protect ya." But there isn't a real monster, just kids screaming. She looks annoyed. "Oi, if ya keep screamin', whatever it is will find ya easier, ya know!" A sudden panicked hush falls over the room, a disarray of broken tables and chairs amongst it. This appears to have been a cafeteria of sorts. Still, nothing comes, so Astrid lets the tension fall from her shoulders and looks at the kids. "Okay, okay, what's goin' on here, huh?"

The elf gets a bit of leadership confidence back and motions to her. "What do you mean 'what's going on here?' Why are you wearing armor? Are you pretending to be a knight?"

Astrid lightly bonks him on the head with a closed fist. "No, I'm not pretendin', I'm a proper adventurer. Can't ya tell that?" 

"But you're just a kid!"

Now she sets her warhammer down with the heavy head on the floor and leans on the end of the shaft. The floor creaks under the weight of the hammer. "So? I'm not screamin', cryin', ready ta piss me pants like you." A flush covers the elf's face, but Astrid speaks before he can. "Where have ya dragged me? Where's me friend at?"

"You mean the monster that was going to eat you?" one of the younger kids asks, cautiously peeking out from behind a table. 

"Blue's not gonna eat no one," Astrid says. "They're just a knight. A regular knight with nothin' weird about them at all." Her lie is unconvincing. 

"We saw that creature looming behind you to eat you! It ate our ghost!" the elf protests. 

"Was it a real ghost?"

"Well... no, it wasn't... just a sheet on a bucket and some rope." Ah, that explains the broken rope hanging from the rafters. 

"Oh, so no one got hurt. 'Cept me and me darn bloody nose." She breathes in sharply through her nostrils to try to clear them out.

"S-Sorry about that... Again..." The elf looks sheepish. 

Astrid shrugs and wipes the last of the blood from her nose. "It's alright, I've taken worse. So were ya just prankin' folks with yer fake ghost? Wish I'd properly seen it, bet it was funny. But it's causin' some worries fer locals."

"We didn't mean anything by it," the elf says.

"Good. Now where'd ya drag me? I'd like ta find me friend."

With a huff, the elf crosses his arms in some attempt to feel justified for smacking her in the face. "But they're not a normal person. Obviously they're fooling you. You'd be stupid to go back there."

"Well me booksmarts aren't as good as yers probably, so I guess I'm stupid!" Astrid hefts her warhammer and starts back the way she came calling for the ooze. Behind her, one of the kids elbows the elf.

The ooze walked out of the room and into the ruins of the rest of the building, following where they'd seen all the others run. They ducked down to pass through the door and looked around. The ghost children must have kidnapped Astrid and ran into the ruins to hide. Did ghosts run? They thought someone told them ghosts floated. They had no time to waste on thinking, Astrid was kidnapped by ghosts!

"Astrid! Are you there?" they called out, but received no response. She must have been dragged too far into the ruins to hear Blue Raspberry calling from just outside the doorway. They needed to follow behind and try to catch up! "Don't worry, I'll find you and save you from the ghost children!"

They dropped onto all fours and squashed and stretched into the form of a wolf, though this time it was regular sized instead of a gigantic dire wolf. Still, wolves in general are fairly large animals. They ran forward, dashing through the maze to look for their friend. They had no idea which direction her and those ghost children had gone, but they'd find her by running as fast as possible!

They were completely unaware that they had taken the wrong turn and were now headed farther and farther from Astrid.