With at least a dozen villagers returned to Oldone, the rebuilding efforts get under way quickly. Luckily, the werefolk don’t have any incidents, and they’re all incredibly strong for their size. It makes lifting much easier, which means that Astrid and Blue can focus on a couple of special projects. Their biggest priority is creating a space that can safely hold any of the werebeasts (or multiple werebeasts) in the event of something happening.

Using the communication device Veliky gave her, Astrid reaches out to the quarterling intermittently for information about werebeasts. With all of Platinum Corps’ resources, Veliky can give her at least a general docket of information about them. It’s a curse passed through a bite, the full moon makes people go feral, some people get control over it, their senses and strength are increased tenfold, and they’re weak to silvered weapons. The most common werecreatures are werewolves, but they’re usually quite rare or concentrated in one area because of an outbreak.

Oldone has become the next outbreak zone.

The first thing they start with is a building that’s reinforced, and after a couple of days, they’re able to get at least the frame up. During that time, Astrid’s mind has been thinking of ideas, but she’s done something new: in that time, she’s challenged Blue to think of a solution here to test them.

“So, got any ideas yet?”

---

Quest details

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Rebuilding and Remodeling
Participants: Requires exactly two people (you and one other, if the other participant does not qualify, they will not gain the reward)
Location: Anywhere (Can be repeated for a different region)
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +10 Security for selected Region (+10 more if your home region)
Description: Defending and protecting your region is important, but so is ensuring your fellow citizens have a safe, dry and sturdy place to call home. You can help your region by lending your skills to our construction workers, carpenters and builders. Simply assist the region in its construction of infrastructure, defenses, or residencies to help increase the safety of the region.

Blue had no idea what to do for a solution. The ooze's solution to a problem was usually the same thing. Eat it. But eating the building wouldn't help, and they couldn't eat the Werebeasts, that'd just be a whole 'nother problem. Blue just put it to the back of their mind, thinking about it in between assisting with construction work all around the rest of the village. With half the houses and farm buildings destroyed in the Ur-Beast's rampage, there was plenty to do even with a couple doze villagers suddenly finding themselves able to lift a lot more than they used to be able to.

"Uhhhh...." Blue hesitated, fidgeting with the straps of their overalls, their outfit of choice for construction work, and trying to think of something. What had Astrid told them Veliky had said about Werebeasts? Full moon... That wouldn't help. Bites.... Silver weapons...

"Uhhh, maybe.... cover their mouths so they can't bite... with something silver?"

The idea of a silver-coated muzzle was pretty absurd. How would they even get the thing onto a savage Werebeast? But, there was maybe some merit in the simple idea of coating things in silver to help keep the Werebeasts from being able to tough or break them. Maybe a silvered door, or silvered manacles.

The minute Blue lets out the long note of contemplation tells Astrid that the ooze put it out of their mind almost immediately. Admittedly, she’s a bit disappointed, but she waits patiently while they fumble through some idea that manages to manifest within their mind. Possibly to Blue’s surprise, Astrid grins.

“Keep ‘em from bitin’ folks!” she echoes. Regardless of if Blue just came up with it or just struggled to pull it from their mental spaces, it’s not a bad idea. “That’d be a muzzle! An’ if we lace it with some silver on the outside of the straps, they won’t be able ta pry it off easily! Great idea, Blue!” Her ideas this week have largely had to do with some sort of physical containment if they go animalistic. The werecreatures have great strength, so they’ll be able to hurt people even if they can’t bite them, but the extra layer of protection a muzzle could offer is a great idea.

“I knew ya could come up with somethin’ clever,” Astrid says, trying to give Blue lots of encouragement. They may be a simple creature, but they have plenty of good ideas when they have to. “An’ since ya can turn into animals, we can test the fits on ya! If yer comfortable with that, I mean!”

Blue was surprised their idea was actually a good one, Astrid even called it clever! Maybe they really could think of things sometimes. They're a very smart ooze, aren't they? At least compared to other oozes, maybe.

"I've never tried turning into a Weregoat before, but I can give it a try!" Blue replied excitedly.

They usually couldn't turn into things they'd never eaten before, but they've practiced it a bit before. They'd never eaten a Werewolf, but they were able to transform their hands and feet into claws that were a hybrid of human and wolf since they'd eaten humans and wolves before. How hard could making a goat and human hybrid be? They'd eaten a mountain goat here and there before, in their travels through the mountains. The same applied to deer and rabbits. They just needed to combine them with a human form. If there was one thing Blue was good at using their slimy brain for, it was being creative with their shapeshifting abilities.

Blue focused intensely, trying to fuse the two different forms in their mind. It was lucky they also had a visual reference to work with after facing down the herd of angry Weregoats on the way to Oldone. That helped figure out how it should look a lot, even without actually eating one of them.

After a few moments, Blue's form started to grow larger, blue fur sprouting all over their body. Their human form was already very muscular, but now they beefed up even more to try and match the build of the Weregoat. Most importantly though, their face elongated and horns grew from their head as they tried to match the Weregoat's face, where the muzzle would actually be fitted. The rest of their transformation was really unnecessary, but Blue didn't think of that.

When they were done, A blue-furred Weregoat stood before Astrid, their overalls far too tight now that they'd grown several sizes larger. It was probably a good thing Blue forgot about the tail and the hooves, as well as the rectangular pupils. At least those wouldn't affect the muzzle fitting.

Just at that moment, Jessie walked into the construction site, a clipboard in hand as he went around to check on things and make sure the rebuilding of the village and the construction of the new Werebeast containment building was proceeding smoothly.

"Hey, how's the- WHAT THE FU-" He started asking, but stumbled back in surprise when he caught sight of the blue Weregoat standing in front of Astrid.

---

One With the Cosmos

Astrid watches with great interest while Blue makes their best attempt to become a weregoat. She’s not really sure how Blue’s shapeshifting works exactly, but that ultimately doesn’t matter because after a few minutes of thinking and warbling, they get a form that looks pretty darn close to the goats they ran into a few days ago.

“Wow, ya look real close ta what we saw before!” she exclaims, doing a once over of the now goat-ooze. When Jessie shouts suddenly, Astrid startles and looks over at him. “Oh, hiya Jessie. No need ta worry. Wolfe can do some shapeshiftin’, so they tried ta turn into a weregoat like yer da so we can try an’ fit some stuff proper ta keep folks from gettin’ hurt!”

“G-Gods,” Jessie breathes, looking at the weregoat Blue Raspberry. “Is… Is that what Pa looked like? That’s…” He can’t find the words to finish his sentence.

“Aye, pretty close ta this, but not blue,” Astrid says, reaching into her bag and pulling out her magical parchment and blue ooze putty. “We’re gonna see if we can’t make some muzzles so folks don’t get bit in case someone gets outta containment.” Looking at Blue, she motions for them to lean down, then she starts looking them over and thinking about how a muzzle might work. On the parchment in her hand, the image of a muzzle appears, and she starts using it as reference while pulling the blue putty in her hands into shape to make a prototype and take measurements.

---

Wanted Poster
Shaping Putty

Blue gave a friendly wave to Jessie and sat down to let Astrid get a good look at their goat face more easily. They didn't speak, their voice not the same as usual since they weren't in their human form. It was strange still being humanoid shaped, but with the face of an animal. It was the animal face that made it harder for them to talk right though.

Even knowing it was just the friendly knight that was here to help out shapeshifted, and not an actual berserk, transformed villager sitting in front of him, Jessie was a bit uncomfortable. He had never actually seen any of his friends or family while they were transformed. They'd all been brought back after changing back into their human selves, for obvious reasons. It was frightening to think any of them could suddenly turn into something like this and start attacking. His own father could turn into this. It wasn't an exact recreation, but one look at the hulking figure and inhuman face were enough for him to not want to see the real thing in action.

It made him want to be extra sure that all the precautions they were taking in preventing anything bad from happening actually worked. Jessie stepped forward slowly, still a bit frightened of Blue Goatberry, and took a look over Astrid's shoulder at what she was doing. Maybe he'd be able to lend a hand.

"Maybe I can help. Uh. What's that blue gunk ya got there?" He asked curiously, noticing the putty in Astrid's hands.

It’s a bit odd trying to make a muzzle out of the putty, but it wouldn’t be the first time Astrid’s used the putty to help her prototype something out. Being as malleable as it is, she’s found it quite useful in her builds before. She stretches and pulls the blue goop to try and fit it. To her surprise, Jessie makes his way over and looks over her shoulder curiously. Astrid peers back at him before she speaks up.

“This is… magic shapin' goop,” she explains as simply as possible. In reality, she received this from Blue, but that's harder to explain. “I can shape it into whatever I need, so I figure there’s no use wastin’ materials ‘til I can get stuff just right.” As Astrid starts to form the putty more and more into shape, she looks at Jessie. “If ya got any ideas fer a good clasp that’s hard ta free easily but works good fer harnesses an’ stuff fer animals, I’d love ta see ‘em. Oh, an’ we’ll need some metal that I can coat in silver.”

“That’s… oddly ‘pecific,” Jessie murmurs. “Um, I’ll see what I can do.” Standing upright, he rubs his head then heads off to go looking for what she needs.

After a while, Astrid gets the putty shaped into a proper muzzle and fitted to Blue, she steps back and observes her handiwork. “I think that’ll work well enough! How’s it feel? Ya can… Thumbs up fer fine, an’ thumbs down fer painful.”

Blue moved their head around, seeing how the muzzle felt on them. They weren't entirely sure how it would feel for a real Weregoat, but it didn't feel bad to them. Maybe a little tight on their snout, but it was probably supposed to be like that since it was designed to keep their mouth closed, after all.

Blue gave a thumbs up. They were happy to see Astrid getting some use out of the gift they gave her, even if that use was to put a muzzle on the ooze. They hadn't realized how useful a bit of their slime might be for prototyping and stuff like that. They just thought it might be fun to play with, but apparently it had retained some of the ooze's shapeshifting abilities and could be morphed and stretched into whatever shape the holder wanted.

Jessie walked back into the room holding what looked to be an actual muzzle.

"I dunno if this is helpful or not, but Old Gus had a dog with a mean bite, an' 'e still had its ol' muzzle." He mumbled as he held out the jumble of metal and leather straps to Astrid. He looked at the muzzled blue Goatman and scratched his head.

"Can you take that thing off on yer own?" He asked Blue, pointing to the muzzle prototype.

Blue responded by just reaching a hand to the back of their head and unclasping the muzzle easily.

"Hm. Muzzles on dogs works cuz they ain't got hands, but... Maybe these need locks or somethin" He reasoned, looking to Astrid.

Happy with the fit and Blue’s comfort, Astrid works on taking the prototype muzzle off of Blue when Jessie returns with the old dog muzzle. She loses interest in removing the muzzle for Blue to take a look at the one Jessie brought over and starts making comparisons between the two. Slightly different straps, buckles instead of clasps, hmmm… Buckles might be fine, but the material would be easy for anyone strong enough to break. But…

Blue simply unclasps the prototype she made. “Well… that ain’t good. We ain’t got everythin’ we need fer alla that here… Buuuut…” Astrid looks at the two muzzles then her prototype. “I got it!” Without warning, Astrid manifests a duplicate of herself, who looks around at the situation then nods in understanding. “She’ll keep ya on track fer buildin’ this containment center. Wolfe, yer secondly in charge! Keep thin’s movin’ at a good pace! I’m gonna go make thin’s with me forge at home!”

Jessie startles at the appearance of the other Astrid, almost forgetting that she could do that. “What the..? How are ya gonna do that? We might not have all the time fer that!”

“Don’t worry about it!” Astrid says, pulling out a magical key. “Be back soon!” Then she finds the nearest door, slots the key into the hole, and opens the door into her own home. If she were smart, she would have just left it open to go back and forth easily, but she is far too excited to remember that.

---

Replicant
House Key

Blue was just as surprised by Astrid's sudden departure. She must have thought of something really good if she was running off back to her workshop in such a rush to work on it.

Blue and Jessie exchanged confused looks as she ran off, her duplicate standing in front of them. Blue just shrugged and shook their head, not knowing what Astrid was going off to do at home that she couldn't do here. The village did have its own blacksmith with a perfectly good forge. Every farming town needed someone that could repair their tools for them and keep them capable of working.

"Uh, well..." Jessie stuttered, looking at the Duplistrid. He didn't even know she could do that! First he found out Wolfe could change shape into a Weregoat, and now Astrid could make copies of herself. What else could these people do? That also made him realize. Those two had gone and brought back a bunch of the villagers that had been turned into Werebeasts on their own. They must have had to fight them. These two, they weren't normal nobles at all.

"I'll leave you two to keep going with the construction here then. I've got some other business to look into." Jessie mumbled, holding up his clipboard and walking out of the construction site.

Blue silently waved goodbye as he left before standing up and getting back to work, still in their Weregoat form, not thinking to change back out of it. 

Shortly after Astrid bursts into the house, she feels the magic trying to keep its grasp on her replicant fade away. “Uh oh…” she mutters. Then she shrugs. “It’ll probably be alright. Blue can talk ta me with their magic hood if they start panickin’ or anythin’.” With that, she creates two more duplicates and rushes down into her workshop to get to work on the muzzles.

Being able to get home so quickly really is great because working in her workshop means that she has all the tools and materials she needs to make some strange stuff like manacles and muzzles for werecreatures. If they can at least make sure the village is in good shape on its own for a little while, especially during the next passing full moon, then she can start looking into trying to reverse the curse somehow!

It isn’t a fast process though, and by the end of the day, Astrid reaches out to Blue with her own telepathic magic hood to let them know she’ll be back tomorrow. The half-dwarf and her duplicates work through the night to produce as many muzzles with special clasps as they can, piling them all into Charles’ storage compartment. Astrid herself manages to get a nap in while the duplicate work away. In the morning, she stores Charles in her special pocket for pets, gives Spicy Pawsage some scratches, then she pops the cork on a potion bottle and declares, “Ta Oldone!” before being twisted through reality and thrust back to the tiny mountain village right in the center of town.

“Mornin’!” she says cheerfully to the frightened villagers. Without missing a beat, she goes to find Blue and Jessie and show them what she’s made. Then they can get back to work on the containment barn to finish it before the full moon! Hopefully, Blue made some progress on their own.

---

Replicant
Red Rogue’s Hood
Pet Pocket - Charles
Elsewhere Juice

Just as Blue was looking to her for some instructions, the magical duplicate of Astrid suddenly said "Uh-oh." and then disappeared. Blue looked around in a panic for a moment, unable to find her and realizing they were alone now. What were they supposed to do now!? Astrid had left them secondly in charge after her duplicate, but now that duplicate was gone! That made Blue firstly in charge! They didn't know how to be firstly in charge!

Blue didn't even realize it would probably be a good idea to stop looking like a blue Weregoat before running out of the construction site to go find Jessie. With Astrid gone, they needed someone to help them know what to do, and Jessie was the next best one around.

A few villagers screamed and started running as the blue Weregoat suddenly came running by, but Blue didn't notice. They were too focused on finding Jessie. Thankfully, that wasn't too difficult. It didn't take long for them to see him holding his clipboard and having a conversation with a few other villagers that were in the middle of repairing one of the houses that had been damaged in the Ur-Beast attack.

The other villagers looked over Jessie's shoulders and noticed Blue running toward them and screamed. Jessie turned to see what was the matter and looked just as startled for a moment before realizing he already knew exactly who that was.

"Lord Wolfe! What's goin' on?" He shouted over the others, trying to calm them down by letting them know it was just Wolfe, but also trying to figure out why the knight was suddenly running down the street, still in the form of the kind of monster that everyone in town was currently fearful of.

"Astrid's copy is gone and I don't know what to do! She put me secondly in charge!" Blue explained in a panic and then looked surprised. The words had come out decently understandable. A little deeper than their usual voice and slightly slurred, but not bad. They couldn't help but be a bit happy that their skills at speaking in different forms had apparently improved.

"I see. I can help ya out, but could ya turn back ta normal? Yer scarin' folks..." Jessie said, looking past Blue at the panicked villagers they'd left in their wake. They'd have to deal with that now and explain that it was just Wolfe.

"Oh, sorry." Blue agreed, a bit embarrassed. Their form shrank back down to normal, the blue fur and goat horns receding back into them until they appeared as human as they usually did.

When everyone was calmed down, Jessie explaining the situation and Blue finished apologizing to everyone for their mistake like Jessie told them to, the construction work was able to resume with Jessie coming by now and then to make sure Blue was doing what they were supposed to be doing. Thing progressed smoothly enough that most of the repairs were nearly complete by the time Blue received Astrid's message through the magic hood inside their head. They'd forgotten it was in there until now.

"Okay!" Was all Blue replied through the hood with, not knowing what else to say and not being able to think of maybe giving some kind of status report or anything until the hood was already out of magic and needed to recharge before being able to send another message.

Nothing seems to have gone horribly wrong when Astrid gets back, so she figures everything is fine. It seems fine enough, so she checks in with Jessie and Blue on anything she missed (mostly Blue scaring the villagers), and apologizes for the replicant disappearing. Much to Jessie’s surprise, Astrid pulls Charles, a walking metal man, from her magic pet pocket dimension. These nobles are just full of surprises.

From Charles’ storage compartment, Astrid procures the various muzzles she made and explains how the clasps on them work. The straps are made from leather reinforced with thin plates of metal so they can’t as easily be ripped apart, and the clasps have locks on them that hopefully won’t be broken. She of course tested these things with her own strength and couldn’t get the right leverage or grip to break them, so she thinks they’ll theoretically be alright, especially with the silver coating she added to them.

With this side project completed and at least a temporary containment solution in hand, Astrid and Blue get back to building the actual containment building, which is something akin to a milking barn but with reinforced pens for the full moon transformations. With the addition of some more Astrid replicants, the work goes… about as fast as it can. They’re determined to get this thing done before the next full moon and stick around to ensure that nothing goes terribly wrong. Once they take care of that, they can start looking for a cure for the curse.