Intro to Muddlebrook

thewanderingphoeny
Jan 10
3 min read

Welcome to Muddlebrook (Please Mind the Ghosts)

There is a town you won’t find on any map.

It sits somewhere between here and after, tucked behind a crooked hedgerow of forgotten dreams, misplaced keys, and emotional baggage nobody ever quite unpacked. The streetlamps flicker for no reason. The fog rolls in with opinions. And the residents? Well… most of them are technically dead, emotionally exhausted, or both.

Welcome to Muddlebrook.

Muddlebrook is the shared universe where all of our ghostly, skeletal, feral, and mildly unhinged friends live together in fragile, sarcastic harmony. It’s not a horror town. It’s not a cute town. It’s a “we are all doing our best and failing in interesting ways” town.

Which honestly makes it feel uncomfortably familiar.

The Residents of Muddlebrook

Let’s meet the locals, shall we?

Vera Wisp

The unofficial heart of Muddlebrook.

Vera is a soft-spoken ghost girl who floats through town wrapped in her little sheet, trying very hard to be brave even when everything is terrifying. She is sweet, anxious, kind, and emotionally fragile in the most relatable way possible.

Her best friend is…

Mr. Froggums

A zombie teddy bear.

He is falling apart. He is stitched back together. He is always ready to hug you anyway. Honestly? Same.

Vera and Mr. Froggums are the embodiment of “I’m scared but I showed up anyway.”

You can get them on shirts, stickers, and prints — because emotional vulnerability apparently sells well when paired with undead plushies.

Scritch

Scritch is a dead cat.

Not sleeping. Not vibing. Dead.

He is fluffy, anxious, wide-eyed, and constantly overstimulated by existence. His fur is so poofy he looks electrically charged at all times. One of his ribs is visible because… well… afterlife budget cuts.

Scritch is the patron saint of social anxiety, burnout, and feeling deeply judged by everything.

He currently stars on:

Stickers
Beanies
Phone cases
Shirts
Probably eventually therapy notebooks

His most famous phrase, “Hiss Off,” is available for purchase in case you would like to tell the world to go away but in a charmingly undead way.

Toren

Toren is a skeleton.

Not a funny Halloween skeleton. Not a dancing skeleton.

A world-weary, emotionally exhausted, “it is what it is” skeleton.

He wears a torn cloak. He carries a rusty sword. He looks like he’s seen things and is tired of pretending he hasn’t.

Toren is for anyone who has accepted that the universe is nonsense and is just trying to survive it with a little dignity.

His merch is very popular among people who are emotionally tired but still funny about it.

Milo Mourn

Milo is a grayscale rainbow ghost.

Which means he is somehow both dramatic and numb at the same time.

He’s moody, soft-spoken, and probably listening to sad music in the fog. He’s the friend who texts you poetic nonsense at 2am and you don’t know whether to be concerned or impressed.

Milo is emotional goth poetry in ghost form, and yes, he’s on merch too.

Brume

Brume is an ancient snail.

A cracked shell. Two eyes. Wise. Unsettling. Slightly judgmental.

Brume has seen empires rise and fall and is deeply unimpressed by your excuses. He is slow, eternal, and absolutely not here for your nonsense.

You may recognize him from the iconic phrase:

“Shut the shell up.”

Yes, you can wear that on a shirt.

Yes, it’s incredibly satisfying.

No, Brume does not apologize.

Petey

Petey is a tiny undead bat with ragged wings and a visible rib patch. He is extremely small. He often appears as a little soot-puff with wings in the corner of scenes, probably doing something mildly illegal.

Petey is chaos.

Petey is baby.

Petey is on his way to become a cult favorite.

So… Why Is There Merch?

Because sometimes you need:

A sticker that understands your burnout
A beanie that tells people to hiss off
A phone case that quietly screams “it is what it is”
A ghost girl reminding you it’s okay to be scared and still keep going

Muddlebrook isn’t just a bunch of characters — it’s a town built out of emotional honesty, dark humor, and the kind of quiet resilience that only comes from being a little broken and still showing up.

These characters are for the people who: