Chapter Text
"...stoppen..." (stop) The creeper mumbled, using its non-injured hand to rub at its eyes.
It tried to sit up, but Mumbo gently pushed it back down. It spoke... German? Was this a full hybrid? There was no way... Unless this was a creeper who had been experimented on or something...
"was... ist passiert?" (what happened) It spoke again, looking more alert by the second. Mumbo figured now was as good a time as any to put his German skills from reading his village's books to use.
"Du bist... explodiert. Ich hab-e hier... Hilfe. Trinken Sie. bitte." Mumbo spoke slower than even the creeper, trying to not butcher the pronunciation that he knew was horrid. The creeper seemed to understand, though, and allowed himself to be administered the potion.
Mumbo helped the creeper finish it and helped them sit up on the bed. He passed the bowl and spoon over to Xisuma, who began cleaning those too. He then began talking with the creeper, who was even more awake and alert than before .
The healing potion hadn't done all that much, just stopped bleeding, and gotten their face and arm to scab over. Their eye was definitely unsalvageable, and it seemed like whatever happened to this creeper didn't make it able to regrow limbs.
The left half of their face still looked fresh and raw when Mumbo looked at it, and the eye was unseeing. They'd definitely have to remove that at a later date , but the thought of doing that right now, when the creeper was unaware of what happened made Mumbo sick to his stomach.
"er- Wer bist du?" (Who are you?) The creeper questioned, having just realized that Mumbo existed.
"Ich bin Mumbo, Er/ihm. Du?" (I'm Mumbo, He/him. You?)
"Sie nennen mich m77," (They called me m77) They look away from Mumbo, playing with the bedding beneath themself. They were shivering, Mumbo noticed.
"Aber, wie heißen Sie?" (But, what's your name?) Mumbo kept his tone gentle and welcoming as best as he could. So this creeper was definitely kept somewhere and experimented on. Mumbo recalled hearing about this fancy new 'research' facility when he still lived in his old village that used identifiers similar .
"...Dok," (Doc) The creeper looked up at Mumbo then, and smiled, softly. It didn't meet their eyes, though. "Er/ihm." (He/him)
Mumbo nodded, looking over at Xisuma, who had finished his cleaning. He was just standing awkwardly, not understanding what either of them was saying. Mumbo quickly translated Doc's name, and Xisuma nodded.
"Do you need any potions? I know the 'hail-mary' one you had me make doesn't do much. I can see you're still shaking, too," Xisuma asked, concern lacing his voice. Mumbo shook his head, trying to look like he was in as little pain as possible. He didn't know how the bit of creeper would mix with an actual powerful human healing potion, and there was no way he'd tell anyone how to make that one.
Especially not since they had a guest at the camp, one who clearly just came from a human-ran experimentation chamber. Mumbo didn't want his secret lack of hybrid status to be revealed on a normal day, much less on a day where a new camp member showed up.
Xisuma then left, with the excuse of getting snacks, leaving the two alone to speak.
"So... Was möchten Sie mit Ihrem Arm und Auge tun?" (What would you like to do about your arm and eye?) Mumbo asked, looking at the stump where Doc's right arm should have been.
Doc followed Mumbo's gaze, thinking for about a minute, before responding.
"...Können Sie Prothetik machen? Kann ich vielleicht beim Design helfen?" (Can you do prosthetics? I could try my best to help out?) Doc offered, looking up at Mumbo with one eye expectantly. Mumbo nodded, before walking over to the potion-brewing station. He grabbed a blank book from the small compartment where he keeps his potion recipes.
Mumbo also grabbed a pen and headed back over to where Doc was on the bed. Doc was watching with a silent gaze , and when Mumbo finally got back to the bed, Doc spoke.
"Du bist verletzt. Wie?" (You're injured. How?) Doc questioned.
"Oh... Genauso wie ehm... du verletzt bist..." (Oh... The same ehm... way you got injured...) Mumbo trailed off, cautiously watching for Doc's reaction.
Doc's working eye widened, and he began word vomiting out apologies left and right, only to be stopped by Mumbo.
"Nein, nein. Es ist meine Schuld, ich habe dich geärgert..." (No, no, It's my fault. I aggravated you...) Mumbo paused, licking his lips before continuing. "...Woran erinnern Sie sich, bevor, bevor Sie hier aufwachen?" (...What do you remember before, before waking up here?)
"...Es war heiß... Und ich hatte Angst..." (...It was hot... and I was scared...) Doc shifted his eyes to the book. He took it into his lap, opened it, and took the pen from where it lay next to the book on the bed, before speaking. "Hier werde ich meine Details zum Aufwärtsbein skizzieren," (Here- I'll draw out my up-leg details)
He messily and quickly drew out proportions for his arm, like where the joints should fall, and what size everything should be.
up leg. So Doc doesn't know the word for arm? Or does he just think of his arms as legs? I'll ask later, he's been through enough excitement for one day.
Mumbo watched intently, waiting for Doc to be done. When Doc finished putting details on the claw-like fingernails, Mumbo took back the journal, studying the details of the arm.
Mumbo then began calculating how much iron and red stone he’d need for this project, it'd be pretty pricey, assuming he only used the best quality metals. He'd also have to figure out something for Doc's eye, which would add more time and materials to the project. Great.
Now that he thinks about it, though, he thinks he has a book on prosthetics in his house. He'd picked it up during his latest trip out to the village, in hopes of learning more about mechanical stuff.
"Ich habe ein Buch darüber bei mir zu Hause. Einen Moment-" (I have a book on this at my house. One moment-) Doc nodded, and watched as Mumbo walked towards the door. Mumbo walked out and hurried towards his house.
I can also pick up one of my pre-made potions to help with my injuries! He thought as he opened his door and rushed around his house like a headless chicken, grabbing and chugging the potion, and trying to find wherever the book was.
Eventually, he found the book, as well as some loose iron, gold, and redstone that he figured the two of them could use to make a prototype. He then rushed back to the infirmary and opened the book about prosthetics to try to get a head start on learning. When he was about halfway to the infirmary, he ran into Joe Hills , literally .
"Oof- sorry about that! I wasn't paying attention, Mumbo!" Joe said, helping Mumbo pick up the bits of iron, gold, and wires that he had dropped. Mumbo noticed the baskets of crops that he had forgotten about earlier were now splayed on the floor. Joe must have wanted to help, and now I've made it harder for him.
"No, don't worry about that! It's my fault! I was busy reading and walking too fast! I'm so sorry, here let me-" Mumbo replied, also scrambling to grab what he had dropped, and what he made Joe spill. Great, now he's made carrying those crops way trickier and longer.
"Oh, none of that! X said you were helping out with a new hybrid, you go back to that, I'm fine here!" Joe interrupted, practically pushing Mumbo's stuff into his hands, and waving Mumbo back to the clinic.
"Ehm- alright, thank you- Sorry again!" Mumbo called out, resuming his journey to Doc.
When he opened the door, Doc was back to adding notes and details to his drawing of his arm. Mumbo walked over and plopped the book and supplies down on the side of the bed, and explained that they could make a prototype together.
Doc agreed, and the two worked until the sun was setting outside, and they got a pretty good-looking prototype of the arm. Mumbo had gotten Tango to agree to help, after realizing that he could help form the metals by using his 'absurdly high' body temperature and fire hair.
The prototype was essentially a glove, and an uncomfortable one at that because the only thing that worked was the way it fit on the still slightly swollen stump of an arm. The suction ability that Mumbo had designed worked, but it wasn't able to sense when Doc tried to grab anything.
By the time they finished, Xisuma had brought in some bread for the three of them, and now they were enjoying their meal. Mumbo had been playing interpreter for Tango and Doc, but he didn't mind all that much and was glad he could be of use to the two of them.
Tango and Mumbo managed to get Doc to talk about a bit of his past, which made Mumbo feel just so awful.
"He- ehm, said that he was in an expirimentation camp ran by some- some humans, and they kept him there- uhm- since he was a child, and that he used to be a normal- a normal creeper..." Mumbo translated for Tango, looking down at the ground.
Humans are literally the worst. I absolutely cannot let them know I'm not a hybrid, they'll kill me so quickly... Especially with Doc now, there's no way they'd let me stay...
After they all finished, Tango tried teaching Doc some common, and the creeper was picking it up quite quickly. Mumbo was surprised at how incredibly smart the creeper was, because of how obvious it was that he was an experiment of a normal creeper.
"Alright, I'm going to turn in for the night. We can work more on it tomorrow. Bye," Tango said, waving to the both of them, as Mumbo translated to German for Doc.
"Ich bin auch ziemlich müde. Wird es dir gut gehen? Irgendwelche Schmerzen?" (I'm quite tired too. Will you be alright? Any pain?) Mumbo asked, gathering the arm and the notes together to take back to his house.
"Nein, danke! Gute Nacht!" (No, thank you! Good night!) Doc replied, shaking his head. Mumbo then left the clinic, walking back to his house. By the time he got through the door, his mind was buzzing with ideas on how to improve the design.
I can't go to sleep now, there's far too much to do! He thought to himself , setting everything down on the floor in his living area, and flicking on the light.
The next thing Mumbo knew, the sun was coming out, and he was holding a new and improved arm design, one that might work properly, and an eye prototype. He designed the arm with the ability to shrink around Doc's stump so that when the arm isn't as swollen it still should fit properly.
Mumbo also designed the mechanism that could sense when Doc tried to grab something, and he installed the sharp claws. Though it still was very jagged and sharp on the outside, because Mumbo had to use a furnace to heat up the iron and gold.
Mumbo didn't have any heat-resistant gloves, though, so he had made himself a quick fire resistance potion to help avoid serious burns. It didn't work fully though , so he also made himself a healing potion.
Mumbo also worked on the eye, which should help Doc's eye socket to not fill in completely with scar tissue. He did accidentally stain it with some redstone dust, but he washed all of the loose particles off of it.
By the time the sun had fully risen, Mumbo had gotten himself a lovely breakfast of carrots and was getting ready to go over to Doc and present him with the new prosthetics. Mumbo was quite happy with himself, and for once, he wasn't beating himself up!
Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, but somehow, Mumbo wasn't regretting every little thing he did! Maybe lying to everyone every day for over a year was not such a bad idea!