Chapter Text
“Well hello there Mumbo!” Scar says as he flies into the Magic mountain row, landing next to the BigRons shop, where mumbo is currently standing, going through a shulker box.
“AAAA!” Mumbo gets understandably shaken by Scars unannounced visit. “Scar! What are you even doing here at this hour, shouldn't you be, i don't know, asleep?” the vampire scolded him for the ungodly hour visit.
“Shouldn't I be asking you that?” the brunette bites back.
“Scar. You know very well I do not need sleep. But that's not important right now! Why are you here?”
“Grian is acting weird.” Scar bluntly says as he doesn't have time to beat around the bush. Judging by his expression, this confuses the other greatly. “Weird? Isn't he always weird? Who here isn't?”
“I mean WEIRD weird! Like not Grian like!” The zookeeper argues, annoyed as what he is saying should have been obvious to the other.
“I…” He pauses. “I don't blame the guy with all that's currently happening. Everyone's a little off lately, but especially him and Pearl. They have their reasons, Scar.” Mumbo replies, suddenly much more serious sounding than before. The brunette looks at him weirdly, with a mix of curiosity and suspicion.
As if knowing what the shorter is gonna ask, Mumbo answers without the question being voiced: “Yes, I know why he is acting off. No, I will not tell you. It's not my thing to say.”
“Oh that's silly! Don't worry, I don't need you to tell me. I just…want to help. He seems so…out of it. Jumpy and cagey and…and…I don't know! Just...off. And it's sad to see G be like that. It's obvious that he is avoiding people.” The green eyed boy stops to think, “I don't need to know the reason, but I want to know if there is anything I can do to help?” He asks with a determined and hopeful look.
“Hmmm…” The vampire hums and looks straight at his anticipating friend. “We can check on him if you want?”
“Check on him?” Scar asks, genuinely confused.
“Yeah…he has been spending a lot of time alone locked inside. Maybe we can go check on him now to see if he is awake, and if yes you can try asking him? I'm not sure tho, I don't know the whole story and I don't know what Gri would or wouldn't tell you.” Mumbo answers the confused brunette and after a few more minutes talking and walking they reach Grains fishing dock.
They looked around for a WHILE before realizing Grian probably isn't in his usual habitat. Just when they were contemplating turning around and leaving, deciding on talking to Grian tomorrow instead in the middle of the night, they heard it. Quiet sniffles coming from the area of Grains storage building. Their eyes widened and they ran towards the building, not seeing the avian boy anywhere. Suddenly another little sniffle was heard, this time they were sure it wasn't from inside the building, but rather from the room's attic. Making their way over to a little crack in the roof, they found Grian curled up in his bed, deeply sleeping, obviously in the middle of a nightmare.
“ We need to get him out of it.” Scar said, looking terrified at the sleeping avian. He was about to shake Grian before the vampire stopped him.
“Scar I don't think Grian would appreciate us waking him up. I once woke him up when he had these nightmares and he was out of it the whole day. He later explained that waking him up worsens them. We don't need more trouble for him.” Mumbo explained slowly and quietly making sure not to wake up the sleeping bird boy, while also being serious and stern so his vex friend would get the gravity of this situation.
He didn't say the whole thing to Scar. Just the important parts to make him understand waking Grian up is not a good idea. Mumbo remembers the day he tried waking Grian up and it wasn't pretty.
_____
Ok so the moon was big and everyone was in Panic mode.
Mumbo, at this point, stopped trying not to sleep. It has made him crazy. But sadly enough, not sleeping for weeks fucks up your sleep shedule quite the bit. So here he was, 2AM, sitting on the top of his statue on the mountain, just vibing. He couldn't sleep. So he just sat there and stared at the work he and his friends have already done this season.
That was when he saw it. At first just a flicker at the side of his view.
Then a light .
Bright purple piercing light …
…coming from Grian´s observatory? Wait. Didn't Grian move his bed there to speed up his research about the moon? What if he is asleep and something is malfunctioning??? He needs to check it out! Gri could be in danger!
It could be a telescope malfunction or some kind of device Grian has for his moon study. Tho if it is a device, shouldn't it glow red ? But he didnt have time to think about the logistics of redstone devices rightnow, he NEEDS to check on his friend!
Mumbo quickly puts on his elytra, gets rockets out of his pockets and flies directly to the moon observatory. Weirdly enough, the second he got closer the light vanished, as if it was never there. When he got to the observatory's roof and looked inside, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. All the equipment seemed to be in perfect shape, no fire, no sizzling, no cracking sounds, nothing. It seemed perfectly calm.
He still decided to check it out. Better be safe than sorry.
He made his way inside through the roof of the building, sliding down the giant telescope in the middle, landing quietly due to the elytra softening his jump. He looked around the room, illuminated by the giant moon, looking for his avian friend. He saw him curled up in his bed at the corner of the room, his giant purple wings with gray accents hanging from the other side of the bed
…wait what .
Why are Grians wings PURPLE?
Mumbo thought, but the second he blinked the wings changed colors, as if they knew he was there, camouflaging back to their usual red-blue-yellow parrot self.
Weird . He swears he saw a different color…
But that's ridiculous! He's known Grian for years! His wings were always the famous parrot tri-color…his insomnia is getting to him. He must be imagining things. Oh god, that won't end well, he should go to sleep…
As he was contemplating leaving, he heard a quiet little screech. Like a scream in lower case. Just a little “a”. It was followed by a sniffle. At that point, Mumbo turned around to look at the sleeping form of his close friend, to see he was crying in his sleep. Grian was shaking, just slightly, as if he was cold. His dark blonde eyebrows were turned down into a deep frown. His eyes were speeding in his eyelids.
Grian was having a nightmare.
Mumbo wasn't gonna let his friend suffer.
Mumbo slowly walked towards the avian's bed, making his way to the floor, crouching next to him. He tried to think of a solution without waking Grian up, but his mind was blanking. So it was decided, he needed to wake him up.
He softly shaked the sleeping boy, calling quietly out: “Grian? Wake up…”
Grian did not wake up.
He suddenly started to jerk around, shaking uncontrollably, throwing Mumbo away from the bed. What once looked as if a shiver from cold, now looked as a demonic possession. He started crying.
And then in a halt everything stopped.
Mumbo just stood there. Speechless.
“WHAT WAS THAT???” He whisper-screamed, probably not even realizing he said it out loud.
Grian suddenly sat up in his bed. His cheeks were wet with tears. He was looking away from Mumbo as if not even acknowledging him.
“Mumbo?”
It was quiet. So quiet. Grian sounded like a scared child. He turned around to stare at mumbo and at that moment he saw it. Grain's eyes turned glowing purple, with matching particles flowing all around him. His hair was ever so slightly floating, disregarding gravity. His wings were purple and gray again.
“ Grian ?” Mumbo asked, matching his friend's quiet sound. Suddenly he blinked again and all the purple weirdness was gone. Staring at him with wide eyes was Grian, now without glowing particles or purple wings. Just Grian. Scared. Scared so much. Mumbo has never seen him like this before.
After that Grian started crying again. Mumbo had to calm him down. He was there the whole day. They haven't left each other's sides. It was then when Mumbo learned about Grian not really being like them . He never got any details. He didn't know about the watchers, about his story, about evo. But Mumbo did not push. He would love to know about his friend and his past, but he knew he should not be the one to say if he gets to know. Grian didn't share anything other than mumbles of “them”, of not really being a player and of what “they” made him into.
They didn't speak of that day again.
Mumbo later on spoke with Pearl, asking about their past and where she knew Grian from, as while calling each other siblings, they obviously looked very different, due to having completely different mutations. It's then when Pearl told him about Evo and what actually happened.
He put two and two together.
He connected the dots.
And as the quote goes…
He didn't connect shit.
That is because, while Watchers are studied creatures, not a lot is known about them. And no one before in the history of their world has been turned into one of them.
Mumbo likes to think he is smart, but all-knowing gods are quite out of his area of expertise. So when he heard Grian talking about what they “made him into”, he took it metaphorically. As in they made him do something, that made him a “monster” or something of that kind.
Of all of this experience Mumbo learned one thing.
He does not like the Watchers.
_____
After Xisuma's Watcher announcement, Mumbo got to his base with a worried expression on his face. He doesn't know much about these creatures, but from what he knows, this isn't gonna end well. He wanted to go talk to Grian about it, but he knew his friend was panicking and seeing Mumbo worry would probably just make it worse…
_____
When Mumbo finally managed to get Scar away from their sleeping friend, they went back to Mumbos base. Aka Mumbo went back to his base and Scar kept following him, even though he was told to go to sleep over 10 times.
“But Mumboooo! We have to do somethi-” Scar tried to say but was cut off by a yawn.
“Yes. Indeed. What you currently need to do is go to sleep.” Mumbo explained for what felt like the hundredth time that night. Mumbo knew Scar just really cares about all his friends but in reality, no matter how much he wanted to help, there is nothing they can do right now.
It took another half an hour to get Scar to go to sleep - under the condition that Mumbo will sleep too…
_____
They both woke up to two loud alarms sounding through the home of the vampire. Coming from their wrist communicators, one on Mumbo's hand and one on the floor - Scars.
“WHAT IN THE WORLD?” The zoo keeper yelled, shocking the vampire, waking him up even more than the alarms. “WHY DO YOU HAVE AN ALARM LIKE THAT?”
“Well first of all, Scar, stop yelling! Second of all, TURN THEM OFF? And third…that isn't my alarm?” Mumbo grumbled and half yelled due to his brain still wanting to go back to the dream world.
Scar got up and took his communicator, slotting it on his wrist. He turned it on to see an urgent message from Xisuma.
“It's a message from X? “
Hello everybody. I would like for you all to meet me at the pop-up library in about an hour. I want to have a meeting with you all to talk about the recent...issues.” Hmmm
” Scar read the message that woke them both up.
“A meeting? This early?” Mumbo asked, still half asleep.
“It must be really important then.” Scar replied, now dead serious, worry obviously spilling from his face.
This was going to be a long day…