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Boatem was dressed to the nines, with orange, red and black cloth woven from dyed string hanging from starter base to starter base, homemade bunting flapped in the autumnal wind. Hay bales that had been crafted but not yet stored for winter had been used to make stalls, Hermits from all across the server coming with their finest wares to fill in the popup shops and browse what others had for sale. Some Hermits had gone a more traditional route - Gem had brought free range eggs from her chickens, freshly baked pumpkin pies from her kitchen, and punnets full of glowberries - while others had brought stock from their shops - Tango had barely left his stall for five minutes before people were asking if he had more iron.
And in true Hermit fashion, Boatem was now full of mini-games (if trying not to fall into the Boatem Hole wasn’t already enough of a challenge). Grian had brought Tegg back for one day only in a miniature version of the game, focused entirely in his alleyway. Impulse had set up a dunk tank for himself - something that Tango and Zedaph were having far too much fun with - and the horses that Mumbo had personalised for Boatem Inc. were giving rides around the pole to their friends.
What caught Scar’s eye was none of that. In fact, most of that was par for the course in Boatem. Scar had instead made a beeline for Mumbo’s redstone contraption once he’d set up his honey stand, and he approached with curiosity in his eyes.
“Scar!” Mumbo said with a wide grin plastered across his face. “Funny seeing you here!”
“I know, very funny!” He laughed, their conversation briefly pausing as an almighty splash was heard and cheers came from two very loud men.
“Impulse picked a lucrative game. He’ll be soaked, but he’ll be rich.”
“He’s a smart guy, it’s hard to be surprised.” Scar shrugged, chuckling again as they watched Impulse emerge from the water, before returning the conversation to the stall he was standing in front of. “What have you got going on here then? I see all your fancy redstone and I am intrigued, yet also incredibly confused.”
Mumbo beamed at the praise, putting a hand on Scar’s shoulder as he started to explain.
“Scar, my friend, this is apple bobbing.” He said. “You get a minute to grab as many apples from this bucket as possible.”
“Oh, that’s easy. Even I can do that.”
“But there’s a twist!” Mumbo cut him off quickly, before Scar could sound any more confident in himself. “You can’t use your hands. You have to use your mouth, sink your teeth into the apples and pull them out like that. You can keep any apples you bite, don’t worry, I’m not going to take a half eaten apple and feed it to Iskall.” He joked.
“Iskall might like a half eaten apple! Who am I to judge what Hermits do and don’t like?”
“You know what, Scar, that is a very good point.” Mumbo laughed. “And I’ve heard you enjoy licking a diamond or two, maybe I should just let people do whatever they want with these apples. Oh, and I promise these are apples. No more fake apples.”
“Definitely not chorus fruit painted to look like an apple?”
“Nope, absolutely not.” Mumbo confirmed.
“So if I bite one of those I’m not going to end up in Impulse’s dunk tank? Or in Grian’s men-a-be-jerry? With the charged creeper?”
“Nothing will happen to you, you’ll just get an apple. Oh! And whoever gets the most apples in one round by the end of the day will win one Mumbo Jumbo redstone contraption. Non-transferable. I know how much you like selling them.”
Scar didn’t have to think about the game for even a moment longer. The chance to win a redstone contraption from Mumbo was an alluring one - because that meant he didn’t have to figure out how to use redstone for a little bit longer. He didn’t use it much, but he had a couple of ideas for a Swaggon and if Mumbo could make the first then he could just copy it going forward. He had to win, he needed that contraption!
“How much to play, my dear friend?”
“Honestly Scar? I need iron. I’m iron poor and I don’t think Impulse will be happy if I make another sponsorship deal with Tango. I don’t even care about diamonds, I just want more iron. Three ingots?”
“Three ingots, absolutely, I definitely have three iron ingots.” Scar said, patting down the pockets of his red velvet coak to try and find the ender chest he kept. When he did find it he pulled it out, watching it grow in his hands as he set it down on the wet grass beside the trough. He rifled through his chest, pulling out a shulker box, and from the shulker box he managed to find three iron ingots. Handing them to Mumbo - but not yet putting the box away in case he needed more, he removed his hat from his head and slid his jacket from his shoulders.
“Best of luck, I’ll start the timer when you put your head underwater the first time.” Mumbo said, positioning himself next to his hopper clock, and Scar nodded to signal his understanding.
“Alright, here goes nothing!” He said, his hands moving to grab either side of the metal container so that when he plunged his head underwater he didn’t immediately flip himself upside down. “Three, two, one…”
Scar opened his mouth wide and inhaled as much air as he could, before ducking his head under the water and starting to feel around for apples.
The water in question was freezing cold, and if he hadn’t just been looking at it he would have assumed that Mumbo had actually filled the trough with ice instead. He felt it running through his hair, slicking it back, and he opened his eyes to help identify where the apples would be. They weren’t small and that was both a blessing and a curse - it was easy to find them but difficult to sink his teeth into. It was made harder still by the fact that the apple skin was so slick from the water that he could barely even hold it steady - which was itself a challenge. He used his nose to nudge an apple to the side of the tank, he twisted his head to the side and bit down as hard as he could.
The first time he did, the force with which he’d bitten sent the apple spinning away from him in the water rather than staying fixed to his teeth. Scar pushed himself up onto the tips of his toes and pushed his head further underwater, this time forcing the apple to the bottom of the trough rather than the side, and he managed to get his teeth into the flesh of the apple. With the grip secured he pulled back, his head emerging into the cold air, and he spat the apple to one side before taking in another deep breath and repeating the process.
He pulled out two more apples and had his head underwater searching for a fourth when the collar of his shirt was grabbed and he was pulled abruptly back.
“Time’s up!” Mumbo shouted. “Time was up seventeen seconds ago but you were too busy trying to get an apple. I tried to get your attention but you tried to bite my finger off.” He laughed, holding out a towel for Scar to dry his face.
“How’d I do?” He asked, holding the soft material between his fingers, and Mumbo held his hand in front of him and wiggled it slightly.
“Three apples. Not bad, but not the high score. Cleo got five.”
“Cleo got--! Oh, of course Cleo did.” Scar said, feigning surprise, but he wasn’t going to go down that easily. Instead, he reached into his shulker box and pulled out another three ingots.
“Take this towel, potato man, for I shall not stop until I am the King of Apple Bobbing!” He declared, and Mumbo took the iron and towel dutifully.
“Hey, as long as you keep paying you can play as long as you want.” Mumbo smiled, setting the hopper clock back to its starting position. “You counting me down again?”
With a nod, Scar counted down from three again and his head was underwater once more.
And then he counted down from three again, and again, and again. Scar spent the majority of the next twenty minutes with his head underwater, only pausing for a few minutes after he started to choke on a combination of apple flesh and water. In that time, Grian came over and got seven apples in sixty seconds, which left an awful lot of questions in its wake. Especially when he didn’t breathe once during that minute.
By the end of the twenty minutes, though, Scar had refined his strategy. He’d figured out how to best use his facial features to move the apples and found the sweet spot in the trough to allow him to grip an apple with an almost one hundred percent success rate. He’d perfected breathing through his nose whilst spitting the apple aside and had finally - finally - managed to retrieve eight apples in a minute.
Mumbo, now iron rich and apple poor, was impressed, but the small hand towel that he’d offered previously was no longer enough to dry off Scar. Instead, the man in question returned to his starter base to change into a fresh set of clothes, and returned to explore the rest of what the Boatem Autumnal Fete had to offer.
(When Mumbo announced through the group chat later that evening that Bdubs had won the apple bobbing with eleven fruits in one minute, Scar found that he was more impressed than disappointed. Besides, the fun he had while playing was worth more than any redstone contraption could ever be).