Work Text:
<Docm77> you know what? I miss mumbo.
<Iskall85> hard agree
<GoodtimeswithScar> I really wish he’d come back. I hope he’s okay.
<Falsesymmetry> Yeah, I wish he was here too.
<iJevin> I painted a bunch of eggs with his moustache and he missed the hunt. He’d have gotten a kick out of them, I just know it.
<Tango> I had literally THE perfect prank all lined up for him…
<Grian> I really miss him.
<Xisuma> I’ve been trying to get ahold of him, but it’s not working. Maybe there’s just something wrong with his communicator?
<Iskall85> I’m working on something. Standby.
Grian sat atop the entity, staring out across the spawn village, eyes locked on Keralis’s roof.
mindmaker lost stuck trapped walls high good good keep them high crack the wall crack the wall He Comes He Comes mindmaker remains mindmaker trapped mindmaker-
The Entity really wasn’t doing much to set his mind at ease about the current situation.
He had a lot to think about, and with the endless stream of nattering the Entity piped into his head, it was really hard to do that. He’d been ruminating on the seed block thing for weeks- no more lessons from Keralis in the meantime. And on top of that…
…he really, really missed Mumbo.
Mumbo had left a month prior, saying something about needing to clear his head. And he’d left, vanishing into the ether with barely a parting message. Well, a few- he’d mentioned to Grian how he’d be back “soonish”- two weeks at the most.
Well, it was four weeks later, and Grian still wasn’t any closer to seeing his friend. There’d been shenanigans aplenty in the intervening time- a prank war, an easter egg hunt, and so much more. His vault was overgrown with stuff…
…and to top it all off, Keralis was missing too. He’d said something about taking a break to fiddle around in his private testing world, and promised he’d be back in two weeks. Grian wasn’t so sure.
mindmaker remains outside mindmaker remains outside good good keep him there mindmaker stays out and He Comes He Comes He Comes mindmaker is trapped mindmaker is trapped-
-and considering how the Entity kept going on and on about ‘mind-maker’ (Presumably Mumbo) being trapped, it really wasn’t doing a whole lot to calm his nerves. He felt…that special sort of frantic, where there was nothing to do and yet the panic was still there. Stuck in place while knowing something was dreadfully wrong.
He stared up at the blue sky overhead, thoughts swirling through his mind like storm clouds. What could have happened to Mumbo? What if he was in trouble somewhere? Would the Entity be going on about it if he wasn’t in danger? It had been pretty good at calling things before they happened so far…
Xisuma had been trying to get in contact with Mumbo for at least a week, and it was all fruitless. Something was wrong with the code walls, he said. Something was up with their current world.
Grian bit his lip. There was one person who could probably get a message out. One person who could find Mumbo, if it came down to that. And from the sound of the public chat, they were already on top of it.
He spread his wings and leapt into the air.
<You have opened a private message with Iskall85>
<Grian> Iskall
<Grian> Do you still have your vault hunters calling thing
<Iskall85> it’s about mumbo isn’t it
<Iskall85> not only do I have my omega-trans-dimensional-calling-machine-of-doom, I’ve been getting it ready for the past week
<Iskall85> I think I’ve got his signal
<Grian> Dude, you’re the best
<Iskall85> <3 love you too
Grian flapped to a stop by Iskall’s starter base, knocking on the door and stepping inside without any further ado.
“I’M IN THE BASEMENT!” Iskall yelled up a freshly-dug staircase (located right in the middle of their floor) and Grian shrugged and started down it.
The walls were made of redstone blocks, most of them pulsing with power. Many had copper cables plugged into them, sapping power and carrying it down and down into the depths of the base. Deeper and deeper he walked, feeling the humming of machinery grow with every step downwards.
His feet hit the polished blackstone floor, and he grinned up at Iskall.
His friend was scurrying around in front of a vast machine, festooned with monitors and antennae. Lights blinked from all corners, strobing and flashing in brilliant patterns. Iskall hammered at a keyboard as if their life depended on it- adjusting the parameters that they were plugging into the terminal at a rapid pace.
Grian edged around, taking a quick peek at Iskall’s left wrist. There, a golden bracelet hung, studded with a diamond. Grian quickly checked his comm- They/them was listed next to Iskall’s name.
He nodded.
“Hey Iskall. What’s up?” Grian said, and Iskall lifted one hand and waved it.
“Just getting a lock on.” They said, “Mumbo’s definitely stuck outside. Don’t know what’s causing it- we’ve never had an issue like this before…”
Grian took a step back, fluffing up his wings as he examined the machinery. It was truly incredible- especially for something Iskall had cobbled together out of scraps, with a bit of help from Doc.
“Took me a long time to put this back together. I really wish I’d labelled the boxes…” They muttered.
“Why did you build this thing, anyway?” Grian asked, and Iskall chuckled.
“Vault hunters, dude. Half the people in it live in different dimensions. If you want to send a signal through the void, you need a hell of a lot of juice. Tubbo alone takes…I don’t even want to think about it. Quadruple the amount of redstone I’ve got here…though that’s because he lives in hell, so…”
Iskall shook their head and slammed the enter key with their thumb, taking a step back as the OTDCMOD hummed. The displays were showing a crude graphic of a plus sign flickering all over a black background- Iskall was many things, but a GUI designer was not one of them.
“As you know,” Iskall said, “Standard communicators don’t work between different worlds, or “servers” if you’re an admin. So I built this machine to do exactly that- it works by firing the signal as strongly as it can at the wall between the worlds and using the reflectivity of the outer shell of a world to bounce its way to its intended target. With a bit of help from some magic-“
“Thanks, Iskall, that’s great!” Grian said rather frantically, afraid that this was going to turn into a full lecture about the finer points of signal processing and god forbid, math.
Iskall huffed and rolled their one remaining eye.
“Fine, fine, ignore my omega-awesome machine and all the hard work it does…” they grumbled.
Grian took a step back, waiting patiently.
“So…what do you think the problem is?” he asked carefully, “I don’t think…I mean, why can’t he get back in?”
Iskall shrugged.
“I have no idea. This isn’t normal, though. And whatever’s causing it, we need a workaround. This can’t continue. If I have to leave for a VH meeting or something, then I might get stuck on the outside. And like, Doc knows how to build one of these, but mine’s already set up, so that’ll be what, a month? Of being trapped outside my home? So, yeah. No.” Iskall shook their head, and Grian nodded.
The tower of monitors beeped, and Iskall lunged towards it, hammering at the keyboard in a frenzy. Grian bit his lip- that seemed like a positive result, so…?
“I got him.” Iskall said, a feral grin crossing their face. They looked up, their prosthetic eye glowing as they drafted up a quick message at the speed of thought. Grian’s comm buzzed a second later, and he glanced down at it.
<Iskall85> I got him.
Grian looked up and let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
“Thank god. Where is he? Is he okay?” He shuffled forwards, trying to make a space for himself in the one-person slot between the computer banks. Iskall glared at him, gesturing to make some space- Grian’s wings were nothing if not hugely obstructive, and he sheepishly took a step back.
“He’s alright. I think. At least his comm is. I don’t know what world he’s on, but it’s letting me connect. I’ll send him a message, let him know we’re here.” Iskall said, starting to tap away at the keyboard.
“Let him know we’re worried about him. Ask if he can get back on his own, or if he’s just taking his time.” Grian was suddenly a little worried- what if this was just part of Mumbo’s break? What if he just needed some more time off, and his friends were hounding him?
Iskall nodded, and typed out a quick message. Their hands flew across the keyboard- Grian would have offered, but Iskall seemed to have it under control, typing at a blistering speed.
Iskall hammered the Enter key with a good deal more force than necessary, and both Hermits took a step back and waited with bated breath as a little pixelated envelope drifted across the screen and out of sight.
Iskall bit at the knuckle of one of their organic fingers, worrying it enough to leave marks but not breaking the skin. Grian reshuffled his wings, fluffing them up and sliding them around a few times. No matter how he tried, they wouldn’t settle down where he wanted them.
The tower beeped again, and Iskall dove for it.
Grian leaned forward- and his heart leapt.
There, on the screen, in green letters on a black background, was a message.
<MumboJumbo> am stuck. Can’t get back. keep trying but my comm won’t connect. Went to the hub and they say it’s fine. I don’t know what’s wrong with Hermitcraft but I’m currently in the Hub.
“The Hub?” Grian echoed.
“No wonder it connected so easily,” Iskall mused, “Alright, stand back. Good thing it is the Hub, I won’t empty out every block of redstone I’ve got…”
Iskall started typing again, and Grian watched as the conversation scrolled up the tower of screens.
<Iskall85> so you’re alright? Not in any danger?
<MumboJumbo> I mean, I am in danger of eating too many carbs. But otherwise I’m fine. I’m just really homesick. Why can’t I connect?
<Iskall85> we don’t know. X says there’s something wrong with the code walls, he’s looking into it.
<MumboJumbo> crap. How long am I gonna be stuck out here?
<Iskall85> I don’t know.
Grian bit his lip.
Because as they were talking, an idea roared to the forefront of his mind. And that wasn’t the only thing that roared to life- he reached up and clutched at his head, groaning a little as the Entity’s babble surged up like a tidal bore carving up a river.
“Dude? You okay?” Iskall asked, and Grian nodded.
“Yeah. I. Tell Mumbo I’ve got an idea.” He said, biting his lip, “I’ve seen…portals. Trans-dimensional portals. You can make them, but they’re a bit…hard. I’m probably gonna need some help from Scar.”
Iskall raised their one remaining eyebrow.
“Are you sure?” They asked nervously, “That doesn’t sound like a good idea, G. I really mean it.”
“Well, what other option do we have?!” Grian spluttered, “Mumbo’s stuck and can’t get back in. Keralis is out there! What if he gets stuck outside and can’t get back? If any of us leave for a can of instant coffee and some orange juice, they’ll be stuck on the outside too! Whatever’s going on with our code walls, Mumbo can’t wait that long. What happens when he runs out of Minits? Sleeping in a gutter?”
Iskall’s eye unfocused and they flicked through a few screens on their comm.
“If Mumbo’s got half as many minits as I’ve got, he’ll be fine.” Iskall said, and Grian growled.
“That’s not the point. Tell Mumbo I’m getting him back, and to get himself ready.” Grian said, folding his arms firmly.
Iskall stared at him for a long, long moment.
“This is such a bad idea.” They said, turning back to the keyboard and hammering away at it.
<Iskall85> Grian’s here. Wants you to know he’ll be getting you home safe as soon as possible.
<MumboJumbo> and now I’m terrified. Tell G I’m good to wait, really-
Iskall looked up to ask Grian what he wanted to say next, and their heart dropped.
<Iskall85> he uh. He just left.
<MumboJumbo> and now I’m terrified.
<Iskall85> me too, dude.
<GoodTimesWithScar> run that by me one more time. You want me to do what?
<Grian> Look. You’re the only one with the power to do what I need. If we don’t do this, Mumbo’s going to be stuck out there for a really long time.
<GoodTimesWithScar> I still think it’s probably a better idea to just leave it be for right now. I’m sure X will figure it out.
<Grian> Also Keralis is stuck out there too.
<GoodTimesWithScar> Oh. Oh no. Okay, fine. But just this once. And only because I haven’t done any fun magic in a while.
<GoodTimesWithScar> But we’re sealing this thing up after X gets the code walls fixed.
<Grian> I don’t care. Whatever you want, Scar.
<GoodTimesWithScar> Alright. Let me know when it’s ready, and I’ll come by. You owe me. I better see you in my cookie shop and I better see your pockets overflowing with cookies.
<Grian> Returning to the part where too much chocolate is bad for me?
<GoodTimesWithScar> We also carry lemon shortbread and oatmeal raisin for those with more delicate constitutions!
<Grian> …Damn it. Lemons. My one weakness.
<GoodTimesWithScar> Pleasure doing business with you c:
<Grian> Agreed. I’ll message you when it’s ready. Shouldn’t take me too long.
It was a strange experience, building the rift under his base. Not because of the job itself- that wasn’t too hard. Peck away at the rock, set up a layer of glass to act as scaffolding for Scar’s magic to latch onto. Set up the tomes, the robes. Find an unwitting cow and leave it on some grass to feed the Vex when the time came. The usual sort of stuff.
No, what made the whole experience odd was how the Entity reacted. It just whispered two words-
stupid boy
-and fell silent. It hadn’t said a damn thing the entire time he’d been building.
Grian had decided to ignore all of that. He needed to get Mumbo back. And Keralis.
Even if Keralis had said that nothing could stop beings like them. Grian trusted Keralis, sure, but if Keralis was stuck out there somewhere…
…well, perhaps more to the point, Keralis himself could have gotten back just fine. They had a perfectly serviceable End full of lots of empty void. The real question was: could his body get back intact?
That was worth pondering. He could obviously get back, but…crawling through the void to get to season 9 had taken them all three months. What if it took Keralis another three months to get back? He didn’t want that to happen…
Grian shook his head and continued his work, enjoying the blessed silence in his mind. The lack of chatter from the Entity was a nice relief, and this time he hadn’t even made a deal with it. Just…annoyed it enough that it stopped talking. Or something like that.
Huh. Maybe that was an angle of attack worth considering.
Grian shook his head and got back to work, smashing stone under his pick. He felt…frantic. Harried. The Entity’s blabber would come back at any moment, and there was that faint sense of panic- what if someone else was using Mumbo’s comm? What if? What if, what if, what if?
What if…a thousand thousand what ifs went tumbling through his head, turning in twisting loops as he tried to straighten out the thorny nest of thoughts. It was like chasing fireflies through a gloomy labyrinth, as each negative impulse twisted in his gut…
And then Grian blinked, and he found himself staring up at the yawning maw of his glass rift.
His hands hurt. His back hurt. His wings were covered in dust and sharp fragments of broken stone, and his eyes hurt from all the squinting in the gloom he’d been doing.
And then someone placed a hand on his shoulder and he jumped three feet in the air with a shriek of absolute terror.
Grian was already flapping up and out of harm’s way when he heard the familiar laugh below him, and he fluttered down to the ground with a scowl on his face.
“Scar! What was that for?!” Grian protested, and Scar chuckled.
“Nothing, nothing. Just sorta figured I’d…Oh, you should have seen the look on your face…” Scar giggled, leaning back against his exoskeleton. It was different this season- he’d done it up to add golden accents and brass riveting and such, to better make the metal that helped support his weight blend in with his elven aesthetic.
“I thought the plan was I’d call you and then you’d show up.” Grian said, alighting and folding his arms.
“Yeah, but I couldn’t resist coming to watch you work. Besides- it looks like you’ve got everything set up already.” Scar said, gesturing at the cow in the corner and the lines sketched out on the floor, “not that I need the flim-flam, mostly just the cow. But you’ve done a great job. Nice touch with the glass, by the way. That’ll make it nice and easy.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” Grian said emphatically.
“Oh, I know, I know. Anyway, I took the liberty of procuring a little…somethin’ somethin’, to assist in the summoning.” Scar said, smoothly pulling a red necktie out of his pocket and dangling it in front of Grian’s face.
“Mumbo’s- tie? Where did you get that?!” Grian spluttered, and Scar chuckled.
“I could ask the same for you, my friend, since I found it in your house.” He grinned, and Grian buried his face in his hands.
Of course. The tie. He’d stolen another tie from Mumbo to practice his Windsor knot. That felt like a lifetime ago, before the moon crash and before all their things had ended up in a disparate pile inside of Keralis’s esophagus. Or whatever that place had been.
He shuddered, and took the tie gingerly.
“Good, Good. So I assume you know what to do? I’ll spark her up, and you toss it in to get it attuned to Mumbo. Then, we step back and wait.” Scar said smoothly.
“Sounds good to me.” Grian said, and Scar smiled.
He reached up and took off his costume elf ears, tucking them carefully into his inventory.
“So, Grian. Let’s talk about a deal.” Scar said smoothly, and Grian watched as his green eyes started to…fade. A bluish glow began to prickle at the corners of them, spreading inwards slowly…
“Right. Yeah. So, you can’t have my soul.” Grian said firmly, perfectly used to this song-and-dance.
“That’s quite alright,” Scar said, the pitch of his voice starting to change, warping and weeping as a pair of glowing blue wings grew from his back.
They weren’t alone, Grian noticed. Faint, ghostly blue tendrils began to emerge too, just a few of them- so translucent he’d have missed them if they were out in the open instead of the gloomy cave. Thinner than pencils, they twitched and flowed, evenly following air currents Grian couldn’t feel.
“I propose our deal works like this,” Scar said, leaning forwards, so much taller than his tiny body, the blue glow illuminating the whole room, “you want Mumbo back. I want Mumbo back. But I also need…compensation, for my work. You know how it goes.”
“I do.” Grian said.
“So. The cookies. I’ll grant your little wish,” Scar said, and blood was dripping onto the floor where his sharklike teeth were slashing at his own gums as reddish stains began to appear across his body, “and you…will swear to pay me in diamonds for my work. A simple little deal. I’m being very nice, I think.”
“Oh, don’t I know it.” Grian said, already shoving his hand out.
Scar laughed, a high and keening thing, chattering and nasty, more Vex than man.
“Good. Right to the point. I like that. Then it’s a deal for me too.” And with that, Scar grabbed Grian’s hand.
And they shook.
A flash of light filled the cave, brighter than the sun, and when Grian blinked the daze out of his vision, he found Scar, floating in the air. His small wings flapped, once or twice in an eternity, just enough to push him up and away from the floor. He was facing the rift, and slowly extended a hand-
A pulse of blue light, shot through with veins of black, surged at the glass and smashed into it. It started to crack and crunch, mortal material yielding to immense magic power.
Grian charged forward, and just as the glass started to flash between blue and clear, just as it was on the verge of failing-
He threw Mumbo’s tie in with all his might.
The glass wall blasted apart with a screech like a dying ghast, shattering into snowflake-sized dust that tumbled to the ground in great clumps. The dark cave filled with light, and Grian- when had he toppled over?- slowly stood up and stared.
There was silence.
Punctuated by a soft humming.
The cave was lit by a blinding purple glow, drowning out the light from Scar’s own body as he slowly drifted towards the ground. His exoskeleton clanked as it met the earth, and the power started to fade.
Grian rushed over to Scar and caught him before he could fall over- even with his exoskeleton he was wobbling unsteadily.
“Okay, you want your wheelchair?” Grian asked, and Scar shook his head.
“No, I’m…I’m good For now. I gotta get home and then I’ll…yeah.” Scar said with a groan, “Ow. Jeez, that really takes it out of me…”
As soon as Scar stopped swaying, Grian took a step back, letting his friend balance on his own. Scar blinked a few times, back to his loveable elfy self with his nice human teeth and nice green eyes, and Grian sighed.
“Okay. I. Well.” Scar said, “I kept my end of the bargain. Now it’s up to Mumbo.”
Grian nodded, and held up his communicator. He pressed send on the message he’d had queued up.
<Grian> Tell him it’s ready.
<Iskall85> On it.
Then…silence.
Grian and Scar stood, shoulder to shoulder, waiting.
A faint hum filled the air.
A crackle of magic.
And then-
A perfectly polished dress shoe stepped through the portal, leaving ripples across the glassy surface that echoed up and down its length. Then a leg. Then an arm, clutching a bottle of wine.
Mumbo K. Jumbo emerged from the portal with a tan, a tired smile, and a paper bag full of baguettes.
<MumboJumbo has joined the game>
“Did you miss me?” he asked, and Grian dove at him hard enough to knock them both to the floor.
“MUMBOOOOOO!” he shouted, and Mumbo yelped as the wine nearly smashed on the cold stone of the ground.
“G! Grian, calm down! I’m fine! Are you alright?” Mumbo said, struggling to sit up as Grian tumbled away.
“I’m alright. I was just- oh, I was so worried about you,” Grian said, gesturing wildly, “I thought you were gonna be stuck for months out there…”
Mumbo smiled, and tucked both the wine and the bread into his inventory. He stood up and offered Grian his hand, helping the smaller man to his feet.
“I’ll be honest- I was getting worried about that too. I kept trying to connect and getting all these weird errors- I’ll show Xisuma the logs from my comm, but it was just. None of it was normal. Went to the main comm repair shop- getting mobbed all the while, of course-“
“Of course,” Grian agreed,
“And they said it’s perfectly fine, and the problem’s on this end. So…”
Mumbo scratched the back of his head and glanced over at the portal.
“…Thanks, G.” he said with a gentle smile.
“No problem, Mumbo.” Grian said, grabbing him by the hand.
“Hey! Don’t I get a thank you? I did half the work!” Scar protested.
Mumbo laughed.
“Thanks, Scar. Knowing you, there was a catch to your help, wasn’t there?”
“Yeah. I’m gonna be eating cookies for weeks.” Grian groused, dragging both his friends towards the exit.
Deep in the end, amid the placid surface of the three-dimensional pond that was the void, a ripple began to form.
Nearby Endermen chittered in fright as the void itself bubbled, screaming and vworping away.
A single pale hand punched its way up from inside the ripples. Tendrils sprouted in their thousands around the disturbance, the whole surface of the void rippling and bubbling like a pot on the boil.
The arm was pulled up and up by the tendrils, followed by a head of brown hair, and then a face. ice-blue eyes snapped open, and the man sucked in a deep breath, gulping down cold void air as he rose and rose.
Soon, the tendrils pulled him free, and he placed himself down on a large island, with a floating end gateway nearby.
He brushed the remaining slime off his arms, rolling his shoulders and stretching his muscles.
He switched on his comm, and let the tendrils behind him collapse back down into the abyss.
<Keralis1 has joined the game>