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He was minding his business. Munching on some bushes, same old same old. Keeping an eye and an ear out for predators, the usual. When something unusual happens.
A loud VWOOP comes from behind. Spinning around he clicks his beak warding off what was making the sound.
A trio of strange bipedal creatures with flowers and plants around their necks. They stand arguing loudly with one another. Gesturing at a strange shiny box.
A thump comes from deep in the woods.
Eyes widening he scrambles forwards. Chattering angrily at the strange fleshy creatures he ducks behind the box.
Just in time. As the towering Rapator that prowls these woods comes stalking out in the foliage.
-----
Impulse, Ren and Grian freeze.
"Really man?" Impulse whispers as he flicks the switch to the door. Once they're all inside the time Machine, safe, safeish, from the pacing dinosaur he continues, "dinosaurs."
Grian's face light's up, "Welcome To Jurassic Park!"
"Not the time."
Ren shudders and looks at the cronodile, "Were in the early cretaceous actually."
"Does it matter?" Impulse squawks as the Time machine shakes violently, "Just get us out of here."
"Next stop. Hermitcraft season six." Grian pulls out a whistle and toots it a few times before activating the Time warp.
-----
The Minmi huddles against the strange shiny box. Making sure to keep some distance between it and the Rapator. Staying as still and silent as possible it doesn't notice the weird haze sounding the metal box, until it's to late and it's pulling him along.
Squirming he rolls around trying to escape the weird magnetic field surrounding him.
After a moment he makes it. Rolling out of the time field he lands with a solid thunk in a forest.
Staying low to the ground he flicks his tail out and scratches deep gouges in the ground.
The air doesn't smell like predators.
So he stomps over to some bushes and after a few sniffs he takes a bite. It's not as good as his ferns but it'll do.
After the first night he's discovered that it's very different than his home. Strange creatures roam around at night disappearing when daylight hits. But they won't bother him as long as he leaves them alone.
It's a lonely existence but it's safe.
Life is life. So he makes due. He’s made a cozy den. It’s warm and mostly safe. So he continues. Until one day.
The entire world shudders.
And everything changes.
He’s sleeping in his den so he doesn't notice right away but,
There are voices.
Loud angry voices…
—----
“Xisuma!” Cleo yelps. “Turn the server off human only.”
“Sorry,” The flustered first time admin yelps, “I didn’t know it would do that.”
“Just turn me back,” Cleo sighs, “I’ll get my revenge for this…”
“Sorry.” He murmurs as he digs into the admin panel, “That should fix it. Uh might need to find you a zombie.”
“Ehh it’s fine, I'll go ask Carol.”
—-----
He’s confused. He’s completely changed. His thick protective armor is gone, as is his tail. His beak’s gone as well.
Clumsily he crawls over to a nearby bush. Snagging a hand full of leaves he shoves them in his mouth.
Only to have his stomach heave and cramp up uncomfortably a few minutes later. Laying back in his den he curls up and waits for this nightmare to end.
Unknown Player Was Poisoned
Joe Hills: Uh X is that supposed to happen?
XisumaVoid: no…
False Symmetry: someone just showed up in spawn.
Hypnotized: oh that’s not good
Hypnotized: I see him
Hypnotized: X get over here now.
Hypnotized: i think an animal was turned human by the glitch earlier.
XisumaVoid: oh no
Looking around he shakes his head. One of the strange creatures that had brought him to this place is walking up to him.
It’s making soft noises and offering something to him.
Lifting a foreleg he places it against the other creatures. Heart sinking as the shapes match. It pulls something out off a pocket and sticks it onto its foreleg. Then offers one to him.
He allows it to stick the thing to his arm… Arm?
“Oh hey,” The person murmurs, pulling his hands down from his head, “It’s ok. My name is Hypno.”
Nodding he look at Hypno.
“Ok so you understand me now?”
He nods again.
“Ok. I gave you a patch that will help you understand the world. What I’m saying and what things are. It’s not normally used on these worlds but it’s letting you understand what I’m saying so X gave me permission to use it.”
Turning his head to the side he attempts to imitate the sounds.
Hypno smiles, “Yeah, all that Mumbo Jumbo.”
“Mum?”
Hypno’s grin widens, “Yeah. Mumbo.”
“Mumbo.”
A gasp comes from behind, “Who’s this?”
“Uh, he doesn’t have a name yet.” Hypno shrugs.
“Mumbo.”
Keralis laughs, “I think he’s telling us that’s his name.”
“Sure. Ok Mumbo we’re going to bring you over to X. Then we’ll see what we need to do. Ok?”
“Ok?” Mumbo asks as he’s scooped into Kerali’s arms.
———
Xisuma frowns, pulling his helmet off and setting it heavily on the desk, “I don’t understand this…”
“What’s up with him?” Hypno asks as he looks up from where he’s working on getting Mumbo a proper communicator.
“Your guess that the animal turned human was right.” Xisuma rubs his face, “But he was a dinosaur.”
“What?”
“Minmi, he’s a literal dinosaur…” Xisuma hands Hypno the file, “I think a better question would be how did he get here…”
“Um hmm.” He hums in agreement.
“We’re back!” Keralis calls dragging Mumbo around the corner. Now properly showered and dressed he’s looking more like a proper player. He’s still figuring out how to walk properly but he’s getting there.
He’s tall too, looks like all the length from his original form went straight into height.
After Mumbo’s established as a player the hermits meet up to discuss what they should do. After voting it’s decided that he will stay with the hermits.
_________
A few months after this decision Mumbo’s brought into the nether for the first time.
He loves it. Sure it’s terrifying and full of horrifying monsters that want to kill him but that’s just life.
It’s warm and perfectly cozy. A perfect spot to bask.
He spends hours just laying on the warm netherrack. Life used to be simple. Keeping an eye out for predators was his biggest problem. Here that’s not a permanent problem. It’s a mild inconvenience to most.
It’s so different.
He’s a human now.
His code way to scrambled to be fixed.
No tail, no armor plating, no beak, he’s on two legs, he has hair, and opposable thumbs. It’s… it’s too different.
And not just some of the time.
His entire life flipped on its head.
He can’t eat his favorite foods, because either they’re poisonous to humans or it doesn’t exist anymore.
If he still had his tail, it would be thumping in agitation.
“Mumbo?” Keralis’s voice calls, “Oh noo, no no no. Come with me…let’s cool you off.”
He must’ve given a weird look because Keralis explains.
“It’s too hot here, you can’t stay in the heat. You’ll overheat.”
“Oh.” Mumbo says flatly as he stands up.
“Come on,” Keralis grabs his hand.
___________
It's a few worlds and updates later. Mumbo’s fully integrated into the community. He always asks Xisuma if he’ll be able to turn back this update. The answer is always no.
X is working on it, but trying to dig code out for a long extinct animal is harder than it sounds. It’s possible, he’s making progress, but it’s slow going.
Understanding this Mumbo acts just like any other player. Not often mentioning his past. Not everyone on the server knows that he’s not really human. Hybrid labs would love to get their hands on a Dinosaur, and who knows what lengths they would go through to get him.
So when ferns are added. It looks like he’s being weird to most hermits.
But really, he just got his favorite food back. The hermits who know hummer him, giving the plant a taste. Some even giving him recipes so it’s more palatable for humans.
The hermits who didn’t know were more skeptical. It’s not supposed to be eaten… Mumbo doesn’t particularly care though.
_______
Some of the hermits think Mumbo’s attachment to his armor is strange. He’s fine sleeping in the stuff. He always has thorns. And the weight never bothers him.
When questioned he always shrugs and says it feels normal.
_______
Then the world shifts to season six.
The new hermit Grian he feels familiar. A few others had the same feeling but this one keeps nagging in the back of his mind.
For well over half the season nothing happens. Well lots happens, but nothing that explains why he feels familiar.
And then there’s the hippy land… Grian had called him over to look at some redstone for the RV launch.
It looks good, no issues that he can see without activating it.
They have a nice chat and as he’s heading out he notices something. A strange metal box.
“Hey, uh what’s this?” Mumbo asks, pointing to the box.
“What, oh that,” Grian shrugs, “It’s a time machine.”
Oh
Oh
That’s where he knows Grian from.
“cool.” Mumbo nods stiffly, “good luck with all this. I’ve got to go.”
“What?” Grian asks running after Mumbo, “Hey, what happened to hanging out?”
“I remembered something.”
——
“X!” Mumbo calls landing on the floor of the old temple Xisuma had made his base in.
“Mumbo? What is it?”
“Grian…” Mumbo takes a second to catch his breath, “He’s the one that made the time machine.”
“What? Oh, he’s the one that displaced you?”
“Yeah. Grian, Ren, and Impulse.”
“Oh my goodness me.” Xisuma murmurs, “Should we do anything?”
Mumbo shrugs, “Could you find my original code on it?”
“Maybe,” Xisuma’s face is unreadable under the helmet, but it sounds like he’s smiling, “Worth a shot.”
A few days later the time machine crash lands. Doc and Scar clean the parts up and rebuild in area 77.
It takes some convincing but they let Xisuma and Mumbo in.
“So what’s he doing?” Scar asks as Xisuma scans the sides of the time machine.
“So it’s a long story, but Grian ended up in the cretaceous and he pulled me from my time. I ended up in season two before the hermits got there. Xisuma messed up and the server was set to human. So here I am.”
“You're a dinosaur.” Scar gasps, “Wait I have something.” He disappears in a puff of blue smoke then returns a moment later and hands Mumbo a pile of cloth, “I got it a while ago and it was too big for me.”
It’s a Dino onesie.
Mumbo bursts out laughing, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Scar waves a hand, “So Xisuma’s trying to turn you back?”
“Yeah…” Mumbo shrugs, “I don’t love being human, I would rather be… me.”
Scar nods, “Yeah…”
A triumphant shout from Xisuma draws their attention, “I got it.”
Mumbo grins.
“It’ll take me a bit to reformat it into your code but I can do it.”
“Thank you.”
———
They agree to have the shift in the middle of the night. Easier for Mumbo’s body to adjust while he’s sleeping.
The next morning Xisuma would explain what happen to the other hermits.
And of course, things don’t go as planed.
Xisuma’s drawn from his admin panels as rockets scream as someone crash lands in his base.
“X,” Grian calls, “Uh there’s something in Mumbo’s base.”
“Is it Mumbo?”
“I don’t know what happened…” Grian paces, “I didn’t mean to…”
“What happened?” Xisuma sighs.
“I made a time machine. I used it. And now a Dinosaur I saw is in Mumbo’s base.”
Xisuma laughs, “Here, sit down, I'll explain everything.”
———
If the hermits now have a Friendly Dinosaur living with them no one mentions it.
Rumors run wild, as they tend to. But none are quite as strange as the truth.