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If there's one thing Mumbo is particularly terrible at, it's making eye contact with people. They are often taught that eye contacts are essential to a conversation- Mumbo barely does it, and yet most of his conversation went well, so maybe those people were just wrong, and he's right as usual.
It's not that he doesn't want to look at someone's eyes; it's just- odd, it makes him tense like looking at someone's eyes makes him more jittery than trees dancing in the middle of a typhoon. It immediately makes him seize up and treat the conversation as if it's life or death.
Maybe Mumbo's just not an expert with social interactions; that must be it, though thankfully nobody called him out on his lack of eye contact.
The same cannot be said about his next-door neighbor, Scar, the man who lives for interactions, and he has practically a wardrobe for any occasion that Mumbo could even count.
He can probably hold eye contact way better than Mumbo ever could.
But maybe he can try (heavy emphasis on try) to actually hold eye contact with someone; he's never gonna improve on something if he doesn't give it a chance, just like how building seems like an impossible task at first, but Mumbo’s actually having fun
Mumbo checks at his wristwatch, a thought bubbling in his mind. He could set up a timer for how long he should maintain eye contact; he does the same logic, and weirdly enough, it does make him more productive. Maybe that same logic applies here.
Should it be 5 seconds? It's definitely not 5 minutes, that's for sure; it's a conversation, not a staring contest.
He decides that 10 seconds should be good enough, small steps and all that.
Luckily, today is the last day of the base swap between him and Scar, where they both get to show off the builds they added to each other's bases. He's more than confident to say that this was a pretty successful swap with all the redstone contraptions he upgraded.
Scar is an easy person to talk to; he's one of Mumbo's best friends, and he's the perfect person to start off this whole “maintain eye contact” experiment
He can't help but feel inept next to his presence; the man literally thrives off interacting with others. His talents were used especially during this whole political warfare with the myceliums.
It's essentially like a goldfish next to a whale in terms of comparison but hey we all start somewhere.
Mumbo checks his watch, it's almost time for him and Scar to meetup so
__
In hindsight, maybe he should've asked what skin Scar was using because trying to maintain eye contact on a face that resembles his face is a bit jarring not gonna lie. Though it is part of Scar's lore with the base swap, it's like looking at a cracked mirror. Mumbo can't practice eye contact on that it has to be someone authentic
“Now it's time for the ol switcheroo,” Scar says, still wearing that fusion of his and Mumbo’s face, which just looks uncanny, but it's offset with the fact that it still has Scar's features with that same crooked smile he always had so it's not that jarring.
Mumbo prepares to take his deed while Scar begins using his enderchest to find him. He turned around and began changing back to his skin.
This is it, Mumbo wiggles his hands trying to shake off the nerves and sweat building up on his palms. This is weird, right? Trying to mentally prepare yourself to willingly stare at someone's eyes is odd, right? But Mumbo's committed to it.
It's just 10 seconds- just 10 seconds, and it's over.
“I got your deed on my official wallet, your very normal, very official deed here,” Scar says, already reverting to his usual brown leather jacket
1…
2…
“Here's your very official, totally not fake deed, my good sir,” Scar hands him the deed, that same crooked smile still on his face
"Oh wow, you've gone back to being Scar.” Mumbo exchanges with Scar's deed, still maintaining eye contact with Scar
3…
4…
5…
Hang on-
“Has your skin always looked like that?” Mumbo asks genuinely
“Yeah! This is just my normal skin,” Scar says, checking himself out in case Mumbo spotted a stray stain in his jacket.
“This is your regular skin?”
“Yeah, I've been a mayor- which people taught I was a mafia gentleman, I've been a wizard, and there was a bio-hazmat suit-”
“I don't think I've used my regular skin this whole season,”
It just dawned on Mumbo that he's been talking to Scar for a while now, he's seen him with his wizard outfit and his mayor suit- heck, he worked for him with HEP. There were so many opportunities for him to
So how come this is the only time Mumbo got a good look at his eyes? Mumbo doesn't know, and frankly, he's extremely embarrassed it took him this long
Scar's eyes are green, just like his base with the snails and mushrooms, but there's a sparkle within those same eyes, like the sun is caressing the earth with its light.
It's beautiful, just like everything Scar makes.
Green really does suit him; it suits him a lot. Maybe Scar's really rubbing off on him with the amount of times Mumbo thought of him whenever he's stuck with terraforming or just going to Scar's base whenever he hits a building slump.
Okay, maybe he does think about Scar way too often these days, but that's because they're neighbors; he can't help but notice him.
“Um- everything alright there, Mumbo?” Scar asks, cutting off Mumbo from his thoughts. His eyes were darting off everywhere but Mumbo's
“Everything is just fine, why?” Mumbo tries to catch Scar's eyes again, but he keeps being shifty and glances it from side to side, trying to avoid his gaze.
Huh- That's supposed to be Mumbo's job, not Scar's
“You were really staring there- was there something in my eyes?” Scar feigns a cough, trying to compose himself
Ah-
Mumbo glances back at his watch. It's been approximately 3 minutes since he and Scar exchanged deeds, that's roughly- a minute or more when he started this eye contact thing
He's been staring at Scar's eyes for a whole minute. Not conversing and maintaining eye contact, but staring- just staring.
“No- you're fine, your eyes are just perfect,”Mumbo blurts out, and Scar's eyes widen.
Mumbo clamps his mouth shut, refusing to say anymore, but the silence is so loud that he hopes his base is hungry to just eat him alive at this point.
“Why, thank you, Mumbo,” Scar says. Mumbo's thankful that the silence is over.
“Though I wonder what's with your fixation with eyes today?”
“Been trying to make eye contact lately, don't want to accidentally offend people, you know?”
“Well, you come to the perfect testing partner, cause I do not maintain eye contact,” Scar says, making his eyes glance to the side, giving Mumbo a cheeky smile as he scrunches his shoulders, making Mumbo laugh.
Wow, those eyes really suit him
Mumbo stares, unable to help himself. “Okay, I know I just said I'm a really good testing partner, but you gotta warn the guy first if you're gonna stare,” Scar says, looking away as he scrabbles a hand through his hair.
“Sorry! Sorry- it's just that-” Mumbo bit his tongue for saying anything more, but Scar's already looking at him with those earnest eyes.
“This is my first time seeing your eyes, and they're really- gorgeous, you have really nice eyes,” Mumbo blushes, a light flush on his cheek. He crumbles so, so easily.
“Wait- really?” Mumbo nods
“We have been on the same server since season four?” he nods again.
“We talked quite often during this season, too, and you never saw my eyes?” He nods again. Mumbo wonders if the ground would open up and just swallow him.
“Now I'm curious what you thought my eyes looked like then,” Scar asks, taking a step forward. There was a brief flash within his eyes, as if he was plotting something. Just like how creatures can lurk behind the trees in the forest.
“I just never thought of it?”
“Really?” Scar takes a step once more, enveloping Mumbo's vision with just him.
“Hm- What was that again, something about how my eyes look gorgeous?” Scar fiddles with his tie, the seam slipping in and out between his fingers
“Well, they are gorgeous, what can I say?” his face is as red as his eyes. He should just be honest; Scar's already got him cornered.
Scar makes a noise, half between choking and squealing, as a blush forms on his ears. “Right! Thanks again for all the redstone additions in my base. I hope you liked what I did to your base, and I'll be off! Goodbye!”
Scar sends off a firework, his elytra carrying him to the skies as Mumble tries to process what on earth is happening.
He takes the crumbled paper of his deed, chuckling as he sees Scar's handwriting on this original document.
What an odd day indeed.