#my grumbo...why

[katastrophist]

"I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need" "I'm all the friend you need"

[flojouno]

fish market

Breathless, Mumbo licks the salt off his own lips, enjoying the shake of Grian’s breath. His eyes were back on him, squeezing his hand. It was like drowning; Grian coaxing his face closer with no physical movements, just his gaze. Mumbo wanted to touch, to feel, more than he already was. He wanted to hold, and caress, and love. He needed to love Grian. He held his breath as Grian looked down beneath them. He didn’t want to know what lay below, what possibilities were right by his ankles, threatening his toes. He let himself not think, admiring scales on collarbones, messy dark blond hair, moon glimmering off wet skin. or a long fic about mumbo realizing life is more than school work, and that grian makes life interesting.

15,000k words

my longest fic ever

[qpenpals]

rituals and such

[angeart]

'grumbo horror' in all caps sounds interesting 👀 (for the ask game)

oh yeah :D that's an unfinished drabble i wrote when me and ben went insane about his grumbo horror apocalypse au.

cw for body horror, but to put it simply, grian is an absolute Creature in this one. he's got strong hunting/kill instincts, and his form is fluid and terrifying as he shifts shapes in ways that'd make your head hurt. number of limbs? arrangement of organs? skin, scales, fur, feathers? open ribcage with bones all funky and wrong? anything goes! he's just trying to be a Thing. to hold a Shape. (to not scare mumb 👉👈)

grian also can't speak, but he can mimic people's sounds (copy them in their voice), which in this case mostly means death screams <3 he gets all sad about it sometimes. he wants to communicate! (he'll eventually learn to make his own sounds and even words it's okay <3)

mumbo's just a pathetic wet cat that somehow managed to survive the first bit of the apocalypse and this grain Creature took a liking to him. (mostly because he didn't run and trigger grian's prey instrinct to pounce aha) they proceed to get insane about each other.

i will drop the entirety of the unfinished drabble here 💕

note that there are disjointed pieces that were eventually meant to slot together (i'll separate by x), but you can have it as a treat anyway, even in this messy form, since i don't know if i'll ever be finishing this.

cws are mostly just one big body horror. some insect mention right off the bat if that bugs you (aHA) (pun intended)— also yes this isn't actually horror (besides the body one), it's just angst. (you know me)

drabble starts here—

He can feel the feather shafts skittering underneath his skin like a pile of restless cockroaches, fluid and ever-shifting, complete with a disturbing, grating sound. They should scratch and pull at his flesh, but instead his form parts around them and allows the motion to be harmless, even if everything about it screams unease into his tangled mess of veins. The scales around his cheeks and neck shiver, lifting up with his uneven breaths as if they were gills instead. His clawed fingers (too many— too few—) are dug into the soil, damp and cold and covered in dead pine needles and withered moss. Head tilted back, he gazes at the rustling canopy above him with two eyes—big and round, glowing with faint purple and glistening with hot wetness that used to be so unfamiliar to him, so strange like Mumbo himself.

He’s taken it from him. He saw Mumbo cry many times. He watched and watched and learned. 

Two eyes and hot, salty tears, and somewhere in his throat, a sound that desperately, wretchedly wants to escape him, but it isn’t his. It isn’t made for him; it sits askew in his chest, discordant with the rapid echoing heartbeats (three of them, drumming and tripping over each other, trapped behind a bony cage that wraps around them like vines). 

It never bothered him the way it does now that the sounds he collects and holds close aren't really his. That the only way for him to speak is to take and imitate, hiding behind the mask of someone else's sounds and hoping they would fit. 

They don't fit. 

They don't, except maybe one. 

It's a sound of anguish—an emotion so deep and raw and human he can't quite comprehend it, but the writhing thing inside of him that insists he's in pain despite not being physically injured still selects this singular sound as the only way to really let the world know. 

He's hurting and he doesn't understand it and he can't make it stop and Mumbo left, why did he leave, did he hurt Mumbo? 

He's scared. 

He's terrified and confused and he wants Mumbo to come back to him. 

So he tilts his head back a little more, face breaking to allow space for a mouth, and in a borrowed voice, he wails. 

The sound of Mumbo's ravaged scream rips from his throat and pierces the white night, until everything around Grian shakes. (It takes him a long, muddled moment to realise that it's not the world that's shaking; it's him.) 

x

It’s something sharper and less monstrous than the [motion of his feathers and shifting forms]; something rooted in vulnerable humanity that he’s not supposed to possess. 

x

He didn't want mumbo to be afraid of him, because he didn't want to hurt him. 

[And yet, when it came to it days or weeks later, Grian pounced anyway.]

x

His vocal cords, crafted deliberately to fit this one sound and no other and nothing else, fray and quiver in a way they weren’t designed to, a way they aren’t meant to—and what comes out of him is wobbly and destabilised, a hitched noise interlaced with something that wasn’t originally there. Not when Mumbo made this sound; not when Mumbo was screaming like this, with his raw, anguished humanity, curled up not dissimilarly to Grian’s own posture right now and clutching at his hair. It wasn’t there but now it is and Grian can’t find it in himself to try to find out what it is, because he’s crumbling in a way he’s never crumbled before, and he’s grasping at nothing but the example of Mumbo’s pain to guide him to a life raft that maybe won’t let him sink.

The scream plays on loop, desperately and urgently let out over and over again, with heaved breaths in between; it slowly veers more and more off course, into uncharted territories. It seems to be filled with splinters and debris and torn off pieces of a soul—whose soul? not Mumbo’s, that much Grian knows, but whose then?—a helpless explosion of a terrifying, unending pain.

x

As he startles, the entirely of Grian's body gets skitteringly covered in black feathers. Their edges are shining with a metallic sheen, a literal silver lining, and when they puff up defensively, there's something dangerously razor-sharp about them. 

Countless of eyes spawn with a squelch—most of them on Grian's face, but some stray and find their home elsewhere. They open asynchronously, staring in the direction of a perceived threat. 

Mumbo stands there, rooted to the spot, watching him with an onslaught of bewildered apprehension. "Grian? Buddy?" 

As soon as Mumbo speaks, most of the eyes disappear until only two remain. Instantly, they fill with hot wetness, the tears spilling down into the feathers. 

There's a sound—a whiny, broken sob. 

Mumbo doesn't think he ever heard that from Grian. He didn't even know Grian stole that kind of sounds, too. Unless—? 

The thought is absolutely wretched. 

"Are you alright?" Mumbo tries weakly. 

The feathers fall off Grian's body as if they were plucked all at the same time; some of them leave small, ugly gashes in his skin, but most of them separate and fall as if they were never a part of him in the first place. What's left is  a soft, unprotected skin—helplessly imitating humanity, hazardously displaying open vulnerability to Mumbo, both in an attempt to express something and in an attempt to tone down Mumbo's fear.

Because Mumbo fears him if Grian's anything else than human.

But Grian can never properly be human, no matter how hard he tries for him.

Things remain that are askew and wrong, more feathers embedded under his skin, ears too animalistic and covered in tufts of fluff, fingers ending in claws—and three heartbeats still tripping over themselves in his chest cavity.

He tries harder to fix it, but doesn't know how.

Instead, another miserable sound leaves his throat and he trembles where he sits on the forest floor, crying harder.

x

Eventually, only one heartbeat remains where before there were three.

—that's it <3

–—–—

wip question from here

[stardrxp]

stayed up all night reading mumbo angst and listening to Do Not Go by Leo/need on repeat so now we got these

heavily referenced from the song cover /\/\/\

[grow-bettah]

Hey guys, I have a minecraft spouse!!! We've been married for well over two weeks now and have decided to officially name the ship between our two characters.... Drumroll please....

CaniProcy!

[riacte]

watched too many compilations of those anime “childhood best friends always lose to the characters who fall from the sky and appear out of nowhere to befriend the mc”, and not only am i feeling sad about how renskall got steamrolled by rendoc, i am also feeling sad about fuckass spopera. anyways remember our first warrior renskall island 💪 or the renskall horse 💪 or the renskall podcast 🔥

[sageking]

Hello grumbo enjoyers!!! Got some news about the shoujo manga!!

It's happening! I'm gonna do it >:D

I'll be posting the first chapter early october!

♡

Officially, it's gonna be called "This is so unfair!—Why does my crush like my persona and not me!?" But it can be shortened to "Your crush on my persona" or just YCMP

You motherfuckers better hype it up

♡

Here are some little sketches + funny ideas I had for you guys (Ari's design is still pretty undecided) while you wait

See you all at release! :D

Y'all better like and reblog the first chapter when it comes out I need them notes

[logosbot-tm-fics]

Oh I got an idea for a Scarian one-shot, haven't had an idea for that since...3rd life?

[bc-jpeg]

Hello! I don't use Tumblr much at all anymore but looking at your Mumbo art had me very curious. I noticed you usually draw him with a ring on his index finger, is there any particular reasoning for this detail? I'll admit I went to look and see if you drew Grian with one as well, to see if maybe it would be related to a shipping head cannon, but didn't notice anything. So I thought, why not ask lmao.

ty for your question, anon! the reason is actually related to shipping, but not grumbo. these are redwood’s rings :D

in last life, martyn and mumbo are canonically married, so on some of my last life fanarts with mumbo or martyn there will be this detail.

specific moment with a timecode how this actually started, if you’re interested:

martyn: — I’m crouching so only you can hear me right now. be on guard. mumbo: — be on guard. martyn: — if we need to in a moment’s notice, I’m gonna do the “give life” command to you, just so you don’t go down to red, okay? if you’re about to go down, I will transfer this life- in fact, i’m gonna copy paste it, hold on- mumbo: — wow… is this what friendship feels like? martyn: — no, this is what marriage feels like. mumbo: (laughing) — is that what just happened?? martyn: — we’ve skipped a step, yeah-yeah! until death do us part, so- I mean, like- i’m not letting you part, so we’re still on that extra death.

[logosbot-tm]

I'm not even a shipper but I did see a post (and several tbh) about Mumbo's death in wild life being turned into Mumbo being a rebound/replacement for Scar??? It's so weird even as a nonshipper I know Grian and Mumbo have been iconically Like That (and everybody knows it and jokes about it) for years. I'm convinced a chunk of this fanbase just skips through video

I will say that I'm not fully sure why this was sent to me, but yeah, I've seen it too. Gonna take off the shipping goggles for a hot sec.

(More below the cut...like a lot more, this ended up as a long ass ramble)

Mumbo's treatment within fandom is rather... odd, in my opinion. He gets pushed to the side a lot, he's treated as if he's pathetic (which yes, Ik that the "wet cat" thing is a joke, but when he's consistently portrayed as pathetic you start to wonder), he's treated as a replacement/rebound for Scar, Grian and his interactions are spun into being about Desert Duo (yes, I've seen this happen multiple times, its weird), disloyal, completely incompetent, and when he died he was immediately talked about as "The new canary".

Which

1) That was Jimmy's curse, why are you trying to apply it to someone else who doesn't fit?

2) No, Mumbo wasn't the first one out when the curse was first broken, that was Lizzie

Mumbo and Grian's friendship is also treated as Not As Important As Desert Duo™️. Grian being distraught about Mumbo's death? Nah, let's focus on Desert Duo being friends instead. Grian bringing Mumbo (and Skizz) back to life? Let's focus on the fact that Scar and Grian flew around together (which is cute don't get me wrong). Mumbo killing Grian after being instructed to do so? Let's talk about how this a Desert Duo parallel.

Hell, Grian and Mumbo's friendship isn't even the biggest "victim" of being twisted as only existing to further the Desert Duo narrative. The friendship that has been most affected by it (within fandom ofc), is Grian and BigB's friendship.

Which, is even odder to me. Grian and BigB have known each other for ages, Grian went and looked for BigB himself (because He Wanted To Be Secret Soulmates), Grian said in 3rd life that he didn't want to kill BigB, and the two of them have known each other for long as hell and have even travelled to Sweden together irl (wayback in like 2017).

There's a lot to say about the fandom's treatment of BigB but yeah, not what this post is about.

It's very difficult to interact with fandom content within both the Life Series and Hermitcraft nowadays. You can't escape Desert Duo or Scarian, even if you try. A lot of the time another ship tag, duo tag, or character tag ends up clogged with Desert Duo/Scarian stuff, and if you block the tag it gets filled with blacked out post saying "This post contains Scarian, do you want to see it anyway?" (<can't remember the exact wording), and often UNTAGGED Scarian/Desert Duo posts pop up in other tags, often tagged with another ship that has nothing to do with the post (<Seen this happen a few times in the Grumbo tag). The Scaridarity tag is filled with Scarian posts, which makes it hella annoying to go through/follow that tag.

And yes. Grian and Mumbo have been a duo since... 2017? 2018? Somewhere around there. They're genuinely close as all hell, having gone on a roadtrip together, and having travelled to Sweden together. They both put references to each other in their videos all the time, they have a robot son named after their (at the time) duo/ship name, and in the life series they've been on a team 2/3 times + they always base closely on Hermitcraft (more than once they've linked their bases, more than once they've had a messaging system).

But nowadays that's largely ignored/pushed to the side, and for a little while there was this odd idea about a "Grumbo divorce".

Which, yes I know it was a joke, but also...what???

On the Hermitcraft server, the Hermits doesn't interact all the time. It's literary called /Hermit/-craft. Often, this is because the Hermits are busy with their own projects, things irl, or they just don't interact. This doesn't mean that a ship is getting "divorced" or anything. Hell, it's a ship. The shipping shouldn't be your main focus when watching a video. The shipping is just something for fun.

So yeah, it was weird to see the "Grumbo divorce" jokes be made, when they're still very close, and Are Still Like That™️ about each other.

There's also this odd thing I've noticed within the fandom, where people can't let Grian and Scar do things on their own without twisting it into Scarian.

No, I promise that in the escape room video that Scar wasn't in, Grian didn't think at all about the fandom's headcanon that Scar is a vex.

All this being said, I also have to say that:

I don't hate Scarian. Does it frustrate me? Yes! Very much so.

But that's because of the fandom. I am a Scarian shipper, I enjoy Scarian, and I enjoy Desert Duo a lot. The fandom has made that experience a lot less enjoyable, because of the weird treatment of other people, because you can't escape it even if you try, because everything gets twisted into Scarian/Desert Duo all the time.

It's frustrating, because it's barely the Hermitcraft or the life series fandom anymore, it's basically the Scarian fandom.

Which, fine, I get it. Its the biggest ship, and I understand the enjoyment of it, nothing wrong with that.

But there's other people on both servers, other duos, other teams, and I promise you everything isn't about Scarian all the time.

I think that Scarian shippers/Desert Duo enjoyers mainly watch Scar's videos, with shipping goggles already on, and then they watch Grian's. They read into things that genuinely doesn't matter, all to further the narrative of Scarian. (I'm not saying everyone does this, or that they do it on purpose, but it comes across as such.)

I can't say that I haven't read too much into something because of a ship, hell, I've been here for Mumbo and Grian as a duo since before the duo even existed.

But to me it feels as if it's going a tad bit too far now.

I keep seeing more and more people get frustrated and tired of Scarian/Scarians, and I get it entirely. I see this happen from multiple corners, from multiple people.

Also, Grian and Mumbo are a duo to such an extent that the Hermits comment and joke about it, hell, even non-Hermits do that. I mean Tommyinnit straight up said "You (Grian) and Mumbo come as a pair".

I'd also like to mention the odd treatment of Grumboers from Scarian. Yes, I know that some Grumbo shippers have entered the Scarian tag just to hate on it, don't do that. Just... genuinely, don't do that, what the hell are you even doing actually.

But when Scar said that people were "Annoyed with him and Grian teaming together all the time" (Which they haven't done. They've interacted a lot, which ain't surprising. They're p good friends), there was an odd wave of posts I saw that blamed Grumboers?

I assure you, that whole thing wasn't our fault. People who've complained about that have done so in the YouTube comments, on reddit, and ofc some have done so on twitter (which is just an awful cesspool of negativity, which is why I don't use it).

It's not our fault. A lot of Grumbo shippers are also Desert Duo enjoyers/Scarian shippers. I mean, I am.

There's also this odd narrative that "Grumbo shippers never experienced this much hate when Grumbo was the biggest ship"

Which is just blatantly false.

In the past, people got hate and death threats for shipping. Didn't matter what you shipped, you got hate for it.

At the time, there was a bunch of posts, much more negatively charged than this one, where people went "This isn't the Mumbo and Grian fandom, stop treating it as such." There were a lot of posts about how Grumboers were annoying as all hell, and how we clogged tags. There were straight up hate posts being spread, often by the majority of the fandom.

Shipping with in the Hermitcraft fandom wasn't accepted at all, and Zombiecleo got bullied of off tumblr for saying that she didn't care if people were engaging in shipping.

I'm glad that shipping is accepted now, because by god it was an awful time, but don't say that "Grumbo shippers never had it this bad". We had it a lot worse. Shippers as a whole had it a lot worse. Don't pretend like it didn't happen, and don't try to act as if it's only Scarian shippers that have been hated.

In all honesty, I'm just tired of all of this. Like really tired. I'm tired of seeing everything get twisted into Scarian/Desert Duo, I'm tired of the ignorance of the fandom's past, and I'm tired of seeing hate aimed at any ship/shippers

But I do think that its time to leave the desert. It's not fun to be in the fandom anymore due to the behaviour. Sure, keep shipping, keep having fun. But for God's sake please stay in your lane, tag your things properly, and please stop trying to force Scarian/Desert Duo upon everyone.

I don't think that the hate is deserved, but everything isn't about Desert Duo.

This is most likely the only time I'll make a post like this, and I'm only making it because I'm finally fed up and tired.

Thank you for the ask.

[hmshermitcraft]

Just some Grumbo for the poor? We're going through a drought

Grian is going to run into a wall if he has to listen to Mumbo say 'oh I'm not really an artist' one more time! Just because Mumbo's art is more abstract doesn't mean it's not art. The man built a walking house for goodness sake!

Which brings him to his powerpoint presentation: why my boyfriend is good at art (aka no Mumbo you cannot leave, you are going to sit through thirty-seven slides of me complimenting you and there's nothing you can do about it.)

[s1llycilantro]

So if anyone was still invested in these I actually got them made (with minor updates from the og photos above) and uh... I may have misunderstood the sizing

waffleduo you will always be famous to me..

shout out to @ripplesarestable for annoying me enough to finally watch hermitcraft

[chipperchemical]

it's time for my annual insanity arc, so here is every hermit/traffic ship that i actively enjoy and 1 headcanon for each one! (worth mentioning that i love most ships, these are just my favourites)

Grian x Mumbo (Grumbo) -> Grian is the only one who can bring Mumbo out of his redstone hyper-focus mode by cooking him unnecessarily gourmet meals and pretending to be sad when Mumbo doesn't instantly sit down to eat with him.

Grian x Scar (Scarian) -> When Scar's in his wheelchair, Grian will run around while pushing him and sing the Mario Kart star song at full volume.

Grian x Bdubs (Gridubs) -> They have a STRICT nighttime routine and if anyone interrupts then they will never hear the end of it.

Grian x Doc (Gridoc) -> Grian keeps bringing different animals home and Doc keeps trying to say no, but every single one grows on him eventually.

Grian x Mumbo x Scar (Mumscarian) -> Mumbo keeps trying to convince the other two to eat redstone, but he's only successfully convinced Scar.

Bdubs x Doc (Bdoc) -> The absolute embodiment of the sunshine/moon trope, but Doc is the sunshine and Bdubs is the moon.

Bdubs x Etho (Ethdubs) -> Etho likes trying on dresses and skirts and gives Bdubs little catwalk fashion shows.

Bdubs x Impulse (Impdubs) -> Extremely sweet to each other while destroying their enemies.

Bdubs x Keralis (Kerdubs) -> They spend every Sunday eating cereal and watching a movie in bed.

Bdubs x Mumbo (Bedstone) -> Mumbo's fast food order is always incorrect and Bdubs is the one who has to ask the worker to correct it.

Bdubs x Zedaph x Impulse x Tango x Skizz (BZITS) -> The ONLY thing that makes them all chill out after hard days is a massive cuddle pile in their nest of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals.

Cub x Scar (Cubscar) -> When they're close to each other, their eyes get slightly bluer and their prankster urges get stronger, like a physical biological change.

Cub x Doc (Docub) -> They constantly dress up as Dr Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster for Halloween, and they switch who is who every year.

Doc x Etho (Detho) -> Doc leaves little gifts and bouquets around Etho's base, but Etho either doesn't see them or has zero idea who they're from until Doc brings it up.

Doc x Ren (Rendoc) -> The fathers of the server.

Doc x Joel (Doel) -> They are the most stubborn and competitive couple to the point that the others can't tell if they're on the verge of breaking up or not -- they never are.

Doc x Zedaph x Impulse x Tango x Skizz (DZITS) -> They regularly smoke zaza together and bake brownies.

Etho x Joel (Smalletho) -> Their only petnames for each other are vicious insults.

Impulse x Skizz (Skizzpulse) -> Impulse doesn't typically like touch, but Skizz's hugs are so warm and comforting that he doesn't mind one bit.

Impulse x Zedaph x Tango (ZIT) -> Tango and Impulse have amazing body heat while Zedaph is always cold, so their cuddles are the perfect temperature.

Impulse x Zedaph x Tango x Skizz (ZITS) -> The other Hermits figured out that they were a polycule after extreme confusion over why they all kiss each other.

Impulse x Tango x Skizz (ITS) -> Impulse and Skizz both use Tango as a heat pack for their wings and chronic pains.

Tango x Jimmy (Ranchers) -> They're both the absolute best gift-givers and always give each other the perfect presents.

Skizz x Tango x Jimmy (Jizzango) -> Jimmy goes non-verbal sometimes so they all know sign language and are experts at Charades.

[errorryx]

melodrama

read on ao3 | wild life, grumbo, 1.1k words

“I don’t like that one bit!” Mumbo tells him. “I’m all the friend that you need.”

And that’s when Grian gets an idea. A horrible, wonderful idea.

—

So maybe he had goals in mind. Maybe he had plans. Maybe he wanted this season to be something completely different from what it’s becoming. None of that matters anymore, because Grian’s self-control is shot to hell the second he hears those words. He should know better by now than to have faith in himself.

Here’s what matters now: Mumbo is Grian’s and Grian’s is his, to an extent that makes it hard to care about anything else. And Grian desperately wants to see how far Mumbo will go to keep it that way.

The wildcard ending early is the best excuse he could have hoped for. He goes back home with Mumbo and Skizz for the night, then sneaks out as loudly and obviously as he dares. Skizz could sleep through a hurricane, but Grian knows Mumbo will hear him. He doesn’t have to look back to know that Mumbo is watching as he slips out the front door.

Mumbo follows him up the cherry stairs. He’s making an effort to be quiet, but Grian can still hear soft footsteps behind him.

On top of the mountain, a red Scar awaits him. He’s sound asleep, but he’s still so very Scar, snoring softly, eyelids fluttering, one arm curled protectively around Jimmy beside him. There’s a part of Grian that wants to be in Jimmy’s place, or even Scar’s, but it’s not enough to lose sight of his objective. It’s not enough to forget the furious tension from the man standing behind him.

“I knew it,” Mumbo hisses, his voice barely above a whisper. “You are trying to leave us.”

He seems to be trying not to disturb the sleeping trio in front of Grian. But as always, Mumbo is careful but not careful enough. Lizzie twitches immediately, and Scar shifts in his sleep only moments after.

Grian turns around, not even bothering to feign surprise. “Shh,” he whispers back. “You’ll wake them up.”

“Fine,” Mumbo says, and stomps closer to grab Grian by the hem of his shirt. All the blood rushes to Grian’s head as Mumbo drags him away, past the giant parrots and halfway down the mountain. “There. Now explain yourself.”

He keeps a tight grip on Grian’s sweater, as if that’s enough to keep Grian somewhere he doesn’t want to be. It’s a good thing for Mumbo that Grian’s exactly where he wants to be right now.

“I just wanted to talk to Scar about something,” Grian says innocently. He doesn’t try to shake Mumbo off or push him away, just lets him do what he wants. “I don’t see why you’re making such a fuss about it.”

“You had plenty of time to talk to Scar all day,” Mumbo huffs. “The only reason to wait until the middle of the night is if you’re trying to ditch us.”

“So you really meant it, then.”

“Meant what?”

“You told me you didn’t want me to have other friends, remember?”

“And clearly I was right,” Mumbo says, “because apparently, your definition of ‘having friends’ means sneaking off in the middle of the night behind my back. Who knows what you would have done if I hadn’t caught you.”

“Who knows,” Grian echoes. “Certainly not me.” He’s not even lying; he didn’t plan on saying anything to Scar. He correctly assumed that Mumbo would stop him before that point.

Mumbo’s eyes narrow. “Don’t lie. You’re up to something, I know it.”

“Up to something? That doesn’t sound like me at all.”

“Just tell me the truth,” Mumbo says. “We’re supposed to be a team, Grian!”

Grian shrugs, unimpressed. “You want to know the real reason I went to visit Scar?”

“Yes, obviously.”

“It was just to get your attention. I wanted to see you freak out on me.”

Mumbo’s expression goes from anger to complete bafflement. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Really? You don’t get it?” Grian sighs at Mumbo’s blank stare. “Let go of me already and I’ll tell you.”

To his surprise, Mumbo listens. Now free to do as he pleases, Grian explains himself in the easiest way he can think of—he takes a few steps back and lunges, latching onto Mumbo with all four limbs.

It’s a close thing; Mumbo very nearly topples over. Grian folds his legs around Mumbo’s waist and rests his head on Mumbo’s shoulder, speaking softly in his ear. “It’s because I like when you’re being awful, you spoon.”

“You do?”

“Of course! I do it all the time, don’t I? I wouldn’t dish it out if I couldn’t take it.”

“Yes you would,” Mumbo says. “Repeatedly. Habitually, even.”

Grian sticks out his tongue at him, even though he knows Mumbo won’t be able to see it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You really like it, though?” Mumbo asks him. “I thought for sure you were getting sick of me.”

“Then why keep doing it?”

This question stumps him for a bit. Finally, Mumbo splutters out, “I suppose once I got started, I didn’t know how to stop.”

Grian can’t do anything but laugh at this answer. “See? Now you know how it feels!”

“It felt so natural,” Mumbo says. He’s starting to sound ashamed, and Grian can’t have that. “I didn’t even question it. Something must be wrong with me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Grian insists, leaning back to look Mumbo in the eyes. He has to wrap both hands around the back of Mumbo’s neck to do it, so he tries not to squeeze very hard. “In fact, I think you should get worse.”

“Well, I think you’re a terrible influence on me.”

“I think you like it.”

“I do,” Mumbo says, clearly distressed by this fact. “It’s horrible. This is not how we win a death game, Grian!”

Part of Grian wants to tell him that he’ll try his best to help Mumbo win, but he isn’t in the business of giving out false hope. Another part of him wants to try and convince Mumbo that winning isn���t worth the effort, but that approach could easily backfire. He’s left with only one option in the end, the same option as always.

Deny, deflect, distract. Keep the game-within-a-game going. Never leave time to stop and rethink.

“We could burn down the parrots tomorrow,” Grian suggests. “Kill some dark greens. Kick Skizz out of the group. Whatever you want.”

“I like the sound of all those things,” Mumbo says. “But I really only want one thing.”

Grian laughs. “Don’t worry,” he tells Mumbo. “It’s already yours.”

—

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[azurbright]

So this is my Grumbo, creative writing assignment for my course. My teacher liked it, and I got many compliments from my peers. It's based on another Grumbo short story I made for this class. Generally, though, you should be able to gather what's going on.

I only had 200-300 words per entry, with a 5 entry maximum, so that's why they're so short. For everyone who said they wanted to see it.

@oso-bigback64 @raylaismad @not-a-boot @crispycheeto364 @a-sociopath-do-your-research @endaisgayandtrans @auseryoumayknow @ghost-er-toast-er

Blog entry number 1: Day one

Many months ago I began my search for the key to immortality. Although I have yet to find it, I am sure that I am going to get there soon. Nobody has done what I have been able to do, technological advances have not come as far as this yet. Today, a boy fell from the sky, he claims his name is Grian, he has yet to indulge me in where he has come from but I will inform once I become aware. As of now I have brought him back to my lab and we’ve begun testing. He doesn’t seem to feel any pain at all once so ever. He claims not to be immortal but something does seem off. Only time will tell. We got along easy, I don’t mind having the company around, he's a bit of a pessimist but I can make it work. Later today I plan on taking him out to town, he says he hasn’t had a meal in days which simply just can’t be good for him. Now, however, I am in my office whilst he naps on my couch, writing this entry here. The testing went well, his blood and hair samples are currently in the lab, I am awaiting results. What I do know now though is he seems to be sprouting these sort of purple feathers along his back. When I asked him about them he didn't know. Will do more research on those.

Blog entry number 2: Day fourteen

Today, I have a lot to say. I have made a technological breakthrough. The feathers were the answer, the stem of these feathers that come from him hold a sort of liquid, the chemical compound is something that I have never seen before. It's simply extraordinary. Grian has opened up to me more, he's talked about the sort of tortures the Watchers put him through. When I asked him what a Watchet was he also wasn’t quite sure. They claim to be gods, but he believes that they are something so much worse. I have tried to find books and papers about them but they seem to be mostly mythological creatures that random people have written about. Grian looked over the books with me but he doesn’t think most of the information is correct. I've claimed him as my patient, and I believe he has claimed me as a sort of patient as well. He refuses to sleep unless I do. I believe it's just the kindness he carries with him, he's less pessimistic than I had originally gathered but he had just fallen from the sky after being held captive for an unknown amount of time. All that being said, he continues to stay in the lab seeing as he doesnt have any family, or doesn’t remember. He doesn’t even necessarily think he's from this world. Which, opens up the idea of multiple dimensions, exciting stuff for a man like me really. Once again I will report back soon with more information.

Blog entry number 3: Day thirty

Something strange has started to happen, perhaps it's due to the stress but Grian seems to be strangely concerned about it. The fronts of my hair have begun to grey out, nothing too serious, I feel perfectly fine. It's probably because I’ve been working too hard. On another note, I think I’ve figured it out. Grians DNA from the feathers mixed with the chemical compounds of CH4 and CHN2OPS, must be injected through the skin directly into the vein. I believe it is possible I have found it. A test subject is all I really need, I’ve sent Grian out to find and catch rats to test on. He's found one, and it hasn’t died yet. Thinking about it now, I don’t know why I made immortal rats. Ignoring work, Grian and I have been getting closer, I think we must be connected somehow. For someone like me, a scientist that is, it is surprising for many to hear that I believe in a predetermined destiny, and that destiny has brought Grian to me for quite a few reasons I don’t think I’m ready to disclose yet. Not to him, or whoever is reading this blog here. Besides, I need to do more research and distractions aren’t necessary.

Blog entry number 4: Day sixty

I’m starting to fear that the greying isn’t normal. It has spread from the beginnings of my hair to the very roots and all over. I feel older somehow, my bones feel lighter? Grian says he does not truly believe I am okay and has begged me many times to stop my work. But how can I stop now? When I have already come this far? I know the immortality shot works and I can just give it to myself, the first human test subject. He says he's worried about me, about what will happen. He claims that the Watchers are punishing him, through me. Although, I’m not sure why they would do that because I haven’t even known him for long but maybe it ties back into the whole fate thing. I am a little bit worried about how this is all affecting Grian, especially because he hasn’t been talking much, I’m sure he's just feeling a bit under the weather. Right? Today though, I think something happened between us. I'm not an experienced person but there was a moment where everything felt okay, we were just sitting together, me on my stool, and him in his small chair in the corner. He's found a way underneath my skin. I’d be lying if I said I want him to leave. I have thoroughly enjoyed his company more than I’ve ever enjoyed someone else's company. I'd usually consider myself a loner but I don’t want to be alone again. I think he feels similarly, I think that's why he's so worried about the greying. I don’t know.

Blog entry number 5: Day eighty-seven

I was supposed to die today. I should’ve listened to him, I really should have. Science isn't meant to mess with the laws of nature. People die and I've passed my prime in a short time. As of a few minutes ago my body was roughly around the age of seventy-five or so. Grian is gone now, he traded his life for mine. I can’t even thank him. He came here just to bid me goodbye, and through the crack in the door I caught sight of the Watcher, it was beautiful in a sick kind of way. I'm young again, I’ll die one day but not now. For the rest of my life I’ll be mourning somebody who fell out of the sky, and anybody could hardly believe me. All I can keep thinking is about how I shouldn’t have done this, I was so insistent, and wrong, and right at the same time. I did figure it out but the cost was what mattered. I’m back to being alone, I caught a glimpse of my appearance in the mirror. My hair is back to dark, it doesn’t feel real. Even running my fingers through the thick hairs on my head. I’m stressed, I want to forget this all. Every last second.