So here's the thing. Mumbo can occasionally make decisions without... thinking them through. And maybe, someone, not him, but someone, would say that setting up right in front of The Alchemist's base was not a decision he thought through.
In his defense, the mountain lump was rather nice, and Grian was interesting! Interesting in the way that redstone was interesting to him, something to take apart and put back together to see how it worked.
People were wary of Grian, of The Alchemist, of the odd being with too-dark eyes and too-sharp teeth that moved into the server, with a rock that he stared at for occasionally hours on end. Not moving. Not even breathing, it seemed. Just... staring.
And then he moved out of the town to make an even bigger rock, and everyone in the starter town seemed to breathe out a collective sigh of relief.
But Mumbo is curious. He's always curious. He wants to see what the guy is up to, wants to see how far he can push him, and really, the mountain lump.... it's a very nice mountain lump. Plus, he needs a place far away from the town so he can safely store his Massive Amounts of Wealth in his vault.
So he claims it, and scrawls out blueprints with red ink, and he turns and sees Grian watching him with hawk-like eyes, perched on top of his giant boulder, claws digging into the stone. Mumbo tenses, but does not look away. Instead, he stares right back.
They do this for a few days, Mumbo will be out working, planning, and he will feel eyes on the back of his head, and it always seems like more than there should be, hundreds and hundreds of something staring at him.
One day, he turns and yelps, because there is Grian, standing right behind him, just a few feet away. "Oh," he says, nervously, "Hello."
"Hi," The Alchemist says, unimpressed, and he gestures at the mountain lump they are both standing on. "This is mine."
"Yeah, well... it's mine now. I claimed it. It's a rather nice lump, isn't it?"
"Yes," Grian says, still staring at him, and Mumbo notices that his sclera is completely black, sharp amber irises the only color in them. Grian turns to the blueprints Mumbo has spread out on the table, head cocked. "Those are some awfully big base plans," he sees curiously, and there is that undercurrent of danger danger danger that underlines the sentence.
Mumbo swallows nervously. "Well, I mean, I could've expanded towards your base. You're lucky."
Grian chuckles, and it is a friendly sound, isn't it. Isn't it? "Big vault you have there."
"Yup. To hide my multitude of riches. You know how it is."
"Seems to me like a challenge," Grian says, and he is looking at him now, eyes seeing through and into and taking apart, and Mumbo is beginning to think he made a very big mistake. "Building a vault right in front of me. For the second time. Strange, isn't it?"
Isn't it, isn't it, isn't it.
Under him, he hears a pulse, a buzz filling his ears. Where is the sound coming from, he wonders. It ripples through the air for a moment, a warning, and it reminds him of something. What does it remind him of.
"Well," Mumbo says. "You haven't been able to get inside my vault yet."
"No," Grian says consideringly. "I haven't."
Silence.
Grian is still staring at him, and there is a drone filling his ears, and Grian's teeth look too sharp in the moonlight, and he looks, in that moment, like a hawk. About to strike. About to--
"How about a wager," Mumbo says desperately, and Grian takes a step back. When had he stepped closer.
Grian cocks his head to the side again, and the buzzing stops. He smiles. It is a nice smile. Isn't it? "I'm listening."
"Since I'm at your doorstep, you can try and break into my vault. If you fail, you die. You can't break in for another two weeks. And if... you win, you can get--what's inside."
Grian smiles again, and this time, it is sharp. It is dangerous. "What do you get out of it?" he asks.
You to leave me alone, Mumbo thinks. To never come back. For the eyes that follow you and The Entity and the buzzing from the ground to get out. Instead, he says, "Ten diamond blocks every time you want to break in."
"Five," Grian challenges.
"Alright," Mumbo says, before the drone can fill his ears again. "Five." He holds out his hand to shake.
Grian takes it, and his talons are strange. "Oh," he says delightedly, "This is going to be fun."
And he flies off, to his boulder, to his Rift, to the million eyes that sit in the stone and his cathedral of marble and rusted copper. And Mumbo watches him go, relieved.
Mumbo might make decisions without thinking them through, but even he knows not to anger a god. At least The Thing that hums under the ground is harmless.
Isn't it?
// I don't know if this makes sense at all ajfkjsdhfkjshdjf, I had just finished watching Grian's latest vid and was extremly inspired by the concept of a mortal striking a deal with a god.
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