Child's Play - A Hermitcraft 8 AU

I need a hero to save me now (pt. 5)

Summary: When Mumbo comes back to Boatem, all the self-deprecating, self-destroying thoughts come back. It doesn't help his small amounts of pride left to know that his best friend is watching him spiral.

Warnings: Lots of comments internally about oneself as mentioned in the summary. It shouldn't be too triggering, but if you're sensitive to angsty writing... just skip to the next chapter I guess?   But there's no self-harm or anything of that nature, so you should be alright.

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After spending another day at Ren's, Mumbo left for home, taking the flight all by himself. He took it slow, still worried that the world would shake around him. Despite not flying fast enough for the wind to harshly push against him, it was still cool, serving as a reminder that December was nearing.

But as he touched ground, he found Boatem to be just as sunny and warm as before. That and empty. Really empty. It's not too much of a surprise as everyone's been busy or aging up after another death, but Mumbo had hoped there would be at least one person to greet him.

And with all that being said, the lack of people gave his mind room to wander. Talking everything out with Ren helped, but Mumbo still had the same train of thought, asking "what's going on" and "why can't I handle it better". He's had enough of those thoughts, so instead he busies himself with detractions. Today's distraction is building.

Not too long ago he'd asked for some help designing trees as three of the members in Boatem were known for them. They'd given him plenty of improvement points to work off of as well as praise (which he didn't want to admit made him feel super great).

He had the trees fixed in only a couple days, and it looked immensely better. He'd have to thank the hermits for their suggestions and maybe ask Gem about trees too. But before any proper interaction, he'd decided work on the rope bridges would come next. The large one by itself looked awkward and almost like a smile, and not to mention the area between the sides of the rocks needed to be filled out. "This shouldn't take long. Maybe a day or two," he thought.

People were started to fly around Boatem as he finished up the bridges. But before meeting up with them, he'd need to check how the building was coming along. He'd hate to stop mid-way and it still look atrocious. Sadly, he found it dipped too low, creating an unnatural look. So instead of going to sleep or having the social interaction he needed, he worried about his bridge because he couldn't bear to hear someone laugh at his very amateurish building skills.

By this point, Mumbo had completely forgotten about the moon and the earthquakes. Building was going somewhere although he didn't like it, and his worries were more focused on making it presentable. Yet the longer he worked on it, the more he would rather throw all the slabs and stairs to the ground.

"Perhaps a break would be good," he told himself after a few minutes longer.

So he took a proper lunch break for once and flew around Boatem to see what everyone else was up to. Pearl was working with her buildings up on the mountain, Grian was at the G-train, probably counting his diamond stock again or refilling it, and Impulse was flying around his factory doing who knows what. Maybe today would be the day he'd check up on his friends—after all, he was now old enough to the point that it wasn't weird (the hermits always had trouble really connecting around the time a hermit hit the ages of 10-16 and now that he was at the end of it, Mumbo felt he could interact with the hermits again).