The Chained Watcher

Side Stories

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Grian's redstone misadventures

It was broken.

Why was it broken? He had no idea.

It shouldn't be broken, but it was.

That brings us to the current situation, with Mumbo trying to help Grian figure out just what went wrong. 

Unfortunately for our favorite mustached redstoner, nothing actually seemed to be out of place. The redstone just... didn't. It just didn't! Grian had built the exact same pumpkin farm that was in the blueprints Mumbo had given him, but it just didn't work!

Now, this was not an isolated case. Complicated redstone just didn't seem to work for Grian, and the exact reason still eluded him. Had he offended some redstone elemental?? Did the redstone gods themselves scorn him, mocking his best efforts?!? What was it!? What was the reason!?!

While Grian was busy having a mental breakdown, Mumbo was working his way through the redstone of the broken farm, trying to figure out just what had gone wrong. Nothing was actually out of place, which was rather strange, so he decided to try the tried-and-true method of "have you tried turning it off and back on again"

One redstone torch later, it was working again. Literally all Mumbo did was break a single torch before placing it back down, and it was working again. Grian looked at the torch like it had betrayed him and everything he held dear. Looking at Mumbo, he tentatively proposed a question. 

"Since you managed to get this one working..." Mumbo glanced over, confused. "Could you... maybe... try to fix the other ones?"

~~~

In which Grian sings a duet with himself

Mumbo was heading over to Grian's base. He had a couple of questions for him, the biggest one being regarding the large amount of chickens in the messaging system. It was seriously clogging it up, and the hoppers to pick up whatever message got sent were completely full of eggs.

The formerly named flower pot, currently referred to as a tiered cake, slowly faded in on the horizon. It was rather pretty, with its clean futuristic aesthetic, but adding more layers was not going to help get rid of its current nickname.

Coming closer, Mumbo can hear a faint... singing? It sounded like it was coming from the other side of the base. Who on earth would be singing over here?

Getting closer, he realized that the song being sung was a duet, but it was being sung by the same person. Grian. Now how did he manage that?

(It's the only duet I could think of atm, so there's probably better options)

"A whole new world~ don't you dare close your eyes. A dazzling place I never knew, Noone to tell us no, or where to- Mumbo?!" Grian's singing cuts off as he realizes he has an audience, growing visibly embarrassed. Trying to recover his poise, he stammered out "W-when did you get here?" Was he embarrassed about singing? Or just about not noticing he was there?

"I just got here, but were you just singing?" Grian's embarrassment grew. "Also, how did you manage to sing both parts of a duet by yourself?"

"Well~, there are a few minor benefits to the transformation spell..." Grian trailed off, still rather embarrassed. "And, uh, one of them lets me use multiple voices at once." He says while overlapping his voice with itself. It's a rather weird thing to hear, but also quite interesting.

An idea has clearly taken root in his head, because he gets a grin on his face that promises mischief is soon to come. Opening his mouth, Grian says in Mumbo's voice "Well it's quite simple really" before laughing. 

That startled a laugh out of Mumbo, which got Grian laughing too -in his own voice this time. They were laughing until someone else dropped by to say hi and ask just what was so funny.

~~~

Scar's cat, Jellie. Give her magic powers. Why? Why not?

Grian was currently having a staring contest with Scar's cat.

Said cat was currently sitting on top of one of his chests, which he needed to open to get some materials for his base. 

Grian was losing the contest.

Looking away with a huff, he pulled up his communicator to send Scar a message.

<Grian>: Scar, please come get your cat.

<GoodTimesWithScar>: ???

What did he mean by "???"

<Grian>: Scar your cat is on top of one of my chests and is refusing to leave

<GoodTimesWithScar>: But I left Jellie at home?

<Grian>: Well unless there's another cat named Jellie that just so happens to be in my base, your cat is not at home

He looks at the cat, watching it smugly grooming its ears with its paw.

How did it even get in here, anyway? It's not like there's a staircase down to the interior of his base, so...

His communicator bleeped.

<GoodTimesWithScar>: So as it turns out, Jellie is not at home.

Well no kidding.

<GoodTimesWithScar>: I can be at your place in about 5 minutes, give or take, can you watch her for me?

Not like he had anything better to do, since he couldn't get the materials for his base.

<Grian>: Sure

Grian now found himself stuck watching a cat, for the next five minutes. Five whole minutes of nothing but sitting around, staring at a cat. How... engaging.

Jellie sneezed. A small section of his floor was now on fire. Wait, fire? Fire!

Rushing to get water to pour on the fire, Grian scrambled to save his floor. His concrete floor. Picking the water back up, he sheepishly realized it was almost completely unharmed apart from a small scorch mark. Jellie acted as if nothing had happened. Great. Should he tell Scar that his cat set the floor on fire? Was that even a believable claim?

His deliberations were interrupted by Scar swooping in, spotting Jellie, and picking her up to coo at her. "Aww, who's my favorite kitty. How'd you get over here? Let's go home, alright?" He looked up at Grian. "Thanks for watching her. How'd she even get here in the first place?"

Well, maybe he should just let Scar deal with his magic cat. Wipe his hands of the matter. "I don't know, Scar. After all, it's not like cats can teleport, right?" Jellie looks at him. And nods. The cat just nodded at him. What even?

Scar doesn't notice his stunned state, just nodding along while petting Jellie. "Yeah, that would just be silly. Who ever heard of a teleporting cat?" He laughed. "I've gotta get going, get Jellie here back home before dark. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, Scar. See you later."

The showman took off, Jellie lounging in his arms. He almost hit the roof on his way out, but other than that made it out safely.

Grian slumped against his chest -the one Jellie had been blocking- and stared blankly in the direction Scar had just left. Well that just happened. He thought about what he had seen. 

Scar's cat was magic, and apparently intelligent too. What a weird day this had been. He shook his head, and went back to building his base.

~~~