Hermitcraft Season 9 Oneshots

Control (Mumbo & Scar)

Word Count ~ 1.8k

TW: Possession, death/respawn

Mumbo didn't like his base.

Not that he was surprised. He'd been on the fence about the square of columns and pathways for at least a month now, and he'd finally decided that it would have to go. In theory, he could spend the rest of his week breaking it down block by block to start over, but Mumbo disliked that idea even more than he disliked his base.

Instead, he decided that he was going to blow his base up. Not the entire thing of course, just the parts he wasn't happy with. A controlled explosion that would save him hours of work, and would be far more entertaining too. But as Mumbo began to plan this potentially disastrous idea, he came up with an even better one. 

It had recently occurred to Mumbo that the Hermits would do almost anything for a handful of diamonds. The more you offered them, the more risks they'd be willing to take. So, he couldn't help but wonder, how many diamonds would it take to get one of them to blow up his base?

64 diamond blocks (or specifically 576 diamonds) might have been a bit excessive for a social experiment, but it wasn't like Mumbo needed to restrict himself to a budget these days. Because as well as getting someone else to blow his base up for fun, this would serve as quite an interesting test of the Hermits' varying reactions to the promise of chaos and riches.

Mumbo has been quite selective when it came to who he was going to ask today. The first person was Ren, who he had chosen simply because there had been a full moon the prior night. Ren was often in quite a hyper and chaotic mood following full moons, and Mumbo was curious if it would influence his decision in any way. 

Well, Ren was clearly tempted, but was just about able to repress his urge to cause destruction on the basis that he didn't want to cause any trouble. A perfectly reasonable response in Mumbo's opinion, albeit a little disappointing.

The second was Cleo. And the thing about Cleo was that their response would vary greatly depending on their mood. If Cub had recently bothered her, which he'd been doing quite frequently over the last month, she might be more inclined to agree solely for the sake of taking their frustrations out. But on the other hand they might play it safe like Ren and refuse Mumbo's offer.

As expected, Cleo declined. She had initially been quite tempted by the idea of 64 diamond blocks, and for a brief moment was even holding them in her hands, but as soon as Mumbo explained what the deal entailed they refused immediately. Again, understandably so, he didn't blame them for being intimidated by the task.

The last was Scar, and frankly, Mumbo was reluctant to ask Scar about this. Some days, he was sweeter than cotton candy and wouldn't hurt a fly. On other days, he was dangerously chaotic and a force to be reckoned with. Depending on which mood Scar had happened to wake up in, Mumbo would either get another "no" for an answer, or his base would be gone before he could finish the sentence.

The prospect of diamonds was what made Scar particularly dangerous. Mumbo had been friends with both him and Cub long enough to know that those two went further than most in pursuit of riches, and their adoration for chaos would only make the deal more tempting. Even if Scar had mostly revoked his desire for diamonds, following an undisclosed and long forgotten 'incident' in Season 7, his reaction was still the one Mumbo was most interested in. 

As he walked towards the point they'd agreed to meet at, Mumbo's point about chaos was immediately proven when an arrow pierced his chest, knocking him backwards towards the brick paths of the Shopping District. But instead of hitting hard stone, his head hit a soft pillow as his stomach flipped with the familiar jolt of respawning. A brilliant start, Scar already seemed to be embracing his chaotic side today.