Chapter Text
Progress on his storage system had been going flawlessly thus far. It had been slow, yes, but he wanted to be precise this time around. This was already his second attempt at making all the wiring correct. The first time around, he'd accidentally wired all his building materials to go to the bank instead of Jill and Bob's.
Void, it's blimming hot in here..." Mumbo sighed into the air as he wiped his sweaty forehead on his crumpled sleeve. It had to be almost 100 degrees in this small cavern. All the redstone machines created immense amounts of heat, even when they're not powered on. "I'm almost done, though. I've just gotta test i-COUGH COUGH
His motion to light the redstone torch in front of him was cut off by a violent set of coughs. It was one of those coughs that shook you to your core—that made your gag reflux activate. He just couldn’t stop. Mumbo’s hands went up to his mask and slowly un-strapped it so he could take deep breaths. Sometimes that blasted redstone mask felt so suffocating. Redstone was considered radioactive, but it was so rare to breathe in enough of it to have any sort of reaction to it. It would take years to build up if you only had it off while not working with it.
After a moment of breathing and rubbing his sternum, he finally gained back his composure and stopped coughing. His lungs and chest burned terribly. He moved his mask down to around his neck as he slowly climbed up the ladder and out of the hole. The morning sun shone bright into his red eyes. Had he been working all night? Now that he thought about it, he was pretty tired. Whatever, I’ll just finish up the last little bit of redstone, then have a nap before going on with the rest of the day.
Mumbo walked around his tiny, mountain side town quickly, going towards Big Ron’s redstone shop to grab what he needed. As he got to the shop, he felt the burn in his chest return. It made him start coughing worse than before. His eyes watered as he decided to just lay down now instead of finishing up the redstone. He leaned against the redstone shop, doubled over from the force. Fuck, it hurt bad.
Mumbo was barely able to make it home before he collapsed against the door frame. He practically had to crawl into bed, all this while still coughing like he was having an asthma attack. Void, this must be one hell of a chest cold. Mumbo thought to himself as he pulled himself into his bed and fell asleep.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A fist at the door went, startling Mumbo out of his sleep. “Mumbo, are you alive in there?” A voice outside yelled. It was Scar. He’d totally forgotten that he and Scar were supposed to play Hungry Hermits together today.
“Uhh, Y-Yeah, I’ll be out in a moment! I fell asleep, sorry Scar!” Mumbo exclaimed as he jumped out of bed and smoothed out his wrinkled, dirty button down. Why was he sweating so much?? He’s almost tempted to take off his binder and free ball it. Hey, maybe that’s why his chest hurts so much when he coughs. He quickly put his shoes on before opening the door and smiling at Scar.
“Jeez, Mumbo, you look like crap.” Scar scolded as he wrapped his arm around Mumbo. “You look like you’re about to collapse!”
“I’m fine. Scar… It’s just a bit of a chest cold.” Mumbo muttered as he leaned heavily against Scar. They barely got out the door before Mumbo was coughing again. It started as a small itch in his throat before it became full body shakes and violent coughs. In a matter of moments he crumpled towards the ground. Scar barely was able to catch him before he hit the ground. His ribs ached so bad and his lungs burned like they were on fire.
“Let’s get you back inside, mister. You aren’t looking so hot.” Scar stated, worry edging his voice. “Don’t worry about our plans. We can always play Hungry Hermits another day.”
Mumbo didn’t have the energy to protest as Scar picked him up and carried him back to bed. His shaky arms wrapped around Scar’s neck as he walked the very short distance back into the tiny, mangrove home. “Sorry…” He muttered as he pressed his head against Scar.
“No need to apologize, Mumbo. You pretty obviously need help, though. I don’t care what you say, I’m staying here and helping you.” Scar sighed out, his worry for the other man increasing. “Have you been wearing your binder too much? Compressing your ribs combined with a cold can be bad.”
“I’m not over-binding, Scar. I’m dumb sometimes, but I’m not that dumb.” Mumbo sputtered as they entered back into the house. He gently set Mumbo down on his bed before moving across the room to turn on the lights. Just as the redstone lights powered on, Mumbo had another fit. Mumbo gasped for sweet air between coughs and gags.
“Mumbo, are you okay!?” Scar yelled as he ran across the room to the doubled over man.
“M-My chest! F-Fuck, it b-burns!” Mumbo heaved out. Scar quickly helped Mumbo lay down before ripping off his shirt and trying to get his binder off.
“Mumbo, lift your arms!” Scar shouted as he tried to get Mumbo to uncurl his body so he could safely take off the binder. Mumbo could barely lift his arms before coughs threw his body back down onto the bed. After a few moments of struggling, Scar grabbed his pocket knife and cut the binder off of Mumbo.
Underneath Mumbo’s binder was something he’d never seen in real life. Mumbo’s chest was glowing bright red and pulsing painfully. Scar’s face dawned with horror as he realized what the situation was. His mind raced as he ran full speed across the room and turned off the light, crashing against the wall as he did. Then, he rushed back over with his communicator already in his hand.
“Holy shit, Mumbo, look at your chest!” He yelled as he watched the glowing slowly stop. His chest was still obviously red and hot, though. “I-I’ve gotta call Xisuma a-and Doc or maybe Zed?” Scar stumbled out. All he could think about were the people who have died from redstone poisoning. It was a slow, painful death that led to an even more painful respawn. Respawning was infinite, but depending on the death, it can cause painful and unusual side effects that could last days. The more you respawn, the more painful and degrading the next one is.
“Void, my chest hurts…” Mumbo whispered, coughing a bit into the back of his hand. Every cough was like fire burning his lungs and body. He tried to rub his sternum to relief the pain, but nothing worked to dull the heat.
Goodtimeswithscar: Xisuma, Doc can you come to Mumbo’s house. Like right now. There’s an emergancy
Xisumavoid: Why, what’s happening? I’m omw
Docm77: I’m coming asap. What kind of emergency is this?
Goodtimeswithscar: I don’t really know redstone accident maybe?
Grian: I'm coming too, wya????
Grian: Is he okay??
Grian: ????
Goodtimeswithscar: At Mumbo's little red house
Goodtimeswithscar: I'm not sure what is happening. Need medical help asap
It wasn’t 5 minutes before Xisuma, Doc, and Grian burst through the door. “Mumbo K. Jumbo, have you been using redstone without a respirator?!” Xisuma scolded as he rushed to the younger hermit’s bedside. Doc came up behind Xisuma and looked down at Mumbo.
“Xisuma, his respirator is right there.” Doc whispered to Xisuma, pointing at the black mask on Mumbo’s bedside table. He grabbed it and inspected the entire mask while Xisuma grabbed a gel and began rubbing it on Mumbo’s chest. Doc wiggled with filters out of the mask and immediately saw a part of the problem. “Mumbo… This filter is broken.” He stated as he held up the cracked filter to the light that streamed through the curtain. They looked pretty old as well.
“Mumbo, I need you to tell me when was the last time you changed your filters.’ Grian stated, climbing onto the bed and putting Mumbo’s head in his lap. Mumbo tried to talk, but he began coughing again. This time, a bit of glowing blood was coughed up onto his white shirt. “Mumbo, can you hear me?”
Mumbo groaned quietly, acknowledging Grian’s question quietly. His head pounded and his ears were ringing slightly. He’s so fucking tired, but Grian was being way too damn loud. “A f-few days ago… M-Maybe week…” was all he managed to croak out before he coughed again.
“No talking right now, Mumbo. Redstone is probably coating your throat, making it burn even more.” Xisuma stated sternly as Scar ran and grabbed the medical kit. Xisuma thanked Scar before grabbing out a little pen light. “Now, I’m gonna need you to sit up, okay?”
Mumbo nodded and tried sitting up, but ended up needing Grian to sit behind him to support his body. “Thanks, Gri…” He muttered, leaning back heavily against the avian. It was a bit uncomfortable being completely shirtless in front of all these people, but it was needed in this situation. He let Xisuma look over him and take some notes while Doc sat on the edge of the bed. His metal hand rubbed over Mumbo’s chest, taking note of exactly where the redness was and where hot spots were.
Xisuma first used the flashlight to look down his throat. It was incredibly red and irritated. Doc got up and strode across the room to turn on the lights. Before anyone could stop Doc, the lights were flipped on, activating the redstone in Mumbo’s body. His lungs seized, making him double over forward coughing up more blood. His chest glowed bright, lighting up the room.
“Doc, turn off the lights!” Scar yelled as he rushed forward to hold Mumbo. As soon as the lights swerve turned off, the glowing ceased and his coughing slowed. This was bad. Any sort of redstone was making him worse, but the damn lights were redstone activated. “We need to get him somewhere without any redstone. Does anyone’s base not have redstone?” Scar insisted, looking at the other hermits.
“Uhh, my base doesn’t have any as long as we don't bring him over the fish shrine, which should be easy!” Grian exclaimed as he got up from the bed and started helping Mumbo put some clothes back on. Mumbo was unfortunately, utterly useless because he was barely able to sit up.
“Sounds like a plan, then. We’ll take him to your base.” Doc nodded out as he helped Xisuma gather the medical supplies back up. Scar helped Grian to dress Mumbo before gently picking him up bridal style and walking outside with everyone in tow.
“Don’t worry, Mumby, we’re going to make you all better... Hopefully without a respawn." Scar smiled out as he scurried down the paths and used his elytra to glide down the mountain because the only other way down safely, the elevator, was entirely redstone. Mumbo didn’t even have the energy to respond anymore. Everything felt like too much, even his caring lover. He was hot, he didn’t feel good, and was honestly on the verge of a meltdown.
The group moved quickly to Grian's base, Grian leading the group. Mumbo seemed to be getting worse by the second, moaning and groaning in pain against Scar's chest. Scar tried soothing is partner while gliding slowly with the elytra.
"Shhhh, you're going to be okay, Mumbo." Scar assured, trying not to breakdown at the sight of his terribly sick boyfriend. He just felt so bad about all of this. Mumbo just whimpered in pain and pressed his face against Scar's shirt to hide from the sunlight.
"Right up here, everyone." Grian stated as he ushered the all into his mountainside house. Grian was so damn grateful he hadn't started making his farms in the other house next door, because that would have been a problem. He quickly helped Scar lay Mumbo down in his bed, grabbing his small handheld flashlight to give Xisuma some light to work with. "What's going to happen to him, Suma? I'Is he going to have to do a respawn?" Grian asked anxiously, sitting on the edge of the bed beside Mumbo.
"I'd like to try and get some of the redstone out of his lungs first, then probably do a respawn once he's a little better. If he respawns now, he could have permanent lung and throat damage." Xisuma stated grimly as he grabbed and oxygen mask from the bag and placed it on Mumbo's face. Scar helped lift his head so Xisuma could wrap the elastic around his head. "To my understanding of redstone consumption, the only way to treat it is breathing treatments and some medications for the pain until I can go into his code and start reversing it as best as possible. This will have permanent consequences, though."
"Void, this isn't good... How long do you think that'll take? I mean, he's obviously in a lot of pain." Doc asked as he grabbed more cooling gel and applied it on Mumbo's hot chest. He hated seeing someone he was so close to hurt in such a stupid way. All of this was so damn preventable, but all they could do now was palliative care while Xisuma reversed his lung's code.
"I... don't know, Doc. This could take a few days. I mean, its hard to even reverse or heal code on the whole body, let alone a concentrated paragraph of code inside his body. It'll take a lot of concentration and maybe even someone else helping me comb through everything. Maybe Tango could come help, or Keralis. Once we locate it, it should be relatively simple to scrub the code enough to make force respawning safe." Xisuma stated, beginning to pace the room. He needed to think of the best way to treat Mumbo while he was going through his code. The best treatment for this kind of situation was medications for the inflammation and oxygen as needed, but that's just for his lungs and not the possible effects of consuming that much redstone.
"I'll help anyway possible. I-I know I don't have admin privileges, but I need to help him." Grian stated, his voice choking up. He climbed onto the bed next to Mumbo and pressed up against him. He felt horrible for what Mumbo was going through and couldn't imagine the pain.
"I'll help, too! I know lots of herbs and medicines that help with inflammation. I can also grab Mumbo's bedding's so he can be a bit more comfortable." Scar chirped as he shot up from the chair he'd sat in and ran out of Grian's house and started flying next door to his train. It'd been a minute since he had made up herbal medicines, but he was sure he had all the materials in his train cars somewhere.
While Scar left to go find materials and Mumbo's bedding, Doc walked around Grian's house, grabbing every single piece of redstone and redstone adjacent items, then throwing them into chests outside. Xisuma was muttering to himself, trying to figure out logistics of this mess. Grian was soothing Mumbo, who was pretty sleepy now, but was refusing to sleep without his blanket from home.
"Mumbo, Scar is coming with your blanket, you can rest." Grian insisted, knowing it was useless. Mumbo refused to even take naps without his special, silky blanket. He just shook his head and looked towards the door. He was in too much pain to sleep. "Is there anything specific besides your blanket you want Scar to grab?" Grian asked quietly, wanting to make Mumbo as comfortable as possible because he was in this for the long road.
Pillows, bedding, and my tablet. Mumbo traced onto Grian's hand, knowing he'd get scolded for talking in this condition. Communicating and keeping entertained would be a lot easier with his tablet. Grian nodded and sent Scar a message on his communicator, then helped Mumbo get a bit more comfortable. Am I going to be okay?
"You're going to be okay, Mumby. It's just going to take some time to get you feeling better. You inhaled a lot of redstone." Grian sighed out, looking at Mumbo sadly. His hand went to Mumbo's face, sweeping some hair out of his face. He hated seeing his best friend in an oxygen mask and covered in cooling gel. He looked like death.
"Alright, I'm going to call over Tango and Cub for help with coding and other medical needs. Vex venom is fortunately an amazing temporary pain reliever." Xisuma stated as he grabbed his communicator.
Xisumavoid: @Cubfan135 @Tangotek
Xisumavoid: Come to Grian's house asap, no redstone on your person. Be prepared to be here for a few days, will explain more when you arrive.
Cubfan135: o7
Xisumavoid: Cub, bring medical supplies. Tango, bring your laptop.
Tangotek: Be there in a bit, just let me shut down Hungry Hemrits and take a quick shower to get residual redstone off.
Scar was back at Grian's within the hour with Cub by his side, both carrying armfuls of things. Cub brought enough blankets to cover the whole damn house, just to make sure Mumbo was comfortable. He immediately jumped into action, giving Mumbo his blanket and his pillows, then handed him his tablet. Mumbo smiled and leaned up to hug Cub, wincing as he moved his sore body. Scar had handfuls of herbs and all of the medical equipment Cub had brought.
"Do you need anything else?" Cub asked as Grian helped Mumbo get comfortable in his mountain of blankets and pillows. Cub quickly hooked Mumbo up to various monitors and give him an IV to help keep him hydrated. "And I mean anything because I will go to any lengths to make you comfortable." Cub stated in his adorable, flat tone.
I'm okay, Cub. I'll let you know if I need anything. Mumbo typed out, smiling under his oxygen mask. Cub had such an odd way of showing how he cared about others, but especially Mumbo. He'd go to the end of the world and back for Mumbo. Cub was so damn caring, even if he didn't know how to express it sometimes. Cub nodded and sat down on the bed next to Scar, leaning his head against the vex's shoulder. Now was just waiting for Tango.