"Once, it was beautiful, but a simple mistake turned it to something else, something covered in blood."

Don't worry! Thee neeeexxxxttt chapter a new character will be introduced. Ima have some good times writing this character! Also the iskall fox POV is at the end if ya wanna skip to that, but uhhhh it's not exactly what you may think at first...

POV: Mumbo

Mumbo watched as Xisuma crossed his arms impatiently. They had been waiting for Stress for about half an hour now and X was getting impatient. Luckily, Mumbo himself had a lot of patience due to failed redstone and careful work. After a moment, his friend turned to him.

"Do you know what's taking her so long?"

Mumbo paused for a moment, trying to come up with an idea. "No idea ... sidetracked maybe ....?"

"Good point, but with what though?"

He shrugged. "Again. No idea."

"Strange ...."

It was strange that Stress wasn't here. They'd even gotten so  bored they cleaned a little. Cleaned!  Not like dusting and sweeping no, putting stuff back and repairing and making things look nicer.

Mumbo looked at X, who had a slight smile, and was looking around, just noticeably pleased with himself.

Mumbo smiled, and let the silence become a shield for his thoughts. He was still wondering why Iskall had done what he had done though. And why did it have to be Iskall! And why him???? He hadn't done anything to Iskall! ....right....? Had he screwed up maybe...? Maybe he missed too many meetings? Or didn't spend enough time with him? Or messed up somehow?? No! He hadn't done anything! He did spend time with his friends and he showed up to the last meeting, even if he was a little bit late he still showed! So why him! Why why why why why why WHY! Why Mumbo?! What did he do?! He tried to be a good friend and all! If Iskall wanted to play this game, then he. was. on.

It took him a moment to notice X, his friend, was walking over with something rolled up.

"Mumbo ..?"

"Hmm ...?"

"Can you explain something for me please?"

"Yeah, of course! What is it?" Mumbo smiled, maybe this was a redstone question!

"This .." Xisuma un-rolled the blueprint, and held it out to Mumbo, clear as day. "Why on earth do you have such precise sketches and diagrams of Grian's base ....? I mean I understand it's April Fools and you could've used them for a prank but this is kinda crazy...."

Mumbo froze for a second, eye wide. He had worked hard on that.... it was supposed to be a secret! He was going to use the diagram for a prank, but nobody was supposed to know so Grian wouldn't know who to get revenge on! 

 "Uhm .... it was for a p-prank .... I- I was gonna have his w-whole base flooded with potatoes ...... t-that's why its so precise and all the detail ..... "

Xisuma eyed him suspiciously. "Uh huh .... but-" Mumbo quickly grabbed the blueprints and rolled them up. "It's nothing. Just ignore it ok?" He didn't realize his slightly edgy tone until after he spoke. Luckily, Xisuma backed off. "Ok, sorry. I shouldn't have nosed around.." Recovering, he and smiled at his friend, thankful and relieved. "Erm nono your fine... heh.."

He looked away and so did the admin. The silence took over as a shield again. The diagram was oddly specific.... and it did have some pretty good ideas.... Maybe he could tweak them a bit..  I mean.... Grian's build DOES have some similarities to Sahara.... it is a similar building style....... Mumbo tried to hide his grin. He was a genius. An evil genius.

Mumbo smiled, his thoughts running free and down a dark streak. He didn't even notice X was talking to him until he snapped his fingers.

Mumbo jumped, taken by surprised at Xisuma snapping his fingers in his face. "HUH ?! What- yeah ?!" The admin arched an eyebrow at him. "You ok?" Nervously, Mumbo scratched the side of his arm. "Uhm yeah yeah, yeah I'm all good here! Nothin' wrong! All good!" He gave X a nervous, semi-twitchy smile.

Trying not to start any reason for concern, he tried to stay calm as his friend eyes him.. "Nothing, just makin 'sure your ok ..... you spaced out right there .." Mumbo shook his head and smiled. "Nono, I'm ok...... just uhh thinkin ...." X looked at Mumbo, his expression unreadable underneath the helmet."Well uhm, mind telling me what you were thinking about ..?"

Mumbo hesitated. What was he supposed to say? How did he blow this off? A million thoughts raced his head, then he noticed part of a damaged wall. "Oh uhm, just what I may need to fix this mess that's all ...."

Xisuma smiled. "Oh, that's smart." 

Mumbo nodded. "Would you mind if uh I went to Sahara to get some stuff ..? Since Stress is taking a bit of a while and all ...?" Xisuma paused for a moment, thinking. Then he did the oddest thing to Mumbo. He clapped his hands together and smiled. "Of course you can Mumbo! I'll just be here waiting ok?" Mumbo tried to hide his shock. Xisuma went from all thinking and mysterious so smiling and well....... nice and suspicious. Mumbo decided to play along with..... this...... "Oh, ok thank you Xisuma!"

X smiled. "Anything for my dear friend!"

Mumbo matched the smile. "Why thanks! It's nice to have friends you can trust! Like how I know I can trust you my dear friend!" 

X nodded and smiled more. "Well, off you go then!" 

Mumbo nodded and held his arms out, hugging Xisuma, and shockingly getting a hug back. "Anyways, I'd better get going X! I'll be back in a jif!" With that, Mumbo slipped out, not wanting to partake anymore in whatever the heck just went down.

Mumbo quickly took to the sky. He looked back to make sure he wasn't being followed. He wasn't. Quickly he pulled out his phone to message Grian. They were still friends after all, and he didn't want to short guy to get hurt just in case..... ya know..... Mumbo messed up the redstone and murdered Iskall......

Smiling he messaged Grian.

Grian 

"Hey Grian?"

"Don't ask, just saying it may be smart to avoid Sahara for the day. Ok?"

"whhHHHYYYYYYYY???????????????????"

"Because"

"Because whhhhhyyyyyyeeeeee"

"I'll give you two shulker boxes of eggs if you stop asking."

"No. I want ten!" 

"One"

"Eleven!"

"Fine. I'll DOUBLE my offer. Two WHOOLLLEEEE boxes....?"

"EDSAL!"

"DELA*"

"I MEANT DEAL"

"Ok, it's a deal"

"Sweet! Bye bye mumbai!"

"... what the heck grian"

"Idk, bye tho!"

"Bye!"

Mumbo turned off his phone. He was almost there......

Landing, he smiled and looked around. Then he froze once he saw...... the faces.... They were everywhere..... on the windows and doors........ staring at him.....

Mumbo shook his head. His shorter friend had quite literally put his own face.... everywhere.... Mumbo smiled, his friend was quite....... well there wasn't a word for it.... we'll go with one-of-a-kind. Because who stamps their face on windows? Smiling, Mumbo went to walks into Sahara.

"Owww!" He groaned as he slammed into......glass?! Who the heck puts GLASS at the entrance of a STORE! Then he noticed it. 

A face print.

A foot or two away from his.

Grians' face print.

Him and Grian had both slammed into this glass.

But there wasn't any proof of Iskall.

Iskall set this up.

Both architects but Iskall had fallen for it.

Because they didn't know about it, unlike Iskall. This was where Grian probably got his window idea too... Of course he took it for a fun loving prank. He wouldn't have taken it any. other. single. way.

Without hesitation, Mumbo took a picture of the glass, then tore it down. Every. Last. Shard. Huffing, Mumbo walked into the store. He practically stormed into the meeting room. He sat down in his chair and basically sat on the floor.

"Wha-" The chair lowered itself and Mumbo's feet hit the floor, his knee hitting his jaw, throwing his head back against the chair.

"Owww! What the heck...?!" He groggily got up, using the chair as support since it was so low to the ground. He looked down at it. There were some bits and pieces laying about, and that was it mainly. Mumbo laid down on his back and looked at the underside of the chair. It had some pieces missing, that was it. "So that's why......." Mumbo got an evil smile. "Ooohhhh Iskall you're in for it now...." He let out one of those evil laughs and looked around. Something  caught his eye.

It was Grian's chair.... it looked.... well bigger so to speak... "Whatever...... probably just because my chair is basically on the ground. Light deception probably......" 

"Whatever..., I have work here to do....." Mumbo smiled and got started. He placed a bunch of splinters in Iskall's chair, because the smaller "pranks" are often overlooked. 

He then proceeded to more....... lethal..... pranks..... shall we say..

Smiling, he set it all up. He placed an observer in the ceiling, then set it up to some repeaters. He then hooked that up to some pistons, which were under some slime blocks, which were under the floor beneath Iskall's chair. He then added some more tiny details and things to make this work better. Then he blindly dug, coincidentally underneath Iskall's chair. He pulled out a shulker box, and looked in it. He smiled and shrugged. If there was only enough supplies to make a suffocating trap, well then, there was only enough supplies for a suffocating trap! Plus! It wouldn't be a trap if he blew it off as a failed prank right!

He smiled, and spent roughly forty five minuets working. Redstone was his hobby and when he had a valid reason for it, he got it done quick. He smiled, got himself out of the hole he'd dug, and happily walked out of Sahara. He walked around the place, quite happy actually!

He swung his arms back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. He walked along a random path, but stopped, feeling a pain in his finger. He looked down.

It was a thorn. A rose thorn. It had pricked him. He looked at his pricked finger, and gently squeezed it. Nothing came out, meaning there wasn't a thorn. But some blood did spill. Then noticed the rose. It was a gorgeous ivory/snow white rose. It looked delicate and crisp, like it would easily crumble. Then he noticed the blood. It had landed on a petal, and slowly made it's way down the delicate flower, turning it red. 

Blood red. A blood red rose.

Once, it was beautiful, but a simple mistake turned it to something else, something covered in blood. 

Looking at it, and a thought nagged at Mumbo. Before today, he wouldn't have EVER thought of revenge seeking on this level, much less hurt one of his friends. But today, he did. And he too would soon have blood on his hands. He smiled, picked the rose, put it in his coat pocket and continued his walk.

--------------------- 

Black.

Darkness. 

An endless shadow.

That was all it was to him. Nothing whatsoever. The smiled. There was nothing. And that gave him everything to work with. Nothing had been manipulated so everything could be. 

Iskall smiled and closed his eyes. He thought of his happiest moments. Fun times with Grian and Mumbo, hanging out with his friends, the fox...

It all appeared before him like a movie. A beautiful thing dreams were. If you knew what was happening, you could control what was happening. And that's what Iskall did.

He thought over the path he took to get to this clearing.  He couldn't have himself remember what he couldn't, but he could show what he could. It replayed from his view. Walking, the fox, getting lost, the calls, everything. None of it made much sense though. Stress started being weird and he was still lost. He couldn't figure out his way back, no matter what he tried. His friends weren't answering, but the fox made it better...

Iskall smiled as the funniest moments with the fox played back. He really did love the fuzz ball it was! It was small and furry and fluffy and cute and energetic and cute and small and furry! Iskall smiled. He needed a name for the fox... Sighing, he decided to decide later, and got to work. 

He thought of Sahara's schematics. They came up. He'd been wanting to try to see what a slightly different design would work out..... 

Iskall walked around, messing with stuff and making it all to his liking. Slowly though, his shoulder began to progressively hurt, and by the time he was satisfied with the schematic, it had practically tripled in pain. Iskall rubbed his shoulder, but it didn't help.

Slowly, his focus slipped away, turning everything to black.

Iskall lurched upwards, his breathing heavy. He had had a bad dream, but what on? He couldn't remember.... He looked down to his shoulder, which still hurt. He smiled and laughed, quickly laying back down. The fox had simply moved and stretched, clawing him by accident. That was probably why it was clinging to his shirt, trying not to fall.

That reminded him...... he needed a fox name...

(Word count: 2318)

(Yeah I didn't know what to do for iskalls part. Also anyone want a specific fox name? AND did ANNNYYOOONNNEEE get my two word hint? It's a complete give away or useless depending on if you find it and think along the lines! It's close to the beginning, and it's a hint to the next character I'm adding! Plz say if you do! Or guess!)