Mumbo took one look at himself in the mirror and cringed. He had redstone dust in his hair and caked in his fingers, and his suit was slightly scorched. He'd spent the morning fixing the machine that blew up yesterday, and ended up having to do more in-depth repairs than usual.

Yeah, he should probably clean himself up.

An hour later, Mumbo was searching his ender chest for a book and quill. Once he found it, he emptied his inventory and took off his armour, leaving the book, his elytra, and a stack of rockets. Noon had set in, and Mumbo quickly set off, travelling through the nether, al; the way to Hermitville.

_______________________

Knock, knock, knock 

Grian set down the book and made his way up the plumbing and into his freakishly tall house. He wondered who was at the door, no one really knew about his secret lab, so he assumed no one would try to find him in Hermitville. But apparently, someone was at the door and Grian walked over to answer it.

Before he opened the door, a pang of anxiety creeped through him. What if it was an illager? Or worse?

He pushed the thoughts down as he opened the door to see...

"Mumbo? What brings you here?"

The redstoner simply had an elytra and a book and quill, no armour or redstone tools, or whatever. He gave Grian a measured look, and Grian could see clear worry in the gentleman's eyes.

"Grian, may I talk to you for a bit?"

Grian was a bit surprised, but nodded, letting mumbo in. The two sat down on a couple shulker boxes and Mumbo pulled out the book and quill and flipped to the first page, and seemed to read from it.

"Grian, I know you've been through a lot. And yet, you seem to have mentally recovered from it quite quickly. I've known you for years, and I don't believe that you're okay. I think you need to talk about it. That is, if you want to. But seriously," he glanced up and met Grian's eyes, "you should talk. But I'm not going to pressure you."

Grian laughed a little, but it came out weary. He dropped the act all at once. It was true - he wasn't all okay. He thought he'd hidden it well, no one wants to see a broken person after all. But Mumbo had noticed, and Grian decided that yes, he'd try talking it out. He trusted Mumbo.

"Alright, I'll talk. You're right, I've been pretending I'm fine when I'm not."

Mumbo listened as Grian began to let his feeling's spill over.

"Being honest, I constantly feel worried that I'll end up back in the mansion. I can't even look at a pillager without having flashbacks! and I push myself to work on magic, even though it terrifies me-"

"Deep breaths Grian." Mumbo interrupted, putting a hand on Grian's shoulder. Grian gave a nod and continued, more slowly.

"It feels like, like it's raining but I don't have a coat. And I'm standing under someone else's umbrella, but I know they're going to leave soon, and I-I'll be stranded in the rain, so I'm trying to c-come up with small talk to stall them, b-but I'm running out of words." Grain felt himself begin to stutter a little, the emotions spilling out of him as he tried to convey his worries.

Mumbo wrote down a few things as Grian talked. "Who do you think the person with the umbrella symbolizes?" He asked.

"Um... well I don't know."

"Exactly." Mumbo said. "Nobody's going to leave you stranded in the rain. You're safe."

Mumbo had a point. Grian swung his feet a little. 

"Maybe the person with the umbrella is you." Mumbo suggested. "Maybe you're scared of what you're going to discover about yourself, so you're holding onto how you were before all this."

By gosh, he was right! Grian kinda froze. "I'm scared of the transition." He said quietly. "I'm scared of losing myself to this change."

Mumbo nodded and wrote something down before closing the book and quill. "Grian, what you're experiencing are side effects of trauma."

"Trauma?" Grian asked.

"Yes. Joe, Scar, and I discussed this while you were in Area 77." Mumbo explained. "You're feeling anxious and disconnected. You're still in a bit of denial as well." 

Grian wasn't sure what to say. It made sense. But then, the now familiar worry set in. It filled his head with what if's: What if he never recovered fully? What if he felt anxious forever? What if he lost himself to the trauma and-

______________________________

"Grian?" Mumbo's voice was laced with worry. The small hermit had begun to shake a little, and seemed to curl up into himself, muttering what ifs and worries.

Mumbo began to panic slightly, what was he supposed to do? He wasn't sure what course of action to take to comfort his friend. He knelt down next to the shulker Grian was sitting on and began to whisper soothing words, realizing what was happening. Grian was having a panic attack. And from the look of it, it was getting worse. Grian began to mutter broken phrases, and Mumbo tried to comfort him.

Thorny, black roots began to sprout through the floorboards around Grian's feet.

_______________________________

Grian was panicking, anxiety completely taking over his mind. He covered his face, and suddenly he was back in the mansion. He began to mutter nonsense, trying to block everything out. He began to feel overwhelmed, everything was too loud, even though it was quiet in Hermitville, it was too loud, too hot, far too hot, far too cramped-

Someone was whispering words, words he didn't-no couldn't-comprehend. But all at once, it was too much. It was too much. Too loud. Too hot. Too-

________________________________

A strangled cry escaped Grian mouth, and everything seemed to still. Mumbo saw frost spread over the walls as the thorns around Grian's feet spread across the floor, wrapping around chests and shulkers.

A weird hot feeling began twitching at Mumbo's fingers. The redstoner glanced down and saw that his fingers were edged in purple. He only had time to mutter "that's not normal" before passing out cold.

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