(Overworking, stress, not eating/sleeping/drinking water yeah, temporary death.)
  
     Mumbo ran a hand through his hair.

     He was so thankful last season when Scar became mayor instead of him. It was too stressful of any idea to even complete. If he was honest, he only voted for Scar instead of himself because he couldn't handle the leadership role. He wasn't the smartest or responsible of people. Heck, he missed most of the Architech meetings because he just didn't care about them enough. He would always get a letter from Grian anyways telling him what happened. He would silently do his work like a good little, insignificant worker. He didn't act as one of the founders of the company, just stocking and making sure the equipment was working most of the time. Those decisions were made by Iskall and Grian who were more than capable with making them.

     Now though, he just glanced at the paper clutched in his hand. Names of the Boatem people signed at the bottom, all in different handwriting ensuring that they all agreed with the decision. Eyes wandering over each word, trying to see the joke but he was unable to. He could see Grian in his peripheral vision, waiting for an answer in anticipation.

     "So, this is official?" Mumbo kept a serious tone to hide his internal fears.

     "Yup! I brought up the idea and they all agreed. Scar will be the head of sales, Impulse is head of resource management, Pearl is head of architectural development, and I am head of meetings and organization." Mumbo would usually hate having to be any of those but they were ten times better than being CEO. At least then he had someone to listen to rather than making too many of his own plans.

     He didn't know why Grian was doing this.

     The builder didn't gain anything from this other than pure joy. He always shoved Mumbo into the role of a leader and it stressed the redstone Hermit out.

     He swears that in a few months his moustache will be gray.

     "Why me though? I'm sure you or one of the other Boatem people would be better suited." Grian gave him a look like it should be obvious.

     "Well, you created the name Boatem Pole, I think it would be pretty funny and you had the suit."

     Mumbo groaned. "Do I have to go back to wearing the suit?"

     "Of course, are you in or not?"

     "No!" His mind was screaming at him to say.

     "Yeah, why not?" Is what was forced to come out.

---

     Who knew being a CEO would be hard?

     He went back to his normal attire, suit recently pressed and skin returning back to it's natural pink shade rather than the texture of a potato. His tie was barely hanging on his neck, reaching the floor in an effort to get off. He sat in a temporary desk that the others made for him at the bottom of the Boatem hole, surrounded by obsidian with floating end crystals and the void just barely out of reach. It was shabby, just a table (they definitely stole it from Jevin, if the green stains said anything) that was not balanced and was standing on Curse of Binding books. His chair was too small for him, probably meant for a dwarf or something. His knees scraped against the bottom of the table uncomfortably, knocking off if he moved one billionth of an inch. Papers were stacked as up to his thighs in a box to the side (he made the mistake of having it on his desk earlier, accidentally kicking the table and sending all the pages flying. He was pretty sure half of them were missing in the void now.) An even smaller pile was the papers he already went through, signing his name at the bottom once he approved. Dead pens littered the floor around him, ready for him to kick in the void later on.

     Finally, finishing his hundreth paper for the day, he stretched and got up. He promised himself to make at least a thirty minute break to go build, ride Horse or do anything other than read words over and over.

     He heard the dreadful noise of rockets and screaming.

    Scar came tumbling down, teetering on the edge of the void with his arms flailing. He managed to get his bearings and walked over to Mumbo with a smile.

     "Hey there, neighbor!" Mumbo wanted to roll his eyes. Whatever Scar was there for needed to be quick. He had just set his thirty minute timer and it was idling ticking in the background.

     "What do you need from me? I've been busy down here so I haven't been able to handle my restocking of my shop or anything else." At least Scar tried to look guilty as he brought out an at least twenty page stack of papers.

     "I was late on getting my last reports done. From the looks of it though, they won't get touched on soon." Scar was looking behind Mumbo at the stacks on the floor. Mumbo let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair.

     "I'll take care of it. A lot of it is just random junk from the others like specific things, the very second of efficiency a farm is, the very coordinates of a shop, things like that. I'll deal with it now." Mumbo took the timer and turned it off, setting it with the clock face down on the desk.

     "Are you sure? That is a lot to take care of-"

     "I'm sure. I do have these papers I need delived if you could."

     "Alright, I can go do that now." Scar took the one hundred page stack and looked at some of them. "There is a slight problem though. I know I'm supposed to give these to them but with my dyslexia-"

     "Just give it to Grian, he knows what to do." Mumbo said, sitting back at his desk and ending the conversation. Scar used rockets to get up the surface, the echo temporarily deafening Mumbo.

     Looking at the papers that Scar had handed him, lots of it was hard to read. He was going to take half a hour deciphering a page before he managed. Taking the timer in hand, he turned and threw it as far as he could into the void.

---

     Mumbo put down the last paper. The frown that made its permanent home across his face was still there. He felt slightly happy that he finished after days of work, no breaks to get up and do anything. The most he had eaten was a few apples he ate while reading some of Impulse's work (that man knew how to write novels. It was consistent with everything he wrote and there were at least nine pages before Mumbo had to sign anything.) Getting up, his knees buckled so he had to hold onto his chair. Everything felt woozy, vision spinning in waves and every body part tingling.

     "Eh, could be worse." Mumbo thought, strapping on his elytra with shaking hands. He quickly used some rockets and flew up out of the Boatem Hole. He had to get home to sleep.

     Entering Tertreesa, he was about to enter into his van to go to sleep but a big stack of papers caught his attention. Sitting there was more paperwork.

     Mumbo did a few, setting some of the sheets down when his eyes felt tired. He brought up half of the stack so he could do it before he went to bed but he didn't get to. He dozed off and in the morning, he barely noticed it as he went to go and work in the Boatem Hole.

     Hitting his forehead at how stupid he was, he scooped the papers up in his arms. Mumbo could see that it was still day outside.

     "No need to mess up my sleep schedule." Mumbo climbed out of the tree and flew down to the Boatem Hole, back to his desk. Turning the first page over, he groaned at reading it was one of Scar's work.

     He started reading.

---

     The pile grew and grew, the Boatem Hermits constantly coming down to put more on. They barely looked at Mumbo or talked anymore, knowing he would snap and say he needed quiet to actually work.

     Mumbo rubbed his tired and dry eyes while yawning. He had to keep reading, he just had to.

     "Mumbo!" The CEO sighed. Almost everyone listened to what he says.

     "Grian, I'm a bit busy at the moment with all this paperwork. If you need to say something, say it quick." Mumbo scribbled his name on one of Impulse's papers and put it aside. He saw the next one was Pearl's. She had shortened her words over time and every paper was a paragraph at most. Quickly skimming it, he signed it and put it onto Impulse's. Just about to read Scar's, a paper was slammed on top.

     "Meeting now, stop working, we have to talk about how we want to work on bases together." Mumbo looked up at Grian who was standing there with a cheeky smile on his face. He sighed and clicked his pen. "Do I have to sign this one?" He asked as the other nodded. Quickly, the pen moved across the paper before he handed it to Grian. "Alright, have a good meeting." He managed to read a line before Grian pulled his arm.

     "Nope! CEO has to be there too!" Mumbo looked over the papers he has lying there.

     "Can I read and work during the meeting?"

     "No, you have to be attentive and put in your input." Grian said, crossing his arms.

     "Grian, I am the CEO of this company." Mumbo sat up a bit forward, trying to intimidate the other. The builder sucked in a breath before nodding his head quickly.

     "Yeah, go ahead and bring your work." Grian left at that.

---

     Sitting in his chair, it seemed to be a bit hasty. The other were standing precariously on trap doors that overlooked the void. There were buttons underneath and each held bows and arrows. There was one for Mumbo but this table and chair was set up for him to continue working. He tapped his pen while reading and vaguely listening to the conversation. He could hear yelling and then screaming, echoing in the chasm. One of them must have fell into the void.

     Finishing his tenth signature, he put the around fifty pages down. He didn't know the meeting would drag on for very long.

     Getting up, Mumbo ignored the fuzzy blackness that creeped into his vision.

     "I'm going to grab more paperwork, be back soon." He said before going up a layer to his 'office.' He grabbed another fifty or so pages and was about to go back down when he spotted a note on his desk.

     "Mumbo, come talk, there is something important we need to discuss. Signed, Joe Hills." Mumbo muttered as he read to himself. Looking at the papers, he realized the talk could wait. He went to the void and watched as it fluttered down.

---

     "Please leave, I'm quite busy, Joe." Mumbo said as he crossed off another paper and put it into the declined section. That box was growing more and more over time. Who thought it would be a good thing to have a shop in the air when there were people who specifically would not fly?

     Letting out a grumble, he crossed off another bad idea. Bringing out a gas station to more of the wider Hermit areas would be a bad idea considering their competitors were doing so much better.

     "Mumbo, you have to listen or we are going to deal with this the hard way."

     The CEO continued to read, ignoring Joe behind him. Oh, this was a good idea finally. A meeting for next Thursday while not being dangled over the void, how fantastic-

     He felt a stinging pain in his stomach.

     Looking down, he could see the point of a sword tip with his blood on it. The red substance sprayed everywhere, all over the paper work and the desk. His suit was all dirty and some was dripping down his chin. The taste of iron filled his mouth.

     "Great, now all this paperwork is ruined." He groaned before blacking out.

---

     Waking up in a daze, he tried to get up but was pushed down onto the bed.

     "Mumbo, you have to sleep some more." He groaned at the voice, he had to get back to work. He can sleep when he is finished.

     "I have to go clean up my desk, I can't get behind in my work." He tried getting up again but a potion was shoved in his mouth. He forcefully had to drink it, already feeling more and more tired.

     "A weakness potion, how clever." He thought before going back to sleep.

---

     Sitting up, Mumbo rubbed his eyes nobody was forcing him down this time. Looking to the side, Iskall had his back turned to him as he talked to Joe and Xisuma.

     "-what they were thinking. That is too much for any person to take care of!" Iskall yelled, causing Mumbo to wince. "They should know better, of course he wouldn't have even wanted to do it!"

     "Calm down, I'm just as mad as you but we can't do anything about there decision now. We can only help and change it for the future." Xisuma said calmly although Mumbo could hear the edge to his voice.

     "He's awake." The three turned to him when Joe told them. Mumbo suddenly felt nervous.

     "Did I do something wrong?" He asked quietly, trying to calm himself by tapping his fingers on his thigh.

     "No, you did nothing wrong. The Boatem people are in the wrong though." Iskall looked scary yet kind at the same time.

     "Well, not Pearl, she brought the attention to this." Joe had a slight smile on his face at that. "She said how concerned she was about you being overworked in all. She originally tried going to the Boatem people but they thought you were handling it well."

     "Handling what?" Mumbo asked, voice hoarse."

     "Being CEO," Iskall had a sad smile on his face. "They don't know you as well as I do. You don't handle leadership roles properly, no offense but seriously." The Swedish Hermit sighed. "I told Grian this during our time in Sahara. We let you skip so many meetings because of it. We didn't mind and I didn't want to force you into anything that you didn't want to do."

     "Then why did Grian elect for me to become Mayor and then CEO?" Mumbo asked, Iskall letting a frown slide onto his face.

     "I really have no clue. He shouldn't have though." Joe handed Mumbo a bottle of water, allowing for him to drink it.

     "Drink up, after Pearl informed us, I went and just watched to make sure you were doing alright." Joe said. "I noticed that you didn't sleep for hours and hours, you barely ate and drank. I think you would have passed out if we hadn't have interfered."

     "Wait, the paperwork. I need to clean it up and get-"

     "Hold your horses, Mumbo. You are under bedrest, no thinking about the Boatem Company." Xisuma ordered. "The only way we could see fit was to kill you to get you to respawn in your bed. From there, Iskall and I waited so we could get you to stay here."

     "Alright but I still have lots of work to do-"

     "I'm handling it at the moment. No need to worry." Mumbo knows that a few of the Hermits are sort of his deputies that do odd work in the background. They must be doing whatever it is that Xisuma told them to do.

     "How are they handling it?" Mumbo asked as Xisuma shrugged.

     "However they seem fit. Probably talking to the others in the Boatem Villiage about this situation, all that." Mumbo tried not to imagine the deputies bent over paperwork, trying to make sense of Scar's writing.

     "What am I supposed to be doing here?"

     "Resting."

---

     It had been a few days since Mumbo last woke up.

     The three had allowed him to do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't attatched to the Boatem Company. So right now, he was staring at the sunset from atop his part of the Omega Mega base. Iskall was right next to him and their dinner to the side. Because of how much he hadn't eaten due to overworking, Mumbo had lost lots of weight so he was forced into eating with Iskall every meal. He didn't mind though, he had missed talking to Iskall for so long.

     "Hey, are you doing alright?" Iskall asked for a second. Mumbo sighed, looking down at the ground. He could see dolphins swimming in the waves.

(Surprise mid story warning because I wanted to bamboozle you guys. Mention of suicidal thoughts.)

     "Truthfully, no." He cleared his throat before resting his head on his knees. "I feel empty if I'm honest. Like, nothing truly is worth it if you think about it." Mumbo could feel the tears gathering in his eyes. "Doing endless work over and over again, dying but always waking up again, it just sucks." He let out a huff of laughter but it died down. "I don't know if I want to continue working anymore. It's just too exhausting. I'm going to be doing this until the day the Hermitcraft server dies." He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the sun's rays on his face.

     "Mumbo," his voice was shaky, "don't say that."

     "But it's true-"

     "Don't say that!" He turned and saw that Iskall was upset. He was shaking and tears were rolling down his face. "I don't know why you suddenly feel this way but you don't have to! I can't lose you and I don't think anyone else can lose you too." Mumbo knew that this implied that if he left the server, he could go to a hardcore world and then die there. Nobody would be able to stop him if he were to do that.

     "I think I've felt this way for awhile now." He let out a sigh. The sun was almost all the way below the horizon. "Just empty all the time. I could be upset or angry about all the work that the Boatem people, I know that but I don't blame them." The silence fell between the two, Iskall staring at Mumbo. "I don't blame them because I think they feel it too. We have to constantly work, that is our mindset. Work and work until exhaustion. Then we go back to working again." He closed his eyes again, feeling the wind brush through his hair. "There isn't anything else for us here. All our work here will get wiped when we move. We distract ourselves from that feeling constsntly. Look at Scar's starter base, for example." He gestured to the Landbo behind them. "Scar hadn't stopped building that. He worked on it continuously." He looked back down to the ground. It was really far from where they sat.

     Iskall held his arm with a tight grip. "He worked because he wanted to, Mumbo." He was still crying. "You didn't want to do that paperwork, you didn't want to. When you enjoy what you do, you can forget about all this. You will have a purpose other than working, trust me." His voice was thick with emotion. Mumbo fell into his arms letting out a little breath. His arms were protective, keeping him from anything harmful in the world. He could see start to believe Iskall that everything may be alright someday.

---

     "Mumbo, I'm sorry." Grian said softly. The redstone Hermit just sighed.

(Happy story? Another bamboozle. Implied self harm.)

     "I don't really care anymore. Let's just ignore it ever happened." He went back to messing with the bandages that covered his arms. He messed up but Iskall was there to pull him out.

     "We need to talk about it. You could have told me-"

     "Grian, I said I didn't want to talk about it." His room was monitored and Iskall was seen through the window, looking down at the floor.

     "Please, just-"

     "Let's not fight." Joe walked into the room, walking around Iskall at the door. "If Mumbo doesn't want to talk about it, fair enough. There isn't any need to talk about it." Grian looked between the two before leaving the room. "Mumbo, I know you don't want to talk about it-"

     "You're right, I really don't." He could see Iskall and Grian talking outside, a frown on the Swedish man's face. "Why do I have to be here anyways?" Joe let out that sigh that only a tired dad would have.

     "We told you, we can't have you go running off to another world. You can't do anything serious in Hermitcraft but that doesn't stop this." He gestured to the room. Iskall appeared to be having a shouting match with Grian.

     "When will this end," Mumbo groaned into his pillow. Joe's breathing stuttered for a second.

     "Don't talk like that." Mumbo let out a harsh laugh and pointed to the fight outside.

     "I'm talking about the idiotic fight that I stupidly started." With that, he turned and ignored whatever anyone else would say.

---

     They were back to watching the sunset except this time, they were on the ground.

(I bamboozle again but instead, yay you get comfort and happy fluffy stuff *gags*)

     Iskall was protectively holding him close, drawing shapes on his back while he tried to guess.

     "Is that a triangle?" He asked, muffled by the other's hoodie.

     "I don't know how you got a triangle out of five lines but no." They both laughed at that. As the light dimmed, Iskall's fingers lingered. Soon, it was just him hugging Mumbo tightly. "Please, don't leave."

     Sitting there feeling better than he had in awhile, he had no clue why he ever felt so bad. Maybe Iskall was right, there is a point when you are doing something you love, like being there with Iskall. Being able to relax and take it slow rather than being overworked constantly felt like the heavens singing.

     He hugged Iskall tighter, "I won't."

  Words: 3694
Written: Sunday, August 29th, 2021, 4:17 pm
Edited:
Originally Posted: Sunday, August 29th, 2021, 4:24 pm

This was supposed to be just overworked mumbo, absolutely nothing special then I wanted more angst cuz it wasn't sad enough and my soul needs to be fed. Anywaysssssssssss yeah. Idk what else to say. My hand is cramping up from writing this and I have to study for my APUSH test tomorrow oof. I have another angst idea in mind though and it is messing with me so I might do it later.