(Word count: 1534

I saw this on the Hermittpad Recap Discord, said by ! I loved it immediately.

A bit of Architects angst because why not

Also a little headcanon in which Grian is sensitive and really takes his friends' feedback to heart)

"Where's Grian? This is the third meeting he hasn't shown up to."

Iskall rested his head on the Sahara meeting table, groaning slightly. How were they supposed to conduct an Architects meeting without the person who started Architects in the first place?

Mumbo shrugged. Iskall literally had to drag him to the Sahara meeting room after the first meeting without Grian. Neither he or Mumbo had shown up, and Iskall had sat alone in the meeting room.

The environment wasn't as cheery without the builder with them. He was busy doing things with the Hippies, but the Architects needed to figure out what to do with Sahara NOW. The area still needed to be built, and not to mention the Redstone and time advertising it. As much as Iskall was enjoying spectating the Area 77 shenanigans, but they really needed Grian on board for this project.

And it would also be great if he took a shower. That would be nice, too.

"So, what are we going to do with Sahara NOW?" Mumbo, bless him, was trying to take charge as best as he could.

It was Iskall's turn to shrug. "Honestly, we need all three of us here to figure this out. And since Grian's busy over at Hippieland..." Iskall didn't mean to sound resentful, but it leaked out.

"Should we try to bring him over?"

Iskall sighed. Mumbo flinched a bit. "Did I say something wrong?"

"What?" Iskall realized that Mumbo thought his sigh was directed at him. "No, no! Sorry. I just think that we need to put Sahara NOW on hold for now. Work on other projects."

Mumbo twiddled his thumbs. "I mean, we've been getting complaints about the warehouse lately. Maybe that?"

Iskall winced at the thought of having to possibly rewire all the modules. "You sure? That's a lot of work."

"Someone has to do some Sahara projects, don't they?" Even Mumbo's voice was laced with a bit of annoyance at Grian.

"Let's do it, then."

----------

"I'm back!"

Grian entered the Sahara meeting room with a flourish, grinning. It was a week after the Area 77 going-ons had ended. He was back in his normal attire. He expected a warm welcome, or at least a smile or two.

What he didn't expect was an empty meeting room.

"...Guys?" Grian tried for a smile. "Is this a joke?" He forced a laugh. "Ha ha. Very funny."

After almost a whole month of not being able to work on Sahara, Grian decided it was high time the Architect boys had a meeting. To celebrate his return, Grian had left signs all over Iskall and Mumbo's bases, telling them to meet him here today. At this time. There was no way they could have missed the sign spam. So where were they?

Grian checked to see if either of them was online. Mumbo was. Well, he had a good excuse--he always forgot about meetings. That was probably it. A few leaflet drops should remind him.

Mumbo had been doing a lot of work in his industrial area lately. From what Grian had heard (and experienced, because of the lag), Mumbo had managed to build one farm and was currently building another one. He would probably be there.

Grian put a few of his experience levels to good use and wrote on a stack of paper. MEETING IN SAHARA ROOM. COME NOW. That should be enough to tell the mustached man to come. It was their first meeting in almost a month! They should want to come. There were so many things to do--plan out Sahara NOW, fix the warehouse...so many projects.

The builder took off towards Mumbo's industrial area.

"Mumbo! Mumbo Jumbo! Mumby!" Grian catcalled as he swooped over the Redstoner. "Meeting in the Sahara conference room right now! We need to talk!"

Without waiting to see if Mumbo would follow, Grian took off back towards Sahara. He would probably be following soon.

Grian sat down in his abnormally large chair in Sahara and waited...

...and waited...

...and waited...

...for almost a whole hour. Mumbo didn't show up.

"What in the world?" Grian muttered to himself. Did he do something wrong? Were they mad at him?

Grian decided to check the Sahara warehouse and gasped. "Oh my goodness..."

The two other Architects had absolutely required the place, adding a restocking system, an ice stream, and a whole new level of modules. This was amazing. But it also sent a message.

Grian felt a pang of guilt. No wonder they didn't come. While he had been busy with Hippieland and Area 77, Mumbo and Iskall had been busy with Sahara. They were annoyed at him for not contributing. It had been almost a whole month—how much had they gotten done?

Grian needed to contribute, too. What needed to be done?

The restocking. Well, Grian didn't want to mess with the Redstone, but he could at least get the items.

"Um...gravel. And saaaaaand." Grian groaned at the grind that would be. But then he thought about how many Redstone resources the warehouse would have taken. Compared to the grind he was groaning at, their project would have taken weeks. And it did take weeks.

Grian took off to take the grind.

—————

Mumbo watched Grian zoom off over his industrial district. He felt a bit guilty at not showing up, but truth be told, he was still a bit sore at Grian.

The Redstoner spent a few hours working on his farm before taking a break and heading to Sahara. He needed to apologize to Grian. The builder had probably figured out what was wrong by now. If he ran into Grian at Sahara, he'd talk to him and figure things out.

"Grian? Hello?"

Surprisingly, Grian was nowhere to be seen. Mumbo checked the parrot room, the storage room, and finally went up to the meeting room.

Four shulker boxes sat there, dyed yellow and ready for stocking. Mumbo opened one. Sand and gravel. Grian must have been doing quite the grind. That's what he was going to when Mumbo saw him flying over the industrial district.

Mumbo felt really guilty. Grian was trying to make it up to them, but they were ignoring him. He sent a direct message to Iskall.

<MumboJumbo> you're not still mad at grian, are you?

<Iskall85> not really..i was meaning to talk to him

<MumboJumbo> we really should. i'm trying to find him.

<Iskall85> i'll come help

"Grian?"

Mumbo wandered around Grian's base. His disorganized storage system gave him literal pain, but his friend was more important.

They had been searching for Grian for a good part of the day. No sign.

In a moment of annoyance, Mumbo stabbed his trident into the ground. It sank into the block, then flew back towards him because of the loyalty enchantment.

Pistons fired. Mumbo wasn't expecting Redstone. The ground opened up beneath him, and he fell.

The Redstoner landed in a block of water, screaming his head off. He felt a bit silly.

"What in the..."

Mumbo climbed up out of the water. The room he was in was a large, spacious cave. He was standing on a large egg. There was another egg on one wall. White columns lined the area.

"Is this...the poultry cave?"

"Mumbo?"

Mumbo looked around to see Grian himself sitting on top of the egg nearby. "Grian! Oh, thank goodness we found you. Iskall and I've been searching for a near part of the day."

<MumboJumbo> I FOUND HIM

<Iskall85> thank goodness, where?

<MumboJumbo> go to G's base and stab your trident into the ground

<Iskall85> ???

<MumboJumbo> no matter, just GET OVER HERE

"Oh, I am so relieved you're okay. We thought you'd went away or something bad had happened or..." Mumbo trailed off at the look on Grian's face.

"I thought you didn't care..."

"Oh." Mumbo was instantly hit with another layer of "Grian Guilt". "Oh..."

"I came back and both of you were ignoring me. Were...are you mad at me?"

"Oh. Oh no. No, no. Grian, we were annoyed at you for not showing up during your time with the Hippies--"

"I thought so." Grian shifted so it looked like he was poised to leave.

"BUT," Mumbo quickly added. "That's over now. I'm sure Iskall feels the same way."

As if on cue, the Swede came crashing down into the poultry cave. Unfortunately, he'd missed the water and hit the ground hard. He sat up. "Ow...holy poultry cave." He looked around the place in awe, then his eyes landed on Grian and Mumbo. "We were trying to look for you, and we understand why you feel like this, and we're sorry--"

Grian smiled a bit at his friend's rapid apology. "Just...don't ignore me for a week ever again."

"Don't ignore us for a month," Iskall shot back, but he was grinning too. "Also, take a shower. This place stinks."

Mumbo sighed in exasperation. "You guys are such idiots."

"Oh, yeah...I tried to restock the items in Sahara but for some reason, the machine wouldn't work..."

"You have got to be kidding me." Iskall groaned good-naturedly. 

"While we're at it, can we finally have that long-overdue Sahara meeting?" Mumbo added. 

"Nah. You'll just skip it again."

"I will not."

The three Architects flew out of the poultry cave and off to Sahara, friends once again.