This AU is loosely based off of Indominus_Gaming and their Red Dusted Past AU. Grian is still cursed, but it takes a different effect than their AU. 

Grian POV

Doc: Redstone meeting! Anyone who knows redstone should go to Mumbo's perimeter by 9

Iskall: Mumbo, you better be there!

Mumbo: I'll be AFK there, wake me up when it starts

Grian sighed flipping his phone over after muting it. He had tried and tried again to prove to the others that he could do redstone, but that stupid curse! Anytime he would try and make something to show the hermits, it would all go wrong. Everything would go perfectly fine when he was designing things, but if Grian even thought about showing the hermits, the curse would kick in and the contraption would break.

And Grian didn't have anything to do. He couldn't prank Mumbo, the redstoners would all be there, there were no server-wide events to prepare for, he didn't have anything to build. So Grian went into one of the newest towers on the outer rim of his base. He had hidden the entrance to his redstone room there so that people wouldn't find it easily. However, when he went through the one block hole you had to fly through to get in, he accidentally left it open.

Grian worked on various redstone contraptions he had in mind, including a storage system he desperately needed and would use, except for the curse. The curse that ruined his life. Grian lost track of the days, his phone sitting in his base, still muted.

Xisuma POV

Xisuma: Hey has anyone seen Grian? He said he would help me with something a few days ago, and I've been texting him, but with no response

Mumbo: That's strange, he is usually on top of those things. I'll check his base to see if he is there.

Xisuma: Thanks Mumbo, I'll fly over there to help, Grian's base is HUGE.

Xisuma equipped his elytra and flew over to the futuristic multi-layer cake. Mumbo was (obviously) there already and he was searching the aviary. "Hey X. So I found Grian's phone over there" Mumbo gestured to where Grian had set up a small bedroom area. "It was on mute, which is probably why he didn't respond. I've checked pretty much the whole aviary with no sign of Grian, only a few parrots."

"Okay, where do you recommend we look? You know Grian's base better than me."

"Well if Grian isn't here or on the bottom layer, he might be in his underground portion, in his starter base, or not here at all. I'll start checking the underground starting here, Xisuma, do you want to check his starter base? There is an underground portion there that had linked up to the main underground portion, and we can probably dig that area out an meet up there."

"Okay, keep your phone on, and make sure you can hear it in case one of us finds something," Xisuma instructed before diving into the water and entering the shipwreck. Xisuma couldn't help but admire the build. For a mere starter base, it was definitely impressive. Xisuma looked through the small upper portion before going underground. Xisuma searched the whole thing and met up with Mumbo in an area that had been blocked off with cobblestone.

"So Grian's obviously not here. Do you want to do one more fly around before checking the shopping district?" Mumbo asked, a few feathers stuck to his clothes. He looked ready to get out of the messy underground portion of Grian's base.

"Sure, couldn't hurt." Xisuma led the way out of Grian's bottle. When he had surfaced and climbed onto the floating walkway, Xisuma noticed something on one of the newer outer towers. "Mumbo, do you see that?" He asked pointing to the tower. 

"See what?" Mumbo squinted trying to make out the small, one block hole in the tower. "Oh, that's definitely suspicious. Grian wouldn't leave one block unfinished." Mumbo activated his elytra and after a few failed rockets, flew over to the tower and quickly placing a block on the side. Mumbo, after a few tries, landed on the block and started to make a small, three by two platform, before waving Xisuma over. 

Xisuma landed on the platform with ease and peered into the one by one gap. "I'm definitely seeing some redstone in there, it is a secret entrance for sure. Grian probably flies through the hole." Mumbo paled at the thought of flying through such a small gap. "Don't worry, I happen to have some trapdoors on me so we can crawl in." Xisuma quickly set up the crawling mechanism before using it and going inside the tower. 

Inside there was a platform with a deep drop into what looked to be water, but you could never be sure with Grian. Xisuma jumped down, figuring his elytra would save him if things went wrong. Luckily, it was water at the bottom and Xisuma cautiously ventured into the room, more like a hallway. Mumbohad jumped down shortly after, but Xisuma barely noticed, as he was entranced by the beautiful redstone contraptions he was faced with.

Abandoning almost all caution, Xisuma curiously examined the redstone contraptions in the main hallway. There were several offshoots, Xisuma could see a hallway for farms, another for traps, and a third for secret doors. In the main hallway, Xisuma saw a concrete maker, a TNT quarry flying machine similar to ones found on Scicraft, and many other miscellaneous projects. What really caught Xisuma's attention, however, was the massive storage system at the end of the hallway. 

As Xisuma moved closer to the storage system, he heard a voice, that seemed to be Grian, mutter something, "I really want to show his to Mumbo..." Something in the redstone blew up somehow, and Grian, who had come into view, rushed over to the source of the issue. Xisuma heard Grian say something else, something along the lines of, "Stupid...I hate this..." as he rushed over, not noticing Xisuma and Mumbo standing in the middle of the hallway. Grian did not physically look great. He was covered in redstone, his hair matted and bags under his eyes. d

Suddenly, Xisuma's phone dinged, Mubmo had just texted the rest of the redstoners.

Mumbo: Hey, y'all, come over to Grian's base, outer tower, should see a platform outside. Just drop through

Unfortunately, Grian had heard Xisuma's phone go off, and he turned to the source of the noise. "Xisuma? Mumbo? How did you get in here?"

"You left the entrance open. How long have you been down here Grian? And when was the last time you slept?' Xisuma asked. 

"Well, it's Tuesday, right? I slept Sunday into Monday, then came down here. Grian responded tiredly.

"Grian, it's Sunday of the next week. You've been down here for six days. You have to have a medwing down here right?" Mumbo cut in.

"First hallway on the left coming from the entrance," Grian said before passing out from sheer exhaustion. Mumbo picked Grian up and rushed him to the medwing, as the rest of the redstone hermits dropped in.

Xisuma let Mumbo rush into the medwing while he quickly explained what was going on. "So, Grian is apparently really good at redstone, all of these contraptions are his, but he overworked himself and passed out," Xisuma said in one breath before following Mumbo into the medwing, leaving the others to do what they wanted. 

"Does he have any injuries? Or was he purely exhausted?" Xisuma asked, standing next to Mumbo

"I didn't see any obvious injuries, but that doesn't mean he isn't injured. He could have fractured bones, internal bleeding, head injuries. But we can't find out until he wakes up." Mumbo replied. "All the redstone dust on him could also be covering up some bleeding, but I didn't want to wash it off, because if there is an injury, washing it off will cause the clot to come off as well." 

"Wow Mumbo, when did you get so smart?"

Mumbo ducked his head in embarrassment, "Well, I had to learn this first aid stuff because I get injured so often. Should we just leave Grian here to sleep while we talk to the others?"

"Sure, but make sure to be listening for when he wakes up." With that, Mumbo and Xisuma left the medwing, entering the main hallway where the rest of the redstone hermits were milling around the entrance. 

"Xisuma, Mumbo, what is going on?" Cub asked walking over to the duo.

"Well, Grian is apparently good at redstone, these designs all seem to be his," Xisuma answered, everyone else coming over to hear. 

"No way, Grian couldn't have designed all of this, he must have used a tutorial. Remember when he 'fixed' the concrete maker Mumbo?"

"Nice of you to think so highly of me Iskall." Xisuma heard Grian say from the entrance to the medwing. He still looked very tired, which made sense since he had gotten about 3 minutes of sleep. He was also swaying on his feet a little. "I did design all of this, I just can't show you because-" There was an explosion that came from a sugar cane farm. "-that. If anyone wants to go fix that, be my guest."

"Grian, you should really get some sleep, you look awful." Mumbo said concerened for his friend.

"No, let me explain all this first." Grian led everyone over to a open space and sat down facing everyone else. 

Grian POV

"So you guys know that I like to prank people." Grian started, "And my pranks can sometimes go too far..."

"Still don't forgive you for touching my bush!" Doc called out

"Yeah, well when I was younger, it was so much worse. Why? I could do redstone." Cue gasps from the hermits. "However, I was causing to much mayhem apparently, and I was cursed. If I even thought about showing my redstone to someone it would break. However, a loophole was that if someone just happened to find my redstone, like you guys have done here, nothing will happen. Though I didn't figure this out until the beginning of the season. All of these contraptions are my designs."

"Honestly Grian, I kinda find this hard to believe. I mean, thinking back to the whole hippie thing, man, you didn't know how any of the machines worked." Impulse spoke up, doubting what Grian was saying.

"I promise! I'm not lying! That storage system over there? I designed that myself, you won't find another design like it anywhere!"

"Grian, is there anything we can do about the curse?" Xisuma asked gently. "Would my admin powers do anything?"

"Maybe, I haven't tried to get rid of it at all, I've just learned to live with it."

"If admin powers don't work, we could always try some Vex magic." Cub volunteered.

"You seriously believe him?" Tango, who had been silent, spoke up.

"Um, yeah? I can sense auras if I concentrate, and I can tell that Grian's aura is different. It always has been, but now that I know he was cursed, it is a lot more prominent now." Cub replied, "But we aren't trying anything until Grian sleeps."

~Time Skip to Grian being rested and Xisuma trying some admin magic~

Cub POV

"Try building a contraption and think about showing it to us or something." Xiusma ordered, finishing the spell, "We can go to a different room."

Minutes later, the hermits heard an explosion from the room Grian was working in. "Well, that didn't work, let's try Vex magic," Cub said walking into the room. "I'm going to need to take you to Convex lands Grian, I need Scar to help me"

"Okay, let's go," Grian said wanting to see if his curse could be removed.

As Grian was showing Cub how to use the TNT elevator, Iskall called out, "Don't let Convex corrupt you!" Though Cub could tell that he was joking

"Never! Say goodbye to your CEO Architechs!" Cub responded equally joking. With that, Cub used the TNT launcher and left Grian's redstone area, flying over to Concorp with Grian following behind. 

Along the way, Cub texted Scar that he was heading over and Scar replied that he was already there. Cub brought Grian over to the secret Vex cave where Vex magic was strongest. "Stay still" Cub ordered.

Together, the Convex duo started to chant, "Op wqzef gx kre xeu, ze fedgxe pglt nlfe!" Power started to glow around Grian before vanishing.

"Well, your aura is different, so that is a good sign. Want to go back to your redstone room and test it" Cub asked

"Sure. Scar, do you want to come?" Grian replied, preparing his elytra.

"Sure, but can we go through the nether portal? It will be much quicker." And so they went through the nether portals back to Grian's base and into his redstone room.

"Did it work?" Mumbo asked as they dropped in.

"We're going to find out soon. You guys can stay here and I'll make something down here" Grian said before dashing down a hallway with a lot of piston doors. About half an hour later, Grian reappeared and said, "Guys, the curse is gone! Come see what I made!" Grian sprinted back down the hallway like an excited child. He proudly displayed an open space with a single button on the wall.

"What is it?" Xiusma asked confused.

"A twelve by twelve hidden spiral staircase that has an open center!" Grian pressed the button and a staircase folded out with a lot of piston movement. "I needed a second level to this so I figured why not make it cool!"

"Yeah, Grian, I believe you now," Tango said awestruck

~Timeskip to about 1 month later~

Third Person Objective

About a month after, the builders and everyone who weren't aware fo Grian's curse started to notice that Grian was doing a lot more redstone. He hung out with redstoners, went to redstone meetings, and there were may redstone based pranks done by him. When asked, the redstoners, who wanted to keep the curse a secret, simply said that Grian managed to learn redstone.

The End

So, this was a one-shot I wrote as a secret santa gift for Lucy_The_Llamacorn 

It took me FOREVER to write.... And I also didn't want to post it on here until 1. Christmas was over, and 2. I finished the Galactic? storyline, though you might see more of that concept at some point, I'm not sure.

So that was fun

Thanks for reading!

~Niza