Unrecognizable

~Chapter Eleven~

Mumbo's POV-

Mumbo crossed his arms as he heard the oh-so-familiar sound of moving pistons and increasingly closer footsteps. Wonderful. He was back. As the exact person he expected came strolling down the stairs, Mumbo grimaced. His green eyes narrowed, following the figure who looked nearly identical to him as he walked towards the Hermit.

Keeping matching his stare, Mumbo glared at him as he sat down on Mumbo's couch, underneath Mumbo's base. The impostor held Mumbo's stare, a cocky grin dancing on his face. Mumbo didn't say a word as the other greeted him, his tone flitting about playfully, as if Mumbo wasn't a prisoner in his own home. Instead, he simply glared at him, determined not to break eye contact. After a moment, though, he finally spoke.

"Well then," the Hermit started with a sarcastic chuckle. "Why don't you... stop being me?" This earned him a mocking laugh.

"You know I can't do that, Mumbie." His captor had a pretty annoying habit of spouting out nicknames for Mumbo, instead of using his actual name. It got on his nerves quite a bit, though he found it a tad funny that out of all the things he could be complaining about, he cared about what his captor called him.

"I told you to stop calling me your ridiculous names-" Mumbo's gaze intensified, boring into the other's own, but he held his gaze steady, matching Mumbo with a calm stare that got under the redstoner's skin. Why did the imposter have to always be so calm about everything?

"And I told you I will do what I like, Jumbo," the one on the couch retorted. "And it's not like you call me by my name either."

That was correct. Mumbo rarely, if ever, called him by the name he had given himself. He rarely addressed him, and when he did he used phrases such as, 'lunatic,' or 'monster,' but if they irked the other, he wasn't letting Mumbo know, and answered to them all the same. The redstoner rolled his eyes. "Fine. I told you to stop calling me your ridiculous names, Sage." Mumbo drew the name out sarcastically, eyeing the other as he did so.

"Aha, that's better." The identical person, Sage, wore a saccharine smile. "Thanks, Mumbo!"

Mumbo hated that thing with a burning passion.

After a moment of silence, Sage spoke up again. "They were close, you know." His voice was calm and smooth, as if what he had just said wasn't out of the ordinary at all.  He stared at Mumbo expectantly, waiting for Mumbo to take the bait and ask what the heck he meant by 'close.' And, after a good minute, that was exactly what Mumbo did.

"...Fine, I'll bite. Who were close to what?" Mumbo had an inkling of an idea as to what his captor meant, but he figured he may as well get the truth... should what Sage say even be true. Mumbo had no way of knowing, and, quite frankly, didn't trust him more than he could throw him. Which was, truthfully, not very far, especially given the fact that he couldn't exactly reach him. 

Sage grinned, finally breaking the stare by looking just to the side of Mumbo, off into space. "Well, a few of your friends came over. The short, feisty one and the wizard, to be exact. They looked around the base. Nearly uncovered you." His voice was annoyingly calm, like everything he just said was perfectly normal. It irritated Mumbo beyond belief, seeing his predicament. Trapped inside his own machine. With only his thoughts and-

His train of thought was obstructed by the sensation of a tiny something right up against his leg. Looking down, the redstoner was met with the splotched gray fur of a cat, whom had just recently woken up from the noise. It padded up to the locked door of the cell in which it and Mumbo resided and yowled angrily at the figure outside, furiously scratching the glass as it did. Its bright green eyes were daggers as it tried desperately to escape. Carefully, Mumbo bent over and picked it up, stroking its fur gently. He sighed, his somewhat cold expression diminishing slightly, being replaced by a bit of a defeated one. The Hermit stared out at Sage, whose gaze was once again fixated on Mumbo. 

Mumbo hated the look Sage gave him. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about the slightly cocky, calm, almost joking smile the laid on his face upset him. Perhaps it was the fact that the other looked so similar, and that expression was one that Mumbo himself wore so much. It was like staring into a slightly distorted mirror... except Mumbo was on the wrong side. Neither of them said a word, the thick heavy silence between them providing more than enough context for each of the figures. The only sounds were the cat's purrs as it curled up against Mumbo. Mumbo felt a bit jealous that he couldn't be as oblivious as it, that just some pets were enough to calm down, if only for awhile.

Mumbo noticed something about his captor. A certain someone seemed to be missing. "Where is she?" The redstoner asked dryly. "Your little cat." Sage was often accompanied by a small cat he nicknamed Citrus-- he really did have such odd naming procedures. She looked nearly identical to the one Mumbo himself now held in his arms, save for one distinct feature.

And she wasn't any less infuriating than Sage himself.

"Oh, the wiz- Scar brought her back with him," Sage explained calmly.

At the mention of the Hermit, the bundle of fur in Mumbo's arms perked up. With a confused mew, it tried to wriggle out of his grasp, looking around to see where the wizard was. It let out another desperate meow as Mumbo clutched it tighter, looking down and murmuring, "No, Scar isn't here." The kitten let out a pitiful mrrow of sadness and sunk back into Mumbo's arms. "You really are a monster," he said, his words directed at Sage, who simply shrugged. 

"I thought you knew that already," the other replied, unfazed. This ticked Mumbo off beyond belief, how Sage never seemed to get too upset over anything. How he could just be so calm all of the time. Often, when Mumbo got particularly bored-- it gets rather dull, being trapped in a cell for weeks on end-- he'd try to fluster Sage. To destroy his cool demeanor. It rarely worked, though, and when it did Sage would simply leave, causing Mumbo now be trapped and alone. To be honest, Mumbo wasn't sure what he liked better: being by himself with little company other than the other captive, or being accompanied by Sage. Both were equally undesirable.

Crossing his arms, Mumbo opened his mouth to retort before being shut down again by the other. "Well, Mumbie, I believe it is time that I take my leave. I do have some other things to do before night." And with that, Sage was gone, disappeared back up at the surface. And Mumbo was left in the sickeningly bright room, sitting against the inside of the tiny cell and wondering how the heck he ended up here.

-(Author's Rambling)-

Heh... I... can explain. 

Hi- It's been a little bit, I'm not going to lie. You see, the truth is I became a bit burnt out after the MONSTER that was Chapter Ten, and decided to give myself a bit of a break, a bit of a hiatus. Not too long, just enough so I could be able to write again without feeling that my soul is being stripped away with each letter I type. I apologize for the rather short chapter, I have a little something planned for the next, so... yeah! 

We're finally getting somewhere, bois!

And, as always, thanks for coming, and see you in the next one, my little readers!

PS: Hi Promise here- It appears that Wattpad was glitching and unuploaded this chapter. Don't we all love Wattpad?