Chapter Text
Mumbo was an anxious man, that much was obvious to any that knew him. However, he had never in his life been any more terrified than he was now, sitting on a fold out chair in the corner of a dingy room, waiting upon his test results. The drip-dripping of what could hardly be called water anymore was resounding through the room, going down from the ceiling and giving an additional element of anxiety like the ticking of a clock.
Each and every test was necessary before becoming one of the staff, before joining the family, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying. The only part worse was perhaps the tests themselves. He nearly shuddered at the mere thought of them. The cold eyes of the examiner pierced into his very being as he was forced to recount answers to various personal questions, as well as undergoing vigorous physical examination. But they were over now, thank goodness.
And so he was sitting there. His legs were so tightly pressed together they’d almost appear bound to each other to anyone not looking closely. His clipboard was pressed to his chest in some desperate attempt at grounding, trying to wait patiently through the nerve-wracking fear.
He wasn’t the only person in the room, and yet it was nearly dead quiet, aside from the incessant droplets on the ceiling. Chairs surrounding a desk in a vicious mockery of a hospital waiting room somehow crossed with a high school exam hall. Dozens of faces with blank expressions. Some tapping their legs, others mindlessly scribbling on their clipboards. Others, just sitting. Unmoving.
Every few minutes, a name would be called. They all would go into the same room. Some reappeared. Others did not. Sweat was beading at his forehead, heart pounding, chest churning. What would happen to those that didn’t return? What would become of him should he not meet their expectations?
The names kept coming. More and more people came and left. The water was dripping more steadily now, and Mumbo was finding it harder and harder to ignore the musty smell of mould. The pit in his stomach was all consuming, and the room seemed to become more and more stuffy with each passing minute, the very air around him spinning.
A door creaked open. A man stood in a lab-coat, holding a grey clipboard. The ideal of perfection, hair slicked back, uniform pristine. Identical to each and every person in the very room. The scientist walked up to the person at the desk, whispering something in their ear.
“Mumbo K. Jumbo?” They called out, voice monotone.
Mumbo sighed, and pushed himself to his feet, awkwardly grasping at his clipboard. While in looks he was just as polished and proper as any other foundation scientist, he felt as though lacked the poise held by them. He was an outlier in this room, as if he were a smudge on an otherwise perfect picture.
He shuffled his feet, inching through the rows of chairs to get through the room. Almost nobody reacted, looking almost as though they were lost in a stupor of self-aggrandization. A few scattered souls gave him a quick glance, then went back to blank.
He moved, step by step, trudging towards the door. His every atom felt heavy with a dread he couldn’t quite place. Everything felt wrong. Everything in him begged him to turn away, to run and leave before… before what? He didn’t know.
But another part of him screamed with determination. This is where you need to be. Something inside him whispered, asking him to be a saviour, a hero. Well, he supposed being a nurse meant he would save some people, maybe it would please the echo of a voice that remained? It was perplexing. Lately, his dreams had begun to shift from pleasant things to nightmares that were beginning to haunt his every thought. Dreams of soft piano and hands holding his turned to the very world decaying around him, blood splattered on the ground.
Everything seemed to be telling him he needed to be here. He supposed it made sense. While the family was somewhat secretive, they had been touting of a new scientific discovery that they had been in the process of realising, and Mumbo wanted desperately to find out just what that was for himself. Mumbo was a scientist himself, really. While nursing wasn’t his dream career, the position was open, and he was sure it’d be possible to move up the ranks. There were rumours, of course, but nothing concrete. It was the talk of the town, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?
One of the country's most major religious groups, all of a sudden turning their priorities to what appeared to be true science? It piqued his interest to see exactly what it was that changed their focus from preaching to what at least seemed to be like legitimate experiments. For some reason, they seemed to believe there was evidence for a new state of reality. And thus he just had to experience it for himself. He needed to find out what was going on here.
The door was just as rusted as the first time he went through it. For such a reputable group it was peculiar and quite intriguing that their facility seemed so run down. It did seem to be a waypoint however, as the facility was much too small for any full experiments to take place. The secrecy of the whole thing was really rather enticing, in Mumbo’s opinion. The scientist grabbed the handle, ignoring the horrid click it made upon movement, unwavering, and opened the door.
The room was dark, with only a flickering light above him letting him see. He could smell the dampness in the air, and he was almost certain the ceiling was growing mould, just like in the other room. He made sure to refrain from scrunching up his nose in distaste, it would surely upset the scientists and destroy any chances of receiving the job.
Mumbo recognised the man sitting at the middle of the desk, how could he not? Renier was the very face of the Acolyte’s, at least when it came to their scientific endeavours. His face was in every newspaper, he gave public speeches every other week. Anyone who wasn’t living under a rock would recognise him in an instant. Shoulder length hair, a white-ish blond colour, pulled back into a slick ponytail, and sharp edges that seemed to fit his personality quite well, grey eyes that seemed to cut into Mumbo’s very soul. He resisted a shiver, feeling a chill run up his back. It felt as though the man was dissecting him, preparing to make him his prey.
He did not, however, recognise either of the other scientists in the room. There was nothing all that special about the one who ushered him in, or the one sat on Renier’s right. But the man on Renier’s left was different. Despite Mumbo being sure he’d never seen them before, the first thing he realised was that there was something about this one that pulled him in, some faint sense of deja vu that seemed to cling to their very spirit. There was something familiar about the curve of their mouth, about the crinkle near their eyes. Everything in Mumbo seemed to be tugging him towards them.
The second thing that Mumbo noticed was how pretty this scientist was. Beautiful jade eyes were peering at him from behind rectangular glasses, with a look of curiosity mixed with cunningness. They seemed to have a slightly less informal look to them, which Mumbo appreciated - unlike many other of the personnel here, the scientist’s hair was unstyled, which allowed to just fall in loose curls upon their face, and they had left their lab coat unbuttoned, exposing a sky blue button up and black tie underneath it. Quite frankly, if it wasn’t for how scary the entire situation Mumbo was in right now was, he’d honestly be quite gobsmacked by how attractive they were.
But he didn’t have time for any of that. Science must come first above anything else he might think about his superiors. Especially when it came to superiors that he knew absolutely nothing about. Especially with his career and possibly life in the balance.
“Mr. Jumbo,” Doctor Renier greeted, giving a nod of his head.
“Sir,” Mumbo straightened up, trying his best to look serious, respectable. It seemed to be working, as none of the scientists batted an eye at his stance. He held back a sigh of relief, slipping into the mask of ‘professional mode’.
“Do you understand what our job is here, young man?” Renier’s eyes seemed to pin him in place, looking at him with a coldness that didn’t seem befitting for such a religious man. Mumbo straightened his posture and nodded, speaking with a seriousness he quite honestly didn’t expect from himself.
“We are here to research into the great secrets of this Earth and our Gods, to uncover the great truth that lies beyond our mortal plane,” He said, parroting back the same words he had heard repeated over and over again. Renier gave an impressed looking nod of affirmation, then continued to speak.
“I’ve got to say, you’ve impressed me. 20 years old and already fully certified? My, I’d say that’d make you our youngest nurse here,” Renier said with a wry grin. He gestured to the scientist on his left, “This is Doctor Cub Fan, you’ll be working under him from now on. He will provide your training and initiation. If you have any questions at all, they are to be directed to him. Understood?”
Mumbo froze. Well, that was one way to give him the news.
“Wait- Give me a second to process, I got the job?” Mumbo’s eyes widened in excitement. The scientists were looking at him with what almost seemed to be mirth dancing in their eyes. He almost had to physically restrain himself from jumping with excitement, new scientific frontiers seemed to be so close to the horizon!
“That’s correct. Now, if you’ll follow me?” The handsome scientist, who Mumbo now knew was named Cub, had amusement clear on his features. Renier smiled. He had an unnerving look in his eyes, a grin on his face that, had it been any wider than it was, would almost look wild. Cub stood and gestured for Mumbo to follow him. There was a door at the back that he hadn’t noticed at first, obscured by the dark and by Mumbo’s focus on the scientists. The door was unassuming, a grey colour that blended with the walls, with no handle, just a key-card scanner next to it.
“Oh! Already? I thought you had other people to see, Doctor?” Mumbo shuffled on his feet, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. He was trying to retain his formal image, but it was getting difficult.
“I’ll be handling that. We have very few positions open as of now, and Dr Fan only needs one assistant. He hand selected you himself from a list of many possible candidates,” Renier said, making Mumbo preen internally, just a little bit. He, of all people, hand selected for such a role. Honestly, he was quite proud of himself.
Doctor Fan grabbed a card from his pocket, scanning the keypad. It flashed, a bright and gorgeous emerald colour, then the door slid open with a click.
“Woah,” Mumbo muttered, awed. The facility was so worn down he didn’t expect there to be any sorts of fancy redstone like that. Heck, that sort of redstone was so advanced it was rare to see anywhere.
But the door seemed not to be an exception. As it opened, Mumbo caught a glimpse of what was behind it. There was a room made of sleek metal, with dozens of buttons all over it. He recognised the design, a prototype he had seen pitched in a redstone magazine a few years back. The designer had called it a lift, if he remembered correctly. A rather standard name, but it explained the purpose rather well, in his opinion. The doctor ushered him in, pressing a button labelled “SubFloor-13B” and leaning against the railing.
“You might want to hold on,” The doctor grinned.
“Why is that, Doctor Fan?” Mumbo cocked his head to the side.
“Might be a bit faster than you’re used to, and please, just call me Cub,” He said, shaking his head with a laugh. Mumbo felt mesmerised by the way the man’s hair fell, the dark strands short and partially curled, yet still long enough to almost fall over Cub’s glasses. Gosh, he was really, really pretty.
Mumbo internally slapped himself. Not the time.
Whilst Mumbo was trying to reign his own head in, all of a sudden, the elevator plummeted. Mumbo tried not to scream, taken aback. Cub laughed again, a light thing that tasted of warmth and honey. Mumbo’s face turned sheet white as the box continued to descend, gripping onto the railing with tight knuckles. It was travelling so much faster than even the speediest of autonomous carriages, and Mumbo decided that he wanted off, immediately.
He was partially considering whether this job was a bad idea, just from the transportation alone.
Eventually, however, it settled to a gradual halt, making Mumbo breathe a sigh of relief. Everything stopped shaking, and Mumbo felt his lungs begin to expand again. However, his stomach was in his throat, and he quite honestly felt as though he might throw up. He didn’t want to do that again, but, as part of his new job it seemed he very well may have to. Oh well, he’d have to get used to it, now, wouldn’t he?
Cub pressed a button, which slid the door open again. There was a hall, leading to a door. And if Mumbo was being honest, he was slightly terrified. The lights above him were so bright, nearly blinding, that it was making him feel awfully disorientated. Cub was striding ahead of him, and Mumbo followed dutifully.
It was the beginning of his new start. Despite his misgivings, he was excited to make a difference. As the door opened ahead of them, Cub turned back to give a small smile to him.
“Now let’s get you settled in, shall we?”