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Mumbo Jumbo has never believed in the system. When he was a kid, they took one look at his alcoholic father and his abused mother and saw nothing wrong. It took his father killing his mother for them to finally see a problem. Then the system bounced him around, put him with families not dissimilar to his own.
He was fourteen when he ran away from his last and final placement and seventeen when he finally made his way to the city, Hermitpires. He gets a few part time jobs and gets his g.e.d. What left over money he has after paying the bills he spends on things he can use to build the little inventions that live in his mind.
Mumbo is twenty when he meets Grian and Jimmy Solidarity.
Grian is like him in a way. Mumbo learns that four years ago their parents died. He learns that the child protective services had tried to split the brothers up so they ran away to the same city Mumbo did. He learns that the system had tried to destroy their family long before their parents died.
Grian and Mumbo are the same yet different.
Where the system neglected Mumbo, they interfered where they weren't needed with Grian.
The major difference between them is while Mumbo doesn't believe in the system, Grian has hope it can be fixed. They don't fight about it, simply agree where they can and leave it alone where they can't.
Meeting Grian saved him in a very similar way that running away saved him. He knows it's cliché, but Grian broke down his walls, he mellowed him out. Where Mumbo used to be harsh words and cautious glares, he's now nervous laughter and loud hands. It's odd. Grian makes him feel like a kid, in a good way. Grian lets him be the kid he never got to be.
They're fast friends, and where Grian goes so does Jimmy, so they become close as well. It's easier to get by when there's three of them working together to survive.
———
It's actually Jimmy who convinces them to continue their education. They find a trade school that has the courses each of them want to follow. Grian goes for architecture, Mumbo chooses engineering and Jimmy signs up for business and management courses.
All in all it wasn't a bad idea. It didn't take up a lot of time or money and it taught them what they wanted and needed to learn.
A couple thousand dollars and a year and a half at most they made it through.
About another year later they all end up working at the same place, teaching the same courses they chose.
For the next few years, Mumbo is happy. He's made his way up in the world to where he's more than comfortable. He never imagined he'd live this well off. He never thought he'd even be happy.
It's thanks to Grian (though he'd deny it. Grian says Mumbo did this himself, he just helped him see it was possible). Grian saved Mumbo. In his mind, He'd be dead without him.
———
When Scar shows up, Mumbo watches him and Grian flirt with each other while both being completely oblivious. As much as Grian calls him a spoon, Mumbo knows Grian is one too.
It's funny to watch them dance around each other.
It's less funny when Grian tells Mumbo he's going to become a vigilante after almost getting mugged one night on his way home only to get saved by the- at the time- vigilante Vex (Mumbo starts keeping tabs on the heroes, vigilantes and villain after Grian tells him his plans).
He tried to convince Grian not to, but he knows that this is something Grian needs to do. Mumbo thinks he needs this too. Grian is hope, to him, if anyone can fix the system this way it's Grian.
So instead, Mumbo tells him to wait. He doesn't try to change his mind, but instead he builds. He uses every extra cent of his paychecks to build gear that will keep Grian safe. When he's done, Vex is no longer a vigilante, instead he's the hero Hotguy. Grian calls himself Cuteguy, in homage, and makes Mumbo make his costume pink.
Mumbo gives him the gear and says he won't try to convince Grian not to do this if he promises to come home alive. He promises with a grin. What a lie that was.
Mumbo spends his free time keeping an eye on Grian through the news, patching Grian up and upgrading his gear as often as he can to keep him safe.
———
Mumbo gets used to constant worry. He gets used to hearing his friend make excuses to everyone they know about where he is or why he's late. He gets used to seeing Grian beaten, bruised, bloody and exhausted.
He knows anyone else might get fed up and leave, but he doesn't. He can't. He cares too much. (And what a thing that is. Caring. It's scary and it hurts but it feels good to not be alone, to have someone care for him in return.) He believes in Grian's cause, even if he thinks that it'll fail.
He watches as Jimmy worries for his brother but never asks about the uptick of disappearances and unbelievable excuses. Instead, Jimmy starts watching the time, calls Grian for updates on he'll arive and keeps first aid kits nearby.
Mumbo doesn't fault Jimmy for not asking anything. He must be used to Grian lying to protect him, if Mumbo were to guess he'd say Grian's been doing it all Jimmy's life. Mumbo had never had anyone really care about him until the two of them showed up, they are the closest he's come to a real family. And Mumbo knows his family. Jimmy's lack of interrogation isn't from a lack of care, but a show of trust.
They both know Grian appreciates it.
———
Two weeks before Grian's death, he told Mumbo that he thought he was ready to tell Jimmy.
Mumbo had warned him that Jimmy might be upset, that Jimmy might never forgive him. Grian had assured him he knew that but he couldn't keep this secret from his little brother much longer. He'd seen how he'd been worrying him and the truth would be the only comfort he could possibly give his brother.
And so Mumbo had sighed and simply nodded. It was Grian's secret anyway.
Grian had planned to tell Jimmy the night he died. He went out to relieve some extra energy and anxiety. He never made it back.
Mumbo waited in their flat for Grian and Jimmy for two hours before he got a panicked call from the younger brother asking if he'd seen Grian.
———
When Jimmy shares the news of Grian's death, Mumbo shatters. He doesn’t remember much from the following week. He tries to comfort Jimmy but he's never been good with people and he'd been in no better shape than Jimmy himself.
Instead, Mumbo locks himself in his room and builds. He builds Grian new weapons and another suit not that he'll ever use it and he mutters to himself. He builds until his hands are numb from little burns and overuse. He builds until he passes out then builds some more.
When he finally stops he gets even worse news. The heroes had refused to hand over Grian's remains and had lost him.
Mumbo is angry and he can't even grieve properly because the heroes lost the body of his best friend. his brother.
Now, Mumbo has always been morally ambiguous, he did what he had to to survive. Whether that meant stealing or pushing someone to the ground when they're both being chased. Mumbo forgot what it meant to just survive. Grian made him forget, he'd shown him how to live. But now Grian is dead and Mumbo is neither living nor surviving.
Mumbo had liked to joke, before they had become criminals in the eyes of the law and Grian became a symbol for people like them, that the only reason he wasn't a villain was because of his anxiety. In reality, it was Grian. Grian saved him, pulled him from the depths of loneliness and hatred and forced him to live instead of just survive.
The very existence of Grian kept him sane. Now he's gone. And Mumbo is in pieces.
Grian is gone. There is nothing stopping him now.
The night Jimmy drinks until he's blackout drunk and smashes everything he can get his hands- or bat- on, Mumbo makes a decision. The system killed Grian, it shattered his little brother, it broke apart their family. Mumbo will never hear Grian call him a spoon and laugh at him again, Jimmy will never hear his brother call him Timmy or make another ridiculous excuse, Scar will never have his chance with Grian.
They took that from them and Mumbo has had enough.
Grian didn't believed the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Mumbo was not Grian. Mumbo believed that sacrifice was needed for change.
It takes Mumbo a month to gather up the broken pieces of himself. It takes three more for Mumbo to make his plan and refine it. After that comes the easy bit. The next two months Mumbo makes videos- some are for his plan while other are for his remaining friends incase he ends up like Grian- and bombs. The bombs he makes aren't normal ones; they're modified to cause far more damage per explosion. Once everything is in order, he puts his plan in motion.
Grian wouldn't want this. A small, quiet part of him thinks.
Grian is dead. He can't want anything. A bigger, louder part of him screams back.
So half a year after Grian's death and his body's disappearance, Mumbo blows up several buildings across the city all at once.
He sends one of the videos he made to the media, that night they play the video on the news, defaming the heroes and the police, citing his explosions as evidence that the system doesn't work, claiming they need to be fixed.
He knows what he's done has ended lives, has put others through the same thing Jimmy and him had gone through, but he doesn't regret it. If it shows how flawed the system is, if it makes them strive to fix it, he doesn't think he ever could.
Mumbo has never been a hero in any way, he's content with that. He knows he's the villain, he chose this, and he's content with that as well. Mumbo is okay with being the villain if it helps him finish the mission Grian started.
One day, changes will be made, the system will be fixed, and Mumbo will no longer need to live or survive.
One day, Mumbo will repent for what he has done with his life. He hopes then when he does, he'll be able to see Grian again, if only for a moment.
Mumbo Jumbo has never believed in the system, and now he'll tear it all down.