Work Text:
Puffy gazes out across the land from the highest point she knows-- the Ferris wheel. The carnival has come and gone, and everything looks much different in the light of day, yet the vantage point gives her a breathtaking view of the home she's about to leave behind.
"I can't believe it... today really is the day," she breathes, blinking moisture out of her eyes. She's not sad to be leaving, but-- well, she's made a lot of memories on this shitty server, violent though those memories may be.
With a deep inhale and a slow exhale, she hops out of the highest carriage of the Ferris wheel, plunging to the ground below and MLG water bucketing at the last moment. The thrill of adrenaline compounds the excitement and apprehension of the events to come.
"Hey!! Hey, over here!!" Bdubs hollers with an exaggerated wave.
Puffy trots down the fair's main path to meet him at the edge of the fairgrounds. "Hey, Bubbles!"
"That was a pretty awesome clutch you did there," he says, starting to walk and nodding his head to indicate she should follow.
Puffy waves her hand absently, slightly pink in the cheeks. "Ah, thanks-- when you're fighting for your life every other Tuesday, you tend to get pretty good at that sort of thing. Are we headed to the portal?"
Bdubs frowns at the redirection, obviously uncomfortable with the reference to the hostile, dangerous life his friend used to live. "Yeah, we'll get to the portal through the Nether-- I've got a regular portal set up over this way."
Grateful that Bdubs let the offhanded remark drop, she looks in the direction as indication by the man. Just at the edge of the forest, nestled in between two oak trees, is the portal in question. It only takes a quick trip through the Nether to get back to the canyon, or rather the surface right outside it.
The whole place is bustling with activity, though all the Hermits are careful not to disturb the remnants of L'Manberg too much. Puffy gives Bdubs a wave, thanking him for getting her, before she heads off through the crowd.
"--and so when they dodge the first punch, they'll run straight into the second one," Puffy overhears Sapnap telling Stress. Those two, despite their wild first meeting, get on like a house on fire nowadays.
"Ooh, I can't wait to try it out!" Stress exclaims, cheeks flushed with excitement.
"You'll text me when you do, right? You gotta tell me how it goes..."
The conversation fades into the distance as Puffy moves on. Her stride never falters as she walks straight up to the lip of the canyon, peering over it for only a split second before hurtling herself off the edge. Once more, she cushions her fall with her trusty water bucket. It's muscle memory of a thousand covert times that allows her to slip into one of the houses and make her way into the complex proper.
She makes her way past Atrium One, where she and Grian had a sort-of bidding war over Cub's photos of Sapnap's makeup job and frying-pan injury courtesy of Stress-aka-Mothman-question-mark. In the hallway leading further into the complex, she sees the door to the kitchens, where Bdubs bodily hurled himself into the room to escape being seen by her as Etho led her through the canyon for the first time. Right there on the floor in front of the room is where Bdubs and Grian played an incomprehensible card game, and on the other side of the hallway is the potion brewing room that slowly fell into disuse as the Hermits had no reason to be invisible anymore.
At the end of the hall is the entrance into the personal quarters. Right in front of that entrance is where she and Cub stood as he asked her to become a Hermit. Deep in the quarters and on the very edge of the space, there is Xisuma's meeting room. Now she knows that it shares a wall with the smeltery, and was intentionally placed there so that the warmth might benefit Xisuma back when he was still infirm.
Puffy heads back out of the canyon. She's said her goodbyes and seen this place for the last time she'll need to. It'll still be here next time she comes to visit the Dream SMP, she tells herself. I'm not saying goodbye forever.
The time comes, and she as well as all the Hermits (must not forget that she's a Hermit too, now!) congregate at Doc's horrendous masterpiece: the Infinity Portal, mark two. There's a small crowd of people here to say goodbye to the Hermits-- and, she supposes, to her as well. She gives Eret a small wave and a smile, and meets Bad's eyes without a trace of anger.
"Hey," Cub murmurs to her, nudging her with his elbow. She looks up. Everyone is looking at her.
"The portal's only big enough for one person at a time, my dude," Ren says jovially. "Since you're the newest Hermit, we all thought we'd let you have the honor of going first. Got anything to say before we head out?"
Her eyes, which have been having trouble staying dry ever since she climbed to the top of the Ferris wheel, fill up with happy tears once again. A smile splits her face, and the words that spill out of her mouth come straight from her brain and her heart alike. With a big wave, she yells, "See you later, everyone!" and jumps into the portal without looking back.
Puffy's eyes snap open as she stumbles out of the portal into a grassy plain. The world is so fresh, so new, so... pure.
"Hey there, stranger," a redheaded woman giggles. Her voice is sweet and sunny.
Another woman with a hoodie and a crooked smile speaks in a darker, richer voice and an accent Puffy's unfamiliar with. "I'm Pearl, and that's Gem. Welcome to Hermitcraft, season eight."
Puffy smiles. This is the end of a long chapter of her life, Puffy knows, but it's the beginning of a new one.