Chapter Text
It was a peaceful valley, surrounded by many snowy peaks, high and proud. The deer twitched its ears at the creek, birch forest surrounding it almost quiet.
Almost was maybe not a good word, as just a few kilometres down the natural path in this said forest was a lake. It was a beautiful lake, that had to be said. But the issue was… several people standing on the stone cliffs, laughing and yelling at each other.
"So good to see you all again! Man, that was a while!" the Hermits gathered up in the big reunion on the beach, after many weeks of being away. This was the start of the new season, one they all looked forward to for so long. Some kept in touch, formed little groups that in the meantime stayed together, others moved onto their hermit worlds, on their own adventures or quiet time. But they were all happy to see each other, once again together on their beloved server. The only person that was missing was Etho, having troubles in his home server, but he was with them in their minds and hearts, as they took their group photo and sent it out into the ether. And what a delightful photo it was, so many smiling faces. The sick green of Joe's hair finally washed out and even if he kept it long, it wasn't visible, brown straight locks sitting on his shoulders. Doc finally leaned into the running joke of goat father, from his cybernetic side of the forehead protruding metallic horn, curling slightly behind his ear. Animalistic theme hasn't ended quite on him, as Cleo, standing right next to him had her storm of orange hair tied into many braids in peculiar fashion with colourful strings so that in the end all resembled little snakes, with their little eyes and tongues sticking out. She looked gorgeous in the split dress trimmed with gold, slipping off her shoulders, but it wasn't the only fancy outfit in the group. Scar was rocking some green and golden fantasy robes, long hair braided with gold and kept in a loose ponytail, pointy ears proudly on display. Without Cleo he would look absolutely mismatched with the whole group of loose T-shirts, jumpers or hoodies, with the addition of one always present suit. But there were also two armours, one mediaeval, one futuristic. Wels kept his usual style, his armour steel and strong, while Xisuma for once was once again green. Despite new updates creeping on the horizon, the admin decided to keep his old gear instead of deciding on a new theme. And it suited him quite nicely. The only missing green wasn't only of Joe's hair - Jevin's also returned to their original blue, as far as blue can be dubbed an original colour. But as no one knew what his natural was, they just accepted they were blue. Because why would they ask questions?
“Does anyone have a crafting table?” a few voices broke out of the crowd, sounds of chopping wood filling the forest.
“Has anyone seen any sheep?!”
“I have a spare stone pickaxe, if anyone wants” any creature that lived in the forest and still hoped that there would be peace and quiet, could abandon their hope as the Hermits flooded the woods, collecting resources and pushing each other for fun. This is how all the starts went, no matter if it was a birch forest, but the white trees definitely made it even louder as Bdubs wasn’t very shy about his opinion as well as for the fact that he was still looking for good materials for a bed. The Bed Lord himself required something at least mildly comfortable after all.
"Xisuma, by the way, where is Ex?" Wels managed to catch the admin before either of them went their separate ways, further into the mountains. Both had one in common - brothers that liked to cause chaos and destruction more than the Hermits. But none of them were present and while absence of one of them was a normality, the other not so much.
"Oh, he and Hels have their own server for the time being, maybe he'll join later" X shrugged in response. "But I think it's good that he's finally hanging out with his own friends" Ex, Xisuma's younger brother or maybe an evil clone - who knew - was a strange one. No one really liked him, as he was constantly trying to 'take over the server' as he proclaimed, with poor results so far. But he followed Xisuma like a duckling and the older Void was doomed of taking care of him and playing along with his shenanigans instead of throwing himself into his own. But once Ex would stop being so evil™, he was a rather nice and helpful guy, resembling his brother greatly - maybe that's why anyone still liked him. He might have not been a Hermit, but he had his little place in their community.
Xisuma was just happy his brother managed to find himself someone who wanted to hang out with him that wouldn't do any harm to him - Hels might have been an evil clone of Wels, but it was still a clone. Many traits were left the same as they were, including loyalty to his friends.
The other good thing was that there was one chaotic person less to look after as the next thing he stumbled upon was Grian and Mumbo joining forces to throw scar into a random cave they found in the ground multiple times. Xisuma could swear that at least one of the Hermits already got their hands on a TNT and was watching the world burn as he was walking down the steep wall of the cave entrance only for Scar to fly past him and burst into a fountain of items beneath his feet. Eh, a day like the rest. There was a reason why they turned off the death count after all.
Scar, Mumbo and Grian had great fun, at least the last two. Scar was just used to it, and honestly, after the feeling of death on the hardcore world, the real pain it held, it was nice to go through the painless process of the respawn and stroll back to the place where he had died. Sure, navigating a wheelchair through the rocks and the forest was not the easiest thing in the world, but he had Cub, Xisuma and Iskall work on his wheelchair to be able to move around without troubles. He also had it bound with him, like others had their communicators, so it was really not a problem. But they still moved together, chatting and joking, kind of reminiscent of what happened in the previous season.
“I must say, I’m quite impressed with the hair, Scar. How did you manage to grow them this long?” as Mumbo finally deviated from trying to gaslight Scar into becoming a matador, they sat by a rock to rest before going down into a cave and presumably waited for Grian that ran off, chased by Tango for destroying a beehive. Mumbo was known for his glorious moustache and jet black hair so he himself had an eye for hair. To his demise his best friend was Grian, a man with dirty blonde mop of hair that he recently decided to let grow out a little more to be able to tie it. But Scar presented himself quite spectacularly, unlike normal. What used to be short brown hair messed up from the hat, either his adventurer hat or a top hat, but now it fell onto his shoulder in gentle waves, tied in neat ponytail that would go past his shoulder blades.
“You know, man has his ways” Scar sent him a dashing smile, but it didn't last long.
“It’s a wig, Mumbo, don’t let him fool you, and fake ears” Grian suddenly cut in, smirking. He carried a armful of birch branches for their little campfire, just to keep the fire up and cook some food. “I had seen this man a week ago when he plunged his face into the bottom of his ravine and he had his hair as short as ever” Scar huffed, scrunching his nose a little at being called out, but he still smiled, not being able to feel offended.
“Wait, weren’t you on a hardcore world?” Mumbo looked at Grian in confusion, but the blonde just shrugged.
“Yeah. With Scar and Joel” and multiple other people that tried to kill them but was it really important? It was just three builders against the world, or rather world against them as the time there wasn’t particularly easy. But it was fun nonetheless.
“Scar was in a hardcore world???” Mumbo on the other hand didn’t seem to be on board with the idea, looking at the elf wannabe in shock. They’ve all seen enough of Scar to doubt his survival skills, none of them believing in the fact that the man once had his own hardcore world.
“Hey, I can take care of myself just fine” what would come in the next few hours was just the opposite of a proof for his statement as communicators got flooded by Scar's death messages, whether it was falling into a hole or his two companions having way too much fun. At least it wasn't the only death loop on the chat as not so far from them a certain group decided it would be a good idea to raid a woodland mansion without any gear whatsoever.
"WHOSE TERRIBLE IDEA WAS THAT?!" Impulse clenched his puny sword close to his chest, back pressed hard against the wooden wall as if he wished to blend in with it.
"Ours! We agreed on this collectively!" Pearl yelled back, deafened by Gem's screech as she skeeted down the hall, a swarm of vindicators of her tail, going right past the duo hiding behind the pillars. The last to run was Cleo, her axe raised high, ready to strike the slowest one. "Didn't you want a totem?"
"Right. Then let's get one, shall we?" Impulse sighed, but smiled widely and gripped the sword tightly. They were here either way, nothing worse could happen to them than what already had.
In another direction a different group also got chased by the monsters through endless corridors, just a lot more sturdy than the wooden walls of the mansion.
“Look out!” Keralis yelled, before he shoved creeper in their direction.
“Are you trying to kill us?!” Tango screeched, pushing it back away, only for it to land almost in Stress's face, making the woman scream and swing her sword blindly. The blade somehow hit the creature, slaying it for good as the friends suddenly burst out laughing, Stress falling to her knees.
"No more mob tennis, Keralis, no MORE" the lady huffed, trying to shake off the adrenaline, already having made a movie jump from explosion once this day, she had enough of creepers. Doc laughed a little at that, offering her a hand to help her stand up. They were all exploring caves, first day style, looking for resources before any of them could go on in their separate ways. And it was just as chaotic as one could expect, giving how wild all of them tended to be.
"Sorry" the builder mumbled out, hiding his face from embarrassment behind his flat cap, Tango bursting into hysterical laughter.
"Man, what the hell is wrong with your hair" Iskall on the other hand eyed the top of his head and the new hairstyle the builder decided to try on. They were two braids, very messy braids that didn’t look too good. Keralis reached for them in surprise, not sure what Iskall was talking about. There was nothing wrong with his hair!
"Oh, Bdubs braided it for me like that in season seven, I thought I might give it a try again" he said, sending Tango into another wave of laughter, nearly choking.
"And clearly you don't know how to braid hair. This is horrendous…" Doc smirked at him as well, placing his hand on his hand and ruffled his hair slightly, ruining his braids even further. Keralis tried to shoosh him away, but there wasn’t much to save anymore, hair streaks falling onto his face messily.
"How about I braid them for you again when we come out of this hole" Stress offered politely, Keralis agreeing. Braiding his short hair by himself wasn’t particularly easy, he knew he messed it slightly up. And it would be nice to spend some lazy time with Stress, they did that rather rarely.
“For now, put that on” Iskall shoved a ram head into his hands and marched deeper into the cave, chuckling to himself slightly. Keralis only shrugged, shoving the head into his inventory, as he did not intend putting it on, and fixed the flap cap on his head. There was still some way up to the surface.