(Word count: 2113

My hands hurt so much. I typed half of this in one sitting.

Angst train: Keralis and Bdubs edition

I am so sorry)

Bdubs was falling.

He didn't know how to explain it. He just simply woke up one day, ready to start building again, only to find himself high up in the sky, falling at terminal velocity.

Bdubs yelped, trying to fly, but then found out that he had nothing. Nada. Where was all his diamond armor, his Elytra? Someone must be playing a sick joke on him. It was probably Etho or Doc.

The ground approached faster and faster and with it unfamiliar territory. Bdubs spotted a huge airfield, roads made of gray concrete powder, massive cliffs jutting out from the ground.

This wasn't the Hermitcraft Bdubs remembered.

He spotted some movement, and Bdubs realized it was another person. He tried to open his mouth for help, but then he hit the ground. Pain shot up his body, and everything faded to black.

That must have been a dream. There was no way that was real.

Bdubs was scared to open his eyes. He could feel the wind whistling around him. Perfectly normal...maybe he left the window open?

He cracked open one eye and winced as he realized he was falling yet again.  The ground was littered with multicolored buildings, but the point of interest was the big box of white concrete. A huge shop of some sort? It still didn't look familiar to him. He spotted another person. While the first was unfamiliar, Bdubs instantly recognized the man.

"Iskall! ISKALLLLL!"

The last thing Bdubs saw before his vision faded to black yet again was Iskall jumping back at the sight.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

It was like he was in an endless loop of just falling, over and over again. Unfamiliar territory, new people, some people he recognized, but every time Bdubs hit the ground, he just woke up again to another round of falling.

Until something changed.

"Why does this keep happening?!"

Bdubs was just annoyed at this point. However Doc or whoever did this to him managed to pull this off, it was seemingly endless.

He spotted the massive airfields again, but that was off to a distance. Right below him was a modest house made of quartz, with a swimming pool outside.

Swimming pool.

Water.

No fall damage.

The cycle would end.

Bdubs hit the water with a wonderful splash. He got water up his nose and his clothes were drenched, but he was so relieved the falling cycle was over he didn't care.

"Bubbles?!"

Bdubs looked over to see another familiar sight--Keralis, with his wide eyes, if possible, wider.

"Hi!" He chirped, probably looking like a complete weirdo right then--he just fell out of the sky and landed in Keralis' swimming pool. "Sorry about that," he said, climbing out.

"You gave me a heart attack!" The builder said. "I didn't know you were here, too!"

"What do you mean?" Bdubs asked, confused. "I've been here. Right?"

Keralis looked even more confused than Bdubs felt. "I don't know anymore. I was just in the Nether with Shashwamy, and I went through the Nether portal. Next thing I know, I'm here--wherever here is. The Nether portal was weird too--when I first exited from it, it was missing two blocks of obsidian. I just checked on it a few hours ago and it was 1x3, with diamond blocks instead of obsidian. That shouldn't be possible."

Bdubs felt so relieved that he wasn't the only confused person. "Who are all these new people? I've been stuck in an endless loop where I fall from the sky every single time I respawn. I've seen some weird things."

"Whatever they are, they can't be as weird as the things I've been through."

"I'll take your word for it. But, can we just talk about the elephant in the room? I mean, what is this place? I was in Hermitcraft! What is this area?"

"About that...I still think it's Hermitcraft."

"What do you mean? This can't be Hermitcraft. We both know Hermitcraft like the back of our hands. This is not it."

"When I first arrived, I was...I guess you could say 'kidnapped'...by these two people. One was new to me. The other was Doc."

Bdubs was so happy that he still knew some of these people. One question remained unanswered, though...who were the new people?

"Anyway," Keralis continued. "I heard them talking about Hermitcraft. They said it like it was their world. I don't know--did we time warp or something?"

Bdubs laughed a little. "That's ridiculous. Keralis, we've got to explore this new world. If I'm going to get lost, you're coming with me."

"I don't like that statement."

"C'mon! From what I could see when I was falling, this world is HUGE! We have to go check it out."

"But I need to build--"

"Gah! Save your booshes for later."

----------

"We're lost."

"No, we aren't. We're just...finding our way."

"That's another way to say 'lost', Bubbles."

It was dizzying to see this new world from ground level. Bdubs was so used to flying around with an Elytra, and even when he was falling he had had a bird's eye view. The proportions of some of these buildings and the detail...if Bdubs didn't know better, he'd think people were using creative mode. But there were signs of survival--vanilla survival, no cheats. Unpatched Creeper holes littered around, spare Shulker boxes lying around the buildings, and not to mention the enchanted diamond armor Bdubs had seen on the people when he was falling.

It reminded him so much of Hermitcraft.

Bdubs and Keralis had taken one step into a place dotted with buildings of all sorts and immediately had gotten lost. They'd already been hit with eggs from a guy with a chicken costume (whatever that was about), and that was the only person they had seen so far.

This new area seemed like the hub of activity right now--Bdubs had fallen into this area quite a few times. So where were all the people? He needed answers.

And a map. A map would be really handy right now.

"Now how are we going to get back home? Ooh," Keralis said, looking around and eyeing a monotone building that was labeled R.U.N. "Since we're here, can we check out some of the buildings?"

"No, Keralis. We need to see more spots. There's a Nether portal over there. Maybe there's a hub?"

"Oh, no. The last time I had experiences with a Nether portal, I wound up here." Keralis said, marching towards the R.U.N. building. "No, thank you."

"For goodness' sake!" Bdubs dragged Keralis over to the Nether portal. "C'mon. You go first."

"Wait, what--"

They both jumped into the portal.

Good news? It did lead them to a hub.

Bad news? The hub was even larger. And they had to walk on foot.

"There's an ice trail right there and it's taunting me," Keralis groaned. "Who doesn't add boats to an ice trail? There were no boats. You didn't bring wood. I didn't bring wood."

"Come on," Bdubs panted. "Just a few hundred more blocks."

"You make it sound easy."

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached the main room of the Nether hub.

And they were immediately overwhelmed again.

"Is this what the world looks like?" Bdubs said, admiring the built-in map in the hub. "This must've taken ages to do. And it's not even covering the whole world--we just came from another segment!"

"Choose a portal and jump through it," Keralis said, leaning against the wall. "I never want to see this hub again."

Bdubs suddenly realized something, and he mentally slapped himself for not knowing it earlier. "Keralis...do you think we're stuck in this world?"

Keralis halted. "Oh no."

"At least we know Doc and Iskall and other people we know are still here, right?"

"Maybe it's the diamond portal we have to go through." Keralis tried to reassure himself. "I'm so stupid! How did I not know this before?"

Bdubs' eyes landed on a portal with a black background and a yellow 'I' overlaid on the top. "That's the one."

They went through the portal and landed in what almost seemed like an entirely new world. The buildings were so unique--in the distance, that was the massive white concrete build Bdubs had seen earlier!

"This must be the shopping district," Bdubs said. This world had such a similar feel and structure to Hermitcraft, yet so different at the same time.

He realized something. "Wait. The shopping district is always one of the busiest places. We'll run into someone."

Speak of the devil. Bdubs spotted two figures strolling down the path, heading for the Nether Portal. He waved, ignoring Keralis' protests. "Hello! Over here!"

As the two new people came over, Bdubs realized that they weren't even new. It was Xisuma and Doc—they'd been around for a long time!

Xisuma faltered in his steps. "Bdubs? Keralis?"

"Shashwamy!" Keralis said. "Um....hi."

Doc stared at the two of them. "Uh...we thought you left."

That just made Bdubs even more confused. "And you have some explaining to do, you scientist! How did you get me up into the sky? I was in Hermitcraft, how did I get—"he stuttered for a word—"here?"

Xisuma frowned. "But this is Hermitcraft."

Bdubs got sudden vertigo. He hadn't believed Keralis when he'd said it. But this was confirmation from someone else. Of course, this world was Hermitcraft—a similar feel and structure, but it had evolved somehow.

"How? The Hermitcraft I know didn't have this," Keralis protested. "The last time I saw you was when we were in the Nether, battling that Ghast. Then i stepped through that portal...and I was here."

Xisuma seemed to be struggling to recollect that moment. "Keralis...that was years ago."

Bdubs sucked in his breath. Hermitcraft had evolved, and somehow he'd missed a couple of years of his time here—and this had happened.

"Bdubs, where have you been?" Doc asked. So apparently, the creeper hybrid wasn't the cause of all this.

"Funny story..." Bdubs chuckled nervously. "I've been falling out of the sky. Multiple times. I blamed you at first—I thought you and the other NHO members had done something."

A flash of sadness washed over Doc's face, but it quickly passed, replaced by an expression of happiness, which seemed a bit fake. "No matter. You're here now, aren't you?"

Bdubs grinned. "That's right. You all can be happy now. Bdubs is back!"

"And Keralis," Keralis added.

"And this dude," Bdubs corrected himself. "So, where's Vintage and Etho? We can get the old NHO back together!"

Xisuma chose to look anywhere but making eye contact with Bdubs. Doc fiddled with a long weapon of some sort--it didn't look familiar.

"Alright, what are you hiding?"

"Nothing," X lied.

Bdubs remembered something--Hermitcraft members came and went. That explained all the new people. But the NHO was iconic to Hermitcraft--they wouldn't leave, would they?

"Doc...did they leave?"

Bdubs hoped for any answer but no. Doc met his eyes and nodded sadly.

"But...the NHO. What happened?"

"Bdubs...Hermits have left before. Etho and Vintage had other things to do."

That wasn't a good enough explanation for Bdubs, but Keralis interrupted.

"What about people like Generikb? How many people have left, exactly?"

Xisuma shuffled around a bit. "Quite a bit. Hermitcraft went down for a while, but we have so many new members..."

Bdubs knew that, but the sudden loss of the NHO hit him hard. He and Keralis had so many friends, and half--or even more--of them have left.

"Hey," Doc said, seeming to read his thoughts. "We've all went through this. To be honest...I still think about them. And the worlds I was a part of before Hermitcraft. It's gonna be okay."

It's gonna be okay.

This was dropped so suddenly on Bdubs and Keralis. One day they were just in the Hermitcraft they knew, and suddenly they were in this world--old members are gone, a new world entirely.

Bdubs took a deep breath. "It's going to be okay."

Doc stepped closer. "I'm not normally a touchy-feely type of person, but..." he hugged Bdubs tightly.

"Do I get a hug, Shashwamy?" Keralis asked awkwardly.

"Ask the Creeper scientist." X chuckled.

It hurt, to know that old members had left suddenly. It hurt that there would never be another Hermitcraft like the one they knew. But it would okay--everyone was coping. Melting into Doc's hug, Bdubs felt at home, knowing that everything would be okay--well, as okay as Hermitcraft could get. There was probably chaos to come, and they would have to deal with pranks and all the events and mishaps that would happen, but for now, they would be okay. While this isn't the Hermitcraft they remembered, while this world wouldn't make up for it, it was still Hermitcraft.