New Beginnings (Hermitcraft and Dream SMP Crossover)

Chapter One: Mansion Portal Problems

[Notes from the author: I do not remember what episode of Hermitcraft season 7 it takes place in. I'd suggest you go watch the series! It's pretty poggers, r.i.p. Grumm (Grum?) Bot- you will forever be remembered.]

Stepping through the newly crafted nether portal felt like an achievement that surpassed all other achievements Grian had ever gotten in the Hermitcraft server.

The whooshing sound it made was always pleasant- to a degree- it can be annoying if one stood by it for too long. Which most people didn't, because they weren't obsessively testing how big they could make them like him.

Grian didn't know that the nether portals could be blue instead of purple, but he decided to ignore it and think it was a bug in the game. Ignoring the feeling of his stomach being flip-flopped, Grian stepped through with his eyes closed.

His communicator dinged as he inhaled... crisp and cool air...?

No no, that wasn't right. The Nether had suffocating, hot air. Grian opened his eyes.

Once his vision cleared of indigo swirls, he looked at the popup screen:

Grian joined the game

That caught his attention. He was already in the server, right? Looking around, he was on a beach and no portal was behind him. So he couldn't go back. Fantastic.

What really stood out was the tattered white tent on the hill in front of him, with a few flaming pillars near it. In a rush, he checked his inventory- he still had some items, thank god. But when he went over the remains of it he only had:

A netherite sword, a netherite pickax, a netherite axe, and his full set of netherite armor plus a few stacks of food. Oh, and a few logs, for some reason.

None of his end materials remained- no fireworks, no elytra, and no shulker boxes. All his building supplies was gone.

What mostly disturbed him was the fact that the beach felt... empty. Compared to Mumbo's lake beach, at least. Striding over to the tent, he carefully peered inside.

A young boy was cowering in the back, staring at him with widened eyes. After getting over his surprise, Grian noted he seemed to have torn, muddy clothes and was munching quietly on some bread. His eyes were a dead blue that hurt his very soul.

Grian's wings fluttered underneath his chest plate, aching to be free and wrap around this poor boy. His wings weren't big, but they were large enough to somewhat glide around rather than fully take off and soar. Useful when building.

"Who the fuck are you?" The boy asked bluntly after they had stared at each other for a bit, "are you Dream's replacement?" He pushed past him and dug a hole outside,  dumping his whole inventory into it.

"What are you doing...?" Grian asked with a frown, turning to follow the kid.

"Aren't you going to blow it up?"

"No..?"

The kid paused. "Are you one of my first visitors?!" He hopped from one foot to the other excitedly, and his dead eyes seemed to brighten a little.

The boy snatched his stuff from the hole and retreated back to the tent. As he followed him back, Grian spotted some blackened patches of grass- like someone blew something up more than once there...

That made him shiver. Something was very wrong here, and he wanted to find out what. "Soooo.... What's your name?" Grian started as he sat on the grass floor inside the tent.