Team ZITS had only ventured into the jungle for bamboo; safe to say they were very surprised (and horrified) to find what seemed to be the corpse of their old partner Bdubs tangled in a mass of vines. He had been lost to the wilderness several months ago, while all the hermits were split up due to being chased out of their old home. Dead or alive, the hermits assumed they'd never see him again.

However, as Impulse collapsed sobbing over Bdubs' body, he felt a faint heartbeat. Bdubs wasn't dead; just rooted and unconscious! After some expert vine-pruning done by Tango and his fire-aspect sword, the group was able to free him and carry him home.

The noise that came out of Doc's mouth when he saw Bdubs was nothing like any of the hermits had ever heard before. It was a haunting mix of anguish and relief; a breathless cry that was both ear-perkingly loud and yet oh so soft. All the hermits knew that Doc had a gentle heart under his prickly exterior, but in this moment, that facade shattered completely.

He cradled Bdubs in his arms, gentler than anyone had ever seen, and cried. Doc never cried. Cleo and Joe had to spend a full five minutes convincing him to let them take Bdubs to heal him. Even then, Doc stayed by Bdubs' bed for three days nonstop until he finally woke up.

The NHO were the last people Bdubs saw before he fell asleep the night he went missing, and they were the first people he saw when he came to, five months later. Doc buried his head into Bdubs' chest, sobbing in relief, with Beef and Etho taking their places by his side soon after. Doc had lived in New Hermiton for five months, helping to build it from the ground; but only now did it feel like home

🎬 anon

Adapting to life again was... Difficult. But it was made easier having his partners there to support him every step of the way!

WAIT-JUST-A-GODDAMN-MINUTE! I THOUGHT THERE WAS TOO MUCH OF A COINCIDENCE HERE!

Fr thx for the support homie, I feel so happy to see you as a moot!

MWEHEHEHEH, YOU'VE FOUND MY SECRET IDENTITY!

So I’ve been drawing goro a lot recently and hoo boy. Black mask outfit my abhorred. I legit could not stand drawing it anymore so I made my own redesign ✌️

michael bell

Beef has a space suit adjacent thing on, xB has the same thing but there's water in the helmet.

They can never stay long in the void, always either Beef running out of oxygen or xB's water lacking oxygen, but Keralis loves spending what time they have together in the void.

(Bonus: xB tried to take Keralis and Beef into the ocean, but Beef can't stand the feeling of the pressure, and Keralis dissociates a lot. They stopped going underwater after a while.)

They try to make up for it by bringing the 'ocean' home for xB. A large aquarium (very well cared for, they did their research), the interlaced curling lights waving across the ceiling, the powerful quietness.

Doc has never been a fan of being in white rooms for long. Sure, the look of them can be nice; pristine and clean, like some hospitals.

Until his memories decide he can’t have a fun time, and all of a sudden, his entire body is screaming, telling him to run, to break out, to get far, far from the area. Like it’s a life or death situation, like he’s about to explode.

Etho doesn’t know why. Not completely, anyways. He can make some educated guesses, but he won’t. He could ask why Doc shuts himself away on certain days, why he refuses to look at news articles from specific years, why the sound of thunder makes him jump so bad, but he won’t. The time never feels right. To keep others from guessing, he began saying Doc was just afraid of hospitals. It was easier. Sprinkled it in during conversations around medical topics and such.

Bdubs believed him almost immediately. It’s not too out of the norm, a lot of people are scared of hospitals. And, with Doc’s missing eye and arm, he could only assume something had gone down in one, right?

Beef was less convinced, but he wasn’t about to go and pester the guy for his backstory. Who knows what that could bring? Plus, he wouldn’t want someone bugging him over something he’s terrified of either. Just seems so impolite, you know?

Doc, of course, caught on pretty fast. It’s hard to avoid it, when one day, you’ve gotten nicked by an arrow right in the connection point of your face plate and eye, and your peers are actively keeping you at the server clinic, rather than rushing you to the main hub’s hospital. Horrible idea, but he can see where they’re coming from.

He doesn’t speak on it much. He knows it’s the ideal outcome, having everyone believe he was just scared of some building, rather than something worse.

On the brighter side, the clinic on the server has been filled with color, filled with paintings and decorations the hermits themselves had created. It’s nicer to look at.