Everyone had moved behind the prison a fair amount more to stay more secretive after Tommy had shown up very unannounced, and it had more space for the much larger group of people present now.

"So change of plans Doc, we have plenty of people to go on the adventure, but we need some people to run the shops while we're all gone. Does that work for you guys?" Sam asked a little nervously. Everything had been really last minute for them, and he felt a bit bad about changing everything so much with no notice whatsoever.

"No problem man. We had an adventure last week or so, so this break will be just fine."

Doc looked at the rest of the group who was listening and all nodded their heads. A few looked relieved and few looked a little disappointed but no one argued.

"Great! So uhm, how do you want to sort this out? Introductions first? We all still need to prepare as quickly as we can, but maybe they should organize the shops before that." Sam offered.

"I'll let X over here handle the organizing. But I can introduce everyone really quickly first, and then your crew can."

Sam nodded and smiled.

Doc went from left to right pointing to each person as he went.

"We have Grian, Iskall85, Mumbo Jumbo, Stressmonster, ZombieCleo, Xisumavoid, False Symmetry, Ethoslab, Joe Hills, Keralis, GoodTimesWithScar, Impulse, Tango Tek, and last but not least," He motioned to the last person in the line standing proudly, "Short-stuff."

"Hey!" The guy shouted out, "That's B-Double-O to you Doc!" He spat. Doc just chuckled and moved on. B-dubs shot a glare to Scar, Impulse, and Tango who were giggling like little kids. Etho put his hand to his head and dropped it down much lower to poke fun at B-dub's height. B-dubs could see the smirk through the mask and was practically fuming. The only thing that cut him off before he could start to yell at them was Doc talking. He huffed and crossed his arms.

"Go ahead and introduce your crew." Doc said, stepping to the side.

"Oh uhm-" Sam started. Truth be told, he didn't really know a big handful of these people. Most of them he had met today, unlike the super organized and best buds Hermits who had probably known each other for forever.

"I'll just let everyone introduce themselves." He said quickly. "I'm Awesamedude, but you guys can call me Sam." He said politely, waving his hand over to let everyone else go in a somewhat organized manner from closest to him to farthest from him the messy line they stood in.

"Ponk!" Ponk smiled and waved.

"George." He said a little flatly. This was cool and all, but he didn't need any help and this was a waste of time for him.

"Sapnap," Sapnap smiled and stuffed his hands in his pockets again, glancing at the sparkler Tango still held in his hand.

"Philza Minecraft." Philza nodded and tucked his wings more behind him. Ranboo crossed his mind again. He was sure he would've seen him by now and he was getting worried as he scanned the crowd another time through.

"Technoblade." He said in a stiff voice. Social interaction wasn't his strong suit.

"Wilbur Soot," He put his hand on his chest and bowed a little, the performer in him acting out. (get it?)

"Tommy!" The child shouted with a bright smile.

"Tubbo!" He exclaimed, not taking his eyes off Xisuma and his bees.

"Nihachu, but Niki is fine." She smiled sweetly and gave a small wave.

"Captain Puffy, Puffy for short."

"Fundy,"

"The furry-" Tommy coughed. Fundy shot him a glare but Skeppy spoke before he could argue.

"Skeppy."

Tommy gave a smirk to Fundy as everyone kept going. Fundy rolled his eyes and looked away to avoid giving him any more satisfaction.

"Badboyhalo," Bad smiled and slyly gave a quick glance to Skeppy to make sure he was ok. It was hard to tell with the box on his head, but his stance was tense, and his voice sounded flat. Bad was a little worried.

"Antfrost." He smiled and wrapped his tail around Velvet subconsciously.

"RedVelvet, but Velvet works." He noticed the tail thing.

Xisuma stepped up to Sam, "I think this would be easiest if those who need help stepped forward and explained their shops, and then the Hermits picked out who they could help out best with. Of course if one is too crowded we can mix people around, but I think that would work best."

Sam nodded and turned to his group "Everyone that needs help running shops or other things should step forwards so this can go smoothly."

Skeppy turned towards Bad, "Hey these guys can help us with the Earth gate!"

"Ooh good idea Skeppy!" Bad whispered and stepped forward next to him.

Niki, Velvet, Ant, Puffy, Skeppy, and Bad had all stepped forwards. Last was Sam, who realised it would be helpful to have a few extra guards on high alert while he went on the mission. He had promised to capture Dream himself, meaning he would have to leave the prison again. Better to give Purpled and Punz a few extra sets of hands when he could.

"If you could say the name of your shop and the basics that would be wonderful." X smiled.

"I have a cafe and a flower shop near each other," Niki said brightly. "Just need someone to take care of the plants, make coffee and pastries, and run them as normal stores." A handful of Hermits perked up at that.

"I work at a hospital, I just need someone to help out the two nurses I already have. Just the simple stuff like bandages and helping kids calm down." Puffy said.

"I have a potions shop, but its been closed for a bit so it's not too popular at the moment. If someone could just open it up and make sure no one steals everything that would be great." Antfrost gave a bit of a nervous laugh. Velvet squeezed his hand to calm his nerves, much to the appreciation of Ant.

"We actually run the Earth gate and we need some people to guard it while we're gone." Skeppy said cheerfully.

"It's been closed a little too long." Bad sighed with a nervous smile. Compared to the extravagant opening performance the Hermits had displayed, a few people were a little intimidated by them which explained all of the nervous laughter.

"And I need a few people to guard the prison temporarily with my two other guards for extra security." Sam said lastly.

X nodded to the Hermits. "Just split up with who you'd think you'd work best with and we can go from there. If there is any confusion, come to me and I can help sort it out."

The Hermits nodded and promptly split up into groups. Surprisingly, it all worked out pretty well with pretty even groups and no one had to be moved around.

Doc walked over to Sam with a slightly larger group than the others. "I actually brought Mumbo here to help you with the prison security and now that Impulse has no adventure to go on, he can help too." Doc said, pointing to the moustache man with a suitcase probably filled with tools and extra supplies, and another man with brown hair a black tee shirt with a yellow 'i' on it.

"Oh wow Doc thanks! I'm assuming the rest of you want to guard then? Or do you need help?"

"Guarding." A blonde woman with goggles on her head said. Putting her hand to her forehead in a solute for a second before letting her arm fall to her side.

"Grian and Iskall stole the Earth gate spots and yeah, this seems pretty cool." False casually continued with a smile.

"Guarding too! Gotta keep my buddy Impulse company while he does the nerd stuff." Tango said cheerfully.

"Well thank you all so much for the help, I'm sure everything will be in great hands." Sam said with a bit of relief in his voice. Ponk was the only one to notice it, and smiled a little bit under the mask. Sam was relaxing a bit, something he really needed more of.

The groups had all been paired up and everyone was chatting to get to know each other a little before they headed off in their separate directions. Niki had the most Hermits crowded around her since she had two shops to take care of, while the others had about two Hermits for each place.

Tubbo and Tommy were hanging around Niki, because Xisuma offered to help with the flower shop with Etho, and Tubbo had insisted on saying hi to the bee man.

Antfost and Velvet had gotten Scar and B-dubs to help with the potions shop. And Velvet was cooing at Scars cat Jellie while Antfrost was making a pouty jealous face.

Skeppy and Bad were talking to Grian and Iskall about how you always have to be alert while guarding it, since you never know who will try to get through without permission, definitely not referring to any earlier events. Iskall was taking notes in all caps from Bad, while Grian was trying to balance on Skeppy's box head, mentioning it was easier than shoulders. Skeppy was yelling at him to flap his wings to balance while Bad looked at them with worry, getting ready to rush in for when they fell.

Puffy was explaining a few of the basics of the hospital to Keralis and Joe, mentioning the most they would have to do is wrap up bandages and cheer kids up. Apparently the nurses she had weren't great at being patient with kids. Joe said he could read poetry to the kids and Keralis said he'd worked with both kids and hospitals a bit before, so it should all work fine. Puffy nodded and felt a little better about having to leave her job for an adventure she somehow got caught up in. If Niki was going, she wasn't going to stay here and leave her alone in it.

The rest of everyone were standing in small groups or just wandering around, wondering when they could leave. After Sam had everything organized and everyone else seemed to be ok as well, he tried to get everyone's attention with the help of Ponk, waving his arms around and yelling for people's attention.

"Thanks Ponk." Sam muttered.

"I'd just like to say, now that everything is sorted out, you guys are free to leave and remember to meet at the Earth gate at 3! If you need help I'll be here. See you guys in a little while!"

A few groups stayed and kept talking, but the majority left off to their shops in a hurry. It was messy and a ton of people, but it seemed to be actually working out. Hopefully the rest of the mission would go this smoothly.

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Hey guys! The support recently has been insane and i just want to say a huge thank you for all the votes and comments and just yeah, all that sappy stuff. This is just to say that i think I'm going to have to take a bit of a break for about a week on this. I have a huge AP test coming up I'm not prepared for yet and a huge amount of homework to catch up on. I literally got sick a few days ago because of stress so I think that's a bit of a signal to take a break. To that one person who recommended having crow father and goat father meet, they will they will! I just had to split this chapter in two because it was getting too long so it should be in one of the next two chapters depending on how I organize it. Thanks a ton for reading this and I hope you're having a good day or night! (If it's night then sleep! seriously!)

(and all of those comments about being able to hear the dialog, thank you. I really tried to get it right for every character I could and knowing that some people noticed it just- yeah, sappy stuff. thanks)