Where: Town Hall, Universe 0023's Shadow Realm

Mumbo found himself next to Scar in the Shopping District. The three shadows were standing next to him, but now he could see more details in their appearances.

The more defensive one looked like Grian, if Grian looked like he walked out of a Zelda game. Specifically, Breath of the Wild. He even had a (working, this sword could very much stab you good) replica of the Master Sword strapped to his back. He kept the sword in hand at all times, even though there wasn't anything dangerous in sight.

The taller (and sassier) one looked an awful lot like Mumbo, but a lot more casual when it came to fashion sense. His hair was wild, his T-shirt had in small print near the top right saying "Mumbo For Mayor", his jeans were ripped and roughed up at the knees, and he wore simple boots instead of Mumbo's usual dress wear. He also looked like he hadn't slept in a while.

The most relaxed of the three looked like Iskall, but their robotic eye was much duller, and they had a robotic left arm. Their clothes looked like the Swede's old hitman outfit, with the hat, scarf, and all. Their belt contained a few knives and a two-handed sword, but they didn't have any of those in hand. In fact, they were just scrolling through their device absentmindedly.

All of them wore darker colors and always looked as if they were standing in the shade, even if they were in direct sunlight.

"Where-?"

The shadow Marra had called "MJ" scoffed. "You know where you are, stupid."

"M." The hitman warned while scrolling through their communicator.

MJ rolled his dark eyes. "Fine. G, introduce us."

The cyborg looked up and stared blankly at the shady version of Mumbo. Huffing, the sassy shadow corrected: "G, introduce us, please."

The Link cosplayer rolled his eyes and growled slightly, but did as he was asked.

"Just call me G. The assassin-"

"Hitman."

"Sorry, hitman, is Quin. This a-"

"Finish that insult, I dare you."

"Hush child. This dummy is MJ."

GoodTimesWithScar didn't seem to notice the group of people near him. Mumbo went to walk over, and screamed in a panic, "WHY CAN I SEE THROUGH MY HAND?!?"

Scar's dark outline on the floor shifted into a person, who was pressing their hands against their ears. "My God, can you get any louder? How do these people not hear you?!"

MJ gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Maybe it's because we're in a total separate plane of existence or something?"

Thwack!

"OW! What was that for!?"

Grian's shadow had slapped MJ in the arm, hard. The two started arguing, and Quin sighed.

"Hey Bad. We're supposed to be deciding whether MJ's light-self should be able see and interact with us. It's been chaos so far, and it's only been a few minutes."

"Bad" snorted. "Sounds like you guys. GoodTimes here has been doing his usual crazy weirdness: licking diamonds (for whatever reason), talking to Jellie, nearly dying, all that."

'Sounds like Scar.' Mumbo thought as G and MJ continued to argue and bicker.

Marra, looking as dark and see-through as Mumbo, popped up.

"Ahem."

The two aggressive shadows stopped arguing and everyone who was aware of her looked in her direction.

"You two are just great at your job, aren't you?" Marra asked G and MJ sarcastically, who shrugged not-so-innocently.

Sighing, Marra fully explained what was happening. "These guys are supposed to show you around Hermitcraft while in the shadow dimension, so you can meet other Hermits shadows, earn their trust, and overall see if they can accept your presence so you can talk with them whenever you want, ask favours, and allow them to interact with your main dimension."

The pirate-witch turned toward Bad. "This is BadTimesWithScar, your Scar's shadow. You two, talk. You three, keep Mumby safe and don't lose him."

The last comment was directed toward the Shadow Architects, who nodded and watched as Marra poofed away.

POOF.

"So, I'm GoodTimes' shadow. I share some traits with him, and I have some of his more hidden traits that I always have on display no matter what. He doesn't show his more Slytherin side in public, so I get to show that off more often. That means his more well-known aspects are as seen with me, but they're still there. We're linked together emotionally, so if he's feeling crappy, I feel crappy. I feel great? He feels great." BadTimes explained, messing with his cowboy outfit.

"Is that why you're wearing Scar's old outfit?" Mumbo asked, his head tilting slightly.

"Probably. When he's wearing his version of this, I just have normal street clothes." The shadowy brunette stroked Jellie slowly.

At the sound of fireworks, Quin gestured for Mumbo to follow him outside. Bidding Bad farewell (MJ and G did it rather aggressively), the quartet went off to find more people. They came to a halt when they saw a shadow behind Xisuma screaming at the top of his lungs.

"WE SAID FREAKING 'YOU TOO'!!! I'M SUCH AN DERP, MY GOD!!!"

G snorted and said, "What'd you do this time, Xan?"

X's shadow self looked tired under his shaded purple helmet. Mumbo swore one of his eyes was twitching, but he honestly couldn't tell.

Groaning, the Admin's shadow said, "Wels said, 'Enjoy building your shop', and we said 'You too'!! Why?! AAAAHHHHH-"

Quin whispered to Mumbo, "Xanthus has to deal with all the stress your Xisuma shoves down, so he screams it out a lot. Which, honestly, fair."

Having heard of all the issues Xisuma had to fix on the regular and how much effort the Dadmin put into everything, Mumbo wasn't surprised that the stress had to have come out in some form of loud expression. He always wondered how X looked so calm and composed, and now he knew it was because Xanthus was screaming 85% of the time (it's such a headache to walk past Xisuma on a bad day now, because he can hear Xanthus screeching at the top of his lungs).

MJ rolled his eyes and said, "Let's move along before I get a migraine."

The screaming shadow paused and said calmly, "Sorry, but fair. Have fun talking with everyone else." And then he continued screaming at the ground.

From her personal Hermitpad Void, CaptianMarra watched as Mumbo talked with more and more of the Shadow Hermits. They were a nice crowd, despite what people tended to think about Shadow Selves. But... Marra still wondered if she made the right decision. So, she did something impulsive and stupid: she looked into the current future of that timeline.

"Please don't mess things up too badly..." Marra prayed as she poofed into future Mumbo's base.

"G, GIVE THAT BACK OR I'M TELLING MUMBO!!"

"WHAT'LL HE DO ABOUT IT?!"

"HE'LL STOP YOU FROM INTERACTING WITH THE MAIN DIMENSION, THAT'S WHAT!!"

"FINE, HERE, TAKE IT YA SPOON!!"

"Why are you two always yelling? It makes me look absolutely mental when I'm telling you to stop."

"Because you still haven't told the other Hermits."

"They'll figure it out! Eventually."

"Mumbo. Mumbo. It's been almost three months."

"MJ's got a point."

"Did... Did Hels give you credit?"

"My God, it's really happening."

"Oh hush, I give people credit!"

"No you don't."

Marra awkwardly hid as Mumbo casually talked with Shadows, who came in and out frequently. 'Okay, seems like everything's fine. He might not tell the other Hermits quickly, but he might not have full control of his magic yet. That's fine, it's his choice.'

Poof.

"Huh?"

"Is Marra here?"

"Xyon, can you check it out?"

"Okay... There's nobody here. Odd."

Alrighty, here's all the Hermits and their shadows!

Mumbo Jumbo: MJ

Grian: G (actual name is Xequela, but he prefers G)

Iskall85: Quin85

Xisumavoid: Xanthusvoid

Ren the Dog: Grim the Dog

TangoTek: AzarTek

GoodTimesWithScar: BadTimesWithScar (AKA Bad or Badtimes)

ZedaphPlays: MadoxPlays

ImpulseSV: ImpulsiveAF (AKA IF or Impy)

Docm77: Xyon1377

I need help with everyone else's, please comment any ideas here! →

Thanks, and have an amazin' day, evening, and night!

- CaptainMarra (is actually updating stuff)

PS: Seriously, comment ideas for the other Hermits' shadows, I don't know what I should name them, and I might not be able to update if I don't have names for at least two-thirds of the Shadow Hermits.