Shells in the Foam

Fanfiction
Title:	Shells in the Foam
Author(s):	Cedarwhisp21
Date(s):	2020-12-31 to 2022-10-19
Length:	95,069 words
Genre(s):	Gen
Fandom(s):	MCYT, Hermitcraft, Dream SMP
Relationship(s):
External Links:	AO3Archived 2023-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
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Shells in the Foam is a Minecraft YouTube fanfiction by Cedarwhisp21. It is a crossover fic about TommyInnit escaping to the Hermitcraft server. The story was posted to Archive of Our Own between November 2022 and December 2022. As of July 14, 2024 it is currently the most popular Hermitcraft fic by hits and kudos count on AO3.

The story was inspired by pertrichormeraki's Hermitcraft!Tommy AU. The author created a discord server for updates while writing the story and gave updates on their Tumblr.[1]

Summary

When Dream attacks Tommy in Logestshire, Tommy runs. Badly injured, he somehow manages to slip between worlds and wakes up in a badlands biome, on a server far from home, with no other players in sight.

The Hermits are surprised when a new player logs in, and confused when no-one's at spawn. Five days later, after waiting for the new player to introduce themselves, Xisuma uses his admin abilities to access their coordinates. He takes Impulse with him to welcome the new player to Hermitcraft, but instead of the beginnings of a base, they find something a lot more concerning.

AU belongs to @pertrichormeraki on Tumblr. I just wanted to write something.

Author Response

The author posted a thank you message on their Tumblr on August 10, 2021:

As of today, Shells in the Foam has offically reached 10,000 kudos on Ao3. I would like to thank each and every single one of my readers who read and shared my work, who stuck with me through an entire 49 chapters and beyond. I cannot express how much this means to me- having started this fic when I was barely involved with this fandom at all- to have watched how Shells in the Foam grew.

As always, the Hermit!Tommy au started at @petrichormeraki, who are both absolutely amazing. Thank you for getting me started on this amazing journey.

A special thank you to Snap ( @snapdragonfirefly ) who listened to me rant about plot and lore, helped guide me in the right direction, and who is the best platonic wife someone could ask for; and to Mika, aka @give-grian-rights , for their help with Griangst and Taurtis lore (and occasional yelling when I share a plot point; that tells me the angst is working). I could not have done it without either of you.

And a shout-out to everyone on my hermit!tommy server for joining and then yelling at me in the fic spoilers channel every time I updated. I love seeing everyone’s reactions to a new chapter, and being able to chat with you all is a treasure I value more than you know.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you all for being on this jorney with me.

Reception

On Archive of Our Own it is the most popular Hermitcraft fanwork by hit and kudos count. As of July 14, 2024 the work has over 510,500 hits, 18,500 kudos, 4,800 comments and 2,900 bookmarks.

Reactions and Reviews

I started reading this maybe a few chapters before the end (sometime around chapter 45/46, I believe) and it has stuck in my brain ever since. It’s been fun to go back and reread this from time to time, and to pick up little hints that I missed before. Thank you, truly, for taking the time to write this and share it with us! I’ve been so excited see this story complete, and I look forward to whatever you write in the future!!

AwkwardBundle on Chapter 55 (19 Oct 2022)

The majority of this fic: a very slow build up with hints at lore.
The last four chapters: everything, everywhere, all at once. Exposition dump.

theblindgodess on Chapter 55 (27 July 2023)

Recursive Fanworks

There's currently one work listed in the "works inspired by this one" on AO3:

1. your tears will dry by everyday_fangirl

Fanart

• petrichormeraki fanart drawing Shells in the Foam Tommy meeting their Hermit AU Tommy.
• Comic and doodles by scotchknight
• Tommy fanart by oldest-surviving-problem