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The sun began to rise over the Hermitcraft horizon. The trees had begun to fade into beautiful splashes of red and orange, and the first frost teased the dew on the grass. The joy of the Hermits waking was almost tangible, the view outside of each one’s base beautiful and unique.
Gem pulled herself out of her bed, grateful that she’d thought to put in carpet when she’d built her bedroom. The crisp air of seasons changing nipped at her fingers and nose, and she grabbed a shawl off her desk chair to bundle up before she got her hot chocolate.
As she waited for her milk to warm up, Gem looked out her window at the land surrounding her base. The trees were changing colors and shedding their leaves, pumpkins and a rake rested beside the trunk of a tree, and her milk was ready.
She poured some cocoa powder into a mug with the milk and stirred, going over her plans for the day. She needed to finish knitting the beanie for Doc, though she highly doubted he would wear it.
You see, all the Hermits had this tradition where they would put their names in a hat during fall, and everyone who signed up had to make something for the Hermit they drew. Like secret Santa, but during fall.
Gem had drawn Doc, and she’d been pretty stumped as to what to make him at first. She knew he liked a variety of things, and eventually decided to make him a soft purple beanie.
The hardest part with it was trying to get it to accommodate his horns, but it was fairly smooth sailing once she figured it out. Now all she had to do was clean up the edges and tie the final knot.
Before she started that, though, she had to start making her bread for the picnic and sleepover that night. She settled on a harvest bread with nuts and apple and various spices that the Hermits would most likely enjoy.
She mixed the ingredients and sipped on her cocoa for about thirty minutes, before putting the bread in the furnace and going to get ready for the day. Gem ended up changing into a warm orange sweater and some paint-stained overalls with her hair styled half-up.
She walked outside and sat on the swing beneath her tree, beautifully accented by the bright colors of autumn. She pulled out a book from the shelf built into the trunk and began to read, the sounds of the creek echoing in her mind along with the words of the sci-fi novel she grabbed.
“Hey Gem!” Etho walked up to the World-hopper with a warm, mischievous glint in his eyes. Oh dear.
“What’s up?” Gem put a leaf she found on the ground into her book to keep her page.
“Oh, nothing, just wondering if you’d want to make a leaf pile with me and see how many Hermits we can get to jump into it. For science, of course.”
“Mhm. And no traps will be in this pile?”
“Never.”
“Yeah sure, why not.” Gem slid off the swing and grinned. “For science.”
That was how Gem found herself taking the world’s largest pile of leaves in history with an inhuman being. Just your average day on Hermitcraft.
After setting up a chest full of dirt and advertising it as valuables, Gem and Etho hid in the bushes, waiting to see who would jump in.
About three minutes later, Zed showed up. He looked in the chest, then at the pile, and climbed onto the wooden box and jumped into the leaves.
When he emerged from the mound, his hair and clothes were covered in dead leaves and laughed. He then messaged the world chat telling the Hermits to come and that they wouldn’t regret it.
A few minutes after Zed flew off, Boatem showed up. Scar checked the chest, Impulse looked confused, Pearl smirked, and Grian pushed Mumbo into the pile with no hesitation.
The tall man let out a very dignified shriek and pulled the Avian in after him. Grian then decided that if he was going down, so was Pearl. Next thing Gem knew, all of Boatem was in the pile, laughing and throwing leaves at each other.
As boatem flew off, Grian wining about leaf particles being stuck between his feathers, Doc and Ren walked up.
The Creeper looked hesitant to jump in, but Ren made the choice for him, grabbing Doc by the wrist and jumping in, pulling Doc with him.
Xisuma came over as they were wrestling in the pile, before turning on his heel and leaving. Just before he could flee, Tango and False dragged the Admin into the pile, separating Doc and Ren.
They all laughed, and then Bdubs, Joe, Cub, Hypno, Kevin, Wels, Keralis, Beef, XB, and Cleo slowly came in one at a time, pulling each other in when someone was looking hesitant.
The whole server had been in that pile now, and it showed. The mound was deflated and the leaves were finer. That didn’t stop Etho and Gem from joining their fellow Hermits in the fun.
Only on Hermitcraft.
After pulling the bread out of the furnace and putting it on a rack to cool, she quickly finished the hat for Doc. She had made sure to pick a fireproof yarn for the Creeper, mainly because she had no clue what he got up to in his contraptions. They could light on fire every day for all she knew.
When she checked the clock, she saw that it was time to go to Pearl’s base, the one that had been picked for the sleepover due to its layout.
When she arrived, she saw that a large table had been set up with pumpkins of all shapes and sized with the appropriate tools to carve them.
Pearl showed Gem where to put the bread and then led her to the table and giving her instructions.
They would each get a prompt from a dispenser and carve a pumpkin to match it, whoever’s was the most accurate won a stack of copper.
Gem found herself seated between Tango and Joe, and the conversation that she had there was like none other.
“Personally,” Tango said. “I firmly believe that cider is the superior autumn drink.”
“I would argue that hot chocolate is due to its rich history and cultural impact,” Joe said.
“Cider had a deeper flavor, though.” The blaze seemed committed to defending his drink of choice.
“Depends on how you make it. Hot chocolate, when made correctly, can be a truly life changing experience. It can be truly elegant if you know what you’re doing.”
“Sure, but you can drink cider hot and cold and get away with it.”
“I’m sorry, Joe, but how does hot chocolate have an impact on cultures?” Gem couldn’t figure out how the simple drink could change entire cultures.
“You see, cocoa beans used to be so valuable that they became a form of currency. Being able to make hot chocolate was a sign of wealth and demanded respect.” Joe explained.
“Cool.”
Tango and Joe continued to debate for another ten minutes, but Gem tuned them out to finish carving her pumpkin to look like a butterfly was flying across the plant.
By the time guessing came around, Tango and Joe still hadn’t finished, and probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Cub explaining the logistics of the competition.
The pumpkins varied from beautiful to silly to incomprehensible and, expectedly, mildly inappropriate.
Cleo ended up winning due to their easy-to-understand carving of a UFO abducting Mumbo. Gem didn’t want to know who thought of the prompts.
Once everyone had congratulated Cleo and cleaned off the table, Scar made an announcement.
“We will be holding a pie competition!” He said with a grin. “Xisuma, Joe, and I will be judging blindly! Everything you will ever need is in the kitchen, and sabotaging is allowed, one sabotage per person. You have an hour to put them in the fridge or furnace, may the best pie win!”
The baking Hermits then made a mad dash inside of Pearl’s base, the hostess monitoring them to make sure they didn’t break the rules due to her having an unfair advantage with this being her kitchen.
Gem thought about who would be judging and decided to do a traditional Galactic pie, a recipe she only knew from her time world-hopping. Unbeknownst to many, Chorus fruits lost their teleportation abilities when frozen.
Xisuma, a Voidwalker, would surely appreciate it. Joe, a nerd, would recognize the history, and Scar would see the uniqueness in the dish.
The hour bell rang sooner than Gem would’ve liked, but she didn’t argue as she put the pie in the freezer and filled out a notecard with the name of the pie on the front and her name on the back. She put the card in the ledge of the dish and left the kitchen, eager to see what else the Hermits had planned.
The table out front had been moved into the dining room and set with all kinds of foods, ranging from simple to extravagant.
“Thanksgiving is a big holiday when I’m from,” Joe explained the amount of food.
The Hermits all sat down, and this time Gem found herself seated between Grian and Ren. The conversation that that stemmed was significantly calmer than whatever had happened between Joe and Tango earlier that day.
“So,” Ren started, “What did you guys do for the pies?”
“I made a Shepherd’s pie, Gem?” Grian said.
“A traditional Galactic pie. What about you, Ren?”
“I did one of my own recipes, I call it the GigaPie.”
Grian bobbed his head and shoved some mashed potatoes into his mouth.
“Don’t eat those first, Grian.” Gem said, lightly tapping his fork with hers.
“Why?” Grian wined.
“Because then you’ll fill up on them and won’t have any room left for everything else.”
“Lies.”
“That’s smart. The same goes for the bread, right?” Ren asked.
“Yep!”
Grian grumbled as he put his potatoes down and began to eat the pulled pork he grabbed.
After a few minutes of silence she for the scraping of silverware against plates due to the Hermits’ hunger, Hypno spoke up.
‘Ow,” He whispered.
“What?” XB asked.
“I bit my cheek and I blame you.”
Wels burst out laughing, and the rest of the Hermits followed shortly after.
“How does that even work?” Xisuma sounded beyond baffled, and the Hermits only laughed harder.
Once everything died down, the Admin stood.
“I hope everyone brought your Thanksmas gifts, because that’s what’s next on the agenda!”
Everyone then made their way to the bonfire, lit by Tango a few moments earlier, and handed out their gifts. Doc tried and failed to hide his joy at the hat, and Gem had never had a safer feeling hug in her life.
Grian had hand-made a set of watercolor paints for Gem, and she almost cried, not that she’d ever admit it.
Everyone had been handing out their presents when a voice rose above the others.
“I wasn’t going to give you a knife, Grian!” Kerlais sounded less than impressed.
“Then what did you get?” Grian looked like he was about to vibrate out of his body if he didn’t see what he got.
Valid.
“Is he okay?” Jevin asked, to which Pearl responded.
“He bit his shoe and was fine, don’t worry about it.”
“It was a dare!” Grian squawked, and everyone laughed.
After about half an hour, Scar announced that it was time to judge the pies.
Xisuma had traded his helmet for a cannula and sunglasses, and the look of joy on his face when he saw Gem’s pie made the deer extremely happy.
Ren ended up winning, Gem a close second. The wolf hybrid decided to make his pies a business next season so he could get rich. Or something.
The strangest submission would have to be Cub’s, which was a book filled to the brim with as many digits of pi it could fit.
Why was anyone surprised.
The sun had now gone down, and Bdubs was the first to enter the nest in Pearl’s living room.
The festivities did not stop with Bdubs being asleep, however. Etho had organized a hayride to go through the whole server, and it was so much fun to play Uno with the Hermits as they rode through the streets of their home.
Ren played his guitar, sitting behind Etho. Joe and Wels were in an intense game of chess, and had just hit their third stalemate of the night. Grian and Pearl were playing some unholy excuse for chess, consisting of checkers and flying pieces and lots of smack talk.
Neither had won, and they’d been playing for almost an hour.
Keralis, Beef, Cleo, and a few others were playing poker in the back, and everyone else was yelling at each other as they played Uno.
When Scar won, most likely from cheating, they decided to play Scrabble. The chess players joined them for that, Joe making sure all words used were legit.
When they began the loop back home, Gem was exhausted. She leaned her head against Pearl’s shoulder, and fell asleep.
When she finally woke, it was to loud snoring coming from Impulse. Gem, along with all the other Hermits, were in Pearl’s living room. The sun made the curtains glow softly, casting the room in a yellow hue.
Gem dragged herself out of the best and went to the kitchen, following the scent of hot chocolate and cider.
‘We’re seeing which one society wants,” Tango explained when Gem looked at him and Joe in utter confusion.
Gem poured a cup of the best hot chocolate she’d ever had, and plopped down on the counter, legs crossed.
It wasn’t long until Bdubs emerged, brimming with energy. When faced with the two drinks, he downed a glass of cider with no hesitation and began to make breakfast with the help of everyone who was awake.
Soon, all the Hermit’s were crowded into the kitchen, chattering mindlessly about who knows what.
Gem couldn’t wait for Christmas. She’d heard rumors, sure, but she still didn’t know what the most extravagant people in history had planned for what was probably the most famous holiday.
She only had to wait another month to find out.
As all the Hermits began making their way home, Gem stayed behind to ask about what was next.
“I don’t know,” Grian said, intensely washing a plate. “You never know with the Hermits. Our Christmas present could be the moon crashing for all I know. Thanksgiving, or Thanksmas, was fun, and that’s all that matters.”
“Huh. I guess you’re right.”
After saying her goodbyes to the hosts, Gem made her way home to get some sleep to compensate for last night.
She had dreams of hot chocolate and cider sword fighting.