That's right, after 8 months, I'm finally updating this!

Hello people, I know it's been a while, and I sincerely apologize for ditching this book for so long, but I'll start updating it again from now on, I promise-
I've now decided that I'll be working on this book whenever I don't feel like writing for any of my other ongoing books, which is almost all of the time, so if all goes well, I'll be updating this at least every once a week (no promises), or at least I won't let it go one month without getting updated at least once.

With that said though, this AU is still going to be a side project for me, so it won't be my main focus on what I'll be working on, so the updates should still be relatively slow.

Anyways, with that out of the way, here, have a complete blueprint of the entire mansion in the book at the top of the chapter, and also with that have a 3000+ words chapter as an apology for not updating, I speedran this entire thing today btw.
Also, small note: Everything up until it shifts into Third Person POV was written way back in Feb, so expect the writing style to differ a lot.

+---+---+

/-+* Grian's POV *+-\

"Everyone, this is Grian. He's going to be staying here from now on, so please welcome him with open arms." I hear Xisuma say from beside me.

I looked around at the other 20 people inside the living room, all their eyes on me. Feeling my body tense up, I quietly sighed to myself.
Xisuma turned back to me. "Grian, you may introduce yourself." He whispered to me. I nodded, and then turned towards the others. Staying silent for a second, I took a deep breath, before beginning to talk.

"Hello everyone, my name's Grian." I started. "I used to live in a pretty faraway town, where I used to run a glitch detection company with old friends. I enjoy building." I paused for a moment, god why do I feel so awkward, I quietly thought to myself before adding a last statement in an attempt to make it more friendly. "I hope we can all get along."

Looking around the room, I quickly spotted my friend Mumbo who was sitting on one of the couches behind the others. Noticing I was looking at him, he waved and smiled at me.

Feeling a little more relieved, I nodded. I turned back to Xisuma, who already began talking.
"Alright, Grian, you may sit down now," He said to me. I nodded, and then immediately walked to the nearest empty seat. X continued talking about other things, which I admittedly couldn't pay attention to, my mind wandering off halfway through.

You know, I don't know what I was expecting when I first got told by Mumbo that I could move in here if I wanted to, and I still don't know what to expect. The house seemed to be a mix between being a cluttered mess while still somehow keeping itself pretty tidy.

I also don't really know what to expect from the other people, or I guess I should call them hermits, here. The only person I actually know here is Mumbo, and I've talked to Xisuma, Stress, Cub, and Scar, but other than that, I have no idea how the others are.

After a little thinking, I finally snapped out of my thoughts, and tried to actually pay attention to what Xisuma was saying.

/-+* Third Person POV *+-\

After a bit, Xisuma finally finished, and everyone was dismissed.

Grian slowly got up, along with everyone else in the room, before looking around. He didn't really know what to do now, he still had little clue on what he should be doing now that he was pretty much finished with moving in. He'll need to wait a bit before he could start working. First, he probably needed to get more used to his new surroundings, though.

"Good morning, Grian."

He turned a little to see who had approached him. His eyes lit up a bit. "Oh, Mumbo!" He greeted back. "Good morning, it's been a while since I last saw you in person."

"Yeah, it certainly has been a while, huh?" The moustached man chuckled. "Anyways- I just wanted to say- uh- welcome to the chaos, Grian. I get the feeling you'll like it here."

"Really?" Grian said, a hint of doubt in his voice. "Well, I'll take your word for it. Oh- speaking of which... Do you know where I should start? I don't really have anything to do right now."

"Well, uh, do you want me to give you a tour around the house?" Mambo suggested. "This place is quite massive afterall, I myself have gotten lost many times. I don't think anyone else has given you a tour yet, right?"

"Yeah, I haven't gotten one," the shorter confirmed. "A tour would be very appreciated- after breakfast that is."

"Oh right- Breakfast," He sounded like he just remembered. "Do you need me to tell you where the dining room is?"

"I think I saw a glimpse of where it is when I was entering last night, but I sort of forgot," Grian admitted. "So yeah, that'd be lovely."

Mumbo chuckled a bit, and then led him to the mansion's dining room, which was pretty much just a corner away from there. While walking out of the living room, he briefly got a glance on what's going on in the kitchen across the hall.
What did he see? An absolute mess.

There seemed to be some sort of commotion inside. There were 5 people he wasn't familiar with, and one of them was literally on fire.
A brown haired hermit who wore some sort of black T-shirt was carrying a bucket of water while chasing around this other hermit with light blond hair who was wearing a brown sweater and running around while literally being on fire. Two of the others were just watching, one seeming to be enjoying it and the other just glancing around with this panicked expression, while the other person was filling up another bucket with the sink water.

Grian's eyes widen for a bit, stopping, before quickly looking away and continuing to follow Mumbo to the dining room.

They promptly turned the corner in the hallway, and entered the dining room.

Seven others were already in the room, chatting and sitting around the table. They all turned to the two as they walked in. Grian awkwardly smiled back as some of them waved at him, following after Mumbo and sitting next to him at their end of the table.

"Good morning, Mumbo, Grian." Xisuma greeted them politely, starting a chat.

"Morning."

"Mornin, Xisuma," Mumbo greeted back along with Grian. "How are the people in the kitchen holding up today?"

"Not well!" Someone from the kitchen suddenly opened the rear separating the two rooms. "X- we need your help, Zedaph is on fire and for some reason doesn't want to be put out, and then Cleo decided to bring in the garden hose to water him down, but because of that-"

And then he was cut off by chuckling and screaming from the kitchen. "Come here Zed- I'm going to save you!" A feminime voice laughed as she said that, briefly followed by the sound of splashing water and even more screaming.

"Goodness me- I'm coming to help!" Xisuma shouted back, getting up from his seat. "Joe- get the fire extinguisher in the hallway, I'll deal with Cleo and the others while you're at it!"

And with that, Xisuma got up to deal with the chaos, and Joe ran out into the hallway to get the fire extinguisher.

The rest of the people in the dining hall went silent as sounds from the kitchen kept coming in from the rear door. Someone got up from their seat, and closed the thing, slightly muffling the voices down.

"Also- new guy- uh- I think your name was Grain, right?" They suddenly turned around and talked straight to Grian, chuckling nervously a little. "Just wanted to tell you, this stuff is normal. This happens all the time, don't worry."

Grian was stunned for a second, before shortly nodding. "Oh- yeah, thanks, don't worry, stuff like this has happened before back where I used to live too. I'm already quite used to things like this."

"No way- you're already used to seeing chaos like this happen back where you live?" Someone spoke up from across the table. "Dude, Mumbo was right when he said you'd fit in perfectly! Ah- and the name's Ren, by the way."

"I'm xB," The person who just closed the rear also introduced himself with a smile. "Looking forward to getting to know ya!"

"I'm Jevin," Another one from across the table said. "Nice to meet you."

"Wels, I hope we get along!"

"Good day, I'm Python!"

"The name's Biffa, pleased to meet ya!"

"Pleasure to meet all of you too." Grian smiled. Seeing how kind everyone here seemed, he got hope that this could actually go somewhat well.

The short introduction sequence only lasted for less than a minute though, as the next second, they all saw Joe running through the hallway in front of the dining room to the kitchen, carrying a fire extinguisher.

"I got the thing, X!" They could hear him shout from across the corner, and so they all started lightly laughing, watching the chaos unfold.

"What in the world's going on here?" A voice called as they appeared around the corner. Stress and another woman just showed up. "Why is there screaming coming from the kitchen? And why did Joe just run through carrying a fire extinguisher!?"

"Something about Zedaph getting set on fire and then Cleo flooding the kitchen with the outside water hose, if I remember correctly." Mumbo filled her in on the details. "The usual amount of chaos in the kitchen."

"Cleo did what now-"

"Seems like something she would do." The other chuckled, before turning her attention to Grian. "Ah! You're that new guy named Grian, right? Nice to meetcha, I'm False."

"Nice to meet you too." Grian replied politely.

They both sat down, and started chatting with the others while waiting for the delayed breakfast. The commotion in the kitchen did eventually quiet down and seemed to finally be done. They briefly saw Zedaph, the orange haired woman who Grian made out to be 'Cleo', and two other people he hadn't been introduced to walk by the dining room to go to the floor two bathroom to get themselves quickly cleaned up after what happened. The four shortly waved and gave nervous glances to the people in the dining room as they passed by.

The next moment, X opened the rear between the room and the kitchen to apologize for the delayed meal, and that they needed help with the cleaning up and the cooking itself. Jevin, Biffa, and xB volunteered to help, and so they got up to go to the kitchen.

"This is going to take a while, isn't it?" Grian sighed light heartedly.

"Yeah- I would imagine." Mumbo replied, also slightly chuckling. "Perhaps, if you want, I could just give you a tour of this floor, and potentially the garden, while waiting for them to be done."

"You know what, that might actually be a good idea." Grian agreed. "Should we?"

Mumbo nodded. They then excused themselves, and went through the back entrance of the dining room, arriving at another long corridor.

They started from the furthest room from their left.

"So this is the laundry room." Mumbo explained as he opened the door. "You might catch a few hermits here in the morning. There isn't really a specific person that is tasked with the laundry here, so we usually just ours ourselves."

"Well that's going to be a pain," Grian commented jokingly.

They entered the room for a second, just looking at the few washing machines and dryers lined up against the wall, along with some hanging clothes. Honestly, although the room was a bit cluttered, it might still just be one of the neatest rooms in the house.

They promptly walked back out of the laundry room, and Mumbo gestured to the room next to it. "Oh, and this room is just one of the two bathrooms on this floor, there's at least two every floor by the way."

They passed by that room, and then Mumbo grabbed for the doorknob of the next door. Grian could see that it was like some sort of porch, looking through the glass separating the outside from the inside.

They walked out, and Grian was pretty impressed at how the thing was constructed. The building overhangs over the small porch, giving it a cool roof, and it was neatly decorated too. A few coffee tables and stools were displayed there, along with some potted plants, some hanging from the side of the roof, and some even just swirling around the poles holding the place up. Someone definitely took great care of the place.
And just in front of the porch was a perfect view of the back garden. Looking from afar, the garden was lush green, a lot of flowers littered around, along with flowery bushes neatly organized and trimmed. There were also a lot of fresh green trees, some tall, some small.

"Beautiful, I know," Mumbo chuckled at Grian's reaction. "You can thank the people in charge of taking care of this place, you gotta admit they really do know how to do their jobs."

"They know more than how to do their jobs, alright!" Grian exclaimed, still slightly speechless. "This looks absolutely gorgeous!"

"Why thank you,"

They turned to their side, to see a certain tall brown haired hermit, trimming some bushes.

"Ah- Scar, good morning," Mumbo greeted him, both him and Grian walking down from the porch down to the grassy terrain, approaching the other.

"Good morning, Mumbo, Grian!" The taller hermit greeted back with a smile, his emerald green eyes shining. "You guys didn't have breakfast without me, right?"

"Nope, don't worry. Things happened, so we're still waiting for the food to be cooked."

"What happened?" Scar asked while continuing what he was doing. "Does it have something to do with Cleo earlier asking me to hand over the water hose before suspiciously taking it back inside from the kitchen's back door?"

"Yeah, actually, it's something to do with that," Mumbo confirmed with a chuckle. "There might have been an accident in the kitchen that caused the food to be delayed, so while waiting for it I'm just taking Grian on a tour around the first floor, and also the garden."

"Oh, Really?" He looked at Grian, a hint of excitement in both his eyes and voice. "I can help take you all around the garden! As I said before, I'm one of the main caretakers of this wondrous place, so I know it like the back of my hand."

Mumbo turned to Grian. "Sure, that sounds nice," Grian smiled while replying.

Scar was genuinely excited to give the new hermit a tour around the garden. He stopped at almost every tree and plant, happily telling the gremlin random stuff like who planted each thing and who usually takes care of a certain plant or two.

"Oh! And this tall thing, right here." Scar stopped at the tall treehouse, gesturing towards it. "I've heard that this tree has been here for as long as the mansion has, planted by the original owner of it. It's pretty much the oldest tree in the garden!" He told the shorter, before walking forward closer to the giant tree, and reaching out for the makeshift ladder on the front of it. "And if you come up here, which you are totally allowed to do by the way- as long as Doc doesn't see us here it should be all good."

The three climbed up to the tree house. As Grian finished climbing and grounded into what seemed to be some sort of club tree house. He looked around in awe for a moment, looking from wall to wall, with each one having a few photographs with people that he didn't really recognize. The interior was pretty cluttered and messy. There was some furniture here and there like a few storage cabinets, a few bean bags in the corner of the room, and a carpet decorating the middle of the place. Despite what seemed to be a cluttered mess, he could tell that the place had been well taken care of.
What he was most impressed about was how well the thing seemed to be structured. It was made out of purely wood and nails, but it was very well constructed, from how strong the chosen wood material was to how nailed together the floor and walls were. There were also windows, and looking out from them, you could see that the treehouse also had a few branched off places, with what seemed to be a smaller version of what he was currently in. There was also a mini bird house in the side, which he suspected to be something the creators of the tree house made with their leftover wood from constructing the main thing.

"Well, thanks for the lovely tour, Scar," Grian thanked the taller hermit. "Everything was amazing, the garden was truly spectacular."

"Thanks! I really appreciate the compliment, and I'm sure the other gardeners do too." Scar gave a friendly smile, giving them a wave as they were heading back inside through the front door.

"Well, we'll be continuing the tour on the inside now, see ya later, Scar." Mumbo said, holding the door open for Grian.

"See you guys later! Oh- also! Tell the people in the dining hall to leave some breakfast for me too, alright? I'm probably going to be late for it."

Grian chuckled. "Yeah, sure, we will. Later, Scar!" He said while walking inside with Mumbo.

Mumbo closed the door behind Grian, and now they were back in the entrance hall.

"So, I assume you've already seen this room from when you first entered?" he asked.

"Yeah, I saw this room when I first arrived, and I have a question." He walked to the center of the room as Mumbo raised a brow. He gestures around the room. "What. is. This."

"Ah, yes-" Mumbo chuckled. "This room is very colorful, as you can clearly see."

"WHAT IS THIS." Grian repeated a bit louder. "Why are there torches everywhere? Why is the rug colored differently from the entire room?? Why are the chairs, seats, armchairs, and short tables all mismatched in different styles???? Why is every wall a different color????? What is with the weird one lantern just near the hallway???????"

"Calm down, calm down," Mumbo giggled at Grian's reaction. "There's a proper explanation for why this room is like this, I swear."

"What's the explanation??"

"Well, we have this small tradition here," He started, gesturing to the furniture around the room. "Basically, everytime a new person joins, we allow them to put one thing in this room, and once it's placed, you can't move it around or anything, it stays with the building until it's gone," he explained. "An example to clear things out more - Those torches are from Scar, you can thank him for the messy lighting in the room, since when he first arrived he just placed one torch on the wall, which earned joking complaints from the other hermits, so he just started spamming them everywhere. Each piece of furniture is from a different hermit, by the way."

"Wait," Grian immediately said as Mumbo stopped. "Does that mean I get to place one thing in this room also?"

"Yeah, you get to put one thing in this room." The taller confirmed. "You get at least a week to think about what though, so you don't have to worry about it now."

"Alright." Grian grinned. "I'll think of something I can put here to mess up the room even more."

After that, they went out back into the hallway, and around the corner, back to the living room.

"This place is a common hangout slash meeting room for us." Mumbo started, slightly tapping one of the couches. "We have a lot of events here usually, whether that'd be movie nights, mini sleepovers, or even just hanging out and chatting. You definitely don't want to miss one of those events, it's a lot of fun, really."

"I'll be looking forward to it, then." Grian hummed while looking around.

They then walked out, and immediately faced the kitchen, which really was just across the hallway.

"This is the kitchen." Mumbo started explaining without any of the both actually entering the room, as it seemed that people were still busy inside. "Usually we're divided into around four groups, and each manages the cooking for one week, before passing it on to the next group. It just so happens that as you saw, the group that had to cook this week was a bit... chaotic."

"Yes, I saw, I saw." Grian lightly chuckled.

"Speaking of that, breakfast should be almost done about now." Mumbo stated. "Let's check the dining room again."

And so, they walked around the corner to the dining room.