Prissy and Pristine

As she rode the elevator up to the Heavenly Embassy, Filigree looked over notes on her phone, frowning as she considered the list of contracts she was supposed to review today. One musician’s band contract, three lease agreements, one mortgage, two loans, and one book contract. Usually she only had one contract to deal with most days - some buns had been very busy to have this much work for her today.

She stopped by Paradise Café first to get an Angora Latte before heading into the Embassy itself. It seemed like a day that caffeine would be necessary for, after all. As she approached the Embassy, a huffy pride bun passed her by, holding a whining impup in a cage and scolding it.

“You caused so much mess in there - you’re just lucky the cherubuns called me. It’s going to be training boot camp for you now,” they scolded.

Filigree thought she vaguely recognized them - their name was… Hutch, right? They owned the Imporium, she was pretty sure. What had happened?

Inside, though, she stopped in her tracks to stare across the entry hall and all the mud on the floor.

“Oh good, you can help with this,” Primrose said, approaching from the other hall. “An impup somehow got into the Garden of Virtues. How one little beast can cause so much mess…” He made a disgusted noise. “At least Hutch was able to catch it and get it out of here.”

“You know Hutch?” Filigree asked as she took the mop Primrose offered her. She really had not come prepared for cleaning… but she was just going to have to deal with it. Getting her gardening clothes from her office would involve getting muddy anyways.

“I do now,” Primrose replied, going to fetch another mop and some buckets of water, carrying them back. “One of the other volunteers called him, fortunately… They’re out in the garden working to clean the statues.”

“Wow.” The word seemed inadequate to the situation, honestly.

Filigree waited a moment to observe how Primrose mopped before she began to mop herself. Like many menial tasks, she simply had no experience doing it. It was funny, though - every time he made her learn some new task, she felt more confident to try new ones. She suspected it would have seemed beneath her dignity when she had first come to Burrowgatory, before anxiety had led her to isolate and alienate herself.

Now, these tasks felt more akin to signs that she was accepted in the Heavenly Embassy and had a place here, which made her happy enough to do them and to learn more.

She found she struggled to properly wring out her mop when she went to rinse it though… Primrose did it with the speed of frequent practice, and made it look easy.

“Try pulling it tighter, and don’t twist the handle into it,” Primrose instructed. “Why your demon caretakers neglect such basic life skills…”

“Thanks,” she said, trying to do as he suggested. It did work better than what she had been doing, at least. “I certainly couldn’t tell you… I think Murmur might have been overwhelmed for quite a while though? Considering he takes help like Gremory’s…”

Primrose made another disgusted noise. “If he’s overwhelmed, he should figure out an alternative to just giving them to demons who will neglect them.” His mop slashed through the mud as he scowled at it. “We’ll need to dump these buckets soon.”

“Yeah..." Even Filigree could tell that, and it flummoxed her. "You're sure it was just one impup?"

"Unfortunately," Primrose said, sighing deeply. "I would feel better if it were more of them than one." He shook his head. "Virtues are so... calm and soothing in comparison to imps, truly."

"I guess," Filigree said, thinking of the imps and virtues she had at home. "The imps I have are too slothlike to get up to anything like this, mercifully..." She didn't think she would want to have chaotic imps like the impup Hutch had captured.

"I cannot say sloth is a good thing," Primrose said, "...but I suppose it is the best vice for any imp to possess, in comparison to the alternatives."

He carried the buckets out of her sight to dump them, and returned shortly. "Hm, we'll have to clean your shoes after this," he said, noting her attire. "That way they don't track mud everywhere."

"Yeah... Hooves are the order of the day, I think," Filigree said.

"It would seem so."

By the time they finished cleaning the entry, Filigree's back and shoulders ached. At the end of cleaning, she stepped outside to take her shoes off, and just reformed her legs to end in hooves. It might be a little slippery to get to her office now, but she could handle that if it meant not having to do any more cleaning.

"I think I much prefer cleaning when things are not disastrously messy," Primrose said, as she returned inside. "At least keeping up a good practice of cleaning ensures that we are prepared when the big messes happen." He handed her a feather duster, seemingly having procured them while she was changing her feet to hooves. "We could stand to get more of that done today too."

Filigree sighed and just accepted her fate - she wasn't going to be getting to those contracts today, was she?

Oh well, she'd just have to tackle them tomorrow, then...