Pursuit of Diligence: Ch 1 [Ari]

"What about these ones?" Ari turned his phone towards the Impup laying on his chest. The Lovedrunk imp lifted his head and looked at the screen, made an unimpressed huff, and lay his head back down. "Seriously?" Ari looked at the shoes a little longer before sighing. "No, you're right, that colour is closer to orange... I'll keep looking." 

He went back to the website's full inventory page - filtered by colour, of course - and scrolled a little longer before a text notification popped up. 

< Can you come downstairs? Not an emergency. >

Ari raised an eyebrow at the message from his littermate, and sent back < Do I have to put pants on? > 

Mosaic reacted to Ari's message with a little laughing smiley face. < It's just me, if that's what you're asking. > 

Ari chuckled softly. That was what he'd been asking. He clicked his tongue at Chewie, and the Impup hopped down and padded over to the door. Ari was in pink boxers and a sweater that was definitely a few sizes too big, his usual outfit when he wasn't expecting company. Ari opened the door to his bedroom and headed downstairs, Chewie trotting along behind him. 

The pink Lust doll knocked on Mosaic's open bedroom door. "Hey, what's up?" 

Mosaic scooched over to make room for Ari to sit on the bed beside him. He turned his laptop towards him, which was open to...

"The Heavenly Embassy has a website?" 

"It's new. I think with the influx of Cherubuns that have been coming in lately, Dove might've wanted to help them connect with other buns in the Embassy and Burrowgatory? Anyways, look." Mosaic pointed with his hoof at the title at the top of the page. "The Embassy is looking for volunteers to help with taking care of the ambrosia greenhouses, Succubuns included." 

Ari took a moment to read over the 'job description'; he didn't even have to finish it before realizing what Mosaic was getting at. "You want me to sign up for this because you can't, right?" 

When he looked over, the Gluttony bun's starry eyes were pleading. "There's practically no information at all about what 'ambrosia' even is or why it's important to the Cherubuns… Even if I was having a good day and could get to the Heavenly Embassy, I wouldn’t be much help with all the work that gardening requires…" 

"Okay, okay." Ari checked the description again, then glanced at the time. "It's already pretty late; I'm off tomorrow though, so I'll head up to the Embassy in the morning." 

Mosaic’s tail wagged happily. “Thank you Ari, I really appreciate it. Make sure to listen close to anything they tell you; I want to know every detail!” 

~~~

The elevator came to a gentle stop and Ari got off, stepping onto the surprisingly solid cloudbed that made up the ‘ground’ of the Heavenly Embassy. He’d woken up early, carefully chosen an outfit that was still fun without being enough to send a Cherubun swooning, brought Chewie along as some sort of icebreaker… 

And he had no idea where the fuck he was supposed to be going. 

Ari had only ever been up to the Embassy to go to the Paradise Cafe… There’s no way Beanny doesn’t know where the ambrosia is grown, considering their experiments.

On his way to the Paradise Cafe, Ari noticed quite a few Cherubuns he’d never seen on his past excursions, as well as a surprising amount of Succubuns mingling with said newcomers. Huh… Things are definitely changing. 

~~~

Beanny greeted Ari by name when he entered the cafe, giving him a wide smile and an excited wave. “Hey Ari! Oh, and a little ‘pup too! Nice to see ya; the usual?” 

“Sadly, no.” Though Ari definitely would be stopping by on his way home, as long as the cafe was still open. You don’t even know how long this task is going to take, don’t get too excited yet. “I’m looking for the greenhouses, actually, where the ambrosia is grown?” 

Beanny stared at him for a moment. “Never took ya for the volunteerin’ type, to be honest with ya. ‘Specically not for Prim’s stuff.” 

“Prim?” 

“Primrose, yeah. He’s the one in charge of all the ambrosia growin’. Used to hate havin’ other buns in his greenhouse, but with the buns that keep comin’ down from the Heavenly Meadows, he's gotta adapt.” They grabbed a napkin and scribbled for a moment before handing it to him. “Here ya go. Good luck!” 

~~~ 

Ari tucked Beanny's makeshift map into his pocket and looked down at Chewie. “Alright, here we go.” He pushed open the door to the greenhouse and stepped inside, his Impup padding beside him. 

Almost immediately a pale blue Cherubun doll greeted him, practically bouncing over. “Hi there! Have you come to volunteer?” 

This Cherubun seemed far too friendly to be the one Beanny had mentioned, but… “That's right. Are you Primrose?” 

They laughed, the sound like a small bell ringing. “No, Primrose is over there.” They pointed off towards a blonde Cherubun doll supervising some other Succubuns. “I’m Dove! What’s your name?” 

“You can call me Reverie ~” Ari gave Dove the name he habitually gave to strangers these days, even when he wasn’t working. “What do you need me to help with today?”

Dove smiled and led him over to a table near the front door of the greenhouse. There were several small cloth bags arranged neatly on the tabletop; Dove picked one up and gestured at Ari to follow them deeper into the greenhouse, eventually stopping at a flowerbed that was empty except for a brightly coloured plastic marker. Dove pulled it out of the dirt and tucked it into their pocket. 

“Right now we’re still planting the next batch of ambrosia. All the flowerbeds that have these markers sticking out of them still need to be planted; with all the help we’ve gotten in the last few days, we’ve finished about three quarters of the beds!” They made a gesture that encompassed most of the greenhouse, then turned back to Ari. “Could I get you to hold this bag of seeds while I show you how they need to be planted?”

“You’re the boss,” Ari teased lightly, taking the bag and opening up the drawstring. He took out one of the seeds and held it out to Dove, but paused to look at it. “It’s shiny.” Chewie leaned forward to give it a careful sniff before looking up at Dove as they began to speak.

“Yep! Ambrosia flowers come in all sorts of colours, so it only makes sense that their seeds do too.” Dove took the seed from him and began only once they saw he was paying attention. “You have to make sure you don’t plant them too deep, or too close together.” Dove carefully showed Ari exactly what to do, and how to measure out the proper distances. “Since we can’t go back to the Heavenly Meadows to get more seeds, we have to take really good care of the ambrosia at all stages of growth. That way, when we harvest the flowers, they should provide more seeds to use in the future!” Dovre covered the seed they’d planted with a little bit of soil, then gestured at Ari to try planting one of his own.

Ari reached back into the bag and pulled out another seed, this one a dark glittering blue. Ari prided himself on being observant; it wasn’t hard at all to copy what Dove had shown him, earning some gentle clapping from the Cherubun. 

“That was perfect, Reverie! Not everybun can learn that fast. Oh, speaking of,” Dove glanced over towards the greenhouse door as a Succubun walked in, looking lost. “I should go greet them. Are you okay here?” Ari nodded, and Dove left. 

Ari quickly fell into a rhythm, and had planted almost all of the seeds before he felt somebody standing behind him. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed the blonde Cherubun that Dove had pointed out earlier to be Primrose. Ari didn’t particularly like the way Primrose was looking at him, but… It’s not the first time you’ve been judged by the way you look, and it won’t be the last. 

Before Ari could speak, Primrose did. “You seem to have planted them perfectly.” Considering how reluctantly the words crawled out of Primrose’s mouth, it didn’t sound much like a compliment. Primrose looked down at the Impup at Ari’s side and curled his nose slightly, but he didn’t say anything about Chewie’s presence. “I suppose we’ll see if you keep up the good work with the future tasks.”

Ari was content to ignore him and finish planting the seeds, but looked up at him in surprise at that. “Future tasks?” 

“Yes, as the ambrosia plants grow. It would show diligence, which is a virtue - ahem, a value that all buns should have.” 

Ari stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “Definitely the weirdest way a man has asked for my number, but sure.” He chuckled at Primrose’s expression. “My number, you know, to text me? What, were you going to send me a letter via carrier Avia when you wanted me?”

“...”

Ari blinked. “You were, weren’t you? Seriously?” 

Primrose scowled, his face darkening in annoyance. “Finish up here and give your contact information to Dove.” The Cherubun spun on his heel and stormed away.

“I - okay.” Ari looked down at Chewie, who tipped his head and whined a little before nudging the bag with his nose. “Yeah, let’s just finish planting these and get out of here.” He stood up and brushed some dirt off of his hands, then headed over to where Dove was organizing the bags of seeds on the front table. 

“Oh, hi Reverie! Are you all done already?” 

“Yeah, did them all just like you showed me.” He handed over his empty bag to Dove. “Primrose told me to give you my phone number for later; he seemed offended by the thought of having a Lust bun’s number in his phone, so I guess you’re the one in charge of that part of this whole operation?” 

Dove looked almost confused for a moment, then giggled. “Did you flirt with him?” 

“Did I…?” Ari thought back to his short interaction with Primrose. “I guess I made a joke about men wanting my number, but… Wait, did that mean he was blushing?” 

Dove’s giggling intensified; they were clearly amused. “He’s had a bit of trouble adjusting to Succubun culture, especially how, um…” A light blush coloured Dove’s cheeks, and Ari realized that yes, Primrose had been blushing before, only a lot more dramatically. “Lust-type Succubuns seem to catch him off guard the most, with how open they are about accepting their vice. He’ll be alright, though! I’ll let Primrose know you meant no harm.” 

Ari scoffed light-heartedly. “I get it, I can be a lot to handle.” He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. Anyway, are you okay passing my number on to Primrose? Or should I go hunt him down?” 

Dove shook their head dismissively, pulling their own phone out. “I'm perfectly fine with that!” The two dolls exchanged numbers, then Dove bowed their head to Ari with a sweet smile. “Thank you again for helping out today!” They raised their phone in a ‘salute’ before slipping it back into their pocket. “I hope we get to see each other again soon!”