Pursuit of Diligence: Chapter 1 | First Plants

Deep breaths, Mynte. Deep breaths…

This sure was some kind of ‘adventure’ the wildly shy sloth succubun had decided to pursue; though perhaps no less fitting for one such as himself. After all, no matter just how shy, nervous, or even downright terrified Mynte tended to get, sometimes over the smallest of things, when it came to things that he really, truly cared about? He still tended to be an anxious mess, but an oddly brave anxious mess.

It also helped if he had literally any one of his faithful imp companions by his side to help ease said nerves.

Really, Mynte was pretty happy to have Beebee and Thyme by his side for this. He probably would’ve been able to manage just fine on his own, but… A little extra support never hurt.

Despite being the kind of hermit that they were, Mynte had heard about the arrival of cherubuns a good, long while ago. They tended to be out of the loop for some of the goings on within the city, but they weren’t that oblivious. And while the sloth bun had been pretty curious about what these cherubuns were like… It had been a mixture of their usual anxiousness, as well as plain just not having gotten around checking things out… Until.

Casual conversation; a fairly common occurrence whenever Mynte’s friend, Poppy, stopped by to pick up whatever orders she had sent their way. Sometimes he was done with the orders before she arrived; sometimes he was still busy arranging or tying up the last few bouquets before handing them over to the shorter bun. No matter if Mynte was done or still busy though, Poppy always made sure to have some kind of conversation with the taller bun before heading out the door until next time.

That day’s topic? Cherubuns. What ultimately ended up catching Mynte’s attention about that conversation? The mentions of there being greenhouses with all sorts of unique flowers within the Heavenly Embassy. Flowers that cherubuns used to make ambrosia for themselves… And just like that, Mynte’s curiousity was incredibly, irrevocably, piqued.

What went into growing these flowers? What were the seeds like? Was it any different from how he, and most other green thumbed succubun, went about caring for flowers, or…? And what even went into the process of turning said flowers into ambrosia? What was the process? Obviously these flowers were the main ingredient, but… What else? How else?

Mynte’s hands had long stopped moving; mind running a mile a minute.

He was curious. He wanted to know, no…

He needed to know.

And, well… That was pretty much how the wildly shy sloth bun managed to find himself in his current predicament; his endless curiosity about any and all things related to plant life. Anxiousness aside, how could he go about his usual day to day life now knowing what he knew? He couldn’t! Whatever it took… He had to learn more.

As much as Poppy would have loved to help her friend more, the most the shorter greed bun had been able to offer was to show Mynte how to get to the Heavenly Embassy, as well as some info on who all he could maybe talk to to get this little adventure of his started. Help which Mynte appreciated greatly. Everything else, though? Was all up to him.

And, well… Can’t forget Beebee and Thyme, of course.

Getting to the Heavenly Embassy was the easy part, though. The harder part here was definitely finding whoever the head of this embassy was, while the hardest part? Talking to whoever this head of the embassy was.

Cherubuns were supposed to be nice for the most part though, right? R-right?

Deep breaths, Mynte. Deep breaths…

Nothing could have prepared the sloth bun for Primrose, though. Sure, it wasn’t like the cherubun wasn’t… not nice, but from the way the embassy head looked at him, the way he talked to him… Mynte couldn’t help but feel incredibly, incredibly unwelcome here.

But he had to try. He had to.

“Yes? What is it that you want?”

Mynte couldn’t help but flinch slightly at the tone this cherubun used to speak to him at. Like he’d rather be talking to anyone else right now, like… Like he…

“I… I-I w-wanted t-to see… Y-your garden… i-if possible… P-please?” Mynte simply exuded nervousness in this moment; from the way he was unable to look Primrose in the eyes as he spoke, the nervous stuttering, the way he nervously played with his braid as he spoke… The only thing Mynte hadn’t started to do was shake. Yet. 

There had been another question on the tip of his tongue; the desire to ask if he could also help with the making of this ‘ambrosia’ of theirs, but… Later. Maybe.

One thing at a time.

The silence that followed after the sloth bun’s nervously uttered question was unbearable, though couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of seconds tops. Mynte felt… judged. And like he was about to hear some kind of rejection, though surprisingly enough… None came.

There was a soft ‘hmm,’ followed by a stern, yet softer than his previous tone, “Is that so…?” Another short pause, before, “Look at me.”

Mynte’s head shot up immediately, making direct eye contact with the cherubun… And doing his best not to flinch away at Primrose’s stern gaze… Though, unless Mynte’s eyes were deceiving him, there did seem to be a touch of softness within that stern gaze of cherubun. Huh…

“Repeat your request while maintaining eye contact this time.”

“I-I’d l-like t-to see t-the gardens… P-please?”

This time, Primrose let out a faint noise that Mynte… guessed? Was one of approval? It was only a guess, though.

“Very well, then. Follow me.”

Mynte didn’t need to be told that twice, though the sloth bun did manage to almost fumble and fall in their attempt to follow Primrose to one of the greenhouses. And, while the sloth bun wasn’t entirely sure what those last few moments had been all about… He also wasn’t going to ask any questions.

After all, he was getting one step closer to his goal.

Keep breathing, Mynte. Keep breathing…

Once inside the greenhouse, Mynte’s eyes widened at the view before him.

There were so… so many flowers… And not just one kind; there were all sorts of them. A wide variety of flowers in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours… And they were all absolutely gorgeous. Unbelievably so.

Truly unlike anything Mynte had seen so far within Burrowgatory.

A familiar urge hit the sloth bun as he gazed upon the wonders of the garden, but he did his best to keep said urge at bay and listen to Primrose, who had started walking and talking. Explaining this and that about the flowers, what they’re used for… Kind of like a tour of the gardens.

Mynte was an attentive listener; absorbing every bit of new information gained… Though there was a strong desire to do more than just listen. Mynte didn’t want to just listen; they also wanted to see what went into growing flowers such as these.

As they passed an empty bed of dirt, Mynte couldn’t help but suddenly blurt out, “C-can I see… how you plant these flowers, p-please?”

A request which caught both buns off guard. Mynte was fairly quick to apologize for being so forward, but much to their surprise it almost, almost looked like Primrose smiled a little? Or maybe Mynte’s eyes were playing tricks on him, considering as fast as Mynte thought he saw a smile, there was that usual, haughty expression on the cherubun again.

Primrose didn’t say no, though.

Much to Mynte’s surprise the cherubun told him to stay there for a little bit before leaving and returning with a small bag of seeds. There weren’t very many seeds in said already small bag, but that wasn’t really all that important.

What followed was a short lesson from the cherubun on how to till the soil, how to plant the seeds, and then how to cover them up again. Instructions which Mynte followed as closely as possible. It actually wasn’t all that different from how he went about planting seeds in his own garden back at home, but… Maybe it was just his imagination, but it somehow felt just the slightest bit different.

Of course, Mynte had to resist the urge to put any of the seeds in his mouth. Not to eat, but the sloth bun did have the tendency to put things in his mouth out of pure curiousity. Somehow, the hermit thought that Primrose wouldn’t exactly appreciate seeing him do something like that. Even just to lick, so… Mynte behaved.

Mynte listened.

And Mynte did his very best to carefully plant each precious seed under the watchful gaze of Primrose; one by one by one.