That evening at dinner, Puffy gives Tommy his uniform. A plain white button-up shirt with a dark gray vest to go on top of it. Dark pants, a belt with a gold buckle on it, and super comfortable shoes. His favorite part though, was the fact that sock color didn't matter.
And the next day, Tommy was up and ready to work bright and early, with the most obnoxiously red socks he could find. Puffy just laughed when he showed her that morning at breakfast, and just sent him on his way.
His first day went by in a blur of sweeping, mopping, window wiping, and counter cleaning. He took a couple breaks whenever he needed them; with Puffy and Sam making sure he didn't overdo it as he got used to the work. Sapnap showed him where all the supplies were stored after breakfast, and Karl took him into the archives and showed him around the following day.
"You won't be down here too often, so don't worry about memorizing the layout." Karl said, shrugging. "Dream's the one who usually comes down here to clean whenever we need another pair of hands. But Ranboo and I are pretty good at keeping everything clean ourselves."
"Why's Dream the one who comes down here and cleans?" Tommy asked, looking around at the towering bookshelves and fiddling with the cuff of his shirt.
"It's part of a priest's job to help the archivists when they need it." He said, taking a book down from the shelves. "And Dream's a priest in training."
Tommy blinked up at him. "Wait, really?" Karl nodded, moving further down the shelves and putting the book up somewhere else. "But he seems.." Tommy gestured vaguely. "I dunno, kinda young to be a priest in training, doesn't he?"
"Well, he's not much older than you. He's turning 17 in a few months if I remember right." He tapped his fingers against his chin in thought, slowing his steps as he thought for a moment. "You have to be 16 to be a priest in training, but he started at 15, didn't he?" He looked to Ranboo.
Ranboo, who was standing by a table and sorting through scrolls, looked up and nodded. "I think so. He's Puffy's son, so he started a couple months before his 16th birthday last year."
"Wait- he's Puffy's son??" Tommy looked over at his friend, startled.
"He is! Has no one told you that?" Ranboo furrowed his eyebrows. "I would've thought you'd at least hear him call her mom by now."
"I don't see Dream too often- let alone see him around Puffy." He shrugged.
Karl nodded. "That makes sense. Dream's really busy handling the offerings." At Tommy's confused look, he continued. "He usually does inventory. He takes note of all the offerings that come into the temple so we know when things go missing or what offerings the gods take."
Tommy nodded, then fiddled with his hands. "How quickly does an offering get taken by the gods?"
"It can depend." Ranboo piped back up, looking excited to explain it. "War can take a long time to get his offerings; which is why his room is almost always full of things that don't or can't spoil. Like the flowers! Those all have an anti-decay enchantment on them so they're still fresh when War gets around to picking them up. But Harvest on the other hand collects his offerings a lot more frequently- especially in the winter and summer. Usually one or two things will be gone a day, but sometimes there'll be days his entire room will be cleared out."
"I actually overheard Puffy and Dream talking about War collecting some of his offerings a few days ago." Karl smiled.
Ranboo seemed surprised. "Really?" He grinned, leaning against the table. "What'd he take?"
