Let the Harpup Games Commence

Merrit had always wanted to train their imps to do tricks. Whether it was singing, mimicking speech, or doing choreographed dances, it was always amazing to see what imps could do.

The only issue was that Merrit and their imps were a bit slothful. They’d had an interest in imp training for a while, but getting themself to do new things had always been a difficult task for them… How could they make their imps do it when they struggled with it, too?

Regardless, Merrit managed to drag themself and their harpup, Peppermint, to the aquatic imp training setup to try to make something of the event. Alongside countless training tools, there was no shortage of imp treats around. Peppermint had certainly taken note of that, searching for the source of the enticing smell. Endeared by the harpup’s behavior, Merrit reached into their pocket to retrieve a treat, intending to toss it Peppermint’s way.

“Are you sure you should be doing that?” Taffy interjected as she bounced forward a little far into Merrit’s personal bubble. Her harpup, Frosting, rolled in beside her. “You should really save those for when you’re rewarding them! It’s not very good for motivation if you’re gonna get them anyway, right?”

“Oh, Taffy!” Merrit froze just as they were about to toss the treat. “Is that true…?” They looked down at the harpup awaiting the treat, eyes welling up with tears as she slowly realized her delectable snack would not be coming to her.

“Oh, but I feel so bad…” Merrit couldn’t even get themself to put it away. “She really wanted it…”

Taffy looked down at Peppermint, her heart sinking immediately upon seeing her face. As an avid sweets-lover… she could feel the poor thing’s pain. “She’s already seen it… so it’d be cruel to put it away now, I guess. Teasing her would be more demoralizing than anything else.” After sighing away her heartache, Taffy put her hands on her hips and looked determined at Merrit. “You can give her this one, but she’s gotta earn the rest!”

Frosting, unaware of what’s been happening, rolled to Peppermint after noticing her anguished face. They placed a sympathetic flipper on her back. There, there.

With Taffy’s approval, Merrit’s tossed the treat the imp’s way. The treat was quickly devoured, the harpup content for now. Turning to Taffy, Merrit clasped their hands excitedly.

“Thank you! I would have hated to see her sad… I’ve still got a lot to learn.” Glancing at the harpups before them, an idea popped into their head. “I know you’re a personal trainer… Could you train me to train my harpup? We can train together, and you can coach me on training methods! Maybe they can have a competition at the end!”

Realizing they were getting carried away without offering compensation to their friend, Merrit made sure to tack that on. “I can pay you. Or ask Devvy to bake you something.”

Stars twinkled in Taffy’s eyes. She would’ve been willing to help out her friend anyway, of course, but… Merrit didn’t need to know that.

“Well… if sweets are involved, I could be convinced to help you out, sure! Let’s get started!” Taffy plucked Frosting up off the ground and held them like a stuffed animal. “What do you think, little guy?”

Frosting clapped their flippers happily, wiggling with excitement so hard that they almost slipped out of Taffy’s hold.

“Looks like they're on board, too! So, whaddya wanna start with? Did you wanna focus on water tricks here?”

Merrit nodded. “I did, yeah! I’ve seen some tricks performed by aquatic imps, so I wanted to see if Peppermint could do them. Let’s start!”

And so, the four of them began their intense training. Diving, swimming through hoops, resisting the urge to over-reward, etc. There were some succubuns and imps using the pool area as well at the beginning, but Taffy’s fighting spirit (aka shouting, whooping, and motor noises) suddenly reminded them that they all collectively have errands to run. As such, the entire pool was free for whatever they wanted to do.

During the training, Taffy realized that Frosting was a bit rusty in some areas, and that Peppermint was catching up to their level very quickly. Taffy was stoked to have a rival with such promise! More and more excitement was building up for the competition.

“Ooooh, I just can’t hold back any longer!!! I’ve already thought up eighteen different challenge lineups for the competition! Pick a number, any number! Please!!!”

Merrit was participating in the training in a languid sense, contrasting Taffy’s energetic approach. While they weren’t surprised by Taffy’s sudden proposal, they were put on the spot quicker than they could have prepared for. They reacted accordingly.

“Oh, uhm- Eighteen?” Merrit’s eyes widened. They were shocked at how quickly Taffy’s mind operated. “Well, um! How about three?”

“Diving, ring retrieving, and then the obstacle course!” Taffy answered, her memorization of her own plans way too sharp to indicate anything normal. “Diving will be judged by style points via flips and the splash! Ring retrieval will be how many rings they can collect within thirty seconds! And finally, the first one to the finish line will win the obstacle course!”

Taffy’s smile melted into a pondering expression. Surely if it’s Taffy and Merrit judging the diving, they would either be inclined to say their own harpup won or yield the win over to the other out of politeness alone. They need an impartial judge.

“Do you know anyone who could be the judge for the diving part of the competition? Is Devvy free, you think?”

“I talked to Devvy earlier… I wanted to see if she’d come with me, but she had plans.” Merrit tapped their chin. “The only other bun I can think of who could be available is Kane… I can ask him.”

It wasn’t likely Kane would agree to come on such short notice, but honestly, Merrit wanted an excuse to hear his voice. They dialed his number and awaited an answer.

He picked up quickly. “Darling? What’s up?”

“Hi, dear… I’m at the training camp. We were wondering if you’d come by and be a judge for a competition.”

“We? Who else is there?”

“I’ve been training with Taffy. We want to do a test of our imp’s skills now, but we don’t have a judge… We were hoping you could be.”

“Hmmn…I’d love to, sweetheart, but last time I went to that camp I got the worst migraine of my life.”

“...I’d be willing to give you a massage or draw you a bath afterwards… Whatever you’d like from me.” This wasn’t something Merrit did often, but they had to convince him.

“All right, there’s no way I can refuse that… I’ll be there shortly. See you soon.”

The call ended and Merrit turned to Taffy, grinning ear-to-ear. “Kane agreed to be our judge. He’ll be here soon!”

Taffy tried not to let her smile falter. Kane, huh. Well, there goes any sense of impartiality. Merrit already called him over, though, so it’d be rude to mention it at this point. At least it was just the diving portion Kane would be the judge for. Maybe Taffy and Frosting could even do well enough to give Kane no excuse to hand the point over to Merrit!

“Sounds… alright! I’ll get everything set up in the meantime!”

Despite Taffy’s attempt to hide her disappointment, Merrit picked up on it. They were aware that others didn’t get along with Kane as well as they did.

“I’ll be sure to tell him he needs to be impartial, Taffy.” Merrit explained. “If he gets stubborn, I have plenty of ways to make sure he listens.”

Hoping Taffy was sated with that, all that was left was to wait for Kane to arrive. It took several minutes, but Kane finally showed up, sporting a pair of shades to prevent another migraine. He approached nonchalantly and gave Merrit a kiss on the cheek before “greeting” Taffy.

“I’m told you need a judge for your competition?” Kane asked, placing a hand on his hip. “What kind of tricks am I judging?”

“It’ll be just the first trick. We need someone to judge which harpup makes the most stylish dive.” Merrit explained. “It just has to be judged as fairly and objectively as possible. You can’t pick me to win just because you love me.”

Kane rolled his eyes. “Judging style objectively is a tall order…”

Merrit anticipated this, and they knew just how to get him to listen. “If you don’t at least try, I’ll have to rescind the offers I made earlier… So, unless you don’t want it…”

“Oh, I see how it is…” Kane’s voice took an unmistakably sensual tone. “Fine. I’ll judge as fairly as I can.”

Taffy had to pick up Frosting and hold them tight to avoid showing any sign of disapproval. It’s not that she disliked when couples talked about private matters generally, but these two were pushing it a bit.

The two competing imps were guided to the diving board, and the three succubuns stood at the edge of the pool. Taffy had her hands balled in excitement.

“Me and Frosting will go first! Are you ready, buddy?”

Frosting wiggled in approval and inched up to the edge of the diving board.

“Alright! Go for it!”

The harpup bounced a few times on the board and then launched themself forward, flipping a good few times in the air before rolling into a ball and hitting the water with a huge splash!

Taffy laughed joyously and waved Frosting over to the edge of the pool to pet them. “That was so good!” She looked over at Merrit. “Your turn!”

Excitedly, Merrit gestured for Peppermint to follow them. Once the harpup took her place on the board, she looked expectantly at her owner for direction.

“Okay, do it!”

Eager to impress, Peppermint made a few hops, each one growing more powerful, before jumping off the board. She posed at the peak of her leap before doing some flips and spreading her body out, hitting the water with a belly-flop. Merrit thought that both harpups did great, but it was up to Kane who won. They also knelt by the edge of the pool and gave Peppermint some head pats.

“Mmm…Not bad, both of you,” Kane mused, gazing at the harpups and their owners. “Frosting did manage to perform more flips than Peppermint. Still, I think Peppermint wins this one. The pose at the start followed by the big splash went over wonderfully - It read like a little choreographed dance.”

It was a quick judgment, but it didn’t seem to be outwardly biased. When Kane was making biased judgments, it was usually easy to tell.

“So Peppermint wins that one?” Merrit turned to Taffy. “If that’s good with you, should we move to the next round?”

“Yeah, let’s do it! I’m not gonna lose, though!”

With a spin, Taffy tossed fifty rings into a clear area of the pool.

“We’ll go first again! The timer starts… now!”

Immediately, Frosting dove underwater and began collecting rings on their little flippers. Every now and then, they would surface to pile the rings onto the pool edge. Frosting was moving so fast that they were just a cute black blur. By the time the thirty seconds were up, Frosting had collected a whopping thirty-two rings!

Taffy was ecstatic. “Great job, buddy!” She tossed the rings back into the pool and looked over at Merrit again. “Beat that!”

Merrit glanced down at Peppermint, gesturing for her to begin. “Go for it!”

The harpup didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic about starting, taking a bit to actually dive in. Though she was collecting rings, it wasn’t as fast as Frosting. At the end of thirty seconds, Peppermint had only come up with twenty-one rings.

“Ah… not quite a win for us.” Merrit looked disappointed, but it was best to keep going. They turned to Taffy once more. “The last task is the obstacle course, right?”

“Yup! They’ll start at the same time this round! Ooh, I can’t wait!”

Once the harpups were lined up at the start, Taffy loudly counted down from ten until the starting “GO!!!”

Frosting darted ahead at the initial stretch, gaining an early lead and reaching the first obstacle, a series of hoops. The harpups would have to swim through all of the hoops on the way to the next obstacle; failure to do so meant disqualification. Being the dutiful and active little guy that they are, Frosting breezed through the hoops like they were born to do so. They were quickly on their way to the second obstacle.

Peppermint wasn’t about to hand Frosting the win, making her way through the hoops at a similar pace to the other harpup. Merrit gave Peppermint a cheer to motivate her further as the next obstacle came up - weaving through several poles set up in a straight line.

Peppermint zig-zagged her way through the poles with grace, managing to pass Frosting while doing so. Only the third obstacle was lying between Peppermint and victory.

Despite Taffy’s cheering, Frosting did always struggle with the weaving poles. Something about the way the poles were set up always seemed to result in Frosting bumping their little snout directly into one. They eventually got through it, though Peppermint took a significant lead while they were figuring it out.

Luckily, Frosting was rather good at the third obstacle: swimming against a current. A machine was set up at the end that was continuously pushing water in the opposite direction the race progressed in. The first to reach the end of the pool, where that current was strongest, won.

Frosting gathered up all their willpower to push forward with all their might, choosing not to pay any attention to how far ahead Peppermint might be. They fixed their sight solely on the finish line. Nothing else mattered. Peppermint could have already won and Frosting would still be pushing forward. They just needed to keep moving their flippers.

Peppermint hadn’t won yet. Despite her best attempts, the current was the limit of her determination. Her slothful nature took over, unwilling to push against the current and letting herself be pushed instead. Frosting was able to reach the finish line, Peppermint cementing her place as the loser of the challenge.

While they felt a bit disappointed, Merrit quickly changed tune, leaning down to pet Peppermint as she climbed out of the water. They picked the harpup up in their arms and went to congratulate Taffy and Frosting.

“Looks like Frosting’s the winner! It was a close match, though.” Merrit congratulated Taffy. “You beat us fair and square!”

Taffy twirled in excitement. “YES!!!!!” She darted over to the edge of the pool to where Frosting had just reached the end of the course and was pulling themself onto dry land. “WE DID IT!!!!”

Frosting looked up at their owner with a tired but accomplished expression. They went limp from exhaustion as Taffy picked them up gently.

Taffy rushed over to Merrit and bounced in place. “So you’ll talk to Devvy about getting me sweets, right?!”

“Yes, definitely!” Merrit nodded. “I can even pay her to make something extra special, since you won.”

Kane approached as well. “You’re really spending your own hard-earned carats for this?”

“You also wanted compensation for your time.” Merrit reminded their partner. “I’ll be sure to give you that compensation later, but I promised Taffy compensation first.”

With the two harpups exhausted from the intense day, Taffy and Merrit parted ways to make sure their imps could rest. After returning home and making a call to Devona, Merrit made sure to give Kane exactly what he wanted… Meanwhile, Taffy was united with a decadent three-tiered cake a few days later, complete with a bag of specially made homemade imp treats for the reigning champion of the unofficial harpup athletic games.