His FOURTH Imp!

Taking place a certain span of time after Dagasho’s first encounter with imps at Hutch’s behest, the man has come back once again to try his hand at proper imp care…

It was a simple assignment, really; take an easy-to-care-for imp home, care for it for a week or so, and bring it back to Hutch’s place in one piece. Easy as pie! There was even a chirop that took a particular interest in Dagasho’s shiny-ness and decided to promptly nestle itself into his hair, almost demanding that the bun take him home… Sho didn’t have to make that choice, but he’d soon come to realize that he’d have to make many many more when it came to proper imp care.

The first day or so with the new addition to the Sparkling Skies family wasn’t all that difficult; the task that Hutch had set up for training newbies was a bit below Dagasho’s level as he’d already been caring for a certain group of rabebe at the time after an unfortunate spat with his ex left him in the custody of a couple fluffballs. Myosotis, Magnolia, and Marigold were all quite curious as to who this new addition was; apparently his temporary name tag said that his name was ‘Steve’, and the four imps seemed to get along well when they had food to chow on.

Yeah… that’s where the problems started. During the down seasons—when buns didn't have much of a reason to blow things sky high with color—income was slow… and so was the food budget. Even though imps didn’t need food, Dagasho didn’t have much time to spend with all four of them (As his workplace was dangerous enough WITHOUT four little distractions—however cute they may be—scampering around… he’d be such a bad imp-dad if he put them in danger!); that meant he had to compensate in other ways… and more often than not, it was in snacks.

And when the snacks ran out… the imps ran out.
No, they didn’t run away—they were very nice about that, actually—they all simply ran out into Dagasho’s firework workshop, and started pestering the poor working man as he did his best to juggle potentially dangerous materials.
No biggie, right?

Uh… tell that to the mini-series of explosions that rang out every couple days from Dagasho’s shop.

Eventually Sho and all four of his imps managed to work out a system that sustained itself on black sesame seeds and time periods of play and socialization. He had to get Steve back to Hutch’s place in one piece so the other bun didn’t pull his hair out, so he had to put in some elbow grease! And hey, sometimes all Dagasho would need to do is bring the four of them out to an outdoorsy place and let them play around a bit. Steve was quite the bold, mischievous type… but more often than not the rabebe trio was proactive enough to bring his energy down a tad; Myosotis’ chill energy, Marigold’s happiness, and Magnolia’s general cuteness all helped to balance out this squad’s energy… and honestly, Dagasho kind of appreciated the fresh air he was getting.

It was a little sad to return Steve after the week’s passing—Dagasho was certain he could see tears as the four imps hugged it out on the day Steve was leaving—but after taking care of all four of them for a week… maybe Dagasho could be compelled to add a weekly walk with his rabebe to the Imporium onto his schedule… for no reason in particular, of course. It’s important to get out and spend some quality time with his imps every now and then, right?