An Imptastic Time

The soft chime of the bell strung atop the doorframe rings out over the din of the cafe, signaling the small doll's arrival. The door is held open for the small parade of harpups that seems to have fallen a few paces behind her. As each harpup passes the threshold of the cafe, the doll jumps up to manually ring the bell, chiming with each entrance. It just wouldn't be right if every member of her party wasn't properly announced, now would it? Once all six harpups are safely inside, Princess gives the cafe a once over. Her noisy arrival had drawn more than a few stares and glares but she pays them no mind. For once, she's not here to make friends with strangers. 

After only a moment, the rest of the patrons return to their activities. It doesn't seem any of them are awaiting a mystery guest. No matter, it's better to be first than late! Picking a table near the window, Princess plops herself down and begins kicking her legs as she fantasizes about her mysterious date. What sort of vice will they have? What sort of bun will they be? Considering they were to meet at an imp cafe, Princess was already certain this bun had good taste. 

A waiter hesitantly approaches her for her order, but Princess politely declines. It wouldn't be right to order before her date arrives! Instead, she busies herself with her harpups, scooping Pinky, Punchy, and Precious into her lap for some well deserved pets as she happily watches the other patrons engage with their imps. 

Delphine has always been a lazy woman with no will to participate in any festivities in Burrowgatory, preferring to be holed up in her villa napping. Matentines is the only occasion she'll muster up the energy to interact with others, but this year, she was roped into participating in a blind date. Her first instinct was to refuse the date, but upon seeing her date's photo of their cute harpups, she couldn't refuse. She decided to bring along her little candyl, Lumiere for moral support. Lumiere's little flames flickered excitedly, no doubt eager to play with the other imps at the cafe. 

She approaches the entrance of the imp cafe, closing her umbrella as she enters. Looking around, she spots one pink harpup, two harpups... six harpups, and then a short girl sitting together with them. She approaches the group with a small smile.

"... are you my date?" She asks, "I do have the right place and person... right?"

"Ah~!"

Princess is fully engrossed in squishing Pinky's face into silly shapes when her date arrives. She glances up with wide eyes, but her expression quickly shifts into one of awe. It would have been no surprise if her date was just pretty, but she had not been expecting someone drop dead gorgeous. Princess stares for a beat too long before collecting herself.

"Hi! I sure hope I'm the right person, but if not I totally wanna take their place!" She tears her eyes away from her date's beautiful face for a brief moment, giving the candyl companion a little wave. "I'm Princess, and this is Pinky, Precious, Punchy, Pillow, Plushie, and Puffball!" Each harpup perks up at the sound of its name before settling back down into the cuddle pile they had formed on the floor. Princess places Pinky on top of the pile before pushing back her chair. She stands, extending her hand to offer the much taller doll a handshake. "I'm so happy to meet you!"

Delphine looks down at the other with a small smile and nods, taking her hand in a loose handshake. "Nice to meet you, Princess. I'm Delphine, and this is my little friend Lumiere." She leans down and gently places Lumiere with the harpups, giving them an expectant look. "Go on now, dear. Play with your new friends." Princess grins as she watches the candyl join her pets. "Play nice, pups!" 

Delphine turns back to take a seat across from Princess. "Apologies, I'm not usually one for outings with others. It's been such a long time since my last date! Have you decided on your order yet?" Princess shakes her head at Delphine’s question, glancing at the menu in front of her. "I'm not sure yet, maybe something cold?" Her expression grows surprised. "There's so many options! Hmmm..."

Delphine leans against the table to look closer at Princess, "My my, I must commend the organizers of this event. You sure are a cutie, unfortunately wasted on a date with a granny like me."

Busy hunting for the perfect drink, Princess doesn't notice the eyes on her until the other doll speaks. She looks up, a bit of heat rising to her cheeks as she meets Delphine's gaze. "I am a cutie!" She nods as if stating a fact. "Which is why I'm so happy I get to meet someone elegant and beautiful like you! Another little cutie just wouldn't make any sense, we'd have to spend the whole time competing." Regardless of how much sense she makes, Princess seems to have confidence in her words, eyes shining as she continues. "Granny or not, I'd way rather have you. This way we can compliment each other!" 

Delphine chuckles at Princess’ energy, hiding her laugh behind a delicately manicured hand. “I like the way you think, dear Princess! We do make quite the striking pair~” 

With a sweet smile, Princess returns her gaze to the menu. "Oooh, do I want a chocolate strawberry milkshake? Or cocoa cookie crumble? Oh, but the raspberry vanilla sounds so good!" She furrows her brow, conflict in her eyes. "Ugh! There's just too many good choices!" She looks to Delphine. "What are you gonna have?"

Delphine flips through the menu idly, eyes skimming through the options. “An ice cold drink for you, is that right? I may have to go with a warm drink, my tummy and teeth tend to hurt when I drink anything too cold! I could go for a glass of nice warm milk about now but I’d get sleepy. I suppose I will get the red velvet mocha.” She looks up and smiles fondly at Princess’ plight. “Why dont you order all three, dear? This date is on me, feel free to order as much as you’d like. It’s the least I can do for asking our date to be at such an unconventional spot.”

"All three?" Princess' eyes practically sparkled with excitement. "I don't know if I can drink that much, but I'll do my very best! Thank you so so much!"

Speaking of the unconventional spot, Delphine looks over to the imps. Lumiere seems to have opened up to Pinky, Precious, Punchy, Pillow, Plushie, and Puffball’s antics. The little candyl bounces up and down, chasing the harpups as they roll. “Thank you for accepting to have our date at this imp cafe, by the way.” She says, turning back to Princess, “I love little critters, they’re just so cute and loveable. I was worried that my date wouldn’t like imps, but judging by how your Harpups look so well taken care of, I assume you’re an imp aficionado as well?”

With a cute smile for Delphine, Princess looks around the cafe. "I'm so glad you brought me here! I had never heard of a cafe that was all about imps!" Her expression turns sheepish. "I've brought my pups to a bunch of cafes in the past, but I may or may not have been asked to leave because they take up too much room." She looks up with earnest eyes. "But I couldn't just leave them outside! Who knows what could happen to them!" 

Glancing at said Harpups, Princess has to hide a laugh behind a gloved hand as she watches them happily roll around the cafe. It isn't long before Punchy rolls into a wall, causing the Harpups behind it to hit the wall one by one, piling up on the floor. "Looks like a traffic jam!" She giggles, unconcerned for her squishy pets. Delphine chuckled as she looked over at the harpups’ antics. Lumiere had jumped in surprise and quickly hopped behind her legs before peeking back out to join the pile of pups. 

"My pups totally love it here, so I'd be happy to come back anytime!" She grins. "It's true, I do love imps! I have a furdin back at home too, but it's too lazy to leave the apartment. Not that I blame it, it's a real challenge to get out of our cozy blanket fort every morning!" Princess takes a pause, realizing how long she'd been chattering on. "Do you have any other imps? I'd really love to hear about them!" 

“Oh my, a furdin too? You have quite a group of imps! That sounds wonderful! As for me, I only have Lumiere at the moment. As you can see, they’re a bit jumpy and timid. I would love to add some more imps into my family someday!” Delphine says with a smile. Since she was a young bun entering Burrowgatory, Delphine had dreamed of raising a farm full of free roam imps. But with her laid-back nature and lack of discipline, she knew that Hutch wouldn’t let that happen. 

"You should totally adopt some more, if little Lumi would be comfy with them. The more the merrier, am I right?" Princess smiles, resting her chin in her hands. "Honestly, I didn't even really mean to get any imps. I was eating lunch on the beach one day and all these little cuties just appeared out of nowhere! I think they wanted my food. But they've followed me everywhere ever since, and I love them so much! I'm so glad they showed up!" She looks toward her Harpups, who had wiggled out of their pile and were once more rolling around the cafe. "Anyway, I think everyone would be happier with more imps in their lives. They're guaranteed to lift your spirits!" 

"Well, your pups sure made a good choice for their owner. It looks like they're well taken care of and just simply adore you!" Delphine smiles, "I think they got a sense that you have a kind spirit. Are you ready to order, dear? Let me go call over a waiter. Don’t be shy, order as much as you’d like!” Delphine says, elegantly waving her hand to flag down a passing waiter.

Still smiling about her Harpups, Princess takes one last look through the menu before nodding. "Yes, I believe I am!" She watches as the waiter approaches the table, smiling up at them as they arrive. "Hello hello! May I please have a chocolate strawberry milkshake? And also a chocolate cookie crumble milkshake? And a raspberry vanilla milkshake? Thank you so very much!" The waiter looks somewhat surprised by the small doll's large order, but writes it down with a shrug before turning to Delphine.

Delphine turns to the waiter, "I'll get a red velvet mocha. Here's my card, the tab is on me." She turns her attention back to Princess as the waiter leaves. "Maybe I should have you come with me to Hutch's Imporium so you can help me pick out another little imp. It would be nice to have a friend for Lumiere! I just get so indecisive when I visit Hutch since there are so many little cuties in the shop. Why, Hutch is always ushering me out of the shop, telling me that it's closing time far earlier than actual closing time!" Delphine winks teasingly at Princess, "If Hutch is bullying me, I'll make sure to hide behind you. You'll stand up to Hutch for me, won't you?"

“Of course I will!” Princess put her hands on her hips. “I’m not afraid of them or their phloofs!” She says with a solid nod. “I’m sure there’s an imp out there that’d be just perfect for you, and I’d love to help you find it. Wanna make it a date?” She asks with a grin, returning Delphine’s wink. Delphine smiles, wider than she has in a long time.  "Wonderful, it's a date!" 

The drinks arrive, and the two enter a long conversation about the pros and cons of owning each imp. As Princess is describing the many benefits of owning a furdin, Delphine finds herself growing tired. She lets out a big yawn, the caffeine in her mocha has not helped with her constant drowsiness and her eyelids grow heavy. "...Oh my... This cozy atmosphere has made me rather sleepy..." She shambles over to sit beside Princess, leaning her head on the shorter bun's shoulder. "Tell me about more of your adventures with your pups, I promise I'm listening."

Princess smiles softly as Delphine joins her and wiggles a little closer. “Alrighty, how about I tell you about a time before my pups were pink? It all started when I watched a dango making video…” She launches into her tale, Delphine sound asleep on her shoulder. The imps were snoozing in a small pile near the window, exhausted from their earlier antics. Not long after she finishes her epic anecdote, Princess finds herself unable to contain a yawn. She rests her head against Delphine’s, allowing her eyes to flutter closed. It was time for a nap.