Team Spirit | Cheer Up, Midicus!

"Why, you got a little army there, don't ya?" Quince walked over as Midicus was gently placing Viper down next to the other three sceils he had brought out for the day. He couldn't just bring out all of them- that might actually look like he was building an army, and that would probably be a little intimidating. Midicus turned around and just barely knocked into the larger woman. "Oh, yeah I suppose so!" Midicus couldn't help but twiddle his thumbs a little bit, unable to find the words he wanted to say. Thankfully, Quince seemed to notice. "Hey... there's no need to be scared of me, lil guy! I know I got kinda competitive back when I was talkin' with Hutch, but It's not anything violent."

"Well, that's good I guess... I just don't like that I feel like I'm betraying Hutch... but... how could letting an imp enjoy something harmless be so wrong? It..." He sighed, holding his arm out and letting his sceils climb up onto him. "It kind of makes me think that if they knew about all my sceils that they'd think I was... being a bad imp owner to them. Maybe they'd even take my imps away from me... could they do that!? Would I even have a hoof to stand on in court?! What if-"  Quince interrupted the male by placing a large cake in his lap, snapping him out of his mental state by the enticing colors of the confectionary mixed with the smell of frosting. "Hey now, there we go. Take a breath of fresh frostin' and calm down a little. You're putting too much weight to all of this. Sure, Hutch is a bit... stuck in their ways, but that doesn't mean that they'll do something like... that. They only really do that to me, and that's because we've known each other forever and that's our dynamic. It's how we work!" Midicus didn't react for a moment. Quince sat herself down next to him, Mademoiselle placing herself on the ground on the other side of Midicus. 

"Look. Midicus. I noticed you were lookin' a bit conflicted before, but now that I see it first hand... you really need to lighten up a little about it. And I thought that maybe letting you feed your imps something nice would help you relax a little, hm?" Midicus looked at the cake again, and then looked over to Quince with a small bit of confusion. "Wait... this is, for my imps?" Quince nodded with a smile, her fangs poking out a little bit. "Of course it is! Can't let your imps train on an empty stomach! Or even worse, a stomach full of boring diet foods." That got Midicus to laugh, and as his arm moved up to giggle Viper and Jake launched from his arm towards the cake, taking large bites and almost burrowing into the layers of pastry. "Oh- Hey! Jake! Viper! You two stop that!"

The green and brown imps didn't listen to him for once, too distracted by the tasty treat in front of them. "Come on now, you two! Arbok and Mayor aren't going to have enough to eat if you two keep that up!" Quince watched the exchange with a laugh, watching as the sceils slithered over the cake and took large chunks out of them. Viper and Jake would sometimes collide while inside of the cake, causing a slight scuffle as they fought over the food, before going back to eating away at the sweet. "Damn, you think they're gonna all of it?" Quince asked after a while, watching as the sceils kept eating away. "Knowing them? It's likely. Their talent is brawling so they tend to work up quite an appetite..." Midicus shook his head. He was glad that they were enjoying themselves, at the very least...

Quince gave a light little nod, rummaging through her satchel and pulling out two plastic pastry tins, both holding small cupcakes that were perfectly sized for a normal imp appetite. She handed them both to Midicus with a nod. "Well, then these are for the other two! I can understand having a big diet." Midicus started to open his mouth, but Quince placed a finger over his mouth before he could speak. "Nope! I know what you're going to say, and I can tell you right now that it's fine! I can bake these up in seconds, so I got plenty to go around!" The pride bun could understand that at least, not wanting to look a gift uniqor in the mouth. Instead of arguing, he moved to feed his imps, knowing that the two on his arms were staring at the cupcakes with a large bit of interest.

He placed Arbok down on the grass, opening up one the cupcakes and giving it to him as fast as he could manage. Mayor was a little bit less polite, grabbing the cupcake container with their tail and slithering down on their own accord to enjoy their meal. The purple sceil, despite their lack of manners, ate their cupcake a lot slower than the blue- who was eating their cupcake almost as fast as Viper and Jake were tearing apart the cake. 

In fact, when Midicus turned his attention back to the large cake, there was only a small bit of frosting left- and it only lasted as long as it did because Jake and Viper were fighting over who got to lick it up. Midicus looked over to Quince, making a small motion with his hands that implied his ask for the woman to separate the two sceil for him. She nodded, putting her large hands on the cake tray and separating the two of them with a large wall of succubun. Midicus then took the last bit of frosting and placed it on his pointer fingers, both of them having an equal amount of frosting between them. He laid his hands down towards each of the sceils, and they were finally able to finish off the cake in its entirety.

When Quince removed her hands, Jake and Viper curled up on the tray, sliding closer to each other not to fight, but to snuggle as they started to fall asleep from the amount of food they had eaten all at once. Arbok was also doing the same back down on the ground, having finished their cupcake. Midicus moved to gently pick up both Mayor and Arbok, placing them on his lap next to the other two. Arbok quickly fell asleep next to Viper and Jake, while Mayor continued to quietly bite away at their own treat. "Your imps can really put away, Midicus." Quince noted with a slight whistle.

"Oh, you haven't really seen anything with these guys. The real big eater of the house is my sceil Ouroboros..." He paused, his expression turning a bit sad again. Quince's own face turned concerned. "Is... something wrong? You got all sad when you said that... did something happen to 'em?" Midicus shook their head. "No, it's not that... I just can't exactly prove anything with them besides that imps with no colors can eat just as much as imps without them. They're the only sceil in the house that has a personal chef and everything. They even have a favorite food and all that... but nobody would believe me If I said that, I'm sure..." 

Quince watched Midicus' expression and the way he talked made it clear that a few sweets couldn't make Midicus feel better about everything that was going on. But to her, that just meant there had to be another kind of sweetness in there. "Well... I think I'd like to meet 'em one day still. I'm sure that if they've got an owner like you, they've got a very colorful personality, even if they don't have colorful scales." It was cheesy, but Midicus found cheesy things charming sometimes- and it was enough to make him smile and giggle a little to the point where he closed his eyes to laugh.

When he opened his eyes, he saw another cupcake placed in front of him. Quince pat his back in a way that was rough, but comforting at the same time. "That one's for you. Just try not to eat it as fast as your imps did, okay?" That got Midicus to laugh even harder- a genuine bit of audible joy that came from his chest.

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises!"