Tavore Paran

Summary: Imp's first winter.

~

Through eavesdropping on conversations Imp had learned the weather getting colder was called ‘winter’ and the white stuff that fell from the sky and coated the ground was called ‘snow’. It had all been complaints; it was cold and crops couldn’t grow. The snow was deep enough that it had to be trudged through in some places and in heavily trafficked areas it was reduced to a dirty gross slush. Ice was slippery, dangerous and a nuisance to get rid of. Seemingly there were no redeeming qualities to this change in the weather.

Despite that, the group of children had begged to be allowed to go out in it and had eagerly rushed to do so once given permission. It was not Imp’s job to spy much on the children, even the ones in the care of the Horde soldiers, but it was odd behavior and investigating such was his job. So he followed them out.

It was bright and white outside. There was nowhere to hide other than in the snow itself which would make it hard to see anything in addition to being cold and wet. Which would make the bite of the cold air even harsher and it already had him feeling like he’d rather go back inside. Too wrapped up in whatever they were excited about though, no one seemed to notice him climbing up the exterior wall so he stayed to watch for now.

The group quickly split into two. One gathered up snow into small balls to throw at each other. The other started rolling up a big ball of it. If either had a purpose, Imp couldn’t discern it. The children tended to behave odd in general but this was a whole new thing that made even less sense than normal because everyone else hated the snow.

Imp stayed and watched for a while. Eventually the group rolling the big snow ball started rolling another which upon finishing the stacked atop the first for some reason before starting a third. Odd behavior with seemingly no reason for it. He could stay for longer and try to figure it out but it didn’t seem likely to make any sense any time soon.

So he scuttled back down the face of the building. He gathered up some snow and bunched it into as big a ball as he could comfortably carry in one hand. It was so cold it hurt his bare hands as he pressed it together but it was pretty - if it weren’t doomed to melt he’d have stolen it to hide in his nest with his other shiny things – so he could see the draw of making it but why throw it?

Once it was done, he took it back inside. It was warmer in here so it would melt much faster so wasting no time, he climbed up to the vents and started for Hordak’s sanctuary. Hopefully he was in and alone. Hordak didn’t like it when Imp asked questions when others were around.

Luckily he was in and indeed alone. He was at his workbench working on something, his stance stiff and intent. Imp had express permission to interrupt with important stuff. This wasn’t important but the snowball was quickly melting and wouldn’t last until a more convenient time.

Unnoticed, Imp made his way around around the wall to behind Hordak. He then threw the snowball, purposefully not hitting him but going past his shoulder to splatter on an empty part of the table.

Hordak jerked around with a growl. “How dare…” he stopped as his gaze found Imp. He let out a sigh as he brushed himself off, much of the tension leaving his body. “Why would you throw that at me?”

“Snowball fight!” Imp played back at him because that’s what one of the kids had shouted before throwing the first snowball. It hadn’t been a fight though, no one was dying or even bleeding, none of their shouts had been of pain. And there was seemingly nothing to fight over. No disagreement, petty or otherwise, or territory either side wanted.

“I don’t have time to play games with you and you have better ways to spend your time. So unless you have something important to tell me, get back to work.” With a huff, Hordak back around to clean up what was left of the quickly melting snow ball.

Imp headed down the wall and climbed up to sit on the table as he did so. “Why would you throw that at me?” he repeated before Hordak could repeat his order to get back to work.

Hordak stared at him in silence for a few seconds before replying. “You’re asking why they were throwing snowballs at each other?”

Imp nodded. It didn’t make sense. What could it possibly accomplish?

“I presume because they find it to be fun. Which is a concept I have little familiarity with, making me not a good person to ask.” He was the only person Imp could ask though, they both knew that. “Personally I find it a waste of time but forbidding such behavior accomplishes nothing as far as I can determine and thus I haven’t. So I suppose if you wish, you are free to play in the snow too as long as you don’t let it get in the way of your main duties. Understood?”

Summary: Imp steals the star off the tree.

I borrowed the idea for calling the holiday 'Lightmas' from the fic my dear friend Kit wrote me last year.

~

Even after night had fallen, Imp waited a couple hours before venturing out. He crawled through the vents to the central hall, pausing at the grate to peek through. As expected, the room was empty, quiet, and dark. The Lightmas tree stood majestically off to the side where Entrapta’s servants had put it up earlier that day. Like the ones the Horde soldiers had put up every year at the Horde base, lots of little differently coloured glass bobbles hung off its branches. But unlike the trees the Horde soldiers put up and decorated, this one was huge and had a giant shiny star on top, bigger than Imp’s head.

Unable to wait any longer, he pushed open the vent grate and crawled out and onto the wall and down to the floor. He scampered over to the tree, pausing as he reached its base. Always before he had been happy to take only a low hanging bobble or two, this year though, with a bigger prize available, such would not do. And so he started climbing, carefully lest the tree shake too much and cause the ornaments fall off and break. The pine needles pricked his hands, sometimes quite painfully. It was worth it though so he kept going until he reached the top.

The star stayed in place atop the tree via a small base funnel that contained the tree’s top branches. Imp grasped that and lifted it off. As predicated, it was heavy, indicating perhaps that it was made of real gold. Unfortunately that made it difficult for Imp to handle. There’d be no holding it securely in his mouth while he climbed back down. His options were to either drop it and hope it didn’t get damaged from the fall or to keep hold of it and jump off. He chose the latter. His fall and subsequent landing were not graceful but he and the star remained unharmed.

Now came the hard part. He couldn’t do his crawling up the wall trick and keep hold of the star at the same time. This was why he’d waited until night though to reduce the chances of getting caught as he dragged it back to his room. If he did run into anyone, they’d steal the star back for sure. With Hordak no longer being the leader of the Horde or anything else, that brought Imp’s status down too; he wasn’t allowed to get away with as much stuff as he’d had before. There wasn’t much he could do about that other than hope there’d no night owls up and about wondering the halls.

The castle was thankfully empty and quiet. It was starting to look like he was going to make it home free. And then he turned into the hall that contained the room that had been designated as his. Even despite the darkness, there was no way Entrapta could miss him.

She came to a stop in front of him. “Oh, hi, Imp. I’d ask if you’re having trouble sleeping too but I doubt that’s the case. You need some help with that?”

“Help,” he played back at her in her own voice. What did she mean ‘help’? Surely, as head of the castle she’d object to having her tree’s star stolen.

Apparently not understanding that it was a question, Entrapta didn’t answer as part of her ponytail separated out to wrap around Imp and lift him off the ground. Another from the other ponytail took the star from him. So she was taking it back. He’d been so close too.

She carried him the rest of the way to his room. “Where do you want the star?” she asked as she gently deposited him in his nest made from the blankets atop the bed.

So… she was okay with it? Well, Imp wasn’t one to question good fortune. “Table,” he played in one of the servant’s voices. He’d cleared a spot for the star on his treasure table earlier, right after watching the servants put the tree and star up and deciding he wanted it.

She placed it down in that exact spot, evening balancing it so it’d stay up right. “There you go. Merry Lightmas.” And with that, she trounced back out, closing the door behind her.

A gift for my friend @itsladykit aka @spacebatisluvd who asked for some hurt/comfort with Hordak and Imp, Hordak doing the comforting.

While I was brainstorming to come up with a idea, it occurred to me that while we see Hordak's reaction to being told Entrapta betrayed them, both in the show itself as well as in numerous fan works, we don't see how Imp reacts (or if we do it was so minor, I have zero recall of it) so that's what I went with.

-

The atmosphere in the lab was much heavier with Entrapta gone from it. Angry and brooding, Hordak shut himself up inside it to work on whatever he was working on now that the portal project was complete. Imp didn’t pay much attention to it, he was too busy looking for Entrapta or more like clues about what had happened to her.

There was no way she’d actually betrayed Hordak, right? Perhaps she’d been kidnapped by the other princesses and it had been mistaken for a betrayal. Or maybe someone, either the princesses or someone on base, had killed her. Regardless of what it was, Imp had missed it, the event itself as well as any that had led up to it. If the former was true as Hordak believed then Imp had missed all signs of Entrapta not being as loyal as she’d pretended. Which was why Imp was disinclined to believe it but… what if he really had failed that badly?

Spying was the one thing he was good at. The reason Hordak kept him around. How could he have possibly failed so badly to miss such important stuff? He should know what had really happened so he could relay the information to Hordak.

And so he searched. Crawling through vents and hiding in shadowy corners, looking and listening for any clues. At first everyone on base only talked about what had happened with the portal and what it meant or might mean. But once things had settled down a bit more and into a new groove, Entrapta was brought up as well. No one seemed to know anything and the consensus was that Catra was probably telling the truth about her supposed betrayal. Catra herself never talked about it unless directly asked if it was true, her answer was always ‘yes’ with no real elaboration.

Outside and in empty parts of the base, Imp checked for signs of where Entrapta’s body might’ve been buried or burned. He found nothing. It was impossible to check everywhere though, the Fright Zone was too big, and thus he couldn’t know anything for sure.

In the end the most likely explanation seemed to be what everyone else already believed; Entrapta had betrayed them and gone back to the princesses’ side. Perhaps that had been her plan all along, to spy on the Horde and Hordak in particular and bring that information back to the princesses.

“Wow, an actual Xmas tree for once. Didn’t think I’d ever see the day we’d be putting one of these up the common room.”

“It’d be better if it wasn’t so… half dead.”

“Yeah, yeah, but we gotta take what we can get, right? I mean it’s not like there’s many pine trees growing all the way out here.”

The soldiers continued chatting as they towed the flimsy pine tree into the common room. They put it in a little stand in the middle of the room and started hanging little round baubles of various colours on its branches, the ones that could bare the weight anyway.

It didn’t look dangerous nor did the soldiers seem to be talking treason or anything of the sort but it was new and thus it was Imp’s duty to investigate. He hid unnoticed, in a shadowy corner, watching and waiting until… finally at last an opening.

While the soldiers’ backs were turned as they returned to the box they’d been pulling the baubles out of, Imp darted in. He snatched up one of the loose hanging baubles and was immediately on his way out again. No shouts followed him as he scampered back up the wall and into the vent; good, he hadn’t been spotted.

After silently closing the vent behind him, he investigated his prize. It was a little round ball of opaque red glass. A little gold coloured nub attached to it and a loop of string. It was pretty but seemingly useless as anything other than decoration.

Pulling it close, Imp turned his attention back on the soldiers. They were still chatting but no longer about the tree or anything else that seem important and/or interesting. So after a couple more minutes had gone by to really make sure, Imp left.

He found Hordak in the lab, hunched over working on something. Careful not to disturb it or anything else on the table, Imp climbed up and sat waiting until Hordak could pay attention to him.

It didn’t take long, it rarely did, before Hordak was looking up at him after setting side his tools. “You have something to report?”

Imp held up the red bauble and repeated the soldiers’ conversation about the tree.

“Hmm. Xmas a holiday people on this planet celebrate with such decorations. You don’t need to concern yourself with it unless the soldiers are letting it get in the way of performing their duties.” With that, he picked up his tools again and resumed working.

Well, that was that then. Imp climbed down off the table again and hurried off. He had to hide his new stolen treasure in his nest.

-

This Xmas thing seemed to be a bigger deal than Hordak had led Imp to believe. Almost everyone brought it up in conversation at least once. Many people loved it and a few hated it with a passion, occasionally resulting in arguments between the two. The young recruits still in training seemed the most into it. As a result, Imp couldn’t help but learn that giving gifts for loved ones seemed to be its primary means of celebration.

Hordak didn’t seem to care about it and he’d told Imp not to concern himself with it. But… it seemed like fun. Certainly, something new and interesting.

So after stealing a book from the bookshop – because Hordak was smart and supposedly books were good gifts to get for smart people – Imp hid it in his nest until the day he determined was Xmas via watching everyone else give their gifts to each other. He waited on Hordak’s bed with it until he finally came.

“Merry Xmas!” he repeated in a random soldier’s voice as he pushed it towards Hordak as he approached.

“I thought I told you not to…” Hordak paused as he reached the bed, looking down at the book. He picked it up with a frown as he turned it around to look at its front. “You got me a romance novel?”

“Merry Xmas!” Imp repeated in a different soldier’s voice. Did Hordak not like it? He’d gone out of his way to pick the prettiest looking book the store had that he could also carry.

Valentine’s Day and what it celebrated was the kind of thing so far out of Hordak’s usual mode of thinking that he’d totally forgotten about it until he happened to pass by a group of clones discussing it amongst themselves in the hall. And even then, the importance of it didn’t hit him until he was standing outside the lab doors.

He should’ve gotten Entrapta something for it… right? They’d never really discussed what their relationship was beyond affirming that they were lab partners but since settling into Dryll they’d only grown closer, touching often, to the point of cuddling at times, and even sharing the occasional soft kiss. So… he should’ve gotten her something for it. It was too late now though. … But perhaps he could still salvage something. It was worth a try anyway.

Trying not to be awkward about it, he turned and stiffly walked back down the hall. When he got the kitchen, the staff were bustling about, busy making something. The head chef slipped away to approach him as soon as he stepped in.

“How may I help you sir?” she said with a congenial smile without even a trace of the intimidation she’d shown back when he’d first moved in.

“Approximately how long do you estimate it might take to bake a batch of tiny cupcakes and arrange them into the shape of a Valentines heart?” It was the only thing he could think to do. Perhaps while he waited for the cupcakes he could run out to the market and get her a gift. Even if there was no way he could come up with an idea for, let alone actually find a good gift, it’d be better than nothing.