Harlequin Imp

Plural: a troupe of Harlequin Imps

Male: Chuckle | Female: Giggle | Baby: Tee-hee

Harlequin Imps are medium sized, furred mammalian-like creatures that roam wild in troupes in temperate forested areas. Found year round on the mainland of Klaedon, they’ve been quickly domesticated into popular city companions with bright jewel-like colors and striking patterns. Noted for their unique vocalizations that sound like a goose honking and playful personalities, Imps make for wonderful companions!

Behavior

These critters are surprisingly docile in both wild and domestic populations. They thrive with others of their kind or on their own, and are easily taken from the wild and integrated into a domestic home with little trouble once properly looked over by a vet and inoculated. Harlequin Imps are very affectionate once they bond to their owners, and show their affections through various tricks and honking vocalizations.

They are attracted to the sound of laughter and birdsong, and tend to mimic the sound themselves, even in wild populations. This behavior has led to many a scared camper at night, hearing tens of mysterious disembodied laughing “voices” coming from the woods around them, or birdwatchers being startled by a sudden “flock” of birds coming from nowhere.

Appearance

Harlequin Imps in the wild are noted to have duller, darker colorings that come in all hues and simpler marking styles than their domestic counterparts. Wild Imps also have much more crooked and janky shaped ears, though the shape doesn't seem to cause them any pain due to being made out of flexible cartilage.

Domestic Imps have much brighter and vibrant coats, ranging in all hues as well, and sporting much more complex markings, like pinstripes, ‘flower’ shaped markings, and spots alongside the normal diamonds and ‘sock’ markings that wilds normally only have. Domestic Imps have much curlier and smoothly arced ears than their wild counterparts, and it's the number 1 way to tell domestic from wild (as sometimes wild imps can be rather striking colorwise!)

Both wild and domestic have small horselike hooves on their back feet, and raccoon-like hands with a single pawpad on their front feet, often with fur tufts around them. Their tails can come in various shapes as well, with them being bunnylike, tufted, or “naked” aka just a fluffed up bum.

Breeding

Imps breed in the springtime, pairing off after extensive and colorful courtship rituals that haven't been fully documented yet, but include the chuckle building a bower made out of the most colorful materials he can find, to entice a giggle to his painstakingly constructed nest.

Several chuckles will pursue a giggle of choice, each leading her to their nest bower in hope of enticing her to pair off with him. Only the most colorful nests pass a giggle's scrutiny!

Once a pair has been established and they breed, a giggle will lay 2-3 eggs in the nest the chuckle constructed, and will incubate them for two months.

Tee-hees, when first hatched, range from near white, to dark grey in color, and are completely covered in a downy soft fuzz with hints of their future markings in a darker color. They lack the long ribbony cartilage ears of their parents, and instead have two tiny nubs on top of their head.