Imp
Imps were diminutive supernatural beings.
One of the scenes from across the Strange and Wonderful House glimpsed by one visitor to the Conservatory through its panes of glass was “a fantastical bacchanal led by “a grinning imp”. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: View From a Jungle)
In 2019, while running away from one of the Queen of the Black Market's Wraiths in the Interdimensional Black Market, Darius and Tracker-764 “duck[ed] under the legs of an enormous Gryphon” before “brush[ing] past a gang of imps attempting to swindle an old sheep with glasses out of her wallet”. (PROSE: Misadventures in the Interdimensional Black Market)
At least one version of the Land of Oz was home to a trio of mischievous imps known as Olite, Udent and Ertinent. The Phonograph described them as “like Nomes, but smaller, and with no beards”, their hair shaped “like two horns on their heads”. They each wore a belt of a different metal, which seemed somehow tied to their identity, as the metals were altered when the Imps were made nicer by being hit by Cupid Arrows (Olite's buckle turned from tin to silver, Udent’s turned from brass to gold, and Ertinent’s turned from lead to aluminum). These imps previously worked for the Wicked Witch of the South, Blinkie, but were turned into buttons for a number of years by the Wizard of Oz. After the enchantment wore off, they briefly resumed working for Blinkie before they were romanticised and apologised for their misdeeds, helping to repair Acquaintanceship-982 after he was injured in a Fog Ship crash. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz) The Imps were listed alongside Blinkie in the Book of Evil. (PROSE: The Book of Evil)
The term could also be used as an insult. Jenny Nowhere once called Sophie Everytime an “insufferable little imp”. (PROSE: Family Business)
