#episide 242

[stunted-boars]

In episode 242, an imp takes a dive into a hotspring, and seems to just... dissolve.

I am in no ways an expert on imp anatomy, but I've been trying to keep track of how they work. I'd say a majority of my edits to the TI wiki have been updating the page on imps to include a new bizarre detail on how they function. I am, I guess, an imp hobbyist.

I have no idea why that imp exploded. I wrote on the wiki that sometimes imps just dissolve in (fresh?) water, but the truth is I have no idea what that was.

I have a theory, but this is mostly just me grasping at straws (surely if imps always dissolve in water, it'd've happened before now, or at least come up? Maybe it did and I missed it??). So, if you remember any other instances of imps being in contact with water, please let me know.

Anyways, here's a theory I've developed over the past ~30 minutes.

According to the wiki, imps molt and reproduce via spores (unfortunately this does not have a reference, if anyone knows what episode this is mentioned I would appreciate it). It is *possible* the imp dissolving was actually an example of an imp... exploding into spores.

The life cycle of imps is poorly defined at this point, so it's not outside the realm of possibility. If this is the case, it has some interesting implications.

Was the explosion into spores triggered by contact with water, or a coincidence? If the former, it could imply imps are semi-aquatic, or possibly spend part of their life cycle in water, similar to tadpoles/frogs. I know some fish reproduce by just releasing their sperm/eggs into the water in generally the same area and leave their offspring to figure it out on their own—is that what imps do, too?

However, we know imps come from Hell, which is typically depicted as rather fiery. Is there a more watery area in Hell? Considering what we do know about their biology, it sounds as though they'd be susceptible to drying out easily, so a damp (perhaps swamp-like?) region in Hell would be a reasonable place for them to have evolved (assuming they are the result of evolution, and not some sort of magic).

Are they able to reproduce in arid environments through wind-born spores, but prefer water-born? Or perhaps Imps undergo a migration to a different plane when it is time to reproduce, and then migrate back to Hell at a certain point in their life?

Do Imps grow like a fungus? Do they have an adolescent/juvenile state, or are they fully formed by the time they're "born"? Imps can have complex societies complete with religious beliefs, which implies there is some form of sharing knowledge, which implies child rearing, but if Imps spread spores by EXPLODING then this child rearing isn't being done by the parents—do Imps communally raise their young? Do they pass down their knowledge genetically?

Tl;dr: How the FUCK do imps work