Chapter Text
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Catra
The party guests filter into the room slowly as the night goes on. Most of them aren’t particularly popular on Etheria, just attending for a night of fun.
Some of the guests’ names, though, are known across the kingdoms. Due to their popularity among citizens, these people commonly fall victim to gossip. Some of the words whispered between guests are true, and some are completely off.
Three guests sit at a table and look around the large, elegant banquet hall. People from every kingdom have come to celebrate the new year in the kingdom of Salineas.
One of the guests, a green-skinned shapeshifter with a talent for acting, turns to one of their friends. “So, Catra. How are you enjoying the party so far?”
Catra, the Princess of Halfmoon, sighs, “I don’t know. I mean, I just got here but it’s pretty boring so far. I don’t even know anyone here except for you guys and my parents.”
As if on cue, Cyra and Milo Driluth, the Queen and King of Halfmoon, wave cheerily from their spot at their table across the banquet. Catra waves their way with an awkward smile.
The actor pats Catra’s shoulder with a sly grin, “I can help with that, darling!”
Catra flashes them an incredulous look, “How are you going to do that? Nobody here even knows me.”
This is the first party that Catra is attending and to say she’s nervous is an understatement. Her parents are very… protective, to put it lightly. They rarely let her leave her kingdom in fear that something will happen to their precious only daughter. She’s only met the other princesses a handful of times. Scorpia, the Princess of the Scorpion Kingdom, and Double Trouble, a mercenary from the Crimson Waste, are two of her only friends. Well, Entrapta is too, but she’s too busy conducting social experiments on the guests to socialize.
Double Trouble sighs, “Well, I can’t get you to talk to people, but I can tell you everything I know about some of the guests.”
Scopia joins the conversation, already intrigued, “Ooh, which guests?”
A grin reappears on their face, “Well, I do know a lot about the other princesses, and the Horde representatives, if you’re willing to listen.”
Catra groans and rolls her eyes at her friend’s theatrics, “Fine. Tell us everything.”
Scorpia scoots closer so she can listen as Double Trouble begins.
The first person they point to is a short, purple and pink-haired girl wearing a fluffy dress, “That is Princess Glimmer of Brightmoon. She’s a bit spoiled if you ask me, and has a really high-pitched voice, but she’s okay.” They move their slender finger slightly to the left, “And that’s Bow, her best friend. He’s the Master Archer of Brightmoon and one of the best knights in the kingdom. He and Glimmer have been best friends since they were kids, but I doubt it’ll be long before they’re dating.”
Catra raises a brow, “Really?”
Double Trouble nods, “Definitely. They’re all over each other, way too much for two people who are just friends.” They do air-quotes around the last two words.
“Oh, and that tall lady standing beside Glimmer is her mother, Queen Angella of Brightmoon,” The actor adds.
They continue by pointing to a dark-skinned blue-haired woman who looks like she’d rather be anywhere but here, “That’s Mermista, the Princess of Salineas. Her parents are hosting this party. She always looks bored out of her mind and has been known to be rude to guests who annoy her, but she's nice when she wants to be.”
Their attention is brought off of the Princess by a man with a moustache singing loudly by her side. Double Trouble groans, “That, my friends, is Sea Hawk. Mermista claims that he’s just her chauffeur, but everyone knows they’re dating in secret. He loves to sing sea shanties, though, so watch out for that.”
Catra can already tell she doesn’t like Sea Hawk. Mermista, though, she could see herself being friends with her.
Double Trouble looks around the ballroom for a new person. Once they find one, they point excitedly, “Ooh, there! That’s Perfuma. She’s the Princess of Plumeria, and she might be the happiest person you’ll ever meet. She loves meditating and all plants, but I heard a rumour that she absolutely hates cacti.”
Catra laughs loudly at that, snorting slightly, “Cacti? Really? Where did you hear that?”
Scorpia blushes slightly, “Oh, I don’t know, Wildcat. I think she’s nice, even if she hates cacti.”
Double Trouble shrugs, ignoring their blushing friend, “I never tell my sources, Kitten.” Catra groans at the secretive response but lets them continue.
They hum as they search for another princess, “Hmm… You’ve already met Scorpia and Entrapta but… Oh! There, that’s Princess Frosta of the Kingdom of Snows. There was a terrible accident with her parents a few years back so now she rules her kingdom by herself, with the help of her castle staff. From what I’ve seen, Frosta’s a pretty strict ruler. She held Princess Prom a couple of years ago and the rules were endless!”
Catra frowns, “How old is she?”
Double Trouble looks over to her and, once noticing the look on her face, tones down their excitement at sharing all this information, “She’s eleven.”
Catra’s frown only deepens as she looks down at the intricate flooring. She could never imagine losing her parents at all, especially not at such a young age. She wonders how Frosta managed to keep going after losing her parents, how she manages to lead an entire kingdom without the people who raised her. Catra’s always had her parents with her. She can’t imagine a life without them by her side, guiding her in the right direction.
She’s brought out of her thinking by Scorpia’s voice, “Do you have any info on anybody else? You’ve covered all the Princesses.”
Despite not having any more princesses to gossip about, Double Trouble grins excitedly and claps their hands together, “Of course! I left the best for last, darlings.”
Catra looks back up at the eccentric actor, already curious as to who’s left.
They point to a small table across the banquet hall with four people sitting at it. There’s a muscular blonde woman with large purple veins covering her exposed arms, a pale man with blue hair and pointy ears, a woman wearing a long robe and a mask that covers her entire face, and a man with white slicked-back hair that goes down to his shoulders. All four of them have red eyes and very sharp fangs. Well, Catra assumes the masked woman has red eyes and sharp teeth underneath that mask. All of their fangs are definitely way sharper than Catra’s canines, though.
Catra’s brows furrow as she looks at the mismatched group. They all look absolutely miserable and like they’re about to drop dead at any moment. She’s never seen anyone who looks like them before.
It’s then that Catra hears Double Trouble speak again, “Those are the Horde representatives. They’re all vampires.”
Catra turns back to them, “What’s the Horde? And what’s… a vampire?”
Double Trouble laughs quietly, “How do you not know who the Horde are? And what vampires are? Have you been living under a rock?”
‘No, I just have strict parents,’ Catra wants to retort back. Instead, she blushes slightly and crosses her arms in embarrassment.
Double Trouble must know why Catra’s embarrassed as their chuckle dies off and they pat her on the shoulder, “It’s fine, darling. It’s much more fun if I tell you myself, anyway.”
Catra doesn’t get the chance to ask what that means before Double Trouble begins talking again.
“Okay, so the Horde is this group of vampires that are basically known for being bloodthirsty killers. From what I’ve heard, they’re all really disrespectful and love making people suffer. They don’t seem that bad when I talk to them but then again, the ones I’ve talked to seemed to like me. Oh, and vampires are people who are, essentially, dead. They don’t have heartbeats or any blood in their bodies. One way to recognize a vampire is by their red eyes or sharp fangs, which they use to suck all the blood out of people.”
Catra stays silent. Eventually, she regains her ability to speak, “Are you sure that’s not an over-exaggeration? That seems a little over the top.”
Double Trouble shrugs again, “That’s what my sources told me. And what they’ve told me themselves. ”
Scorpia looks over to the group, then back to her friends, “So, who are those four?”
Double Trouble seems to get excited at that, smiling, “Ooh, this is the best part.”
They rub their hands together in excitement. Then, they point to one of the vampires, “That creepy guy with the white hair is Horde Prime. He’s the ruler of the Horde. Apparently, he rarely actually kills humans. He gets his minions to do it for him so he never gets his hands dirty. Pretty lazy, if you ask me.”
They point to the other man sitting beside Horde Prime, “That’s Hordak. He’s basically Horde Prime’s minion. He just follows him around and does whatever he asks. He and Adora are pretty good friends, though. I heard from someone once that apparently, Horde Prime was experimenting on humans to try and make them into clones of himself, but the experiment failed and Hordak was one of the only results of it that survived."
Catra takes a closer look at Hordak’s arms and notices blue electricity-like marks covering his upper shoulders. She didn’t notice at first because they’re almost covered by fabric, but there’s a bit peeking out.
Double Trouble points to the next person at the table, the masked woman, “That’s Shadow Weaver. She’s really creepy and is always super condescending when she talks, as if she thinks she’s better than everyone else. She’s wearing that mask because there was this big accident hundreds of years ago that covered her face in scars. Because of her scars, she makes Adora do her chores for her, including killing any humans she asks her to. Oh, and she also uses dark magic.”
Catra pauses, “Wait, did you say hundreds of years ago? How old are those people?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention that? Vampires are immortal, meaning they never die. Everyone in the Horde is six hundred years old at the very least.”
Oh. Catra knows that Glimmer and her mother, Angella, are immortal but she’s never heard of an entire kingdom of immortals.
Double Trouble continues nonchalantly, pointing to the now slightly smirking blonde, “Last but definitely not least is Adora Grayskull. She’s the youngest person to ever join the Horde. It’s rumoured that she’s already killed at least ten thousand humans, though. Shadow Weaver’s her mentor, but the two absolutely hate each other. I’m surprised Adora hasn’t killed her yet.”
Scorpia turns to look at Adora with a confused look, “So… what are those purple marks all over her arms? And those electricity-marks on Hordak?”
Double Trouble already seems to know the answer to that, “Oh, well there are two ways that a vampire is made. Either they’re born as a vampire, like Shadow Weaver and Horde Prime, or they’re killed and brought back, like Adora and Hordak. Shadow Weaver used dark magic to kill Adora, and Horde Prime used electricity to kill Hordak. There’s this rumour that Adora used to be a really good person and some big hero on Eternia, her home kingdom, but then all the dark magic corrupted her and made her evil for the rest of eternity.”
Catra scoffs as she looks at the blonde, “I don’t know, Double Trouble. She doesn’t look that powerful to me. Maybe your sources are wron-”
She trails off as Adora turns her head slowly to look directly into her eyes with a small smirk. As soon as her red eyes meet Catra’s mismatched ones, she knows that the sources definitely aren’t wrong. Any confidence that Catra has instantly vanishes under her confident gaze. Double Trouble laughs at her sudden nerves.
“Oh, I forgot to mention that vampires have heightened hearing. So, Adora definitely heard you say that. Hi, Adora.”
The blonde gives them a small wave from across the banquet hall as her smirk widens. Catra gulps as her ears pin themselves to the side of her head.
Scorpia looks over to Double Trouble nervously, “She’s not going to… kill us, is she?”
Double Trouble grins, “Well, that’s up to her, I guess.”
The three of them turn to look at Adora, who shakes her head slowly. Catra and Scorpia sigh in relief, while Double Trouble laughs loudly. The smirk on her face doesn’t leave, though, which only makes Catra more nervous. This whole situation seems to be amusing for Adora as she turns and says something to Hordak, who chuckles slightly.
Catra turns around and pretend to do something else as her brain replays what just happened over and over again.
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Adora
She waves to the three humans from across the banquet hall with a smirk plastered to her face. This isn’t what she expected from this party, but it’s a welcome distraction from the boring conversations happening at the table. Humans really are so amusing sometimes, especially Etherians.
Hordak must see her waving as he asks with full curiosity, “Who are you waving at? We don’t talk to anyone outside of this table.”
Adora turns around to look at him, “Those three humans over there are gossiping about us.”
Hordak chuckles as he peers over to see the two very nervous women and one laughing lizard, “Was it accurate?”
Adora shrugs, “I don’t know, I wasn’t listening that well. All I picked up was ‘bloodthirsty killers’, so I’d say pretty accurate.” They laugh louder at the over-exaggerated rumour.
Their laughter is cut off by Shadow Weaver sighing, “Would you two stop gossiping about yourselves and try to act serious?”
Adora groans, “Would you just let us have some fun for once? We were just looking at the people attending this party, like that human over there.” She points in the direction of Catra.
Shadow Weaver looks in the direction where Adora’s finger pointed until she finds the hiding brunette. “That’s not a human, Adora. She’s a Magicat. Her name is Princess Catra of Halfmoon.”
Adora raises a brow, “Really? She’s a princess? Huh…” She looks back at the magicat again, noticing the fluffy cat ears and tail as she stares for a little too long to be considered normal.
Shadow Weaver’s scolding voice cuts through her thoughts, “Don’t even think about killing her, Adora. That would definitely start at least one war.”
Adora whips her head around to look at her mentor, “Oh, come on! How do you know I was even planning to do that?”
The masked woman crosses her arms, “I know you too well, Adora.”
This kind of bickering is extremely common between Adora and Shadow Weaver.
Adora mirrors her by crossing her arms, too, “Well, I wasn’t. I was just looking at her, out of curiosity. Do you really think I’d be stupid enough to kill a princess?”
“Yes.” The way she said it tells Adora that she definitely thinks Adora is that stupid. Hordak tries to stifle a laugh at the jab as Adora slides down her chair in annoyance.
She turns to Hordak, who is still grinning at the blonde, with a huff.
Adora shoves him a little too hard, “Oh, shut up.”