Juliet-178

Juliet-178
Character Information
Species	Clockwork Cherub
Gender	Female
Residence	The Cupid Homeworld
Occupation	Problem-Solver
Behind the Scenes
First seen in	PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel (mentioned)
Also seen in	See list
Copyright	Aristide Twain

Juliet-178 was one of the only female Clockwork Cherubs in the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. She was Pythagoras-858's best friend and a capable member of the Department of Problem-Solving. She was more mischievous and prone to rule-breaking than he was, and got along well with Jenny Everywhere.

Description

Physical appearance

As a Clockwork Cherub, Pythagoras was a small, winged, humanoid robot with a round, sketchy face and short, wiry hair. Her copper skin was rusted light green, while her hair remained golden. She wore a dark pink bow in said hair as her only article of clothing, (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) but somehow had the ability to transport small items on her person anyway. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)

Personality

Like Pythagoras-858, Juliet-178 was possessed of more practicality and common sense than the average Clockwork Cherub. Also like him, she was very curious, to the point of sometimes getting delayed in the business at hand by trying to observe ancillary details. She was more adventures (some might say reckless) than Pythe, however, getting along well with Arganthone-056. For example, despite her dislike of Wellsians, she relished a plan that required her and Arganthone to travel to their planet to try and steal one of their weapons. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) One Recorder Cupid openly wrote in an unrelated Incident Report that Juliet-178 was a prime “cause for concern” in the Homeworld, although she was surpassed by the Triangular Society in this regard. (PROSE: The Case Against Conspiracy)

Even before such a meeting had happened, (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) Pythe believed that she'd get along with Jenny Everywhere if the two were to meet. (PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel) He also identified her general personality traits and skills as suitable for taking part in legendary quests. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)

Powers & abilities

Like other members of the Crew, Juliet had access to Cupid Arrows dipped in Love Potion with which she could “romanticise” almost any living being; she was a skilled markswoman. (PROSE: The Winter Quests) Though officially banned from using one, Juliet had an anti-gravity circuit which enabled her to fly. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) She could play the kazoo. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)

Biography

Early life

While he was looking for Mandragora-257, Pythagoras-858 told Juliet about some of his observations regarding the fundamental principles of magic. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

2020 Christmas crisis

After Pythagoras-858 found Madame Tarsa magically frozen in her Worshop in December 2020, he dispatched Juliet and Arganthone-056 to the Workshop while he went off in the Multiverse to try and find the culprit(s). After they determined that Tarsa's sentient marionettes didn't know anything of value, Juliet got the idea to try and match the unnatural ice with unnatural heat, and dragged Arganthone to New Wellsia to try and get a Wellsian Heat Ray.

The two were shot down before they got anywhere near the Wellsian citadel, and as they retreated it back to their Fog Ship, it was damaged by the Wellsians' artillery. Tumbling across the dimensions, it crashed in 1895 London in the Prime Universe. Luckily, this was witnessed by Jenny Everywhere, who joined the two Cupids, using her shifting abilities to take them back to the Workshop where she thought Tarsa might have left some kind of failsage to reanimate her in an emergency.

There, while Arganthone tried to interrogate the Mechanical Fortune Teller (to little effect), Juliet and Jenny headed into Madame Tarsa's Toybox. There, making their way through the Labyrinthine interior, they found themselves arriving at Wild West Town, where the Frog Mayor advised the three visitors to look for the “oldest toy in the Labyrinth”, who resided in the Christmas Toyland area of the magical toybox. When they met her, however, she was only able to show them the relevant rhyming clue left by Tarsa (which spoke of a “key” in a “distant star”), but not explain its meaning. The three travellers agreed to look for further clues in the forms of legends and myths which other civilisations in the Multiverse might have about Tarsa. They first, unsuccessfully tried the Euclidean Plane (where they engaged in a snowball fight with the Citadel's Octaser and Triangry guards) before heading to the Cupid Homeworld itself to check the Cupid Archives.

There, they introduced Jenny to Lord Thymon, with whom she got along quite well. They then headed to the Archives, where Bibliophile-962 helped them make their way to the relevant section, sneaking past the Mechanical Sphinx. They did not find anything directly related to Tarsa, but were inspired to go to New Subcinctus to see if any of the Consistency Imperium's records had survived the Imperium's fall. However, they did not find anything there which they did not already know, despite being granted an audience by Vertolin himself. They headed to the Interdimensional Tavern in defeat, hoping to simply ask around for relevant intel. They found none, but, reconsidering the rhyming riddle, Juliet realised that the key was actually hidden inside the Star Atop the Tree in the Christmas Toyland, rather than a literal star.

Going back to the Toyland, they conferred briefly with the Toy, who gave them climbing gear, and eventually made their way to the top of the tree with the help of a toy nutcracker called the General. The trio opened the Star, uncovering the magical mallet it contained, only to discover that tampering with the Star awakened the very literal Snap-Dragon that lived at the bottom of Snapdragon Lake. Nevertheless, the three soon defeated the creature through trickery and made their way out of the Toyland. The three agreed that Juliet, whose reputation back hom “needed the polish”, be the one to strike the ice, freeing Tarsa. After the appropriate thanks, the Cupids all returned to the Homeworld. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)

The Winter Quest of 2021

At some point prior to the following events, Juliet-178 filched a prototype Dematerialisation Engine from Doctor Sigma's laboratory.

In December 2021, Juliet-178 was recruited by her friend Pythagoras-858 to join him in a snowy Finnish forest in the Prime Universe where he had arranged to meet a Norse goddess. Pythe was to negotiate with her for the venom of the Wyrm of Loki, to avoid any enemies of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids getting it instead, but anticipated that she might send the two of them on some kind of mythological quest ot prove their worth, for which contingency Juliet's talents would come handy. Soon enough, they found a clearing with a Rune Stone in its centre. Pythe figured out how to use the Sotne to summon the goddes, who set them the task of slaying “a certain Wyrm” in the World Below, much to Juliet's deligh, before disappearing in a flash of light.

To find their way to the rest of the Quest, they elected to lose themselves further until they found themselves in the Forest. There, they found a small waterfall, and figured out that there must be a cavern hidden behind it. There was, but, much to their dismay, it was not the entrance to the World Below, but instead the burrow of a carnivorous Scandinavian Troll, Tero Trollgarsson. Panicking, she activated her Dematerialisation Engine, transporting herself and Pythe to the Interdimensional Tavern — but also the Troll himself. There, Juliet greeted Tpxszum as an old friend, before the three of them were invited to have a drink by an old man whom Juliet quickly recognised as Odin. Though Juliet briefly seemed to have offended Odin, he clarified that he was in jest, before speaking a prophecy to them and advising them to keep the Troll with them throughout the rest of the adventure. He then departed, leaving them at the Tavern.

Figuring out that a part of the prophecy was telling them that a hearth would somehow show them the way forward, they discovered that a version of the Norse fire-god Logi in fact resided in the Tavern's hearth. In exchange for some scented firewood, which Tpxszum agreed to provide later, Logi created a portal to the World Below for them. There, after some trekking, they crossed paths a gigantic talking serpent. They hesitated, unsure whether he was the “serpent” they were to help recover or the “wyrm” they had to defeat. However, the Troll, overlooking their words of caution, decided to charge at the snake, holding that it would be the goddess's fault for not having been more precise in her request if she didn't like it, and that the sooner he technically fulfilled the terms of the quest, the sooner he could go home.

The fight was interrupted before it had properly begun by the appearance of CS-NA, the ship-building robot from the Cupid Homeworld, who had been off on a quest of his own across the Multiverse, trying to understand the spirit of Christmas. Realising that his appearance at such a timely moment could not be coincidental, they deduced, with the serpent's input, that they were being manipulated from afar by Loki, though Pythe was initially skeptical. After convincing the serpent not to harm Cesse (who he temporarily thought might be another candidate for the “Spider” of the prophecy, and thus best gotten out of the way despite the Cupids' theory), Pythe and Juliet realise that the Wyrm they must actually defeat could only be the venom-dripping serpent affixed above Loki's prison to prevent him from escaping. Realising that the fulfillment of the Cupids' mission might be to his father's benefit, Jormungandir agreed to lead them, Trollgarsson and Cesse to the chamber where Loki was imprisoned.

On the fairly long way there, they came across his brother Fenrir, who realised a scheme to free Loki was afoot and tried to stop it. Juliet tried to shoot a Cupid Arrow at the giant wolf to make him sympathetic to their own desires, but CS-NA stopped her from taking the shot, due to a line in Odin's prophecy warning them to “hunt not the Hound”. In the end, Fenrir ended up getting fortuitously knocked out by a boulder, allowing the group to proceed. In Loki's chamber, they were confronted with Sigyn, whose identity Pythe finally explained to Juliet, as well as the nature of what they were trying to obtain. Urged by Sigyn to get to the Wyrm-slaying already, Pythe got advice from Loki himself; at his suggestion and with his consent, they allowed a few drops of venom to reach him, causing him to thrash in supernaturally-charged pain — and causing an earthquake as a result, which shook the serpent loose from the roof of the cavern and knocked him out with falling stalactites. Juliet then leapt at the dazed creature. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)

Behind the scenes

Origins

Juliet-178 is one of the main protagonists of the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids series.

External links

• Character profile on the official Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website