The Time of the Toymaker (short story)
The Time of the Toymaker was a novel in the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids series, cowritten by Aristide Twain and Lupan Evezan. It served as the series' 2020 winter special.
As was customary for such a special, many characters and settings from previous installments of the series were thrown together into a Yuletide plot. This included a prominent supporting role for Jenny Everywhere.
Contents
Plot
Chapter 1
Christmas is nigh in the Cupid Homeworld and the non-Clockwork Cherub residents of the Homeworld have seeded the idea of yuletide celebrations in the minds of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids at large. The Cupid Parliament have been persuaded to authorise such celebrations, so long as Santa Claus (an entity Pythagoras-858 believes to be untrustworthy) is not involved.
To achieve this, Pythe devises a plan to get magical toys in bulk directly from the Interdimensional Toymaker without going through Santa Claus at all. After persuading it to comply, Pythe travels to the Workshop of Madame Tarsa aboards the sentient Fog Ship of Pessimist-242, who is the only one in the Homeworld who knows how to get to Tarsa's pocket dimension. After arriving in the giant workshop, however, Pythe finds to his distress that Tarsa herself has been magically frozen into a large cube of ice.
Chapter 2
After some of Madame Tarsa's sentient toys came out of the Toybox in the corner of the Workshop, angrily demanding to know what has happened to their creator, Pythagoras-858 returns to the Cupid Homeworld and enlists his fellow problem-solver Juliet-178 and the fighting expert Arganthone-056, tasking them with trying to find a way to unfreeze Tarsa. Pythe then departs for a journey across dimensions to try and find the culprit.
Arriving in the Workshop, Juliet and Arganthone observe the ice cube for a while and discuss possible solutions. They agree that normal fire certainly wouldn't suffice, but after Juliet remembers Pythe saying (during his adventures trying to defeat Mandragora-257) that magic tends to still follow the spirit of the laws of physics to some extent, they agree that “abnormal” heat should be able to melt this abnormal ice, if it is sufficiently powerful. They land on the idea of using a Wellsian Heat Ray and thus fly to New Wellsia.
Chapter 3
to be written
Worldbuilding
Jenny
- This story features the version of Jenny who once travelled with Pythagoras-858.
Universes
- The story begins in the Cupid Homeworld.
- Pythagoras-858 travels from it to the Workshop of Madame Tarsa
Other
- According to Pythagoras-858's research, Santa Claus is an interdimensional parasite who spreads to new universes every year, first planting the idea of himself in the local culture, then gaining a physical existence sustained by the belief of children.
Continuity
to be added
Behind the scenes
Read online
This story is available online on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.
