Pessimist's Fog Ship
Pessimist's Fog Ship was the Fog Ship of Pessimist-242. Uniquely, it was sentient and had a will of its own as well as the power of speech.
History
Origins
An experimental sentient Fog Ship was constructed by Sigma-063 of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) for the Department of Technological Advancement (PROSE: The Case Against Conspiracy) working on conjunction with the Department of Transportation. The intent was that it would be the first of a whole range of intelligent Fog Ships, able to “assist Cupids with their missions” and recommend destinations themselves. However, the prototype was disappointing insofar as it displayed a tendency to wander off to see the sights with little care for its pilot; (PROSE: Pessimist and the Dromedaries) it was genuinely better at navigating the Void than any normal Fog Ship, but it was temperamental, and could only be coaxed into taking its passengers needed to with much persuading and the occasional bribe. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
The prototype Ship was assigned to Pessimist-242 as his personal Void Ship because it was assumed that any Cupid who received it would be unhappy with it, but as Pessimist could be relied upon to be unhappy anyway, this made no difference in his case. (PROSE: Pessimist and the Dromedaries)
Abduction of Pessimist
On one of many routine romanticisation missions to Whetstone Park in the Prime Universe, the Fog Ship wandered off to check out a “combination greenhouse-theater-diner-aquarium” that had recently opened on the east side of the city. It spent the night there, but did not find it as interesting as it had hoped. When it returned to Whetstone Park, it did not find the real Pessimist-242 but Pseudo-Pessimist, an unconvincing duplicate sent as a decoy by the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries after they abducted the real Pessimist. Though much unconvinced, the Fog Ship took Pseudo-Pessimist back to the Cupid Homeworld. After the Blue Feather realised he was an impostor, the Fog Ship used the link between its positronic brain and Pessimist to track down his location, at the Dromedaries' Research Laboratory 6. There, it was briefly highjacked by Darius, who threatened it with a gun to get it to drive him to the Homeworld. However, it resolved the situation by rematerialising right in front of Lord Thymon, allowing Thymon to handle the business of banishing Darius into the Void. The Fog Ship then hopped back to the Prime Universe and picked up the Blue Feather, bringing them back to the Homeworld for good. (PROSE: Pessimist and the Dromedaries)
Later events
When Dandy-432 and Larrikin-1029 set out to try and bring a lost old man back to his home universe, they borrowed Pessimist's Fog Ship, on the grounds that it “ran better” than Larrikin's own Ship (which was in poor condition due to Larrikin crashing it all the time). Pessimist-242 was mildly reluctant, but the Fog Ship itself, appreciating the compliment, gladly agreed. (PROSE: The Mad Cupid of the Euclidean Plane)
Christmas escapades
After being displeased with Pessimist and Larrikin-1029, the Ship once transported them to a random location which turned out to be the Workshop of Madame Tarsa. There, the Ship became embroiled in Larrikin and Pessimist's subsequent adventures, getting “shrunk down, [losing its] Dimensional Warp Drive, and [having] to fight a sentient lump of clay as well as a giant sword-lady”.
Nevertheless, when Pythagoras-858 needed to find his way to the Workshop the next year, he managed to persuade the Ship to take him there by convincing it that it would be its direct path to getting a Christmas present of its own. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
