Of Romeos and Juliets (short story)
Incident Report C179B — Of Romeos and Juliets was a Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short story written by Hector Fenwick and edited by Aristide Twain. Serving as a humorous epilogue to PROSE: The Labors of Juliet, it was the first Incident Report as well as the first of Fenwick's three guest turns on the series.
Contents
Plot
The newly-established presence of the Sisters of Juliet in the Cupid Homeworld causes widespread chaos — not just because of the sudden increase in population, and by such a surfeit of Mark IIs, but because of one of the original Juliet-178's peculiarities: supposedly being in a romantic relationship with Romeo-1020. With all the Sisters having Juliet's personality and memories, they demand Romeo's attention each to herself. After going on the same date three hundred times over, a substantially-fed-up Romeo is easily persuaded by the Cupid Parliament to break up with Juliet(s).
The Sisters don't take this well and a fight breaks out, bad enough to lower the total number of functioning Juliets from 1618 to 1576. In desperation, the Parliament exile all the Juliets save for the original to an asteroid in Dimension 1579 alongside Romeo as well as a randomly-picked Cupid overseer, a certain Sigmund-1028. Tensions on the asteroid remain high, but Sigmund makes the best of the situation by using the large population of identical individuals as a sample base that let him pioneer the science of Cupid psychology, founding the Department of Psychology. Over the subsequent months, supervisors keep quitting, joining the ranks of the said Department once they return to the Homeworld, while the chaos on the asteroid shows no sign of abating.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- The story takes place in the Cupid Homeworld.
- The Sisters of Juliet are eventually exiled to an asteroid in Dimension 1579.
Other
- Cupid documents are sometimes corrupted by Chronon Fleas.
- Juliet-178's employment at the Department of Problem-Solving is mentioned.
- “Considerable cherub-hours” have been spent by the Department of Destiny in their efforts to determine “whether there exists any supernatural connection between the Shakespearean narrative of Romeo & Juliet” and the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' Juliet-178 and Romeo-1020 supposedly becoming “the exceptions to Cupidkind’s otherwise-universal lack of interest in romance or sexuality”.
- Before the events of the story, Romeo-1020 was a clerk for the Department of Departments.
- The Department of Conspiracy Theories and the Department of Mathematics are mentioned.
- One of the short-term supervisors of the asteroid described it as “the Sitcom from Hell” and claimed that he'd “rather be assigned to face an army of Triangries or Octasers than go back there”.
Continuity
- This story serves as a sequel to PROSE: The Labors of Juliet. The events of that story and the present sequel were referenced, and dubbed “Incident C179B”, in PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians.
- In PROSE: The Cupid Suggestion Box, Juliet-178 tried to persuade the Copper-Colored Council of Elders to allow the Sisters of Juliet back into the Cupid Homeworld.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story can be read for free on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.
