Department of Problem-Solving

	Cupid Homeworld
	Circa 1999
	Cupid Intelligence Institute Department
	Lab 5
	Pythagoras-858
	Juliet-178 Carter-1277 Edwin-750 Valerius-1497
	PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving
	PROSE: The Labors of Juliet PROSE: The Winter Quests
	Paul Hoppe

The Department of Problem-Solving was a department of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' Cupid Intelligence Institute. Headed by Prefect Pythagoras-858, it was tasked with finding practical solutions to problems of various sorts which other Departments of the Crew faced.

History

Origins

The Department of Problem-Solving was founded around two decades prior to the Lord Thymon affair. Pythagoras-858 was awarded headship of the newly-formed department after a particular demonstration of common sense, where he had advocated the use of forbidium manacles on targets resistant to romanticisation. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)

At some point, the Supreme Quaestor awarded them the use of five laboratories, of which the biggest was Lab 5. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)

The Lord Thymon affair

In 2019, the Department of Impossible Things shuffled off the assignment of dealing with Lord Thymon to the Department of Problem-Solving. Pythagoras-858 left his Problem-Solvers — including Valerius-1497, Juliet-178, Carter-1277 and Edwin-750 — to develop solutions. When Pythe returned to Lab 5, the Problem-Solvers, following an idea developed by Valerius had filled it with clocks, with the intent to summon Thymon, only for him to be frozen due to the short supply of time energy that would result.

Deeming the idea mad enough to have some chances of working on a conceptual entity like Thymon, Pythe allowed them to go forwards, threatening to detonate a Reality Bomb to lure Thymon to the Cupid Homeworld. After he was indeed summoned, Juliet ended up taking it upon herself to simply hit him with a Cupid Arrow, romanticising him and solving the issue decisively. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)

Some time later, however, Juliet tried to wriggle out of a day's work at the Department of Problem-Solving. Her convoluted scheme to get out from under her responsibilities ended up crating over 1500 duplicates of herself, who then spread out across the Multiverse to collectively carry out the punitive assignment given to Juliet by the Department of Discipline. (PROSE: The Labors of Juliet)

Later developments

The whole Department of Problem-Solving reminisced about some of their past cases together at the Christmas party organised in 2021 in the Cupid Homeworld by CS-NA. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)