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The Mechanical Sphinx was a creation of the Creator of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, a giant robotic sphinx designed to guard the Archives of the Cupid Homeworld from Chronon Fleas.
Description
Physical appearance
The Sphinx was “enormous, with a copper sheen to match that of the Clockwork Cherubs and a mouth full of fangs”. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
Personality
The Sphinx was sentient and capable of being reasoned with, although it rarely spoke and even more rarely knowingly let anyone enter the Archives without eating them — most people who wanted to visit them, including the librarian himself, Bibliophile-962, usually had to sneak past the Sphinx using secret passageways. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
Biography
At some point, the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids became frustrated with having to sneak past the Sphinx even to consult routine Cupid Fact Files, and resolved to start retrieving their paper files from the Archives and digitising them in the form of a browsable archive. (PROSE: The Euclidean Plane) In a “tech note” on one of the first files he digitised, Technician-042 warned: “I won’t be going through the whole lot, I’m warning you. Not only does it take a really long time for the data to compile when you try to transfer stuff from Cupid-binary databanks to browsable online form, but also, the Mechanical Sphinx might eat me. Long story.”. (PROSE: The Green Gorillas) A note in a further Fact File upload noted that the Sphinx “certainly [wasn't] happy about all of this”. (PROSE: The Mob of the Maroon Magpie)
Despite its usual mores, the Sphinx let Jenny Everywhere, Juliet-178 and Arganthone-056 into the Archives in December 2020 in exchange for a promise of a Christmas gift, when they were looking for a way to thaw out Madame Tarsa from a magical block of ice. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
The Sphinx was present at the Christmas party organised in December 2021 in the Cupid Homeworld by CS-NA, ending up in a friendly sparring match with Madame Tarsa, Joybuzzer and the Frost King. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)