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Fog Ships were a type of Void Ship used by members of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids to travel the Multiverse.
Nature
Like most Void Ships, Fog Ships worked by phasing out of the universe they started from, traversing the Void, and then phasing through the dimensional divide into the universe of their destination. This stood in contrast to travel through a Rift, which broke directly from one world into the next without passing through the Void or any other “buffer” dimension. (COMIC: The Beginner's Guide to Multiversal Theory) Unlike most Void Ships, however, Fog Ships were not fireproof. (PROSE: The Book of Evil)
The modern Fog Ships were “widely acknowledged in the community of interdimensional travellers as some of the best, most comfortable Void Ships in existence”. This was considered a mixed blessing by the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, as attempts by other parties to steal Fog Ships for their own end became a concern for them. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids)
Essential components of a Fog Ship included the engine, dematerialisation circuit, (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, The Labors of Juliet) dimensional warp drive, (PROSE: The Toymaker's Labyrinth) and steering wheel. At least some Fog Ships had isomorphic controls. Juliet was once able to extract “a jumble of positronic components and dented wheels” that she could repurpose into a makeshift Clockwork Cherub from a Fog Ship. She notably used the brakes, without which the Ship rumbled and shook as it took off. (PROSE: The Labors of Juliet)
History
Origins
The Fog Ships were developed by the Clockwork Cherub scientists of the Celestial Foam Network based on designs for dematerialisation circuits and conceptual engines left to them by the Creator herself. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids)
The sentient Ship project
- See main article: Pessimist's Fog Ship
At some point, 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) In the end, 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)
After being briefly stolen by Darius of the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries, (PROSE: Pessimist and the Dromedaries, The Toymaker's Labyrinth) this Fog Ship would later be further modified by being fitted with a small laser gun it could activate at will to defend itself. (PROSE: The Toymaker's Labyrinth)
Later history
On Thanksgiving Day in 2013, Larrikin-1029 returned from a mission on the Prime Universe only to find that the Trio of the Talking Turkeys had stowed away in his Fog Ship, hoping to use the Cupid Homeworld as a safe haven for the span of the day. However, Larrikin threatened to eat them himself, and they changed their minds, demanding to be taken back to the Prime Universe, a request with which the Cupids — with whom this was the Trio's first encounter — complied. (PROSE: The Trio of the Talking Turkeys)
A “few years” before 2019, after Discovery-664, Amity-965, and a small Scarlet Wings team became stranded in the Drove of the Demesmaekerite-Dyed Discordias and called for help through Amity's two-way communicator, the Parliament sent a “battalion of Fog Ships” led by Amadeo-378 to rescue them. (PROSE: The Drove of the Demesmaekerite-Dyed Discordias)
When Juliet-178 sent her 1079 duplicates to complete parts of her punitive assignment for her, each of them had a Fog Ship, wired not to return to the Cupid Homeworld until “Juliet” had completed her assignment. Half of the Juliets, including Juliet the 945th, disassembled their Fog Ships to create additional duplicates of themselves. When she learned of this, Juliet-178 reflected that she would have to ask Peter-707 of the Department of Vehicles for a big favour in covering it up. (PROSE: The Labors of Juliet)
Marksmanship-522 owned a personal Fog Ship which he flew to the planet inhabited by Lilathia and Brutus on a routine mission. Lilathia ended up crashing her pan-dimensional speedster into it, leaving it in pieces and forcing Marksmanship to return to the Homeworld by other means. (PROSE: Marksmanship-522 and the Multi-Dimensional Race) He was subsequently granted a new Fog Ship. (PROSE: Peace and Quiet)
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. (PROSE: The Mad Cupid of the Euclidean Plane)
Acquaintanceship-982 was once sent on a routine romanticisation mission to one universe's version of the Emerald City of Oz, travelling there in his Fog Ship. He helped the Ozites foil the return of the Wicked Witch of the South Blinkie, but failed to meet his romanticisation target, and additionally lost his Fog Ship due to it having been affected by the Powder of Life during the adventure, and electing to stay behind in Oz alongside his bow and arrows, which had undergone the same transformation. As such, he returned to the Homeworld thanks to the power of Dorothy Gale's Magic Belt instead. He elected not to tell the full story to Penalty-534, who believed he had simply lost all these items through incompetence and instantly sent him on another, punitive assignment to Wonderland. (PROSE: The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz)
After the Crew discovered the planet Triskadeckia in the Jynx Dimension, John-181 and Tom-176 were dispatched there in John-181's Fog Ship. Crashing way off from their intended target, John proved unable to repair the Ship, and, exploring their surroundings, they soon found the remote castle which had become the hideout of Doctor Curious. There, they stumbled upon Pessimist-242, who had been kidnapped by Curious some time back, allowing Curious the use of his Fog Ship to travel the Multiverse for his own ends. Eventually, Tom used the Story Rewriter 3000 to repair his Fog Ship and free all three Cupids, who escaped in their respective Ships. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
Doctor Sigma mentioned Fog Ships as an example of Void Ship during his impromptu lecture on Multiversal theory. (COMIC: The Beginner's Guide to Multiversal Theory)
When they escaped from Morningstar 1, the Five Surviving Wellsians stole the Department of Problem-Solving's first Fog Ship. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians) They later modified to adapt it to their own use. Only Skollops ag-Warka, considered an “ace pilot”, fully mastered the flying of it. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
Larrikin-1029 once crashed several Fog Ships in a row in the Homeworld as he practiced his characteristically disastrous flying skills, until the Celestial Foam Network stepped in to ban him from borrowing any more. (PROSE: Peace and Quiet)
During the Rifts Crisis, one version of Jenny Everywhere accidentally shifted into the back seat of Pythagoras-858's Fog Ship as it was traversing the Void. After accidentally causing it to land in an unidentified universe, Jenny talked things out with Pythagoras and the two ended up departing aboard the Ship in search of the Consistency Imperium. (COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids)
Behind the scenes
Fog Ships are a recurring element of The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids.