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Carter-1277 was a Mark XIII Clockwork Cherub of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids and a member of the Department of Problem-Solving. His specialty was archeology.
Description
Physical appearance
Carter-1277 had “stiff limbs” and his metallic skin was a brilliant golden colour, as was customary for Mark XIIIs. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)
Personality
Carter was “an archaeologist through and through, never more interested than when the matter at hand was one of ancient history, long-dead kings and unsealed tombs”. He had a venerable air to him, belying his actual young age, which some attributed to him having “spent so much time with old things that it had rubbed off on him”. However, he was also quite talkative, and often acted as a spokesman for the other members of the Department of Problem-Solving when they made their reports to Pythagoras-858 on endeavours undertaken in his absence. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)
Biography
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 Carter, Juliet-178, Edwin-750, Valerius-1497 — to develop solutions. When he returned to Lab 5, they 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. It fell to Carter to explain the plan to Pythagoras, with some help from Valerius.
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 (retrieved from Cupid Storage by Carter) 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)
Mandragora's Great Experiment
- See main article: Mandragora's Great Experiment
When a mysterious S.O.S. was picked up in the Cupid Homeworld, seemingly coming from the Morningstar 1 Base in the 97th Cosmos, the Cupid Parliament decided to send in the Department, consisting in this instance of Pythagoras-858, Juliet-178, Carter-1277 and Edwin-750. The latter was drowsy through the whole endeavour, having recently created a psychic link between himself and a sloth, and failed to properly lock the Department of Problem-Solving's first Fog Ship when they parked some way outside the base. In Morningstar proper, they were greeted by Juliet's brother Dactylopius-177 and gradually discovered that Governor-105 harboured intentions of seceding from the Crew and launching an attempt to conquer the Multiverse, using the power of the seven Wellsians unearthed from beneath the base by Mandragora-257 and Digger-291, whom the former, a disgraced alchemist, had been working on reviving via “Mandragora's Great Experiment”. Carter played a crucial part, infiltrating the digging site while Pythe kept Mandragora talking.
With even Dactylopius affecting to be helpless in the face of the evil plan, the Problem-Solvers attempted to get word to the Homeworld, but found that the Governor had emptied out the communications room. They were then confronted by Mandragora and the Governor, assisted by a Wellsian. The situation turned into a three-way standoff when Dactylopius also arrived, flanked by Digger and a second Wellsian, as Digger explained that he'd been on the rebellion's side all along (under Dactylopius's directions), smuggling out one Wellsian (and its Heat Ray) to match their enemies' new weapons. The Problem-Solvers were unable to stop the situation escalating until andragora double-crossed the Governor, ordering “his” Wellsian to kill him, but was in turn betrayed by the Wellsian as both aliens revealed that they had no true loyalty to any of the Cupids. They turned their weapons onto Mandragora, seemingly destroying him and causing an explosion which destroyed the two Wellsians as well as the base itself. In the aftermath, loyalists and rebels worked together to unlock the Governor's three Fog Ships to make their way back home, with the Problem-Solvers forced to join them. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
During the rabbit invasion
When the Cupid Homeworld was overrun by illusory magic rabbits, the Department of Problem-Solving were ordered to stay behind while the rest of the Crew evacuated, holing up in a sealed warehouse with Lord Thymon to figure out a solution. After three days, it was Valerius-1497 who ultimately concluded that they needed a literal Deus Ex Machina and suggested that they summon Aphrodite. After this plan worked, Juliet-178 found a Psychic Broadcasting Cone in the empty headquarters of the Department of Communication and used to inform all the other Cupids that the crisis was over. Things went back to normal, give or take all the Problem-Solvers now having a particular dislike of rabbits (who Carter reflected had surely nibbled on “priceless historical documents” during the three days). (PROSE: Magic Trick)
Halloween 2019
On Halloween 2019, after the Great Ghost's legion invaded, Pythagoras-858 gathered up the Problem-Solvers to deal with the situation. Carter exchanged a few words with the Great Ghost (then in the body of the Queen of the Black Market) before she kidnapped Frankenstein-818 and escaped. After the One-Way Forced Spirit Realm Gateway transported a few Cupids including Pythe to the Spirit Realm by accident, the remaining Problem-Solvers inspected it, but were unable to find the reverse switch until Pythe himself managed to materialise in Juliet-178's house like a ghost and tell her how to do it. Subsequently, the Problem-Solvers, Technophile-963 and Igor-1612 boarded a Fog Ship and flew it to the abandoned Prime Universe theatre where the spirits had retreated to make the kidnapped Frankenstein-818 create a Reverse Spirit Realm Gateway. There, the Problem-Solvers managed to sneak Frankenstein safely off the stage while the ghosts were defeated. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
Later developments
The group 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)