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Dactylopius-177, also known as Deputy-Governor-177 during his time on Morningstar 1, was a Mark II Clockwork Cherub of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids and the older brother of Juliet-178.
Description
Physical appearances
As a Mark II, Dactylopius was small and “ragdoll-like” Cupid wore a pair of red gloves over his small hands and a red badge on his breast. His hair was golden and “neatly combed”, and “while he had let the copper of his main bodywork go green with age, his face and arms were scrupulously polished, sparkling as if he were brand new”. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
Personality
Dactylopius was quieter and more polite than his sister. He was quite capable of cunning and deception, and seemed to have a drive to protect those around him, sometimes against their will. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
Biography
Early life
Dactylopius-177 was the Mark II directly before Juliet-178 in the production line, which meant that, as per common robot custom, they considered each other siblings. They seemed to be close in their early years, despite the more impish Juliet taking every opportunity to make fun of her stick-in-the-mud brother. One anecdote about their antics that she later recounted to her colleagues at the Department of Problem-Solving ended with “…and that’s when I told him the vulture was still glued to his ankle”. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
On Morningstar 1
At some point, Dactylopius was assigned to Morningstar 1, the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' remote base on Venus in the 97th Cosmos. He became the Deputy Governor to Governor-105, a spiteful, self-absorbed tyrant who refused to call him by his real name, leading to him being known as Deputy-Governor-177 during that period of time. With other Cupids in the base growing fed up with Governor's regime, an underground rebellion was founded with Dactylopius as its leader, but he was wary of actually going up against the Governor in a violent coup, as the rebels had no weapons, with the six Morningstar guards being loyal to the Governor.
They saw their chance when Mandragora-257 and Digger-291 unearthed seven dormant Wellsians from beneath the base and began to study alchemical ways of reviving them. Digger, a member of the rebellion, stole a Wellsian away and resurrected him himself based on observation of Mandragora's techniques. On the day when everything came to a head, Dactylopius was unexpectedly reunited with Juliet-178, as the Wellsians had sent a fake distress signal to lure the Department of Problem-Solving to Morningstar in order to steal their Fog Ship. Though he quickly confessed to being the leader of a rebellion, he did not let Juliet know about the Wellsian they had stolen, not wanting to involve her in violence or leave her implicated if the coup failed and was discovered.
Even as Mandragora's ritual, succeeded, the rebellion did too; Dactylopius-177, as leader of the rebellion, took the rebellion's Wellsian and came with Digger confronted Mandragora, Governor and their own first resurrected Wellsian outside the communications room. However, both parties had been wrong to think they could control the Wellsians, who soon turned on their masters; after killing the Governor, they tried to shoot Mandragora, which caused an explosion which destroyed the base. After Governor was killed and the base was destroyed, the guards and rebels forgot their differences and worked together on unlocking the three Fog Ships in the base to get back to the Cupid Homeworld. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
Later life
After returning to the Cupid Homeworld, the surviving Morningstar 1 were “reintegrated in normal Cupid society”, being given new appointments in various Departments of the Cupid Intelligence Institute. For his part, Dactylopius-177 apparently joined the Department of Linguistics, and this in interesting enough circumstances to warrant an Incident Report, numbered C277B and entitled simply “Dactylopius-177 and the Department of Linguistics”. (PROSE: Plagiarism of the SavageMen)