The Faction of the Fooling Fish (short story)
Cupid Fact File #444: The Faction of the Fooling Fish was a Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short story written by Lupan Evezan, and illustrated by Aristide Twain.
Contents
Plot
A Cupid Fact File relates the recent first encounter between the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids and a pranking-focused Strangely-Colored Secret Society, the Faction of the Fooling Fish. When Colonel-028 reports that a pie has been stolen from his windowsill and replaced with a paper fish, the Colonel complains to the Cupid Parliament; with the Scarlet Wings too busy to be assigned such a trivial mission, the Parliament instead put Acquaintanceship-982's Blue Feather, their other, mostly-untrained taskforce, on the case.
A trail of pie crumbs quickly leads the investigators to a Rift opening into a warehouse on the Prime Earth, filled with practical-joke items. When one of the Cupids walks on a squeaky rubber chicken, the Faction, whose headquarters this is, is alerted. The Fish are upset to learn that it is not actually April Fools' Day but April 29th, and mutter something about a brainwashing device they could have used to wriggle out of this awkward situation if they'd had it on hand. A fight breaks out when Acquaintanceship criticises the Fish's sense of humour. After they get back to the Homeworld through the Rift, the Department of Rifts close it behind them. Although the Department members warn that the rift could reopen, the Parliament refuse to plan for this contingency.
The File seems to head towards a conclusion, explaining that Cupids had since then had further encounters with the Fish while on the Prime Earth, but is interrupted in glowing green ink by an insert from the Fish themselves, who have gotten back into the Homeworld via the reopening Rift and snuck into the Department of Documentation's offices. They write their own version of a Fact File on the Fish, which is largely made up of empty boasts but does seem to include true information about their history, naming Archibald Fishflipper as their founder.
An addendum written by the Cupids after the Fish depart relates how Recorder Cupid Bibliophile-962 “was found wandering about during his usual shift playing pranks on people”. After the brainwashing is undone, Fish are chased back out of the Homeworld through the Rift, the Blue Feather are assigned to guard its site in case the Fish should return a third time.
Worldbuilding
Universes
Other
- The Faction of the Fooling Fish's rewritten file claims that “the Faction of the Fooling Fish is the greatest of mysterious organizations, better than those marauding magpies or gangrenous gorillas”.
- A note mentions that“an earlier version of this file mistakenly listed the year of our first meeting with the Fish as 2011. A simple typographical error, a bit of Crocodile retconning, or another lackluster prank? We cannot be certain”.
Continuity
- The “founding members” of the Society of the Rhyming Dove are noted to be insistent on dressing up in animal costumes for official meet-ups, and the Society has an unaccountable interest in Atlantean artefacts, both facts accounted for by the information disclosed in PROSE: The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies on the origin of the Strangely-Colored Secret Societies; Archibald Fishflipper is all but confirmed as a mind-wiped First Horde member, having “woke[n] up one morning with a vague memory of purple bunnies or something like that and a strong urge to form a secret organization and search for Atlantean artefacts”.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story can be read on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.
