CS-NA
CS-NA, also known as Cessna or by the nickname Cesse, was a small sapient robot, originally designed to perform construction work on spaceships. He came to live in the Cupid Homeworld. Cesse was mute, communicating by projecting silent holograms or (in an emergency) by beeping morse code.
Description
Physical appearance
CS-NA was a small silver robot. His shape was somewhat spider-like, with a flat body and thin segmented legs, although he only had six, not eight. His head consisted of two conjoined cameras with round, yellow lenses for “eyes”, which could also glow red when he was scared. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Personality
CS-NA was kind and helpful, and somewhat naive due to his origins. He liked to think in terms of patterns. He had not originally been constructed to have a personality, but developed one over his many decades of existence; consequently he did not have a very strong sense of his identity, generally accepting the way those around him saw him. He felt no need to pick a name for himself, although he was happy to be given one by the Cupids; likewise he had not had any desire to pick pronouns for himself prior to the Cupids beginning to refer to him as a “he”, but went along with this without complaint. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Powers & abilities
CS-NA was skilled at repairing space- and Void Ships of various kinds. He had an internal digital encyclopedia giving him rough knowledge of most topics, including a knowledge of Morse code that came in handy to communicate, although he could also project wordless holograms to make himself understood. After Doctor Sigma fitted him with a dematerialisation circuit in 2021, he gained the ability to travel across dimensions at will, like a shifter. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Biography
Origins
CS-NA was built by a group of scientists of the Consistency Imperium, on Subcinctus, to help in the repairment of Void Ships. (PROSE: The Winter Quests) His construction used no technology more advanced than what existed on the Prime Earth by 1960. (PROSE: Misadventures in the Interdimensional Black Market) He was given the designation “Construction Series — Number Alpha” — although his makers were not human, and did not speak English, meaning this was actually a translation of his original name. The scientists quickly took to referring to the robot as “CS-NA” as though it were a name. CS-NA passed through several hands, eventually ending up in the possession of a callous scrap-merchant at the Interdimensional Black Market. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Acquisition by Tracker-764
By then several decades old, (PROSE: The Winter Quests) CS-NA was still assisting the ship-parts seller in 2019 when Darius and Tracker-764 crashed into the Interdimensional Black Market. When they realised that the seller considered the ventriloquist's dummy they intended to trade for a new engine much more valuable than the engine itself, they haggled a little more and got him to also give them CS-NA, thinking he might be helpful in actually incorporating the new engine into the wreck of their ship. The seller reluctantly agreed, as he'd been meaning to get a new robot assistant anyway.
After the two travellers set CS-NA onto the task of repairing the ship, they were recognised as outsiders by the Wraiths, brought before the Queen of the Black Market, and, in short order, put up for auction themselves. However, Tracker managed to use his Clockwork Cherub ability to hack into any pre-1960 technology to send a message directly to CS-NA's internal computer undetected, asking CS-NA to build on him and Darius. Darius successfully “bought” them, but the journey back home turned into one last peril as the Queen of the Black Market realised the trio meant to leave without paying up. In the commotion, Darius tried to throw Tracker off the ship to gain speed, forcing CS-NA to choose between his new owners. Predictably, he picked Tracker and helped get Darius under control. Tracker dropped Darius off at the Interdimensional Tavern, back where he'd started, and took CS-NA back with him to the Cupid Homeworld. (PROSE: Misadventures in the Interdimensional Black Market)
In the Cupid Homeworld
After arriving in the Cupid Homeworld, CS-NA quickly began working for the Department of Transportation and Ship-Building. He made contact with the other two non-Cupids living in the Homeworld at the time, Creator notwithstanding: Lord Thymon and Pessimist's Fog Ship. When the Copper-Colored Council of Elders made a Cupid Suggestion Box available, the Fog Ship put in a request for non-Cupids to get every other week off work, with the assent of Thymon and CS-NA. (PROSE: The Cupid Suggestion Box) When a more bounded version of the proposal passed, the Department of Journalism tried to get a comment from CS-NA, but, as they sheepishly reported in Issue 1034 of The Cupid Courier, were unable to interpret the “whirrs and buzzes” CS-NA used to communicate. (PROSE: Conspiracy-1263 Publicly Accuses the Gang of the Green Gorillas)
It was the Cupids who first referred to him as “Cesse” as a nickname, and took to referring to him with male pronouns rather than as an “it”. Although he had not previously given his gender any thought, CS-NA was happy with this choice. (PROSE: The Winter Quests) He was still living in the Homeworld by December 2020. As such, he was one of the non-Clockwork Cherubs inhabitants of the realm who were used to celebrating Christmas (or some equivalent thereof) in their own worlds, and protested against the Cupid Parliament's rule against the holiday. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
Although Tracker sometimes visited him, CS-NA generally kept to himself during his early stay in the Homeworld, vaguely puzzled that he was being treated like a person rather than a possession. Instead of simply putting him to work, the Cupids formally gave CS-NA a job in their ship-building department. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Cesse saves Christmas
In 2021, CS-NA, having noticed a pattern of the Cupids' adventures getting more dangerous year by year, feared that this year's winter misadventures would risk ruining Christmas. In thanks for all the kindness they had shown him, he resolved to “save Christmas” himself. After being gifted a personal Dematerialisation Engine by Doctor Sigma, he input random coordinates and found himself at the Interdimensional Soda Jerkery. There, he found and befriended a depressed Alistair Neezley, who told him that there was a Christmas party at the Interdimensional Tavern and offered to take him there. During the trip, CS-NA helped cheer up Neezley; this and the observation of how the Tavern staff seemed to care about him, despite his fears otherwise, led CS-NA to the conclusion that “Kindness” as an important element of the holiday spirit. Declining to join the party, he moved on with his quest.
He ended up at the Workshop of Madame Tarsa, in time not only to witness Madame Tarsa and Joybuzzer working on Christmas toys as mother and son, but also a visit from the Frost King, whom Joybuzzer called “Uncle Frost”. Mistaking CS-NA for some kind of vermin, the King briefly froze him into a block of ice, but after Tarsa freed him, the group all headed to another universe together to find a Christmas tree. There, CS-NA interacted with snow for the first time, even ending up rolling down a slope and becoming the centre of a very large snowball until Joybuzzer halted his descent. All of these events led him to the conclusion that “Family” was another key feature of the holiday, which he interpreted to mean he should strive to get as many of the Cupids together in a single party as possible, rather than organise many small ones.
Ending up in the Frost King's Realm, CS-NA met Century Smith and Briar and helped them fight off a group of Mecharons, coincidentally cookie-like cyborgs, who were trying to take over a village and turn its inhabitants into more Mecharons. He next landed aboard the Fish'n'Ship, the tachyonic sailing ship of the Faction of the Fooling Fish. They convinced him to serve as their guinea pig on what they claimed would be Christmas-themed pranks; though he had fun engaging in Christmas-themed activities for a whole day under their supervision, CS-NA couldn't figure out how they were supposed to count as “pranks”, which, indeed, they weren't. The Faction instead wanted to ensure he would be suitable for a mission for which they needed his help: steering the Fish'n'Ship past a shield into a long-impenetrable pocket universe to bring them the joys of the holiday season. After they succeeded, CS-NA, concluding that “Fun” was another fundamental element of the holiday, agreed to stay for a little while and enjoy the celebration.
He then found himself in a quiet forest on either the Prime or a Prime-adjacent Earth, and made his way to a shop on a hill where he met Ms Amelia and her friend, who was none other than Jenny Everywhere. Jenny showed him around Ms Amelia's shop, including its plentiful selection of Christmas ornaments. CS-NA helped Jenny pick out a present for her friend Laura, a purple hairtie. From Ms Amelia's care for her shop and everything within it, and the way Jenny cared about her friends including Laura, CS-NA drew out that “Care” was yet another fundamental element of the holiday. He then departed for what he expected to be his final stop before he returned to the Cupid Homeworld and started actually planning the party.
However, his “randomised” numbers were remotely highjacked by Loki, and he ended up materialising in the World Below in the Prime Universe, right as Jormungandir and Tero Trollgarsson were about to clash. Pythagoras-858 and Juliet-178 were also present and recognised him. Agreeing with Jormungandir that this could be no coincidence, they deduced the truth about what had brought them all together in the World Below. After convincing the serpent not to harm Cesse (who he temporarily thought might be another candidate for the “Spider” of the prophecy, and thus best gotten out of the way despite the Cupids' theory), Pythe and Juliet realise that the Wyrm they must actually defeat could only be the venom-dripping serpent affixed above Loki's prison to prevent him from escaping. Realising that the fulfillment of the Cupids' mission might be to his father's benefit, Jormungandir agreed to lead them, Trollgarsson and Cesse to the chamber where Loki was imprisoned.
On the fairly long way there, they came across the serpent's brother, Fenrir, who realised a scheme to free Loki was afoot and tried to stop it. Juliet tried to shoot a Cupid Arrow at the giant wolf to make him sympathetic to their own desires, but Cesse stopped her from taking the shot, due to a line in Odin's prophecy warning them to “hunt not the Hound”. In the end, Fenrir ended up getting fortuitously knocked out by a boulder, allowing the group to proceed. Arriving in the cavern where Loki was actually imprisoned, CS-NA let himself be convinced by the God to free him while Pythe and Juliet were busy dealing with the Wyrm, using his expertise as a ship-building robots to cut Loki's chains.
After escaping, Loki tried to put a plan in motion to take over the world but was, however, quickly recaptured by Fenrir, who'd regained consciousness. A sheepish CS-NA, having witnessed how dangerous and destructive Loki would be if he were free, explained himself to the Cupids, who agreed to keep his lapse of judgment a secret. Still loathe to leave Loki and his family with such a rubbish Christmas, he helped them set up a Christmas dinner within the cavern before he, the Cupids and the Troll all returned to the Cupid Homeworld, where he began properly setting up the party. In addition to inviting all the Cupids, CS-NA also delivered invitations to the Cupids' friends around the Multiverse, including Jenny and her sister Julie. The “hero of the feast”, he got to sit at the centre of the huge banquet table set up in a warehouse on the Homeworld for the party. Watching the huge collection of disparate beings enjoying one another's company, he merrily came to the conclusion that there was a final Fundamental Element of Holiday Joy he had overlooked: “Love”. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Behind the scenes
Origins
CS-NA is a recurring character in the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids serie.
