Tom-176
Tom-176 was a Mark II Clockwork Cherub of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids.
Travelling in John-181's Fog Ship, he and the somewhat less competent John-181 were assigned to be the first Cupids to romanticise the inhabitants of the planet Triskadeckia in the Jynx Dimension after it was discovered by the Crew. After a series of incidents, they crashed some way off from their intended landing point. John insisted that he could fix the Ship, but was no closer to doing so three hours later, when Tom decided to go for a walk. Tom quickly discovered a mysterious, cloaked Castle which turned out to belong to Doctor Curious, a mad scientist from the Jynx Dimension who wanted a friend and had set his heart on a Copper-Colored Cupid companion. Finding their way to his lab, they found Pessimist-242, who had been abducted some weeks back by Curious, but also the Doctor himself, and they bore witness as the mad scientist gave life to the product of his efforts, an artificially-revived Frankenstein-style “Monster” programmed to be Curious's perfect friend.
The Monster demanded a feast, and Curious invited Tom and John to take part in the banquet. However, pleased with the success of his Monster, Curious hid capsules containing magnetic pulses to knock them out, and a virus to slowly kill them over the next fifteen hours, in John and Tom's drinks. When they came to, they had been tied to chairs in the Doctor's weirdly-decorated ballroom as the Doctor waltzed with his Monster. When the Monster learned of his maker's plans, he objected and destroyed the command computer without which the virus would stop working. This prompted Curious to reveal the Story Rewriter 3000, a device he'd stolen from the Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles during his travels in the Multiverse above Pessimist's Fog Ship. Curious briefly used it to restore the computer by reversing the last few seconds of time, but the Monster took it from him and tossed it to Tom, who used it to more heavily rewrite reality — untying himself and Tom, restoring Pessimist (who'd gotten a nasty electric shock when throwing the switch to activate the Monster), repairing John's Fog Ship, summoning Pessimist's Fog Ship, and teleporting Curious to the furthest end of the castle. Tom and John quickly got into their Fog Ship, and flew away back to the Homeworld at speed, ramming through the Castle's wall, as Curious fruitlessly swore revenge. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
