The Trio of the Talking Turkeys (short story)
Cupid Fact File #1023: The Trio of the Talking Turkeys was a Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short story written by Lupan Evezan.
Contents
Plot
Cupid Fact File #1023 relates what the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids have been able to find out about the Strangely-Colored Secret Society known as the Trio of the Talking Turkeys, and how they found it out. Their first encounter was on Thanksgiving in 2013, when Larrikin-1029 discovered that they had stowed away on his Fog Ship to hide away until Thanksgiving Day was over and they were no longer at risk of being eaten by revelers. With Larrikin trying to eat them anyway, they decided the Cupid Homeworld was no safer for them, and demanded to be sent back to the Prime Universe.
Subsequently, however, the Cupids had further run-ins with the Turkeys, and decided to have the Scarlet Wings investigate. The eventually discovered that the Turkeys had been created on Thanksgiving Day in 1959 by Professor Scarper, when he was still employed by the First Horde. He'd been asked by his superiors to supply turkeys for their Thanksgiving dinner, only to forget to buy them until the actual day came. Scarper hurriedly decided to clone three turkeys into existence, but mistakenly used the same sapience-granting formula he had been using in his more serious genetic experiments. As a result, the Turkeys came into existence fully sapient, and, deducing the purpose behind their existence from a cookbook Scarper had left open near their cage, they quickly escaped from their cage. Though the laboratory was locked, the ambushed Scarper upon his return, pecking him into submission and stealing the key from him before escaping into the wilderness. Feeling the urge shared by all of Scarper's creations to found a secret society, they named themselves the Trio of the Talking Turkeys and decided to dedicate it to “to from those who would attempt to eat them (…) and possibly to replacing turkey on Thanksgiving with, perhaps, beef, or maybe mangoes. But mostly to escaping”.
Though they considered pointing out to the Turkeys that they had little to fear, as anyone who captured them would surely relent upon realising that they could talk, the Cupids subsequently decide not to bother, for fear that it would leave the Turkeys without anything to do by negating the purpose of their Society.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- The story takes place in the Cupid Homeworld and the Prime Universe.
Other
- One of the Turkeys, the one who picked the lock on their cage by means of his beak, is identified as a “he”. The genders of the other two turkeys are not specified.
Continuity
- The Trio of the Talking Turkeys' creation by Professor Scarper was also briefly alluded to in PROSE: The Salamandyrs and the Automata. Both stories riffed on the events established by PROSE: The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies.
Behind the scenes
Read online
The story can be read for free on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.
