Department of Postal Services
The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids had a Department of Postal Services, also known as simply the Cupid Post office. The latter name also applied to the Department of Postal Services' building.
Operations
It only delivered to the Cupid Homeworld. (PROSE: Conspiracy-1263 Publicly Accuses the Gang of the Green Gorillas, COMIC: A Message from Philatel)
History
While still in training, somehwere in the late 1970s or early 1980s, Philatel-426 began to plan the creation of a Department of Postal Service]. He submitted plans to the Cupid Parliament, but it was a long time before they were approved; in the meantime, he worked at the Department of Journalism under Editor-345. At some point around this time, Philatel even made a true friend, the slightly younger Journey-535, and the two made plans to go explore the Multiverse together once Philatel was done setting up the Department.
A month after the Department of Postal Services' building had been built, they again talked excitedly of those plans, but a year after that, when Journey brought up the subject, an increasingly distant Philatel dithered and claimed he was too busy planning new building extensions, including what would become his stamp wings. His stance did not alter when a saddened Journey suggested that he might, in that case, go on his own. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
By 1986, Philatel was in charge of the Department. It was him who received the rhyming letters sent by the Society of the Rhyming Dove to the Crew. (PROSE: The Society of the Rhyming Dove)
For a number of years, the similarly close-minded and work-obsessed Mailbag-431 assisted Philatel as Co-Prefect, although he did not appear to have been involved when Philatel founded the Department. The two shared an office, over which both of their names were written, and were one another's “only friend” by that point. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
However, by April 2019, (PROSE: Acquaintanceship-982 and the Missing Mail Mystery) Mailbag had become one of the few Cupids ever to die, in unclear circumstances. A “document declaring him” so was signed by Philatel himself as well as the Council, the Supreme Quaestor, the Parliament, and the Cupid Prime. Philatel was Mailbag's “only mourner”. By December 2019, he still hadn't painted out Mailbag's name from above the door to the Prefect's office, for which reasons some young Cupids sometimes called Philatel “Mailbag”; he never corrected them. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
By 1986, Philatel-426 was the head of the Department of Postal Services. (PROSE: The Society of the Rhyming Dove)
In 2019, the Department of Postal Services' efficiency was greatly improved when they acquired a new employee who was not a Clockwork Cherub (PROSE: Marksmanship-522 and the Multi-Dimensional Race) in the form of Lord Thymon, (COMIC: Whatever Happened to Lord Thymon?) recently summoned from the Void Between Worlds and romanticised by the Department of Problem-Solving. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving) His official job title was Chief Mail-Sorter. (PROSE: Magic Trick) He took to wearing a large number of nearly-identical hats bearing the name of the Cupid Post Office. (PROSE: Family Business)
However, by then, Foreman-964 of the Department of Construction also had a long-standing ambition to raze the Post Office's West Wing to make way for a new warehouse, even though it housed Philatel's stamp collection, and, later, the headquarters of the Blue Feather. This put Foreman and Philatel at odds. (PROSE: Acquaintanceship-982 and the Missing Mail Mystery, New Warehouse To Be Constructed In The Homeworld, The Cupid Suggestion Box, etc.) On Halloween 2019, when he was briefly turned into an effective ghost due to being stuck in the Spirit Realm, Foreman “haunted” the Post Office and tore up the mail. Philatel, also trapped in the Spirit Realm, had had the same idea and haunted the Department of Construction's headquarters, tearing up blueprints. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
In the 2019 Christmas season, an irate Philatel had to record a public-service announcement to quell the influx of letters addressed to Santa Claus, which the Depatment was in no position to deliver and which had piled high even after they were given a specific sorting crate. (COMIC: A Message from Philatel) Lord Thymon briefly locked himself inside the Post Office at the sight of Lord Nachtos. (PROSE: The Copper-Colored Cupids go Caroling) After being convinced to change his callous, single-minded ways by the Three Spirits, however, Philatel had a change of hearts, and, joining Thymon at Lady Spatium's house in the Void on December 25th, announced to the startled demon that he had decided to make him Co-Prefect of the Department, as well as give him more time off to be with his family. (PROSE: A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol)
