Doctor Curious
Doctor Curious, civilian name Joan Gary, was an eccentric mad scientist from the Jynx Dimension. Originally the crown prince of Triskadeckia, he became a mad scientist and, after experimenting on himself and mutating into a strange snake-headed man, had to run away from home, breaking off his engagement and forsaking his right to the throne. He had several run-ins with the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, though they did not consider him a serious threat.
Description
Physical appearance
Doctor Curious appeared as “a man in tights” with the torso and legs of a human but the head of a snake, “resting on top of a neck that was three times too big”. He wore a fancy suit, tights, and polka-dotted top hat. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
Personality
Obsessed with “making” friends (from spare parts, à la Baron Frankenstein, and not too fussed about borrowing from living “donors”), Doctor Curious was a dangerous individual, although he was often too incompetent and trusting to actually pose a serious threat to an informed opponent. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) He was prone to bouts of genuinely deranged thinking, such as planning to kill two Cupids so that he could create a “hybrid” with “the body of a Cupid and the brain of a Cupid” from their remains, (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious) or cheerfully giving accurate directions to a place which he claimed in the same breath not to know how to find himself. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
Biography
Early life
As Joan Gary (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious) he was originally the crown prince of Triskadeckia in the Jynx Dimension, but had to leave home after one of his experiments caused him to mutate into a strange snake-headed man. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) He came to live in a strange castle, protected from interlopers by a system which made it invisible unless one was standing less than twelve feet from it. From further away, trespassers would only see a small, sickly-looking thicket where the castle actually was. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
First travels in the Multiverse
At some point in his life of exile, Doctor Curious realised he felt lonely and decided to seek out companionship in the Multiverse. He learned of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids and, hearing of their romanticisation mission, decided they must be kindred spirits, becoming set on having a Cupid for a friend. He kidnapped one, but this unfortunately was none other than Pessimist-242, who made for dreary company. Inspired by “a book he'd read”, Curious got the idea to literally make a friend by finding a dead Clockwork Cherub and reprogramming its brain with Curious's ideal personality for a companion. Using Pessimist's Fog Ship, he eventually found contacts at the Interdimensional Black Market who sold him the coordinates where the body one of the few Cupids who'd ever died could be found. While at the Black Market, he also bumped into a “pompous crocodile scientist” and stole the Story Rewriter 3000 from him. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
Enemy of the Cupids
After 53 failed attempts spanning multiple weeks, during which he successfully created a Robot Waiter but remained unable to revive the dead Cupid, the Doctor eventually felt ready to activate his creation. By coincidence, John-181 and Tom-176, another pair of Cupids, crash-landed near his Castle and wandered in just in time to witness the experiment, which succeeded. Elated by how well the Monster had turned out, Curious immediately decided he wanted to make another one, and, after throwing a banquet to celebrate, “drugged” John and Tom's food with capsules that released an electromagnetic pulse to knock them out. He then infected them with a virus he'd developed to corrode a Cupid's circuits over a period of 15 hours so long as the Cupid was kept in close proximity to the virus's control computer.
He transported the two Cupids to the ballroom and tied them to chairs while he waltzed hideously with the Monster. When he learned of his master's plans, however, the Monster decided to turn against him, destroying the computer and then, after Curious unveiled the Story Rewriter 3000 and tried to use it to turn the situation to his advantage, tossed it to Tom so that he could use it to allow all the Cupids to escape safely in their Fog Ships, now miraculously repaired. As they fled, blasting a hole through his castle's wall in the process (and taking the Monster with them), Curious swore revenge on them, though he was unsure of how he'd find the Cupid Homeworld, or indeed make the virus anew. (PROSE: The Companions of Doctor Curious)
Later, having acquired a Void Ship, Curious found himself outside the Interdimensional Tavern, where he bumped into Darius, who had recently been evicted from the Tavern due to running out of money with which to pay for his room. Intent on claiming him as a friend, Curious abducted Darius, only for the dromedary to overpower the snake and, having dumped him out, fly off in his Void Ship. However, Darius soon crashed the ship in Manik. (PROSE: The Frost King's Treasure)
Later events
By 2020, Pythagoras-858 stated that he had “a dictionary-sized case file” in the Cupid Homeworld.
In December, having learned of Christmas on his extradimensional adventures, Doctor Curious decided to try and tell Emperor Steer about it, hoping this would be the beginning of a friendship between the two of them. However, after travelling to Darkborough, he was somehow unable to make his way to the Imperial Castle despite it being located on a tall hill in the exact middle of the City. He encountered the Clown, who asked him for directions to the Castle, which he somehow gave him despite not being able to find it himself. An hour later, he was still lost when Pythagoras, Sherlock Holmes and Wendy VII, hot on the heels of the Clown, bumped into him. After a brief chat during which he confirmed that he had met the Clown, they parted ways once more. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
