Juliet-178
Juliet-178 was one of the only female Clockwork Cherubs in the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. She was Pythagoras-858's best friend and a capable member of the Department of Problem-Solving. She was more mischievous and prone to rule-breaking than he was, and got along well with Jenny Everywhere.
Description
Physical appearance
As a Clockwork Cherub, Juliet-178 was a small, winged, humanoid robot with a round, sketchy face and short, wiry hair. Her copper skin was rusted light green, while her hair remained golden. She wore a dark pink bow in said hair as her only article of clothing, (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) but somehow had the ability to transport small items on her person anyway. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Personality
Like Pythagoras-858, Juliet-178 was possessed of more practicality and common sense than the average Clockwork Cherub. Also like him, she was very curious, to the point of sometimes getting delayed in the business at hand by trying to observe ancillary details. She was more adventurous (some might say reckless) than Pythe, however, getting along well with Arganthone-056. For example, despite her dislike of Wellsians, she relished a plan that required her and Arganthone to travel to their planet to try and steal one of their weapons. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
One Recorder Cupid openly wrote in an unrelated Incident Report that Juliet-178 was a prime “cause for concern” in the Homeworld, although she was surpassed by the Triangular Society in this regard. (PROSE: The Case Against Conspiracy) The Department of Psychology was founded with the sole purpose of analysing her and her duplicates' psyche, and bluntly described her as “one cheeky Cherub”. (PROSE: Of Romeos and Juliets)
Even before such a meeting had happened, (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) Pythe believed that she'd get along with Jenny Everywhere if the two were to meet. (PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel) He also identified her general personality traits and skills as suitable for taking part in legendary quests. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Powers & abilities
Like other members of the Crew, Juliet had access to Cupid Arrows dipped in Love Potion with which she could “romanticise” almost any living being; she was a skilled markswoman. (PROSE: The Winter Quests) Though officially banned from using one, Juliet had an anti-gravity circuit which enabled her to fly. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker) She could play the kazoo. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Biography
Origins
Juliet was, after the removal from history of Lethe-548 by the Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles, (PROSE: Stranded at Memory's End) the first and only female Clockwork Cherub of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, making her “of immense interest to the Department of Gender Studies”. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving) Her older “sibling” by the standards of mass-produced robot — namely the Clockwork Cherub ahead of her on the production line — was Dactylopius-177. They seemed to be close in their early years, despite the more impish Juliet taking every opportunity to make fun of her stick-in-the-mud brother. One anecdote about their antics that she later recounted to her colleagues at the Department of Problem-Solving ended with "…and that’s when I told him the vulture was still glued to his ankle". (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
Early adventures
Juliet claimed that she was there when the Cupid Fact File on the 1897 Wellsian invasion of Earth in the 97th Cosmos was filmed, witnessing firsthand the amoral savagery of the Wellsians. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
Juliet and Pythagoras-858 were involved in the Great Ghost Disaster of 1978, during which they learned the rules by which Prime-adjacent spirits operated with regards to possessions and whether they could linger in the physical world past Halloween. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
After they became part of the Department of Problem-Solving, one of the cases Pythe and Juliet officially solved together was the Case of the Blueberry Squid. The Problem-Solvers “simply adjusted the temperature of the squid's flux gels, and it transmorphed itself right back into a Strawberry Squid”. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
The Lord Thymon affair
In 2019, the Department of Impossible Things shuffled off the assignment of dealing with Lord Thymon to the Department of Problem-Solving. Pythagoras-858 left his Problem-Solvers — including Juliet, Carter-1277, Edwin-750, Valerius-1497 — to develop solutions. When he returned to Lab 5, they had filled it with clocks, with the intent to summon Thymon, only for him to be frozen due to the short supply of time energy that would result. Juliet had helped with the gathering of the clocks, getting a friend of hers at the Department of Taxes, Enrico, to contribute a number of clocks obtained from Cupids as taxes paid in kind.
Deeming the idea mad enough to have some chances of working on a conceptual entity like Thymon, Pythe allowed them to go forwards, threatening to detonate a Reality Bomb to lure Thymon to the Cupid Homeworld. After he was indeed summoned, Juliet ended up taking it upon herself to simply hit him with a Cupid Arrow, romanticising him and solving the issue decisively. (PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving)
Creating the Sisters of Juliet
Some time later, Juliet was keen to watch a new movie screened by the Department of Cinematography even though she had a full day's worth of work at the Department of Problem-Solving. (PROSE: The Labors of Juliet, Of Romeos and Juliets) This was part of a “date” with Romeo-1020 of the Department of Departments, one piece in a wider prank played by the two Cupids on the rest of the Homeworld to make them believe that they were somehow the exceptions to the Clockwork Cherubs' species-wide asexuality. (PROSE: Of Romeos and Juliets, Family Business) Breaking a cardinal rule of the Crew, she created a duplicate of herself to do the work for her while she snuck off to watch the movie. The duplicate, however, being too accurate a copy, had the same idea, in a chain of recursion which only ended after the creation of 1079 Juliet duplicates in total.
Unable to keep this secret, Juliet was punished by the Department of Discipline in the form of a titanic assignment: she was exiled from the Homeworld to an inhospitable Prime-adjacent universe and tasked with romanticising a great number of living things before she would be allowed back. Juliet got around this by blocking off some of her duplicates' memories to make each of them believe she was the original Juliet and splitting the assignment between them, giving each Juliet only a hundred targets to romanticise. Once they were done, all the Juliets returned to the Homeworld, and Juliet sent out a wave of positronic radiation to restore their memories. However, she was surprised to find that half of the duplicates had taken apart their Fog Ships to create further duplicates to split the workload further. She mulled that she would have to ask Peter-707 of the Department of Vehicles for a big favour in order to cover up the missing Fog Ship components. (PROSE: The Labors of Juliet)
Subsequently, the “Sisters of Juliet” began causing mayhem in the Homeworld, most notably when they all tried to continue their charade with Romeo, stretching the poor lad's patience thin as they each insisted on watching the same movie with him, one after the other. Eventually, the Cupid Parliament exiled the Sisters to Dimension 1579 to cool off, though they allowed the original Juliet to remain in the Homeworld due to her invaluable position at the Department of Problem-Solving. (PROSE: Of Romeos and Juliets)
Some time later, when the Copper-Colored Council of Elders instituted the Cupid Suggestion Box, the original Juliet-178, seeing how Pseudo-Pessimist had been “readily accepted” in the Homeworld, put in a request to bring the Sisters back to the Homeworld. However, it was denied, in part because the Elders had not meant to set such a far-reaching precedent when they allowed Pseudo-Pessimist to stay, and in part because it was clear from the wording of her note that Juliet intended to resume using the Sisters to get out of doing her chores if she got her wish. (PROSE: The Cupid Suggestion Box)
Mandragora's Great Experiment
When a mysterious S.O.S. was picked up in the Cupid Homeworld, seemingly coming from the Morningstar 1 Base in the 97th Cosmos, the Cupid Parliament decided to send in the Department, consisting in this instance of Pythagoras-858, Juliet-178, Carter-1277 and Edwin-750. The latter was drowsy through the whole endeavour, having recently created a psychic link between himself and a sloth, and failed to properly lock the Department of Problem-Solving's first Fog Ship when they parked some way outside the base. In Morningstar proper, they were greeted by Juliet's brother Dactylopius-177 and gradually discovered that Governor-105 harboured intentions of seceding from the Crew and launching an attempt to conquer the Multiverse, using the power of the seven Wellsians unearthed from beneath the base by Mandragora-257 and Digger-291, whom the former, a disgraced alchemist, had been working on reviving via “Mandragora's Great Experiment”. Juliet was particularly incensed due to her prior history with the Wellsians, but they failed to convince either Mandragora or the Governor that, regardless of ethical qualms, the Wellsians were too dangerous to bargain with.
With even Dactylopius affecting to be helpless in the face of the evil plan, the Problem-Solvers attempted to get word to the Homeworld, but found that the Governor had emptied out the communications room. They were then confronted by Mandragora and the Governor, assisted by a Wellsian. The situation turned into a three-way standoff when Dactylopius also arrived, flanked by Digger and a second Wellsian, as Digger explained that he'd been on the rebellion's side all along (under Dactylopius's directions), smuggling out one Wellsian (and its Heat Ray) to match their enemies' new weapons. The Problem-Solvers were unable to stop the situation escalating until andragora double-crossed the Governor, ordering “his” Wellsian to kill him, but was in turn betrayed by the Wellsian as both aliens revealed that they had no true loyalty to any of the Cupids. They turned their weapons onto Mandragora, seemingly destroying him and causing an explosion which destroyed the two Wellsians as well as the base itself.
In the aftermath, loyalists and rebels worked together to unlock the Governor's three Fog Ships to make their way back home. Pythe berated himself for not having worked out the truth sooner, and also expressed a belief that Mandragora had survived in some shape or form, even if his body had been destroyed. (PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians)
During the rabbit invasion
When the Cupid Homeworld was overrun by illusory magic rabbits, Juliet tried to evacuate with everyone else in the Department's new Fog Ship, but Pythagoras-858 headed her off and she stayed with the rest of the Department of Problem-Solving, holing up in a sealed warehouse with Lord Thymon to figure out a solution. After three days, Juliet had helped deduce that the rabbits were probably being summoned through a magic hat somewhere, but this wasn't especially helpful because the hat was inaccessible. It was Valerius-1497 who ultimately concluded that they needed a literal Deus Ex Machina and suggested that they summon Aphrodite. After this plan worked, Juliet was the one to look through the empty headquarters of the Department of Communication to locate a Psychic Broadcasting Cone with which to inform all the other Cupids that the crisis was over. (PROSE: Magic Trick)
Later developments
On Halloween 2019, after the Great Ghost's legion invaded, Pythagoras-858 gathered up the Problem-Solvers. After the One-Way Forced Spirit Realm Gateway transported a few Cupids including Pythe to the Spirit Realm by accident, the remaining Problem-Solvers inspected it, but were unable to find the reverse switch until Pythe himself managed to materialise in Juliet-178's house like a ghost and tell her how to do it. Subsequently, the Problem-Solvers, Technophile-963 and Igor-1612 boarded a Fog Ship and flew it to the abandoned Prime Universe theatre where the spirits had retreated to make the kidnapped Frankenstein-818 create a Reverse Spirit Realm Gateway. There, the Problem-Solvers managed to sneak Frankenstein safely off the stage while the ghosts were defeated. (PROSE: The Ghosts and the Machine)
In late 2019, on a quiet day off work, Juliet passed the time by playing a game with Diggy-292; the two raced to dig out rocks from the Cupid Homeworld's Celfoam cloud, being awarded fifteen points every time they found one. In the beginning, she had suggested simply making each stone worth one point, which would have made it easier to keep track of the scores, but she was overruled. Either way, their game was observed by a listless Pessimist-242 and Larrikin-1029, and interrupted by the unexpected appearance of Hector Fenwick's capsule. After Fenwick made too much of a nuisance of himself, Juliet and the other three made a joint decision to take him before the Cupid Parliament. (PROSE: The Metafictional Meddler)
While he was looking for Mandragora-257, Pythagoras-858 told Juliet about some of his observations regarding the fundamental principles of magic. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
2020 Christmas crisis
After Pythagoras-858 found Madame Tarsa magically frozen in her Worshop in December 2020, he dispatched Juliet and Arganthone-056 to the Workshop while he went off in the Multiverse to try and find the culprit(s). After they determined that Tarsa's sentient marionettes didn't know anything of value, Juliet got the idea to try and match the unnatural ice with unnatural heat, and dragged Arganthone to New Wellsia to try and get a Wellsian Heat Ray.
The two were shot down before they got anywhere near the Wellsian citadel, and as they retreated it back to their Fog Ship, it was damaged by the Wellsians' artillery. Tumbling across the dimensions, it crashed in 1895 London in the Prime Universe. Luckily, this was witnessed by Jenny Everywhere, who joined the two Cupids, using her shifting abilities to take them back to the Workshop where she thought Tarsa might have left some kind of failsage to reanimate her in an emergency.
There, while Arganthone tried to interrogate the Mechanical Fortune Teller (to little effect), Juliet and Jenny headed into Madame Tarsa's Toybox. There, making their way through the Labyrinthine interior, they found themselves arriving at Wild West Town, where the Frog Mayor advised the three visitors to look for the “oldest toy in the Labyrinth”, who resided in the Christmas Toyland area of the magical toybox. When they met her, however, she was only able to show them the relevant rhyming clue left by Tarsa (which spoke of a “key” in a “distant star”), but not explain its meaning. The three travellers agreed to look for further clues in the forms of legends and myths which other civilisations in the Multiverse might have about Tarsa. They first, unsuccessfully tried the Euclidean Plane (where they engaged in a snowball fight with the Citadel's Octaser and Triangry guards) before heading to the Cupid Homeworld itself to check the Cupid Archives.
There, they introduced Jenny to Lord Thymon, with whom she got along quite well. They then headed to the Archives, where Bibliophile-962 helped them make their way to the relevant section, sneaking past the Mechanical Sphinx. They did not find anything directly related to Tarsa, but were inspired to go to New Subcinctus to see if any of the Consistency Imperium's records had survived the Imperium's fall. However, they did not find anything there which they did not already know, despite being granted an audience by Vertolin himself. They headed to the Interdimensional Tavern in defeat, hoping to simply ask around for relevant intel. They found none, but, reconsidering the rhyming riddle, Juliet realised that the key was actually hidden inside the Star Atop the Tree in the Christmas Toyland, rather than a literal star.
Going back to the Toyland, they conferred briefly with the Toy, who gave them climbing gear, and eventually made their way to the top of the tree with the help of a toy nutcracker called the General. The trio opened the Star, uncovering the magical mallet it contained, only to discover that tampering with the Star awakened the very literal Snap-Dragon that lived at the bottom of Snapdragon Lake. Nevertheless, the three soon defeated the creature through trickery and made their way out of the Toyland. The three agreed that Juliet, whose reputation back hom “needed the polish”, be the one to strike the ice, freeing Tarsa. After the appropriate thanks, the Cupids all returned to the Homeworld. (PROSE: The Time of the Toymaker)
The Winter Quest of 2021
At some point prior to the following events, Juliet-178 filched a prototype Dematerialisation Engine from Doctor Sigma's laboratory.
In December 2021, Juliet-178 was recruited by her friend Pythagoras-858 to join him in a snowy Finnish forest in the Prime Universe where he had arranged to meet a Norse goddess. Pythe was to negotiate with her for the venom of the Wyrm of Loki, to avoid any enemies of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids getting it instead, but anticipated that she might send the two of them on some kind of mythological quest ot prove their worth, for which contingency Juliet's talents would come handy. Soon enough, they found a clearing with a Rune Stone in its centre. Pythe figured out how to use the Sotne to summon the goddes, who set them the task of slaying “a certain Wyrm” in the World Below, much to Juliet's deligh, before disappearing in a flash of light.
To find their way to the rest of the Quest, they elected to lose themselves further until they found themselves in the Forest. There, they found a small waterfall, and figured out that there must be a cavern hidden behind it. There was, but, much to their dismay, it was not the entrance to the World Below, but instead the burrow of a carnivorous Scandinavian Troll, Tero Trollgarsson. Panicking, she activated her Dematerialisation Engine, transporting herself and Pythe to the Interdimensional Tavern — but also the Troll himself. There, Juliet greeted Tpxszum as an old friend, before the three of them were invited to have a drink by an old man whom Juliet quickly recognised as Odin. Though Juliet briefly seemed to have offended Odin, he clarified that he was in jest, before speaking a prophecy to them and advising them to keep the Troll with them throughout the rest of the adventure. He then departed, leaving them at the Tavern.
Figuring out that a part of the prophecy was telling them that a hearth would somehow show them the way forward, they discovered that a version of the Norse fire-god Logi in fact resided in the Tavern's hearth. In exchange for some scented firewood, which Tpxszum agreed to provide later, Logi created a portal to the World Below for them. There, after some trekking, they crossed paths a gigantic talking serpent. They hesitated, unsure whether he was the “serpent” they were to help recover or the “wyrm” they had to defeat. However, the Troll, overlooking their words of caution, decided to charge at the snake, holding that it would be the goddess's fault for not having been more precise in her request if she didn't like it, and that the sooner he technically fulfilled the terms of the quest, the sooner he could go home.
The fight was interrupted before it had properly begun by the appearance of CS-NA, the ship-building robot from the Cupid Homeworld, who had been off on a quest of his own across the Multiverse, trying to understand the spirit of Christmas. Realising that his appearance at such a timely moment could not be coincidental, they deduced, with the serpent's input, that they were being manipulated from afar by Loki, though Pythe was initially skeptical. 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 his 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 CS-NA 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. In Loki's chamber, they were confronted with Sigyn, whose identity Pythe finally explained to Juliet, as well as the nature of what they were trying to obtain. Urged by Sigyn to get to the Wyrm-slaying already, Pythe got advice from Loki himself; at his suggestion and with his consent, they allowed a few drops of venom to reach him, causing him to thrash in supernaturally-charged pain — and causing an earthquake as a result, which shook the serpent loose from the roof of the cavern and knocked him out with falling stalactites. Juliet then leapt at the dazed creature and rodeoed it into submission, tying it to nearby a stalagmite.
While Pythe and Juliet were dealing with the snake, CS-NA, having been convinced to do so by the trickster, freed Loki from his bonds. However, his escape was short-lived, as he was soon recaptured by Fenrir, who had regained consciousness. Pythe and Juliet got Cesse to explain himself to them, and, seeing how he'd had the best of intentions, agreed not to mention his brief lapse of judgement to anyone. After Cesse helped Loki's family set up a Christmas party within their cavern, the group returned to the Homeworld. CS-NA set up a huge party for the entire Crew and a bevy of their friends, with Jenny Everywhere visiting the Homeworld and bringing gifts for Pythe, Juliet, Cesse, Arganthone-056 and Lord Thymon. As they ate, Pythe began discussing with Juliet whether they should set up a new protocol for Crewmembers dealing with deities other than Aphrodite, but Juliet convinced him to put off “office talk” until after the holidays, and he ended up instead reminiscing about past cases with her and the other members of his Department, Valerius-1497, Carter-1277 and Edwin-750. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
Behind the scenes
Origins
Juliet-178 is one of the main protagonists of the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids series.
