Professor Wogglebug (925th Universe)
The 925th Universe's Land of Oz's version of Professor Wogglebug, formally Professor H. M. Wogglebug, T. E., and also known as Sullivan, (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events (2024 reedit)) was, as was typical, a magically-enlarged, scientifically-minded wogglebug. Less typically, he eventually entered a romantic relationship with the Man in Grey.
Description
Physical appearance
This universe's wogglebugs were described as looking like green praying mantises. The Professor in particular was giant by wogglebug standards, as well as being “smartly-dressed”, (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events) once wearing “a loud, purple tailcoat which draped over his stubby abdomen” and which reminded the Man in Grey of “something Doctor Know would wear if he went slightly loopy”. (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events (2024 reedit)) He was heavily mutated, with “enhanced vocal capabilities” and “a reinforced exoskeleton to compensate for the change in size”. The Doctor also had him fitted with hands early in life “because it was [otherwise] very sad to watch [the Professor] try to open a door”. (PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over-There: Tetra-None Hepta-Oct and Doctor Know-It-All Talk it Out) One account suggested the Professor's pincers could morph in and out of a more hand-like form. (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events (2024 reedit))
Biography
Creation
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the sorcerer Doctor Know was teaching at the Royal College of Oz as “Professor Nowitall”, living under Monarch Pastoria, in what was then known as the Central City. He grew bored, however, of this fairly stagnant era of Oz's history, and began looking for replacements. Northern Cardinal Gayelette eventually helped him to realise that no living Ozian who would be up to his standards would be likely to want the position, prompting him to create a successor out of whole cloth — or, as the case may be, having dismissed the option of a living scarecrow or a Frankenstein-style construct, out of a clutch of wogglebug eggs that happened to catch his line of sight in a corner of his rather derelict laboratory. Experimenting ruthlessly upon them for decades, he eventually managed to create a sapient, talkative, human-sized wogglebug, whom he then home-schooled.
On the day when he finally unveiled the now-adult and fully-educated “Professor H. M. Wogglebug, T. E.”, Doctor Know coyly “told his students that the lecture would be taught by a substitute for the day”. Visible annoyance made way to stark horror as the students caught sight of their new Professor, but “as the lecture started, and the auditorium started to calm down, their reactions quickly switched from grossed out to engrossed. The Doctor had never felt so proud of someone other than himself until that moment…”. He would go on to officially consider Professor Wogglebug his son, often interceding with the monarch of Oz to get him out of trouble. (PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over- There: Tetra-None Hepta-Oct and Doctor Know-It-All Talk it Out)
Early activities
Wogglebug held some property on Earth, allowing him to test inventions which were banned in Oz. (PROSE: Lovie Dovie Stuff) By the 1950s, the Wogglebug, going by the name of “Sullivan”, patronised a particular café on Earth with some regularity. In at least one rotation of time, this happened to be where the Man in Grey was working as a waiter. The two became friendly enough that Sullivan agreed to pull some strings to allow the Man to enroll at Miskatonic School of Business, though they didn't stay in touch for many decades afterwards. (PROSE: A Series of Events (2024 reedit))
On another occasion, he attempted to date a shop-window dummy while on holiday on Earth. (PROSE: Lovie Dovie Stuff)
The Interdimensional Pride Parade
When his version of Oz paid host to the Interdimensional Pride Council in June 2022, the Professor had been developing Information Pills meant to artificially transfer information into the minds of the consumer. Although early tests had been mixed (with one Munchkin volunteer's head exploding), he hoped to advertise the Pills via a float at the Interdimensional Pride Parade, and, as a result, hovered around the Diggs estate where the Council was to gather.
He met with the Man in Grey as the Man was about to enter the Council chamber, and tried to advise him on how to get his various controversial sponsors accepted. As a result, when the Man in Grey was later thrown out of the Council, Wogglebug was banned from the premises also. About a week later, the two bumped each other at “the most heterosexual bar” the Man in Grey could find, in the 925th Universe. In one rotation of this event, the Wogglebug was sober enough, (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events) while in a later rotation, he was extremely drunk due to having paid for his drinks with a large Oz emerald, and being under the impression that he had to drink everything he was served on the basis of that payment. (PROSE: A Series of Events (2024 reedit))
Regardless, the Wogglebug then updated the Man in Grey on what had happened in his absence, and, in particular, informed him of the party Jenny Over-There and Dynamite Thor had organised at Professor Helvetius's Convenient Pride Decorations Shop, convincing him to attend. (PROSE: A Series of Queer Events)
Romance with the Man in Grey
Subsequently, the Man in Grey and Wogglebug timidly entered a romantic, though asexual, relationship, making it official on Valentine's Day after months of writing to each other. During this period, he had also kept experimenting with the Brain Pillls; one of his test subjects had an aneurysm, but Wogglebug gave them “death surgery”, turning them into an undead being who was subsequently “dead and well” by the standards of their new species. Wogglebug was confident that this would be sufficient to clear him of any liability, as he had “a good lawyer”. (PROSE: Lovie Dovie Stuff) Wogglebug later interceded with Ozma to get the Man in Grey unbanned from Oz; his letter was “around 50,000 words long and contain[ed] only one point”, but Ozma still relented on the basis of the sheer fact that the Man in Grey had a prominent resident of Oz who actually cared about him, agreeing to set a trial date for him. On the same day the Man in Grey received the news, (PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over-There: The Birthday Toaster) the Professor called his father to inform him of their relationship. (PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over-There: Tetra-None Hepta-Oct and Doctor Know-It-All Talk it Out)
| Incarnations of Professor Wogglebug |
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| The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz • 925th Universe |
