The Interdimensional Tavern (short story)
Cupid Fact File #124: The Interdimensional Tavern was a Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short story written by Lupan Evezan and illustrated by Aristide Twain. It introduced the titular Tavern and its cast of characters, who soon became recurring elements in the series.
Contents
Subjects
The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids' Fact File #124, written by Bibliophile-962, describes the Interdimensional Tavern, including an overview of its staff and the foods and drinks on the menu. Bibliophile also summarises the Department of Documentation's visit to the Tavern the previous week, during which they met a Time Traveller from the 97th Cosmos and a pair of stranded adventurers from the Prime Universe.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- The Interdimensional Tavern is located in the Void Between Worlds, described as “the eternal nothingness which separates the dimensions of the Multiverse”. The Cupids are surprised at the idea of buildings existing in the Void.
- Tpxszum and Frederick are survivors of the now-destroyed Dimension )-0//zx.
- The Quasi-spiraled Moonduster is said to taste “like the sixth star of the Gambit System in Dimension ^6-Q”.
- The Time Traveller came from the 97th Cosmos.
- The cockatoo inventor and his hapless friend came from the Prime Earth.
Other
- The Interdimensional Tavern is more formally known as “Volensholagoz's Tavern, Grill, and Schmporp-Rehorbbler”.
- The Tavern is prone to “attacks from the many eldritch abominations which have been banished to the Void through the millenia, who will usually only leave once they have been given a free drink – the grifters!”.
- Employees of the Tavern claim not to have changed their staff since “April of ∉∝”.
- One of the only dishes that appear exclusive to the Tavern, rather than knowingly borrowed from other universes, is the Gruel,a “thin watery paste made of who-knows-what” which is “nonetheless extraordinarily delicious”.
- Both the Victorian Time Traveller and the Prime Universe inventor were flying through their respective universes' Time Vortices in their time machines when they fell through “dimensional warps” and ended up in the Void.
Continuity
- Pythagoras-858 has inquired about whether the Quasi-spiraled Moonduster is alcoholic, noting that if it is, members of his Department of Documentation shouldn't drink it, for reasons having to do with their livers. In PROSE: Lord Thymon and the Department of Problem-Solving, it was mentioned that the Problem-Solvers had made unauthorised alterations to their liver crystals at the cost of losing Clockwork Cherubs' natural immunity to alcohol.
- The story features a brief appearance by the Time Traveller from H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, described as being from the 97th Cosmos. Further The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids stories such as PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians would establish that the 97th Cosmos was also more prominently home to versions of Wells'sWar of the Worlds Martians.
- The Interdimensional Tavern would go on to become a recurring setting in the series.
Behind the scenes
Background
In the earliest release of the story, there was no illustration, and the anecdote related by Bibliophile-962 about his visit to the Tavern referred to a pair of time-travellers from the Prime Universe, one “an anthropomorphic cockatoo — or chicken — or something” and the other a hapless waterfowl. They were implicitly Gyro Gearloose and Donald Duck, with their “three-wheeled time machine” being the Time Coupe. In a later redraft, this was replaced with an encounter with a public-domain character, the Time Traveller from H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, and a captioned illustration depicting Volensholagoz was added.
Read online
The story can be read on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.
