Characters / The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids

Clockwork Cherubs

The Department of Problem-Solving

The only Cupids with much in the way of common sense, the members of the perpetually under-funded and under-respected Department of Problem-Solving solve all the issues encountered by the Cupids in their exploration, once all the other innumerable Departments are done meticulously documenting them.

Pythagoras - 858

The leader of the Department of Problem-Solving, renowned for his unusual grasp of common sense. Dresses like a Hardboiled Detective, though he doesn't otherwise fit the trope.

• Fedora of Asskicking: Wears one as part of his "hardboiled detective" look.
• Only Sane Man: He got the job because he's just about the only Cupid who really thinks straight, with the possible exception of Juliet. The Department as a whole may be the Only Sane Cupids of the Crew, but Pythe is the Only Sane Man of the Department.

Juliet - 178

The only female Cupid (barring a few hundred clones of her she created), Juliet is more even more practical-minded than Pythe, but, in turn, somewhat more eccentric and reckless, shamelessly disregarding authority. Doesn't have the best work ethic, either — she'll happily build a robotic doppelgänger of herself to work in her place so she can watch a movie, which is actually how the whole "hundreds of clones of her running around" thing got started.

Edwin - 750

A zoologist who tends to only really pay attention when the current mission involves some kind of creature.

• Gone Horribly Right: Downplayed, comedic example: in The Resurrection of the Wellsians, he somehow succeeds in creating a psychic between himself and a sloth with the result you'd expect.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Perhaps the least assertive member of the team, and has electric-blue Robot Hair.

The Scarlet Wings

The elite task force of the Crew, the first to be sent ahead with Love Arrows when a new dimension is discovered.

Marksmanship - 522

One of the main recurring Clockwork Cherub POV characters. A timid, anxious, fundamentally nice archer with a tendency to end up embroiled in bizarre adventures, never turning down a request for help even though he really would like his life to just be simple.

• Master Archer: The Crew's best marksman, hence the name.

Arganthone - 056

An old friend of Juliet-178's, formerly one of the Scarlet Wings' most renowned agents, with a penchant for fistfights.

• Boisterous Bruiser: Enjoys a scrap, and has a generally outgoing, jolly personality.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: One of a small, but noteworthy number of Clockwork Cherubs who default to they/them rather than he/him pronouns.
• Retired Badass: In the present day of the series, has retired from active duty in the Scarlet Wings, instead staying in the Homeworld and training young recruits.

The Blue Feather

The decidedly non-elite task force of the Crew. Struggles to get any respect, but you can kinda see why.

Acquaintanceship - 982

The leader of the Blue Feather, he more often appears as a singular protagonist. He's basically a good guy, neither especially incompetent or especially heroic.

Pessimist - 242

Pessimist is… well, guess.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his apathetic, depressing demeanour and constant, cynical, barbs at everything and everyone, he is actually one of the Crew's most intelligent and competent members. Partly by accident.
• The Cynic: Has a low, contemptuous, dispirited opinion of everything and everyone.
• The Eeyore: A textbook example. It is suspected that there's a mistake somewhere in his programming that makes him take a glass-half-empty view of everything.

Ally - 1243

The youngest member of the Blue Feather (not counting the Pseudo-Pessimist), helpful and optimistic to a fault.

• Foil: To his Eeyoresque coworker Pessimist.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: As shown in The End of the World, Ally is so completely incapable of harbouring negative feelings about anyone that he caused a Yin-Yang Bomb effect when a demon that fed on hatred tried to feed off him.
• The Pollyanna: Relentlessly cheerful and glass-half-full in an uncomplicated, naive way.
  "A low-hanging fog curled about the ankles of Ally-1243 as the young Cupid skipped cautiously through a dark forest. Twisting branches seemed to grasp at him from the shadows, but he had elected to pretend that each tree was a personal friend, reaching out to wave hello."

  — The Haunting of the Tavern
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Until the events of The End of the Homeworld, seems not to have actually grokked the existence of evil people in the slightest. He does get through some Character Development there while retaining his quintessential optimism, averting Break the Cutie, even though his helpfulness has just been manipulated in a way that nearly destroyed the Homeworld.
  Ally-1243: "The way I figure it, kindness isn’t something you pay for. It’s not a reward for being good. It’s doing good. I always thought this… impulse of mine, to help people out, I always thought that must mean everybody I met was fundamentally good. That they fundamentally deserved it. And I, er, what happened today is making me rethink that. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t continue to be kind."

Other Homeworlder Cupids

Doctor Sigma

The Crew's resident eccentric scientist.

• Herr Doktor: Affects a Germanic accent for unclear reasons.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: His specialty is officially dimensional engineering, but he's frequently displayed general Gadgeteer Genius abilities.

Frankenstein - 818

The Crew's very own Mad Scientist.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Half his inventions are dangerous nonsense, but he's remarkably capable when his talent is channeled towards something useful, once building three working dimensional portals in a single day.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He's generally sinister and proud of it, but he doesn't make his inventions dangerous out of malice, it's just in his nature as a mad scientist. The rest of the Crew seems to respect that.
• Expy: Of the actual Baron Frankenstein.
• Expy Coexistence: Actually got his name, and learned the mad-science trade, by apprenticing under the real Frankenstein. (Well, one of them.)
• Haunted Castle: Lives in one which is "infamously booby-trapped".

Morningstar 1

Appearing in the short story The Resurrection of the Wellsians, these Cupids staff the Crew's base on the planet Venus of the universe of H. G. Wells's works (or something thereabouts).

Governor - 105

A self-absorbed small-town tyrant, the Governor of the Morningstar Base has long ago grown bored of obeying the directives of the Cupid Parliament, and has dreams of universal conquest…

Dactylopius - 177

Juliet-178's "brother" (by the convention that the two robots on either side of a robot on the production line are its "siblings"), Dactylopius-177 is a very tidy, somewhat nervous man, introduced as the Deputy Governor of 105 on Venus and who not-so-secretly leads a rebellion planning to depose him.

Mandragora - 257

An alchemist exiled to Venus after he blew up a warehouse in the Homeworld with his experiments (and several Cupids with it), the villainous Mandragora knows his stuff, enough so to resurrect the Wellsians he finds buried deep beneath the surface in the ruins of their spaceship.

• Mad Scientist: He's an alchemist and dresses like it, complete with torch-lit lab, but really acts more like a mad scientist, complete with bringing monsters back to life with cries of having unlocked the secret! of life! itself!. Pythe jokingly refers to Mandragora as "the Governor's pet mad scientist".
• The Starscream: In his first appearance, Mandragora is introduced planning to betray the Governor, which he eventually does in the climax, calmly revealing that the titular monsters obey him, not the Governor, before ordering one of them to kill the Governor.

Digger - 291

Master Mandragora's assistant and nominally his apprentice, although Mandragora has no intentions of actually passing on any secrets to him. Derives his name for his strange passion for digging holes wherever he goes (which isn't part of his secret agenda or anything, he just likes holes).

• The Igor: Acts as one for Mandragora-257 until The Reveal that he's actually The Mole.
• The Mole: Is actually a member of 177's rebellion trying to get at Mandragora's secrets.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Acts like a short-sighted fool who can't even speak properly so that Mandragora will carelessly reveal his secrets in front of him.

The Triangular Society

Conquest - 932

Wants very much to overthrow the Parliament and take over the Cupid Homeworld as a glorious Napoleonic-type military dictator. He is not especially competent at villainy, and treated as more of a nuisance by most Cupids.

• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has the classic vertical scar over the right eye.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: After all his schemes go up in smoke in The Trial of the Dark Lord, he spends several months sulking, and Ally feels so sorry for him he agrees to become his new minion.

Others

The Void & Other Multiversal Entities

The Void Between the Worlds is home to many a strange creature, most of them to be found at the wacky Interdimensional Tavern.

Lord Thymon

aT yOuR SeRvIce

A time demon in a funny hat, Lord Thymon embodies the concept of Time within the Void. Or, at least, he did until the Cupids decided he was a hindrance to their interdimensional travels, hit him with a Love Arrow, and hired him to work in their post office to sort the mail (all those tentacles come in handy).

• Cyclops: Has only one large eye, if you can call it that (it's more of a gaping hole with an inexplicable mote of light floating in the middle to act as a pupil).
• Eldritch Abomination: A horrendous Time Demon not made of conventional matter, with an infinite black emptiness where his eye should be. …He also wears a funny hat, rather ruining the effect for most people. He is, at any rate, referred to as an Eldritch Abomination in-universe, and it's stated that many of them can be found in the Void because people in other universes keep banishing them there, and there they stay, listless.
• Time Abyss: Mentioned to have ruled the Void for literal "aeons". And it's unknown how old he was when he started.

Madame Tarsa

A mysterious woman of seemingly unlimited powers, who trades in the Interdimensional Black Market for an endless array of creepy living puppets.

• Evil Puppeteer: More blue-and-orange than evil, but she's definitely very creepy and very unreliable. And also a bit of a scammer: the first of her creations encountered by the characters is a "ventriloquist's dummy" which steals your voice to speak with, and won't give it back to you until you buy it from Tarsa.
• Graceful Loser: Despite ruthlessly playing to win in their swordfight minutes earlier, Madame Tarsa lets Pessimist and Larrikin go back to the Homeworld without complaint once they make it out of her Labyrinth fair and square, even repairing Pessimist's Fog Ship herself.
• Healing Factor: Tarsa gets one of her eyes shot off by Pessimist's Fog Ship in her debut, and it regenerates within four minutes. She expresses annoyance at how slow the process was, suggesting that she can heal from other injuries even faster.
• Intangible Theft: As mentioned above, some of her ventriloquist dummies can steal people's voices.
• Reality Warper: She's not all-powerful (her cane is apparently key to her ability to teleport, for example) but when at full strength there is basically nothing she cannot do.
• Time Abyss: Claims in The Time of the Toymaker to be "several septendecillion years old". The Queen of the Black Market's personal investigation into Tarsa bears this out, as she believes that Tarsa is older than Lord Thymon, who has himself been the Embodiment of Time itself in the Void Between the Worlds for "aeons".

Alexander Neezley

An outlandish braggart who spends his time in the Interdimensional Tavern telling clearly-untrue stories about his adventures traveling the multiverse.

• Dimensional Traveler: Claims to be a seasoned one, but he is obviously mostly lying. He did somehow end up at the Tavern, however.
• Miles Gloriosus: His main shtick. Often gets the details of the places he claims to have visited wrong, too.

Li'l Thymon

Lord Thymon's nephew.

• Adorable Abomination: A tiny and utterly precious version of his uncle.
• Identical Grandson: Shares the name and appearance of his uncle, but smaller and coloured green instead of blue.
• Tiny Tim Template: Played the role in his debut in A Copper-Colored Christmas Carol.

The Three

A trio of interdimensional representatives at the Council of Frogs universe registration in Marksmanship-526 and the Secret Society Strategem, representing the Third Universe.

• A Form You Are Comfortable With: It's suggested that their real forms aren't humanoid.
  "It’s a man, or at least it looks like one at the moment. It’s leaning on a golden staff, wearing golden finery, and encased in an absolutely shocking pair of golden shoulder-pads. Is there something reptilian in his eyes? Is there a hint of wings in those curving shoulders?"
• The Dividual: They're described as "three identical grim-faced men" and never get individual names.
• Fantastic Racism: Clearly prejudiced against the Star Vampire representative.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The Third Universe was shown elsewhere to be the the Faction Paradox universe, which would make the Three representatives of the Great Houses (a.k.a. the Time Lords).
• Rule of Three: There's three of them and they represent the Third Universe.

The Star Vampire

An interdimensional, vampiric Eldritch Abomination, one of the representatives at the Council of Frogs universe registration in Marksmanship-526 and the Secret Society Strategem, representing the Second Universe.

• Affably Evil: Actually a lot more reasonable and personable than the Three, from what can be seen, though it's still described as dangerous and "carnivorous".
• Extra Eyes: Described as having "far too many eyes for its own good. Or, more accurately, for anyone else’s good".
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: If the Three are identified as members of the Great Houses, the Star Vampire must logically represent the Yssgaroth.

The Prince of the House

One of the interdimensional representatives at the Council of Frogs universe registration in Marksmanship-526 and the Secret Society Strategem, representing the Prime Universe.

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Described as a "young man" and "boy", but also, apparently, a Dimension Lord.
• Dimension Lord: His House somehow owns the Prime Universe in a metaphysical sense, and he is nominally the head of the House (although it's suggested he's something of a Puppet King).
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: You wouldn't know it from his cameo in Secret Society Stratagem, but insofar as the Prime Universe has repeatedly been implied to be the Disney Comics universe, the meta implication is clearly that he's, somehow, Mickey Mouse. (This would presumably make his "sky-blue crown the Sorcerer's Hat.)
• Nice Guy: Even the Three acknowledge that he's a "nice chap", completely at odds with his immense dimensional power.
• Puppet King: According to the Three, "his House" is more properly in charge of the Prime Universe than he himself is.

The Martian Empire

They're evil! They're telepathic! They're big white octopuses! These Martians from a parallel universe are totally amoral conquerors who share a mutual grudge with the Cupids.

The Wellsians

Fairly direct lifts from H. G. Wells, the Wellsians (barely) survive their ill-fated invasion of Earth in a parallel world to crash on Venus. After the five survivors are returned to life via alchemy by Mandragora, they steal one of the Cupids' Fog Ship, and, with newfound motivation to become Multiversal Conquerors, escape to vex the Cupids another day.

• Octopoid Aliens: They resemble mutated white octopuses with too many tentacles, skull-like faces and big red eyes; they are frequently described as "vampire octopuses".
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The revived Wellsians start out buried in their crashed spaceship, hibernating, on the planet Venus in a parallel universe.
• Telepathic Spacemen: The Wellsians are revealed to be telepathic in The Resurrection of the Wellsians. In an extreme example of alien telepathy covering long distances, the resolution of the tale hinges on their ability to project psychic message, albeit in garbled form, into other dimensions.

Shenanig and the Jinx Dimension

A newly-discovered world, the Jinx Dimension is a fantasy world consisting of three linked planets, Triskadeckia, Shenanig and Sord. It has proven a fertile breeding ground for antagonists.

Doctor Curious

Lord Nefarious

• Evil Mentor: Has the classical, Sith-esque Master-apprentice relationship with Conquest-932 until he is killed not by him but by Sebastian Steer, who inherits his power instead.

Emperor Sebastian Steer

The Prime Earth

The Earth the Cupids came from in the first place is a World of Weirdness in its own right, rife with its own set of oddballs for the Cupids to meet.

Mortals

Professor Irving Scarper

• Mad Scientist: Beyond the fact that he was working for the First Horde in the first place, he seemed to carry out his experiments in uplifting animals purely For Science! and/or For the Evulz.

Director Darius

Formerly a high-ranking member of the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries, Darius lost everything when he failed to capture a document a Cupid (Pessimist, as it happens), and has become an increasingly irrational sworn enemy of the Crew.

• Arc Villain: Culminating in The Frost King's Treasure, where it all comes crashing down.
• Big Bad Wannabe: In Frost King's Treasure — he gathered all his worst enemies in one stop, and… completely forgot to plan out a way to subdue them and get his revenge beyond that point. It went about as well as you'd expect.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: In his post-Frost King's Treasure appearances. It helps, for the "sympathetic" part, that in Darius and the Discordias he ends up dealing with the Discordias, who are notably more evil and ruthless than he ever was.

Mythological beings

The Devils

Seven arch-demons who collectively hold the title of "the Devil", rarely letting the world at large know that there's not just one singular Satan with many faces: Lucifer, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Belphegor, Stolas, Belial and Plutus. Most of them are actually old gods who took refuge in the Underworld, and although they have plans of their own, they're serving as a bulwark against the Ghost Lords.

• Absentee Club Member: Belphegor rarely shows up to meetings, fittingly enough since he personified sloth. Instead, he appears on the council through an appointed representative.
• Adaptational Job Change: Stolas in the Ars Goetia is a "Great Prince of Hell", which in its hierarchy is several notches beyond Kings of Hell like Asmodeus and Belial. He's never been depicted in historical sources as one of the top rulers of Hell. Here, he's a possible identity of Satan himself, on par with Lucifer, Beelzebub or Asmodeus.
• Big Red Devil: Asmodeus is a classic example — big and muscular, with a snarling face, batlike wings, and dark red skin. Beelzebub is also big and red, but he's a Gruesome Goat with a green cloak. Lucifer, meanwhile, is big, muscular, bat-winged and horned, but his skin is dark blue.
• Collective Identity: Seven demons who collectively hold the title of "the Devil" and use the name "Satan" interchangeably.
• Decomposite Character: Decomposes various aspects and depictions of the Devil into literally being different individuals.
• Deity Identity Confusion: The Other Side reveals that most of the Prime Universe's seven Devils were preexisting mythological figures from other pantheons before they were literally driven underground. Thus Lucifer is literally the same entity as the minor Greco-Roman deity of the same name (who personified the Morning Star), Belphegor was once Koros, God of Disdain, Stolas was the Owl of Athena, and Plutus was Pluto/Hades. Asmodeus and Beelzebub are also identified with their clear antecedents, respectively Aeshma from Zoroastrianism and Baal from Canaanite Mythology. Additionally, Lucifer also refers to himself as "Phosphorus Chernobog", mashing up the Greek name for the Greco-Roman "Lucifer" and the possibly-apocryphal Slavic God of Evil, Chernobog.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: Seven equals who rule Hell together.
• Devil's Pitchfork: Beelzebub has a black trident.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Plutus, one of the seven individuals using the name "Satan", is in fact the original Hades himself. Downplayed as the Devils are not necessarily all villainous, and Plutus in particular is never depicted as doing anything noticeably evil.
• Noble Demon: Lucifer is a devil of his word, though he is not above using Exact Words. And collectively, the Devils are on the side of "good", as they're helping to defend reality from the Ghost Lords.
• Satan: Collectively fulfill this role. Lucifer, Belial, Asmodus and Beelzebub are the closest to traditional depictions.
• The Owl-Knowing One: Stolas was once the Owl of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, and he's depicted as one of the most level-headed members of the council.
• Unexplained Accent: Stolas speaks in a "crisp Scottish accent" despite being Greek.

Shax

Marquis Shax, of Ars Goetia fame — a demon summoned by Sardonicus, alias Mandragora, in The Dark Cabaret.^note He is specifically the version of Shax created by Sarah Jolley, of The Property of Hate fame, for their webcomic A Kind of Magic.

• Extra Eyes: Has a bunch of extra eyes floating around him in a ring.

Century Smith & the Consistency Imperium

Briar

A girl raised in an Uberwald-type village called Hammerthorne, Briar became Century Smith's best friend and travelling companion after she was bitten by an Invisible Vampyre, which made her fellow villagers want to do some nasty things to her unless she skedaddled fast. She later faced a potential Bad Future version of herself who'd given in to the vampirism, going by Acantha, but managed to subsume her before she could ensure that her timeline came to pass.

• Animorphism: Keeps Acantha's ability to turn into a bat after subsuming her.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After Century Smith and the Time Terror, Briar continues to go around dressed in a black Victorian dress which used to belong to her Superpowered Evil Counterpart, and keeps the ability to turn into a bat, but she's one of the sweetest, most innocent characters in the series.
• Fusion Dance: Merges with her Evil Counterpart instead of killing her, and her good nature successfully becomes dominant. As a result she remains partially vampiric and keeps the ability to turn into a bat when she sneezes.

New Flaversham & the 38167th Universe

A parallel world which is running a few decades behind the Prime Earth (such that it's currently the early 1980s). Home to the version of Jenny Everywhere usually seen in the series and her recurring cast. Foundational Problems also revealed the existence of a version of the SCP Foundation in this universe.

Jenny Everywhere

:see Jenny Everywhere

Doctor Walrick Hinterlist

A long-suffering SCP Foundation researcher, in charge of Site 15, the Foundation's facility in New Flaverhsham.

• Anti-Villain: Tries to keep Jenny imprisoned after catching her by accident, but he's more of an Obstructive Bureaucrat who happens to be part of a bureaucracy with shockingly few ethical guardrails than actively villainous, seeming mostly to want to get the job done and get some some sleep.
• Canon Foreigner: Not an established SCP character, filling the role of a generic Foundation researcher.
• Lean and Mean: Described as a "sickly, gray-bearded stick-insect", and the main antagonist of Foundational Problems.