Acquaintanceship-982's Fog Ship

**Acquaintanceship-982's Fog Ship** was a Fog Ship flown to the Land of Oz of one Prime-adjacent universe by Acquaintanceship-982 on an assignment. After being sprinkled with the Powder of Life, it became the second known sentient Fog Ship, and elected to stay in Oz permanently.

## Biography

After landing his Fog Ship some short distance from the Emerald City, Acquaintanceship-982 made his way to the City, meeting the Guardian of the Gates, but was quickly whisked off to the Royal Palace by Omby Amby, who had mistaken him for Tik-Tok. There, he was led to a huge meetings of Ozites convened by Ozma to investigate the mysterious theft of the Magic Belt, Magic Picture and Great Book of Records, three of the most powerful artefacts in the land. Learning that romanticising the Ozites would be pointless anyway because they were all already under the effects of the Love Magnet which hung over the City's threshold, Acquaintanceship agreed to help them track down the thieves instead in the hope of romanticising *them*, and offered to fly them around the Land in his Fog Ship after it turned out the thieves had also dismantled Ozma's royal carriage.

First stopping in Munchkin Country, the possé met the Phonograph of Oz, who had spotted the thieves: a trio of imps who had been turned into buttons by the Wizard of Oz many years ago, long enough ago that the spell had faded on its own. Thanks to the Phonograph's directions, Acquaintanceship knew to fly towards Winkie Country, but on the way through the forest which separated the two Countries, they were attacked by three kalidahs. After evading them, they reached the mountains of Jinxland in Quadling Country, where they found not only the imps, but also their master: ex-Wicked Witch of the South Blinkie, now once again in possession of magical powers thanks to the Belt. Gloating, Blinkie unveiled a field full of hundreds of imp statues, which she intended to bring to life as an unstoppable army using the Powder of Life. Acquaintanceship attempted to romanticise Blinkie right there and then, but his shot missed and instead knocked the bottle Powder out of her hands. Taking his chance, Acquaintanceship grabbed the bottle and ran off with it into his Fog Ship, but Blinkie (who had yet to realise he had the Powder and thought he was just escaping) used the Belt to cause him to crash into the forest.

Acquaintanceship was unharmed, but the Ship was down. Out of other options, he used some of the Powder of Life to attempt to repair his Ship, with the effect of bringing it to life as a sentient entity. Startled, he dropped the rest of the Powder onto his bow and arrows, which similarly came to life. Together, they returned to Jinxland and managed to romanticise Blinkie and the Imps, who subsequently apologised to everyone and returned the magical items. However, the Ship's inexperience with flying itself caused it to crash again with Acquaintanceship itself, injuring him this time. With the Bow and Arrows finding them, however, the Imps worked with Tik-Tok to repair both of them. Healed, Acquaintanceship was offered the chance to stay in the Emerald Palace as a permanent resident but turned it down, unlike the Ship, Bow and Arrows. With the Ship staying behind, and set to be repaired more fully by the Tin Woodman, Dorothy thus used the power of the Magic Belt to send Acquaintanceship back to the Cupid Homeworld instead. (PROSE: *The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids*)

## Behind the scenes

Fog Ships are usually depicted as much too small to host the dozens-strong possé assembled by Ozma in *The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids in Oz*. The story does not clarify whether magic was involved in making everyone fit, or if Acquaintanceship's Fog Ship was simply unusually large.