Jenny Everywhere, the Shifter--eternity or bust. Originally a catchall linkblog for Jenny Everywhere material, then a sort of strange creepypasta thing, now a launching point for serial fiction. Run by Jeanne Morningstar (creepingmonsterism). The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
Well, I'd been stalled on my writing for a while and I wanted to write a chaotic, improvisatory piece where I'd be able to add a little bit to it every day. I decided a Jenny Everywhere story would be perfect for that.
I've made a lot of attempts to write Jenny Everywhere stories that didn't work out, including the previous revamp of this blog, but the Jenny Everywhere wiki and the recent small burst of activity this Jenny Everywhere Day inspired me to have another go at it. It's worked out surprisingly well so far, easily the longest piece I've ever written with the character.
A major catalyst for this piece was finally reading all of Michael Moorcock's Cornelius Quartet. This story involves much more in the way of sexual content and incendiary politics than previous Jenny Everywhere stories of mine, in keeping with its inspirations, the counterculture-inspired Barbelithic roots of the character, and the general tenor of the historical period in which we are living.
This story involves a number of open source characters and ones from public domain literature and Golden Age comics; all the attributions will be gathered in the final post.
While restoring a multiverse from backup after a minor cosmological collapse, omniversal archivists have recovered a Jenny Everywhere round robin story written in the Penciljack forums in 2003-4, which contains the introduction of the Infinite by Benj Christensen and some of the only Jenny Everywhere work by her creator Steven Wintle.
I finished this story about six months ago, though it took rather longer to post. It's already kind of weird looking back on it: in the current phase of history, six months feels like forever.
When I started it, I was still in the early stages of processing the overwhelming isolation and panic of the pandemic, and found it difficult to write at all. @ununnilium had started writing a story that was written one sentence at a time, and I decided to do something similar: something that would let me ensure I wrote a short bit of something every day, no matter what.
I'd made a couple attempts at writing something about Jenny Everywhere (including the previous version of this blog) that hadn't gone anywhere. I basically had given up on the whole thing as the concept slowly died away, but, inspired by @aristidetwain and others' work to archive and build on past Jenny Everywhere material, I decided to give it another try.
I literally had no idea what I was doing when I started it off. I threw in bits of things I'd experienced and books I'd read, drawing on a wide variety of literary influences from Moorcock to Dumas to Brecht to radical trans literature like Stone Butch Blues and Sea Witch.
The pieces of the plot and themes gradually fell into place as I worked on this, and it was around the end of act 4 that I finally figured out what the story was about; the Dumasian portion of the story was the most planned and least improvised. I found it stressful to write but rewarding once it was done.
Over the course of the story I've referenced a bunch of other public domain/open source characters and concepts, most of which can be figured out pretty easily from the pdsh and Jenny Everywhere wikis. One exception was Voyage of the Zephyrus, a project that @ununnilium had been working on ages ago, intended to be a kind of vaguely Doctor Who-inspired story world about a dimension-traveling ship whose captain would share the memories of all those who held that post before them. They've been thinking about releasing the stuff they wrote for it as some kind of open-source project.
I didn't really revise the story as I wrote it, as I wanted it to be an unmediated expression of what I was thinking and feeling at the time as much as possible, and worried that if I spent too long to think about it I'd lose momentum as I had for so many other things. Having come out the other end of this, there's a number of things I'd do differently, but I'll let this story to stand as it is as
As I started this, I'd just moved out of the town I'd spent most of my life in and felt the need to redefine myself as a person and a writer. I wrote this to work through new feelings and ideas, to try and deepen my connection to I wrote this out of a very deep desperation and frustration, a prayer for something better in my life and the world. I don't think we're any closer to that, on the surface it seems like we're farther away than ever.
Still... I did manage to finish a long story, which I had thought I couldn't do. Who knows what else might be possible?
I want to thank everyone who's indulged this story, from the small Jenny Everywhere fandom on tumblr to the people on rec.arts.comics.creative. I think we've proven this concept has a future and I'm really excited to see where it's going from here on out.
I also wanted to add more things to the pool for future writers to draw on, so I'll just say the characters who were created for this including Glendalf/Lailoken, ARCHONET and so forth are open source, and people have blanket permission to use ideas and plot elements from this story.
And last but not least:
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition: This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, that others might use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.
Once again she can feel the hearts of her other selves beating within her.
Somewhere she's battling the Saxon war-mechs alongside Arthur and Lancelot. Somewhere she's fighting in a tournament in the court of Genghis Khan.
Somewhere she's tagging sigil graffiti on the walls of Marvel Entertainment's corporate headquarters with Octobriana, Glendalf and the magician. spotting her. Somewhere she's at the front line of the charge against the Bastille, with Laura by her side. Somewhere she and Laura fighting are fighting a duel on top of a radio telescope. Somewhere she's stroking her hair as she ties her up.
Somewhere she's recovering from the overdose as Julie stands over her bed. When she's ready, she's going to try and call Laura again. She has some ideas.
Somewhere she's dying, the last surviving being in her universe, as she watches the stars go out one by one. Somewhere she's being born, waving her tiny fists in the air as she's pulled into the outer world, covered in blood.
And somewhere she's running off to school with toast in her mouth.
She holds all the joy and all the grief in the cosmos in her heart. She is Jenny Everywhere, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
And the mighty wind carries her away out of the world. She is dancing on the winds of Limbo. She is conscious once more of herself as a self, and feels Jenny Nowhere holding her hand.
"Farewell, sister," says Jenny Nowhere. "Until the next dance." She lets go of her hand and laughs as the wind sends her off into the distance.
The wind dies down and Jenny Everywhere feels herself now floating at the edge of creation. She watches the collapsed cosmos unfold. Slowly, an infinity of time, and yet in no time at all. She sees her pattern reweave itself again throughout hypertime, bearing all those she loves, and all her enemies.
She sees that events like this have happened before, perhaps many times, and will no doubt happen again. ARCHONET was never the root of all evil, just another manifestation of it. It could reemerge once again when the material conditions are right, as it has in the past. The forces of oppression are always evolving and changing. But so is she.
The waves rise up and consume the last of the pier. Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere dance together in the storm. They are swallowed up by the waterspout and then it falls away, revealing one woman where there had been two.
She is wearing a scarf and a mirror mask that covers half her face.
She is Jenny Everywhere.
She is Jenny Nowhere.
Jenny Everywhere/Nowhere stands above the waters of the deep, facing the broken ruin of the God. He howls out into the storm:
[Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere watch as pixellated constructs that might have been memories of seagulls fly by.]
JN: The truth is, you are no different from any other being. The hero, the coward, the monster, the messiah, exist within you as they exist within all. All individuals are bound and limited by material reality. The existence of an individual is defined by failure. The Infinite offers something more.
JE: I don't want it. I can't deal with all of them. I'm used to being alone--living with all those people in my thoughts always--I can't do it.
[She gestures wildly.]
JE: Maybe I'm tired of carrying around all the pain of the Infinite in my heart. Maybe it's better if I just--stop. I'm tired of being Jenny Everywhere. And what the hell did Jenny Everywhere ever do for me, anyway? She couldn't save us from this. I don't need her and I--I--I don't need you.
[Her face is contorted with anger. She grabs hold of Jenny Nowhere's neck and strangles her, wrestling her to the ground. Jenny Nowhere smiles. Slowly, Jenny Everywhere lets go of her and they both begin to laugh.]
JE: No, you're right. We are one. My shadow, my sister, myself.
[She reaches out her hand to Jenny Nowhere and lifts her up. They are facing each other on the small part of the pier that is left. Slowly they lean in, embrace each other, and kiss]
JE: So why are you lecturing me about all this?
JN: Because I am the truth you're afraid of. I am the self you can't accept. That is why you need me, sister. Tell me, what do you fear the most?
JE: Why should I tell you?
JN: I know the answer, because I am your fear. You are afraid of failure. You believe you're supposed to be a hero and you're afraid to admit you fail like everyone else. You are afraid of possibility because it contains the possibility of failure. But the possibility of success cannot exist without the possibility of failure. Just as you cannot exist without me.
[All that remains of Redoubt, and the cosmos, is an empty pier by the seaside. Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere are standing on it, JE refuses to look JN in the eye. ARCHONET appears to be slowly sinking into the ocean.]
[Jenny Everywhere looks up into ARCHONET's eyes, silent.]
JN: The moment has come, sister. We will destroy ARCHONET and set the Infinite free.
JE: Where is it? The Infinite...
JN: Where it's always been. The Infinite is within you. The Infinite is within me. The Infinite is that which binds you to others. The Infinite is the bond which exists between us, which we cannot accept and cannot live without.
JE: No. I can't.
[She pushes Jenny Nowhere away.]
JE: I can't be Jenny Everywhere, not anymore. All I ever do is fail. I fight with all I have to escape but I keep escaping into another trap. I'm not... I'm not someone who belongs in Jenny Everywhere. I'm not good, I'm not powerful, I'm not strong.
JN: So what? Do you think the Infinite is something you earn? Self-hatred and self-destruction do not set us free from the cage of the self.
[While all this is going on, the world continues to dissolve, blocks slowly fall off the ruined buildings and debris, bodies and robots derezz]
JN: The forces of oppression have woven lives for you that isolate you from yourself while selling you self-love. You seek to escape this contradiction in simply rejecting yourself. But if you believe in collective liberation, as you think you do--from each according to their ability, to each according to their need--you must admit that there are things you can do that are good and you must accept help from others, too.
JE: You.... you did this... my mother, my sister, my friends, all of me--all gone. Why--
ARCHONET: I I I I AM I AM I AM I AM THE ALPHA THE OMEGA I AM ALL THAT IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST I AM ALL OF CREATION THROUGH INFINITY I AM I AM I AM I I I UUUUUUUUUU
JE: You're nothing, you're a broken toy. You didn't make anything, you can only ruin it.
[She shivers as the anger passes all over her body. She looks up and looks ARCHONET in the eye.]
JE: You do know, right, that you can't last much longer? That you can't really sustain yourself? If you destroy everything that opposes you, you'll destroy yourself too.
ARCHONET: WWWWWW WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I WANT TO LIVE I AM I AM NOT I AM I AM NOT I I I I I I I I I I I
[They reach the center of Redoubt. The tiles of the city and the bodies on the ground are overlaid with glitch patterns, slowly changing color and switching out. On the ground are a mass of deactivated Grigori and Red Robots.
At the center, seeming to grow out of the ground, is what looks at first like a vine or a tower. It is in fact a construct, made of bright green pixels, with CRT lines moving up and down its body. It has the body of a serpent and the head of a lion, mounted on a crucifix. It is a still image projected in the air, its face unmoving.]
[As they they walk on through Redoubt, the city is beginning to dissolve. Debris from building of wildly different styles is mixed together. It starts looking glitched out and turning odd colors. Over time we see more and more ruins from previous locations seen in the story: the Faerie realm, the streets of Paris, Wormwood. We also see the bodies of people we've seen before: Glendalf, the Musketeers, Al-Rahman, Julie, Laura along with various noblemen, vampires etc, copypasted over and over again. In the heap of bodies something stirs and begins to stand up. It's AMELIA MIDNIGHT--
She half-rises out of the mass of bodies and pulls at her daughter.]
AMELIA: Jenny?
[Jenny Everywhere stops in her tracks, looks down into her mother's face.]
JE: Mom?
[Amelia grabs her by the shoulder with one hand, trying to touch her face with the other.]
AMELIA: You--it's almost over now, but it's not too late. It's not too late. You have to go on and take care of Him. I--I was always trying to do what was best for you, up to the very end. I just wanted you to understand. I--
[She stiffens and sinks back to the ground. Jenny Everywhere stand still over her for a moment. Jenny Nowhere grabs ahold of her hand and pulls her on.]
JN: You cannot look back.
[Jenny Everywhere walks on, moving past her mother's body again and again.]
The city has been devastated, barely recognizable from what it was. Scattered debris of many different architectural styles fills the streets. Bodies lie everywhere. A darkness has descended over the city, lit by a harsh green light from somewhere in the distance.
Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere push open a manhole and climb out onto the street. They walk on silently together, not stopping to look at the debris or the bodies. Before long, they reach the ruins of Jenny's old apartment. Jenny stops for a moment to look at it, trying to see if there's anything left behind, but Jenny Nowhere pulls her ahead.]
[Int. LUNAR CATHEDRAL. Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere enter in the vestibule. The stones of the cathedral seem to exude an impossible weight, and Jenny slows down down her steps as she moves inward. Jenny Nowhere, who seems unaffected by the weight, pulls her onward.]
JN: Just a little longer, sister.
[Jenny Everywhere pulls her hand back]
JE: Why the hell do you keep saying that? You are not my sister.
JN: You know why.
[Jenny Nowhere slowly and hesitantly removes her mask and lays it on the ground; her face, of course, is Jenny Everywhere's own]
JN: We are not sisters according to the flesh, perhaps, but we are sisters according to the spirit. Wherever there is a Jenny Everywhere, there must be a Jenny Nowhere. My origin in the part of the hypercosmos we are drawn from is this: when you descended from the Infinite to become incarnate in the material world, I am the part of you that became incarnate in the unbeing of Limbo. We are twins, born from the Infinite's womb. Denied reality, denied life, I hated you and sought to destroy all you were and all you loved.
JE: So why are you trying to help me now?
JN: Because we are one and the same. We are forever set against each other but we need each other to exist. If ARCHONET destroys you, He will destroy me as well.
JE: No! You're not my sister and you're not me. I don't need you.
JN: Then try and move on without me.
[Jenny Everywhere tries to push forward, visibly straining. She can't move an inch.]
JN: See?
[She takes Jenny Everywhere's hand and leads her onward. They reach a fountain in the center of the cathedral, whose water is glowing with a silver light. Jenny Everywhere and Jenny Nowhere reach out to touch it. The water rises up from the fountain and reshapes itself into a spiral staircase. Together they walk upwards.]
