View source for To Hell With Good Intentions (novel)

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''To Hell With Good Intentions'' (novel)}}
{{Short Story
|title1=''To Hell With Good Intentions''
|other_titles=''The Gnostic Nightmare of Jenny Everywhere''
|hero(es)=[[Jenny Everywhere (Reality 45)|Jenny Everywhere]]<br>[[Nazira Chadhry|Nazira “Naz” Chaudhry]]<br>[[Michael Béliveau]]<br>[[Sophie Everytime (Reality 45)|“Sophs”]]
|villain(s)=[[Tripod|Tripods]]<br>[[Mechanoid|Mechanoids]]<br>[[The Magisterium]]<br>[[The Concordat]]<br>[[Grigori]]
|featuring= [[Banksy]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Ed Sheeran]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Queen Victoria]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Kaiser Wilhelm II]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Thomas Edison]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Servitors (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Servitors]]<br>[[Ser Gennever]]<br>[[Hakhe (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Agent Apinya Madsiri]]<br>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Princess Katerina's mother|Queen at the End of Time]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Baron Largo von Wyrtforbor]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Jennifer Barbelith (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Jennifer Barbelith]]<br>[[Blobby Everywhere]]<br>[[Chaos]]<br>[[Jenny Wasteland]]<br>[[Jenry|Jenry the Vacuum Cleaner]]<br>[[James Cooke]]<br>[[Julie Raleigh]]<br>[[The Dragon]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>'Penny' (mentioned)<br>[[Lady Erenow]]<br>[[Carmilla|Carmilla le Fanu]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Nazira Chaudhry's father]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Gentry (To Hell With Good Intentions)|“Scandalised Victorian gentry”]]
|setting=[[Reality 45]]<br>[[The Infinite]]<br>“[[Steampunk Hell]]”
|length=4 chapters <small>(ongoing)</small>
|series= ''[[Derelict (series)|Derelict]]''
|writer(s)= [[okaykaye]]
|dates= December 8th, 2023 - Present
|original_link=[https://archiveofourown.org/works/52119388?view_full_work=true]
|seriesnav= ''[[Derelict (series)|Derelict]]''
|next=[[PROSE]]: ''[[Makeshift (short story)|Makeshift]]''
|crossovers=''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighters_from_Mars Fighters From Mars]''<br>''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison%27s_Conquest_of_Mars Edison's Conquest of Mars]''<br>''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla Carmilla]''
}}'''''To Hell With Good Intentions''''' is a [[Jenny Everywhere]] story by okaykaye. Initially presented as the recollections of the ''[[Makeshift (short story)|Makeshift]]'' Jenny Everywhere about a [[Jenny Everywhere (Reality 45)|past iteration of herself]], it eventually shifted focus to an anthology of loosely-connected vignettes told across multiple perspectives. It is planned to run for a total of ten chapters.

==Contents==
===Plot===
====Chapter 1====
Sometime after a partial restoration of reality following the [[Collapsed Cosmos|collapsed cosmos]], in the [[New York City]] of Reality 45, [[Jenny Everywhere#Derelict Jenny|one version of Jenny Everywhere]] and Nazira Chaudhry flee from a [[Martian]] [[tripod]] destroying the city's power grid after travelling to the city in an attempt to solve an argument over the true identity of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy Banksy]. Using spray paint cans, Jenny establishes communications with the Martian, who explains his grievances with Thomas Edison for the counter-invasion of [[Mars]] after their [[Wellsian invasion of Earth|failed invasion of Earth]]. After taking the Martian back to 1898 to 'vaporise' Edison, Jenny returns Naz to her home in [[London]]. Describing her as unique across a 'million million' universes, Jenny offers to take Naz to an archive 'at the centre of infinity,' an offer Naz accepts.

====Chapter 2====
Jenny and Naz awaken in The Mausoleum, a region of [[The Infinite]] where 'decommissioned' Jennys are remade and sent off to seed newly-formed universes. They are collected by a servitor and brought to the Council Chambers for questioning. Jenny is brought before a Provisional Council of the Magisterium consisting of Jennifer Barbelith, Blobby Everywhere, and Jenny Wasteland. They sentence her to a 'work-release' program of helping them resolve some of the lingering after-effects of the collapse. 

====Chapter 3====
In The Old House, Concordat Agents [[Michael Béliveau]], [[James Cooke]], [[Julie Raleigh]], and “[[Penny (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Penny]]” remotely monitor Jenny Everywhere as she travels to [[Castle Erenow]] to resolve an anomalous event for [[the Magisterium]]. There, the Jenny meets with an unknown woman who hands her a vial of [[Shift#Shifter energy|shifter energy]]. The Agents discover the unidentified owner of the castle is [[Lady Erenow]], Reality 45's [[Jenny Nowhere]], who promptly taunts the agents that she is aware of their surveillance.

====Chapter 4====
Separated from Jenny, [[Nazira Chaudhry|Naz]] finds herself battling mechanical adversaries on a train in [[Steampunk Hell|a reality]] selected by [[the Magisterium]] to serve as her “personal hell”. She is saved from a giant robot spider by a woman named [[Sophie Everytime (Reality 45)|Sophs]], who attempts to reverse the mental link enforced upon her by the Magisterium. She succeeds, retroactively removing Naz from their database. Naz escapes the reality thanks to Sophie's intervention.

===Worldbuilding===
====Jenny Everywhere====
*This story features a cynical, distrustful [[Jenny Everywhere (Reality 45)|Jenny]] from [[Reality 45]], designated “[[Shifter B-45-A]]” by [[the Magisterium]], [[Jennifer Hsu]] by her own account, and the “Derelict” Jenny by external sources. She has isolated herself from the mental link in the wake of the [[Collapsed Cosmos|collapsed cosmos]], stating that she can only “vaguely sense” her other selves. As a result of this disconnect, Lady Erenow describes her as “halfway to [[Jenny Nowhere|Nowhere]]”.
*Other versions of Jenny appear as members of the Magisterium:
**A regal and imperious Jenny who has adopted the name [[Jennifer Barbelith (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Jennifer Barbelith]], who leads the council proceedings.
**[[Blobby Everywhere]], a clumsy yellow and pink monstrosity.
**A version of [[Jenny Wasteland|Jenny]] hailing from a post-apocalyptic Wasteland.
**A ‘[[Jenry]]’ vacuum cleaner.
*The Jenny of Reality 45 has had romantic relationships with [[Nazira Chaudhry]] and [[Lady Erenow]], her universe's version of [[Jenny Nowhere]].
*The Jenny of Reality 45 has a tendency to swear on “both” of her [[Jenny Everywhere's mother|mums]].
*During a bout of [[Shifter hangover|Shifter Hangover]], the Jenny of Reality 45 experiences a brief vision of herself as a [[Ser Genniver|brave knight]].
*The Jenny of Reality 45 expresses a distaste for creating [[Anchor|Anchors]].
*In the Magisterium's database, the Jenny of Reality 45 has received the designation “Purple” due to her actions during a [[Zeppelin War]] in [[Prague]]. Concordat Agent [[Hakhe (To Hell With Good Intentions)|Apinya Madsiri]] suggested she be raised to designation 'Magenta' for damaging reality through her actions in New York. This is downgraded to a 'Chartreuse' as part of her 'work-release' program.

====Nazira Chaudhry====
*This story introduces [[Nazira Chaudhry|Nazira “Naz” Chaudhry]], of [[Reality 45]], who that universe's Jenny considers a unique entity across “a million million universes”. Her unique status in the hypercosmos was caused retroactively by the intervention of [[Sophie Everytime (To Hell With Good Intentions)|a version]] of [[Sophie Everytime]] when she tried to undo a [[Anchor|mental link]] the Magisterium attempted to force onto Naz.
*Naz is horrified by [[Blobby Everywhere]].
*Naz mentions growing up in the Brick Lane, part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
*Her father made her take self-defense classes before she started sixth form.
*Naz dislikes the Steampunk subculture, causing [[the Magisterium]] to shift her into a Steampunk universe that she considered her 'personal hell.'

====Jenny Nowhere====
*The [[Jenny Nowhere]] of [[Reality 45]] adopted the pseudonym of [[Lady Calpernia Erenow]], residing in a Castle on the Yorkshire moors formerly belonging to [[Carmilla|Carmilla le Fanu]]. She has a romantic relationship with her reality's Jenny Everywhere. 
* Concordat Agent [[Michael Béliveau]] considers her to smile as if she's in on a private joke.
*While experiencing a bout of Shifter hangover, the Jenny Everywhere of Reality 45 saw a “dastardly sorceress”.

====Michael Wherever====
* [[Michael Béliveau]] appears as an agent of [[the Concordat]].

====Sophie Everytime====
*A [[Sophie Everytime (Reality 45)|version]] of [[Sophie Everytime]] appears in the Steampunk universe [[Nazira Chaudhry]] is transported into by [[the Magisterium]], claiming to be from the future of [[Reality 45]]. This iteration refers to herself by the nickname “Sophs”. Nazira Chaudhry believes her to be “about thirty”.
*Her style of altering reality is compared by Nazira Chaudhry to someone “weaving spells” like the strokes of a paintbrush.
*Nazira Chaudhry, after suspecting that Sophie was the biological daughter of her reality's [[Jenny Everywhere (Reality 45)|Jenny]], believes that Sophs has inherited a distinct familial style of leaning on walls.
*The Reality 45 iteration of Sophie states that she can communicate with beings while she alters them, stating that she helped a giant robot spider to rethink his choices “on a molecular level” and reconstructed him as a flower pot in [[Marrakesh]]. She expresses a fondness for Marrakesh, which she describes as 'lovely.'
*The Sophie Everytime of Reality 45 considers that universe's version of Nazira Chaudry to be her adoptive mother after an unspecified fate befell Jenny Everywhere. She claims to have been “chucked” at her adoptive mother like a rugby ball as a baby, but later admits that this could be a fabrication.

====Laura Drake====
*[[The Concordat]], an organisation in Reality 45 tasked with monitoring deviant [[Shifter|Shifters]], lists a being known only as “[[the Dragon]]” among their personnel, implicitly a version of Laura. According to [[Michael Béliveau]], the Dragon had made 'short work' reverse engineering advanced technologies from [[the Infinite]] provided by the Magisterium.

====Universes====
*Much of this story takes place in [[Reality 45]], during the 2010s. According to Jenny, that reality's planet [[Earth]] suffered an [[Wellsian invasion of Earth|Martian invasion in the late nineteenth century]], and has been heavily damaged by fossil fuels.
*Reality 45 contains a [[Castle Erenow]] in the Yorkshire moors, formerly belonging to [[Carmilla]].
*Nazira Chaudhry is sent to the London of [[Steampunk Hell|a Steampunk universe]] by the the Magisterium.

===Continuity===
*This story takes place before [[PROSE]]: ''[[Makeshift (short story)|Makeshift]]'', starring a different iteration of the same Jenny.
*Reality has been partially restored following the [[Collapsed Cosmos|collapse of the cosmos]], detailed in [[PROSE]]: ''[[The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere (novel)|The Hermetic Garbage of Jenny Everywhere]]''.
*The Magisterium was formed when multiple versions of Jenny seized control of the [[The Redoubt|Redoubt]] from the [[Archon|Archons]]. The concept of a [[Governing Council]] comprising multiple versions of Jenny Everywhere first appeared in [[COMIC]]: ''[[Governing Council (comic story)|Governing Council]]''. 
*The Jenny of Reality 45 claims that she has fought [[Martian|Martians]] before.
*Blobby Everywhere is noted to have gotten “a little too close to the [[Abstract]] of [[Chaos]]”, a recurring figure originating in [[COMIC]]: ''[[The Jenny Everywhere Chronicles (comic story)|The Jenny Everywhere Chronicles]]''.
*The Jenny of Reality 45 claims to have been part of a [[Zeppelin War]] in [[Prague]] against [[Baron Largo von Wyrtforbor]]. A Zeppelin War was previously mentioned in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Extradimensional Experiments (short story)|Extradimensional Experiments]]''.
*Similarly to the claim made by the [[Jenny Everywhere#In the Infinity Apartment|Jenny]] who lived in the [[Infinity Apartment]] of being on “both sides of every breakup in the multi-verse”, the Jenny of Reality 45 claims to have been on 'both sides of every breakup in history.' ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Infinity Apartment (comic story)|Infinity Apartment]]'')
*A version of Jenny Everywhere's full name being Jennifer [[Barbelith]] was first suggested in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Wanted for Questioning (short story)|Wanted For Questioning]]''.

== Behind the scenes ==
===Read online===
The story can be read for free [https://archiveofourown.org/works/52119388?view_full_work=true on ArchiveOfOurOwn.net].
[[Category:Stories]]
[[Category:Prose Stories]]
[[Category:Novels]]
[[Category:Featuring Jenny Everywhere]]
[[Category:Featuring Michael Wherever]]
[[Category:Featuring Jenny Nowhere]]
[[Category:Surviving Stories]]
[[Category:Written in 2023]]
[[Category:Written by okaykaye]]
[[Category:Featuring Sophie Everytime]]