A Morning In (short story)

Jenny Cornelius wakes up naked in her own bed, and, as she drifts back to consciousness and dimensionally orients herself, remembers that Laura Drake has just spent the night at Jenny's place for the first time. Laura woke up first and is already cooking breakfast; after “roll[ing] out of bed and f[i]nding a robe”, Jenny greets her happily. They get to breakfast, with Laura having fried some eggs to made a change from Jenny's usual of toast with Bovril or Marmite. After they're done eating, Jenny broaches the subject of the venue for their date tonight, suggesting the recently-opened restaurant on the top floor of the newly-built Post Office Tower. After Laura agrees, Jenny goes off to take a shower while Laura does the dishes. She is interrupted in this eminently practical activity by a phone call from the alien Misterions, announcing that they “have devised an elaborate and complicated plan that if not stopped will annoy and inconvenience [Jenny]”, but when Laura blankly replies that Jenny can't come to the phone right now, the extraterrestrials meekly hang up, promising to call again later.

Worldbuilding

Jenny Everywhere

This story features Jenny Cornelius.

Laura Drake

Laura Drake is confirmed to be a “pale redhead” as is typical. She lives in a bedsit, with a number of housemates; the house has a garden at the back, with a view (if one might call it that) of the Euston Station tracks. The Post Office Tower is located midway between said house and Jenny's home.
Jenny has a dream about a different, more villainous Laura.

Universes

This story takes place in the home universe of Jenny Cornelius.
Jenny dreams of an otherwise-similar world where she and Doctor Draconic are at odds; she is unsure whether the present universe might eventually turn into that one, or if they are lastingly distinct.

Other

In the universe Jenny dreamed about, Doctor Draconic took telepathic control of the Loch Ness Monster.
Laura Drake notes that if it were up to Jenny, she would only eat “toast and Bovril” for breakfast, rhetorically reminding Jenny that “we're done with rationing, you know”.
When Laura asks her what she wants to “do”, Jenny jokingly replies “David Bowie”, confirming Cornelius to be bisexual.
Due to her job, Laura is aware that there are “Sygons in the basement” of the Post Office Tower.

Continuity

The opening lines, with Jenny awakening from dreams based on her other selves' lives before refocusing on a single-dimensional perspective, evokes Scott Sanford's earlier PROSE: Awakening.
Jenny's dreams included one about a universe where Laura Drake used her villainous “Doctor Draconic” alias, introduced in PROSE: Attack of the Rise of the Revenge of the Scheme of Doctor Draconic.
Laura reminds Jenny that she owns “a sports car”. Laura mentioned Jenny's Mini to Sophie Everytime in PROSE: How Jenny First Met….

Behind the scenes

Background

When posting the story, Scott Sanford appended a foreword:

August 13th is Jenny Everywhere Day! No adventure, no plot, just a few moments early in the morning with Jenny Cornelius and her Laura Drake.

For even sillier and even shorter micro-tales, see Origin of the Shifter and Superb Owl.

—Scott Sanford

And an afterword:

As one might guess, Jenny Cornelius and her Laura Drake have appeared in other tales before this one.

Laura has also provided some tips for Employee Training, which you can read at the link.

Bovril and Marmite are British foods, though some might dispute that last word, both suitable for spreading on toast.

This is a busy era for the tower, even not counting the mentioned restaurant on top and visitors below; it’s also going to see both a malevolent telepathic computer and an extraterrestrial spaceship, in stories chronicled elsewhere.

—Scott Sanford

In addition to these references, the Sygons obviously evoke the Doctor Who “Zygons”, and the Misterions are obvious stand-in for the Mysterons of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons fame. Notably, although the Jenny Cornelius stories are no strangerqs to mashing up various elements of British pop culture into a single shared universe, the latter series was already established to share a universe with prime Doctor Who.

Read online

The story is available on the author's Dreamwidth website.

Contents

Plot