Enchanted (comic story)

Enchanted was a story arc in Grace Crowley's webcomic The Bare Pit which crossed over with another webcomic, Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan.

It was written and illustrated by Grace Crowley and mentioned Jenny Everywhere (who had previously visited the setting in COMIC: Ghost Story).

As par for the course for the Bare Pits series story's visuals are NSFW due to the presence of much nudity, although the actual storyline is otherwise family-friendly.

A quiet day at the Koala Bay Bares Naturist Resort is interrupted by the appearance of Sven Allestädes‏‎, who Loxie and Tash immediately mistake for their local nuisance Tex Tyler, who once infiltrated the resort under the name Sven, affecting a Swedish accent and wearing a blond wig and mustache. Once this is sorted out Sven explains he is here to see Mungo.

After a quick explanation of the predicament of Abúi, a fairy from a parallel universe who has become stranded here, Sven dismisses both gadgets and Jenny Everywhere as unreliable and resolves to see her home himself. Tash is surprised and delighted to discover Abúi is literally, not figuratively, a fairy and magical creature; this leads to her accidentally shifting out with them as they go, and they end up in a fantasy world that is actually distinct from Abúi's own.

Upon arrival Tash is disoriented and Sven has gotten separated from the others, but Abúi keeps her wits about her and soon they find Sven with Gog and Mim, two local Gnomes Abúi explains this is not her world and Tash tries and fails to come to terms with being in another world at all. This is interrupted by the arrival of Puddle the Troll, who brings a report of a “weirdy thing” that is perplexing local residents. The artifact turns out to be Sven’s shorts, which are claimed by an Elf named Erman, despite the skepticism of the nymph Sprite and the fairy Jai-jai, and despite his obvious ignorance of what they are. After some experimentation Erman figures out how to wear shorts, which offends Puddles. The troll rips the shorts into pieces, each of which turns into another pair of shorts. Erman grabs the pile and runs off.

Back at Gog and Mim’s mushroom home, Tash is feeling much better and Sven explains to the others that his magical underpants will become whatever outfit the wearer imagines. Everyone agrees this would be destabilizing to the world.

Meanwhile Erman is selling “stylish hip wrappers” and discovers the transformation magic. An instant fad develops. Jai-Jai goes to get Sprite and discovers that not only does Sprite have a garment but she is acting very strangely. The magical clothes somehow influence locals with new clothing related ideas such as fashion, concealment, and modesty. After persuasion they discover that the effects fade once the clothes are removed. However, the clothing glamour has already affected the local King, who decrees a public parade – clothing mandatory! This enrages Puddle, who charges off to thump Erman. The fairies Abúi and Jai-Jai fly after him to stop the thumping but Erman is not grateful and tries to have them arrested by the King’s Guard. Back at the mushroom, Sprite’s disenchantment efforts have not been working. After discussion they realize they need another original garment – Sven’s socks. This does the trick and all of the “wrappers” disappear. Suddenly naked again, a mob of townsfolk pursues Erman, seeking refunds and/or thumping.

After everything settles down, Abúi decides to try getting home via magic from this world while Sven returns Tash to her home universe. Before they leave, Mim and Gog surprise Tash by mentioning that she was not the first human inter-dimensional visitor to their world, and that they once met a “crazy human girl” who was a lot like her. Back home, Tash doesn't manage to get Herb or Willow to believe her stories, and Mungo advises her to find a more suitable audience, which comes in the form of the children Chrystel and Zinni. Later, while walking through the Resort, she thinks she spots Gog and Mim again, but they're only the clay “Gnoode Gnomes” that Janet Jenkins creates as a hobby. With Janet recognising the names when Tash blurts them out, Tash realises Janet was the “weird girl”. She begins to tell Tash about her own experience, which began when she followed a White Rabbit down a rabbit-hole…

Worldbuilding

Universes

The story starts in the Koala Bay universe and moves on to another, a fantasy world populated by beings such as Trolls and Gnomes where clothing is unheard-of; Abúi does not get to her home in this tale. Although both worlds are fantasy universes with various kinds of fae, Abúi notes, when meeting Erman, that he does not look like the Elves of her own world.
Sven Allestädes recently visited a world where the events of The Emperor's New Clothes actually took place, except that the Emperor's clothes really were made of a magical fabric that could only be seen by sufficiently perceptive people. He tracked down the tailors and had them make a different magical garment (plus some magical socks) for him.

Jenny Everywhere

Sven Allestädes is familiar with Jenny Everywhere but calls her “useless”.

Other

Sven Allestädes's shifting produces a “FOOOP” sound effect and leaves behind small pink clouds with plumes of greenish-yellow smoke for every person taken along.
It is shown that travelling from one world to another for the first time can have an “intoxicating” effect on non-shifters, leaving them in a state similar to being mildly drunk.
Tash Spicer thought that Abúi was a human cosplayer wearing “Spock ears”.
Gog derisively calls Erman “Brainiac”.
One of Erman's clients swears “in Godiva's name”.
Tash finds a book entitled Release Your Inner Gnome inside Gog and Mim's mushroom-house.
The people of Little Noodlington watch the news on the Tele-Flower.
Abúi carries a small satchel of Waylay Dust, which causes brief hallucinations when blown into someone's eyes.

Continuity

This story follows directly from COMIC: Incognito.
Abúi and Sven Allestädes are seen at the Koala Bay Bares Naturist Resort again in COMIC: The Nicest Place in the Universe.

Behind the scenes

Read online

Enchanted was originally available on the Bare Pit website. Although this webcomic is now offline, it remains available on the Internet Archive.