Open Sourcing (short story): Difference between revisions

Open Sourcing (short story) (view source)

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 | other_titles=
 | hero(es)= [[Jenny Over-There (925th Universe)|Jenny Over-There]]
-| featuring= [[The Man in Grey (925th Universe)|The Man in Grey]]<br>[[Dynamite Thor (Fox universe)|Dynamite Thor]]<br>[[Metal O'Maniac]]<br>[[Talbot Molossus]]<br>[[The Hydrant]]<br>[[Gilbert Gottfried]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Wayne Bruce]]<br>[[Batman]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Iron Lady]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Nihilist]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Aryan Eagle]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Volksstrum]]<br>[[Doctor Know-It-All (925th Universe)|Doctor Know-It-All]]<br>[[Doctor No]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Doctor]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Doctor Omega]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Doctor's TARDIS]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Man in Black]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[0000-8888888]]<br>[[Captain Omega]]<br>[[Stardust the Super-Wizard (925th Universe)|Stardust the Super-Wizard]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[George Wilson]]<br>[[Jay Gatsby]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small>
+| featuring= [[The Man in Grey (925th Universe)|The Man in Grey]]<br>[[Dynamite Thor (Fox universe)|Dynamite Thor]]<br>[[Metal O'Maniac]]<br>[[Talbot Molossus]]<br>[[The Hydrant]]<br>[[Gilbert Gottfried]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Wayne Bruce]]<br>[[Batman]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Iron Lady]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Nihilist]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Aryan Eagle]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Volksstrum]]<br>[[Doctor Know-It-All (925th Universe)|Doctor Know-It-All]]<br>[[Doctor No]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Doctor]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Doctor Omega]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Doctor's TARDIS]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[The Man in Black]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[0000-8888888]]<br>[[Captain Omega]]<br>[[Stardust the Super-Wizard (925th Universe)|Stardust the Super-Wizard]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[George Wilson]]<br>[[Jay Gatsby]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Dynamite Thor's friend (Open Sourcing)|Dynamite Thor's friend]]<br><small>(2024 edition; mentioned)</small><br>[[Pixie Pristine]]<br><small>(2024 edition; mentioned)</small><br>[[The Dart]]<br><small>(2024 edition; mentioned)</small><br>[[The Spider Queen]]<br><small>(2024 edition; mentioned)</small><br>[[Electro (Fox universe)|Electro]]<br><small>(2024 edition; mentioned)</small>
 | setting= [[M.F.S. office]], [[925th Universe]]
-| length= 3478 words
+| length= 3,478 words<br><small>(original edition)</small><br>5,184 words<br><small>(2024 edition)</small>
 | writer(s)= [[Callum Phillpott]]
 | artist(s)= [[Callum Phillpott]]
 | series=
-| dates= May 13th, 2022
+| dates= May 13th, 2022<br>July 12th, 2024<br><small>(updated edition)</small>
-| original_link= [https://archiveofourown.org/works/38965554]
+| original_link= [https://archiveofourown.org/works/38965554]<br>[https://ninetwofiveuniverse.wordpress.com/2024/07/08/open-sourcing/]
 | seriesnav= ''[[Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe (series)|Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe]]'' stories
 | previous= ''[[The Tribulations of Jenny Over-There (short story)|The Tribulations of Jenny Everywhere]]''
 | next= ''[[A Series of Queer Events (short story)|A Series of Queer Events]]''
 }}'''''Open Sourcing''''' was a short story written by [[Callum Phillpott]]. The second in Phillpott's ''[[Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe (series)|Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe]]'' series, it continued the story of their creations [[Jenny Over-There (925th Universe)|Jenny Over-There]] and [[The Man in Grey (925th Universe)|the Man in Grey]], and featured appearances by multiple other public-domain and open-source characters.
+In 2024, a heavily updated version was published on the official ''Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe'' website.
 ==Contents==
@@ Line 57: / Line 59: @@
 {{quotebox|A big thank you to the Public Domain Superheroes Wiki for making the finding of obscure Open Source characters way easier on my part. All characters mentioned can be found on there (except Batman, he's copyrighted).|Callum Phillpott}}
+The updated, illustrated version published on the official ''[[Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe (series)|Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe]]'' website on July 12th, 2024 expanded the wordcount by over one thousand and five hundred words. The most significant of these edits are:
+* In the opening scene, an aside is added in which [[Jenny Over-There (925th Universe)|Jenny Over-There]] thinks to herself that [[the Man in Grey (925th Universe)|the Man in Grey]] reminds her “of a cheap [[Halloween]] decoration. One that maybe should’ve seen a psychiatrist a decade ago”. The latter phrase humorously alludes to [[The Man in Grey (short story)|the Man in Grey's official bio]] published as part of the ''Character Index'' of the newly-launched website at the same time as the updated version, in which it was revealed that the Man in Grey had indeed spent the 1994-2006 period having “an existential crisis”.
+* Jenny reacts less angrily to the disappearance of her desk, taking the Man in Grey's nonsense in stride. She now agrees to help with the interviews not just for a generic offer of money, but in exchange for a promise that she'll get her own office.
+* The Man in Grey reveals that he fulfilled Jenny's position for about a month under his prior boss, before “she” was fired and the [[Great Higher-Up]]s promoted him in her place.
+* It is confirmed that the grey “interview room” which serves as the setting for most of the story is the same room in which Jenny went through her own job interview for the [[M.F.S.]]. Its description is subtly changed to the window only being “tinted” grey, rather than outright occluded with a grey paint-over as in the original.
+* In recognition of the importance the character would ultimately take on in the series, [[Dynamite Thor (Fox universe)|Dynamite Thor]]'s first scene in this story is significantly expanded, now including more back-and-forth. The mention of “the [[Fox universe]]” is changed to “the [[Foxverse]]” (the term used in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Lovie Dovie Stuff (short story)|Lovie Dovie Stuff]]''), with Thor explaining that he can travel back and forth between it and the [[925th Universe]] thanks to having “[[Dynamite Thor's friend (Open Sourcing)|a friend]] back there with a multidimensional thingamajig”. When called down on the fact that he is not an open-source character, Thor, though confessing that he isn't particularly good with “the metaphysical stuff”, tries to argue his case, explaining before he is interrupted that “[[Fox Features Syndicate]] never registered or renewed the copyright, so —”.
+* The conversation with [[Metal O'Maniac]] is expanded, with O'Maniac now being more reluctant to admit he burned down his previous place of work.
+* The aside mentioning that Jenny had been thinking about setting fire to the [[The Abandoned, Possibly Haunted SatNav Factory|SatNav factory]] on the day it “coincidentally blew up” is omitted.
+* [[Talbot Molossus]]'s outfit is described as resembling a “Royal Officer” rather than a “British royal”. Jenny guesses that he is in his 20s.
+* [[Wayne Bruce]] now insists on keeping the lights dimmed while he is being interviewed, and, when he tackles the Man in Grey, tries to bite down on his neck — implying he is a [[vampire]]-like being. The last few lines of the scene make it clearer that, precisely due to the dimmed lights, Jenny and the Man in Grey genuinely believed him to be [[Batman]], rather than simply dismissing him for being too Batman-like.
+* While recovering from being bitten by Bruce, the Man in Grey ruminates that “in many ways, this form was severely limiting, but it was the one he had”.
+* Jenny and the Man in Grey now have a bit of back-and-forth about the fact that [[the Iron Lady]] is friends with a version of [[Pixie Pristine]], who went unmentioned in the original version, though this association is part of the two characters' actual open-source blurbs.
+* Jenny now notices that [[Volksstrum]] is a [[Nazi]] not because he is wearing an Iron Cross on his chest in his file picture, but because he wrote his name out as "VolkSStrum".
+* Jenny extorts extra money from the Man in Grey for going through the list in-between applicants and crossing out all the obvious Nazis; agreeing without much fuss, the Man in Grey ends up handing her an arbitrary amount of banknotes from his wallet without counting them out.
+* Similar to Thor's, [[Doctor Know (925th Universe)|Doctor Know]]'s introduction scene is significantly expanded. He boasts of having “lived a thousand lives and journeyed to a thousand wolds”. The Man in Grey loses his cool and, snatching up the Doctor's incriminating picture of [[the Man in Black]], “tears it up like a deranged [[goblin]]”, only for the Doctor to use magic to repair it, then add that it was irrelevant anyway because he has several backup copies in his archives. He also taunts the Man in Grey by saying he might tell the [[Great Higher-Up]]s about the Man's involvement with “[[War in Heaven|the War—]]” before he is interrupted by the Man in Grey agreeing to his terms.
+* There is more focus on the [[Teleportation Gun]], which is stated to be “one use only”, ostensibly retroactively explaining why it never reappeared in the series (although this introduces an apparent contradiction with [[PROSE]]: ''[[Family Business (short story)|Family Business]]'' where Jenny implies that she tried to use it again when she was abducted by [[Jenny Nowhere (925th Universe)|Jenny Nowhere]]). Instead of using it on herself to escape the explosion within the building, she aims it at “Captain Omega” and his grenade, and ''they'' explode outdoors, just outside the window. This is bad news for the Man in Grey, who had still tried to escape by climbing out the window, although he suffers no serious injury.
+* [[0000-8888888]]'s spelled-out name of [[Tetra-None Hepta-Oct]] is mentioned, unlike the original, briefer scene in which only the numerical form was presented. She give more detail on her background, noting that she recently left [[Cyclock homeworld (925th Universe)|her homeworld]] for unspecified reasons; features of human culture to which she still has trouble acclimatising include “living in linear time” (“I keep forgetting that seconds happen consecutively, and that time passes whenever I speak”) as well as “the gender thing”, which Tetra states doesn't exist among the [[Cyclock (925th Universe)|Cyclock]]s, with [[time signature]]s being the closest concept. Tetra expresses willingness to use she/her pronouns “for now”, but to “give them all a try” over time.
+* Jenny's conversation with Dynamite Thor towards the end of the story now takes place in the small personal office given to her by the Man in Grey as promised, rather than in the waiting room outside the interview room.
+* Their heart-to-heart is significantly expanded, with Jenny sharing her feelings of loneliness and dissociation from reality, while Peter describes the failure of his superheroic career at somewhat greater length, mentioning that he has become redundant in his home universe thanks to the prevalence of other heroes such as [[the Dart]], [[the Spider Queen]], and [[Electro (Fox universe)|Electro]].
 ===Read online===
-''Open Sourcing'' was released [https://archiveofourown.org/works/38965554 on Archive Of Our Own], where it is still available.
+''Open Sourcing'' was released [https://archiveofourown.org/works/38965554 on Archive Of Our Own], where it is still available. The updated version is [https://ninetwofiveuniverse.wordpress.com/2024/07/08/open-sourcing/ available] on the official ''[[Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe (series)|Jenny Over-There: The Nine-Two-Five Universe]]'' website.
 [[Category:Stories]]