The Grand Multiverse Hotel (short story)

The Grand Multiverse Hotel was a novella-length short story in the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids series, written by Aristide Twain.

Although Jenny Everywhere and Pythagoras-858 were not the main characters (with the narrative instead focusing on a newly-introduced human protagonist, Wendy), their part in the plot resolved the cliffhanger at the end of COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids.

Wendy, a young thief, accidentally boards a shuttle to Hilbert's, an infinite interdimensional hotel in the middle of the Void, instead of the bus she was hoping to catch. Aboard, posing as a seasoned dimensional traveller, she meets and befriends Sylvester Shoebill, an anthropomorphic bird and confidence artist; the two agree to have dinner at the hotel once they get there, so as to talk their future partnership over. However, after the shuttle reaches its destination, she loses sight of Shoebill in the crowd of the infinitely-large lobby.

After a tense encounter with Jark Haine, a telepathic Propugnator, Wendy decides to try and rent a room. While waiting in line, she meets the Queen of the Interdimensional Black Market. Taking a liking to Wendy, the Queen takes her under her wing, paying for her room and inviting her to dinner. As it turns out, this does not conflict with her earlier appointment, as the Queen is also here to meet Sylvester Shoebill, who is apparently in her debt.

Wendy attempts to text her brother, but only succeeds in getting through to a minor interdimensional entity, who the Queen enslaves to her phone for her. They go down to have dinner as planned, with Sylv soon offering the Queen the Crystal of Thrash as payment for his debt. As they begin to eat the main courses, however, the Queen collapses, seemingly poisoned to death. While Sylv is coerced into bringing her body back to her room, Wendy looks for a hotel detective, and bumps into Jenny Everywhere, who happens to be dining with a private detective: the Clockwork Cherub Pythagoras-858.

Brought to the Queen's room, where Jenny and Sylv recognise each other from a previous encounter and end up shifting away in the middle of a scuffle, Pythe realises that the Queen's soul has not left her body; all they need is a magical ritual to purge her body of the poison and restore her to life. They land on the idea of using a classic “Kiss of True Love”, although Wendy's “mild infatuation” is only strong enough to half-bring her back. However, they are forced to vacate the room in a hurry when the conditions start to shift, ready to accommodate the next, non-human guest. To get the Queen back on her feet in time, Wendy lets Pythe use Cupid Love Potion on her, making her artificially love the Queen as deeply as she can, such that the Kiss now functions perfectly.

In the corridor, the fleeing three are confronted by a Wellsian, Forga sog-Forgos, who, in disguise as a waiter, poisoned the Queen's food. He is also the official new occupant of the room — where, in the commotion, Wendy has left the Crystal of Thrash, which was what the Wellsian had been counting on.

Forced to admit defeat on this issue, the three head to the Hotel's underground parking lot for Void Ships, where Pythe finds his Fog Ship and the Queen her Void Limousine. They agree that the Queen and Wendy should spend some time apart from each other, despite Wendy's newfound feelings for the Queen; the Queen decides to return to the Interdimensional Black Market using her emergency teleport, leaving her Void Limousine (and all the money it contains) to Wendy so that she can begin a life of adventures in the Multiverse on her own terms.

Worldbuilding

Jenny

This story features the version of Jenny who has been travelling with Pythagoras-858.
She mentions a “Giant Robot Jenny” as one of her incarnations.
She remembers having encountered Sylvester Shoebill before in a red-haired incarnation with “big high-tech goggles” and “more legs than sense”, who wore a scarf with polka dots.
Jenny shifts with “a flash and a weird womphing noise”.

Universes

The story begins in Wendy VII's home universe, whose designation is unknown.
Sylvester Shoebill is a native of the Prime Universe, so named simply because “[its] representative was first in line at the registration office when the Council of Frogs put together their little Doomsday Book”.
Wendy supposes that the cube-like waiter came from a “Cube Universe”.
Shoebill owns the Crystal of Thrash, a planet located “on the outer arm of a web galaxy in Dimension Epsilon Five”.
The “Giant Robot Jenny” is from Dimension-JK1287BU.
One of the locations recorded in the Void Limousine's MPS is the Great Honey Cliffs of the 67th Universe.

Other

Sylvester Shoebill mentions Lord Thymon as one of the eldritch abominations inhabiting the Void.
The Queen of the Black Market hid her name using a Curse of Silence.
The Queen is a little over 520 years old, which Wendy remarks is “older than Queen Elizabeth I”.
Jenny Everywhere mentions the existence of an Interdimensional Tavern and Interdimensional Casino.
Pythagoras-858 believes that the last time the Void was unified before the time of the Embodiments was the days of the Dream Architects of Fal-Tal-Grappal.
Shoebill is seen reading “some kind of business newspaper called the Financial Space-Times”.
Pythe has an Electromagnetic Ankh.
The Queen of the Black Market gives Wendy her Void Limousine, “especially created for [the Queen] by the finest engineer of the Order of the Automata”.
Locations saved in the MPS of the Void Limousine include the Lost Moon of Salzafraz as well as Paradigm City, Capital of the New Cyblonian Republic.

Continuity

Jenny Everywhere and Pythagoras-858's role in the story follows on from the ending of COMIC: Jenny Everywhere Meets The Crew Of The Copper-Colored Cupids.
The Wellsians explain that they visited the Interdimensional Black Market, paying off a cameo by a Wellsian in PROSE: Misadventures in the Interdimensional Black Market. The Queen also uses the word “glozzort” again, as she did there.
The events of PROSE: The Resurrection of the Wellsians are discussed at some length.
Squire Psykha later appeared in person in PROSE: Family Business, where they were characterised much more spikily than their description in this story would imply. To smooth over the discrepancy, Thymon briefly remarked that “back in the day, before the Cupids, people thought Psykha was the nice one” out of the three Embodiments, accounting for Jenny describing Psykha as “a sweetheart” in this story.
PROSE: A World of Pure Unimagination later alluded to the Doomsday Book.

Behind the scenes

Read online

This story is available online on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.