Sven Allestädes
Sven Allestädes was a Swedish shifter with powers comparable to Jenny Everywhere's. He was also an old friend of Mungo's.
Description
Physical appearance
Sven appeared as a heavy-set, tall man with pale skin, golden-blond hair and a bushy mustache to match. After his visit to a universe where a version of the tale of the Emperor's New Clothes occurred where the tailors were actual magicians, he always wore what was technically a single, magical item of clothing, which transformed according to his whim into whatever outfit he desired. To complete this, he also had magical socks that could turn into any kind of footwear, something which was not covered by the main item of clothing. (COMIC: Enchanted)
Personality
Sven Allestädes was a relaxed, laid-back, approachable drifter. (COMIC: Enchanted, The Nicest Place in the Universe) He appeared to think fairly highly of himself, considering himself a superior shifter to Jenny Everywhere and complimenting his own appearance on occasion. He described himself as being “allergic to being arrested”. (COMIC: Enchanted)
Powers & abilities
Sven was a powerful shifter, usually able to transport himself from one world to another at will, and to take multiple people along with him. When he involuntarily dragged Tash Spicer on a trip, and did not materialise in the universe he had intended but in a similar, distinct one, he was surprised, stating this had never appeared to him before. (COMIC: Enchanted)
Biography
Early life
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At some point when Sven was already an established shifter, he crossed paths with a version of Jenny Everywhere who was “just starting out”. She embarrassed herself in front of him, something this Jenny remained quite self-conscious about, avoiding Sven in subsequent years. (COMIC: The Nicest Place in the Universe)
At one point, Sven visited a world where a version of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes was occurring in reality, but where the tailors were not con men and the magic fabric really worked as they claimed. He witnessed the Emperor's fateful parade, and was one of the very few people who actually saw the clothes, judging them to be a splendid outfit. He sought out the magic-using tailors and ordered item of clothing from them, which could change shape as he willed it, thus allowing him to slip effortlessly from one world to another without constantly having to adjust his wardrobe. He also bought a pair of magical socks with a similar function from them, as the other item of clothing didn't encompass footwear. (COMIC: Enchanted)
At the Koala Bay Bares Resort
Sven once came to the Koala Bay Bares Naturist Resort in one universe to visit his old friend Mungo. When he first showed himself to Loxie Smith and Tash Spicer, they believed him to be their nemesis Tex Tyler, who had previously disguised himself as a Swede called “Sven”, who looked startlingly like the real Sven. After the misunderstanding was cleared up by a phone call from the real Tex, Sven was led to Mungo's yurt by Tash. There, Mungo explained to him that he needed Sven's help to get Abúi, a stranded faerie from another universe back home.
Sven agreed to help, but with Tash coming at the last moment, ended up missing his aim as he shifted himself, Abúi and Tash. They ended up in a fantasy universe distinct from Abúi's, where Sven soon befriended the Gnomes Gog and Mim. However, in the commotion of landing, he had lost the satchel containing the magical cloth, which was found by the Elf Erman. Discovering that pieces of the cloth would turn into whole garments with the same properties, Erman began selling them, introducing the hitherto-unaware inhabitants of the magic forest to the concept of clothing in general. He ended up giving his magical socks to the nymph Sprite so she could use them as a basis for an “undo spell” that broke the entire enchantment on the original article of clothing, causing all the duplicates to vanish and restoring order to Little Noodlington. After the dust cleared, Sven took Tash back home. He also offered to take Abúi back and try again to get her to her own homeworld, but she politely declined, preferring to let Sprite get a shot at getting her home using her magic. (COMIC: Enchanted)
Greta and Shelterville
Determined to get a new magical item of clothing to replace the destroyed one, Sven returned to the Land of the Naked Emperor in search of the magical tailor. Instead, he found that the Emperor had become a tyrannical warmonger as a result of his public humiliation, and that his daughter, Princess Greta, was developing shifting powers of her own. He stayed around for a while, helping her harness her talents, allowing her to run away from home and escape her father's dangerous mood-swings.
After Greta began travelling by herself, however, they lost touch with each other for a while. Greta ended up travelling to Shelterville in search of Sven. Tammy Shotwell informed him that he hadn't been seen there in a while, but a mechanic called him via the interociter and he eventually came to Shelterville in time to see Greta returning from the Land of the Naked Emperor with her now-remorseful father, having travelled there under the belief that Sven might have gone back there yet again. Sven briefly met the ex-Emperor, revealing to him how he had helped his daughter hone her powers, and later attended the ceremony where the former Emperor was sworn in as Shelterville's new Justice of the Peace. (COMIC: 24 Hour Comic 2019)
Later events
He was seen dining at The Adventurers' Club in Buranda along with Jenny Everywhere one night. What they were doing there was never shown, as the restaurant was invaded by a violent extraterrestrial. (COMIC: Ruthless Ro-Man)
Later, Sven Allestädes was present at the Koala Bay Resort when Jenny Everywhere dropped in on Loxie and Zoot. When she realised he was also there, Jenny felt awkward and tried to avoid having to talk to him, but her efforts soon backfired, and she ended up talking to him and getting over her hangup about him at long last. (COMIC: The Nicest Place in the Universe)
Behind the scenes
The Swedish word allestädes means “everywhere” or “ubiquitous”, thus furthering Sven's status as an “equal” of Jenny Everywhere. His profile on the official Bare Pit cast list read:
| An eccentric interdimensional traveller able to move himself and others into various alternate realities. Sven arrives at the Koala Bares at the request of Mungo in an attempt to take another trans-dimensional traveller, the faerie Abúi, back to her homeworld. Allestädes is Swedish for "everywhere" and is a very big tip of the hat to the common use non-copyrighted character Jenny Everywhere. |
| —Grace Crowley |
