Pit Stop (novel)
Pit Stop is a Jenny Everywhere webnovel serialised weekly by Scott Sanford starting in mid-October 2021.
Contents
Plot
Part 1
On an ordinary morning, Kim is the one to open the door when someone rings the doorbell of the apartment she shares with Jenny Everywhere, and is unsurprised to find that the visitor is none other than another incarnation of the Shifter, a Disney Princess-like Jenny going by the name of Genevieve, Princess of Everywhere, complete with a raccoon sidekick. Genevieve explains that she has been journeying in a dream spinner to find a wizard who can turn her companion and romantic interest Prince Guy back into a human being following his transformation into a talking pig by a witch — but her dream spinner broke down on the way, leaving her stranded in this universe.
Part 2
Kim and Jenny head to the parking lot with Genevieve and the raccoon, whom she soon introduces as her lady-in-waiting Willow. They find the dream spinner being tended to by Willow's brother Wu, and blocking the drive-way just as another friend of Jenny's and resident of the apartment building, David Lowe, is driving in. After managing to park, David gives Kim a package he collected on her behalf at the butcher's and they both head inside while Wu explains to the two Jennies that he cannot repair the dream spinner himself and would need the help of “an artificer”. Without missing a beat, the local Jenny goes knock at the door of yet another one of her neighbours — teenage genius Eric, alias Professor Awesome!
Part 3
After selecting the right tools, Jenny and Eric] head back to the parking lot to find Kim back. Kim is curious as to why Eric isn't at school, and he and Jenny explain that he was sent home early for bringing dozens of live trilobites to school for science class (having collected them from a parallel world with Jenny's own help). Examining the dream spinner, Eric readily identifies the issue, proving more familiar with how dimensional shift engines than even Jenny thought he was; he promises that he can fix it in fifteen minutes with a Dremel tool.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Everywhere
- The Jenny with whom the story opens the version previously seen in Parallax, Camera Shy and Paying It Forward.
- Also prominently featured is Genevieve, Princess of Everywhere, as previously seen in Paying It Forward. She arrives on Jenny and Kim's doorstep “wearing an improbably pink and frilly dress” with a matching lace ruffle; she wears “a tiara set with crystals, glinting even in indoor light”, and has as a side-kick a raccoon wearing a doublet. She has a certain Prince Guy as a companion and as a love interest, although she is unsure whether he is “her true love” precisely. It is revealed that she travels through the realms using a device called dream spinner, rather than shifting through her own powers.
Universes
- The story's main Jenny lives in one universe, and Genevieve is native to another; although magic is more common-place in the latter, it is mentioned that there is a wizard who lives in the same building that houses the modern-day Jenny's apartment.
- Shortly before the events of the story, Jenny took Eric to a universe where large populations of trilobites, some of them terrestrial, survive into the modern day.
Other
- The Witch of the Blue Hills commands a “pack of flaming dog-monkeys” and the Centaur of the Crossroads.
- The only wizard in the acquaintance of Jenny and Kim is on vacation in Orlando.
- Mordorak of the Nine Noses lives “upon a cloud in a dreamland, three leagues past Atlantis”.
- A month before the events of the story, Wu apparently had an unpleasant experience with a gnome mechanic during an adventure related to gnome wrestling.
- Eric invented a robot cat when he was nine, and later built the Time Pestle.
- Jenny secretly keeps a dimensional shift engine in the basement of the apartment building. A shift engine carved out of walnuts is also one of the components of the dream spinner, paired with “Moriarty guides”.
Continuity
- This story features the same modern-day Jenny as PROSE: Parallax, Camera Shy and Paying It Forward. She is still roommates with Kim, as seen in Camera Shy.
- Genevieve, Princess of Everywhere previously appeared in PROSE: Paying It Forward, first as one of the Jennies in need of the modern Jenny's assistance, and later as one of the guests at the “afterparty”.
- This story features Professor Awesome (whose civilian name is revealed to be “Eric”), following his mention early on in PROSE: Paying It Forward. The De-pants-icator is mentioned.
- Talking about Genevieve's Void Ship, Jenny says that it's “not exactly the Lotus Prime”. COMIC: Makeshift Multiverse, one of the original Barbelith Stories, featured several Jennies crewing the Lotus Prime, which was stated to be “the most advanced ship in the Multiverse”.
Behind the scenes
Background
Professor Awesome's schoolteacher is named Mr Hernandez, in reference to Alex Hernandez, a prolific writer of early Jenny Everywhere comic stories.
Read online
The story is available on the author's website.
