A Day at the Beach (short story)
A Day at the Beach was an April Fools' Day short story released on Archive of Our Own by Bastian. It featured Bastian as a character in-universe, whom Jenny Everywhere meets at a nude beach.
Contents
Plot
Jenny Everywhere is at a nude beach, relaxing, when she notices a young man running along the sand towards her. They greet each other, and the man reveals his name to be Bastian. Bastian reveals that he is a writer, who mostly writes fan-fiction, and they discuss what it's like to be a nudist. Jenny then reveals herself to be a shifter, able to shift from one universe to the next, and shows Bastian. After shifting into a fantastical jungly universe, they shift to the house of Jenny Everywhere's friend, Laura Drake. Laura reveals to Bastian that she is an inventor, and has just created a new invention, which will allow anybody to shift like Jenny does, the Shifting Chamber, however she needs somebody to test it, as it has to be operated from the outside. Bastian volunteers. Laura turns on the machine, it glows for a bit, then Bastian steps out. He attempts to shift, but cannot. However, he begins to turn transparent, and notes that he feels as if he isn't really there. He disappears completely, then a moment later reappears. Laura realises that she has made a miscalculation, and that the machine does not, in fact, allow people to shift from one universe to another, but instead fades them out of existence. Bastian fades out of existence once more, but manages to communicate with Jenny before disappearing completely. Laura says that she isn't aware of any way to bring him back into existence, and discuss the ethics of what happened, before Laura undresses and they go back to the nude beach.
Worldbuilding
Jenny
- The incarnation of Jenny seen in this story is a nudist, who has come across "tons of interesting people" on her travels.
- Jenny finds being naked "quite liberating".
Universes
- One universe has a nude beach in it.
- One universe has a "vast landscape" of "lush, green grass", with "impossibly tall" multicoloured trees with waterfalls coming out of them, and "gigantic" flowers, as well as singing fish. It has multiple stars, moons, and suns, and the snowflakes turn into confetti.
- One universe is where Laura Drake's house is.
Behind the scenes
Bastian mentions that he prefers to write in the nude, which is something he shares with his real world counterpart.
Read online
The full story was released on Archive of Our Own, and can still be read here.
