Birds and Snakes (short story)
Birds and Snakes was a Jenny Everywhere short story written by Scott Sanford in 2022. Instead of his usual Shifter, it featured Jenny Cornelius; like Sanford's first Cornelius-centric tale The Folly of Men was not an avowed fanfic of anything, but contained thinly-veiled analogues of, or references to, elements of Doctor Who and Good Omens, in addition to Jenny Cornelius herself being a mashup of Jenny Everywhere with Jerry Cornelius. It was also notable as Sanford's first use of the demon Lord Grallyx.
Contents
Plot
Jenny Cornelius is driving back home in the Mod Rod when she decides to make a stop by “her favourite bookshop”. There, she is instead accosted by a laid-back person dressed in all black. He tells Jenny that the bookseller's not in, but advises her to go look into the business in Slough with a “bunch of mystic gits” who are worshipping someone called "the Tenth Lord Grell”, whom they believe to be a demon even though the demon in black is certain that he's not one of “[his] lot”, and not an angel either. The demon in black explains that he'd come in the first place in order to ask the bookseller if he wanted to look into it, and is thus happy to have found someone else to put on the case.
Agreeing to help, Jenny phones Laura, who has in fact been asked by her superiors to investigate the exact same affair. She tries in vain to discourage Jenny from meddling, but Jenny drives there the following evening anyway. After arriving in Slough, she uses a crystal bound with a few of Laura's hairs and an Ordnance Survey map to locate Laura herself. Guided to an unremarkable brick building, she knocks at the front door and is immediately assaulted by a leering guard who lets slip that Laura has already come here and is being held captive in a storeroom. With a brush of her hand over his arm, she shifts the hapless villain away to parts unknown and walks in.
The door is locked, but does not remain so for long as she turns the doorknob over and over again, switching it every time for a version of it from a slightly different universe until she finds an unlocked version. Walking in, she overpowers another villain by replacing the lead pipe he's holding with a ceramic lamp, which he drops in surprise. Telling the baffled man “Tricks and illusions. Remember that for the rest of your life, if you get home after tonight. Go home and tell yourself that there are no demons, no magic, and too damn many people trying to sell you something”, she lets him run away and makes her way to the door to the hangar, which is locked too. “Past caring,” she simply shifts the door into nothingness.
In the great hangar, she finds the cultists dead around the circle of candles which still contains the great reptilian form of Lord Grallyx (alias “Lord Grell X”, alias, “the Tenth Lord Grell”). Grallyx explains that he will be free as soon as the candles burn out completely, and intends to conquer the world as he was summoned to do, albeit for his own benefit rather than his unfortunate human summoners. However, he panics as soon as Jenny reveals herself as an incarnation of Jenny Everywhere. Using her powers to the full since she has no human witnesses, she manipulates the dimensions around Grallyx, distorting him like a funhouse mirror image until he flees back into whatever realm he was summoned from, though not before swearing that he'll have his revenge.
However, Grallyx's futile efforts to breathe fire at Jenny set the building on fire. Rushing through the burning building, she finds the room where Laura was locked away, finding her in the process of getting out of the ropes with which she was tied down. Their escape route is cut off by some collapsing burning rubble. Jenny naturally thinks of shifting away, but doesn't want Laura's bosses to know about her powers, and doesn't want to burden Laura with the secret, and so pretends to hypnotise her before abruptly French-kissing her. When Laura opens her eyes again, they're back at her home, with Jenny claiming that the hypnotism is responsible for her not remembering how they escaped and the trip back. Laura is unconvinced but reluctantly agrees to repeat the story to her overseers.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Everywhere
- This story stars Jenny Cornelius. She is shown to be shorter than Laura.
Laura Drake
- This story continues to feature Jenny Cornelius's corresponding Laura Drake. Her work at the Intelligence Taskforce is mentioned. She is shown to be taller than Jenny.
Lord Grallyx
- This story features a version of Lord Grallyx distinct from any version seen previously, but who seems familiar with Jenny Everywhere at least in concept. He implies that he is not from this universe. He is described as “some kind of alligator thing with too many eyes and arms and such” as well as a “large tail”, a body which is suggested to have merely been a manifestation he chose for himself rather than his “true” form, if he has such a thing, with him finding “the three dimensions human use” to be a limiting framework.
Universes
- The story takes place in the native universe of Jenny Cornelius. It is described by Jenny as “the universe of billions of ordinary humans who like thinking they live in a world of physical laws, of rational order, of cause and effect. The kind of place where the word ‘real’ means something”.
Other
- London is home to “almost eight million people”. On the way back to her home in the Mod Rod, she drops by “her favourite bookshop” via “a quick turn off of Shaftesbury Street and a circumnavigation of Soho Square Gardens”.
- Edward I created the title of Baron Grelley, which is now extinct.
- On previous excursions together, Jenny and Laura faced poltergeists in relation to the Poltergeist Society of Oxford and a “steam-powered mechanical giant” in Swindon.
Continuity
- This story picks up after PROSE: The Folly of Men and PROSE: Watch the Skies in depicting the continuing adventures of Jenny Cornelius and Laura Drake. As per The Folly of Men's reference to Aziraphale, Crowley from Good Omens makes a pivotal, if unnamed, cameo.
- Lord Grallyx debuted in PROSE: Jenny Everywhere and the Lord of Hell.
Behind the scenes
Background
When posting the story, Scott Sanford appended some commentary:
| I thought it was about time someone else did something with Lord Grallyx; if nobody but Lupan Evezan ever used the character in a story, he would fade away and be forgotten. Probably unnecessary context notes: “Slough” rhymes with “plow” not “snow” or “cough.” Debrett’s Peerage has been the default spotter’s guide to the British upper classes for centuries. The Ordnance Survey maps are from the national mapping agency for Great Britain; coincidentally, both Jenny’s home in Soho and the industrial estates of Slough appear on Sheet 160 of the then-current 7th Series. Americans can read “Scotch tape” where Jenny says “Sellotape.” "Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough / It isn't fit for humans now / There isn't grass to graze a cow." - opening to the poem Slough by John Betjeman, written in protest of the Slough Trading Estate. |
| —Scott Sanford |
The line which referred to the car as the “Mod Machine” instead of the “Mod Rod” was unintentional on Sanford's part, and he later corrected it.
Read online
The story is available on the author's Dreamwidth website.
