Jenny Cornelius
One version of Jenny Everywhere was “very English” and went by the name of Jenny Cornelius. (PROSE: Morning After)
Description
Physical appearance
This Jenny was identical to the “Kim's friend” Jenny except for different fashion senses, a British accent, and longer hair. (PROSE: Watch the Skies)
Personality
Jenny was a particularly reckless operator, but made an open secret of her teleporting powers. (PROSE: The Folly of Men) She was bisexual, showing interest both in Laura Drake and in the likes of Captain Stewart and David Bowie. (PROSE: The Folly of Men, A Morning In)
Biography
Origins
Jenny was native to 1960s London in one universe, living about a thousand feet from Carnaby Street, (PROSE: The Folly of Men) within a “secluded mews” in central London. (PROSE: Dog Days of Sumer) Due to them knowing about her powers, she was in the good books of the Intelligence Taskforce, who sometimes asked for her unofficial help in dealing with delicate situations. As well as Captain Stewart, with whom she also flirted (unsuccessfully), this was what put her in contact with Miss Laura Drake, who worked in the P.R. office. Jenny often went through her when trying to get in touch with the Taskforce, nearly always causing Laura unlikely headaches such as how to hide a submarine in the West India Docks. Despite their tense working relationship, Jenny managed to talk Laura into going on dates with her on multiple occasions, although, owing to the time period, they had to be discreet about it. (PROSE: The Folly of Men)
Early adventures
When asked how she and Cornelius had met, Laura Drake couldn't exactly recall, explaining that they “must have run into each other at something, early on” and had subsequently “[seen] each other off and on for a while”. Eventually, around 1958, she suggested they go somewhere together out of the blue. After Laura declined “a marathon ride on the Tube”, driving through the countryside in Jenny's Mini, or travelling to “far-away, fantastical lands, wondrous imaginary places only found in the wildest fantasies? Neverland! Tir na Nog! Oz! France!”, Cornelius settled on an idea without telling her what it was, and drove her at to Liverpool to see the Quarrymen play, the significance of which was entirely lost on Laura at the time. (PROSE: How Jenny First Met…)
After being one of the versions of Jenny summoned by one world's Jenny to help spook a sandy-haired man who'd gotten on the bad side of the local Jenny and apparently did not believe her claims of being a multi-dimensional entity, (PROSE: Paying It Forward) she later joined the afterparty with twenty or so other Jennies. (PROSE: Paying It Forward, Morning After) She bickered at length with Jeanne Partout, a version of Jenny who was as emphatically French as Jenny Cornelius was English, with the “Kim's friend” Jenny doing what she could to keep the level of acrimony subdued. (PROSE: Morning After)
Implausible deniability
She was acquainted with “a very special person in the book trade” whom she described as “very polite, handsome, well dressed, and gay as a tree full of monkeys”, going by the name of “Mr Fell”. His shop was located “on Greek Street just off Old Compton”. On one occasion, he gave Jenny an exceedingly rare book, Biggles Goes to Mars, in exchange for her locating a copy of the Plasmanomicon, which she'd been “over half of creation and a few other places tracking down”, for his personal collection. (PROSE: The Folly of Men)
Captain Stewart asked for Jenny's help in getting some “SBS boys” back home safely after they ended up stuck in North Korean waters with no way to leave without causing a serious diplomatic incident by revealing their presence. After thinking for a while, Jenny thought of a plan and decided to phone Laura ahead of time to warn her that she was about to do something extremely outrageous and the Taskforce had better stand ready to “deny any involvement”. Despite Laura's initial annoyance, the two then agreed to meet up the next Friday at the Liecester Square Tube station and walk for a while until they found a restaurant that tickled their fancy.
Jenny's plan turned out to involve rousing a giant atomic monster from the Sea of Japan to create a distraction. She made her way into the secret, secure Taskforce base in London where representatives of various Western nations were now panicking together, and implicitly confirmed her involvement to an aghast Captain Stewart, who recommended that she try and lie low for a while. (PROSE: The Folly of Men)
Christmas outings
Later, Jenny Cornelius visited the universe of the “Kim's friend” Jenny, allegedly to help “the fat man” with his Christmas deliveries. When the “Kim's friend” Jenny went up to the roof to watch for the sleigh with Professor Awesome, she ended up getting a huge snowball-from-nowhere to the face, just before she and the Professor were both blown back by a sudden gust of wind. When they opened their eyes again, two presents had been left on the roof. Jenny, who knew Cornelius was to blame for the snowball, playfully vowed that she'd get even, shouting up at the sky. A little later, she travelled to Cornelius's world, and found her counterpart out on a date in Soho with Laura Drake. With no further preamble, the visiting Jenny dropped a fistful of snow down her other self's back, giggling that “turnabout [was] fair play”. After a moment's confused flailing, Jenny Cornelius admitted as much and pulled the other Jenny into a big hug. Laura was rather confused about all this, asking if the “other Jenny” was some kind of a relative, but her good manners prevailed upon her common sense and she asked the other Jenny if she wants to join their day out on the town. (PROSE: Watch the Skies)
A horror in Slough
At some later point, driving back to London after some excursion in the Mod Rod, Jenny dropped by her “favourite bookseller”. He was not in himself, but she stumbled upon his Crowley, who tipped her off about some cultists in Slough worshipping an entity calling itself the Tenth Lord Grell. Jenny phoned Laura and found that the Intelligence Taskforce were indeed aware of this cult: in fact, based on a notion that a young woman would be “inconspicuous”, which Laura found rather patronising, they had assigned Laura herself to go investigate. Laura unsuccessfully tried to convince Jenny to stay out of Slough.
After finding the right building, Laura was, however, captured and tied up in a storeroom. Jenny arrived soon after, learning about Laura's general whereabouts using a pendulum inset with a lock of her hair, and about her exact whereabouts from the heavy guarding the door. After shifting one guard to parts unknown and spooking the other one by switching his weapon with a ceramic lamp, she easily banished Lord Grallyx, though not before he set the building on fire, and used her powers to unlock the door, finding Laura halfway through getting out of her bindings by herself. Because Jenny didn't want Laura's bosses to know about her shifting abilities, she took care to make up a plausible cover story before she used them in Laura's vicinity, claiming to Laura that she was actually using hypnotism to make her forget the means by which they escaped their dire circumstances (rather than them having genuinely teleported to the safety of Laura's home in the blink of an eye). Laura was personally unconvinced but agreed to write as much in her report, which she headed off to type, though promising to spend the night with Jenny as soon as she was done. (PROSE: Birds and Snakes)
Ancient hounds
On her way back home from shopping at Marks & Spencer, Jenny stumbled into Mr Fell, who explained to her that he was having trouble with a surviving Hound of Tindalos who'd been let loose by a British Museum curator's careless with a certain Sumerian artefact. After the creature attacked them, Fell mentioned to Jenny that in the old days, he'd fought the creatures using fire; with Fell no longer having access to a flaming sword, Jenny handed him a replacement she'd picked up very far away at some point. After the ravening creature was duly dispatched, Cornelius pocketed the weapon again and headed on home. (PROSE: Dog Days of Sumer)
Post Office Tower date
Eventually, Jenny persuaded Laura Drake to spend the night at her place. In the morning, Jenny woke to find that Laura was already fixing breakfast, making eggs instead of Jenny's usual toast with Marmite or Bovril. After they ate together, Jenny unveiled her plan for the following night's date: eating out at the Top of the Tower restaurant which had recently opened on the top floor of the newly-constructed Post Office Tower. Though she had work knowledge of aliens in the basement, Laura agreed, and Jenny went off to take a shower while Laura washed the dishes. She was interrupted by a phone call from aliens known as the Misterions who began to threaten her with some kind of evil scheme, but after she deadpanly informed them that Jenny couldn't come to the phone right now, they agreed to call again later. (PROSE: A Morning In)
Behind the scenes
Jenny is named in reference to Jerry Cornelius.
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