Pit Stop (novel)
Pit Stop was a Jenny Everywhere webnovel serialised weekly by Scott Sanford starting in mid-October 2021 and ending early in January of 2022.
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.
Part 4
Kim and Professor Awesome successfully repair or replace the dream spinner's mechanical parts, with Wu's help (discussing the “multi-Shifter event” as they work); however, they are dumbfounded by the magical elements of the contraption. They get to discussing what wizards they could contact if necessary, but Willow soon reports that the runes are in working order already, meaning Genevieve and her party are all set. Jenny cheerfully notes that she has a few hours free before she's set to see an Anorak Boys performance to review it.
Part 5
The group share some of the pastrami sandwiches David brought back from Greenberg's. As they eat, David catches up with Kim, with her confirming that she is aware of Greenberg's crush on her, which she does not reciprocate, but has not stopped going to his shop. After Genevieve and the raccoons leave, Jenny gives Professor Awesome the gold coin Genevieve left for him. Kim offers to help exchange it for proper money and then take him to the hardware store so he can spend it on some new equipment and parts, but before any of them (including David) can leave, the parking lot is the scene of a new supernatural event, heralding yet another Jenny Everywhere misadventure, in the form of an Angel materialising with much fracas.
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 a 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 reliable wizard in the acquaintance of Jenny and Kim is a Mr Steven Lucas, currently on vacation in Orlando. He claims that he “needs to ‘commune with the spheres,’ which means going to the Space Coast and astrally projecting into a satellite”, although Kim suspects it's just a cover story so he can go to Disney World.
- 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”.
- Kim notes that, at the age of 50, Morrie Greenberg is “too young for her” dating-wise.
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”.
- Jenny's job as a music critic, first seen in PROSE: Camera Shy, is featured once again.
- In PROSE: Morning After, an alternative Professor Awesome was mentioned as having also built a Time Pestle, as his counterpart in the standard Scott Sanford Jenny-verse was mentioned to have once done in this story.
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. The Moriarty guides are named in reference to the screen handle of Steven Wintle on the Barbelith forum.
Read online
The story is available on the author's website.
