Set Up to Blow Up (short story)
Set Up to Blow Up was a short Jenny Everywhere short story written by Scott Sanford. Instead of any of Sanford's standard continuities, it featured a side-step to the reality of Callum Phillpott's Jenny Over-There series, with Dynamite Thor taking a starring role opposite an incarnation of Jenny Nowhere. A TARDIS, as originating in the Doctor Who series, was also implicitly featured, leading to Aristide Twain writing a prequel to this story which was endorsed by Sanford and was out-and-out fanfiction.
Contents
Plot
Swaggering through the section of the the Backrooms that border the MFS offices, Dynamite Thor makes his way to his Secret Headquarters, accessible via a hole in the floor of one room, and which include a spacious training room as well as a few cases of grenades, his spare superhero costumes, his workbench and tools for making Thor Signalers, and finally “his dynamite supply”, “his other dynamite supply”, and “his emergency dynamite supply”. Passing by the entrance, he is surprised to find that the Therapy Prism Kablamazon recently delivered to him by mistake appears to have acquired a twin. The second dark obelisk's owner soon makes herself known in the person of an incarnation of Jenny Nowhere posing as Miss Erehwon, whom Thor has evidently encountered before without ever figuring out her identity. As she has seemingly done before, she has come to him with a possible target for superheroing, wanting him to go deal with Lord Grallyx (who she claims is “currently trying to take over” Kablamazon) and an “assassin” in his employ who is evidently the version of Jenny Everywhere who has been infiltrating Kablamazon for some time.
As payment, she gives him a shipment of rare Italian World War II grenades. The ever-face-blind Thor takes this on faith and is ready to head off to this adventure, though before he can do so, he mistakenly blunders into the duplicated Prism, whose interior turns out to be a pitch-black pocket universe — and, stranger still, he sees an "intensely pink" legal disclaimer asking him to confirm that he is in no way affiliated with Anish Kapoor if he is going to exist within said universe. However, he promptly exits, allowing Erehwon to enter her ship once again; he is called back down the exit ladder by a loud mechanical groaning sound, but when he returns to the main room of the Headquarters, the second Prism is gone, and Thor thinks no more of it, seemingly forgetting it ever existed — though not the mission he is now set on.
Worldbuilding
Jenny Everywhere
- Jenny Nowhere attempts to manipulate Dynamite Thor into attacking the 925th Universe's Jenny Everywhere, who is currently working at Kablamazon; the photograph she gives him depicts “a woman in a Kablamazon uniform who was also wearing a bright red scarf and, for some reason, a pair of goggles”.
Universes
- The story takes place in the 925th Universe.
Other
- Dynamite Thor's Secret Headquarters are also interchangeably referred to as “the Secret Hideout”.
Continuity
- Though not stating it outright, this story ties in with the suggestion in Scott Sanford's earlier PROSE: Fragment: A & E that the M.F.S. office was built into the Backrooms.
- The Thor Signallers were introduced in PROSE: Workplace Reunion.
- The story places itself less than a week before PROSE: Annals of the Jen: One Year of Jenny Over-There, with Therapy Prisms already rolled out but Jenny Everywhere still working for Kablamazon. The fact that Kablamazon's CEO is secretly Lord Grallyx, as revealed in that story, is referenced.
- PROSE: How To Steal Timeships & To Influence Time Lords was written as a prequel to this story, explaining how and why Jenny Nowhere acquired a TARDIS with a pitch-black interior.
Behind the scenes
Background
When posting the story, Scott Sanford appended a foreword:
| Say, what’s going on over at MFS this week? At first I'd set this aside as useful filler, but there seemed to be interest in a Dynamite Thor tale. Sophie will return next week. If anyone, especially Callum Phillpott, wants to write this off as non-canonical or just too silly, I will understand completely. * grin * |
| —Scott Sanford |
And an afterword:
| Oh, dear. Dynamite Thor is headed out to do something unwise. Or, more likely, get distracted by something shiny. I’m sure he’ll be fine. The Italian SRCM Mod 35 “Red Devil” hand grenade was well known in the European theater of World War II. There are two qualities a soldier wants in a grenade: First, that when he pulls the pin and throws it, it will go boom. Secondly, that it will not go boom at any other time. The Mod 35 was infamously bad at both of those. 23 April 2023: Aristide Twain was hit by an inspiration and wrote a prequel titled How To Steal Timeships & Influence Timelords, which you should definitely read. |
| —Scott Sanford |
The historical background on the Italian hand grenades was illustrated with a picture thereof.
Read online
The story is available on the author's Dreamwidth website.
