The Demon and the Butterfly (comic story): Difference between revisions

|hero(es)= [[Jenny Everywhere (775th Universe)|Jenny Everywhere]]<br>[[Laura Drake (775th Universe)|Laura Drake]]

|villain(s)= [[Lord Grallyx (The Demon and the Butterfly)|Lord Grallyx]]

|featuring= [[Doctor Cartwright]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Jimmy Wherever (775th Universe)|Jimmy Westeron]]<br>[[Jenny Nowhere (775th Universe)|Jenny Nowhere]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small><br>[[Jenny Over-There]]<br>[[Peter Pan]]<br><small>(mentioned)</small>

|setting= [[Mystepolia]], [[775th Universe]]

|length= 6 pages<br><small>(+ 4 pages of Q&A)</small>

|dates= December 17th, 2022 - April 1st, 2023

[[Jenny Everywhere (775th Universe)|Jenny]] agreed to help her girlfriend [[Laura Drake (775th Universe)|Laura Drake]] prepare for a presentation she's giving tonight at “the Museum”, but is having difficulty concentrating, looking at a butterfly through the window of Laura's office. Laura calls her out on it, melodramatically pretending to be mad at her before revealing that she's just teasing her and planting a kiss on her forehead which leaves Jenny very flustered. A weary Laura reassures Jenny that the best thing she can do to help Laura is simply to make sure to be in the audience tonight — and to dress for the occasion, meaning she'll have to put on some shoes, something she apparently frequently foregoes.  

At the presentation, with a formal Jenny in the audience, Laura unveils her great invention: the [[Triangular Bisector]], a device she's been working on for five years, intended to draw power from “the heart of an alien sun in [[Universe (The Demon and the Butterfly)|another dimension]]”. However, as soon as she switches it on, a giant, flaming crocodilian creature erupts from the small portal, laughing maniacally. In front of the outcry, a distraught Laura instantly protests that she's no mad scientist, and ran tests before this public demo, none of which yielded such a result; speaking intelligibly (and cuttingly), the entity, who names himself as [[Lord Grallyx (The Demon and the Butterfly)|Lord Grallyx]], explains that he was waiting all along for the right moment to reveal himself, after having been sealed in the sun for a billion years by the [[Disciples of Golden Light]]. After mockingly thanking Laura, Grallyx escapes through the roof, intent on “burning this world”.  

While waiting for her [[Triangular Bisector]] to be repaired, [[Laura Drake (775th Universe)|Laura]] starts to play with one of her “old gadgets”, the [[Interdimensional Ham Radio]]. It begins spewing out questions from “interdimensional busybodies who've been watching Jenny and Laura's adventures”. Eager to keep them talking, Laura starts answering them and ropes [[Jenny Everywhere (775th Universe)|Jenny]] and [[Jimmy Wherever (775th Universe)|Jimmy]] into participating.  

The first of the questions addressed to Jenny is about someone called [[Jenny Nowhere (775th Universe)|Jenny Nowhere]], and leaves her simply confused. Next, Laura is asked about how the [[Bubblecopter]] lands, given the apparent lack of landing gear; Laura, still smug about her invention, explains that the propellors ''turn'' into the landing gear as needed. The next question is directed to [[Lord Grallyx (The Demon and the Butterfly)|Lord Grallyx]], asking him to explain his backstory. Someone finally goes for the obvious question and asks Jenny about her butterfly-like shadow, but all Jenny can say is that the mysterious phenomenon comes and goes, and that she's reluctant to tell Laura about it. When someone asks for the name of Laura and Jenny's universe, to Laura's surprise, the [[I.H.R.]] spontaneously puts them through to the [[Multidimensional Finders Service]], where [[Jenny Over-There|a weary-looking red-haired woman]] informs them that they're “currently located in [[775th Universe|Reality #775]]”. Finally, two different people ask for the story of how Jenny and Laura met. Laura is happy to recollect the memory, dating back to when the girls where sixteen, when Jenny, who'd been dabbling in urban exploration, abruptly appeared at Laura's window, having mistaken [[Drake Manor]] for an abandoned building, a tableau which Laura describes as “very [[Peter Pan]]”.

* This story introduces [[Jenny Everywhere (775th Universe)|a Jenny]] who lives on the island of [[Mystepolia]]. She appears as a short, dark-skinned girl with big eyes and a wide grin, her hair worn in a mid-sized afro. She wears a sleeveless midnight-blue shirt and green trousers, the latter tied using a purple belt with a golden belt-buckle, matching her goggles, whose strap is purple while the metal lens-frames are golden. She apparently prefers to go barefoot.

* This story introduces [[Laura Drake (775th Universe)|a Laura]] who lives on the island of [[Mystepolia]]. She's a white redhead about Jenny's height, her hair big and frizzy, and wears big round glasses, golden earrings, purple boots and a light-purple Howie-style labcoat.  

* This story features a version of [[Lord Grallyx (The Demon and the Butterfly)|Lord Grallyx]] from [[Universe (The Demon and the Butterfly)|another dimension]] than the one in which the story primarily takes place. Described by Laura as a “giant [[demon]]-thing”, he is at least a billion years old and seems motivated by pure destruction. He appears as a huge, flying, fluid, flaming silhouette of a six-limbed reptile with six eyes and a forked tail. When his fire is burned away, he is reduced to his true organic form of a small green lizard, still with six legs, six eyes and a forked tail, wearing a very tiny golden crown. Once his fire is extinguished, he is apparently powerless to relight it. In the Q&A, he explains that he was “a [[Salamander Lord]] of the [[Elemental Court]]” during the “[[Time of Legends]]”.

* This story introduces [[Jimmy Wherever (775th Universe)|a “Jimmy Westeron”]] confirmed by his variation of [[the Paragraph]]'s usage in the footer to be this universe's version of [[Jimmy Wherever]]. He is, as yet, a complete stranger to Jenny, Laura and the Multiverse, and is a soldier in the army of the Mystepolian Republic. He appears as a muscular man with blond hair wearing a blue uniform.

* One of the “interdimensional busybodies” in the Q&A asks if [[Jenny Nowhere (775th Universe)|Jenny Nowhere]] will have “a moth motif” to match Jenny's butterfly motif once she shows up. Naturally, [[Jenny Everywhere (775th Universe)|Jenny Everywhere]] has yet to meet anyone by that name and is merely confused at the question.

* This story opens in [[775th Universe|the comic's main Jenny's home universe]], identified as interchangeably “[[Reality 775|Reality #775]]”, “[[Dimension 775]]” or “the [[775th Universe]]” in the Q&A. It is inhabited by humans, but includes such features as the island of [[Mystepolia]] and unusual architecture, with round, porthole-like windows seeming widespread in Jenny and Laura's home city.

* The [[Triangular Bisector]] opens a portal to “[[Universe (The Demon and the Butterfly)|another dimension]]” where [[Lord Grallyx (The Demon and the Butterfly)|Lord Grallyx]] was sealed inside a sun for a billion years by the [[Disciples of Golden Light]].

* The Q&A sees a glimpse of the [[925th Universe]].  

* This story features the [[Bubblecopter]] as one of [[Laura Drake (775th Universe)|Laura Drake]]'s old inventions. A “one-woman [[Lauracopter]]” had previously been mentioned in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Family Business (short story)|Family Business]]'', also by [[Aristide Twain]], as one of [[Laura Drake (38167th Universe)|another Laura Drake]]'s old inventions.