Story Round 3

[Ben Christensen]

I would be honored if you would do Part 14.

1 - UniverseX259
2 - foxmerquise8
3 - Ben Christensen
4 - UniverseX259
5 - PlasticPsyche
6 - DestroyALL
7 - LoneWolf
8 - Legend of 8
9 - PlasticPsyche
10 - banshee
11 - popeye
12 - Ben Christensen
13 - PhotoAngel
14 - stevenwintle
15 - Pikachu

-Ben;onei;

[banshee]

woohoo

and steven, welcome to TWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stevenwintle]

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with one condition. This paragraph must be included in blah blah blah. Who's the joker that thought this stuff up, anyway?

Story Round 3 - Part 14 - Do Not Hasten To Bid Me Adieu

"A real story?"

Jenny gazed absentmindedly into the palms of her tiny calloused hands. A rusty shovel slumped against the wall beside her kitchen chair, the tattered wallpaper of her moonlit apartment peeling away in fits and starts. The sound of students daring each other to cross the darkened parking lot barely made its way past the droning stream of nonsensical obscenities coming from her neighbour next door. There were tiny flakes of blood under Jenny's nails that would never come out. She reminisced of other worlds, where cosmonauts stole experimental military hot rods, bumblebees the size of melons threw the wildest beach parties, or singing cowboys rode dinosaurs on dusty trails. Jenny looked up at her audience.

"They're all of them real..."

Elenore was Jenny's assistant, though to be truthful she wasn't in need of one. Grave-digging was typically a one-woman job. But Elenore was a latchkey kid, and she had certainly latched herself onto Jenny. The girl had a pasty complexion, with greasy hair, third-hand clothes and eyes that sparkled with such wonder that it broke your heart to see them grow duller day by day. Elenore's head hung low today, obscuring her eyes from sight, yet Jenny was certain they would be more devoid of hope then ever. Even her best stories hadn't stirred the girl.

"Are you really leaving me, Jenny? For good?"

Now it was Jenny's turn to gaze downward.

"What's the use of being Everywhere if you never go anywhere, Elenore?"

Elenore turned her head to the side, letting the stillness in the apartment linger between them as she searched for her voice. Jenny waited for the inevitable, but did not rehearse a response. It had never helped her before.

"Do you... do you regret it? That you stayed here while there are Jennys having real adventures in other, better worlds that aren't, well, aren't this one?"

Jenny turned the question over in her tiny hands. She had been asked this over a thousand times on over a thousand worlds, and while the answer to the question was easy enough, it was the unspoken question that became harder and harder to answer each and every time. Jenny cleared her throat.

"Somewhere out there I'm a prisoner of war of the evil Emporium on their airship Gavorn. At the same time, I'm foiling an alien plot to turn the Earth's populace into infants. Meanwhile, I’m trying to get into the most exclusive Queer Hip-Hop, Post-Glitch Electronica night in the city of Right-On. And in every one of those places, and many, many more, I've sat down at the dinner table and spun for the children of those worlds wondrous tales of when I dug graves, and the sweet little girl that shared my labour. I tell them of her countless dreams and her friendly tenacity, of her shy resourcefulness and how she never failed to bring me something cool to drink when I was thirsty. I tell them of her eyes..."

Jenny squeezed her lids tight and forced herself to take a long, deep breath.

"I tell them of your eyes. Just like I tell you stories about them. Everyone within earshot wishes the stories were real, if only that they could experience the fantastic things you take for granted every day. Heck, you're the most popular girl on all of Christmas Tree Island. Johnny Nowhere even has a poster of you in his locker at school."

"Are...are you telling the truth?"

"Well, Johnny actually has a picture of Paula Abdul in his locker, but I'm not supposed to tell anyone."

For the first time since Jenny met her, Elenore's lips trembled into something that resembled a smile. It may have even been the beginnings of a snicker. Taking Elenore's face in her rough hands, Jenny peered into those beautiful eyes one last time.

"There is a better world, Elenore, and you're living in it. Now promise me you'll go have adventures that will thrill even the dead of Trell!"

Elenore didn't answer. She didn't need to. The resolve in her face was answer enough for the both of them.

Her tattered knapsack slung over one shoulder; Jenny stepped past the lobby, through the front doors and out into the world. A lonely harmonica played tag with a deep, harsh voice on Red River Valley, the melancholy sound drifting across the parking lot, stirring fond memories of sleeping on the open plains. Jenny paused, took a sweet breath of night air, and smiled at the stars until the song finished and the yelling began.

"Jenny! Whut in tarnation took you so long? C'mon, pardner. That Russian space cadet is making off with Big Daddy's souped-up, nuclear powered kustom kar, and Ivan's not going to waste time getting it back to his Communist masters!"

Jenny's grin nearly broke free of her face.

"Say, Slim, do you think we'll still have time to make it to the bumblebee beach party afterwards?"

The singing cowboy lifted his ten-gallon hat slightly, scratching absently at his dust-encrusted forehead with his battered harmonica.

"If you don't say the dangest things, Jenny. Why are you always making up such gosh-darned silly stories? Now get your keister up on ol' Target here and let's ride!"

Beaming, without a word in reply, Jenny climbed up on the saddle behind him. She took one last look at the lit window of Elenore's apartment. Jenny could see the young girl's silhouette as she packed her bags.

The stegosaurus galloped down the street.

[Ben Christensen]

Awesome!!!

That was really cool, and from the man himself.

Pikachu, with great pride I say IT'S YOUR TURN!!! Finish us up!

-Ben;onei;

[Pikachu]

I am reviewing all of the stories for continuity, and will have the story posted within a day.

Pika!

[Pikachu]

The End
And that's how it all began. It's a long story, but to start from the beginning is like trying to start from the infinite. Jenny stated to herself, as there was not a soul around.

Jenny was sitting on a giant brown spotted mushroom in the middle of a red wine colored ocean. There was nothing more tiresome than a vast wine ocean, and being parched Jenny thought to herself. In fact, other than this single mushroom, Jenny assumed the entire planet was one big juicy grape ball floating in the vastness of whichever galaxy she just shifted herself to.

I can't believe that I am the Jenny Everywhere that's been everywhere. Although, I assume in all the infinite possibilities that it would be possible. And this is the last spot. The spot I have gotten myself stuck in, at, whichever. Doomed to rot at my final shifting place. No more spectacular adventures, just boredom. Jenny oozed in sudden depression.

Or so Jenny thought, however, something bobbing up and down in the red muddy water suddenly caught her attention. It was a bottle floating in the wine. Stooping down, Jenny carefully stretched out across the edge or her shroom as to not fall plunk into the ocean, and reached for the bottle.

Well I'll be. This is the oddest thing, an empty wine bottle floating in a sea of wine.

Jenny pulled the bottle up and repositioned herself at the top of the mushroom. With nothing else to do, she decided to take a closer look at the bottle. Upon further inspection Jenny was surprised to find that there was a message in the bottle! She decided to read it aloud.

To whom it may concern,
The Character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reserved.

Well I don't know about all that, but the author was onto something with that -All rights reserved bit. Jenny expounded.

Jenny abruptly stood up and tossed the bottle over her shoulder. It twirled and then plopped back into the red wine sea.

I've been idling here long enough. But where to go, if I’m the Jenny that's been everywhere?

Jenny thought about her past and present and future adventures. In one reality she had beat her arch nemesis Knowledge in a strategy game, a chess game of sorts. In another reality she is in a dogfight and high-speed airplane chase so grand that only a child could dream something like that up. Then there was the video game where her soul mate Johnny Nowhere dies. In another reality he is saving her from a monstrous creature that breathes fire. She even went on some crazy adventures with a singing cowboy and his dinosaur. And now, Jenny found herself at the end of all things.

Adjusting her pilot's goggles on top of her head, Jenny with a reluctant sigh, spoke out,

I'm the Jenny Everywhere that's been everywhere. The only place to go now is nowhere.

I think you're missing the point Many Places. An old weathered voice growled out.

Jenny sat up from her Bison skin blanket and looked at old Chief Grey Feathers. It was becoming dusk and Chief Grey Feathers had started a fire outside his Tee-pee. Jenny just stared at the piled up wrinkles on the old man's dark golden skin. The flames flickered, accentuating the shadows that each fold of sun tarnished skin cast. His long gray hair was frizzled from years of roaming the most beautiful landscape Jenny had ever beheld.

You must hear me now, for I have waited many moons for the time when Many Places would come to me seeking answers.

You are the most wise of all the men I know anywhere Chief Grey Feathers. Jenny complimented.

She had a funny feeling about this man, knowing that he knew things she didn't. He had these funny little mannerisms too, and in another reality Jenny knew that she would be married to a great warrior chief like Grey Feathers. But the thing she loved best about him was he was always full of such wonderful stories. No matter how exaggerated or fantastic, Chief Grey Feathers always managed to tell the stories with the same importance. Stories to him were another person's reality. That was the power of word, which Chief Grey Feathers was the keeper of. However, Jenny only now had started to warm up to her Indian name of Many Places. Jenny Everywhere glanced over her shoulder and watched as a small Indian/Native American boy poked a dog with a stick. Amongst several white rawhide skin teepees some Indian/Native American women started dinner outside their own lodgings, and some of the men attended the horses. Beyond the camp the sun was slowly setting. Jenny looked back at Chief Grey Feathers who calmly lit his long pipe. Bellowing out small smoke clouds puff after puff, Grey Feathers looked steadily out at the rolling grassy hills.

It's about the story. It has always been about telling stories. The old Chief finally spoke.

You come to me asking questions about the infinite having an end. Everything that begins must end. However, you are unique Many Places, for as the stars die out and new ones take their place, you too have no end. Your beginning is where your end lies, and you end where you begin.

Because of the perpetual continuity of the infinite?

No Many Places. Because of the infinite of the story.

Jenny finally realized what the old man was trying to tell her. She has no limitations, no end, not as long as there is story to carry her through to new adventures. And that story will continue, as long as there is a means to tell it by Jenny thought. She felt a little chilly in just a tan buckskin skirt, which showed her belly. The fires orange licks stayed just close enough to keep her warm, but she still felt like standing. As Jenny stood up Grey Feathers just continued his steadfast gaze, over seeing a peaceful field of slightly waving grass, almost like waves of an ocean. As the sun finally settled the dusk created a purplish red light that made the prairie look like a sea of red wine.

Where do you intend to go now Many Places? Chief Grey Feathers stated without breaking his fixed gaze.

I guess anywhere my imagination takes me. And that's a story worth telling. Don't you think?

Grey Feathers just leaned back as a wide grin stretched across his leathery face. And with that, Jenny was off on another adventure.

Story Round 3
Part 15: All Good Things Must Come to an End
By: Tristan Vick (Pika!)
4/15/2004

[Ben Christensen]

@#$%

That was amazing! Incredible, INCREDIBLE job, Pikachu. Seriously that was beautiful, I couldn't have asked for a better way to end it.

Thank you to all, this has been a looooooooong journey, but I think we have created something pretty cool and something that only a character like Jenny could have brought out of us.

With that... I dub this Story Round completed.

Nice job everyone.

-Ben;onei;

[banshee]

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

claps and cheers!!!!

I will get the pages up and running soon

great job everyone and great ending Pikachu, WOOHOOO

so.... will start SR4 soon then ;-)