Jenny Everywhere: Pit Stop, part 3
Oct. 29th, 2021 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scott_sanfordMany words, plot optional...
by Scott Sanford
part 3
After a few minutes of fussing around and speculative tool selection Professor Awesome emerged from his apartment and Jenny walked with him out towards the parking lot.
They found Kim also headed outside. She looked a little surprised to see them.
“Hello, Eric. Isn’t this a school day?”, Kim asked.
“I got sent home early. And it wasn’t my fault!”
“It really wasn’t,” Jenny agreed.
“What happened?”
He stopped and sighed, then explained.
“My science teacher Mister Hernandez was talking about trilobites, which are old animals that show up as fossils a lot, and said if anyone had any to share we could bring them and show them to the class.”
“That sounds reasonable so far,” Kim allowed, knowing the unreasonable part was still to come.
“So this morning before school Jenny and I went over to a world that still had trilobites and picked up a whole bunch of them.”
“There are beaches and jungles full of them if you know where to look,” Jenny said.
“You brought live trilobites to school,” Kim clarified, peering suspiciously over her sunglasses at him.
“And I brought enough for everybody!”
“He did, and with plenty left over,” Jenny confirmed. “We knew it would be a bummer if anyone was left out.”
“But as soon as I brought them to show Mister Hernandez he opened up the box and screamed and spilled them and suddenly they were skittering everywhere and everybody freaked out and they were all over the place and we all got sent home so the room can get fumigated.”
“...I see,” Kim said carefully, with the tone of a woman who’d seen people freak out over extinct animals before. It was also the tone of a woman who’d heard more than one unlikely explanation for strange extinct animals suddenly appearing in the modern world. They usually involved Jenny Everywhere. “What did your mother say?”
“She’s still at work. I’ll tell her about it when she gets home.”
“I’ll vouch for you,” Jenny offered. “It really wasn’t your fault.”
“I think a parent might consider it partly his fault.”
“No way! Mister Hernandez never said he wanted fossils, he just said trilobites!”
“You are technically correct,” Kim allowed. “I think your mother will have something to say anyway, but you are technically correct.”
“Yeah, probably,” he sighed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jenny said. “I’ll cover for you. Remember, we went and got them together.”
“As charming a discussion as that will be,” Kim said dryly, “let’s take one thing at a time.”
Kim held the door open for the other two and they went out into the daylight; she adjusted her hat and sunglasses before joining them.
Fortunately the princess was just fine for their absence, carrying on what looked like an animated conversation with the raccoons and several local pigeons. The latter flew away when the others approached.
“Princess Genevieve, this is Professor Awesome. He is a wizard of machines, close enough.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said.
“Hi. Welcome to our planet.” He looked at Genevieve, and at Jenny, and back at Genevieve, and did not ask any awkward questions. “So, Jenny says there’s a dimensional transporter with problems.”
“The dream spinner, yes.” Genevieve gestured gracefully to the peculiar contrivance that had materialized in the parking lot. “My friends created this device to allow us to travel beyond the real world into the realms of dreams and what-ifs, but now it is not moving us and we have become stuck in this one.”
Professor Awesome nodded, taking all this in stride. “Your friends are the raccoons?”
“Yes. They are very clever with anything that they can get their tiny hands on.”
“Yeah, people have said the same thing about me. Let me see what I can do.”
Professor Awesome bent over to inspect the device more closely, moving around to different angles but not yet touching anything.
Wu, the raccoon mechanic, made helpful noises. He pointed at various things and made remarks about them in Raccoon. Professor Awesome nodded as if following along.
“You know,” Kim observed quietly, “some people would not have thought of getting a teenage boy to repair a time machine built by raccoons.”
“They would not?”, Genevieve asked.
“It seemed like the obvious thing to me,” Jenny said.
“That says a lot about our lives, really,” Kim said.
“Your young friend seems much friendlier than some of the mechanics we have had to deal with in the past. Wu had a difficult time last month.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Jenny said.
“Oh, there is!”, agreed Genevieve. “What do you know about the sport of gnome wrestling?”
“Gnome wrestling?”, prompted Jenny, grinning excitedly.
Kim could see where this was going and took the opportunity to check on Eric. He was standing in place, pondering the device. Wu must have finished his explanations; he was scratching himself with a wrench.
“Do you think you can fix it?”, she asked quietly.
“Of course I can fix it. I just don’t know how it works yet.”
Kim considered this and said, “I think you have some unexamined reasoning in the middle of that.”
“Once I understand it I can fix it or make a new one. I’m Professor Awesome. I built a robot cat when I was nine. I created the Time Pestle, though I shouldn’t have. Jenny told you about the de-pants-icator.”
“Yes, your mother is still mad about that one.”
He waved it off. “It’s not important. Yeah, it was a bad idea to make one, but it was smart, just not wise. Besides, I was in a hurry. You know I could build a better one if I had to.”
“Please don’t.” She gave him a small smile. “Jenny doesn’t need our help to have silly adventures.”
“I won’t. I don’t have to. Hm.”
He poked a piece, which wobbled loosely. Wu chittered excitedly at him and waved energetically, pacing back and forth. He nodded at Wu.
“Kim? Check this out. See the bits here on the stator that look like the raccoons were trying to make a dynamo? Except that you don’t do that with carved walnuts. If this is supposed to be a shift engine like the one in the basement Jenny doesn’t think I know about, then these are supposed to be Moriarty guides – except, you know, somebody chewed them out of walnut shells. I think I’m going to have to rebuild these from scratch.”
“Maybe it’s a silly question, Eric, but how do you know so much about how a dimensional shift engine works?”
“I read the manual for the one in the basement.”
“Oh, of course. So, is this a problem?”
“Nope. Gonna need a Dremel tool and maybe fifteen minutes, though.” He stood up and brushed his pants off. “Let’s go get some tools.”
<- Back to part 2 or forward to part 4 ->
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only 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 reversed.
by Scott Sanford
part 3
After a few minutes of fussing around and speculative tool selection Professor Awesome emerged from his apartment and Jenny walked with him out towards the parking lot.
They found Kim also headed outside. She looked a little surprised to see them.
“Hello, Eric. Isn’t this a school day?”, Kim asked.
“I got sent home early. And it wasn’t my fault!”
“It really wasn’t,” Jenny agreed.
“What happened?”
He stopped and sighed, then explained.
“My science teacher Mister Hernandez was talking about trilobites, which are old animals that show up as fossils a lot, and said if anyone had any to share we could bring them and show them to the class.”
“That sounds reasonable so far,” Kim allowed, knowing the unreasonable part was still to come.
“So this morning before school Jenny and I went over to a world that still had trilobites and picked up a whole bunch of them.”
“There are beaches and jungles full of them if you know where to look,” Jenny said.
“You brought live trilobites to school,” Kim clarified, peering suspiciously over her sunglasses at him.
“And I brought enough for everybody!”
“He did, and with plenty left over,” Jenny confirmed. “We knew it would be a bummer if anyone was left out.”
“But as soon as I brought them to show Mister Hernandez he opened up the box and screamed and spilled them and suddenly they were skittering everywhere and everybody freaked out and they were all over the place and we all got sent home so the room can get fumigated.”
“...I see,” Kim said carefully, with the tone of a woman who’d seen people freak out over extinct animals before. It was also the tone of a woman who’d heard more than one unlikely explanation for strange extinct animals suddenly appearing in the modern world. They usually involved Jenny Everywhere. “What did your mother say?”
“She’s still at work. I’ll tell her about it when she gets home.”
“I’ll vouch for you,” Jenny offered. “It really wasn’t your fault.”
“I think a parent might consider it partly his fault.”
“No way! Mister Hernandez never said he wanted fossils, he just said trilobites!”
“You are technically correct,” Kim allowed. “I think your mother will have something to say anyway, but you are technically correct.”
“Yeah, probably,” he sighed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jenny said. “I’ll cover for you. Remember, we went and got them together.”
“As charming a discussion as that will be,” Kim said dryly, “let’s take one thing at a time.”
Kim held the door open for the other two and they went out into the daylight; she adjusted her hat and sunglasses before joining them.
Fortunately the princess was just fine for their absence, carrying on what looked like an animated conversation with the raccoons and several local pigeons. The latter flew away when the others approached.
“Princess Genevieve, this is Professor Awesome. He is a wizard of machines, close enough.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said.
“Hi. Welcome to our planet.” He looked at Genevieve, and at Jenny, and back at Genevieve, and did not ask any awkward questions. “So, Jenny says there’s a dimensional transporter with problems.”
“The dream spinner, yes.” Genevieve gestured gracefully to the peculiar contrivance that had materialized in the parking lot. “My friends created this device to allow us to travel beyond the real world into the realms of dreams and what-ifs, but now it is not moving us and we have become stuck in this one.”
Professor Awesome nodded, taking all this in stride. “Your friends are the raccoons?”
“Yes. They are very clever with anything that they can get their tiny hands on.”
“Yeah, people have said the same thing about me. Let me see what I can do.”
Professor Awesome bent over to inspect the device more closely, moving around to different angles but not yet touching anything.
Wu, the raccoon mechanic, made helpful noises. He pointed at various things and made remarks about them in Raccoon. Professor Awesome nodded as if following along.
“You know,” Kim observed quietly, “some people would not have thought of getting a teenage boy to repair a time machine built by raccoons.”
“They would not?”, Genevieve asked.
“It seemed like the obvious thing to me,” Jenny said.
“That says a lot about our lives, really,” Kim said.
“Your young friend seems much friendlier than some of the mechanics we have had to deal with in the past. Wu had a difficult time last month.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Jenny said.
“Oh, there is!”, agreed Genevieve. “What do you know about the sport of gnome wrestling?”
“Gnome wrestling?”, prompted Jenny, grinning excitedly.
Kim could see where this was going and took the opportunity to check on Eric. He was standing in place, pondering the device. Wu must have finished his explanations; he was scratching himself with a wrench.
“Do you think you can fix it?”, she asked quietly.
“Of course I can fix it. I just don’t know how it works yet.”
Kim considered this and said, “I think you have some unexamined reasoning in the middle of that.”
“Once I understand it I can fix it or make a new one. I’m Professor Awesome. I built a robot cat when I was nine. I created the Time Pestle, though I shouldn’t have. Jenny told you about the de-pants-icator.”
“Yes, your mother is still mad about that one.”
He waved it off. “It’s not important. Yeah, it was a bad idea to make one, but it was smart, just not wise. Besides, I was in a hurry. You know I could build a better one if I had to.”
“Please don’t.” She gave him a small smile. “Jenny doesn’t need our help to have silly adventures.”
“I won’t. I don’t have to. Hm.”
He poked a piece, which wobbled loosely. Wu chittered excitedly at him and waved energetically, pacing back and forth. He nodded at Wu.
“Kim? Check this out. See the bits here on the stator that look like the raccoons were trying to make a dynamo? Except that you don’t do that with carved walnuts. If this is supposed to be a shift engine like the one in the basement Jenny doesn’t think I know about, then these are supposed to be Moriarty guides – except, you know, somebody chewed them out of walnut shells. I think I’m going to have to rebuild these from scratch.”
“Maybe it’s a silly question, Eric, but how do you know so much about how a dimensional shift engine works?”
“I read the manual for the one in the basement.”
“Oh, of course. So, is this a problem?”
“Nope. Gonna need a Dremel tool and maybe fifteen minutes, though.” He stood up and brushed his pants off. “Let’s go get some tools.”
The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only 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 reversed.
