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scott_sanfordIt's been a while since we looked in on the kid. What's Professor Awesome up to?
Ideally you should read How Jenny First Met... before this story
Professor Awesome and Jenny Everywhere in
Preludes & Knick-Knacks
by Scott Sanford; 6 October 2023
Eric’s morning started off normally, as normally as life got living where he did. Nothing worth mentioning happened all day until he took a bag of garbage down the back stairs, stepping over the cat mumbling in its sleep on the steps, and dropped the garbage into the dumpster outside.
Blinking in the outdoor light, he thought he saw his neighbor Jenny Everywhere with an octopus on her shoulder.
This was unusual enough even for her that it made him curious.
It looked like a live octopus, with some kind of harness. He wasn’t sure if they made pet harnesses for octopuses. Or if people kept pet octopuses. Although he wouldn’t put it past Jenny.
Eric figured he’d better go find out, so he headed over.
“Hi, Jenny,” he called, not wanting to surprise her or her cephalopod.
“Hi, Eric!”, she answered cheerfully. “I can’t stay too long, I’m in the middle of something, but if you see Kim can you let her know I may be out late?”
“Sure,” he agreed. Now that he was closer he could see it was definitely a live octopus, it was wearing a harness with equipment pouches, and it was watching him.
“So, um… what’s going on?”, he asked.
“This is Brianna, she’s a friend of a friend,” Jenny explained. “She’s got some stuff going on in her world so I’m going over there for a few hours; they need my amazing superpowers of breathing air and walking on land.”
The octopus waved a tentacle at him, a shiny red star shaped medallion gleaming between its eyes.
“Hello,” he said, guessing it might understand him. It? She? He didn’t know how to tell. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
It did by the standards of what Jenny Everywhere got up to, anyway. So she knew a world full of octopus people, apparently? Sure, why not.
Jenny stuffed a few last things into her backpack and picked it up off the picnic table under the tree where the people from the burger place next door smoked cigarettes.
“Okay, that should be everything,” she said, and awkwardly tried to put it on without dislodging the octopus.
“Do you need any help?” he asked after a few moments.
“No, I’ve got it.” She settled the backpack in place and Brianna writhed over to perch atop it. Jenny gave him a grin and said, “See you later!”
A rainbow halo flared briefly around them and they disappeared.
A small cylinder fell to the ground with a clunk where they had been standing and Eric leaned over curiously, seeing that a thin tendril was unwinding from it.
Something very loud happened.
Eric discovered he was lying on the ground and pretty much everything hurt. He was on his back looking up at a cloudy sky.
He hurt. He hurt a lot. His ears were ringing. Most of the hurting was on his front. He realized the thing had been an explosive, a grenade or something, and that he was figuring it out several seconds after he really needed to have known that.
Now he was in trouble. This was bad.
Maybe someone had heard and would come help? He wasn’t sure he could move on his own.
He tried. Ow. No. He wasn’t going anywhere on his own, not any time soon.
That wasn’t good.
He hadn’t seen anyone else out behind the building, and this end of the lot wasn’t easy to see from the street.
Among the things Eric didn’t see was a fuzzy green ball the size of a mouse that rolled across the ground and disappeared into a hole that had not been there before and a moment later wasn’t there again.
The next thing he knew Sophie was there, dropping to the ground and leaning in above him.
“Oh no, oh no…” Sophie looked down at his body and muttered to herself, “Damn organic biology, it’s messy and complicated, and I haven’t studied medicine yet…”
Sophie made a face and said something that might have been swearing but an unearthly noise from somewhere drowned out all other sounds.
Nearby, where Eric couldn’t see it, a discarded cigarette pack grew far too many tiny legs and skittered away into the darkness under David’s parked car. It would not be seen by human eyes until the next week, when the neighbor cat Thoth would lay its corpse on his human’s pillow as a trophy.
She looked him in the eye and said intensely, “𝕰𝖗𝖎𝖈! 𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖉𝖎𝖊!” Her voice made him feel funny all the way down to his toes.
Eric tried to say something but no words came out. He thought he was going to need more than first aid.
“Can you stop being hurt a moment?”, she pleaded. “Please, I can’t make it not happen if you keep observing it...”
He didn’t think he’d heard that correctly.
“No, no, this isn’t how it should be. Not this. Not in this timeline. What am I going to do?” She suddenly stopped, straightened up, and blinked in surprise at something he didn’t see. “Oh.”
Behind Sophie the air rippled and Sophie stepped out of nowhere in a halo of rainbow light. Eric marveled for a moment, feeling himself gawk foolishly; of course Sophie was a shifter like Jenny Everywhere, that explained so much.
The other Sophie leaned down and handed herself something that looked like a bundle of lollipops. “First he gets red, then green, then blue.”
“These are Herbie’s,” the first Sophie said.
“Right. Keep it together, girl, you can do this.” She squeezed her other self’s shoulder and disappeared in a brief glitter of rainbows.
“Right,” repeated the Sophie who was left, with sudden resolve. “Eric, lollipop time. Open your mouth.”
He was sure this was not in fact the time for lollipops but he didn’t have the strength to argue or resist. Sophie unwrapped an ordinary looking red lollipop and stuck it into his mouth.
And the world dissolved around him. Everything was the taste of the most marvelous lollipop he’d ever had. It was like waking up after being asleep his whole life, with an indescribable taste more intense and overwhelming than anything he had ever known. It was all through his body, or his body was only the lollipop, or both. Did that even make sense? He couldn’t think for the overwhelming experience.
Some unmeasured time later he noticed that he was laying on his back, with Sophie playing with his hair, and there was a soggy stick in his mouth.
He blinked several times, reorienting himself.
Whatever that had been, he didn’t hurt any more.
He looked up at Sophie quizzically.
“Hey,” Sophie said, smiling. “Welcome back.”
“What…” He took the stick out of his mouth. “What kind of candy was that?”
“A very special lollipop – which you figured out on your own already. They can be kind of intense. Especially the first time. And for some people.” She shrugged and added, “You can’t get them around here.”
“Here as in Earth?”, he asked. “Yeah, I saw. You’re a shifter.”
“Yeah,” she confirmed with a smile. “You don’t seem all that surprised.”
“I should have figured it out earlier. Nobody knew you here.”
“You already know about shifting, huh?”
“Yeah. Herbie too?”
“Herbie is his own thing. He’s… kind of human and kind of not? I don’t know; maybe he’ll explain it to you.”
“I don’t care. I’m just glad to see you again.” Eric tried to smile up at her. She smiled back and he thought it was better than the magic lollipop.
“It’s nice to see you too, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be here yet,” Sophie said apologetically. “But I’ll come back when I can.”
“You really have to go?” He didn’t want her to.
“Here, take this.” She put something soft into his hand. “I’ll come back when I can. Until then, maybe this will remind you of me.”
She smiled at him again, which did strange things to his heart, and disappeared. No fuss, no walking away, she was just not there any more.
He sat up and looked at what she’d left. It was some kind of stuffed animal… a sea urchin? Something from another dimension? Like a koosh ball it had many soft hairs; Eric realized the blue plushy matched Sophie’s dreadlocks and grinned, examining it. The toy only had a single large eye and it wasn’t clear where another might have been attached. A tall red hat clung to what was presumably the top; he guessed there could be many toys and interchangeable accessories for the plush... whatever it was.
He decided he didn’t care what it was supposed to be. It was Sophie’s and she trusted him with it; he’d treasure it and take good care of it until he saw her again.
Read other Jenny Everywhere stories
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.
Ideally you should read How Jenny First Met... before this story
Preludes & Knick-Knacks
by Scott Sanford; 6 October 2023
Eric’s morning started off normally, as normally as life got living where he did. Nothing worth mentioning happened all day until he took a bag of garbage down the back stairs, stepping over the cat mumbling in its sleep on the steps, and dropped the garbage into the dumpster outside.
Blinking in the outdoor light, he thought he saw his neighbor Jenny Everywhere with an octopus on her shoulder.
This was unusual enough even for her that it made him curious.
It looked like a live octopus, with some kind of harness. He wasn’t sure if they made pet harnesses for octopuses. Or if people kept pet octopuses. Although he wouldn’t put it past Jenny.
Eric figured he’d better go find out, so he headed over.
“Hi, Jenny,” he called, not wanting to surprise her or her cephalopod.
“Hi, Eric!”, she answered cheerfully. “I can’t stay too long, I’m in the middle of something, but if you see Kim can you let her know I may be out late?”
“Sure,” he agreed. Now that he was closer he could see it was definitely a live octopus, it was wearing a harness with equipment pouches, and it was watching him.
“So, um… what’s going on?”, he asked.
“This is Brianna, she’s a friend of a friend,” Jenny explained. “She’s got some stuff going on in her world so I’m going over there for a few hours; they need my amazing superpowers of breathing air and walking on land.”
The octopus waved a tentacle at him, a shiny red star shaped medallion gleaming between its eyes.
“Hello,” he said, guessing it might understand him. It? She? He didn’t know how to tell. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
It did by the standards of what Jenny Everywhere got up to, anyway. So she knew a world full of octopus people, apparently? Sure, why not.
Jenny stuffed a few last things into her backpack and picked it up off the picnic table under the tree where the people from the burger place next door smoked cigarettes.
“Okay, that should be everything,” she said, and awkwardly tried to put it on without dislodging the octopus.
“Do you need any help?” he asked after a few moments.
“No, I’ve got it.” She settled the backpack in place and Brianna writhed over to perch atop it. Jenny gave him a grin and said, “See you later!”
A rainbow halo flared briefly around them and they disappeared.
A small cylinder fell to the ground with a clunk where they had been standing and Eric leaned over curiously, seeing that a thin tendril was unwinding from it.
Something very loud happened.
Eric discovered he was lying on the ground and pretty much everything hurt. He was on his back looking up at a cloudy sky.
He hurt. He hurt a lot. His ears were ringing. Most of the hurting was on his front. He realized the thing had been an explosive, a grenade or something, and that he was figuring it out several seconds after he really needed to have known that.
Now he was in trouble. This was bad.
Maybe someone had heard and would come help? He wasn’t sure he could move on his own.
He tried. Ow. No. He wasn’t going anywhere on his own, not any time soon.
That wasn’t good.
He hadn’t seen anyone else out behind the building, and this end of the lot wasn’t easy to see from the street.
Among the things Eric didn’t see was a fuzzy green ball the size of a mouse that rolled across the ground and disappeared into a hole that had not been there before and a moment later wasn’t there again.
The next thing he knew Sophie was there, dropping to the ground and leaning in above him.
“Oh no, oh no…” Sophie looked down at his body and muttered to herself, “Damn organic biology, it’s messy and complicated, and I haven’t studied medicine yet…”
Sophie made a face and said something that might have been swearing but an unearthly noise from somewhere drowned out all other sounds.
Nearby, where Eric couldn’t see it, a discarded cigarette pack grew far too many tiny legs and skittered away into the darkness under David’s parked car. It would not be seen by human eyes until the next week, when the neighbor cat Thoth would lay its corpse on his human’s pillow as a trophy.
She looked him in the eye and said intensely, “𝕰𝖗𝖎𝖈! 𝕯𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖉𝖎𝖊!” Her voice made him feel funny all the way down to his toes.
Eric tried to say something but no words came out. He thought he was going to need more than first aid.
“Can you stop being hurt a moment?”, she pleaded. “Please, I can’t make it not happen if you keep observing it...”
He didn’t think he’d heard that correctly.
“No, no, this isn’t how it should be. Not this. Not in this timeline. What am I going to do?” She suddenly stopped, straightened up, and blinked in surprise at something he didn’t see. “Oh.”
Behind Sophie the air rippled and Sophie stepped out of nowhere in a halo of rainbow light. Eric marveled for a moment, feeling himself gawk foolishly; of course Sophie was a shifter like Jenny Everywhere, that explained so much.
The other Sophie leaned down and handed herself something that looked like a bundle of lollipops. “First he gets red, then green, then blue.”
“These are Herbie’s,” the first Sophie said.
“Right. Keep it together, girl, you can do this.” She squeezed her other self’s shoulder and disappeared in a brief glitter of rainbows.
“Right,” repeated the Sophie who was left, with sudden resolve. “Eric, lollipop time. Open your mouth.”
He was sure this was not in fact the time for lollipops but he didn’t have the strength to argue or resist. Sophie unwrapped an ordinary looking red lollipop and stuck it into his mouth.
And the world dissolved around him. Everything was the taste of the most marvelous lollipop he’d ever had. It was like waking up after being asleep his whole life, with an indescribable taste more intense and overwhelming than anything he had ever known. It was all through his body, or his body was only the lollipop, or both. Did that even make sense? He couldn’t think for the overwhelming experience.
Some unmeasured time later he noticed that he was laying on his back, with Sophie playing with his hair, and there was a soggy stick in his mouth.
He blinked several times, reorienting himself.
Whatever that had been, he didn’t hurt any more.
He looked up at Sophie quizzically.
“Hey,” Sophie said, smiling. “Welcome back.”
“What…” He took the stick out of his mouth. “What kind of candy was that?”
“A very special lollipop – which you figured out on your own already. They can be kind of intense. Especially the first time. And for some people.” She shrugged and added, “You can’t get them around here.”
“Here as in Earth?”, he asked. “Yeah, I saw. You’re a shifter.”
“Yeah,” she confirmed with a smile. “You don’t seem all that surprised.”
“I should have figured it out earlier. Nobody knew you here.”
“You already know about shifting, huh?”
“Yeah. Herbie too?”
“Herbie is his own thing. He’s… kind of human and kind of not? I don’t know; maybe he’ll explain it to you.”
“I don’t care. I’m just glad to see you again.” Eric tried to smile up at her. She smiled back and he thought it was better than the magic lollipop.
“It’s nice to see you too, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be here yet,” Sophie said apologetically. “But I’ll come back when I can.”
“You really have to go?” He didn’t want her to.
“Here, take this.” She put something soft into his hand. “I’ll come back when I can. Until then, maybe this will remind you of me.”
She smiled at him again, which did strange things to his heart, and disappeared. No fuss, no walking away, she was just not there any more.
He sat up and looked at what she’d left. It was some kind of stuffed animal… a sea urchin? Something from another dimension? Like a koosh ball it had many soft hairs; Eric realized the blue plushy matched Sophie’s dreadlocks and grinned, examining it. The toy only had a single large eye and it wasn’t clear where another might have been attached. A tall red hat clung to what was presumably the top; he guessed there could be many toys and interchangeable accessories for the plush... whatever it was.
He decided he didn’t care what it was supposed to be. It was Sophie’s and she trusted him with it; he’d treasure it and take good care of it until he saw her again.
The Sophiad:
0) How Sophie Met Professor Awesome → 1) Preludes & Knick-Knacks → 2) The Doll’s Source → 3) Treat Counting → 4) Session of Mystics → 5) A Game of Two → omake
0) How Sophie Met Professor Awesome → 1) Preludes & Knick-Knacks → 2) The Doll’s Source → 3) Treat Counting → 4) Session of Mystics → 5) A Game of Two → omake
The character of Octobriana was created by Petr Sadecký, more or less (it's complicated); she is in the public domain.
The character of Sophie Everytime, created by Aristide Twain, is available for use by anyone. All rights reversed.
