One of the many interpretations of Jenny Everywhere
"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."
—The license for Jenny Everywhere
Jenny Everywhere
is the world's first open-source fictional character. Although she appears mainly in webcomics, Jenny is freely available for use in other media, and must remain so.
Jenny has no official website (the closest thing would be The Shifter Archive), publication, or Backstory. Jenny has the power to shift between parallel universes, or she exists in every universe, or both. Her appearance varies, but the creator has this as a general description which writers honor to varying degrees:
She has short, dark hair. She usually wears aviation goggles on top of her head and a scarf around her neck. Otherwise, she dresses in comfortable clothes. She is average size and has a good body image. She has loads of confidence and charisma. She appears to be Asian or Native American. She has a ready smile.
Additionally, her common depiction by writers has her as enthusiastic, kind, generally angst-free, and eager for adventure and toast.
Jenny was created by Canadian cartoonist Steven Wintle on the loosely Grant Morrison-centric counterculture forum Barbelith, where she appeared in a bunch of comics. Eventually interest in her died out there, but she's gone on to appear in many, many other webcomics and stories.
This character has appeared in the following works:
- Hottie 5: Fifty Shades of Epic
- Atop the Fourth Wall: Jenny makes a cameo as one of the contestants in the 1,049th Contest of Champions, same as Linkara, though only her name is seen climbing through the brackets.
- Arthur, King of Time and Space here.
- The Bare Pit
- Change of Plans
- The Crossoverlord
- Crossoverkill
- Crowns of the Kingdom
- The Easy Breather
- The Gods Are Bastards
- Heroes Alliance
- I.M. Hip
- The Infinite Loops
- Kazas Mate Gwenna: Shows up to meet her contractual obligations, then leaves before she'd have to join the main cast.
- Left Beyond in which she ends up helping keep Cendrillon safe through the Tribulation and, after another dimensional jaunt that lands her 900 years later in that timeline, being mistaken for an avatar of the goddess Hekate.
- Life and Death
- Lightning Made of Owls (here)
- Scandal Sheet
- Shelterville Shuffle: Vouches for the wayward tricksters to the Shelterville Sheriff, then shows up later to give them a ride out of town.
- Super Milestone Wars 2
- The ISOT'd House: One Woman Goes from 2012 to 1952: And her Villainous Counterpart, as well.
- Times Like This: Two appearances.
- She's at a nightclub talking trash about her ex-boyfriend... a guy who plans to exact revenge for the breakup by making a song out of her phone number. Yes, she's that Jenny.
- She's now got a revenue stream, thanks to Cassie Retconning her into becoming one of the founders of Jenn-Air.
- She's at a nightclub
- Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red
- Union of Heroes
- Jenny Everywhere's Infinite: Quark Time
- The Genesis of Jenny Everywhere, an (as yet unfinished) attempt at creating a backstory for one incarnation of Jenny.
- Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights: Jenny makes a cameo appearance in "The Non-Canonical Lunatic Crack Chapter", alongside many other Dimensional Travelers.
Tropes:
- Alternate Self: Jenny's primary characteristic is to have an infinite number of them in every possible reality, all of whom have a mind-link to her and share her name. Additionally, there are various "variations" on the core concept of Jenny, such as Jenny Nowhere.
- Author Appeal: Naturally, different versions of Jenny tend to reflect their interests. In some of the Barbelith stories, she spent a lot of time clubbing and obsessing over music. In the nudist webcomic Loxie and Zoot/The Bare Pit, she gets naked a lot. In The Easy Breather, she inspires Samantha by showing her a DVD.
- Ambiguously Brown: Her creator merely says that "she appears to be Asian or Native American".
- Depending on the Writer: Actively encouraged; the nature of Jenny's character means that her various incarnations often vary wildly between stories, though her base personality stays generally true to the brief, by and large. This even goes for the nature of her powers. The same variability is also given by the original brief for Jenny's Evil Counterpart, Jenny Nowhere, as part of the character' core concept: "in each universe there's a Jenny Everywhere who's recognizably Jenny Everywhere in name, character and appearance... and somewhere in each universe there's a Jenny Nowhere who's recognizably Jenny Nowhere In Name Only."
- Depending on the Artist: Jenny's specific appearance is deliberately vague so as to give freedom to creators to draw her how they want, so in addition to every artist's varying art styles, each interpretation is going to be at least slightly different from another.
- Dimensional Traveler: Jenny has the ability to "shift" between universes, hence her nickname.
- Evil Counterpart: Jenny Nowhere, as described above, has many counterparts and variations of her own, but her primary description is as a living antithesis of Jenny Everywhere who shares name and powers.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Jenny has often been shown to have romantic relationships with non-humanoid alien beings (starting in one of her earliest comics) as well as with humans of various genders. Somewhat downplayed inasmuch that Jenny is not as especially
promiscuous; indeed, whether her relationships with the more Squicky aliens are sexual in nature, or asexual romances, is left ambiguous. - Flash Sideways: Jenny has the ability to share thoughts and memories with her alternate selves.
- Goggles Do Nothing: In most cases, Jenny's aviator goggles are just for show. One story hints that she inherited her from her mother, who was an aviator.
- Meaningful Name: She is supposed to exist in all possible realities, and is thus pretty much "everywhere". Her power to "shift" between realities gives her the title/nickname "The Shifter".
- Public Domain Character: Jenny was specifically created to be used by everyone and anyone.
- Sir Cameos-a-Lot: Jenny Everywhere is a Public Domain Character who doesn't even have an original "canon", so her cameos and crossover appearances definitely outnumber the stories where she's a star.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Jenny often mentions a love of toast as one of her core character quirks when introducing herself.
- Walking the Earth: Jenny goes wherever the wind takes her, sometimes even through The Multiverse depending on the interpretation.
