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."

—Steven Wintle, The license for Jenny Everywhere

Jenny Everywhere is the world's first open-source fictional character.^[1] Although she appears mainly in Web Comics, Jenny is freely available for use in other media, and must remain so.

Because of her open-source status, Jenny has no official Web site (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 (even within a story), 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. There, he described her personality and original powers:

I envisioned her as the sort of person who wouldn't use a cheat code while playing a video game. So, anything from her bag of tricks (borrowed from herself from another dimension) would be on her person already, before the shit hit the fan. She wouldn't use it as an instant cop-out, thus enabling her to get in trouble with no seemingly way out but wht^[sic] she has on hand. Therefore, her powers, vast as they are, are constrained by her personality, which doesn't allow her to "cheat."
Basically, she'll use her powers only against threats of an equal or greater force. She wouldn't use them against common thugs, but might use them against Satan, or Galactus, or someonw^[sic] equally powerful.
In the original story we were working on, at one point she turns zero dimensional, allowing her to escape a reality affecting device because she therefore wouldn't exist. At the end of the planned series, she was going to die. And with her death, her other selves would all die, too. Thus causing widespread mourning by an infinite amount of friends, all of whom come to pay their respects. It would've been a bitch to draw.
Basically, she's continually multi-dimensional, as all her dimensional selves aren't separate beings, but really the same person existing in separate places. And of course, none of this makes any sense.

Eventually interest in her died out there, but she's gone on to appear in many, many other webcomics and stories, and has her own wiki.

Jenny Everywhere provides examples of the following tropes:

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 web comic Loxie and Zoot (NSFW) a.k.a. The Bare Pit, she got naked (thankfully that was done by someone who can actually draw). In The Easy Breather (NSFW), she inspires Samantha by showing her a DVD.
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.
- Her Evil Counterpart, Jenny Nowhere, also an open source character, is even more so. The Shifter Archive FAQ suggests that "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: As above, Jenny's specific appearance is deliberately vague so as to give freedom to the creators.
Evil Counterpart: Jenny Nowhere (see above).
Genki Girl
Goggles Do Nothing: Her introduction story says that Jenny inherited them from her mother, who was an aviator.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Jenny verges on this sometimes.
Plucky Girl
Scarf of Asskicking
Trademark Favorite Food: Toast
Weirdness Magnet
Walking The Multiverse
The Wiki Rule: Archives of the Shifter

Works where Jenny Everywhere has appeared include:

Web Comics

The Bare Pit
The Crossoverlord
Crossoverkill
The Easy Breather (NSFW)
Life and Death
Mezzacotta:
- Lightning Made of Owls here
- Mentioned but not actually illustrated in the "archive" list for Drivers & Dubble-yas
Times Like This: Jenny becomes The Gump, where an 80's rock song involving a certain phone number is concerned. Oh, and she's also a partner in a certain appliance company.
Touhou Nekokayou: Scarlet Weather Archive in Japanese Red
Union of Heroes

Web Original

A number of stories on Ficly

↑ As opposed to characters that have fallen into the public domain.

[1] As opposed to characters that have fallen into the public domain.

[1]