PrincessJeanette

Princess Jeanette was the second sovereign princess of Centralia, best known for her progressive views and dedication to social reforms.

Arrival on Earth and adoption

The Asterian who would come to be known as Jeanette was the second Asterian to arrive on Earth, a few hundred years after PrincessMeredith. Unlike Meredith, who arrived as an adult, Jeanette arrived on Earth with the physical form and mental state of a small child. Meredith's close friend and life partner, AdorabelleWallace, convinced Meredith that the two should take Jeanette in and raise her together, effectively making her their adopted daughter. At Adorabelle's urging, Jeanette later attended DameAdorabellesAcademy to learn how to control her powers.

Because Jeanette spent her formative years on Earth, Jeanette had a much better understanding of human culture and customs than Princess Meredith. Jeanette often acted as Meredith's informal guide to life on Earth, especially during the time when Dame Adorabelle was away from the palace teaching at her boarding school. It was this relationship (and the crazy powerful magic that comes along with being an Asterian) that led Meredith to appoint Jeanette as her successor, after her first choice, Adorabelle herself, declined.

Reign

Following the Christmas Eve incident, in which Princess Meredith attacked SantaClaus because she incorrectly believed he was a pretender to the throne and planned to stage a coup, Meredith abdicated on December 31st. The next day, on January 1st, Princess Jeanette acceded to the throne, becoming the second sovereign princess of Centralia.

As ruler of Centralia, Princess Jeanette was largely known for her progressive social reforms. Jeanette went to great lengths to implement a robust welfare state across Centralia, unifying the smaller social programs that had varied across the prefectures during Meredith's reign. It was also under Jeanette's rule that Centralia adopted the metric system, replacing the bizarre customary system introduced by Meredith, in which measurements were typically based on comparisons to an average porcupine, which Meredith called a "pointyboy". (For the curious, 1 Centralian pointyboy = 33 inches = 0.8382 meters.)

Relationship with Cherry Blossom

Jeanette's royal Unicorn during her reign was CherryBlossom. Although the two presented their relationship as strictly professional, Jeanette and Cherry Blossom were deeply in love with each other. Unbeknownst to others, Cherry Blossom possessed an ability unique among unicorns: shapeshifting. Cherry Blossom often assumed the form of a human to go on romantic outings with Jeanette. These outings quickly became a topic of gossip, not only among members of the public, but also among other members of the royal court, who speculated about the identity of Jeanette's "secret lover" but never managed to deduce that they were, in fact, Cherry Blossom the royal unicorn.

Disappearance

Unlike Meredith, who was reluctant to name an heir to the throne because she intended to rule forever, Princess Jeanette named her successor very early on in her reign, much to the surprise of the other members of the royal court. Her chosen successor was Alice, another Asterian. In making her selection, Jeanette acknowledged that Alice was lacking in leadership skills, but believed that her magic--the most powerful anyone on Earth had ever seen, rivaling even the other princesses--would be a great asset for the safety and protection of Centralia and her subjects.

One chilly October morning, a handmaid at the PalaceOfSerenity went to wake up Princess Jeanette, only to find that she was not in her bed. The handmaid reported the princess's absence to the CentraliaHonorGuard, and the commander-in-chief of the CentralianGuardForces immediately commenced a nationwide search for Princess Jeanette, believing her to have been kidnapped. Eventually it was discovered that the royal unicorn, Cherry Blossom, had gone missing as well. The search for Princess Jeanette and her unicorn was a massive coordinated effort at all levels of government, from local police departments all the way up to the CGF, and dominated headlines not only across Centralia but throughout the entire region.

Throughout the search, members of the CHG had been monitoring the telephone lines in the PalaceOfSerenity to intercept any phone calls from a possible kidnapper communicating demands. About a week after Jeanette's disappearnce, Alice happened to be near the telephone when it rang. While several CHG personnel were present, and listening in on the line, Alice had a strange intuition that she should be the one to answer the phone...and so she did. On the other end, she heard what was unmistakably Princess Jeanette's voice:

• "I know everybody is worried. I called to let you know that I am safe and I am happy. Now is your time, Princess Alice."

The call was then immediately disconnected. Even with the use of special magical forensics, the CHG was unable to trace the origin of the call, though Alice insisted that it was a genuine message from the real Jeanette. With that, the search was called off, and on October 11th, Princess Alice acceded to the throne as Jeanette's successor, becoming the third sovereign princess of Centralia.

Journey to the strange nonmagical world

Ever since Jeanette arrived on Earth as a small child, she had a fascination with alternate universes. While she spent most of her time actively participating in governing Centralia--arguably much more time than either of the other princesses spent governing--her private time was largely occupied crafting theories on what other universes might exist, and possible methods for getting to them.

Jeanette often shared her theories about alternate universes with her secret lover, Cherry Blossom, and eventually, working together, the two of them developed a plan for how to transport themselves to an another universe. Jeanette and Cherry Blossom eventually decided to attempt their plan without informing anyone else, reasoning that it probably would not work on the first attempt and that disclosing the plans to other members of the royal court might lead them to interfere in future attempts. Late on a rainy October night, Cherry Blossom, disguised as a human member of the CentraliaHonorGuard, sneaked into Princess Jeanette's bedroom at the PalaceOfSerenity, and the two began the magical ritual that would allow them to transcend universes.

Much to their surprise, the ritual worked in their first time. Jeanette and Cherry Blossom (still in human form), found themselves in a strange world seemingly devoid of magic or mystical creatures. They soon learned that they had arrived in a place called "Ohio", and that in this world, magic, unicorns, and aliens were considered mere fairy tales told to children.

In her early days in the nonmagical world, Jeanette continued to wear her princess dress and crown, and continued to introduce herself as "Princess Jeanette". Adults who encountered her in public often mistook her for a costumed performer, and eventually many parents began hiring her as an entertainer to show up at their children's birthday parties. When Jeanette would wow the children with displays of her magical ability, the adults simply assumed she was using sleight-of-hand. "Why didn't you tell me you were also an illusionist?" several impressed parents asked.

Initially, Jeanette and Cherry Blossom, as mystical creatures who never had to eat or sleep, did not see any urgency in finding a permanent home, instead simply choosing to stay out and about 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, Jeanette eventually decided to try to "assimilate" to the culture of the strange nonmagical world. She used the money she had saved from the children's birthday party performances to rent a small apartment in the suburbs of a big city, where she lived alongside Cherry Blossom. She began parting in fiction as a way of "researching" the culture of this strange new world...though Cherry Blossom suspected this "research" was largely an excuse to sit and watch anime for hours at a time.

Soon, Jeanette stopped styling herself as a "Princess" and enrolled herself in a nearby community college. She also attempted to dress in a style more suitable for a "normal human student", though because her research consisted mostly of anime, she began attending classes in a Japanese-style "sailor suit" school uniform, which still managed to stand out enough to draw attention to her. Cherry Blossom, meanwhile, got a job at a fast food establishment near their apartment.

Despite going to great lengths to immerse herself in the culture of the nonmagical world, Jeanette made no attempt to hide her nature as a divine magical entity from another universe, and continued to display her magical powers in front of others. Most inhabitants of this strange world, however, had long been conditioned to disbelieve in magic, and did not recognize Jeanette's powers as genuine, assuming she was merely an eccentric young woman very dedicated to roleplaying, to Jeanette's frequent frustration.

• Professor: Oh, you made my coffee cup "levitate"! How did you do that? I can't feel any strings or anything.

  Jeanette: I already told you. I am an omnipotent extraterrestrial princess from another universe!

  Professor: You sure do have an vivid imagination, Jeanette.

  Jeanette: (groans)

Cherry Blossom often felt the need to clarify that Jeanette, despite her claims, was not quite omnipotent, though they acknowledged that compared to the humans in the nonmagical world, the distinction was largely academic. Also, nobody believed in Jeanette's powers anyway, so there was little point in arguing over what to call them.

• Classmate: If you're really as powerful as you say you are, why haven't you done anything with it? Why don't you reshape the world in your image for something?

  Jeanette: In my own universe, I did that. But in your universe, I am strictly an observer. My objective is to learn about this world, not change it.

  Classmate: So it's like 3rd Rock from the Sun?

  Jeanette: I do not know what that means, and if previous conversations on this matter are any indication, I do not want to know.

  Classmate: I thought you said you wanted to learn about our world!

  Jeanette: Yes, but not from you.

Word of Jeanette and Cherry Blossom, the dedicated roleplayers who were "in character" 24/7, spread quickly around certain circles of the nonmagical world's Internet, and the two developed something of a cult following online. However, not all of the attention was positive: The US government quickly became aware of the phenomenon, and while most officials dismissed Jeanette and Cherry Blossom as harmless LARPers, a small number of very high-ranking personnel took the prospect of a nigh-omnipotent magical being invading the US very seriously. Eventually, Jeanette and Cherry Blossom found themselves being constantly tailed by mysterious "men in black", though this was ultimately of little consequence, because despite having access to advanced technology, the government goons still lacked magic, and thus were trivially easy for an Asterian and a unicorn to evade. Of course, her predilection for evading the men in black simply angered the government officials more, and made them increase the surveillance, but as Jeanette noted, "I am the roadrunner and they are the coyote: No matter how clever they think they are, they can never catch me!" (Apparently Chuck Jones cartoons were among the "research" she did on the nonmagical world.)

Miscellaneous

• PrincessJeanettePlaza in QueenCity was named in her honor.

CategoryRoyalty CategoryCharacters CategoryPrincessJeanette