Subject: PPCCUU Phase 3: Worlds Without End (Revised & Expanded)
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Posted on: 2021-09-30 09:55:59 UTC

11. Agent II

The Agent and the Disentangler are on a routine mission when they discover a strange mirror that isn't mentioned in the Words. The reflections in it don't quite match what's on their side. The Agent reaches out and touches it, and blue-black light surrounds the pair.

They recover consciousness to find themselves in DoSAT, but Makes-Things has a goatee. Other DoSAT agents are similarly off-looking - Corolla is dressed entirely in Evil Villain black leather, and riding around on a grumpy mini-Balrog.

"Be glad I let you off so lightly," Makes-Things sneers. "Next time, I'll send you down to Disturbing Acts of Violence. Now get out of here before I call the Cats."

The Agent and Disentangler hurry away, discussing in hushed tones that they're obviously in some kind of Star Trek mirror universe. "Actually," says Jaycacia Thornbyrd, stepping into view wearing a white sash with a silver cat pin, "it's more of a mirror multiverse. Welcome to the Enforcers of the Plot Continuum. Come with me if you want to live."

The agents are taken to the headquarters of the DIS, the mirror version of the DIA; most of its agents are DIA agents in mirror form. They get a crash-course in multiverse theory: there are many multiverses, each with its own version of the PPC. "Like that weird steampunk lot the Sunflower Emperor's so interested in," one of the Cats mutters, to general agreement.

Jaycacia explains that the Mysterious Somebody from the prime multiverse has been negotiating with the Sunflower Emperor. Makes-Things' device is one part of the plan - it was supposed to teleport the mirror Agent and Disentangler to the prime multiverse, but has instead dropped them into null-space and brought their counterparts across. The White Cats are the only department that doesn't want to invade the prime multiverse - Jaycacia joined them because she was so shocked to hear that her prime counterpart was dead.

The Agent and Disentangler, disguised as their mirror selves, have to destroy Makes-Things' prototypes. Their plan is to get the White Cats out when (or if) they escape, but the ending becomes too hectic for that. Jaycacia calls out to them as they're engulfed by blue-black light: "Don't worry! We'll do what we can from this end!"

They find themselves right back where they started. Abandoning the mission, they race back to HQ to report to the Board's lieutenants: Agents Jay and Acacia.

Post-credits: The Aviator is sitting at a bar. The Agent slips into the seat next to him. "There's trouble in the multiverse," he says. "The Flowers won't listen. I'm putting together a team."

The Aviator rolls his eyes. "Gaspard already did that quote once. Get some new material."

TV Series #5. Alternates

Alec Troven, his wife, Verra Rose, and his best friend, Lorac Seriph had lives as reasonably normal as anyone can in HQ . . . until one day Alec meets . . . Alec?

Turns out, the multiverse is filled with other Alecs, and they're all being affected by the others through a psychic bond. Things get even more complicated when Lorac's behavior makes an abrupt change, and he attempts to kill Verra. Can prime!Alec get the other universes neatly put away before Lorac can hurt anyone else? Jenni Robinson appears occasionally, showing surprising levels of expertise in this kind of thing.

12. SpecOps

Agents Sergio Turbo and Nikki Cherryflower, the PPC's Special Operations team, are assigned what seems like a perfectly ordinary mission to Card Captor Sakura. Before they set out, though, their friend Corolla (from DoSAT) sneaks onto the team, telling them that the Department of Intelligence detected what might be signs of the rumoured multiversal incursions.

The mission goes awry when canon character Sakura goes mysteriously missing. Before the agents can respond, the fic begins to change around them, and they find themselves in another location entirely. "Hang on," says Sergio, "this is a Witch's Barrier. That's not even the right canon!"

It should also be impossible, they discover when they meet canon character Homura, who explains that this is happening after Madoka ascended to godhood to prevent it. The only possibility is that Madoka, like Sakura, has been kidnapped.

The agents are faced with what seems to be a multiversal conspiracy: the kidnapping of magical girl characters amid a wild crossover. Their hunt for the girls culminates in a car chase - and an intervention by Strike Dove, a mercenary organisation from Sergio's past that as far as he's concerned, shouldn't exist any more (and certainly not in this crossover!).

Sergio comes to realise that his memories of the past are incomplete, or altered - or maybe from an alternate timeline which no longer exists. The merging of badfics continues to spiral, with the agents and Strike Dove fending off attacks from villainous minions drawn from multiple canons, all out to kidnap the girls they're protecting. Eventually, they are revealed to be working for Vera, a Suvian from Sergio's past who he had thought dead.

By the finale, Nikki has been captured, and Sergio realises that she is in fact the copy of Sakura he knew when he worked with Strike Dove in his past. Mounting a desperate rescue mission, he recovers Nikki and defeats Vera at last - but the damage to the colliding canons has been so severe that the rescued magical girls have to be taken to HQ for safety.

Post-credits: The Mysterious Somebody consults with one of her subordinates from the League. "The magical girls are a dead end," the subordinate said. "The PPC has them under guard now."

"They're all too pure and nice for our need anyway," the Mysterious Somebody says, then smiles and holds up a complicated piece of clockwork. "But don't worry - I've found something better."

13. Continuity Council

The Agent, as he said to the Aviator back in Agent II, is putting together a team: a Continuity Council of Time Lords, to keep an eye on the multiverse issues that Upstairs don't want to hear about. He's got the Disentangler and Aviator, Morgan (a grump with a gun), the Notary (a grump with a clipboard), the Librarian (a grump with an ego), and the Reader and Fisherman (not noticeably grumps). At the Aviator's insistence, another slot is being held open for the Detective, but he shows no sign of wanting to take it up.

The plot is mixed in with flashbacks to Gallifrey during the lead-up to the Time War, where the members of the Council knew each other to greater or lesser degree. Their relationships are explored during these sections, including what led the Agent to give himself to the Chameleon Arch, and how the Aviator turned from a scared human-turned-Time Lord to the veteran he is today. (Since the present Aviator is a different actor from the past one, this is trickier to convey than it would otherwise be.)

In the present, the meeting quickly turns to bickering. The Agent mentions that Makes-Things is working to develop the Key to Canon into multiversal shielding for HQ. Morgan says that it would have been better for the Agent to keep hold of it, so they could use it directly rather than relying on the techies; the Reader argues that they should have destroyed it, because it's way too powerful to have on the loose.

The Aviator raises his hand. "Sorry, question: what is the 'Key to Canon'? Because it sounds a lot like the Key to Time that the Fourth Doctor had to track down."

The Time Lords look at each other, and eventually the Notary voices the question: is the PPC using Time Lord technology? And if so, who gave it to them?

The bickering continues, spiralling out into several minor multiversal incursions, as the Council try to answer the question and figure out what to do about it. They never manage to resolve the issue, but the flashback sections allow the audience to reconstruct the story: the Key was a knockoff of the Key to Time created during the Time War. Various Council members had encounters with it (though most didn't realise), but eventually it was taken by a white-robed figure recognisable as the Mysterious Somebody.

Ultimately, the Council adjourns without achieving much of anything. Nobody is all that surprised.

Post-credits: The Mysterious Somebody stands in a steampunk-themed room, recognisable as the TCDA Citadel, with EPC agents at her back. She picks up a complicated-looking device, about which black energy swirls, and smiles.

14. FicPsych

"Okay. Let's do this one more time. I'm Jacques Bonnefoy, a rougishly handsome Time Agent from the 51st century turned PPC Agent, and this is a story all about how my life got twist-turned upside down--no, hang on, let me start over.

"Yup, that's me, dangling by my ankles over a giant cup of tea while an evil wizard tries to make out with me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation…"

Jacques Bonnefoy has a problem, and the problem is named Jacques Bonnefoy. Not himself, but the identical-looking French-Scottish wizard who insists that he's the only Jacques Bonnefoy in the PPC. Then there's J'aq, the dragon-rider who's quite put out that there are two Jacqueses pretending to be him, and - as the movie goes on - all the others as well.

As the number of Jacqueses keeps rising, the original version turns to Jenni Robinson for help. He knows she's been helping Alec Troven with his similar issue, though at least the other Alecs haven't been appearing in HQ. It turns out that Jenni has an inverted version of the same thing going on: instead of the many Jacqueses, there is one Jenni who has had many lives.

As Jenni and Jacques drink tea and try to deal with the chaos caused by increasingly bizarre Bonnefoys manifesting in HQ, they start to develop feelings for each other. Jacques is absolutely fine with this, but Jenni fights it all the way. Jacques tries to get her to open up, but she flatly refuses ("Stop trying to counsel me, Bonnefoy; that's my job."), and eventually storms out on him.

… which is when Liu Siyuan shows up and takes Jacques captive. He's an ex of Jacques, and refuses to accept their rather acrimonious breakup. He reveals that he's been magically manipulating the multiversal collisions to try and find a Jacques he can love - but that he's realised he only wants the original, "and that woman is trying to steal you from me!"

The giant teacup is Siyuan's trap for Jenni, but Jacques deliberately trips it himself. Siyuan makes one last attempt to win him back - and that's when Jenni shows up with a team of the more stable alternate Bonnefoys. Rather than treat Liu Siyuan as a villain, she, Jacques, and the alternates enact what might be called combat counselling, ultimately talking him down and getting him to report to FicPsych for help.

In the aftermath, Jenni reveals why she had been so hesitant about a relationship: she lost her first great love, Supernumerary, to the original Legendary Badfic, a monster known as "Subjugation". It was the most dangerous badfic the PPC ever encountered, and multiple agent teams were lost bringing it down. Jenni still had hope that Nume would one day return - "but if there's one thing this has shown me, it's that we can't go back. Only forwards."

Post-credits: A generator room, deep in HQ. The device the Mysterious Somebody found at the end of SpecOps rolls into view. Black cracks in the fabric of reality creep out from it and touch the generators. The lights flicker. And then go out.

15. Protectors of the Plot Continuum 3: Blackout

We open in the blacked-out PPC HQ. The power is out, and with it any protection against the multiversal crisis. Other canons, other realities, other timelines and multiverses come pouring into HQ, and the agents are struggling to deal with it.

Our viewpoint characters through this half of the movie are Christianne and Eledhwen from OFUM. As they struggle through HQ, they gather up the PPCCUU's core characters - the Aviator and Zeb, the Agent and Disentangler, Sergio and Nikki, Jenni and Gaspard - and together they have to fight the monstrous meatloaf Slorp.

With Slorp destroyed, the various agents converge on DoSAT. They plan to try and restore the multiversal shields that Makes-Things was developing from the Key to Canon, but when they arrive in the department they find Makes-Things gone, and in his place the Mysterious Somebody.

"Wait," say the Aviator, "I know you - from Gallifrey."

Jenni gasps in horror. "No -- she's the Legendary!"

The Mysterious Somebody reveals that she is both: originally a Suvian from a minor Doctor Who badfic, she stole the Key to Canon and used it to flee into the multiverse. The Legendary Badfic "Subjugation" was her first attempt to build a reality that suited her needs, but the PPC caught wind of it and sent in their best teams. She was only just able to escape as the story collapsed - and she lost the Key as she did so.

She tried making her own Key, but could only manage a corrupted version, which opened the gates to the multiverses but didn't allow her to control them. Everything the PPC has gone through - the League, the various Suvians, the current crisis - has been her attempt to get the original Key to Canon back. And now, she reveals, pulling out the crystal pyramid, she has achieved that goal.

The agents are too late to stop her. The Mysterious Somebody activates the Key - and the whole of reality changes.

The agents find themselves scattered across a merged multiverse where there is only one form of relationship, and it is domination. Everyone who wasn't in DoSAT - canon or agent - when the Key was activated is utterly under the story's control - some of them as masters who will control and lightly torture anyone they get their hands on, but most as submissive slaves who not-so-secretly love it.

Each of the five unaffected pairs has to try and rescue someone from the story's clutches, but most of them only have partial success. Sergio and Nikki are driven from DoSAT before they can get black-leather Corolla away from her harem. The Aviator reluctantly stops dom!Constance from whipping sub!Dafydd too much, but they are all cornered by the Detective and an evil female copy of the Aviator. The Agent and Disentangler try to break Morgan out of her role as mistress of the Council but get nowhere. Christianne and Eledhwen rescue Jay and Acacia from the clutches of the Sunflower Official, but aren't able to escape from the Board's office before the Flower gets his tendrils on them.

The biggest emotional arc in this act falls to Jenni, with Gaspard supporting. She finds Jacques back with Liu Siyuan, and being incredibly abusive towards him. She does her best to break him out of it, but in the end it is Gaspard who succeeds, leading Jenni to doubt the depth of Jacques' feelings towards her.

Jenni and her team head for DoSAT, knowing that the only way to restore reality is to use the Key to Canon themselves. As they get closer, they each feel the story's influence growing stronger as they approach its epicentre. Once there, they are met with a shocking sight: the Mysterious Somebody, chained to a wall, bleeding and weeping. And standing over her, with a riding crop and a cruel smile: Agent Supernumerary.

Jenni realises that the agents who were lost in the collapsing "Subjugation" have been restored in this new and expanded version, and twisted to meet it's purposes. As she tries to process this, the rest of her team try to tackle Nume, but he and his slaves (not including the Mysterious Somebody, who stays chained in her corner) overpower them. As Nume prepares to gag them and lock them away, we suddenly hear the crack of a whip, and a voice: "Nume, Nume, Nume. You have been a naughty boy, haven't you?"

Jenni, now in black leather, has given herself over to the story. Because this world only accepts one form of relationship, she has allowed herself to become a dominant character - and by narrative logic, Nume falls into the submissive role. He meekly frees his captives, offering them up to Jenni.

She smiles cruelly, but then addresses Jacques in a low whisper: "Go. Run. Find help. I'll hold them here as long as I can--"

"No."

The Mysterious Somebody stands up, shaking off her chains like tissue paper. "This isn't your story," she says, "it's mine. And if you won't let me have the master I want - then I'll have to become mistress of everything."

She cracks a whip into existence, her torn white robes reforming into black. All the characters present are forced to their knees, and made to watch as she opens portals to have the other uncontrolled agents brought through. They are all driven down in front of her, totally defeated.

--and then Nume's eyes widen, and he turns his head away from the Mysterious Somebody. "Jenni?" he says. "What's happening?"

The story breaks down. The Mysterious Somebody was supposed to be its ultimate victim - the one whose eternal subjugation was the sole purpose of its existence. When she tried to take control, she broke the very foundation of the story.

As the agents break free, and Jenni struggles with her feelings for Nume and Jacques, the Mysterious Somebody pulls out the Key to Canon. "I fixed this once," she says, "I can fix it again - as many times as I need to!"

"No," says the Agent, stabbing her from behind. "You really can't."

The Mysterious Somebody dies. She's quite shocked by this - she wanted to be hurt, but not like this. And the Agent turns to Jay and Acacia. "You've been here longer than any of us," he says, holding it out. "If anyone should be the ones to restore the PPC, it's you."

Jay reaches for the Key, but Acacia gets there first. She takes it and looks at it with utter disgust. "This thing has caused all our problems," she says. "If we hadn't had this, the Flowers would have had to actually address the multiverse crisis, instead of thinking they could hide behind shields and tricks. It needs to be destroyed."

Jay's eyes widen, and she grabs her partner's arm. "Acy, no--!"

And Acacia hurls the Key to Canon to the floor. It smashes into splinters, and reality ruptures with it, shattering like a sheet of glass.

Mid-credits: The multiverse appears as a beautiful rose formed of blue light. It falls apart, the petals floating away, and the camera zooms in until we can see only one petal remaining.

Post-credits: Jay is sitting in a coffee-shop with a laptop in front of her. She blinks, shakes her head as if waking up from a bad dream, and reaches for her mug.


These plots needed more work than the previous 2 phases put together. The first two weren't too bad, but Continuity Council is probably the weakest of the entire PPCCUU: I have no idea how it would actually look!

FicPsych needed major tweaks at a late stage - the first expanded version had Liu Siyuan as a knowing minion of the Mysterious Somebody. After the changes, I think it's probably my favourite film of the lot. It's the giant cup of tea that does it. ^_^

Blackout... well, the first half is fine, but I still have doubts about the last act. The big-name Legendary Badfics - Subjugation, That Series, Agony in Pink, C_l_br__n itself - all have a strong torture/domination theme, so I've tried to turn that into a family-friendly plot. And it kind of works, but I worry about the connotations, and I regret chopping the Jenni/Nume plot back to almost nothing.

Phase 4 is still being written (I only have World Without Authors done so far), but I think it'll be less of a problem than Phase 3. We shall see.

hS

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