Exactly 20 more pieces than before!

The story continues indeed, and continues to degrade! I've obviously seen generic surface in my mind's eye plenty over the years, but there's something incredibly disturbing about canon characters being able to observe it, especially when it's replacing former natural wilderness . . . And the idea that it's starting to bleed into Elf Heaven has Implications, too. Are those thorns something from Middle -earth? Because all I associate thorns with is Maleficent, but that feels off.

Lharalavantariel has fallen so far out of control of the world, that she's now accidentally usurping Pippin's role as the dangerously naive comic relief character, a task no Suvian ever set out to accomplish!

Moria's orcs don't realize that their drumming in the deep is heralding far more than just a battle . . .

—doctorlit had to type this out twice, and wishes cell phone screens were less sensitive

Interesting theory there, hS! It is rather odd that Shelley never responds to Nia's point that J+A are in the wrong department now, so I can see how that might have been shoehorned in after the original text was finished. But yes, still learning!

And speaking of Meg, she must have been over the moon when J+A mentioned Despatch kits and whatsits here! TOS has name dropped other writers characters before, but I think this was the first really big piece of another spin-off's worldbuilding they adopted back into their own story. Exciting! And perhaps part of the reason Meg felt it necessary to allude to J+A's department transfer?

I love that the SO admits that missions are assigned based on how they'll stress out the agents, but then says they still want to conserve agent sanity. Thoughtless dialogue for a side character, or an early bit of the idea that the Flowers just don't understand human psychology as well as they think?

Interesting that Makes-Things had to rewire a console to make it receive missions from a different department. Was HQ not running a fully connected internet service in this time period? Also, funny to think that J+A were no longer expected to keep a charge list in DIC, even when there were still original characters they wound up assassinating. Same with the neuralyzer detail: they never bothered in their DMS missions, with no consequences, but because Meg included it as part of Despatch's kit, they included it here. And now, both are fairly ubiquitous in all the major action departments!

So, Jay's author note: she says, "In the official PPC document (which neither of us wrote, in a subclause I missed), it says what the Implausible Crossover director is, and what the flash patch is. The flash patch is a flying pig, which is fine by me. But I LIKE the lichen that sounds like John Cleese, and so it stays." So, it sounds like a lot of department heads and flashpatches got brainstormed ahead of time, rather than letting published stories determine canon? And it also sounds like there was another intended head of the DIC, that J+A decided to supersede because they didn't want to edit out the Lichen once they concepted him. I wonder what the original Flower was, and whether they're someone we know, who got moved to another department? . . . I don't suppose this "official document" still exists?

—doctorlit wonders

I can never get over how utterly apocalyptic this story grows as it moves forward. Most of the changes that occur here are fairly minor, but the Palantíri starting to get destroyed is some major canon warping . . . I love the little knock against the movies replacing Glorfindel with Arwen, too!

Interesting that, for all the details the ladies are able to change, and despite the fact that the canon is destabilizing around them, they never seem to be able to escape from canon, if you know what I mean? The Wargs show up, even though the ladies forgot they existed and didn't intend to include them. And even when Assansaibrivilieth tries to force the Watcher into closing the doorway for them, it still ends up grabbing Frodo, even though Frodo had already moved inside Moria. Arda is fracturing, but it's still trying to fight back and course correct.

—doctorlit gazes into his Palantír and sees exactly what he wants: an empty bed in a dark room!

Well, unfortunately, I think the timeline we're operating under is off; this story mentions that Jay and Acacia have transferred to the DIC recently, but in our current +20 read-through, they're still DMS. I don't really have the time or energy to investigate posting dates right now . . . sorry, hS!

I feel like, as this read-through has moved forwards, I've had fewer and fewer contradictions to point out between the story of the moment and our current canon . . . but this story has those in droves! .Honestly, I like a lot of it, even some that doesn't quite work today; Thornton was willing to test out lots of details for the sake of world-building and cross-department interaction, and it's rather fun! In roughly chronological order: Even though she's unnamed and undescribed, I like seeing an actual human employee under the Marquis de Sod. As much fun as it is to torment him, it's frankly unrealistic for him to seemingly be the only staff in Personnel. Meg seems to treat her remote activator as a handheld version of the full console, complete with uploading the story's text into it before entering the fic. Probably unnecessary; we already have "reading the Words," as well as the DORKS to take over disguise generation. I like the protocols she's made for team-ups, to a certain extent. It makes sense that Untanglers would default to party leaders in a story like this, since they have the most experience with crossover material. And it certainly creates clear guidelines for who's responsible for what . . . but it also blocks PPC authors from having options, and potentially puts agents in a position where they literally can't complete a mission because of, for example, a Sue they aren't allowed to assassinate, or a snatched character they were never provided the equipment or training to return. And while I'm a big fan of "restrictions breed creativity," I think this setup is a little too restrictive, especially considering "wild" badfics aren't going to be tailor-made to slot into any one department. (Not to mention Floaters would be even more disproportionately popular to write in, in that scenario!) Plus, it led to the weird scenario here where Erica and George had to leave the mission before it really began, because they're anime division and can't assassinate the Tolkienverse Suvian, even though she seems to be "native" to Sailor Moon anyway? Why even have them there, then? I do like the idea that the agent under the disguise can be seen underneath by using the reading-the-Words stare, though it doesn't really have much practical application in a story. Apparently, the default uniform in this spin-off is coveralls? I mean, sure, they're practical, and have a lot of leeway in fitting different body types (and to jump briefly to the end, I definitely approve of the pockets-only loadout for speed, a strategy I employ at the zoo every day!) . . . The Chronologically Correct Time Device feels like an EXTREMELY PPC piece of equipment. I love the mental image of PPC agents out in the field just bent over this timepiece having to record exact paper measurements to use later, paying perfect attention to the timing of an orc attack. A little field bureaucracy! The black tear of a "portal" that represented Boromir's transdimensional journey is really cool imagery! While I don't think it would catch on today, I think the idea that the reason our equipment is so hard to fix is because the actual physical casement takes multiple days to reopen is a hilarious gag. Hm. I don't like the implication that Meg's base of operations in Middle-earth, in the Eryn Vorn, would depend on HQ. I get that it's unaffected to the reality break-down, but it's still canon, existing on its own power. I also don't appreciate the implication that Boromir would vanish from reality if he was caught in the reality collapse; that's just giving the PPC ( as a series) too much power . . . we can't allow ourselves to fail that spectacularly! Although one detail I do like about the reality collapse is that, rather being a destructive, world-ending event, it's actually the original canon forcing itself back where things belong; it's a healing process! One that's intensely dangerous for PPC agents! The most dangerous healing!

To segue from there into the mission: yeah, the reality warping and break-down are very detailed and imaginative, and I quite enjoyed all the descriptions! It's unnerving to an almost cosmic horror degree, and it makes for an excellent action sequence in the end, but it also left me feeling like it was reckless for the agents to let things deteriorate to that point. We usually stop missions before abusive scenes and such nowadays, and I feel like this is the Despatch equivalent, especially with a 12-year-old agent in danger! It's not explicitly stated, but the fact that reality warps so badly while Boromir is largely catatonic shows that it's not just the presence of a character from another canon that produces the warping, but rather the poor logic regarding time in the writing itself. The coin flip testing continues to be great from the first story, and the different first person narrators with different fonts is clever . . . except that the latter also forced me to read to the thoughts of a gross sexist pig of a man, so that was unwelcome. Gross. Kind of glad Will never got any more page time after this . . . And possibly relatedly, why is Shelley's kleptomania worse when directed at guys? Is it saying she like, flirts them into forgetting she has their stuff? Weird.

So, this specifies that 18 continua in particular needed extra dedicated attention in these early days. Tolikienverse and Potterverse are obvious shoe-ins, and this very story seems to imply Sailor Moon is another . . . What else? If we accept the essay on our wiki's Uncle Tom's Cabin page as canon, UTC could be another, but that still leaves 14 more . . . Might think more on this later . . .

So, why was the original fic titled "Teddy Bear?" None got mentioned . . . unless . . . oh no . . . Is Boromir the teddy bear? Because of his hairy chest?! D: D: D:

—doctorlit out the door

I love the interactions between Jay and the console in the beginning, both the threat to hold off on the mission actually working, and her fury leading her to punch it after her nap. Although, that means she went back on their deal, doesn't it? Good luck getting it to listen again! I also love her deapna, "My fist is bleeding," in Medical afterwards. Oh, that "rare default: 'Home in on Sue'" is interesting; I usually think of portals as only accepting time and location coordinates, but it seems there are other settings. Too close to a work shift to muddle over that right now, though.

I definitely understand the upset J+A feel here. The weird, Medieval hierarchical society that the badfic author has imposed on Rivnedell and its elves feels very gross. Elves are kind of formal, yeah, but in a casual way, if that makes sense? Like, yeah, they act respectfully to each other, but . . . I guess that's it. Even the leadership is respectful to other elves, none of this ladies-in-waiting and banquets for visiting royalty nonsense. But it also makes me cringe to read Jay wanting to attack the author, and basically condoning torture as punishment. sigh

Minor stuff:
Her hair is amaretto? So she's bald (but sticky) once it dries?
Why name your faithful horse Mallith? Is that even functional in any Elvish language? And Naming an elf Perpetua is just . . . weirdly on-the-nose, and illogical within an actual Elvish society. They're all perpetual!
Anybody know what that "tree-of-life" that gets referenced at Medical is referencing? Tried to search, but it keeps giving me real world radiation poisoning . . .

—doctorlit, cutting the time close this morning

In the passage : ‘"My child, none of us wish for the way our paths turn out if they are not to our liking, but we must not make a fuss," he r glanced at his daughter desperately, hoping she would understand.’ it seems like there’s a random r. I’ll assume that’s a badfic quote.

The “self-arrogance” bit was funny.

Yeesh! Jay sometimes wishes she could kill the Suethors....

Just some stuff that stood out to me.

—Ls

Andromielle and her "oh woe, an arranged marriage" nonsense! A classic bastion of Suvian angst. I am fully guilty of yanking out arranged marriages for angst whenever possible, but at least I don't do it to Elrond, of all people.