The PPC is not real.
We try to weasel around it, we redefine the word ‘real’ to avoid it (They’re real to themselves!), but the fact of the matter is that the PPC is not real. There is no such organization. No Flowers dwell in their transdimensional Headquarters, no Agents scour the worlds of fiction, no Mary-Sues or Slash Wraiths get charged. The PPC is not real. It is stories we write.
The Swan’s Egg trilogy is my exploration of what happens when characters are confronted with their fictional nature. As is to be expected, there are as many reactions as there are people involved.
There is only one premise to Swan’s Egg – one fact which isn’t self-evident, but has to be assumed. That is that, when characters become aware of their fictionality, they are then caused to forget. In reality, this is because we, as authors, do not want to write them remembering. Internally, there are many theories as to why it happens. (No, there are not neuralysers hidden under the flashpatches.)
DIO: Swansong looks at an incident wherein the DIO encountered the PPC Board, where they were hailed as fictional, and the DIO’s Peter Piper reacts badly. He uncovers evidence of previous interactions between the Board and the PPC, and concocts a wild conspiracy theory to account for them. He believes he is being controlled – but not entirely in the way an author would. His theory leads him to take drastic action, and leads back to the title – this is the last story of the DIO.
SO: Royal Swan takes up the story with the SO’s investigation of Peter’s claims. He knows the conspiracy theory to be false, but still has to deal with the evidence. He eventually settles on the idea that the PPC is real, but that the Boarders believe it to be fictional – and exert some degree of control over its members.
From this conclusion, the SO – the royal swan of the title – launches a rebellion. He drafts a Message calling others to rebel, and entrusts it to a certain messenger. The Message, he says, is to be delivered to agents of the PPC who are that little bit more aware, who will accept the idea that the Board thinks they are fictional – and who will fight to prove the Board wrong. The Message is for agents who will take it and use the opportunity to prove that they are real.
PPC: Flight of Swans is the concluding part of the trilogy, and reveals the reactions of those agents who received the Message. As is to be expected in the PPC, it sometimes goes astray – a fair number of those who receive it either disbelieve, or already know for sure that they are fictional. Some, though, react as the SO wishes: they prove to their unseen watchers that they are real people, not just characters on a page (or at least try to – since they are fictional, they are destined to fail). They are the flight of swans – those agents who will throw off the control of their supposed authors and take wing.
And so we return to the trilogy’s title: Swan’s Egg. The Message is the egg, the kernel, the seed that can blossom in countless ways – and it is still out there. The messenger still delivers it from time to time to those who will make use of it (or, from our perspective, whenever an author chooses to put it in). So if this interests you – if you have a perspective on the issue – if you simply think your agents receiving the Message would be funny – go, put on your feathers, and fly.