Fanfic / After the Centre

After the Centre is a fanfic series by Holo Mew 151 based on The Brittas Empire. Taking place after the final episode, "Curse of the Tiger Women", this fic explores what would have happened if the reveal that the series was All Just a Dream was in of itself a dream. The result is an attempt to tie the characters back up with the happy ending given by "In the Beginning...", although events from afterwards and before are explored as well.

The fic series is divided into several fics (set here in chronological order):

• "Dream a Little Dream" - Set at the very end of "Curse of the Tiger Women", Brittas heads off for his job interview. However, things are not as they seem...

• "The Setting of the Sun" - When it is found that the centre will not be rebuilt, the former staff begin to move on in their own separate career paths, although some take the change poorer than others.

• "Ship of Dreams - set in late 2010, Brittas has booked the end-of-year reunion at a cruise ship. However, Brittas' antics end up putting the ship in danger.

• "Revelations" - 40 years on, Jessica and Emily, Carole's daughters, finally learn the truth about their father.

The entire series can be found here.

Tropes in this series:

The Series as a Whole

• Continuation Fic: This series is an attempt to explore what the characters would have done after the events of "Curse of the Tiger Women", with the aim of getting them on the path to their eventual fates in "In the Beginning...".
• Fix Fic: This series alters the controversial ending to the series, which claimed that it was All Just a Dream, by revealing that only the actual reveal was in of itself a dream, with the show having actually happened.
• What If?: The show was not All Just a Dream but actually happened within canon?

Dream a Little Dream

• All Just a Dream: The fic gets more and more bizarre as it goes on, before it is revealed that it is just a dream of Brittas. This sets up the reveal that the show itself is not All Just a Dream as suggested in canon, but rather just the final moments of the last episode.
• Bizarrchitecture: It's mentioned that the centre was built like a child had been instructed to do so, with pieces that were out of place so much that the centre should have realistically collapsed at that point. This doesn't even account for the inside, which has Brittas struggling to navigate the place because of the doors not going where they should actually be going. Justified, considering the later reveal that the fic was All Just a Dream.
• Call-Back:
  • Brittas being reduced to his underwear before being turned into a haddock are references to "The Disappearing Act" (where he reveals that he once had a dream where he was a haddock) and "Curse of the Tiger Women" (where he notes having a history of having nightmares without his trousers).
  • Laura's appearance in the dream, plus Brittas' reaction to her, are a reference to "UXB", which featured him having a Daydream Surprise in which she admits his love for him and kisses him.
  • The cat receptionist is named after Carole's kitten Biggles in "Biggles Tells a Lie", whilst the dog interviewer is named Wayne after the Brittas' family dog that was first introduced in "The Chop".
• Hospital Epilogue: The fic ends with Brittas in hospital whilst still recovering from the goose attack in "Curse of the Tiger Women".
• "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Brittas' interview with Wayne the Dog goes awry when it is found that Brittas' trousers have suddenly disappeared. Whilst Brittas' first thoughts are that someone has stolen them, it is eventually revealed to be just a dream that he's having.
• Real Dreams are Weirder: The indication that it's a dream is when it gets more and more bizarre, with talking animals and Bizarrchitecture being applied to the leisure centre. Brittas takes it in his stride, until he comes face to face with the surprise appearance of Laura.
• Talking Animal: One of the indicators that this is a dream is the presence of talking animals in the centre, including a cat as a receptionist, a parrot, and a big white dog named Wayne as the interviewer. Apparently, in the dream-verse, humanity has learned to cooperate together with these talking animals.
• Tempting Fate: Even after losing his trousers and turning into a fish, Brittas has to wonder that "it couldn’t get worse now, could it?". Then Laura makes a surprise appearance out of a cupboard.

The Setting of the Sun

• Acquired Error at the Printer: This Running Gag makes a return in this fic - Chapter 4 has a banner meant to read “Welcome to the Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre Reunion” get misprinted as "Welcome to the Whitbury Pootown Leisure Centre Reunion”, whilst Chapter 5 features the phase "Bring Back Brittas" get misprinted as "Bring Back Shittas".
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Chapter 1 gives some further explanation as to how Brittas and Harold came to be friends - as it turns out, Harold was a fellow Leisure Centre Manager, and he and Brittas bonded over their shared vision.
  • Chapter 4 gives an explanation for why Penny, who was written out with little explanation in the series, left - turns out she got sick of the chaos of the centre and quit.
  • Chapter 7 gives a suggestion for why Carole's children Took a Level in Jerkass in Series 6 - turns out that they were affected by Carole's failed relationship with von Trap and acted out. Consequently, them taking a level in kindness in Series 7, alongside them being put Out of Focus, is explained as them going to playgroup.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Helen's usual opinion on her husband, even she relents and gives up her new easy lifestyle stemming from his Heroic BSoD to get him back to normal.
• Baby's First Words: It's mentioned that Matthew Brittas, one of Brittas' twin sons, has started speaking, although Brittas had missed his first words on account of this occurring during the period between "The Last Day" and "Back with a Bang" when Brittas was being rebuilt in hospital. Much like Brittas, these first words have yet to be revealed to the audience.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • After having not appeared since Series 2's "Safety First", Councillor Dapping briefly appears on the phone as the Bearer of Bad News to Brittas concerning his leisure centre.
  • Penny Bidmead of all people, after having been written out with little explanation in the show, makes a brief return at the reunion, her opinion of Brittas having not improved in the time since.
• Call-Back:
  • Tom was apparently once caught with a collection of Plaything magazine, the Playboy Parody from "Biggles Tells a Lie".
  • Ben still has his knife from "High Noon" and actually tries to attack Brittas with it when the man tries to confiscate his lewd cards.
  • Brittas manages to get a fan willing to give him more exposure through his autobiography "I Believe" from "The Old, Old Story".
  • Much like in "http://etc", Colin attempts to kill himself upon learning that he is redundant. He even recalls his previous attempt and laments that the fact that the centre has blown up means that his attempt will likely succeed (although it thankfully doesn't).
  • Carole was inspired to attempt to get back into piano playing after being complemented by Vlad back in "At the Double".
• The Cameo: Chapter 6 features Julie in a factory canteen in Manchester, with her getting annoyed at the dinner ladies for their eccentric ways. The dinner ladies go unnamed, but they are intended to be the cast of Dinnerladies, Julie being the unnamed character played by Judy Flynn who appeared in the episode "Moods".
• Canon Character All Along: One episode (particularly the episode "Moods") of the TV show Dinnerladies featured a secretary character played by Judy Flynn who appears in a scene, but goes unnamed. This fic goes with the idea that this character is actually Julie herself, seeking a career opportunity after the demise of the centre.
• Curse Escape Clause: Gavin spends several chapters trying to reverse the Gypsy Curse Brittas was inflicted with at the end of the series. As it turns out, it just required a specific candle being burned in a specific way, although it did have the side-effect of leading to Impossibly Delicious Food.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 2 gives us a glimpse into Brittas' relations to his children and fleshes out their character a little more.
• Driven to Suicide: Colin almost kills himself when the centre blows up, only relenting when he realises that his animals would be left without someone to take care of them. That, and Brittas would have admonished him for creating a mess anyway, even if it was in a skip.
• Early Personality Signs: Chapter 7 reveals that Carole's children have joined playgroup and have started gaining interests useful in the future - Ben has gained an interest in submarines, as he would get a job working at as mentioned in canon in "In The Beginning...", whilst Jessica is mentioned to be interested in viruses and Emily has started bossing around other people, complementing their eventual career paths as vaccinologist and Prime Minister respectively in "Revelations".
• Entertainment Above Their Age: Brittas is mortified when he catches his son Mark transfixed on war coverage on the TV, even though he is just a toddler and shouldn't be watching it. He tries removing the remote from the child, but Mark does not appreciate having the remote taken off him and hits him on the nose with it. He also catches Ben and his sisters playing a lewd game of "Go Fish" which shouldn't really be given to young children like them. He encounters similar difficulties in getting them to give it up.
• Faint in Shock: Brittas' immediate reaction when he learns that the leisure centre is not going to be rebuilt, losing consciousness and collapsing onto the ground.
• Feathered Fiend: In Chapter 4, Gavin is anxious that his attempt to cure Brittas of his Gypsy Curse did not take, and he joins the reunion to see if it stuck. Brittas realises what he's doing and tries to convince him that he isn't cursed by scattering food. Luckily, the curse is gone, but it leads to the food being impossibly delicious, and it isn't long before said reunion is attacked by a flock of birds desperate for food. Making matters worse, some of the birds come into contact with the open barbeque and are set on fire, which soon spreads through the building hosting the whole thing and causes it to burn down.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Brittas does not take the loss of his beloved centre well. It's mentioned at the start of Chapter 3 that he had barely moved or done anything for two weeks beyond watching TV, and it takes the idea of a reunion for him to regain his energy.
  • If Brittas took the whole thing poorly, Colin takes it even worse. It's mentioned in Chapter 3 that Colin showed up at the Brittas' family house in a state of desperation, having to be escorted out by Helen, and we see in Chapter 6 him actually make a suicide attempt, only being saved by the realisation that his animals would need him.
• Meta Sequel: This fic goes with the idea that Get Fit with Brittas, a miniseries released after the show concluded, is in fact a fictional work that Brittas is picked to headline by a fan of his.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Chapter 1 gives Harold, Brittas Only Friend killed by curse-inflicted food, a surname in Eigeman.
  • Whilst one of Brittas' stepchildren went unnamed in the main series, here, the fic gives it as George. It's a Shout-Out to the fanfic Just another one of those days…, which also named one of Brittas' stepchildren George.
• Shout-Out:
  • On top of being first seen with a Donald Duck plush, Matthew Brittas calls his father "Mr. Man", much like Mindy does in Animaniacs.
  • Chapter 6 is named for the TV show Once Upon A Time In The North.

Ship of Dreams

• Ascended Extra: In the series itself, Mark is nothing more than one of Brittas' infant twin sons, and has no relevance beyond going missing in "The Christening" and failing to be picked for a commercial in "We All Fall Down". Here, he joins his parents on the end-of-year staff reunion and is given a more fleshed-out personality.
• Continuity Nod: Upon hearing that Colin is peddling tonic again, Brittas hopes that it wasn't mislabeled like the one he was promoting back in "At the Double".
• Cruise Episode: This fic takes the cast away for a cruise, with Brittas booking a trip on the fictional (although based on an actual class of ships) SS Carnival Hope. Events eventually conspire to get the ship to hit an iceberg and sink.
• Flash Forward Fic: This fic is set in 2010, 13 years after the final episode, and shows us what is currently happening to the staff at this time.
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • Mark is essentially a mini-Brittas, having aspirations to become a leisure centre Manager himself and being just as rules-obsessed. In contrast, his twin brother Matthew is implied to be more akin to Helen, being more interested in going out with people of the opposite gender than in doing his schoolwork.
  • David, much like his father Ben, ends up being stored by Carole in a small place out of desperation, in this case being found in a suitcase because his parents were too busy.
• Treadmill Trauma: Brittas and Mark come across a row of people using treadmills. Of course, Brittas can't help but to try to encourage them to slim down by messing with the controls, leading to one man struggling to keep up with the pace and crashing to the ground.
• Weather Report Opening: The fic opens with a brief discussion of the weather, as well as giving us what Brittas thought of it.

Grey clouds covered the sky in an enveloping embrace, blotting out a sun that could have provided a breather for the exhausted masses attempting to board a ship in the middle of Southampton. Taking its place as well as an army of cold raindrops, threatening to make a very unpleasant experience for those who had been caught without a raincoat or an umbrella that wasn’t up to EU regulations. All of this combined to have created weather that, whilst typical for Christmas, was not exactly as “seaside postcard” as one would have hoped.

Then again, it was British weather. It was to be expected to some degree.

Revelations

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Taking place around 2034, several opportunities are used to make references to the current situation of the world, including London being flooded, a Second American Civil War, and the United Kingdom rejoining the EU.
• Coca-Pepsi, Inc.: Disney, Apple, and Amazon have all formed together to form Disney-Apple-Amazon, being the company to have helped develop neural calls.
• Call-Back: Jessica and Emily are told the truth about their parentage when they're 40 and sitting down, as Carole had said she would have wanted them to be back in "Curse of the Tiger Women".
• Flash Forward Fic: Takes place 37 years after the series and gives us a glimpse at what Brittas, Carole, their children, and Helen are currently up to.
• Flooded Future World: Despite efforts to curb global warming, the situation is still bad enough that London is compared to Venice, with people now having to navigate with boats.
• Internal Reveal: Emily and Jessica are finally told that their father is Brittas, although their parents had known since "Curse of the Tiger Women" and the audience had known since "Temple of the Body".
• Noodle Incident: Brittas is revealed to have somehow blown up Zhongnanhai. It apparently had something to do with the Chinese leader not bowing correctly, but he gets no opportunity to explain further.
• One-Word Title: The name of the fic is just "Revelations".
• Real Award, Fictional Character: Brittas manages to get the Nobel Peace Prize of all awards, although how is never elaborated on.
• Ridiculously Successful Future Self: Jessica and Emily have done rather well for themselves, with Emily being the Prime Minister of the UK and Jessica being a world-leading vaccinologist. Brittas is also revealed to have somehow won the Nobel Peace Prize of all awards by the time he reaches his 70s.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Helen may have become this in her 80s. She certainly doesn't seem to remember Carole, but the other incidents that Brittas chalks up to her scatterbrainedness, such as being caught in a compromising position and setting fire to the curtains, would have been things she would have done in her youth anyway.

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