#max sator

[dinneronvenus]

Doesn’t Matter Now

⭑ Gojo x fem reader

⭑ inspired by the song “doesn’t matter now” by flyingfish (listen to that while you read for max effect)

⭑ tags: ANGST ON 100, description of a jujutsu technique that forfeits the sorcerer’s life, death, a funeral, a hopeless and depressed Gojo goes to a medium, hinted reincarnation

⭑ synopsis: Gojo already lost his only true friend, so he never thought losing a woman could hurt him so badly

“There’s nothing you could’ve done, Gojo. You didn’t even know.” Utahime spoke softly, her own pain wanting to break through in her voice. “Nobody did.”

Gojo remained silent, eyes glazed over, a cocktail of negative emotions mixing in his mind. He couldn’t even look at Utahime, whose outfit would remind him of you. They stood in the ruins of the shrine your family had built and ran for generations. It had come under attack by many cursed spirits and you had fulfilled your duty to protect the people who lived and worked there, as well as its secrets. With everyone else safe, it would be rebuilt and restored to its original glory, something that should have been a silver lining.

“It is not uncommon for a high priestess to give her life for her people.” Utahime said, voice breaking at the end. This brought Gojo even less comfort.

“You think I don’t know that? You think I hadn’t heard her say those exact words to me before?!” He snapped, still not able to take his eyes off the scene in front of him. It was Utahime’s turn to stay silent.

In the middle of the leveled temple, there was the evidence of your bravery. A set of heavy stone doors bearing an ancient inscription, left open by whatever you had summoned to walk through them, loomed over the two sorcerers. Gojo already knew they’d be used as a gate to honor your memory and remember your sacrifice. His eyes begged to see any scrap of you in the rubble. Maybe this was just a trick, and you were hiding behind one of the doors.

“What could her technique have been to have killed her in the process?” He whispered to the open air, not thinking anyone could’ve heard him.

“Gehenna Gate, it is a technique with the highest of costs,�� A raspy voice broke the unbearable quiet. It was your mother, who despite everything, managed to keep a small smile on her face for your surviving friends. “I am sorry she never told you that properly. She wanted to protect you, in her own way.” Her hand came down on Gojo’s shoulder and the kindness in her touch almost burned him alive.

“I didn’t… I wish she…” Gojo stuttered out, hot tears stinging his eyes. Your mother pulled him into a hug, shushing him like a child.

Five days later, your funeral was to be held at your family cemetery in the mountains overlooking the temple. Gojo had no idea how he would survive that. He spent the time until your funeral looking for someone who could communicate with the dead. Thanks to his power and connections, he found one the night before and prepared himself to have one last conversation with you.

“Welcome, sir. I assume you’re here to see Mistress Takemi?” The young man spoke just loud enough to be heard over the jingle of the bell from the door shutting behind him.

“Yeah, and she knows already so I’m just gonna head back there,” Gojo sauntered through the foyer and down the hall to the back room where a woman in black and purple robes standing over a large glass table was waiting on him.

“Welcome Satoru,” she spoke cheerfully with a deep voice that echoed her years of life.

“Don’t call me that. Can we get started?” The overly familiar attitude irked him. The woman cleared her throat and dropped her cheerful act.

“I suppose we can get right to it then.”

The woman had a technique that essentially made her into a human ouija board. Her hands rested on the glass table and it began to glow a soft greenish-blue. Gojo could see the dark circles and puffiness of his eyes in the reflection, suddenly feeling ashamed of himself for being this unable to accept that you were gone.

“Satoru?” His name again, but this time he could hear your voice mixing with Takemi’s voice. He said your name in disbelief, tears of joy in his eyes.

“Yes, yes! It’s me, I wa—”

“You can’t do this, Satoru. It’s against the laws.”

“Please, don’t tell me that right now. You hid so much from me, please just let me ask you one thing.”

Silence. Fearing he’d miss his chance, he went ahead with his question.

“Did you ever really love me?” The depth of sadness and desperation in his voice was unbearable to you, even in your disembodied state. “Why couldn’t you have told me? I could’ve helped you, I would’ve done anything to have saved you.”

“In the mountains where they’ll bury me, follow a trail that begins with pink and white flowers. You’ll find everything you want to know at the end. Goodbye, Satoru.”

“No, no, no,” He wiped the tears from his face and gripped both of Takemi’s shoulders, shouting. “Please come back! I can’t do this again!”

Regaining full control of herself, Takemi pushed Gojo off her and had him escorted out of her shop. The whole world was one hideous shade of grey. He walked for a while with no destination in mind but the grave. He wanted to go find that trail right now but he didn’t have anything else left in him. He wanted to sleep for the rest of his life. Returning home, he set his alarm and went to bed with your instructions in mind.

Utahime and Gojo walked with each other up the mountain to the funeral site. Utahime thought it was odd but refreshing to see him dressed in more traditional clothing. Just one more thing that only you could get him to do.

Everyone took their places, and your father stepped up to the podium. “We are gathered here to send our beloved high priestess to her place of final rest with her ancestors…”

Once the funeral was complete, no one but Gojo, Utahime and your mother lingered too long.

“I’m sorry again for your loss, ma’am.” Utahime said, bowing deeply. Your mother gave her another one of those wise, otherworldly smiles.

“I don’t think I’ve really lost her.” She said before taking a last look around the cemetery and turning to leave. “Why don’t we give him some space?” She motioned to Gojo and Utahime followed her.

Now alone with your memory and your ghost, Gojo began to look for this trail you had mentioned. It took him a while to find it but when he did, his path to the end was quick. It led to a small clearing where the grass was lush, and he was consumed by the smell of many different kinds of flowers and plants. The sight of the small garden was as beautiful as you were to him.

Looking around for anything that could be the answer you spoke of, he saw a faint bit of energy coming from inside a tree. When he got close to the tree, he found it had a hollow spot in it where you’d left a diary. He fished it out and walked to a shaded place in the clearing to begin reading it. Every page was an entry about the two of you together. All of your private feelings from when he was just a crush, and once you had gotten closer, you even glued in pictures you’d taken together.

Gojo couldn’t control his tears or hide his sobs. His body shook against the tree as he held the diary close to his chest. He calmed down enough to continue reading it, with the last entry being dated a week ago.

She knew she was going to die… He thought. You had written about the rise of cursed spirits in the area of increasing numbers and strength and how you felt like it was time for you to fulfill your duty to your people. More than that though, you wrote about how you wished you could have told Gojo. How you wanted to stay with him forever, how he was the only thing you’d ever loved as much as you loved the Gods, and how because of that you wanted to make sure he was safe and didn’t have to fight for once.

It was all too much, Gojo swore he would drown in his own tears right there. The wind picked up and blew the diary’s pages, landing on entry from before you two had met.

6.25 — Training Notes: after a long session of training and studying my technique’s history in my family. I have learned of a way I might be able to circumvent its cost. If I summon a deity of destruction that has the ability to reincarnate, then I will reincarnate too! One of my ancestors did that long ago, although it took 59 days for them to come back.

Gojo couldn’t believe what he was reading. He wiped his eyes on his sleeves furiously and scrambled to his feet. He stored your diary in an inner pocket of his kimono and made his way down the mountains to the temple ruins.

He inspected the gate and found exactly what he needed to be able to accept the loss of the only woman he’s ever loved. Utahime was strolling the grounds when she noticed him in the air, getting a close look at the doors.

“Gojo, what do you think you’re doing? Get down here!” Utahime found his behavior so disgraceful. He chuckled on his way back to earth.

“I was just checking on something. Had to be sure that I wasn’t seeing things.”

His eyes were red and puffy, but his annoyingly cheerful attitude was starting to return. Utahime couldn’t tell if she was relieved or annoyed.

“Checking on what?”

“Eh,” Gojo put a hand over the diary in his pocket.

“Doesn’t matter now.”

[whateverthese2havetournament]

Men's Division Bracket

Cheng Xiaoshi & Lu Guang VS Luffy & Zoro

Suguru & Satorou VS Prof. Aronnax & Cptn. Nemo

Stanley & the Narrator VS The Heavy & The Medic

Kotetsu "Wild Tiger" & Barnaby "Bunny" VS Composer & Orpheus

Newt Geiszler & Hermann Gottleib VS Yoichi & Kudou

Ike & Soren VS Naruto & Sasuke

Keith & Lance VS Steven & Wallace

Prof. X & Magneto VS Wesker & Redfield

Kim Dokja & Yoo Joonghyuk VS Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid

Junkrat & Roadhog VS Dale Cooper & Harry Truman

Archie & Maxie VS Mercutio & Benvolio

Garak & Bashir VS Sicard & Emmanelain

Sam & Max VS Optimus Prime & Megatron

Bugs & Daffy VS Bailey & Other Guard

Eddie & The Venom Symbiote VS Jessie & James

Arthur & Merlin VS Basil & Sunny

The matches will start next month and be spread out over a week. Until then, submissions of propaganda and/or good images to use to represent them are very much open. Apologies if I'm mislabeling or misspelling any of these, my personal familiarity is limited.

Also, as a reminder, or if this is your first time seeing this, the criteria of this tournament is which better fits this meme template:

What exactly that means varies person to person.

[margoteve]

I've got one:

Do you have a favourite OC of yours, and why? 😌

Thank you for asking!

I love all my children equally xDDD No, really. I just focus on each of them at different occasions. They always get more attention when they are fresh and new. Then it kinda jumps between them.

Karaa became a center focus when I hit the TMNT obsession, she is extremely fun and chaotic gal. Amoxtli my dragon gal joined in on the wave a lil but she had her next spotlight when I hit Voltron hard. She is adorably confused about things but also always wants to do the right thing (as opposed to Karaa). Now that Baldur's Gate 3 came out my vampire gals Marigold and Audrey are getting their focus points. Marigold who just wants to exist in peace and Audrey who is weighted down by so much responsibility which she often struggles with and occasionally refuses. My werewolf man, Nikolay has my attention whenever his wife (played by my partner @followmetoyourdoom ) is involved and I love them both to bits. He is a sweetheart and wants to love and be loved.

There's Eva, my god of chaos who needs to poke her nose everywhere. She is most versatile for me. Love her but I love all of them the same.

Margot one of my first OCs is always somewhere at the edges of attention. There's also Max my Megamind AU guy. Paladin demon Elin, demon Nobody and a whole other plethora of whacky folk. Tom who is a son to Mother Nature. Sator who is a dragon in opposition to Amoxtli.

If you want to know more about any of them just lemme know xD

@tinkabelle19 @thelaundrybitch @raphsmuneca @m1dnyt3-w0lf

[alba94]

Director: Hideto Hotta

Director of Photography: Ryosuke Sato

Assistant Camera: Shunki Ito

Gaffer: Wataru Sugimura

Assistant Light: Toshifumi Mizoe, Miharu Yagishita

Offline Edit: Hideto Hotta

Colorist: Max Golomidov

Title Design: Asahina

Production Manager: Sator Mizuno, Ao Inoue

Producer: Hiroshi Sugita

Agency: poweredby.tokyo

Special Thanks: Future Archive, Special Guest, Keijiro Ish

In collaboration with and sponsored by Jägermeister

[schadie]

The theory that Neil is an adult Max, and that the Protagonist raised him with Kat, and then sent him essentially to his death, destroys me.

[beauspot]

ok so years after it came out I finally watched Tenet. and i’m confused…but it was good.

i had no idea what to expect from this movie except “ooh movie go forward and in reverse oooooo” i also knew people shitted on it a lot because the plot wasn’t super clear. through all of this I never heard the meaning of this movie. or what it was about.

Tenet (i’m assuming everyone who’s seeing this post has seen the movie but just in case) is a science fiction story about reverse entropy and a dying man who can’t let go of his control to the point he is willing to take the world out if he can’t be there. A story about destiny and fate and choice and meaning. All of that is what Tenet is about. But at its center

Tenet is a love story

Not between The Protagonist and Kat.

Between The Protagonist and Neil

Now THREE THINGS WE NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE FIRST:

1. I am still not entirely certain of the plot but I will be rewatching this movie because I think it was fun and the people were hot.

2. Neil is not Max. I know this is a popular theory and at first I thought it made sense since Rob dyed his hair for the role specifically and we don’t learn his past, only The Protagonist’s, but Nolan said they dropped that plotline because the timeline didn’t make sense.

3. You can view The Protagonist and Neil’s relationship as a platonic one or a romantic one my point still stands.

The surface level viewing of this movie gives you the impression that nothing matters and choice is a fallacy, what’s happened happened and there’s nothing you can do about it. But looking even a fraction deeper you realize the choices of the characters directly cause the events of the movie.

Sator is forced to live around radioactive materials in Kiev because of a neglectful government, that causes his cancer. His cancer leads him to begin communicating with the future and allows the past to invert which leads him to choosing omnicide but also directly leads to Tenet being able to stop him. His abuse leads to his death. Most importantly Neil’s death leads to The Protagonist’s life being saved which leads to The Protagonist finding Neil which cultivates the greatest relationship of either of their lives.

The most tragic part about all of this is that only in the final moments of their time together do they truly have all the pieces of their relationship laid out in front of them. The majority of the time spent with one another is with one of them not knowing their history and they’re stuck in this loop.

Our Neil dies at the end of the movie but we’re following The Protagonist. He will end up in the past, Neil’s past and at the end of their story Neil will be sent back to meet The Protagonist and so on and so on forever. And you can see the exact moment The Protagonist realizes this. That he’ll know Neil but Neil won’t know him, not really. Not for years.

We can see how immediately drawn to Neil The Protagonist is. He’s an undercover agent who very likely doesn’t trust anyone he hasn’t known for a long time but this is his face during his first meeting with Neil.

WE know why Neil is being friendly and why he stares at The Protagonist the way he does but he doesn’t. Why is he so immediately comfortable with Neil?

From the moment they meet to the final battle The Protagonist is so emotionally affected by Neil’s impending death that he considers putting the world in danger to try and save his life. He doesn’t see the point in Neil dying, and when Neil tells him that it’s just “what happened” The Protagonist doesn’t see why he should care about anything at all if every decision has already been made.

Until Neil explains to him that just because their future self has already made the decision for them, just because the path is laid out, doesn’t mean what they do doesn’t matter. Neil’s life saved everything, that matters (this one lesson goes on to affect how The Protagonist forms and runs Tenet). The Protagonist understands that yet he still wants to save Neil.

But at the end, all he can do is let Neil go. Continue moving forward.

Because there is a past for Neil. And a future for them.

*just a cute gif i wanted to include of The Protagonist staring at Neil like a day after they met.(idk how long a timeframe the movie takes place over)*

[kristenswig]

happy new year here’s the Annual List of Hidden Gems from 2021 That You Might Have Missed

Atlantis (spice up your life with this absolutely miserable vision of the future from Ukraine)

The Disciple (a movie about art vs. commerce that Netflix bought out of Venice 2020 and then dumped back in April so it’s a very metatextual experience)

Swan Song(s) (both of them! do a double feature!)

Fever Dream (another Netflix dump, this time some moody magic realism from Claudia Llosa aka director of The Milk of Sorrow)

Limbo (HBO Max)

New Order (a lot of people hate this movie with the fire of a thousand suns so if you’re one of them you didn’t hear about it from me.  I saw this in late October 2020 so that might be part of it but it was one of the most viscerally horrifying and uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had watching a movie. Good luck with that remaining faith in humanity you speak of!  On Hulu!)

Coming Home in the Dark (Whose Side is this Revenge Thriller on Anyway? On Netflix.)

The Metamorphosis of Birds (autobiographical hybrid documentary with some of the most striking imagery of the year)

Broadcast Signal Intrusion (The Parallax View for people who watch Buzzfeed Unsolved except good.) 

The Feast (body horror that would make the Cronenbergs or Julia Ducournau proud with the aesthetics and mood of Swallow)

Slow Machine (I don’t know what this was about but Chloe Sevigny has probably the monologue of the year in it.  On Mubi) 

Sator (The direct to VOD horror movie about a family being haunted by a demon that puts all the other direct to VOD horror movies about a family being haunted by a demon to shame.  On Amazon Prime)

Censor (Hulu)

Never Gonna Snow Again (mysterious...magical...masseuse)

Moffie (uncomfortable to watch but kept getting better in my head after I finished it.  On Hulu)

Little Fish (The barrier of entry on this one is that it’s about a pandemic of memory loss.  Sad but never exploitative.  On Hulu.)

John and the Hole (the inner workings of a child’s mind are unknown even to the child himself)

[yesttoheaven]

AMOR FATI

pairing – neil x female!reader

wc – 3.8k

warnings – mention of death, self-blame, anxious/intrusive thoughts, questioning reality, refusal of help, guns, stalking, but I swear there's a light at the end of the tunnel haha

a/n – The last time I suffered so hard for the death of a character, was when Newt died (Maze Runner) and now Neil has captured all my attention and his death has hit me in the same way 😩 I needed a happy ending so I decided to write this!

The Eternal Return and Amor Fati mentioned in this fic are one of the main ideas of Nietzsche's philosophy.

English is not my first language. I am getting help from google translator and he is not always a good ally, so I apologize for any typos or grammar errors.

Y/N – your name

She approached the painting hanging on the wall, watching the details closely. Ouroboros. A serpent eating its own tail. Months ago, when Y/N was visiting an antique store in Mumbai, she saw that same symbol. The owner of the establishment approached when she realized her interest in the piece and explained that Ouroboros represents the ideas of movement, continuity and, in consequence, Eternal Return. A concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space.

"Max finally fell asleep." Kat returned to the living room, attracting Y/N's attention.

She walked away from the painting, taking back her seat on the sofa and asked:

"How is he after everything that happened?"

For a moment, Kat looked at the painting on the wall and then at the friend she won in the midst of confusion over the Algorithm. At that time, despite being fighting on the front lines to prevent a possible Third World War, Y/N seems complete. Happy. Today that happiness no longer exists in her eyes.

Letting out a sigh, the woman sat next to her, answering:

"Sator was never a present father. He was always busy... now i can see the kind of work he was involved in. Anyway, Max just got used to his absence."

"It's notable that he's happier at your side. When we first met Max was a bit of an introvert, but today he is radiant." Y/N confessed, showing a small smile and the blonde shook her head, agreeing with her words. "How's everything?"

"Perfectly well. It's weird sometimes... After years of being stuck in a failed relationship, freedom is good."

"It seems like life is good for one of us." The woman let out a bitter laugh, putting the latest events on a scale, but she didn’t want her friend to think she wasn’t happy for her. She really was. "I'm sorry, I just..." The words remain stuck in her throat, while she covers her face with her hands. In addition to physical and mental fatigue, Y/N tried to hide her grief.

Kat touched her shoulder, showing that she was here.

"I know you're hurt, but it's been three months and you never talked about what happened that day... This is not good for you."

"What do I have to say, Kat? The guy I fell in love with was a fucking time traveler! And now he's dead and I don't know what to do. My life just... stopped without him."

"I can imagine how difficult it's for you to cross that line without Neil at your side, but giving up is not an option. Grief is consuming you little by little and you are just accepting it..."

"We are trained to contain our emotions and deal with death in the best possible way. It used to be easy for me, but then he came and turned my life upside down." Y/N put her hands on her knees and stood up, walking without an exact destination. "Neil was always one step ahead of us all..." She stepped forward too and found the painting again, but her mind was lost in thoughts about him. Neil knew her so well. And he had a charming smile, but completely arrogant at the same time. "I was sent to Mumbai to help two agents and when I arrived at Priya's penthouse that night, there he was. When he saw me, that was the first and only time that he let his guard down. I'll never forget how he looked at me, it was one of those breathtaking moments... Completely cliché, I know."

On the sofa, Kat was impressed. When Y/N turned towards her, there was a bright smile on her face. The simple memory brought her a breath of happiness and Kat enjoyed seeing her friend like that, but unfortunately that moment did not last long. Memories aren't enough. Neil is dead and nothing can change that.

"I miss him so much, Kat." The smile disappeared as soon as tears appeared in her eyes, cascading down her cheeks.

"My dear..." Worried about her, the woman got up quickly and approached Y/N, wrapping her in a tight hug. "I'm really sorry."

"I spent the last three months locked up in my a-apartment because I thought I could handle this situation on my own. At times I b-believed it was just a fever dream... Maybe I was losing my mind, but this is proof that everything was real." Through tears blurring her vision, she looked at the watch on her wrist, remembering that night.

Y/N was in a private cabin on the ship. The others were with Ives and Wheeler, going over the mission in search of any loose ends. A standard procedure. Y/N knew she should be with them, but she needed a moment alone to organize her thoughts. And that moment is now. The past few weeks had been a real mess. The inversion was difficult to explain and mainly to understand. She was used to field missions, but being an inverted soldier on the battlefield was not in her plans. Either way, she agreed to be a part of it and running away with biased assumptions was not going to help. Humanity depends on them.

Three knocking on the door caught Y/N's attention, but she remained silent, waiting for the person to give up and leave, but when it didn't, she just murmured 'Come in'.

"So, here you are." The man used a surprised tone of voice and closed the door behind him. "What will our superior think when he learns that you are running away from the briefing?"

She let out a laugh before answering in the same mood:

"Don't worry, I know this mission like the back of my hand. I just needed a moment."

"There's something wrong? Are you ok?" Neil spilled the questions quickly, visibly concerned for her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Neil." Y/N smiled at him, but looked away just seconds later, confessing: "Maybe I'm a little surprised by the situation. I have spent years dealing with terrorists, but the inversion is really not my point."

"I'm not good with advice, but someone once said to me: Don't try to understand. Certain things in the world do not need an explanation."

"It's wise advice, but I'm a methodical person. Logic has always been my ally in missions."

"A methodical person, huh?" He asked with an arrogant smile playing on his lips and she just rolled her eyes. "I know how worried you were when Sator shot Kat, but we are using the inversion to save the world and you're one of the most brilliant agents I have ever seen. Everything will be fine."

"Are you praising me?"

"What's that? Can't I praise my partner's talent?" Neil pulled up a chair to sit across from her, crossing his arms.

"In that case, thank you. Remind me to put this on my resume." Those words made him laugh and that sound could easily be compared to music in her ears.

Touching her knee, Neil added:

"We are very confident with the mission. You don't need to worry."

"Are you sure?"

"I cannot say that unforeseen events do not happen, but we are prepared for that." Y/N knew he was right, but this mission is the biggest one so far. It's not about saving a country. It's about saving the entire world. This was arousing insecurities in her and it was like walking in a minefield. Ironically, she was familiar with this, but not in such catastrophic proportions. "I want you to have this." The man took his watch off his wrist and handed it to her.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" The question came out as a whisper from between her lips.

It didn't make sense. Why does everything in this conversation look like a farewell?

"We will be on opposite sides tomorrow, but i want you to know... I will always be with you, Y/N."

"I saw the way he looked at you... That's how I used to look at Sator before he became a monster in my life." Kat started, running a hand through Y/N's hair. "When I was lying on that stretcher and partially drugged with the medicines, I saw him beside you... watching you sleep. There was so much love in his eyes. Love for a lifetime, Y/N. So don't do this to yourself. The way he left hurt us all, but there was nothing you or any other agent could do to change what happened at Stalask-12. Neil saved the world. This gave us a second chance. You cannot give up now. This organization needs you. And keeping your mind busy at that moment is the first step towards a fresh start."

"N-No, I can't..." She broke the hug, shaking her head in denial. "I left the organization."

"What? Don't you work for Tenet anymore? But when we first met you told me that you can't imagine working in another area... And that this is your life's work."

"Being an agent is my life's work. I was in Yemen when Tenet found me and assigned me to this mission. My only job is to make this world a less hostile place, but the motto of this organization is not what I believe, Kat. What's happened's happened. Really? It doesn't work for me." Y/N ended the sentence with drops of anger in her voice and Kat did not say a single word.

Through the newspapers, Max's mother followed what was happening in Yemen over the years – a real endless war – and knowing that Y/N was in the middle of it, makes the situation unquestionable. People died in front of her eyes. Friends of the corporation. And then some time later, Tenet arrived with a fresh start, but in the end everything remained the same. She lost Neil. It is as if her life's work never had a happy ending because the world will never stop being a hostile place.

"He knows?" It was easy for Y/N to identify who she was talking about. The Protagonist. Or just TP.

"Here's another problem. I worked with him and indirectly worked for him at the same time! God, that man created this organization! And his name remains a mystery to us all!" She pinched the tip of her nose, feeling frustrated with all the secrets that haunt this organization. "And answering your question, yes, he knows, but he did not argue about it. I was a complete mess and he was not doing very well either... He stayed in my apartment for the first month, probably to make sure I didn't do anything stupid." And Y/N would be forever grateful for that. She likes him. Just as friends, of course. TP was a reserved man, but it was he who held her when everything was falling apart. "But we've had a fight. I blamed him for what happened at Stalask-12 and since then we haven't spoken anymore."

It was easy to see that they carried more pain than they could actually bear. Y/N lost her great love and the man lost his best friend. The situation just turned into a conflict between them and that was the result.

Realizing the sadness reflected in Y/N's eyes, Kat decided to change the subject of the conversation. Keeping that thought, she smiled and pointed to the painting on the wall. Maybe that could help.

"You seemed interested in this one."

"Oh yes, in my spare time I am a lover of art and its meanings. It is really attractive the way Ouroboros is connected to the Eternal Return..."

"And Amor Fati too." Kat completed, piquing Y/N's curiosity. This part was new to her. "It's impossible to affirm the Eternal Return without loving life. We need to learn that things happen as they do. Sometimes seemingly good. Sometimes seemingly bad. We don’t always get it our way... Unless we choose that whatever way it is, is our way. When we choose to Amor Fati, to love everything that happens, to love our fate, then we will always get it our way. Because the way it is, is the way it is. Unchangable. And therefore it must be good, even if it sucks."

These words touched Y/N's heart. This was a contradiction to what she is experiencing right now. Love your fate. She would like to understand and accept what happened, she really wanted, but why is it so difficult to move on?

Because Neil is dead.

That was the only explanation for her. The end of a relationship would be more acceptable. If he were alive, things would be completely different now. However, grief is overwhelming. How could she just accept what happened?

"I... I gotta go." That was all she managed to say before picking up her bag and leave the penthouse, ignoring Kat's protests.

When the elevator doors closed, an exhausted sigh left her mouth and the instant she saw her reflection in the mirror, Y/N wanted to cry again. After three months alone, she thought visiting her friend would be a good idea. Kat was willing to help, but the problem was that Y/N is not allowing herself to be helped. As soon as the doors opened, she left the metal box and found the hotel lobby partially empty. Her watch showed it was 3:13 AM, this explains the absence of people on the street as well. In front of her car, she searched the bag for the key and coincidentally her cell phone started to vibrate. Probably the text messages were from Kat, but confusion hit Y/N the instant she looked at the identifier and saw that the messages did not belong to any of her contacts.

Stay away from the car

They put a bomb

I'm on my way

Her first reaction was to take a few steps back and look around, trying to understand what’s going on and find the person responsible for these texts, but Y/N was alone in the dark street. When she thought it might be an unnecessary prank, a black SUV approached at high speed. The car stopped just a few meters away from where she was, but that was enough to make her body freeze.

"Y/N, come on!" The man exclaimed, the urgency in his voice would have made her run immediately, but she didn't move. Her feet had frozen on the floor. This cannot be real. "Come on, get in the car! We don't have much time!" He tried again, it was possible to hear the sound of the other cars approaching.

Y/N watched in slow motion the moment he left the car and ran towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"How is this possible?" She asked in a whisper, completely lost in his blue eyes.

"It's good to see you too." Neil admitted, feeling his heart race. She looked so fragile in his arms. Very different from the last time he saw her. "We have to go." He accompanied her to the car and as soon as Y/N took the passenger seat, he returned to his seat.

For her this moment was like a fever dream, so she just looked down and started counting her fingers. One, two, three, four, five... Neil noticed, but said nothing, just kept driving. The cars were fast approaching, but he would do everything possible and impossible to get Y/N away from these people.

"Give me your cell phone." He looked at her for a brief moment, but when Y/N didn’t react, he wasn't sure if she heard it, so he just took the phone from her hand and threw it out the window. That was enough to get her out of the numbness:

"What the fuck, Neil?!"

Despite the adrenaline rushing through his body, the man laughed.

"If I found you because of your cell phone, they can too." After that, he crossed the red light and made a risky turn, trying to end this chase. "Before you ask, no, this is not a dream. Unfortunately this is very real..." Neil didn't like what he saw when he adjusted the rearview mirror. "And now they are getting ready to shoot us."

That observation put Y/N on alert and she looked back, seeing a man with an AKS-74U and another with a Beretta M12.

"If you knew it wasn't a dream, why didn't you bring an armored car?" She ran her tongue between her lips, smiling at the man beside her. Neil tried to argue, but she just took off her seat belt and picked up the Glock 19 stuck in the vest he was wearing.

Y/N crawled out of the car and sat at the window opening. This encouraged the men in the two cars to start shooting, trying desperately to hit her. Neil shouted something that she couldn't understand and then she felt one of his hands on her thigh, giving her stability to continue with the plan. With her arm resting on the roof of the vehicle, Y/N aimed the gun at the car that was closest to them. Her intention was not to start a firefight in the middle of one of the main avenues in the city, but she had no other option. Holding her breath, she fired the first shot and the bullet hit the tire, taking the car out of circulation. Y/N celebrated while preparing for the second car, but dealing with this one was not an easy task. Now they were in a tunnel and, consequently, losing speed because of the other cars that came along the way. Neil left two pats on her leg, indicating that she had better get back in the car and that is what she did. Screams, honks and gunshots echoed through the tunnel, turning the place into a war zone. Whoever these men were, Y/N knew they weren't going to give up.

Tired of playing cat and mouse, she went to the back seat, getting on her knees. Through the broken glass above the trunk, Y/N adjusted the aim of her gun, ignoring the sniper and focusing on the driver. With another accurate shot, the bullet hit the man's chest and he lost control of the vehicle. The car overturned for a while, streaking the asphalt, but no other car was involved in the accident. Y/N sighed in relief and looked for another possible threat, just checking, but when she realized that the area was clean, she returned to the passenger seat, leaving the gun on the dashboard in front of her.

"Next time I'm going to get an armored car." Neil comments, stepping on the gas. "Nice shot, by the way."

"Anytime." Y/N smiled, trying to control her breathing.

With the adrenaline disappearing from her body, it was hard for her to believe that this was really happening. For many nights she cried, wondering what it would be like if Neil just came back to her, but now she was afraid to wake up and realize that it was just another vivid dream.

The sun was rising when they arrived in a shed away from the city. Seen from the outside, the place was a little scary, but the interior wasn't that bad. There was some equipment like trackers, walkie-talkie, bulletproof vests, weapons, ammunition; a table with a mess of papers and on the other side two beds and something that Y/N supposed to be a private bathroom.

"Where we are?"

We. That simple word echoed in her mind. Y/N thought that "we" didn't exist anymore.

"For now in a safe place. It's dangerous for you out there." He answered the question and took a bottle of water, handing it to her after taking a generous sip.

"Who are these people, Neil?" She wanted answers, lots of answers, and that frustrated the british spy because for the first time he didn't know what could happen.

Neil had a mission and that mission ended with him dying in Stalask-12, but after what TP did, everything changed.

"We have a name..." He wanted to say more, he wanted to reassure her, but that was all he had at the moment.

Y/N drank some water and left the bottle on the table, looking at some reports and photos. All photos were of the same man.

Lenard Vaher

"But apparently they don't just want you..."

It took a few seconds and when the realization hit Y/N, concern appeared on her face.

No, not him.

"Where's TP? He's safe, right?"

"He was going to see you when Lenard's men kidnapped him. This happened three weeks ago." And considering the anger in Neil's voice, finding TP was proving an almost impossible task, but in the midst of so much concern, one point attracted Y/N's attention.

"You said he was going to see me..."

"There was something he needed to tell you." Neil sighed, resting his hands on the table. A few strands of blond hair fell over his forehead, but he quickly shook his head back, as he always did. "He returned to Stalask-12, Y/N."

After that statement, the only sound that could be heard was Neil's footsteps closing the distance between them and the first thing she did was put her hand on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. Neil smiled. And that was not one of his famous smiles. That was a shy smile. His heart was beating like a drum and it was all because of her. Loving Y/N was something so special and pure, that Neil accepted his fate without a second thought. Saving the world, he was giving her a second chance to live, but now he is the one who received a second chance.

"I missed you every day." Before she could begin to consider the meaning behind his words, he settled his mouth upon hers, robbing her of thought.

She closed her eyes and melted against him, flattening her hands on his arms. Neil caught her bottom lip in his teeth, nibbling and licking at it until she thought she might perish from the intensity of the feeling. She whimpered at the sensation, and he rewarded the sound by deepening the kiss, giving her everything she desired. His tongue stroked hers, slow and insistent. A lush, decadent pleasure unfolded within them, snaking through their veins as though it had lain coiled in anticipation for years.

Just waiting for this moment.

––––––––––––––––––––––––

a/n – really hope you enjoy it and thank you soooo much for reading ;)

[grandhotelabyss]

I finally watched Tenet and was surprised at how much I liked it. While the droning action sequences could each have been shortened by five minutes, the film overall attains a new level of mature self-awareness in Nolan’s oeuvre. His earlier films were either thematically bifurcated—The Dark Knight with its stand-off between intolerable order and unlivable chaos—or they sentimentally, willfully, and therefore unconvincingly resolved their contradictions—Interstellar’s argument for love as the cosmic glue. Tenet by contrast finds an intellectually and emotionally satisfying resolution to the old structure-and-agency problem by showing free will to be the mechanism of fate and fate the emergent property of free will in an ongoing cycle. If you don’t will it, you’re not fated to it; your embodied and enacted will, therefore, just is your fate. 

Nolan states a titular classical and Christian ethos in The Dark Knight Rises: heroism as self-transcendence, proving yourself to yourself, as opposed to the revolutionary ressentiment manipulated by Bane in the film or (still more!) the postmodern-gnostic “living your truth” ethos that prevails outside it. But in the newest film—which, as its title suggests, dramatizes the author’s credo—Nolan integrates the tenet into the narrative substance itself, a fusion of form and content. The narrative’s very shape is not the overly simplistic Freytag pyramid but a spiral organized around moments of heroic self-sacrifice. 

Protagonist’s end is in his beginning: he recruits himself through a proxy after demonstrating that he will give his life for the mission, that he will swallow the suicide pill to save the world. I am reminded of another time-loop paradox movie, Donnie Darko, whose protagonist also saves the world by sacrificing himself. Nolan redundantly names the protagonist Protagonist as a manifesto-like statement about what a protagonist is supposed to do.

Protagonist’s antagonist is the traitorous Sator, who plans to swallow the pill to annihilate his generation. Allegorically, he stands for rapacious post-Cold-War global capitalism’s alliance with Malthusian managerial post-capitalist elites. Branagh’s shameless Slav-face scenery-chewing gives the film a campy liveliness too often missing from Nolan post-Joker. Sator’s very name, lifted from the Sator Square pictured above, is so thematically accommodating as to be itself fated: seeder and progenitor but also Satan, satiation, and, in the mirror, the mere wheel of fate to which selfish and materialist desires bind the devil in a cosmos where only the good, because self-possessed, can really steer. (All very Miltonic.) Nolan usually gets a forbidden political thesis or two in, and he strikes through Sator’s final speech at the murderously misanthropic unconscious of elite climate doomerism.

Kat is redemptive maternity, the organic provision of a future in the face of future generations’ bitter anti-humanism, but she’s more than that. Her rash killing of Sator, which seems on the surface to be self-indulgence rather than self-sacrifice, validates the errantly human by showing that a heroic forward spiral of choice-and-destiny can bear and integrate the sometimes psychologically necessary swerve of self. As for the fan theory that Neil is Max, while it has logical holes, it makes the kind of emotional dream-sense that art requires and that the technician Nolan has too often either neglected or forced. 

Why is Goya in this movie? Because the dream/sleep of reason—the linear thinking the film rightly derides and tries (through form) to educate us out of—produces monsters. This crucial insight was notoriously missing from Inception but is richly present in this untimely production. 

As for Nolan’s politics—of which I at my most youthfully socially just was once a distinguished critic—they have themselves spiralled forth from the clashing private enterprises succeeding the nation-state in The Dark Knight films and Inception to the nationalist nostalgia of Interstellar’s can-do Americana and Dunkirk’s patriotic Churchillian peroration. Now, to offset the attack from the vindictive future, we have the eponymous transnational organization devoted not to profit but to ensuring the continuity of human traditions represented in the film at once by maternity and by the gorgeous globetrotting spy-thriller cosmopolitan mise-en-scène between those airless episodes in the atopic hangars and barracks where global capital transacts its legitimate and illegitimate business over the artifacts of culture. 

All in all, a legitimately—not cheaply—uplifting movie, intensely anti-postmodern, one that imagines present-day humanity as willing and able to make a decent future for ourselves, here and now.

[mustlovemustypages]

Yuletide 2020 Letter

Dear potential writer,

I truly hope all is well with you and yours. No matter what state you find yourself in, my wish is that Yuletide boosts your spirits and gives you the extra jolt we all could use to usher in the new year. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and thank you in advance if you decide to write anything for me!

Below are my desired fandoms and pairings along with story ideas that I would love to see written. Please don’t feel stifled by my prompts; I’ve also listed my general likes and dislikes at the very bottom of this letter if you decide to go a different route.

Little Women (2019):

Characters: Amy March and Theodore “Laurie” Laurence”

The main reason I adore this adaptation is because it made me see why Amy and Laurie ended up together. They had very similar worldviews and fit so well what the other needed. Both deserved to be with someone that valued them for who they are. With Laurie, Amy was not just financially secure but with someone who encouraged her to express herself creatively, politically, or however she chose. With Amy, while she grounded Laurie in reality and challenged him to be the best version of himself, he didn't have to fundamentally change to make her happy.

Story ideas:

These quotes really show how Amy's perspective on life was different than her sister's: "You are your family's hope." (Aunt March) "I’ve always known I would marry rich." (Amy March) That's a lot of pressure on someone so young. We heard some of Laurie's thoughts, mostly that he didn't think Amy should feel ashamed for wanting that. How would some of that pressure continue even after she got married, and what would Laurie say to make her realize they were in life together as a team and she didn’t have to suffer the weight of the world alone?

The conversation between Amy and Laurie in the painting studio showed just how level-headed and intelligent she was. Laurie, while not wholly agreeing, was respectful and didn't discount her thoughts. It would be interesting to see the impact on their story if Vaughn hadn't arrived, and this had played out more. Would the proposal have happened earlier and/or how would later scenes be altered as a result of further conversation?

What did the other characters think of Amy and Laurie's relationship, and how did it change after seeing them interact more as a couple? It would be interesting to read about Meg, Marmee, John, or some of the other characters realizing they were genuinely a good match for each other.

Post-canon, I'd love to get a glimpse of what kinds of conversations they had. Did Amy encourage Laurie to pursue a career and find what he was passionate about (music perhaps as Laurie mentioned writing an opera)? And similarly, did Laurie encourage Amy to pursue her art? Did they continue to have in-depth conversations about societal pressures and expectations of gender in certain economic classes?

Tenet:

Characters: The Protagonist, Kat, and Neil

Tenet is the first movie I've seen in theaters since Star Wars IX. There have been some mixed reviews, but my love for Christopher Nolan sci-fi films combined with the experience of stepping foot in a theater again made it a wonderful experience for me. Sure, the plot could be confusing at times, but it was fun trying to fit certain puzzle pieces together and oh so thrilling when things just clicked into place in the most satisfying ways.

I adored the dynamic between Neil and the Protagonist. The easy friendship, the banter, the suits... everything. I also loved the relationship between the Protagonist and Kat. It started off as each using the other but transformed into one of genuine care on both sides. Ever the romantic, I definitely saw something more than just friendship between the two and was slightly disappointed the movie didn't explore that aspect more.  

For pairings, I’m interested in friendships between all of the characters. I’d be interested in seeing a romantic relationship between Kat and the Protagonist if you’re up for that, but not between Neil and Kat, nor Neil and the Protagonist. If you really want to give a romantic partner to Neil, I'd be fine with Laura (or an original female character if she’s not the focus of the story), but please, no slash. While I’d be ecstatic to see all three characters together, if you can only find a way to fit in two, that’s wonderful as well!

Story ideas:

Even though Andrei Sator is gone, there are still other players in the game, some like Priya, who want to eliminate Kat or even abduct her with the delusional idea she can continue her husband's work. The Protagonist (and Neil, if you so choose) ensures no harm comes to her, and he realizes that keeping her at a distance may not have been the best idea.

I personally don't buy into the fan theory that Neil is Kat's son Max; however, I do find the idea intriguing and would be up for reading about how that worked. The Protagonist breaks his rule and sees Kat, helping to raise her son Max/Neil and eventually teaching him about inversion.

The Protagonist doesn't have to wait quite as long as he'd thought to see Neil again. It can be the Neil who had already met him and knows about Tenet or the Neil who knows nothing about inversion.

What conversations did Neil and Kat have while the Protagonist was asleep after almost freezing to death? Maybe Neil explained the finer workings of Tenet and inversion more in-depth. Perhaps they discussed the Protagonist. 

Clueless:

Characters: Cher Horowitz and Josh Lucas

This movie set the bar high for teen romantic comedies. How can anyone ever beat 90s Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd? Plus, the relationship between their two characters is fantastic. Josh and Cher just bring out the best in each other. Cher shows Josh that he doesn't need to be so serious all of the time and that people are more than their outer appearances. Josh makes Cher want to be a better person, and he believes that she's not just a pretty face. Their banter and playful moments always make me smile.

Story ideas:

Knowing Josh and Cher end up together, this brings a heightened awareness to rewatches. They have so many casual touches and exchanged glances (when did Paul Rudd's eyes get so blue?) that it's hard to miss their natural chemistry. It may take quite some time for Cher's dad to notice anything has changed because they don't act all that different from before. Is there something that makes him finally take notice? How does he react?

Sort of related to the last prompt, there's a moment where Josh decides to go to the dance to keep an eye on Cher and Christian, and you can tell by Mel Horowitz’s smirk he realizes Josh has a crush on Cher. Does he do anything to push it along or play matchmaker just like his daughter?

I've always been curious about whether or not Josh believes Cher's story about being assaulted in the car by Elton and then held at gunpoint. We skip over Josh pulling up to the phone booth and go straight to Cher already being in the car. How did Josh react when she reiterated the story, and does he instantly believe her, or does it take some convincing? I'd like to see if he comforts her and if they both go together to tell Cher's dad what happened.

Cher is obviously very intelligent socially, if not always so much academically. When it comes time to apply for college, what does she major in? And how is Josh a positive influence in Cher's life, encouraging her to be ambitious and not letting negative comments from guidance counselors or teachers dissuade her?

Things I don’t like:

Alternate Universes – For the specific fandoms that I picked, I really like the universes as they are. I’m definitely okay with deviations from canon, but please don’t make Little Women into a supernatural werewolf story or have Tenet take place in a mundane coffee shop setting. (I don’t mind Soulmate AUs or something similar because those can be incorporated into canon with little change to worldbuilding).

Non-Con/Rape/BDSM/Sexual Violence/Graphic Sex – I like my characters to be happy and everything within ships to be 100% consensual, no question about it (mentions of non-con if it occurred in canon is fine). I also prefer plot over porn, especially with one-shots.

OT3s – Two people per romantic relationship, please. Any more than that makes me uncomfortable.

Character Bashing - Unless a character is a bad guy in canon, I don’t want to read hundreds of words about how awful they are, especially if they are one of the characters that I requested. Don’t take it out on the characters. If you hate my pairings, just write gen.

Things I love:

Hurt/Comfort – There is nothing I love more than one character comforting another. The hurt can be physical, psychological, or both.  

Happy Endings – I’m all for the realistic endings… but if they could be plausible AND at least happy-ish, that would be amazing.

Expanded Scenes/Contorting Canon – Feel free to expand scenes and change up the canon to your heart’s content as long as it makes logical sense.

Humor/Banter/Snark – I thrive on this stuff.

Bonding/Building Relationships – Whether it be a friendship or a romantic relationship, I adore reading about two people growing closer together. When characters know each other so well that they can have conversations with just their eyes or anticipate the person’s next move (especially if it’s to the surprise/confusion of everyone around them), my shipper heart is thrilled.

Dark to Light – Seeing a character come out of a bad mindset or situation and get better is so satisfying.

Happy writing and I hope you get the Yuletide gift of your dreams!

- Maddy @mustlovemustypages (on Tumblr, Ao3, and FF.net)

[synthetic-hearted-midgardian]

Expanded Tenet Ending Theory and/or Headcanon

Tenet is a freaking puzzle of a film and i loved every second of it both times i saw it. Seriously, this movie trusts it’s audience to keep up with it and I respect the hell out of that. ANYWAY Spoilers ahead but after watching it again an idea was planted in my mind...

Please bear with me here while I way oversimplify this recap: In their last on-screen conversation The Protagonist realizes Neil is the inverted soldier who died taking a bullet for him and unlocking that door for himself and Ives [or WILL die or Will Have Died; this is why I’m over simplifying but god I want to try and break down the proper tensing someday. someone please have this conversation with my grammar-nerd ass]  Neil says that this operation was a “pincer for you, too” because now Protagonist is going to go forwards/backwards in time to found Tenet, recruit younger Neil and the others, keep Priya from killing Kat and Max, and basically become the mastermind that starts his younger self on this path to stopping Sator.

Whether Neil knows what’s coming or not is hinted at but left open to interpretation. An argument could be made that he knows The Protagonist won’t continue much farther forward in time from this chronological point. Either way Protagonist lets him go and then presumably spends the rest of his life inverting and reverting. THIS time and place being a significant point for him. 

So given the back and forth nature of inversion it stands to reason that Protagonist can and most likely will be able to come back to this moment even years and years into his own future. He lives to be old, which is great, but he’s a realist who knows he’s gonna die eventually. I’m actually interested to see if the radiation given off by inverted objects (i.e what made that one inverted bullet cause so much damage to Kat’s body) will have any long-term effects. It stands to reason that the inversion process itself exposes you to that radiation OR that while inverted the normal world has a radiation of it’s own that can affect you.

Radiation of whatever kind is heavily implied to be the cause of or accelerant to Sator’s inoperable pancreatic cancer. Don’t get your claws and torches ready when I say this, but; The Protagonist finds out after decades that he has a similarly incurable condition. In a continuation of Protagonist and Sator being each other’s foil, our boy now has been put in Sator’s position. He knows about the inversion tech, the future, what power that can give, and that he only has a limited time left. I’m pretty damn certain he won’t make a choice to take the whole world down with him though.

Instead he takes the time he has left and makes it count. If nothing else he has gained perspective on what he most regrets. Probably the most of which is letting Neil walk away to take that bullet. Especially now since they’ve both known each other so well for so long. So our Protagonist decides to make his last act count. He goes back to the day of the ‘pincer movement’ and waits by the machine either in the compound or wherever Neil is going to invert for the last time. Neil just said goodbye to the younger version of his friend for what he thought would be the last time but BOOM older (and still gorgeous) Protagonist is there. Neil’s surprised but not unhappy to see him when the Older Protagonist says that there’s a step in the plan he needs to do himself for the operation to succeed. Protagonist has Neil give him the blue arm band and watch, and takes the backpack with the red trinket on it. After all this time Protagonist has picked up some great lockpicking skills from Neil and could open that door just as fast as he could. Neil is left with an envelope and a set of instructions not to open it for at least ten minutes. “See you again at the beginning.” The Protagonist half whispers as he slings the backpack (red trinket and all) and heads down into the compound where his younger self and Ives will need him shortly.

So in conclusion:

[whateverthese2havetournament]

2024 Roster Announcement

Alright, let's get this show on the road.

You all gave me plenty to work with, and though time has passed, I haven't forgotten. I have utilized what I believe to be an unbiased system of sorting relevant entries to the top, and I have a list of 32 and 16 for both the "Men's Division" and "Women's Division".

The Men's Division, in no particular order:

Archie and Maxie, Pokemon

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Looney Tunes

Professor Pierre Aronnax and Captain Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Sicard and Emmanilain, Final Fantasy XIV

Alber Wesker and Chris Redfield, Resident Evil

Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid, Criminal Minds

Suguru Geto and Satorou Gojo, Jujutsu Kaisen

Luffy and Zoro, One Piece

Kotetsu T. "Wild Tiger" Kaburagi and Barnaby "Bunny" Brooks Jr., Tiger and Bunny

Yoichi & Kudou, My Hero Academia

Elim Garak and Julian Bashir, Star Trek

Dale Cooper and Harry S. Truman, Twin Peaks

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha

Composer and Orpheus, Identity V

Eddie Brock and his Symbiote, Venom

Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, Link Click

Keith and Lance, Voltron

Optimus Prime and Megatron, Transformers

Newt Geiszler and Hermann Gottleib, Pacific Rim

Kim Dokja & Yoo Joonghyuk, Omniscient Reader

Sam and Max

Officer Bailey and That Other Guard, Ghost Trick

Steven Stone and Wallace, Pokemon

Medic and Heavy, Team Fortress 2

Basil and Sunny, OMORI

Ike and Soren, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Professor X and Magneto, X-Men

Mercutio and Benvolio, Shakespeare

Stanley and the Narrator, The Stanley Parable

Junkrat and Roadhog, Overwatch

Merlin and Arthur, Merlin

Jessie and James, Pokemon

And the Women's

Madoka Kaname and Akemi Homura, Madoka Magica

Azula, Mai and Ty Lee, Avatar: The Last Airbender

Alice 'Daisy' Tonner and Basira Hussain, The Magnus Archives

Sable Ward and Mikaela Reid, Dead by Daylight

Mina Harker née Murray and Lucy Westenra, Dracula

Xena and Gabrielle, Xena: Warrior Princess

Falin Touden and Marcille Donato, Delicious in Dungeon

Emma Swan and Regina Mills, Once Upon a Time

Ruby Rose and Penny Polendina, RWBY

Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe, Trigun

Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley, Scooby Doo

Vriska Serket and Terezi Pyrope, Homestuck

Kimura Seiko and Andoh Ruruka, Danganronpa 3

Lucia and Elincia, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Yuri and Natuski, Doki Doki Literature Club

Lyn and Florina, Fire Emblem the Blazing Blade

Wowie, what an all-star cast! Videogames, comics, movies, anime, cartoons, classic literature, and more.

So, I'm going to aim to get the ball rolling, let's say October 14th. I'll start with Men's Round 1, then the following week do Women's Round 1, and so on. I will post the actual brackets a bit closer to that date.

In the meantime! If anyone would like to submit any propaganda, images, complaints, objections, or what have you, the ask box will remain open. I know last time had a pretty rocky start, but I am wise for the experience, and I think this time 'round will be even better.

[cupiscent]

Anarchy brain strikes again

As threatened in the discord server, here’s my “the only ridiculous narrow loophole possibility under which I will consider Neil=Max” theory. Please bear with me and don’t throw things until the end. 😇

The key problem* with the theory, for me, is that Neil shows no interest in Kat (Max’s mother ffs, going through the most traumatic period of her--and possibly of Max’s--life) beyond being generally friendly and generous and helpful. Maybe he’s a great actor? Ahahahaha go back and watch the Mumbai yacht club scene again and then tell me that with a straight face.

So anyway, my brain, like the anarchist gremlin it is, went, “There’s a way around that. What if Neil doesn’t know that’s his mother?”

Here we go!

What if Neil is Max, but a Max who was estranged from his mother, told stories about her disinterest by his father, who never even knew that Sator killed her. The son of a woman who wasn’t saved by the Protagonist, because something went a little differently, and it just didn’t happen. But the son of a Sator who was stopped by Tenet in his destruction of everything (obviously) and who perhaps was raised by more distant relations after his father killed himself. (Perhaps no one talks about the parents to the poor kid because gosh, what trauma. And we’re English, we don’t know how to deal. I know this is a stretch omg shut up and let me finish.)

ANYWAY. The point is: Neil is a different Max.

Which confirms the possibility of overlapping multiverse variations. (As vaguely referenced in the shipping container lectures. Physics-in-a-can. Literally.)

Which means the Protagonist can change what’s happened and save Neil--or at least steer his reality into a different variant where Neil was saved.

* Of course, the other problem with this theory is that it requires Neil/Max to be recruited to Tenet in the future and invert a long way back, which stands in direct contradiction to the implications of Neil’s farewell--that being that the Protagonist has a future in the past and that he and Neil “get up to some stuff” there. So I still don’t think Neil=Max at all. But this was a fun thought-exercise! 😜

[chellestrash]

To that Neil hair topic: I've read some wild theory, that he is actually son of Cobb from Inception, but it's a stretch imo🤯🤯

oh shit okay but cobb aslo looks like nolan?? was that…like was that a thing too? PFFF

yeah it does seem like a bit of a strech idk if nolan is the type to mess with his films on that way you know? and besides, isn’t max like sator’s son? that was like stated in the film right? pfff

[schadie]

Can we speak about two last phrases? It didn't in the movie.

If you remember, Sator called himself a god.

Sator almost killed Neil with his own hands.

Sator was responsible for Neil's death.

Excuse me, If that’s not a "Neil=Max" theory, then what is it?

[helltalia-inc]

OH BOY! You all had worked hard for this 21th challenge 😚 @lukatheselkie @year81 @the-caffeinated-coffee-idiot @aphspain-pure @the-girl-with-the-fox-ears @highway-to-helltalia @oyanachi @ask-the-aph-nordicverse @lizza-max @betty26blue @earths-roots-grow-up @littlegreeklover @bogbees @ifindus @dumbass-draws @sator-the-wanderess @maivalkov @yourdarlingfaux @silverphoenixwrites @chibiclem ... Correction, you all always had worked hard 😁 ahahhah 💙 I'm teasing 💕

The 22nd challenge is "Aquarium Park" / “It is easier to pretend we are strong; it is much harder to admit we are weak; a true friend, by loving every part of us, teaches us to love our weaknesses”

With this said, it will be our last "summer cliché challenge" and of August. 😁 The challenges of September are fixed, for now, on the top of page. And at last, don't forget to take a look at others events, @heta-on-the-books had already posted for September, the Calendar for Hetalia Events.