1 - 20 of 24 Works in Pre-Movie: The Matrix (1999)
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Story for Spooky Bingo. Prompts: "delusions", "being followed", "paranoia".
Trinity encounters a malfunctioning, corrupted program. What is real?
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Turning her head, she catches sight of her own reflection in the black voids of their obscured eyes, and her breathing stops.
No.
Suddenly, she feels exposed and vulnerable, despite her jacket and jeans. The realisation hits her like an unwanted blinding spotlight, filling her with an instant, sickening dread.
They're watching her.
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print(self), or: transcoded psychosemiotic schizotext by bartlebythescrivener (inkwellhell)
Fandoms: The Matrix (Movies)
27 Aug 2025
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Neo has come to accept the uncertain superposition of his identity just as he's come to accept that this world both is and isn't real, just as he's learned to navigate Thomas' real-world real-life real-real job even when the static in his vision and memory-storage errors and glitches and bugs are always there beneath the surface, a program running in the background. Simultaneous, dual-processing. He gets good at holding two things at once inside his head: Thomas and Neo, Real and Unreal, True and False.
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Neo, on navigating transgenderism, intimate relationships, and identity through a psychotic psyche.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,665
- Chapters:
- 1/3
- Hits:
- 10
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Trinity wasn’t prone to romantic ideas. Belief, yes. Faith in purpose. But not feelings. Yet something about the way this man moved, the way his fingers hesitated over the keys, like they were searching for the right question, it pulled at her.
Series
- Part 2 of The Stories Untold
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Cause it feels like I've been, I've been here before by wishyouwerehere3
Fandoms: The Matrix (Movies)
31 Dec 2024
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But something is always there, at the corners of his mind. He feels out of place in this world, like he's experiencing it through a dream.
Neo, pre film.
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Thomas Anderson was not the first chosen one Agent Smith had met. Smith had met every single version of Mr. Anderson, of Neo, that died too soon and there was no possible way Thomas would succeed in this lifetime either.
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The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Cypher. -
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Alice Darling doesn’t have the best life, but she has her brother and the stifling comfort of repetition. All she has to do is ignore the weird flashes of color in her periphery, the bursts of physics-defying abilities, the feeling of being watched, and her own damning curiosity.
Easy.
It doesn’t matter that her mother hates her very existence, society feels like a prison, and boredom makes her reckless in her attempts to disrupt the monotony of life. All she needs is her brother.
Love and loyalty mean more than any adrenaline rush that fades far too quickly.
She craves the feeling of being wanted. Of belonging.
Only…she doesn’t belong.“I think that went rather well.”
“If that’s your definition of well, I’m afraid of what you think bad is.”
“Bad is getting caught or killed. That didn’t happen so it went well.”
“No. Capture or death is terrible. Worst case scenario. He took the blue pill, and we were chased by Agents. That’s bad.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“You’re insane.”In which Alice learns more about reality and herself than she really wanted to or expected, but makes the best of it by stirring up trouble and running from the fallout as fast as she’s able.
Series
- Part 1 of Choice
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You're supposed to run from the monster in horror games. Even in movies. Yet why is Mouse.. running towards it? Towards him. She knows she shouldn't, but she does it anyway. The antidote mustn't be intrigued by the virus. But he is. What happens when you make bad decisions? You get bad outcomes.
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Death of another one of Neo's unnamed predecessors, now the crew has to deal with the situation.
Apoc/Switch centric because that's what I do.
This one loosely ties in with most of my other headcanon stories.
Three very short chapters. -
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A glimpse into the past. As mentioned in "Jump Scares", Switch had some trouble to overcome a fear of heights and falling before making the jump. Trinity and Apoc decide to help out a little. Cypher is as antagonistic as ever.
(Ties in with "Different Freedoms" and "Get Them Talking About Guns".)
First truly new story since starting to post my stuff here, and it even has chapters!
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Being a misfit even in a band of misfits, looking for the lines to walk. Odd little thing, more exploratory fragment than story. Sort of a prequel/alternative telling to "White Gun", "Different Freedoms", and the rest of my "neurodivergent Switch" arc/headcanon. Rambly mess ahead.
Kinda personal one, handle with care.
[rated T for implied mental health struggles]
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Another take on my ongoing "Switch has a slightly odd brain" theme. Today: Calibrating the jack-in parameters for the first visit of the construct, not everything is going as smoothly as planned. No character was permanently harmed in the making of this story. Might contain traces of a random OC because I needed an operator for this alternate timeline.
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Behind the calm facade, there might be a moment of getting lost in old daydreams. Apoc having a moment of gloomy thoughts. (Switch and Apoc again, not quite a story, more of yet another introspective exploration within my little head canon world.)
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Flashbacks to Switch uncovering the truth, starting to discover the existence of the Matrix by learning she can make life a bit easier for herself. Probably belongs to the same basic timeline as "White Gun" and "Different Freedoms", though with minor deviations in internal logic. More implied neurodivergent Switch.
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The broadcast signal is breaking down, Switch is stuck in confusing code limbo, Apoc gets antsy. Technobabble and swearing ensue. (Once again not clear whether this falls on the shipping or friendship side of things. Can be read as both.)
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Memories of Zion, a grounding gift, and a few open questions. Can be read together with my previous oneshot, "Different Freedoms", but contains no cinnamon. (Rated T just to be on the safe side as I'm not completely sure where exactly the line is drawn; the story is harmless imho.)
Do I need an archive warning for a gun that is never fired? I hope not. It's just being used as a sort of touchstone and fidget toy in this story.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 543
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Kudos:
- 4
- Hits:
- 20
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Sometimes, reality is a bit too much. (Implied neurodivergent Switch.) Tank and Switch being cinnamon rolls.
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"We'll be back in an hour." Apoc and Switch stay behind guarding the hotel delivery door, with time to spare for private musings. One last hour of quietude, though they probably don't know it; or do they? A sort of countdown. (Probably on the same timeline as two of my other stories, "White Gun" and "Different Freedoms".)
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When you take from something, you are adding to something else.
Series
- Part 1 of Lateralus