Time: 11:59 a.m.Location: Portugal – Ryan Hunter's Mansion Roof
The ocean stretched out like a living clock, each wave folding into the next with the precision of a heartbeat. Ryan stood at the edge of the terrace where the stone met the sky, a silhouette framed by the Atlantic glare. Wind tugged at his shirt, carrying the salt smell of home and the memory of seventeen voices that had whispered, Come back soon. After 3 days of continuous sex, the girls were satisfied and were content with my upcoming short absence.
But even home, for a man like Ryan, was never a finish line—only a checkpoint.
EVE's voice unfolded in his mind, calm and clear.
EVE: "All systems nominal. Dimensional coordinates stabilized. Awaiting command."
Ryan's eyes reflected the system interface screen's pale glow. For the first time in months, he allowed himself to feel stillness. He thought of what he had built: the loves, the loyalties, the small kingdoms carved in secret corners of cinematic worlds. And he knew that if he lingered too long, comfort would calcify into stagnation.
"Time," he said quietly, "is the one world I haven't conquered."
EVE: "Destination pending."
"Not pending," he corrected. "Chosen."
He traced a line through the holographic air, opening a grid of possible universes. Among hundreds of glowing names—Oopiri, Atharintiki Daaredi, Crew 2023—one pulsed in gold: Project 24 – 1980. (Few modifications were made to this world and timelines to entertain Ryan)
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The Original Movie plot line is as follows.
24 (2016 film):
In 1990, Sethuraman was a scientist and renowned watchmaker who lived with his wife Priya and newborn son Manikandan. On 13 January, Sethuraman successfully completes his invention of a time travelling watch—Project 24.
His happiness is short-lived, however, as his gangster twin brother Athreya attacks the family and kills Priya to get the watch. He only finds the key to the box that the watch was hidden in.
Unable to use the watch and fearful for his son's life, an injured Sethuraman manages to escape with his son and gets on a train, with Athreya in close pursuit. Sethuraman pleads with a woman he meets on the train, named Sathyabhama, to take care of his son and goes to face Athreya.
He manages to trick Athreya into thinking he is carrying a bomb, prompting Athreya to quickly kill Sethuraman before jumping off the train to his apparent death. It is shown that Sethuraman placed the locked box containing his watch along with Mani, who grew up unaware of the contents of the box, as well as his true parents.
26 years later, in 2016, Manikandan (called Mani) is now a talented watch mechanic who believes Sathyabhama to be his mother. Mani meets a girl, Sathya, who had come for her watch repair, and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Athreya, who survived his fall and was in a coma, wakes up after 26 years (due to a fire in the hospital, in which the key to the box is dropped) and is shocked to find out that he is now paralysed from the waist down and older. He is cared for by his trusted confidante, Mithran.
In a chain of events, the key to the box ends up in the hands of Mani, who opens the box and discovers the watch inside. He figures out its capabilities, including its ability to freeze time for 30 seconds, but questions the origin of the watch and how it ended up in his possession.
Athreya, upset with the fact that he lost 26 years of his life and has become a paraplegic, obsesses over the watch and wishes to go back in time to relive his lost youth. Mithran issues an advertisement offering INR 5 crores (50 million) as a reward for the lost watch. This advertisement was discovered by Mani's friend Saravanan in a newspaper. Mani deduces that the creator of the advertisement is aware of the powers of the watch. In order to figure out the truth, Mani uses the original to make an identical copy and, along with his friend Saravanan, goes to the provided address.
At the office, Athreya spots Mani's copy (his "watch" was the only one with the original design on the back side) and realizes that Mani has the original watch. He summons both of them to the office and viciously attacks them, brutally killing Mani by chopping off his hand, and gets hold of the watch. An ecstatic Athreya reverses time only to find out that the watch cannot transport its wearer beyond 24 hours, waking up at 12 am the night before. He now realises that Mani is the only one who can upgrade the watch. Mani is then shown to be alive. Athreya decides to convince Mani that he is Sethuraman and pretends that he is dying from an incurable disease.
Now disguised as Sethuraman, Athreya finds Mani and tricks him into upgrading the watch to enable larger time jumps. Mani manages to successfully upgrade the watch but learns Athreya's true identity and the reason for his parents' deaths. He tricks Athreya into revealing the date of his parents' death and returns to 1990 to warn them. Unfortunately, right before he travels, Athreya manages to grab onto the watch, and they are both transported back. Athreya is a healthy adult about to storm Sethuraman's house, and Mani is a toddler who can't speak. However, Sethuraman discovers the upgraded watch in Mani's crib. At first, he is excited over the fact that Mani time-traveled, but Priya asks why Mani would travel back to a time when he couldn't talk. Sethuraman quickly realizes, to his and Priya's horror, that Mani traveled back in time to warn them. With this realization, now prepared, Sethuraman manages to successfully use his watch to freeze time, kill Athreya, and escape his henchmen. Priya asks Sethu to throw the watch away, as she has had enough of the past, to which he complies.
Sethu and Priya board the same train as Sathyabhama, and they start a conversation in which Sethu tells Sathyabhama that he is a science teacher. Sathyabhama asks them to come and join her family's school, as they want to hire a science teacher. Sethu and Priya, for a fresh and happy start, agree to it. The film ends with a young Mani talking to a young Sathya.
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I have decided to enter this new world as Surya, replacing the baby Mani, the original protagonist in 1980, as the son of Dr. Sethuraman. I would grow up again, from infancy, within the narrative. And with that, a portal swirled into existence before him, not a violent tear, but a gentle, iridescent vortex.
With one last look at the home I had built, at the love that anchored my multiverse, I, Ryan Hunter, stepped forward.
I did not walk as a conqueror into a new kingdom, but as a seed into fertile soil, ready to grow from within.
The ocean vanished, replaced by the swirling colors of the dimensional stream. My consciousness, vast and mighty, began its gentle compression into the form of an infant named Surya. The journey was long, not in distance, but in scope. I was ready to experience a new life.