Okay. I’m sat down at the steps of a cathedral so I feel like this is the right place to take the nortrell(ao) marbles spinning around in my head and ponder them into words.
So the version of nortrellao that compels me the most is the version where Max has a girlfriend and a boyfriend. And what connects P and Lando to one another is the mutual shared caring and love towards Max, and what makes them click and vibe the most is exactly that, the mutual interest in Max.
It’s Lando sharing his material possessions be they physical or virtual with Max with no strings attached or questions asked; of course it’s yours too. It’s Lando taking care of Max in the grand level of everything Quadrant and supporting him in his covert ways, like encouraging subs to his twitch by reading them out himself. It’s making memories with him for himself and for Max, both out of genuine care and wanting to do these things for him, but also as a thank you for everything Max does for him as well.
It’s P being the full-time partner, the one Max shares his life with in the traditional sense of a relationship. It’s romantic love and devotion, care and commitment. I don’t think I need to elaborate on this more lol
But then there’s the combination of the two. The teasing Max together, banding up against him in a lighthearted and banter-y way. It’s the deep deep deep understanding of Max, which Lando has gathered from over a decade of friendship and a highly codependent era in their adulthood, and P through being in a relationship with him.
Max is SO cared for by the two, and that connects them to each other as well in such a beautifully special way. Both of them knew Max hadn’t handled the taxi from Monaco to the airport, both did it for him as an act of care and kindness, and Max could just sit by and be cared for. Up until Lando forfeited his act of kindness because he must’ve thought there was a double booking, so he let his thing go for it to be P who got to do it for Max. There could be some bittersweetness written into here, where Lando is disheartened by the realisation he’ll always be a step behind P. But honestly? The main thing for them is that Max is cared for, and as long as P and Lando work together, that’s ensured.
It’s funny how the public discourse is that Max is somehow in the cuck chair of the situation. Intellectuals know he is the centre of P and Lando’s world.
(Yes in recent times the setting has started to look more and more like a complete triangle with the mutual flirtiness of P and Lando’s and that’s an incredible concept to explore too, but that’s a thought for another day)