open;

[gluteus]

Who| Maximus and TOTALLY OPEN
What| Maximus gets introduced to the Capitol
Where| After his death
When| whenever you want
Warnings/Notes| none so far! will edit if any come up

He dreamt, before he awoke. He dreamt of endless fields, of his son riding a new horse, of his wife smiling as she welcomed him home. He dreamt of a door...

And awoke to a cold cot and a cold room.

He had been dead. He had felt it, felt his life slip away from him. He'd felt his wife's arms reach out to take him. But as he stared at the ceiling and sucked in a breath, he knew he was not to rejoin them yet. He wasn't surprised. He'd lost. Obviously he was meant to continue in these games until he won, until Commodus was brought before him, until he killed the man himself. Had he not said "in this life or the next"? This was surely the next - or some form of it - and he would not be dissuaded. No. Not even if it meant dying again, and again, and again.

The games, he expected.

The Capitol, he didn't.

 

[ooc: tag in wherever! just note the place in the subject line please c: ]

Comments

Is this okay?

[peacekeeperavox]

He sat back on his heels, letting both his hands drop to his lap, where they folded neatly on the brown plastic skirt of his costume. And yes, it was plainly a costume, glossy and fragile-seeming. For a moment, he simply stared up at Maximus, eyes soft with sympathy. With a nod, he rose with a grace that could only come from kneeling day in and day out, and went back to his hidden door.

But when he touched the subtle catch that should have opened it, nothing happened. Puzzled, he tried again, and then with an apologetic bow to Maximus, he crossed to the bedroom's main door. But when he tried to open that one, the only thing that happened was the sounding of a quiet chime, and a genderless voice said softly, "A curfew is in effect. A curfew is in effect. The Training Center apologizes for any inconvenience."

Yep! 8D

[gluteus]

Maximus raised a hand, fingers rubbing the bridge of his nose. He sighed.

"It's fine." He said across the room. He gestured vaguely to the bed. "You can stay. Sleep, if you can. You can go back in the morning."

[peacekeeperavox]

'Sleep, if you can,' came perilously close to an order, and Darius wanted to obey it. But to take a Tribute's bed? That worried him. And he knew it to be an irrational worry, especially as he'd been supposed to share that same bed just a few minutes ago. He swallowed, and gestured with a nervous flicker of his hands towards the chair. He would be fine there?

[gluteus]

It wasn't hard to work out what the man meant, so Maximus stood, gesturing toward the chair as he crossed over to his bed and grabbed one of the blankets. How he would be able to sleep on it, he couldn't guess. It was too soft, covered in things...

His first night here and he doubted he would be able to sleep. But he wasn't about to fight for a chair or dictate's a slave comfort. Having been a slave himself, he could not just ignore him.

He tossed a blanket in Darius's direction. "Sleep where you like."

[peacekeeperavox]

He caught it, with another bow of apology, this one deeper. He was sorry that he wasn't what the man had wanted, and that he was in the way, now. He sat, just laying the blanket over his legs, looking down. Even the way he sat was a product of training; feet perfectly together, back straight, hands just so on the arms of the chair. Palms up.

[gluteus]

Maximus watched him for a while - wondering what this world did to their slaves to make them so complacent, and realising for the first time that he was not on the lowest wrung of this strange society.

After a long moment he climbed into his own bed, sitting up against the wall and crossing his arms on his lap.

He would not get much sleep, this evening.