[open]

[gluteus]

Who| Maximus and OPEN
What| Maximus just wandering around, basically this is for new CR and ongoing CR and whatever else happens to fall in here. Not really plot specific, just a needed space for some threads.
Where| District 3 suites, Training Centre, the Park, or the Speakeasy
When| Post Wesker's win
Warnings/Notes| Nothing planned that way! Will edit if it comes up.


Maximus did not enjoy the downtime in the Capitol.

It wasn't that he particularly enjoyed the Arenas, either, but being in the Arena was at least vaguely familiar. Survival. Death. It was a cycle he knew and understood.

Unlike the politics. Unlike the gossip and the glamour and the giggling behind hands. Unlike the Avoxes that found their way into his rooms, unlike the women that threw themselves upon him in the street.

He spent almost all of his time either in his suites, training, meandering the park, or looking for Wyatt in the speakeasy. He actively wanted to learn more about his fellow tributes, but did that more by listening and observing than by approaching. He wanted to learn their strength of character. Wanted to know how, deep inside themselves, they felt about their adoptive city and the games that they were forced to compete in.

And the best way to learn that, however slowly it took, was to watch. And to wait.

Eventually everyone laid themselves open.

Comments

[orestes]

It was a foolish thing to try and engage someone incapable of actually speaking in conversation. Nevertheless, that didn't stop Enjolras from trying. There were other ways people could communicate, so that was what he would do. Avoxes weren't really permitted to be expressive, but the one he was presently arguing with seemed perturbed to say the least.

"What I am saying is that you, like us, have nothing left to lose. More than any other native of this state, you have a right to be angry. You, who are reduced to servitude for what? Dissension?" The pen and paper he'd laid out for the man in the flowing robes attempting to freshen his tea remained untouched. Enjolras sighed, so many of Rousseau's less optimistic perspectives were proved by this place. "Surely, if nothing else you are frustrated, my friend. And you don't need to do that-- Please do not do that. I am more than capable of preparing my own drink."

[gluteus]

Maximus couldn't help but overhear, stepping through the common room, Enjolras' impassioned voice floating across the room. He couldn't help but step over, drawn partially by the passion and partially by the sentiment.

"They do not understand," Maximus said in a low voice as he came over. "At least, as far as I have ascertained. There is more wounding their minds than their lost tongues."

[orestes]

Nodding sadly, Enjolras waved the fluttering Avox away again gently, and raised his eyes to meet those of the man speaking to him. It was an awful, terrifying concept to be forced to live in an unequal world and have your very means of fighting back stripped from you. But to shy away from contemplating it would be a disservice to those who had, and who would continue to endure such a fate, and so he refused the impulse to turn the conversation to the easier topic of introductions.

"Their government must be truly afraid. Killing someone silences them just as easily. This is about sending a message, rather in the same way as the Games. Do not rebel, we will not even grant you the dignity of death."

[gluteus]

"Death can make a similar message," Maximus said, a grim expression. "Man has a deep imagination for subjugation."

He paused, looking back at the Avox as it fled the room.

"Though even in Rome, we had nothing like them."

[orestes]

"The Romans also had some semblance of sovereignty, even in regard to their slaves. To call Ancient Rome a truly egalitarian culture would be overstating matters, but surely there was some undeniable wisdom to their ways." His opinion of this newest addition to the conversation shifting rapidly, Enjolras regarded him with greater attention. The grim expression implied a level of almost military severity foreign to his own academic perspective. Still, it was pleasant to hear someone speaking with such self-assuredness on a topic which he also valued greatly.

"These people will make a fool of me and my belief that they are capable of more."

[gluteus]

Maximus' eyebrows raised dangerously high. "You believe a slave in Rome has sovereignty?" He asked, stuck on that part before he could even consider the rest.

He did, however, glance back at the retreating Avox. "I wouldn't be surprised if they had depths we haven't seen, but communication with them is a fool's errand."

[orestes]

"It's a matter of historical fact that there were strict laws which governed the treatment of enslaved peoples. They were not permitted the same rights as Roman citizens, of course, but such is better than even societies in my century." He wasn't unaccustomed to the incredulity regarding that particular aspect of Roman history, but Enjolras was also entirely confident in his knowledge. While ideologically he quite preferred the Greeks, the Roman Empire had been the subject of his childhood daydreams and he'd eagerly consumed and committed to memory every detail of it and its people he could discover.

At Maximus' comment, he glances back toward the Avox as well. "I had to try, and I will continue trying. I should like to know what each of them did to deserve such a fate."

[gluteus]

Maximus looked as stern as he could, but he couldn't help himself. The laugh started almost incredibly quiet, a breathy, silent chuckle, but soon grew louder. He couldn't stop himself, and soon he was laughing openly. He shook his head, raised a hand to wipe his eyes, and managed to get his laugh under control.

"Laws... Yes, I suppose there were, though I'm not sure how good a treatment I had. There's a good amount of difference between the ideal and the reality."

He sighed, still half laughing, and looked back towards the avoxes. "I imagine they did as much as was necessary to appear to deserve it."

[orestes]

He'd already formulated a rather pedantic and rhetoric-filled reply about the government's obvious ability to spin its situation to its subjects when the man's words fully sink in. His regard for the man shifted, as he dissected what exactly the words meant in this context.

"I beg your pardon, Monsieur, but may I ask where you are from?" Surely they were the trick of some odd bit of phrasing with which he was unfamiliar. Then again, Little Rock insisted that he too belonged to his history books.

[gluteus]

"I was born in Hispania," Maximus said, clearly amused, "but I fought for Rome. And I brought to Rome, before this." He gestured around him.

"As a slave, of course. If an armed one."

[orestes]

Eyebrows now raised in barely contained curiosity, Enjolras leaned in closer, as though proximity to this presumably great man will somehow make it easier to absorb his knowledge and experience. Inquisitive almost to the point of rudeness, he studied Maximus, dozens of questions running through his head, entirely unsure of just where to begin.

"That is incredible," he finally blurted out, less than satisfied with the eloquence of the response he'd settled on. "I should like to know your opinion of this place. Yours must truly be a unique perspective."

[gluteus]

The small smile Maximus offered was tight and polite. He generally refrained from commenting on the Capitol as a whole, especially with men he didn't know, regardless of whether or not they were tributes. You never knew who you were talking to, or who was listening.

"What do you want to know?" Maximus asked, careful and polite.

[orestes]

“How much of their political system is truly modeled after that of Rome,” Enjolras replies enthusiastically, almost too quick after the other man finishes speaking. He isn’t on the verge of tripping over his words anymore, however. “And your thoughts between the two, if that isn’t too forward.”

[gluteus]

"... I know little of the politics, here," Maximus said carefully. "And my expertise in Rome lay in its armies, and her Emperor. Though I met many senators, it is-- it was a different world beyond their marble walls."

He paused, glanced toward the window. "Rome itself was... corrupted. Tainted, when I left. The ideal that Marcus Aurelius had tried to uphold - the ideal that I fought and killed for - it had disappeared with his death. It would not be a flattering comparison."

[orestes]

His face lit up with the word senators, only to fall again as Maximus continues. Giving himself to the Revolution as he had, Enjolras never truly allowed himself to dream or aspire to more than a glorious death for the people of France. To hope for more would only end in disappointment. But if he ever did, he thought perhaps the role of a Roman senator would have suited him nicely.

"I am sorry to know that, Monsieur," came the quiet reply. His lips pursed and brow furrowed, he turned back to Maximus with an increasingly pensive expression. "You knew Marcus Aurelius?"