[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

[gluteus]

Maximus often wandered the park, finding solace in the wilderness away from the massive buildings and thunderous lights - even if it was fabricated, and shallow. It was still better than the deep city. He was used to being left alone, for the most part - his stature and reputation being a large deterrent - save for the women who found those same traits alluring rather than repelling. So it was rare that a man spoke to him at all.

He turned to the voice, and met a face he vaguely recognized. They'd never spoken, but Maximus had seen him around the Tribute's tower, and at the various parties he'd been forced to attend.

"You have not," he assured him with a stiff nod. "I was merely walking. You are a tribute?"

[drpsychosomatic]

"So I'm told," he agreed wryly, making a conscious decision not to mention the district he'd been assigned to. He'd tell if asked, but it seemed pointless, when they were given no reason to cultivate the connection. "John Watson. You're the gladiator, aren't you?"

[gluteus]

"We are all of us Gladiators," Maximus said. "But yes, I was a gladiator before I stepped foot in this place. Maximus Decimus Meridius."

[drpsychosomatic]

"Quite a mouthful," John joked amicably. "I'm afraid it's been a long time since I studied Latin-- or Roman history. Should I know who you are?"

[gluteus]

Another man who studied Latin. But Maximus has already had his hopes dashed once - apparently it was a subject taught long after Rome had fallen, especially when John was speaking of its 'history'. He smiled tightly.

"I doubt they speak of gladiators," he said quietly. He had told Wyatt the story of Commodus, but not a soul otherwise (beyond, of course, the cameras), and even then, even if everyone knew, he didn't care to speak of it. If he had succeeded, perhaps then John would know his name, but he had been taken here before he could see the deed done. And that fact tore into his side like a thorn.

"When are you from, if you study us as history?"

[drpsychosomatic]

"The only one I can think of by name is Spartacus," he admitted, "and that's because they made a film about him. I'm from much later than the height of the Rome, I'm afraid, though I've been there. Beautiful city, or at least it was, then."

He paused, thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, 2012 probably wouldn't mean that much to you, would it? The calendar is all different. Who was your Emperor?"

[gluteus]

"He died two or so years before I was born," Maximus said, a little pleased that John knew his history and Rome, but also a little embarrassed that a figure like Spartacus came to represent him. Though having been on the other side of a corrupt emperor and the chains of slavery, he had a much better idea of the man than he had when he'd learned about him as a boy.

"I've been given an approximation of your calendar," Maximus said, "So I have some idea. But I fought under Marcus Aurelius." That was his true emperor. Not his son. Commodus' name never even came to his lips.

[drpsychosomatic]

John's eyes widened a little. Well, at least that was one Emperor he knew a bit about, though he wasn't entirely sure Maximus would like the 'last of the Five Good Emperors' title. He decided not to mention that.

"Marcus Aurelius? 'Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.' Something like that. I suppose he's remembered more as a philosopher than anything else. He's quoted a lot, even in my time, especially in military circles. I should have studied harder- I liked what I remember."

[gluteus]

A very honest and warm smile suddenly spread across Maximus' face.

"Yes, that sounds like him," Maximus said immediately. In truth he rarely read what his Emperor had wrote - Philosophy being outside his realm of interest - but they had talked long into the night on more than one occassion so many of Aurelius' musings had come to him as whispers, deep in a tent on the front line, as Maximus listened quietly to the tossings and turnings of an Emperor.

The fact that he loved the man was all too obvious in his now-unguarded expression and the pure warmth in his voice. "He would be glad, to hear of how he is remembered," Maximus said, the smile fading only slightly as he remembered some of the last words his Emperor had ever said to him. Will I be known as the philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant...? Or will I be the emperor who gave Rome back her true self?

"There..." He paused, faltered, frowned. "... Were there Emperors, after his son? Or was Rome once more a republic?"

[drpsychosomatic]

"Well, I'm glad history recorded him accurately," John said, carefully. It seemed he wouldn't be able to avoid breaking the news after all. "Marcus Aurelius. I can't remember if it was him or his son who died without heir, but- I do remember the title the historians gave him. He's known as the last of the five Good Emperors, and after him there was some kind of civil war, I think."
He paused there, feeling guilty for not remembering the details more clearly.
"I'm sorry."