[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]

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?"