(no subject)

[gluteus]

Who| Maximus and OPEN
What| Maximus lost his leg to an alien and is in hospital while they build him a new one.
When| a few days after aliens
Where| Hospital
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of severe violence/trauma, depression, possibly suicidal thoughts

It was a desperate time. Even with the Capitol's extensive and immediate health care, there had been enough time between Maximus being hurt to being brought into critical care for him to lose a lot of blood - the mangled leg as unsalvagable as anyone could have imagined. The entire thing had been amputated from mid-thigh down.

The surgery had only taken a few hours but he needed time to recover, so no visitors were allowed until twelve hours later. Though they were making him a prosthetic, it would take a few days to build and tweak - so in the meantime he was stuck in the hospital.

Maximus was awake. They'd tried to force painkillers on him but he'd refused, so they'd slipped a minimal dosage into his IV without telling him and let him rough out the rest, gripping the pristine white sheets as he stared up at the ceiling. The form under the sheets strangely incomplete.

The nurses gave him a wide berth and spoke in hushed voices as they led any visitors to his room - though they would not allow Ferox in the hospital, so he went without his hard won companion.

Comments

[the_marshal]

Wyatt had changed, and bathed, scrubbing at the red stains that had seeped through the uniform until his skin was pink and burning, but he couldn't wash away the dark shadows under his eyes, the heavy wrinkle between his brows and the mirroring ones dragging at his mouth.

He was surprised to see Max up, awake and upright, that the strange hollow in the bed was secondary. Came several full seconds later, the fear Wyatt had known in the tunnel, made real.

Whatever magic the Capitol was wielded in the arena, truly lost to them outside of it- either from lack of ability, or simple unwillingness.

Pushing the door closed gently, he reached up to take his hat off as his heart sank.

He hadn't been in time.

"Max?"

[gluteus]

He recognized the voice and his heart sank further than it already had. It sank deep into the hollowness that was his gut, only just overshadowed by the throbbing ache - the ghostly pain of his missing leg. He didn't answer right away, his fist tightening in the sheet at his side, the stump of his leg drawing closer to his body as if he could hide the wound.

But he could not hide. Not from this.

Eventually training and honour won out, as he let out a hard breath and turned his head to meet his visitor's eyes.

He immediately regretted it, when he saw the look etched upon that face.

"... Wyatt."

[the_marshal]

Wyatt was silent for a moment, uncertain what he was supposed to say - knowing this wasn't a thing he could fix. Then he took a breath and shifted his hat from hand to hand, and reached out for the nearby chair, dragging it over by the backrest.

He slipped into the seat beside Max's bed, and tossed the hat onto the bed, next to Max's hand, the stiff brim rubbing against the white knuckles.

"Good to see ya up."

For whatever else, the relief that simple act brought, was tremendous.

[iflipmyhair]

She came to visit. She had to. She wanted to see this man, Victor that he was, see how he would handle his new predicament. His loss.

Most interesting, how they could bring him back before, unharmed, but now, they could not. It was something she could consider later, once she was done here.

As for visiting him, the nurses seemed...rather surprised she would even care to visit him, not being from his District or Wyatt. But she had her reasons. And she was hardly cowed as she walked into the room, with no guilt or worry or fear on her face. Inscrutable were her eyes, and nonchalant was her stride.

"Maximus, I presume."

[gluteus]

He wasn't expecting more visitors, certainly not ones who voice he didn't recognize, and he wasn't in the best of moods to be entertainment. So he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from being uncivil when he noticed that it was a young girl who walked in.

"I am Maximus," He agreed, his voice low and rough. "You have the advantage of me."

[iflipmyhair]

Nodding, she walked over to the chair and sat down, crossing her legs as she did. Very odd, perhaps a little presumptuous. Particularly given that he didn't know her. Nor did she seem to acknowledge the dark aura in the room created by his emotions, his thoughts, whatever else may have been going onw inside him.

"Back home, I always took care to learn who was who." She flicked her hair. "Its always useful to remember the names of those who may be useful...or dangerous...in the future."

[retrieverchef]

Eliot came by once he could. The nurses' behavior seemed strange. Surely Maximus wasn't threatening them. Not here. The District 3 victor wasn't stupid.

"Hey, man."

[gluteus]

At least this voice he recognized, though Maximus' mood was no less dark than it already had been.

"Eliot," He acknowledged. It wasn't as bad as seeing Wyatt. The shame was still there, the anger and the self-loathing, but it wasn't as sharp as when Wyatt looked at him. This he could deal with.

That didn't mean that he met the man's eyes, however.

[retrieverchef]

"How're ya makin' it, man?" There was no sense of condemnation or scorn in the question, only concern. "The suite's a bit empty these days."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna had been chased out of Sandy's room while the doctors examined her and so Pruna was roaming the hospital. At some point since the attack she had been forcibly bathed and her arm bandaged, she didn't mind the latter- seeing to injuries was just sensible but baths were stupid and time consuming.

She peeked into the rooms as she walked though she had been told firmly not to disturb anyone but when she saw Maximus she glanced around for any nurses and slipped through the door.

It didn't even occur to her that though she knew who Maximus was they had never met and the sight of a small barefooted kid entering his room might be strange for him.

[gluteus]

He didn't even notice her at first - her entrance so quick and quiet and his eyes and his mind firmly elsewhere, tumbling in dark spaces he'd managed to escape months ago - now returned with a force.

It wasn't until he caught movement out of the corner of his eye that he realised anyone else was there at all - and he stiffened abruptly. He only relaxed when he noticed just how young his visitor was.

"Are you supposed to be in here?" He growled lowly, though there wasn't enough malice in it to make it threatening.

[knifewithnoname]

She jumped slightly when she was caught, she had thought him asleep and had been concentrating on not getting caught by those outside.

"Yes." She said, instinctively not wanting to get into trouble. Best way to avoid that was act like you were doing exactly what you were meant to.

[celebrityskinned]

Venus gives it a few days. She's in no hurry, and the luxurious life of the Capitol offers plenty of other things to do than go visit one of her competitors in his sickbed.

By the time she reaches the hospital, she's entirely forgotten why she's here. She hates hospitals. They smell like science, like being poked and prodded and shoved into new containment suits.

Furthermore, she never considered that killing someone, or being killed by them, created any sort of bond. Usually, the people she killed were meaningless faces, identifiable only for the outfits they work to mark them as terrorists, as criminals, as monsters and bad guys. She never bothered to learn their names and faces.

Still, she's got nothing if she doesn't have an amazing game face, so she shows up in Maximus' room with a cocky smile and a teddy bear dressed in a gladiator's skirt, with a little plastic sword. "Hey, handsome."

[gluteus]

He was calmer than he had been - they'd brought the leg in once for fitting, he'd seen it, knew it, so though he did not yet have it he at least knew what was in store for him. Of the parade of visitors he'd somehow managed to have, however, this one he had not expected.

He had seem glimpses of her since the arena, but they had not spoken. Even now, even after Javert and Blaine and all the others, he found it strange to talk to ghosts.

She still had her arm, he noted grimly.

"Venus," He said, his voice rough. "I did not expect you."

[celebrityskinned]

"That's my talent, popping up unexpectedly." She stands next to his bedside and perches the little bear on his stomach. "I guess you'll have to be the one to name this little guy. Or girl, I guess. Can girls be gladiators?"

She fidgets a bit, slightly uncomfortable. "You know, when I first blew my arms off if hurt like a bitch."

[pythianjudgment]

Out of all the injuries under her watch, Maximus's was probably the worst. Therefore, it takes her the longest to get around to him--to check up on him after the mission. She's not sure what to say at first as she enters the room, wrinkling her nose at the bitter scent of sterilization and chemicals. She doesn't like these human hospitals very much...

The absence of a hill where his leg should be under the sheets is difficult to miss, even for a blind girl. She tries to tell herself that it was a fair decision--one man's leg in exchange for a kid's life. The choice would have been obvious. But she knows well enough that she wasn't impartial when making that call. There was more than a little selfishness in her thoughts, more than a little bias towards Karkat.

"Hey, Mr. Celebrity," she greets him, like she did before the mission. She tries a smile, but it's a little off-color from her usual grins. "You seem like you're holding up okay. Have they been giving you the five-star service?"

[gluteus]

He glances up but it takes him a minute - he'd been well lost in his own thoughts when she entered. He knew the voice though. Of course he did. Imprinted on his mind now as clear as day. So he let out a hard breath.

"I've not seen a single star," He said, flatly, completely not understanding the reference or the meaning. But they hadn't lain him near enough a window to see the sky.

[sleeplessinalternia]

Late in the day, Karkat shuffles in carrying what looks like a human leg made out of chocolate and a doll-sized replica of Maximus made of flowers. "I asked my mentor what humans here would do when visiting injured people," he explains.

(Thanks a lot, Adelaide.)

[gluteus]

Maximus stiffened slightly when the boy entered. He pulled himself upright as well as he could, shifting his leg tighter against him as if to hide it, clearing his throat. He looked at the gifts warily and then turned his gaze to Karkat, quickly looking him over.

He'd been told, of course, that Karkat was alright. That he'd done his duty and the boy was safe. But it was one thing to hear it, and another thing to know it, so upon seeing him a knot of anxiety that was left from the previous night finally released.

"Their culture is as far removed from mine as it is from yours," He said, his voice gravel. Why on earth they would think it a good thing to send a replica made of food and a sacrificial votive he had no idea. Perhaps he was being mocked.

"You are unharmed?"

[formersurgeon]

Joan had been engaged with trying to keep another team alive while they were being savaged by an alien, so she didn't hear about what happened to Maximus and his team until she looked up and it was over. What was done was done.

Joan isn't sure that Maximus will even want to see her. They had talked before the mission, she had promised to look out for them...and then she was with another team when they needed her. Joan wouldn't say she feels guilty. She just would understand if Maximus was angry at her.

She goes to see him, though, because it feels like the right thing to do. When she gets to his room, she softly knocks on the open door to alert him to her presence.

[gluteus]

He looks up at the knock and sees Joan and lets out a breath.

"Come in," He said with a nod of his head into the room. He was used to the visitors, by now, and both Terezi and Karkat had already been by, so he was less restless than he was.

He would certainly never think to blame her for anything.

[shambler]

Poking his head in, R was struck by how Maximus looked in the bed. (He was hesitant to say it, but he was having flashbacks to Aunamee, looking shrunken against the sheets).

"Can...come in?" R asked from the door.

He could see the spot on the bed where the sheets should've risen - instead there was a spot where it was flat, right where there should've been a leg. He'd seen amputations before. He'd just...never seen clean ones. Or one in a hospital setting. It was a little spooky how clean it was, from the non-smell to the fact that if it wasn't for the clenching of Maximus's jaw, he'd forget he was in pain. There was a distinct law of blood and screaming and zombies gnawing at the stump.

He hadn't brought flowers this time. After Aunamee, he wondered if bringing flowers might be a bad idea and besides - Maximus didn't strike him as the flower kind of guy.

[gluteus]

Maximus was sitting up, head bowed on his chest, deep in thought when the grunt came from the door. He looked up to see the zombie, and let out a breath.

"Enter, R." He frowned at him. "I'm afraid your training will have to be postponed."

[marcato]

Aunamee was not used to disorientation. In the monstrous city of Panem, months after a death that had felt so final, disorientation was an iron blanket draped over his shoulders. His thoughts were clear, but only because everything else in the world was slow like molasses. His emotions were hollow, cheap imitations of what they once were. His eyes were practically glowing with harsh red veins.

"Old friend."

He stood motionless at the doorway. In his right hand, he teased a pair of cherries he took from the dining hall, rolling them this way, that way, catching the stems between his fingers.

"You don't look very well."

[gluteus]

Maximus froze at the voice. He hadn't been looking at the door, hadn't been expecting anyone else (but then, he kept not expecting people and they kept coming). Of all they people he could expect, however, this...

This was not one of them.

"Aunamee." He said the name with a gravelly bite. Wyatt had killed him. He hadn't seen it happen, of course, but he knew. Knew better than to ask Wyatt the details. Wyatt had killed him, and Aunamee had not returned - one of the few measures of peace his friend had.

Erased.

"You were dead," He said bluntly.