#if this doesnt make sense shut up! its late im tired i speedran this intro

[reblrths]

𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝙱𝙾𝙳𝚈 𝚆𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙴𝚁𝚂 what it would be like to love you. maxim crane, capitolite.

➶ i recognize that face ! that’s maxim crane, the twenty-eight year old producer/caesar flickerman's co-host from the capitol they’ve been in the capitol around twenty eight years, long enough to gain a reputation for being so debonair & hedonistic. they’re so lucky getting to live in the tribute center for the duration of the games! ( character isn't part of the uprising )

BASICS.

name: maxim crane

age: twenty-eight

gender / pronouns: cis male, he/him

orientation: bisexual

home: capitol

countenance: eight diamonds embedded into skin, four underneath each collarbone; golden body art on arms; three flogging lashes on back

faceclaim: evan roderick

BIOGRAPHY.

the capitol has no shortage of beautiful faces, and you are one more added to the mix. the youngest of three, son to one of the most influential men in the capitol -- the name crane has always been well known. you live most of your life ignorant to the horrors of the world as most capitol residents do. where there are some starving and doing hard labor just to receive scraps, you argue with your siblings over who stole whose shirt and dare to worry about which colors might make your skin look too washed out.

you aren't sure at what age you begin to see it though, but it creeps in over the years just the same. you follow your father around with augustus and learn the ins and outs of his company, but it's clear the only reason you are there is because you are the backup should something happen to your brother. your father doesn't seem as worried about you knowing these things as he is augustus, and he writes livinia off entirely, your mother too worried about finding her someone nice and rich to marry even though you know your sister detests it. and yet despite it, you end up coming to this conclusion: mother and father have expectations for them, their chosen children. augustus and livinia's lives are set up and their destinations are clear. what destination is set for you?

you find yourself lacking. you wander adrift with seemingly no purpose, no real attention from your parents aside from when they require the three of you for things. your troublesome and attention-craving attitude is a nuisance at best, ignored at worst. the one person that sees through it all is cousin seneca -- he was closer to you and your siblings than your own father was, and somehow managed to give each one of you the exact thing you'd been missing in your life. for you, it was the attention you missed and the reassurance that you did not need to have your life set out for you at birth to have purpose.

when he was suddenly gone after the 74th hunger games, you could tell your siblings were just as hurt but it somehow drove the three of you further apart than you already were. through your teens, you heed seneca's advice quietly and feel like a traitor each time you do -- you aren't to even utter the man's name yet his voice rings as clear to you as it was on the day he'd said it. you can make a name for yourself, create your own path in this life -- and so you do.

you demand a position within your father's company, and are shocked when he agrees. perhaps he sees something in you. bold, charming, persuasive, you've made it clear how easily socializing is for you and he knows how valuable you could be to this company. by how easily he relents, you have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps he's playing you for a fool. you're proved right when you are not given the title right below augustus, but made a producer in the televisions department. it feels like a slap to the face, a clear show at how he does not think you to be able to handle this, that you will never be the face of this company. so you become the face of something else -- somehow, through sheer willpower and absolute determination to make these people take you seriously, make your way from behind the screen to in front of it, right there next to caesar flickerman himself.

your reputation grows quickly and messily. the charming golden boy persona who sits next to the very host everyone adores, you quickly become adored just the same. you thrive off of the attention, between being the loudest one in the room, demanding to be looked at, bold clothing and makeup, the flashiest jewelry -- rings adorning each finger, earrings hanging low to your shoulder, even styling your body and altering it designed to turn heads; an even bolder personality, you succeed in receiving that attention you so craved. a string of lost lovers, lavish parties hosted (because if there's one thing capitolites love more than the hunger games, it's a festivity), some ending with waking up in strange environments and no recollection of the night before. they love you, though, oh, they love you. they see your blinding smiles and lap up your charm and endearing playfulness like it's a lifeline. you don’t get the warmth or safety you desire from others, so you create it yourself, a walking invitation for anyone that wants it. that is the attention you begin to thrive off of-- these people you don’t know, the lingering stares and backroom lovers, the sycophancy of it all, in the hopes that it makes up for what you lack where it counts. it never does quite work out the way you want it to, though.

as you surround yourself with these people clawing and nipping at your heels, even then you struggle to admit how lonely it is. perhaps that is why your bed is always fresh with the warmth of another, why you surround yourself with noise so you aren’t reminded of the simple fact that you are, and have been for years, alone. you hide it well, a little too well. a little too much, that’s what you are, but you've known that from the moment you saw how easily the capitol's people's love was won over and the lengths you would go to to have it. a selfish part of you cannot fathom not having it. who are you without the validation of these strangers? you want to please these people, but you suspect that you have crafted your careless and cocky façade a little too strongly. try as you might not to at one point, you care too much.

you promote the games each year, commentary next to caesar, and continue to do exactly what you're expected to on screen. you watch children die and celebrate the victories and each year becomes a little more tense. it's clear that you are still looked down upon by your father. you are the pretty face next to caesar, never taken seriously, as if your messy behavior would warrant any sort of trust. caesar is the face, you are the spare. always the spare.

when you defy them, there is no room for excuses. you realize then just how closely they've been keeping an eye on the crane family, ever since seneca was disposed of -- maybe that's even why they've had you in the public eye for so long, waiting for a slip up, and between the three crane children, you were the one most likely to do just that. all these years, all that effort -- maybe that purpose you thought you'd found has been fake all along.

you hadn't meant to be seen as defying -- you went off script. that's all you did, though now you have three lashes on your back to remind you not to do it again. you know it's more than the script, it's the fact that you briefly mentioned seneca that did it. an accident, a slip up. no one knew your cousin's fate, and the look caesar gave you as it broadcasted live across the country told you everything you needed to know -- punishment was soon to follow.

after that, the gravity of things weighs on you. though the public does not know how grave a mistake you made on tv that day, a clip buried as much as they could, reputations go relatively unscathed but you have sealed your fate indefinitely -- you continue to try to prove yourself as a valuable asset to the company, walking a thin line. there is no room for a mistake to be made, even as the signs of how wrong the capitol is have begun to place in your head. a pretty face for the capitol is all you will be, so long as your father and president snow have anything to do about it.

PINTEREST | SPOTIFY

WANTED CONNECTIONS

any type of lovers: maxim is a slut ok. any sort of affairs I'm down with and so is he.

fre/enemies: though beloved by the captiol, there's gotta be people that do not buy into his golden boy peacock persona. he's annoying and loud. hate him pls.

found family: he SCREAMS found family ok ! he puts on a pretty front but this man is full of crippling self doubt and self hatred! LOVE HIM PLS.