No, that's my reading too! It's wildly out of character for Maximian. (Or at least, you know, my reading of same.) But the POINT is that SOMEONE wrote ME, a Diocletian/Maximian shipper, that exchange, and it's been giving me FEELS all week. !!! I don't know who would know me so well, but we'll find out soon and be very surprised. :P
Much of the reason it's giving me so many feels is that I always *wanted* them to retire together, and sometimes I would go off and imagine that they did. And now that line has given my imagination full rein and it's galloping off.
I actually always imagined historical Diocletian might have been down for it and that it was Maximian who was extremely not interested. Which is entirely consistent with this fic, and, you know, now that I think about it, the fact that Diocletian falls for it here (assuming our reading is correct)...he wants to believe. More awwww!
Ah, wait, now that I reread my AO3 comment, I see what you mean: I wrote, "Maximian breaking out the Diocles name of their youth." Okay, this is where I have to explain how I write comments: for the same reason I can't write summaries (same cognitive process, same brain noping out), comments are excruciating unless I liveblog my reactions as I go. Normally I just paste the liveblog reaction into the box and that is my comment, but this time I decided to try cobbling together the reactions into something resembling a normal-person comment. (ETA: This is also how the Prussian Doll comment got written, if anyone is wondering.) So yes, when I hit the "Diocles" line, I had not yet gotten to the part that I feel is OOC, and so I attributed "Diocles" to Maximian. And that part is entirely in-character, I maintain. :P It had never actually occurred to me Maximian might do that, but now I totally think he did, in the same way that I think we can all agree Fredersdorf sometimes called Fritz "Fritz". <3
But of course I suppose they were only writing what he was thinking anyway, which is why it worked!
ETA: Honestly, my take, now that I've given it more thought (previously I stopped at, no, Maximian would never), is that they were writing what *Diocletian* was thinking, which is why it worked. Here's my take:
Diocles
As noted, I totes think this is in-character and probably got Diocletian in the right mood to hear what he wanted to hear.
remember when it was just the two of us, being no names under Aurelian? Those were the days.
I mean, not that Maximian can't have complex feelings, and maybe that's what our mystery author intended? But it strikes me as more plausible for Diocletian, the voluntarily retired and exhausted by years of stress, than Maximian the power-at-all-costs. I have a hard time buying this, and I think it says a lot about Diocletian that he did.
Look, maybe I overreacted to certain things
Again, not that Maximian can't ever apologize, so this could be what he's thinking, buuuuut...Who really wants to hear this?
but it comes down to the subject line. I do. I really do.
Well, *I* like to think this is true, and I hope it is, but not as much as Diocletian would like to think it's true. :P
When you said we’d retire together, I thought you meant TOGETHER.
So, upon reflection, I love the idea that this may have been how Maximian got talked into retirement in the first place, and then when he realized that wasn't going to be the case, he went, "Well, fuck this!" and decided there was no reason to be retired at all. And I could see the two of them not communicating this at aaallll. BOYS!
But my first reading was Diocletian silently hoping that Maximian would be more interested in hanging out, and Maximian being totally unable to tolerate retirement and being solely interested in getting back in power, and Diocletian being silently disappointed. And then he's so relieved to get the message that Maximian does actually miss him, that he doesn't question the "those were the days" line. (I think the Diocletian who bought "those were the days" from Maximian is the same Diocletian who let Galerius make the succession arrangements, i.e. no one can be "on" all the time. :P)
But either way, for this exchange to work at all, they have to have had the kind of relationship where one, it would be plausible for Maximian to want to continue a personal relationship after retiring, and two, Diocletian would want to hear it. Which is giving me more traditional shippy feelings, because let's just say that for all I miss working under Best Boss Ever (the one now at Facebook), and I want him to found a company so I can work with him again, we are not going to have an exchange like this, not even if someone hacks our emails. ;)
Re: Diocletian/Maximian fandom primer
Much of the reason it's giving me so many feels is that I always *wanted* them to retire together, and sometimes I would go off and imagine that they did. And now that line has given my imagination full rein and it's galloping off.
I actually always imagined historical Diocletian might have been down for it and that it was Maximian who was extremely not interested. Which is entirely consistent with this fic, and, you know, now that I think about it, the fact that Diocletian falls for it here (assuming our reading is correct)...he wants to believe. More awwww!
Ah, wait, now that I reread my AO3 comment, I see what you mean: I wrote, "Maximian breaking out the Diocles name of their youth." Okay, this is where I have to explain how I write comments: for the same reason I can't write summaries (same cognitive process, same brain noping out), comments are excruciating unless I liveblog my reactions as I go. Normally I just paste the liveblog reaction into the box and that is my comment, but this time I decided to try cobbling together the reactions into something resembling a normal-person comment. (ETA: This is also how the Prussian Doll comment got written, if anyone is wondering.) So yes, when I hit the "Diocles" line, I had not yet gotten to the part that I feel is OOC, and so I attributed "Diocles" to Maximian. And that part is entirely in-character, I maintain. :P It had never actually occurred to me Maximian might do that, but now I totally think he did, in the same way that I think we can all agree Fredersdorf sometimes called Fritz "Fritz". <3
But of course I suppose they were only writing what he was thinking anyway, which is why it worked!
ETA: Honestly, my take, now that I've given it more thought (previously I stopped at, no, Maximian would never), is that they were writing what *Diocletian* was thinking, which is why it worked. Here's my take:
Diocles
As noted, I totes think this is in-character and probably got Diocletian in the right mood to hear what he wanted to hear.
remember when it was just the two of us, being no names under Aurelian? Those were the days.
I mean, not that Maximian can't have complex feelings, and maybe that's what our mystery author intended? But it strikes me as more plausible for Diocletian, the voluntarily retired and exhausted by years of stress, than Maximian the power-at-all-costs. I have a hard time buying this, and I think it says a lot about Diocletian that he did.
Look, maybe I overreacted to certain things
Again, not that Maximian can't ever apologize, so this could be what he's thinking, buuuuut...Who really wants to hear this?
but it comes down to the subject line. I do. I really do.
Well, *I* like to think this is true, and I hope it is, but not as much as Diocletian would like to think it's true. :P
When you said we’d retire together, I thought you meant TOGETHER.
So, upon reflection, I love the idea that this may have been how Maximian got talked into retirement in the first place, and then when he realized that wasn't going to be the case, he went, "Well, fuck this!" and decided there was no reason to be retired at all. And I could see the two of them not communicating this at aaallll. BOYS!
But my first reading was Diocletian silently hoping that Maximian would be more interested in hanging out, and Maximian being totally unable to tolerate retirement and being solely interested in getting back in power, and Diocletian being silently disappointed. And then he's so relieved to get the message that Maximian does actually miss him, that he doesn't question the "those were the days" line. (I think the Diocletian who bought "those were the days" from Maximian is the same Diocletian who let Galerius make the succession arrangements, i.e. no one can be "on" all the time. :P)
But either way, for this exchange to work at all, they have to have had the kind of relationship where one, it would be plausible for Maximian to want to continue a personal relationship after retiring, and two, Diocletian would want to hear it. Which is giving me more traditional shippy feelings, because let's just say that for all I miss working under Best Boss Ever (the one now at Facebook), and I want him to found a company so I can work with him again, we are not going to have an exchange like this, not even if someone hacks our emails. ;)