Okay, since the anonymouos period is over I can confess I did start to sweat, Mildred, when your original comments made it sound like you thought it was Maximian who'd written that email, and I thought, argh, how do I tell Mildred her favourite line wasn't from Maximian (though it was definitely what he thought/felt)? So I was pretty relieved to hear otherwise.
Anyway: I figured that modern!Fausta has non lethal options to think of re: solving this conflict (and getting Dad out of her hair because Maximian living with her and Constantine clearly can't have been fun in any version) and that it would be entirely ic for her to forge this mail, and ensure via Theodora that one way or the other, Diocletian replies in kind until the two old guys are back together. As to whether Maximian will stay retired in this AU the second time around, I have no idea, but I'd say the odds are better if he's living with Diocletian than if he's not.
And I would point out that Fritz a) had hobbies that he could have enjoyed in retirement, b) never said, "Remember when Dad was king and I was a nobody? Those were the days." :P It was, "Remember when I had time for all my hobbies? Those were the days."
True enough, but I would point out that sentimentalizing one's youth isn't unheard of, and while Maximian would not want to be some no name soldier from the Balcans serving in the army again in any universe, I could see him being nostalgic about the befriending Diocletian, rising with Dioclectian through the ranks, knowing who the enemies were and getting rid of same, talking with each other about how every Emperor after Aurelian (and before Aurelian) sucked and surely, if those idiots made it to the top a capable man could, too, parts of it.
ETA: Almost forgot: I see your Fritz and raise you a Heinrich writing ever so cryptically he pretends the last twelve years didn't happen to Ferdinand, as on one level, surely Heinrich wouldn't want the time back when he was under Fritz' thumb, and had to beg for permission to travel, but otoh, at least then he had someone to spar with and was occasionally listened to...
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Re: Diocletian/Maximian fandom primer
Date: 2023-01-02 01:34 pm (UTC)Anyway: I figured that modern!Fausta has non lethal options to think of re: solving this conflict (and getting Dad out of her hair because Maximian living with her and Constantine clearly can't have been fun in any version) and that it would be entirely ic for her to forge this mail, and ensure via Theodora that one way or the other, Diocletian replies in kind until the two old guys are back together. As to whether Maximian will stay retired in this AU the second time around, I have no idea, but I'd say the odds are better if he's living with Diocletian than if he's not.
And I would point out that Fritz a) had hobbies that he could have enjoyed in retirement, b) never said, "Remember when Dad was king and I was a nobody? Those were the days." :P It was, "Remember when I had time for all my hobbies? Those were the days."
True enough, but I would point out that sentimentalizing one's youth isn't unheard of, and while Maximian would not want to be some no name soldier from the Balcans serving in the army again in any universe, I could see him being nostalgic about the befriending Diocletian, rising with Dioclectian through the ranks, knowing who the enemies were and getting rid of same, talking with each other about how every Emperor after Aurelian (and before Aurelian) sucked and surely, if those idiots made it to the top a capable man could, too, parts of it.
ETA: Almost forgot: I see your Fritz and raise you a Heinrich writing ever so cryptically he pretends the last twelve years didn't happen to Ferdinand, as on one level, surely Heinrich wouldn't want the time back when he was under Fritz' thumb, and had to beg for permission to travel, but otoh, at least then he had someone to spar with and was occasionally listened to...