Maxi

Maxi (マキシ, Makishi) was a mongrel from Ceres, and Norris’s pairing partner. He was a talented, hard-edged junkyard demo man ten years his senior.

## Description

Hard manual labour that is part of Maxi’s job made his rugged exterior something more than mere bodybuilding muscularity.

With his tall, rough and rugged stature and perpetual five o'clock shadow, Maxi cut a strapping figure that suited him well. When it came to what passed for strength and sexual appeal in the slums, his was a coveted package of "maleness" trailing pheromones in his wake - a bad-ass type hauling around his fair share of battle scars.

He was also seen as eccentric by many for his directness and unbending adherence to principals.

## Maxi and Norris

Maxi was a decade older than Norris which was a pretty big gap considering the culture of Ceres. They had been sex friends for a number of years and the mere fact that they had been seeing each other for so long was proof that there was more to it than just sex.

Although the physical differences between Maxi and other men could probably overwhelm most potential lovers, Norris seemed unbothered. They also seemed to get along in bed as well.

Due to his success, there was no shortage of those who would be willing to take him on, not as a mere sex friend but with the intent of "marrying into money”, but Maxi seemed seriously interested only in Norris. In fact, he was very much in love with him and had been considering pairing up for real for a while.

Maxi would have been willing to give and take as long as things stayed the way they had been since Bison had retired from the scene, but after Riki’s return, and especially after the Jeeks incident, the slums were astir with the rumors of Bison’s resurrection. Although the gang itself paid no heed to these, Norris, who had been cooling off and settling down, now seemed to be slipping back into his old ways.

The way Maxi saw things—since he wanted to settle down and get serious with Norris—it presented a reality he couldn't ignore. It made him uneasy.

When he finally asked Norris to pair up, it was under the condition he cut ties with the rest of Bison. He wanted to determine what Bison meant to Norris—or, rather, whether Norris valued his own existence over Bison. While he wanted Norris to make a choice, he wasn't pressing him to come to a decision, and wasn't imposing his feelings on him. He intended to respect Norris's own thoughts about the matter right up to the end. After all, pairing up was not something taken lightly, but choosing was nothing without being chosen, and Maxi needed to know where he stands.

However, with Riki’s second disappearance, and any prospects of Bison reactivating gone, most of these concerns went away on their own, and Norris became his pairing partner while continuing his close bond with the remaining members of Bison.

## Job and Workshop

Maxi was a mechanical genius who had his own junkyard scrap shop in the suburbs of Ceres. Heaps of rare and top-flight parts lay about everywhere in the shop. He had the skills and when he took on a job, he did it right. He repaired, maintained, and kept in stock whatever was usable. Whatever could be recycled was sent on, and the waste crushed and disposed of. He could take anything apart, including the stuff a person didn't come by legally.

The junkman was self-made and self-reliant. He belonged to that small group of real winners in the slums. Maxi was a one-man band with one song in the repertoire but it paid off and he was never short for cash.

He was the kind of man who didn't have the time to play the field, and instead, stayed holed up in his workplace with something to keep his hands busy. That being said, many went trolling for him, wanting to pair up for the money alone, with no success.

Maxie drew a very thick line between business and pleasure. He made no exceptions, not even for Norris, despite his feelings. But in truth, Norris was infatuated with this hard-edged all-business side of Maxie, though he would rather die than admit as much.

After Riki’s disappearance and Bison’s dissolution, Maxi set the remaining members up with a side job at his workshop. The former Bison members hung out in his tuning shop, customising air bikes. They took a hiatus from working there once they got wind of Riki living in Apathia, so they could track him more efficiently.