Maximon Sciuridae/Relationships

Overview

**Relationships**

## Taraxacum Residents

### Caligo Diruyo

Maximon met Caligo when he first arrived at Taraxacum, and instantly singled him out as the most yielding and pliable member of the village. While he met resistance from Vivian and Niloago, Caligo would dote on him and fulfill his whims. Thus, Caligo quickly became his right-hand man. Although perhaps *babysitter* would be a better word. Caligo balanced out Max's bluntless, impulsiveness, and rashness. It seems Max took great enjoyment in having someone to boss around. He insisted on being incredibly condescending, refusing to call Caligo by his real name. He opted instead for nicknames such as "Carl", "Cash", or "Kale". They argued almost constantly over small things, however, Max genuinely grew to think of Caligo as his dearest friend. They bonded over their losses (hence the Murdered Sibling Club), and Max believed that Caligo would always be there for him.

Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before Caligo grew dissatisfied with his role and Max's corrupt nature and decided to run for presidency himself. Max felt deeply betrayed by Caligo's decision- even more so when Caligo wound up winning the election. Max felt as if he had done a wonderful job as President, and suddenly he felt unwanted and unappreciated by Caligo. Thus, he left in the night, moving out to the Crime Shack.

It's evident the two did still consider each other friends, though, and made an effort to be friends even after their falling out. Caligo brought Max coffee and cookies from the shack, and before long Max agreed to work part-time at Taraxacum as the vice president. However, it seemed the betrayal still stung, driving Max to grow more obsessive and possessive over his friends. His drive to keep people close to him festered and grew.

When Max began to see Sunny as a threat to everyone he held close, tensions rose between Max and Caligo once more. Max felt as if Caligo was "blinded by his bias", and that the only way to protect him was to eliminate Sunny. The two had several arguments and physical fights regarding this topic, and Caligo described Max as "crazy". Despite this, their friendship still endured- Caligo seemed hesitant to harm Max even though he was a threat to Sunny, and they still worked alongside each other as President and VP.

The true breaking point of their friendship was when Max took action on his impulses. He drugged Caligo and locked him away so he was free to hunt Sunny down. Even during this time, Caligo seemed to have a certain amount of trust in Max, attempting to talk him down and play into his delusions. Upon realizing no such negotiation was possible, Caligo declared: "I can't believe I ever considered you a friend." This cut Max deep, considering he believed he was only doing this to protect Caligo. This only made him angrier, and he maliciously murdered Sunny right before Caligo's eyes. His view of Caligo changed completely, believing that he was just ungrateful, power hungry, and cruel. He felt as if he'd given Caligo everything, and yet Caligo was still dissatisfied with it.

As Iniko, Max took great enjoyment in making Caligo's life hard and causing him trouble. He stole Caligo's stock of alcohol alongside Miya and sent the Elesett after him. This resentment was what got him killed in the end- it made him reckless, and he revealed his identity to Priya whilst torturing her for her associations with Caligo.

Caligo was there with Ormr when Max died. It's possible that part of the reason Max clung to life for so long was simply to spite Caligo, unwilling to break in front of his former friend. He died with a true hatred and resentment for Caligo, as Caligo represented everyone he believed abandoned him.

### Marnina Astraea

Initially, Max's goal in coming to Taraxacum was to investigate Sadie's death and bring justice to the murderer. Upon their first meeting, though, it became evident that Max had mixed feelings about Sadie's murder. Part of him felt it was only right to kill Marnina for what she'd done, and yet another part of him was almost grateful. However, Caligo encouraged revenge, so he doubled down on his efforts and gathered a search party to hunt her down. After the failure of this mission, though, it seemed the wind was taken out of his sail completely. On the basis of mutual curiosity, they spoke with each other, and across a series of conversations he opened up to her and offered him good advice. He grew to admire and adore her as one of his closest friends, especially after she saved his life. He promised to her that he would never be like Sadie, and she offered him a seaglass necklace which he wore constantly. He considered her to be akin to an older sister, and he was like a little brother to her. Although, he never felt as if he truly knew her.

News of her death crushed him, and he could be seen planting flowers in front of her house and viciously protecting it. He warded newcomers away from the home, ensuring that it remained vacant. Her disappearance added more fuel to his fire of overprotectiveness and possessiveness. In her absence, his promise to her faded away. She seemed disappointed in him upon her return, and would have killed him if it weren't for the conversations she had in limbo with Delilah about him. Instead, she merely left him with a scar along his arm to match Sadie, a permeant reminder of the promise he had broken. Should Marnina have returned sooner, perhaps Sunny would have lived- Marnina was likely the only one who could have offered him clarity and swayed him.

As Iniko, Max resented Marnina and enjoyed causing trouble for her. However, his hatred for her was much less than what he felt for Caligo. He mourned their friendship more genuinely, and she was the only one that made him wonder whether or not his decision truly was the right one.

### Sunny Acacallis

As Marnina went missing, Cypress left to live with his father, and Josie prepared for war, Max became incredibly frustrated with being unable to protect those he cared about. Feeling useless and helpless became unbearable. He needed someone to pin the blame on, someone to hurt. In all honesty, Max didn't have any personal strife with Sunny. She was simply the easiest target. All of his frustrations manifested, and she had the misfortune of being the subject of his wrath.

*He was doing something! This would protect everyone and everything he held close! This was justice for Caligo, justice for Sadie, justice for the countless innocents Sunny had hurt. It was refreshing, exhilarating, EXCITING.*

Max didn't regret what he did, and he felt he was completely justified in the murder.

## Family

### Delilah Sciuridae

Delilah was a great mother to Max as he grew up, and he loved her deeply. They can be seen baking cookies and doing crafts together when Max was young, and her premature death broke both Sadie and Max. This is, perhaps, the beginning of Max's fear of abandonment and losing those close to him.

### Ivan Sciuridae

Ivan is notoriously bad at expressing his emotions, so when Max told him about Sadie's death, he came off as unfeeling and uncaring. Max felt as if Ivan didn't truly care about him, so when he left home, he made no effort to reconnect. He felt abandoned and hurt. Eventually, Josie forced them to come into contact again and Max was caught off guard by how much Ivan seemed to genuinely miss him. They began rebuilding their relationship, and Ivan came to Taraxacum with Max. Max felt in a good place with his father- he knew he cared about Ivan, and that Ivan cared about him. They were the only kin they had left.

Thus, as Iniko, Max decided to reveal his identity to his father. Things soured when Ivan attacked him. Unknown to Max, after Sunny's murder, Ivan saw his son in a different light. He saw Max as dangerous and unhinged, so different from the son he had once raised, and even participated in hunting him down with Marnina and Caligo. Unable to control his new ability- blackwhip- Max wound up winning the altercation and murdering Ivan. However, he didn't mourn what he'd done, feeling it was justified and as if he should have expected it. Even if he did have a limbo, Max likely wouldn't visit his father.

### Sadie Sciuridae

Max's relationship with Sadie went the way most of Sadie's relationships went. They were once close- closer than close- until they weren't. In the beginning, they did everything together: causing havoc in Torridus, stargazing, teasing one another. They sparred in the living room of their childhood home. They had the same friends, the same enemies.

When Delilah died, Max comforted Sadie. She cried into his shoulder, and they mourned together for a mere afternoon. However, when she was able to breathe again, she took her crossbow and left. The grief drove her to abandon everything, including Max. Not a day went by that he didn't resent her for that. He only got the occasional letter to assure him that she was alive, but he never got a return address.

It seems Max had extremely conflicting feelings about Sadie. He strove to be different from her and grew to understand that he didn't owe her anything. He felt as if her actions were wrong, and that she was a bad person. On the other hand, it was evident that he missed her and mourned her deeply. He was distraught to discover that she had her soul shredded in limbo. He grew an oak tree in her memory and held a makeshift funeral with Josie and Marnina for her. He regrets never getting closure on their relationship.

## Divine

### Josie Aster

When Max first met Josie, he had no idea how important she would grow to be to him. However, he quickly grew to idolize her. Her intelligence and astounding fighting abilities left him starry-eyed. He felt grateful that the god of death spared time for him, and even protected him. She was, by far, the coolest person he could imagine. And while she often seemed rather annoyed by his company in the beginning, Max was persistent. From growing up with Sadie, Max was used to seeing people's actions and not their words to discern how they truly felt. This gave Max had the ability to ignore Josie's sharp demeanor and continue attempting a friendship with her, sensing more beneath the surface. The more time they spent together, the more each of them opened up and he began to see small pieces of himself in her. For example, for all his life, he'd worried that other people would abandon him. However, Josie was the first person to seem to reciprocate that concern and prioritize loyalty as much as he did. Early on, he decided to dedicate himself to helping and protecting her along with his other friends.

This led to him trying to kidnap Jessie in a desperate attempt to force Vyn to have a relationship with Josie. This plan horribly backfired, and only ended up in Josie saving Max's life once more. He grew to resent Vyn with a burning passion, frustrated with how he took Josie for granted while Max believed she deserved the world.

It didn't take long before Max realized that what he felt for Josie delved far beyond platonic. His hopeless romantic tendencies had struck again. Initially, he supported Josie and Srijan's relationship and was happy that they had each other, so Max regretted his growing feelings for Josie, knowing it was only going to hurt him. He resigned himself to keep it quiet and keep it as a dream.

When Max's support group began dwindling, Josie was the only one that stayed. After the murders of Sunny and Ivan, she was all he had left. He felt that she was the only one that truly understood him, and she was the only one he could trust. It was then that Max embraced his feelings for Josie and poured all of his devotion into her. The fact was, he fallen madly, obsessively in love with her, and that meant he was willing to do *anything* it took to support her. Even as his life crumbled around him, he felt that "As long as the one and only Josephine Roka was by his side, everything was right in his world."

As Iniko, Max joined the Elesett and surrounded himself with likeminded people, garnering the manpower to further serve and support Josie. He viciously went after anyone or anything he perceived to be a threat to her. Meanwhile, he also grew to resent Srijan upon realizing how badly he treated her, even going as far to poison him. As Max grew more and more unstable, only one thing remained the same- his devotion to Josie. He convinced himself that he was her one and only, and lived for the small pieces of bliss he felt around her.

Max only feared death because he feared leaving his soulmate. He already knew she would blame herself for his rash decisions, and death meant failing her. This is likely why he clung to life for so long, enduring extreme torture by Ormr. For days he struggled, in the hopes that he might be able to return to the only person who unconditionally loved him in the end.

### Srijan Aster

Initially, Maximon found Srijan to be an admirable individual. Max aspired to be cool under pressure, and he wanted to be able to disregard other people's opinions and not care what others thought of him. Srijan was the posterchild of these traits, and Max wanted to be just like him, even down to purchasing Hawaiian shirts that fit with his color scheme.

He dreamed of joining Josie and Srijan and assisting them in their endeavors. However, concerned for Max's safety, Josie challenged him to a spar- If Max won, he was allowed to help. If he lost, he had to stay away from Srijan. Naturally, Max lost the spar against the god of death, and he was forced to step back from that goal. However, he still supported Josie and Srijan as a couple and found Srijan to be incredibly cool. Unfortunately, this didn't last for long. As Max grew more and more fond of Josie, he began to resent the way Srijan treated her and made her feel.

These conflicts escalated when Max found out about the war. He perceived it as Srijan sending Josie into danger. At this point, his opinion of Srijan went from relative dislike to active hatred- especially when Srijan refused to offer him a position in the war that could protect Josie. This resulted in a fistfight between the two, and the mutual loathing only intensified as time passed. Max and Josie's progressing relationship tampered with Srijan's life, and he began to detest the mortal, and Max attempted to poison or otherwise harm Srijan on a handful of occasions during his life.