I was expecting slashy. Well. Bit disappointed there wasn't. Thought the shower scene was cute. Anyways. What a great story. Very pleased.

This is an amazing story, it's filled with beauty and ugliness, the best and worst of what humans can do to one another. It makes you cry and laugh and just feel.

Society tends to shy away from, or deliberately ignore, the fact that males can be victims of sexual assault in all of its hideous forms. And that infuriates me to no end. You show here that both sexes can be, and are, victims of such evil. Here we see this boy, presumably there are others we don't see, who is used basically as a breeding machine, forced to have sex, (with both partners unwilling), to produce healthy children to keep the flawed machine running. The scenes were painful to read, and I have an aversion to throat cutting, so that scene really gave me chills, but they showed the depth of depravity some people are capable of. The idea of sewing the boy's lips together was especially disturbing, it's just so inhuman. When he's found by Nux and rescued, he only feels safe with his rescuer. Women, especially, unnerve him, because he has no idea if he's hurt any of them in the past and feels overwhelming guilt for something that he had no say in, no choice. Nux, then Capable and the others, help him to regain some of his dignity, his humanity. And then, when he finally feels somewhat safe, his former tormentors kidnap Nux and demand his return for Nux's life. In the end he heroically manages to save both himself and Nux, and win his freedom, and the freedom of many other slaves like him. Given a purpose, a family and hope, his future actually looks fairly bright. Though nothing will ever erase the pain and humiliation he endured for so long, his new life as a War Boy should give him a great deal of pride and confidence he desperately needs. Having him mute, unable to communicate easily with the others, brings home his situation as a total outsider, freed into a world he doesn't understand, unable to make others understand how he truly feels at times. A mute character is difficult to write, I only wrote two stories with mute characters. Scrooloose (yes, the one from Mad Max : Beyond Thunderdome) isn't really hampered by his inability to speak in 'Memories' because there is no dialogue whatsoever, and Thomas from 'Snakehead' has a device that allows him to speak by sensing the movements of his voicebox. But August really can't articulate his feelings to others. The women he was forced to be with, he wants so badly to apologize to them, but he can't, verbally. No doubt they can see it, in his eyes, his body language and his actions, but he still wants to verbalize it.

Nux was wonderful. He's naive at times, but he's not portrayed as a fool. I've said this before to others, Nux isn't stupid, he's just ignorant. No one has taught him anything about the world outside of Joe's toxic theology. He'd likely be considered gifted, or even a a genius, had he been given a good education. He takes to the role of father beautifully, even though he keeps denying it in the beginning. He considers August 'his boy' almost from the moment they meet. It starts as a simple good deed, helping a sick, injured kid, but he just can't turn his back on him. He cares. He worries when he's hurt, and he's willing to die for him. His reaction to August being hurt in the garage was purely parental, his first thought was to keep him safe, away from danger, but he quickly realized his mistake. August wants to be a War Boy, War Boys get hurt sometimes. And he learns to treat August as a man and a fellow War Boy, as well as a son. That grants him a dignity he's never had before, being treated as a man, not a Rutboy.

August was a fine name choice 'Great/Venerable'. I wonder where Nux would have heard that name before. I don't doubt he's been educated quite a bit since Joe died, and Joe himself may have talked about Augustus Caesar. Whatever the case, it's a fine name.

Capable is, of course, sympathetic and loving, but she looks at the world from a different perspective. For most of the story she sees him as a suffering child, which he is, but he's also a man, and needs to be treated as such. She finally sees that, and their bond grows stronger.

The villains have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and such creatures really don't deserve much mention. They deserved to die, and they did. The fact that they died at the hands of the boy they had so badly tortured, raped and otherwise abused was a fitting irony.

The idea of using Nux as a Rutboy was interesting. Nicholas Hoult, and therefore Nux, is about 6'3" tall, well-muscled and incredibly good-looking. It's makes sense that creatures like Marcus would want to breed more like him, or simply to rape him for their own perverted pleasure. Fortunately, a combination of bad blood and a well-timed rescue prevented that from happening.

I apologize for rambling. There's so much to say about this story, and so few words. I loved this when I read it on Archive of Our Own, though I couldn't comment, not being a member, and was happy to find it here as well. It's incredibly well-done, gripping and moving. You are a true storyteller.

Love reading this despite the dark stuff. Keep up the good job. :3

Aww that was so sweet! Loved the last chapter the most, over protective Nux is so cute! Love the story!

I'm literally crying, this has been such a wonderful read for me. I love how you characterized Nux, Capable, and basically everyone. The last chapter really hit it for me, it's exactly how I imagine they would all be like.

I'm such a sucker for happy(?) endings. ;~;

Thank you so much and I hope you continue to write more Mad Max. I'll be lurking around waiting if you do!

Thank you again :}

-Karen

Thank you for completing this. I enjoyed it. Hope you write some more Capable/ Nux soon.

This was a darkfic but I think you did great at displaying humanity and the obstacles they face. This was very realistic in my mind if what can happen.

NO OMG WHAT IS THIS

DONT DO THIS TO NUX

YOURE KILLING ME OMG

Poor boy! ;~;

Your characterization of Nux and his caring demeanor warms my heart. Also, I saw "Nux and Capable's room" and my heart exploded over my OTP LOL.

Can't wait to read more! :)

Oh my, that wasn't what I was expecting. Update soon!

Wow! I love this, to be honest at first I thought Nux was the one being violated. What an exciting story and I can't wait to see what happens next. Poor boy ):

Cant WAIT too see where this goes! please keep making stories and writing, I'm counting on you to get me through this terrible work week.

Very interesting. In a world as messed up and broken as this though definitely not unexpected. I'm interested in seeing this story unfold.

Thank you so much for your stories! I'm sitting here refreshing my pages because I'm so excited for your updates. Thank you!