Maximum: Origins. Thank You

It’s been a long road, getting from there to here.

When I started writing Maximum, I began it as a project just for me. For five months in 2023, I did almost nothing else but write this story. I never expected anyone but me to see it. But after the success of Shota Quest, I decided to share it. It was scary to put such a raw, personal, flawed, taboo story out there. But it’s been an incredible, educational and rewarding experience.

Maximum is, in many ways, allegorical to my own life. From a young age my family's welfare depended on me. I had to grow up much faster than my peers. My mother required far too much of me, only to eventually disown me. From losing my childhood home, to spending time homeless and searching for acceptance... A lot of personal experiences went into the story of Maximum. Among those experiences was grappling with sexuality and being fetishized as a black man. While some find it degrading, I found it empowering and sought to express that empowerment in this literary work.

From this quagmire of emotion and trauma,Tyler Max was born. A shota hentai protagonist with all the BBC tropes under his belt, but with a unique twist. I wanted Maximum to tell the story of a character who fit the Blacked mold, but who would also break it. And so I told a story about a hung black bull with intelligence and empathy, with personality and humanity.

At the same time, I wanted to tell my own take on a superhero story, while focusing on a character with no powers at all. My questions were two fold: what did an unpowered person have to offer to a powered one? And, what if the greatest superpower was just being kind?

Some readers will be blinded by the story's Raceplay and NTR tropes. But beneath these facets, I believe that my guiding query rings true with an answer. Tyler's greatest power is being kind. He is kind to beings of unfathomable power, who just need someone to care about their hearts. Even once empowered, he doesn't lose his temper, fly off the handle or become a bully. Because not all kids do. Even when they are at the top of their game, with all the praise, accolades and responsibility in the world, some kids still try to be kind.

Tyler is far from perfect, as the NTR tropes display. As in any great epic, the protagonist of one person's story is the antagonist of another. And as a whole, Maximum: Origins is far from a perfect literary work. But it was perfect for me. In many ways, it is my magnum opus. The perfect distillation of the ugliness, struggle, beauty and joy within the bitter mote of my mortal soul. To me it is perfect in its imperfection, and I loved every minute of writing it.

Maximum: Origins completes its first year run on Archive Of Our Own with over 84,000 hits, 167 bookmarks, 347 kudos and a whopping 804 comments!! I never imagined such a large audience, nor such a rousing success.

I appreciate each and every one of you who’ve been with me on this journey. From the lurkers to the commenters, from the bookmarkers to the critics. You have made this well worth the effort and I look forward to continuing to share my art with all of you.

So from the bottom of my heart,

With Maximum courage and Maximum love…

Thank you.