(no subject)
Series: Dark Angel
Series' Medium: Television
Character: Max Guevara
Age: Max’s exact age is unknown. However, doing a little math approximates that she must at least be twenty-one-years-old. Although she frequently drinks alcohol on the show and that might mean she’s a little older, the times have changed and the likelihood that anyone pays attention to that is slim. Her approximated age by the authorities is between 19 and 22; given how old she was said to be when she escaped Manticore, I’d say she’s 21 by the end of the series.
Sex/Gender: Female.
Canon Role: Main protagonist and “title” character, so to speak.
"Real" Name: Alex Gadea
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Yes. I know the canon like the back of my hand, from beginning to end. I’ve rewatched it countless times since I was thirteen. Given that I’m twenty-three now, I think that gives a pretty good perspective on it. However, I am not familiar with the novelizations, as they are not explicit canon created by James Cameron himself. As Cameron frequently tends to disassociate himself from things that he himself did not have a hand in, these don’t count as official canon.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Arguably, Max’s history doesn’t start with herself, but with a breeding cult with the belief that they are the superior human. They’ve been around for centuries, creating individuals with enhanced strength, endurance, and speed; they’ve believed for all this time that they would be the ones to inherit the earth, and those left behind would be lost in the darkness. While many of the details behind how or why they might succeed in this are left in the dark, it is known that they put young children through a process of having to overcome a snake’s poison, and if they are strong enough, they are inducted into the cult. Some individuals within this cult show more than endurance, strength, speed, and healing-for example: Max comes across a young boy who’s capable of telekinesis. The only thing that’s known about these abilities is that they exist.
The details are unclear, but a man named Sandeman was a member of this cult, and eventually broke off. He was also one of the leading and developing forces behind Manticore, a US government funded company that would produce genetically enhanced super soldiers, the best of their kind, so that they could be used in warfare, spy plots, and a number of other operations. These soldiers would serve all purposes: some would look like reptiles and work better in desert atmospheres; others would pass as humans and work as the best and most obedient undercover agent they could find. Max is one of the latter, an X-5, a series of genetically enhanced soldiers who, while still a bit flawed, were the best of the line so far.
However, Max’s creation is a bit apart from the norm.
It appears that she’s simply connected to Lydecker, the man who led the program, simply because she bears a striking resemblance to his late wife. Later, it’s revealed that there’s something more-that Max does, in fact, have perfect DNA, and that every strand of her DNA has been created for a reason. She was someone that the Manticore people were looking for, for some reason because she was deeply connected to Sandeman’s involvement with the project before he disappeared. This strange DNA is deeply connected to the fact that she starts having symbols appear on her body, indicating that she will be the one to lead people from darkness. Aside from a sudden psychic glimpse to being able to tell when the cult members are coming, this isn’t developed in depth because of the show’s untimely cancelation.
It’s a given that Max was created for a purpose different from all the other Manticore children-as a clear deliverer because of her perfect DNA. But her upbringing in the institute was mostly no different from the other children’s. Like the others, she was a product, birthed and delivered and sealed with a number on the back of her neck in the form of a barcode. They seemingly had no purpose beyond these descriptors to the people who handled them. She was trained and drilled with information, told over and over why it was important to be obedient, why she had to listen, why she had to follow along. The curious part was that Max did a good job in all these areas, and was even afraid of messing up, of experiencing the unfortunate seizures that were a side effect of a flaw in their DNA, and she didn’t seem to step out of line when necessary. She killed when they asked, even if she hated it, and she continued forward. All of these things resonated within her, but as a young, trapped soldier, she didn’t let herself fall out of line.
The most curious part of Max in her youth was her connection to the other children around her. When she speaks about Manticore in the most nostalgic way she can manage, it’s obvious that she formed bonds with the others around her. Their stories and way of behaving affected her. Though she was not able to remember Lydecker or Sandeman watching her when she slept at night, she was able to remember their fancies, their ideas, and why she liked them. Even as a child within a place that did not help develop or enforce ideas of family, Max found herself clinging to them like they were her family. Along with her family, she chose a name to separate herself from the barcode on her neck that defined her identity to the military. It was their first rebellion, but certainly not their last.
As far as the military was concerned, however, the worst of these rebellions came in the winter of 2009. Twelve of the genetically engineered kids escaped from Manticore, one after another, and fled out into the world. Max was one of these twelve. Little did they know that their escape would inevitably end up affecting their genetic twins (not literal, but clones of similar DNA) on the inside. The ones remaining would be reconditioned to be more obedient and put through special care to ensure that they would not have the same traits of rebellion running within them. The ones who escaped-Zack, Max, Tinga, Ben, and several others-would live in fear for the rest of their lives, doing what they could to keep themselves from being noticed.
After a sequence of events, Max found herself on the path to Seattle. Her childhood was rough, and it can be surmised that she was taken in several times by different families. One such family had an abusive, alcoholic father, who made a habit of beating his daughter. Max was deeply affected by this, partly because she always had a way of forming bonds with others around her. She found herself unable to fully disconnect from this event, and it would haunt her well into the present. She stayed with this family through the electromagnetic pulse that rocked the United States on June 1, 2009. The pulse itself was set off by terrorists and knocked out and wiped all the information and communication in America. As a result, the United States were thrown into a veritable police state, with a court martial effectively splitting the cities into districts, where people cannot pass through the various sectors without showing off their badges.
It’s not explicitly shown how Max grew up, but from her own assessment of her situation, she presumably grew up hiding a lot, making sure that she wasn’t caught, and she wasn’t very happy. By time she’s nineteen (or estimated to be nineteen), she’s living in Seattle, and one of the first glimpses of her is from a guy’s perspective, and he’s talking about how she tends to bottle up and is more like an ice queen. She doesn’t relate her emotions and she goes cold instead of opening up. Although her best friend, Original Cindy, makes excuses for this behavior, even Max is aware that she has a bit of a problem with wanting to keep from talking to others about herself. And it’s with good reason: after all, her escape from Manticore means that she’s a fugitive, and she needs to be careful.
In order to get by, Max becomes a bit of a survivor. She works in a place called Jam Pony, a delivery service that allows her to have a sector pass which allows her to get around since she lacks an actual identity outside of her barcode (which could get her captured). On the side, she steals from the rich-mostly the ones who seem to have a little too much stuffed into their pockets-and sells off the trinkets so she can pay for rent, buy tryptophan pills to hold off her seizures, and care for her beloved motorcycle. She has friends that she hangs out with, but she moves through life disconnected, through boyfriends and friends without a seeming care. In a way, it’s secure but insecure, and it’s a pattern that she prefers.
All of this changes when she decides to steal from the wrong person. This person is Logan Cale, a former journalist with a fair amount of money because of his family’s wealth that remained from before the Pulse. On the surface, he’s someone who doesn’t have a care in the world, but beneath that, he’s actually a rebel cyber journalist who hacks into people’s feeds as Eyes Only in order to get people’s attentions about the political mayhem that goes on in their world. Max didn’t care about Eyes Only, but she did steal from him. Logan starts looking for her, and eventually finds her at a bar and explains that he knows where she came from. He tricks her into showing him her barcode, and she ends up realizing that he has too much information.
Despite the fact that she doesn’t want to help him because it puts her at risk, she finds herself dragged into his need to save humanity and help other people. But that means that Max gets information in return about her family (the others who escaped with her ten years prior). She’d been working with a detective in order to find out information before, but he wasn’t turning up any information. Before Max agrees to work with Logan, he ends up in an accident that takes his legs. The accident could have been stopped with Max’s assistance, but it wasn’t. Max ends up helping with the case, but Logan’s injury wasn’t something that could be fixed. Either way, Logan keeps going, making it seem as if he is unbothered by what happened.
Through Logan and the detective, Max is able to find information about her family. The first point of information is the woman who picked her up the night she escaped. Max learns from her about her mother and how her mother kept fighting even after Max was born. The woman ends up turning in Max to Manticore, but the two of them escape because she would end up dead along with Max being captured. She gets away with the help of Logan, and she ends up going into hiding across the border. As a result of this, Max finally knows about her mother-knows that she’s someone who kept fighting, and in a way, it makes Max know that she has to keep fighting.
The next trials of Max’s life are not any easier. First, her friends believe that because of her dependency on tryptophan, she’s a drug addict. In an attempt to steal more after they flush hers, she ends up in jail and ends up reliving her time in her youth with the girl Lucy and her family because of a girl the warden has. Max ends up allowing that girl to escape when she does, and it becomes apparent that the most motivating factor for her is children. In the first case with Logan, she acted because there was a child involved in the end, and not because of anything else. Her connection to children and willingness to help them is one of the first signs that she’s not able to disconnect from a situation, but it’s just one of many.
After all, Max is someone who helps. When her friend Sketchy is experiencing problems, she goes out of her way to help him-first against his dominatrix girlfriend and then against these gamblers who expected him to push things and make a delivery, except the delivery itself was lost. She goes in to do what needs to get done. When her old friend and leader-and brother-comes back into town, Max finds herself needing to go out of her way to help him, doing whatever is necessary and then doing what she can to keep him around. The contrast between the two of them is remarkable. Zack is willing to kill and go through any means necessary to keep himself and others safe. He uses guns and anything to his advantage. Max, on the other hand, doesn’t kill, doesn’t do what’s necessary-she doesn’t take survival to the point that another life can be taken, largely because of the fact that killing sickened her when she was a child. That she won’t defend herself in this way frustrates Zack, and it further bothers him because Max won’t leave Seattle. She cares too much about the people there and is too stubborn to live a life on the run. It might not be safe, but it’s what she prefers. Dissatisfied with her lack of security, Zack leaves her, cutting off all contact so she can’t find him easily again.
Once again, Max finds herself in contact with another child, a young boy who’s a prodigy. It’s a given that she goes out of her way to assist him, but she also finds herself crossing paths with Donald Lydecker, the man from Manticore who has been hunting her for some time. She’s capable of getting out from underneath his attention, but it’s a circumstance that she doesn’t wish to repeat. It’s a close call, but she manages to get away.
But all close calls mean that there will always be more. When one of her sisters, Brin, is captured so that she can be sold with Manticore technology to the highest bidder, Max and Zack have to team up again to find her. This involves working with Lydecker. The two of them hurt him during the interrogation process, but Max refuses to kill him in the end. The pair of them use Lydecker’s knowledge to get into the facility that is holding Brin, only to find that she’s dying-rapidly aging, where she wasn’t before. It’s a flaw in her DNA patterns that only the people at Manticore can cure. In the end, Zack and Max agree to send her back to Manticore for a second chance at life. They know it’s a risk, but they don’t want their sister to die.
Their involvement with Lydecker supplies the man the ability to send out wanted posters of Max around Seattle so she can be captured. Realizing that it might be time to finally hop town, Max takes off with Zack to a cabin in preparation for hopping the border. Logan assists them, and before they part ways, Max and Logan share a kiss. The kiss is the culmination of tension that has been between the two of them since their first meeting, and it’s obvious that they care deeply about one another. But this is meant to be a time in which they part ways, so Max leaves the car-and Logan-to spend the night with Zack in the cabin.
A phone call informs Max that things aren’t going so well with Logan the next morning. After an awkwardly shared evening with Zack-where it becomes readily apparent that he has feelings for her beyond that of siblinghood, even if Max herself doesn’t realize it-the two fight and Max takes off to go help Logan. She arrives at the hospital and performs a blood transfusion on Logan to bring him back to health. After several hallucinations, she is woken up, and Logan is better-not awake yet, but better. In order to keep Max from being sent to prison for her wanted posters, Zack comes back and turns himself in for various deaths that were being pinned on Max. Max watches a telecast that reveals that the helicopter holding Zack went down, and says that Zack always said he’d die before he went back to Manticore. She doesn’t seem surprised, but does her best to hold it together in the wake of losing her brother (which is far from a simple feat for someone who cares so much about her family).
For the most part, things seem as if they could hit a point of a norm after that. At least, briefly. Max and Logan attempt to date, but Logan’s too caught up in trying to save the world to have some time for Max. The two of them clash over this, but it’s insignificant on the large scale. Logan continues to have Max help him, and the next big case is one where Max has to protect a witness. While protecting him, Super Soldiers with transplants in their neck come after her, and Max is barely able to get away. She receives some reprieve from this in the form of going to a wedding with Logan, but it’s obvious that her life will never have a series of “normal” events anymore.
The next big trial Max faces involves her best friend, Original Cindy, being captured. Max has to go save her from the aforementioned Super Soldiers, and the only way she’s strong enough to do it is putting their implant that makes them stronger into the back of her neck. It twines around her spine, but she’s able to attack and eventually defeat them in order to save Cindy. This leads to a number of things: her nearly dying with Cindy being the only one who can save her and her finally sincerely letting her close friend know her secret (despite jokingly telling her before, Cindy never believed such an unbelievable story). Glad that she has someone to confide in, this is a bit of a turning point for Max, who finally let someone in on her own. It’s a sign that her walls are starting to come down, even if she doesn’t make the connection herself just yet.
Never without trouble, Max gets contacted by Zack not long after, because it turns out he was alive the entire time. Max and Zack talk while he’s in a drugged state, and he ends up revealing the locations of all the other X-5s who got away that he was watching out for. Logan assists in the situation, and Max keeps Zack alive, preferring to keep him that way than allowing for him to die. With the information sent out that their locations may be compromised, Zack takes off again to help.
As if there wasn’t enough trouble, Max finds herself crossing paths with one of the X-5s, Jace, and learns about how different things were at Manticore after the twelve of them escaped. Jace appears to want some reprieve from Manticore, but it’s because she’s actually with child. She turns in Max, but the two of them end up escaping, with Jace taking advantage of Max’s connections so she can go elsewhere and have her child in peace. The doctor who was assisting the situation is killed as a result of everything. With the doctor dead, new tension erupts between Max and Logan. This is largely because that doctor was supposed to be helping Logan regain the use of his legs. He was starting to have feeling in them again after Max’s enhanced blood assisted him, but things weren’t able to go in that direction because of the death. He nearly commits suicide as a result of this.
Once again, things calm down, with Max and Logan leaving on a case where Max’s seizures become bad and they need to handle things, and Original Cindy’s ex-girlfriend comes into town. As these things are handled successively, it becomes apparent that there’s a serial killer and that they need to be stopped. Max recognizes the serial killer as one of her own siblings, Ben, and after fighting him and struggling, he breaks his leg while Manticore is about to reach them. Fearing for what could be done to him within Manticore, he makes Max do a very difficult thing: he asks her to kill him so he doesn’t have to return. This action is one of the more traumatic things that she’s had to do in her life and she hates it-hates having to snap his neck-and it haunts her well into the future, because the last thing she wanted to do was kill her own brother, regardless of how many lives he took and how broken he truly was. Ben was the one who told stories when they were kids, and believed in the Virgin Mary, but only with his own creation and belief of what needed to be done.
With the burden of having killed her own brother on her shoulders, Max continues on-first to meet a crime fighter who provides Logan with exoskeleton legs that would later allow him to walk-and then on a sequence of events that eventually leads to her sister, Tinga, being captured. Max and Zack bring in the other escaped X-5s in an attempt to save her, but it leads to a rather catastrophic series of events happening: Max gets shot and dies, and Zack shoots himself in order to secure her life with a heart donor.
When Max wakes up, she has a scar across her chest and she realizes she’s trapped within Manticore again. She spends the next few months in misery, forcing herself to eventually be reconditioned to what they want (at least to some extent-they don’t completely change her, she just goes along with things willingly). Underneath her bed in her room, she carefully breaks at a wall so she can eventually secure her freedom. Max ends up meeting her breeding partner because she and the other X-5s destroyed Manticore’s genetic samples. This breeding partner, X-5494, looks exactly like Ben, the one she killed previously. It’s unsettling for her, but he’s nothing like Ben-in fact, he’s a bit of a dick. She ends up naming him Alec, even if he was never fond of the naming thing himself.
With Alec’s “help,” Max ends up escaping from Manticore, but not before they use Max to find out Logan’s identity so that the Manticore people can take down the X-5s. Max also doesn’t know that a biological agent has been injected into her that makes it so that she will kill Logan on contact. Upon arriving in Logan’s living room, she kisses him, and it leads to him nearly dying. Alec shows up and says that she did a good job, and Max returns to Manticore to get the cure. In a panic, the officials there blow up the facility, and in the final moments, Max learns that she’s different-that she’s special, and that she’s the one they’ve been looking for. She’s told to look for Sandeman.
Not wanting to lose the lives of so many trained and brought up there, Max lets all of the genetically engineered people out into the world. It causes a problem, because Max has to end up helping with getting them in order. When Manticore officials start trying to round them up, Max goes to help some of the kids, and gets captured herself. Much to her surprise, Alec comes to save her, though he’s a rather reluctant ally.
So reluctant that he’s a bit selfish. All Max wants to do is return to the status quo of her life, but it’s apparent that’s not going to happen. She can’t have Logan like she wanted for so long, and now there are transgenics, such as the one named Joshua that she’s taken to watching over, running around Seattle. She does her best to help them out, but it’s not always easy. Alec makes things harder by being selfish, by allowing himself to go after transgenics so he can keep himself alive, and Max has to save his ass a couple times. To go along with this, they have a new formidable force to face to replace the old Lydecker problem. This force is a member of the aforementioned breeding cult, but he’s known to the government as Ames White, someone meant to clean up the mess left by Manticore. His first plan is to come up with ways to kill transgenics within a certain radius, and Max has to stop the research he funds before anyone can get hurt.
She struggles a lot at this point-struggles with the battle between trying to help transgenics and separating herself from them. As a result, she finds herself plunged into a variety of circumstances in which she needs to save and protect transgenics. Some are like mermaids with children on the way, others are like Joshua, but vicious and ravenous. As she deals with these, she learns that her brother Zack has been turned into a cyborg and reconditioned to kill Logan because he’s a problem. Realizing that Zack will continue to find himself on this path even if his memory keeps being wiped, she sets him up in a different life. In a lot of ways, Max takes on Zack’s role of the protector of the transgenics, only instead of being someone who watches over just twelve, she looks over hundreds, maybe thousands, who have found themselves out in the world.
While this is going on, she’s learning more about the breeding cult and coming up against them in a number of ways. First, she finds out that Ames White has a son who’s intended to eventually be inducted into the cult, and then she learns that there are a number of them around, ready to attack her at any notice. When she gets shot and lands in the hospital, she’s put under quarantine because of the disease that could infect Logan. Even if it’s a different strand because it only responds to his DNA, the officials at the hospital are unable to tell this and instead see Max as a threat. By now, Max and Logan have given up on their romance because of their continued debacles in trying to help others, but Logan still helps Max so she can escape from the hospital. She barely escapes from her fight there with Ames White with her life.
With a few more moments of needing to help-or, in one or two situations, confront-fellow transgenics, Max finds herself learning more about the breeding cult and finds herself knee-deep in a situation with them. It turns out to induct people into their circle, they poison a young boy. If the boy lives through the night, then he shows the strength and fortitude of the others within the cult. When White’s son is taken in to be put through the process, Max moves to help him, but finds herself poisoned instead. Only … it doesn’t take hold of her or kill her, and instead, she ends up with the snake-shaped scar from the branding tool and none of the side-effects. As this turns out, Ames’ son lives through what could have killed him, and Max gets away. Also, Joshua falls in love with a blind human girl, and when the two of them face exposure, they run off into the sewers. Max goes after them and ends up trying to get them separated so Joshua can escape and the girl-named Annie-can live. However, Ames White finds Annie wandering alone and ends up snapping her neck to make it seem like Joshua proved to be a threat.
This creates a mass hysteria. While there were rumors before about transgenics that were released from a secret government facility, they were finally brought onto the radar of everyone. They were made a reality. In order to ensure that Max got captured within this problem going on, White goes and retrieves Max’s genetic twin, Sam, X5-453, who lacks the same perfect DNA that Max has. It’s unclear about what the difference between the two of them is, and White isn’t able to find it. Sam does everything in her power to find Max and win the fight, because White holds her significant other and his son hostage.
In the end, Max ends up winning and agrees to allow Sam and her family safe passage over the border.
Handling this doesn’t necessarily mean things are solved. Max has to deal with runes turning up on her body in a language that she doesn’t understand. Logan carefully researches these separately to the best of his ability, though it’s obvious that the tension is still between them. She tries to make things easier by lying to him by saying she’s with Alec, but it’s something she doesn’t let Alec know about. At the same time, she’s growing closer with Alec and the other transgenics as they maintain a system of communication within the city. This helps them transport them to an abandoned part of the city that doesn’t affect them called Transgenic City. It’s a former radioactive plant that’s been shut down, and while most people cannot live there, the genetic engineering makes it possible for them to be secure.
A few hints are dropped here and there about Max’s runes, but it’s not made clear until after a hostage situation starts at Max’s work. While transporting a pregnant transgenic and an adolescent boy (who’s also a transgenic), a fight breaks out and they have to seek cover. Alec performs a quick move that makes it look like they’re taking him hostage inside of the work place. Once inside, they take over, but it’s obvious it’s because they have nowhere else to go. Understanding that she’s needed, Max takes a hover drone inside (a device that’s used to monitor the city from above), and ends up crashing the party. She doesn’t hide the fact of what she is, and she takes over.
Logan shows up not too long afterward with information and to help out. He’s walking by this time, and he informs everyone about what the runes mean-that Max is apparently said to be someone who can deliver from darkness. This makes it apparent that everything revolves around Max and that public enemy number one is Max. An argument ensues, but before it can get anywhere, a strange occurrence happens and it looks as if Max is experiencing a psychic connection. This is never fully explained, except that she knows the members of the breeding cult are coming to take over the hostage situation and make it end badly-for everyone involved.
Through a bit of fortitude, the following happens successfully: the transgenic girl delivers her baby, Max ends up leading an assault against the breeding cult and White, and all of the transgenics, give or take a couple who died in the assault, all get away. The detective on the police force informs Max that things are going to be trouble, but instead of making everyone separate, she says that it’s time for them to take a stand.
The series itself ends with Max and the other transgenics standing on the rooftop in terminal city with the flag that Joshua created waving over their heads. It’s a sign of their future freedom, and the fight they are willing to make. It’s obvious that Max is willing to fight as much as possible.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Post-2x21, also known as “Freak Nation.”
I’m taking Max from this point because she goes through a long period of development in canon before reaching this point. Trying to play out some of that development again would become redundant. She’s died and come back, and she’s truly come into her own. Having to play her from an earlier point would honestly be difficult because it would make it difficult to parallel some of those elements for her in Damned’s setting. It’s a good point for her, as well, because it gives her something to fight for-returning home-and something to strive for while within the setting because she is a leader who organizes and gets things done.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
One of the things that Max is worst at being is apathetic. All of her life, she has been struggling with people trying to make her apathetic to her situation, and even has come up against trials of dealing with apathy herself when it comes to surviving in the world. One of the things she has always done is paid attention to her surroundings and the circumstances going on; she has watched as her fellow X-5s have been killed because of their seizures or when they were gunned down amidst the escape. Growing up outside of the facility, she tried to change herself into someone who was apathetic-closed off, cold, uncaring, and at times, someone who’s not the easiest to be around. The result of this behavior was that she was trying too hard, and instead, bottled up her emotions because she didn’t need anyone else to know about her.
But bottling doesn’t make someone care less about others. From her youngest age, Max has been attracted to the idea of families and caring for other people. She may have been a well-behaved X-5 in some ways, but her rebellion came in small ways at first. She developed her identity as “Max” versus “X5-452,” which was a direct contradiction to what was wanted of her while she was in Manticore. They wanted them to be unidentified numbers, but she resisted that. It wasn’t something she started herself. She didn’t tell stories, but she was an observer to the others. From that point, she started down her path toward being an incredibly strong individual.
Of course, this isn’t the Max that others see at first. She starts her walk through life as a veritable product of her upbringing: she’s tough, she’s careful, and she gets by because she needs to survive. Whereas Manticore intended her to be a soldier and good at espionage, she uses these skills to walk through life and keep herself safe. Max does her best to try to be apathetic but fails. It’s why Logan is eventually able to get her help with his cases, and it’s why she goes out of her way to assist her friends. Truthfully, Max is a bit of a sentimentalist; she’s someone who climbs to the top of the space needle in her city and looks out over and monologues to herself about her life. She tries to keep it cool, but instead, she pays attention to everyone and everything around her. And on top of this, part of the reason she sticks around Seattle despite it being unsafe to stay in one area is because she’s sentimental. She loves the city, loves the space needle, and loves everything about the area. She’s tied to it, and that’s not a fact she dislikes.
Her behavior itself is, at times, a little contradictory. With thick skin and a need to keep others out at times, she plays it cool, with a rough and tough attitude and the idea that “Girls Kick Ass,” as if that’s the way it’s meant to be. Her behavior toward others is often distrustful, with her favoring women to men in most social situation because guys are, inevitably, stupid. This isn’t to say that she doesn’t think that girls are capable of the same stupidity, but it’s clear that she’s been wronged in her life by men. (This is a given with the fact that guys have cheated on her because she tends to be a bit of an ice queen at times.) The way she approaches others is sometimes in a brusque manner. She doesn’t hesitate before she slams someone against a wall to get a point across, and violence isn’t something that is outside of her reach.
Despite being keen on punching someone in the face when they clearly deserve it, Max is actually someone who doesn’t like to kill. If anything, she’s a bit self-righteous when it comes to life and standing up for it, and this is something in place even when she’s a bit colder. She didn’t like the things that she was forced to do in Manticore and now stands vehemently against it. But her self-righteousness doesn’t simply extend to the value of life. Instead, she’s someone who tends to find herself in a number of situations that she might not have gotten into if she didn’t put herself there. At first, many of these situations were because of her friends, but times have changed and Max is someone who stands up for things herself and gets the job done when it’s necessary.
It’s important to impress upon how much Max values life. Life itself is one of the most important facets to her, and in order to sustain someone else’s life, she has dropped almost all survival instincts for the sake of them. This is a direct contrast to previous behavior portrayed by Max. Before, Max found it difficult to step out of line because she needed to survive, but it’s correct to say that this wasn’t her true nature. Again, this is where apathy and lack thereof comes in. Logan parallels her development to that of Alec’s. Max relates how frustrated she is by Alec’s behavior, but Logan points out that someone else had been in his same shoes before. That someone was Max, someone who wanted to keep the walls up and keep anyone from getting in. But Max has never been particularly good at keeping people out, even in her military training, and there’s no reason to believe that now.
Through her failure with apathy, Max has become somewhat reckless and self-sacrificing in order to keep others alive. But she has also embraced her former training in order to do so; she has become a leader, someone strong enough to stand up for what is right, and she’s someone who is able to care for everyone no matter what. She’s smart, clever, and a bit rude, but it’s not impossible to see how much she cares for others at the end of the day. That is, unless someone pisses her off. Then again, it’s probably correct to say that Max feels a bit too much to be apathetic, cold, and unfeeling; whether it’s anger, frustration, or amusement, she’s able to handle it. And she’s willing to sacrifice it, too, at all times, for the sake of others.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Max stands at the height of five-foot-six-and-a-half, with long, slightly curly dark brown hair, and she has brown eyes. Although it’s not always necessary to say as much, Max is genetically engineered to be attractive on top of all things, and as a result, holds that appearance. She’s thin but not waiflike, and it’s obvious she works out from the way she carries herself. Often seen with a good posture and head up straight, she doesn’t stand around with a posture that indicates that she might be uncertain.
Along with this, she has certain physical markings that are indicative of who she is. When she needs to look at things from a closer look, her pupils dilate like that of a cat’s. On top of that, she has a barcode on the back of her neck that reads the number “332960073452.” Also, when shirtless, there is a scar that goes down her chest that reveals that she’s been through open-heart surgery and has had a transplant.
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
Max is genetically engineered by the US government, so she’s pretty beefed up. First off, her genetic DNA has been spliced a number of times so that she has enhanced agility, strength, and everything else. It’s not a sure thing, but Max claims that she must have had her DNA spliced with a shark-after all, she doesn’t require sleep at night. That isn’t to say that she’s incapable of sleeping when knocked out or she’s lost a lot of blood, but she doesn’t require it. Furthermore, her DNA is spliced with that of a cat’s, which leads to some rather interesting things.
Along with all of this, Max has perfect DNA. The show itself does not thoroughly explore this, but she has runes that form on her body detailing the fact that she is, essentially, meant to deliver people from darkness. She is the deliverer, akin to a Christ figure, near the end of canon (but again, the show is canceled and this isn’t clear). Momentarily, Max is able to use psychic abilities to be able to tell someone is coming, but this isn’t explored further. She does, at other times, show deep bonds with people that go beyond the normal expectations, but this is never shown in detail, either. What is clear is that she is the supreme member of her class, and now that she no longer has the seizures, she’s in top fighting condition.
What top fighting condition means for Max is:
· She has enhanced strength. She’s capable of lifting three times her weight with ease. At one time, she’s shown dangling a rather large woman off a balcony by her foot, and she doesn’t appear to be straining. She’s able to overpower several very strong men on her own. She can use her strength to propel herself over fences in a single bound and she can bust down doors with considerable ease. This doesn’t mean she’s insanely strong by any definition, but she can hold her own against several men.
· She has enhanced speed. Quite simply: she is able to dodge bullets as they’re coming at her. She can blur so people can’t keep up, but she doesn’t do this at all times.
· She has enhanced reflexes. Max is able to react more quickly than the normal human at any given period of time.
· She has enhanced stamina. She can keep on trucking for long periods of time, and can even sustain considerable blood loss in the process.
· She has enhanced agility. She can bound and leap better than the average human, and can perform rolls, flips, and many other things that aren’t common for any human being. In a way, she bounds around like a cat.
· She has enhanced durability. She can withstand attacks better than the average human.
· She has an enhanced immune system, metabolism, and regeneration. Like most genetically engineered people in the show, she can withstand most poisons with ease, as well as numerous diseases. This also goes hand in hand with her regeneration, which moves rapidly in comparison to the normal human. This doesn’t mean she heals up immediately, but she is a bit stronger than the average person.
· She has eidetic memory. Her photographic memory allows her to remember details in full, so she doesn’t need to make note or write anything down.
· She has superior IQ. Undoubtedly, as a genetically engineered soldier, she has to be intelligent enough to roll with the punches. Regardless of whether this would be a supernatural skill for a normal person, it kind of comes with the territory here.
· She has enhanced senses. Her feline DNA allows her to zoom in on things, and she has very good hearing as well.
Beyond all of this, Max’s feline DNA makes it so that she goes into heat three times a year. This means that she finds herself attracted to most men, regardless of their physical appearance.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
I propose that she is limited to that if a typical athlete in all areas but strength. Her strength is something that is necessary because she is someone who often outright refuses to use a weapon. At times, she has shown that she’ll use some kind of weapon to her advantage, but it’s unlikely that once she draws the connection between the monsters and the nurses that she will be willing to take them out viciously. Her speed, agility, and durability would be the greatest hindrance, as she is someone who is used to using these things to her advantage. Furthermore, I propose that her healing is limited-still somewhat advanced, but within the similar limits of everyone within the setting, rather than her own (so she will still feel tired by the next afternoon if she goes through some great trials).
I do ask that her hearing only be somewhat limited and that she’s able to continue to see at night, which will help her and make her unique in her own way (and less dependent upon a flashlight). Her eidetic memory will still be in place, and of course, it wouldn’t be a terribly good idea to limit her IQ, as that’s less of a power in question here.
And, without question, the “going into heat” thing will not be dealt with given the nature of it and the issues of consent that come along with it.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Since Max wasn’t trained in Manticore as long as the others, she doesn’t have the same training. However, she does have a fairly hefty amount that she portrays on the show, so it’s obvious that she is capable of some things, if not the same extent.
These things include:
· Martial arts and street fighting. She had nine years of training in martial arts as a part of Manticore, and since her release, she’s taken up “fighting dirty,” so to speak. It aids her in a fight because it makes her unpredictable.
· Sharpshooting and firearms are another thing she’s trained in. However, Max outright refuses to use a gun, so this is redundant.
· Espionage and stealth. Max has used what she knows from these in order to perform adequately in problematic situations. She’s able to give commands in sign language, come up with plans, and go relatively undetected, as long as she’s patient enough and doesn’t get caught.
· Hacking. However, Max isn’t as talented as someone who went through the extensive training at Manticore, she has shown that she’s capable of performing this task when necessary.
· Other skills connected to the above. This involves communications, picking up on things, tracking, strategy, and other elements involved with being a soldier (especially a top-notch soldier).
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
The most interesting part about Max in a setting like Damned is that she’s been in an institute before. Manticore was different, obviously, because of the way the setting was, but the fact of the matter is that there will be a direct parallel between the two. Max will see Landel as she saw the leaders of Manticore, and she will be as defiant as possible. It would not be surprising if Max violently reacted a few times in order to see if she could gain the upper hand. Even if she has grown and changed, it would be highly unlikely for her to lie down and take the setting of Damned as if it was something she could deal with. Even within Manticore when she seemed more compliant with things, it was all a lie-she only did that for the perception of seeming willing to go along with things.
On top of this, Max is an organizer. She’s grown to understand that working together and making a stand is the only way to get anything done. While it’s unlikely that she will appeal to everyone, the likelihood that she won’t make an attempt to draw everyone together is slim. Making a stand is a strong part of her character, after all.
Overall, the most interesting part of Max is her handling something in a manner that she always has been meant to handle it. Damned will allow her to explore her role as a leader and even reflect upon it. She might not be a leader here, either, and how she embraces a subjugated role will be interesting in comparison to the one she now has in canon. Finding herself separate from the people back home will also be interesting, as she’s someone who deeply cares about others; the likelihood that she will build bonds in the institute that she doesn’t wish to lose is high.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Max is a soldier. No aspect of her life has been easy by any extent of the imagination. Given her run-ins with the various transgenics and that she has been hardened from birth, it makes it difficult to believe that a setting like Damned would be able to completely break her. If anything, she is absolutely prepared for it. While many of the things she has faced have not been supernatural by any extent of the imagination, she’s a tough girl and she can handle it. And after all, there is still a science fiction aspect to things, which makes her a good choice for the setting.
Third-Person Sample:
The worst part about Seattle mornings was the fact that the skies were always so damn dreary and gray. Even if the sun wanted to come out, it never started that way. Whether it was damp or rainy or dry out, the sky would always be the same color. But it wasn’t like she minded too much. This was her city, after all, and if they were going to stand out there and raise a flag on high, she figured it was best that Seattle came with all its colors showing. Of course, she preferred that it wasn’t raining-no need to color things that much. People might take it as a sign, and she wanted to make sure everyone saw them out there, ready and proud.
Being out there and making a stand didn’t mean they had everything in order. Max could hear the other transgenics shuffling below them, ready to fight if necessary. She said to put down their weapons and remain unarmed, but she knew her orders wouldn’t mean anything if things got a little rough. She didn’t want this to end in deaths. She didn’t want more bloodshed from transgenics or humans all as a message. Death didn’t have to be the only way to get a point across. She was sick of it. All of it. The red in Joshua’s flag was something she didn’t wish to repeat. She didn’t want this world to fall to the darkness that White’s cult wanted; if it were up to her, they would bypass that possibility, and things would be different.
But even she was realistic.
Just down below, she could zoom in and see the cops ready to storm the place. They stood around with fear in their eyes, as if this was the last mission they wanted to have. Somewhere, she knew the US military was waiting and watching. Maybe they would plan a different assault. Maybe they would think this part of Seattle just wasn’t worth having anymore. Max kept Logan downstairs ready to relay any information, just in case, but she knew both Logan, Cindy, and Sketch wouldn’t be able to sit it out much longer. Chances were, they were going to get sick sooner than later.
Then again, she realized she had a plan for that, too. Plan after plan, she was ready.
“Any news yet?” Max asked. She glanced toward the sky, and she had to believe that the sun was coming out. One of those funny days, when Seattle decided not to play along with its stereotypes. Of course, if people only knew this city didn’t rain so much … but it wasn’t like anyone in their right mind would bother relocating these days. Too difficult, and hey, she didn’t want to fight for territory on the space needle. An old nostalgic part of the center of the city-that was all it was, but any more people might turn it into the tourist trap it used to be (but maybe she could get away with charging fifty big ones for her view-nah, she’d rather not).
“Nothing yet.” An X-6. A cute girl, a few years younger than Max herself. She wished she didn’t have to be here.
“Good. No news is better.” But no news meant that things might be worse when they got some. She ran a hand back through her hair and breathed a sigh. It was a siege, but a peaceful one so far.
Max admitted that she wished that she didn’t have to add the “so far.”
First-Person Sample:
Max wouldn’t write in first person. It’s something that would leave a paper trail, and it would cause problems. She would use the bulletin board, but that’s a different means of communication and it doesn’t involve her thoughts or feelings. As it comes to gathering information within the institute, however, she would be unwilling to make things obvious and rely on face to face meetings.
Series' Medium: Television
Character: Max Guevara
Age: Max’s exact age is unknown. However, doing a little math approximates that she must at least be twenty-one-years-old. Although she frequently drinks alcohol on the show and that might mean she’s a little older, the times have changed and the likelihood that anyone pays attention to that is slim. Her approximated age by the authorities is between 19 and 22; given how old she was said to be when she escaped Manticore, I’d say she’s 21 by the end of the series.
Sex/Gender: Female.
Canon Role: Main protagonist and “title” character, so to speak.
"Real" Name: Alex Gadea
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Yes. I know the canon like the back of my hand, from beginning to end. I’ve rewatched it countless times since I was thirteen. Given that I’m twenty-three now, I think that gives a pretty good perspective on it. However, I am not familiar with the novelizations, as they are not explicit canon created by James Cameron himself. As Cameron frequently tends to disassociate himself from things that he himself did not have a hand in, these don’t count as official canon.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Arguably, Max’s history doesn’t start with herself, but with a breeding cult with the belief that they are the superior human. They’ve been around for centuries, creating individuals with enhanced strength, endurance, and speed; they’ve believed for all this time that they would be the ones to inherit the earth, and those left behind would be lost in the darkness. While many of the details behind how or why they might succeed in this are left in the dark, it is known that they put young children through a process of having to overcome a snake’s poison, and if they are strong enough, they are inducted into the cult. Some individuals within this cult show more than endurance, strength, speed, and healing-for example: Max comes across a young boy who’s capable of telekinesis. The only thing that’s known about these abilities is that they exist.
The details are unclear, but a man named Sandeman was a member of this cult, and eventually broke off. He was also one of the leading and developing forces behind Manticore, a US government funded company that would produce genetically enhanced super soldiers, the best of their kind, so that they could be used in warfare, spy plots, and a number of other operations. These soldiers would serve all purposes: some would look like reptiles and work better in desert atmospheres; others would pass as humans and work as the best and most obedient undercover agent they could find. Max is one of the latter, an X-5, a series of genetically enhanced soldiers who, while still a bit flawed, were the best of the line so far.
However, Max’s creation is a bit apart from the norm.
It appears that she’s simply connected to Lydecker, the man who led the program, simply because she bears a striking resemblance to his late wife. Later, it’s revealed that there’s something more-that Max does, in fact, have perfect DNA, and that every strand of her DNA has been created for a reason. She was someone that the Manticore people were looking for, for some reason because she was deeply connected to Sandeman’s involvement with the project before he disappeared. This strange DNA is deeply connected to the fact that she starts having symbols appear on her body, indicating that she will be the one to lead people from darkness. Aside from a sudden psychic glimpse to being able to tell when the cult members are coming, this isn’t developed in depth because of the show’s untimely cancelation.
It’s a given that Max was created for a purpose different from all the other Manticore children-as a clear deliverer because of her perfect DNA. But her upbringing in the institute was mostly no different from the other children’s. Like the others, she was a product, birthed and delivered and sealed with a number on the back of her neck in the form of a barcode. They seemingly had no purpose beyond these descriptors to the people who handled them. She was trained and drilled with information, told over and over why it was important to be obedient, why she had to listen, why she had to follow along. The curious part was that Max did a good job in all these areas, and was even afraid of messing up, of experiencing the unfortunate seizures that were a side effect of a flaw in their DNA, and she didn’t seem to step out of line when necessary. She killed when they asked, even if she hated it, and she continued forward. All of these things resonated within her, but as a young, trapped soldier, she didn’t let herself fall out of line.
The most curious part of Max in her youth was her connection to the other children around her. When she speaks about Manticore in the most nostalgic way she can manage, it’s obvious that she formed bonds with the others around her. Their stories and way of behaving affected her. Though she was not able to remember Lydecker or Sandeman watching her when she slept at night, she was able to remember their fancies, their ideas, and why she liked them. Even as a child within a place that did not help develop or enforce ideas of family, Max found herself clinging to them like they were her family. Along with her family, she chose a name to separate herself from the barcode on her neck that defined her identity to the military. It was their first rebellion, but certainly not their last.
As far as the military was concerned, however, the worst of these rebellions came in the winter of 2009. Twelve of the genetically engineered kids escaped from Manticore, one after another, and fled out into the world. Max was one of these twelve. Little did they know that their escape would inevitably end up affecting their genetic twins (not literal, but clones of similar DNA) on the inside. The ones remaining would be reconditioned to be more obedient and put through special care to ensure that they would not have the same traits of rebellion running within them. The ones who escaped-Zack, Max, Tinga, Ben, and several others-would live in fear for the rest of their lives, doing what they could to keep themselves from being noticed.
After a sequence of events, Max found herself on the path to Seattle. Her childhood was rough, and it can be surmised that she was taken in several times by different families. One such family had an abusive, alcoholic father, who made a habit of beating his daughter. Max was deeply affected by this, partly because she always had a way of forming bonds with others around her. She found herself unable to fully disconnect from this event, and it would haunt her well into the present. She stayed with this family through the electromagnetic pulse that rocked the United States on June 1, 2009. The pulse itself was set off by terrorists and knocked out and wiped all the information and communication in America. As a result, the United States were thrown into a veritable police state, with a court martial effectively splitting the cities into districts, where people cannot pass through the various sectors without showing off their badges.
It’s not explicitly shown how Max grew up, but from her own assessment of her situation, she presumably grew up hiding a lot, making sure that she wasn’t caught, and she wasn’t very happy. By time she’s nineteen (or estimated to be nineteen), she’s living in Seattle, and one of the first glimpses of her is from a guy’s perspective, and he’s talking about how she tends to bottle up and is more like an ice queen. She doesn’t relate her emotions and she goes cold instead of opening up. Although her best friend, Original Cindy, makes excuses for this behavior, even Max is aware that she has a bit of a problem with wanting to keep from talking to others about herself. And it’s with good reason: after all, her escape from Manticore means that she’s a fugitive, and she needs to be careful.
In order to get by, Max becomes a bit of a survivor. She works in a place called Jam Pony, a delivery service that allows her to have a sector pass which allows her to get around since she lacks an actual identity outside of her barcode (which could get her captured). On the side, she steals from the rich-mostly the ones who seem to have a little too much stuffed into their pockets-and sells off the trinkets so she can pay for rent, buy tryptophan pills to hold off her seizures, and care for her beloved motorcycle. She has friends that she hangs out with, but she moves through life disconnected, through boyfriends and friends without a seeming care. In a way, it’s secure but insecure, and it’s a pattern that she prefers.
All of this changes when she decides to steal from the wrong person. This person is Logan Cale, a former journalist with a fair amount of money because of his family’s wealth that remained from before the Pulse. On the surface, he’s someone who doesn’t have a care in the world, but beneath that, he’s actually a rebel cyber journalist who hacks into people’s feeds as Eyes Only in order to get people’s attentions about the political mayhem that goes on in their world. Max didn’t care about Eyes Only, but she did steal from him. Logan starts looking for her, and eventually finds her at a bar and explains that he knows where she came from. He tricks her into showing him her barcode, and she ends up realizing that he has too much information.
Despite the fact that she doesn’t want to help him because it puts her at risk, she finds herself dragged into his need to save humanity and help other people. But that means that Max gets information in return about her family (the others who escaped with her ten years prior). She’d been working with a detective in order to find out information before, but he wasn’t turning up any information. Before Max agrees to work with Logan, he ends up in an accident that takes his legs. The accident could have been stopped with Max’s assistance, but it wasn’t. Max ends up helping with the case, but Logan’s injury wasn’t something that could be fixed. Either way, Logan keeps going, making it seem as if he is unbothered by what happened.
Through Logan and the detective, Max is able to find information about her family. The first point of information is the woman who picked her up the night she escaped. Max learns from her about her mother and how her mother kept fighting even after Max was born. The woman ends up turning in Max to Manticore, but the two of them escape because she would end up dead along with Max being captured. She gets away with the help of Logan, and she ends up going into hiding across the border. As a result of this, Max finally knows about her mother-knows that she’s someone who kept fighting, and in a way, it makes Max know that she has to keep fighting.
The next trials of Max’s life are not any easier. First, her friends believe that because of her dependency on tryptophan, she’s a drug addict. In an attempt to steal more after they flush hers, she ends up in jail and ends up reliving her time in her youth with the girl Lucy and her family because of a girl the warden has. Max ends up allowing that girl to escape when she does, and it becomes apparent that the most motivating factor for her is children. In the first case with Logan, she acted because there was a child involved in the end, and not because of anything else. Her connection to children and willingness to help them is one of the first signs that she’s not able to disconnect from a situation, but it’s just one of many.
After all, Max is someone who helps. When her friend Sketchy is experiencing problems, she goes out of her way to help him-first against his dominatrix girlfriend and then against these gamblers who expected him to push things and make a delivery, except the delivery itself was lost. She goes in to do what needs to get done. When her old friend and leader-and brother-comes back into town, Max finds herself needing to go out of her way to help him, doing whatever is necessary and then doing what she can to keep him around. The contrast between the two of them is remarkable. Zack is willing to kill and go through any means necessary to keep himself and others safe. He uses guns and anything to his advantage. Max, on the other hand, doesn’t kill, doesn’t do what’s necessary-she doesn’t take survival to the point that another life can be taken, largely because of the fact that killing sickened her when she was a child. That she won’t defend herself in this way frustrates Zack, and it further bothers him because Max won’t leave Seattle. She cares too much about the people there and is too stubborn to live a life on the run. It might not be safe, but it’s what she prefers. Dissatisfied with her lack of security, Zack leaves her, cutting off all contact so she can’t find him easily again.
Once again, Max finds herself in contact with another child, a young boy who’s a prodigy. It’s a given that she goes out of her way to assist him, but she also finds herself crossing paths with Donald Lydecker, the man from Manticore who has been hunting her for some time. She’s capable of getting out from underneath his attention, but it’s a circumstance that she doesn’t wish to repeat. It’s a close call, but she manages to get away.
But all close calls mean that there will always be more. When one of her sisters, Brin, is captured so that she can be sold with Manticore technology to the highest bidder, Max and Zack have to team up again to find her. This involves working with Lydecker. The two of them hurt him during the interrogation process, but Max refuses to kill him in the end. The pair of them use Lydecker’s knowledge to get into the facility that is holding Brin, only to find that she’s dying-rapidly aging, where she wasn’t before. It’s a flaw in her DNA patterns that only the people at Manticore can cure. In the end, Zack and Max agree to send her back to Manticore for a second chance at life. They know it’s a risk, but they don’t want their sister to die.
Their involvement with Lydecker supplies the man the ability to send out wanted posters of Max around Seattle so she can be captured. Realizing that it might be time to finally hop town, Max takes off with Zack to a cabin in preparation for hopping the border. Logan assists them, and before they part ways, Max and Logan share a kiss. The kiss is the culmination of tension that has been between the two of them since their first meeting, and it’s obvious that they care deeply about one another. But this is meant to be a time in which they part ways, so Max leaves the car-and Logan-to spend the night with Zack in the cabin.
A phone call informs Max that things aren’t going so well with Logan the next morning. After an awkwardly shared evening with Zack-where it becomes readily apparent that he has feelings for her beyond that of siblinghood, even if Max herself doesn’t realize it-the two fight and Max takes off to go help Logan. She arrives at the hospital and performs a blood transfusion on Logan to bring him back to health. After several hallucinations, she is woken up, and Logan is better-not awake yet, but better. In order to keep Max from being sent to prison for her wanted posters, Zack comes back and turns himself in for various deaths that were being pinned on Max. Max watches a telecast that reveals that the helicopter holding Zack went down, and says that Zack always said he’d die before he went back to Manticore. She doesn’t seem surprised, but does her best to hold it together in the wake of losing her brother (which is far from a simple feat for someone who cares so much about her family).
For the most part, things seem as if they could hit a point of a norm after that. At least, briefly. Max and Logan attempt to date, but Logan’s too caught up in trying to save the world to have some time for Max. The two of them clash over this, but it’s insignificant on the large scale. Logan continues to have Max help him, and the next big case is one where Max has to protect a witness. While protecting him, Super Soldiers with transplants in their neck come after her, and Max is barely able to get away. She receives some reprieve from this in the form of going to a wedding with Logan, but it’s obvious that her life will never have a series of “normal” events anymore.
The next big trial Max faces involves her best friend, Original Cindy, being captured. Max has to go save her from the aforementioned Super Soldiers, and the only way she’s strong enough to do it is putting their implant that makes them stronger into the back of her neck. It twines around her spine, but she’s able to attack and eventually defeat them in order to save Cindy. This leads to a number of things: her nearly dying with Cindy being the only one who can save her and her finally sincerely letting her close friend know her secret (despite jokingly telling her before, Cindy never believed such an unbelievable story). Glad that she has someone to confide in, this is a bit of a turning point for Max, who finally let someone in on her own. It’s a sign that her walls are starting to come down, even if she doesn’t make the connection herself just yet.
Never without trouble, Max gets contacted by Zack not long after, because it turns out he was alive the entire time. Max and Zack talk while he’s in a drugged state, and he ends up revealing the locations of all the other X-5s who got away that he was watching out for. Logan assists in the situation, and Max keeps Zack alive, preferring to keep him that way than allowing for him to die. With the information sent out that their locations may be compromised, Zack takes off again to help.
As if there wasn’t enough trouble, Max finds herself crossing paths with one of the X-5s, Jace, and learns about how different things were at Manticore after the twelve of them escaped. Jace appears to want some reprieve from Manticore, but it’s because she’s actually with child. She turns in Max, but the two of them end up escaping, with Jace taking advantage of Max’s connections so she can go elsewhere and have her child in peace. The doctor who was assisting the situation is killed as a result of everything. With the doctor dead, new tension erupts between Max and Logan. This is largely because that doctor was supposed to be helping Logan regain the use of his legs. He was starting to have feeling in them again after Max’s enhanced blood assisted him, but things weren’t able to go in that direction because of the death. He nearly commits suicide as a result of this.
Once again, things calm down, with Max and Logan leaving on a case where Max’s seizures become bad and they need to handle things, and Original Cindy’s ex-girlfriend comes into town. As these things are handled successively, it becomes apparent that there’s a serial killer and that they need to be stopped. Max recognizes the serial killer as one of her own siblings, Ben, and after fighting him and struggling, he breaks his leg while Manticore is about to reach them. Fearing for what could be done to him within Manticore, he makes Max do a very difficult thing: he asks her to kill him so he doesn’t have to return. This action is one of the more traumatic things that she’s had to do in her life and she hates it-hates having to snap his neck-and it haunts her well into the future, because the last thing she wanted to do was kill her own brother, regardless of how many lives he took and how broken he truly was. Ben was the one who told stories when they were kids, and believed in the Virgin Mary, but only with his own creation and belief of what needed to be done.
With the burden of having killed her own brother on her shoulders, Max continues on-first to meet a crime fighter who provides Logan with exoskeleton legs that would later allow him to walk-and then on a sequence of events that eventually leads to her sister, Tinga, being captured. Max and Zack bring in the other escaped X-5s in an attempt to save her, but it leads to a rather catastrophic series of events happening: Max gets shot and dies, and Zack shoots himself in order to secure her life with a heart donor.
When Max wakes up, she has a scar across her chest and she realizes she’s trapped within Manticore again. She spends the next few months in misery, forcing herself to eventually be reconditioned to what they want (at least to some extent-they don’t completely change her, she just goes along with things willingly). Underneath her bed in her room, she carefully breaks at a wall so she can eventually secure her freedom. Max ends up meeting her breeding partner because she and the other X-5s destroyed Manticore’s genetic samples. This breeding partner, X-5494, looks exactly like Ben, the one she killed previously. It’s unsettling for her, but he’s nothing like Ben-in fact, he’s a bit of a dick. She ends up naming him Alec, even if he was never fond of the naming thing himself.
With Alec’s “help,” Max ends up escaping from Manticore, but not before they use Max to find out Logan’s identity so that the Manticore people can take down the X-5s. Max also doesn’t know that a biological agent has been injected into her that makes it so that she will kill Logan on contact. Upon arriving in Logan’s living room, she kisses him, and it leads to him nearly dying. Alec shows up and says that she did a good job, and Max returns to Manticore to get the cure. In a panic, the officials there blow up the facility, and in the final moments, Max learns that she’s different-that she’s special, and that she’s the one they’ve been looking for. She’s told to look for Sandeman.
Not wanting to lose the lives of so many trained and brought up there, Max lets all of the genetically engineered people out into the world. It causes a problem, because Max has to end up helping with getting them in order. When Manticore officials start trying to round them up, Max goes to help some of the kids, and gets captured herself. Much to her surprise, Alec comes to save her, though he’s a rather reluctant ally.
So reluctant that he’s a bit selfish. All Max wants to do is return to the status quo of her life, but it’s apparent that’s not going to happen. She can’t have Logan like she wanted for so long, and now there are transgenics, such as the one named Joshua that she’s taken to watching over, running around Seattle. She does her best to help them out, but it’s not always easy. Alec makes things harder by being selfish, by allowing himself to go after transgenics so he can keep himself alive, and Max has to save his ass a couple times. To go along with this, they have a new formidable force to face to replace the old Lydecker problem. This force is a member of the aforementioned breeding cult, but he’s known to the government as Ames White, someone meant to clean up the mess left by Manticore. His first plan is to come up with ways to kill transgenics within a certain radius, and Max has to stop the research he funds before anyone can get hurt.
She struggles a lot at this point-struggles with the battle between trying to help transgenics and separating herself from them. As a result, she finds herself plunged into a variety of circumstances in which she needs to save and protect transgenics. Some are like mermaids with children on the way, others are like Joshua, but vicious and ravenous. As she deals with these, she learns that her brother Zack has been turned into a cyborg and reconditioned to kill Logan because he’s a problem. Realizing that Zack will continue to find himself on this path even if his memory keeps being wiped, she sets him up in a different life. In a lot of ways, Max takes on Zack’s role of the protector of the transgenics, only instead of being someone who watches over just twelve, she looks over hundreds, maybe thousands, who have found themselves out in the world.
While this is going on, she’s learning more about the breeding cult and coming up against them in a number of ways. First, she finds out that Ames White has a son who’s intended to eventually be inducted into the cult, and then she learns that there are a number of them around, ready to attack her at any notice. When she gets shot and lands in the hospital, she’s put under quarantine because of the disease that could infect Logan. Even if it’s a different strand because it only responds to his DNA, the officials at the hospital are unable to tell this and instead see Max as a threat. By now, Max and Logan have given up on their romance because of their continued debacles in trying to help others, but Logan still helps Max so she can escape from the hospital. She barely escapes from her fight there with Ames White with her life.
With a few more moments of needing to help-or, in one or two situations, confront-fellow transgenics, Max finds herself learning more about the breeding cult and finds herself knee-deep in a situation with them. It turns out to induct people into their circle, they poison a young boy. If the boy lives through the night, then he shows the strength and fortitude of the others within the cult. When White’s son is taken in to be put through the process, Max moves to help him, but finds herself poisoned instead. Only … it doesn’t take hold of her or kill her, and instead, she ends up with the snake-shaped scar from the branding tool and none of the side-effects. As this turns out, Ames’ son lives through what could have killed him, and Max gets away. Also, Joshua falls in love with a blind human girl, and when the two of them face exposure, they run off into the sewers. Max goes after them and ends up trying to get them separated so Joshua can escape and the girl-named Annie-can live. However, Ames White finds Annie wandering alone and ends up snapping her neck to make it seem like Joshua proved to be a threat.
This creates a mass hysteria. While there were rumors before about transgenics that were released from a secret government facility, they were finally brought onto the radar of everyone. They were made a reality. In order to ensure that Max got captured within this problem going on, White goes and retrieves Max’s genetic twin, Sam, X5-453, who lacks the same perfect DNA that Max has. It’s unclear about what the difference between the two of them is, and White isn’t able to find it. Sam does everything in her power to find Max and win the fight, because White holds her significant other and his son hostage.
In the end, Max ends up winning and agrees to allow Sam and her family safe passage over the border.
Handling this doesn’t necessarily mean things are solved. Max has to deal with runes turning up on her body in a language that she doesn’t understand. Logan carefully researches these separately to the best of his ability, though it’s obvious that the tension is still between them. She tries to make things easier by lying to him by saying she’s with Alec, but it’s something she doesn’t let Alec know about. At the same time, she’s growing closer with Alec and the other transgenics as they maintain a system of communication within the city. This helps them transport them to an abandoned part of the city that doesn’t affect them called Transgenic City. It’s a former radioactive plant that’s been shut down, and while most people cannot live there, the genetic engineering makes it possible for them to be secure.
A few hints are dropped here and there about Max’s runes, but it’s not made clear until after a hostage situation starts at Max’s work. While transporting a pregnant transgenic and an adolescent boy (who’s also a transgenic), a fight breaks out and they have to seek cover. Alec performs a quick move that makes it look like they’re taking him hostage inside of the work place. Once inside, they take over, but it’s obvious it’s because they have nowhere else to go. Understanding that she’s needed, Max takes a hover drone inside (a device that’s used to monitor the city from above), and ends up crashing the party. She doesn’t hide the fact of what she is, and she takes over.
Logan shows up not too long afterward with information and to help out. He’s walking by this time, and he informs everyone about what the runes mean-that Max is apparently said to be someone who can deliver from darkness. This makes it apparent that everything revolves around Max and that public enemy number one is Max. An argument ensues, but before it can get anywhere, a strange occurrence happens and it looks as if Max is experiencing a psychic connection. This is never fully explained, except that she knows the members of the breeding cult are coming to take over the hostage situation and make it end badly-for everyone involved.
Through a bit of fortitude, the following happens successfully: the transgenic girl delivers her baby, Max ends up leading an assault against the breeding cult and White, and all of the transgenics, give or take a couple who died in the assault, all get away. The detective on the police force informs Max that things are going to be trouble, but instead of making everyone separate, she says that it’s time for them to take a stand.
The series itself ends with Max and the other transgenics standing on the rooftop in terminal city with the flag that Joshua created waving over their heads. It’s a sign of their future freedom, and the fight they are willing to make. It’s obvious that Max is willing to fight as much as possible.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Post-2x21, also known as “Freak Nation.”
I’m taking Max from this point because she goes through a long period of development in canon before reaching this point. Trying to play out some of that development again would become redundant. She’s died and come back, and she’s truly come into her own. Having to play her from an earlier point would honestly be difficult because it would make it difficult to parallel some of those elements for her in Damned’s setting. It’s a good point for her, as well, because it gives her something to fight for-returning home-and something to strive for while within the setting because she is a leader who organizes and gets things done.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
One of the things that Max is worst at being is apathetic. All of her life, she has been struggling with people trying to make her apathetic to her situation, and even has come up against trials of dealing with apathy herself when it comes to surviving in the world. One of the things she has always done is paid attention to her surroundings and the circumstances going on; she has watched as her fellow X-5s have been killed because of their seizures or when they were gunned down amidst the escape. Growing up outside of the facility, she tried to change herself into someone who was apathetic-closed off, cold, uncaring, and at times, someone who’s not the easiest to be around. The result of this behavior was that she was trying too hard, and instead, bottled up her emotions because she didn’t need anyone else to know about her.
But bottling doesn’t make someone care less about others. From her youngest age, Max has been attracted to the idea of families and caring for other people. She may have been a well-behaved X-5 in some ways, but her rebellion came in small ways at first. She developed her identity as “Max” versus “X5-452,” which was a direct contradiction to what was wanted of her while she was in Manticore. They wanted them to be unidentified numbers, but she resisted that. It wasn’t something she started herself. She didn’t tell stories, but she was an observer to the others. From that point, she started down her path toward being an incredibly strong individual.
Of course, this isn’t the Max that others see at first. She starts her walk through life as a veritable product of her upbringing: she’s tough, she’s careful, and she gets by because she needs to survive. Whereas Manticore intended her to be a soldier and good at espionage, she uses these skills to walk through life and keep herself safe. Max does her best to try to be apathetic but fails. It’s why Logan is eventually able to get her help with his cases, and it’s why she goes out of her way to assist her friends. Truthfully, Max is a bit of a sentimentalist; she’s someone who climbs to the top of the space needle in her city and looks out over and monologues to herself about her life. She tries to keep it cool, but instead, she pays attention to everyone and everything around her. And on top of this, part of the reason she sticks around Seattle despite it being unsafe to stay in one area is because she’s sentimental. She loves the city, loves the space needle, and loves everything about the area. She’s tied to it, and that’s not a fact she dislikes.
Her behavior itself is, at times, a little contradictory. With thick skin and a need to keep others out at times, she plays it cool, with a rough and tough attitude and the idea that “Girls Kick Ass,” as if that’s the way it’s meant to be. Her behavior toward others is often distrustful, with her favoring women to men in most social situation because guys are, inevitably, stupid. This isn’t to say that she doesn’t think that girls are capable of the same stupidity, but it’s clear that she’s been wronged in her life by men. (This is a given with the fact that guys have cheated on her because she tends to be a bit of an ice queen at times.) The way she approaches others is sometimes in a brusque manner. She doesn’t hesitate before she slams someone against a wall to get a point across, and violence isn’t something that is outside of her reach.
Despite being keen on punching someone in the face when they clearly deserve it, Max is actually someone who doesn’t like to kill. If anything, she’s a bit self-righteous when it comes to life and standing up for it, and this is something in place even when she’s a bit colder. She didn’t like the things that she was forced to do in Manticore and now stands vehemently against it. But her self-righteousness doesn’t simply extend to the value of life. Instead, she’s someone who tends to find herself in a number of situations that she might not have gotten into if she didn’t put herself there. At first, many of these situations were because of her friends, but times have changed and Max is someone who stands up for things herself and gets the job done when it’s necessary.
It’s important to impress upon how much Max values life. Life itself is one of the most important facets to her, and in order to sustain someone else’s life, she has dropped almost all survival instincts for the sake of them. This is a direct contrast to previous behavior portrayed by Max. Before, Max found it difficult to step out of line because she needed to survive, but it’s correct to say that this wasn’t her true nature. Again, this is where apathy and lack thereof comes in. Logan parallels her development to that of Alec’s. Max relates how frustrated she is by Alec’s behavior, but Logan points out that someone else had been in his same shoes before. That someone was Max, someone who wanted to keep the walls up and keep anyone from getting in. But Max has never been particularly good at keeping people out, even in her military training, and there’s no reason to believe that now.
Through her failure with apathy, Max has become somewhat reckless and self-sacrificing in order to keep others alive. But she has also embraced her former training in order to do so; she has become a leader, someone strong enough to stand up for what is right, and she’s someone who is able to care for everyone no matter what. She’s smart, clever, and a bit rude, but it’s not impossible to see how much she cares for others at the end of the day. That is, unless someone pisses her off. Then again, it’s probably correct to say that Max feels a bit too much to be apathetic, cold, and unfeeling; whether it’s anger, frustration, or amusement, she’s able to handle it. And she’s willing to sacrifice it, too, at all times, for the sake of others.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Max stands at the height of five-foot-six-and-a-half, with long, slightly curly dark brown hair, and she has brown eyes. Although it’s not always necessary to say as much, Max is genetically engineered to be attractive on top of all things, and as a result, holds that appearance. She’s thin but not waiflike, and it’s obvious she works out from the way she carries herself. Often seen with a good posture and head up straight, she doesn’t stand around with a posture that indicates that she might be uncertain.
Along with this, she has certain physical markings that are indicative of who she is. When she needs to look at things from a closer look, her pupils dilate like that of a cat’s. On top of that, she has a barcode on the back of her neck that reads the number “332960073452.” Also, when shirtless, there is a scar that goes down her chest that reveals that she’s been through open-heart surgery and has had a transplant.
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
Max is genetically engineered by the US government, so she’s pretty beefed up. First off, her genetic DNA has been spliced a number of times so that she has enhanced agility, strength, and everything else. It’s not a sure thing, but Max claims that she must have had her DNA spliced with a shark-after all, she doesn’t require sleep at night. That isn’t to say that she’s incapable of sleeping when knocked out or she’s lost a lot of blood, but she doesn’t require it. Furthermore, her DNA is spliced with that of a cat’s, which leads to some rather interesting things.
Along with all of this, Max has perfect DNA. The show itself does not thoroughly explore this, but she has runes that form on her body detailing the fact that she is, essentially, meant to deliver people from darkness. She is the deliverer, akin to a Christ figure, near the end of canon (but again, the show is canceled and this isn’t clear). Momentarily, Max is able to use psychic abilities to be able to tell someone is coming, but this isn’t explored further. She does, at other times, show deep bonds with people that go beyond the normal expectations, but this is never shown in detail, either. What is clear is that she is the supreme member of her class, and now that she no longer has the seizures, she’s in top fighting condition.
What top fighting condition means for Max is:
· She has enhanced strength. She’s capable of lifting three times her weight with ease. At one time, she’s shown dangling a rather large woman off a balcony by her foot, and she doesn’t appear to be straining. She’s able to overpower several very strong men on her own. She can use her strength to propel herself over fences in a single bound and she can bust down doors with considerable ease. This doesn’t mean she’s insanely strong by any definition, but she can hold her own against several men.
· She has enhanced speed. Quite simply: she is able to dodge bullets as they’re coming at her. She can blur so people can’t keep up, but she doesn’t do this at all times.
· She has enhanced reflexes. Max is able to react more quickly than the normal human at any given period of time.
· She has enhanced stamina. She can keep on trucking for long periods of time, and can even sustain considerable blood loss in the process.
· She has enhanced agility. She can bound and leap better than the average human, and can perform rolls, flips, and many other things that aren’t common for any human being. In a way, she bounds around like a cat.
· She has enhanced durability. She can withstand attacks better than the average human.
· She has an enhanced immune system, metabolism, and regeneration. Like most genetically engineered people in the show, she can withstand most poisons with ease, as well as numerous diseases. This also goes hand in hand with her regeneration, which moves rapidly in comparison to the normal human. This doesn’t mean she heals up immediately, but she is a bit stronger than the average person.
· She has eidetic memory. Her photographic memory allows her to remember details in full, so she doesn’t need to make note or write anything down.
· She has superior IQ. Undoubtedly, as a genetically engineered soldier, she has to be intelligent enough to roll with the punches. Regardless of whether this would be a supernatural skill for a normal person, it kind of comes with the territory here.
· She has enhanced senses. Her feline DNA allows her to zoom in on things, and she has very good hearing as well.
Beyond all of this, Max’s feline DNA makes it so that she goes into heat three times a year. This means that she finds herself attracted to most men, regardless of their physical appearance.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
I propose that she is limited to that if a typical athlete in all areas but strength. Her strength is something that is necessary because she is someone who often outright refuses to use a weapon. At times, she has shown that she’ll use some kind of weapon to her advantage, but it’s unlikely that once she draws the connection between the monsters and the nurses that she will be willing to take them out viciously. Her speed, agility, and durability would be the greatest hindrance, as she is someone who is used to using these things to her advantage. Furthermore, I propose that her healing is limited-still somewhat advanced, but within the similar limits of everyone within the setting, rather than her own (so she will still feel tired by the next afternoon if she goes through some great trials).
I do ask that her hearing only be somewhat limited and that she’s able to continue to see at night, which will help her and make her unique in her own way (and less dependent upon a flashlight). Her eidetic memory will still be in place, and of course, it wouldn’t be a terribly good idea to limit her IQ, as that’s less of a power in question here.
And, without question, the “going into heat” thing will not be dealt with given the nature of it and the issues of consent that come along with it.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Since Max wasn’t trained in Manticore as long as the others, she doesn’t have the same training. However, she does have a fairly hefty amount that she portrays on the show, so it’s obvious that she is capable of some things, if not the same extent.
These things include:
· Martial arts and street fighting. She had nine years of training in martial arts as a part of Manticore, and since her release, she’s taken up “fighting dirty,” so to speak. It aids her in a fight because it makes her unpredictable.
· Sharpshooting and firearms are another thing she’s trained in. However, Max outright refuses to use a gun, so this is redundant.
· Espionage and stealth. Max has used what she knows from these in order to perform adequately in problematic situations. She’s able to give commands in sign language, come up with plans, and go relatively undetected, as long as she’s patient enough and doesn’t get caught.
· Hacking. However, Max isn’t as talented as someone who went through the extensive training at Manticore, she has shown that she’s capable of performing this task when necessary.
· Other skills connected to the above. This involves communications, picking up on things, tracking, strategy, and other elements involved with being a soldier (especially a top-notch soldier).
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
The most interesting part about Max in a setting like Damned is that she’s been in an institute before. Manticore was different, obviously, because of the way the setting was, but the fact of the matter is that there will be a direct parallel between the two. Max will see Landel as she saw the leaders of Manticore, and she will be as defiant as possible. It would not be surprising if Max violently reacted a few times in order to see if she could gain the upper hand. Even if she has grown and changed, it would be highly unlikely for her to lie down and take the setting of Damned as if it was something she could deal with. Even within Manticore when she seemed more compliant with things, it was all a lie-she only did that for the perception of seeming willing to go along with things.
On top of this, Max is an organizer. She’s grown to understand that working together and making a stand is the only way to get anything done. While it’s unlikely that she will appeal to everyone, the likelihood that she won’t make an attempt to draw everyone together is slim. Making a stand is a strong part of her character, after all.
Overall, the most interesting part of Max is her handling something in a manner that she always has been meant to handle it. Damned will allow her to explore her role as a leader and even reflect upon it. She might not be a leader here, either, and how she embraces a subjugated role will be interesting in comparison to the one she now has in canon. Finding herself separate from the people back home will also be interesting, as she’s someone who deeply cares about others; the likelihood that she will build bonds in the institute that she doesn’t wish to lose is high.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Max is a soldier. No aspect of her life has been easy by any extent of the imagination. Given her run-ins with the various transgenics and that she has been hardened from birth, it makes it difficult to believe that a setting like Damned would be able to completely break her. If anything, she is absolutely prepared for it. While many of the things she has faced have not been supernatural by any extent of the imagination, she’s a tough girl and she can handle it. And after all, there is still a science fiction aspect to things, which makes her a good choice for the setting.
Third-Person Sample:
The worst part about Seattle mornings was the fact that the skies were always so damn dreary and gray. Even if the sun wanted to come out, it never started that way. Whether it was damp or rainy or dry out, the sky would always be the same color. But it wasn’t like she minded too much. This was her city, after all, and if they were going to stand out there and raise a flag on high, she figured it was best that Seattle came with all its colors showing. Of course, she preferred that it wasn’t raining-no need to color things that much. People might take it as a sign, and she wanted to make sure everyone saw them out there, ready and proud.
Being out there and making a stand didn’t mean they had everything in order. Max could hear the other transgenics shuffling below them, ready to fight if necessary. She said to put down their weapons and remain unarmed, but she knew her orders wouldn’t mean anything if things got a little rough. She didn’t want this to end in deaths. She didn’t want more bloodshed from transgenics or humans all as a message. Death didn’t have to be the only way to get a point across. She was sick of it. All of it. The red in Joshua’s flag was something she didn’t wish to repeat. She didn’t want this world to fall to the darkness that White’s cult wanted; if it were up to her, they would bypass that possibility, and things would be different.
But even she was realistic.
Just down below, she could zoom in and see the cops ready to storm the place. They stood around with fear in their eyes, as if this was the last mission they wanted to have. Somewhere, she knew the US military was waiting and watching. Maybe they would plan a different assault. Maybe they would think this part of Seattle just wasn’t worth having anymore. Max kept Logan downstairs ready to relay any information, just in case, but she knew both Logan, Cindy, and Sketch wouldn’t be able to sit it out much longer. Chances were, they were going to get sick sooner than later.
Then again, she realized she had a plan for that, too. Plan after plan, she was ready.
“Any news yet?” Max asked. She glanced toward the sky, and she had to believe that the sun was coming out. One of those funny days, when Seattle decided not to play along with its stereotypes. Of course, if people only knew this city didn’t rain so much … but it wasn’t like anyone in their right mind would bother relocating these days. Too difficult, and hey, she didn’t want to fight for territory on the space needle. An old nostalgic part of the center of the city-that was all it was, but any more people might turn it into the tourist trap it used to be (but maybe she could get away with charging fifty big ones for her view-nah, she’d rather not).
“Nothing yet.” An X-6. A cute girl, a few years younger than Max herself. She wished she didn’t have to be here.
“Good. No news is better.” But no news meant that things might be worse when they got some. She ran a hand back through her hair and breathed a sigh. It was a siege, but a peaceful one so far.
Max admitted that she wished that she didn’t have to add the “so far.”
First-Person Sample:
Max wouldn’t write in first person. It’s something that would leave a paper trail, and it would cause problems. She would use the bulletin board, but that’s a different means of communication and it doesn’t involve her thoughts or feelings. As it comes to gathering information within the institute, however, she would be unwilling to make things obvious and rely on face to face meetings.