mother may I?

[namereclaimed]

PERMISSIONS/OPT OUT OOC • backtagging sure! • threadhopping within reason; if it gets out a ways and Max isn't really part of it anymore I'll probably ask you to move it elsewhere but otherwise it's fine • fourthwalling no thanks • offensive subjects nothing I've really run into yet? but I'll let you know IC • physical description: 5'9" with haphazardly close-cropped brown hair and brown eyes. He tends to be covered with a layer of dust and grime just because water's pretty scarce and is generally put to better use drinking it rather than bathing in it. His clothes are much the same, worn to hell and patched together as many times as necessary because new ones are hard to find. He occasionally walks with a limp or a little more stiffly on the left side, particularly when he's starting to get physically exhausted, due to an old injury that essentially fucked his left knee permanently. • demeanor: Max moves through the world like he's constantly assessing for a threat, attention perpetually roving from one point to the next and rarely sticking on one thing for long. When his attention is caught, however, his focus is intent on whatever it is until he loses interest. He speaks in clipped sentences, stopping and starting as he finds the shape of what it is he wants to say, but generally is pretty deliberate about whatever it is, thinking on the general idea of it first before voicing it out loud. It's likely after the long road of hardship and insanity that is his life since the world fell apart he has some level of PTSD, mostly manifesting in reflexive violence when he feels threatened and general agitation/uneasiness in unfamiliar situations. • abilities: Max has proven himself time and again to be an exceptional driver, once known as the "top pursuit man" when he was still a cop, and since then he's demonstrated himself more than capable of outmaneuvering other vehicles, forcing other cars off the road, evading or chasing other vehicles, and off-roading. He's also a decently accomplished mechanic after needing to maintain his car himself after he left the force, including being able to rig them to explode, he's an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant and has decent aim with most firearms. Over the years he's developed a very acute survival instinct, causing him to keep fighting even when he seems to be losing and to be too pig-headed to give up no matter how badly injured he is. He improvises and tries to fight smart when he can, and resorts to wild animal-type ferocity when he can't or his back's up against the wall, something aided by the honed reflexes he's developed over the years as well. • medical information: As mentioned above he's got an old lingering leg injury that likely never quite healed right, thus the brace, and as close to canon as he is the last two fingers on his left hand are broken and rudimentally set and he's got some pretty good hearing damage in his right ear (thanks Furiosa. twice). Unless he's placed in an environment where he has opportunity to correct it, he is likely also perpetually malnourished and dehydrated, considering resources are fairly scarce in his world these days. It's fairly likely if he is eventually placed in a medical-type setting he won't handle it well, since things like IVs and needles and the like don't exactly conjure pleasant memories these days. From a mental health perspective, it's highly likely the long, violent, and deeply traumatic line that is his existence from the death of his wife and infant son at the hands of a biker gang through to his self-imposed exiles and subsequent mistreatment at the hands of Immortan Joe and his War Boys has contributed to some level of PTSD, not that it's ever been diagnosed, since the mental health field kind of fell to the wayside with everything else. He lashes out when backed into a corner, descends into more primitive and desperately violent behavior when his freedom is threatened, and frequently flashes back to past incidents, often responding with violence when he's disturbed from them. Additionally, he seems to have had some kind of psychotic break when the audience finds him fairly early on in Fury Road, not to mention in many instances after, since he repeatedly sees ghosts of people he hasn't been able to save, or more accurately one ghost in particular. He seems to take this more or less in stride, even if it does appear to stress him out every time, indicating it's a fairly regularly ongoing thing, and it never really goes away even by the end of the movie. In less medical-specific things, he's got a crapton of scars from various scrapes and scraps, as well as a "fun" tattoo (that only upside down) covering the entirety of his back basically laying out any health-type information medical types might want, including blood type. So that's a thing. He's also got a brand (not him in the pic but he does have one too) on the back of his neck. • offensive subjects: Restricting freedom, of himself or (mostly) anyone else; harming non-food animals; • physical contact he'll probably be more than a little weird about it because he's still trying to figure out how to people properly and he's not that far removed from being used as a personal bloodbank, so the kneejerk "GO AWAY" is probably still in effect if he's not expecting the contact. that's no reason not to get in his space, just be aware he's still a little flighty • romance with discussion and stuff, sure; see above re: relearning how to people as well as some inherent reluctance to invest in people too much. Plus that whole "hierarchy of needs" thing; he's generally been too busy spending most of his time figuring out where his next meal is coming from or how to keep himself safe to really worry about the whole romance thing. • fighting ABSOLUTELY it's what he's best at honestly • injuries or death injuries yes, death let's talk about it first • timeline varies depending on needs of the thread but post-Fury Road as default SHIPS • SHIP YOU LOVE ✔✔✔ NOTES • SHIP YOU LIKE ✔ NOTES • SHIP YOU'RE UNSURE ABOUT ✘/✔ NOTES • SHIP YOU DISLIKE ✘ NOTES • SHIP YOU HATE ✘✘✘ NOTES OPT-OUT • Max's canon, and his backstory in particular, brings a hefty dose of upsetting themes along with it, including child death, mental illness, consent issues (both sexual and otherwise), wanton and excessive violence, cannibalism, torture/body mutilation/dehumanization in general, starvation/malnutrition, and a whole host of other things. I will be sure to warn for the big ones, and won't ever just spring the nasty ones on people without warning, but if there's anything in particular you would prefer to avoid please let me know.