(deerington) application

[thephix]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Max Briest
Played-By/Art Claim: Amber Heard is the PB for the face Max uses most often, but as a shapeshifter she's got a few other tricks up her sleeve. My other set of current icons are Alicia Vikander, which is her Sphinx face

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Across her sternum, like this one
Current Health/Status: Alive and off to sleep, no serious health concerns or injuries
Age: 30
Species: Human

History:
World Info:

Throughout history, there's been stories of people with magical or supernatural powers; oracles, witch doctors, demons and priests, people imbued with powers from deities or from nature or from something else entirely. As science began to develop and humans began to explain the world around them in more logical ways, many of these cases were written off as flukes, liars, charlatans, or mass delusions. The world progressed much like ours has, with the culture, technology and the environment turning out much the same by the late 20th Century. Sometimes in the early 1970s, these powers started to show up again.

At first, most people tried to keep it secret, but some made their abilities public, and those few ended up disappearing quite quickly off the face of the Earth, taken by governments or private organisations who were looking to use these gifts for their own purposes. It was enough to make people reconsider their approach, and with comic books becoming an integral part of popular culture, they took inspiration from the heroes and villains on those pages.

Of course, being a masked hero isn't the sort of job that comes with a steady pay check, so it become common in the 90s for heroes to accept sponsorship deals from companies who'd pay top dollar for a logo on a superhero's costume. By the late 2000s, this practice had spiralled out of control; many heroes will only respond to events where there's going to be a high media presence, or if any of their corporate interests are in trouble. Others have thrown their lot in with the government, trading their secret identity for the promise of a secure future. The only downside is that they don't get to choose their assignments. It takes a certain kind of person to do that work.

On the other side of the fence, supervillains were a natural by-product of the situation. Criminals with powers realised they could operate on a grander scale and began adopting personas and masks to lessen their chance of being discovered.

By the 21st century, heroes and villains are an accepted part of everyday life, though most people are lucky enough to never interact with either.

History:
cw: child abuse, implied sexual assault

Max, named as Amelia by her parents, was born into the Italian mafia in New York. Her father, Joseph, was a capo and a successful one at that. While many of the mafia shied away from people with powers, Joseph was more than happy to use them as foot soldiers in his efforts to gain more power. Amelia, as a child, was relatively sheltered from her father's business, though not from his temper. Her mother, though withdrawn, did her best to give Amelia a normal life, whether it was keeping her away from Joseph by sending her to boarding school, or taking her to ballet classes to give her a positive experience in her life. It wasn't until Amelia's abilities manifested at 15 that she became embroiled in Joseph's world. Despite all her protests, the fear of her father outweighed her morals or fears, and she became a thief and assassin who could wear a new face for every crime, or a bargaining chip to be traded to Joseph's allies, once she was old enough. For a long time, she held out hope that something would change, that someone might help her, but a run in with one of her world's heroes made her realise she was going to have to save herself.

Her plan took years to perfect, but at 21 years old, Amelia managed to murder a large number of the men in her family, framing a rival gang, and then flaming the fire of retribution and antagonism between the two groups, until they all but decimated each other. She faked her own death during this time, and rebuilt herself as Artemis, a superhero, wanting to atone for her sins.

Being a superhero didn't pan out the way she'd hoped; after being blocked by red tape, being pushed out by what was essentially a superhero country club, and watching criminals walk away scot-free, Artemis decided to take matters into her own hands again. She felt that she couldn't work within the legal system, even one that allowed vigilantism, so she made use of what she knew, and that was the criminal world.

With a brand new identity, Max Briest, and her experience in the mafia, she slipped back into a life of crime, slowly but surely building herself an empire, stylising herself as the Sphinx. She controls the drug and arms trade in New York, doing her best to keep those things out of the hands of people who'd do the most damage with them, while also funnelling her profits into humanitarian purposes. She bought apartment blocks to turn into shelters, using the money from her crime syndicate to fund these projects, taking in desperate people and helping them get their lives back on track. Eventually she expanded her operations to more legitimate avenues, hiring scientists to solve problems she saw in the world and profiting from patents while ensuring that the production of these goods is ethical and environmentally responsible. She owns a variety of businesses, largely employing people who've been through her shelter system.

On the surface, Max Briest is the owner of a shipping company passed down from her parents, who has significant philanthropic interests and is known for partying a little too hard sometimes and leaving behind a string of broken hearts. A little bit Paris Hilton, a little bit Sara Blakely.

It took her a while to move onto politics, because she wanted to ensure she had a stable backing before taking bigger risks, but she's been whispering in politicians' ears or blackmailing them to support certain bills or reforms. Sex and money are powerful tools when it comes to getting what she wants, and while she isn't always successful, the world is slowly starting to change.

Personality:

Max exists in a world where people became superheroes because that's What Should Be Done when someone suddenly wakes up with powers (thanks, comic books), and as the 'second generation' of powered people, she's been heavily influenced by the importance of stories. Combined with her own childhood of using fiction as an escape from reality, she tends to see the world in terms of narrative structures, and to understand her, you have to understand the roles she's cast herself in.

The first, of course, is the villain. She's being playing the part for so long that it doesn't matter anymore whether or not she is a bad person, she's convinced herself that she is, and that's all there is to it. She can do whatever needs to be done - by her own definition - without question, simply because she's the bad guy. Right or wrong don't matter to Max on the small scale, it's the big picture that's important, and that's what the Sphinx, the villain, is for, allowing her to do things that she couldn't do when she was playing superhero. It gives her a way to step back from herself, to view her actions as separate from her own feelings. One result of this is that she 'plays up' the villainy; she can be melodramatic, she presents herself alternatively as someone with a short fuse who's a little unstable and can snap at any moment, or as the cold, hard, killer who isn't affected by anything. Neither of these facades are real, but she uses either of them as necessary, depending on which will get the best results.

There are two other main roles she relies on, the protector and the seductress. The latter is fairly simple; occasionally people need to be convinced to do what she wants them to and in many cases, she relies quite heavily on the fact that men like attractive women who pay attention to them. She'll flirt with almost any man with the aim of getting them in a position from which she can manipulate them, even if she can't see an instant use for someone. If there is a goal to be achieved, Max will fit whatever role a man is after in order to get what she wants. Sometimes that means wrapping them around her finger, sometimes it's about getting them in compromising positions to get blackmail material. Her own feelings, and occasionally safety, don't matter in this regard. The problem with thinking of her body as thing to be used, is that it's left her with a warped perspective. Sex is a tool, rather than something to be enjoyed, as is her own body. Women are a different matter; due to her upbringing, Max hasn't moved past any homophobia she internalized. This never affects her thoughts or actions about others, but she is, essentially, terrified of being too close to women in case it reveals something about herself that she's been trying to hide. This only further complicates her issues with sex and affection.

The final role is the one she likes the most, even if she'd never actually admit that to herself. It's the way she deals with the people who she helps, the people living in the buildings she owns, or the girls slinking into clinics to get broken bones set or STIs treated, or the kids coming into soup kitchens looking for a meal they don't have to steal. It's a fairly distant role, she doesn't like to get involved for their sake, feeling that she's unsafe due to people targeting her and who she is as a person, but she's friendly, generous, and willing to take the time to help anyone out with a problem, no matter how small it is. Despite this being her favourite 'role', it's also the one she views as being the most constructed, because she sees herself as a monster, and doesn't think that someone can take pleasure in murdering people, then turn around and be kind. If she spent more of her time in this role, she might be happier.

As part of these roles, the most important thing about Max's personality is her obsession with control, both in a personal content, and in how she deals with others. The skills she learnt in childhood to keep herself safe have only improved with age, and she doesn't often react without careful thought. She might let her surprise, or happiness, or anger show, but only because she wants to, and it's very rare that something gets a genuine reaction out of her. It's not that she chooses every single word, or expression, or gesture, but she'll decide how she wants to interact with someone and tailor her behaviour around that. There's a skill in playing nicely with others, or riling them up to get what she wants.

The problem with Max, is that she's spent so long telling these lies about the sort of person she is, that she's started to believe them herself.


Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

Max's power has manifested in the form of shapeshifting, of a limited nature.

• She's restricted by the law of conservation of mass.
• She can only shift to things found in nature - i.e., she could turn her skin to bone (why) but not metal
• The process isn't automatic, she has to concentrate on what she wants to do and needs a working knowledge of what she's shifting to. Over time she's cut down the length of time and difficulty that certain shifts require, through practice.
• If depowered, unconscious, or otherwise incapacitated, she won't revert to her "default" form, as she doesn’t have one. Every shift is permanent until she shifts again. Max hasn't seen her original face since she was 22.
• Shifting is tiring and can be painful, if she overextends she needs to rest, and it's harder to shift if she's tired/drunk/etc.

My thoughts for warping were related to how important it is for Max to be in control. Normally her shifting is something that has to be done entirely consciously, and that takes a lot of effort, in Deerington it's going to be more linked to her emotional state, with her shifting unconsciously particularly when she's angry or upset. Max also has a form of "self-healing" in that she can shapeshift away bodily harm as long as she's conscious, rather than go with transferring them to another person, I'd prefer to nerf it to the point where she can't 'shift' away an open wound. She'll still be able to do things like move around arteries so she doesn't die if gravely injured, but she can't close up a cut or a bullet wound.

Inventory:
• Maurice, a very good boy, who is a rescue pitbull that's about 6 years old
• A 'Max' outfit: something alone these lines, an expensive skirt and shirt in light colors, louboutins, a coat, jewelery
• A 'Sphinx' outfit: black jeans, white t-shirt, leather boots, leather jacket, gun holster
• SIG Sauer handgun with a spare clip
• Leather handbag containing: her cellphone, a small make up palette, lipstick, a planner, a copy of The Awakening by Kate Chopin, wallet, mints, perfume, sunglasses, a small lockpicking set, a cigarette case with a dozen cigarettes inside and a lighter



Writing Samples:
Deerington January TDM
An IC inbox thread for another game, I picked this one because it features Max being somewhat more transparent with someone

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Justine
Player Age: Late 20s
Player Contact: batsecretary

Other Characters In Game: None
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Max Briest: Justine
Permissions for Character: here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Fuck me up.

What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Questioning reality, paranoia, the supernatural/occult, and I'm pretty into gothic horror
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Paedophilia, self-harm
Additional Information: n/a