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BACKGROUND:
Max at the “Life is Strange” wiki.
In Max’s world, it is October of 2013 in Arcadia Bay, Oregon, and her story centers around events at Blackwell Academy. After discovering her temporal abilities and reversing Chloe’s death at the hands of an unstable Blackwell student named Nathan Prescott, Max had to learn to balance her newfound power with her school life. Max generally preferred to remain kind, comforting an arrogant Victoria Chase over a ruined sweater (damage which Max had, admittedly, caused after being bullied by her) and erasing cruel graffiti on a school friend’s slate, as well as intervening when said friend, Kate Marsh, was being pushed around by the school security guard, David Madsen. She also began to discover how brave she could be, reporting Nathan to her principal despite doubts and taking the blame for her childhood friend, Chloe Price, when she got caught with a joint in her room by said aforementioned security guard (who, unfortunately for the two friends, was Chloe’s step-father).
Max also found herself becoming more active at her school, helping her schoolmates through various social situations and even signing a petition by one of her favorite teachers, who was putting in an effort to stop some unreasonable security measures from taking place at the academy. She also got ahold of her powers - sometimes in slightly non-savory ways, from re-doing conversations to make the outcome more favorable to her to peeking at a friend’s (positive) pregnancy test without getting caught (as far as said friend remembered, at least) to rearranging Victoria Chase’s photos in the form of an obscene gesture before reversing it so she wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences.
However, not all of Max’s use of her powers were selfish. She was able to comfort a suicidal Kate Marsh, the act ultimately giving Max the opportunity to talk Kate down (an opportunity which was thankfully successful), not to mention preventing or otherwise undoing Chloe Price’s many would-have been deaths. And despite her slip-ups, Max was able to repeatedly prove herself both caring and (mostly) responsible. She managed to not kill off her poor house (dorm?) plant, and was even able to (sort of) make friends with Victoria Chase along with quite a few other members of the Vortex Club. Whether it was small (ish) things, like helping a friend with his science project, or larger stuff, such as making sure a local drug dealer’s dog didn’t come to harm, Max proved herself to be more moral than she may have otherwise been capable of acting, even preventing her best friend from stealing charity money in order to get out of debt.
Most of these things paid, off, but at a price. Max’s constant meddling with Chloe’s destiny caused the town of Arcadia Bay to fall out of whack. First, it was snowflakes when it was far too warm for them. Then a solar eclipse when one wasn’t scheduled and animals suddenly dying everywhere in the town. At one point, a successful venture by Max to stop Chloe’s beloved father from dying in their past resulted in the timeline changing entirely, resulting in Chloe being a paraplegic after a car crash and Max being a part of the Vortex Club. Although the timeline was eventually restored to what it was, Max was deeply scarred by what she had done, and promised herself she was done with it, resolving to solve the mysteries of the present without screwing up the past.
After a heartfelt talk with Kate at the hospital and a lot of introspection, Max headed to the boys’ dorms, gathering the info she needed on Nathan Prescott with Kate and Chloe’s help. She wanted to make him pay for what he had done - and more than that, she wanted answers. Despite being threatened by him, Max and Chloe were able to get away with Warren’s help, though Max had to stop her friend from pounding Nathan into a bloody pulp. Later, she and Chloe went off to meet Chloe’s drug dealer (and Rachel’s lover), Frank, where they had a heart-to-heart chat, finally getting over their differences and working together in an attempt to find Rachel - though not before Max had to rewind in order to stop Chloe from shooting Frank and his dog in self-defense.
A heavy afternoon of playing snoop and sorting the secrets from the lies later, Chloe and Max finally hit pay dirt. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it was a musty old barn, where a hidden set of steps lead to a secret room that was set up like some twisted photographer’s studio. Even worse, a series of red binders held pictures full of unfortunate women of Blackwell, doped out of their minds - and two of the binders had pictures of Kate and Rachel Amber. A third binder Max investigated, labelled “Victoria”, was thankfully empty - but Max knew who the dark room’s next victim would be. Sadly, a trip to the junkyard proved their worst fears: it was already too late for Rachel, and it had been for a long time. Max could do nothing but embrace a broken-hearted Chloe, and together, they made a vow to stop the horrible events of the dark room once and for all.
Max headed out to the Vortex Club’s “End of the World” party, more than ready to have the terrible mystery over and done with. There, she almost befriended many members of the club, and even managed to get Victoria to believe her about being the next intended victim of the Dark Room. Before long, however, Chloe received a final text from Nathan, gloating about how he intended to destroy the evidence. But something was wrong. Upon getting there, Max found herself with a needle in her neck. Unable to rewind, she could only watch in horror as Chloe was shot in the head… and to make matters worse, she was wrong about who was truly behind all this. Mr. Jefferson, the teacher that everyone in Blackwell Academy adored, had been taking the pictures.
And so he took pictures of Max. Drugged and afraid, she was the perfect subject in his eyes, and he alternately spoke to her tenderly and shouted at her for messing up his shots. Max found herself forced to desperately rewind time, via photo and otherwise, over and over in her attempts to both escape from him and stop him - and even though she’d thought the hellish situation over after she’d gotten Jefferson arrested (and even won a trip to San Francisco after winning that timeline’s version of the “Everyday Heroes” contest), she continued her rewinds, tirelessly searching for a way to save Chloe and stop the tornado.
Eventually, she ran out of time. The twister hit the town, and although Max was rescued by David in the nick of time, she couldn’t bring herself to hell him the truth of what happened to his step-daughter. Instead, she raced out into the oncoming storm in order to get to the photo Warren had taken of himself and Max earlier at the party, once again desperate to save Chloe and stop the storm once and for all. This time, however, something was wrong. Max’s frequent breaking of reality’s rules culminated in time itself appearing to begin to tear apart. Although Max was able to reach Chloe again, she collapsed in her dearest friend’s arms, forced to make her way through a nightmare, which seemed to take pleasure in pointing out all the ways she’d fucked up Arcadia Bay. Always take the shot. Nevertheless, Max got the message: it was her fault. Saving Chloe - who had been destined to die from the start - and continuing to stop her death, had somehow caused reality to break, and its increasingly desperate attempts to fix itself had caused the tornado.
Ultimately, she were forced to make a terrible choice. Would Chloe die, and Arcadia Bay be saved - or could Max find it in herself to sacrifice her childhood home, all for the sake of her beloved friend? Ultimately, the town won out, and at Chloe’s prompting, Max agreed to allow the timeline to be fixed, resulting in Chloe dying at the hands of Nathan Prescott, which ended up getting Jefferson arrested upon Nathan’s guilt-ridden confession to the police (something which also served to expose the utterly corrupt Prescotts for what they truly were) - which was what Chloe’s death had been destined to do all along.
PERSONALITY: Quiet, shy, and sweet, Max isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the word “hero”. She prefers to keep to herself, whether in class or in public, and while she is capable of actual conversation - even with strangers - she would much rather be off by herself, taking a few candid photos here and there and listening to her choice of music. She’s well aware of these tendencies, but much prefers to stay withdrawn, finding it easier to sort through her thoughts that way. As she herself is prone to admit, she prefers to observe the world much more often than participate in it.
That said, she is willing to do the latter; it just often takes a friend to give her a gentle prod (and maybe a few pointed remarks) to set her in the “social” direction, and she’s always happy to lend an ear or give some caring advice when asked. Furthermore, she always makes an effort to show kindness to those around her, whether talking to the weird janitor at her school, using her rewind powers to help a fellow student dodge some careless throws in the general direction of her head, or talking a friend down from a suicide attempt. Quiet though she is, there’s no denying Max’s bravery. She’s willing to put herself in harm’s way to help her friends, from taking the heat for a joint that isn’t hers to openly talking with an authority figure about a dangerous student. She’s even ready to dive headlong into an impromptu investigation to find her best friend’s other best friend, despite never having met or even spoken to her once.
Despite what she’s done in the past and what she’s capable of, Max remains extremely humble, often saying things like “I had no choice” when having her good deeds pointed out to her, and outright telling others she doesn’t feel as though she’s really done anything. Contrary to what a few people at her school might like to believe, Max is genuine about this; she simply feels as though her powers and general habit of being in the right place at the right time gives her a better shot than most might have at fixing whatever mess is at hand. She fully believes the old, comic-book adage of “With great power comes great responsibility”, and sticks to it fiercely (except when influenced to do otherwise while learning more about her abilities). She’s well aware that her powers may not last forever, but has decided to do as much with them as she can, preferring to help rather than harm. That said, the catastrophic consequences of Max’s abilities have given her more than one reason to hold them back, meaning she now only relies on them in case of absolute emergency - and even then, she may not make use of them.
True to her appearance as something of a teacher’s pet, Max is smart and reasonable. Despite her decidedly average grades, she makes a decent detective in a pinch, and her curiosity (or nosiness, as many would put it) has helped her in several sticky situations. Like any photographer, Max has a great eye for details and an excellent sense of timing, and it’s served her well, in and outside of class. However, that most certainly doesn’t mean she’s incapable of screwing up. Her shyness and general reluctance to participate can often cause people to think she doesn’t care or has even forgotten about them, and her nosiness, albeit useful when it comes to solving the occasional mystery, has an especial habit of showing up at the wrong time, which can do anything from causing some awkward moments to being downright offensive. She’s also incredibly clumsy when one doesn’t take her time-based powers into account, often breaking things or otherwise knocking them over and causing some rather inconvenient messes at equally inconvenient times.
Max tends towards the decidedly geeky, enjoying cheesy old movies (and even unpopular ones, such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within) and video games, World of Warcraft being one of her favorites. Her tastes in music lean towards the underground (Syd Matters being one of her favorite bands), the likes of which marks her as a hipster. She’s well aware of this, even making the occasional self-deprecating joke, but she also, naturally, likes her tastes and doesn’t really give a shit what anybody else thinks about it. Max has a rather dorky sense of humor, and while she often keeps this to herself, she’s not above using dated slang or making the occasional (or maybe not so occasional) bad joke or pun.
Photography is Max’s passion, and it’s something she’ll happily geek about to anyone who will listen. She much prefers analog to digital photography - something that’s obvious to anyone who’s even slightly familiar with photography - and although she specializes in selfies, she also enjoys taking photos of her surroundings, either of local wildlife, graffitied mementos, or even of her friends (or the pranks she’s capable of playing on people who aren’t her friends). She very much hopes to become a photographer one day, which is why she takes her studies (at least those directly involving photography) seriously.
After everything she’s been through, Max is tougher than she looks. Although still nervous and even jittery around strangers, Max has discovered she has a will of iron, more than enough to stare down sociopathic narcissists and creepy bullies - and then some. Although she prefers not to show it until the chips are down, Max no longer scares quite so easily as her manner and appearance would have one believe. However, despite being markedly tougher than before, she still doesn’t like violence or guns and will make her disapproval of either clear, save in life-threatening situations.
POWER: Max’s powers revolve around time, whether reversing time to do a conversation over, stopping it to give herself time to get there, and even visions of the future when her powers have affected it. While she does also have the ability to travel back in time to a previous version of herself (which is triggered by focusing on a photograph of her past), this ability will not be available to her in-game. Furthermore, while it’s implied in her canon that Max jumps to alternate timelines in order to re-write things, this will not be the case here.
Rewind: By focusing and reaching out her hand, Max is able to reverse a short amount of time, allowing her a “do-over” of events. While using this power, Max retains any items gathered before she activates her ability, and she remains where she was at the time she activated her power, making it appear as though she’s teleported, though this isn’t the case. Max is able to use this ability as often as she wants - at least to a point. Should she overuse it, her head begins pounding and her nose begins to bleed. Further abuse results in Max being completely drained for a few hours and renders her unable to use this power in the meantime. Although Max is generally only able to “rewind” for anywhere within ten minutes or less, she is nonetheless still able to retain knowledge she’s gained prior to that. However, these powers can have even worse consequences than headaches or nosebleeds - should Max alter the timeline in a way that stops something that truly needs to occur, this can cause eclipses and changes in the ecosystem, be it by causing it to snow in warm weather, animals suddenly dying in large amounts, or by generating a huge hurricane that’s capable of destroying an entire city. This doesn’t come without warnings or attempts to fix it, however; should this happen, the timeline will attempt to correct itself several times before any real disasters begin. Note: In this case, the potentially disastrous results of Max’s powers shall be left up to mod approval.
Visions: Max is able to see the consequences of her temporal abilities - but only when they go too far. Should Max end up changing the timeline to the point where destiny breaks just a little too much, Max will receive a vision of the ultimate results. These visions often strike Max at inopportune times, and she has no control over them - and unfortunately, getting them tends to cause her to immediately pass out until it’s over. However, this is limited only to the end results; the “warning” signs, often in the form of small (but weird) changes in the weather, dying animals, and the like go unforeseen by her.
Time Stop: If she focuses her powers enough, Max is able to stop time altogether, which she can keep up as long as she’s able to focus. When this occurs, only Max is aware of this, and only she is able to move. While this is going on, Max is wholly unable to pass through solid objects, but she is able to move inanimate objects and open doors and the like. Using this power drain Max more quickly than her rewind abilities, however, and much like her “Rewind” ability, her nose will bleed. She also has little control over this ability, and is, for now, only able to activate this particular power under incredible stress, and that means by mod approval only.
