Max

Actor Name as Maxine Stryfe

GENERAL Name: Maxine Stryfe Birthdate: {$birthdate} Faction: Superhero Team Codename: Max Position: Position/Job Title/Rank Hometown: Hometown FAMILY STATISTICS Partner(s): NA Height: {$height} Father: NA Weight: {$weight} Mother: NA Hair Color: {$haircolor} Siblings: NA Eye Color: {$eyecolor} Children: NA

Background

Maxine Stryfe was born on November 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, NYC, New York to Maxwell, a brilliant tech engineer, and Anna, a metahuman costumed hero. Anna reluctantly left to fight in WW2 after Pearl Harbor, leaving Maxwell to raise their 2-year-old daughter alone for a time. Afterwards, Anna rtired from heroing entirely, settling down to be with her family, especially her daughter, as Max had inherited her mother's metahuman ability. Still, as a result of the wartime period, Maxine was very close to her father growing up, and developed an interest in his projects, which both parents encouraged. She also learned to control her powers with her mother's guidance, and learned a great deal about hero culture.

Maxine elected to go to college as she got older, selecting Renneslear Polytechnic Institute for their dedication towards improving their environment towards female students and their Civil Engineering program. While things had improved on the campus, she still found it beneficial to take advantage of her non-traditional upbringing and preference for "max" to comport herself as 'one of the guys'. This continued when she graduated and took advantage of the ambiguity to join the New York State Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers as a dues-paying member.

Unfortunately, none of this made it any easier for a female engineer in 1963 to find good work, but Maxine eventually located a promising opportunity. Her metahuman ability, combined with a background in Civil Engineering, made her an excellent fit for a Job at Damage Control, Inc. helping perform cleanup and repairs after the city's all-to-common superpower-involved incidents. Unfortunately, it was not quite what she'd hoped, as the job turned out to be a lot more heavy lifting and a lot less engineering. But at least it was paying work. Now she just had to find someplace she could afford rent.

IC Events

Traits

Powers

• DENSITY CONTROL: Maxine possesses the ability to control the density of her body, and of materials in direct contact and proximity to her (IE: clothing). She can increase or decrease her body density in whole or part to extreme degrees, allowing her to pass through (relatively) solid objects at low densities or— on the other end of the spectrum— increase her muscle and bone density to produce exceptional strength and durability. The more extreme or complicated the manipulation, the more difficult and taxing using her power is. The range of her ability is sufficient to alter personal effects, such as articles of clothing, but she is unable to project her ability farther than a few inches, making it unsuitable for affecting larger objects such as people.
• FLIGHT: The most advanced use of her power Max has mastered is the ability to use a density gradient to float and propel herself in the air. It has been a lifelong ambition to accomplish this feat, and she has only recently gotten the hang of producing the effect. In theory, she should be able to fly at high speeds and altitudes, but for the moment, she's only practiced enough to manage flight on par with a small pilot's aircraft. She requires an atmosphere or similar medium in order to fly (even if somehow breathing wasn't an issue).

Skills

• MAKER CULTURE: Max grew up with a brilliant engineer father who didn't believe in traditional gender roles. She spent much of her childhood engrossed in her father's projects around the house, and continued her interests in college. As a result, she has a wide number of skills at a roughly semi-pro level including carpentry, masonry, construction, welding, electronics, mechanics, and glass-blowing. Most of these come in handy with the work she does.
• COLLEGE GRAD: Max holds a degree in Civil Engineering from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and is on the rolls of certified Civil Engineers.
• HARMONICA: Max plays a pretty mean harmonica. Even she does not know what possessed her to learn.

Advantages

• DAMAGE CONTROL: Max works for Damage Control, Inc., a company formed to clean up after and repair damage from New York City's many meta- and super-human-involved disasters. The company— and their workers— enjoy considerably better reputations in the eyes of the public than the typical powered individual. It also means she typically has a steady, if not generous, paycheck.
• HERO MOM: Max's powers were inherited from her mother— who was an active costumed hero before and during the war, after which she retired. This has meant she has and has had access to a person experienced with her own powers to learn from— as well as someone with contacts in the metahuman and hero communities.
• SMARTY-PANTS DAD: Max's dad is a brilliant engineer and great at tinkering… unfortunately he lives in a time of science and tech giants. But that's fine, he's got a good job doing exciting things in tech and a lot of stability. And also knowledge and contacts in the area when his daughter really needs them.
• AMBIGUOUS GENDER: She can't help people assuming Max isn't short for Maxine. She can't particularly help that in order to navigate college and work she's had to 'be one of the guys'. She can help the way she dresses or wears her hair, but she likes these things. In whatever case, sometimes the fact that Max is a woman goes unnoticed. Plus her dad's name is Maxwell. So that isn't going to be confusing or anything…

Flaws

• 0 EFFORT: Max's powers require conscious control, or she reverts to her natural density. This can render her vulnerable to damage at a regular human level, suddenly remove her airborne bouancy… cause her to regain cohesion while intermingled with a wall— any of which can be fatal. She must be cautious with her power use, since prolonged or unusually extreme use will exhaust her, leaving her unable to properly control her ability, or use it at all until she's recovered.
• YEP STILL A GIRL: It's the 60s and Max is female, even if people don't *always* notice. She certainly has her share of sexism to deal with, and somehow her job both doesn't make much use of her engineering degree (because it's a man's job) and does make use of her heavy lift capacity (because apparently that's not). Somehow, being frequently mistaken for male does not make this any easier to endure.
• DEVIL-MAY-CARE: Max's insistance on laughing everything off and letting almost nothing bother her is generally a benefit, but the incessant need to make light of everything can certainly backfire. Not everyone appreciates jokes about serious issues.
• BLUE COLLAR: Max has a good job with good benefits involved… but she's a worker. It's a nine-to-five(more or less), hourly, with sometimes-variable hours and it's not like she can just run off any old time she might need or want to. And hey, metahumans are all over these days— you can be replaced, sweetcheeks. And what happens if noone destroys SoHo for a whole week?

Gallery

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Logs

▼ Show logs

1963-11-20 - Galpalla Gauntlet (log: jack liv max social steve-rogers)

1963-11-02 - Cleanup in the Park (log: jennifer kingpin max mree olivercheng plot sinjin the-meanest-town-on-earth)

1963-10-22 - Confessions of Nine Hundred Year Old Asgardian (log: jack liv max social)

1963-09-27 - Paper Trail (log: brotherhood cain domino fred max plot)

1963-09-25 - A Good Start (log: liv luke max social)

1963-09-21 - Christmas Comes Early (log: jack liv max once-upon-a-hellmouth social)

1963-09-20 - Three's Company (log: jack liv max social)

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