Max Sawyer (art by Frogue)
Name: Maximilian "Max" Sawyer
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: Golf, racquetball, high spending, finance and economics, math, technology, casual dating
Appearance: Maximilian is tall, long-limbed and corded with lean muscle, with broad shoulders, a V-shaped torso and a defined core. He stands at 6’0” and 181 pounds, with lot of his height coming from his legs, and his body is overall well-proportioned, not unlike the build of a runner or swimmer. He is mixed-race, Caucasian and Hispanic, which gives him the slightly golden-brown tone to his skin.
Facially, Maximilian could be said to be classically handsome. He has angular features, a solid jaw, a slightly pointed nose, small hazel eyes and an average-sized mouth, which is full of carefully-perfected teeth. Max occasionally lets himself grow some light stubble, but usually keeps himself clean-shaven as personal preference. He has black hair, which is usually cut short except at the front and parted to his right.
Maximilian’s choices of attire tend towards flashiness while avoiding seeming stuffy, bar formal occasions. When suits and ties won’t do, he is often in light-coloured dress or polo shirts, dark slacks or khakis and black dress shoes or zip boots, a sport jacket usually kept on hand on colder days. During the trip, he was wearing a short-sleeved white polo shirt with red and black lining the sleeve openings, breast pocket opening and inside of the collar, a pair of black slacks with a belt, and black dress shoes.
Biography: Max was born into big money. His father, Jordan Sawyer, earned his position as senior partner of a major Seattle-based consulting firm through family connections to his own father, and met successful Brazilian model Adelia Santos during a routine business trip. They fell in love, married two years later, and their first child was conceived during the honeymoon. The pregnancy and resulting birth were uneventful, and the baby boy was named Maximilian, a Latin name Jordan chose for its meaning - “greatest”. He wasn’t an only child for long, as his little sister Luciana was born sixteen months later, completing the family.
The Sawyers have always been a close, loving family, and weren’t shy about using their money to show it. Max and his sister had anything they could possibly want growing up at their home in The Highlands, a gated community overlooking the Puget Sound. While their parents remained busy, not having stopped working after having two children, the Sawyer siblings were showered with expensive gifts and games, and were very rarely told there was anything they couldn’t have. While this didn't affect Luciana much, and she remained very mellow by nature, their parents' lack of ability to say no to them led Max to grow into a very spoiled child who simply felt entitled to everything, becoming sulky and irritable whenever he was denied something he wanted. This was reinforced by friends he made among other children in the community, many of whom were similarly spoiled. In an attempt to counteract this, and get Max and his sister used to interacting with people less fortunate than themselves, his father put both children into the public school system.
Rather than mellowing out, putting Max in public school just upset him; he didn’t like associating with the children around him, and felt like he was being punished, because he was separated from the friends he had made in the neighbourhood, most of whom went to private schools. While he did eventually adjust and begin socialising with his peers, this led to him manifesting an elitist streak and seeing himself as better than those not as well-off as himself and his family. Despite this, he enjoyed some popularity in his early school years, mainly from other children impressed by his lavish home and the fact he always had the nicest toys. This and his spoiled nature would combine and lead him to associate wealth with happiness and popularity, an impression that stayed with him as he grew up.
While he was upset with his parents for putting him in public school, Max remained close to them both, doing his best to emulate his father from an early age. This included dressing like him, copying some of his mannerisms, expressing a desire to work at his company when he grew up and even asking to be taught how to play golf and racquetball, which Jordan was happy to do. He took to both games quickly, frequently practising and playing when he could, excited by racquetball’s fast pace and finding golf relaxing. He still plays racquetball recreationally, seeing it as a fun hobby and networking tool - he often goes with his father. His sister is closer to his mother than he is, but Max is by no means distant, enjoying spending time around her and hearing stories of growing up in Brazil. While Jordan was concerned with Max's "more money = better" attitude, seeing it as potentially leading to trouble, Adelia has seen it as him manifesting a strong drive to be successful, and has encouraged it on some level by expressing her pride in him. Max has also grown very protective of Luciana, and some of the rare times he's been in trouble have been because he's got in scuffles with boys who were giving her trouble; Luciana considers herself close to Max, but finds him a little overbearing and more class and money-conscious than she would like.
Life went on uneventfully, and by the time Max entered middle school he knew what he wanted from his future, namely going to Princeton like his father did, getting a job at the firm and eventually taking it over. These goals, and his already close ties with his father, would inform a lot of his interests at this stage of his academic career, such as mathematics, economics and finance, and technology - Max was always fascinated by electronics, and as Seattle’s industry is so technology-based it only made sense to go into, while he always enjoyed the number-crunching of maths and finance, feeling smart when he figured problems out. His money, athletic build and brash, confident demeanour led to his popularity continuing, particularly with female students; he has had a string of relationships both serious and casual through middle and high school, usually unceremoniously dumping his girlfriend at the time once he got bored.
Going through high school, Max saw no reason to change his behaviour, be it his elitist attitude or casual approach to dating, rarely running into problems he couldn’t seemingly throw his money at. He grew to have a very large ego, seeing his life and by extension himself as perfect, unaware of how his actions have given him a negative reputation among more and more students. While others have called him out on his behaviour, and reacted negatively towards him for it, he has shown no interest in changing for the better. When people close to him have done so, such as during his relationship with basketball player Becca Everett, he has become abrasive and irritable towards them, and often cut off contact with the person in question. He feels his father will use his wealth to protect him from any serious consequences of his actions, and that in the worst-case scenario he can just bribe people with money and expensive gifts.
He joined the golf team in his freshman year, and has since worked his way up to being their captain, while also working to make himself a mainstay in Aurora’s social scene. Academically, he has let himself coast by on the minimum effort needed to maintain a B average, convinced his money and family connections will get him into Princeton no matter what he does, but feeling he shouldn't just completely blow school off, either. His GPA is held aloft by good performance in the classes that actually interest him, though he has been known to tune out in classes like English that he perceives as uninteresting or a waste of time. On the whole he seems to have been correct, as he received his acceptance letter this year.
Max has also tried to start a number of entrepreneurial endeavours over the years, in part to pad out his resume and in part for the fun of it. The most notable of these has been part of his relationship with his current girlfriend, Zoe Leverett, which started when he noticed her artistic talents and offered to use his family's wealth and connections to act as something like an agent. This eventually evolved into them beginning to date, and they have pursued their relationship for about a year. This has become rather unhealthy, as while Max continues to support Zoe's artistic work and regularly offers gifts and displays of affection, he has also taken to belittling her and verbally abusing her, often becoming angry if she challenges his opinion on matters or asks him to change his behaviour. He also regularly cheats on her with girls from Aurora and outside the school, though he tries to keep this fact away from Zoe to avoid dealing with the drama and harm to his reputation.
As his time at Aurora draws to a close, Max is already planning for his future, having long since decided on what he’ll study at Princeton and what he’ll do while there. He often ridicules students who have made the mistake of not going into majors like business, finance or at least engineering, telling them they're wasting their time and money. He blows off negative responses and arguments to the contrary, as he feels most fellow students' opinions aren't worth considering and isn't particularly interested in a real discussion on the matter. He remains close with his family, who have largely given up on getting him out of his elitist phase, hoping he’ll grow out of it.
Advantages: Being an athlete, Maximilian is in good physical shape, with good upper body and core strength, as well as agility and reflexes from his racquetball hobby. He is charismatic, which could help win people over as allies, and if people are willing to listen to him he has some leadership skills. He is good at putting himself first, and very self-assured; he won’t take the possibility of failure into account with anything he does. Despite his reputation, he does have a reliable circle of friends he can fall back on.
Disadvantages: Maximilian is cocky and overconfident, a legend in his own mind - this attitude has embittered many of his peers towards him, and leaves him prone to underestimate the competition. His reputation for selfishness won’t win trust easily, and he has a string of exes and people he’s hurt who might look to get even. He isn’t used to problems he can’t solve with his money. Maximilian is used to everything just falling in his lap, and will be out of his element faced with genuine hardship; outside of playing golf and racquetball, he is unused to real adversity or physical strain, and he has a tendency to get irritable when things don’t go his way. He hasn’t always had the easiest time focusing on things.
Designated Number: Male student No. 079
Designated Weapon: Exploding Cigar
Conclusion: Whenever this job becomes difficult, I'll take solace in the fact that it removes a few assholes like this guy from the world. Unless every player on the island values money more than life, this wanker won't stand much of a chance. - Penny Sullivan
The above biography is as written by Slayer. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.
Evaluations[]
The progression of Max's injuries (art by Frogue)
Kills: Becca Everett, Amy Bachelor, Ilya Volkov, Lydia Robbins, Emily Rose, Harry Hanley
Killed By: Harry Hanley
Collected Weapons: Exploding cigar (designated weapon, exploded, no longer usable), .44 Magnum Colt Anaconda Revolver (from Becca Everett), Benelli M4 Super 90 (from Lydia Robbins)
Allies:
Enemies: Becca Everett, Amy Bachelor, Ilya Volkov, Lydia Robbins, Chase Rodriguez, Emily Rose, Harry Hanley
Mid-game Evaluation:
Post-Game Evaluation:
Memorable Quotes:
Other/Trivia[]
- In August '13, Maximilian won the BKA along with Joachim Lovelace and Rosemary Michaels.
Threads[]
Below is a list of threads that contain Max, in chronological order.
V5:
Your Thoughts[]
Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Maximilian Sawyer. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!
So much potential, turned into a gigantic waste of time even having bothered to write. Ekyl (talk) 01:18, January 17, 2014 (UTC)
I was hoping to find Max on The Dead every time I went to the site. I suppose that was the intention, but he should have either been killed off sooner or he should have died in a more grandiouse manner. He's the kind of character you love to hate and needed a more fitting death. It was also frustrating to see him take down two people before he finally croaked. It's hard to see someone firing adequately after being beaten bloody and having a floodlight shone in their face. It's harder still to imagine someone managing a witty retort after having their shoulder gibbed by a .50 cal much less firing a shotgun. -- Anonymous Persona.
Well, I knew this kid named Max. He made fat stacks, out on the corner with drugs. He liked to stay up late, get shit faced, and keep pace with thugs. Until late one night, there was this big gun fight, and Max lost his head. He pulled out his chrome .45, talked some shit, and wound up dead. -- Everlast.