Maxwell 'Max' McCormick
Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:11 am
Name: Maxwell “Max” Seamus McCormick
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th Grade
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Playing Music, Academics, Drugs
Appearance: Max is not one to put a lot of effort into his appearance. At 5’8” tall and 163lbs, his general physical form would be completely average were it not for his most defining feature: the left side of his face. Where his left eye should be is instead an empty socket, and although facial reconstruction surgery has dramatically reduced the extent of the damage, the skin around his left eye still sags and droops and will do so for the rest of his life.
His remaining eye is a bright green- a fitting tribute to his Irish heritage when combined with his ginger-red hair and his heavily freckled complexion. Max’s skin is starkly pale- he burns quickly on sunny days, and even when filtered behind clouds his freckles are quick to darken, seemingly multiplying as the lightest of them discolours. His nose is small and narrow, his ears are tight to his head, and he takes no attention over his hair, leaving it a uniquely tangled mess each time he wakes up in the morning. If Max spent some time taking care of himself, he might be able to be called handsome by the right person, but his utter apathy keeps this lofty goal high above him.
This lack of attention and care extends to his clothing choices too. Max’s entire wardrobe is monochromatic, and that single colour is black. Black shirts, black jeans, black hoodies and occasionally a black jacket, Max habitually shuns graphics, decals, text, or really any distinguishing features from his clothing, partially out of a genuine disinterest, and partially from his habit of buying clothes from Walmart and Goodwill stores and being reluctant for people to realise this.
Only a few things really stick out as unusual or uncommon about Max’s clothing habits. Firstly, he still wears a mask past the pandemics end, secondly, there’s the crucifix that constantly hangs from his neck and finally there’s the skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his right bicep, complete with pirate hat and eyepatch over its left eyehole. Keeping in fashion with the rest of his garments, both the necklace of the crucifix and the mask are black, the only variation being the plain gunmetal of the symbol that hangs over his sternum.
On the day of the abduction, Max was wearing a black long-sleeved t-shirt, a set of black jeans, a pair of black trainers, a black zip-up hoodie, a black beanie, his crucifix, and a disposable black cotton mask.
Biography: Maxwell Seamus McCormick was born on the 16th of February 2003 to Liam McCormick and Catherine McCormick, in NSMC Salem Hospital, to become the eldest of three brothers. By all accounts he was a fairly normal, average baby, and would continue to be a fairly average toddler. Perhaps, had things gone differently, Max’s life would have followed this most average of trajectories, but when he was four years and three months old, tragedy struck. Riding in the back seat of his dad’s (an independent construction contractor) truck, the vehicle was rear-ended at a stop sign. Improperly secured lumber in the back of the pickup was sent flying forward, smashing into the left side of the young boy’s head. The results were gruesome, to say the least, but the greatest damage was caused to the boy’s left eye.
Much of Max’s frontal process and cheek were shattered, and the impact was so great that most of his orbital nerves and muscles were irreparably damaged. His left eye was simultaneously crushed, even as it detached- by the time he reached the hospital, it was very clear that it was completely beyond saving. The complicated surgery that was required should have bankrupted the McCormick family- and it was only thanks to a large effort by not only the extended McCormick clan, but also his local church that his mother and father were able to pay for it at all.
Now, as an adult, Max’s memories of the accident and the immediate recovery from it are hazy. He remembers hospital visits, ophthalmologists, vision therapy and a nagging sense of loss that permeated him for years in his early childhood. Details, however, have always escaped him- the names of his doctors, the first time he felt comfortable with just his single eye, how many sessions he spent with his therapist. Young children are remarkably resilient to even vast and catastrophic changes though- as an adult, most of Max’s memory is broad strokes.
Finally, after more than a year of recovery, Max was set to return to school. Unfortunately, this return was not a smooth or easy process. A year behind most of his peers, any hope of finding a niche for himself was ruined when the mockery started. Torment spurred Max to retreat into his shell, which, in turn only spurred further isolation from his fellow children. Turning to academics as a something he could more easily control, Max’s grades climbed to a peak he’s never really left.
Aside from academics, one other hobby would provide Max with some escapism- music. One Mr. Roland, a once idealistic music teacher in a badly underfunded music department taught Max how to play guitar. To Max, it was almost perfect: an activity that didn’t involve his missing eye, didn’t leave him to be mocked by his peers and even had the approval of his parents, who saw his interest in an extracurricular hobby as a positive step in his development.
This focus on music and academics has placed him into an interesting dynamic with his siblings. Both Finn, the middle brother at 15, and Owen, the youngest at 11, are rather active and much prefer the gridiron and soccer field to the library. Luckily for them however, Max isn't the sort of brother to beget the others old notes and homework help, and he'd consider himself very much friendly with the pair of them.
It would not be impossible to place some of the blame for the lack of action on Max himself. Not one for the sort of violence that normally discourages bullies, Max’s initial forays into informing school authorities, although resulting in punishment, normally ended up with him in more pain once said punishment had concluded. Slowly but surely, the boy stopped speaking up so much, settling in to resigned silence about the issue. Max’s parents did, of course, note his increasing retreat into his room, but being busy, working class people with two other children to handle sucked away much of their time. When Max stopped keeping them in the loop, they tried to press for information, only for the shrugs and muttered comments to push them away from being able to help.
By the time that Middle School rolled around Max’s plight had become a self-perpetuating cycle- Max had developed a caustic outer shell that pushed away anyone who even tried to be friends, which thus encouraged further bullying, which, in turn, only thickened Max’s shell. Max’s main retreat was his music- his interest in which only deepened since his initial introduction to it. Over the years, Max managed to put together enough money to afford an electronic and acoustic six-string guitar as well as an electronic four-string bass, all of which he would consider his most prized possessions. Although not particularly lyrically creative, Max is fond of jamming and playing to himself- his insular ways having prevented him from joining or forming a band.
Max’s drug dealing began shortly after he moved to High School. To Max, the whole business seemed simply practical- although he did smoke weed, this was not his main product. Instead, Max worked with prescription medicine- primarily Ritalin and Adderall, but also depressants such as Valium. Very rarely Max might get his hands on prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, which he sells quickly or dumps if he can’t- opiates bringing too much trouble with them. These drugs have several advantages when it comes to dealing in John Endecott- firstly, it’s much easier to pass off prescription drugs as something one is supposed to have during a random bag check, secondly, it has no tell-tale smell like weed does, and thirdly, they have the advantage of being a common occurrence in many American households- including his own.
In addition to the ways in which the drugs themselves are easy to get away with having, Max has an additional benefit to escaping notice- he’s widely seen as a quiet, good-mannered kid. Most teachers, when they pay attention to Max at all, see a reclusive but well-behaved boy struck by tragedy in his early life and bullying in his current one, and thus he tends to build rapport with most of them quite well. Most of the altercations that Max does get into are very small-scale: being tripped up or being shoulder-checked whilst he’s carrying things, the sort of things that avoid bringing the attention of campus security down on him. Most of the bullying Max suffers is emotional- largely revolving around isolation from his peers and a never-ending grind of insults and nicknames, all of which he’s heard before.
When it comes to Max’s own drug use, his parents are fairly ambivalent about weed, which they are aware he consumes. As working-class parents, they have bigger issues with him smoking a legal substance with his own money. Since he only started smoking at 16 he's never been particularly subtle about it, and to an extent they've appreciated his honesty. Since Max has independent control of his own finances he’s able to hide the extra income he gets from drug dealing without raising any questions.
The COVID pandemic was perhaps one of the few events that Max was well-placed for. A regular recluse without many friends anyway, Max didn’t experience a great shift aside from the move to online teaching. Although it temporarily reduced his income from dealing, as the pandemic wore on and people began to feel more trapped indoors his number of clients actually went up, and he found hiding his face behind a mask so pleasant that he continues to do so even after the pandemic’s end.
Max has an unusual dislike for the ‘witchiness’ that infuses Salem culture. Having been taunted as a freak, demon, and something that would have been killed during the Witch Trials, he now categorically rejects most of the occult and horror writing in general, including that which isn’t even particularly linked to the trials- Poe, Lovecraft, Stoker, and even, to an extent, modern writers like King all fall under his ire.
Perhaps because of this, as well as his crucifix, one might assume that Max is fairly religious. As a confirmed Catholic in a family of other confirmed Catholics Max has certainly had a lot of religious influence in his life, although as he grew older, he found himself attending church less and less regularly, and most would classify him as a lapsed or backsliding Catholic.
Unsurprisingly, Max has had a total of zero romantic relationships in his life- in fact, Max has not so much as had his first kiss, let alone his first anything else. To Max, this isn’t really a topic of much discussion or concern to him- it simply is, and although of course he’d like things to change, he rarely devotes much time to thinking about relationships either positively or negatively.
Platonically speaking, Max’s friend circle is incredibly small and insular, mostly occupied by those that have experienced life-altering accidents in their lives too. It’s very rare for Max to approach someone to initiate a friendship, especially now, in High School, and so almost all of his friends that he has now have been those that made friends with him earlier in life and have stuck with him. To those he doesn’t know yet is thrown in with- say, those he does group projects with, Max tends to isolate himself away from them, doing the work as quickly as possible, saying as little as possible, and moving on as rapidly as possible.
Academically, Max performs very well. He routinely scores As and A+s, with none of his grades dipping into Cs and only a few falling into Bs. Max is a something of a Math whiz- numbers seem to slot into place easily for him, and he’s naturally found himself more drawn to it. Although Max is quite passive about future planning, he is aware that his grades and economic situation are enough to potentially get him a scholarship into a prestigious university in New England. To his parents, this is the sort of prospect they often comment they would have dreamed of, and frequently encourage him to be more proactive in figuring out a major and getting his applications in order. Although he’s yet to make a firm commitment one way or another, he remains hopeful as to future prospects.
Advantages: Although Max’s bullying didn’t come from him being a nerd, the descriptor wouldn’t be inaccurate for him. He’s quite intellectually capable, with a surprising breadth of knowledge and excellent critical thinking skills. In addition, he also has a relatively high pain tolerance, partially from bully-inflicted scraps and bruises, and partially from phantom pain he still experiences more than a decade after the accident.
Disadvantages:To start with the most obvious weakness Max has, his missing eye makes depth perception difficult and greatly reduces his peripheral vision. Max also sunburns incredibly easily, even in relatively mild weather, and he’s not particularly physically strong thanks to his focus on academics and music.
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Grade: 12th Grade
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: Playing Music, Academics, Drugs
Appearance: Max is not one to put a lot of effort into his appearance. At 5’8” tall and 163lbs, his general physical form would be completely average were it not for his most defining feature: the left side of his face. Where his left eye should be is instead an empty socket, and although facial reconstruction surgery has dramatically reduced the extent of the damage, the skin around his left eye still sags and droops and will do so for the rest of his life.
His remaining eye is a bright green- a fitting tribute to his Irish heritage when combined with his ginger-red hair and his heavily freckled complexion. Max’s skin is starkly pale- he burns quickly on sunny days, and even when filtered behind clouds his freckles are quick to darken, seemingly multiplying as the lightest of them discolours. His nose is small and narrow, his ears are tight to his head, and he takes no attention over his hair, leaving it a uniquely tangled mess each time he wakes up in the morning. If Max spent some time taking care of himself, he might be able to be called handsome by the right person, but his utter apathy keeps this lofty goal high above him.
This lack of attention and care extends to his clothing choices too. Max’s entire wardrobe is monochromatic, and that single colour is black. Black shirts, black jeans, black hoodies and occasionally a black jacket, Max habitually shuns graphics, decals, text, or really any distinguishing features from his clothing, partially out of a genuine disinterest, and partially from his habit of buying clothes from Walmart and Goodwill stores and being reluctant for people to realise this.
Only a few things really stick out as unusual or uncommon about Max’s clothing habits. Firstly, he still wears a mask past the pandemics end, secondly, there’s the crucifix that constantly hangs from his neck and finally there’s the skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his right bicep, complete with pirate hat and eyepatch over its left eyehole. Keeping in fashion with the rest of his garments, both the necklace of the crucifix and the mask are black, the only variation being the plain gunmetal of the symbol that hangs over his sternum.
On the day of the abduction, Max was wearing a black long-sleeved t-shirt, a set of black jeans, a pair of black trainers, a black zip-up hoodie, a black beanie, his crucifix, and a disposable black cotton mask.
Biography: Maxwell Seamus McCormick was born on the 16th of February 2003 to Liam McCormick and Catherine McCormick, in NSMC Salem Hospital, to become the eldest of three brothers. By all accounts he was a fairly normal, average baby, and would continue to be a fairly average toddler. Perhaps, had things gone differently, Max’s life would have followed this most average of trajectories, but when he was four years and three months old, tragedy struck. Riding in the back seat of his dad’s (an independent construction contractor) truck, the vehicle was rear-ended at a stop sign. Improperly secured lumber in the back of the pickup was sent flying forward, smashing into the left side of the young boy’s head. The results were gruesome, to say the least, but the greatest damage was caused to the boy’s left eye.
Much of Max’s frontal process and cheek were shattered, and the impact was so great that most of his orbital nerves and muscles were irreparably damaged. His left eye was simultaneously crushed, even as it detached- by the time he reached the hospital, it was very clear that it was completely beyond saving. The complicated surgery that was required should have bankrupted the McCormick family- and it was only thanks to a large effort by not only the extended McCormick clan, but also his local church that his mother and father were able to pay for it at all.
Now, as an adult, Max’s memories of the accident and the immediate recovery from it are hazy. He remembers hospital visits, ophthalmologists, vision therapy and a nagging sense of loss that permeated him for years in his early childhood. Details, however, have always escaped him- the names of his doctors, the first time he felt comfortable with just his single eye, how many sessions he spent with his therapist. Young children are remarkably resilient to even vast and catastrophic changes though- as an adult, most of Max’s memory is broad strokes.
Finally, after more than a year of recovery, Max was set to return to school. Unfortunately, this return was not a smooth or easy process. A year behind most of his peers, any hope of finding a niche for himself was ruined when the mockery started. Torment spurred Max to retreat into his shell, which, in turn only spurred further isolation from his fellow children. Turning to academics as a something he could more easily control, Max’s grades climbed to a peak he’s never really left.
Aside from academics, one other hobby would provide Max with some escapism- music. One Mr. Roland, a once idealistic music teacher in a badly underfunded music department taught Max how to play guitar. To Max, it was almost perfect: an activity that didn’t involve his missing eye, didn’t leave him to be mocked by his peers and even had the approval of his parents, who saw his interest in an extracurricular hobby as a positive step in his development.
This focus on music and academics has placed him into an interesting dynamic with his siblings. Both Finn, the middle brother at 15, and Owen, the youngest at 11, are rather active and much prefer the gridiron and soccer field to the library. Luckily for them however, Max isn't the sort of brother to beget the others old notes and homework help, and he'd consider himself very much friendly with the pair of them.
It would not be impossible to place some of the blame for the lack of action on Max himself. Not one for the sort of violence that normally discourages bullies, Max’s initial forays into informing school authorities, although resulting in punishment, normally ended up with him in more pain once said punishment had concluded. Slowly but surely, the boy stopped speaking up so much, settling in to resigned silence about the issue. Max’s parents did, of course, note his increasing retreat into his room, but being busy, working class people with two other children to handle sucked away much of their time. When Max stopped keeping them in the loop, they tried to press for information, only for the shrugs and muttered comments to push them away from being able to help.
By the time that Middle School rolled around Max’s plight had become a self-perpetuating cycle- Max had developed a caustic outer shell that pushed away anyone who even tried to be friends, which thus encouraged further bullying, which, in turn, only thickened Max’s shell. Max’s main retreat was his music- his interest in which only deepened since his initial introduction to it. Over the years, Max managed to put together enough money to afford an electronic and acoustic six-string guitar as well as an electronic four-string bass, all of which he would consider his most prized possessions. Although not particularly lyrically creative, Max is fond of jamming and playing to himself- his insular ways having prevented him from joining or forming a band.
Max’s drug dealing began shortly after he moved to High School. To Max, the whole business seemed simply practical- although he did smoke weed, this was not his main product. Instead, Max worked with prescription medicine- primarily Ritalin and Adderall, but also depressants such as Valium. Very rarely Max might get his hands on prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, which he sells quickly or dumps if he can’t- opiates bringing too much trouble with them. These drugs have several advantages when it comes to dealing in John Endecott- firstly, it’s much easier to pass off prescription drugs as something one is supposed to have during a random bag check, secondly, it has no tell-tale smell like weed does, and thirdly, they have the advantage of being a common occurrence in many American households- including his own.
In addition to the ways in which the drugs themselves are easy to get away with having, Max has an additional benefit to escaping notice- he’s widely seen as a quiet, good-mannered kid. Most teachers, when they pay attention to Max at all, see a reclusive but well-behaved boy struck by tragedy in his early life and bullying in his current one, and thus he tends to build rapport with most of them quite well. Most of the altercations that Max does get into are very small-scale: being tripped up or being shoulder-checked whilst he’s carrying things, the sort of things that avoid bringing the attention of campus security down on him. Most of the bullying Max suffers is emotional- largely revolving around isolation from his peers and a never-ending grind of insults and nicknames, all of which he’s heard before.
When it comes to Max’s own drug use, his parents are fairly ambivalent about weed, which they are aware he consumes. As working-class parents, they have bigger issues with him smoking a legal substance with his own money. Since he only started smoking at 16 he's never been particularly subtle about it, and to an extent they've appreciated his honesty. Since Max has independent control of his own finances he’s able to hide the extra income he gets from drug dealing without raising any questions.
The COVID pandemic was perhaps one of the few events that Max was well-placed for. A regular recluse without many friends anyway, Max didn’t experience a great shift aside from the move to online teaching. Although it temporarily reduced his income from dealing, as the pandemic wore on and people began to feel more trapped indoors his number of clients actually went up, and he found hiding his face behind a mask so pleasant that he continues to do so even after the pandemic’s end.
Max has an unusual dislike for the ‘witchiness’ that infuses Salem culture. Having been taunted as a freak, demon, and something that would have been killed during the Witch Trials, he now categorically rejects most of the occult and horror writing in general, including that which isn’t even particularly linked to the trials- Poe, Lovecraft, Stoker, and even, to an extent, modern writers like King all fall under his ire.
Perhaps because of this, as well as his crucifix, one might assume that Max is fairly religious. As a confirmed Catholic in a family of other confirmed Catholics Max has certainly had a lot of religious influence in his life, although as he grew older, he found himself attending church less and less regularly, and most would classify him as a lapsed or backsliding Catholic.
Unsurprisingly, Max has had a total of zero romantic relationships in his life- in fact, Max has not so much as had his first kiss, let alone his first anything else. To Max, this isn’t really a topic of much discussion or concern to him- it simply is, and although of course he’d like things to change, he rarely devotes much time to thinking about relationships either positively or negatively.
Platonically speaking, Max’s friend circle is incredibly small and insular, mostly occupied by those that have experienced life-altering accidents in their lives too. It’s very rare for Max to approach someone to initiate a friendship, especially now, in High School, and so almost all of his friends that he has now have been those that made friends with him earlier in life and have stuck with him. To those he doesn’t know yet is thrown in with- say, those he does group projects with, Max tends to isolate himself away from them, doing the work as quickly as possible, saying as little as possible, and moving on as rapidly as possible.
Academically, Max performs very well. He routinely scores As and A+s, with none of his grades dipping into Cs and only a few falling into Bs. Max is a something of a Math whiz- numbers seem to slot into place easily for him, and he’s naturally found himself more drawn to it. Although Max is quite passive about future planning, he is aware that his grades and economic situation are enough to potentially get him a scholarship into a prestigious university in New England. To his parents, this is the sort of prospect they often comment they would have dreamed of, and frequently encourage him to be more proactive in figuring out a major and getting his applications in order. Although he’s yet to make a firm commitment one way or another, he remains hopeful as to future prospects.
Advantages: Although Max’s bullying didn’t come from him being a nerd, the descriptor wouldn’t be inaccurate for him. He’s quite intellectually capable, with a surprising breadth of knowledge and excellent critical thinking skills. In addition, he also has a relatively high pain tolerance, partially from bully-inflicted scraps and bruises, and partially from phantom pain he still experiences more than a decade after the accident.
Disadvantages:To start with the most obvious weakness Max has, his missing eye makes depth perception difficult and greatly reduces his peripheral vision. Max also sunburns incredibly easily, even in relatively mild weather, and he’s not particularly physically strong thanks to his focus on academics and music.