Heading to Colorado in the morning. Very interested to meet Todd. It'll be good to put a face with the name.

player information!

NAME: Sam
CONTACT: sparklesonastick @ AIM
PREVIOUS EXAMPLE(S): --
FAVORITE BOOK: Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card


character information!

CHARACTER'S NAME: Max Brooks
CHARACTER'S BOOK(VERSE): World War Z (and Zombie Survival Guide) by Max Brooks
POINT IN CANON: About half way through the interview process in the writing of World War Z.
AFFILIATION: Civilian. Or Rogue. I guess it depends on how you look at it.

CHARACTER'S JOURNAL: brookseyz 
DESIRED PB: Lee Pace

CHARACTER'S APPEARENCE:
For the most part Max is a relatively average looking person. He's rather plain and not necessarily what someone would call attractive or even good looking. Not that he is unfortunate looking, he just doesn't often warrant a second glance. Most people can over look him which is rather helpful in his current profession. He needs to be unimposing and he needs people to trust him if he's going to straight story out of them. It all works out for the best really. His common brown hair and brown eyes do not necessarily stick out. No one is entranced by 'shining blue orbs' or 'whips of majestic curls.' In fact he more often than not finds himself awed by the appearances of others not the other way around.

Still, he is relatively well built. It comes from having to survive in a rather hostile world. Sure he's a little underweight at this point but everyone else is as well. It comes with the fact that most of the world was decimated by the living dead and that an early way to try and rid oneself of them was to set fire to ones own crops. But agriculture is back on the rise and most of the country - save for a few white zones - have been reclaimed. However, zombies do still exist and with caution comes the general attention to ones physical fitness. It's not a requirement, simply a suggestion. It's not hard to outrun zombies but when faced with a horde of ten or twenty of them it's better to be able to escape before they can completely surround you. Max has taken this to heart. Especially since he has spent the past few years traveling around the world doing interviews in some of the most dangerous parts of the world.

CHARACTER'S PERSONALITY:
Max Brooks is a people person first and foremost and, secondly, an entertainer. Appealing to crowds has always been a part of his life and he has learned to do it well under the tutelage of his famous father. The Zombie War was a terrible time for most people and many people coped by turning off a part of their humanity and reducing themselves to mere shells, fighting to stay alive but often not understanding the reason. In the postwar world, the war is often looked at with a scientific eye as the causes are traced and the failures of nations to act outlined. Max saw those as needed lessons but he found the human perspective to be far more important. After all, it was humans that had failed and they had their reasons. He felt that he needed to preserve the experiences of individual people for posterity.

As an interviewer, Max is a very laid-back, unimposing character. He attempts to stay neutral at all times and he understands that some people were forced to deal with terrible things during the war. Max doesn't pass judgment on most people though there are exceptions. He has been known to press the buttons of politicians who misled people or did not react appropriately to the crisis. He is also known to sometimes ask sensitive questions when he knows that his interviewee will either refuse to answer or answer with scorn and distaste. Max tries to keep his feelings and personal opinions of people out of his interview but on occasion they appear. He has also been known to treat some people more gently; pushing some for stories but allowing others to part without any sort of pressure.

He is also genuinely interested in the people that he interviews. Max loves his job and has often called his work on the Postwar Report a 'labor of love.' When it comes to meeting new people he tends to prefer they do the talking while he sets back and listens. He's not quite as outward or comedic as his father; he's got his own personality and character traits.

CHARACTER'S BACKGROUND:
Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Spaceballs. Blazing Saddles. Wonderful movies, all of them. Great humor, great stories, and instant classics depending on which crows one runs with. Unfortunately, Max Brooks wrote none of them. He was sadly beaten to the punch by his father; writer, director, and comedian Mel Brooks. Max, named after his paternal grandfather, was born to Mel and his wife Anne in New York City in 1972. He grew up during his father's heydays and was greatly influenced by this upbringing. Like his father, Max would grow up to be very involved in the entertainment industry. He played bit character parts for a while, starting a child in 1983 and getting the occasional extra parts throughout the 1990s. He was also rather involved in cartoons and served as a voice actor for a number of different animated characters.

Comedy, it could be said, was in his blood. In 2001 he began writing for Saturday Night Live and over the course of the next three years he would write over forty episodes. Who is to say that he wouldn't have continued writing for the show had 2003 not seen the most horrendous event in history of the world. Well, at least worse than all of the world wars combined and possibly rivaling the extinction of the dinosaurs. In 2003, the zombie invasion began. It was unpredictable; a young boy in rural China was diving with his father into a flooded village when he was bitten by some unknown entity. His father never returned to the village but the boy did and it set off a chain reaction that would soon sweep over the entire planet. Millions died and then rose again to begin attacking the living.

At this time, Max was living in Los Angeles with whom he married shortly before the zombie war. At the onset of the war, none of the world's governments were entirely sure how to act and most of the people were unprepared to deal with the oncoming apocalypse. In an attempt to educate people and save as many lives as possible, Max went to work on the Zombie Survival Guide, a practical guide for every day citizens. The Guide explained zombies as best as they could be explained scientifically at that point. But more importantly, it told people how to survive. It told them how to travel practically, how to barracade their homes efficiently, how to grow crops in their basements, and how to survive in general. It was released all over the world in hundreds of languages and is said to have been responsible for saving the lives of hundreds of thousands people world wide. In a war that killed billions, hundreds of thousands is a pretty good number.

In the United States, the government fumbled for a while trying to contain the invasion. The US army was chased from the east coast to the Rocky Mountains where they eventually made their stand. The region was eventually cleared and the rebuilding efforts were eventually centralized in California. Max and his wife - and later their son, Henry who was born during the invasion - were able to escape the city and join in the rebuilding efforts. While the United States military began sweeping across the eastern part of the country, slowly but surely eradicating any and all threats they came across, Max began working for the United Nations.

An accomplished writer - one of few who had survived - he was employed to write up an official report on the zombie war as a whole. Max tracked down the whole incident to its source with patient zero in China until the very end when the people of the world were left to pick up the pieces and continue to fight the lesser but still dangerous zombie remnants that lurked in the shadows. At the present he lives in a reclaimed Los Angeles with his wife and son when not traveling around

SAMPLE:
The pre-war car rental chains had not yet recovered - nor had any chains really - so when Max Brooks asked Todd Wainio to take him to get a car he was not surprised to find himself where he now stood. It another day and time it would have been a hole-in-the-wall sort of place; the sort that people overlooked in favor of Alamo or Enterprise or any other such company. Now it was practically a symbol, an endearing symbol proving that good old hard work could once again get you far. The man behind the counter had renovated all of the pre-war cars himself in an old junkyard in which he and a few others had taken shelter during the war.

Max idly looked at a copy of the Denver Regional Herald. The front page spoke brightly about the sighting of a whale in San Francisco Bay. Scientists left over from all over the world were rushing there immediately, trying to catch another glimpse. It might all be considered a hoax if the white whale had not been captured on by both photograph and video as it nearly capsized a small fishing trawler. No whales had been seen in the oceans in years. Between the zombies and the people that had fled to the sea and taken up whaling, they had all be eradicated. Even the Narwhale was supposed to be extinct, it's icy haven not protecting it from the resilient predator that is man. Max probably would have been surprised by it's appearance if he hadn't already talked to The Great Gatsby about a similar occurance.

Talked to the Great Gatsby. He supposed that should have concerned him more but at this point he was beginning to be more accepting of what was going on. Max felt he was better understanding things and after talking to Matilda - well, he was still technically talking to her - he felt some of his initial existential panic giving way to a greater concern about the preservation of his storyline. He pulled out his notebook to see if she had responded and was about to begin a response himself when the man behind the counter rolled over in his desk chair and stood up.

"1998 Kia Sephia," he said, raising the key. "Green one. Back right."

Max nodded and took the keys. "Thanks. I'll get it back in a couple of hours."

The man smiled. "Sounds good," he said. "You sure you don't want to borrow a gun or something? I've got a few shotguns in back and a few others. Free of charge. You really shouldn't go out there unarmed. It's not smart. Especially what's been happening with those kids out in the mountains. Zack might be making a comeback out there."

Max waved away the concern. "It'll be fine. I'd rather leave the guns to people who really know how to use them. There's a lobo in the truck, right?" When the man nodded, Max smiled. "Great. See, I'll be fine. No worries. See you in a couple of hours."

Keys in hand, Max headed out on to the back lot. He found the car exactly where he had been told he would find it and got in. It was an older car but not in any way out of date. It still ran despite the damage that it's body proudly bore. The mechanic had done a good job.

He took the car out of the lot easily and checked the map that he had laid out in the passengers seat. Max had circled three areas of interest. They were the areas that the most people had disappeared in over the course of the past week. The first disappearance he could count off as a coincidence; it had happened more than two weeks ago. The others had all happened in the past six days. There were three disappearances in one place, three in another, and one in the newest circle on his little map. Max figured he would start there. The fewer the disappearances the more to come, he figured.

It didn't take too long to get out there. Few people strayed that far from the city even if they were looking for thrills. Max parked his car along the side of the road and put his hazard lights on. He didn't figure anyone would hit the car but he didn't want to risk it. The mechanic had put enough work into it already. Also, it would serve as a signal that someone was out there. In case something happened to him. Max didn't really think anything would but he knew better than to take chances.

He grabbed the lobo out of the trunk and begin his walk into the forest. Max wasn't really sure what he was looking for. God only knew what could have crossed over into his book and, really, it was just as likely that it was just a resurgence of Zack. It happened. People were careless. He walked around a bit, careful not to loose his bearings and looked for anything unusual.

Just as he was about to give up, he came across a very curious puddle. It was large and in the shape of a very large footprint. Max looked at it for a moment, not sure what he was looking at. A million things rushed through his mind, the least of which were speculations as to what could have possibly made foot prints that big.

Interestingly, he need not wonder for long. He heard the creaking sound of a tree snapping and quickly dove behind a large portion of bushy underbrush that was nearby. Two large figures came through the trees. They towered over Max and his jaw dropped. It was all he could do to keep from physically gasping. The creatures were not unfamiliar to him; he had read Where the Wild Things Are as a child and read it to his own son recently when he had heard they had joined up with the Wonderland forces. But this was something else completely. Seeing them-

There was a sudden ringing noise and it took a moment for Max to realize it was coming form his pocket. In a panic he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. The caller ID identified Todd Wainio. Max had promised to call him once he had arrived at the air port for his return flight but clearly Max had never made it there. He turned the phone off immediately but the damage was done. The creatures had turned in his direction and he had a feeling his bush would not keep him hidden for long.

Max pulled out his notebook and quickly scrawled out a note to anyone who may find it. He stuck it into his pocket and grabbed the lobo that he had set down on the ground next to him. Max hoped that he could some how sneak away but he had barely picked up the metal weapon when he felt something come into contact - hard - with the right side of his head. He was unconscious before he hit the forest floor.

STORYLINES:
001. Max needs out of his book since I assume that no one is really going to want to enter into a book where there are still zombies frozen in the northern regions and swarming the ocean floor. I can see him going out to investigate strange occurances and discovering a rip some where and getting lost in another book.
002. Once that happens it'd be nice to have him meet up with someone or a group of people. He's the sort of person to inadvertently get himself into trouble often so I can also see him winding up in the 'wrong' book.
003. If ever anyone wants chaos, they can always steal a few zombies.