Maximillian Brighton

### Relationships

Robin Anyman (close friend), Alex Fairey (close friend), Myra Creed (close friend), Matilda Bennington (rival/close friend), Camron St. Jones (friend), Mario Airheart (friend), Emy Otsoko (friend), Kate Anyman (acquaintance), Betty McNolen (acquaintance), Daniel Rivers (acquaintance), Damian Winter (old friend), Reagan Buckley (old friend), Tanya Garcia (old friend)

### Relatives

Charlotte Brighton (adopted sister), Abigail "Abby" Brighton (mother), Unnamed Father (deceased), Mabel Brighton (grandmother, deceased), Unnamed Grandfather (unknown)

### Affiliations

Morning Glory Photography Club, Hopeless Gang, Squirrel Gang/Nutjob Crew, Cinnamon Roll Protection Squad (allegedly)

## Overview

Max Brighton, born Maximillian William Brighton, is a 16-year old student who attends Morning Glory Academy in Poppy Valley. Born in Rochester, New York, him, his mother, and sister Charlotte eventually moved to The City at one point in time, before moving to Poppy Valley shortly thereafter. He is currently a member of MG's Photography Club, although he is less active within it.

## Appearance

Max is approximately five feet and four inches tall, with unkempt, brunette hair, and bright blue eyes. His body frame is rather slim and not very muscular, however his right arm is occasionally sore from having it broken once. He most often wears a pale red letterman jacket over a series of various T-shirts, and wears dark blue jeans.

During the Spring Fling Dance, Max wore an outfit composed of a black vest with white neck tie, white shirt with medium-length sleeves, elbow-length, fingerless gloves, black dress pants, and heavy, black boots.

## Personality

Max is very kind and compassionate towards his friends and people he cares for, and will often become extremely upset or agitated when someone or something threatens, harms, or upsets his friends. He is also incredibly stubborn and brave (sometimes), as well as being incredibly loyal. When put under pressure, or when being flirted with (mainly by Robin Anyman) Max becomes incredibly shy and will stutter though or slur together his words. Occasionally, Max works up the confidence to make his own advances.

When in an argument, Max's attitude can quickly become heated and out of hand if continuously provoked, or angry enough. He has, on more than one occasion, had a rageful outburst during an argument on Twitter, both of which left the situation more tense than anticipated. However, Max is often unable to support himself in an argument, and when it gets too heated, or he realizes he is losing, he will shut down.

Max generally has a difficult time making new friends, as he is incredibly nervous when it comes to talking with people he doesn't know very well. This stems from his fear of being labeled as "weird" for starting a conversation with a stranger out of the blue. He is still working to overcome this fear. He will also often develop confusing and complex feelings towards people that he finds attractive. Most often they develop into very small crushes, however he very rarely moves on from that point, either because that person only sees him as a friend, or because the person doesn't even know him.

Max also has ADHD, and is very likely on the autism spectrum. His interests include fantasy or science fiction movies like "Space Conflict", fantasy novels like the "Peter Johnson' series, and video games. He also enjoys taking photographs of landscapes, something his mother taught him when he was very young.

## Relationships

### Charlotte Brighton

As she is Max's younger sister, Max's relationship with Charlotte is often playful, but at times they will have innocent sibling fights. Max loves her dearly and, while he will never admit it, would do anything to keep her safe.

### Robin Anyman

Robin was one of the first friends that Max ever made after coming to Poppy Valley. Originally, Max and Robin's relationship was purely on a platonic level, but their playful banter eventually turned into flirting, which in turn became a serious relationship. Their first true bonding experience as friends came about when Max recruited Robin to help him defeat a cryptid stalking his house, during which the creature broke his arm. Robin was incredibly worried for him, and took him home to help fix up his arm. Max admitted to Robin that his crush on her developed when she called him "Camera Boy" for the first time. Max also becomes incredibly worried whenever Robin does something reckless or dangerous, such as when she traveled through time.

### Alex Fairey

Alex was another one of Max's first friends after coming to Poppy Valley. Initially, Max was nervous of Alex's seemingly uptight attitude, but he eventually realized this was not the case, and became more comfortable with talking to her. Unfortunately, Max and Alex have become somewhat distant lately due to a lack of communication.

### Myra Creed

Along with Alex and Robin, Myra was one of the first friends Max made after coming to Poppy Valley. He was at first taken aback by her desire to recreate a fear toxin, he quickly became comfortable with her personality and they became friends. Max even had a small crush on Myra for a short time. Unfortunately, Max and Myra have become somewhat distant lately due to a lack of communication.

### Matilda Bennington

From their very first encounter, Max and Matilda were constantly clashing due to a drastic contrast in personality, and differing views on the human race. Matilda and Max seemingly hated each other for a long time, however Max's hated for her would vanish over time as he felt bad for everything she was going through. He became worried for her during the time in which she tried to change her personality, and when she was held captive by the MGCC, he became very upset over their treatment of her, even though they had been fair. Currently, Max and Matilda seem to have come to some form of common ground, as she indirectly admitted to seeing him as a friend.

### Camron St. Jones

Max had to talk to Camron to enter the Morning Glory Photography Club, and the two are more or less acquaintances, rather than actual friends. However, Max does show a deal of care and concern for her, as he was very worried for her safety during the Failure Hotel event.

### Kate Anyman

Max and Kate have interacted very few times, however they mostly know each other though Kate being Robin's sister.

### Betty McNolen

Max and Betty have interacted very few times, however both Max and Betty have admitted to one another that they see each other as friends.

### Ren Ashburn

Max and Ren have interacted very few times, however they have both admitted that they would like to hang out more, as friends.

### Daniel Rivers

While Max and Daniel have interacted many times, they have never truly hung out in person. While Max defended Daniel when he was attacked by Zeke, this was mostly because Daniel was a fellow Morning Glory student.

### Abigail Brighton

Max has a very healthy relationship with his mother, and loves her dearly. It seems that, from a very young age, she taught him how to use a camera, and most of his photography skills he learned from her.

### Damian Winter

Not much is known about Max's relationship with Damian. The two of them were friends at some point, and have tried to stay in contact after Max moved to Poppy Valley.

### Reagan Buckley

Not much is known about Max's relationship with Reagan. The two of them were friends at some point, and have tried to stay in contact after Max moved to Poppy Valley. It is apparent that Reagan had a crush on Max.

### Tanya Garcia

Not much is known about Max's relationship with Tanya. The two of them were friends at some point, and have tried to stay in contact after Max moved to Poppy Valley. It seemed that Max and Tanya had a sibling dynamic.

## Story

### Before Poppy Valley

At some time in his youth, Max, his mother, and sister Charlotte moved from their home in New York to The City in Oregon. It was here that Max befriended Damian, Reagan, and Tanya, all of whom had also just moved in. Max and his family stayed in The City for a short time, until late 2022, when his mother decided to move into Poppy Valley, forcing Max to leave his friends behind. While he was deeply saddened and depressed because of this, Max did not openly express it.

### Operation Nuts

Upon arriving in Poppy Valley, Max enrolled in Morning Glory Academy, choosing to study photography. During Max's very first week attending Morning Glory, he made three new friends in the form of Robin Anyman, Alex Fairey, and Myra Creed, via twitter. He was taken aback by Myra's desire to recreate a "fear toxin" however he was willing to offer assistance in the form of a test subject, and camera to take pictures of the experiment. The test subject came in the form of a squirrel that had been terrorizing his mother's garden, which he caught with the assistance of Robin and Alex. The three of them met Myra in her dorm room at Jimsonweed, and Max had brought a film camera to take pictures, which he claimed was "classy." The experiment results were inconclusive, and Max ended up taking the photos from the film camera to the Darkroom to be developed. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, Max found that the pictures had been stolen, meaning the photo evidence of the experiment was lost.

### Getting Accustomed

After "Operation Nuts," Max spent a period of down time where he was not very active in terms of investigations. During Valentine's Day, Max joked about watching couples awkwardly from a distance. He also commented that he was disappointed in not receiving any Valentine's cards, however he was not surprised by this.

Also during this time, his friends in The City contacted him, and eventually set up a video call so the four of them could talk. Max felt bad for leaving them, and wondered if this bad feeling was what homesickness was like.

It was also during this period of time that his rivalry with Matilda Bennington developed, as the two of them had incredibly different personalities, and contrasting opinions on the human race, leading to several arguments.

### The Window Cryptid

The past few weeks in Poppy Valley had been slow for Max, until one night he heard scratching at his window. He assumed that it was some kind of animal, but was also too afraid to open the blinds to find out. The next day, he assumed that it had been a racoon, but hoped that it didn't come back. That night, he heard the same sound, and opened his blinds to see what it had been. Whatever was at his window, it wasn't a racoon, and he attempted to get a picture of it to no avail. The next night, he decided to wait by the window with a dimmed lamp to capture a picture of it, and was successful. When the creature arrived, he pulled up the blinds to take a picture. The creature was humanoid, with pitch black skin, and glowing white eyes. Max only got one picture before it ran off at incredible speed.

The next morning, Max went on a walk, and was shocked to see the creature waiting for him outside. Once again, he only got a blurry photo of it before the creature bolted. That day, Max recruited the assistance of Robin Anyman, to stake out his window and hopefully catch the creature. Robin agreed, and the two of them gathered at his house that evening. Robin arrived early, and Max was incredibly embarrassed as his mother thought Robin was his girlfriend. After eating dinner, Max and Robin waited in his room for the creature to show up, throwing around some playful and borderline flirtatious banter. When the creature showed up, Max and Robin watched to see what it would do, when it suddenly slammed its hand against the window, startling them. Robin drew her butterfly knife and charged the window to attack the creature, forgetting that it was closed. The cryptid ran, and Robin accidentally stabbed the window, cracking it. Robin apologized for damaging the window, and left.

The following day was White Day, and Max commented that he would have been giving gifts, but only if he had received any in the first place. He also stated that his mom hadn't seen the crack in the window, and the creature didn't show up to spy on him during the daytime. He was, however, worried what would happen that night. It turned out that his worries were justified, as that night the creature managed to get inside his house. Max went downstairs to get a midnight snack, and found the creature wandering the living room, facing away from him. Eventually, it whirled around and saw him, before charging at him with likely vicious intent. Max ducked into the kitchen pantry, where he hid as the creature banged on and scratched the door. After a while, the cryptid left, and Max discovered it had gotten in by unlocking and opening one of the vertically sliding windows.

The next night, the cryptid didn't show up, and Max used that time to come up with a plan to stop it. Once again recruiting the assistance of Robin, the two of them set up a trap by a playground behind Max's neighborhood. He dug a small pit, which he planned to trick the creature into falling into, and had cut out a section of a chain-link fence to place on top of the pit afterwards, effectively trapping the creature. While Robin and Max waited for the creature to arrive, they shared some more playful banter, and Robin began to sing, partly for Max's enjoyment, and also to attract the creature. Finally, it showed up, and Max attempted to fight the creature using a taser he had purchased from a Jimsonweed student. This agitated the creature, causing it to bat him aside and send him flying into the wall of a playgym, which broke his arm. The creature turned its attention to Robin, who began yelling curses and swears at it to taunt it. Max saw she was in danger and began clapping loudly to catch its attention, baiting it into charging him. At the last second, Max dived out of the way, leaving the creature to fall into the pit. Together, Max and Robin dragged the chain link fence over top of the pit, effectively trapping the creature inside.

After the fight, Robin rushed Max to her secret lab in her basement, where she tended to his broken arm, putting him in a cast. They shared a tender moment there, before Max fell asleep. The next day, Max saw on the news that animal control had discovered the trapped cryptid, however its fate afterwards is unknown. For a few days, Max did not attend school, and came up with an excuse to tell his mom for why it was broken. While he was absent, and to his utter surprise, the Morning Glory Paper awarded him student of the week for facing off against the creature and successfully trapping it. Max was overjoyed by this, as he was not very popular at school. The next day, Max resumed going to school, despite his arm still being broken.

### Daniel v Zeke Incident

Several days after he resumed going to school, Daniel Rivers was attacked and choked by Zeke Vernize. Max did not have much knowledge of this incident's background, and immediately jumped to defend his fellow Morning Glory student with a series of angry tweets. He ultimately lost the series of arguments that followed, and became very upset, even throwing an insult at Shizuka Yamamoto when she intruded on an argument with Shinobu. However, that night, Max realized he was in the wrong, and made a public apology to Shinobu and her sister. Both Yamamoto siblings forgave him.

Some time after this incident, the Spring Fling festival was announced, and Max decided he wanted to go, asking Robin Anyman if she would be his date for the dance, however stating that they would be dancing as friends. It was during this time that he had a run-in with Robin Anyman from the future, who gave him a hair pin shaped like a treble clef, and instructed him to give it to present Robin at the dance.

### Jinpocalypse

Like many, Max participated in the #Jinsonweed sweep on Twitter for April fools, during which many Poppy Valley students changed their profile pictures to pictures of Jin Oura as a joke.

### Matilda v The MGCC Incident

For a period of time, Matilda Bennington seemingly changed her personality, which clued Max into something possibly being off. He asked Robin to check in on Matilda in her lab, and eventually it was discovered Matilda was faking her nicer attitude so people would like her more. Max ultimately did not have much response to this discovery.

Max was also not aware of the conflict between Matilda and Betty McNolen, and only learned about it after Matilda had used cookies laced with a poison to put her to sleep. Max was disappointed in Matilda, however he did not lash out at her as he felt she had already been through enough in recent weeks. After this incident, Max decided he wanted to try and apologize to Matilda, so he recruited the help of his sister Charlotte to try and create soap-flavored candies to gift to her. Unfortunately, Matilda was ultimately apprehended by the MGCC (after a delay due to another story arc that was happening concurrently) and Max was unable to deliver them. When he saw tweets from Matilda expressing her depressed state, Max became outraged at the MGCC, and planted caramelized scorpions in Easter Eggs in an attempt to prank them. He was only half successful, and was also found out by the MGCC. He got into a heated argument with them over the treatment of Matilda, which eventually got him so upset that he shut down and stopped talking.

While Matilda ultimately recovered from her treatment- which was in fact a fair treatment on the MGCC's part- Max did not forgive them for it, and still continues to quietly resent many of its members. He is also harboring a grudge against Aria Hart, due to her intrusion into the argument and general negative first impression on Max. However, he has made no attempts to insight conflict against them. Additionally, he was finally able to deliver the soap-flavored candies to Matilda, along with an apology note. After this, the two seem to be on good terms, as they have had no more arguments since then.

### Spring Fling Festival

On the first day of the Spring Fling Festival, the cookout, Max was late, and ended up running all the way there, running out of breath and sweating profusely. During the cookout, Max wanted to try and talk to several people, but felt intimidated to simply walk up and talk to them out of nowhere. Ultimately this led to him having a short conversation with Robin Anyman, before leaving after the cookout had concluded. He was also late to the cookoff the following day, and once again ran the whole way there, nearly passing out from running for so long. He was even less active at the cookoff, and went home after it was over.

On the evening of the Spring Fling Dance, Max had prepared his outfit ahead of time, and got to the dance early. Robin met him shortly thereafter, and the two proceeded into the Morning Glory gym to dance. They hung out at the snack table for a short period of time, before they actually began dancing, the both of them incredibly nervous the whole time. After a while, Max asked that they head back over to the snack table, where he gave her the music note hairpin that had been given to him weeks prior. Robin thanked him for the gift, but Max insisted that he put it into her hair himself. He did so, before leaning in to kiss her and admitting that he was in love with her. Robin was taken aback by this, and admitted that she liked him too, before running off to the bathroom. Robin did not return, leaving Max confused, believing she was mad at him. He ultimately went home in a saddened state.

The next day, Robin, in a shocked state from and overload of romantic feelings, texted Max and asked if he was mad at her for running away. He said that he wasn't, and asked if she was mad at him for kissing her. She said that she wasn't mad either, and Max asked what would happen next. Robin said that they should seal their relationship by going on a date, which Max agreed to. It was in that moment that Max and Robin officially became a couple.

## Notable Quotes

*"Because it's CLASSY."* -Upon being asked why he brought a film camera

*"Time to watch all the happy couples from a distance awkwardly."* -During Valentine's Day

*"I think this is what they call homesickness... but Poppy Valley is my home now, so can I even call it that?"*

*"Um... Y-you have a very n-nice singing voice..."* -To Robin Anyman

*"Look out, Morning Glory! The one-armed cameraman is coming to town!"* -After his arm was broken

*"If members of the MGCC find Easter Eggs with caramel scorpions in them, you didn't hear it from me."*

*"Who the heck are you and how do you know who I am?"* -To Aria Hart

*"Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy."* -To Jackson Bluebell

*"...Am I dreaming, or did you just have a positive response to my comment?"* -To Matilda Bennington

## Trivia

* Max was originally taken from a novel written by his admin, however parts of his backstory, character, and many of his abilities were changed to fit the narrative of the CRC.
* As the current CRC story and the novel Max is from take place at different times, Max's age and birth year are inconsistent at times.
* Max's mother, Abby, was named after Abigail Williams from the Salem Witch Trials.
	+ Max's middle name, William, is also derived from Abigail Williams.
* Max's affinity for photography is inspired by the character of Jonathan Byers from The Netflix series, Stranger Things.
* Max has a pet iguana named Napoleon. It is unknown why this is the lizard's name.
* Due to some of his family nomenclature, it is likely that Max and his family have direct ancestral ties to colonial-time British-American settlers.
* Both Max and his mother have the same hair and eye color.