<div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/f4L4H5i.jpg)</div><strong>Name: </strong>Maximus Raines<br/><strong>Gijinka Type: </strong>Sylveon<br/><strong>Reason for becoming a Settler:</strong>To become a man worthy of respect, and not a soft person worthy of ridicule.  Max believes that he can't possibly be taken seriously without taking a big chance like this.<br/><br/><strong>Planned role in the new Colony:</strong>Construction and handyman work.  Though he is somewhat skilled at working with wood and tools, he knows that the needs of the expedition may vary greatly from day to day.  Though he longs to be useful for his craft skills, he has no delusions that he may be used for grunt work.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong>Maximus Raines was born of a family of Eevees that made a (relatively small) fortune on their hard work<br/><br/>Maximus was the seventh child, with a slew of older siblings to look up to.  To put it bluntly, he was a crybaby in his youth, and his family was inclined to coddle him.  If he could not find a job with his winning smile and kind personality (that much was obvious even as he grew), he'd surely be able to manage the business side of the family trade.<br/><br/>Maximus was content with this, especially in his youth.  He learned a bit of the construction and craft trades on the side anyway, of course, but no one seriously expected much of him and he was content with that.  It is easy, after all, to grow soft without challenges.<br/><br/>Maximus did start on the business side of things after a while, but slowly and surely he found himself dissatisfied.  He took to grumbling and complaining.  Even then, before he knew what was wrong, he just couldn't enjoy the ride.<br/><br/>It was one night, while tipping back a few drinks, that his eldest sister, an Umbreon he had always held in esteem, slapped him in the face.<br/><br/>She told him to shape up, that he was going to bring the family down by complaining when he had it so easy.  It wasn't true, but it had hurt at the time, especially as she dressed him down even further when he tried to argue with her.<br/><br/>A few of his siblings overheard, and laughed.<br/><br/>Perhaps worse than merely being an embarrassing moment, the incident left a huge wound on his pride.<br/><br/>Maximus, after all, had had the undeserved pride of a man who had gotten comfortable thanks to the help of others.<br/><br/>However undeserved his hubris was, her words ate at him and he grew bitter  enough to consider a way out.  He may have kept his head down and not complained as much, but he knew he could not stay with his family any more.  He would merely be the soft<br/><br/>One of the recruiters for one of those island expeditions that he had been hearing about happened to be in town that day, and he said to himself, “this is how I can prove myself.”<br/><br/>He stole his tools, what books he could, and left in the middle of the night to join the expedition.  He swore he'd only come back someone better than his family could have ever known or dead.<br/><br/>That too was foolhardy, but he had made too many mistakes to go back on his words now.