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Name: shari
Age: 22
Contact: angeolras
Characters Already in Teleios: n/a.
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both were being denied their childhoods: the prince by a smothering excess of privilege, the whipping boy by none at all.
Character Basics:
Character Name: Knox Brindle
Journal: creditor
Age: 17
Fandom: Proxy
Canon Point: Post death.
Debt:

Class A: 6 years

murder x4
treason/betrayal

Class B: 3 years

assault
theft
breaking and entering ( x? )
kidnapping
fraud ( x? )

Class C: 19 years and 8 months

aiding and abetting
attempted suicide
blackmail ( x? )
bribery ( x? )
car jacking ( x? )
conspiracy
disorderly conduct ( x? )
failure to accept responsibility ( x? lmfao )
impersonation
infidelity ( x? )
invasion of privacy ( x? )
joyriding ( x? )
manipulation ( x? )
property damage ( x? )
reckless driving ( x? )
reckless endangerment ( x? )
seduction for personal gain ( x? )
sexual harassment ( x? )
stealing evidence/evidence tampering/destroying evidence (x3)
substance abuse ( x? )
trespassing ( x? )
underage drinking ( x? )
vehicle homicide

hacking. ( x? )

falsifying identification ( x? )

GRAND TOTAL: 28 years and 8 months

Canon Character Section:
History:

~ canon history, not important to knox specifically~
in Knox's world, there's a divide among the people -- the rich, upper class live in Mountain City, while the lower class are stuck in the Valve. Lower class folks often take on a grand amount of debt from medical or technologic expenses, which needs to be paid off. People who pay off their debt are called proxies -- they offer themselves to the richer folk, who pay off their debt, as a use of punishment. Example -- Knox is a patron, and his proxy is named Syd. If Knox does something illegal, or breaks some rule ( which he does often ), Syd gets the punishment, while Knox gets off free. Punishment is a very physical thing, in comparison to incarceration -- Syd would get hit with electric volts or forced into menial labor to forgive Knox's wrong doings. In return, Knox's father pays off some of Syd's debt, until all debts are paid and the contract is over.

To actual history.

Knox was born on the richer end of spectrum, and in a world like his where money is the source of all life, it means he manages to have a pretty good one. When Knox was young, he had a very picturesque family life -- a loving mother and father, and the perfect, adoring son. Unfortunately that had to come to an end, as such things do. A very young Knox and his mother were out on the street when kidnappers came and took his mom hostage, while Knox was small and quick enough to get away. As they're a wealthy family, the kidnappers offered to negotiate in order to milk some money off of Knox's father. It's commonly known that he has plenty of money to spare, but just as that's known, so is the fact that Knox's father does not negotiate.

So, as a child, Knox carried the burden of his mother's death on his shoulders. Guilt stayed with him, like he could have protected her or he could have joined her, and he frequently comments on how his father has never forgiven him since that day. After his mother's death, his father is seen to have forced Knox through childhood, thinking it would sooner help him through the grief. Knox is quoted to saying, "Too bad the past didn't work like that. Knox had the pain, just not the childhood."

Under the somewhat misguided, somewhat entirely on point assumption that his father didn't love him, Knox began to act out as he got older. Knowing his father's money could pay for expenses and damages, Knox had a pretty free reign over the entirety of his Mountain City. Anything would be forgiven off him, and instead punishment would be taken out on his proxy, Syd. At the beginning of the book he shows little remorse for what could constitute as the torture of another person on his own behalf -- though he does frequently remember the first time he ever watched Syd get punished for something that was Knox's fault, and he recounts both he and Syd crying their way through it.

Time goes on, Knox lashes out against his father, and Syd pays the hefty price. Rather than getting it out of his system, his father's indifference to him acting out makes him act out more and more, which really only results in Syd getting beaten up back and forth throughout the years. Presumably, Knox's father eventually decides that enough is enough, and when Knox is in the process of seducing a woman ( Marie ) with a joyride in one of his father's cars, his father sets him up into a terrible car crash. Of course, he doesn't find out that this was a set up until much later in the book, but for the good first quarter of it or so, he's left under the impression that he'd murdered Marie in this awful car crash.

And, naturally, Syd has to pay the price for Knox's not quite murder. Now I'll skip into bullet points

syd ➤ knox's father forces knox to watch syd being punished -- worse than ever before, because of the seriousness of the crime. ➤ syd's debt to the system extends for 16 more years because of knox's crime, which is extremely frustrating and unfair, because syd was just a few years out from being completely free from his contract. ➤ so, he escapes his torture facility, hijacking a robot and essentially showing off a whole new tier of badassery. ➤ syd runs to his best friend egan, not exactly known for his legal inclinations, and says he needs a hook up for a fake id, someone who can make him disappear off the technological map. ➤ egan has a hookup, but they have to go to a lux party to find him. ➤ it's knox. knox. ➤ at the same time all this is going on, knox is recovering in the hospital from the crash, checking all his social media websites which are talking about a party that everyone is going to. ➤ ( his father had, earlier, caught sight of a birthmark on syd's neck, which doesn't seem that important at the time, but it winds up becoming very crucial to the plot. his dad also has a little freak out about, and knox thinks this swampcat's blood is going to kill him. ) ( it kind of does, but we'll get to that. ) ➤ knox decides he isn't going to stay in the hospital and mope about killing someone, so he goes off to the party regardless of what anyone might think. ➤ when he arrives, everyone is pretty nonchalant about the whole murder thing. ➤ knox takes some insane drug that has him tweaking massively. ➤ which is, of course, right when he sees syd and basically starts having a panic attack. ➤ syd basically knows right away that knox is his patron -- but knox quickly bolts away upon spotting two guardians, afraid that his father sent them to come catch him. ➤ not really knox, they're coming for your proxy?? ➤ syd catches him ( it's not hard, since knox is trashed ), and uses his quick thinking skills to kiss knox as a distraction, the guardians rushing past them while they look for the two boys. ➤ this is the worst kiss ever. marie. ➤ knox gets threatened with a pen. don't ask, he's very ashamed. ➤ knox gets kidnapped by syd, essentially, but knox is pretty compliant about it. he figures it'll give his father some hell, so he doesn't care that much. ➤ after fist fighting, they agree that knox will make him a fake id and let him move around the city unhindered. ➤ they head to knox's house in order to get all this done -- syd borrows some clothes and showers while knox works on hacking, coming back to see him listening to god awful music and swiping his hands around data features, being totally cool and super annoying at the same time. ➤ syd falls asleep, when he wakes up knox is gone ➤ just outside, though, because as it turns out his father came home -- which is strange for daddy issue reasons. ➤ they both start listening in on a conversation he's having with someone, when who but marie walks in. ➤ that would be the girl knox "killed." ➤ his father basically spills the beans that he'd faked marie's death to teach his son a lesson and hope that it would help him grow up. ➤ spoilers: it doesn't work. ➤ marie heads back outside into the car, just before syd and knox get found out as being in the house. ➤ using quick thinking, knox makes them jump out the window. ➤ using talents he already has, knox hot wires the car. ➤ hi, marie. mr. baram. ➤ taking the car, they drive to the valve, crashing it into the fence between mountain city and the valve so they can get through. ➤ knox and marie are basically your classic rich kids, shocked that anyone could live in the valve. ➤ syd takes them to mr. baram's place ( where syd had stayed his entire life, he's basically like a father to him ), in order to warn him that the rich folks are going to be coming after him due to his association with syd ➤ mr. baram lays it on thick, and tells syd about his ~destiny~, and what his birthmark means. ➤ it's the hebrew word "yovel", which translates to someone who wipes away debt. ➤ basically his father plugged in this code into syd's blood that would tear down the rich people's government into shreds. ➤ literally no one likes the sound of that. syd thinks it's a pile of garbage, knox thinks it's dumb, and marie is excited about it's existence. okay, so marie likes the sound of it. she's a causegirl. ➤ they get sent to find the rebooters this time, an anarchist group syd's father was the leader of. ➤ they go through the sewers and wind up back in the mountain city, this time at a zoo. egan. ➤ the zoo is nice for about seven whole seconds, before it all goes to shit. ➤ a rebooter guide comes and tells them to meet her in the giftshop. yay!! but then no. ➤ the wild animals in their cages are set loose, and it's basically the worst thing ever. they try to eat things, including the main trio, before they manage to get away from the worst of it. ➤ naturally, they find that their guide is not only dead, but that she's been murdered. ➤ by who? ➤ egan. ➤ that's syd's best friend, as a remidner. ➤ egan and syd have been best friends since basically forever, so egan would do essentially anything for him. ➤ not excluded to joining a notorious gang in the valve ( maes gang ), just to save his best friend ( he believes the rebooter guide was leading him into a trap ) ( guess what she wasn't ). ➤ they meet up with the gang outside -- one girl, two boys, all on horses, which both knox and marie have never seen before. ➤ they ride the horses ( knox gets to ride on syd's horse for flirty, manipulative reasons, also he'd probably fall off if he was by himself ) to get to the rebooter's camp, taking a break at nightfall. ➤ egan and knox start butting heads, and before anyone can do anything about it, they're fist fighting, mainly at knox's fault. ➤ one of the maes gang members shoots egan square in the chest, killing him. ➤ while syd is completely distraught by it, the maes gang members make it known that they never had any intention of going to the rebooters, and are instead going to turn the three of them into knox's father to collect a reward. ➤ it's very intense for awhile, but inevitably syd kills the maes gang member who shot egan. ➤ he notes that he doesn't feel bad about it. ➤ they tie the other two members up, takes their supplies and their horses, and set off on their own. syd part deux. ➤ syd acts understandably shallow after egan's death. ➤ knox is forced to ride with marie this time, and he notes to say that he likes riding with syd about 1000% more. ➤ which is basically the first time he ever admits to liking syd, so it's very important. ➤ he also just got his best friend killed, so that isn't doing him any favors. ➤ the trio camp in a desert cave, freezing at night, so they all cuddle together ➤ knox says he doesn't want to sleep next to syd ( "what if he does something while i'm sleeping" ), because he's gay and knox is so pretty??? ➤ syd tells him he doesn't have anything to worry about in that department. ➤ though, he does offer a goodnight kiss, which knox definitely leans in for. ➤ sike lol knox ur gay. ➤ :'( bruh just wanted goodnight kisses wtf syd ➤ of course, goodnight cuddling also goes wrong, and they wake up to a flash flood. ➤ knox is the first to awake and he seeks them out -- he finds marie first, who's conscious. ➤ then he finds syd, unconscious, and gives him mouth to mouth. ➤ so maybe he got a good morning kiss, sort of. ➤ not that they can all rejoice in syd being alive for too long, because they're quickly attacked by children and a scary guy with dreads. ➤ they agree to give the trio safe passage to the rebooter camp, because as you'd have it, they are rebooters. ➤ maes thugs they left behind show up, but get quickly taken care of. ➤ and then it's a straight shot to the rebooters. knox part deux. ➤ somewhere along the line, knox noticed that he has the same "yovel" mark on his neck that syd does, given to him from their blood transfusion. ➤ :D ? ➤ at the rebooter camp, syd it treated like a messiah, but it comes at a price. ➤ his life. ➤ the only way to get the code is to kill syd in the process. ➤ marie agrees that it's the only way -- knox, however, says fuck that, and he and syd make a run for it. ➤ upon hiding away, they notice guardians have infiltrated the camp, trying to stop the code from getting leaked from syd's body. ➤ syd eventually decides that they have to go back, that this is his destiny to die. ➤ knox nods, but he's having none of that. ➤ at the last second, knox makes them stop, showing off his yovel mark, which is proof that he has the same code as syd in his blood. ➤ he kisses syd. ➤ taking his place in a small, see-through confine, he watches syd and marie watch him -- his father comes in through the doors too late, and he's smiling. ➤ he lifts up a hand to press against the glass, and syd does the same. ➤ wanting to tell them that everything will be all right -- he winks. ➤ and then he dies.

Personality:

me? i'm as harmless as a puppy dog.

The better portion of Knox's personality stems from his social class ranking. A rich boy, doused in privilege since he was born, builds the foundation for a very self-centered, uncaring boy. In many ways he lives life however he wants to -- which is a definite luxury that most people in their world don't have -- money isn't an issue for him, so most things tend to sort themselves out. The patron/proxy system also enables that he doesn't really learn his lesson when he steps out of line -- he makes a note to mention that while he cried the first time he ever saw Syd get beaten for him, as he grows older he toughens up, and it becomes systematic for Knox. Watching a man take on the effects of Knox's own misgivings stops being effective -- Knox convinces himself that it's part of the system, that in being cruel and stupid, he's actually helping Syd to clear up his debt. Shortly said, Knox is a bit of a rich bitch.

i don't owe you anything, get that? nothing. you're just the one with the weapon.

Thanks to his standing with money, you can imagine how Knox gets on with the ladies. The book starts off with him methodically putting to work a system he has that allows him to lay a woman in the quickest, most effective way possible ( breaking and entering into a zoo, as it is ), and he has it down to an art by now, which shows just how often he puts it to work. As most people in Mountain City, Knox is vain and infatuated with himself -- technology advancements allow him to have the clearest skin, the prettiest eyes, any body modification he could ever want. So he's confident, and he's pretty, and he frequently uses that to his gain.

Not excluding when he tries to put the moves on Syd, after being kidnapped. In the book canon, there's a derogatory term used for homosexuals -- a chapter 11. It's a binary joke. Where Syd is a chapter 11, Knox sees opportunity, using his sexuality to try and get on Syd's good side -- which doesn't end up working all too well, but there's a shift seen in Knox's character, through his interactions with Syd. Where he starts off using his sexuality for personal gain, he ends up using it because he wants to, because he ends up crushing on Syd, regardless of gender preferences. At the beginning of the book, he makes a note to mention that he's never kissed a man before and that he doesn't enjoy kissing Syd -- but by the end of it, he's kissing Syd on his own accord, giving his life up for him. Genuinely, he starts caring for his proxy, though he's the same selfish Knox who claimed hew as only going with Syd to get back at his father -- it start being a journey less about revenge and more about forgiveness.

you valve kids have no imagination. there’s not much i can’t get with this smile.

A fair bit of Knox's characterization stems from his parental issues. He mother dying at a young age ensured him to be a closed off boy, emotionally stunted enough to always give off an uncaring air. Of course, Knox himself is quite the uncaring person -- or he pretends to be, feigning nonchalance when he steals cars from his father while doing it as a secret pine for attention. Knox is largely built up from that belief -- that attention is what he wants from his father, not necessarily negative in the way the he receives it, which prompts him to act out more. Ultimately, all he wants is to be praised.

Which he does get, eventually, not from his father but from Syd. In the duration of the book, Knox frequently plays the role of the coward -- unable to take Syd's place for punishment, unable you help Syd at the zoo, unable to help Syd when he kills a rebel in the Valve. Knox is quoted to thinking, "He didn't want to be the boy who hid. He would always be the boy who hid." Which ultimately shows that while Knox is aware that he's coward, while he knows his rights from his wrongs, he's incapable of stopping himself. While he's shown through the book to have moments of courage and cunning, Knox is only human -- and a scared one, at that.

i guess everyone's trying to save someone tonight. it's like a charity ball.

That is, until the end of the book, of course. Knox does a 180 in the last few chapters of the book -- though he's always changing throughout, he's mainly in denial about it ( and he feelings towards Syd ) until the final decision comes to pass. Knox realizes that through his being a patron that he is the one who must ask for forgiveness from Syd, though their contract would say the opposite, and he gives his life so Syd can live another day, paying off the debt he has from the moment he became Syd's patron. Its easy to say that the Knox at the beginning to the book would not have made such a choice -- he had to first accept that society was wrong, and that he was wrong, and finally set off on the short road to maturity.

Knox is impulsive as far as fighting goes -- being raised in Mountain City means he had a thorough education in self-defense, and he flaunts how he fights, through disagreements with both Syd and Egan. The fight with Egan, however, leads to his death -- which Knox is frequently traumatized by, and ends up humbling him some. While he is quick to the punch because he's easily angered, when not angry, Knox is your usual snarky guy -- not someone you would pinpoint as being particularly violent, though you wouldn't really be surprised. His privilege grants him that luxury, of picking and choosing who he wants to be. Before the start of the book, naturally, there wasn't much cause for him to fight with anyone -- so he took his anger out in different ways, driving cars as fast as he could, getting in trouble with drugs and drinking. Shortly said, the one time he doe sreally express the built up anger inside him, it comes back and bites him in the face -- so he maintains being a closed off guy, not very open with his emotions.

whatever. i only kiss guys when guardians are watching. i'm an exhibitionist.

As with most lux kids, Knox chooses ignorance in his life. While there are the richer folk who fight for the rights of people in the Valve, Knox is one of the majority who pretend like the people in the Valve aren't really there, except for Syd, who takes his beating. This is true at the start of the book, where Knox is shallow and self-centered and only thinks of himself -- but at the end of it, he's been turned a revolutionary with the rest of them, not necessarily fighting to give back to all proxies everywhere, but fighting to return what he's stolen from his own proxy. Looking to right those wrongs, forgetting his naivety and accepting that who he is, isn't the best of all people. His final moments show that he recognizes his faults as a person and a rich boy -- and maybe that he's still selfish, even in the end, because he kisses Syd as both an apology and a thank you, and then proceeds to off himself.

like i know? it's your future. choose.

Powers/Abilities:

➤ STRONG - Knox has a solid upbringing, that involves being taught self-defense throughout his life. He's shown many times to hold up his own side of a fight ( when he isn't quivering in fear xoxo ) ➤ BRAINSMART - Knox is a hacker, which a big deal where he comes from, because of their reliance on technology. Safe to say he's got a big brain in his noggin, even if he's also a little bit of an idiot.

Appearance:

actually painful when you consider this quote in proxy verse sorry spides Proxy is a novel, so my PB is Dane Dehaan playing Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, with the inclusion of artificially green eyes, and the mark "Yovel" behind his ear.

Samples:

Actionspam Sample:

at the fourth wall event.

Prose Sample:

Not dead.

Knox smiles self-deprecatingly down at his feet, watching the bundles of new arrivals wake up with their surprised and shocked faces, confusion written on everyone's features. Not Knox, though -- he smiles, a little bit like a mad man, eyeing the bracelet on his wrist and thinking it's too much. He knows debt better than most people. He knows he has a lot of forgiveness to beg for, a lot of years to redeem himself from. He knows, and yet he still thought --

Well. He thought his life was enough of a contribution on that front.

He should have known. One patron for one proxy isn't equivalent exchange. Things have to be balanced.

Everything costs, he tells himself, even death. Maybe especially death. He cups his hands in front of his mouth and watches the screen projection, wondering how many lux kids have had to watch this before, wondering how many have rolled their eyes and shouted unfair obscenities at their situation. Not Knox, not Knox who smiles like he hates himself, staying quiet for one time in his life. He knows the cost of ignorance like he knows the back of his hand, knows that he deserves this sentence that amounts for all the cruelties he's done, all the lies he's told, all the people he's walked on. He knows different things, too, like lines of binary code by heart, and what Syd's lips feel like beneath his own.

He knows everything has to be paid for. And he knows that he'll always be the man with the money, regardless of apologies, of begging, or redemption.

Knox was born a patron, and he died a patron. Now he's just paying the price.