Liam Strudwick

### Aliases

Lima Bean - His motherSquiggles, Spiral Boy, Spiralman, Curllicue - GriffithFuckhands - Lane

## Physical description

### Eye color

Grey-Blue

 Liam Strudwick

Junior Assistant Librarian at The Magnus Institute. English Major, former Psychology student. Spiral Aligned, just doing his best. Hard worker, jumpy and easily distracted.

## About

* **General Information:**
	+ **Pronouns:** He/Him
	+ **Age:** 22
	+ **Entity:** The Spiral
	+ **Job:** Junior Assistant Librarian at The Magnus Institute.
	+ **Character Tag:** Liamstrudwick
	+ **Player:** Salt (saltcipher)
	+ **Playlist:** https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6t75QJ2Xd8fBOLLOXzvTtS?si=VVPo2e9bRd2lNcF2iGN8Hg

## Friends and Allies

Best friends

* Griffith Weaver
* Rho Kluft

Trusted allies

* Batty
* Ruth
* Emmi

Institute Staff

* Dion
* Mattie

* Ash - Appreciates them
* Phoebe - Sees her as a situational mutual
* Damon - Definitely does not want to be on his bad side

**Spiral Fam**

* Rupi/Link - Appreciates their input in the group chat, knows they're spiral

**Other**

* Pollux - Appreciates their jokes in the group chat
* Marce - :)
* Alistair - Helped him try out some eye-avoiding powers
* Carli - Helped him find Rho and Emmi at the Curtain Call Rave
* Mod - Doesn't trust her exactly, but knows Griffith does
* Edward
* Jade
* Dominic

## Enemies, Mortal or Otherwise

**Dislike**

* Inanna
* Max - Gave him concert tickets once, but also put blame on him and Griffith for Cherry's quitting
* Lane Marris

**Idle** **Dislike**

* Cherry
* Alexander
* Angela - Threatened to kick him out of the rave (This was Lane's fault)
* The Dogs (Fatman, Joe, Roscoe) - Finds their conversations in the group chat irritating

**Victims**

* Miles

Dislikes the lonely and the slaughter.

## Notable Events

**Embrace the Spirals.** After first opening up to Emmi about his complicated relationship with the spirals that haunt his life, and the car accident he was in one year prior, she encourages him to try drawing again, telling him to focus on containing the spirals which allows him to create the first drawing he could be proud of in over a year.

   **Enter the Halls.** A couple days after showing off his artwork to Emmi and the interns, he went to Emmi in a disoriented daze. He opens up about his fear/love of the doors, and in the thick of emotion his pale green door appears. Emmi offers to come with him if he wants to go inside, where they then discover the halls will not let Liam leave. He is left alone, to wander the halls as his concept of himself, and reality, distorts.
**Depart the halls, Meet Batty.** A week later real time, (a month for Liam) he manages to leave the halls on his own, making it just on time for a library meeting where he get's to meet Batty for the first time

   **Goes for drinks with Griffith** - A good somft interaction, ending with Griffith spending the night at Liam's.

**Curtain Call Rave** - Liam arrived at the rave with Rho and Lane, eventually separating off to meet up with Emmi and Ruth who give him tips on how to feed off the chaos of the rave. Rho dances with him for a bit, and then Liam ends up alone, drinking in the disorientation in the air. Feeling particularly twisty, Liam goes off a bit at Lane, who encourages a more destructive train of thought. Liam distorts and Angela intervenes, snapping Liam out of his spiraling trance. Lane acts as though he had said nothing untowards, and Liam storms off, confused and uncomfortable. Carli helps him find Rho and Emmi to say goodbye for the night, and Griffith picks him up.

**Emmi's Kidnapping, Liam's unraveling.** - As Emmi's sister tortures her, the pain carries over to Liam as well, though no where near the actual degree Emmi is experiencing. Desperate to get to her, he tries to get Griffith to help him to disconnect from reality so he can summon a door to go find her. Griffith refuses and begs him to try something else, but Liam leaves him alone in the library, seeking out Lane who he trusts will be better suited to making him unravel. Which he does. Towards the end of their interaction, The fingers of Liam's right hand distort and extend, which is essentially what snaps him out of his spiraling state enough to go through the door he summoned. He doesn't find Emmi, and instead ends up at Griffith's flat, resulting in Liam apologizing for his earlier behavior and spending the night.

    **Attack on The Institute.** Cherry called an intern meeting before everything fell apart, during which both Phoebe and Lane were punched at some point in time. The stress of the attack causes Liam to begin to unravel, and Emmi arrives. Cherry and Max run off, and Emmi and Liam attempt to safely remove the rest of the interns through the halls. However surrounded by everyone's and his own panic, he starts to fall apart. Griffith and Alexander get separated and lost to the halls for three days, while Rho and Lane jump out a spare door to get away from The Spiral. Liam, Emmi, Phoebe and Dion exit through a door at the front of the institute and are able to leave safely. Though Liam spends the next three days locked in his apartment, falling apart as he waits for Griffith to emerge safely from the halls. **Not a Date.** Went for Curry with Griffith as as to a concert. Held hands :3 Fell asleep watching netflix at Griffith's place. Totally just dudes being bros.

**Nightmares.** Rho spent the night at Liam's, first to try and see if he could sense any spiral presence on him, but then just to give them some much needed company.

**Dinner in the Halls.** Liam discovers Ruth was behind the door that took his teacher when he was six.

**Spiraling.** Has a meltdown, purposefully feeds of a stranger for the first time. End's up at Griffith's place who helps calm him down.

**Snack Time.** Goes for coffee with Miles and they share their art with each other.

**Liam and Lane.** A conversation between a painter and a sculptor, kept from going sour by Griffith and Rho.

**New Prey.** After the conversation with Lane, Liam feeds off some new prey, the unsuspecting Marce

**Web Show.** Ruth tries to set Liam up with Dominic who is there with Pollux. Liam and Griffith activate Fake Dating plan. Liam has a brief reunion with Edward.

**Shatter.** After telling Rho and Griffith how they can leave the Institute, Liam goes into the halls and has a full breakdown.

**Refuse to be Known.** After Inanna accidentally pulls up a moment of trauma to numerous folks in the text chat, and from there decides to learn how to avoid being Seen. Batty connects him with Alistair, who lets him try to deflect their Sight, with mild success.

**Walk a thousand Miles.** After an impulsive feeding session, the optimistic cartoonist Miles walked into the halls, never to exit again. Liam falls apart, horrified at what he'd done.

## Powers

**Doors** - Can summon his door in case of extreme emotional duress and when feeling especially spirally.

**Mirrors** - Was able to go through a mirror in the halls and emerge in the real world.

**Misdirection** - Can encourage disorientation in others, make folks get lost in familiar spaces, see/hear things in their peripheral and in mirrors/reflections. Minimal control over any of these things.

**Long Hands** - When particularly twisty and in moments of emotional heights, can extend his fingers/hands and seemingly grab someone with them

**Glasses** - Essentially an artifact that give the wearer a painful headache and hallucinations unless they are of the Spiral in some capacity. To Liam, they show him a colorful wonderland and help him pick out those more susceptible to the spiral.

**Eye can't see you -** Has limited ability to deflect the Ceaseless Watcher when he feels prying eyes Seeing him

## Backstory

Liam's life has been nothing but hardship.

Never having known his father, he was raised by is addict mother until he was eight years old, constantly surrounded by the unsavory men she kept as company. They did not treat young Liam kindly.

When he was six years old, he lingered behind after class because of his fear of going back to an unsafe home, and because of this watched his Kindergarten teacher 'Mrs. June' go through a door, never to return. Though Liam has no memory of it, he followed her into the halls, left to wander for days, alone and afraid.

> *He was found the next day, locked in the very classroom Mrs. June had last been seen in.*
>
>

> *All markers and crayons exhausted, the room's floor and walls*
>
>

> *covered                    .*
>
>

> *in crude         / gs*
>
>

> *spiral             drawin*
>
>

> *shaped*
>
>

Shortly after that incident, Liam's mother lost custody over him, his Grandparent's taking him in until he went to university ten years later.

He was an English major, but struggled to find a career path he actually wanted to follow.

At twenty years old, a dissociation episode while driving resulted in a brutal car crash, from which two civilians from a different car were killed, and Liam was hospitalized for a month. Doctors said he should have died, yet he emerged with only some scars. He lost his licence and doesn't mind, as dissociation still severely effects him on the daily.

Finally, two months before being accepted into the Institute, during a particularly stressful therapy session, his therapist disappeared into a door, just like his teacher had so many years ago.

In an attempt to find something good left in the world by finishing his degree and finding a career he enjoys, he is busying himself at the institute, trying to control the dissociation that sends him spiraling on the daily.