ARGENT, Liam Benjamin

[Liam Benjamin Argent]

LIAM BENJAMIN ARGENT

FULL NAME: Liam Benjamin Argent
NICKNAMES: Lee
AGE: Twenty
GENDER: male
SEXUALITY: Straight
STATUS: Single
GROUP: Student.
GRADE: Freshman
MAJOR: English Lit with a minor in Creative Writing
JOB OCCUPATION: N/A

HAIR: Short, brown hair, shorter on the sides and longer on the top. He usually runs some product through it and goes.
EYES: blue.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: Quite a few from the accident.
TATTOOS: None. He can't enjoy them anyway
PIERCINGS: Nope!
PLAY-BY: Cody Christian!

LIKES: hitting the gym, all sorts of music, creating stories, New York, Charlie, classical music, playing the piano, figuring things out, sweet coffee, the smell of spring, Christmas, sunglasses, snapback caps, chocolate chip cookie dough, volunteer work, those times when he doesn’t have to rely on anyone, his independence, s’mores, mars chocolate bars, the beach
DISLIKES: cars, any high speed transportation really, getting lost when he was supposed to have known the way, pity, the whispers behind his back (he can hear them!), everything raspberry, having to continually prove himself worthy, people promising things, water, the feeling of missing out on something, the knowledge that he will never see anything ever again, wishing he could go back in time, the occasional dark spiral he finds himself in, being treated like an invalid, having to rely on people, jalapeno peppers
FEARS: Fears getting his sight back, getting lost on a route he knows well, being in cars (it’s one fear he fights every single day though).
SECRETS: Being blind isn’t a secret, how he got that way is.
PERSONALITY: Despite the cards that had been dealt him, Liam remains a strong optimist and firmly believes that there are people out there that are more worse off than he is. Known to be funny, entertaining and welcoming to all, Liam isn’t the type of guy to dislike someone without knowing them first. He is very much that guy that will give everyone a chance or two but he is by no means a pushover. He wants his independence more than he could possibly put into words but he also knows that it will never happen; that he will forever be someone’s burden. But at least getting around the shared apartment is something he can do. He’s not been easily embarrassed since he was a teenager and needed almost everything done for him. He’s grown since then and though he’s without some basics for living that coveted independent lifestyle, he manages to do so much more than most give him credit for. He hates people feeling sorry for him, he doesn’t need the pity and he has a quip at the ready for when he hears it in people’s voices. He might have lost his sight but he hadn’t lost anything else of himself. And the sweet and cheeky kid he had been before the accident is still in there, he’s just gotten older, learned dirtier jokes and needs someone to hold the door open for him instead. He might need help getting around the big apple but Liam is a tough guy, having figured out early on that despite his disadvantages, he had some pretty spectacular advantages and that he needed to strengthen the assets he did have. That meant hitting up the gym with a trainer and pushing himself to his limits and beyond them.

MOTHER: Maureen & 53.
FATHER: James & 55.
SIBLINGS: Poppy & 18.
OTHERS: A few friends/housemates from the island.
PETS: Charlie & Husky!
HOMETOWN: Mackinac Island, Michigan.
HISTORY: Liam would say that life before his fourteenth year was bland, that nothing ever really happened. He’d had that all American sort of childhood, two adoring parents and golden retriever named Buzz and an endless amount of energy and time spent outside. His parents gave him a little sister when he was two and as they grew up, they got along as siblings should. Liam teased Poppy about everything, like big brothers did and he took care of her when she was getting bullied at school and her loyal group of friends weren’t there to help her out. He played football as soon as he was old enough, among other things. He wasn’t a straight-A student but he wasn’t the worst in the class either. He did more than just get by and he was pretty popular.

He had only been fourteen for a few months when his life changed dramatically. They were waiting to turn at an intersection, on their way to celebrate Maureen’s birthday when they were hit by a reckless driver flying through the intersection. Maureen was driving, her birthday gift was the car she was behind the wheel of and Poppy was on the driver’s side. James and Liam weren’t as lucky. No one walked away from that accident unscathed but also none of them had been injured quite as badly as Liam. He was in the backseat, buckled in and he was supposed to be safe. When he woke up from the medically induced coma, the doctor’s had some news for him. It would take time to get his feet under him again, he’d shattered the femur and it had needed to be replaced by surgical steel, his arm had also been broken and he’d fractured three ribs. He’d had a collapsed lung, significant head trauma and extensive trauma to his eyes. They weren’t sure if he would ever see again, though they did bring in a specialist to figure that out. He did all he could but as they said, only time would tell.

The rest of his family barely suffered by comparison. Broken and fractured bones, concussions and similar injuries but because the car had hit Liam’s door directly, he’d taken the most damage from it. He hadn’t shut his eyes in time for it and the glass shredded him so badly that the damage was irreversible. Eventually that time came, time to remove the bandages from his eyes. He felt the bandages being removed and he felt his eyelids open, slightly at first then after a few blinks, he knew they were fully open but he saw nothing. He felt more than saw the light from the small flashlight move across his eyes and answered the series of questions the same way; nothing. He was totally and completely blind. Liam didn’t intentionally go down a dark path but that’s what he ended up doing. He’d had a bright future in football but without his sight, he was useless. It took everything he had, with the help of counselors and training to learn to read again using braille, get used to having a guide dog or walking stick and switch up his entire wardrobe with black staples everywhere so at least he knew he couldn’t clash too badly.

School was another problem altogether. They lived in a small coastal community. There were no schools in the area for kids like him. He had two options. One, he could go to a boarding school where they would teach him everything they could about living a relatively normal life without his eye sight or he could stick it out, stay at home and continue to attend his old school. He picked option two; better the devil you know. He had a great group of friends, all of which belonged to his little sister because by the time he was ready to return to regular school, he’d missed a couple grades and he know shared a couple different classes with his previous two grades behind him baby sister. Poppy helped him out a lot and so did the friends they shared. And Liam found out rather quickly that there were other things in the world that he liked that didn’t include sports. His therapist was impressed with the fact that was returning quickly to the glass half full guy that he had been before the accident took everything away from him.

Figuring out how to get around without help had been the hardest part but Liam learned to count the steps from this place to that one. He knew how many steps it was from the front door of the school to his locker, from there to his first class. He knew that at the end of it, Maisie who sat up front would walk him to his next class if she was at school, if not Chris would take the job. Poppy would meet him there, sit next to him and help him when he didn’t quite catch what the teacher said. Mr Goodwin was notoriously bad for mumbling and he’d put Liam in the back row, out of the way, he’d said once when he didn’t realise Liam could hear. It was pointless to make a complaint when he knew it would do no good so he’d told only Poppy and their friends. Once graduation rolled around, Liam hadn’t been sure of what to do. He’d applied to colleges and universities that would help him to become more independent but he was genuinely scared of going away on his own. In the end, he ended up at NYU with Poppy and a couple of their friends who decided to apply to the same school.

Liam hadn’t known what he wanted to do but knew he couldn’t do most things. He took a creative writing course that first year and found he quite enjoyed creating these other worlds, worlds he could see and found he wanted to share them. So he decided to settle on a major and has been quite pleased with the results since then. Now at twenty, Liam is trying to figure out how to get around New York without any help, aside from his guide dog, Charlie and figure out a way to be a productive member of society. He’s got quite the task ahead of him but he thinks he can figure it out.

YOUR ALIAS: Cali
RULE WORDS: I’m holding them hostage
WHERE YOU FOUND US: In the paper under the personals... My, my...
SAMPLE:

Err, no.

 

[Cali]