Age: 21
Gender: Female
Field of Study: Fine Arts
Physical Description: Maud stands at 5’ 7” and weighs 139 lbs. She is Caucasian, with a pale ivory skin tone, hourglass body type, and a slight bit of muscle definition due to recently taking up yoga. Her face is oval shaped, paired with almond shaped brown eyes, high cheekbones, a small, soft nose, downturned lips, and medium, soft angled eyebrows with low arches. Her hair is golden blonde and wavy, reaching her hips at full length, and was put into a low ponytail for most of the trip. Living in England for most of her life has given Maud a noticeable British accent, though her years in America have caused her to use more American terms and slang.
On the day the experiment began, Maud wore a sleeveless white down jacket that reached her knees and had a pattern of black stars over a white Folklore cardigan, with a trio of light gray stars on the elbows, double black lines around the waist and the wrists, and a single black line around the collar and through the three big black buttons to the waist, which itself is over a thick long-sleeved black cotton shirt. She also wore a pair of white thermal overalls with a pattern of black stars matching her jacket, a simple white wool scarf with fringe at the ends, white earmuffs with faux bear ears, and light gray faux fur lined snow boots.
Background:
- Maud Sparrow Jr. was born to Blanche Sparrow and Ian Sparrow née Hollingsworth, a gynecologist and an airline pilot respectively, on April 25th, 2001, in Oxford, England. She was the first child of three, with two younger brothers following her; Alistair and Basil.
- Due to the high paying jobs her parents had, as well as Blanche coming from an old money family, Maud mostly had an easy childhood. While they avoided spoiling her, her parents gave her as much attention as they could while having busy schedules, helped by their decision to homeschool their children. Still, this was more than enough for her, as she more often than not she was satisfied with simply coloring and drawing.
- While Maud would try to be social and have close friends, her homeschooling notably hampered these hopes. Her parents' insistence on her befriending the children of their own friends did not help matters, as said children were few, older, and tended to be uninterested in befriending her, believing stories of her family being cursed. Because of this, her main source of social interaction in her younger years were family members.
- Among these family members is Maud “Moddie” Sparrow Sr, Maud’s grandmother, who convinced Blanche and Ian to raise their children in her own large home. While seemingly harmless, this allowed Moddie to pass on her superstitious ways to Maud, including her belief that their family was cursed; doomed to suffer untimely deaths until only one was left from each generation. A theory was based on a number of tragedies Moddie had suffered previously, these beliefs earned her a reputation around Oxford, including being feared by most children.
- Initially ignored due to Moddie holding back the stories of those deaths, things would change when Maud turned six, when Ian died in a boating accident shortly after Basil's birth. Blanche allowed Moddie to tell Maud and Alistair of the news, who spun it into a fairy tale like story in an attempt to comfort the children. This was successful enough that, on the following anniversaries of Ian's death, she would tell more stories of family tragedies as fairy tales, something noticed by Blanche as well as unacknowledged.
- These stories spurred on Maud's developing interest in art, as by age eight Maud would paint her first portrait of a deceased family member, her own father, as the fairy tale creature from Moddie's story. Moddie would only encourage this behavior further, as any time Maud would draw or write about any of their dead family, she would give the girl an encouraging smile.
- Tragedy would only continue to follow the family, however, as shortly after the fifth anniversary of Ian's death, nine year old Alistair would fatally break his neck when trying to climb a tree. Blanche, devastated from losing one of her children, suffered further as then twelve year old Maud disassociated herself from her brother's death, talking about him as though he were another fairy tale only a few days later. This caused an explosive argument between Blanche and Moddie, eventually reaching the conclusion that Maud would still learn of the family's history of tragedy, but it would all be the truth, and Basil would only learn of them once he was much older.
- Rather than accept these stories however, Maud only clung harder to the fairy tales she had heard and lived with for half her life at that point, preferring their idealized versions of the truth over realities harsher tendencies. After the first attempt to reject the truth of their family history resulted in another long and loud argument between her mother and grandmother though, Maud recognized that being vocal of these feelings would only make the two fight further. And so, while she acted accepting of the truth when around her family, she still thought of the deaths as fairy tales more than anything else, even coming up with connections to fairy tales for the deaths she hadn’t previously heard of.
- As time went on, however, Maud did grow somewhat frustrated as tension continued to build in the home, the rift between Blanche and Moddie seeming to only grow. When her usual artistic solutions failed to help, she chose a different solution, that being to get away for a while. At age fourteen, when trying to look up a place she could hide out for a bit, without the worry of family friends or anyone else ratting her out, Maud discovered the activity of urban exploration. She would spend an afternoon exploring an abandoned grain silo in Oxfordshire by the next Saturday, enjoying the experience enough to make it a hobby.
- Eventually, Maud would complete all her required learning, maintaining passing grades in all subjects, the only stand out being art based subjects, where she excelled. She would take a gap year to travel around the country, checking out urban exploration spots as much as possible and bringing them to another form of life by sketching and painting her findings.
- She decided to focus on her studies again by the end of the year and, enjoying the taste of freedom she had from traveling, she chose to attend University of Cascadia after seeing ads for the school online. Majoring in Fine Arts in hopes of improving her already existing skill, she also thought it would be a good chance to explore the world a bit more while also doing so in moderation, not wanting to learn another language for travel. While Moddie and Blanche were saddened by Maud’s decision to go to America, they did not scold her for her choice, and encouraged her to follow her dreams, financially supporting her the whole way.
- Since enrolling at U of C, Maud has been enjoying her time to the fullest. Exploring any and every abandoned location she could find, drawing, painting and writing anything she wanted without fear of it causing any arguments, and building relationships she lacked in her childhood.
- Especially notable among them is Elizabeth Rodney, an older girl who she’s grown quite close to. While the two still have their secrets, mostly Maud having not told her much of her family’s history, they still greatly enjoy each other’s time, even sharing hobbies, as Maud has picked up meditation and yoga from Elizabeth, while she has joined her on quite a few urban exploration trips.
- Maud has thrived in other ways as well since coming to U of C. She receives top marks in all of her art related classes, exceptional grades for more academic subjects, and has started offering commissions for art online. While she doesn’t always like what she’s commissioned for, she always follows through with what people have paid her for.
- As an adult, Maud has come to terms with the deaths of her family being grounded in reality rather than fantasy. Despite this, she still prefers thinking of them as figures in fairy tales and other stories, including illustrating them as such in her art.
- Around campus, Maud is seen as a friendly individual, up for just about anything. Though she has also gained a bit of a reputation for some of the art she creates, mainly when she makes portraits of her deceased family members fitting the fantastical roles she and Moddie gave them in death, a solemn look on her face whenever she works.
- Maud chose to sign up for the trip on a whim, believing it to be a good opportunity to work on other methods of making art, with specific hopes of working on her charcoal sketching.
Assets: Maud has a higher tolerance to hearing about death than most, and so will likely handle the experiment better than her fellow test subjects. Her hobby of urban exploration could prove useful, as her experience in traversing unknown, potentially dangerous territory has earned herself a keen eye for unsafe terrain as well as unconventional exits and entrances. Additionally, her generally upbeat attitude and reputation around the campus should mean making allies will not be difficult for her.
Limitations: Due to how Maud views death for the rest of her family, there is a possibility she views the experiment less urgently than most. Her attitude could hurt as much as it helps, as she could easily be taken advantage of and betrayed. Finally, Maud is very unused to struggling, and could very easily flounder when put in a situation where everyday items such as beds and blankets become luxuries.
