OOC: Entranceway Application
Name: Kelsey
LJ: everyoneisemo
E-Mail: rpdina@gmail.com
IM: dinachan321
Character Name: Georgia “George” Lass
Series: Dead Like Me
Timeline: End of Season 2, just after she visits the graveyard
Canon Resource Link: Here
Character Background: On George’s 18th birthday, she died. And it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill overdose on coke or killed by a prostitute death, either. She got hit by a toilet seat falling from space.
To say the least, her life-or lack thereof-only gets weirder from there. Moments before her death, a man who somehow knew her name touched her shoulder and, as she discovers later, removed her soul so as to prevent her from feeling the pain of her death. Georgia inherits these powers and becomes a reaper, though it takes a bit to get used to the concept of being dead in the first place. Initially she’s just like any other just-dead person-a ghost, essentially. Invisible to living eyes and intangible to the living world. But eventually she more or less solidifies, and to all the living she looks like a completely different person. Eventually she names this person “Millie” and starts working at the temp agency she had just started work at the day she died.
This is, however, only her day job. Her real job is more or less for free, although there is some vague promise that she’ll get to move on if she does it. Basically, she has to take souls just like hers was taken in order to prevent the victims from feeling pain, as well as preventing the souls from being trapped in their corpses. Rube, her boss, makes this painfully clear on her first couple reaps when she goes against the rules-preventing someone’s death only causes their soul to rot inside their body, and not reaping a soul means the soul is stuck in the dead body, unable to leave and having felt the pain of their death. Additionally, causing a reap to miss their appointment can cause serious consequences, as in the case when George did so and a poorly tested product went to sale, killing many more than necessary.
Eventually she gets into the swing of things, and she, Rube, and the other reapers-Roxie, Mason, Betty, and (once Betty leaves) Daisy -soon form a sort of family. Every morning they meet in Der Waffle Haus and receive post-its with the time and location of their reap, as well as the name in the form of A. Personson, and then working around their daily schedules they must do the reaps. George’s excuse for leaving Happy Time, her day job, is generally a lie about being in a sort of Alcoholics Anonymous group and needing to go to meetings. For some reason this endears her to her boss, Dolores, and eventually she becomes a substitute mother to Georgia, complete with disownment and later reestablishment of their relationship.
This is interesting, because in flashbacks it seems as if despite wanting her parents attention and love to a certain degree, she was never very close to them. She does revisit her family from time to time, and despite being dead manages to help her sister intentionally to recover by leaving gifts like pets, and unintentionally by sneaking in and stealing clothes her sister later notices are missing. Other than this, she has a few brief encounters with her mother and sister that are mostly depressing for George as, of course, they cannot even recognize her when she’s finally grown enough to actually see them.
Her relationships with the reapers can be just as rocky. She grows close to Betty only to have Betty “get her lights” (move on) without her. Betty is replaced by Daisy who, while not an entirely bad person, is self-centered and vain until she grows later on. Mason is a drug addict who tends to get on everyone’s nerves, and Roxie is a no-nonsense type who, while also not being a bad person, doesn’t connect too much with George.
Rube is another story. Rube essentially adopts George, calling her “peanut” as he did his own daughter before he died. It is only after his biological daughter dies that he starts to grow distant, and the change is instantly recognizable for George. Sure, his style was always stern tough-love, but she’d grown used to it. In a lot of ways he was the father she might have always needed and right towards the end he started to drift away.
This is just one more reminder that she was, in fact, still a teenager when she died. Which of course means she missed out on a lot of life, such as losing her virginity. She has a brief fling with an attractive coworker, but beyond some kissing in the break-room not much happens. It is only later, when she reaps a handsome man’s father and later goes to the funeral, that she manages to go home with a man. It is mostly awkward and unsatisfying for all involved, and she ends up quite angry when he doesn’t call her back.
While she did miss out on a lot by dying so young, it seems she did experience some things that not all living may do. As she is in a group of reapers in the section of dying devoted to murders and accidents, it isn’t long before she learns of the creatures that can cause random accidents-gravelings. It turns out that on at least two occasions in George’s childhood, she was capable of seeing these creatures. And though it is difficult to consider her experiences post-death in the same light as those pre-death, it is important to note all the things dying caused her to gain: a close group of friends that could be considered her family, as well as true interest in other people. Sure, she didn’t go to college, but who the fuck needs college anyway?
Abilites/Special Powers: George is able to remove people’s souls just before they die so they do not feel the pain of their death. She may also be able to remove people’s souls and put them back in before they are meant to die, but whether this is something she could do at this point is unclear, and in any case she is not really aware of the possibility as on screen only another character is shown doing it, and she’s been a reaper for longer than George has. She is also capable of healing any and all wounds at a pretty fast rate, being dead and all.
Third-Person Sample: So, after yet another journey into fucked-up-ville via visiting her family post-death like some sort of screwy zombie with better skin and less B.O., George is ready for some oatmeal. With raisins. It may not be a comfort food to some people, but that and a cup of coffee are enough to chill her out for at least an hour or so.
She really needs to chill out after that. Seriously, her sister might’ve seen her. And actually seen her, if the Halloween voodoo was still in effect. Who knows if midnight is the literal cutoff, and even if it was, she keeps showing up and….urrgh. It’s just bad news and Rube’ll have her head. Or, well, he would have. If he was his old self.
At least she’ll get to see him again without it causing problems.
Ooooor, well, she would have been able to, if the door she walked through had led her to the right place. She swears she only looked down for a minute, and suddenly she’s in some…swanky mansion? Did she walk to Trip’s country club by accident (again)? Fuck, what happened to her? She’s like some sort of ditz all of a sudden! Better go back the way she-
“…What. The fuck.” Pause. “Is that a fucking pool?!”
First-Person Sample: Oookay, I know I can overdo the drinks sometimes, but what the hell is this? I swear I was just going into Der Waffle Haus, you know, like usual? And then I’m in this…house? And who gave me this piece of shit? I don’t really need a blackberry, thanks, my job’s not really…like that.
Anyway, if there’s like, uh, some way to send out a distress signal on this…thing. S.O.S., random ass building showed up and I can’t seem to find my way home. Send help. Fuck.