todie_tosleep

1st Character; George Orr

Player Details
Name/Nickname: Hiku
Age: +18
Personal LJ Username: I don't have one.
E-mail: hikuswing@gmail.com
IM/Instant Messenger(s): AIM: hikuswing
Time Zone: Pacific (May be subject to change in the near future.)
Other characters in RP: None
How did you hear about dystopian_flux ?
Searched LJ and it popped right up. Seemed relevant to my current conundrum, too. Very convenient.


Character Application
Character Name [Canonly Written]: George Orr
Series: The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K LeGuin
Gender: Male.
The Item: [ITEM]

Point with which your character has been taken from canon: I would like to remove George from his canon right after his first Effective dream with Dr. Haber. (This will allow the hypnotic conditioning he's undergone to remain in place and will probably have him on the tail end of withdrawals, if not high off of the medication he was prescribed following the first visit.)

Appearance
George Orr is a slender man with pale white skin, and the general texture and build of a draftsman. He is not particularly strong, he is not imposing, he is very little of anything beyond standard. He has very darkish brown hair in a reasonable length, carries himself slightly hunched forward, and is generally unimpressive.

The only feature of note on George's whole being are his eyes. He hardly levels them at anyone, given his propensity for awkward pauses and silence in conversation, but on the occasion that he does lock his eyes on another, and speaks with clarity, there's something almost surreal about him. His eyes are described as being clear and beautiful, but only on the rare intervals that he is particularly lucid or relevant to the conversation at hand.

At all other times, they are as mundane as the rest of him.

(George's played by is Lukas Haas from the less...interesting adaptation of the book.)


Personality
George Orr is, at his core, the perfectly neutral man. He is neither brave nor particularly cowardly, he is as outgoing as he is introverted, he is not dumb, but neither is he quick of wit, and he has no evil nor good inclinations, whatsoever. George has operated, his whole life (if that term can be applied) on the instinctual knowledge that he must remain a passive element in the world. He is the perfectly passive human, with no ambition or fear to tilt him toward any form of destruction.

In fact, it seems, the only emotions George can properly identify with, beyond the very shallowest example of their nature, are guilt and love. George feels both keenly (though he is not aware of his wife at the point where I have snatched him from his canon) but guilt is always at the forefront of his mind. He experiences it profoundly and, due to his abilities, it is the principle motivating factor in his character.

For how George's personality influences his interactions, please read the Powers and Abilities section, as I have shuffled it in there, with good reason.


Powers/Abilities CANON/AU:

A preface to this section and the dismaying fact that I've combined the Canon/AU sections:

I have wanted to play this character for a long time and, subsequently, it has been a reasonable concern of mine for as long, how to integrate this character into an actual game. Only recently have I decided to attempt it, and I think this game might be the perfect fit. I apologize if that sounds pretentious or worrying, I don't mean it to.

If you know the canon, I assume you started to pull a face when you saw the name at the headline of the form. If you do not, you're probably pulling a face now as you read this.

So why do I add this clearly counterproductive measure into the most sensitive section on my application? Because, at least, if I acknowledge the many, many red-flag this section is going to raise, you'll know that I am aware of the fine, fine line this character treads and, hopefully, that will help convince you of my intention to keep him on it.

George Orr is a completely unremarkable fellow except for one particularly strange and phenomenal ability. George has dreams that change reality.

To be specific, his dreams don't merely alter the surface of reality, but the order of reality itself. They change the very fabric of time from that moment onward (and subsequently, all moments prior) to accommodate the alterations. Were George a more imaginative man, or capable of great insight, this power would be very dangerous, but George is a man rooted in reality. It is a form of universal irony, that. And, beyond that, George's power is, like George, almost completely passive in nature.

Because they are dreams, and not waking desires, they are formed by George's subconscious. He is completely incapable of controling them or directing them in any fashion. He can no more control what he dreams about than any other person, and he is quite incapable of directly influencing anything when he goes deeply enough that they begin to shift the world.

"...I don't expect you to believe all this, Miss Lelache. I don't think even Dr. Haber has really caught on to it yet; he won't wait and get the feel of it. If he did, he might be more cautious about it. You see, it works like this. If he told me under hypnosis to dream that there was a pink dog in the room, I'd do it; but the dog couldn't be there so long as pink dogs aren't in the order of nature, aren't part of reality. What would happen is, either I'd get a white poodle dyed pink, and some plausible reason for its being there, or, if he insisted that it be a genuine pink dog, then my dream would have to change the order of nature to include pink dogs. Everywhere. Since the Pleistocene or whenever dogs first appeared. They would always have come in black, brown, yellow, white, and pink. And one of the pink ones would have wandered in from the hall, or would be his collie, or his receptionist's Pekinese, or something. Nothing miraculous. Nothing unnatural. Each dream covers its tracks completely. There would just be a normal everyday pink dog there when I woke up, with a perfectly good reason for being there. And nobody would be aware of anything new, except me--and him. I keep the two memories of the two realities. So does Dr. Haber. He's there at the moment of change, and knows what the dream's about. He doesn't admit that he knows, but I know he does. For everybody else, there have always been pink dogs. For me, and him, there have--and there haven't."--George Orr

If allowed to occur naturally, George only has these dreams rarely, at times of great distress. However, since George too is changed by the dreams, and reluctantly maintains a copy of both lifetimes inside his skull, he is only moderately reliable as a narrator of his own history. It's possible that George had only ever had the one dream, and it had resulted in a fluid universe, or that he was having many and constantly rewriting the world, even he isn't entirely sure.

At the point I am taking him from his canon, George had turned to a dangerous alternating drug regiment (it is possible this was a constructed explanation in his mind to cover the sickness and trauma of his own death by extreme radiation exposure) in an effort to prevent himself from dreaming. This resulted in visits with a psychiatrist who put George into a deep hypnotic state. The triggers for this hypnosis are still in George's head, though the trigger words were uncommon in his world.

(For the sake of probability, both the movie and book versions of the Trigger word will work on George: either New York or Antwerp will put him, instantly, into a deep slumber. At that point one can tell him what to dream. George will not awaken from this slumber until his name is repeated three times.)


Applicably, to dystopian_flux :


Because George's powers don't really draw from any source or, for that matter, operate under any form of logical reasoning beyond the perfectly unimaginative, even temper of George Orr, and are completely non-aggressive in nature (i.e. cannot be used for combat even if I imagine really, really hard), they would undergo no feasible reduction.

However, because his powers are so ridiculously deus ex machina, I couldn't even conceive of employing them for anything more than 'It stopped raining today,' and 'Is the drab grey concrete slab on the far wall half covered in wallpaper now?' without very, very extensive permissions posts and mod approval.

The fact that it would require another character for anything particularly interesting to come out of his dream-state is another factor. George is an unimaginative, passive jellyfish of a man who is perfectly content to simply maintain forever. Even if he were given full carte blanche over the fabric of reality, he wouldn't do anything notable with it, despite the Zombie Apocalypse having occurred.

The most extreme spontaneous use of George's powers I can even think of, after long contemplation, would be reversal of someone's death (either by zombie or otherwise) and in any circumstances like that, I would, again, seek moderator and character approval long beforehand. This example is a bit thin, however, as George is unable to even think of doing something like this (in the case of his girlfriend/wife, in the novel) without external influence.



And, speaking of my driving need to keep from godmodding, I believe I should address the second half of George's personality here:

George is passive, that I have established. In several instances he is compared to a jellyfish, by others and himself, and states in the novel that all his life was invested in the one action he ever took, and it was simply pressing a button and ending an event. Because George is so passive, he seems to exude this feeling, this miasma, and that inspires an intense semi-dislike in other people. (Though, in one instance, he exuded joyful feelings to the opposite effect. This doesn't often come up as George is not a particularly joyful person.)

Of all the other characters introduced to George, his wife included, they abhor contact with him and only experience brief moments in time wherein they see him as a full fledged human. His own psychiatrist feels a driving need to bully him, intimidating him constantly with voice and physicality, overriding him and his desires in a fashion reminiscent of rape. His wife does the same, implying that he is a bug to be crushed and generally disregarding him until she's forced to interact directly. Even upon realizing that she cares for him, she treats him badly and disregards his needs in favor of her own comfort.

In short, George is the kid who gets shoved into lockers. He's the quintessential beach nerd, his very existence begging even the most kindly of folk to kick sand in his face. The fact that he accepts this treatment from the world, merely floats and drifts along, stable and unwilling (or unable) to sacrifice that stability to change anything, would encourage it if it were any sort of active sentiment. Unfortunately (or not), the sentiment appears to be an area effect, some karmic reaction of the world to George.

I would like moderator approval for George to be generally disregarded by all NPCs as he is by people in his own world. Now, I don't intend to play a tiny violin for George while I have him recount his woes about how everyone hates him, nor to I intend to have the NPCs beat him on the street for inconsequential reasons. Rather, I would like to be able to add in, without feeling guilty, that some random NPC cuts in front of him in line, pushes past him rudely, closes the door as he's about to enter somewhere, or just generally disregards common courtesy around him. Simple, but I would like this to happen on a very regular basis, hence the request.

Additionally, upon apping in, I'll make a similar request OOCly to other players. While I don't expect player characters who may be kindly and sweet to suddenly forget all their manners and shove past George in a crowded room, or throw a drink on him, I will ask that they not extend courtesies to him without having to actively try in character. This state of distaste for George is a passing one, and I have no intention of enforcing it on other people indefinitely (or if they really feel uncomfortable playing it), but it is a part of his character I would like to work out with other players.

I feel that isn't an unreasonable request, but I am flexible on if it comes to great contest.


History:
Because of George's powers, his history is unreliable, but this is what was tentatively established in the novel:
At the age of 16, George had his first effective dream and retroactively killed his overly amorous aunt in a car-crash several weeks prior. It's implied that George had several more dreams of this nature between then and when we meet him in the novel, approximately in his thirties. He describes each event as a harrowing experience, like being crushed and ground away, and is physically exhausted upon waking.

Simultaneously, it's implied that George died, or came near to death, during a cataclysmic world war (one he claims to have ended the world) in the mid 1980s and his death, pinned to concrete with his eyelids seared off, staring at a dandelion growing from the cracks of abandoned steps, is the segue in to his waking for the first time in the novel, as he overdoses on the drugs he had supposedly taken. Later in the story, George explains the world preceding this event, but it's when he's less coherent than usual, and the vividness of that recollection could be indicative of true reality.
Assuming there is one. Really, there's no telling.

At any rate, George's history has changed frequently, encompassing worlds where he had no parents, was orphaned at a young age, had a mother and father and amorous aunt, grew up in Oregon, and was without race, among many others. Ultimately, he lives his life in each individual waking moment, reminiscing about the immediate past and looking forward to no particular point in the future.


RP Sample [First Person]:
I, I don't feel particularly comfortable. [He shifts in his chair and glances up at the clock on the far wall.]



It's not that I don't appreciate the chair, but I--do you have a glass of water? May I have some? I, yes, thank you. [He takes the water, pauses awkwardly, and sets his free hand on his lap. After taking a sip he cradles the glass in both hands.]
I feel heavy. That is, as if there were a weight on me. Um...I'm sure it will go away, that's not my concern. But, it's very strange.

I, um. [He rocks nervously in the chair a little.] I don't remember. About this place, I have no memory of how things...got this way. Of how I got this way.

I'm sorry; thank you again. [After a brief moment of hesitation he places the glass on the end table.]


RP Sample [Third Person]:

It was cold, though why shouldn't it be? It was Russia, in technicality...assuming there had been a Russia to be destroyed. He'd never been to Russia, or outside Portland, really, so there was no basis for comparison. It looked like a bomb had fallen. For that, he had comparison. George just stared out the window and fingered the collar of his shirt. It was a nervous motion, one he indulged in with passing frequency, and it calmed him.

Cool air was nice, even if it looked like rain. Would it be snow?

"I wonder how the heating works," George muttered to himself and added something half intelligible about blankets and warm soup in the rain. It was disconcerting, that the room didn't smell of his old hippy land-lord, and that the sun rose and hit the windows. The floors were made of linoleum, so that was something. George stepped away from the window. He'd stood there silent and still for long enough.

Everything was still enough outside; it didn't need his adding to it.

"I suppose I should find work, if there's any to be had."


Why do you play this character? 

Oh my, there's an interesting question! Aside from my weird love of ecclectic characters? I have a handfull of loud, boisterous character journals. All of them are full of piss, vinegar, and personality. I had one subtler journal a while back, but it tapered out after a long convoluted plot. I've always liked George and I think it might be interesting to write the absolute straight man. How often do you get to play characters who don't want to be involved because they're afraid of repercussions, or the law, or generally being a nuisance, after all?