User Profile

Gel was born to Betsy Hambleton, a feisty young woman who was the life and soul of the Tornado Trailer Park. A young saleswoman for the well known cosmetics company, Glowell, Betsy was always done up, and she was proud to keep her trailer done up, especially for parties. She'd hang fairy lights around the windows and spend most of her time sitting in the lawn chair on the tiny patch of grass, waving to people who walked by and gossiping with the neighbors. She had a unique laugh that carried on the breeze like the tinkle of soft bells. Admirers would line up to be invited onto the lawn for an iced tea, and many men spent their time sprawled out next to her lawn chair.

Betsy wasn't one to keep a man for long, she knew what she wanted out of life, and a man to tie her down, barefoot and pregnant in the trailer, was not what she wanted. She preferred to have the girls round for a game of cards, or to go away to Glowell seminars than to spend every moment with a man. She loved to be free and do as she pleased, and she very much enjoyed her life. Any relationship she had was always short lived, and that's just the way she liked it. Until one day she found out she was pregnant. Anderson Peat, the father, stuck by Betsy through the pregnancy, through the birth of their daughter, named Gel after Betsy's favorite shade of eyeshadow, and up until Gel was about 7 months old. He couldn't take it anymore, hopped onto his motorcycle and rode off into the sunset, along with Betsy's savings and all of her jewelry.

Gel and Betsy were fortunate to have their friends living in the trailer park, they'd take turns helping with the baby, loving her, holding her, she was surrounded by doting women from the park, all smelling of Glowell's #4 Perfume, or Glowell's Own Body Lotion and ready for cuddles.

Betsy became Gel's best friend, spending all of their time together, Betsy teaching Gel about beauty, skin care, hair care, and the importance of always looking your best from a very young age. Gel would grab hold of the cosmetics catalogs that Betsy would drop off at the posh houses off of Alexandra Street and watch the world go by from the comfort of her car seat. Gel learned to read from helping her mother with the catalogs, from the multicolored cartons of cosmetics, and Betsy took great delight in the fact that Gel's first word was "Glowell!"

Betsy had several relationships as Gel was growing up, but she'd learned not to trust men after what Anderson had done, and her attitude towards men was quickly acquired by Gel. Flirting was ok if it got you a hot dinner, or a night out at the cinema, but relationships were no good, commitment would only bring you to your knees.

Gel was very popular in school, and she enjoyed her time there, though she didn't make the best of grades, she had inherited her Mother's glowing personality and was a favorite of classmates and teachers alike. She loved having other children to play with, and when a new family moved into the park, she was elated. The eldest daughter, Delilah, was fascinated with Gel and all of her makeup and styling tips. The two girls would sit for hours and go through the latest fashion magazines, talking about where they would travel, where they would live, who they would date when they became models.

When the virus hit, the world started to slowly tumble down, and one of the first things to happen was the closing of factories as workers became sicker. Glowell was one of the first to shut down, and Betsy was visibly shaken by this, giving into the depression of now having no job, and of losing her spot as the center of attention in the trailer park. She had boxes and boxes of cosmetics in their extra bedroom, stacked floor to ceiling, wall to wall, what would she do now that they were no longer making it? Surely she could sell what she had left, but then what? Only, she couldn't sell the Glowell, when one company shut down, others in the same field would jump at the chance to become the "next big thing!"

It was the night that Gel came home with a bottle of Raging Red by Glamourpuss that Oneida in number 14 had given her, that Betsy realized she was done for now. No one would buy Glowell anymore, but Glamourpuss would never be Glowell, not in Betsy's heart. Gel was frightened by her Mother's outburst which sent the bottle of polish flying across the room, bouncing off of the wall and spreading shiny red liquid across their small living room. Betsy calmed herself and cleaned up the polish, kneeling on the linoleum floor to wipe at the traitor polish invading her home, and this was when Gel noticed the big, ugly, black blisters on the back of Betsy's neck. Crying out in anguish, Gel was frightened, and Betsy tried to cover her neck with her hair, she knew she was sick, and now she couldn't hide it any longer.

As each day passed, she became more and more lethargic, covered head to toe in blisters, trying to hide them from her beloved daughter. Gel tried to look after her Mother as best she could, fearing what would happen if the rumors were true and all of the adults were in fact dying. Betsy was all she had in this world, the ladies in the park would be gone, the only person she could think of who wasn't an adult was Delilah and her sister, Darcy. Nothing Gel did made Betsy get better, and she sat by her bedside until the very end, holding her ugly withered hand. She brushed back Betsy's hair, painted her nails with fresh Glowell polish left from the stores in their extra bedroom, and as Gel applied the last flick of lipstick across her wrinkled lips, Betsy slipped away, and Gel was all alone.

She insisted on putting her Mother's ashes in an old Glowell carton, burying it under the willow tree at the back of the trailer park. She packed up her things, most of her clothes and shoes went into the big trunk, and she stuffed three large cosmetics cases and her backpack as full of makeup as she possibly could, packing it all into a little red wagon and pulling it behind her. She met Delilah and Darcy at the edge of the trailer park, there were only a few adults living in the park by then, and all of their parents were dead.

Together they traveled into the city, vowing to never go back to that park again, there were too many memories there, and the only way they could get on with their lives was to leave that life behind and start all over again. Arriving in the city, tugging the red wagons behind them, they were chased by the Demon Dogs, whom Gel thought could use some help with their makeup. She hid behind a dumpster, unable to help as Delilah and Darcy were caught and carried away. She stayed there, watching them loot the red wagons, glad when they found no interest in the makeup, and once they had gone she came out, repacked both wagons, and pulled them behind her.

She was hungry, and the streets were fairly deserted, only a few adults were here and there. In time, that changed, and Gel got lucky, finding a group of kids who clearly had makeup and styling skills as much as she did. She joined up with The Modes, and found it to be perfect, she could bat her eyelashes at the boys, be loud and flirtatious, take on another persona and pretend that she was someone different, someone who didn't have a story to tell, didn't have memories that haunted her as she slept. Someone cute, from the posh homes up near Alexandra Street.

Gel spent a few years with the Modes, making lots of friends and having a good time. The leader of the Modes, Lucy, she didn't much care for Gel, she had better styling and makeup sense, and Lucy wanted to be the best! She'd hit Gel and call her ugly, or stupid, and she'd threaten to kick her out of the Tribe whenever she got in the way. Many of the girls, under the influence of Lucy, would put Gel down, treat her poorly, though in private they would apologize and sympathize and comfort her.

They largely escaped the Chosen occupation, kept to themselves in a very remote corner of the City. When the Chosen fell, Lucy decided they should be centered in the City, and she led them into it, searching for a place she'd heard was available. The long walk, the heat of the day, it made all of the girls whine, it was making them sweat and that meant their makeup was running!!! Gel too was tired, and as the girls wandered on, she stopped, refusing to do as Lucy told her anymore, she'd catch up with them later, she wanted to see the City and how it had changed, she wanted to rest and fix her makeup.

This was when the Techno's invaded, and Gel hid behind a dumpster, watching as they wrangled the rest of her Tribe and pushed them all into a cargo truck, a filthy dirty cargo truck. Gel crouched low, keeping behind the dumpster for a while, until things in the City were quiet. She was too scared to stay in the City, and instead she traded some of her makeup for a bit of food and headed back to the Mode's old hangout. This was where she'd left a great deal of her makeup, it had lasted her a good long while, and for that she was grateful. It was lonely, living alone on the outskirts of the city, and it was harder to get food, but it was better than being put into the back of a filthy cargo truck with nothing but the lipstick in your pocket.

Gel stayed here, alone in the large mansion, listening to the news that trickled through the streets, keeping her distance from anything Techno, and when she heard they'd fallen, she made her way back into the City. Gel was tired of being alone, of being lonely and hungry, the quiet didn't do her any good, it only made her think of her Mother, of the trailer park, and of their life and her death. Gel packed up quite a bit of her makeup, her trunk of clothes, put it in that trusty red wagon, and hauled it off to the City. When she arrived, she carefully hid it in a small back alleyway and wandered through the streets.

Some kids were rejoicing that the Techno's were over, crying and talking about how their friends, their Tribe members, would come home again now! Gel felt afraid, if that was true, Lucy would be back, and there was no telling how angry she would be that Gel hadn't gotten picked up at the same time as they had. Wandering through the streets, she happened to walk past the_mall where a pretty girl, amber_warning stood, inviting her in to eat with them.

Gel enjoyed her time in the Mall, meeting _salene_, _cloe_, mother_trudy, tribal_mouse, tribal_ellie, _bray_, tribal_may, _ebony_, and the one she'd gone looking for, sheriff_lex. He was cute, but when she arrived in the Mall, _siva_ arrived shortly after, and it was obvious that Lex was in love with her. She was soon voted in to stay in the Mall, and was proud to call herself a Mall Rat. Going back for her things, Gel was delighted to find it was untouched, safe in that back alleyway, and she dragged it all inside of The Mall, up the stairs, and right into the room Salene told her she could have.

She made quick friends with Mouse, Ellie, Cloe, and she was always willing to help out with anything that needed doing, even though she was sure she was going to get dishpan hands from the many times Salene told her to do the dishes. Gel was happy in her quiet, but exciting, new life, reinventing herself again, and glad to no longer be alone. It was during a trip to the Market that it came crashing down, as Gel saw the face of Lucy, and she began to hyperventilate, passing out and imagining a horrific scenario where Lucy took her and hurt her. When she came to, she was sitting in the middle of the market, and Lucy was nowhere to be found.

Tortured by her dreams of Lucy for a few days, it was after Cloe tried to commit suicide and Gel helped talk her down that her nightmares became reality. Lucy had found her, and she abducted her, taking her away, through the woods, to a secret hideout she'd now acquired. Lucy had become cynical, bitter, and she didn't trust the city anymore, but she'd also turned the Modes completely against Gel, even the friends who used to be compassionate towards Gel now hated her. They tortured her for a few days, putting her in Clown makeup, chaining her to a tree, smacking her around and throwing rotten eggs, tomatoes, and other rotten vegetables. Gel stayed strong, refusing to show them her weakness, refusing to give in, and she stood there and took it, quietly.

It was here that Gel realized she'd changed, she was a different person, sure she was still good at makeup and was great at hair styling and picking the perfect outfit, but to the Mall Rats she was something more. She was a person, a Tribe member, not just someone with skills to be coveted, something to be jealous over. Gel realized that the Mall was her home now, and she badly wanted to go home again. It was with the help of a small girl named Roxy that Gel was saved. She bravely took a note all the way to the Mall for her, leaving it on the grille and heading back to the building in the woods.

Gel was not safe by any means, but Lucy wasn't smart either. She took Gel out into the woods blindfolded, telling her if she could make her way out of the woods, she was free, but if they found her, she was going straight back to her cell, and probably wouldn't live to see another day. Gel took off, running, tree branches scratching at her face, following a small stream. She could hear her old Tribe in the distance, and she ran faster, until she couldn't hear anything anymore. She continued on her path, until she heard laughter, and quickly scaled a tree, hiding there from the girls, knowing they hated dirty places. She stayed up in that tree for hours, waiting, and it was only after Roxy appeared, telling her it was safe, Lucy had given up, that Gel came down from the tree.

Hugging her new friend, Gel was delighted, and grateful, and Roxy took her by the hand and led her back towards the city, through the woods, until she had to go back. Gel said goodbye and left her there, walking back towards the City. When she arrived at the Mall, she passed out in the carpark and was found by Cloe. It was _patsy_, however, who helped her into the Mall, and they quickly made friends. Gel slept and ate and recuperated, and it was then that she found out about Salene and Bray being abducted, along with Siva, Mouse, and the baby. When May rallied together Cloe, Patsy, and Gel, she agreed to go with them on the rescue mission.

Heading into the woods, Gel had learned a lesson, and she brought many supplies with her, scarves, mittens, bottles of water, food, and she left everything nonessential at home. That was the first time in her life that Gel had left her home without a drip of makeup in her bag. After helping rescue the Mall Rats, she returned back to the Mall with everyone else and settled back into her favorite new way of life, building stronger bonds with the girls, getting to know all of the new people who kept coming in. Gel's just glad to be back in the first place she's called home since her Mother died. A real home, with a real Tribe who never called her ugly, who never put her down, and who wanted her here, even if all she really had to offer were makeup tips and hair expertise.