OOC: About Elle
NOTE: This app was written after 2x11 "Powerless" aired, so anything that has been revealed/retconned since then is not included.
NAME: Elle Bishop
SERIES: Heroes
SERIES' MEDIUM: live-action TV show
ROLE IN CANON: She’s in a moral grey area. Suffice it to say she’s an occasional side antagonist who once and a while does things that might be considered not entirely bad. And all her badness could theoretically be blamed on her dad, so you could look at her as a hapless victim. But like I said: moral grey area.
AGE: 24
GENDER: female
"REAL" NAME: Jaye Cardinal
HISTORY
First, the Company. Elle was the daughter of one of its founders, and became one of its agents (referred to as “the executioner” by her father). It was formed in the 1960’s or 70’s by Adam Monroe, who brought together twelve people who wanted to “change the world.” The founders included Elle’s father, Bob Bishop, as well as Arthur and Angela Petrelli, Kaito Nakamura, Maury Parkman, Charles Deveaux, Daniel Linderman, and others, many of whom were shrouded in mystery. The Company’s goals involved finding evolved humans, those who possessed special abilities. On November 2, 1977, Adam was captured by the other founders after he attempted to release Strain 138 of the deadly Shanti virus. Following these events, the twelve founders split - Kaito Nakamura says that some “lost their way.” Bob Bishop was one who remained with The Company.
When Elle was a young child, she was unaware that she was special. She was raised by Bob - her mother died when she was apparently quite young. But when she was six, Elle accidentally set her grandmother’s house on fire. She realized she was very special indeed: she could generate and manipulate electricity. Following this incident, her father turned her over to the Company for testing. He oversaw extensive tests on her, often pushing her to the limits of her capabilities to the point where she passed out. Presumably following the bulk of this testing, she was brought to several psychiatrists. She threatened to kill them, and they diagnosed her as a sociopath with paranoid delusions. When she was eight, Elle caused a blackout four counties wide in Ohio. She spent her ninth birthday with an IV of lithium in her arm.
One of Bob’s associates, known only as the Haitian, had the power to negate abilities and remove memories. Bob had the Haitian take away all of Elle’s memories of the testing her performed on her, then began her training as an agent of the Company.
In 2006, the Company began to plot the destruction of New York City. Arthur and Angela Petrelli’s younger son Peter had the ability to absorb others’ powers, and they decided he would take in Ted Sprague’s radioactive powers and then explode like a bomb. Unfortunately for the Company, Peter and his older brother Nathan - as well as several of their allies - were on to the Company’s scheme. Nathan, who had the power to fly, took Peter high over the city before he exploded. Thanks to his absorption of Claire Bennet’s regenerative powers, Peter healed and brought a badly wounded Nathan to a hospital. But the Company wasn’t done with him, and Bob and Elle ambushed him at the hospital. They brought him to the facility in Hartsdale, where they convinced him that they were on his side and could help him. He was worried that he’d hurt other people he cared about, but they assured him that they had pills to temporarily negate his powers and were working on a permanent cure.
Peter stayed at the facility in Hartsdale for almost four months, and Elle brought him his pills every day. Over the weeks, Elle thought they began to develop a connection, and Peter played along with her obvious crush on him long enough for him and Adam Monroe to escape. Bob charged Elle and the Haitian with bringing Peter and Adam back. They finally caught up with them near a shipping yard outside the hospital where Nathan was staying. Elle sent the Haitian after Peter, while she chased Adam. Unfortunately for her, Peter and Adam both escaped and the Haitian disappeared. Bob gave Elle the job of tracking Peter down. She followed the trail to the docks in Cork, Ireland, where a dockworker named Will told her that Peter was staying at The Wandering Rocks Pub. Elle headed for the pub, but the owner, Ricky, said he’d never seen Peter before. Knowing he was lying but not holding out for answers, Elle killed Ricky. She was reprimanded by her father and pulled off the assignment.
Bob’s next mission for Elle was to team up with Dr. Mohinder Suresh to bring in Noah Bennet and his daughter Claire. Suresh needed Claire’s blood to cure a Company agent, Nikki Sanders, from the Shanti virus, and Bob wanted to kill Bennet for trying to take the Company down. Suresh, who was previously an ally of Bennet, suggested that instead of killing him, he and Elle could simply lure him away while Bob kidnapped Claire. That way, Bennet won’t have to die and the Company could still get Claire. Bennet was expecting this, however, and he and Claire’s boyfriend West ambushed Suresh and Elle. They held Elle prisoner and offered to exchange her for Claire. While keeping her prisoner, Bennet told Elle that he knew her, and he knew what her father did to her as a child.
Bennet and Bob exchanged Claire and Elle. As soon as he had Claire back, Bennet made West fly away with her to keep her safe. But Elle discharged electricity after them, grounding them both. Bennet shot Elle in the arm.
And then she woke up at Landel's.
PERSONALITY:
Elle was once a normal girl. Rainbows and unicorns. When she was six years old, she manifested the power to independently generate electricity, and her father brought her into the Company to be tested. For who knows how many years (certainly Elle doesn't), the Company experimented on her, pushing her way beyond the limits of her capabilities. But she doesn't remember any of this - she's barely even aware that there's something to be remembered. Perhaps she has a few fleeting memories of a regular childhood, but all she truly knows is the sterile Company facility and the man in the suit who says she's his daughter and he loves her.
As a result of all this, she is completely unstable. She displays sociopathic and sadistic traits, but it's a bit more than that. Call it rather "mania," a rather simple term for the complex wrongness of Elle's mind.
Some of the basic characteristics of mania include short attention span, inability to internalize social norms, grandiosity and an exaggerated sense of self, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. These are all traits Elle possesses in spades. She even mentions that she "spent [her] ninth birthday with an I.V. of lithium in [her] arm" - lithium is the basic mood stabilizer used to treat mania.
However, it's hard to apply personality disorders to Elle, because of her unique upbringing. Sociopaths, sadists, and maniacs cannot internalize social norms. Elle simply has no social norms to internalize. There is no context for human interaction in her past, except what she's seen on TV and in films, and what she's heard from disapproving authority figures (like her father) or deceptive manipulators (like Adam Monroe). She's spent her life looking at people - people like her, people with abilities - categorized, catalogued, and tucked away behind glass windows like they're specimens in some experiment. This is why she views others as toys or pets: in the world she's lived in her whole life, basic human dignity does not exist. She expects no more respect from others than what she gives to them, so she's convinced that everyone's out to get her.
She has very little regard for human life, but finds no particular enjoyment in killing. Violence and death aren't fun for her, they're just something she does because Daddy told her to. The fun part is poking and prodding and finding out how people react to certain situations or stimuli (including excessive amounts of electricity). She enjoys hurting people simply because her mind is damaged to the point where she can no longer empathize, and she likes watching them squirm. The world is her ant farm.
And in her mind, there is no stigma attached to open and public sexuality. Again, she has little or no sense of social boundaries, and therefore doesn't understand why it might be wrong to touch someone, play with their hair or fingers. This is partly a control issue - Elle likes to be in control of the situation, and quite often she is. She's figured out that flirting with or touching someone will make them uncomfortable, and less in control. Sometimes, on the other hand, it's just a harmless (she thinks) way of figuring out what makes a person tick. However, she is convinced that every attractive male she meets is smitten with her.
Elle's sexual history is debatable, but it's plain that she is neither as savvy as she likes to think she is, nor is she as interested in sex as others might believe. Not as savvy because once Peter starts taking the lead in their "relationship," she's pretty much putty in his hands. And not so interested because - while it probably holds a certain fascination for her - her flirting and touching is not a precursor to sex, the way it would be for someone who actually understood social boundaries.
What she enjoys about her sexuality is that it gives her power over others. And she likes power. She loves control, because she's never had any except over the prisoners at the facility.
In spite of all this, Elle can be quite childlike. Part of her personality never quite developed beyond the age of her memory loss. Sometimes her childlike nature is quite genuine - she usually falls into it when dealing with her father or facing a situation she's not sure how to handle. Other times, however, it's quite intentional - a ploy to make people underestimate her.
Take into account that Elle has an incredible command of her ability, a great joy in using it, and a complete inability to understand the boundaries of it any more than she understands the boundaries of sexuality or violence, and you've got a very dangerous girl. She relies heavily on her power, and loves it more than she loves any of the people in her life, except possibly her father. Besides Daddy, electricity is the only thing she has.
POWERS & ABILITIES:
Elle has the ability to generate and control electricity. It’s implied that she has enough power to light up at least a whole city block, and she certainly has enough power to blackout half of Ohio. She has been shown doing something as precise as breaking a glass from a distance, as well as releasing enough random energy to blast a man to near cinders. Her power can be as gentle as a mild spark, powerful enough to strike down West and Claire when they’re high above the ground, or anywhere in between.
On the flip side, if she’s wet or in contact with water (and presumably has no grounded surface to channel excess electrons into (erm, sticking with the science)), her power could cause severe pain to herself, although no obvious lasting damage. This is shown when she’s being held captive by Bennet, who submerges her feet in a bucket of water and sprays her down with a hose.
AT LANDEL'S:
She still has some electricity - enough to power a flashlight or give someone a very painful shock, or set something easily flammable on fire (like cloth or paper) (having done a bit of research, this basically means that she is now generating high-voltage but low-amperage electricity - lots of ouchie, relatively little physical damage). If she concentrates, she can still muster the strength to leave burn scars (although not knock someone unconscious) (ie. more amps), but doing this just once will make her feel dizzy and faint, and she won’t be able to use her power at all for an hour or two. The getting wet loophole in her power still applies in full.
NAME: Elle Bishop
SERIES: Heroes
SERIES' MEDIUM: live-action TV show
ROLE IN CANON: She’s in a moral grey area. Suffice it to say she’s an occasional side antagonist who once and a while does things that might be considered not entirely bad. And all her badness could theoretically be blamed on her dad, so you could look at her as a hapless victim. But like I said: moral grey area.
AGE: 24
GENDER: female
"REAL" NAME: Jaye Cardinal
HISTORY
First, the Company. Elle was the daughter of one of its founders, and became one of its agents (referred to as “the executioner” by her father). It was formed in the 1960’s or 70’s by Adam Monroe, who brought together twelve people who wanted to “change the world.” The founders included Elle’s father, Bob Bishop, as well as Arthur and Angela Petrelli, Kaito Nakamura, Maury Parkman, Charles Deveaux, Daniel Linderman, and others, many of whom were shrouded in mystery. The Company’s goals involved finding evolved humans, those who possessed special abilities. On November 2, 1977, Adam was captured by the other founders after he attempted to release Strain 138 of the deadly Shanti virus. Following these events, the twelve founders split - Kaito Nakamura says that some “lost their way.” Bob Bishop was one who remained with The Company.
When Elle was a young child, she was unaware that she was special. She was raised by Bob - her mother died when she was apparently quite young. But when she was six, Elle accidentally set her grandmother’s house on fire. She realized she was very special indeed: she could generate and manipulate electricity. Following this incident, her father turned her over to the Company for testing. He oversaw extensive tests on her, often pushing her to the limits of her capabilities to the point where she passed out. Presumably following the bulk of this testing, she was brought to several psychiatrists. She threatened to kill them, and they diagnosed her as a sociopath with paranoid delusions. When she was eight, Elle caused a blackout four counties wide in Ohio. She spent her ninth birthday with an IV of lithium in her arm.
One of Bob’s associates, known only as the Haitian, had the power to negate abilities and remove memories. Bob had the Haitian take away all of Elle’s memories of the testing her performed on her, then began her training as an agent of the Company.
In 2006, the Company began to plot the destruction of New York City. Arthur and Angela Petrelli’s younger son Peter had the ability to absorb others’ powers, and they decided he would take in Ted Sprague’s radioactive powers and then explode like a bomb. Unfortunately for the Company, Peter and his older brother Nathan - as well as several of their allies - were on to the Company’s scheme. Nathan, who had the power to fly, took Peter high over the city before he exploded. Thanks to his absorption of Claire Bennet’s regenerative powers, Peter healed and brought a badly wounded Nathan to a hospital. But the Company wasn’t done with him, and Bob and Elle ambushed him at the hospital. They brought him to the facility in Hartsdale, where they convinced him that they were on his side and could help him. He was worried that he’d hurt other people he cared about, but they assured him that they had pills to temporarily negate his powers and were working on a permanent cure.
Peter stayed at the facility in Hartsdale for almost four months, and Elle brought him his pills every day. Over the weeks, Elle thought they began to develop a connection, and Peter played along with her obvious crush on him long enough for him and Adam Monroe to escape. Bob charged Elle and the Haitian with bringing Peter and Adam back. They finally caught up with them near a shipping yard outside the hospital where Nathan was staying. Elle sent the Haitian after Peter, while she chased Adam. Unfortunately for her, Peter and Adam both escaped and the Haitian disappeared. Bob gave Elle the job of tracking Peter down. She followed the trail to the docks in Cork, Ireland, where a dockworker named Will told her that Peter was staying at The Wandering Rocks Pub. Elle headed for the pub, but the owner, Ricky, said he’d never seen Peter before. Knowing he was lying but not holding out for answers, Elle killed Ricky. She was reprimanded by her father and pulled off the assignment.
Bob’s next mission for Elle was to team up with Dr. Mohinder Suresh to bring in Noah Bennet and his daughter Claire. Suresh needed Claire’s blood to cure a Company agent, Nikki Sanders, from the Shanti virus, and Bob wanted to kill Bennet for trying to take the Company down. Suresh, who was previously an ally of Bennet, suggested that instead of killing him, he and Elle could simply lure him away while Bob kidnapped Claire. That way, Bennet won’t have to die and the Company could still get Claire. Bennet was expecting this, however, and he and Claire’s boyfriend West ambushed Suresh and Elle. They held Elle prisoner and offered to exchange her for Claire. While keeping her prisoner, Bennet told Elle that he knew her, and he knew what her father did to her as a child.
Bennet and Bob exchanged Claire and Elle. As soon as he had Claire back, Bennet made West fly away with her to keep her safe. But Elle discharged electricity after them, grounding them both. Bennet shot Elle in the arm.
And then she woke up at Landel's.
PERSONALITY:
Elle was once a normal girl. Rainbows and unicorns. When she was six years old, she manifested the power to independently generate electricity, and her father brought her into the Company to be tested. For who knows how many years (certainly Elle doesn't), the Company experimented on her, pushing her way beyond the limits of her capabilities. But she doesn't remember any of this - she's barely even aware that there's something to be remembered. Perhaps she has a few fleeting memories of a regular childhood, but all she truly knows is the sterile Company facility and the man in the suit who says she's his daughter and he loves her.
As a result of all this, she is completely unstable. She displays sociopathic and sadistic traits, but it's a bit more than that. Call it rather "mania," a rather simple term for the complex wrongness of Elle's mind.
Some of the basic characteristics of mania include short attention span, inability to internalize social norms, grandiosity and an exaggerated sense of self, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. These are all traits Elle possesses in spades. She even mentions that she "spent [her] ninth birthday with an I.V. of lithium in [her] arm" - lithium is the basic mood stabilizer used to treat mania.
However, it's hard to apply personality disorders to Elle, because of her unique upbringing. Sociopaths, sadists, and maniacs cannot internalize social norms. Elle simply has no social norms to internalize. There is no context for human interaction in her past, except what she's seen on TV and in films, and what she's heard from disapproving authority figures (like her father) or deceptive manipulators (like Adam Monroe). She's spent her life looking at people - people like her, people with abilities - categorized, catalogued, and tucked away behind glass windows like they're specimens in some experiment. This is why she views others as toys or pets: in the world she's lived in her whole life, basic human dignity does not exist. She expects no more respect from others than what she gives to them, so she's convinced that everyone's out to get her.
She has very little regard for human life, but finds no particular enjoyment in killing. Violence and death aren't fun for her, they're just something she does because Daddy told her to. The fun part is poking and prodding and finding out how people react to certain situations or stimuli (including excessive amounts of electricity). She enjoys hurting people simply because her mind is damaged to the point where she can no longer empathize, and she likes watching them squirm. The world is her ant farm.
And in her mind, there is no stigma attached to open and public sexuality. Again, she has little or no sense of social boundaries, and therefore doesn't understand why it might be wrong to touch someone, play with their hair or fingers. This is partly a control issue - Elle likes to be in control of the situation, and quite often she is. She's figured out that flirting with or touching someone will make them uncomfortable, and less in control. Sometimes, on the other hand, it's just a harmless (she thinks) way of figuring out what makes a person tick. However, she is convinced that every attractive male she meets is smitten with her.
Elle's sexual history is debatable, but it's plain that she is neither as savvy as she likes to think she is, nor is she as interested in sex as others might believe. Not as savvy because once Peter starts taking the lead in their "relationship," she's pretty much putty in his hands. And not so interested because - while it probably holds a certain fascination for her - her flirting and touching is not a precursor to sex, the way it would be for someone who actually understood social boundaries.
What she enjoys about her sexuality is that it gives her power over others. And she likes power. She loves control, because she's never had any except over the prisoners at the facility.
In spite of all this, Elle can be quite childlike. Part of her personality never quite developed beyond the age of her memory loss. Sometimes her childlike nature is quite genuine - she usually falls into it when dealing with her father or facing a situation she's not sure how to handle. Other times, however, it's quite intentional - a ploy to make people underestimate her.
Take into account that Elle has an incredible command of her ability, a great joy in using it, and a complete inability to understand the boundaries of it any more than she understands the boundaries of sexuality or violence, and you've got a very dangerous girl. She relies heavily on her power, and loves it more than she loves any of the people in her life, except possibly her father. Besides Daddy, electricity is the only thing she has.
POWERS & ABILITIES:
Elle has the ability to generate and control electricity. It’s implied that she has enough power to light up at least a whole city block, and she certainly has enough power to blackout half of Ohio. She has been shown doing something as precise as breaking a glass from a distance, as well as releasing enough random energy to blast a man to near cinders. Her power can be as gentle as a mild spark, powerful enough to strike down West and Claire when they’re high above the ground, or anywhere in between.
On the flip side, if she’s wet or in contact with water (and presumably has no grounded surface to channel excess electrons into (erm, sticking with the science)), her power could cause severe pain to herself, although no obvious lasting damage. This is shown when she’s being held captive by Bennet, who submerges her feet in a bucket of water and sprays her down with a hose.
AT LANDEL'S:
She still has some electricity - enough to power a flashlight or give someone a very painful shock, or set something easily flammable on fire (like cloth or paper) (having done a bit of research, this basically means that she is now generating high-voltage but low-amperage electricity - lots of ouchie, relatively little physical damage). If she concentrates, she can still muster the strength to leave burn scars (although not knock someone unconscious) (ie. more amps), but doing this just once will make her feel dizzy and faint, and she won’t be able to use her power at all for an hour or two. The getting wet loophole in her power still applies in full.