elle days | courier six (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quixotically) wrote2021-01-15 03:39 am
quixotically) wrote2021-01-15 03:39 am
Entry tags:
the last resort [application]
Player Information
Name: Malathyne
Age: 24
App Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
Malathyne | AIM: whitepoof
Character Information
Name: Elena "Elle" Days, aliases of "the Courier" and "Courier Six"
Canon: Fallout: New Vegas
Age: 23
Appearance:
Stands around 5’0" and is noticeably undernourished. The weight that is on her is muscle, from walking and from fighting and from lugging around too much loot. Proportions-wise, she's mostly limb, despite being short. Dark hair, usually kept short if she can manage it but it tends to grow out while she's on the move; towards the end of her adventures, she stops trying to keep it in a short bob, but it rarely reaches past her chin. Eyes are large and bright blue. Has a noticeable overbite. Ethnic heritage is mixed, though Asian ancestry shows through strongly in her facial features.
In addition to scars earned from her dangerous lifestyle and general wasteland living, she bears a distinct scar above her left eye from where she was shot twice in the head (ref), and faint scars of the following: a lobotomy scar circling her head and disappearing into her hairline, a heart surgery scar down her chest, and a long scar following the entirety of her spine.
(Played by is Kiko Mizuhara.)
Canon Point: Post-endgame; after the dust of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam has settled a bit.
History:
The setting: the Mojave Wasteland, Timeline and history notes
The character: Courier Six (Elle's role)
The game: Fallout: New Vegas
The main plot progression: Fallout: New Vegas walkthrough
The quests: Fallout: New Vegas quests, quest listing
The DLCs: Old World Blues, Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Lonesome Road
Factions and important people: the Courier's companions, Robert House, the Three Families, Benny, the New California Republic (NCR), Caesar's Legion, the Brotherhood of Steel, Ulysses
A link to an extended history detailing the choices Elle made, why, and their effects on her can be found near the bottom of the app, as well as another link covering the specific ending slides she received.
Personality:
One of the first things to understand about Elle is just how incredibly social she is. This is a very large part of who she is: she is people-oriented. She needs to have people around her; an Elle who is alone is not a happy Elle, and when left alone for extended periods of time with no support, she starts to crumble. Although it is true that there are many times when she knows or feels that she must do something alone, such as when she went to face Benny and when she set out to chase Ulysses through the Divide, at the end of the day, she needs friends to come home to. Elle's innermost needs largely revolve around having a place to belong and having the approval of the people she cares about.
Luckily for her, she is the kind of person who makes friends easily, no matter where she is or what situation she's in. In fact, she's been known to make very close bonds in a very short amount of time. Just look at the way she built a family around her out of the people she picked up along the way to track down Benny. This is especially proven in how she managed to win the solid trust of all three of her highly suspicious and paranoid fellow kidnappees in the Sierra Madre in a short matter of days.
What contributes to this? She is earnest and puts her all into everything she does. And although this means she can come across as intense at times, it also means that her intentions are almost always open and easily read, helping to relax paranoia. She doesn't feel a need to compete with the people around her, instead preferring to default to going with the social flow made by others. She is friendly and unafraid to reach out to others, no matter who they are, no matter how likely they are to hurt her. She's downright eager to make new connections, and it shows. At times, though, this eagerness can turn her awkward, with lots of fumbling with her words and blushing. This results from how much she worries about the right thing to do and say; she is just so naturally desperate to please.
This is most often seen after she gets past the "polite" phase of meeting someone and starts to care about what they think. For example, it only took minutes for Boone to realize that she was reliable enough to help him, but once he started traveling with her, she was a bundle of nerves and kept chatting his ear off in hopes he might reach back to make an emotional connection. On top of everything else, she keeps her promises, and will go out of her way to prove that she is trustworthy and capable without any hesitation at all. This means that, even if the rest of her personality puts someone off, she often wins them over anyway simply through sheer reliability.
Being naturally people-oriented and incredibly observant results in Elle being socially astute, despite any awkwardness. It's easy for her to see the connections between people, between events, and she's always considering possibilities and consequences. However, when you mix this with her desire to change the world around her (explained further below)... To be entirely honest, Elle can be manipulative. Although direct lying is something she's very bad at because of the way she wears her heart on her sleeve, she's very good at using her emotions and the emotions of others. She uses her emotional transparency as a tool, more often than not, drawing out pieces of her emotions and emphasizing them in the hopes that they will foreshadow the others.
For example, she is very aware of her habit of going with the social flow, as mentioned earlier, and she knows that it creates an impression of being easy to walk over. If she believes that playing at being submissive and agreeable will get whatever result she desires, then she may take this very habit of hers and tap into it on purpose, even if she has no intention of going along with the person's plan. And, because this habit is a natural part of who she is, it adds credibility to her act, making it look more genuine than it really is. Manipulations like this are a very calculated thing, and luckily for everyone, she only ever uses her powers for what she thinks is best. Most of the time, anyway. It is true that often, she will use these tactics to divert attention away from personal emotional issues that she doesn't want to address, but on a big scale, her intentions are typically based on improving the lives of the people she's manipulating. That isn't to say that she won't and hasn't weaponized this (it's how she convinced Elijah that she was incompetent enough to not be a threat), but it's more uncommon than one might expect.
The other key motivation that Elle has is this: she has an instinctive need to change the world around her. Even if it's in just a little way, she wants to know that she's having an impact. This, combined with her genuine desire to make people happy, is what ultimately drives her to fight for the sake of other people. Without this drive, she would get too caught up in longing to make things better, and never get up and actually do it. Although naturally inclined for wanderlust, when she feels as though she cannot affect the world and people around her, she starts to grow restless, antsy, as well as insecure and paranoid. All of her doubt is targeted inward, and she starts to think that she's not good for anything. She cares so much about everything and everyone around her, she feels the need to do something, anything, for them, to make life better, and if she can't even do something as small as make someone smile... It shakes her to her core.
And, as mentioned, this ends up feeding into her natural restlessness. On top of everything else, Elle is extremely curious. She wants to know what's around the next bend, what's in that cave, what that person's story is. She wants to touch the places that have been forgotten since the Great War and bring life back to them. When combined with her need to have an impact, and her learned recklessness, she ends up sticking her fingers into all the pies, even if she knows for a fact there are bear traps hidden in them. She simply cannot leave well enough alone, even if she knows better. She has to know. She has to have her answers.
The reason why her recklessness is "learned" is because she is naturally a worrywort. "What if" this, and "what if" that, she is constantly seeing possibilities, good and bad, consequences of her actions, futures likely and unlikely. But she has also learned that she is not very good at planning. She sees too many things that could happen, and has a hard time narrowing it down in order to make concrete plans. She's much better off gathering up resources (this includes information) and being prepared for anything that may come her way. Flying by the seat of her pants has long since been the name of her game, and she's learned through experience that she's much more effective if she leaves room for herself to improvise.
But that's not entirely where her recklessness comes from. She has also learned that, despite being frail and easily hurt, she has a tendency to bounce back from anything that is thrown at her. At the end of the day, her self-preservation instinct will kick in, no matter what, and she will fight until she is the survivor. She will claw her way out of any grave she's put in. And... As a result, she's come to think herself as kind of invincible. Considering all of the ridiculous, over-the-top, incredibly dangerous things she's been through, it's not hard to see where she gets the idea, but it also drastically increases the likelihood that she will risk life and limb to rescue a little kid's teddy bear from an alpha deathclaw. Because, y'know. It's The Right Thing To Do, And It's Not Like I Can Die, Anyway, So It's Better If It's Me And Not Somebody Else.
In these moments, it is easy to catch her insecurities in action. Even now, after her victory at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, after the differences she has made in the lives of her friends, Elle has massive self-worth issues. From the beginning of her adventure, Elle has felt small and insignificant. In this light, it's unsurprising that, even without the shadow of Errolyn, Elle grew so quickly attached to Mr. House; he was the first to pick her up and tell her that she could do more, told her that she was important. But it is because of these self-worth issues that, no matter what she does, Elle never feels like she is enough. There is always something she could have done better, someone she should have saved. Even if logically, she can see that she found the single good decision out of a long list of bad decisions, she feels as though she should have somehow, some way, magically found the perfect Happy Ending. And there is a deep-rooted fear that, if she doesn't do everything just right, then she will lose everyone she loves. Which... yeah, means that she always feels like she's going to lose her loved ones, and it'll be All Her Fault. (It is not a stretch in the least to say that Elle has abandonment issues.)
Even if Elle does not remember the deaths of her father, of Avery and Leland, the keen feeling of failure follows her in her subconscious. Catastrophic failure; failure to protect the people who mattered to her most. And remember Elle's thought pattern from earlier? Take it up a notch and add in a strong dose of survivor's guilt. "If I can't even do something like that, something so important as protect them, then what good am I? Why am I alive when I feel like they deserve life more than me?" Elle may not consciously have suicidal thoughts, but in those situations where she's flinging herself whole-heartedly into something incredibly dangerous, simply because there's a sliver of chance good might come out of it? It starts to look an awful lot like she does.
And yet... It is in these very same situations that her determination tends to shine through. It can even be said that, more than sheer, dumb luck, it is actually her determination that carries her through those life-or-death situations. Often, whether someone underestimates Elle is entirely based on whether or not they realize how determined she must be, in order to have achieved all of the things that are attributed to her name. It isn't uncommon for people to be surprised when they first meet her, that this tiny, mild, smiling waif of a girl is the Courier. She is short and small of frame and emotional and incapable of disguising her vulnerabilities. She is so, so needy of the people around her, friendly and cheerful and awkward. And yet, she's the one who's pulled all of this off?
But her determination will lead her to obsession. If her emotions are her tools and her recklessness her armor, then her determination is her fuel. She WILL do what she set her mind on. She will NOT give up. So, as much as she values peace and will apologize repeatedly, even if it isn't her fault, just to keep that peace, in critical times, she is not a pushover. As much importance as she places on other people's emotions, when push comes to shove, she is not a doormat. She is not often afraid of speaking her mind, even to her friends. It is her determination that has made her something of a force of nature in the Mojave, and to forget that means, even if you understand the way her emotions work, you're missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. And it's a very unfortunate thing to do, underestimating a Courier.
When the travel agents come to call, they catch Elle at an uncomfortable time. She's been making the effort to ensure that the Mojave will truly be able to stand on its own, which has mostly comprised of making sure that there are still people to take care of Hoover Dam and HELIOS One after the NCR pulls out their staff. Aside from that, though, the Mojave is pretty much sorting itself out without her. Now that all interfering agents have been removed, life is stabilizing on its own. Elle knows it won't stay that way for long, because there are power vacuums now. There will be rushes to fill in the gaps left by the Fiends and the Khans. But, taking care of raiders? Not difficult for a fully mobilized Securitron army.
What does this mean for Elle? Elle herself isn't entirely certain. The only constant is her responsibility to the Think Tank, and Mobius can keep them out of trouble all on his own, easy. She's feeling directionless, and more than a little like the Mojave doesn't need her any more. She's played her part, and now, it's back to being insignificant and unimportant.
She was initially happy that Boone was getting out and chasing his own adventure, but it didn't take long before she found herself growing jealous. So as soon as the opportunity presents herself to go running along after him? Hell yeah, she'd take it. She doesn't know what else to do with herself. And it's not like a little danger is gonna scare her off. Or a lot of danger. That just equates to life as normal in Elle's world. And, well. Not being able to leave well enough alone? In anyone else, it would be a fatal flaw.
Abilities:
Reference this post for details.
Strengths:
Elle's charisma and ability to talk to people is one of her strongest suits. Another is her uncanny luck; just when it seems the least likely, things turn out alright for her, often at the last second. Also, she's really damn lucky at the poker tables. And then, of course, there is her determination, which leads her to run headlong at problems as though she were a stubborn bull instead of a tiny girl. She makes up for a lot of what she lacks in the mental department by being sharp of eye; she's good at noticing details, and it's gotten her through a lot of problems she wouldn't have been able to master otherwise.
In terms of skills, outside of talking, Elle has a lot of experience with picking locks, safely disarming mines and bear traps, repairing equipment, sneaking past hostile enemies, and hacking RobCo terminals. She's also skilled as a combat field medic, and she's a damn good shot with a ballistics firearm. She is her most deadly with a shotgun, and she knows how to bust through heavy armor and knock enemies off their feet while using one.
Also of note are the enhancements provided to her by the surgeries she endured at Big MT: she rarely gets concussions now; she's resistant to poison and confusing to robot sensors; and she's got an easier time carrying heavy loads without injuring herself.
Weaknesses:
Elle is an ordinary human, so she doesn't have any supernatural skills -- this means that she has no barriers against things like psychic attacks. And she's a squishy human, at that; in video game terms, she has less HP than an average human, and she's pretty fragile. In combat, she's terrible with the use of energy and melee weapons, and all she can do in a fist fight is hope to knock someone down with a punch and run away. After all, she's not exactly physically powerful, and this even means that heavier weapons are difficult for her to use accurately.
She's also very dependent on her gear; for example, she can't do anything about a lockeddoor without either a gun or a screwdriver and a bobby pin.
And as far as intelligence goes, Elle is not the brightest brahmin in the pen, so solving riddles will not exactly be her strong suit. Relatedly, she'll have to learn a lot about the different style of computers in order to even begin dreaming about hacking them; it took her a long time to get good at hacking RobCo tech.
She is especially emotionally sensitive to memory alteration; it's something of a hot button issue with her, and will cause her to lose her shit much more dramatically than other things.
Possible Jobs:
Elle is most likely to gravitate to the exploration and research team area of things. It's got "exploration" right there in the name, are you kidding? That said, though she'd be most interested to be a guide, she'd also be able to manage pretty well as an explorer. Outside of that, if Elle was made to pick a job closer to home base, then she'd definitely end up taking a good hard look at playing investigator, since it'd employ roughly the same skills and it's not like she hasn't done similar things back home. Bounty hunting would also be an option for her, though she wouldn't enjoy it as much, and she's not always good at being subtle in a firefight. Working as a medic, though, would be a more comfortable alternative for her, though she would likely get very bored very quickly, which would lead to her poking her nose in all the places she really shouldn't.
RP Samples:
Test Drive: [one]
Action: [one]
Network: [one] [two]
Companions: Elle would like to bring along ED-E, her eyebot. ED-E operates off of an AI, openly expressing emotions and communicating easily (through beeps and boops), even coming up with sassy comments. In the game, ED-E would tag along with Elle and occasionally dispense sassy boops, as well as help out as he does in canon. She would also program him with emergency protocols, so that he'd be able to, say, fly back to town and bring back reinforcements if something bad happens.
He has combat capabilities amounting to "firing lasers," but where he really comes in handy is his more practical services. He has long-range sensors, making him an excellent lookout, provide small repairs to gear, and he can also provide energy and microfusion cells. He can also pick up on radio signals, like regular eyebots. Compared to most eyebots, as a Duraframe model, he's also much more resilient thanks to his thicker armor. It's also noted in canon that he can act as an audio recorder, and likely records everything around him on default.
Additional: An inventory list can be found here. Items of note included on this list are four Earth-typical firearms, a bunch of ammo, and a few items that can bend light to make her seem invisible.
Alternate Universes and Previous Games
(used as Elle is a malleable protagonist)
Special History:
Detailed list of Elle's choices, the order in which she did quests, and her character development: [here]
List of canon endings that Elle achieved: [here]
Affected Characters:
This section will cover specifically details about the paths Elle took with her companions' personal quests, including the why of it, as well as some notes on their relationship. (As a game-specific note,thumbsdown is the Boone from Elle's timeline.)
Arcade - He traveled with Elle because he could see some parts of himself in her, and in the end, he would become as an older sibling to her. She convinced him to take up his father's Power Armor and fight with the Enclave Remnants in the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. She worried that the fear of embracing his history would chase and hurt him even if he forged his own path away from his father's shadow. ... And, let's face it, with all the latent daddy issues Elle has, there's no way that she wouldn't suggest he follow in his father's footsteps.
Cass - Someone that Elle originally idolized for her devil-may-care attitude about the world, Cass gave Elle reliable advice throughout the time they traveled together, usually playing the voice of caution when Elle wouldn't listen to anyone else. Elle helped Cass investigate what truly happened to her caravan and encouraged her to let the NCR take the long path to her revenge. Elle thought that killing Alice McLafferty and the Van Graffs would only be a short term solution, and that playing politics was the only way to truly bring them to justice.
Boone - Elle's first companion. They were initially awkward, not really knowing how to handle each other, until Elle proved to him that there was more to her than the optimistic front she tried too hard to present. She helped him face his demons and convinced him to let his guilt and regret guide him to a path that would be better not just for him, but for those around him, leading him to take up the 1st Recon Survival Armor. At the end of the day, Elle and Boone are as brother and sister, and fiercely protective of each other.
Lily - Elle is a girl who longs for family, and Lily treats every person she meets like they're a member of hers; naturally, they took to each other like a house on fire. But, as she saw no other options to advance the cure for nightkin schizophrenia (read as: didn't have enough Science), Elle reluctantly agreed that Dr. Henry should continue testing the advanced stealth boy on Lily. When Elle learned that Lily took her medicine at half-doses in order to remember her grandchildren, she agreed that doing just that seemed to be best for her. After all, without her medication, Lily would become like so many other nightkin, but at full dosage, she would entirely forget her family -- something that Elle would never, could never, choose to happen to someone else, let alone someone she loves.
Raul - The companion that Elle grew closest to. She filled the role of another little sister for him to look after, and he grounded her and eased (but did not entirely erase) her longing of a father figure. She showed to him that his age had nothing to do with his worth. When he opened up and told her his life story, she supported him and encouraged him to pick up his vaquero outfit again, as he could still reach out and touch the world. This fear of his, of not being able to protect those he loved and being unable to change anything, was one that Elle could empathize with all too strongly.
Veronica - Elle's best friend. They immediately got along due to their similar mindsets and hopes for the future. When Veronica set out to prove to the Brotherhood that they were going about things the wrong way, Elle helped her locate technological proof (namely, the pulse gun) to show to the Elder. When he continued to stubbornly maintain his position and Veronica turned to Elle for help, Elle suggested she leave the Brotherhood to join the Followers. She hoped that the chance to make the changes Veronica has always wanted to make would help carry her through the subsequent loss of her family. The events of Dead Money drove a wedge between Elle and Veronica for a while, because Elle distanced herself from Veronica afterwards out of her guilt. But it didn't last; they needed each others' emotional support far too much for permanent damage to have been done.
ED-E - Elle's last companion. Elle was slower to warm up to ED-E than her other companions, as it took her longer to recognize the personality in the beat-up eyebot. When the Brotherhood and the Followers both took an interest in it, Elle agreed to let the latter group collect data from it, knowing that the Followers were more likely to use the information to help more people than the Brotherhood would. After Lonesome Road, the original ED-E became a constant companion for her.
Rex - A cyberdog entrusted to Elle to save. Ever being a sucker for animals, Elle couldn't say no to the request to find Rex a new brain so that he could live on with the King, who obviously cared for him so much. She chose the brain of Rey, an old dog owned by the owner of the scrap yard north of Novac, as she didn't believe the brain of a Fiend's dog would be good for him and she couldn't get a hold of the dog brain from the Legion.
Name: Malathyne
Age: 24
App Contact:
Character Information
Name: Elena "Elle" Days, aliases of "the Courier" and "Courier Six"
Canon: Fallout: New Vegas
Age: 23
Appearance:
Stands around 5’0" and is noticeably undernourished. The weight that is on her is muscle, from walking and from fighting and from lugging around too much loot. Proportions-wise, she's mostly limb, despite being short. Dark hair, usually kept short if she can manage it but it tends to grow out while she's on the move; towards the end of her adventures, she stops trying to keep it in a short bob, but it rarely reaches past her chin. Eyes are large and bright blue. Has a noticeable overbite. Ethnic heritage is mixed, though Asian ancestry shows through strongly in her facial features.
In addition to scars earned from her dangerous lifestyle and general wasteland living, she bears a distinct scar above her left eye from where she was shot twice in the head (ref), and faint scars of the following: a lobotomy scar circling her head and disappearing into her hairline, a heart surgery scar down her chest, and a long scar following the entirety of her spine.
(Played by is Kiko Mizuhara.)
Canon Point: Post-endgame; after the dust of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam has settled a bit.
History:
The setting: the Mojave Wasteland, Timeline and history notes
The character: Courier Six (Elle's role)
The game: Fallout: New Vegas
The main plot progression: Fallout: New Vegas walkthrough
The quests: Fallout: New Vegas quests, quest listing
The DLCs: Old World Blues, Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Lonesome Road
Factions and important people: the Courier's companions, Robert House, the Three Families, Benny, the New California Republic (NCR), Caesar's Legion, the Brotherhood of Steel, Ulysses
A link to an extended history detailing the choices Elle made, why, and their effects on her can be found near the bottom of the app, as well as another link covering the specific ending slides she received.
Personality:
One of the first things to understand about Elle is just how incredibly social she is. This is a very large part of who she is: she is people-oriented. She needs to have people around her; an Elle who is alone is not a happy Elle, and when left alone for extended periods of time with no support, she starts to crumble. Although it is true that there are many times when she knows or feels that she must do something alone, such as when she went to face Benny and when she set out to chase Ulysses through the Divide, at the end of the day, she needs friends to come home to. Elle's innermost needs largely revolve around having a place to belong and having the approval of the people she cares about.
Luckily for her, she is the kind of person who makes friends easily, no matter where she is or what situation she's in. In fact, she's been known to make very close bonds in a very short amount of time. Just look at the way she built a family around her out of the people she picked up along the way to track down Benny. This is especially proven in how she managed to win the solid trust of all three of her highly suspicious and paranoid fellow kidnappees in the Sierra Madre in a short matter of days.
What contributes to this? She is earnest and puts her all into everything she does. And although this means she can come across as intense at times, it also means that her intentions are almost always open and easily read, helping to relax paranoia. She doesn't feel a need to compete with the people around her, instead preferring to default to going with the social flow made by others. She is friendly and unafraid to reach out to others, no matter who they are, no matter how likely they are to hurt her. She's downright eager to make new connections, and it shows. At times, though, this eagerness can turn her awkward, with lots of fumbling with her words and blushing. This results from how much she worries about the right thing to do and say; she is just so naturally desperate to please.
This is most often seen after she gets past the "polite" phase of meeting someone and starts to care about what they think. For example, it only took minutes for Boone to realize that she was reliable enough to help him, but once he started traveling with her, she was a bundle of nerves and kept chatting his ear off in hopes he might reach back to make an emotional connection. On top of everything else, she keeps her promises, and will go out of her way to prove that she is trustworthy and capable without any hesitation at all. This means that, even if the rest of her personality puts someone off, she often wins them over anyway simply through sheer reliability.
Being naturally people-oriented and incredibly observant results in Elle being socially astute, despite any awkwardness. It's easy for her to see the connections between people, between events, and she's always considering possibilities and consequences. However, when you mix this with her desire to change the world around her (explained further below)... To be entirely honest, Elle can be manipulative. Although direct lying is something she's very bad at because of the way she wears her heart on her sleeve, she's very good at using her emotions and the emotions of others. She uses her emotional transparency as a tool, more often than not, drawing out pieces of her emotions and emphasizing them in the hopes that they will foreshadow the others.
For example, she is very aware of her habit of going with the social flow, as mentioned earlier, and she knows that it creates an impression of being easy to walk over. If she believes that playing at being submissive and agreeable will get whatever result she desires, then she may take this very habit of hers and tap into it on purpose, even if she has no intention of going along with the person's plan. And, because this habit is a natural part of who she is, it adds credibility to her act, making it look more genuine than it really is. Manipulations like this are a very calculated thing, and luckily for everyone, she only ever uses her powers for what she thinks is best. Most of the time, anyway. It is true that often, she will use these tactics to divert attention away from personal emotional issues that she doesn't want to address, but on a big scale, her intentions are typically based on improving the lives of the people she's manipulating. That isn't to say that she won't and hasn't weaponized this (it's how she convinced Elijah that she was incompetent enough to not be a threat), but it's more uncommon than one might expect.
The other key motivation that Elle has is this: she has an instinctive need to change the world around her. Even if it's in just a little way, she wants to know that she's having an impact. This, combined with her genuine desire to make people happy, is what ultimately drives her to fight for the sake of other people. Without this drive, she would get too caught up in longing to make things better, and never get up and actually do it. Although naturally inclined for wanderlust, when she feels as though she cannot affect the world and people around her, she starts to grow restless, antsy, as well as insecure and paranoid. All of her doubt is targeted inward, and she starts to think that she's not good for anything. She cares so much about everything and everyone around her, she feels the need to do something, anything, for them, to make life better, and if she can't even do something as small as make someone smile... It shakes her to her core.
And, as mentioned, this ends up feeding into her natural restlessness. On top of everything else, Elle is extremely curious. She wants to know what's around the next bend, what's in that cave, what that person's story is. She wants to touch the places that have been forgotten since the Great War and bring life back to them. When combined with her need to have an impact, and her learned recklessness, she ends up sticking her fingers into all the pies, even if she knows for a fact there are bear traps hidden in them. She simply cannot leave well enough alone, even if she knows better. She has to know. She has to have her answers.
The reason why her recklessness is "learned" is because she is naturally a worrywort. "What if" this, and "what if" that, she is constantly seeing possibilities, good and bad, consequences of her actions, futures likely and unlikely. But she has also learned that she is not very good at planning. She sees too many things that could happen, and has a hard time narrowing it down in order to make concrete plans. She's much better off gathering up resources (this includes information) and being prepared for anything that may come her way. Flying by the seat of her pants has long since been the name of her game, and she's learned through experience that she's much more effective if she leaves room for herself to improvise.
But that's not entirely where her recklessness comes from. She has also learned that, despite being frail and easily hurt, she has a tendency to bounce back from anything that is thrown at her. At the end of the day, her self-preservation instinct will kick in, no matter what, and she will fight until she is the survivor. She will claw her way out of any grave she's put in. And... As a result, she's come to think herself as kind of invincible. Considering all of the ridiculous, over-the-top, incredibly dangerous things she's been through, it's not hard to see where she gets the idea, but it also drastically increases the likelihood that she will risk life and limb to rescue a little kid's teddy bear from an alpha deathclaw. Because, y'know. It's The Right Thing To Do, And It's Not Like I Can Die, Anyway, So It's Better If It's Me And Not Somebody Else.
In these moments, it is easy to catch her insecurities in action. Even now, after her victory at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, after the differences she has made in the lives of her friends, Elle has massive self-worth issues. From the beginning of her adventure, Elle has felt small and insignificant. In this light, it's unsurprising that, even without the shadow of Errolyn, Elle grew so quickly attached to Mr. House; he was the first to pick her up and tell her that she could do more, told her that she was important. But it is because of these self-worth issues that, no matter what she does, Elle never feels like she is enough. There is always something she could have done better, someone she should have saved. Even if logically, she can see that she found the single good decision out of a long list of bad decisions, she feels as though she should have somehow, some way, magically found the perfect Happy Ending. And there is a deep-rooted fear that, if she doesn't do everything just right, then she will lose everyone she loves. Which... yeah, means that she always feels like she's going to lose her loved ones, and it'll be All Her Fault. (It is not a stretch in the least to say that Elle has abandonment issues.)
Even if Elle does not remember the deaths of her father, of Avery and Leland, the keen feeling of failure follows her in her subconscious. Catastrophic failure; failure to protect the people who mattered to her most. And remember Elle's thought pattern from earlier? Take it up a notch and add in a strong dose of survivor's guilt. "If I can't even do something like that, something so important as protect them, then what good am I? Why am I alive when I feel like they deserve life more than me?" Elle may not consciously have suicidal thoughts, but in those situations where she's flinging herself whole-heartedly into something incredibly dangerous, simply because there's a sliver of chance good might come out of it? It starts to look an awful lot like she does.
And yet... It is in these very same situations that her determination tends to shine through. It can even be said that, more than sheer, dumb luck, it is actually her determination that carries her through those life-or-death situations. Often, whether someone underestimates Elle is entirely based on whether or not they realize how determined she must be, in order to have achieved all of the things that are attributed to her name. It isn't uncommon for people to be surprised when they first meet her, that this tiny, mild, smiling waif of a girl is the Courier. She is short and small of frame and emotional and incapable of disguising her vulnerabilities. She is so, so needy of the people around her, friendly and cheerful and awkward. And yet, she's the one who's pulled all of this off?
But her determination will lead her to obsession. If her emotions are her tools and her recklessness her armor, then her determination is her fuel. She WILL do what she set her mind on. She will NOT give up. So, as much as she values peace and will apologize repeatedly, even if it isn't her fault, just to keep that peace, in critical times, she is not a pushover. As much importance as she places on other people's emotions, when push comes to shove, she is not a doormat. She is not often afraid of speaking her mind, even to her friends. It is her determination that has made her something of a force of nature in the Mojave, and to forget that means, even if you understand the way her emotions work, you're missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. And it's a very unfortunate thing to do, underestimating a Courier.
When the travel agents come to call, they catch Elle at an uncomfortable time. She's been making the effort to ensure that the Mojave will truly be able to stand on its own, which has mostly comprised of making sure that there are still people to take care of Hoover Dam and HELIOS One after the NCR pulls out their staff. Aside from that, though, the Mojave is pretty much sorting itself out without her. Now that all interfering agents have been removed, life is stabilizing on its own. Elle knows it won't stay that way for long, because there are power vacuums now. There will be rushes to fill in the gaps left by the Fiends and the Khans. But, taking care of raiders? Not difficult for a fully mobilized Securitron army.
What does this mean for Elle? Elle herself isn't entirely certain. The only constant is her responsibility to the Think Tank, and Mobius can keep them out of trouble all on his own, easy. She's feeling directionless, and more than a little like the Mojave doesn't need her any more. She's played her part, and now, it's back to being insignificant and unimportant.
She was initially happy that Boone was getting out and chasing his own adventure, but it didn't take long before she found herself growing jealous. So as soon as the opportunity presents herself to go running along after him? Hell yeah, she'd take it. She doesn't know what else to do with herself. And it's not like a little danger is gonna scare her off. Or a lot of danger. That just equates to life as normal in Elle's world. And, well. Not being able to leave well enough alone? In anyone else, it would be a fatal flaw.
Abilities:
Reference this post for details.
Strengths:
Elle's charisma and ability to talk to people is one of her strongest suits. Another is her uncanny luck; just when it seems the least likely, things turn out alright for her, often at the last second. Also, she's really damn lucky at the poker tables. And then, of course, there is her determination, which leads her to run headlong at problems as though she were a stubborn bull instead of a tiny girl. She makes up for a lot of what she lacks in the mental department by being sharp of eye; she's good at noticing details, and it's gotten her through a lot of problems she wouldn't have been able to master otherwise.
In terms of skills, outside of talking, Elle has a lot of experience with picking locks, safely disarming mines and bear traps, repairing equipment, sneaking past hostile enemies, and hacking RobCo terminals. She's also skilled as a combat field medic, and she's a damn good shot with a ballistics firearm. She is her most deadly with a shotgun, and she knows how to bust through heavy armor and knock enemies off their feet while using one.
Also of note are the enhancements provided to her by the surgeries she endured at Big MT: she rarely gets concussions now; she's resistant to poison and confusing to robot sensors; and she's got an easier time carrying heavy loads without injuring herself.
Weaknesses:
Elle is an ordinary human, so she doesn't have any supernatural skills -- this means that she has no barriers against things like psychic attacks. And she's a squishy human, at that; in video game terms, she has less HP than an average human, and she's pretty fragile. In combat, she's terrible with the use of energy and melee weapons, and all she can do in a fist fight is hope to knock someone down with a punch and run away. After all, she's not exactly physically powerful, and this even means that heavier weapons are difficult for her to use accurately.
She's also very dependent on her gear; for example, she can't do anything about a lockeddoor without either a gun or a screwdriver and a bobby pin.
And as far as intelligence goes, Elle is not the brightest brahmin in the pen, so solving riddles will not exactly be her strong suit. Relatedly, she'll have to learn a lot about the different style of computers in order to even begin dreaming about hacking them; it took her a long time to get good at hacking RobCo tech.
She is especially emotionally sensitive to memory alteration; it's something of a hot button issue with her, and will cause her to lose her shit much more dramatically than other things.
Possible Jobs:
Elle is most likely to gravitate to the exploration and research team area of things. It's got "exploration" right there in the name, are you kidding? That said, though she'd be most interested to be a guide, she'd also be able to manage pretty well as an explorer. Outside of that, if Elle was made to pick a job closer to home base, then she'd definitely end up taking a good hard look at playing investigator, since it'd employ roughly the same skills and it's not like she hasn't done similar things back home. Bounty hunting would also be an option for her, though she wouldn't enjoy it as much, and she's not always good at being subtle in a firefight. Working as a medic, though, would be a more comfortable alternative for her, though she would likely get very bored very quickly, which would lead to her poking her nose in all the places she really shouldn't.
RP Samples:
Test Drive: [one]
Action: [one]
Network: [one] [two]
Companions: Elle would like to bring along ED-E, her eyebot. ED-E operates off of an AI, openly expressing emotions and communicating easily (through beeps and boops), even coming up with sassy comments. In the game, ED-E would tag along with Elle and occasionally dispense sassy boops, as well as help out as he does in canon. She would also program him with emergency protocols, so that he'd be able to, say, fly back to town and bring back reinforcements if something bad happens.
He has combat capabilities amounting to "firing lasers," but where he really comes in handy is his more practical services. He has long-range sensors, making him an excellent lookout, provide small repairs to gear, and he can also provide energy and microfusion cells. He can also pick up on radio signals, like regular eyebots. Compared to most eyebots, as a Duraframe model, he's also much more resilient thanks to his thicker armor. It's also noted in canon that he can act as an audio recorder, and likely records everything around him on default.
Additional: An inventory list can be found here. Items of note included on this list are four Earth-typical firearms, a bunch of ammo, and a few items that can bend light to make her seem invisible.
Alternate Universes and Previous Games
(used as Elle is a malleable protagonist)
Special History:
Detailed list of Elle's choices, the order in which she did quests, and her character development: [here]
List of canon endings that Elle achieved: [here]
Affected Characters:
This section will cover specifically details about the paths Elle took with her companions' personal quests, including the why of it, as well as some notes on their relationship. (As a game-specific note,
thumbsdown is the Boone from Elle's timeline.)Arcade - He traveled with Elle because he could see some parts of himself in her, and in the end, he would become as an older sibling to her. She convinced him to take up his father's Power Armor and fight with the Enclave Remnants in the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. She worried that the fear of embracing his history would chase and hurt him even if he forged his own path away from his father's shadow. ... And, let's face it, with all the latent daddy issues Elle has, there's no way that she wouldn't suggest he follow in his father's footsteps.
Cass - Someone that Elle originally idolized for her devil-may-care attitude about the world, Cass gave Elle reliable advice throughout the time they traveled together, usually playing the voice of caution when Elle wouldn't listen to anyone else. Elle helped Cass investigate what truly happened to her caravan and encouraged her to let the NCR take the long path to her revenge. Elle thought that killing Alice McLafferty and the Van Graffs would only be a short term solution, and that playing politics was the only way to truly bring them to justice.
Boone - Elle's first companion. They were initially awkward, not really knowing how to handle each other, until Elle proved to him that there was more to her than the optimistic front she tried too hard to present. She helped him face his demons and convinced him to let his guilt and regret guide him to a path that would be better not just for him, but for those around him, leading him to take up the 1st Recon Survival Armor. At the end of the day, Elle and Boone are as brother and sister, and fiercely protective of each other.
Lily - Elle is a girl who longs for family, and Lily treats every person she meets like they're a member of hers; naturally, they took to each other like a house on fire. But, as she saw no other options to advance the cure for nightkin schizophrenia (read as: didn't have enough Science), Elle reluctantly agreed that Dr. Henry should continue testing the advanced stealth boy on Lily. When Elle learned that Lily took her medicine at half-doses in order to remember her grandchildren, she agreed that doing just that seemed to be best for her. After all, without her medication, Lily would become like so many other nightkin, but at full dosage, she would entirely forget her family -- something that Elle would never, could never, choose to happen to someone else, let alone someone she loves.
Raul - The companion that Elle grew closest to. She filled the role of another little sister for him to look after, and he grounded her and eased (but did not entirely erase) her longing of a father figure. She showed to him that his age had nothing to do with his worth. When he opened up and told her his life story, she supported him and encouraged him to pick up his vaquero outfit again, as he could still reach out and touch the world. This fear of his, of not being able to protect those he loved and being unable to change anything, was one that Elle could empathize with all too strongly.
Veronica - Elle's best friend. They immediately got along due to their similar mindsets and hopes for the future. When Veronica set out to prove to the Brotherhood that they were going about things the wrong way, Elle helped her locate technological proof (namely, the pulse gun) to show to the Elder. When he continued to stubbornly maintain his position and Veronica turned to Elle for help, Elle suggested she leave the Brotherhood to join the Followers. She hoped that the chance to make the changes Veronica has always wanted to make would help carry her through the subsequent loss of her family. The events of Dead Money drove a wedge between Elle and Veronica for a while, because Elle distanced herself from Veronica afterwards out of her guilt. But it didn't last; they needed each others' emotional support far too much for permanent damage to have been done.
ED-E - Elle's last companion. Elle was slower to warm up to ED-E than her other companions, as it took her longer to recognize the personality in the beat-up eyebot. When the Brotherhood and the Followers both took an interest in it, Elle agreed to let the latter group collect data from it, knowing that the Followers were more likely to use the information to help more people than the Brotherhood would. After Lonesome Road, the original ED-E became a constant companion for her.
Rex - A cyberdog entrusted to Elle to save. Ever being a sucker for animals, Elle couldn't say no to the request to find Rex a new brain so that he could live on with the King, who obviously cared for him so much. She chose the brain of Rey, an old dog owned by the owner of the scrap yard north of Novac, as she didn't believe the brain of a Fiend's dog would be good for him and she couldn't get a hold of the dog brain from the Legion.