InsaneJournal

in five words: Direct, Strong, Intelligent, Discreet, BENDY!
in detail:
Elizabeth is overtly very friendly. She'll greet anyone without hesitation, offering a handshake and a smile with direct eye contact. She finds this the best way to get into somebody's head - and she tries to do that with every encounter. She trusts few people and she likes it that way so her friendly demeanour is little more than a front, a way to put somebody at their ease while keeping them VERY much at a metaphorical arm's length. Very few progress closer than that, and most are pushed even further away although they might not even be aware of it.

She's fairly down to earth and pragmatic - a result of her good Yorkshire upbringing. When she's among those she trusts she has no hesitation in calling a spade a bloody shovel and, when she's been drinking she has been known to burst into a rousing rendition of "On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At". She does enjoy associating with friends, very much. And her past marital issues don't seem to have put her off men - or women - at all. In fact, if anything, she's far more adventurous than she ever used to be.

She has very little time for pretentious behaviour - she finds it a waste of time and effort in both herself and other people. She has a very short fuse when it comes down to dealing with plain stupidity, but she's good with new recruits - so long as they have the intelligence to learn the rules and not be asking basic questions once they've been in the job for more than a few months.

She's also very level-headed and calm in a crisis. Not that she doesn't turn to a quivering mass of goo at times, but that tends to be after the emergency has passed, and she'll generally take herself away to somewhere quiet if she can, until she gets over it.

history:
Elizabeth is an only child, born to Craig (a neurosurgeon) and Ruth (a teacher). She was a very much loved child, and she was indulged to an extent, although she'd deny she'd ever been truly spoiled. Both her parents are extremely intelligent, and Elizabeth's own intellect was stimulated at a very early age. She showed an interest and promise in languages and also in her out of school activities of Brownies, gymnastics, ballet and piano playing. Her father wanted her to follow him into medicine, but she wasn't really certain it was right for her. She lacked a truly ambitious nature and no amount of education or intelligence could change that.

Also, during her last year at secondary school she met an American tourist. He'd bumped into her in the street and asked for directions to Headingley cricket ground. Amused at an American showing an interest in cricket, she'd not only told him where it was but accompanied him there as well. Andrew seemed a really nice guy - a few years older than her at 26, but that wasn't so bad. They started dating and, when he went back to the US, it was with a promise that she'd join him once she'd finished school. This she did, not really understanding why her parents seemed so upset - after all, she was finally making something of her life, wasn't she?

It wasn't long before Elizabeth and Andrew were engaged and then, in an even shorter time, married. At first Elizabeth loved being a wife and she had no problem with having Andrew's dinner on the table every night and a clean shirt ready and ironed for him each morning. She didn't even mind tidying up the living room on the mornings after he'd had friends round to watch some sports event or other on the TV. She only started to mind when she felt a little under the weather one day and left the tidying up until she felt better. Andrew took offense to this and hit her. From there it was pretty much a slippery slope.

Elizabeth put up with this for six more years. She didn't mention any of it to her family out of shame and embarrassment that, for an intelligent woman, she'd been completely and utterly dumb. No, scratch that. Dumb. She'd been Dumb. Capital letters are sometimes necessary. She never fought back because Andrew seemed to like that and only hit harder. So she started taking self-defense classes when he was at work. Her gymnastic and ballet abilities helped her here and, with a little practice, she found she was agile and supple enough to think about fighting back. It took her a little longer to actually do it, though. She wanted to make sure that, when she hit back, he'd be in no position to do any damn thing about it. Poisons were far too easily detectable. She needed to make it look like an accident.

As it turned out, it almost WAS an accident. A very drunken Andrew, a very determined Elizabeth, a very conveniently-placed flight of stairs with an empty Jack Daniel's bottle lying at the top, a foot hooked around his calf to unbalance him and a push to continue the momentum and it was all over. Of course the police investigated - maybe even suspected her. After all, she wasn't exactly injury-free when she called them out. But if they raised eyebrows over her calmness and contusions, they said little to her. Plus, Andrew's life insurance policy stipulated his mother as beneficiary. It was very neat. VERY neat.

Elizabeth left the US as soon as she could empty out the bank accounts and sell the house. Nobody queried her right to do that, and it was only natural that she should return to her country of birth, after all. Except she didn't. She overflew the UK and landed in the middle of Germany. She was fine for funds, but she'd need a job since the money wouldn't last forever.

This was when she took up freerunning - or, rather, Parkour. She found she reveled in the feeling of total freedom it gave her. It was one thing to be released from the constraints of an abusive husband, but quite another to find that even her surroundings couldn't contain her and she enjoyed making them work FOR her instead of barring her.

And that is when she was found and brought in from the cold by team Schreient. It was following her recruitment to their cause that she added attack/kill moves into her routine, incorporating a garrote into her kit list. There are theories that she could actually kill somebody just by using her thighs. That makes her smile, but she doesn't deny it. And she does have VERY long legs.

The only thing that's not so good is she misses her parents. She has extremely limited contact with them since she's concerned for their safety. They think she's doing government work and she does nothing to discourage them. After all, it would mean she'd done something to be proud of at last.

● Skilled gymnast and ballet dancer.
● Speaks English, French, Dutch and German fluently.
● Loves dogs.
● Always wished she had at least one sibling.

player: Alison
AIM: Snakebittenraven
Y!M/MSN: black_narcissus2003 (rarely used)
email: black.narcissus[at]gmail[dot]com

played-by: Famke Janssen
coding: fenostol@rp_tutorials