Heroes fic: Girl in the Box
Title: Girl in the Box
Author: Philote
Fandom: Heroes
Characters/Pairing: Elle
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of Heroes do not belong to me. I make no money from this story. Please don’t sue.
Warnings: Spoilers for Season 2.
Summary: Elle is all-too-familiar with the cubic form. When it is all you know, you crave the box. And you learn to work it.
Author’s Note: Written for the ‘cubic’ prompt at Taming the Muse.
oOo
When she is five, Billy Tharp gets angry while they are playing hopscotch. She beat him fair and square, and it isn’t her fault he’s clumsy, but he says girls are stupid and that he never wants to play with her again. She’s mad and sad and she pushes his chest, and lightning comes from her fingers. He goes quiet and still, and he isn’t mean to her anymore.
Daddy takes her to this place. He calls it The Company.
They put her in a white room. It’s a little boring with its near-perfect cubic proportions, all walls and one window that doesn’t look outside. But it gets better when Daddy brings her things from home. It isn’t until her tea set arrives that she realizes she is supposed to stay here for a while. That maybe this is home, now.
And that is maybe okay. Because here there are people who want to play with her, every day. And apparently she didn’t do anything wrong with Billy, because that is how they want her to play.
But they can be awfully strict about it. Somewhere along the line, it stops being fun. They don’t care if she’s tired or if she hurts, or if she wants to do it or not.
She learns the word ‘test.’ She doesn’t like it. They say it’s about control, but she doesn’t have any.
Daddy only visits her in her room. She likes it there, sleeping or eating or playing make-believe. She has her dolls and stuffed animals, and they are her friends. Them and Daddy.
The boxy room is her bedroom, her playground; her world.
She won’t learn to apply the word ‘cell’ for years.
oOo
When she finally goes back into the real world, it seems smaller than she remembered. Perhaps because she is so much bigger. Perhaps because it just seems like a bigger version of her dollhouse.
She is a company operative, entrusted with important assignments. She carries them out; she gets whatever Daddy needs.
She likes to have fun along the way.
There are just so many people out here. She plays with them like she did her dolls, but their responses make it so much better. It’s a game now, and getting them to do what she wants is victory.
But, whatever fun she has, she doesn’t forget her mission. She falters sometimes, but she does not accept failure. She does whatever is necessary.
The shrinks label her and essentially proclaim her insane, but she knows they’re wrong.
After all, while she may push on the sides, she’d never stray outside her Daddy’s box.
oOo
The cells are beautiful things. Exceptionally so when something beautiful is in them.
Adam is a fixture. He hasn’t changed, of course, not in all her time here. She’s learned many a helpful thing from him. But try as she might to shift that balance of power, she can’t seem to do it. He’s a challenge, one she’s meant to conquer, so she’ll keep trying. In the meantime, he’s just so much fun, in an infuriating sort of way. Not hard on the eyes, either. He’s her permanent playmate.
But the new one-oh, he’s so pretty.
And so very naïve. Like fresh playdough, still with its straight-from-the-can smell, just begging to be molded and twisted and pounded.
Peter’s cell is more than a playground, it’s her domain. She is temptress and confidante, best friend and lover; link to humanity and keeper of his sanity. She will be his everything. Because Peter Petrelli is more than a game; he is her favorite. She wants to keep him.
And she gets what she wants.
When Peter escapes, with Adam no less, she is infuriated and dumbfounded by turns. People aren’t supposed to leave the box.
Are they?
oOo
Author: Philote
Fandom: Heroes
Characters/Pairing: Elle
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of Heroes do not belong to me. I make no money from this story. Please don’t sue.
Warnings: Spoilers for Season 2.
Summary: Elle is all-too-familiar with the cubic form. When it is all you know, you crave the box. And you learn to work it.
Author’s Note: Written for the ‘cubic’ prompt at Taming the Muse.
oOo
When she is five, Billy Tharp gets angry while they are playing hopscotch. She beat him fair and square, and it isn’t her fault he’s clumsy, but he says girls are stupid and that he never wants to play with her again. She’s mad and sad and she pushes his chest, and lightning comes from her fingers. He goes quiet and still, and he isn’t mean to her anymore.
Daddy takes her to this place. He calls it The Company.
They put her in a white room. It’s a little boring with its near-perfect cubic proportions, all walls and one window that doesn’t look outside. But it gets better when Daddy brings her things from home. It isn’t until her tea set arrives that she realizes she is supposed to stay here for a while. That maybe this is home, now.
And that is maybe okay. Because here there are people who want to play with her, every day. And apparently she didn’t do anything wrong with Billy, because that is how they want her to play.
But they can be awfully strict about it. Somewhere along the line, it stops being fun. They don’t care if she’s tired or if she hurts, or if she wants to do it or not.
She learns the word ‘test.’ She doesn’t like it. They say it’s about control, but she doesn’t have any.
Daddy only visits her in her room. She likes it there, sleeping or eating or playing make-believe. She has her dolls and stuffed animals, and they are her friends. Them and Daddy.
The boxy room is her bedroom, her playground; her world.
She won’t learn to apply the word ‘cell’ for years.
oOo
When she finally goes back into the real world, it seems smaller than she remembered. Perhaps because she is so much bigger. Perhaps because it just seems like a bigger version of her dollhouse.
She is a company operative, entrusted with important assignments. She carries them out; she gets whatever Daddy needs.
She likes to have fun along the way.
There are just so many people out here. She plays with them like she did her dolls, but their responses make it so much better. It’s a game now, and getting them to do what she wants is victory.
But, whatever fun she has, she doesn’t forget her mission. She falters sometimes, but she does not accept failure. She does whatever is necessary.
The shrinks label her and essentially proclaim her insane, but she knows they’re wrong.
After all, while she may push on the sides, she’d never stray outside her Daddy’s box.
oOo
The cells are beautiful things. Exceptionally so when something beautiful is in them.
Adam is a fixture. He hasn’t changed, of course, not in all her time here. She’s learned many a helpful thing from him. But try as she might to shift that balance of power, she can’t seem to do it. He’s a challenge, one she’s meant to conquer, so she’ll keep trying. In the meantime, he’s just so much fun, in an infuriating sort of way. Not hard on the eyes, either. He’s her permanent playmate.
But the new one-oh, he’s so pretty.
And so very naïve. Like fresh playdough, still with its straight-from-the-can smell, just begging to be molded and twisted and pounded.
Peter’s cell is more than a playground, it’s her domain. She is temptress and confidante, best friend and lover; link to humanity and keeper of his sanity. She will be his everything. Because Peter Petrelli is more than a game; he is her favorite. She wants to keep him.
And she gets what she wants.
When Peter escapes, with Adam no less, she is infuriated and dumbfounded by turns. People aren’t supposed to leave the box.
Are they?
oOo