ᴀ⊗ ᴀᴘᴘ

[eidetics]

P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Lauren
OOC Journal: aquadisiac
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: over, N/A
Email + IM: preferred OOC contact is plurk (seasalts) or PMs
Characters Played at Ataraxion: N/A

C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Lisbeth Salander
Canon: The Millennium Trilogy (David Fincher film adaptation)
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: End of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Number: 009

Setting: Largely takes place in the early 2000's in the Södermalm district of Stockholm, Sweden. All locations in the film exist in the real world, with the exception of Hedestad and Hedeby Island, the fictional setting for the Vanger family investigation. Hedestad is a small town about 4 hours north of Stockholm, and Hedeby is the adjacent island where the Vanger family resides.

History: Note: several acts of rape/sexual violence are described in the following.

Fincher's film adaptation does not delve too deeply into Lisbeth's childhood; because the events of her past are so essential to her character development, I'll be using relevant examples from the books.

Lisbeth Salander, age 23, has been a ward of the state since she was 12 years old and was ruled "mentally incompetent [and incapable of] managing daily life." This is most of the background we're given in the film, along with the supposed reason for this ruling: Lisbeth tried to kill her father by burning him alive, and nearly succeeded.

We learn in The Girl Who Played With Fire that Lisbeth's institutionalization was part of an elaborate cover-up for her father, Alexander Zalachenko. Zalachenko was a former Soviet spy under the protection of the Section, an illegal group within the Swedish Security Service. His defection from the USSR and presence in Sweden was considered a threat to national security, and his subsequent protection under the Section meant that all of his crimes--including sex trafficking--were covered up. Lisbeth's mother was a victim of regular domestic violence at the hands of Zalachenko, but it came to a head when Lisbeth was 12 and Zalachenko beat her mother to the point of permanent brain damage, leaving her dying as he went to his car. Lisbeth, unable to stand by any longer, set the car on fire--with her father inside--with intent to kill. At this point, the Section declared her mentally incompetent so that she would not be able to testify against her father, and kept her in foster homes and then at a hospital under the care of Dr. Peter Teleborian, who was complicit with the Section and Zalachenko's cover-up. It is implied that Teleborian played to his pedophiliac bondage fantasies with her when she was at the psychiatric hospital, putting her in unnecessary restraints for his own pleasure. Unfortunately, Lisbeth became estranged from her only sister, Camilla, in the aftermath, as Camilla repressed her memories of their father's abuse, and simply stood by during his beatings while Lisbeth would rush to help their mother.

During Lisbeth's stay at the psychiatric hospital, she met Holger Palmgren, who believed that the hospital was not properly rehabilitating her. He became her legal guardian, and genuinely cared for her--this was the first foster home she felt comfortable in, after failing to adapt to at least four prior to her institutionalization. Eventually, Palmgren gave her full access to her funds, she lived in her own apartment, and she chose to visit Palmgren of her own accord.

Lisbeth's Dragon Tattoo storyline runs parallel to Mikael Blomkvist's for the first third of the Fincher adaptation. We meet her while she is working part-time for Dragan Armansky at Milton Security, ostensibly to "sort mail" and get coffee; she actually works on Armansky's more sensitive investigations, and she only takes jobs that interest her in some way. Armansky hired her because of her unparalleled hacking skills--Lisbeth goes by the code name "Wasp" in the hacker community, and Lisbeth's first investigation in the film is a background check on Blomkvist for Henrik Vanger, who wants to hire him for an investigation of his own.

Palmgren suffers a stroke, and Lisbeth comes under the guardianship of Nils Bjurman, a lawyer who has been working with the Section and her father to keep Lisbeth from exposing anything about them. Lisbeth is unaware of this connection at the time, but Bjurman verbally harasses her and forces her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for her allowance money. Her laptop is broken after a thief grabs her bag, and when Lisbeth goes to Bjurman for an advance on her allowance he brutally rapes and sodomizes her--all of which Lisbeth catches on film with a tiny lens on her backpack.

She returns to Bjurman's apartment shortly thereafter under the pretense that she needs more money, but as soon as she arrives she tases him and ties him up, forcing him to watch the video she made of her rape. Lisbeth threatens him with blackmail, saying that the video will go live on the internet if he doesn't follow her conditions: allowing her control of her money and writing regular progress reports for visits that she will no longer make. She proceeds to sodomize him with a dildo and uses a tattoo gun and india ink to spell out "I AM A RAPIST PIG" on his chest and stomach, then leaves him to release himself from his own bonds. Lisbeth returns to Stockholm at one point to check up on him, threatening him with further humiliation if he doesn't work harder to make his reports sound legitimate.

Blomkvist and Salander's paths finally cross when Blomkvist determines that he needs an assistant to help him on the Vanger case; he's been living in Hedestad, investigating the mysterious disappearance--and presumed murder--of Henrik Vanger's granddaughter, Harriet. Dirch Frode, Vanger's lawyer, recommends Lisbeth to Blomkvist based on the excellent work she did on Blomkvist's own background check. He's less than pleased by the report when he reads it, as there are details that could only have been accessed through his personal computer and e-mail accounts. He shows up at Lisbeth's apartment with bagels and a job offer: to help him catch a killer of women. Lisbeth is wary, at first, but agrees to the job and begins researching the Biblical murders Blomkvist has found.

She joins Blomkvist in Hedestad, and they work closely together to continue their research. As the investigation continues--and becomes more dangerous--the two of them become closer, and Lisbeth sleeps with Blomkvist after tending to a gunshot wound that grazed his head. When she first arrives he refers to her as his assistant, but as the case unravels he begins to refer to her as his partner, which pleases Lisbeth. Although she only tolerates him at the start of their partnership, she admits after they sleep together that she enjoys working with him.

The case breaks open when Lisbeth and Blomkvist discover, independently, that Harriet's brother and father, Martin and Gottfried Vanger, were the perpetrators of the serial murders of Jewish girls in the 40's through 60's. Blomkvist breaks into Martin's home to search for more clues about Harriet, but Martin catches him in the act, and proceeds to torture him as he had tortured countless girls in his basement. When Blomkvist accuses Martin of killing Harriet, as well, Martin becomes angry and tells Blomkvist that he's a "useless fucking detective." Blomkvist correctly takes this to mean that Martin hadn't killed Harriet, as he had no trouble confessing to his other crimes.

Lisbeth returns to her shared cottage with Blomkvist, discovers he's gone, and shows up at Martin's just in time to attack him with his own golf club and tend to Blomkvist. Martin regains his balance and flees, and Lisbeth follows--after asking Blomkvist if she has permission to kill him. He loses control of his car and dies in the resulting fire from the crash.

Lisbeth and Blomkvist wrap up the Vanger case together, traveling to London where "Anita" Vanger has been living. Blomkvist works out that Anita is actually Harriet, and in a scene edited from the final screenplay, Lisbeth expresses her displeasure with Harriet's actions: she tells Blomkvist that by running, Harriet allowed Martin to remain free and continue killing women.

After Harriet is taken care of, Lisbeth decides to help Blomkvist with his own case, the financial scandal that put him on Vanger's radar in the first place. Blomkvist, as co-owner of Millennium magazine, had accused businessman Hans-Erik Wennerstrom of corruption, and was found guilty of libel against him. Lisbeth took interest in his trial when she was researching Blomkvist for Frode, and found significant evidence against Wennerstrom in his personal accounts. She ends up borrowing a large sum of money from Blomkvist, disguising herself and hacking into Wennerstrom's funds before traveling to Switzerland and distributing them across multiple accounts.

Wennerstrom is soon found dead, and Lisbeth returns to Sweden with Blomkvist's money and growing feelings for him. She admits to Palmgren, when she visits him, that she has found "a friend he would approve of," and that she's happy. Lisbeth had noticed several photographs of Blomkvist's family in which he was wearing a leather jacket, so she purchases a similar, expensive one for him, and intends to deliver it as a Christmas present. On her way there, she sees him embracing the co-owner of Millennium and his lover of many years, Erika Berger, and, heartbroken, she tosses the jacket into a nearby dumpster, riding away before either of them can see her.

Personality:

"She's different." "In what way?" "In every way."

We are introduced to Lisbeth Salander as outsiders looking in: we follow the stares of her coworkers at Milton Security as she makes her way to Armansky's office, and participate in Dirch Frode's reaction to her appearance and demeanor. "Frode is only middlingly successful in concealing his initial reaction to her. This isn't punk fashion. This is someone saying, Stay the fuck away from me."

Lisbeth has been an outsider for her entire life, and she intends to keep it that way. The system has done nothing for her, so she refuses to conform to it, and avoids making personal connections. There are a handful of people in her life whom she considers associates, and perhaps only two or three she would label as friends. As Frode observes, the way Lisbeth dresses is far from a fashion statement--she doesn't want to be approached, and anyone who does approach her should be prepared for anything from a complete lack of acknowledgement to outright hostility.

Armansky hired her despite her lack of sociability: she's incredibly intelligent, and was considered highly gifted and bright even as a child. Lisbeth has an eidetic memory, which means that she absorbs detailed information after even the briefest exposure to it. She becomes frustrated with Blomkvist when he tries to hand off his case notes to her to study, telling him that she's "got it" after a cursory glance. She's particularly skilled in mathematics, and her coding and computer skills helped her to become widely-renowned in the international hacking community. Her hacking abilities and efficient research made her a valuable asset to Armansky, and Lisbeth catches up to Blomkvist easily when he hires her on the Vanger case; her attention to detail and quick thinking help him make new connections, and they work well as a team.

Although Lisbeth tends not to do anything she deems unnecessary (including exchanging pleasantries with someone, or giving her opinion on a report), she has a curious mind and an interest in problem-solving that extends to both her work and daily life. She enjoys doing difficult mathematical puzzles and playing chess in her spare time, but her hacking also stems from her curiosity. Lisbeth admits that researching Blomkvist for Frode was of particular interest to her because of his libel conviction, and she agrees to work with Blomkvist partially because she's interested in solving the case.

Lisbeth is most comfortable with problems that have a clear solution. This ranges from math problems to exacting her revenge on Bjurman--these are threads that can tie up neatly when she works at them, but interpersonal relationships continue to pose a problem for her. Lisbeth has trouble understanding people's emotional motivations, and doesn't seem to know how to confront her own feelings head-on. When faced with emotional pain, in the case of Blomkvist, she would rather get rid of his gift and shut him out than talk to him.

Her traumatic childhood largely shaped how Lisbeth reacts to the world around her. On the tamer end of the spectrum, Lisbeth is outwardly antisocial and introverted, preferring the company of her computer to most of her real life acquaintances. Because of the abuse she's witnessed and personally taken at the hands of many men in her life, she's slow to trust them, and is resentful--and frequently vengeful--when spurned. Lisbeth hated Bjurman from the moment she set eyes on him, and returned his violation of her three-fold; Blomkvist, on the other hand, was a man she had come to trust and even love, and when she realizes that those feelings aren't returned she simply shuts down, removes herself from his life without a word.

Drawing inward becomes a means of self-protection for Lisbeth. When Bjurman rapes her, after attempting to fight back the screenplay notes that, "She keeps fighting but there’s not much she can do handcuffed. Eventually, she retreats to another place inside herself. She’s had to go here before in her life; it’s the only place to go in such situations." Between Zalachenko's frequent abuse of her mother and Teleborian's abuse of her at the hospital, it's unsurprising that Lisbeth has had to steel herself against the emotional impact of these situations. She's hardened herself against the world, even when the world comes at her in full force.

Lisbeth is fairly self-aware when it comes to this aspect of herself, but her odd, disjointed upbringing has left her with a lack of awareness when it comes to social norms and personal space. While working with Blomkvist, she goes through his computer--including his encrypted files--without asking, and he mentions that they'll have to discuss "what's yours and what's mine." Gradually, she comes to understand that this is inappropriate, at least in regards to her particular relationship with Blomkvist, and apologizes for knowing how much money is in his personal accounts when she asks for a loan from him. There are many words tossed around in an attempt to label Lisbeth's unusual way of thinking and interacting: Blomkvist wonders if she has Asperger syndrome, and Teleborian says that she is "schizophrenic" and an "egomaniacal psychopath." Stieg Larsson, the author, has stated that she may be "an unusual kind of sociopath" because of her childhood and the subsequent way in which she interacts with the world.

There is a reason the Section and Zalachenko had Lisbeth's freedoms taken away so quickly--they recognized a formidable opponent, a serious danger in her. Ever since Lisbeth was a child, she's been known to be violent and aggressive whenever someone poses a threat to her or someone she cares for, and more often than not those threats come from men. The authenticity of the details in the report may be questionable, as we know that the Section worked to keep Lisbeth under control of the state, but Bjurman rattles off a list of her offenses and history of violence: "two years in the locked ward at St. Stephens, for violent aggression - failure to adapt to four foster homes and seven schools - arrested twice for intoxication, twice for narcotics use, and most recently for assault: a bottle smashed into a man’s face." Lisbeth clearly does not take shit from anyone, and gives as good as she gets. Her revenge is often quick, calculated, and painful, and she notes that if she had been Harriet Vanger, she would have killed both her father and Martin to prevent them from hurting anyone else. Lisbeth feels no remorse for any of the men she's hurt, maimed, or intended to kill: it's clear she feels that they have only gotten what they deserve. In a twisted, unconventional way, Lisbeth works to bring wrongdoers to justice.

Despite Lisbeth's propensity for violence, she can also be quite tender and physically affectionate with the people she cares for. Lisbeth and Mimmi--one of Lisbeth's few friends--are shown sharing Lisbeth's bed the morning after they sleep together, and Mimmi notes in The Girl Who Played With Fire that Lisbeth tends to enjoy being submissive when they have sex. Lisbeth seems to prefer having control in her physical relationship with Blomkvist, on the other hand: she trusts him, but everything happens on her terms. She's the first to get into bed with him, and doesn't hesitate to tell him what she wants him to do, even in the afterglow: he has his hand under her shirt, at one point, and when he withdraws it she tells him to put it back. In another scene edited from the final draft of the screenplay, Lisbeth has her arm around Blomkvist--an incredibly intimate gesture, for her, which he makes note of--but when he says something she disapproves of, she's quick to move her arm away, and doesn't put it back when Blomkvist asks her to.

Palmgren is one of her longest-lasting personal connections, and it's likely that he feels like a father to her. She continues to visit him after his stroke, and speaks to him even if he may not understand. This degree of intimacy is particularly unusual for her, as she discusses details of her personal life:

SALANDER
Can you hear me?
(no indication that he can)
I miss our meetings.
(pause)
I’m sure you don’t. Why would you?
I was always such a headache for you.
Never showing up with good news.
Only problems.
(pause)
I have some good news now. I’ve made
a friend. I mean one that you’d
approve of.
(pause)
I’m happy.

Palmgren then moves his hand, just slightly--perhaps to reach for her, and she reaches out to hold it in her own. It's clear that, while Lisbeth is fond of very few people in this world, she grows very attached to the ones she does care for, and is loyal to the point of being willing to risk her life for theirs.


Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

MENTAL: eidetic memory, knowledgeable in a variety of subjects (esp. mathematics), highly skilled hacker
PHYSICAL: small but deadly--packs one hell of a punch, literally, as she trained under boxing champion Paolo Roberto. proficient with guns, tasers, and general self-defense.

Inventory:

(3) outfits: 1, 2, 3
(2) leather jackets: 1 in her size, and 1 in a similar style but men's fit
(1) small leather backpack, containing:
- (1) pack of cigarettes
- (1) lighter
- (1) can of Coke
- (1) eyeliner pencil
- (1) Tomte Christmas card, in an envelope labeled "M"

Appearance:



Lisbeth is portrayed by Rooney Mara in the David Fincher film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the novels, she is described as "a pale, skinny young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She had a wasp tattoo about two centimeters on her neck, a tattooed loop around the bicep of her left arm, another loop around her left ankle, a chinese symbol on her hip and a rose on her left calf. On those occasions when she had been wearing a tank top, a dragon tattoo can be seen on her left shoulder blade," and her first description in the film adaptation is similar: "Lisbeth Salander walks in: A small, pale, anorexic-looking waif in her early 20's. Short black-dyed hair--pierced eyelid--tattoo of a wasp on her neck; probably several more under her black leather jacket--black t-shirt, black jeans, black Caterpillar boots." Her tattoos and body modifications are a significant part of her appearance, and can be seen in more detail here.

Age: 23

AU Clarification: N/A

S A M P L E S
Log Sample:

Lisbeth wonders, for a moment, if she's dreaming.

It's not a good dream--there's a flicker of Doctor Teleborian tightening straps, then Bjurman handcuffing her to his bed, and she wakes up struggling against invisible bonds, goes wide-eyed with shock when she registers her unfamiliar surroundings, the tube shoved down her throat.

The room is spinning when she's dumped onto the floor, and Lisbeth hunches in on herself, coughs and then dry heaves, finds herself wiping bile from the corner of her mouth. She doesn't remember the last time she ate, but based on the contents of her stomach, it wasn't recent.

Hospitals are all-too familiar to her, but this one looks different, looks like something out of science fiction. Lisbeth wonders what they drugged her with, if it might have been an hallucinogen, and she still doesn't quite have her balance when she drags herself to her feet, observes her surroundings--nothing of immediate interest--and braces herself for whatever might be in the next room.

Lockers. Each is numbered, and Lisbeth supposes she can break into them with the right combination--but her gaze flicks back to her forearm, something she'd noticed before the nausea hit. A tattoo she doesn't remember, one that has no right to be there, just a small string of unfamiliar numbers.

She finds the one that matches, tightens her jaw as she recognizes her belongings. The uniform isn't hers, but looks like it would fit, and she immediately discards it, puts on the folded clothes in the back of the locker that would have been left in a rumpled heap on her apartment floor back home. The backpack goes over her shoulders, the lighter stays in her right pocket as a poor substitute for a gun or a taser.

The communicator's of slightly higher interest. Lisbeth tries to move past the automated message, but to her deep displeasure she can't work out the program, so she goes the only way she ostensibly can, from here: forward and up.

The sound muffled by four walls could just as well come from a wild animal, confused and frustrated and angry; Lisbeth steps onto the lift, waits for the doors to close, and screams.

Comms Sample: Linked with mod permission: 1, 2, 3.