Betsy Braddock
This character is currently unplayed, but is open for applications. If you are interested in applying for this character, you can contact the mods at x_moderators @ googlegroups . com and you can find the application form here.
This page is about the Phase 2 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Betsy Braddock (disambiguation).
| Betsy Braddock | |
|---|---|
 Portrayed by Bella Heathcote | |
| Codename: | |
| Affiliations: | X-Men |
| Birthdate: | April 23, 1996 |
| Journal: | xp_sylocke |
| Player: | Available for Applications |
After a bad manifestation and years of hospitalization, telepath Betsy Braddock is piecing her life together and learning to control her powers.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: xp_sylocke
Real Name: Elizabeth Braddock
Codename:
Aliases: Betsy, Betts
First Appearance: Sep. 29th, 2018
Date of Birth: April 23, 1996
Place of Birth: Maldon, Essex county, United Kingdom
Citizenship: British
Relatives: Lady Elizabeth Braddock (mother, deceased), Sir James Braddock (father, deceased), James (Jamie) Braddock (older brother), Brian Braddock (twin brother and legal guardian), Courtney Ross (former guardian)
Education: A-levels
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation: Unemployed
Team Affiliation: X-Men
Biography
Childhood
Betsy and her twin brother Brian had a happy early childhood; their geneticist parents, Lady Elizabeth and Sir James Braddock, tried hard to devote time for the family even though their company and scientific endeavors kept them busy. The twins had a brother, Jamie, who was over a decade older and adored his little siblings. While the children were young, Sir James had all three tested and found out both twins possessed the x-gene, but due to the growing suspicion towards mutants he had them marked as negative in their medical files. He was planning to tell them the truth when they got older but never got the chance as the boat he and his wife were on capsized days after the twins’ ninth birthday. The Braddocks are believed to have drowned along with the other passengers.
Custody of the twins passed to Jamie. Unfortunately Jamie’s behavior got more and more unpredictable until he was diagnosed with schizophrenia when the twins were thirteen. Jamie was found incapable of taking care of his siblings and Courtney Ross, an old friend of their parents and a major shareholder in the company, became their legal guardian. The twins were sent to private boarding schools.
Academically Betsy continued to do well, but she handled separation from her brothers poorly and was slow to make friends at the school. She also had nightmares that caused worsening insomnia and started hearing what sounded like people talking when no-one was around. She reacted to the stress with escalating acts of teenage rebellion, but her bad behavior came to an end when one night she was found sitting on the roof of a local high-rise close to midnight by a police officer. Although she told him she was only there to think, the officer took her to a nearby A&E for apparent suicidal ideation. After some gentle prodding by the on-duty night nurse, Betsy broke down and confessed she was hearing voices and the hospital decided to keep her for a psychiatric evaluation while attempting to contact her next of kin.
Things fall apart
By the time the hospital reached Courtney the next morning, it was too late. The stress of the incident caused Betsy’s telepathy to fully manifest and the suffering of another patient at the ward, a girl who had been found badly mutilated earlier that night, drew her into an unfamiliar mindscape.
Betsy started walking towards what she instinctively recognized as the center of the strange landscape that she found herself in. There she found a grown woman looming over a cowering little girl. On impulse Betsy tried to push the woman off the child, but only managed to draw attention towards herself. As the woman turned toward her, Betsy took off in the direction she’d come from. She saw what looked like the door to her bedroom in Braddock Mansion, dashed through it, and tried to slam it closed behind her but was too slow and her pursuer fell through behind her. She beat Betsy into unconsciousness with one of her childhood dolls.
The woman woke up in an unknown hospital in a body that was not hers. She tried to escape but due to weakness from the psychic struggle and Betsy's untrained muscles she was easily taken down by hospital security. The suddenly violent patient was sent off to a facility with higher security, where she would stay for the next several years. Under heavy medication and with her mind furiously fighting to wall off the foreign influence inside it, Betsy would spend much of that time in a state nearing catatonia.
Reconstruction
When Brian Braddock turned 18, he started working to gain custody of his siblings and control over his parents’ company. He succeeded in both, and while going through his father’s papers also found buried the information about his and Betsy’s mutant status. Brian contacted Moira MacTaggart for advice on what to do with his heavily medicated twin sister, and together they arranged for Betsy to be transferred to Muir Island Research Facility. There she was slowly weaned off the medication. As the effect of pharmaceutical cocktail she’d been on lessened, she started to gain an upper hand against the foreign influence in her head until finally reaching a status quo where she is able to keep the imprint mostly in check. She also finally got to finish her schooling. Betsy was on Muir during M-Day, and while the location sheltered her from much of the aftermath she lost the few friends she’d made on the island. Now that Betsy is feeling more stable, Charles Xavier recommended that she should move to Xavier Institute for further training with some of the best telepaths in the world and contact with other mutants.
Life at the X-mansion
Betsy's arrival at the mansion was relatively uneventful. However, her lingering jetlag eventually turned into more chronic insomnia accompanied by bouts of sleepwalking, which led to some interesting late night meetings with other mansion residents. She did manage to make some friends; particularly with Hope Abbott and fellow British psi Topaz. In a training session led by Jean Grey she took with Quentin Quire she also managed to manifest a psychic dagger, which became useful when she got roped in to fighting the Worthy Griethoth in Geneva in July 2019. Later that summer Hope A. introduced her to the White Queen and the games played within the Hellfire Club. The rest of the year was quiet apart from outings with friends and an incident on Halloween where she, along with several other mansion residents, ended up on a haunted house tour that was a little bit realistic than they expected.
Betsy's sleepwalking continued to be a problem into 2020, with several disturbing incidents in which she exhibited violent tendencies. She eventually asked Jean Grey for help; Jean decided to ask Quentin Quire to become Betsy's roomie, something which he initially refused and then agreed to in typical Quire fashion. Surprisingly, the two got on well together, although Betsy's sleep patterns were still unusual, with her either sleeping too much or too little. In September 2020 she assisted her friend, Hope Abbott with some information gathering about the senator Hope A. was interning with at the time; and in November 2020 she was part of a psychic attack force used to counter the threat of an evil interdimensional version of Topaz. With these experiences, Betsy realised she wanted to do more and joined the X-Men.
Life as an X-Man
Following the revelation of the previous version of the world before this one, Betsy sought out Amanda Sefton to ask about her 'other' self. The witch's responses were guarded - she warned this Betsy about possible possession tendencies, but didn't feel she should tell the full story as she didn't want to freak this Betsy out. Regardless, Betsy pushed herself into her X-Man training, finding the rest of the year a very busy one with a number of different missions: fighting a nanite-possessed Danger Room; extracting two students from a hostage situation; and posing as a SHIELD agent during an operation to stop the sale of demon-infused weapons. It was during this last mission that Betsy experienced the loss of a teammate and friend, when Garrison Kane appeared to have been killed. Betsy dealt in the time-honoured fashion - with alcohol.
In September 2021, Betsy attended the Hellfire Gala, with a warning from Hope A. to keep alert to potential dangers from the Black Court. A month later, the X-Men were defeated by the Brotherhood of Mutants while attemepting to protect a government facility which turned out to be Sentinel research. Betsy was disgusted to have been beaten by Toad. Halloween that year proved to be another disaster, with the mansion residents drawn into various horror movie tropes (Betsy's was a Gothic vampire story, with herself in the Helsing role) and then the collapse of Avalon and the disappearance of Topaz into another dimension. Topaz was recovered, but not before the resident reality-warpers created havoc in the mansion from their attempts to save her.
In January 2022, Betsy had the opportunity of a re-do of her battle with Toad as the X-Men were alerted to another Brotherhood attack. With her new skills with psionic shiruken, Betsy was able to ambush Toad and incapacitate him, while her teammates were dealing not only with Brotherhood but two operational Sentinels. Things only got more complicated when it was revealed that not only was Garrison alive, but he'd been a double agent with the Brotherhood and it had been his intel which had allowed for their victory against the X-Men the previous October.
Departure
The rest of 2022 was quieter for Betsy, and when she visited her brothers in December 2022 for their usual family Christmas, she was shocked to discover how much her brother Jamie's mental illness had deteriorated and the pressure it was putting on her twin, Brian. She decided then to not return to the mansion, instead remaining to help her brothers as much as she could.
Physical Characteristics
Betsy is the kind of girl that strange men in the street will often instruct to smile - then take a careful step back when she complies. She cleans up well when required to play the role of Lady Elizabeth, but on her free time she usually prefers comfort to high fashion. Due to her upbringing, comfort still tends to mean price tags in the hundreds.
Height: 5'6
Weight: 134 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde, dyed purple
Powers
Betsy is a mid-range telepath without telekinetic abilities. What she lacks in brute psychic strength she can usually make up in subtlety - her psionic talents are more suited for infiltration and unobtrusive control than direct combat. She is also adept in manipulating the astral plane due to the time she spent there. She will eventually learn to focus her abilities in a ‘psychic blade’ that can be used for silent takedowns or to break past telepathic shields.
Due to her absorption of the assassin personality, she also possesses significant martial arts training. Because of this and her tendency to skim-read her opponent for their next move, she’s an adequate hand-to-hand fighter regardless of her lack of real-world experience.
Trivia
- Betsy first dyed her hair purple at the boarding school at 13 and dying it again was one of the first things she did when she got to Muir.
- Betsy was learning to play the piano before her manifestation and still enjoys playing occasionally.
External Links
Plots
2019
2020
2021
2022
X-Men Mission: Clan Akkaba - Domination
Meta
Player: Available for Applications
E-mail:
Player Icon Base: Bella Heathcote
Meta Trivia
The Phase 1 version of Betsy was played on and off from 2003-2014. Salla apped a younger P2 version in September 2018 and played her until December 2022.
