Callie Betto
| Callie Betto | |
|---|---|
| File:CallieBettoWiki.jpg Portrayed by Haley Bennett | |
| Codename: | None |
| Affiliations: | Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters - Student, New Mutants |
| Birthdate: | 24 August, 1992 |
| Journal: | x_dryad |
| Player: | Catherine |
The daughter of the well-known mutant landscaper Giancarlo Betto, Callie joined Xavier's in attempt to regain control of her powers.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_dryad
Real Name: Calliope Ann Betto
Codename: n/a
Aliases: Callie
First Appearance: 23 June 2008
Date of Birth: 24 August, 1992
Place of Birth: Burlington, VT
Citizenship: American
Relatives: Giancarlo (father), Elizabeth (mother, deceased)
Education: Junior
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation: Student
Team Affiliation: New Mutants
Biography
Childhood
Born in Burlington, Vermont to Giancarlo Betto and his wife Elizabeth, Callie was a seemingly normal child. As both of her parents were mutants, it was almost assured that she herself would be one as well. This speculation was confirmed at her birth when Callie's skin was hued pink.
Giancarlo was a famous mutant landscaper, so while she was growing up, Callie was never ashamed to be a mutant. She never thought it made her any different from her peers, especially because she hadn’t manifested her powers. She attended the private school where her mom taught music, and was generally accepted despite her unusual appearance. She had a few close friends, and was generally liked by all. Being rather studious, Callie spent a good deal of time reading outside in her free time. When her father was home he would teach her the essentials of wilderness survival in addition to exposing her to a myriad of other outdoor activities.
As she entered puberty, both she and her parents wondered which of their powers she had inherited; Elizabeth was a low-level telepath and Giancarlo was chlorokinetic. One day when she was eleven, after what had been a frightfully long and harsh winter Callie and Elizabeth were out in the garden planting flowers. Usually by this time the flowers had bloomed, and as Callie willed it so they did. Callie’s father was particularly proud of his daughter after this point and took it upon himself to help her learn to control her powers. He minimized his traveling for work, and only traveled within the country so he could spend more time with his daughter.
Then tragedy struck the Betto household the summer in which Callie was set to turn 14. Elizabeth had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For the next year the doctors tried to treat her, but nothing they did seemed to help, it was already too invasive and had been caught too late. Shortly before Callie’s fifteenth birthday her mother died, and Giancarlo moved to Milan with his daughter to be with his parents.
Living At The X-Mansion
Shortly following Elizabeth’s death, Callie began to demonstrate loss of control over her powers. Either they would not work, or they would cause exponential growth. Assuming that this was a temporary expression of grief, Giancarlo thought nothing of it. That is until late April/early May when he realized that this problem had escalated to her not being able to do anything with her powers and decided to send his daughter to Westchester to see if the group there could help.
The months that followed were relatively quiet for her, especially compared to her classmates. After helping out with the floods in Iowa, Callie began to settle into her new life; focusing on her school work and making friends with her fellow classmates. She contracted chicken pox shortly before the first New Mutant excursion, and was kept in the mansion during the attack on New York City. While initially feeling guilt over her absence with the team, she found that her staying behind to be beneficial with helping others upon their return.
The months that followed were full of ups and downs for the young mutant. She focused heavily on her school work and on developing friendships with the people around her. The departure of her roommate Cessily was a rather low point, mostly due to the circumstances leading up to it. When she began finding the metallic girl to be sleeping in a bucket, she knew it was time for her to get help.
The arrival of some new teachers and students before the holidays began enabling Callie to break out of her shell, and focus on something other than school. With Jean-Paul Beaubier, she began climbing again in anticipation for her Christmas holiday trip to Croatia with her father. And Julian Keller's arrival found the two becoming fast friends.
After her holiday at home in Italy, Callie's father dropped a bomb: she would not be returning to the school. He felt that the events in New York, coupled with the ambush and subsequent fight involving some of the mansion's residents meant that it was unsafe for his little girl to be there. He had already lost his wife, he said, he was not about to lose his daughter. Needless to say Callie was upset with this decision as she had made many friends at the school. However, her father's word was law, so there was nothing she could do about it.
While waiting for everything to be worked out with her former school so that she may return, Clarice popped over for a visit. The two girls spent the day shopping around Milan and later went out dancing. After a pipe bomb explosion in the disco, the two were knocked unconscious and subsequently faced a very weird and scary situation. After escaping on their own, they were able to make their way back to Giancarlo's house. And after a fight with her father, Callie was allowed to return to Xavier's once more.
The new year didn't quite get off on a good foot as later that month, Callie found herself to be an unwilling contestant in the weirdest reality television show concept ever. After making it through the series of obstacles to the end she face some crazy dude, denied his advances to be a superhero, and helped rescue her friends from the holding cells he had put them in.
After that, things began looking up once again. She was cast as a fairy in the local joint-high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. But when a tricky prankster started sabotaging the show, she and the other Xavier's kids went to work to capture him. Then when two of the leads caught their braces together kissing, she and Karolina were able to convince the Deans to help them perform their final dress rehearsal. After the final performance, there was yet another surprise in store as Giancarlo showed up unannounced. Callie was delighted to see her father, but was plagued with pains of sadness in remembering how her mother could not be there.
When her new roommate Doreen Green arrived, Callie was less than excited. On the verge of a breakdown due to the actual squirrel living in her room, Callie fled to Jean-Paul's until Easter, at which time she was able to escape the mansion with her father. After she returned, Jean-Paul convinced Callie to talk to Doreen, and the two girls were able to work out a suitable arrangement. Callie even bought Monkey Joe a bed, to help him have a place of his own. When Doreen had her feral breakdown on her birthday, Callie found herself carrying around the squirrel, and bonding with him over their shared worry over the young girl.
Regaining her Powers
After spending almost a year at the mansion, Callie began to regain her powers. The first instance happened while she was gardening with Julian. He asked her what the plant in front of her was, and she was unconsciously able to make a flower bloom. After that, she experimented with her abilities, with sporadic success. She found that her mood greatly impacted her abilities, and that when she was stressed was the worst times for her. She realized that her emotions had a huge impact on her abilities once more when she visited her mother's grave that Mother's Day. After an emotionally trying week, the visit to Vermont instilled a sense of peace on Callie, and she was able to cause a dandelion to grow on her mother's tomb.
As great as all this was, Callie needed to make sure that she could actually control her powers, and not just when her mood was good. When a train wreck resulted in a cabin of passengers being trapped in by poison ivy, Kyle sought out Callie to help clear the vines. Unsure of her abilities, Callie stepped up and found herself reversing the ivy's growth, but not without exhausting her. She was out of practice, and continues to try and work on her abilities as much as possible.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5’10
Weight: 150lbs
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
Other Features: Pink skin, pointy elf-like ears, one piercing in each ear
Powers
Chlorokinesis- Callie’s power is twofold:
Plant communication: Callie has the ability to communicate with plants much like a telepath can with people. It is not a particularly strong connection in that she must actively be maintaining a link (ie a plant cannot simply call out telepathically to her mind) for communication to occur. It is for this reason that she rarely uses the power, and tends to forget about it at times. When a plant communicates, it is not like humans nor animals because plants do not have emotions. They cannot express fear, excitement, happiness, etc. Instead, Callie would explain plants as “speaking” in senses. For example, if a plant needed water Callie would receive wetness. She wouldn’t feel wet, but because she knows what wetness is from prior experience she would be able to understand. The same holds true for when she speaks to them. She can only focus on one “thought” at a time; usually the ones she understands. When she doesn’t understand (for example if the plant is being killed off by a certain chemical that she wouldn’t respond to) she can sometimes offer vague explanations about the general state of the plant, or she has no idea what’s going on.
Plant control: Callie can accelerate, decelerate, or reverse plant growth. She can control plants within a twenty foot radius. The type of growth that occurs depends on each plant. Smaller, less complex plants grow very quickly (for example vines, weeds, flowers, etc.) while larger plants, such as trees, she only controls a section of. She can cause a branch of a tree to bend at an angle from the tree, whether that be parallel to the ground or perpendicular to it, as well as causing leaves, flowers, and fruit to grow. Growing a full tree is possible with much time and concentration, and certainly not in one sitting.
Equipment
Nothing special.
Trivia
Callie was named for an instrument and not the Greek muse
Fluent in Italian and English
Plots
2008
2009
Meta
Player: Catherine
E-mail: File:Catemail.jpg
AIM: MusiCath51188
Player Icon Base: Haley Bennett
Meta Trivia
