PUBLIC AWARENESS + CONNECTIONS OF BETSY BRADDOCK: a little info dump post detailing public / not public events and the sort for quick starting interactions and/or nosy folks (affectionate).
— 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗰𝘆,
⁰¹ braddock enterprises.
from youth, betsy, at least by name, has been in a spotlight. betsy's father founded braddock enterprises which focuses on tech, primarily computer science and robotics. his connections to the hellfire club, and eventual rise to black bishop of the inner circle, serve as healthy support to his business ventures, launching the braddock name to it's acclaim. publicly, james works heavily on sentient / synthezoid projects, artificial intelligence, the sort. his connection to the hellfire club is not known by the general public.
non-publicly, james works with the government on 'special bullets' bullets made from harry pizer's skin (😒), which are taken and appropriated by the hellfire club into anti-mutant ammunition exported to genosha; finding it distasteful he leaves the hellfire club and this leads to a decline in the braddocks fortune. members of the hellfire club or government officials during this era may know the details of this event.
jamie takes over their business ventures post their parents death (very public their death was in the papers as a lab accident) and brings them back to where they were before, if not beyond. he initiates the creation of a self-devouring waste containment unit that wakanda uses?? branches them out from just AI towards general tech, though their focuses do remain strongly on artificial intelligences and synthetics. braddock is a big name in the tech circles, and though betsy doesn't lean much into the science junk (she's more mechanical brained), it is very likely that if she's not recognized as betsy she is recognized as a braddock and heir.
currently, she lets brian handle most of their pursuits, she's not interested in the family business. she might broker a deal with x-corp or invest in pro-mutant endeavors here and there, but otherwise it's so whatever to her ; they sponsor events as well (paraphrased 'something inoffensive like fighting world hunger' and the sort bc betsy's 'offensive enough on her own' to mutant hater extraordinaries britain lmao)
⁰² hellfire club.
betsy is a legacy member of the hellfire club, dating back to her grandfather john braddock who was a prominent member during his time, contributing to the club's strategic direction and influence on global affairs. betsy often attended their events in her younger years, usually as brian's plus one. she doesn't utilize this membership often deep into her adulthood, the place (the people, really) makes her feel #filthy, but she does mingle with them for information from time to time. any member of the club would be aware of her if they cared enough to be.
⁰³ otherworld.
for his entire life, james presented himself as an ordinary man ; the public would have no knowledge of his otherworld origins nor his children's during those years. this is something that isn't even revealed to betsy and brian until their early adulthood. it likely starts to circulate once brian publicly takes up the mantle of captain britain, and then becomes heavily solidified in minds once betsy takes it up; it's not a subtle mantle to take, it comes with it's implications and doesn't take a far leap from there to know the truth. magically inclined individuals can likely sense this whether they know the facts or not on account of the innate magic both twins possess, though they may not be able to suss out it's origin, exactly, without asking. betsy doesn't shy from this topic at all it is Not a secret.
the braddocks, generally, are heralded in avalon and most fair courts; her parents have a memorial statue, they're descended from the (checks my notes) warrior caste of otherworld, james was one of the 'greatest warriors of his generation' and a key defender of the realm. all of this is public knowledge to anybody who would know otherworld history.
— 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲,
⁰¹ arrival + outback.
many of the core x-men ( think wolverine, storm, etc. ) will know betsy starting from her short stint at xavier's school before the mutant massacre; a newcomer after the new mutants saved her from her year in mojo's captivity (put a pin in that). the retrieval and events surrounding the rescue would have been explained in a manner of broad knowledge for most, but none of the nitty-gritty details given — betsy herself wouldn't give them and continues to refuse to in so many words. what matters is she initially starts as, essentially, a walkie-talkie for what would become the outback era of x-men. underestimated, struggling to prove herself valuable, and a go-between for them to communicate with one another during the massacre and events during/following it. genteel, prim, the whole shebang. betsy heavily serves as an unbiased middle ground to most interpersonal conflicts during this time; she does not know these people, they're all sorts of messy, surprisingly it's healthy for her. well-intentioned and enthusiastic but, occasionally, shockingly inclined to solve an issue with a little 'off with their head' vibes.
very few x-men meet her during this period and, in general, in her original body; some of the folks at the school might have a passing recognition of her now like a oh i definitely saw you then but people who got to intimately know her during this era are, primarily, the outback team and the new mutants of the era. so like. a dozen people basically.
what happens in the outback stays in the outback 🫵 aside from the eight there + gateway + madelyne their activities are largely if not entirely unknown, save for that time they interacted with the actual alive x-men. they were like, supposed to be dead or w/e and electronics couldn't track them and betsy was manipulating people's memories to show they were saved by 'their ideal image of a hero' instead of them, yadda, yadda.
⁰² post body swap.
as psylocke in kwannon’s body betsy is publicly affiliated with: the x-men (blue when split), exiles, and x-force. she has ties to the hand by origin of the body swap + her training/martial fighting style though this is a wholly antagonistic relationship.
most of betsy's activities as psylocke happen post the swap into kwannon's body — after a whole stint as lady mandarin and being dragged back by logan and jubilee, betsy rejoins the x-men as an assassin / ninja / whatever you want to call her ; point is she's not so high class, dainty lady when she comes back and this is how most people meet her. it becomes her main gig for a long time, and generally she carries over from one roster to the next. the public knows that betsy braddock is in another woman’s body, though to them the details, how, and why are very fuzzy, the theories often bordering on conspiracy levels of insanity. the public conception of betsy is largely skewed towards the negative side of the swap : she’s an assassin, she works from the shadows, malicious, etc. by and large this is propagated by anti-mutant media. betsy does note in her 2010 solo run that she’s saved the world on the news but this seems largely disregarded by the general public in comparison to her appearance / status as a mutant / against her reputation as a braddock (put a pin in this too)
majority of her activities within x-force are unknown, but most know that they handle the less savory aspects of mutant kinds safety via murder and the sort #slay, even the media seems to know that they exist and operate in the shadows though they can only make baseless assumptions and broad accusations. those that were members of x-force know but even they’re not aware of where she disappears to for six months post their break up (poly paris crashout 🙄) but every event that takes place with the x-men otherwise where she’s part of the roster is known to those who would via being there, media coverage, or through the superhero grapevine w/e.
time between events in comics is generally spent at the mansion / school / whatever it is at the time; she’s a constant presence (except for that year+ she spent dead ✌️😔) and has a generally solid reputation amongst the x-men ur brave and loyal assassin but sometimes she’s crashing out and a little bit of an uptight angry woman with crazy identity issues and that’s fine. like her or don’t she’s stuck on them like glue for better or worse (for herself and them 😮💨).
eventually she gets back into her original body and keeps the mantle psylocke but it’s short lived. she winds up giving the name to kwannon and goes back home. this may be confusing to people who got used to betsy using the mantle whilst in the body currently using it; maybe a double take or a if you’re out of the loop a little slip. it’s probably a nightmare for them on but to perceive betsy in her original body as a near stranger would not be entirely far fetched for those who never knew her in it in the first place.
— 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻,
*this is her current mantle and likely when most interactions take place!!
as captain britain betsy is heavily affilated with: excalibur, knights of x. the media has pointed out her ties to the mutant apocalypse but don't know the details of her connection to him or if it still exists (it doesn't), they just use it as another slander piece 😒. she does rejoin x-force for a stint during this era (forge's) but they disband and their missions are entirely unknown to anybody who wasn't there.
betsy's duty as captain britain, as it always has been for anybody who's taken the mantle, is to defend britain and otherworld from threats. it is a very public role and betsy's identity in it is no secret. there is constant and easily accessed coverage of her actions from any given piece of media (social, televised news, written). she's an extremely recognizable face if your muse follows british media or mutant rights happenings.
brian by and large is the more accepted version of the mantle by the public; he isn't a mutant and britain is staunchly anti-mutant. betsy taking up the mantle is met with heavy disdain by the media, politicians, the whole sort. the narrative you'll likely find is that betsy is worse at it, has a mutant agenda that would see the power of britain shift hands to mutant control, and so on, so forth. on her disappearances in excalibur and the war in knights of x the media spins that she's abandoned her country and people which is just nasty work but w/e the point is there's some nasty Nasty folks who would see her slandered to paste. though betsy goes on the news to try to combat this, she's often met with interviewers who are skewed against her and give her no right to a fair rebuttal. when she does get a word in edge wise though, it's always to push back for mutant's rights within britain, she is talking circles around those bigots.
as opposed to the vast and vocal majority, there is an underground scene of folks who agree with her, her strongest soldiers — they make her merch, little mini figures and pro-betsy pins and whatnot !! revolution NOW (she loves beheadings bring back guillotines but don't she doesn't kill anymore </3)
— 𝘃𝗶𝗮 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀,
⁰¹ modeling.
betsy has been a model on and off since she was 16 in a very public way. majority of this was in her original body i'm just going to: 'pick up a fashion magazine and she ruled the covers just as she ruled the runways from paris to milan to new york.' ft. covers for vogue and playboy bunny and the sort in the panel and some others i can't make out but y'all get the gist. she models into her early twenties, right up about until mojo gets her ass at 24-ish, though it does slow down a bit towards the end she's busy (flying, her night job, college, horrors, w/e). anybody who picked up a magazine during the time period might have a faint recollection of her face or might own a spread or two still she was serving. betsy's most recent proper magazine interview and spread is as britain's most beautiful captain <3
⁰² s.t.r.i.k.e.
betsy was a special agent for britain's PSI division s.t.r.i.k.e alongside her modelling career prior to it's absorption into the rcx, tasked with dealing with threats beyond what normal intelligence operations could manage. proper authorities would have access to these files . this is a time in her life that she doesn't bring up, generally; there's usually not a reason or a skill needed from it that can't be covered by the ninja training of the body swap or broad telepath cover. it's like a betsy lore drop when it comes up but she never elaborates unless truly pushed let a woman have a little mystery.
⁰³ the wildways.
if your muse watched a lot of television there was a weird show that aired back in the day for about a year run by mojo while he had betsy in captivity where she (checks my notes) was used to psychically lure kids in and trap them within her mind for mojo to draw power from or something. her mind had been fragmented and jammed back together in mojo's vision but that's a whole other yap post. it's like, a lost media sort of deal. the details are likely fuzzy, the absurdity makes it sound like a fever dream, and there are folks who swear they recognize her from t.v but can't pinpoint exactly what from. she won't help them she just brushes it off with 'i've been on the news' or 'one of those faces' or 'i'm a braddock'.
the tl;dr is fellow x-men know most things by broad strokes or were there, the media makes a lot of baseless assumptions and slander pieces, and there's the rare 'i know you from somewhere NOT x-men or captain britain or your family i swear 🤔' but a lot of the fine details of her life, despite being in a spotlight / fame / whatever are private or classified to some degree.
jbbartram-illu
2087
baratheonpilled
dededos
