#fnv corporal betsy

[ava-core]

when i tell you i’m courier six: may brainrot i am MAY brainrot!! more info on her!! (still not the main post on her…i have an entire google document on her with all her stats, backstory and a journal of her journey as i play the game as her)

in the meantime, here’s an OC chart of her (template provided by @vault81 <3)

yeah, par for the course.

some tidbits on this chart i’d like to explain:

of course i blocked out her real name. call me marjorie, but it adds to her mystique…and the fact that no one in the mojave, too, is none the wiser her real name isn’t May Bells? yeah i’m into that. the only person who has an idea is Boone, and that’s because they’re around each other 24/7—enough for him to notice the dogtag around her own neck that’s visible when she sleeps has strange symbols on it (his 3 INT can’t quite reach the fact that it’s mandarin) and he’s pretty sure they all don’t translate into something as short as May Bells.

may also has this strange flirtation going on with the strong, hot-headed women of the NCR: colonel cassandra moore, whose compliments seem…loaded, and corporal betsy, who never misses the opportunity to flirt unabashedly with may (who can never respond, despite usually being quick to reply with a dry or scathing quip). what can she say? she’s got a type. something about tough-around-the-edges soldiers with baggage to carry…oop.

of course boone doesn’t appreciate that. it’s first recon on first recon beef for this less-than-verbally-charming courier who will pick her nose if she knows there’s a booger in it

on that note: her 3 CHR stat and 28 Speech is so fun for me. i usually play as couriers with silver tongues, and may is, at the end of the day, underneath her combat prowess and big brain…just a nerd. just look at that big, fat 9 INT. she knows her way around terminals, science, how a plasma rifle works and how to jury rig that shit. she’s basically a few training modules away from being a certified trauma surgeon. she literally does math problems in pre-War textbooks to destress. she’s also convincing when she needs to be so long as the conversation involves reason and logic. but when she gets flirted with? nope. this girl will NOT respond with anything else than a silent, burning red face or roll of the eyes, depending on how much she likes you.

this aspect is so funny. really. i’m so used to the smooth talkers that i just up and use the failed speech checks for dialogue because i can see may saying them with her rifle in hand, her trigger finger itchy because where her words fail her bullets don’t. (“i came here…for uh…yeah, fuck it, you’re going to die.”)

her tag skills are medicine, science, and unarmed. this surprises no one.

this girl LOVES her sarcasm. growing up in an environment where you had to be kind, calm, and submissive, the freedom to just be a jack shit asshole with your words was a promising proposition may took without a second thought the moment she was in shady sands.

still, when she doesn’t need to talk, she won’t talk. she prefers the company of books, and later in the story, when she grows closer to boone and the rest, she still retains her fondness for silence—she bonds with others by being silent together.

while she might seem like an average grizzled merc with her mask and the scars and bullets around her body, not to mention her terrifying presence perk, she’s actually quite forgiving. it ties into her natural tendency towards compassion, no matter how hard she tried to suppress it; hell, remember her father, who murdered almost all of his entire family? may remains conflicted about that, and despite his abuse of her and her siblings, there are times where she remembers him fondly and often honors his memory alongside the other deceased members of her family.

it’s her recognition of the complexity of these relationships and how they tie in together that make her more empathetic of the people in the mojave. she knows everyone around her’s got their own burdens; if they’re not doing anything to actively shit on you, why add to that, right?

may spends a lot of her time thinking. she’s always pensive, always wondering, thoughts swirling around in her head, the entire opposite of head empty. may head full. too full. always full.

also, yes, she’s superstitious. somewhat, as i indicate, because she’s not above dismissing some Shi rites she deems irrelevant entirely—but some centered around karma and the value of the soul, she upholds. an example is, again, her effort to respect the dead civilians she encounters in travel. a broc flower here, a silent prayer there. if no repose is to be found in this life, it was the least she could do to at least wish for them to find it in the next one.

MAY BELLS i love you…my nerdy, awkward, sarcastic little courier six…playing fnv as you is the highlight of a very difficult week <//3

also if she was exposed to modern music, she’d probably love my chemical romance, fall out boy, green day and the smashing pumpkins. you can already imagine what kind of person she’d be…that emo-punk eyeliner phase LMFAO

so…one more song for the road, one i know may would have as a favorite.

[ghosts0ul3333]

My two favorite lesbians

[fnvminorcharacterpoll]

FNV Minor Character Poll - Round 2-B, Day 4

Left: Cpl. Betsy, sniper for NCR First Recon. —"I could take a bullet in the skull tomorrow. I haven't got time to take it slow and subtle. I see somebody I like, I go ahead and tell her. That's about the only thing that the horn-dog males get right."

Right: Calamity, assistant to Doctor Henry at Jacobstown. —"I change names and jobs every decade or so, just to keep things interesting. I picked 'Calamity' this time because it sounded nice."

Designated cheerleaders were not available for this match-up.

[Bracket | Info & FAQs | Become a Designated Cheerleader]

[dogegohiking]

NEW Canifornia soldier we're unforgetable~

[Some of my favorite pictures that i must cut it out to ya guys!!]

[sporkberries]

I’ve been thinking about the portrayal of SA and misogyny within fallout new vegas, from the Fiends and Caesar’s Legion specifically I think new vegas does a pretty good job at portraying oppression and abuse without seeming... for lack of a better term masturbatory. It’s by no means perfect obviously but i think its a solid attempt. The(living) victims of rape that we see within New Vegas( Pretty Sarah, Corporal Besty, and Siri) all have stories that i found pretty moving, relatable and truly heart wrenching. I think Betsy and Siri are the two that really stick out to me the most( sarah i struggled with getting involved in that quest line as it was too triggering ). Betsy is the definition of a “messy” victim. What Cook-Cook did to her left lasting scars, ones she refuses to acknowledge. And she’s angry she’s angry and she’s hypersexual and she’s lashing out at everyone in her life about it. She doesn’t want to be seen as weak and she doesn’t want to be a burden( i think her being a lesbian and very proud of that further bothers her as well, the fact a man was able to assault her weighs on her). Though her actions(especially her more pervy behaviour) aren’t excused by the narrative it’s very clearly a side affect of the severe trauma she experienced. I think it would have been really easy to have turned the Cook-Cook bounty/quest into a rape revenge story and I’m glad they didn’t. Sure she gives you some cash if you kill the bastard but the main way to help Betsy isnt (rightfully) killing her rapist but to help her get the help she needs, convincing her that her fellow soldiers care about her. It’s not common for more “messy” victims to be portrayed in media and personally Besty means a lot to me for that. Now contrast her with Siri, who is the complete opposite and equally strong because of it. Siri is a slave for Caesar’s Legion and given that she’s also a woman its not hard to guess what that entails. There’s been moments in video games where I’ve cried or felt disgusted and scared but when Siri warns a female legion courier about what legion men do and what they’ve been saying about her it makes me so... I dont even know how to put it into words(as my feelings on this topic are much harder to pin down and articulate compared to betsy). Even if you’re aiding the very men who are doing the awful things to her and the other women she doesn’t want you to experience what she’s gone through. She’ll warn the courier of what the legioners say about her of what they want to do and it’s just... god. I realize this isnt very well put together but its hard to know what to say about Siri other than she fucks me up. I realize there isn’t much of a thesis to this post but if there was it would be that I feel very seen by these women, and their stories and experiences manage to affect and move me greatly, while not being profoundly irritating and disgusting like so many other rape stories(especially written by male authors) are.

[canonqueercharacters]

The canon queer character of the day is:

Corporal Betsy from Fallout: New Vegas, who is a lesbian.

[newvegascowboy]

I'm also a lifelong fallout fan. I have fond memories of playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas with my brother, taking turns with the Xbox controller, but I do wish bethesda had kept up with the themes of the original games. There are some critiques happening with Rob-co and Vault-tec, etc, and how they hurt people, but Fallout 4 in particular was very "AMERICA FUCK YEAH" which is just not what fallout is.

If I were to direct it, I would have changed so much of it tbh.

Speaking of fallout being gay, how much queer representation do the games actually have? Because I can't think of any off the top of my head. It's been years since I've played any of them tho

I relate to that a lot! My first exposure to the fandom was watching my brother play 3 when i was a kid. Then I played it myself as a teen in prep for 4, which came out right after my birthday. Fo4 is probably the only game i have 1000+ hours in, so all my critique comes from a place of genuine love.

And to answer your question: not a lot. I can think of 4 character in fnv: Arcade Gannon, Major Knight, Corporal Betsy, and Jimmy, the former legion slave. I guess if we're being generous, that Legionary as well and Cass, considering her one controversial voice line. Not counting the courier, because the bisexual perks are totally optional.

Im not counting any of the fo4 companions as queer. I dont think a character being playersexual is bad ir problematic, but i also dont consider it canonical representation. None of them ever mention having a past same sex lover, and the only lovers ever mentioned are opposite sex, in the case of Maccready, Deacon, Nick, (and i dont want to list all the fridged wives). You could view Danse's relationship with Cutler as being homoerotic, and i headcanon that as well, but there is no textual evidence to base that analysis. Again, not counting the sosu because all queer relationships are optional, and you can go through the whole game without running into anything overtly queer. I guess there are a few unnamed couples in settlements (county crossing and oberland station) that are implied to be queer, but again. Nothing overt.

Not to mention, KLEO's "Im a woman baby" and Deacon being a woman are played for jokes, so. I think Beck in 76 is nonbinary and uses they/them (yayy fellow nonbinary) but i dont know much about 76 to say for sure. I guess that's progress.

[fallout-lou-begas]

Thoughts on captain betsy? I feel like most people forget about her when talking about queer characters in new Vegas.

I adore her. FNV gets a lot of well-deserved acclaim for featuring explicitly gay characters like Arcade and Veronica but I think that with Captain Corporal Betsy, it's especially cool that they made such a complicated and "problematic" character who's a really imperfect portrait of surviving sexual assault (even if I don't think her questline is the most well-executed just because gamifying stuff related to trauma usually feels cheap). She's very memorable and interesting and I have some friends who really saw themselves in her as "bad survivors" themselves, since for a good stretch of years last decade a lot of discourse around surviving sexual assault or other traumatic events was that you had to be a very public model of good recovery, and it sucked a lot.

here's an old sketch of her that i never posted by itself:

[oppressionpoolwitch]

i think what a lot of old heads of fallout forget is that fnv was very woke for the 2010s. im sure this art offended someone so i wanna just say— Most of the characters are queer and swing both ways or just one. Veronica, Corporal betsy, the doctor at forlorn hope, Manny Vargas. Also a lot of representation on oppression. Even from people who try to be good (ncr) and the game itself is a moral dilemma. Forced to choose between 3 totalitarian rulers and one anarchical-aligned robot.

The franchise itself is woke because its against war and teaches us we will inevitably be our own demise.

I don't have anything to say about this one, guys

[yourtrustyvault13canteen]

✨🔮✨ 🤩 bald people 🤩 ✨🔮✨

[leona-florianova]

1st Recon 

[petrolfumes]

“You're a sniper?"

"What gave me away? The big gun, the shades, or the attitude?"

[skumpitt]

[fnvminorcharacterpoll]

FNV Minor Character Poll - Preliminary Voting Round 5-A: First Recon

Top left: Cpl. Betsy, lady killer. —"Don't take this the wrong way, but girl, it's a damn good thing you're hot. That sarcasm blew right over your head, didn't it?"

Top middle: Sgt. Bitter Root, former Great Khan. —"When NCR slaughtered the Khans at Bitter Springs, I hadn't got my beat-down yet. I was still too young. Way I see it, Bitter Springs was my beat-down. So afterward…I gave myself a name. It's all I've got from the Khans, and it's all I ever want."

Top right: Lt. Gorobets, squad leader. —"It's always hard to lose someone under your command. I hate writing the letter to their folks."

Bottom left: Cpl. Sterling, former Ranger and Legion escapee. —"Got a good memory for faces. Landmarks and such, too. Comes with practice, that's all."

Bottom right: Ten of Spades, novice and spotter. —"Just a little st-st-stutter. Had it since I was a kid. Doesn't stop me from k-kickin' ass"

(Preliminary Voting Round masterpost)

[jesuscrab]

Is corporal betsy a butch?

Discuss.

[bruderup]

NCR characters GECK age:

President Kimball: 58

General Oliver: 50

Colonel Moore: 23

Colonel Hsu: 15

Ambassador Crocker: 47

Chief Hanlon: 53

Major Knight: 56

Major Kieran: 19

Major Dhatri: 49

Dr. Richards: 52

Captain Curtis: 32

Lieutenant Hayes: 23

Lieutenant Gorobets: 49

Corporal Betsy: 26

Sergeant Bitter-Root: 16

10 of Spades: 35

Ranger Ghost: 27

Ranger Anders: 19