User:ForgottenJedi/Sandbox

Current project: Merging Exo Stranger and Elsie Bray pages

"No matter what I do, it always ends the same. Blood and betrayal. Then I'm back where I started. Right here. I'm being taunted, punished. Forced to relive this loop. There has to be a way out. I will find it. I have to save my sister."

Doctor Elisabeth "Elsie" Bray was a member of House Bray, the daughter of Clovis Bray II and Sylvie Bray, and sister of Willa, Alton, and Ana. She worked for her family's corporation as a starship and weapons engineer before joining her grandfather Clovis Bray I at the Eventide colony on Europa to assist on the Exo project. Elsie became one of the first Exos to prevent her death by a genetic disease introduced to her bloodline by Clovis I's experiments on her father. She later turned on her grandfather when she discovered the crimes he committed by experimenting with the Darkness and Stasis, but was defeated and rebooted by Clovis I. Elsie later regained those lost memories during the Battle of Europa when she and Clovis-1, a Exo-copy of Clovis, halted a Vex invasion and shut down the AI unit her grandfather had transferred his consciousness into.

Following the Collapse, Elsie worked alongside her half-sister Ana, who had been reborn as a Guardian, but The Last City eventually fell to an assault by the Dark Guardian Eris Morn and Savathûn, the Witch Queen. Years later, Elsie reunited with Ana to gather the scattered remnants of humanity, the Fallen, and the Cabal to locate the Traveler and reclaim the Light to defeat their foes. However, during the final battle Ana revealed herself to have become a follower of Eris and betrayed the alliance, forcing Elsie to murder her own sister. The battle ended with a massive explosion of Light and Darkness, which traps Elsie in a time-loop that begins with Cayde-6's ascension to Hunter Vanguard.

Elsie has since spent multiple loops attempting to change the future, but has been unable to prevent the corruption of Eris and Ana. As she cycles through the timelines Elsie has become a mythological figure amongst many in the Solar System, her true identity being lost to time and becoming known as the Exo Stranger. On the current loop Elsie has made progress in her goal by befriending The Guardian and destroying the Black Heart of the Black Garden before it could corrupt Guardians. Following the Arrival of the Black Fleet, Elsie recruited Eris and The Drifter into her plans but hid the full truth from them, while also entrusting the Guardian and her sister Ana with the knowledge of the potential future that awaited them in the hope that together they could finally prevent it from coming to pass.

Early Life
"Piecing together complex systems of causalities is the puzzle that defined me."

- Elsie Bray, reflecting on her life as a scientist Elsie was born to Clovis Bray II and Sylvie Bray as part of the powerful House Bray, which was headed by her grandfather Clovis Bray I. Prior to her birth, Clovis II manipulated her genetics so that she and her sister Willa would receive opposing maternal and paternal allele in an attempt to have a "diversified portfolio" of children. As a child, Clovis I once told her a story about a cyborg woman who visited an oracle possessed by a dark influnce on a misty sea shore. The oracle listened to words from a future that had technology the cyborg needed, that future had a malevolent feeling and no sense of anything human. Out at sea was a tower, and Elsie assumed that the tower was the key to fairy tale, but Clovis I never finished telling it to her. This story would continue to haunt Elsie throughout her life.

After the birth of her half-sister Anastasia from an extra-marital affair by Clovis II, Elsie disagreed with her mother Sylvie's decision to lie to Ana about her heritage by claiming she was adopted. Sylvie and the rest of the family saw much of Clovis I in Ana and feared she would follow her grandfather's footsteps. At the age of thirteen, Elsie built her first Sparrow with the help of Ana. She did not know why she wanted to build the Sparrow so badly, only that she could focus on nothing else until she finished it. This Sparrow would later become a production model, as the G-335 Anseris Overdrive.

Elsie eventually earned a doctorate and became one of humanity's greatest engineers. She designed multiple Jumpships, including the Eon-class line. Two of the most famous ships of this line were the Eon Trespass and the Shadow Trespass. She completed work on the Eon Trespass first and attended the naming ceremony of the Shadow Trespass, which she designed with panels that helped it avoid detection by other ship's sensors.

Along with her sisters Willa and Ana, Elsie worked at the BrayTech Futurescape in the Hellas Basin on Mars. Although she primarily worked in weapons research and development, she assisted other BrayTech scientists working on the Sn0-armor project. After discovering Ana was working on a prototype line of scout rifles, Elsie looked over her work and was pleased by the progress her sister was making. She returned the rifle to Ana and told her that only she could finish the design, a sign of confidence in her sister, whom she knew struggled with her sense of identity and belonging in the family.

When their father began to pass away from fatal prion insomnia, a genetic condition introduced to the Bray family bloodline by Clovis I's genetic tampering, Elsie, Willa, and Ana were all opposed to their grandfather's plan to transfer Clovis II's mind into an experimental Exo body. Clovis I believed that this was the path their family was destined to take in order to achieve immortality and become the common ancestors of all future humankind. Their fears were justified, as their father's mind was unable to cope with the transfer or handle the new Exo body, which was torn apart in Clovis II's panic. The three sisters distanced themselves from Clovis I after this, blaming him for their father's disease and horrific death. Elsie also clashed with her grandfather and brother Alton about their handling of the K1 project on Luna and the mysterious artifact discovered there.

The Exo Project
"Aren't the Vex a perfect demonstration of what could go wrong? Human minds trapped in a totally inhuman context, tormented and mutilated by an unsympathetic alien god. If we want to preserve our minds for eternity, couldn't we end up that way? Aren't we giving up the grace of death? The promise that all suffering will end?"

- Elsie, arguing with her grandfather Clovis I about seeking immortality through the Exo program Elsie eventually began suffering the same symptoms as her father and discovered that she too was afflicted by what her grandfather had dubbed the "Clovis Curse". She received a message from Clovis I asking her to join him on Europa to aid him in his research, which he described as risky and in need of her expertise with outside-context problems. Clovis I eventually sent her another message, revealing that he knew she was ill as well and explained that his project could save her and Clovis II, whose final memory scan was still on file within the Clovis Bray archives. The message also revealed that Clovis I was dying as well and he pleaded with her to join him so they could all be saved. Elsie agreed to join him in order to limit the damage his experiments caused. She warned him that if he revealed to anyone else in the family that she was dying she would never speak to him again and refuse to let him save her from dying in agony, a prospect which Elsie hoped was still enough to trouble him.

Upon arriving at the Morning Star station in orbit of Europa, Elsie received another message from Clovis explaining that the Transmat system would take her from the station to the surface and provided her with files on the ongoing projects of the Eventide colony. He also promised her that he would not take any brainscans without her express permission, vowing that he would respect her privacy while working on perfecting the Exobodies. Their priority upon her arrival would be reviewing security around a captured Vex platform which Clovis had constructing a gateway, with Elsie being placed in charge of containment and control. However, Clovis I also noted that there were several areas he was keeping off limits and for his personal authority only, warning her that he knew she would try to break into them anyway but would fail.

After the Vex gateway, which they dubbed the Glassway, was finished, Clovis I decided to conduct a expedition through it. Elsie insisted on joining the research team, which would also include her grandfather via a remote operated drone. They emerged onto a statite orbiting a thirteen-billion year old type-0 hypergiant star, an impossibility the Vex had engineered by feeding the star energy to stop it from going supernova. They began exploring the region and gathered samples from the statite and Vex structures. When several Vex platforms took notice of them and fired, Elsie annihilated them with a matter laser. Her grandfather chided her for the excessive response, noting that they did not want to enter into a war with the Vex and that they needed to only scavenge and abduct, which hopefully would only result in a like response from the Vex.

Upon returning to Europa, Elsie began analyzing their samples along with data stolen from the Ishtar Collective regarding the Vex. She discovered that there was risk of contamination by Vex cytostructures that could introduce thoughts and even hallucinations into the minds of those infected. Furthermore, there was the risk of the Vex creating perfect copies of individuals to study and analyze for subsequent annihilation once the Vex learned all they could. This information led to Elsie arguing that utilizing the Vex for Exo research was too large a risk. She and Clovis I frequently fought about the concept of immortality through an artificial shell. Elsie worried that humanity would risk becoming like the Vex in such a state, losing all concept of morality and reality with the loss of death as a possibility, but her grandfather countered that Exobodies would provide the best defense against Vex infiltration of their minds.

Clovis I soon informed Elsie that her latest medical scans showed the prion disease had activated in her spinal fluids and were thus replicating in her brain, giving her around fifteen months left to live without treatments, which could potentially give her five to six years. He begged her to consider making a terminal scan of her mind to upload into an Exobody as he soon planned to do himself, admitting that out of all his grandchildren he considered her the brightest and his favorite. Elsie sent him a message stating that she did not trust him or the Exobodies yet, noting he had made the same promises to her father. She also noted that she was unsure if she would become an Exo even if he proved it to be safe, as she disliked his dream of becoming the Last Universal Common Ancestor of humanity. Elsie also demanded that he cease attempting to make her grandmother Lusia's rhubarb compote recipe during their dinners, noting his desire to have her say it was just like his ex-wife's was pathetic and that she would continue to eat with the crew instead.

As Exobody tests began on their collection of archived minds, Elsie attempted to learn more about how Clovis I was making the advancements on the project. She tried to penetrate his network security measures around one of his personal sites but was unable to breach it. Elsie confronted him directly about why he believed these new Exos would turn out better than their previous attempts and what he used the Vex salvage for, but her grandfather continued to dodge her questions. As her questions went unanswered, Elsie found a new cause for concern after discovering that Vex microstructures had entered into Europa's ice and was spreading rapidly through the planet and colonists. She began focusing on this security concern, and began agreeing with more of Clovis I's ideas to combat their spread through use of Exo soldiers, suggesting that they increase Exo production at their back-up sites. Elsie began considering becoming an Exo to assist in the battle against the Vex herself more directly. Clovis I also questioned her about Dr. Maya Sundaresh and her work on the Vex, but Elsie informed him that no scientist by that name was working with them on Europa.

Conversion
"You’re my grandfather. Aren’t you?"

- Elsie, speaking to Clovis I for the first time after becoming an Exo

Elsie decided that due to the threat of the Vex she needed to transfer her consciousness to an Exobody in order to avoid being compromised by them. She stormed into Clovis I's laboratory to inform him of her decision, but used her Sensorium to crash his archival system so he could not record the conversation. She berated her grandfather for his crimes and threatened turning him over to the Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity while mocking his belief in PFHOR, declaring that is should stand for "Paternal Failure Hides Own Remorse". Elsie finished by declaring that he had underestimated the threat of the Vex and used Clovis II as a test subject for his own quest for immortality. Clovis I agreed to her request and instituted a full brain scan, which flawlessly copied Elsie's mind while fatally poisoning her body. Clovis I kept her human form sedated and unconscious for the last fourteen hours of life. Now in a new Exo body, which was custom made to match her previous body perfectly, Elsie had lost most of her memories in the transfer but began to put her new form through rigorous testing.

Not long after her upload, Elsie received a distress signal from Clovis I, who had been undergoing organ transplant surgery by his medical Frames to combat his own impeding demise. She discovered that the Frames and other automated systems in his lab had been infected by the Vex and were attempting to coerce him into aiding their bid to take over Europa. Using her enhanced Exo speed and strength, Elsie destroyed the corrupted Frames and brought in uninfected ones to finish the surgery and save Clovis I's life. As he awoke, Elsie looked at him in wonder and recognized him as her grandfather, despite her memory loss.

Elsie subsequently began exploring her old memories through sensorium reconstruction using her final brain scan, although she was unaware that Clovis I was withholding specific memories from her that he considered "nonconstructive". She also presided over placing her human body to rest by sending it into Europa's heart beneath the ice. Despite the memory loss, Elsie did recall her determination to combat the Vex infection spreading through Europa and began sending infected colonists into remote SMILE Pods under the guise of "remote relaxation", while she was in fact observing the Vex infection. She accelerated the Vex infection through simulated stages to learn all she could of them before deleting it from the colonists. Clovis I attempted to learn more about her methods, but Elsie was focused on her work and informed him she did not have time to explain it to him.

Reunions
"Everyone I knew was in those cells. You, and Dad, and Willa, and Ana, and Alton…" "Oh, my sweet. Of course you dreamt about killing us. Your grandfather made you this way. And he kills everything he touches."

- Elsie and her mother Sylvie, after she dreams of the Tower

With the Vex infection being wiped out on Europa, Elsie turned her attention to reconnecting with the rest of the Bray family on Mars. She first visited her siblings, and Willa was impressed by the Exo body, although she noted that the amnesia was unfortunate but that there was always an expected cost when dealing with Clovis. Elsie was confused when Willa stated that at least she had not torn herself apart, and Willa explained that had happened to their father upon his conversion. Looking at Willa, Elsie began to feel feelings of both love and frustration, which she believed was accurate for her elder sister. Elsie joked that maybe upon Clovis I's conversion losing his memories would make him less like himself, but Willa noted that he would never go through with it if that were the case. She then showed Elsie her current project, SIVA, and claimed it was her own path to immortality and that had Elsie waited a few more years she could have used it instead. Elsie was disturbed by the nanites, which reminded her of the Vex, and noted that it sounded like using it would make them made out of bugs. Willa then told Elsie that they had made their own plans for BrayTech before Elsie lost her memory, but that those plans would never come to fruition if Clovis I never died.

Upon reuniting with Ana, her younger sister was excited to see her and immediately hugged her. Thanks to her enhanced Exo senses Elsie could smell Ana's girlfriend's perfume and shampoo vividly and hugged her back as hard as she could, realizing that it was her first hug as an Exo. Ana reassured her she was not upset about Elsie keeping her disease a secret, and Elsie told her that according to their grandfather she had not known until recently about having it. Her sister questioned if she was really sick and noted that Clovis I could have faked it to get Elsie to test out the Exo conversion process and wondered if she had run the tests herself. Elsie noted she could not remember if she had, causing Ana to apologize about forgetting about the amnesia. Ana then declared that they could now do everything they had always wanted to, including climbing Olympus Mons so that Ana could shove her off the top and watch her stick the landing.

Elsie's visit with Alton did not go as well as her other sibling reunions. Upon reaching out to shake her brother's hand he instead pinched it and was fascinated that she felt pain. She was forced to duck out of the way when he swung a rod at her head to test her pain reaction, causing Alton to wonder why she would avoid it as it could not possibly damage her body and thus should not have a pain signal. Elsie wondered if this was a test and if Alton measured family relations through pain tolerance, becoming frustrated that she could not remember. She questioned Alton about why he had not been invited to Europa like she and their sisters, causing Alton to claim he was more of administrator and troubleshooter than scientist, mentioning his work on K1. Elsie was dubious, and Alton noted that Clovis I must have mentioned his work there. She revealed to him that while their grandfather had told her of the rest of their family he never mentioned Alton once, a fact which disconcerted her and angered her brother.

Elsie's mother Sylvie was horrified upon seeing Elsie as an Exo and blamed Clovis I for her condition. Elsie attempted to reassure her that she would not end up like her father, but found it difficult to find the right words to say as she could only remember her mother as a warm feeling. Unable to calm Sylvie down and stop her from crying, Elsie set herself up in one of the guest bedrooms, noticing throughout the house reminders of her father Clovis II, indicating the deep love Sylvie still had for him even after he was unfaithful and his horrific demise. Upon going to sleep, Elsie dreamed of a tower and murdering everyone she knew, including her family, as she made her way through the prison cells within. Elsie woke up screaming, which caused Sylvie to come and comfort her. Elsie explained her dream, and Sylvie blamed this on Clovis I as well, claiming that he had made her this way and everything he killed all he touched.

Elsie's last visit was to her grandmother Lusia, whom she had difficulty tracking down due to her going back to her maiden name. She eventually found her in Suriname in South America on Earth. During her visit they went to a nearby river to pull in a fishing net, which became stuck underwater. Elsie stripped out of her clothes and dived in to untangle the net, but found it ruined. She instead used her speed and strength to catch a fearsome wolf fish. As she emerged from the water, several locals pointed at her and yelled out, causing Lusia to dismiss them as perverts. Elsie noted that they might be more interested in the fact she was a robot, and was caught off-guard when Lusia argued that she was not and it was a body and a person through basic transhuman hermeneutics. Lusia laughed and wondered if Clovis I had told her Lusia was stupid. With a newfound appreciation for her grandmother's intellect, Elsie asked why she came to Suriname. She told her that it was a nature preserve and home, causing Ellie to question who she was preserving it from. Her grandmother told her from Clovis I and warned her that he always lied. She then noted that Clovis II had been a test run for her conversion, and that she was a test run for him, and that he would only do that if he was afraid and that therefore she should be as well.

Confronting Clovis I
"But there’s something worse than the Vex involved, isn’t there? The secret you’ve been keeping from me. The breakthrough that you were promised after your visit to the K1 anomaly."

- Elsie, in her warning to Clovis I that she would destroy the Vex and discover his secrets

As Elsie's visit continued, she spoke with Clovis I and was caught off guard when he asked her about the tower and the dead people she saw in her dreams. Elsie was horrified to realize that he knew about them, which indicated that the other Exos were having the same dream. Clovis I attempted to write it off as from the trauma of conversion, but Elsie berated him for not being concerned about an unknown shared cognitive artifact and the implications it carried. She questioned why he had not warned her and asked what else hew was keeping from her about the Exo creation process. Elsie set off to investigate further, remembering how Clovis had questioned her about Maya Sunderesh before. She tracked down Maya and learned from her that the Maya whom Clovis I had met was in fact a Vex parasite that had infected him on the trip through the Glassway. Maya warned that the Vex would stop at nothing to infest every possible reality and timeline with themselves.

Convinced that the Glassway had to be shutdown and that the Vex were one of the keys behind Clovis I's progress on the Exo project, Elsie turned to Willa for assistance. With her sister's help she gained access to the Jacob Hardy Trust to acquire a topological thought, which was a irreal artifact of the Traveler's Light. With it she intended to craft a paracausal weapon to send through the Glassway and crash every Vex system in 2082 Volantis and force Exo production to cease. As she traveled back to Europa she sent a message to her grandfather explaining why this had to be done to stop the Vex's threat to his lineage, knowing that personal appeals would never convince him. Remembering the fairy tale of the tower from her youth, Elsie also vowed to discover what was behind the new tower that now haunted her dreams and what else was behind the success of the Exo project. She knew that there had to be more than just the Vex involved, suspecting that artifact from K1 was linked to it. Elsie requested that if she did not survive delivering the weapon that he tell Willa and Ana so that they could say proper goodbyes and suggested he pray for grace for his crimes.

Upon arriving at Europa, Elsie boarded Bray Station and sabotaged its defenses before transmatting to the surface with weapons to fight to the Glassway and reach 2082 Volantis. She was contacted by Clovis I, who pleaded with her to stop her plan and that she would be committing genocide not against the Vex, but humanity by denying them immortality as Exos. She ignored his pleading as he continued to note that he could still save her father and sisters and begged her not to make him stop her, as she had always been his favorite. None of his pleadings moved Elsie, who remained committed to ending the threat of the Vex, causing Clovis to activate his ship Hannu II's weapons and strike her down from orbit. Elsie was killed and her paracausal weapon was destroyed by the attack.

Battle of Europa
Elsie was soon reborn again as an Exo by Clovis I, using the final brainscan he had taken of her that was still stored within the Bray archive. Elsie was told by her grandfather that her previous instance had been compromised by the Vex, making it necessary for it to be destroyed. At this point Clovis I was gravely ill and close to death, preparing for his own conversion to an Exobody. She was subsequently placed in charge of overseeing security at the Glassway and leading the foraging missions to 2082 Volantis to recover materials for Exo production. While preparing to lead the next foraging mission, she selected Knox-4 to lead the frontline. As the portal opened, Dr. Esteban Ruiz interrupted and reported that Noe-2 had discovered their sensors on the other side of the Gateway were not responding, making them blind to what might come through. Elsie questioned if that had ever happened before and after learning it had not, she ordered the Gateway closed but was informed that only Clovis I could authorize that. Frustrated, Elsie pointed out that Clovis I was on a respirator and likely to die within the next day and that she was now in charge. However, a massive Vex force then emerged from the Glassway, led by a Minotaur. Elsie ordered all forces to open fire, but they quickly became overwhelmed when Belmon, Transcendent Mind appeared. Elsie yelled for Ruiz to close the Glassway, but then saw that the scientist had been killed by the Vex and was forced to order a retreat from the Nexus.

With the Vex breaching their defenses, a full-scale battle broke out across Eventide as Clovis Bray's security forces attempted to halt the invasion. Elsie went to Clovis I's medical suite and ordered Una-8 to wake him up. She explained to him what had happened and that the automated defenses would only hold back the Vex for so long, requesting the authorization codes to begin the evacuation of the colony. Clovis I instead ordered her to activate his Exo A.I. and backup, but Elsie stated that would kill him. Her grandfather noted that his time was not over yet, ignoring Elsie's protests that doing so would take time and that they needed to evacuate now by insisting his legacy be preserved. Elsie agreed to carry out his orders, but as she left the hospital suite she told Clovis I that he would live to regret it.

After two weeks of fighting, Clovis I still refused to give Elsie permission to evacuate the colony. The majority of Eventide had been slaughtered, with the majority of the survivors taking shelter within the bunker in Creation where Clovis I's Exo A.I. was located. Elsie opposed her grandfather's plans to activate his memory-wiped Exobody and ordered the other survivors to not activate it without her permission. She set off to lead a mission with Noe-2 and Mia-9, and eventually learned that another group of survivors had taken shelter in Bunker E15. Upon returning to Creation she discovered Wen-1 had activated Clovis-1 under orders from Clovis I. She demanded to know why they had disobeyed her orders, but her grandfather claimed that he had assumed she died and thus took command. Incensed, Elsie told him that they needed to be evacuating after rescuing the survivors in Bunker E15. Clovis I dismissed this concern and instead insisted that they retake the communications station at Charon's Crossing and use it to send a signal that would lead the Vex off-world and keep the Deep Stone Crypt intact for further Exo production and the preservation of the Bray legacy. Elsie was horrified and angry that Clovis I would sacrifice the rest of humanity and suggested that the Bray legacy should be burned to the ground and planned on activating the Morning Star platform to wipe out the Crypt once evacuation was complete. She then ordered all able-bodied survivors to gear up for a rescue mission, but attempted to stop Clovis-1 when he grabbed a weapon. The Exo insisted that if lives were in danger he needed to help, but Elsie was unsure if she could trust him, but was pleased when Clovis-1 rejected the Clovis A.I.'s order to stay and allowed him to join. The Clovis A.I. warned Elsie that he would protect his legacy, but she proclaimed that was what she would do as well.

Concerned that Clovis I would attempt to go through with his plan without her help, Elsie took a small group to Charon's Crossing to send a distress signal and then jam all other external communications. She brought Clovis-1 with her, as she did not want a copy of her grandfather getting too far from her side. She ordered Wesley-3 to prepare their jammer, but as they waited Clovis-1 began questioning her, noting that Clovis I had called her grandfather and him family. Elsie attempted to dodge the question by claiming that discussing an Identity Upload could cause side effects, but Clovis-1 did not buy that excuse. She then claimed that she had no intention of guiding his life like Clovis I would and that he would not exist if it had been up to her, but after seeing the hurt look on his face Elsie relented and tried to reassure him that he would be better off not knowing the truth. Clovis-1 did not like that answer either and declared that she was deciding for him just like Clovis I, which angered Elsie and caused her to declare she was not like him. However, their argument was interrupted by Wesley, who announced that the entire comms network had been overridden. Elsie realized that her grandfather had tricked her and already had control of the comms. Changing plans, she announced that they would evacuate and that she would then deal with Clovis and the Vex for good.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Dark Below
 * The Taken King
 * Destiny 2
 * Warmind
 * Beyond Light