Bettina Louhi

"The funny thing about war is that it really does, ironically, bring people together. It shows you how important love is."

Bettina Louhi is the lead singer of the now on hiatus band Expel 10. She is a talented biotic highly skilled in sensory biotics, and is currently serving on board as the ship's Yeoman. She is the older sister of Lilly Westerlund.

Bettina's current character model is Susan Coffey

Early Life (Pre Expel 10)
"The day I realised that you CAN love anyone, male or female, human or Salarian, Krogan, Drell, Quarian, whatever, was like opening my eyes for the first time." Bettina was born in Finland, Earth. The daughter of an Alliance Admiral and a seamstress, Bettina had a happy and normal early childhood despite her father's initial distance due to his desire for sons. When she began to show signs of biotic abilities, however, her father jumped at the opportunity, arranging for her to undergo implant surgery and have an amp fitted as soon as possible.

Once prepared with an implant and amp, Bettina's father began rigorous and unforgiving, often bordering on abusive, training with the goal of her joining the Alliance as a biotic specialist. As Bettina grew, so did his obsession with her, imposing extremely strict limitations on her lifestyle and relationships. Due to her father's extreme xenophobia, Bettina was expressly forbidden from associating with other species. Bettina's mother was much more gentle during her upbringing, making sure Bettina took piano lessons in her spare time in the hopes this would provide her with a creative outlet.

At the age of fifteen, Bettina's father enrolled her in the Alliance Cadet Academy, using his influence in the Alliance to keep her stationed on Earth despite her biotic specialisation, which would have otherwise seen her stationed on the Citadel. She continued training as a biotic, excelling in inter-species culture studies and communications, which earned her an Alliance degree in the subjects on her graduation. During her training, Bettina met an Asari who was working on base as a Council Ambassador. They soon fell in love and began to pursue a relationship. At the age of seventeen, shortly following her graduation, Bettina's father discovered their relationship and shot the Asari in the head at point blank in front of Bettina and Lilly, killing her instantly. Bettina immediately fled, using the last of her funds to escape to the Citadel and purchase false documentation in order to change her identity and age.

Bettina quickly took up the only work available with no documentation to back up her qualifications, dancing and bartending at Chora's Den. For the first few weeks, she slept in the strippers' quarters, until she befriended a co-worker and moved in with them in the Lower Wards. Bettina quickly began to attract attention with her use of sensory biotics when dancing and established herself in the music scene after performances at a few open mic nights at Flux. She eventually began performing in a small group called The Silver Hammers, using her sensory biotics as part of their act, before being introduced to the other members of The Blood Suns, who would later be known as Expel 10. She joined the group as a keyboard player and vocalist under her real name at the age of 22, and eventually the band was signed by a record label.

Expel 10/Solo
Expel 10 eventually established themselves in the charts and were met with commercial success, with their debut album going Platinum. Bettina, now free to live life as she pleased, began to pursue relationships, eventually realising she was only attracted to members of other species. Although hesitant at first due to guilt from her father's teachings, Bettina eventually came out publicly as a Xenosexual and began to take part in Xenosexual rights causes. Expel 10 proceeded to release three more albums, all successful thanks to their unique blend of interspecies musical styles and sensory biotics, before Bettina's father died in the attack on the Citadel. This, along with a stream of bad press and stress, led to the band taking an indefinite hiatus, with most members, including Bettina, choosing to begin solo careers.

Bettina's solo work was received well, with her first album remaining in the Citadel Music Charts' top five for 78 weeks.

Normandy SR-2
"I always said I'd never use my biotics to hurt anyone and only to protect those I love, and I love life. I love being human. I want to protect my home planet." Bettina, having established a friendship with Assbutt Shepard at previous events, requested her services as a bodyguard during her tour's stop at Tuchanka. Assbutt accepted, providing her with safe passage to Tuchanka and back. However, on their way back, due to an emergency, the ship had to detour for a mission instead, causing Bettina to remain on the ship. During this time, Bettina established friendships with John Shepard, Viz'Ral (more commonly known as Vizzy) and Morinth, before requesting to stay on the ship and being assigned cooking duties in the mess hall.

During his stay, Bettina became close friends with Saul, who began to take advantage of her delicate mental state, poor biotic control and feelings towards Thane Krios. Over the process of a short time, Saul manipulated Bettina, eventually causing her to have a complete mental breakdown and nearly destroy the ship with her biotics, using the chaos to help Narissa escape.

Shortly after this, Bettina voluntarily left the ship, leaving for the Citadel to seek additional biotic training and control her abilities. Her instructor insisted on upgrading her amp, which he felt was outdated and unsuitable. However, due to the poor maintenance of her amp and a problem with her L2 implant, the new amp shorted out her implant, causing slight brain damage and memory loss. On learning of Bettina's situation, John brought her back onto the Normandy where he felt she'd be safer until she recovered. Bettina went weeks suffering with amnesia, only able to remember her feelings for Vizzy, although not Vizzy himself. Eventually, her implant began to malfunction again and Bettina was put into a medically induced coma before receiving emergency surgery to replace her amp with an L3-R. While the surgery was risky, Bettina recovered fully and quickly returned to the ship, serving as a Yeoman in the absence of Kelly Chambers. She also entered a relationship with Vizzy, which has been dubbed Bettizzy.

Bettina's current duties include clerical work, counselling, mental assessments and sensory biotic therapy.