Stanislaus Braun

Stanislaus Braun was a brilliant Vault-Tec scientist before the Great War and the creator of the G.E.C.K. He has kept himself alive for 200 years after the war by living in a stasis chamber of his own design. The chamber houses a virtual reality simulation dubbed Tranquility Lane. He is the overseer of Vault 112. He was born in the town of Kronach in Bavaria.

When James approaches him for assistance in retrieving the one usable G.E.C.K. in the Capital Wasteland, Dr. Braun traps him in the simulation. When the Lone Wanderer encounters him, he is disguised as a young girl named Betty.

Background
Dr. Braun was the Director for Vault-Tec's Societal Preservation Program, and notes from other Vaults suggest that he was an outside point of contact for Overseers during the Vault Experiment, either as administrative authority or scientific expert adviser. Though early correspondence showed him taking a larger role in activation and assignment of the Vaults, much of his responsibility has lapsed as he has become more immersed in, and obsessed with, the sole administration of Vault 112's Virtual Reality experiment.

For the past two centuries, Braun has been repeatedly creating and exploring new simulated worlds such as "Toucan Lagoon" and "Slalom Chalet", but often becomes bored after a while and sometimes performs cruel actions to create some sense of entertainment for himself. A fail-safe terminal in Tranquility Lane shows that Braun commissioned the "Chinese Invasion Failsafe", a means of permanently killing the inhabitants of Vault 112 as part of the Vault's initial resources, but (much to his disappointment) it will not kill him, which could leave him trapped alone in the simulation.

In the current simulation world of pre-war Tranquility Lane, Braun has taken up the identity of a little girl named "Betty". In this world, he sends the player on quests that range from making a child cry to killing every resident, although the player may find another solution to find his/her dad. Killing the residents is apparently not permanent, as Braun is able to reset the simulation, the residents, and their memories.

His identity as "Betty" is explained simply as him being bored with his true form--in the simulator he can be anything he wishes to be, and he happens to feel like trying out the form of a young girl. As "Betty," Braun speaks in the perfectly simulated voice of a real little girl but once he is revealed, he tends to alternate between the "Betty" voice and his real voice. Most of the residents of Tranquility Lane are unaware of Betty's nature, though a few are vaguely aware she's important and one child says "she's mean." The only person who seems to be aware of Betty's true nature is Old Lady Dithers, who will suggest the alternate method of using the failsafe.

Related quests
Tranquility Lane

Effects of player actions

 * If the Player attacks Betty in the simulation, even after completing the quest, Betty will say "You can't do that here, and now you have to pay," upon which the player is killed in an instant.
 * Doing all of Braun/Betty's request will net you Evil Karma.
 * Activating the Failsafe gets you good Karma for ending the torment of the residents in Vault 112

Behind the scenes
In Jean-Luc Godard's 1965 film Alphaville, the movie's hero is sent on a mission to kill a Professor Von Braun - the creator of a super-computer in total control of the inhabitants of a dystopian city.

In an interview with 1UP, Emil Pagliarulo revealed that Betty was partially inspired by the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," in which a small, willful child named Anthony (Bill Mumy), who was born with godlike powers, annihilates the entire human race except for the adults in his small Ohio town, whom he keeps as his own personal playthings, tormenting, torturing, and killing them at will.