INFO. RE: UNPREDICTABILITY, EXPECTATIONS, AND THE PLOTTING PROBLEM OF A MORALLY GREY CHAOTIC CHARACTER .
By both nature and necessity, Charlotte is a wholly and persistently unpredictable character. She always has been in almost all aspects of her characterization; from the fact that she does not have any conscious control over the distortions to reality, memories, and perceptions that occur in her presence to the fact that she rarely has any political, moral, or personal stakes in any given conflict, Char's unpredictability is, ironically, perhaps, one of the few constant things about her.
However, because it isn't easy to predict how she will behave or react to certain people, situations, etc., I get that this might make it hard to plot with her as well as create a coherent picture of her. ( Of course, some of that ambiguity is deliberate and it's not the goal of this post to do away with that ambiguity, but only to clarify a little bit about how said ambiguity works. ) I've spoken about this in various contexts during plotting, but figured it'd be helpful to have in one post for everybody's reference since we should be on the same page about why Char is a headache.
SO, HERE ARE A FEW NOTES ON WHAT YOU CAN AND CANNOT EXPECT FROM CHARLOTTE IS MOST SITUATIONS, IN TERMS OF WHETHER YOU ARE TRYING TO DECIDE IF SHE IS A FRIEND, FOE, OR SIMPLY A FIEND.
As stated above, Charlotte will rarely have any political, moral, or personal stakes in any given situation that might arise and/or involves your muse. This means that if you want to gauge where she might stand in a conflict, how far you can trust her, where her loyalties ( if any ) would lie, etc., you may have to rely on what you know about the conflict itself, the players involved, and who ( if anyone ) Char is answering to. Obviously, this isn't a foolproof method and it is very possible that Char could be planning to betray people, working for an unknown party, or looking to make some trouble on her own terms. Therefore, in this case, you cannot predict with a reliable degree of certainty whether Char is "on your side" or not.
Charlotte does have standards. It may be hard to believe and even harder to predict, but she will draw the line at certain actions and behaviours. I don't want to attach any morality-talk to these standards, however, because Charlotte herself doesn't see her standards as markers of her "goodness" or "evilness;" they're simply the limits of what she is and is not willing to do as a person, and are, unfortunately, also subject to adjustment if she feels the need to cross certain lines for whatever reason. It's important to remember that Char is extremely goal-orientated and will not let go of a "victory" easily. Therefore, these "lines" she draws can be unpredictable themselves.
That being said, you can trust that Char will never personally perpetuate acts of animal cruelty, infanticide, the willful abuse/avoidable traumatizing of children, extremely cruel and unusual punishments or torture methods, egregious or needless violations of another person's bodily autonomy, or emotionally-driven acts of sadism, maiming, or homicide.
In short, while Charlotte is willing to go to great lengths to achieve her objective and will engage in a wide assortment of extreme and criminal methods of manipulation to do so, she is not an inherently cruel or sadistic person. She is capable of cruelty and sadism, but she also knows when enough is enough and finds little personal gratification in going beyond what she considers "fair" or "fun" in a given situation. This means that she won't likely go out of her way to torture, maim, or kill someone if it no longer serves her goal; it means that she is much less likely to inflict egregious pain or confusion on someone she believes cannot, in any sense, "fight back." Her actions and choices, like everything else about her, aim to push events, people, and reality itself towards her nearer criminal objectives as well as her greater, more general objective of catalyzing chaos. Once she has done enough to "feed" these plans and processes, Char backs off considerably in terms of her hostility. What sustains her unpredictability in this case, however, is how you can never know when Charlotte will decide if enough is enough or if there is more chaos to be squeezed out of a certain person and/or situation. . .
Therefore, the best way to parse Charlotte's unpredictability is to consider the immovable neutrality of chaos and, by extension, Char herself as a vessel of the primordial void and old Khaos itself. It is crucial to remember that, more often than not, to the point of near certainty, none of what Char does is ever personal. It is all for chaos. It is paramount, where Char is concerned, to never mistaken her friendly and even caring actions for any actual care on her part for your muse. ( There are, of course a handful of exceptions to this, but that's an entirely different story ). I cannot emphasize this enough: Char may take actions to care for your muse, such as feeding them, checking in on them, buying them gifts, housing them, etc., but she does not actually care about your muse in any of these cases. At all. Not beyond what they can do for her in terms of her objectives. As such, you cannot expect any sentimentality or loyalty from Char in almost any situation ever.
The flip-side of this objective and cold neutrality is that you also do not have to worry about Char ever developing feelings of personal resentment, hatred, or vindictiveness against your muse. No matter what has gone down between Char and another person or organization, she will more likely than not continue to view the other with indifference... maybe mingled with some wariness, curiosity, or even mild fondness. This is to say, you can expect her to leave your home, loved ones, overall safety, and livelihood alone as long as you do not become a person of interest for her again. It is only important to remember that this "peace" is conditional, and you cannot predict when she will, in fact, turn around and decide maybe she does want to use you, mess with you, or need something from you again.
So, it seems like there is very little you can count on when it comes to Charlotte, and this is as expected. However, amidst all this unpredictability, there are a few other points on which you can trust will transpire when it comes to Charlotte. The first and most widely applicable is her resolve, determination, and objectivity when it comes to getting a job done. Before all else, Char is a chaos agent with a singular purpose; this kind of mindset has translated seamlessly to her career as a master criminal. She does not like to lose and believes half the fun is the dedication with which she throws herself into a job. The fact that she is not in control of the effects she has on reality and is herself subject to these distortions and the unpredictability she fosters, and yet has trained herself to use these distortions in such a way that not only makes it seem like she's in control but to great yet improbable success, should, alone, testify to the power of her resolve.
Second, you can usually count on the fact that Char does not operate from a place of emotion, and is rather cerebral and logical. This means that, if your muse is up to the challenge and has the capability to do so, you can expect Charlotte to respond to reasonable arguments and negotiations. In short, Char can be reasoned with; it's just not an easy thing to do as she usually has her own logic already in place behind a plan, but she won't ever shut you down outright for voicing your own reasoning. You can expect her to respond best to logical arguments, analytical or scientific evidence, and when you can show why you're championing a particular line of thinking.
Lastly, and this is not even close to being widely applicable, but in the case where your muse has earned Char's genuine friendship, love, and/or loyalty, you can expect her to show up for you consistently and unconditionally. Though extremely hard-earned, Char's loyalty is the real thing. She will be there the moment you call. She will side with you and do almost anything you ask of her, even if she disagrees, because it was you who asked. She will never leave you to face a challenge alone and will persistently look out for you. Perhaps a little unexpectedly, this is the only case ( hence its immense rarity ) where Char will set aside her own objectives ( to considerable consequences ) and turn her dedication to someone else's goals and success. That being said, this should not be translated as Char becoming "good." She may be good to you, but her choices and actions will still reflect her morally chaotic mindset. This means that the ways in which she will support, defend, and show up for you will still run towards unpredictability because you will never be able to know 100% what she has planned and how far she is willing to go for you.
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