Chartreuse von Delarosa

About

Personality: Chartreuse on first glance appears to be very cordial, minding her manners, very regal and feminine. And while all of that is technically true, they are all well-rehearsed acts. In reality, Chartreuse is unable to feel the full magnitude of her emotions and fails to have true empathy or understanding the emotional vibe present at any time due to the conditioning inflicted upon her during childhood. This makes Chartreuse very cold and calculating. She is disconnected from the life most live in, unburdened and unphased by most horrors or ugly sides of society that would see anyone else question themselves at some point. Unfortunately, this also causes her to be often cruel and uncaring. Only kept in check by the memories of her life before her conditioning, and the moral compass she possesed once upon a time. This disconnect has left a void in Chartreuse's heart, leading her to chase meaning in life and relationships. She adapts routines in faint hopes that something will stick, and in the meanwhile Chartreuse takes on many thrill seeking activities to feel the high of adrenaline piercing through her muted emotions. She dabbles in high octaine activities, and sexual fantasies bordering degeneracy on the regular as a result.

Likes: Walks in her garden, raising flowers, reading poetry, painting, riding horses, piloting, sky diving, parachuting, hunting, swimming, skinny dipping, sex, exploring fetishes, domination, orgies.

Dislikes: Unremarkable rebuttals, writing poetry, prudish behavior, having people beg to her.

Hobbies: Duels and sexual intercourse.

Habits: Checking on the mirror periodically to make sure she is still maintaining one of her rehearsed expressions.

Conditioning: When a kid, Chartreuse's mother, the previous matriarch and Countess, subjected her to methods most would categorize as torture, with the goal of conditioning her mind into conjuring emotions and feelings at will, to weaponize Chartreuse's semblance. The conditioning is similar to the mental training special operation units get to ignore fear, pain, and guilt to focus on the mission. Essentially, mental walls have been erected inside Chartreuse's mind with emotions and feelings categorized in each one to be taken out and used whenever she needs someone to feel a special way. While successful, this muted Chartreuse's natural ability to feel.  

Backstory

Chartreuse von Delarosa is the only child of Matilda von Delarosa, the late Countess of Alamanda. Due to the miscarriages her mother suffered prior to her birth, Chartreuse grew up as the only child, with the expectations of three. The Sovereign Scourge is widely believed to have gotten worse after those unfortunate events, and Chartreuse had to deal with her mother starting from the day she was born. 

Life in the palace was one of glam and luxury, but not what a kid needed. She might have been surrounded by castle staff and her guards, but still, day and night felt as lonely and miserably as it could. Any semblance of a normal life was something Chartreuse could only glance at outside of her window, watching the large, bustling city down below.

Chartreuse didn't get to live much of a childhood. The moment she could walk and talk, Matilda the Sovereign Scourge had a busy schedule to shape and mold her daughter into the next ruler. While other children played, Chartreuse had speaking classes. When other children had recess in their school, Chartreuse would work on her posture with a tutor. Classes for children her age consisted of learning how to write and simple geography. In the meantime, the future Countess studied the basics of diplomacy and economics.

It felt crushing and hopeless for the young Countess in the making. Part of her wanted to scream and throw a tantrum, but the only time she tried that, the punishment she received scared Chartreuse into staying silent and complacent. She never stopped wishing for a change, or at least a break from the monotony.

Seemingly, her wishes were granted when Matilda tasked some of the Chevaliers and tutors to take Chartreuse out of the city for a "field trip" where she would experience Vacuo's climate and landscape firsthand. After all, a ruler couldn't rule the people if she knew nothing about them. A happy change of pace for the young Chartreuse and for Matilda, the last of her weaknesses remedied for the time. 

The trip went fine at first, something for Chartreuse to remember fondly. She and her entourage visited many communities close to and, most importantly, loyal to Alamanda. The entire time, she was wide-eyed, hyper, and happy. Unfortunately, Vacuo's one truth never changes, wherever you are: It is dangerous out there, even by Remnant standards.

She and her entourage were attacked by Sand Crabs while moving from one settlement to another. The convoy was briefly overwhelmed and during the scuffle, Chartreuse fell victim to her own fear and ran for one of the hills nearby. There, she became an obvious target for a lone crab who would have torn the future ruler of Alamanda to pieces had she not miraculously unlocked her semblance there. The beast, bombarded by the fear and anxiety of Chartreuse, was stunned and confused just long enough for Chevaliers to arrive and slay it.

While Chartreuse survived unscathed, she wouldn't forget this trauma.

Someone in her position would be hopeful in earning her mother's sympathy after what her daughter has been through. Still, Matilda proved to be too busy for her motherly duties, busy justifying her nickname. While her daughter was out of the city, Matilda had begun a purge of those who opposed her. 

Mostly aristocrats, many were tried and sentenced to prison or even rare cases, subjected to capital punishment under the charges of corruption and treason against the Delarosa family. In one night, Matilda had all the incompetent aristocrats culled and soon saw their estates handed over to those who would not only do a better job but be loyal to her.

And then, with her rule at its peak, she sought to solidify the Delarosa ambitions once and for all. 

Not one to let any opportunity go to waste, Matilda looked into Chartreuse's new semblance and saw potential in it. The right tool for a ruler, for a schemer, if only she could wield it properly. As it stands back then, Chartreuse simply let everyone in the room know what she was feeling and, therefore, thought the opposite of what a politician should be. This would not stand. 

The Sovereign Scourge had many connections, with particular sets of skills. One particular specialist was brought in to help Chartreuse weaponize her semblance. Such process included methods that were borderline torture. For weeks Chartreuse was kept in an isolated room, stripped of sunlight and anything that wasn't water and bread.

The idea was to starve her of any senses that could distract her and give her the briefest of breaks. She'd be strapped on a chair and, with the help of a cocktail of drugs, be mentally conditioned to erect mental walls around her mind to quarantine all the feelings and emotions she has ever felt up to this point of her young life. Screaming, sobbing, crying, nothing brought a stop to the torture.

 Finally, she broke, and the Chartreuse that once had been got buried deep into her psyche, left to die.

The results were everything Matilda hoped for and the kind that could give Grimm a pause. 

Chartreuse was still her old self but free of a child's pesky characteristics and habits. A slight adjustment to her classes on manners and how to act in public made short work to act like a child just enough short of the possibility of being found out.

The future Countess could fully dedicate herself to her studies, no longer feeling discomfort and dissatisfaction from boredom. 

Of course, no one knew how this affected the young Chartreuse. The staff couldn't do anything, but her mother was satisfied with the results. Chart herself had lost the ability to truly feel sorry for herself. Such emotions were muted to the point of being irrelevant. 

It seemed like this was the end for the Chartreuse that was once was.

Then, one day, hope reared its head. During yet another trial to get rid of a wealthy family that failed to meet the Countess' expectations, Chartreuse happened to be present with her mother to continue her training. 

The verdict of life in imprisonment had no reaction from the young Chartreuse. However, hearing the verdict also included their thirteen-year-old daughter, which gave the future Countess pause. She was the same age as her, which helped her feel a shred of empathy in a long while. 

Chartreuse intervened and demanded the girl be released. She argued that the girl in question was too young to have agreed with her parents' treachery and that she should be sent to the Palace to serve them and repay their mistakes through servitude instead. 

The Sovereign Scourge liked her way of thinking and allowed the decision to proceed. In reality, Chartreuse merely acted out the cruelty her mother expected of her to save the young girl named Samantha. She would go on to not only serve Chartreuse with her life but also prove to be a good ally and friend, anchoring what remained of Chartreuse's humanity to life.

This was the first instance where Chartreuse used a simple but clever ploy to get what she wanted, and it wouldn't be the last. Free of her love for her mother, thanks to her conditioning, Chart went on to make deals and alliances right under her mother's nose. Ensuring her future rule at her mother's expense until the day she passed away. 

People gossiped, wondering if the young sixteen-year-old had her mother assassinated instead. But nobody cared that much; the reign of Sovereign Scourge was over, and none were more overjoyed than the aristocracy who sought favorable relations with the newly crowned Countess. 

Chartreuse responded favorably but also showed she could be just as stern as her late mother, as she tortured her Regent until she confessed to trying to manipulate the young ruler and increase her influence. She then had her stripped and made to walk all the way to the 5th ring in drags. 

The message was loud and clear, and from this point on, Chartreuse ruled with an iron fist, with shadows casting a veil over it; none could see it coming until it was too late.

Matilda von Delarosa's rule had gone on to severely weaken Alamanda. Chartreuse quickly made changes and flushed entire departments and committees to replace them with competent people who had their best interest with the new Countess.

Chartreuse was far sneakier and more subtle in her approach. During her time, nepotism slowly died out, alliances were broken, and interests clashed to tame the aristocracy while keeping Alamanda strong. 

However, progress is not as fast as she'd like. Chartreuse wants to see the results of her labor in her lifetime. So far, more drastic actions might come to fruition. 

Two paths lay before Chartreuse von Delarosa, one of redemption that risks stagnation and one of cruelty that promises absolute results.