Char Cooper (from War of Joy)

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Char Cooper (70)

Project: Nighttime soap (War of Joy)

Known as: Char

Real name: Charlette Christine Cooper

Group affiliation: Cooper family

Physical description: Seventeen-year-old Char has a certain Goth vibe about her. She usually wears dark clothes and her short, spikey hair is died black. Her accessories are usually exotic and they invite questions from anyone who is interested (and she has stories for each). However, she’ll often work in one bright color (e.g., a clip-in in her hair, a scarf).

Personality: Char is very quiet and detached. She is a nihilist by nature, although she holds a few hopes that keep it from overwhelming her. On the balance being pessimistic, she is not a risk taker and tends to put minimal effort into most endeavors.

There are a few of exceptions to this. One, she is a poet and works very hard on that (including reading lots of other poets, getting feedback from her online group of like-minded poets, and composing constantly). Two, Chase and her are extremely close and he is a rare person that mostly doesn’t disappoint her (and for whom she would do almost anything). Three, Mandy Lake and their secret relationship is a bright spot of happiness in her life.

History: Char is Chase’s twin and Liz’s other child. While she was a bright and cheerful child, with puberty came borderline depression and pessimism. This seems to be a mix of a change in hormones and a better understanding of her mother and their family dynamics. From her mother she learned that life doesn’t always work out the way you hoped. From her uncle she learned that there is no strict justice in the world and the bad experience as much rewards in life (actually, more) than the good.

Her worldview is therefore that what she does matters relatively little; the world will hand her what it hands her. At least, consciously this is her worldview – there is still a bit of that happy child within her and when she is writing her poetry or with Mandy she can’t help but feel some hope. Given this is so rarely seen, however, she is generally viewed as grumpy and uninvolved (making her popular with neither students nor teachers). As a consequence, she spends much of her time alone (except the time she spends with Chase and Mandy; of course, she doesn’t spend time with both of them at once).

Some secrets and points of drama we may or may not encounter:

• Someday she’ll likely find out that Chase is also in a relationship with Mandy. This will either crush her (fulfilling her belief’s on life’s unfairness) or open her up to sharing (Chase is after all her favorite person; and given she doesn’t have high expectations for her life in general she is open to settling). Chase will be less likely to embrace the latter.
• Let’s not forget, either Chase or Char is a serial killer. (I’m struggling mightily with this; it goes against my “most people are redeemable” worldview. I feel like I have to set such rules to keep me from making everyone a goody-good, but neither Chase nor Char feel like serial killers to me at the moment. We’ll see what happens).
• Char will apparently attempt suicide. She’ll have taken too many drugs after a night of drinking too much. She won’t remember the details and will even suspect herself of trying suicide. In reality, she’ll have been poisoned by someone who wanted to kill Liz instead. This brush with death, and really reflecting on whether she would commit suicide, will cause a change in her worldview (for the better).
• It’s possible that Char started the fire that Melody will be accused of.

Role in the narrative: A morose teenager can be pretty handy. Also a cliché – but let’s face it, a cliché for a reason.

Abilities: She is a talented poet and she is quite smart. Her detachment and refusal to try hard at most things limits how many skills she has.

Inspirations: I had to do some searching to find where Char came from. Lydia from Beetlejuice is likely an influence/inspiration.