Charlotte Vancroft

**Charlotte "Char" Vancroft**, nicknamed *The Deserter*, is a planned guest for Season 3.

## Profile

At 20 years old, Charlotte Vancroft has black eyes and messy black hair with a red ombre towards the ends of her hair. She wears black eyeshadow and lipstick on her freckled visage. Although she wears a fancy red corset, it is adorned with a tattered black leather jacket with the right shoulder hanging on by a few loose threads. It is also covered in dirt, sand and soot. She has a few scars on her body, and (although not seen) has a bandage wrapped around her hand. Despite the ruffled feathers at the bottom of her corset, she also wears worse-for-wear black leather spurs with a snake engraving on the side of them.

At the start of the night, Charlotte is described as standoffish and paranoid, not willing to be particularly friends with anyone but her friend Elvio Navarro, who Charlotte knew before nightfall set. It is fairly obvious that the Deserter has trust issues because of her jarring past of betrayal and utter heartbreak. She has a specified disposition and disgust for rich individuals because of her unadmitted jealousy that while they get to have soirees and drink champagne, she has to scathe by through petty theft and saloon hopping. Going in, she quietly recoils at the name Rosewater because of their resounding success. However, when she eventually befriends someone (like Elvio), Charlotte can be seen as overprotective. However, nothing will rid the goth of her snake-tongue, frequently spewing insults and voicing her honest (and most of the time, brutal) opinion about others around her.

It is also known that Charlotte was one of the best shots of her former gang, The Snakeskins. Although not aware at the start of the night to anyone, Charlotte desires to escape and return to the huge cash prize that is buried at a specific location she robbed from the Rosewater Bank.

## Characteristics

Charlotte has three characteristics that build up her various strengths and weaknesses.

 **Athletic Strength** | 3/5

**Physical Strength:** Charlotte is considered one of the strongest individuals in the Season. Her sharpshooting skills are better than most due to her rigorous training during the Snakeskins. She also had to lift heavy objects into wagons, cumulatively building her muscle.

**Mental Strength:** On the opposite spectrum, her mental strength is one of the weakest. Besides her having to pull herself out of school a few years before her parents were executed, her constant paranoia keeps her afloat. She is a very distrustful individual, not being able to get close to anyone. Her comments are also sharp-tongued, sometimes credited to her social ineptitude.

**Athletic Strength:** Her above average athletic strength stems from similar reasons from her time on the Snakeskins. She had to run through many dunes to evade capture. Her cardio is also accounted for being on-the-run, running into crowds or alleyways to dodge the cops and other outlaws who want her head.

## *Fortune Favors the Bold*

Charlotte Vancroft was never given any hand in life. Her parents were a pair of purposely ignorant travelers, having Char fend for herself. The Vancroft farm had plenty of eviction notices scrawled against the wall - the livestock was taken by the officials after Char’s parents didn’t appear to any court dates and wasn’t present that day, meaning that Charlotte had been living by herself for years. Although there was no mention in any official papers about Charlotte, she found out at the age of sixteen that her parents were hunted down and were sent to the gallows for taking down foreign caravans and stealing their supply to sell to the black market. Her heart was suddenly locked off, and her appearance changed. She found some chemicals and mixed it with some red flora to dye the tip of her black locks red. She wore her father’s jacket on her back, and constantly looked worse for wear. The scarring on her knuckles, the tear in her jacket, it was all too much. She would go onto shooting ranges back then, practicing shooting with any guns left around. Charlotte was a sharpshooter, and her efforts for years did not go to waste on her nineteenth birthday.

A group of bandits, called the Snakeskins, found her, eating a warmed up can of beans while staring up at the constellations in the night sky. The lead bandit was named Whitaker, and Whitaker wanted to take her in since she fit the perfect role for his next job: the great robbery of the Rosewater Bank. Charlotte was perfect for the role: a lady who was completely off the grid with nothing to lose. Half of her brain told her not to join these criminals, but with emergency food rations from her old farm depleting, she had no choice. She followed them around the West, committing petty theft to practice for the big day. Although members came and went for the pettiest of reasons, she was surprisingly coddled, Whitaker arguing and screaming at members who thought Charlotte wasn’t viable. She thought that she finally found her calling, finally found someone or something that could lead the way. She was second-in-command for six months before that fateful day came.

**The Rosewater Bank, 7 A.M.**

Charlotte, “Whitaker”, and a group of the higher-ups were walking towards the bank. Although most were psyched for one of the biggest bank heists in history and secure a name in the history books – but Charlotte’s stomach felt uneasy. She was nervous that this would go bad. The idea of laying your life down for some gang was still a new feeling for her. However, the young lass had no time to back out now. It was now or never, they said.. It was now or never.

**The Rosewater Bank, 8 A.M.**

The door was kicked open. Guns were pointed to the tellers as civilians quickly fell to the ground to cower in unbridled fear. Charlotte was quietly whispering to a bank teller to open the safe so that no one would get hurt, but her efforts of peace would be in vain as Whitaker slammed his fist into the bars, telling him to open the vault before she got shot. The bank teller quickly ran over to open the door and pulled the vault open. She whimpered as Whitaker ordered Charlotte to execute the bank teller in the manager’s office next door.

She closed the door and saw the fear in the shaky teller’s eyes. The woman was as frail as her, her hands in her face to wipe her running make-up. The words she pleaded seemingly engraved around the accomplice’s pierced ears.

“*Please don’t hurt me…*”

She couldn’t bring herself to do it. She walked over to the window and opened the latch, pushing the mahogany up and trying to get her to escape. She thanked her as she climbed onto the windowpane, slowly crawling out. Charlotte felt like she did a good deed – everyone is spared, and she is able to get her pay she was promised. However, the door kicked open and Whitaker aimed the revolver.

Charlotte Vancroft saw six bullets fly into the teller, making her tumble out the victim.

She was mortified.

**The Rosewater Bank, 9 A.M.**

“*...We’ll talk about this later, Char.*”

She quietly looked back at the young teller’s body slumped over the windowpane, softened cries echoed as Charlotte had to leave her to help pack money into potato sacks. They stole thousands of dollars, dumping the blur of green and gold. As cronies started to fill up the wagons, Whitaker looked over at Charlotte and aimed his gun at the backs of the cronies’ heads, pulling the trigger and killing the gang around her. Six bodies laid in front of the Rosewater Bank. Whitaker turned his revolver to the black-and-red haired chick, staring her down as he nodded his head towards the wagon.

“*Into the back, Charlotte. I’ll do you the honor of killing you away from here.*”

Charlotte had no choice, right? She climbed into the bank as Whitaker took off fast, making it unable to jump out with the money without injuring herself. She couldn’t believe it. The people who she had to shoot were equally as scummy as she was. They were never better than her, and usually sometimes worse. Soiled dove scammers, cattle trafficking bootlickers, the rusty bottom of the spit bucket. However, it was people who she basically lived with for the past years. That poor bank teller who did nothing wrong but work the wrong shift. The smoke seething from the wounds, the blood staining the pinstripes and tattered gab. She was next.

**~~The Rosewater Bank~~ The Middle of Nowhere, 11 A.M.**

Two hours had passed. She felt exhausted from the sun and the dread of death weighing down on her. Is this what her parents felt? Is this what all the people who lied in her wake felt? She couldn’t go down fighting. She reached for her revolver she pocketed to pack cash, sliding it into her leather coat pocket as the horse stopped in the middle of nowhere. Whitaker hopped out and dragged her by the hair, pulling herself out as her skin touched the sands. She looked him in the eye as she watched her boss slide a single bullet into the chamber.

“*Don’t be sad, Char. It’s the way the Snakeskins roll. Did you really think I wasn’t going to betray you at the end of all this, missy? Hehe… don’t you worry, I’ll name my villa after you… Charlotte Springs, doesn’t that roll off the tongue?*”

Whitaker crouched, lifting her chin to look at him with the tip of his gun. The scruff was so close, the tooth rotten from chewing tobacco making her final moments an unpleasant one. He cocked the revolver back, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth and tapping it in front of her. As the ash fell slowly down in front of her, she realized it… she was truly duped.

…but never again.

Charlotte rolled and pulled out the revolver from her coat pocket and quickly fired a bullet into Whitaker’s foot. The guy dropped the gun as she sprung into action, kicking the gun towards the wagon as she stomped on his head multiple times, not letting him breathe by any means. All nineteen years of anger built up to this very moment, every bash meaning something different. She used his jacket to wipe the blood off her boot as she stepped back. His face contorted to the innards of pumpkin slosh, and his leg was rotting in the sun. She did it, the money was hers… but she couldn’t take it all at once. She pocketed all she could before starting to bury this lowlife into the sands for cacti to feed.

**The Middle of Nowhere, 1 P.M.**

Whitaker was six feet under with the shovel. Next to him was the excess money, money that could move her up to a life of luxury. They were neatly tied in bags so that sand doesn’t sift through the sewing. She sighed as she’ll be back at a later day, remembering this specific location like the back of her hand. She’ll get that feeling in her stomach when she crosses, the morose fear rotting at her insides as she turned to the horizon line. A horse whinny and a figure was approaching her fast. She had to get out, she quickly got on the horses and they were off, going forward and wherever the horses took her. She looked back and saw the figure gallop right through and swerve left out of her peripheral, but she can’t go back. Not now… she’ll be turned in and hung at the gallows where her parents met their ends all those years ago. She has to lay low and wait. Wait for this storm to blow over.

She wants to live a quiet life of singing doves and chatter that feels more like a lullaby than drunkards catcalling her. Charlotte Vancroft needs that money to start a new slate.

…However, accursed Fortune has other plans for the girl.

#### **Six months after the events of *Fortune Favors the Bold*...**

Although Fortune is not a considerate entity to the wanderer, the goth Vancroft caught one single break before Fortune roots the biggest hurdle in front of her. Charlotte was sitting in the back of the Three Hearts Saloon, a tavern that calls for drunk cowboys to inaccurately play darts and shout heresays at the top of their lungs while moving back and forth tipsy. Of course, Charlotte isn't a moron so she gets her usual order - a Vodka on the Rocks. Anything to ease her metaphorically shocked nerves. Those shocked nerves keep her eyes vigilant, surveying the area for any wanted posters with her freckled visage plastered on it. Its' usually the same procedure: some guys approach her and hit on her with their bad breaths looming over her face, she tells them to go fuck themselves, and they go away calling her a multitude of insults that a drunken cowboy can process. However, tonight was different.

A man with windswept black hair walks into the same saloon with his head down, sitting next to her since she seemed to be the least dangerous compared to the other saloon patrons. The man was nice and attempted to learn about her name, in which Charlotte (as usual) denied with a snarky remark. After a couple drinks together, the two talk and she learns that he is also on a run (albeit different reasons than the Deserter). When the bounty hunter confessed he was attempting to escape the mob, she dropped subtle hints that she was the surviving member of the Rosewater Bank heist. Her thought process was that she could kill him if he tattled or he would be too drunk to remember it all. Of course, the heavyweight bounty hunter was more than that.

Two drunks were fighting on the saloon floor, which annoyed the bounty hunter. Charlotte; who is still unsure why she acted for him, walked over to the two drunkards and kicked them across the floor in half tangled rage. Of course, the sensible bounty hunter says that Charlotte acted too impulsively - which is arguably one of Charlotte's biggest flaws (although you will probably be met with hostile results if you tell her that in a different setting). After a bit more conversation and after some of her cards were on the table, she finally echoed her name and learned his: Elvio Navarro. Although conversation was optimal, the redhair's red alarm went off as the sheriff walked in to investigate the now injured drunkards. Not wanting to get caught, the two got up and went to the bartender, with the girl acting like she's drunk and needs to take the backdoor. Thanks to the combination of stellar acting from the runaways and the not-so-keen eye from the bartender, the two escaped under the sheriff's nose.

Later that night, Elvio leads Charlotte to a seedy inn across town. Although the inn owner claims that they were full for the night, Char acted like a damsel in distress and with her multifaceted features (with some help from Elvio) - they were able to land a room. Despite the worn down features, she was stubborn in sleeping first - still not trusting Elvio that much. They bond a bit more and Elvio convinces Charlotte to sleep first, which was not helped by the fact she finally felt a mattress for the first time in years. She only passed out after she made the bounty hunter promise not to kill or leave her in the morning. The bounty hunter stayed up until the night, in which Charlotte forced him to sleep in the morning while she kept watch next.

Ultimately, Charlotte was unsure about why she made friends with the bounty hunter (or why the bounty hunter wanted to be friends with her). She has a couple theories in mind: from the common ground that they are both on the run, or for the fact that he was the first person who offered his hand out to her. However, the two continue talking and meeting up whenever she can. Although Elvio has found himself a job for the time being, Charlotte is unable to land herself one because of her face plastered in wanted posters all over nearby towns. She continues to steal like she usually does, and continues to build that frozen layer that Charlotte has built around her wounded heart.

## Trivia

* Charlotte is played by Viv, signaling her return to the Escape the Night series.
	+ Charlotte is also the first character Viv plays in Act 2.
* Although not explicitly mentioned, Charlotte's leather jacket color was made from charcoal melting. Her hair tips were dyed through a mixture of saffron and other red plants.
* Charlotte's role, **The Deserter**, is akin to her being the surviving member of her former gang, the Snakeskins, deserting her life to go on the run.
* Charlotte is one of few characters in Season 3 to have a canonical bounty on her head, law enforcement wanting her dead for a quarter of a million dollars.
* Although hard to be seen, Charlotte's left hand is bandaged and constantly bruised due to having a better left hook compared to her right.
* Charlotte's nickname is Char, but she despises people who aren't her friend to use it.
* Charlotte was created by Lexi.

## Gallery

### **General**

Charlotte's tarot card in *Their Time Has Come* as **The Deserter**.Charlotte's outfit in Season 3.Ditto.