I think a character is starting to form for that gorgeous bright green Guinea turaco bird I posted earlier. It's been ages since I've tried to play a villain.
So, imagine a 22nd century where Our Side predictably beats Our Enemies into embracing neurogenetic hacking, finally giving us a hugely decisive and exploitable power advantage. Pure Juanita-from-Snow-Crash brainwitch power.
Then imagine that the worst possible self-righteous jerk on Our Side dabbles in that technology.
That's Mayté.
Let's see. Mayté. Non-binary. Genetically XX and/or ZW. Male & female turacos are equally fabulous anyhow.
Rich family, started poor, lots of intellectual relatives who lost everything in political purges. Great education, lots of youthful experience in 22nd-c Adulting, whatever that may be. Refined "citizen of the world" with Heinz 57 ancestry, cheerfully abandoned for feathers.
Essentially works in weaponized sociopolitical marketing for "good guys". Their work has made them very cynical.
Mayté's not evil, nor even necessarily sociopathic. They're just empathetically unreachable. They've gotten so good at playing manipulative social games as a career that they can't stop seeing every interaction as a tactical challenge.
They're generous-- sincerely, impulsively, dangerously so-- with people they like, but can't stop thinking of it in terms of investments and board positions. They don't lack a moral compass, but it's abstract, macro-scale only, and more than a bit doctrinaire.
@zebratron2084 I'm looking forward to seeing this character develop! :D