: How many stages would it take for a character to be convinced of x? My MC - who has a dangerous reputation - is captured by a member of Bolivian Security, who decides to take him to her

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I would propose that a person's resistance to a potential threat will generally decrease over time, as long as no new signs of threat are introduced. The precise rate of decrease is a story question.

However, how quickly you are willing to trust likely has a second factor - which is what other threats are perceived. Thus, it may take awhile for your character to fully trust there is no trick when nothing else is going on, but if the general background threat level is high, "you haven't actively tried to kill or maim me in the last hour, so what the heck" will start to kick in.

That is, it could take months for your character to trust if he's not let go, but otherwise not threatened. It could be a matter of minutes if a mutual threat is overrunning the compound. Perception of Immediate Threat below generic fear levels will not trigger significant caution.

Separately, threat assessment will be based on how well the character can justify threatening / non-threatening motive attribution. Being allowed to leave if he wants, or being left alone with the torturer's beloved daughter, would be hard to reconcile with "it's all a ruse." (But what if he doubts that she's really the daughter!)

Being kept under close scrutiny and limited in his access would not offer such counterfactuals.

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To recap the question: "What steps to get an MC to accept a villain is now helping, when he knows the villain was planning to kill him before?"

Your MC would have dealt with sudden alliance shifts before.

This situation is not unfamiliar to your MC. He's going to be adaptable, and be able to separate his own feelings from the job. He will be able to work with someone who he knows is a killer, after all it is his own profession. Nothing personal.

I have some problems with this torturer character. It feels contrived that he insists on "prepping for surgery" before he is able to hear a simple comment like "I just want to know if I can trust him?" It's like one of those eyerolling sitcom misunderstandings where the whole episode could have been cleared up just by stating the goal at the beginning.

I'd keep the idea of frenemy-whiplash, but tweak the focus.

Ms Bolivia has a captured agent (MC) and can't go back to HQ. She and MC have an exchange where she needs to trust MC because she can't trust her own. She can't even go to a safe house because they are known to her agency. Her options are to connect MC with his own forces (which she's not about to do), or take a risk of bringing MC with her to (her?) mysterious father-in-law who has the scary reputation and whom the Bolivian Security Forces have disavowed – whatever she suspects about her own team, could be confirmed or elaborated on by Torturer because his ties to the ultra-secret chambers of power run deep (also why he continues to live at his compound unbothered by the Bolivian government).

MC will do a few things to show Ms Bolivia that they are allies now, at least while they have a common enemy. MC cooperates, there is a skirmish where they back each other up to get away, etc. She doesn't trust him, but as an outsider he is definitely not the mole. She needs to know something about her own forces without going through her own forces – that means finding scary torturer – not because he can say if MC is trustworthy, but because he would know the truth about her own agency at the highest levels (insert earlier evidence showing a schism between Torturer and whomever is potentially corrupted. What made the Torturer "bad" before, now makes him a potential ally against her corrupt agecy).

MC knows her situation is unstable, survival depends on unknowns like how independent she is, and how willing she is to accept that her own agency is against her. She will resist going rogue out of loyalty. MC may need to talk her out of calling agents she trusts. He's got to make her see the reality of the situation and get her to trust him, but of course as a captured enemy agent he would say things to get her not to report him.... All the attention is put on this tenuous trust between these two. Basically Ms Bolivia is a target to her own forces and suddenly her only friend is a man she was sent out to arrest/kill. She's out on a limb. Maybe together they realize there's one person who would know the truth, but it's a man neither would choose to trust.

MC and Ms Bolivia enter Torturer's compound, are overwhelmed by Torturer's guards, separated, and MC ends up in a cell. You can have the overtures to torture but it's not because the father-in-law is too compulsive, it's a reasonable reaction after his compound was invaded by agents who shouldn't be working together. Also, where are the other agents…? It's very interesting to Torturer, and if there are any questions/threats it's mostly about why MC is working with Bolivian forces. It's presumed Ms Bolivia is going through the same experience, and it's the Prisoner's Dilemma. Each could easily implicate the other, but telling the truth only works if Ms Bolivia is also sticking with the truth. MC's question of trust is still Ms Bolivia.

MC is released, maybe the cell just opens or he discovers a lapse in the guards and believes he is escaping. He stays hidden, making his way deeper into the compound only to discover Ms Bolivia and Creepy Torturer are sitting on the veranda drinking tea. They are expecting him and seem awfully cozy. Torturer is relaxed and playing the gracious host, in fact he's amused by Ms Bolivia's story, she is just confirming something he knew all along. (This also might be the time to reveal Torturer is her(?) father-in-law.) MC has a shock that he was acting in good faith while in the cell trying to protect them both, and here she is relaxing and looking fine. Again the lingering distrust and sudden reversal is focused between MC and Ms Bolivia – something Torturer might pick up on and also find amusing.

From there your story goes ahead as planned, but you have 3 frenemies agreeing to cooperate, none of which will be longterm allies even under the best of circumstances. MC will still be a professional, but once the corruption thing is solved MC is right back where he started, either in a frying pan or in a fire. Depending on who comes out on top.

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