Montague Arnett: Day 2 Complex Rules
Complexes, in the simplest words, are existential limitations that reflect the psychological worldview of their afflicted. As such, understanding the Complex innately leads to a greater understanding of the character themselves. As the central character of the novel, Montague has perhaps the most complex Complex of them all. Montague's highly dependent personality manifests itself in a fiery passion that drives him to show his inherent, unassisted worth. At his core, his deep fear of loneliness makes him incapable of accepting any form of abandonment, either physical or emotional. His Complex plays on this fear and makes his twisted weltanschauung literal- ensuring that he will never experience loneliness by making him not consciously exist in moments of solitude. In this way, the Complex is a defense against his greatest fear, but swung too far into the other direction. To truly come to terms with his Complex would be to balance the fear of loneliness with his overly clingy nature.
Montague's Complex manifests itself in a variety of ways over the course of the narrative, though always following the same essential rules. The trigger for his nonexistence is always solitude, though whether he is aware of an unseen perceiver or not is irrelevant. Complexes may be inherently tied to the mind of the afflicted, but also affect and are affected by the minds of others through a subconscious symbiotic social connection. Montague is also consciously aware of the existence of his Complex, and the fear of its symptoms are as debilitating as the symptoms themselves. Regardless if he were to come to any emotional harm from standing alone in a room for a few minutes, Montague will pathologically avoid such situations. Nonexistence is not discomforting for him, as his conscious thoughts simply cease, then resume upon renewed observation, rather like the pause button on a remote. His subconscious brain continues to function though, beating blood, breathing air, and unless caught in a precarious pose, maintaining balance as well. His body will continue to function even if left unconscious for an extended amount of time, rather like a coma, only facing failure in the face of starvation and dehydration.
The exact semantics of what constitutes "observation" is the most fascinating facet of his Complex's operation, both to characters within the story, such as the constantly curious Tamara, and also to myself, because I honestly have no clue. The variety of situations which test the parameters of the condition make for fascinating thought experiments (a sentiment also shared by Tamara, who is willing to turn my thought experiments into literal experiments, no matter how demeaning). Not all 5 senses trigger existence for Montague.
Sight obviously does, but also contains many caveats which will be explored in more detail.
Sound can trigger existence, but its lack of continuous nature makes it extremely unreliable. Though if he enters an empty room shouting and is heard, he will exist, it only takes the pause between words or a gasp of breath to undo the observation.
Smell is entirely unreliable as well. Not only are humans barely incapable of distinguishing by smell, not many smells are "inherent" to a person. A strong perfume Montague wears is NOT Montague himself, while body odor is the result of bacteria living on his skin. Without an essential smell, Montague is unobservable even to a person with a particularly keen nose.
Touch and physical contact are extremely reliable forms of observation, though they also have caveats. While touching through clothing does trigger existence, touching the clothing without touching Montague himself does not. Similarly, what is being touched must be presently connected to his corporeal form. For example, grasping cut hair does not equal touching Montague himself.
Finally, Taste……… unfortunately counts on a technicality. While drinking blood or sweat or other bodily excretions is entirely ineffective, making physical contact via licking, say…… his foot (what'd you think I was going to say?) TECHNICALLY counts as observance due to the rules regarding touch. Not that this will ever practically come up in any shape or form during the narrative because none of my characters are that nasty (though Tamara still insists on testing it just to make sure.)
Of course, even with these rules in place, there is still many specific situations where the parameters can be challenged, especially regarding the seemingly straightforward rules of "sight". So here's a quick Q and A running through as many as possible!
Does he stop existing when the observer is blinking? (yes, but only momentarily, barely enough for him to recognize).
If you don't see him directly but out of the corner of your eye, does he exist? (yes again! Even if just in close proximity to him, he will continue to exist as long as you don't specifically turn your back on him).
How well do you have to see him- I.E fogged up glasses or long distances? (It ultimately depends if you are able to still distinguish who he is. If he's merely a shadow of a something in your vision, that is not enough).
What about if he's fully concealed, as if under a blanket, but you can still see his outline without seeing him directly? (No. Seeing a "human shape" still leaves doubt to whether it could be a mannequin of something of the sort.).
What about if he is in clothes that fully conceal the body, such as a mascot costume or a fursuit? (This one's tough because he's still recognizably human, but he himself is not visible, just the costume. I may have erred on the sight of this answer because imagining him being stuffed into a fursuit as a form of torture is just too funny).
What if the observation is through a mirror? (yep! 100%).
What if it's through a livestream video? (this one's tough again because it's a continual form of observation, but is he being observed or just pixels that resemble him? Is the idea of Montague enough to communicate his existence? Unsure bout this one actually)
What if it's through a video that was recorded remotely than watched later? (Probably not. It’s a lil bit complicated because if it did work, he could exist at any time just as long as he filmed himself and someone in the entire of the future watched it at some point. On the other hand, if it doesn't work, then this allows him to be observed while not being observed- a paradoxical statement that undermines the absolute nature of the Complex).
Questions over!
So yeah, Montague's Complex is very compl…icated. But the thought experiment is one of the most appealing parts of the character, and writing the novel as a whole. If anyone has any more questions about how Montague's complex would react in a specific situation, I'd love to hear it! It'd actually help a lot, just so I have answers to any hypothetical questions future dude-bro fans want to try and trip me up with to prove their intellectual superiority.
Tomorrow i will explain beyond the mechanics of how Montague's complex works and, how it affects the way he lives his life in drastic ways.
Oh yeaah and before i forget: heres my a list of tagged people (not going to do it every day lol, this one’s just a reminder)
@taz-writes
@create-and-procrastinate
@randomness-n-fandomness
@lady-redshield-writes