#tamara bach

[writingschauung]

Creating funky nicknames for my various neuroses is not wasted time, as one might presume: for those nicknames can be repurposed by my characters.

cus guess what? same neuroses... 

[writingschauung]

Tamara Facts:

Tamara’s last name is Bach, like the composer. This is because her Complex makes her uncontrollably curious and it’s a stealth pun for “Pandora’s Box”, (Pandora being the unsubtle concept name for her), but instead i settled for the sound-alike “Tamara Bach”. 

Uncontrollable curiosity is not quite the right term for her complex. more precisely, it’s a tendency to fixate on the multitude of unknown mysteries she encounters in her day to day life. Any unknown sticks in her brain, unable to leave her thoughts, and will not leave until the unknown becomes known. Hundreds or mysteries fall into the backlog of her brain, with the promise of “i’ll go back and figure that out one day” most likely never to be fulfilled. It’s because of this she often acts to solve a mystery as soon as possible, though technically, she has the choice not to satisfy her curiosity. She doesn’t do this though because it’s not in her nature. 

This Complex might seem less debilitating than some others, such as Montague’s nonexistence or Artemis’ permanent meta-muteness, but it has its drawbacks. For example, despite her hunger for knowledge Tamara is incapable of using the internet effectively. If she opens her browser to find out the answer to one question, dozens more will pop into her head and she’ll type them in different tabs as well. Any website she visits she has to click every link, and clickbait newsites and advertising are the bane of her existence. It’s no exaggeration that if she starts browsing the web, she’ll stay addicted for the whole day (or at least until the browser crashes for tab overload). To combat this, she uninstalls the browser on her phone, and keeps the laptop charger on the other side of the house so the computer will be forced to shut down- eventually... 

Tamara hates rhetorical questions, and never uses them in her speech. She gets annoyed when other people use them around her, especially Montague (”Do you WANT me to be able to answer that or not?”).

Tamara’s view on Complexes is one of absolution. To her, a Complex is innately a part of who a person is, and to try and change it means betraying who you are. People who do immoral things because of their complexes shouldn’t be blamed because they were just acting within their nature, a nature they can’t control. To Tamara, a Complex is the purest distillation of who a person is, and this purity fascinates her. Much of her curiosity is focused on the Complexes of others, which are often kept secret to avoid social repercussions. To her, “Broken people are the most beautiful”, and they just need her help to realize how beautiful they really are. Her romanticization of the suffering of others oddly enough does not apply to her own Complex, which she sees as somewhat lacking and boring compared to those of the people around her. 

Tamara used to be a psychocomplexist (a Complex psychologist), but lost her position due to a shocking lack of ethics when dealing with her clients, often prying more into their lives than necessary in invasive ways. She’s intent on regaining her lost position by proving her methods are more effective than classical (i.e., moral) approaches. 

She considers herself a detective of sorts because of her complex, but has no official training and is actually quite bad at it, often focusing on superfluous details over what is actually important when dealing with the unknown. She specifically labels (i.e. blackmails) Montague into being her assistant because of her love of Sherlock Holmes (who exists in this universe because why wouldn’t he?). “Just tag along for a bit. A detective needs an assistant like a Sherlock needs a Watson!”. “That’s... not a thing? Sherlock doesn’t need an assistant cuz he’s a detective. He needs it cuz he’s a FICTIONAL CHARACTER and he needs someone to fucking talk to!” “... Are you implying i don’t need people to talk to me, too?” “... Stop making that face at me.” 

Tamara is the deuteragonist of the story, but really, she’s the one that drives the plot (by virtue of being able to do things without assistance, unlike Montague). Montague’s role as protag is less “drives the plot” and more “struggles to have control of the steering wheel for even a second as Tamara takes his life off the rails (by virtue of the immense power imbalance between them due to his utter dependency on her and her casual interest in helping him out)”. 

Anyway, those are the key facts that help you understand what Tamara Bachs is like. All that’s missing is art of her, or a faceclaim or something. Oh well! 

Tag List: 

@randomness-n-fandomness

People who aren’t on a tag list but have expressed a “tag me in things!” mentality in the past, so i hope i’m not messing anything up by tagging them:

@lady-redshield-writes

@taz-writes

[basicarthoes]

german literature as film stills // marsmädchen by tamara bach

[nachgeschmack]

Tamara Bach - was vom sommer noch übrig ist

:)