#ockham said absolutely not try again and she eventually landed on tamara

[viric-dreams]

Tamaas (eventually Tamara)

Addressed as: Madam* (she/her)

Age: 23

Height: 5’4”

Occupation:

Main Skills: Shadowy, Watchful

Prominent Quirks: Melancholy

Closest to: The Urchins

*it's a form of address that feels strange compared to its Varchaasi equivalent, but she no longer has any claim to that title.

Backstory below the cut:

She never questioned her life, much like she never questioned her love for Mihir and her native Varchas. One rarely has to when all is well and life is easy.

She doesn’t understand why her brother did not share this contentedness. Fraternal twins, they were ever-close, sharing everything, but his interest in the Jewel-Turbaned Youth and his fanciful club was something that she simply could not get her mind around. The rest of the family paid it no mind—they’re harmless anyway. Let him have his fun.

She doesn’t know what it was that stopped her from retiring to bed that one fateful evening, a nagging in the back of her head that something was off. When she stepped back out into the yellow evening lamplight, a familiar shape slipping down the streets confirmed her intuition. Her brother made it as far as the Mirrored Gate before she clamped her hand around his wrist. Was he mirror-mad? What could he possibly be thinking? Who would want to leave the light, and to set sail on a steamer with a Tamaas captain he’d only met that morning? She’d argued with him, begging him to see sense, until they were both shouting. Deep in their quarrel, she’d barely noticed the shape in the mirror pressed up against his back until it was too late. It struck and he screamed, jerking to the side. Hand still latched around his arm, she slipped in turn, down the slope beyond the gate and both of their lives ended in an instant.

She’d later piece together what had happened from The Sympathetic Captain, most of her memories a blur, and Mihir knows, she’d had enough time on that ship to play her retelling back in her head in endless combinations. Before her brother had even met the ground, before his head had hit stone and his heart had stopped beating, he was Tamaas. As was she, not a fraction of a second later. The Captain had heard the commotion and was not far from the bottom of the cliff. She had insisted that the Captain take them both, that no one in the city would help them anymore. She had to get him to the next port where he could recover.

How his body had disappeared a day later, on a ship miles from the coast, was not one the Captain could answer, no matter how much she raged, how many objects in the cabin she smashed in her fugue. The Captain could only offer a sympathetic ear and a cup of tea.

When the ship finally docked in London she disappeared into the darkness, too ashamed of her grief to say goodbye. Her life was over, but somehow she would have to keep living, Tamaas or otherwise.

#my art #anyway new blorbo just dropped #tamara #also very normal about the sun #but differently #i haven't gotten there yet but she's going to meet ockham very soon #and are about to have a great time first overcoming the language barrier #and then the everything else #she initially thought ockham was mirror-mad #but as soon as they could understand each other well enough to learn hishertheir actual deal you bet she nearly had an aneurysm #coming from a culture where you fear what lurks in the Is-Not #only to become closest to a creature of the Is-Not #specifically courting the creatures she fears the most #ockham was also the one to ask her name and when she said she was simply tamaas #ockham said absolutely not try again and she eventually landed on tamara #initially it was a reminder of what she lost #but eventually simply was her name #there are also a lot of my notes on what i imagine varchaasi fashion looks like in that second image #based on a lot of older SE Asian clothing specifically cambodian #but with the added touch of living in perpetual summer heat and humidity #and a culture that does not do shadows #and doesn't have to deal with UV radiation #but if anyone wants to join me on the non-London fashion train #please talk to me i love this kind of worldbuilding