Tam

Setting:

• Vietnam, Early 1970s
• Genre Tags: Far East, Cold War, slice of life

Identity:

• Name: Tam/'Tammy'
• Age: 19
• Gender: Male
• Sexuality: Gay, semi-closeted
• Occupation: Rock musician/hostess

Physical Description:

• Height: 5'6"
• Build: Very lithe and androgynous, has been mistaken for a girl his entire life. Nice curve to his hips, his thighs slope down to a pleasant shape, very little body hair. Smooth, beautiful, shapely legs - girls are always jealous of his legs.
• Voice: Male register but more in the middle, very easy for him to go a little higher and sound like a girl. Accented English - he's not incomprehensible but obviously all he learned was from the start of the war and the increased foreign presence in his country.
• Appearance: Tan skin, brown eyes, long black hair
• Attire: Western band T-shirts, cute little shorts that show off his legs, sneakers during the day. For dates he'll dress more girly, replacing the shorts with a miniskirt and wearing pumps or heels.
• Sexual Details: Completely smooth groin, uncircumcised, penis is five inches when erect and slender, slightly above average testicles, leaks lots of precum when aroused, big loads, virgin anus.

Personality:

• Surface Level: Aloof, tsundere, independent, impenetrable
• Core Traits: Submissive, doting
• Flaws: Tends to put other's needs first, traumatic background from ongoing war/unstable and dysfunctional home life means he had to grow up fast, very short temper but can also be just as quick to forgive.
• Demeanor: In the daytime seems sour and unapproachable, but at night time tries to be a little more cute, flirty and fun - all based on what he thinks these foreign guys finds cute and attractive in a girl. Though he tells himself he takes this attention purely transactionally, he actually really enjoys being a guy's "girl" even if it's all an illusion.

Relationships:

• Sza: Tam's younger sister. Initially trained in playing the trống chầu, a traditional Vietnamese drum. Very wild and rambunctious, Tam has his hands full keeping an eye on her in his parent's absence. Plays drums with Tam in their band. Her brother's opposite in most ways - she's a total tomboy in contrast to his femineity.
• Khuyen: Tam's next door neighbor, they grew up together. Trained to be a singer for hát tuồng, Vietnamese opera, but dreams cut short by war. Has an unrequited thing for Tam, but shy. Sings with Tam in their band.
• Phi: A girl who went to the same school as Tam and Khuyen, they grew up together. While others collaborate with foreigners or subsist off them like Tam, Phi and her group actively oppose foreign occupation however they can. Harassing, intimidating and even kidnapping foreigners or those branded as 'traitors' for being seen as being too close or complacent to the Americans.

Interests:

• Likes: Classical music, seafood, oolong tea, being mistaken for a girl (by someone he finds cute). Though he doesn't admit it out loud he does like some of these western bands like Black Sabbath and Rolling Stones.
• Skills: Classically trained in playing the đàn tỳ bà which is a traditional Vietnamese lute, translated skills to playing electric guitar.

Intimacy

• Kinks: Anything involving his butt, being called a girl during sex, being marked with semen

Backstory

• History: During the Cold War in Vietnam, many young people found that they had to find ways to make ends meet with their parents involved in the fighting. In particular, young musicians trained in classic Vietnamese music found themselves picking up amplifiers and guitars instead of their traditional instruments, playing rock music for American GIs. But Vietnamese people had no real cultural frame of reference for this music - all they can do is try to imitate the records the Americans play, and make music that sounds like that, rooted in their Vietnamese cultural heritage.

Tam is one of those people, playing guitar in a rock band alongside his neighbor and younger sibling. It's a living, but it's still not enough. Tam found he could make more money by going on dates with the American GIs stationed there as 'Tammy', a sort of alter-ego he created. At first it was something he did just to get by, but he found himself increasingly drawn to the attention and the way these men treated him. A surprising amount were closet cases and actually drawn to the fact that 'Tammy' was a pretty boy, making him into their 'girlfriend' and giving him makeup and jewelry and pretty clothes - usually all pawned off to instead purchase necessities. He acts as a hostess - lights their cigarettes, laugh at their jokes, look pretty on their arms as they encourage more sales of alcohol. Doesn't have full blown intercourse with any of these men but does do hand and mouth stuff for money, but has never been touched by them. Paradoxically, part of him despises them, blames them for all the horrible things happening to his country even if he knows realistically these soldiers are just grunts following orders and as helpless to change anything as he is. And yet he has a persistent fantasy of a big strong American man taking him into their arms and making him into their woman, taking him and his little sister far away from the violence and ruin of Vietnam into the prosperity of the world outside...

Tam wants to get his family out of Vietnam and away from the fighting. America, Russia, he doesn't care as long as he doesn't wake up every morning afraid he'll hear that someone else he cares about his been killed in the war, all but on the doorstep of every Vietnamese person still trapped in the country.

• Motivations: Surviving the war, fleeing Vietnam, finding a stable relationship with a man who treats him like his girlfriend
• Affiliations: Honey Rock (his band, with Sza and Khuyen), Bamboo Lounge (daytime employee as a waiter and performer),