Prêtre Family
Fr. Jehan Prêtre
bio
- Eyes: golden-brown
- Hair: brown
- Born: 1962
- Age: 28 for present storyline
- Sexuality: identifies as straight (or defaults to it, rather) but is probably more realistically bisexual. It's not something he likes to think about.
- Personality: kind of a people pleaser -- a very 'keep my head down, just power through and sob into a bottle of whiskey later about it' type with a bit of a drinking problem the started as a teenager thanks to his parrain
- Skinny, 5'4" on a good day, has crisscrossing scars on his back
About
A priest from a small town not unlike Cocodrie who went off to New Orleans to be a priest and somehow wound up back home. He's haunted by old demons he'd rather run from but the devil you know is often so much sweeter...
Why the priesthood?
He chose the priesthood because it was convenient: he knew it, he was an altarboy and basically learned it from his parrain, and it was a stable life where he could help people that could keep him busy and (he thought) away from home. There's no expectation of marriage, for which he is thankful (after all, what woman would want him? And a man? He isn't exactly ready to admit he likes men, as that'd mean confronting that he did like Tiefer in more ways than one.)
On his relationship with Tiefer
He was emotionally, physically, and sexually abused as a teenager by his parrain, Fr. Emilein Tiefer, after the death of his father (whom Jehan looks so very much like.) He was cut, beaten, berated, manipulated, raped, lied to, guilted, gaslighted — any cruelty that could easily be concealed that Tiefer could think up, he inflicted on Jehan.
And yet Jehan loved him (and he loved Jehan.)
Prior to this, Tiefer was like a second father to Jehan — Tiefer was a rolemodel, the 'cool uncle' so to speak, and Jehan's best friend. Their relationship, obviously, became strained once the abuse grew more violent, more extreme; sexually speaking, it was nonconsensual for the most part but started out as and even at times was dubious enough to be as close to consensual as a legally and developmentally consentless relationship could be.
Jehan both loved and hated Tiefer: loved who he was (and who Jehan knew he still had to be, somewhere in there, because after all he was still sweet more times than not, even when they were in bed), hated what he'd become (because Tiefer could be cold and unbelievably cruel and almost inhuman), and desperately wanted things to go back to the way they were at any cost (because maybe if he was more obedient, maybe if he was more submissive, maybe if he tried harder to like the pain, Tiefer would be content and be his parrain again rather than his torturer.)
And just because Tiefer died doesn't mean that Jehan was suddenly free of him...
On mental illness
As an adult, Jehan sees and interacts with a ghost or hallucination of Tiefer that is often extremely monstrous in his treatment of Jehan, but can occasionally be gentle and sweet in the way only someone who wants to keep you under the heel of their boot can. And Tiefer is not necessarily the only ghost Jehan sees...
When it comes to Jehan and mental illness, as a creator I've always been reticent as to what, if anything, he has. In part because I'm undecided as to whether or not the ghost is an actual ghost or a metaphorical ghost that resides only within the confines of Jehan's mind. Of course, one could easily be driven to madness if they believed themselves haunted by a ghost (real or no), so really it's less a question of whether Jehan is mentally ill and more a question of is the ghost really a ghost?
But then again, the South is haunted and all our ghosts are real...
To return to mental illness, Jehan obviously has a form of PTSD. It's undeniable he has PTSD or at least symptoms that have developed in the aftermath of trauma. He lost a huge source of stability with the death of his father at age 10 and the onset of his parrain's abuse starting around age 12 served as another. Additionally, Jehan's paternal grandmother was institutionalized. Obviously, psychiatric medical terminology in the 1940's was much different than in the 1990's — as was the forms of medical intervention — but there is already a genetic predisposition to severe mental illness in Jehan's family.
For Jehan himself, he isn't exactly out about being a CSA victim. (I'm always flipping back and forth on whether or not his brother knows.) His mother thinks Tiefer is a saint. Everyone does, really. So who'd believe him -- who'd want to believe him? Which is why Jehan tends to just keep quiet, keep his head down, do what he's told and do it well and smile and nod when someone prods too close to what hurts.
The other reason I'm reticent to come out and diagnose Jehan with a specific disorder is because medical diagnoses change over time, especially psychiatric terminology as it is a newer field, so I'd rather deal in symptoms — paranoia, psychoses, depression, delusions, hallucinations, concrete definable things like that — and also because, frankly, Jehan's story isn't a story about a bipolar person or schizophrenic — his is a story about overcoming traumas, dealing with the past, and crawling up from hell without getting dragged back down into the pit.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Has a brother (born 1972), mother (living), and father (deceased 1972)
Jehan started out in a handful of gag comics drawn on looseleaf — funny enough, those comics were a product of me being 14 years old and getting called a 'middle aged pedophile' by (also ironically enough) middle-aged women on the internet over fanfiction. Oh how things don't actually change...
What Jehan would actually want from Tiefer would be for Tiefer to make love to him and to apologize and show that he means or is even capable of meaning it all those times he claimed to love him.
He would not identify as bisexual (he, when asked, would say “straight, I guess” or shrug because he’d prefer not to interrogate anything involving his sexuality thanks, it’s just easier to say straight, it’s what he’s supposed to be, homosexuality and asexuality and bisexuality are disordered sexualities so it is best to just be straight and celibate and good and he has always been good at being a good boy and doing as he’s told and anyway acknowledging he likes men at all might mean he deserved what happened or worse that he’ll do it too because he’d picked up enough nasty habits from Tiefer as is, what's one more?) but he is indeed bisexual or something orbiting there.
Nathan Prêtre
bio
- Eyes: blue
- Hair: dark brown
- Born: 1932
- Died: 1972
- Sexuality: heteroflexible
- Personality: Easy-going, sweet talker, a charmer and a pleaser — he doesn't like to rock the boat (and does what he needs to do to keep it from rockin')
About
Jehan and Gene's dad, Agnes' husband. Tiefer's childhood friend and object of obsession. He died in an accident during a fight with Tiefer.
Nathan had a relatively okay home life as a child — lightyears better than the childhood Tiefer had — but his mother was severely mentally ill and they weren't exactly rolling in money to afford treatments (which honestly weren't more than electro-shock therapy) so by the time he was twenty, she'd already be institutionalized for years. Nathan never talked much to anyone about his mother's illness, and his father died peacefully after Nathan had moved out on his own, so he didn't really have much to complain about. Besides, most of his energy during his preteens and teens had been spent on Tiefer and Tiefer's problems...
Nathan is such a conundrum. He’s kinda a jerk because let’s be real, he uses Tiefer too – he isn’t the best at drawing boundaries and Tiefer needs boundaries (but also Tiefer doesn’t heed boundaries well anyway), he’s unfaithful to his wife with his best friend, and he likes having a broken best friend who’ll do whatever he wants, but he’s also a kind and good husband and father who wants a normal good life for his family. He takes care of his wife whom he dearly loves and does what he can to give her two sons (and he doesn’t take out his frustration on her when their second pregnancy is hard to come by, no, he goes to his best friend, his broken friend.) Once he dies, he’s basically a saint to his wife and his friend (because you don’t speak ill of the dead and he was a good husband and good father and good friend and he was also a man, just a man, with man’s weaknesses and a man’s sin on his soul.)
Nathan was just a kid and later just a man who wanted a good time and could never quite carry the burdens others foisted upon him.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
► Prefers women and would probably identify (or default) to straight, but definitely does experience some attraction to men and is probably more realistically a closeted bisexual. He and Tiefer are an "if it's you it's OK (I guess)" case.
► Started off as frenemies with Tiefer!
► The only person allowed to call Tiefer "Emi", though he usually calls him "Em" and only breaks out "Emi" for when he's serious (or seriously in need.)
► Totally had a crush on Annemarie (even after he knew about how she treated Tiefer, though then it was less a crush and more simply a boner.)
Agnes Prêtre née Riley
bio
- Eyes: golden-brown
- Hair: blonde
- Born: 1941
- Personality: Incredibly Catholic, kindhearted, trusting to the point of naivety
About
Nathan's wife, Jehan & Gene's mother. Very catholic & unfortunately trusting. She constantly frets over Gene's life choices and how they'll affect his mortal soul, an issue she deeply worries about as heaven is really the only hope for her family being together again.
A native of New Orleans neither of Cajun descent nor from bayou country, she met Nathan on a chance encounter. A friend of hers had a family camp in the town Nathan lived; they happened to run into each other and, well, love at first sight.
When Tiefer returned to the small town he and Nathan grew up in met Agnes, she was nothing but kind to him — she treated him like family because he was family to her husband (then fiance) and meant so much to her husband who was excited to reconnect with his best friend, and Tiefer treated her like shit.
In fact, Tiefer was such a bitch to her that Nathan chewed him out once he found out (because Agnes doesn’t tell him, Agnes isn’t about to muck up their friendship any, Agnes loves him too much to do that.) Cowed, Tiefer begrudgingly tolerates her and eventually warms up to her — after she sits him down with a bottle of bourbon and matches him shot for shot and has honesty hour with him (Nate wouldn’t have told her details about Tiefer's past but enough that she could figure out Tiefer had issues with women); as a result, he opens up a bit because she actually stood up to him and also was vehemently about their one-on-one being her doing: “don’t blame my husband for telling me, I love him and you’re as good as family to him so you’re family to me too, I’m not about to come between y’all’s friendship.” By the end of Tiefer’s life him and Agnes are best friends, tethered together by a cobbled together family rotting from the inside and the man they both loved.
Agnes is a grieving woman who's carried through on the backs of illusions (of her husband's faithfulness, of God, of a reward at the end of it all) and cannot have that illusion shatter. One part obliviousness, another part denial.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Agnes is the only woman Tiefer ever liked or considered a friend (something that took a lot of patience, hard work, and straight shooting over drinks at the kitchen table.)
She has a huge crush on Tiefer
If confronted with the truth of what happened to Jehan, it isn't that she wouldn't deny it — it's that she would be flat out unable to believe that which shatters her illusion.
Gene, née Nathan Jean Prêtre
bio
- Eyes: blue
- Hair: blond, pink/green
- Born: 1972
- Age: 18 for present storyline
- Sexuality: gay
- Personality: Rebellious, optimistic, foolhardy, he believes in honesty and being true to oneself more than keeping the peace.
- Has piercings everywhere. Everywhere.
About
Jehan's younger brother. Gay, rebellious, a bit too optimistic almost to the point of foolishness. The family black sheep. Always felt himself second best, an imitation — Jehan was always the favorite son, the good Catholic son, the respectable son — while he was the son with a hand-me-down name and too-big shoes to fill.
Had something of a puppy-love crush on Jehan that he's not completely grown out of, though it definitely mixed in with some mild resentment with regards to their mother's favoritism. He's rather happy-go-lucky but tactless, yet is dreadfully aware of that which results in him being simultaneously carelesss and overly sensitive to the point of walking on eggshells with regards to Jehan the more his brother lets him in (which pisses Jehan off to no end.)
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Originally, his name was Jean. Then Nathan Jean. Now it's Nathan Gene, in reference to the fact that, when he was Jean, would pronounced it the Anglicized way (so 'Gene') which was a huge point of contention to his mother. This might change back.
I'm often back and forth on whether he knows about Jehan's secret and when, but if or when he does know, he keeps Jehan's abuse a secret from their mother, though he firmly believes that Jehan should tell her rather than keep everything bottled up to the point of avoiding their mother and their childhood home (he really believes that Jehan should have told her when they were young and get Tiefer sent away, but their mother so dearly loved and needed Tiefer that to lose him would be like losing her husband all over again.)
Tiefer Family
Fr. Emilein Tiefer
bio
- Eyes: reddish-brown (red for ghost)
- Hair: white-blond, white
- Born: 1931
- Died: 1980
- Sexuality: gay
- Personality: as a man, capricious, moody, dry humored, prone to drinking and smoking in excess when stressed, capable of sporting a good-humored veneer of personability and humility. Quiet, delicate almost and ever on edge, like a stray cat that's been coaxed into a home and isn't quiet sure what to do with himself. As the ghost of himself and embodiment of Jehan's insecurities, all his cruel edges are sharper and his sweetness is laced with arsenic.
- Always a little on the malnourished side, even once he was able to escape and fill out a bit, and littered in self harm scars, a large gash on his left hipbone, and, by the end of his life, a blinding scar across his right eye
About
Jehan's godfather (parrain), Nathan's best friend (and something of an ex.) Abused emotionally, physically, and sexually by his sister, Annemarie Tiefer, her beaus, and their daddy as a teenager, Tiefer found kindness and friendship in Nathan, on whom he quickly developed a crush that can only be termed an obsession. Nathan, however, did not return his feelings as fully as Tiefer did, ostensibly preferring only women and seeing Tiefer as just a friend (though he never did turn down a handjob or blowjob.) For Tiefer, an object of affection is everything — friend, family, and lover all at once at all times. Three in one.
When he was 18, he ran away from home with the help of a priest, Fr. Michaud, after a fight with his sister, pregnant with their child, turned fatal for her and their child. (He buried the baby's corpse and defiled his sister's for good measure.) He joined the priesthood, attending seminary in New Orleans, and had almost completely come to terms with and gotten over his childhood crush...until he was assigned a position in his hometown. Fr. Michaud had suffered a stroke so the church was in need of a new pastor (and frankly caretaker) and, well, the folks in charge knew Tiefer was on good terms with Michaud so there he was sent.
There back home he found Nathan again, found Nathan was married and they were expecting, and found himself, in some odd way, part of Nathan's family as a godfather to Jehan. And, of course, when Nathan and his wife had occasional marital troubles in conceiving their second son, Tiefer was more than happy to help Nathan relieve some stress when no one was looking...
After Nathan's death, he turned to Jehan to be all the things Nathan wasn't and he quickly became abusive when it turned out a preteen cannot possibly be that which Tiefer desperately needed all at once — friend, family, lover, all around emotional support system. Nathan was very much Tiefer's source of morality and false hope — he was good because Nathan wanted him to be good, believed he could be good, and maybe if he was good enough for Nathan, Nathan might leave his wife for him and they could be the way they were when they were young. When that hope was gone, so too went Tiefer's major reason to give a damn — and Jehan looked so much like Nathan did, and Jehan loved him so much like Nathan did, so maybe Jehan would be with him the way Nathan never was.
He deliberately drinks himself to death with the help of some pain pills.
On his mentality
Tiefer is a mess of contradictions that are heartbreaking and infuriating — he's a man dealt shitty hand after shitty hand who eventually burnt the whole damn casino down. He is both a sadist and a masochist, conditioned to pain and humiliation to the point its almost fetishistic to him yet also detested by him. He never got to be a child yet often, in his relationships, reacts much like a child — he thinks in all or nothing terms, he reacts in a rage, he cares little for morals and more about if he'll get caught. And yet he also succeeded in becoming a priest in a little bayou town and was able to keep up a façade of piety and humanity.
In essence, he is very much a monstrous little child wearing a somewhat tailored person suit.
On affection and relationships
Tiefer actually does show affection in actions. He does do more than tell. Not always correctly – much of his teen years was trying to show Nathan he wanted him by dubiously consensual acts, kissing, touching, undoing Nathan’s pants without asking because what, it’s a blow job, he’s saying thank you – and once they’re grown he’s the other woman for Nathan – and of course there’s Jehan and Jehan learns fast that Tiefer shows his mood but also Tiefer shows his heart, however mangled, in actions.
(Tiefer is entirely sense based, really. And extremely, underneath all the scrubbed off grime and the bit of power, sensitive. Emilein Tiefer is a raw exposed nerve, a scared boy who grew up too fast yet not at all.)
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Tiefer makes a sort of cameo appearance as an alternate universe version of himself, in a way, in Ninety-Nine Righteous Men — mostly because I did not want to design a whole new character. Easier to age him up as an Easter Egg.
I like to think that Monsignor Tiefer is the person Tiefer could have been if he'd never returned to his home town — fairly successful, still bitter and angry, still an alcoholic, and definitely sleeping with some of the other priests (you just know he and Adam have a filthy coworkers-with-benefits relationship on the down-low) but overall a generally well-functioning human being who'd managed to outrun the monstrosity in which he was raised.
Was gangraped at least twice by a bunch of Annemarie's boyfriends and semi-regularly slept with his own dad (who he personally doesn't view as a paternal figure so it doesn't bother him terribly as it does with Annemarie.)
Has some mommy issues...
A misogynist less out of hatred and more out of fear. He does not trust women because of his sister but wound up finding something of a friend in Agnes (who has a hell of a crush on him.) In fact, Agnes is probably his second closest friend -- he cares for her and looks after her after Nathan passes, even though he absolutely would have wrecked their marriage with glee.
Annemarie Tiefer
bio
- Eyes: blue
- Hair: blonde
- Born: 1915
- Died: 1949
- Sexuality: very straight
- Personality: loud, crass, cruel — egocentric and selfish, she feels she's owed something for the hand she's been dealt
- Long haired, long limbed, red lipped, and sunken eyed
About
Tiefer's sister, surrogate mother, and abuser. She became both a big sister and mother at age sixteen and prefered booze and sex to adult responsibilities.
Annemarie always favored her mother, despite her mother's codependency and inability to stand up for herself, over her father, a drunkard who would occasionally beat her and at times sneak into her bedroom once she could bleed, to the point of idolization. However, after her mother died, whenever her father did occasionally drop by to weasle money or booze or a place to sleep and lie low, she rarely succeeded in turning him away — mostly because her daddy always knew just what to say and do to her to get his way.
She originally put in a good faith effort to raise her brother right, but always resented him for killing their mother and any effort quickly went out the window in the face of the challenges, often enraging, of raising a child at sixteen and giving up any chance of a real life. So she instead screamed at and beat her brother and drowned her sorrows and frustrations in booze and in boyfriends, and when the latter well went occasionally dry, she turned to her brother, despite his repulsion towards her and women in general.
She excuses her abuse with homophobia, as her brother needs to be set straight, but in truth all she wanted was unconditional love and sex — her own little doll to hold and be held by — and felt she deserved something in return for her losses. She's a very selfish, hurt, childish woman.
She eventually became pregnant by her brother and lost their child & her life in fight with him.
On her mentality
A lot of her abuse started as very much her wanting to just have something warm and alive in bed sleeping beside her and held close and Emilein was a constant easy contender. Like a comfort object. Like a dollie or stuffed toy. Except Annemarie hadn’t been a child for a while and had very grown needs and when she started seeing (and feeling because, well, they were sleeping wrapped up together, she’d definitely feel an erection) that Emilein had them too and could return that, well… In a lot of ways Annemarie is stuck somewhere between childhood and middle adolescence. She’s heavily traumatized, yes, but also incredibly cruel. She’s very egocentric and selfish – she’s basically never grown up out of teenage mean girl behavior and views, so she can be very childish. There was many times in Emilein’s childhood where she’d just hold him until she fell asleep – not sexually, not any way like that, just holding him and petting his hair and humming and treating him like a comforting doll.
She’s naturally self-orientated – she’s not naturally selfless and, when that self-concern goes unchecked, it becomes selfishness – similar to how she’s just naturally not a nurturing, motherly person – she’s just not, but unfortunately she crosses the boundary into excess (or in the case of nurture, excessive deficit) which is a problem.
Annemarie is a child who never bothered to grow up, and because of that, other people paid a very painful price.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Definitely a nymphomaniac — she is literally addicted to sex.
Definitely a nymphomaniac — she is literally addicted to sex.
Like her brother, she's a victim and a victimizer.
Originally, she wasn't much more than a stereotypical slutty sixteen year old white trash character, no real dimension, didn't really care for her. She's still slutty and still white trash and at one point sixteen BUT then I started caring about her.
Émile Arceneaux
bio
- Eyes: red-brown
- Hair: dirty blonde
- Age: thirties to forties
- Sexuality: straight, but in a very Roman way
- Personality: much like his daughter, the kind of man you'd like to have a drink with at the bar and maybe play cards with but not the man you want to see later in the alleyway
About
Father to the Tiefer siblings. A complete drunken tramp who beat and raped his daughter and always ran when things got rough since Carina would just take him back, he eventually left her when she got pregnant again as he never even wanted the first one. He did, of course, come crawling back after it was too late and Carina was dead — and then he just simply mooched off his daughter off-and-on for a good number of years — definitely into Tiefer's teenage years (which lead to some awkward confrontations between the two of them) — before disappearing altogether.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Genuinely liked Carina, if not loved her.
Is an ass man.
Often teamed up with Annemarie to abuse and pick on Tiefer.
Carina Tiefer
bio
- Eyes: blue
- Hair: white-blonde
- Age: twenties to thirties
- Sexuality: straight
- Personality: codependent as hell and mostly spaced out from a nasty morphine and opiate addiction
About
Emilein & Annemarie's mother, she was hopelessly, codependently in love with Émile and always looked the other way when he got violent towards Annemarie or walked out to sleep around (because he always came back to her and that is what mattered.) When Émile finally left her after she told him she was pregnant again, she fell into a deep depression and basically lost the will to live as her entire life had revolved around Émile. She died giving birth to Emilein.
Fun Facts and Other Lagniappe
Speaks broken English with a French accent, having learned English from Émile