#kmclaude

Self-portrait gel plate printed with acrylic paints and metallic paint pen from a photograph.

A conversation between a holy man and a fugitive.

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Today's story is very dialogue-heavy, featuring my reoccuring character Petr Koshelev interacting with Fr. Emilein Tiefer, a character created by @kmclaude. I love Tiefer as a character and I wanted a chance to have him interact with my own reoccuring characters.

I'm very inspired by K.M. Claude's work and the universe he's built around his characters, where he can explore a wide range of different emotions and stories through a single image. I'm forever grateful to Claude for his continued support. Thank you, Claude.

You can read today's story here:

As promised, @kmclaude s Tiefer, atmospheric version and vanilla version

We're showcasing the talented artists that worked on Terranova, an interactive fiction about four girls in the early 00's and their roleplay community.

We made it a point to hire LGBTQIA+ artists and artists of color for Terranova because we believe to keep support diverse art, lip service is cheap, but artists gotta eat. And food costs money. If you love their art, please show these folks some love, a.k.a. hire them. 💖

Finally posting about my plainclothes nun oc, Sister Héloise Alkhoury. I fell in love with @kmclaude story and characters years ago and I'm so proud they've grown as an artist and story teller. Though as much as I love seeing the tragedy and horror of Fr. Jehan being haunted by the abuse he's survived, but dear lord I really also want to see this boy get some help, a hug, some therapy! Because as fascinating as it is in a horrible way how the cycle of abuse and patterns can repeat themselves, and the parallels about Jehan and Tiefer's characters. I really want to see Jehan break that cycle I want that sad little man to have some actual hope, and heal. Yet still suffer a bit, because lbr he's a catholic priest Jehan is going to be dealing with guilt about something, and it's fun for the audience.

So I came up with a therapist for Jehan that understands what life in the church is like, a plainclothes nun that has a doctorate in psychotherapy. Then I started developing Héloise more as a character and got emotionally invested in her dynamic with Jehan through Anon ask...I played my own damn self. So now I'm posting more of Héloise background and her own trauma and scars.

Sister Héloise Alkhoury Psy.D

Eyes: brown

Hair: black

Age: 30

Year of birth: 1960

Height: 5ft.9"

Face claim: Necar Zadegan

Sexuality: Bisexual

Scars and health: has bullet wounds on the right side of her lower back and hip, and developed stress ulcers during her last years of medical school.

Family:

Father: Nadim Alkhoury- deceased, was a butcher and amateur boxer, lived with his family in Beirut until killed in 1975 during the Lebanese civil war.

Mother: Hanan Alkhoury-Vicario neé Amjad, after the death of her husband she and her kids fled to the US with other surviving relatives. Eventually settled into Louisiana and befriended and married Joe Vicario. It was more a marriage of convenience than love, and while Joe is a good father their affection for each other sadly didn't last.

Stepfather: Joe Vicario, a decent hardworking man who tried to help Héloise and her family adjust to living in Louisiana. Befriended Hanan and grew attached to her kids. Tried to speed up their citizenship by giving Hanan a green card marriage, then eventually getting an annulment, but backfired. Now it's just a very strained marriage, and while he tries to stay together with his wife for the kids, neither one is happy in their marriage.

Younger brother: Ambrose Alkhoury, the only son and second eldest. He is fiercely protective of his mother and sisters, and took the longest time to warm up to Joe. While he's closest to his sister Héloise there was always a kind of sibling competitiveness between them. Especially when it came to sports and academics. Héloise becomes a power hitter for the softball team, Ambrose joins the football team, big sis gets into medical school, he gets a scholarship to an ivy league university, ect. He currently lives in Baton Rouge and is part of a very successful law firm.

Younger Sister: Philomina Alkhoury, while she often felt overshadowed by her elder siblings growing up, especially when it came to school or career. She does seem to wind up better off when it comes to romantic and personal relationships, she was the first of her siblings to marry (and thankfully her marriage is much happier and healthier than her mothers).

Youngest half sister: Magdalena Alkhoury-Vicario, as the baby she was always doted on and protected by her family, and while she does love them it frustrates her how much they hid and shielded her. Especially when she got older and started realizing why mom and dad have such extreme work schedules.Joe always took night shifts and usually came home after Hanan and the kids left for school and work, that way he could rest, pick up her and her siblings from school, and spend some time with them before mom came home, but he never stayed for dinner. She could never really remember both of her parents sitting down to a meal together, unless it was a holiday or her birthday, and they rarely spoke directly to each other, even when they were in the same room. They always either leave each other notes or one of her siblings would have to mediate between mom and dad.

Info: Sister Héloise comes across as a very intelligent, eloquent, witty and responsible person. Though she is prone to being intensely competitive, especially when it comes to sports and academics growing up. So much so that near the end of medical school she started developing stress ulcers, and there was an incident back when she was a novice sister, the other nuns and her where playing a friendly game of softball with some of the visiting clergy, and Héloise disagreed with a call the Deacon acting as Umpire made, things got heated and she said some things that made the Deacon, who was a Vietnam veteran before joining the clergy, break down sobbing on the field. Héloise still feels guilty about the incident and both the mother superior and the parish priest banned her from playing any competitive sports.

While it's true she is very educated and well spoken (she does have a medical doctorate in psychotherapy from Tulane University, and can fluently speak six languages) the whole responsibility persona is mostly due to being an eldest daughter, which basically means acting like another parent while also simultaneously mediating between her mother and stepfather when their marriage became strained, and growing up as a Lebanese Maronite Catholic refugee in Louisiana during the 70s, so she has to work twice as hard to prove to everyone that she deserves to be here. To adapt to a new country and culture and prove that she and her family are smart, hardworking and capable, and trying not to make things harder on her grieving mother, or the fact she hates fireworks, because the sounds and smell reminds her of gunfire (and the sharp pain in her back forcing her to the ground, crying and screaming for her dad when he falls down too, everything is so loud, people are screaming and running, and there is so much blood) doesn't fucking help that some holidays use shit tons of fireworks for celebrations like 4th of July, or Lundi Gras.

Although even experiencing so much tragedy, loss and trauma at a young age Sister Héloise manages to become a very patient and compassionate person, thanks to her stepfather Joe. Originally Joe Vicario was just a good Samaritan, helping Hanan and her kids adapt to life in America, assisting Héloise mother in finding work, tutoring Héloise and her siblings, teaching them how to play baseball so they can have fun and just be kids again after their home became a war zone ect. He began to care for Héloise and her siblings as if they were his own kids and he became close friends with Hanan, so he suggests marrying Hanan to help secure citizenship status for her and kids, then once they have their green card they can quickly get an annulment. Seemed good in theory, as long as Joe and Hanan never consummated the marriage…but Hanan is alone in a strange new country, and she's still a very beautiful woman living with a man who takes care of her kids, then one evening they have too much wine and it's become too unbearable to sleep alone. Cue an unexpected pregnancy and the annulment plan is shot, both Joe and Hanan were raised devoted Catholics, so divorce isn't an option and Joe isn't about to abandon these kids.

trashcan.psd aka @kmclaude‘s baby

If you like erotic & grotesque comics, read Claude’s 99 Righteous Men or Corpus, which this character is from.