#celestine: hm. skill issue

[writ-in-violant]

🍑 [PEACH] for ur guys!!! also i just love peaches... truly the fruit of summer

Oooh, ok! How do they show their kindness, how kind are they really? Vivian - Vivian shows their kindness by giving people resources or information, usually. It's a little more hands-off than by directly caring for people, but it's part of the reason they're a good teacher -- Vivian will (almost) never stop someone from doing something, but they do their best to make sure people can make informed decisions about the things they do (and that includes having a place to stay or resources so they don't have to make a bad decision). They're also very good at complimenting and encouraging people, it's part of what makes them a good teacher -- they're good at knowing when people need to hear they're doing well. Magnanimous is their highest trait for a reason! The problem, though, is they're very broad in who they apply this kindness to; for example, they copied out the Epigrammatic Irishman's book so the Wilting Dandy could keep it but Pages still got a copy and Vivian, you did not need to give Pages a copy. Pages can deal with the disappointment.

Blake - Blake's kindness appears in isolated moments in the dark, and it is unpracticed. He prefers to help people as indirectly as possible -- things that can be dismissed as him only helping himself (he's not hiring this costermonger because he wants her to do well, he's hiring her because she's got a good ear for secrets) or can't be tracked to him (anonymous donations). He was not raised to be kind or value kindness, but his time with Liam -- who was a very kind man -- left him with a deep appreciation of the virtue, and now that Liam isn't there to help people, Blake does it for him and justifies the impulse to himself as part of his faithfulness to his fiance.

Art - Art is, I guess, kind by habit. He's the person who volunteers when someone needs help, and that's the usual form of his kindness -- he's not great with words, but he can help you build a house! He can go get something you need! That said, it's really more of a habit than something he feels a deep need to be doing. Doing things for people mean people like him and it keeps him busy and that's great. But under it all...I'm not sure he's a very kind person. He goes after his own goals single-mindedly and doesn't worry about the consequences to others. Somewhat opposite to Blake, it's when he's alone and in the dark with no consequences that he ends up being callous or going out of his way to be overly vicious. He's rarely cruel without cause, but that doesn't mean he's kind.

Celestine - Oh boy, she's not kind at all. She'll front being kind around her bohemian or society contacts, enough to be acceptable in society, but on her own? Absolutely not. She's in this for herself and nobody else and feels absolutely no guilt about that. However, what she won't admit even to herself is that she is loyal. She won't take the lethean tea and abandon Julianna and Clarabelle -- the Fading Music-Hall Singer and her Sister -- even though that's the most pragmatic thing to do, and even though she hasn't died yet she hasn't abandoned them and gone to the surface. She's not kind. Even in her loyalty she's usually brusque, with sharp words and a chilly demeanor. But if you've gotten close enough that she's loyal to you she is loyal to you.