Katherine
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(WIP(Research how WWI and the Arab Revolts might have influenced her general perception of Faruq)) Katherine is simultaneously intimidated and comforted by Faruq's calm, self-possessed manner. The breadth and depth of his knowledge, combined with his intelligence and mastery of weapons impress her while his serene, earnest manner yet devious sense of humor often leave her unsure as to where she stands with him. Faruq is letting her take her time - he took the edge of his sense of humor for the first six months, careful not to startle her too much at first. He has no problem that she still needs to figure out how to approach him, but continues to try and guide her. He doesn't think it will take many years for them to figure out and is willing to wait rather than push her just yet. Faruq is eager to teach her and Katherine has so much still to learn, but he occasionally has difficulty persuading her to attend. Although from a reasonably wealthy family, in many ways her education was very narrow. She's still very inclined to immediately ask "but what good does this do?", she hasn't learned to relax into curiosity or had much opportunity to experience the advantages of a broad accumulation of knowledge. On his side, Faruq hasn't yet figured what is most likely to appeal to Katherine's interests and abilities and should therefore become their focus. Fabia often pairs Katherine with Faruq now if she has to choose between Artur and Faruq, since Katherine is still so tense and Faruq puts more emphasis on remaining relaxed and only using tension at the necessary moment, whereas Artur is more high energy.
History
Matas is jealous of Katherine, arriving after only spending about 20 years as the youngest and hence getting a lot of attention. He hasn't really managed to sort out a lot of stuff yet, like his relationship with Fabia considering his general relationship with authority, and how he is still very wary and suspicious. That wariness and suspicion don't help in how he views Katherine and she in return is also naturally wary. They tend to interact around each other, via others, rather than directly. This is mostly because they are both afraid they might cause a rift between themselves, but also don't trust the other person to be compatible with themselves and will inevitably dislike each other. Katherine is still too confused and busy trying to absorb everything to think much of it at the moment or consider how this should be handled in the future. Matas thinks, considering how well all the older ones get on, this will probably just resolve itself in the future. Currently he doesn't feel ready to forgive Katherine for appearing so early or to relinquish his jealousy.
History
Although Katherine is by far too withdrawn and wary to fully show it, she is both utterly entranced and intimated by Fabia. The hundreds of years of experience Fabia has, her intensity, her kindness, her cunning, her bright strong energy as the leader of the group are still overwhelming to Katherine. She is slowly starting to realise Fabia's still human and approachable though, and Fabia's easy friendship with Geneviève also helps (although Geneviève herself is sufficiently intimidating to Katherine that it only helps a little). Fabia was delighted to gain another protegé. She and Artur had expected the next one would be 'his', but Katherine's shuttered light, her habit of reticence (enhanced by recent trauma) combined with a stubbornness and flashes of keen insight drew Fabia's eye at once. Fabia's decision to pair Katherine off with Faruq for combat training for now isn't because she doesn't wish to train Katherine herself but thinks the emphasis on relaxation and control have the priority right now and Fabia knows she can become overenthusiastic in her demands. Besides this, Fabia is still focused on getting Matas trained and she doesn't think either Matas or Katherine are ready to be following combat training together. As far as Fabia's concerned, they have all the time in the world for that to develop. Katherine is continually trying to figure out what Fabia wants, what role she is supposed to inhabit to be both of use to Fabia and a part of the group, as the group is obviously very important to all of them. Yet there's enough variation among them and most of the others are so much further along in many skills that she can't figure out what to model herself on, how to appear as anything other than a well-meaning obstacle to Fabia. As a result, her reactions tend be very guarded while simultaneously eager to offer help to Fabia with anything she feels she might be able to contribute to without getting in the way. From her side, Fabia sees a young woman who comes not only from a constrained society in general but one which has hampered Katherine's development in many ways, only for the war to goad her into action in a traumatic manner that seems to have brought her as much harm as good. The first stumblings into immortality and time travel have visibly cut Katherine's self-esteem even further and remind Fabia painfully of her own early days, despite their very different coping mechanisms. So Fabia is careful in her approaches to Katherine, although she hides that skilfully, presenting rather as casual and forthright to her. She's keen to find out what will grow out of the defences Katherine has created, discover where to encourage her, to guide her to the moments where Katherine will realise the cage is gone and she has wings to spread.
History
To Katherine, Artur is really "the fun one" of the group. His cheerful nature and focus on the physical and practical makes him easy to be around for her. He isn't challenging her so openly on broadening her horizons but places few demands on her, his jokes make her laugh, and his straightforwardness makes him less intimidating to her than the others. Artur is more cunning and gentler than Katherine realises though, his high energy personality masking those other traits he's developed. Artur's happy to help Katherine adjust and learn, especially with the horses. But he also supports Fabia's decision to pair Katherine with Faruq for combat training and more intellectual subjects, agreeing that he is the better fit in those areas. Instead, his efforts are more directed towards getting Katherine to become part of the group and coax her out of her shell. Katherine's adoration of Fabia is obvious to him, he's seen the same thing in Faruq and, to a lesser extent, Geneviève. Artur thinks it's utterly adorable and hopes that coaxing her out more will let her start connecting to Fabia as both Katherine and Fabia want to; he really wishes them all the joy of such a relationship.
History
Although more approachable than Fabia, Katherine still views Geneviève's raw intelligence, sharp tongue and cultivated brazen poise with wariness. To Geneviève it was somewhat startling to realise how intimidating and skilled she appeared to Katherine, used as she was to being one of the "young ones" together with Matas. She's been doing her best to appear friendlier and toned down her humor a little around Katherine, mostly keen to show her it's not the skill and wit that are the point but the kindness and care underneath that drive them. At the same time she's keen to develop any skill Katherine might have in Geneviève's own areas of interest; Faruq and Matas are alright in more formal logic/mathematical areas but they have nowhere near Geneviève's aptitude (Fabia's better but has a limited interest, which is even more frustrating). Katherine's enthusiasm so far is limited as she thinks everyone is far too eager about all of these intellectual pursuits she doesn't yet see the point of - cartography is the only one of Geneviève's interests she sees any immediate application for and that doesn't give her immediate anxiety. Otherwise, they're still sort of figuring each other out. Geneviève will often act as Matas and Katherine's interaction go-between and many of their interactions involve the three of them, which changes the dynamic a lot.
History
Katherine doesn’t quite know what to do with Helena, she’s still so off-kilter herself, even after a year and a half. Also, Helena is an upsetting proof that war will break out in Europe relatively soon after The Great War again, with little context provided and no information about how it will end. Nor does Katherine feel comfortable around children anymore, having spent the last few years avoiding them as a painful reminder of being not only later than most other girls in becoming engaged, but especially the loss of the hopes and dreams she and her fiancé had. For her part, Helena doesn’t find Katherine particularly interesting so far due to her standoffishness. She doesn't understand the way Katherine seems to look up to Geneviève or the frigid relations with Matas, both of which Helena finds suspicious. Artur, Fabia and Faruq are all well-disposed towards Katherine though, so there's curiosity as well rather than complete dismissal. Besides, Helena isn't naturally disposed to disliking people but until Katherine engages a bit more, Helena has plenty of other people to amuse herself with.
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