Third floor common room- Thursday night

[notconflicted]

Sia had come to the common room to find something to eat for dinner, and when she got there she found the TV on. No one seemed to be around, and when she picked up the remote to turn it off... it wouldn't work. Nor could she change the channel. She even walked to the TV to try and turn it off manually, but it seemed to be stuck on.

And while Sia had no idea what something called I Love the 2000's was, when she figured out they were talking about recent history she decided she could sit with popcorn (totally dinner) and get some education.

She'd figure out really soon that VH1 was never educational.

[Open CR!]

Comments

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four wasn't much of a social butterfly, but he couldn't spend his entire life in the gym or at the range, and so...common room.

"Hey," he said, tilting his head at the screen. "What's on?"

[notconflicted]

"Its some sort of terrible retrospective of the last decade," Sia said, shaking her head. "The TV isn't giving me other options." Literally.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" Four asked, then paused. "Or is this going to be one of those things that doesn't seem to bother people even though it should?"

[notconflicted]

"It used to bother me. Now I understand that certain things won't change even if it makes no sense," she said. "So, yes, it's one of those things. Popcorn?"

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Sure," Four said, taking a handful. "I'm still getting used to food and electricity being available all the time," he admitted.

[notconflicted]

"They aren't usually?" Sia asked, interested.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Not unless you bribe the chefs," Four said with a wry smile, settling onto the couch, "and electricity is rationed for only vital operations systems after dark. I grew up eating dinner by candlelight."

[notconflicted]

"That sounds less than romantic when you have to do it out of necessity," she considered.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"No romance to it at all," Four said. "Just my mom and me until she died, then me by myself before my father returned from work."

[notconflicted]

"Sounds like it must have been lonely," she said. "It's not really what I expected of Dauntless."

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four's cheeks went a little pink. "I wasn't always Dauntless," he admitted quietly.

[notconflicted]

"Oh? What were you before?" she wondered.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Want to guess?" Four asked.

[notconflicted]

She had to think back to the other factions he'd listed before, but after a moment said, "Was staying in the dark some sort of Abnegation thing?"

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Nice guess," Four said, nodding.

[notconflicted]

"Process of elimination," Sia shrugged. "Why'd you go to Dauntless?"

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Because I wanted to fight back," Four said after a long pause to sort through his thoughts. "I'm not selfless enough for Abnegation. I don't have the temperament to stand at a bus stop for an hour and let other people on in front of me because they look busier than I am."

And because his father was in Abnegation and no. No, he wasn't staying there.

[notconflicted]

"I couldn't do that either," she said, thinking about it. "It doesn't sound like a very entertaining way to live."

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Oh, entertainment is pretty much forbidden," Four said. "No art, no mirrors...nothing that distracts you from focusing outward. It's a tough life."

[notconflicted]

"I do have to admire anyone who could actually succeed at that life," Sia said. "But no."

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"They are the smallest of the factions," Four said. "They have a high percentage of children choosing to stay, but not a lot of transfers. The only faction with a lower number of transfers is Dauntless."

[notconflicted]

"I'm guessing people generally know they're not cut out for it?" she said.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

Four nodded. "Everyone gets tested the year they turn sixteen. You're put in a simulation that offers you a series of choices. How you choose will tell you which faction is the best fit for you, though you of course can choose a different one. You're the one who has to live there the rest of your life."

[notconflicted]

"That's a hard decision to make when you're only sixteen," Sia said. "You're still figuring out who you are at that age."

She said, at the wise old age of seventeen.

[dauntless-four.livejournal.com]

"Well, we get five choices," Four said a little dryly, "so that helps with figuring some of it out. At least in Dauntless, your scores in the initiation decide what your career will be. First on the leaderboard gets first choice, and so on."