ya_assemble | [LN] Thank Goodness We're Well-rounded Characters

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[LN] Thank Goodness We're Well-rounded Characters

Kon was reading at relative superspeed. It wasn't at his usual brisk pace, because he found that the limitations of his powers meant he couldn't retain the knowledge for more than a few minutes at his usual speeds, so he had to slow it down a little, but he was still thumbing through far faster than some of the others were taking just to go through the study guides they'd quickly procured.

"Is it just the fact I'm reading this as superspeed or does this story make no sense?" Kon said, as he thumbed through page after page.

Another reality shard had fallen away and now that their brands had signaled it, it was time to go dimension-hopping. Fortunately, it was a very small shard in the middle of the wilderness in Siberia and the area of effect was spreading slowly, so they had time to prepare.

With his otherworldly wisdom, Manny had managed to help out on this one, communicating some clues about the world they were about to enter by flashing the image of a cover of a book.

A fairly terrible book. Apparently they were entering the world it was based on.

So they were doing their homework as they geared up to go and trying to make sense of the senseless.

"So what I'm getting from this is this is a world where you're not allowed to have more than one personality trait? I think? Under pain of death, you have to be a one-dimensional character."

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Yep. Already Nico hated everything about this.

She was a little better than she had been when she fell into this myth-based hero deal, what with Raph bugging her if she didn't show up and do some training once a day. This wasn't as bad as it could have been.

She was still climbing the outside of a building like a moron, though.

I hate this place, I hate this place, I hate this place...

They got to the roof and eventually the whole rest of the crowd did with them.

That was when the train came. It started rolling around the bend in their direction.

"Oh, this is the fun part," Kon said quietly to the other three. "This is where we jump onto a moving train like a bunch of adrenaline junkie idiots."

The train started rolling through the station and the people who'd been born in Dauntless started jumping up and smashing the buttons that opened the doors, then jumping onto the train. With the doors open it'd be a little easier for the rest of them.

"Let's go!"

Edited 2015-02-06 12:00 (UTC)

As Kon explained what they were going to have to do, Cassie raised her eyebrows at Raph. Once she'd caught his attention, she glanced significantly toward Nico, who was apparently too caught up in trying to decide if she should be horrified by the idea of jumping onto a moving train or indignant that such a thing was being asked of her to notice. Then back at Raph.

He was the one who'd been training her, he'd know best if she could do it or if one of them needed to scruff her.

For all that Nico had been doing this myth thing for longer than any of them, and had apparently been doing the hero thing back in her world, she didn't seem to have the same mindset that everyone Cassie knew in the biz did. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it, or how to fix it, or if it was something that needed fixing; but they needed her for this and that meant carrying her if that's what she needed.

The hesitation definitely meant she needed a little kick to the butt to move.

"I've put you through worse," said Raph quietly to Nico as he dragged her by the arm to get her moving and running alongside the train. "Grab, kick off the foothold, and swing in. I'll catch you if you fall."

The tracks were elevated so there was no risk of falling and getting squished by the train. There was risk of falling back to the roof pretty hard.

"You got this."

"I'm also gonna light this place on fire," Nico said, more nervousness than heat in her voice. She was going to bust her face on the side of the train and then bust the back of her head cracking skulls with Raph when she fell back. But she was also going to run out of platform eventually, and people were already jumping on, so she grit her teeth and flung herself at the train car.

Sweat-slick fingers barely caught hold of the door, and it left a line of fire along the side of her ribcage when her unsure footing slammed her into the edge of it. She wheezed and kicked her way aboard the train, crawling further inside so that no one would trip over her when they made the jump.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

She hated this place.

After Raph followed after her, Kon bodily tossed a boy into the car ahead of him because he was moving a bit on the slow side, then jumped in himself.

Then he got out of the way of the door and hunched over as if winded.

"Woofta."

Edited 2015-02-07 05:32 (UTC)

Cassie flashed a smile at the girl who was actually from Abnegation before throwing herself onto the train after Kon, combining Nico's genuine performance with some of Kon's acted one into an awkward-looking bellyflop. She scrabbled the rest of the way in without aid of the door and staggered to the side to flop down against one of the walls.

"Woo!" she said breathlessly, legs sprawled out in front of her. "That was bracing!"

The girl actually from Abnegation followed her in, just as they lost the last of the platform. Cassie grinned at her, but didn't congratulate her out loud.

Edited 2015-02-07 05:44 (UTC)

A dark-skinned Candor girl sitting against the side of the train turned to the real Abnegation girl - who plopped down next to her - and laughed.

"Is it just me or are they trying to kill us?" the Candor girl joked.

"If they are, they'll have to try harder," said Raph, giving his tough guy act a good airing out. He plopped down next to Nico.

"You okay?" he asked quietly. He added dryly, "You know, other than wanting to burn everything."

"I dislike this more than the time I almost got eaten," Nico answered in an undertone, which meant that she was fine. Or possibly that she was bleeding internally, the language of cranky Nicos was largely impenetrable to non-native speakers. But she was sitting up straighter and no longer holding her ribs where she'd banged them against the door, so it was probably the former.

She swallowed the I don't want to be here and offered him a weak smile before glaring down at the floor of the train car.

Edited 2015-02-07 06:25 (UTC)

Kon looked like he was about to crack a joke with the Candor girl when a man all dressed in black, with facial piercings all over his face, suddenly came over and shoved Kon towards the open train door.

"Recruit!"

Kon let himself get pushed, not wanting to make it clear exactly how immovable he was, even affecting a look of surprise, as the man shoved him out the door, holding onto his shirt and leaving him teetering on the edge.

"Dude, what the hell?" Kon said, eyes wide.

"I'm teaching you a lesson. I saw you back there, helping another recruit into the train."

He turned to look at the other recruits that had gathered around at the spectacle. Another man with dark brown hair came nearby, clearly wearing the edgy-looking Dauntless duds, but he said nothing, simply watching what the other man was doing.

"Take this as a lesson: weakness is not rewarded. Fearlessness and strength are. In Dauntless, everyone carries their own weight!"

"Hey, man, there's a wall coming up."

The man holding onto Kon didn't let him up.

"Like really soon," said Kon, eyeing the building that was rapidly approaching.

"I'm teaching you a lesson," said the man.

"You leave me hanging like this and it might take your arm off, too," Kon went on, his voice free from fear. He sounded like a friend gently nagging another friend about their poor life choices.

"Eric," said the man with the dark brown hair, warningly, and at the last second, Eric the Piercing Guy yanked Kon in by his shirt, just as a wall whizzed by the open door.

Only Kon didn't cower, he didn't collapse to the floor of the train in fear, which was fairly obviously what this "Eric" was expecting, given the smug and sadistic look on his face.

No, Kon stumbled half a step, then turned, his face suddenly going deadly serious.

"Now it's my turn," Kon said, and then he reached out his hand, grabbed the man by the throat, slammed him bodily into the wall of the train hard enough to stun him, then peeked out the open door to see if the coast was clear and held him outside the train, dangling him over the massive drop below.

His arm shook to make it seem like there was a strain. There was the faintest smell of burning ozone in the air, a smell that Cassie would've smelled more than once while fighting side by side with Kon. Though the illusion covered it up his eyes were sizzling with unreleased heatvision.

"Put him down," the brunette man demanded, but Kon swung his other arm so hard at the man's stomach, he crumpled against the opposite wall of the train.

Then he looked back at the other man, briefly pulling him inside the door long enough for the man to avoid hitting a building, before dangling him back outside again. The man kicked futiley at Kon's chest but while he pretended it hurt, he didn't let go. Since his arms were so long, the man couldn't even get a solid kick in anyway. He tried to pull a knife but Kon twisted it out of his hand with a very nasty looking wristlock and tossed it down into the city belong. He reached for a handgun at his side and Kon simply undid the closure on his holster and pushed it out so it fell out and away.

"Listen up, Captain Facebling. If you want teach us a lesson or two, that's fine, I'm sure that's why you're here. You're definitely not here to look pretty. But there's being a dumb thug trying for the intimidation thing and there's being a teacher and if this is what you call being a teacher I'm not sure I like your teaching style. So I'd suggest you make a note in my permanent record that the intimidation thing don't work so well for me. And that if this is about being strong and fearless I got no problem showing you exactly how strong and fearless I can be. We understood?"

The man made a wheezing, choking noise.

"I'll take that as a very oxygen-deprived yes."

Just as he was about to hit another building, Kon drew him back inside the train and threw him at the feet of the other man, who was just now rising to his feet. All of the people staring were slackjawed with awe.

"You -" Piercing Guy choked, pointing at Kon, "You - factionless - you -"

"No," said the other man. "No. Just like he said, that was fearless. And strong."

Piercing Guy, Eric, glared as the other man helped him to his feet.

"Welcome to Dauntless," said Other Guy, urging Eric of the Many Piercings away with him. Kon leaned back against the train wall with his arms crossed.

"What," said the Candor girl in shock. "Just. Happened."

Edited 2015-02-07 06:45 (UTC)

Cassie rocked back on her heels, having leapt to her feet in preparation to start knocking people down if they'd been getting any ideas about messing with Kon while he was dangling that Eric jerk out of the train. That had been...not good. As far as anyone knew, Kon was a muscular but at best unofficially-trained sixteen-year-old who had not only been able to hold a struggling grown man with one hand, but had also been able to both disarm him and to take out a second attacker without dropping him.

Also, heat vision meant that Kon was way more upset about this than he really should have been, considering that he'd actually been in danger of, at most, bruising when he hit the wall.

"I don't know," she answered the girl from Candor, stepping back. "I don't--WHOOP!"

--As her foot 'slipped', sending her plunging backward out of the open door and almost to her doom had she not caught hold of the edge of the door and the floor. She shrieked and kicked around long enough that hopefully everyone was distracted from staring at Kon before she pulled herself back up and inside the train car.

"...Door's still open," she joked in a weak voice. "Let's all move the other way."

Raph started to stand up as if to grab her but she caught herself.

"Geez, careful there, blondie," said Raph, catching Cassie's cue and trying to help edge the conversation away from what had just happened. "Forget them trying to kill us - you'll do their job for them if you're not more careful."

But after she pulled herself in, he eased himself back down and nodded at the other Abnegation girl.

"What's your name?" he asked. "I'm Raphael - Raph, for short. This is Nico, and this is uh..." He pointed to Christina and snapped his fingers. "I'm good at faces, terrible with names."

The girl rolled her eyes. "That's because you two are always in your own little world," the girl said, her memories clearly supplying false memories of Raph and Nico. "Christina."

"I'm Beatrice," said the Abnegation girl.

Edited 2015-02-07 07:40 (UTC)

Cassie hadn't been kidding about her and Kon being attention hogs.

"Guess teamwork isn't compatible with strength and fearlessness," she said, pointedly ignoring Christina and whatever fake memories she had of her and Raph being off in their own world. She hoped the guy Kon helped wasn't going to get busted for getting a helping hand.

Surprise, surprise, this place continued to reveal more flavors of awful.

The time Cassie's distraction took up was enough for him to calm down. He had let himself get too angry and it was only the awfulness of Dauntless that had allowed him to get away with it. He had to make sure he didn't push it in the future.

Kon rolled his eyes and slid down to take a seat against the side of the car with the others.

"Yeah, well, maybe they should've told us that before we jumped on." He just let that trail off and opted for introducing himself. "I'm Conner, by the way. My friends call me Kon."

"You're Erudite?" asked Beatrice, curiously. "You don't really seem the Erudite type."

Kon grinned. "What, on account of fact I reek of eau de jock? Why do you think I'm switching factions? I figured out early on I wasn't really cut out for that whole data-pushing smart guy thing. I wasn't surprised at all when I tested for Dauntless."

"That does make sense," said Christina, blinking as she realized the logic of it.

"They must have had you carrying a loooooooot of books," Cassie said, joining the group huddle. "I'm Cassandra, but I go by Cassie. Thanks for the introduction, Beatrice."

Kon seemed to have settled himself. Good, hopefully he'd stay that way.

"Who wants to bet on whether they're going to stop the train when it's time for us to get off?"

"Sorry," said Beatrice instinctively, blinking at Cassie curiously, as if she was wondering why she hadn't thought to introduce her.

"Not taking that bet. With our luck, not only will they have us jumping off the train, it'll probably be through a ring of fire or something," Raph said wryly.

"Get ready!" called out an older Dauntless member and everyone started getting up off the floor.

Beatrice stood up and looked outside the door, up ahead. "...They're jumping. It's not even a joke, they're actually jumping."

"Are you serious?" said Christina as she got up to look too. "That's crazy."

"We so called it," said Raph, completely unphased. He'd made way crazier jumps than this, across far larger gaps between roofs. He held out his hand to Nico. "Together?"

Edited 2015-02-07 08:49 (UTC)

Oh God. That was definitely farther than they'd jumped to get on. Nico latched onto Raph's hand, not caring at all that they'd probably get shouted at by the instructors. She'd take that over blowing their cover by having Kon or Cassie have to fly to rescue her, or death by splatting.

This was stupid. This was so, so stupid.

She let Raph lead her to the far side of the train car across from the door so that they could get a running start for the jump, just trying to focus on breathing. It would be okay. They weren't going to let her die.

This was stupid.

"Three two one go!"

Nico tore across the floor of the train car and hurtled into space, windmilling her legs wildly as she tried to run across the air.

She missed flight. She missed flight. She missed flight.

She would have screamed all the way across if her heart hadn't been lodged in her throat since the moment she hit air.

They both landed.

Well, Raph landed, pretty soundly, taking a few steps and skidding to a stop, successfully staying on his feet. It helped that his feet had such a wide pad and were, therefore, pretty stable. Nico wasn't so lucky. He felt her stumbling next to him, her hand wrenching out of his grasp. Protective instinct kicked in and he turned pretty much on automatic and caught her.

With the way she'd been tripping, however, this meant that he caught her in a full dip like he was about to kiss her.

"Uh."

"When's the wedding?" one of the other recruits called out, with others responding with raucous laughter.

The illusion seemed to have a very easy time of conveying the blushing that was going on underneath, as he helped her back to her feet, his hands momentarily pausing at her waist before he quickly withdrew them.

"You okay?"

"I am going to vengeance puke on them," Nico answered, glaring at the recruit who'd shouted at them and the ones laughing as furiously as she was blushing. She was busy trying not to die or blow their cover, she did not want to deal with their not-kissing and her hormones right now.

She'd turn them into frogs, but that would definitely break their cover.

At least her legs were holding her now. They hadn't when she'd landed, which was how they'd gotten in this position in the first place.

Kon easily made the jump, though he affected an exaggerated stumble as he landed to make it look less easy. Beatrice followed soon after, falling to her knees, and Kon helped pull her up.

"Hey blondie, what are you waiting for?" he called to Cassie. "You were tripping over yourself in a hurry to get off the train earlier."

"How about I come over there and shut your face for you?" Cassie called back as she tugged Christina back toward the other side of the car.

"Come on, you can do this," she reassured the other girl. "Watch me, okay? Do what I do."

Yes, she could fly, but the day Artemis would have let but I can fly stop her from teaching Cassie how to run and jump without using her god-given (or god-born?) powers would have been the day Artemis would have killed Cassie herself. Wasn't. Gonna. Happen.

As such, Cassie executed a jump from the train that could have been used in a how-to manual, except for the part where she used her flight to slow herself down once she was in the air. Overshooting the roof entirely wouldn't do her any good either, and her strength would carry her much farther than any normal human.

She hit the edge of the roof and stumbled forward and out of the way for Christina, who was just behind her.

...Just behind and further down than she should be.

Cassie whirled back around and lunged back the way she'd just come even as she saw Christina barely grasp the ledge.

Kon dove after her, just as thoughtlessly, sliding over the edge right after Cassie. The second he saw that she had snagged the girl's arm, he snagged Cassie's arm, managing to get a hold on the edge of the building just in time.

Okay, so, cover still maintained! But now they had to get the girl back up to the roof without breaking it.

The girl was panicking below them.

"Hey, listen - nnngh -" he grunted, trying to make this look insanely difficulty. "We've got you! We're not gonna let you fall!"

He went on, "Blondie, you got a good grip? We need to try to swing her up."

Of course she had her but they had to make this look tenuous.

"I got her!" Cassie called back over Christina's panicking. "You hear me, Christina, I got you! We don't have time for you to freak out right now!"

Christina wheezed, but she'd stopped flailing enough to grab onto Cassie's wrist with her other hand.

"Good girl! We're gonna swing you now, all right? Hold onto me until we get you up to roof height." She looked up at Kon. "Let's swing it, genius."

The three of them starting swinging from side to side, slowly at first but picking up speed an momentum as they went. It took a couple tries to actually get Christina onto the roof, but the grunting and struggling on her and Kon's side was all faked. They could do it all day if they had to.

Once Christina was up on the roof, Cassie braced her feet against the wall and pulled herself up along Kon's arm.

"Nice catch," she said with a grin as she pulled herself up across his shoulders. "You should hang around."

She clambered the rest of the way up and then braced herself to help him up too. Not that she really needed to brace, but good form was worth taking the time to practice.

"If you getting all handsy on me is a thing that happens every time I help you catch some falling damsel, I'll have to keep it up," he said as Cassie climbed up. He was grinning as she pulled him up. "'Cause climbing, groping...same thing, really."

Flirting like they'd only just met - like they had back when they were younger - was turning out to be kind of fun.

Kon bowed over, hands on his knees, pretending to catch his breath.

"You okay?" he huffed out to the girl they'd rescued.

"Thank you," she panted, as Beatrice helped her to her feet, "So much. So, so, so much."

"You're wasting our time over there," called out Piercing Boy. "Initiates, here. Now."

He spoke like someone falling off a building and nearly dying was a minor inconvenience. He stood near the edge of the building and gestured down to a hole in the roof of a building below.

"Alright, listen up," said the man. "I'm Eric, one of your leaders. If you wanna enter Dauntless, this is the way in. If you don't have the guts to jump, then you don't belong in Dauntless."

"Is there water at the bottom or something?" asked an Erudite boy.

"I guess you'll find out," said Eric menacingly. "Or not."

"We just jumped and now they want us to do it again?" Christina hissed to Beatrice and the others, sounding understandably put out.

"Someone's gotta go first, who's it gonna be?" asked Eric, looking at the crowd.

At least they hadn't chucked Christina off the roof for failing, like Nico had been half-afraid they would. Of course, maybe they were expecting her to refuse to jump again after what she'd just gone through.

Nico sneaked a glance at the girl from Candor, mostly ignoring Eric (she certainly wasn't going to volunteer to go first). Would Christina have died if not for Kon and Cassie? Would saving her change things, make it harder for them to get back?

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