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

[matchmadeinhell]

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."

Comments

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie had just stepped out of her skirt when the boy from Candor decided to go from leering to verbal harassment -- while she'd been too caught up in her team to notice the former, the latter definitely caught her attention.

She moved toward him like a shark on the scent of blood, grabbing him by the front of his undershirt and lifting him bodily up off of his bed.

"There are so many better ways to say 'please take my tongue, I no longer want nor need it'."

[matchmadeinhell]

Oh boy, looked like it was time to lay down the law. Kon was still shirtless as he walked over to join Cassie, making his physique very clear for all to see. Even dialed down, he and Cassie were still two of the tallest and most muscular people in the room, clearly more powerful than all the rest - just like they'd been among their age group when they'd been younger and smaller.

"Everybody, listen up!" he called out in a commanding voice. "It's time for some ground rules. What goes on out there, stays out there. I think we can all agree on that. But in here, with all this close quarters stuff, if anybody here gets handsy with anyone else without their express permission, is oggling, oogling, or otherwise eyeballing anybody else in an obvious and disgusting fashion, or is making creepy little comments to somebody, you're gonna deal with me and Cassie here."

He spread out his hands theatrically. "I know what you're thinking, 'yeah, they're muscular - and extremely good looking - but they're just two people, what can they possibly do?'"

With that, Kon threw a punch at a nearby column. He held back on the power, because at full strength he would've broke or at least put a huge impact crater in the thing, but he still used enough force to completely smash one of the wall tiles on the column, a feat that still took incredible strength - but at a high end human level. And he made damn sure lots of muscles rippled while he did it.

"We can do something like that. To your face. So no creepy stuff. Are we all clear?"

Quite a few people nodded in response, wide-eyed. Others gave a simple yes. The boy that Cassie scruffed squeaked out, "Crystal."

"Glad we're all on the same page," said Kon cheerfully. "I'm told good interpersonal communication is important."

As he went back to getting back to getting dressed, Tris stared at him and Cassie gratefully.

"Thanks," she said to Cass, quietly.

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie dropped the boy from Candor on the floor with a sniff and a toss of her head and moved back to her bed. She clapped Tris on the shoulder as she passed.

"You're welcome," she said with a smile. Then, to Kon as she passed, "you know we're going to have to do a repeat performance later when the people who were raised here come back here, right?"

A repeat performance wasn't going to be a problem of course, but people raised in Dauntless might give them a little more push-back.

[matchmadeinhell]

"We can take 'em without blowing our cover. Between the two of us and Raph. And Nico can dig us out of it if we get in over our heads."

He pulled on and started lacing his boots.

"Besides, they'll probably be a little more well behaved. This place has nothing close to proper military discipline, but anyone being nasty probably learned real fast not to be when they're all raised to take each other's heads off whenever they're pissed off at each other. And when you have a set routine with bizarre stuff like no privacy you just stop noticing it. It starts seeming normal after a while."

He knew that from experience.

"They're probably too used to it to react to it like...well, like I would've when I was younger."

His mouth twitched slightly.

[mark_in_the_sands]

"Some of them might go after the newer people here to make themselves feel big," Cassie said, pulling her new clothes on. The Erics of Dauntless had to come from somewhere. There were always bullies.

She pulled her boots on and began lacing them slowly, so Raph could follow along. She also couldn't quite swallow her own smirk.

"I'm pretty sure we voted you 'most likely to break into the girls' locker room' during one of our slumber parties in the old days," she said in an undertone. "Of course, we also voted Bart 'most likely to be found in the girls' locker room and not understand why it was weird'."

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon chuckled at that, then chuckled even more as he saw Raph carefully mimicking shoe-tying movements like a kindergartner learning it for the first time.

"You don't have to break into a place that girls are perfectly comfortable inviting you into." He shook his head and reached up to bop his hand at one of the stupid little curls at the top of his head. "Though why they did is now a mystery. Look at this. Look at it."

He went on sarcastically, affecting his old trying-way-too-hard way of speaking. "I am so fresh right now. How phat is this blast from the pizz-ast? It's da bomb. Smokin'. Totally fly." A brief pause. "Word. Represent."

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie made a choked, garbled noise that was trying not to be a laugh.

"Oh, ahh, no, stop. Stop stop stop! It's terrible, make it stop!"

[matchmadeinhell]

"And you liiiked me." he said in a very quiet singsong. "For some inexplicable reason. Despite actually having a lot going for you. Mind worms. That's the only explanation. Mind worms."

[mark_in_the_sands]

"What can I say, the hormones and adrenaline were flowing thick and fast, and spandex and leather was a very flattering look for you." She eyed him in his new Dauntless duds. "Still is, in spite of the lack of tailoring going on with that set."

[matchmadeinhell]

"It ain't exactly an unflattering getup for you either," he said, very clearly giving her a look up and down.

[staff_and_wielder]

"Maybe you can accessorize your couples-dressing-alike look with my vomit," Nico interjected. She couldn't believe she was trapped here with all the stupid mooks who lived in this world and these two dorks.

At least their schmoopy flirting had been something of a distraction from how horrible everything else was.

[othersdestructive]

Raph's arms were crossed in a way that exuded an air of judgment. Lots of judgement.

"If you don't stop, you'll be doing the rest of the mission alone because Nico and I will have died from the diabetes you caused. Or dehydration from all the barfing. Probably the dehydration first."

He gestured to the other initiates who were now filing out, carrying their old clothes with them.

"Can you stop while I can still eat carbs? 'Cause we need to get moving anyway."

[mark_in_the_sands]

Sounded like some people were cranky because they were still in the recreational eye-contact stage of the relationship.

"I suppose we could deign to permit that," Cassie said, tossing Kon another wink as she picked her Abnegation clothes up off the floor.

"Let's go see what happens next."

[othersdestructive]

They were all instructed to toss their old clothes in a burning pit.

"That's nice," muttered Raph sarcastically, holding his bundle of clothes, transformed from the Dauntless outfit into the Candor clothes his illusion had made that he'd "changed" out of. "It's not like homeless people could use these or anything."

[staff_and_wielder]

"Nope, not at all useful to anyone," Nico muttered back. "Totally worth burning them in a ritual rebirth."

[matchmadeinhell]

Kon's expression actually became quite grave as he approached the fire. This was the first thing that truly, truly unsettled him about this place, especially given its nature so far and what happened on the train.

"It's not about rebirth," Kon said quietly, so only they could hear. He didn't like it being talked about like it was a transition. He'd had his moments of rebirth himself and he'd needed them and they were good for him. This was different and he was clearly irritated by the thought of them being spoken about the same, "Don't...don't word it like that. Let's call it what it is: indoctrination."

He tossed his bundle in, the fire reflecting in his eyes.

"They incinerated my clothes at Project Gladiator, too. Made me watch 'em do it."

His costume. The real him. The S.

[mark_in_the_sands]

Cassie gritted her teeth, digging her fingers into the bundle of gray cloth in her hands before she flung it into the fire as well.

Kon was right about the indoctrination. And more importantly, it reminded him of what the people at Project Gladiator had done to him.

Somewhere between missions to save all of reality, she was going to need to start gathering information to form her plan of attack when they got back to their world.

She moved to stand next to Kon, sliding her hand briefly into his to give his fingers a quick squeeze of reassurance.

That wasn't going to happen to him again. Not now that she knew what was going on.

[matchmadeinhell]

He squeezed her hand back as the four moved on to be led into the eating hall.

Behind them Tris eyed their clasped-together hands thoughtfully before casting her own old clothes into the fire.