Post by kait on Apr 4, 2012 7:33:20 GMT -5
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE[/u]
Tris has been through an awful lot lately, so she gets a little symbol of home: An Abnegation tattoo.
"I know it was a risk, especially after all that's happened. But the symbol is part of my identity, and it felt important to me to wear it on my skin."
More smear articles about the Abnegation have been released. As Tris, Will and Christina throw them into the chasm in a symbolic coup, Tris and Will debate about the soundness of Abnegation leadership. Is this going to become problematic later on? It feels like it!
There's also hints at a budding Will/Christina relationship, which makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.
Tris sees a figure walking up to the fear landscape room and knows immediately that it's Four. She tells Will and Christina that she needs to talk to him, and when Christina worries about her being alone, she gives us a really sweet line that sounds a bit like foreshadowing.
"I won't be alone. I'll be with Four."
When Tris catches up with him, Four is holding not one but TWO syringes of simulation serum. He wants to show Tris his fear landscape, which seems like who if the most personal things a member of the Dauntless faction can do. He's opening all his fears up to her.
"See if you can figure out why they call me Four," he says.
"What's your real name?" I ask.
"See if you can figure that out too."
A summary of Four's fear landscape
1. HEIGHTS
2. ITTY BITTY LIVING SPACES
"Feel my heartbeat. Can you feel it?"
... "It's fast."
"Yes. Well, that has nothing to do with the box."
3. KILLING SOMEONE
4. HIS FATHER
The man who emerges is tall and slim, with his close-cut to his scalp ... And he wears the gray clothes of the Abnegation.
"Marcus" I whisper.
"Here's the part," Four says, his voice shaking, "where you figure out my real name."
SWEET BABY JESUS! FOUR IS TOBIAS, THE "TRAITOR" SON OF MARCUS! The Erudite may have lied about abuse from Tris' father, but they weren't lying about Marcus. Behind his innocent demeanor, he was a horrible, abusive father.
"That's it?" I say. "Those were your worst fears? Why do you only have four..."
WAY TO CATCH ON, TRIS!
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX[/u]
After going through such a tremendous experience together, Tris can't help but ask Four about his aptitude tests and the questions of his origin that he's avoided for so long as they walk down to the riverbed of the chasm, holding hands (YAY!)
"My result was as expected," he says. "Abnegation."[/u]
But technically, so was Tris' result. Though he certainly had other reasons to leave. Does that mean he's Divergent or not?!
"I watched you because I like you." He says it plainly, boldly, and his eyes flick up to mine...
Then he touches my face and leans in close, brushing my lips with his."[/u]
All of the little tense moments between Tris and Four have added up to this. What was a bunch of unsure hints in our last section have turned into brilliance here!
In that brilliance, Tris makes a chilling observation:
"I realize that if we had both chosen differently, we might have ended up doing the same thing, in a safer place, in gray clothes instead of black ones."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN[/u]
The next morning, Tris is lovestruck. She expects her days to become Four-centric... right up until the point where he enters the dining hall and sits down without so much as a glance in her direction.
"What did I expect? Just because we kissed doesn't mean anything changes. Maybe he changed his mind about liking me. Maybe he thinks kissing me was a mistake."
We're dubbing this IRRATIONAL GIRL BRAIN! One thing doesn't go as expected and suddenly, the whole relationship is a scam. Oh, Tris! You'll learn someday!
Training begins in the fear landscape room, where an instructor named Lauren randomly assigns each initiates one of her fears so they can get a feel of how it works. Of course, none of the others know that Tris has already been through a fear landscape!
"Lauren points at random and assigns us each a fear ... The fear that she assigned to me is kidnapping."
Given recent events with Peter, Drew and Al, this turns out to be a recipe for disaster.
"I stand next to the chasm, I hear the roar of the water. I scream into the hand that covers my mouth and thrash to free myself, but the arms are too strong ... I knew they would come back for me; I knew they would try again. I scream again-- not for help, because no one will help me, but because that's what you do when you're about to die and you can't stop it."
SCARY. AS. HELL.
Eventually, Four stops the fear landscape program. Back in instructor mode, he lets her know just how badly she did in the landscape and roughly insists that she pull herself together, embarrassing her in front of all the other initiates.
"Heat races through my body, driving the weakness out of me, and I smack him so hard my knuckles burn with the impact."
Uhhhhhh ohhhhh.. this CANNOT end well!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT[/u]
Distraught by Four's apparent betrayal and weeks of faction tensions make Tris decide she's going to do as her mother asked and tell her brother in Erudite to research the simulation serum.
Except there's the small problem. SHE IS NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE DAUNTLESS COMPOUND UNTIL INITIATION IS OVER.
Tris knows when she's in the right place when she sees the obnoxious wall art.
"A portrait on the opposite wall catches my attention. It is twice my height and four times my width with watery gray eyes and spectacles-- Jeanine... Beneath her is a large plaque that reads KNOWLEDGE LEADS TO PROSPERITY."
Tris finds Caleb fairly easily, and from there, the two notice how their new factions have changed them and the judgement begins.
"You have a tattoo," he says, his voice muffled.
"You have glasses," I say. I pull back and narrow my eyes. "Your vision is perfect, Caleb, what are you doing?"
However, Caleb isn't blind to the fact that everything isn't perfect:
"Something big is happening, Beatrice. Something is wrong."
The Erudite are hitting the anti-Abnegation campaign trail HARD. Caleb doesn't know what to believe, which only serves to anger Tris.
Of course, two initiates from different factions aren't just allowed to chat, so it's not long before Tris is hauled off by two snazzy bodyguards.
Tris is taken to the Erudite faction leader, Jeanine, and she immediately recognizes Jeanine's voice from her conversation with Eric:
"She is the danger Tori and my mother wanted me about, the danger of being Divergent. Sitting right in front of me."
Now, with that terrifying realization on her brain, Tris finds out that Jeanine has such a distinct interest in her:
"Did you know you are one of two people ever to get an Abnegation result and switch to Dauntless?"
WHOA. Four and Tris are the ONLY TWO people who choose Dauntless after getting an Abnegation result? How the heck did that happen?! And how does Jeanine know? Erudite has access to Dauntless records through "an understanding". Sounds like trouble if we've ever heard of it!
Eventually, after making her denounce the Abnegation faction, Jeanine lets Tris off the hook. She's driven back to the Dauntless compound, where Eric is waiting to crush her. He threatens to pronounce her a traitor, kick her out of Dauntless, and kick her friends out of Dauntless before Four comes out and saves the day.
Seeing Four reminds Tris to show some vulnerability, and in the middle of a teary-eyed speech, Four makes her excuse for running up for her:
"You tried to what?" asks Eric.
"Kiss me," says Tobias. "And I rejected her, and she went running off like a five-year-old..."
Once Eric is gone, thoroughly amused as he is, it's finally time for Tris to confront Four, She demands to know why he's treated her awfully in front of the others, accusing him of being two-faced.
"You would never win. They would always call your ranking a result of favoritism rather than your skill."
..He's got a point there! one that Tris was too distraught to see. If he were worried and affectionate with her, the other initiates would turn on her in an instant.
Later that night, Four hops on the train with Tris to show her something he's discovered. On the way, things get a little steamy and Tris realizes that there are all different sorts of bravery.
"I never thought I'd need bravery in the small moments of my life. I do."
When they get to their destination, Tris realizes Four is showing her the Erudite compound from a distance. The lights are still on, against city ordinances, meaning the people are up and about it odd hours. Four was suspicious about the whole thing, so he did some digging while working in the Control Room..
"What I discovered was what looked like war plans. Thinly veiled commands, supply lists, maps. Things like that. And those files were sent by Erudite."
Tris pieces together why Erudite would send such information to the Dauntless.
"Erudite doesn't have weapons, and they don't know how to fight-- but the Dauntless do."
OMGWTFBBQ! The Erudite are planning to get THE DAUNTLESS to be the soldiers that fuel their war. Tris and Four don't know how, but it sounds like it will be DISASTROUS.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
"Initiation day plunges the Dauntless compound into insanity and chaos. There are people everywhere, and most of them are inebriated by noon."
So basically, Initiation day in Dauntless = St. Patrick's Day in Boston?
Tris reports to the fear landscape room, where the Dauntless-born initiates are already testing. The transfers are told that they will go in reverse order of rank, meaning Tris will go last.
Thankfully, Drew is in last. That sounds promising!
"The fear landscapes are not interesting to watch from the outside. I can see Drew is moving, but not what he's reacting to."
Finally, it's Tris' turn to face all her fears. Here we goooooo....
CHAPTER THIRTY[/u]
1. CROWS
"It isn't about the birds. It's about control."
2. DROWNING IN A TANK
3. DROWNING IN THE OCEAN
Because drowning once isn't enough.
4. BURNING AT THE STAKE
5. BEING ATTACKED BY FACELESS CREEPS
![]()
29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m260v5F3c91rtpn2do1_500.gif[/img]
6. *COUGH* GETTING INTIMATE
We're more mortified that the Dauntless leaders are watching as she allows herself to get touchy-feely with a virtual version of Four.
7. KILLING OTHERS
Tris throws herself and pretty much everyone else a curveball when she allows her simulation attacker, Jeanine, to kill her instead of killing her family. Is she showing too much Abnegation?
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE[/u]
And then it's over! Tris is congratulated by the Dauntless leaders and soon after, Eric presents her with one more injection. According to him, it's a tracking device.
"This is a new development, courtesy of the Erudite. We have been injecting every Dauntless throughout the day, and I assume other factions will comply as soon as possible."
So once everyone is injected, the Erudite will be able to track every member of society at all times? That sounds ridiculously dangerous and worrisome...
Four invites Tris to relax back in his room before the initiation banquet. Tris has a bit of a chip on her shoulder after what just happened with VIRTUAL Tobias, and it isn't long before she has to tell him that he was in her fear landscape.
"You're afraid of me?"
"Not you," I say. I bite my lip to keep it still. "Being with you.. with anyone. I've never been involved with someone before and... you're older, and I don't know what your expectations are, and..."
"Tris," he says sternly. "I don't know what delusion you're operating under, but this is all new to me, too."
Not surprising to me! Four doesn't exactly seem the type to be scooping up ladies left, right, and center. He was too focused on other things to pay attention to girls before Tris came along.
Just to show how alike they are, Four sees Tris' Abnegation tattoo and (swoon-y tension time) takes up his shirt to show her his own. He's also got the symbols of Candor, Amity, and Erudite tattooed on his back.
"We've started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest."
It's a bit shocking to Tris to hear that, but to us, it shows how insightful Four really is. He knows there's some serious faults in the faction system and wants to grow beyond them.
He also has another very swoony moment with Tris in which he may help her with her fear of intimacy a bit. She feels uncomfortable with him, even though the experience is still a bit nerve-wracking.
"Maybe you won't be in my fear landscape anymore," I murmur.
He bends his head and kisses me slowly.
"Then everyone can call you Six."
"Four and Six," I say.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Tris and Caleb are shocked by each other when they met. Do you think the changes reflect their growth as individuals or just them following along with their new factions?
- Do you feel differently about either Four or Tris after seeing their fear landscape? How so?
- Four recognizes that the Faction system is misguided, but doesn't speak up about it. Do you think there are others who believe the same thing but also stay quiet?
- If you were face-to-face with Jeanine, would you be able to renounce your family and values to get out of a situation like Tris did?
- What do you think is so special about being Divergent that others fear it?
- Do you think Tris' fear of intimacy comes from being Abnegation or her assault?
- Should Tris and Four raise the alarm about Erudite's war plans? IF so, how?
Tris has been through an awful lot lately, so she gets a little symbol of home: An Abnegation tattoo.
"I know it was a risk, especially after all that's happened. But the symbol is part of my identity, and it felt important to me to wear it on my skin."
More smear articles about the Abnegation have been released. As Tris, Will and Christina throw them into the chasm in a symbolic coup, Tris and Will debate about the soundness of Abnegation leadership. Is this going to become problematic later on? It feels like it!
There's also hints at a budding Will/Christina relationship, which makes us all warm and fuzzy inside.
Tris sees a figure walking up to the fear landscape room and knows immediately that it's Four. She tells Will and Christina that she needs to talk to him, and when Christina worries about her being alone, she gives us a really sweet line that sounds a bit like foreshadowing.
"I won't be alone. I'll be with Four."
When Tris catches up with him, Four is holding not one but TWO syringes of simulation serum. He wants to show Tris his fear landscape, which seems like who if the most personal things a member of the Dauntless faction can do. He's opening all his fears up to her.
"See if you can figure out why they call me Four," he says.
"What's your real name?" I ask.
"See if you can figure that out too."
A summary of Four's fear landscape
1. HEIGHTS
2. ITTY BITTY LIVING SPACES
"Feel my heartbeat. Can you feel it?"
... "It's fast."
"Yes. Well, that has nothing to do with the box."
3. KILLING SOMEONE
4. HIS FATHER
The man who emerges is tall and slim, with his close-cut to his scalp ... And he wears the gray clothes of the Abnegation.
"Marcus" I whisper.
"Here's the part," Four says, his voice shaking, "where you figure out my real name."
SWEET BABY JESUS! FOUR IS TOBIAS, THE "TRAITOR" SON OF MARCUS! The Erudite may have lied about abuse from Tris' father, but they weren't lying about Marcus. Behind his innocent demeanor, he was a horrible, abusive father.
"That's it?" I say. "Those were your worst fears? Why do you only have four..."
WAY TO CATCH ON, TRIS!
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX[/u]
After going through such a tremendous experience together, Tris can't help but ask Four about his aptitude tests and the questions of his origin that he's avoided for so long as they walk down to the riverbed of the chasm, holding hands (YAY!)
"My result was as expected," he says. "Abnegation."[/u]
But technically, so was Tris' result. Though he certainly had other reasons to leave. Does that mean he's Divergent or not?!
"I watched you because I like you." He says it plainly, boldly, and his eyes flick up to mine...
Then he touches my face and leans in close, brushing my lips with his."[/u]
All of the little tense moments between Tris and Four have added up to this. What was a bunch of unsure hints in our last section have turned into brilliance here!
In that brilliance, Tris makes a chilling observation:
"I realize that if we had both chosen differently, we might have ended up doing the same thing, in a safer place, in gray clothes instead of black ones."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN[/u]
The next morning, Tris is lovestruck. She expects her days to become Four-centric... right up until the point where he enters the dining hall and sits down without so much as a glance in her direction.
"What did I expect? Just because we kissed doesn't mean anything changes. Maybe he changed his mind about liking me. Maybe he thinks kissing me was a mistake."
We're dubbing this IRRATIONAL GIRL BRAIN! One thing doesn't go as expected and suddenly, the whole relationship is a scam. Oh, Tris! You'll learn someday!
Training begins in the fear landscape room, where an instructor named Lauren randomly assigns each initiates one of her fears so they can get a feel of how it works. Of course, none of the others know that Tris has already been through a fear landscape!
"Lauren points at random and assigns us each a fear ... The fear that she assigned to me is kidnapping."
Given recent events with Peter, Drew and Al, this turns out to be a recipe for disaster.
"I stand next to the chasm, I hear the roar of the water. I scream into the hand that covers my mouth and thrash to free myself, but the arms are too strong ... I knew they would come back for me; I knew they would try again. I scream again-- not for help, because no one will help me, but because that's what you do when you're about to die and you can't stop it."
SCARY. AS. HELL.
Eventually, Four stops the fear landscape program. Back in instructor mode, he lets her know just how badly she did in the landscape and roughly insists that she pull herself together, embarrassing her in front of all the other initiates.
"Heat races through my body, driving the weakness out of me, and I smack him so hard my knuckles burn with the impact."
Uhhhhhh ohhhhh.. this CANNOT end well!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT[/u]
Distraught by Four's apparent betrayal and weeks of faction tensions make Tris decide she's going to do as her mother asked and tell her brother in Erudite to research the simulation serum.
Except there's the small problem. SHE IS NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE THE DAUNTLESS COMPOUND UNTIL INITIATION IS OVER.
Tris knows when she's in the right place when she sees the obnoxious wall art.
"A portrait on the opposite wall catches my attention. It is twice my height and four times my width with watery gray eyes and spectacles-- Jeanine... Beneath her is a large plaque that reads KNOWLEDGE LEADS TO PROSPERITY."
Tris finds Caleb fairly easily, and from there, the two notice how their new factions have changed them and the judgement begins.
"You have a tattoo," he says, his voice muffled.
"You have glasses," I say. I pull back and narrow my eyes. "Your vision is perfect, Caleb, what are you doing?"
However, Caleb isn't blind to the fact that everything isn't perfect:
"Something big is happening, Beatrice. Something is wrong."
The Erudite are hitting the anti-Abnegation campaign trail HARD. Caleb doesn't know what to believe, which only serves to anger Tris.
Of course, two initiates from different factions aren't just allowed to chat, so it's not long before Tris is hauled off by two snazzy bodyguards.
Tris is taken to the Erudite faction leader, Jeanine, and she immediately recognizes Jeanine's voice from her conversation with Eric:
"She is the danger Tori and my mother wanted me about, the danger of being Divergent. Sitting right in front of me."
Now, with that terrifying realization on her brain, Tris finds out that Jeanine has such a distinct interest in her:
"Did you know you are one of two people ever to get an Abnegation result and switch to Dauntless?"
WHOA. Four and Tris are the ONLY TWO people who choose Dauntless after getting an Abnegation result? How the heck did that happen?! And how does Jeanine know? Erudite has access to Dauntless records through "an understanding". Sounds like trouble if we've ever heard of it!
Eventually, after making her denounce the Abnegation faction, Jeanine lets Tris off the hook. She's driven back to the Dauntless compound, where Eric is waiting to crush her. He threatens to pronounce her a traitor, kick her out of Dauntless, and kick her friends out of Dauntless before Four comes out and saves the day.
Seeing Four reminds Tris to show some vulnerability, and in the middle of a teary-eyed speech, Four makes her excuse for running up for her:
"You tried to what?" asks Eric.
"Kiss me," says Tobias. "And I rejected her, and she went running off like a five-year-old..."
Once Eric is gone, thoroughly amused as he is, it's finally time for Tris to confront Four, She demands to know why he's treated her awfully in front of the others, accusing him of being two-faced.
"You would never win. They would always call your ranking a result of favoritism rather than your skill."
..He's got a point there! one that Tris was too distraught to see. If he were worried and affectionate with her, the other initiates would turn on her in an instant.
Later that night, Four hops on the train with Tris to show her something he's discovered. On the way, things get a little steamy and Tris realizes that there are all different sorts of bravery.
"I never thought I'd need bravery in the small moments of my life. I do."
When they get to their destination, Tris realizes Four is showing her the Erudite compound from a distance. The lights are still on, against city ordinances, meaning the people are up and about it odd hours. Four was suspicious about the whole thing, so he did some digging while working in the Control Room..
"What I discovered was what looked like war plans. Thinly veiled commands, supply lists, maps. Things like that. And those files were sent by Erudite."
Tris pieces together why Erudite would send such information to the Dauntless.
"Erudite doesn't have weapons, and they don't know how to fight-- but the Dauntless do."
OMGWTFBBQ! The Erudite are planning to get THE DAUNTLESS to be the soldiers that fuel their war. Tris and Four don't know how, but it sounds like it will be DISASTROUS.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
"Initiation day plunges the Dauntless compound into insanity and chaos. There are people everywhere, and most of them are inebriated by noon."
So basically, Initiation day in Dauntless = St. Patrick's Day in Boston?
Tris reports to the fear landscape room, where the Dauntless-born initiates are already testing. The transfers are told that they will go in reverse order of rank, meaning Tris will go last.
Thankfully, Drew is in last. That sounds promising!
"The fear landscapes are not interesting to watch from the outside. I can see Drew is moving, but not what he's reacting to."
Finally, it's Tris' turn to face all her fears. Here we goooooo....
CHAPTER THIRTY[/u]
1. CROWS
"It isn't about the birds. It's about control."
2. DROWNING IN A TANK
3. DROWNING IN THE OCEAN
Because drowning once isn't enough.
4. BURNING AT THE STAKE
5. BEING ATTACKED BY FACELESS CREEPS
29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m260v5F3c91rtpn2do1_500.gif[/img]
6. *COUGH* GETTING INTIMATE
We're more mortified that the Dauntless leaders are watching as she allows herself to get touchy-feely with a virtual version of Four.
7. KILLING OTHERS
Tris throws herself and pretty much everyone else a curveball when she allows her simulation attacker, Jeanine, to kill her instead of killing her family. Is she showing too much Abnegation?
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE[/u]
And then it's over! Tris is congratulated by the Dauntless leaders and soon after, Eric presents her with one more injection. According to him, it's a tracking device.
"This is a new development, courtesy of the Erudite. We have been injecting every Dauntless throughout the day, and I assume other factions will comply as soon as possible."
So once everyone is injected, the Erudite will be able to track every member of society at all times? That sounds ridiculously dangerous and worrisome...
Four invites Tris to relax back in his room before the initiation banquet. Tris has a bit of a chip on her shoulder after what just happened with VIRTUAL Tobias, and it isn't long before she has to tell him that he was in her fear landscape.
"You're afraid of me?"
"Not you," I say. I bite my lip to keep it still. "Being with you.. with anyone. I've never been involved with someone before and... you're older, and I don't know what your expectations are, and..."
"Tris," he says sternly. "I don't know what delusion you're operating under, but this is all new to me, too."
Not surprising to me! Four doesn't exactly seem the type to be scooping up ladies left, right, and center. He was too focused on other things to pay attention to girls before Tris came along.
Just to show how alike they are, Four sees Tris' Abnegation tattoo and (swoon-y tension time) takes up his shirt to show her his own. He's also got the symbols of Candor, Amity, and Erudite tattooed on his back.
"We've started to put down the virtues of the other factions in the process of bolstering our own. I don't want to do that. I want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest."
It's a bit shocking to Tris to hear that, but to us, it shows how insightful Four really is. He knows there's some serious faults in the faction system and wants to grow beyond them.
He also has another very swoony moment with Tris in which he may help her with her fear of intimacy a bit. She feels uncomfortable with him, even though the experience is still a bit nerve-wracking.
"Maybe you won't be in my fear landscape anymore," I murmur.
He bends his head and kisses me slowly.
"Then everyone can call you Six."
"Four and Six," I say.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Tris and Caleb are shocked by each other when they met. Do you think the changes reflect their growth as individuals or just them following along with their new factions?
- Do you feel differently about either Four or Tris after seeing their fear landscape? How so?
- Four recognizes that the Faction system is misguided, but doesn't speak up about it. Do you think there are others who believe the same thing but also stay quiet?
- If you were face-to-face with Jeanine, would you be able to renounce your family and values to get out of a situation like Tris did?
- What do you think is so special about being Divergent that others fear it?
- Do you think Tris' fear of intimacy comes from being Abnegation or her assault?
- Should Tris and Four raise the alarm about Erudite's war plans? IF so, how?