Eric Coulter Imagines

Motivator

It's the last day before your Choosing Ceremony. You only have a few precious hours left in Amity before you go to Abnegation with the rest of the teenagers in your faction, those like you who have come of age and get to decide where they'll be for the rest of their lives. You know that most of your friends will simply stay in Amity; a smaller share will switch to Abnegation or maybe even Candor, but most will be here. You, however, will be transferring away to Dauntless.

No one knows this, or at least not yet. Your family will find out with the rest of the city when you cut open your hand to choose, once and for all. Maybe you'll succeed over there, maybe you won't. The one person who would be able to settle your nerves is gone. That's why you're going away, after all, because you can't take it here, not with all the memories of what you used to have.

You had a brother, once. He lived and worked and laughed here in Amity with you. Or, he did, before he was killed. No one likes to talk about it here. It would ruin the happy, trusting environment of your daffodil-yellow faction if you suggested that there were murderers in your midst, so your brother's killing was covered up like a bad seed underneath the unforgiving earth. No one other than you remembers. You're not even sure that your parents fully realized what happened to their son- it's fairly easy to blame it on the dead. Surely he did something to mess up, an easy mistake that would allow everyone else to shake their heads and move on with their day. They would never do that, so they're safe.

You are not. You know what happened. You can't stay another year in this giddy faction, with liars peeking out at you from every ensemble. At least in Dauntless, if someone tries to kill you like they did your brother, you'll be able to hurt them back. An eye for an eye. This is victory, this is vengeance, and because of it you will cut off your last ties to your heartsick family and go away once and for all. Maybe your brother would be proud of you after all, but you don't know. His grave does not speak as easily as you.

Eric Coulter is tired. It's another day, another Choosing Ceremony. The other Dauntless leaders aren't making him show up to Abnegation to see the selections through, thank everything in this city. You can only see the seemingly same handful of people cut open their hands over and over again before it makes you want to go mad. Eric's only seen a few Choosing Ceremonies other than his own, but already, he's more than fine with staying behind in his own faction.

Besides, it's not like he'll have enough time dealing with the various initiates once they show up. He'll be leading initiation again, same as Four. That's why he's standing on the edge of the roof, staring out over the horizon. Black cloth covers up most of his tattoos, the same black cloth that cloaks the few other Dauntless leaders who've chosen to show up and see the first crop of trainees they'll get for the year.

Right on clockwork, the train rattles up across Eric's line of view. As he watches, the first few Dauntless jump out, followed by a motley group of trainees. They all seem shocked at the prospect of having to leap from the moving train; it's almost funny. Eric doesn't even think about it anymore- throwing himself from heights and buildings and various modes of transportation is just another facet of Dauntless. Why spare it your fear? He has no time for that.

Eventually, all of the new initiates are off of the train, some grimacing at others after the apparent horrors of having to jump a few feet onto a nearby roof. Eric surveys the latest arrivals with a critical eye, noting the usual black and white and blue uniforms. Strangely enough, he thinks he sees the bright spark of a yellow shirt amongst the darker shades. Sure enough- there's a girl in the middle of the pack, one in the typical fluorescent shades of Amity.

The crowd around her parts a little, almost unconsciously, as if they can't stand to be within a foot of her lest her happy-go-lucky aura rub off on them. If she's from Amity, though, Eric thinks that the crowd doesn't have to worry about that. This girl acts like no Amity he's ever met- it's as if some deep anger lurks beneath her mind. When she glances up at him, Eric's almost surprised by the strength of her glare.