Post by Katherine Anne McCullen on Apr 5, 2014 3:08:16 GMT -5
Katherine "Kit" Anne McCullen
26. Farmer. Amity. Cristin Milioti.
Rina McCullen was not an unhappy child.
There were a lot of things to love about growing up in Dauntless. She loved the chaotic messiness of mealtimes in the Pit, everyone coming together, sometimes the sound of laughter making it hard to hear the person next to you. She loved the beautiful artwork of the tattoo artists. She loved the social enthusiasm of Dauntless kid gangs, the tight-knit trust that was required to jump off a ledge and know your friends would catch you. In fact, any time a group of kids was getting together to do something dangerous, Rina was the first to volunteer to go, with her customary ear-to-ear grin.
Dauntless through and through, that's what everyone thought. If Rina always made sure littler kids were never picked on when she was around, well, that was just Rina the brave, Rina the protector.
But there were a lot of things about Dauntless she didn't like. There was an edge of cruelty to Dauntless. Dauntless play required trust, but it was also always about competition, about one-upmanship. Sometimes before leaping off of the monkey bars, she'd look at the Amity girls across the playground, holding hands and giggling over some shared amusement, and she'd wonder what it would be like to have a real friend, someone she could love wholly without having to constantly prove who was better. But everyone she knew made fun of Amity, called them softies or worse, and so she kept those longings deep inside.
But when she was sixteen, she wasn't surprised by the results of the Aptitude Test.
Her parents warned her to go to bed early, so she'd be well rested to begin Dauntless Initiation the next day. She didn't have the heart to ask for their help in the decision she had to make, and Rina tossed and turned all night, running over her options in her head: the Faction she'd grown up in, or the one the Aptitude Test told her in no uncertain terms she belonged to?
She could be happy in Dauntless, she told herself. She could. She'd done it for sixteen years. When Rina's name was called, she walked up to the stage fully intending to let her blood tie her to Dauntless forever. But then the knife was in her hand, and like a shock of cold water she knew what she had to do. She allowed her blood to drip onto Amity soil, and her life was changed forever.
When they arrived at the Amity compound, community members helped the Initiates out of the backs of the pickup trucks. A man she'd later come to know as Martin asked her what her name was, and she told him that her name was Kit.
It felt odd against her legs to put on an Amity skirt, soft and red and flowy to her ankles, almost like being naked, and that was only the least of the changes to come. She had been kind for a member of Dauntless, but Amity was in a different league of kindness all together. Kit spent more time in the Conflict Room than the entire rest of her Initiate group combined. There wasn't a lot of precedence for transfer from Dauntless to Amity. There was talk of failing her, but luckily the majority sentiment was that she simply had a few bad habits to unlearn. There were a few older Amity members (not many, but a few) who had come from Dauntless themselves, and whenever it seemed too much to bear they embraced her and taught her how to quiet the temper Dauntless had encouraged. By the end of Initiation, she'd more or less proved the majority right. A few still had reservations about letting a Dauntless-born into Amity, but regardless, it wasn't like Amity to not accept someone with open arms.
In truth, the things Kit liked most about Dauntless she found in Amity in spades: togetherness, trust, community. She never lost her customary ear-to-ear grin, and after ten years in Amity she still looks forward to coming together for evening meeting, for music and dancing and laughter.
She's a farmer now. She loves planting season, when all of Amity works together to prepare the food for the entire city for the next year. Smiling at the children as they scurry around the rows bringing chilled water to whoever needs it. The rich smell of dirt under her nails, the smiles shared over dinner, falling into the kind of deep, satisfying sleep that can only be found after a day's honest labor.
But Kit loves summer most of all, the happy simplicity of picking strawberries, and the joy of placing a fresh one on her tongue. Early summer nights, she always volunteers in the kitchen, working alongside jolly women twice, three times her age, carefully constructing lattice-crusts over sweet strawberry pie filling while the women sing songs from their youth.
It's an honest life. It's a sweet life. It's a full life. Part of her wishes that she could have grown up here, wishes she could have had sixteen more years of singing songs and picking fruit. But she knows that her childhood made her who she is. Among the Amity, Kit is one of the quickest to jump to the defense of those in need of it. She hasn't forgotten that Involvement is one of the Conversations of Peace, though it's landed her in the Conflict Room a few times since Initiation. She doesn't pick fights where they aren't needed, but Dauntless honed her protective instincts, and she'll always have them.
Every few years or so, Amity gets a Dauntless-born transfer, and she helps by whispering her love and undying support until their tempers become quiet strength, like hers has.
If sometimes Kit misses the freedom of wind in her hair as she jumps from a train, she remembers now that she has friends she loves wholly and who love her in return. She was a not-unhappy child in Dauntless, but she's a happy adult in Amity. It's where she belongs, and life is good.
(Insurgence? IDK where else to put it)
There were a lot of things to love about growing up in Dauntless. She loved the chaotic messiness of mealtimes in the Pit, everyone coming together, sometimes the sound of laughter making it hard to hear the person next to you. She loved the beautiful artwork of the tattoo artists. She loved the social enthusiasm of Dauntless kid gangs, the tight-knit trust that was required to jump off a ledge and know your friends would catch you. In fact, any time a group of kids was getting together to do something dangerous, Rina was the first to volunteer to go, with her customary ear-to-ear grin.
Dauntless through and through, that's what everyone thought. If Rina always made sure littler kids were never picked on when she was around, well, that was just Rina the brave, Rina the protector.
But there were a lot of things about Dauntless she didn't like. There was an edge of cruelty to Dauntless. Dauntless play required trust, but it was also always about competition, about one-upmanship. Sometimes before leaping off of the monkey bars, she'd look at the Amity girls across the playground, holding hands and giggling over some shared amusement, and she'd wonder what it would be like to have a real friend, someone she could love wholly without having to constantly prove who was better. But everyone she knew made fun of Amity, called them softies or worse, and so she kept those longings deep inside.
But when she was sixteen, she wasn't surprised by the results of the Aptitude Test.
Her parents warned her to go to bed early, so she'd be well rested to begin Dauntless Initiation the next day. She didn't have the heart to ask for their help in the decision she had to make, and Rina tossed and turned all night, running over her options in her head: the Faction she'd grown up in, or the one the Aptitude Test told her in no uncertain terms she belonged to?
She could be happy in Dauntless, she told herself. She could. She'd done it for sixteen years. When Rina's name was called, she walked up to the stage fully intending to let her blood tie her to Dauntless forever. But then the knife was in her hand, and like a shock of cold water she knew what she had to do. She allowed her blood to drip onto Amity soil, and her life was changed forever.
When they arrived at the Amity compound, community members helped the Initiates out of the backs of the pickup trucks. A man she'd later come to know as Martin asked her what her name was, and she told him that her name was Kit.
It felt odd against her legs to put on an Amity skirt, soft and red and flowy to her ankles, almost like being naked, and that was only the least of the changes to come. She had been kind for a member of Dauntless, but Amity was in a different league of kindness all together. Kit spent more time in the Conflict Room than the entire rest of her Initiate group combined. There wasn't a lot of precedence for transfer from Dauntless to Amity. There was talk of failing her, but luckily the majority sentiment was that she simply had a few bad habits to unlearn. There were a few older Amity members (not many, but a few) who had come from Dauntless themselves, and whenever it seemed too much to bear they embraced her and taught her how to quiet the temper Dauntless had encouraged. By the end of Initiation, she'd more or less proved the majority right. A few still had reservations about letting a Dauntless-born into Amity, but regardless, it wasn't like Amity to not accept someone with open arms.
In truth, the things Kit liked most about Dauntless she found in Amity in spades: togetherness, trust, community. She never lost her customary ear-to-ear grin, and after ten years in Amity she still looks forward to coming together for evening meeting, for music and dancing and laughter.
She's a farmer now. She loves planting season, when all of Amity works together to prepare the food for the entire city for the next year. Smiling at the children as they scurry around the rows bringing chilled water to whoever needs it. The rich smell of dirt under her nails, the smiles shared over dinner, falling into the kind of deep, satisfying sleep that can only be found after a day's honest labor.
But Kit loves summer most of all, the happy simplicity of picking strawberries, and the joy of placing a fresh one on her tongue. Early summer nights, she always volunteers in the kitchen, working alongside jolly women twice, three times her age, carefully constructing lattice-crusts over sweet strawberry pie filling while the women sing songs from their youth.
It's an honest life. It's a sweet life. It's a full life. Part of her wishes that she could have grown up here, wishes she could have had sixteen more years of singing songs and picking fruit. But she knows that her childhood made her who she is. Among the Amity, Kit is one of the quickest to jump to the defense of those in need of it. She hasn't forgotten that Involvement is one of the Conversations of Peace, though it's landed her in the Conflict Room a few times since Initiation. She doesn't pick fights where they aren't needed, but Dauntless honed her protective instincts, and she'll always have them.
Every few years or so, Amity gets a Dauntless-born transfer, and she helps by whispering her love and undying support until their tempers become quiet strength, like hers has.
If sometimes Kit misses the freedom of wind in her hair as she jumps from a train, she remembers now that she has friends she loves wholly and who love her in return. She was a not-unhappy child in Dauntless, but she's a happy adult in Amity. It's where she belongs, and life is good.
(Insurgence? IDK where else to put it)
SAM. 27. 13ish.
made by kerrosene !