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Character Name; Beatrice "Tris" Prior
Canon; Divergent general wiki here! character page is here.
Age; 16
Personality;
Beatrice starts into canon as a person who knows relatively little about herself. Due to her background, family and faction, she's been taught to above all value and cultivate selflessness. As a result, she didn't have much chance to do what she wanted to do - or even found out what she wanted and liked to do. At the same time, while certainly the teachings took hold and selflessness is still a big trait for her, it also made her feel deeply flawed and out of place. The impression of not being good enough, or rather, not selfless enough, is rooted deeply in her, and is an issue she takes time to resolve with herself throughout canon. But despite her own doubts about it, Beatrice is a deeply selfless person - it is a trait that motivates her in many situations, and to some of her most important ones, to the point of being ready to lay down her life not once, but twice, so that someone else wouldn't be forced to, and endangering it many times more.
In short, her selfless streak ends up putting something of a hero complex in her. She doesn't just accept things being as they are when they're bad, and she doesn't just accept people being bullied, wronged, or hurt. As much as she needed a learning curve to actually speak up against it, once she does, she tends to be too proud to back down on it.
Pride is another big point with her, and another that may well stem from feeling insufficient, at the core of it. Knowing her weakness, she tries her best to prove herself strong, to make herself not look as vulnerable as she herself already knows she is. ...even though, as a matter of fact, she's pretty tough. Either way, pride and sarcasm can and have worked together to lead to moments where keeping her mouth shut really would've been wiser, but once she starts talking, Beatrice has a hard time backing down. Even if the person she's talking to is her instructor. Or a former member of the city government. Or the leader of a rebel uprising - you get the idea. Someone pushes her, it'll make her want to push back, no matter who it is she's dealing with, and that can make her predictable.
Luckily, she can also talk herself out of trouble moderately well, because she can be a pretty convincing liar. Dishonesty is something she readily uses as a means to an end. Even though she doesn't like decieving those she's close to, it may very well happen, and someone she's not close to, she'll lie to if it gets her what she wants or needs. It's not something she tends to feel much guilt about.
What makes her a good liar is mostly how observant she is. She pays close attention to people and has a remarkably good mind for noticing when things just don't quite add up. It's because she knows how to do it that she knows what to look for, and she's naturally suspicious of people as a product of her surroundings - there really IS a plot behind every other corner and everyone's got their own agenda. As someone who was raised to listen closely to what others say rather than focusing on herself, she applies her knowledge now to it, and tries her level best to pick up on all of the hints, because initiation suddenly threw her into an environment where it's near literally survival of the fittest.
She's not very kind about her observations, either. Nor does she try to be. Again the sarcasm comes into it, and the tendency to occasionally just not keep her mouth shut when someone pushes her. But even in her inward observations she's not very forgiving, considering how she judges Al for letting his crying be heard by the other initiates. Not only is she proud and trying her best to be or at least seem strong, she expects as much from others, too. Fragility is a trait she finds off-putting in others, because she dislikes it in herself. And because she dislikes it in herself, she pushes herself as hard as she can for a chance to be part of a faction that focuses on strength - physical, emotional, and mental. The fact of the matter is, powerlessness terrifies her, being out of control terrifies her, and being trapped terrifies her too - all things that, if not consciously then certainly subconsciously - drive her to become more capable of handling herself.
Her judgement is never kind, but it's not reserved for others. She judges herself as harshly. She's also definitely one to hold on to grudges and resentment, and the more strength she gains throughout her training, the less forgiving she becomes. The more time she spends among people who value courage and strength and pride, the less she tries to keep herself in check, the less she tries to be kind and polite, the less scrupulous she becomes. Where at the beginning of training, she'd never thrown a punch in her life, at the end of training, she doesn't hesitate to put a bullet in someone's foot, absorbing not just the virtues, but also the vices of her new peers, in all their cruelty. And it works for her, because it's where she wants to belong.
Luckily, she still retains a conscience, even if she's certainly not a nice person. More than anything else, it's her bonds with others that keep her human - Christina, Will, Al, Four, Uriah - that remind her how to have fun, and that others can look our for her once in a while, too. These are also the people who help her see a perspective besides her own, too. It helps her not be close-minded. At the same time, these are people she can butt heads with fairly peacefully, and who look out for her so that she doesn't end up doing everything on her own (like a moron).
As she discovers more of herself, her biggest focus is on surviving. She learns much about courage upon joining Dauntless, and surprisingly, much of that comes from her fellow transfers. Bravery comes to her more naturally to her than selflessness does, and she's flat out very, very determined to make it through initiation. Her pride drives her here, too: She steps to the edge of the roof she's expected to jump off of, and knows she can't turn back. She calls a faction leader out on his bullying, knowing she'll face his anger, knowing he had someone hang off a barrier over rushing water and a deadly fall by their hands, and she can't very well take it back once it's done. Case in point, selflessness and bravery combine into a special brand of idiocy in her sometimes.
...that's not to say she's actually stupid. While Beatrice certainly isn't book smart, and there is a great deal of things she doesn't know about the world, she does tend to retain what she is taught. She just doesn't seek out straight up factual or theoretical knowledge. Her best mental asset is seeing through illusions, whether they come in the form of simulations or in the form of deception, and she has very sharp instincts. She most closely pays attention to people, ever trying to puzzle out motivation and possible goals, watching group dynamics for potential threats, and is fairly perceptive in regards to both, and she's got a decent mind for strategy. ...however, she's also got the tendency to go off on her own if she comes up with something and feels it needs doing, and is curious to a fault.
Beatrice is active and very much a woman of action, easily becoming restless if cooped up. Every bit the teenager, she will snap and lash out if she's frustrated or thrown off, she's got quite the temper, and she will hang on to grudges for a long time. Fight has become her first response by necessity, whether or not it used to be. But as strong as she is, she is nowhere near invulnerable. Her self-image isn't good. She doesn't value herself or her life nearly enough, and it makes her even more reckless in combination with her compulsion to do the right thing. She will not realize until it's far, far too late that she's in fact scared of dying, that she actually wants to live, and how important and precious her own life is, and it takes a tremendeous push in canon to get this point across. This attitude also clouds her judgement in regards to people she interacts with in less immediately dangerous situations - often, she doesn't realize her own power, or the impression others may have of her because of it, though she's been getting somewhat better about this - now knowing people may either under- or overestimate her. But her self-image hasn't changed, as confident as she is, because she still does very little to stay out of trouble. It doesn't help that she's prone to feeling guilty, in particular for things she still percieves as selfish. The grudges she holds turn on her as well in the form of guilt, because she has a hard time letting things slide one way or another, so she's no quicker to forgive herself than she is other people. She's particularly unfair about this to her brother Caleb and herself in this regard. In fact, cutting herself any slack is not on the agenda right up until she breaks down or circumstances come together to break her down.
...and they do. The losses she suffers haunt her, but her own actions haunt her more, later in canon making her near incapable of even handling a gun. Because frankly, for all her strength, she's a 16 year old girl, and she takes on far too much, sees too much, is too involved in too much upheaval and flat out war. What saves her are her friends - and the fact that she's the kind of person who just grows stronger in the face of adversity.
As part of the faction system, she was raised to believe that belonging in a faction (or just belonging in general) was of key importance. She herself states that she would rather be dead than "empty" as she percieves those with no faction to be. It terrifies her not to have a purpose, to not belong - and then she's faced with the fact that she is Divergent, someone who is just not so simply categorized into one of the five factions. It sets her apart from her peers and places a barrier between her and them, because it is too dangerous to speak of. And for her, it's also a source of anxiety, as something that makes her different, as something she knows absolutely nothing about, that she can't change, and as a threat to her life should she be found out. It is paramount that she watches how she acts, and so she uses what she learned in Abnegation - to watch and listen to try and figure out what is appropriate and needed in a situation - so as to blend in and appear as whatever she needs to appear.
(As canon goes on, belonging to a certain faction becomes less and less important, but as per this canon point, it's still a pretty big deal.)
Her Abnegation upbringing left more than one mark on her, however. There are many things she's just not used to, that would be completely normal for most teens her age - up until choosing, she'd only looked in a mirror once every three months, continuously worn grey and shapeless clothes, never worn make-up, and certainly wasn't used to casual touching. Hell, until after choosing, she'd never even seen a hamburger, because the abnegation eat pretty exclusively plain food. Suffice it to say, the culture shock will be immense, even if she's now become accustomed to more and keeps more of an open mind.
Samples;
Network Sample; [audio]
[There's a bit of hesitation before she speaks. She's not sure how to start, how to adress who she's adressing, or if she should preface this with anything. But then she figures she'd better start. Now or never, right?]
I've been wondering about the houses we're put here. I get that they each belong to one of the gods... and that we're all connected to one of the gods and that gives us powers, apparently. But does it have any other reason? I mean. We're all pretty different people from what I've seen. And it's not like we have to do any work specific to our house, either. I know each house has different powers, but that's not what I'm asking, because we get those after the fact.
What I mean is... are we just picked out and placed together at random?
[That doesn't seem right. Shouldn't there be some common ground somewhere? Even if it doesn't work like the factions do, and all of it throws her off balance so far she's not sure what to do. But come on, there really should be a pattern there.]
Canon; Divergent general wiki here! character page is here.
Age; 16
Personality;
Beatrice starts into canon as a person who knows relatively little about herself. Due to her background, family and faction, she's been taught to above all value and cultivate selflessness. As a result, she didn't have much chance to do what she wanted to do - or even found out what she wanted and liked to do. At the same time, while certainly the teachings took hold and selflessness is still a big trait for her, it also made her feel deeply flawed and out of place. The impression of not being good enough, or rather, not selfless enough, is rooted deeply in her, and is an issue she takes time to resolve with herself throughout canon. But despite her own doubts about it, Beatrice is a deeply selfless person - it is a trait that motivates her in many situations, and to some of her most important ones, to the point of being ready to lay down her life not once, but twice, so that someone else wouldn't be forced to, and endangering it many times more.
In short, her selfless streak ends up putting something of a hero complex in her. She doesn't just accept things being as they are when they're bad, and she doesn't just accept people being bullied, wronged, or hurt. As much as she needed a learning curve to actually speak up against it, once she does, she tends to be too proud to back down on it.
Pride is another big point with her, and another that may well stem from feeling insufficient, at the core of it. Knowing her weakness, she tries her best to prove herself strong, to make herself not look as vulnerable as she herself already knows she is. ...even though, as a matter of fact, she's pretty tough. Either way, pride and sarcasm can and have worked together to lead to moments where keeping her mouth shut really would've been wiser, but once she starts talking, Beatrice has a hard time backing down. Even if the person she's talking to is her instructor. Or a former member of the city government. Or the leader of a rebel uprising - you get the idea. Someone pushes her, it'll make her want to push back, no matter who it is she's dealing with, and that can make her predictable.
Luckily, she can also talk herself out of trouble moderately well, because she can be a pretty convincing liar. Dishonesty is something she readily uses as a means to an end. Even though she doesn't like decieving those she's close to, it may very well happen, and someone she's not close to, she'll lie to if it gets her what she wants or needs. It's not something she tends to feel much guilt about.
What makes her a good liar is mostly how observant she is. She pays close attention to people and has a remarkably good mind for noticing when things just don't quite add up. It's because she knows how to do it that she knows what to look for, and she's naturally suspicious of people as a product of her surroundings - there really IS a plot behind every other corner and everyone's got their own agenda. As someone who was raised to listen closely to what others say rather than focusing on herself, she applies her knowledge now to it, and tries her level best to pick up on all of the hints, because initiation suddenly threw her into an environment where it's near literally survival of the fittest.
She's not very kind about her observations, either. Nor does she try to be. Again the sarcasm comes into it, and the tendency to occasionally just not keep her mouth shut when someone pushes her. But even in her inward observations she's not very forgiving, considering how she judges Al for letting his crying be heard by the other initiates. Not only is she proud and trying her best to be or at least seem strong, she expects as much from others, too. Fragility is a trait she finds off-putting in others, because she dislikes it in herself. And because she dislikes it in herself, she pushes herself as hard as she can for a chance to be part of a faction that focuses on strength - physical, emotional, and mental. The fact of the matter is, powerlessness terrifies her, being out of control terrifies her, and being trapped terrifies her too - all things that, if not consciously then certainly subconsciously - drive her to become more capable of handling herself.
Her judgement is never kind, but it's not reserved for others. She judges herself as harshly. She's also definitely one to hold on to grudges and resentment, and the more strength she gains throughout her training, the less forgiving she becomes. The more time she spends among people who value courage and strength and pride, the less she tries to keep herself in check, the less she tries to be kind and polite, the less scrupulous she becomes. Where at the beginning of training, she'd never thrown a punch in her life, at the end of training, she doesn't hesitate to put a bullet in someone's foot, absorbing not just the virtues, but also the vices of her new peers, in all their cruelty. And it works for her, because it's where she wants to belong.
Luckily, she still retains a conscience, even if she's certainly not a nice person. More than anything else, it's her bonds with others that keep her human - Christina, Will, Al, Four, Uriah - that remind her how to have fun, and that others can look our for her once in a while, too. These are also the people who help her see a perspective besides her own, too. It helps her not be close-minded. At the same time, these are people she can butt heads with fairly peacefully, and who look out for her so that she doesn't end up doing everything on her own (like a moron).
As she discovers more of herself, her biggest focus is on surviving. She learns much about courage upon joining Dauntless, and surprisingly, much of that comes from her fellow transfers. Bravery comes to her more naturally to her than selflessness does, and she's flat out very, very determined to make it through initiation. Her pride drives her here, too: She steps to the edge of the roof she's expected to jump off of, and knows she can't turn back. She calls a faction leader out on his bullying, knowing she'll face his anger, knowing he had someone hang off a barrier over rushing water and a deadly fall by their hands, and she can't very well take it back once it's done. Case in point, selflessness and bravery combine into a special brand of idiocy in her sometimes.
...that's not to say she's actually stupid. While Beatrice certainly isn't book smart, and there is a great deal of things she doesn't know about the world, she does tend to retain what she is taught. She just doesn't seek out straight up factual or theoretical knowledge. Her best mental asset is seeing through illusions, whether they come in the form of simulations or in the form of deception, and she has very sharp instincts. She most closely pays attention to people, ever trying to puzzle out motivation and possible goals, watching group dynamics for potential threats, and is fairly perceptive in regards to both, and she's got a decent mind for strategy. ...however, she's also got the tendency to go off on her own if she comes up with something and feels it needs doing, and is curious to a fault.
Beatrice is active and very much a woman of action, easily becoming restless if cooped up. Every bit the teenager, she will snap and lash out if she's frustrated or thrown off, she's got quite the temper, and she will hang on to grudges for a long time. Fight has become her first response by necessity, whether or not it used to be. But as strong as she is, she is nowhere near invulnerable. Her self-image isn't good. She doesn't value herself or her life nearly enough, and it makes her even more reckless in combination with her compulsion to do the right thing. She will not realize until it's far, far too late that she's in fact scared of dying, that she actually wants to live, and how important and precious her own life is, and it takes a tremendeous push in canon to get this point across. This attitude also clouds her judgement in regards to people she interacts with in less immediately dangerous situations - often, she doesn't realize her own power, or the impression others may have of her because of it, though she's been getting somewhat better about this - now knowing people may either under- or overestimate her. But her self-image hasn't changed, as confident as she is, because she still does very little to stay out of trouble. It doesn't help that she's prone to feeling guilty, in particular for things she still percieves as selfish. The grudges she holds turn on her as well in the form of guilt, because she has a hard time letting things slide one way or another, so she's no quicker to forgive herself than she is other people. She's particularly unfair about this to her brother Caleb and herself in this regard. In fact, cutting herself any slack is not on the agenda right up until she breaks down or circumstances come together to break her down.
...and they do. The losses she suffers haunt her, but her own actions haunt her more, later in canon making her near incapable of even handling a gun. Because frankly, for all her strength, she's a 16 year old girl, and she takes on far too much, sees too much, is too involved in too much upheaval and flat out war. What saves her are her friends - and the fact that she's the kind of person who just grows stronger in the face of adversity.
As part of the faction system, she was raised to believe that belonging in a faction (or just belonging in general) was of key importance. She herself states that she would rather be dead than "empty" as she percieves those with no faction to be. It terrifies her not to have a purpose, to not belong - and then she's faced with the fact that she is Divergent, someone who is just not so simply categorized into one of the five factions. It sets her apart from her peers and places a barrier between her and them, because it is too dangerous to speak of. And for her, it's also a source of anxiety, as something that makes her different, as something she knows absolutely nothing about, that she can't change, and as a threat to her life should she be found out. It is paramount that she watches how she acts, and so she uses what she learned in Abnegation - to watch and listen to try and figure out what is appropriate and needed in a situation - so as to blend in and appear as whatever she needs to appear.
(As canon goes on, belonging to a certain faction becomes less and less important, but as per this canon point, it's still a pretty big deal.)
Her Abnegation upbringing left more than one mark on her, however. There are many things she's just not used to, that would be completely normal for most teens her age - up until choosing, she'd only looked in a mirror once every three months, continuously worn grey and shapeless clothes, never worn make-up, and certainly wasn't used to casual touching. Hell, until after choosing, she'd never even seen a hamburger, because the abnegation eat pretty exclusively plain food. Suffice it to say, the culture shock will be immense, even if she's now become accustomed to more and keeps more of an open mind.
Samples;
Network Sample; [audio]
[There's a bit of hesitation before she speaks. She's not sure how to start, how to adress who she's adressing, or if she should preface this with anything. But then she figures she'd better start. Now or never, right?]
I've been wondering about the houses we're put here. I get that they each belong to one of the gods... and that we're all connected to one of the gods and that gives us powers, apparently. But does it have any other reason? I mean. We're all pretty different people from what I've seen. And it's not like we have to do any work specific to our house, either. I know each house has different powers, but that's not what I'm asking, because we get those after the fact.
What I mean is... are we just picked out and placed together at random?
[That doesn't seem right. Shouldn't there be some common ground somewhere? Even if it doesn't work like the factions do, and all of it throws her off balance so far she's not sure what to do. But come on, there really should be a pattern there.]