It was raining when they first arrived at Dauntless headquarters. Elysia Moore hadn't minded; she had always loved the rain. It wasn't raining particularly hard but the dark storm clouds overhead was more than enough to tell her that this was going to last all afternoon.
Lightning flashed the moment she jumped; thunder roared the moment she hit the bottom.
Elysia could remember her initiation as clearly as she remembered the rain that day; she was part of the same initiate group as Four and Eric. In terms of physical strength, very few thought she could keep up.
But she was smart. If anything, she was almost sure that was what got her through initiation.
"Are you sure you can keep up, princess?" Eric had asked her one day during training. He knew she could, he knew better than any of the initiates that she could.
"I should be asking you that, asshole."
She was lucky, though. If it had been anyone else who said that, they wouldn't be conscious; out like a light for at least a day or two. But she was one of the lucky ones. To say they were friends would be overstating it; sure, they were friends. But she wasn't entirely sure if they had the same definition of friends.
He was hard to read, whether he really considered her a friend was difficult to say for sure. Eric sure let her get away with much more than he did most people, Elysia's got that much going for her.
Little did she know, he'd let her get away with much more than being a smartass.
Two years didn't feel like two years. That is to say, it felt more like a few months but if those few months repeated themselves over and over for an indefinite amount of time.
Since passing initiation, some of the people in her initiate group went on to join the council, putting them in positions of influence. Elysia, herself, had landed herself a position as head of Defense. Her eyes scanned the computer screen, silently reading off the names of this year's initiates.
"Don't you have something you're supposed to be doing?"
Glancing over her shoulder, she raised an eyebrow at Zeke, who was now standing much too close. Not that she cared, she was more worried about what Shauna would think if she saw this. Though, she would not put it past her to not care too much either; they both knew Zeke meant well enough.
"I already sent out the patrols and today's squad for the Fence Guard." She snapped back, though her tone was far from the biting tone she used to order people around. "I've already made my own rounds, I'm free for a few hours."
"Ah, alright. I don't suppose you'll come with Shauna and I outside for a dive, will you?"
She huffed, signing out of the computer she was on before turning to face Zeke. His eyes held the usual mischievous glint they did when he suggested they do these things together.
"Nah, promised Four I'd stop by and help out with training today." She paused, eying the confused expression he wore now in place of his previous one, "Don't ask me why either, he didn't tell me either."
"Alright, fine, fine. We'll put it off until you're free then. It's no fun with just three of us, anyway." He replied with a shrug, "I'll walk you there."
"Shauna isn't waiting for you?" Elysia asked, walking past him and towards the door. It wasn't an odd occurrence to see them together, Shauna never really minded when they did stuff like this either. But it still sat in an uneasy place in her stomach.
"She's just out in the hall, she's probably coming with us."
"Tch, of course."
The pair stepped out into the hall, her eyes meeting Shauna's bright blue ones; Elysia had always admired her eyes, they always seemed almost glow an electric blue even under the flourescent lights of Dauntless headquarters.
The trio's laughter bounced off the walls as they made their way to the training rooms.
This year's initiates didn't look all too impressive, if she were being honest.
Most looked at her with varying degrees of confusion; she couldn't blame them. Elysia was shorter than Lauren by an inch or two; that is to say, the boys towered over her. She hardly looked very dangerous.
"So, these are this year's initiates, huh?" she eyed each and every one of them, staring them in the eye as she walked past each one, "They don't look super. . . "
Her gaze swept across then back to the instructors standing in front; Eric had joined them today, too. Their eyes met for a brief moment.
"Well, whether they're fit to be here at Dauntless is something we'll be figuring out." The look Four gave her was, what Elysia could only describe as, amused,
"How would you like us to humour you today, Lys?" Lauren asked, though they all knew the question was rhetorical. She shrugged in response, regardless of whether it was rhetorical or not.
"Observation reasons, more than anything." Her tone was casual, almost lazy; almost as if she had anywhere else she wanted to be. Which wasn't entirely true, she really didn't have anywhere else to be; though, Elysia could hardly say she wanted to be here, either. "Max wanted me to sit in on a few sessions, something about keeping an updated log."
She caught Eric's eyes; he had always been hard to read, moreso now than when they were kids. But she knew him well enough (or at least, she hoped she knew him well enough) to know that he knew that reason was entirely bullshit. Max hadn't said shit to her about keeping track of anything, and the little voice in her head told her that Four and Lauren were likely thinking the same thing.
"Alright, whatever." Lauren mused before rounding up the Dauntless born initiates. The pair of girls gave each other a quick fist bump as Lauren herded them all out of the room. Four promptly started the training session with the transfers shortly after Lauren exited behind the initiates.
Elysia picked her way to sit down at a chair against the far wall. She had brought along her tablet with her, with full intentions on writing; not writing notes on the initiates like she made it seem like she should've been. More like writing whatever came to mind; she had long made a habit of keeping a journal, writing whatever her muse decided it wanted to get out today.
She barely noticed when Eric pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. They barely said a word to each other, occasionally making a comment about one of the initiates. At one point, he got up and walked over to Four, who had been helping one of the initiates with a move. She couldn't hear the conversation, but judging by the exasperated look on Four's face, and the slightly terrified look on the initiate's, Elysia could only assume it was probably nothing good.
She noted that, along with the time.
Today was hardly eventful. Elysia hated that. The afternoon dragged, and at the end of it all, she had been more than happy to climb into bed and let sleep take her to wherever it pleased. Today felt like a walk through quicksand, or walking knee deep in mud; it didn't feel like it was going anywhere very fast. While she was more than glad they didn't have trouble to deal with, she would be quick to admit that she was bored. Elysia would never say this out loud, it would be too much of a bother to deal with the aftermath if she had; but she wanted something to happen, anything really.
But she, of all people, should've known better. She, of all people, should've known to be careful what they wished for.