Bio

{FOUR I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different.
	THE BASICS!   FULL NAME: Tobias Eaton NICKNAMES: Four AGE: 18 BIRTH DATE: Nov 3 FACTION: Dauntless LIKES: Hitting people, chocolate cake, Tris DISLIKES: Almost everything else
APPEARANCE!  We have to unify and watch our flag ascend Four is six foot even with a muscular build, but not overly so. He’s still lean and small enough to be quick. He’s got dark brown hair and eyes. Generally he’s dressed casually in something he can move in, like a tee shirt, dark pants and boots. He often wears a black leather jacket. One might see the hint of a tattoo sticking out of the collar of his tee shirt on the back of his neck. Four is often described as intimidating. He encourages this by sticking to himself, glaring at people and crossing his arms over his chest when people speak to him. His gestures are generally spare and his body language controlled. He is graceful in the way that someone trained to fight would be graceful. To some degree, he tries to avoid drawing attention to himself. This is both because of his training and because of his Abnegation upbringing.
PERSONALITY!  You know that, their time's coming to an end Tobias, more commonly known as Four because he only has four fears (in canon, the average person has 10 to fifteen fears), is an example of duality. There is a side of himself that he shows the world and a side of himself that he keeps secret. The side of Four that he shows the world, the side that will never be known as anything but Four, is self-possessed and intimidating. He chooses his friends carefully and even among them rarely relaxes entirely. He is a coiled spring, ready to react to whatever the situation may present. He appears to be confident and fearless, as well as independent. He can be cold, sarcastic and stern. His sense of humor tends to be dry and many people who only know him peripherally would say that he had no sense of humor at all. He is exacting and has high expectations for people. He is also protective and defensive of people in general. He is shown in canon protecting those that aren’t necessarily good people because he feels he can and he should. He can be an incredibly dangerous person because he is intelligent, brave and strong. He is confident (sometimes even arrogant) and he’s aware of what he’s capable of, of his own limitations and strengths. He’s able to block out the things that scare him and move beyond them. This is seen most notably when he climbs the ferris wheel to the very highest point with Tris. He’s not happy about it, in fact, he’s terrified, but he continues moving because he is stubborn and refuses to allow his fear to beat him. Part of this is his competitive edge. He was first in his class (Dauntless using a ranking system for initiates that follow them the rest of their lives). Some of that he can attribute to life he lived with Marcus. Violence and pain were such a part of his life in Abnegation with Marcus that Dauntless training seemed an extension of that. Living with Marcus had also taught him to think on his feet, to think several moves ahead, all in the interest of attempting to avoid a beating. He has fewer fears than anyone in the history of Dauntless. Competition pushes him through when fear would hold him back. Confronting his fears, pushing himself also makes him feel powerful; it takes away the vulnerability and helplessness that he felt living with his father. The side of Four that he doesn’t show the world, Tobias Eaton, is a broken man. As a child, he was abused by his father, an upstanding member of the community, so he learned very early how important it was to put on a façade. His father was generally careful to leave belt marks only on Tobias’ back and legs so that his clothing would hide them. He was told ‘this is for your own good’. He tells Marcus at one point “Don’t worry about me handling the pain. I’ve had a lot of practice” because even with his back and legs a criss-crossed mess of wounds, he had to stand straight, smile, nod , be selfless and act as if he wasn’t in agony because the punishment would have been so much worse if he’d ever spoken out against his father. Because of his father, because of the abuse he suffered at his hands, Four shies away from leadership positions. He doesn’t want to have to make decisions for others. He is afraid that the power a leader wields will go to his head the way it so obviously did with his father. There is a part of him that is afraid of turning into the man his father is and he bases the choices he makes in his life on that. Canonically, one of his fears is his capacity to kill, his capacity (and ability) to hurt people. This fear stems from watching his father and knowing that is a part of him. At least choosing Dauntless allows him to turn this ability into something good, into protecting people. In his world, people divide into factions based on personality traits. Dauntless is brave; Erudite is intelligent; Amity is peaceful; Abnegation is kind (selfless) and Candor is honest. Rather than be one of those things, Four strives to be all of them. He tells Tris that he is still working on being kind and in some respect, he is right. However, he was raised Abnegation; he’s had a great deal of practice at being selfless and kind. When it counts, when he needs to be, he is kind and sometimes he is kind in ways that don’t make sense at the time(for example, clipping Tris’ ear with the knife. Eric would have never let her step away from being target practice if Four hadn’t done that and eventually, he might have taken over the knife throwing which could have easily ended up in serious injury or death). Four is observant and manipulative. He watches people and figures out which buttons to push in order to make them do or feel the things he needs them to feel. He manipulates Tris repeatedly in his canon in order to help her. He manipulates other leaders in Dauntless as well in order to guide them towards some behavior or action that he wants or needs. He can be cruel, though he tries to temper this. He tells Tris that fear wakes her up and then that sometimes he wants to scare her so he can watch her wake up. He beats a boy unrecognizable for trying to rape and kill Tris. He is self-deprecating, convinced that there is a monster inside of him, something that his father felt the need to control, the need to beat out of him. With the exception of his fear of heights, Four’s other fears speak very much about his childhood. His claustrophobia comes from his father locking him in a small, hallway closet as punishment. We’ve discussed the fear of his capacity to kill and his fourth and final fear is the fear of his father. When confronted with his father, it takes everything in him not to turn into the timid, cowed boy that he was before he transferred to Dauntless. His transfer to Dauntless brings another personality trait into sharp relief. Dauntless was by far the most difficult path that he could choose. However, it is the one that would cut his father the deepest. It was a decision made, in part, out of spite. This is a reflection of the rebelliousness and spitefulness that lies within him. Earning Four’s trust is a difficult thing. His experiences have led him to be naturally distrustful of people. He is closed mouthed and secretive; Again, personality traits that were learned more than anything. He doesn’t share a great deal about himself without a good deal of prodding, and only to those whom he does trust. In canon, that number is limited to Tris. He is loyal, but his loyalty, like his trust, is hard earned. He does not blindly follow rules or people. He learned at a very early age that people, government and factions aren’t always what they seem to be. Often, to outsiders, Four appears reckless and fearless. In reality he is neither of these things. Yes, he is an adrenaline junkie and his fears are few and far between, but his risks are calculated and when he takes them, he’s confident of his odds of survival. He is reckless in one regard; his tolerance for pain is incredibly high, so he doesn’t often let the fear of injury or pain dissuade him from doing something he wants to do. Like Tris, Four is divergent. This makes him incredibly strong willed, well suited to figuring things out and thinking on his feet.