Player InformationName: Chicklet
Age: Over 18
Contact: (Email/AIM/Plurk) Plurk: ChickletLARP
Characters already in Medietas: Papillon/Gabriel Agreste, Queen Cassidy of Dena Nehele, Tyleet
Reserve Link:
http://medietas-mods.dreamwidth.org/1679.html?thread=755855#cmt755855Character BasicsCharacter name: River Song
Character Journal: ProfessorSong
Canon: Doctor Who
Canon Point: The moment of her death
Age: Adult. Hard to tell beyond, as she is a time traveler, and as she regenerated from a small child, into another small child grew to a young adult, then regenerated into a more mature adult.
Icon:
http://v.dreamwidth.org/9562608/2445670Canon Character InformationAppearance:
River is a tall woman with a mass of wild curls. She is pale skinned and slender, and on the pretty side.
History:
Warning, Spoilers. Also, trigger warnings: World War II paraphernalia, and soldiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrgLNER9JBM (this one is easier to follow and better in general. HEr canon point is 12:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDrYa8GG2ac (this one is updated, harder to follow but more complete.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Song_(Doctor_Who)
Personality:
Trigger warning: her whole personality needs a trigger warning for nearly everything. For this section, violence and WWII mentions.
River Song is a lot of things. She's adventurous, brave, and smart. Sometimes, she is a little too smart for her own good. She is also contrary as a cat. She does what she wants, never mind little things like laws or orders.
"It was such a basic mistake, wasn't it Madam Kovarian? Take a child, raise her into a perfect psychopath, introduce her to the Doctor," The man she was meant to kill, "who else was I going to fall in love with?"
To be fair, she did try to kill him once. When she was new to this regeneration, learning who she was. But that was the same time she mouthed off to a group of Nazis, before stealing a motorcycle from them so she could shoot up a party in a grand German ballroom... because she needed some new clothing. "Well, I was on my way to this gay Gypsy Bar-Mitzvah for the disabled, when I thought gosh, the Third Reich's a bit rubbish. I think I'll kill the Fuhrer. Who's with me?"
She gets herself out of trouble nearly as easily as she gets herself into it, and when all else fails, she sends a message to the Doctor, with perfect trust that no matter when he is, he will always be there to catch her. Even when he has no clue who she is, he always comes when she calls. Is always there when she needs him.
Even when she doesn't think she does, and doesn't expect him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4WWf7dnW1c (Personal head cannon - she had no freaking clue that was him, but she was mixing truth and lies. She didn't think he would come if she was in danger out of love, but that if she called him, he would come. that she counted on that. But she had no intention of calling. She just needed to keep them busy long enough, keep them distracted long enough. We see later that she was buying time, that she was stalling. That much is known. My feeling is that the emotions started as an act, and built to something very close to the truth, almost the truth, pretty much the truth, but it started as an act, and she allowed herself to get carried away, to lend verisimilitude to the act, and then actually got a little too caught in her own feelings. Because she trailed off from his not being there, to his not loving her.)
I believe that even if she rarely shows in in so obvious a way, River is a woman with a lot of insecurities when it comes to the Doctor.
DOCTOR: Why did you lie to me?
RIVER: When one's in love with an ageless god who insists on the face of a twelve year old, one does one's best to hide the damage.
DOCTOR: It must hurt. Come here.
RIVER: Yes. The wrist is pretty bad too.
***
AMY: Okay, why did you lie?
RIVER: Never let him see the damage. And never, ever let him see you age. He doesn't like endings.
Until her date with the Doctor in
Husbands, River is sure that if the Doctor sees her age, sees her as weak, unable, or infirm, that he will move on. And she has reason to think he might. She knows enough about him. She knows about Sarah Jane. She knows he doesn't exactly waste his time with anyone who can't run with him. He likes them young and athletic. Companions, friends... she didn't want to be the next Sarah Jane, left behind for her own good.
But at Husbands, for the first time... He actually made it clear that he did love her...or at least... that he cared about her in a way that was different than how he cared about his companions. It eased some of the insecurities, though it will never wipe them completely away.
River fits with the Doctor in a very fundamental way. There is a reason she once said to him "One psychopath per Tardis". There is something to each of them that thinks on a scale that is far off from very nearly anyone else. This goes for morals, for plans, and for time. They both see things in a way even the other companions don't, and it makes them wonderful, and horrible, for each other.
Still, she would have loved to travel with him, when he offered, after Manhattan, if not for her certainty that moving in the same order would bore him, he would tire of her, and as she aged, he would be unwilling to keep her around.
Anyone who thinks that nothing that drastic in a person can change in a single night has never spent a night on Darillium. Even with a time machine. But the time they spent together there, they learned so much about each other, and so many of her fears were eased - not erased, but eased - and then she learned why.
He didn't give her a Sonic Screwdriver because her Sonic Trowel was embarrassing - okay, maybe that was a factor... He gave it to her, he spent the 24 year long night with her... because he knew what came next, what her next adventure was. He knew... the next time they met, she would die.
She had told him as much. Showed up on my door step, new suit and a hair cut.
With the Doctor, River is like a companion from his own personal future. Often a step ahead, ready to run, and oh so clever. She works hard at trying to stay ahead, trying to keep him interested. Always had. Until she spent 24 years with 12, where he was the one ahead, and they still managed to surprise each other.
There are not enough words to explain how much she loves that man; though often it seems she loves most to frustrate and confuse him.
When she isn't with him, she flits from adventure to adventure, gathering what information she can, looking for things that might interest him... and trying to keep him away from things he might disapprove of. Most of the time, he isn't thrilled at how ready she is to solve a problem with death - usually not her own, but that will do in a pinch - and her appreciation of the uses of a gun.
11: "Oh, and this is my friend River. Nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people. I shouldn't like that. Kind of do a bit."
She and 11 flirted in the oddest ways. He was the one who knew her best, and longest until Darillium. She has a different relationship with each version if the Doctor that she meets, accepting and embracing - quite literally when he lets her - each one of him, enjoying all the differences, and reveling in all the similarities.
And if it seems like most of her personality section is tied to the Doctor, there is a good reason for that. Her personality is wed to him even more firmly than she is. She was conceived on the Tardis, his Tardis. She was born to two of his friends - his current companions. She was raised the first time by his enemies, brainwashed to kill him. Her first act for herself was to call for help, a call that reached him. When she regenerated, she was raised by his friends, between the first time Amy - her mother - met him, and when they went traveling with him. That version of her, Mels, grew up on stories of the Doctor, was always in trouble because she talked about the Doctor in school.
"The Titanic sank, because the Doctor wasn't there to save them."
When she died as Mels, it was when she was with her parents - who finally got to raise her - and the Doctor. And her first act? Was to try and kill him. Succeeded too, more or less. Then she was convinced - while still learning who she was as the new regeneration - to give all her remaining regenerations to him, saving him from herself. Everything she has ever been, or ever will be, revolves around the Doctor, even when they are apart.
His bespoke psychopath. She defines herself through him.
But she is her parent's kid. She has Amy's smart mouth and Rory's mean right hook. And both she and her father have quite notably punched out the Doctor. Of course, he was plastic at the time, which might be why she was the one to get the KO.
Like her parents she is strong - inside and out. Like her mother she is sassy and has more than a bit of an attitude, and firmly believes that you can love more than one person at a time. Amy had her boys - Rory and the Doctor. River has each of the Doctors locked in her heart as separate people. And she loves each with a love unique to him.
In the episode Husbands,we see a little bit of her when she does not think the Doctor is there - though she is looking for him. We see her ham up being over dramatic, we see her acting and playing a role, playing to the gallery. As usual with her, the truth behind her role in the situation is hidden under many layers of lies and teasing and guts.
She plays to the gallery that she brought a doctor to save King Halifax out of her deep love for him, all the while she was planning to have the doctor kill him, because the projectile lodged into his brain that was killing him... was a nearly priceless legendary diamond. When he confronted her about her lies, her desire to kill him, she accused him of vile crimes - of which he was probably guilty - and claimed she was taking the diamond for the people it rightfully belonged to.
For that moment, she looked noble and proud and valiant. She seemed every inch the hero. However, we find out not long after that her plan isn't to return the diamond, it's to sell it to the highest bidder. She makes it clear she does not care who it is buying it, only that she is well paid.
River is an odd mix, as shown in this episode, of too much forethought/foreknowledge and not enough. Had she thought to look into the buyer, she would have known that it was people who revered the ancient king Hallifax, whose head she had in a bag, diamond still within. But she did think far enough ahead that the meeting place she chose was on a star liner doomed to a fateful run-in with an asteroid, knowing exactly where to stand to survive.
She is an archeologist who is also a time traveler, and she shamelessly exploits that combo-meal-deal to her advantage. She will be the reason a lost treasure is lost, then she'll "find" it. She metas time itself, using museums and landmarks to send messages. She is not above using people the way she would use tools or history books about the time she is actually in. She will meta, she will play games, she will lie like the rug she is standing on.
Honestly, Billy Joel sums River Song up best....
She's always a woman.
River is brave to a fault. She does in fact have her degree. She was convicted then pardoned, though perhaps not quite in that order. She is an archeologist, a thief, a mercenary... She is a little bit of everything all rolled into one. (another blatant song reference, given her name, yes.)
Powers/Abilities/Talents:
Sharp mind, analytical. Good physical endurance. Wicked good marksman. She's human, but as Vastra said, human +. While she can no longer regenerate - in theory - the Doctor has used his regeneration energy to heal her. While nothing is said, canonically, regeneration seems to have given her a bumper crop of genetic potential, and having lived first as Melody, then as Mels, and now as River has given her time to realize quite a bit of it.
AU/CR AU Addendum: N/A
What 4 items would you like your character to have with them on the island during their stay?
With her when she arrives/in her pockets in and under the space suit (and presumably she is wearing a jump suit under the space suit...)
Her selection of lipsticks (they range from Hallucinogenic to poisonous/deadly.)
Tardis Key
Key to handcuffs.
Spotter's guide - a thin folio with pictures of 13 men, who are all the same man. Her husband.
Psychic paper - the person seeing it sees what they expect to see (sometimes they see what the person holding it wants them to see, but that's not always the clearest/most consistent.)
The head piece she is wearing, which is meant to (and actually does) pass a whole lot of current through her, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8yssg1fbyg">2:11 (she is taken from 2:17)
Things I want her to have for her four:
Her Sonic screw driver
Her Tardis-blue Diary, full up of memories and adventures
Vortex Manipulator (cheap and nasty time/space travel, presumably for the game, it will be nerfed so that she can travel around that world in space, but not leave it, and not travel through time, except with mod permission?)
Her guns collection:
Squareness gun and
her usual gun (start at 3:49). (Picked just two for simplicity sake and to not abuse the fact that she pretty much always has a different gun.)
..... she.... will have to find handcuffs. Somewhere.
Samples - Can be linked
First Person:
http://medietas-ooc.dreamwidth.org/59407.html?thread=3771919#cmt3771919Third Person:
[River had found a new dress from somewhere - all to the good since it seemed to make 12 uncomfortable to see the space suit he watched her die in. And there were more fun ways to make that man uncomfortable. So she was on the screen, all big hair, plunging neckline, and huge smiles. She knew the Doctor was likely to see this. So she might be playing it up, a little.]
"Well then! Hello, I'm Professor River Song, archeologist. As a matter of purely professional curiosity, I was wondering if anyone could tell me what historical treasures this place holds, and which ones may have been lost to, well, time. I might as well have an adventure or two while I'm here, and what could be more fun than a dig to find a priceless treasure everyone thought was gone forever?"
[Stealing it, would be more fun, of course. But she already planned on doing just that. And she was well aware that the Doctor would figure that much out.]
"So! I need information, and volunteers for a dig! Who is with me?"
[She gave them all her brightest, most encouraging smile. And it was almost honest, too. She was really looking forward to this!]
Finally, out of the 4 words, pick one: Chimes, lake, gravel, or sun? Since I know what this is for, now, please just choose for her whatever the 12th Doctor chose. Mutually agreeable stalking is the order of the day.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}