Character Information
Character Name: River Song
Canon: Doctor Who
Canon Point: Forest of the Dead
Character Journal: riverborntorun
Appearance: River Song struts about at 5'7" (1.70m), though she's fond of boots and heels so she tends to appear taller. Her most prominent physical feature is her signature hair, a coif of unruly curls, mostly blonde with hints of light brown. Her eyes are blue-green, and her lips are often painted with attention-grabbing lipstick. She's a curvy woman who appreciates showing off her figure. She favors snug and flattering outfits, but she always has a weapon on her person out of practicality for the life she leads. She'll wear whatever the occasion calls for, as long as she can have a bit of fun with it.
Age: She looks to be in her 40s - in terms of years she's actually LIVED it's higher. Although due to regeneration she sort of skipped the mid-20s and 30s years.
History: http://riverborntorun.dreamwidth.org/4121.html
Personality: In a minimum of three paragraphs (or more) detail your characters personality, behaviors, motivations, and goals. What makes them tick? Just who are they?
River is as complex as any other average person. The problem is, she's led a beyond average life that makes it difficult for her to open up to people. She has intimate knowledge of the future that she must conceal, and often lies or puts on an act in order to do so. She’s a relentless flirt and fan of innuendo, and she will resort to any means necessary to get what she wants. She isn’t quite as prone to mercy as the Doctor is, though she’s likely more mellow now compared to her younger years. Being raised as a psychopath and an assassin makes you a bit…feisty.
In her younger years, she had less respect for the laws of time (well, laws in general really). It is likely that because she did not have a stable childhood, River behaved as if she were above the law, thus constantly getting into trouble. Truthfully, she often felt that she didn’t belong anywhere in the universe, hence why very few can actually get close to her and why she often prefers to travel the universe rather than stay in one place. Even while jailed she couldn’t stay still.
Her life as an archaeology professor hasn’t been explored in canon, but my thoughts are that River teaches in between adventures with the Doctor and prides herself upon being the eccentric but well-loved professor. She has great stories to share with her students, but she can also come down hard on them, because she’s challenging them to think.
More than anything, River wants two things out of life – freedom and love. Though she experienced a fair amount of independence growing up in Leadworth, her primary objective was always related to killing the Doctor, an order imposed upon her by her captors. Captors who meddled in her life again years after she thought she had escaped them. She never wants to be held down like that again. River fears being a slave to anyone’s will but her own. She prefers to go by River Song rather than her birth name because she associates it with her past as a pawn to the Silence (head-canon).
As for love, it has been the one ‘constant’ in her life. Raised as a weapon to kill the Doctor, he became her obsession, one that eventually backfired for the Silence as those intense feelings for the only man in her life became love. At this canon point she is being pulled from, River has already faced one of her great fears – the Doctor not knowing her. She’s dedicated her life to him, because he believed she could be a better person. He was, in her eyes, the first one to see her as a person and not a tool. For that she is eternally grateful.
Powers/Special Abilities: Anything about your character that's different, magical, supernatural, or gifted? Please detail here.
FYI, this section is a merge of canon and head-canon, though all the head-canon is firmly based on in-universe precedent.
As a time traveler, River has intimate knowledge of alien life and future events, especially those of the 51st and 52nd centuries. She is an excellent marksman and gifted at lying. With her knowledge, she has to lie in order to protect the fragility of space and time. She has also dabbled in lock-picking, and can read and write in Old High Gallifreyan. Much to the chagrin of the Doctor, she is an excellent TARDIS pilot and appears to know how to operate the TARDIS better than he does. She also has very swift reflexes (evidenced in "Let's Kill Hitler"). Furthermore, she takes no responsibility if anything you say can be turned into an innuendo.
Though born of human birth, River’s triple-helix DNA made her capable of Time-Lord like regeneration. She has since lost that ability, but her genes will still look veeery interesting under a microscope! In addition to that, the fact that she was conceived in and has had countless adventures in the TARDIS means she’s been soaked in Artron Radiation, which has altered her biological makeup and made her highly resistant to illness. Furthermore, it enables her to remember alternate histories/timelines that have occurred, and gives her Temporally Active Biodata. This refers to her ability to influence time to a greater extent than others. This, according to head-canon, is why the Silence needed her as an assassin for the Doctor – they could take advantage of her ability to influence time in order to make the Doctor’s death a fixed point.
River Power: What change has the river gifted (or cursed) your character with?
Light generation. It will manifest slowly; at first she will only be able to glow intermittently. If she gets a handle on it and masters her ability, she might be able to generate short bursts of light (either as an offensive attack or a defensive distraction). There will be limits on it due to her energy level and physical health. Her emotional state will also play heavily into its early manifestation.
Reason for Character Choice: I wasn't properly moved to pick up River as a muse until the episode "A Good Man Goes to War". I'd loved her since her first appearance, but she was always very enigmatic, which would've made her a difficult character to play. Once her origins were officially explained, I felt brave enough to try my hand at her. I've been playing her since 2011, and I feel like I've gotten to know her very well. I just love how brazenly flirtatious she is but she's also knowledgeable like the Doctor. It's nice to see someone who can actually knock him off his feet rather than just keep him on his toes.
Additional Information: Anything else we should know?
I'm in the process of moving, so tags will be slow at first.
Writing Samples
First-Person Transmission Sample:
I’m not sure I like this. Strange, really, I’ve always been the type to try anything once, but this? Goes against everything I’ve learned. A journal – or at least, my journal is supposed to be private. For my eyes only. But an audio journal? That’s like trying to have a conversation without the luxury of someone’s eyes to look into. Or it means someone really loves to hear himself talk – trust me, I know a man like that, god forbid he ever had to keep one of these...
[Her voice drifts off for a moment, and when she resumes she’s abandoned that line of thought] Anyway, I suppose now that I’m here, all the usual rules are out the door, yes? Which sounds like a lot of fun, actually – no rules, only good times.
But I’m afraid my good times are over, sweetie… [Is she talking to herself, or imagining someone else is there?] I lived my life. If this is some sort of…second chance, I’m not sure I want it. Or maybe it’s hell, in which case…
[The cocking of a gun can be heard] ..Here. I. Come.
Third-Person Log Sample:
"CAL? Who're you talking to? Dinner's almost ready!"
The woman known as River Song, the universe's favorite femme fatale, had gone domestic. Living in the data core meant her time for adventures was over. Now she could have a go at a life that had never been an option before - looking after children. It was an adventure she never expected to find so fulfilling - running after them in games of tag and tucking them into bed at night after a good story.
The other two children of the data core were currently under the care of Miss Evangelista as part of a rotating agreement. They were children who were originally donated as part of the Node program, and Miss Evangelista had formed a surprisingly strong bond with them over time. Perhaps it was the youthful behaviors they shared.
Charlotte Abigail Lux, AKA CAl, however, preferred River's company over the others of the team. Not that there was much left of her team anymore. They'd been here for who knows how many years, and over time her colleagues had begun to fade. They'd lived full enough lives to pass peacefully, but River....River kept hanging on.
If she'd learned anything from her lives, it was that there was always a way out. So she hung on, searching for some manner of egress from their little virtual world. She'd come close once, learning to project outward. The psychic ability she'd honed over the years to be able to message the Doctor's psychic paper wasn't all that different. Came in handy when Vastra, Jenny, and Strax needed her for a 'conference call'. Opening a mental link with Clara helped her have one last goodbye with her husband, and she promised him she would let go.
She hadn't broken that promise, but she hadn't fulfilled it yet either. She was living out what she expected to be the last of her days. She'd even started to gray and develop a few wrinkles. She was data, after all. And data could be manipulated.
CAL bounded over to the dinner table after hanging up the telephone.
"And just who was that, young lady?" River asked, setting the table. The young girl only smiled like she had a secret. "My new friend," she said cryptically. "We're planning a surprise for tomorrow. For your birthday."
River paused in the pouring of drinks. "Oh? Is it that time of year again already? Feels like it just went by..."
CAL giggled. "This one you won't forget. It's going to be really special. I've been working on it for ages. You'll see it when you wake up."
If only she had paid more attention to those words.
~~~~~~~~~~~
When she awoke, it was all pain. Hot, searing pain that made her afraid to open her eyes. Her mouth, however, was another matter. Her lips parted to let out a scream, that only subsided when the pain dulled to a low, throbbing ache. With a gasp she forced her eyelids open to the dim room around her.
"But....h-how?" she whispered, looking about her at the innermost floor of the Library. The area of the core where she'd handcuffed the Doctor...and she had died.
"Aren't I a clever girl?" The node face of CAL asked with a smile.
River couldn't formulate a response, she was still too dumbfounded. She had her body back - or a new body that...seemed just like it. She looked at her arms and legs, properly noticing that she was naked as a newborn. She looked at CAL for an explanation, but the alarm that began to blare cut off any sort of long-term conversation.
A hurried explanation and a warning to "watch the shadows" made River want to roll her eyes. Did she really come back from the dead for all this? Still, no time to snark at the child of the data core, River had to make a dash for the transporter room and beam out before the shadows got her. She was officially trespassing in the forests of the Vashta Nerada now.
"Can't get any worse," she muttered to herself, running between bookshelves and down brightly-lit corridors. "Naked, resurrected, and on the run from flesh-eating shadows. Surely there's a joke in this that I'm missing." Probably something along the lines that she looked "good enough to eat".
She scrambled into the transporter room and immediately set upon the controls. It looked as though a destination sequence was already set, but there was no one else about. And, to her greater surprise, a familiar tool was on the nearby counter.
"And just who's been using my screwdriver?" She said aloud, snatching it up. "Suppose I should've left a last will and testament..."
A figure lurched into view, a walking skeleton of what River assumed was once a woman, based upon the red dress hanging to her stickly figure.
"Oh no you don't!" River exclaimed, thinking what a pity it was that 1) this woman just may have been the 'friend' CAL referred to, and she had died to get River out of the core, and 2) that such a nice dress was going to waste.
"Sorry sweetie, I've got other plans than being on the menu. So long!" River backed up onto the transporter pad, and aimed her sonic screwdriver at the controls to beam away. Before she was completely transported though, she heard the oddest phrase.
"R...Run you clever boy...and remember.."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
