θ Application for gauntlet_rpg
θ Player Information
θ Name/Nickname: Jchan
θ Livejournal Username: vampydirector
θ AIM: vampwrite
θ Timezone: EST (GST -5)
θ Current Characters: None!
θ Character Information
θ Name: The Doctor (Tenth)
θ Fandom: Doctor Who
θ Age: 905 (But that's more like an estimate. He's been lying about his age for centuries now.)
θ Gender: Male
θ OU, AU, or RU: RU (OU originally via crucible_rpg)
θ Assignment: IACC-Hawking
θ Appearance:
Little over six feet tall, thin like a rail with lean muscle. Appears to be in his mid to late thirties, brown eyes. Has pale skin with freckles, especially on his face, and brown hair that has practically a life of its own. (Prefers to style it rather spiky, as of late.) Wears a close-fitted brown suit with blue pinstripes (or a blue suit with brown pinstripes), Converse trainers (cream or red, depending on the suit), and a long, light brown overcoat with big pockets, given to him by Janis Joplin. Also wears tortoise-shell specs when he's trying to concentrate or examine something--but mostly wears them to appear even smarter than he is. There's no prescription in them.
θ History:
His beginnings and past lives
Current incarnation's recent history <--Only up to The Next Doctor. His canon point is between that and Planet of the Dead.
The Doctor, upon arriving on the Crucible, spent his time trying to find a way off it, drinking plenty of tea, searching for his TARDIS, shouting a fair bit, and weathering all sorts of anomalies that never should have effected him in the first place, but surprise, they did.
For his real history aboard the Crucible go here, but if you want to skip all that and simply see what his life was like after, go here please.
θ Personality:
The Doctor, in his tenth incarnation (ninth regenerative cycle for those keeping score), is a genuinely friendly guy when one first meets him. Usually. There have been exceptions. On a whole, he's witty, sarcastic, manic, chatty, and boy, can he babble on about nonsensical and sensible things. Often, his prattling is used as a means to distract his enemies, often angering them because honestly, he doesn't shut up once he's gotten going, but at the same time, he uses his babbling to pass along important information to his companion and allies. Oh yes, and he is unintentionally rude at times, and intentionally rude at other times. Sometimes he doesn't recognize when he is, and might need someone to point this fact out, but depending on the situation, he might feel bad, but most likely he won't. Normally, he's rather happy and jolly on the surface, and always filled with curiosity about the things around him. He loves a good joke and has a brilliant sense of humour, though he's been known to use horrible puns at the worst times and horrible puns at good times. Really, he ought to lay off the bad puns altogether, but he just can't help himself. All part of his charm, really.
He's filled with self-confidence, erring on the side of arrogance, and yes, he can be an insufferable, impossible, know-it-all dick. (It's all part of the rude thing, but he's always been a bit of dick. This incarnation is just more so than most of his past selves--with the exception of his sixth incarnation, especially the very early years.) He's extremely clever and is also a genius. And he will tell you so too without a hint of modesty or humility. He doesn't take too kindly to being wrong about some things or being unable to solve a problem right off the bat. But for other things, he welcomes the surprise. As much as he loves being right--and he does--he also loves that the universe still has things that can catch him off-guard. He can and will poke his nose into things, whether he had permission to or not.
He's also eager to explain to people the things that interest him (like how things work, why something is like it is or why he thinks it is, etc), but his explanations often fly over the heads of those he's explaining to. Often, he needs to translate his "simple" explanations filled with technobabble and jargon and, really, it usually only makes sense to him--to something even more simplistic and basic. And a whole less fun, but he'll do it if asked, if there's time to, that is. But even a great mind like his can get a little forgetful and absent-minded at times, or even lack common sense in situations. He'll neglect to tell people things that might be important at the time, but ah, sometimes that's deliberate, so one never can quite tell with him. He can get annoyed with himself for his occasional, honest-to-god forgetful moments, admonishing himself and saying he's stupid.
He loves pop culture, especially late 20th to 21st century Earth pop culture, but his random bits of knowledge extend far backwards and forwards into history and across the universe. He's also a notorious and horrible name-dropper, and it's been debated many times between his companions over the years about how truthful he is about this. He might be pulling their leg--or telling the truth--and he never lets on which way it really is. He's a big fan of bananas in any form and cupcakes with the little edible ball bearings sprinkled on top. He's a big lover of just about anything-except pears. Pears are right out, and he's not as big a fan of sweets as he used to, saying they're bad for his teeth.
He's very protective of those he cares for, as well as for the innocent parties that get caught up in the bad things that happen around him, and they occur quite often as his lifestyle attracts danger. In some parts of the universe, it is known that the Doctor brings death in his wake, but to be fair, the death bringers are usually there first and he walks into the middle of it. He can be very self-righteous in his sense of justice. He's often the only one willing to make the choice between what is right and wrong--and sometimes what is right might not be right in the moral sense, but right for what must be done to save the day. He's also the type who will purposefully taunt and provoke his enemies and not show any fear in front of them while doing so (he's very good at masking it) so he can gain an upper-hand on them. It's a tactic he's particularly fond of. He comes off as particularly scary when he's truly angry. His anger can range from shouty indignant rage to seemingly-calm-but-boiling-hot-under-the-surface fury. Sometimes, it seems like he has a death wish, often acting recklessly and making up plans as he goes along, but if he has to, he would--and has tried to--sacrifice his life if it meant that others could live and he'd stopped the bad guys. He's yet to get it through his thick head that the universe needs him.
He detests firearms with a passion and really, weapons of any kind, but he can fight (and has fought) with a sword. He is, however, more likely to try to solve a fight through words and diplomacy rather than getting physical. And if that doesn't work, he'll run away to think of a better solution, but lately, he doesn't do much running away, not when it comes down to the final showdown. One must remember he is a man of "no second chances". After he's exhausted most of his options, he'll issue his one chance warning to stop what they're doing and straighten up to even the greatest of his foes. Unfortunately, the option to help them is usually thrown back in his face, which only leaves him with his final and least desirable option of punishing them in some way, shape or form. He also doesn't tolerate anyone who isn't willing to try to help. It irritates him. Waver for a moment or try to weasel your way out of doing something, and he'll write you off as useless and ignore you. He doesn't have time to be wasting on such nonsense.
Deep down, he's essentially a very lonely old man and has admitted on the rare occasion that his companions break his heart. Having lived for many, many centuries, he's seen countless people live and die and leave him. They always leave him in the end. The reason he'll give even his worst enemies a chance to live is so that there won't be any more death.
θ Strengths:
He's very intelligent--and by very, I mean extremely, and when I say extremely, I mean he makes Einstein look like a half-wit (and that's on a bad day, mind you)--and has an intellect that registers far off the normal human scale of IQ testing. He's been known to say that he's a doctor of practically everything (or plain old 'everything' depending on his mood and situation he's in), and that is no lie. He uses a sonic screwdriver that can do quite a lot of things (has thousands of uses for it, like unlocking things, using it to get medical read-outs on things, occasionally putting up the odd shelf or two, but it's not a weapon; it doesn't fire sonic beams or anything harmful). Physically his body temperature is a lot lower than a humans (around 60F/15C); he can withstand temperatures as hot as 392F/200C and cold as absolute zero/-270C, as well as extremely high levels of radiation (up to a point, mind. There are levels that even his body can't safely process and will result in triggering a regeneration), has a binary vascular system, and go without air for up to twenty minutes if need be (aka a lung bypass system. Quite handy to possess, actually.)
Doesn't need a lot of sleep or food. Eats and drinks more for pleasure and company. Alcohol tolerance is pretty damn high. It takes a hell of a lot of alcohol to get a Time Lord drunk. He's not one you want to go up against in a drinking contest because he will drink you under the table. Of course, he can pretend to have gotten drunk as well to keep with the mood of a party, but he can sober up fairly quick. (Though there is a caveat to the drinking thing in the weakness section.) Has advanced senses--for example, he can tell the chemical makeup of something just by licking it or even sniffing the air, and is mildly telepathic (however, he has to be touching the person with whom he wants to share a telepathic link with). Though, how much he truly is is also debatable. As far as sight and hearing, these are more finely tuned than your average biped, and he can see fairly well in the dark. Use of a torch is normally for his companion's benefit.
Another sense, and an incredibly important one for him, is the sense of Time. He can sense the passage of time what is in flux, fixed, what should be, what can't, and all the possibilities in-between. For example, a fixed point in time would be the destruction of Pompeii. It has to happen and he can't prevent the deaths of upwards of 20,000 people (and in his known history, he's actually the one who causes it.) A point in time that's in flux, however, can be regarded as something as big as the appearance of aliens in Downing Street--or the death of someone who might not have impacted the world on an extremely grand scale. He considered the possible death of Agatha Christie as a point in flux because she still would become famous for her books--she was well on her way to when he did meet her--just not for how many she wrote. (As a note, in Crucible, I had dampened this sense of his, but since the nature of the game isn't cyclical, I won't be doing anything to his senses. Besides, he'll know something's wrong just by his being back there. Doesn't need his senses to tell him that.)
He can't say no to experiencing something new (which might also be considered a weakness). He's musically inclined, and this incarnation can play the organ/piano, but likes composing more than anything--whether he's any good at it is another thing entirely.
He has very, very strong psychic defences, and only someone with equally strong abilities stands a chance of breaking through those defences and reading his mind. He can feel if someone's trying to break in and really, you don't want to break into a Time Lord's mind, especially one like the Doctor's. Nobody's been there to tidy up in a while, most likely! In all seriousness though, the Doctor is someone who, by this point in his life, has encountered just about all the different devices in the universe that can break through someone's mind barriers, like mind probes. Don't get him started on mind probes. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, after all. There is the oft chance that he's let the barrier on his mind down--he does let the defences on the TARDIS down on occasion, even if that is a very bad idea--so there's a chance of getting a split-second glimpse of what's on his mind, but the moment he feels someone poking around, his mind will clam up tighter than a deadlock-sealed door.
On that same vein of psychic power, he can sense other Time Lords; he can feel their presence in the back of his mind. With other Time Lords, he can communicate with them telepathically, but only if one is touching the other's temples. He can use this same technique to scan someone's mind and memories--and he can also use it to suppress memories as well, as he's had to do to his best mate, Donna Noble. He was also trained in the art of psionics or hypnotism, but he doesn't like to do it (though he had no qualms about it in his fourth incarnation). He leaves hypnotism to the Master since that's his bag, not the Doctor's. But back to psychic connections! The connection with the Time Lords (or lack thereof in Ten's case since they're all gone) is very different from the connection he feels with his TARDIS. Theirs is a bond of countless different levels, and most of those are private; all of them intimate. It's a comforting presence, even if she can give him the silent treatment, and ohhh, he can tell when she's angry with him, but also when she's happy too. (Another note! In Crucible, their connection had been severed and they couldn't feel each other in the backs of their minds, but here they will.)
θ Weaknesses:
As powerful and mighty as his sonic screwdriver is, it can't open deadlocked sealed doors, windows, etc. It's actually quite annoying, but he's learned to live with that.
He can have an awful temper when people don't listen to him--even if what he says is for their own good, and dear lord how many times has he been right that X group will get in trouble if they do Y thing?--and unfortunately, when he's forced to act against his enemies, he has been known to get carried away and needs someone to tell him to stop. Unfortunately, the person who did that is no longer with him and he's seemed to have forgotten that little detail as he doesn't want any other companions and therefore, he doesn't have anyone to stop him. Only time will tell how that fact will effect him in the future.
His tuxedo-he thinks it only brings him bad luck (and hasn't proven him differently yet), though whether that's isolated to the one he owns or any tuxedo he wears regardless of ownership is questionable, but all tuxedos will be considered bad luck until proving innocent.
At times, he has problems with ordinal lists and catches himself switching from numbers to letters, or vice-versa, then amending himself.
In a way, his friends can be only because their being captured or hurt is a way to provoke and injure him.
While his psychic defences are strong, he can really only use his own through touch. (Unless he's trying to use his to communicate with another Time Lord--especially one of his previous selves--then that's a different story.) Also, though his psychic defences are strong, it does make him more sensitive to such presences.
The aforementioned caveat regarding alcohol is this: in previous incarnations, ginger beer has proven to get him absolutely stinking drunk--why is that? Nobody knows!--so trusting that it still can get him drunk in his current incarnation, he avoids it. Unless he wants to get drunk. (But more than likely, he'll just go for a lime soda or banana daiquiri, but he's not opposed to a pint.) He can get hangovers just like anyone else though, especially after consuming a great deal of alcohol.
He can be mortally wounded like anyone else. (Doesn't like getting shot-had a bad experience getting shot once and doesn't care to repeat it.) Cut him, he bleeds. Punch him in the face, his nose might break (and if someone did, he might've deserved it.) His curiosity gets him in trouble more often than not. One thing that can really knock him flat is if his sense of time is taken away. It's happened before when he was stuck in a universe without time (really, time truly didn't exist) and to him, it feels like having a limb chopped off. And it hurts. Time sickness makes every single cell in his body ache with emptiness for what should be there but isn't, and at the same time, being in contact with someone is made up of time (aka everybody), it hurts him as well. It's a lose/lose situation, essentially. Ah yes, he also may or may not have a pesky, but deadly allergy to aspirin. At one time in his life, he was convinced of this fact, but he simply avoids because why tempt fate that way? He's also decided to spurn anaesthesia, especially the Earth kind, as it simply doesn't work on him.
Without his TARDIS, he would be lost. And very much stranded in one location and if there's one thing he can't abide, it's being stuck in one place and time for far too long. Especially against his will.
θ Sample:
[it's not every day that he finds himself waking up ill, never mind he doesn't actually sleep every day, but wake up ill he does and he starts rubbing his eyes.] Blimey, where is--?
[but he freezes, his words dying on his tongue, upon hearing a very familiar voice--slightly older than the last time he heard it--and removes his hands from his eyes. immediately, he spots a man he hoped he'd never see again sitting at his bedside. the nerve.] You... Orion, why am I--?! [and then he realises that the man isn't really there, his eyes discerning the subtle flickers of a tell-tale holographic projection, which only annoys him even more.]
[he allows Orion to speak--and secretly, part of him wants to believe he's hit his head on the TARDIS console and is simply imagining all this--but at the mention of the Hyperstring Gate, his face darkens and he immediately sits up, nausea be damned] What?! I thought I told you to destroy that technology! Your people--[he pauses for a moment to clutch at his head and continues, his voice low] Your people weren't ready for such technology. I told you that the last time I was here!
[much to his disappointment, the hologram continues without acknowledging his outburst and bangs on about about how they'd let such dangerous technology disappear from out from under their noses from someone or some group called The First. somehow, he thinks it's rather ironic that Orion is asking for his help when the help he originally gave him was so obviously misused or not used at all. sometimes, he really wonders why he bothers with humans any longer! it's not like they listen to him half the time anyway.]
[finally, once Orion finishes, he swings his feet off the bed, wagging a finger at the hologram--but stops realising the motion is meaningless. he has to press a blue button--fancy that, him having to take orders from that man of all people--and if there's something he can't resist, it's pressing a button no matter what their colour. so, he presses it. and when he starts speaking, his voice is, at first, somewhat jovial, but quickly becomes dangerously calm as he's trying to contain the absolute fury he feels for being drawn into this world yet again]
Well, if it isn't my old friend, Orion! Well, I suppose I ought to be calling you 'Admiral Orion' or even 'Admiral Ganymede', but if I had my way, you'd be stripped of your rank right this instant. [and he means it. he can and has deposed countless despots, dictators, prime ministers, kings, and morons from their positions of power in the past and what's another name on that long list?] However! I think you and I need to have a little chat first before I get on that whole stripping of the rank thing. I hope you're not too busy right now 'cause we're going to be here for a while. [and even if Orion were busy, he doesn't care!]
All right, one! As I told you before--well, as I told your holographic projection moments ago, I should say--I thought I'd given explicit instructions to destroy every piece of technology on down to every single little scrap of paper with an equation or two on it that had anything to do with the Hyperstring Gate project. [his face darkens, his voice going low] I know I wasn't talking to myself that day. I remember everything that happened, from the moment I arrived to the very nanosecond I left. And come to think of it, I believe two scientists were there that day, what were their names... Oh yes! Anand and Chandra! How are they doing, by the way? So you know, I won't be very happy to hear if they've been involved in this again. I would have thought their supposed original deaths would be enough of a warning not to try it again, but what do I know? [he throws his hands up in the air theatrically] You humans never seem to learn anyway and the Gates' very existence is proof of this!
Now, B, no, two! How the hell did you lose a Gate anyway? Did you manage to make them travel-sized since the last time the IAIC mucked about with this project and someone just walked in and nicked it?! And to think you have one on a ship right now... The next time you decide to not listen to me, why don't you install a homing beacon or a tracker of some kind so you can find it a little easier and spare us all the trouble of getting involved again! Actually, you may as well do that to the one you have contained on the Gauntlet right now. Oh, and I've got to say it must be nice to be on the only ship that's safe from the effects of that Gate. Or is it really? If we're on another collision course with a black hole, you can bet I'll find my way on-board your ship and stop you. [his voice softens for a moment, sounding almost disappointed] I'd have thought you, of all people, Orion, would remember what sort of dangers the operation of the Gate can pose on the human mind. I'd ask after your father, but something tells me nothing will have changed since last we spoke.
And finally, three. I want out of here; out of this room, out of this ship, out of this universe entirely. I want to be back in my own universe and back to my TARDIS--which I see I've managed to be parted from yet again. [and that doesn't please him one single bit. you don't mess with his TARDIS. especially when this is the second time in this incarnation he's managed be plucked from the inside of his fantastic, wonderful, and powerful ship.] However, the only way I'm going to do that is if I play along with your little operation. So yes, I'll be joining you but I have a couple conditions. I will not wear a uniform, nor will I carry a gun, so don't even bother issuing me one. I freely offer my services as scientific and strategic advisor--really, my skill and sheer genius are leaps and bounds above that of your average grunt, so you'd be an idiot to ignore that. You won't be able to do this without my help, after all. Or anyone else who happens to be pulled into this again or for the first time. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure no one dies while on this hunt for your wayward Gate, because so help me... [he trails off, figuring his point has been made, then he closes his eyes for a moment. he takes a well-deserved breath.]
Are we clear, Orion? [his voice and expression have softened a little] I'll do this for you and find your Gate. Maybe I'll even reconsider what I said earlier. But I want your promise that no one will be harmed. Not anyone or anything in The First or anyone who arrives here from their home universes. I think that's the least you can do for me.
For all of us.