Siren's Pull Application
Player Information
Name: Em
Age: 20
AIM SN: titsfortardis
email: titsfortardis@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes indeed!
Currrently Played Characters: n/a
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Here!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Doctor Who
Canon Format: TV series
Character's Name: The Doctor (10)
Character's Age: Somewhere north of the 900 range.
What form will your character's NV take? It'll look like Martha's old cellular phone, not too dissimilar to this phone here, only with a slightly larger screen for video calls as well as a tiny projector in the back for any holograms.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: While the Doctor may seem like a completely normal human - albeit a bit of a know-it-all - he’s actually an alien with an alien physiology. And there-in lie a few greater than normal abilities, so to speak.
First-of-all, as part of an alien species, while the Doctor looks perfectly human he has an utterly different physical make-up. His internal organs resemble those of humans, sure, but they operate differently, with him having systems to bypass the human-esque ones inside of him, sometimes even having two of various different organs. As such this makes his body a little more efficient than a regular human’s. He can survive falls from heights that would shatter the bones of a normal human, coming out with just a few bruises and scrapes. He can withstand heats that would melt a human’s skin, can live through sub-zero temperatures that would kill a human in an instant. He can even withstand the pressure and lack of temperature within a vacuum in space, radiation that would fry a human’s internal organs within seconds. But only for a few moments. It’s not too hard to kill a Time Lord, you just have to know the best way to go about it.
Perhaps the most flaunted differences between the Doctor and regular humans is the fact that the Doctor has two hearts, heightened senses, a brilliant mind, and minimal psychic powers.
The two heart thing is pretty self-explanatory, but does lead to a few little things of note. With two hearts he has a more efficient cardiovascular system. His resting heart rate is around ten beats per minute, escalating to far above normal when sick, stressed, or just really, really excited. In addition (and as a little random biological thing of note), the Doctor is immune to strangulation, as he has a pulmonary bypass system for whenever something damages his rather human-like way of breathing. It involves little pockets of air stored throughout his body, allowing him to continue to filter oxygen through his system until wind-pipe obstruction can be rectified. This also leads to increased buoyancy, considering his body becomes a kind of flotation device due to these little pockets of air. This is only a deterrent to death, however, and doesn’t mean the Doctor can survive without having to breathe. Once those air pockets run out, he’ll be prone to oxygen deprivation just like any other human being. However, in the case of strangulation, once the pulmonary bypass kicks in, his longs no longer inflate and deflate, and if he manages to calm his heartbeat to the minimal ten beats per minute it often means he can appear to be dead without actually being dead. Which, in the case of assault, can usually lead to a rather handy escape.
The Doctor’s heightened senses are another little ability that helps him out from time to time. His eyesight and hearing seem to be around the human range, if not at the peak of it, but his sense of smell and taste has allowed him to further his investigative qualities from time to time. With one little inhale he can usually pick out scents and chemical properties which allow him to determine the time period, the country, the city, the planet, the galaxy with just one quick whiff. He can also sniff around, a lot like a bloodhound, and sometimes manage to pick out certain scents in an area. Taste is another thing that the Doctor tends to rely on. With one lick or taste of a substance he’s been able to determine the physical make-up of it, how old it is, what’s been in contact with it in the past few days.
There is one little important thing to note about his vision, which correlates to what his brain can do as well. While his eyes are at the peak of a normal human’s (no telescopic vision or heat sensing or x-ray vision or anything of the sort) they work hand and hand with his mind in order to see everything. One quick glance around is all he needs, his brain then pieces together the information and allows him to sort through everything. Where-as humans may see something out of the corner of their eye, or just with one fleeting glance, the Doctor will notice and remember every bit of it. He could glance over and see a blurry reflection of a name-badge in a phone box window out of the corner of his eye for just the slightest of milliseconds, and still his mind would record the information and even allow him to filter back through it, to track it back and see the words written there in perfect clarity. So while his eyes don’t work much different than the average human’s, when working hand-in-hand with his mind they are a force to be reckoned with.
Now, contrary to humans who only use a small portion of their brain at any given moment in time, the Doctor uses every part of his brain just about all the time. And not only that, but there’s more packed into the relatively human-sized head than for humans. He can calculate things in the blink of an eye, can store all of history of every planet in the back of his mind, can comprehend situations and theories far beyond the scope of humanity with little effort, and, most commonly seen, can use his uniquely operating brain to jump to conclusions with very little obvious correlation to the current situation.
One last little ability of the Doctor - at least as far as his own mind and body goes - is that he has limited psychic abilities. All Gallifreyans are a little psychic, having had a psychic link to each other in days past. They know another Gallifreyan on sight - the exception to this rule being if they cross over on a future version of themselves - as they are also able to “hear” the existence of another Time Lord anywhere in the Universe. It’s more of an itching awareness than an actual, working connection. They can’t communicate telepathically at all, their “psychic link” acts only as a sort of... Time Lord detector. But in addition to that, the Doctor has honed this little ability of his in order to give him a few other little telepathic skills. The most notable of these is his ability to wander the mind of another he’s in contact with. By simply placing his fingers on the other person's temples he can wander through their thoughts and memories, can see whatever tampering others have been doing in their minds. But this is a two way door, and if the person is exceptionally gifted, they could be able to wander into his mind just as easily. So long as the link is maintained, that is.
The Sonic screwdriver is the last thing of note, and is actually a rather ingenious little invention of his. It looks like a pen with a glowing blue light at the end, a pen that seems to vibrate and hum whenever he activates it. While it may seem to do nothing noteworthy when he’s waving it around, its absolutely phenomenal with technology and anything that locks. With it he can sabotage just about any computer or electronic device, can hack into just about anything, and he can unlock preeeeetty much any sort of locking mechanism. It can also substitute as a biological scanner, letting him know if anything’s wrong with anyone as far as illness goes. It’s horrible with wood, though. Complete rubbish. Can’t work at all.
Weapons: One sonic screwdriver and a rather large brain.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Birth and Gallifrey
In order to fully understand the Doctor, it’s important to know where he came from in the very, very beginning. While it’s unclear as to the exact nature of his birth (some sources claim he came from a loom while others say he was born to a human mother and thus spent most of his early childhood alone) either way he became a part of Gallifreyan society when he was accepted into the house of Lungbarrow, becoming a part of the “family” there. He grew up as a member of the Prydonian Chapter of Time Lords, going to a school associated with the Chapter.
Before all this, however, when the Doctor was only eight - a baby by Time Lord standards, really, considering the Doctor once referred to his ninety year old self as “just a child” - he was, as all Time Lords were, exposed to the untempered schism, the collection of space and time in its rawest, purest form, and forced to stare into it. As he said, some went mad, some were inspired, and some ran away.
He was one of the ones who ran away. And he never, ever stopped running.
Well, after centuries of being at the Time Lord Academy, that is. When he finally went and broke a Time Lord law of non-interference and faced being erased from history itself, that is. So, he “borrowed” a TARDIS - an outdated one fated for becoming a part of a museum somewhere, the only one that was unlocked at the time - and left Gallifrey with his granddaughter, Susan.
It’s there that his running really started.
Previous Incarnations
The Doctor has had, up until this point, ten different faces over the years. His past exploits were numerous, and each of them important in their own ways, but only a few really stuck out in the entire flow of Time. Namely, his continued encounters with the Cybermen and Daleks, as well as the specifics surrounding each of his regenerations, as each happened during a relatively universe threatening time.
But perhaps it would be wise simply to list the most important, influential things each Doctor did and experienced, as otherwise his history really would span and detail the seven hundred years after which he stole the TARDIS and escaped into the universe. The first incarnation met and died from the Cybermen (mechanical monsters set on spreading violence and destruction), a threat that would surface time and time again during his travels. It was then that the second Doctor was born, continuing this fight with the Cybermen as well as with another race called the Daleks, a group of beings who believed any race other than their own was doomed to deletion.
It was with the second incarnation that something else of not happened, however. The Gallifreyans heard of the Doctor’s exploits and summoned him back to Gallifrey, holding a trial that ended with his exile onto Earth and a forced regeneration. And so, the third Doctor came into being soon after the TARDIS became grounded in the twentieth century. There he became a scientific advisor for an Earth operation designed to combat aliens (UNIT) before the Gallifreyans allowed him and his TARDIS to make little trips again, even going so far as to give him missions that, once they ended, would always bring him back to the twentieth century Earth. He fought the Daleks, the Cybermen, and even his old friend the Master time and time again, until this incarnation met his death after absorbing lethal amounts of radiation.
However, even Gallifreyans can’t handle radiation lethal to their systems all that easily, and the regeneration into his fourth face was painful and almost even went wrong. But after a bit of a struggle he settled and went on with things, fighting the Daleks again and, eventually, traveling to Gallifrey to combat the Master and his plot to take over Gallifrey after the murder of the Lord President. Eventually the fourth Doctor fell hundreds of feet to his death during the middle of a battle, and the next regeneration happened.
The fifth Doctor saw the return of the Cybermen, the Daleks, and the return of the Master as well. But, his adventures were fated to end as he sacrificed himself to save his companion Peri, dying of a poison effecting them both while the other took the only antidote available. And so, the sixth Doctor came into being. And here came another fated clash with the Gallifreyan high council. After a bit of wandering and adventuring, he found himself pulled out of time and put on trial for the same things he’d been accused of years back. He also came face to face with a ruthless, evil being called the Valeyard, even realizing eventually that the Valeyard was him some time after his twelfth regeneration. Eventually he won the trial, exposing the corruption of the High Council to all of Gallifrey, but everything he experienced there haunted him for the rest of this regeneration’s life.
It’s unknown whether the sixth Doctor chose to regenerate or if something happened when the TARDIS escaped a fight with the Lamprey, but either way the seventh incarnation was born. The seventh Doctor traveled with his companions fighting off the threats to the universe again and again until, finally, he found himself called back to Gallifrey, visiting his old home and, eventually, being charged with transporting the remains of his old nemesis - the Master - from Skaro to Gallifrey. However, after picking up the Master’s remains some interference happened, causing him to land on Earth and, eventually, to be shot down by a gang and brought to a hospital for “treatment”.
His exact cause of death was both a failed exploratory surgery and the introduction of aspirin and anesthetics to his system, things that while normal for humans are like poison to him. As such, his regeneration was a troublesome one, and one that nearly failed. However, finally, the eighth Doctor awoke and, despite being memoryless and more than a little disoriented for a long while after his rebirth, he eventually went on the same path as the Doctor usually does. Stopping the Master, traveling with his companions, and helping the universe. But, well, this Doctor’s life also consisted of extreme chaos, involving tons of paradoxes and nearly time damaging actions that, honestly, caused his time line to jump and almost fold in on itself at times. He found himself traveling to different worlds, parallel worlds, as well.
Finally, though, the Doctor found himself pulled into the fight between the Daleks and the Time Lords. The Time War. And after seeing the horror of two great civilizations at war, of seeing what sort of violence they were capable of, he went about creating a weapon that would seal the Medusa Cascade and end the war, but... at the same time, it would trap the Time Lords and the Daleks inside. The war needed to be stopped, however, and as such the Doctor effectively “killed” his enemies and his own people, leaving him to die later from something related to that final act of the war. Alone.
And so, the ninth incarnation was born. He traveled with two companions of his own choice, Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler, and while his time with them was short, it was memorable. He saw the Earth admit that aliens exist - even if it was soon covered up - as well as seeing that he wasn’t the only thing to escape from the Time War, thus giving rise to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, more of his enemies had escaped as well. But, finally, as Rose absorbed the TARDIS matrix, he sacrificed his life for her, stealing it back with a kiss and allowing the power of the TARDIS to return to his little blue box. It wasn’t long after that he regenerated.
It's there that the Tenth Doctor's life began.
Point in Canon: During his little breakdown in Waters of Mars, when he's running back to Bowie Base One in an attempt to rewrite history and save the people he's come to like during the past few hours. Specifically, right when he's about to win, when he guides the little robot right into the TARDIS and gets her to start to dematerialize/materialize right in front of them.
Character Personality:
The first things that come to mind when you say "The Tenth" are attachment, humanity, and, unfortunately rage as well. Rage and sadness. This Doctor is more human than others, settling into the emotional roller coaster humanity brings, but also allowing him to mingle and bond with humans a little easier. He's less of a "mad man with a box", if you will, and more just a really eccentric Einstein. But like all his other incarnations, there's so much more to him than meets the eye. There are many complex, intertwining, but ultimately hidden layers beneath the personality he keeps up and shows everyone he meets. And its in those deeper, hidden layers of his psyche that the true complexity of his nine hundred years of life and the fact that he hails from an alien planet become obvious.
To understand the Tenth Doctor as close to fully as possible, its necessary to break up his personality into sections, to pick it apart and really hit hard at certain aspects, his feelings and reactions to certain situations. So where better to start than with the ones most people crave an insight into, no matter who they are? Love and hate, affection and sadness. Rage and hope. This Doctor, more than the others, was prone to love and attachment. While he still wrinkled his nose in distaste over the thought of domestic life, much like his Ninth incarnation, it was less for the thought of opening up and growing attached and more for the thought of settling down, of being forced to stop his running about and stop the excitement than anything else. Because, see, he was killed and born in an act of sacrifice, an act of love. His last incarnation died with a kiss, and this incarnation? Oh it loves kissing. He has no problem flirting, forming attachments, even catching a quick snog with an important political figure or two. Heck, he even deflowers Good Queen Bess near the end of his run. But fun and games aren't really love. They're a need for companionship, a need to have people with him, to form attachments and affections and feel that warmth that comes with bonding and liking another person. But love is something above that, and something he does feel, a lot despite seeming to be scared of it, nervous and heartbroken over the very thought of it. After all, like he told Rose all that time ago, it was the curse of Time Lords that he could never be with a human. Be it romantically or as friends. Because, in the end, he would stay the same, he would regenerate, he would always be young, while the human he's with would do nothing but age and whither away. They would die, and he refuses to simply watch that happen.
But despite everything he says, despite the way he keeps the important people at arm's length romantically and goes about snogging and flirting almost as badly as one Captain Jack Harkness, the fact that this Doctor love and loves completely is a set in stone truth. Because while he has that fear, that hatred of having to watch the people he cares about die, he was willing to suffer through that for Rose. He was willing to keep her by his side, to never leave her as he had left Sarah Jane. And as she was ripped from him that day at Canary Wharf, the despair and anguish he felt was real. It's been proven by Russel T. Davies - the series writer - that the words the Metacrisis whispered in Rose's ear, the words the Doctor had been trying to say to her before their time ended and they were both left, crying, on separate sides of the void, really were "I love you". So while this Doctor finds saying the words hard, impossibly hard, he does love. And he loves with every fiber of his being. So much so that it left him in pieces when he lost Rose to the void.
It was then, really, that another side of the Doctor appeared. A side he would harbor until his regeneration years later. It's a harder, angrier side of him, more prone to violence and destruction as he sinks within an endless circle of despair and complete rage and hatred. Perhaps one of the most potent examples of this side of him occurred just after he lost Rose, when Donna Noble appeared in his TARDIS and he was launched into yet another whirlwind adventure. At the end of it all, he was forced to kill hundreds of thousands of Racknoss hatchlings by completely emptying the river Thames into a hole drilled practically to the center of the Earth. But by do so, he had to stand and watch as the Queen screamed in sorrow, he had to listen to the panicked death cries of thousands of young voices. He had to stand in a torrent of water and fire and watch what he'd done. And he had no problem with that. He was so wrapped up in his hatred, his complete anger at losing Rose and the despair that caused him that he would have stood there and watched even as he himself was trapped under the water. If he hadn't had a human there with him, to yell at him to stop and beg him to leave, he would have died. And while Donna was there, in the end, the man he'd been during that one moment was far from gone. Far from.
But this "dark Doctor" aside, there are still aspects of the Doctor that need some more explanation. Namely, what goes hand in hand with his affections, his ability to connect to people and have them connect to him. His very namesake. He is a Doctor, a fixer of things. A savior, really, since modesty is hardly a common occurrence for him. So when people threaten him and those he cares about, he becomes single-minded and focused in saving them, in helping. In figuring things out. He becomes angry, harsh, and nothing stands in his way. Out goes the bouncing, hyper person he was and in comes the down to business "no power on this Earth can stop me!" man he becomes when people he cares about are being threatened. If there's one way to piss off the Doctor, to get him to act seriously and quickly and without remorse or question? Go after the people he cares about.
Keep in mind, however, that not everything about this incarnation is lost in despair, dark, angry, and harsh. Like so many of his other incarnations, this Doctor is full to bursting with a simple joy for life, an awe and excitement and actual giddiness for the advances and eccentricities of humanity. He never misses a chance to watch and grin, to hug and fanboy simply over the fact that humans are being so human and pushing the boundaries of time and space in order to try and figure things out. He approaches just about everything with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step, because more than anything else he wants to see. To experience. He didn't "borrow" a TARDIS all those years ago for nothing, after all. Even now, centuries and nine faces later, he still has that same little kid enthusiasm that pushes him from adventure to adventure. He wants to see and experience, to go to far off places even he's never been before and save people. He wants to go to the end of all things and back to the beginning, simply to say he's been there. He's seen it. He's experienced and learned. Because above all else, the Doctor has an overwhelming curiosity that goes hand in hand with his desire to save people, to help and fix. He's always being driven by an incurable need to figure things out, to know the who, what, where, when and why. Always the why of things. Because how his mind works, with how quickly it functions, he can take two completely separate events and tie them together to form a question everyone else would have missed. Questions that make him stick around, that lead him to investigating things everyone else would just wave off. Things like giant wasps and Agatha Christie, for instance.
Now, with all that heavy emotional stuff out of the way, there are a few more bits and pieces of this Doctor's psyche that bear mentioning. Mainly, how he defines himself. How he's always defined himself. Rude and not ginger. And man is he rude. He's constantly saying things, doing things almost automatically, things he doesn't quite notice are insulting until someone points it out. Really, he's just a bit full of himself at times like that. Going off and rambling about things out of the person's time, things that will disprove what they whole-heartedly believe and take pride in without even thinking about it. He insults people's life works without batting an eyelid, not even realizing he's doing it. Perhaps the best examples of this are in the episodes Tooth and Claw and the Wasp and the Unicorn. In Tooth and Claw he takes one look at their host's father's life work and, while he does say it looks good, he also goes on to say the whole thing's out of alignment, that whatever he would be seeing was horrible, a pretty thing to look at but hardly functionable. In The Wasp and the Unicorn, he does a similar thing with Agatha Christie, saying he loves her books, that they always take him by surprise. Then, however, he starts correcting himself, saying well not always. Twice. Well, once. But it was a good once.
But as much as this Doctor can be a bit full of himself, a bit rude, and more than a bit angry when he's stressed, he's still the same type of man he's always been. Even more-so, in some regards. The Tenth Doctor loves humanity. Absolutely loves it, with his entire being. He'll sacrifice himself for them in a minute, and while his past incarnations often get frustrated and fed up with the faults and flaws that make humans human, this Doctor simply grins and gets excited about it. All of it. Their drive to explore, to always understand even what's so far out of their grasp. To see and discover, to be first, even if it gets them into loads of trouble, even if it leads to corruption more often than not. Not only does he possess this giddy love of humans, but he's also extremely excitable. A partier. Even in the midst of danger, he still finds time enough to go dancing and get drunk. To travel back in time and learn how to be a sculptor from none other than Michelangelo himself, instead of hurrying and rescuing who needs to be rescued. He loves travelling that way, and more often than not he gets so wrapped up in his excitement that he forgets anything else.
... At least until that something else whacks him upside the head and gives him a lecture for running off on them.
Character Plans: No definitive plans for the Doctor, other than putting him in a situation he would otherwise run from completely and totally. He absolutely hates being stationary, forced to "assimilate" to society and get mortgages, jobs, and actually have to earn the money he usually tricks credit sticks into saying he has.
Other than that, its going to be an introductory period for him. Getting used to how Siren's Port works, figuring things out, making alliances and friends, no doubt making a few enemies, and just generally being a big know it all and pissing people off in the most endearing way possible.
Appearance/PB: He looks a bit like David Tennant in all his wild haired glory.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The first thing that's heard over the network is the sound of heavy breathing, an image coming into view just a few moments later, of a man moving away from where he'd been covering the little camera, pushing himself up from the ground, disoriented and more than a little pained. He's clad in a bright orange space suit, sans helmet, and... rather strange gloves, honestly.]
Wh- This isn't... [And then, suddenly, he's on his feet, gritting his teeth and spinning around, hands moving up to his hair, gripping and pulling desperately, fearfully.] No. No, no, no, no NO! Adelaide!! Adelaide do you hear me?!
This is wrong. Wrong! [He tilts his face skyward, then, as if whoever's responsible is up there, somewhere, somehow. Just watching all of this.] I was saving them, I WAS WINNING. [His hands drop from where they'd been beating at his chest, accenting every word, and he simply closes his eyes, balls his fists, and forces himself to calm down, to open his eyes and slowly, thoroughly take in everything around him.] Right then, spacial-temporal rift, opened as soon as the TARDIS dematerialized. Fixed point being changed, and what do I have? Here... grass, sky, dirt - almost red dirt - chain fence, smell of petrol and, ahhhhh... [He narrows his eyes, wrinkling up his nose as he pokes his tongue out of his mouth, slowly turning until the slight breeze is in his face.] Salt! Earth, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, but the time...
Oh, the time's all wobbly here, now isn't it? [The light glints off something as he turns, again, to look around, and finally he directs his gaze at the little device laying on the ground, recording everything. Only then does the confusion and frustration melt away, leaving him with a cold sort of determination lining his face as he crouches down in front of the little phone, picking it up in his hands.] I've been kidnapped far too often for it to be too bothersome, but believe me when I say... of all the times for you, whoever you are, to do this?
You picked the wrong day to steal a Time Lord. [And then, that grin turns practically manic] Bye~! [And with a single point of the sonic, and a painfully high-pitched screech, the feed cuts out.]
Third Person Sample
This was it. His last chance. It was do or die as he hovered, teetering at the metaphoric precipice. These next few minutes would either change his life for the better, or leave him in that seemingly never-ending spiral of being reduced to scrubbing the kitchen floor and making dinner every night. Of the domestics he still found he had a cynical brand of sarcasm for. But, its nearing his time, that second hand just creeping and crawling forward, each and every tick and grind of gears echoing like bombs in his ears, drying out his throat even as his palms begin to sweat.
Why is he here, anyways? He'd rather be anywhere else, even stuck knee-deep in the foulest swamps of the Credontia Nebulas, or maybe discussing politics with the Egli, known for their monotonous voices, their vocal chords so long it takes almost seven hours for six words to pass their lips. And yet here he is, sitting in a simple chair in a simple office, bouncing in his seat and trying not to fidget too much, an- "Oh! Do you mind a bit of a bounce off?" he's saying to the only other person in the room, the annoyed looking secretary reading a fashion magazine on the other side of the little desk in there. "Need to practice, Rose told me I needed to practice, even if I have it down already. How hard can it be, really, to get a job in a shop, right? All you have to do is have an arm and the ability to read it's not exactly-" he cuts himself off, tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth as he almost seems to slump in his seat, sheepish. "... Right. Sorry. Rude... getting out here is better, though?"
..... Okay, maybe not. "Never had a job, me. Ahhh I'm more than qualified. Doctorates from the most acclaimed universities in any time and galaxy, but never had a job. New to the whole... interview thing. Well, not new. That's a lie. I've done it before, but never seriously," and then, the minute hand is moving, shifting into just the right place, and up the Doctor bounces, grinning and straightening his suit, his tie. "Always time for a new adventure, though! Allons-Y!"
Name: Em
Age: 20
AIM SN: titsfortardis
email: titsfortardis@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes indeed!
Currrently Played Characters: n/a
Conditional: Official Reserve Link: Here!
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Doctor Who
Canon Format: TV series
Character's Name: The Doctor (10)
Character's Age: Somewhere north of the 900 range.
What form will your character's NV take? It'll look like Martha's old cellular phone, not too dissimilar to this phone here, only with a slightly larger screen for video calls as well as a tiny projector in the back for any holograms.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: While the Doctor may seem like a completely normal human - albeit a bit of a know-it-all - he’s actually an alien with an alien physiology. And there-in lie a few greater than normal abilities, so to speak.
First-of-all, as part of an alien species, while the Doctor looks perfectly human he has an utterly different physical make-up. His internal organs resemble those of humans, sure, but they operate differently, with him having systems to bypass the human-esque ones inside of him, sometimes even having two of various different organs. As such this makes his body a little more efficient than a regular human’s. He can survive falls from heights that would shatter the bones of a normal human, coming out with just a few bruises and scrapes. He can withstand heats that would melt a human’s skin, can live through sub-zero temperatures that would kill a human in an instant. He can even withstand the pressure and lack of temperature within a vacuum in space, radiation that would fry a human’s internal organs within seconds. But only for a few moments. It’s not too hard to kill a Time Lord, you just have to know the best way to go about it.
Perhaps the most flaunted differences between the Doctor and regular humans is the fact that the Doctor has two hearts, heightened senses, a brilliant mind, and minimal psychic powers.
The two heart thing is pretty self-explanatory, but does lead to a few little things of note. With two hearts he has a more efficient cardiovascular system. His resting heart rate is around ten beats per minute, escalating to far above normal when sick, stressed, or just really, really excited. In addition (and as a little random biological thing of note), the Doctor is immune to strangulation, as he has a pulmonary bypass system for whenever something damages his rather human-like way of breathing. It involves little pockets of air stored throughout his body, allowing him to continue to filter oxygen through his system until wind-pipe obstruction can be rectified. This also leads to increased buoyancy, considering his body becomes a kind of flotation device due to these little pockets of air. This is only a deterrent to death, however, and doesn’t mean the Doctor can survive without having to breathe. Once those air pockets run out, he’ll be prone to oxygen deprivation just like any other human being. However, in the case of strangulation, once the pulmonary bypass kicks in, his longs no longer inflate and deflate, and if he manages to calm his heartbeat to the minimal ten beats per minute it often means he can appear to be dead without actually being dead. Which, in the case of assault, can usually lead to a rather handy escape.
The Doctor’s heightened senses are another little ability that helps him out from time to time. His eyesight and hearing seem to be around the human range, if not at the peak of it, but his sense of smell and taste has allowed him to further his investigative qualities from time to time. With one little inhale he can usually pick out scents and chemical properties which allow him to determine the time period, the country, the city, the planet, the galaxy with just one quick whiff. He can also sniff around, a lot like a bloodhound, and sometimes manage to pick out certain scents in an area. Taste is another thing that the Doctor tends to rely on. With one lick or taste of a substance he’s been able to determine the physical make-up of it, how old it is, what’s been in contact with it in the past few days.
There is one little important thing to note about his vision, which correlates to what his brain can do as well. While his eyes are at the peak of a normal human’s (no telescopic vision or heat sensing or x-ray vision or anything of the sort) they work hand and hand with his mind in order to see everything. One quick glance around is all he needs, his brain then pieces together the information and allows him to sort through everything. Where-as humans may see something out of the corner of their eye, or just with one fleeting glance, the Doctor will notice and remember every bit of it. He could glance over and see a blurry reflection of a name-badge in a phone box window out of the corner of his eye for just the slightest of milliseconds, and still his mind would record the information and even allow him to filter back through it, to track it back and see the words written there in perfect clarity. So while his eyes don’t work much different than the average human’s, when working hand-in-hand with his mind they are a force to be reckoned with.
Now, contrary to humans who only use a small portion of their brain at any given moment in time, the Doctor uses every part of his brain just about all the time. And not only that, but there’s more packed into the relatively human-sized head than for humans. He can calculate things in the blink of an eye, can store all of history of every planet in the back of his mind, can comprehend situations and theories far beyond the scope of humanity with little effort, and, most commonly seen, can use his uniquely operating brain to jump to conclusions with very little obvious correlation to the current situation.
One last little ability of the Doctor - at least as far as his own mind and body goes - is that he has limited psychic abilities. All Gallifreyans are a little psychic, having had a psychic link to each other in days past. They know another Gallifreyan on sight - the exception to this rule being if they cross over on a future version of themselves - as they are also able to “hear” the existence of another Time Lord anywhere in the Universe. It’s more of an itching awareness than an actual, working connection. They can’t communicate telepathically at all, their “psychic link” acts only as a sort of... Time Lord detector. But in addition to that, the Doctor has honed this little ability of his in order to give him a few other little telepathic skills. The most notable of these is his ability to wander the mind of another he’s in contact with. By simply placing his fingers on the other person's temples he can wander through their thoughts and memories, can see whatever tampering others have been doing in their minds. But this is a two way door, and if the person is exceptionally gifted, they could be able to wander into his mind just as easily. So long as the link is maintained, that is.
The Sonic screwdriver is the last thing of note, and is actually a rather ingenious little invention of his. It looks like a pen with a glowing blue light at the end, a pen that seems to vibrate and hum whenever he activates it. While it may seem to do nothing noteworthy when he’s waving it around, its absolutely phenomenal with technology and anything that locks. With it he can sabotage just about any computer or electronic device, can hack into just about anything, and he can unlock preeeeetty much any sort of locking mechanism. It can also substitute as a biological scanner, letting him know if anything’s wrong with anyone as far as illness goes. It’s horrible with wood, though. Complete rubbish. Can’t work at all.
Weapons: One sonic screwdriver and a rather large brain.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History:
Birth and Gallifrey
In order to fully understand the Doctor, it’s important to know where he came from in the very, very beginning. While it’s unclear as to the exact nature of his birth (some sources claim he came from a loom while others say he was born to a human mother and thus spent most of his early childhood alone) either way he became a part of Gallifreyan society when he was accepted into the house of Lungbarrow, becoming a part of the “family” there. He grew up as a member of the Prydonian Chapter of Time Lords, going to a school associated with the Chapter.
Before all this, however, when the Doctor was only eight - a baby by Time Lord standards, really, considering the Doctor once referred to his ninety year old self as “just a child” - he was, as all Time Lords were, exposed to the untempered schism, the collection of space and time in its rawest, purest form, and forced to stare into it. As he said, some went mad, some were inspired, and some ran away.
He was one of the ones who ran away. And he never, ever stopped running.
Well, after centuries of being at the Time Lord Academy, that is. When he finally went and broke a Time Lord law of non-interference and faced being erased from history itself, that is. So, he “borrowed” a TARDIS - an outdated one fated for becoming a part of a museum somewhere, the only one that was unlocked at the time - and left Gallifrey with his granddaughter, Susan.
It’s there that his running really started.
Previous Incarnations
The Doctor has had, up until this point, ten different faces over the years. His past exploits were numerous, and each of them important in their own ways, but only a few really stuck out in the entire flow of Time. Namely, his continued encounters with the Cybermen and Daleks, as well as the specifics surrounding each of his regenerations, as each happened during a relatively universe threatening time.
But perhaps it would be wise simply to list the most important, influential things each Doctor did and experienced, as otherwise his history really would span and detail the seven hundred years after which he stole the TARDIS and escaped into the universe. The first incarnation met and died from the Cybermen (mechanical monsters set on spreading violence and destruction), a threat that would surface time and time again during his travels. It was then that the second Doctor was born, continuing this fight with the Cybermen as well as with another race called the Daleks, a group of beings who believed any race other than their own was doomed to deletion.
It was with the second incarnation that something else of not happened, however. The Gallifreyans heard of the Doctor’s exploits and summoned him back to Gallifrey, holding a trial that ended with his exile onto Earth and a forced regeneration. And so, the third Doctor came into being soon after the TARDIS became grounded in the twentieth century. There he became a scientific advisor for an Earth operation designed to combat aliens (UNIT) before the Gallifreyans allowed him and his TARDIS to make little trips again, even going so far as to give him missions that, once they ended, would always bring him back to the twentieth century Earth. He fought the Daleks, the Cybermen, and even his old friend the Master time and time again, until this incarnation met his death after absorbing lethal amounts of radiation.
However, even Gallifreyans can’t handle radiation lethal to their systems all that easily, and the regeneration into his fourth face was painful and almost even went wrong. But after a bit of a struggle he settled and went on with things, fighting the Daleks again and, eventually, traveling to Gallifrey to combat the Master and his plot to take over Gallifrey after the murder of the Lord President. Eventually the fourth Doctor fell hundreds of feet to his death during the middle of a battle, and the next regeneration happened.
The fifth Doctor saw the return of the Cybermen, the Daleks, and the return of the Master as well. But, his adventures were fated to end as he sacrificed himself to save his companion Peri, dying of a poison effecting them both while the other took the only antidote available. And so, the sixth Doctor came into being. And here came another fated clash with the Gallifreyan high council. After a bit of wandering and adventuring, he found himself pulled out of time and put on trial for the same things he’d been accused of years back. He also came face to face with a ruthless, evil being called the Valeyard, even realizing eventually that the Valeyard was him some time after his twelfth regeneration. Eventually he won the trial, exposing the corruption of the High Council to all of Gallifrey, but everything he experienced there haunted him for the rest of this regeneration’s life.
It’s unknown whether the sixth Doctor chose to regenerate or if something happened when the TARDIS escaped a fight with the Lamprey, but either way the seventh incarnation was born. The seventh Doctor traveled with his companions fighting off the threats to the universe again and again until, finally, he found himself called back to Gallifrey, visiting his old home and, eventually, being charged with transporting the remains of his old nemesis - the Master - from Skaro to Gallifrey. However, after picking up the Master’s remains some interference happened, causing him to land on Earth and, eventually, to be shot down by a gang and brought to a hospital for “treatment”.
His exact cause of death was both a failed exploratory surgery and the introduction of aspirin and anesthetics to his system, things that while normal for humans are like poison to him. As such, his regeneration was a troublesome one, and one that nearly failed. However, finally, the eighth Doctor awoke and, despite being memoryless and more than a little disoriented for a long while after his rebirth, he eventually went on the same path as the Doctor usually does. Stopping the Master, traveling with his companions, and helping the universe. But, well, this Doctor’s life also consisted of extreme chaos, involving tons of paradoxes and nearly time damaging actions that, honestly, caused his time line to jump and almost fold in on itself at times. He found himself traveling to different worlds, parallel worlds, as well.
Finally, though, the Doctor found himself pulled into the fight between the Daleks and the Time Lords. The Time War. And after seeing the horror of two great civilizations at war, of seeing what sort of violence they were capable of, he went about creating a weapon that would seal the Medusa Cascade and end the war, but... at the same time, it would trap the Time Lords and the Daleks inside. The war needed to be stopped, however, and as such the Doctor effectively “killed” his enemies and his own people, leaving him to die later from something related to that final act of the war. Alone.
And so, the ninth incarnation was born. He traveled with two companions of his own choice, Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler, and while his time with them was short, it was memorable. He saw the Earth admit that aliens exist - even if it was soon covered up - as well as seeing that he wasn’t the only thing to escape from the Time War, thus giving rise to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, more of his enemies had escaped as well. But, finally, as Rose absorbed the TARDIS matrix, he sacrificed his life for her, stealing it back with a kiss and allowing the power of the TARDIS to return to his little blue box. It wasn’t long after that he regenerated.
It's there that the Tenth Doctor's life began.
Point in Canon: During his little breakdown in Waters of Mars, when he's running back to Bowie Base One in an attempt to rewrite history and save the people he's come to like during the past few hours. Specifically, right when he's about to win, when he guides the little robot right into the TARDIS and gets her to start to dematerialize/materialize right in front of them.
Character Personality:
The first things that come to mind when you say "The Tenth" are attachment, humanity, and, unfortunately rage as well. Rage and sadness. This Doctor is more human than others, settling into the emotional roller coaster humanity brings, but also allowing him to mingle and bond with humans a little easier. He's less of a "mad man with a box", if you will, and more just a really eccentric Einstein. But like all his other incarnations, there's so much more to him than meets the eye. There are many complex, intertwining, but ultimately hidden layers beneath the personality he keeps up and shows everyone he meets. And its in those deeper, hidden layers of his psyche that the true complexity of his nine hundred years of life and the fact that he hails from an alien planet become obvious.
To understand the Tenth Doctor as close to fully as possible, its necessary to break up his personality into sections, to pick it apart and really hit hard at certain aspects, his feelings and reactions to certain situations. So where better to start than with the ones most people crave an insight into, no matter who they are? Love and hate, affection and sadness. Rage and hope. This Doctor, more than the others, was prone to love and attachment. While he still wrinkled his nose in distaste over the thought of domestic life, much like his Ninth incarnation, it was less for the thought of opening up and growing attached and more for the thought of settling down, of being forced to stop his running about and stop the excitement than anything else. Because, see, he was killed and born in an act of sacrifice, an act of love. His last incarnation died with a kiss, and this incarnation? Oh it loves kissing. He has no problem flirting, forming attachments, even catching a quick snog with an important political figure or two. Heck, he even deflowers Good Queen Bess near the end of his run. But fun and games aren't really love. They're a need for companionship, a need to have people with him, to form attachments and affections and feel that warmth that comes with bonding and liking another person. But love is something above that, and something he does feel, a lot despite seeming to be scared of it, nervous and heartbroken over the very thought of it. After all, like he told Rose all that time ago, it was the curse of Time Lords that he could never be with a human. Be it romantically or as friends. Because, in the end, he would stay the same, he would regenerate, he would always be young, while the human he's with would do nothing but age and whither away. They would die, and he refuses to simply watch that happen.
But despite everything he says, despite the way he keeps the important people at arm's length romantically and goes about snogging and flirting almost as badly as one Captain Jack Harkness, the fact that this Doctor love and loves completely is a set in stone truth. Because while he has that fear, that hatred of having to watch the people he cares about die, he was willing to suffer through that for Rose. He was willing to keep her by his side, to never leave her as he had left Sarah Jane. And as she was ripped from him that day at Canary Wharf, the despair and anguish he felt was real. It's been proven by Russel T. Davies - the series writer - that the words the Metacrisis whispered in Rose's ear, the words the Doctor had been trying to say to her before their time ended and they were both left, crying, on separate sides of the void, really were "I love you". So while this Doctor finds saying the words hard, impossibly hard, he does love. And he loves with every fiber of his being. So much so that it left him in pieces when he lost Rose to the void.
It was then, really, that another side of the Doctor appeared. A side he would harbor until his regeneration years later. It's a harder, angrier side of him, more prone to violence and destruction as he sinks within an endless circle of despair and complete rage and hatred. Perhaps one of the most potent examples of this side of him occurred just after he lost Rose, when Donna Noble appeared in his TARDIS and he was launched into yet another whirlwind adventure. At the end of it all, he was forced to kill hundreds of thousands of Racknoss hatchlings by completely emptying the river Thames into a hole drilled practically to the center of the Earth. But by do so, he had to stand and watch as the Queen screamed in sorrow, he had to listen to the panicked death cries of thousands of young voices. He had to stand in a torrent of water and fire and watch what he'd done. And he had no problem with that. He was so wrapped up in his hatred, his complete anger at losing Rose and the despair that caused him that he would have stood there and watched even as he himself was trapped under the water. If he hadn't had a human there with him, to yell at him to stop and beg him to leave, he would have died. And while Donna was there, in the end, the man he'd been during that one moment was far from gone. Far from.
But this "dark Doctor" aside, there are still aspects of the Doctor that need some more explanation. Namely, what goes hand in hand with his affections, his ability to connect to people and have them connect to him. His very namesake. He is a Doctor, a fixer of things. A savior, really, since modesty is hardly a common occurrence for him. So when people threaten him and those he cares about, he becomes single-minded and focused in saving them, in helping. In figuring things out. He becomes angry, harsh, and nothing stands in his way. Out goes the bouncing, hyper person he was and in comes the down to business "no power on this Earth can stop me!" man he becomes when people he cares about are being threatened. If there's one way to piss off the Doctor, to get him to act seriously and quickly and without remorse or question? Go after the people he cares about.
Keep in mind, however, that not everything about this incarnation is lost in despair, dark, angry, and harsh. Like so many of his other incarnations, this Doctor is full to bursting with a simple joy for life, an awe and excitement and actual giddiness for the advances and eccentricities of humanity. He never misses a chance to watch and grin, to hug and fanboy simply over the fact that humans are being so human and pushing the boundaries of time and space in order to try and figure things out. He approaches just about everything with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step, because more than anything else he wants to see. To experience. He didn't "borrow" a TARDIS all those years ago for nothing, after all. Even now, centuries and nine faces later, he still has that same little kid enthusiasm that pushes him from adventure to adventure. He wants to see and experience, to go to far off places even he's never been before and save people. He wants to go to the end of all things and back to the beginning, simply to say he's been there. He's seen it. He's experienced and learned. Because above all else, the Doctor has an overwhelming curiosity that goes hand in hand with his desire to save people, to help and fix. He's always being driven by an incurable need to figure things out, to know the who, what, where, when and why. Always the why of things. Because how his mind works, with how quickly it functions, he can take two completely separate events and tie them together to form a question everyone else would have missed. Questions that make him stick around, that lead him to investigating things everyone else would just wave off. Things like giant wasps and Agatha Christie, for instance.
Now, with all that heavy emotional stuff out of the way, there are a few more bits and pieces of this Doctor's psyche that bear mentioning. Mainly, how he defines himself. How he's always defined himself. Rude and not ginger. And man is he rude. He's constantly saying things, doing things almost automatically, things he doesn't quite notice are insulting until someone points it out. Really, he's just a bit full of himself at times like that. Going off and rambling about things out of the person's time, things that will disprove what they whole-heartedly believe and take pride in without even thinking about it. He insults people's life works without batting an eyelid, not even realizing he's doing it. Perhaps the best examples of this are in the episodes Tooth and Claw and the Wasp and the Unicorn. In Tooth and Claw he takes one look at their host's father's life work and, while he does say it looks good, he also goes on to say the whole thing's out of alignment, that whatever he would be seeing was horrible, a pretty thing to look at but hardly functionable. In The Wasp and the Unicorn, he does a similar thing with Agatha Christie, saying he loves her books, that they always take him by surprise. Then, however, he starts correcting himself, saying well not always. Twice. Well, once. But it was a good once.
But as much as this Doctor can be a bit full of himself, a bit rude, and more than a bit angry when he's stressed, he's still the same type of man he's always been. Even more-so, in some regards. The Tenth Doctor loves humanity. Absolutely loves it, with his entire being. He'll sacrifice himself for them in a minute, and while his past incarnations often get frustrated and fed up with the faults and flaws that make humans human, this Doctor simply grins and gets excited about it. All of it. Their drive to explore, to always understand even what's so far out of their grasp. To see and discover, to be first, even if it gets them into loads of trouble, even if it leads to corruption more often than not. Not only does he possess this giddy love of humans, but he's also extremely excitable. A partier. Even in the midst of danger, he still finds time enough to go dancing and get drunk. To travel back in time and learn how to be a sculptor from none other than Michelangelo himself, instead of hurrying and rescuing who needs to be rescued. He loves travelling that way, and more often than not he gets so wrapped up in his excitement that he forgets anything else.
... At least until that something else whacks him upside the head and gives him a lecture for running off on them.
Character Plans: No definitive plans for the Doctor, other than putting him in a situation he would otherwise run from completely and totally. He absolutely hates being stationary, forced to "assimilate" to society and get mortgages, jobs, and actually have to earn the money he usually tricks credit sticks into saying he has.
Other than that, its going to be an introductory period for him. Getting used to how Siren's Port works, figuring things out, making alliances and friends, no doubt making a few enemies, and just generally being a big know it all and pissing people off in the most endearing way possible.
Appearance/PB: He looks a bit like David Tennant in all his wild haired glory.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[The first thing that's heard over the network is the sound of heavy breathing, an image coming into view just a few moments later, of a man moving away from where he'd been covering the little camera, pushing himself up from the ground, disoriented and more than a little pained. He's clad in a bright orange space suit, sans helmet, and... rather strange gloves, honestly.]
Wh- This isn't... [And then, suddenly, he's on his feet, gritting his teeth and spinning around, hands moving up to his hair, gripping and pulling desperately, fearfully.] No. No, no, no, no NO! Adelaide!! Adelaide do you hear me?!
This is wrong. Wrong! [He tilts his face skyward, then, as if whoever's responsible is up there, somewhere, somehow. Just watching all of this.] I was saving them, I WAS WINNING. [His hands drop from where they'd been beating at his chest, accenting every word, and he simply closes his eyes, balls his fists, and forces himself to calm down, to open his eyes and slowly, thoroughly take in everything around him.] Right then, spacial-temporal rift, opened as soon as the TARDIS dematerialized. Fixed point being changed, and what do I have? Here... grass, sky, dirt - almost red dirt - chain fence, smell of petrol and, ahhhhh... [He narrows his eyes, wrinkling up his nose as he pokes his tongue out of his mouth, slowly turning until the slight breeze is in his face.] Salt! Earth, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, but the time...
Oh, the time's all wobbly here, now isn't it? [The light glints off something as he turns, again, to look around, and finally he directs his gaze at the little device laying on the ground, recording everything. Only then does the confusion and frustration melt away, leaving him with a cold sort of determination lining his face as he crouches down in front of the little phone, picking it up in his hands.] I've been kidnapped far too often for it to be too bothersome, but believe me when I say... of all the times for you, whoever you are, to do this?
You picked the wrong day to steal a Time Lord. [And then, that grin turns practically manic] Bye~! [And with a single point of the sonic, and a painfully high-pitched screech, the feed cuts out.]
Third Person Sample
This was it. His last chance. It was do or die as he hovered, teetering at the metaphoric precipice. These next few minutes would either change his life for the better, or leave him in that seemingly never-ending spiral of being reduced to scrubbing the kitchen floor and making dinner every night. Of the domestics he still found he had a cynical brand of sarcasm for. But, its nearing his time, that second hand just creeping and crawling forward, each and every tick and grind of gears echoing like bombs in his ears, drying out his throat even as his palms begin to sweat.
Why is he here, anyways? He'd rather be anywhere else, even stuck knee-deep in the foulest swamps of the Credontia Nebulas, or maybe discussing politics with the Egli, known for their monotonous voices, their vocal chords so long it takes almost seven hours for six words to pass their lips. And yet here he is, sitting in a simple chair in a simple office, bouncing in his seat and trying not to fidget too much, an- "Oh! Do you mind a bit of a bounce off?" he's saying to the only other person in the room, the annoyed looking secretary reading a fashion magazine on the other side of the little desk in there. "Need to practice, Rose told me I needed to practice, even if I have it down already. How hard can it be, really, to get a job in a shop, right? All you have to do is have an arm and the ability to read it's not exactly-" he cuts himself off, tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth as he almost seems to slump in his seat, sheepish. "... Right. Sorry. Rude... getting out here is better, though?"
..... Okay, maybe not. "Never had a job, me. Ahhh I'm more than qualified. Doctorates from the most acclaimed universities in any time and galaxy, but never had a job. New to the whole... interview thing. Well, not new. That's a lie. I've done it before, but never seriously," and then, the minute hand is moving, shifting into just the right place, and up the Doctor bounces, grinning and straightening his suit, his tie. "Always time for a new adventure, though! Allons-Y!"