River Tam - Firefly - Siren's Pull App
Player Information
Name: Tempest
Age: 26
AIM SN: tempestofthepast
email: razor_thin_wire@yahoo.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yes
Currrently Played Characters: N/A
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Firefly/Serenity
Canon Format: Television Series/Movie/Comic Books
Character's Name: River Tam
Character's Age: 17
What form will your character's NV take? Most people in the Firefly verse communicate by Cortex. Such a device could easily be handheld, like a smartphone of some kind. More on that can be found here if need be.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: River's foremost power is her psychic talent for 'reading' people. Their intentions, feelings, and instances in their past that surface in relevance to the situation filter into her mind, though she's been progressing in her ability to control how much she reads. Sometimes what she sees is startling enough to cause her to collapse or flee, and sometimes it gives her an odd, near incomprehensible insight into those around her. She exhibits a heightened ability to detect her surroundings, locating the bodies of the slaughtered crew in a derelict ship, finding her way around an otherwise unknown hospital without guidance, and detecting injuries or other physical problems despite being nowhere near the person in question.
She has also told Jayne once that she could "kill him with her brain", though how isn't clear. Considering her martial skill and propensity for telling the truth, however unsettling it might be, it was likely not an empty threat.
River also displays some slight precognitive abilities, able to see glimpses of the future or, more likely, calculating the likely results of the actions of those around her, based on what she can read from them.
Despite her frail appearance and petite stature, River's skill at hand-to-hand combat is virtually unstoppable. On two separate occasions in her canon she ventures into large melees (20-30 opponents against her at the same time), and on both occasions she emerges not only victorious but relatively uninjured. Her preferred method of fighting seems to be a Kung-Fu/Kickboxing hybrid, made all the more graceful and fluid with her background in dance. She is very proficient with combat, whether unarmed, armed melee, or armed at-range. Her skill with firearms is also shown to be near super-human: during a battle she memorizes the battlefield in one quick glance, then proceeds to take out three advancing soldiers with one shot each, with her eyes closed, just "doing the math" in her head.
Weapons: None.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Wiki link here.
Point in Canon: Post-Serenity. She's stabilized significantly since the events on Miranda, the secret kept locked away for so long a good part of what was causing her to be so unstable in the first place. Now with the secret bled from her and the pieces put together, as well as finally coming to terms with her skills as a fighter and stepping up to protect the crew from the fleet of Reavers at their heels, she's functional enough to allow Mal to trust her with helping pilot the ship. She has a place, a function, and a family. She may never be truly whole or sane ever again, but she's working towards something better.
Character Personality: River is, above all else, extraordinarily intelligent and intuitive. Prior to the experiments that fractured her sanity she was capable of quickly learning anything she set her mind to. Her brother explains in the first episode, "Everything she did, music, math, theoretical physics, even...even dance. There was nothing that didn't come as naturally to her as breathing does to us." She was also capable of reading the intentions of those around her through how they moved, spoke, or didn't speak, as the case might be. She claims in the River Tam Files that her brother claimed she had a third eye, and hated it when she could tell which girls he liked.
Her aptitude for learning new skills and for understanding the thoughts of those around her has only improved since her days at the Academy, though her capacity to deal with this new information or express it in terms others can readily understand has suffered greatly. Despite her intelligence and her ability to 'read' people in a very literal sense, River often has difficulty relating what she feels or sees with those around her, or at the very least on a level they can understand. Most of her speech tends to come off as nonsensical, almost lyrical rambling, and she professes to sometimes not even understanding herself what she says.
She is unable to control her emotions or reactions to things, feeling everything without filter or restraint thanks to the removal of her amygdala. As a result she can fall into fits of extreme frustration, rage, fear, or joy with very little or no warning. For the most part she chooses to melt into the background, quiet and sullen, silently observing the world around her with child-like wonder and desperation. She knows she is different, and she is aware of the negative impact her behavior has on those close to her, particularly her beloved older brother Simon, and at the same time she is completely unable to hold herself in check.
"I get confused. I remember everything. I remember too much, and some of it's made up, and some of it can't be quantified and...there's secrets. But I understand. You gave up everything you had to find me, and you found me broken."
River is also highly dependent upon the presence of her brother. He is her world, the holder of an indescribable loyalty and innocent love. As he has risked so much for her sake she would do anything, without hesitation, that she perceives might aid him or protect him. His presence also proves a sort of grounding for her. She is more coherent, or at least easier to calm, in his presence. His ability to provide medication to lessen the trauma her powers seem to invoke is also greatly beneficial. It's in those rare moments of lucidity that glimpses are seen of River before her brain was torn open. She laughs and smiles, runs through the spaceship on a chase for an apple, dances with local townsfolk, teases her brother and makes fun of Jayne, Badger, and even the captain. She is imaginative, artistic, and playful, as well as being a bit bratty due to her privileged upbringing and knowledge of just how much smarter she is than those around her. But those moments are few, and bring greater despair and frustration when they end.
"Played with Kaylee. The sun came out and I walked on my feet and heard with my ears. I ate the bits, the bits that stayed down and I worked, functioned like I'm a girl. I hate it because I know it'll go away! The sun goes dark and chaos is come again...bits...fluids...what am I?!"
Her moods are largely unpredictable, especially considering that her viewpoint of the world around her is skewed. Where others might see a gun, she sees the branch of a tree, an extension of the self, a natural and harmless object. Where others see a t-shirt with a brand logo, she sees the hands working behind the company, a source of malice, and a danger in need of violent retribution. Thus, the effect of her unique vision of the world can be as comedic as it can be dangerous.
Character Plans: Having already gone through being a pawn for the Alliance to toy with as they like, River is going to be very reticent about joining any particular faction. She'll want to stay neutral as long as possible, not really trusting either of the two factions at work, and try to find someplace safe to hide. She wants to go home, of course, and any opportunity presented that might further that goal might find her stepping in and trying to help...but then again, River's 'help' is not always the sort immediately appreciated.
Once she has a strong base of support among the people trapped with her, she'll make her choice. She's already stood up to a room full of Reavers and faced down a squad of armed Alliance soldiers. When the chips are down, she'll do what she has to.
Appearance/PB:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/tempestofthepast/river_ff_promo3.jpg
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
They say it's going to be alright.
[ She's holding the business end of the camera close, too close to see much more than one side of her face in very poor focus, as though she's trying to see through the device. Her voice is soft, but steady. ]
But they're lying. They're afraid, bellies full of hunger and fear sours their tongues. They have to say so.
Too afraid of the hands that reach to claim them, if they don't.
Third Person Sample
That first, deep breath was the hardest, as though breaking a seal River was certain would suffocate her. She jolted upright gasping like a fish out of water, her fingers curling into the dirt beneath her in panic as though the world might spin itself upside down if she did not. It looked as if it might, everything wobbling around her in a daze from the jolt of the impact.
It hurt, the fall aching in her bones, and she couldn't focus. No coherent thoughts forming.
Dark, frantic eyes darted to all sides of her as the dust settled. Cold prickled at her bare arms and the night breeze bit hard every now and then, the chill almost threatening. But it wasn't the temperature she had to worry about. Fear twisted tight in her gut. It was something worse, something unseen that lingered in the black.
And she was alone again.
A strained noise of panic began to well up from her thin chest. Instinctively her legs drew under her, making herself as small as possible in this desolate place with splashes of light illuminating what looked like a dugout not far from where she'd landed. Beyond, a rusty chain-link fence creaked ominously in the wind. Links. Chains...there was something more to that line of thought, and instinctively her fingers reached for her chest, fingertips digging just beneath her breastbone. Barely felt, but alien just the same. She knew what belonged and what didn't, and the desire to start digging was one she had to fight.
Unfortunately she had to pick her battles. While she might have been able to make herself stop and breathe, she couldn't put up much of a fight against the quivering warning in her stomach. Two deep breaths later she jerked up onto her knees, back arching, and emptied the contents of her stomach into the dirt of the baseball diamond's infield.