✙ Application for realityshifted

[dissedthesonic]

Player Name: Jchan
Player LJ: vampydirector
Email and/or AIM: vampwrite@gmail.com / vampwrite
Timezone: EST
Other Characters: Tenth Doctor (d6) (bit_impossible)

Character: Rory Williams
Fandom: Doctor Who
Deviance: D1

Age: Early to mid-twenties. (We're never given any sort of set age for him, but judging from his career and the sort of tests he'd have gone through to get there, as well as general maturity level, I'd say he's older than Amy, who is 21.)
Gender: Male
Species: Ah ha. This...is a bit complicated. He's human, essentially.

Or he was until he died at the end of Cold Earth and later had his heart and soul encapsulated in a perfect Auton replica of himself come The Pandorica Opens. He'll be a human again by the end of The Big Bang, so basically, he's human, yeah. (Or at his current canon point, a hu-rom-auton.) Update: He's human now! Yeah!

Canon Used: The new series Doctor Who--season 5, specifically, as well as the three New Series Adventure books that Rory's in, The Glamour Chase, Nuclear Time, and The King's Dragon. Eventually will work into Season 6 stuff and all that fun jazz.

Appearance: Rory is tall at about six feet, fair-haired, gangly and somewhat handsome with a pointy nose. Normally, he had a relaxed style of dress, like jeans, T-shirts (short and long-sleeved), sometimes a flannel shirt under those puffy vests (which is very Marty McFly of him) that he seems fond of, a watch on his left wrist, and trainers (and possibly sometimes boots).

Right now, though, he's decked out in full Roman centurion armour, as seen here and here.

Psychology:
Rory exudes a kind of...Roryness unique to, well, himself really. He's many things! He's very much a good guy--the nurse--who wants to make sure everyone is safe and well. He's quiet and cautious in contrast to his fiancée. And he sure as hell isn't without his faults. It's those faults that hold him back and keep him in this safety net that he's created for himself in Leadworth--that is, until the Doctor wedged himself so heavily into his life that Rory had no choice but to move out of his comfort zones. Even if those comfort zones were negative traits like inferiority and jealousy that were the undertone of the otherwise nice person that he was before ever meeting the Doctor.

Slowly over time, Rory had developed a slight inferiority complex and felt that he always had to compete for Amy's attention in case she ever got bored with him, but his inferiority complex had been born out of insecurity and a fear of losing her. (Honestly, it's amazing how a bit of strong-armed but playful bullying into doing things as children had come to affect him now.) Even when he had her, when they were finally going out, that fear was still present in the back of his mind. Sometimes it manifested in the form of jealousy, and yeah, he could get jealous at the drop of a hat, but not in the, "Oi, don't even talk to or touch my girlfriend!" sort of way.

No, that wasn't and won't ever be Rory. At times, he resorted to a reluctant resignation that someone else might truly be better off for her and if she ever came around, he'd still be waiting there for her. He'd rather cut the ties in the least painful way possible than have his heart broken if she, say, cheated on him. He wasn't the sort to get physically violent--or rather, to put it in these terms: he's not an alpha male. And let's face it; being called her "sort-of boyfriend" in front of the (formerly) imaginary man who had inspired his own journey into medicine isn't the best thing in the world and certainly weren't reassuring words for someone already battling with a bit of a confidence issue. Especially on the same day that he'd been told to take a long break from work because he'd been, basically, doing his job and trying to figure out how his patients were up and walking about town when they were supposed to be in a coma.

And at other times, it was a competition to prove that, hey damnit, he was worthy of having her--and even then, he wasn't ever physically violent. (Though, it must be known that one cannot simply "have" Amy Pond. Oh no. Rory knew that full well she hated such things.) The situation that pinged his jealous streak definitely dictated how he'd react, even if it was silly and irrational to start with. He'd try a kind of macho one-upmanship that...sometimes didn't lead to anything as Amy knew he was just being needlessly insecure. But still, something deep inside spurred him to keep going, an inner strength that he'd slowly and unconsciously tap into as time progressed (and which will be talked about later.)

He did try his hardest to make her feel loved, though, because boy, he was so very much in love with her for a very long time. Part of him really is defined by her and her being in his life. Everything he did was for her on some level, whether it was to impress or woo her, or even entertain her. He knew what her favourite things were, and she was his best friend. He had other friends, of course, but Amy was always the most special to him, and dearest to his heart.

That's one of the things with Rory: the longer he knows you, the more he's going to pick up on the little things you do--and hopefully vice versa (if you're that sort of observant person, anyway.) Like, despite all his fears and insecurity about things with Amy, he knew Amy very, very well and knew she knew him very well in return. There weren't very many people he felt that sort of connection with, even growing up in a place as small as Leadworth. If anything, he tended to notice more things that others didn't simply thanks to that observation skill. All that attention to detail and mannerisms made it easier for him to deal with and handle people, no matter how young or old (or alien). It's what made him a good nurse.

And he really was a good nurse . No matter what kind of situation was going on around him, he'd stop and ask if everyone was all right, if anyone was injured. Everyone's safety and well-being mattered to him--and as a nurse, it certainly ought to have done. He wanted to help people and to make them better, just like a doctor (or the Doctor) would. Unfortunately, there was something that kept him from fully achieving that goal. His grades might not have been up to par, or a certain character flaw like his inferiority complex might have been the source of that failure. Or he might have been overwhelmed with the sheer immensity that the career had in store for him and psyched himself out. Whatever reason it was, it didn't stop him from still practising medicine or caring for people. He just couldn't care for them at the level he wished.

Things like that weren't able to stop him. No, if there was something more he wanted to know about, he'd follow up on it and research relevant things, like he'd done after the Prisoner Zero fiasco. Instead of putting it out of his mind, he'd done research that had helped him grasp concepts like the transcendental dimensions inside the TARDIS, which he'd been told what it supposedly was like when he was kid (or in the very least, he knew there was a swimming pool inside an old police box and that alone was worth investigating, especially since one thing turned out to be true, why not the rest?)

That sort of thing showed a side of him that has always been cautious and sometimes well-prepared for things he might have to face later on down the road. Expecting the unexpected--well, things he could have expected on Earth, anyway--was what he tried to do, and it certainly helped him when it came to his job and anticipating patient needs. But if something was strange, he'd poke his nose in a bit and attempt to understand what was going on.

The keyword, however, was 'tried', and honestly, not even his research prepared him fully for all that alien weirdness he was to face once he started on his journey with the Doctor. He simply didn't have the tools or know-how to even begin trying to figure things out on his own. But he also demonstrated caution--ridiculous so too--when it came to the engagement ring he got for Amy, as well as for other monetary concerns. He didn't make as much as a nurse--nor she as a kiss-o-gram--so extraneous expenses like that made him a bit worried and antsy about being able to afford things, especially when he wanted the best for Amy. Though, he did get a bit overboard with that mentality when he wouldn't let her wear it so often, but then again, he knew her and her tendencies, and he'd probably bought something really nice for her in the past that had gotten lost never to be found again. If anything, he learns his lessons well.

Things were never simple for Rory, and it's for that reason that he liked and yearned for simplicity. He wanted to just settle down with Amy, start a family, continue practising medicine, and live in their quaint little village of Leadworth for the rest of his life. That was it. But life with Amy Pond was not simple. For one thing, the Doctor was in the picture now, whether Rory liked that or not and early on, he did flip flop on how he felt about the man. Life with the Doctor functioned at a pace Rory hadn't really been used to. The mad things going on overwhelmed him to the point where he couldn't always get out what he wanted to say or ask because honestly, where would he even begin?! But once he did pick through the madness (or ignore it temporarily altogether), he tried to bring the conversation back down to Earth or ask an obvious question that both the Doctor and Amy had overlooked. Of the three, he was the voice of reason and was often teased for it (and other unrelated things), but Rory's the kind of guy who could take that sort of ribbing, be a good sport about it--and then gave it right back. Sometimes, depending on what was said or who the teaser was, he could be a little harsher with his teasing snipe back (though that usually was toward the Doctor.)

It's during his travels with the Doctor that his Roryness begins to evolve from what has already been discussed above. Some things do remain, both positive and negative--like his cautious nature, wit, etc.--but for the most part, he changes and taps into that inner strength. Even in his first proper outing with in Venice, he already starts to change. He goes from thinking that being with the Doctor makes people want to impress him (as he thinks Amy does, oh jealousy), to knowing that there's a reason why people think that: they truly do want to help him and it isn't about impressing him or putting themselves at risk. There's a bigger picture and whatever they can do to affect it will help the Doctor do what's needed to save others.

As he overcomes his jealousy of Amy's attention towards the Doctor, he starts to stand up for himself more. Knowing that Amy truly does choose him definitely helps push him past some of those lingering inferiority issues and he does become more confident and assertive. He isn't always able to keep up with the strangeness, though he's definitely learning and has a good grasp on the whole time travel lark, but he's quicker to admit when he doesn't get something, and even quicker to just accept the insanity as fact and move on to find out what has to be done next, be it help the Doctor out personally or help the others they find around them. He throws himself into things more readily and not with any resignation or negativity. He grows into a stronger man the longer he's travelling with the Doctor. He certainly isn't the same timid, hesitant man that he was that day Prisoner Zero and the Doctor had it out.

Other facets of his personality begin to shine even more, like his humour and observations, but what has always been strong and surprising gets even stronger is his devotion to Amy (though a little reciprocation and thought for him every once in a while would be nice--though Amy would think him as being clingy for that.) He wants to protect her in any way he can, and that same kind of loyalty extends to the Doctor. Despite their past differences and conflicts, he comes to a point where he readily admits that he trusts the man with his life and ends up sacrificing it later on to save him. Ultimately, he'll do anything to make sure those people who matter to him are safe, and that's twice as true when it comes to Amy's well-being. Defending her honour in any way really is the only time he'll get into a physical confrontation with someone because you just don't go there in front of him.

Of course, with his death and getting his "head full of Roman stuff", it has, admittedly, given him a push to be an even stronger man, but it's pushing forward what has always been there. He does gain actual self-defence knowledge in order to protect himself as opposed to his previous tried-and-true method of flailing and attempting to show that he knows how to fight. He's now a man who can command a century of men and has battle strategy in his brain. He's quicker to point out when the Doctor needs to stop messing around and just answer him plainly. It's part of the whole being able to read him better thing, though he doesn't always voice those observations. He keeps those mainly to himself.

When you get down to it, Rory is and always will be one of those nice, quiet guys. He's very amiable and can easily strike up a conversation with someone, especially to find out how they are, and he does bond with them in a way. It's all part of that wonderful bedside manner of his. The kind one who can be always be relied on to provide back-up support for just about anything, even if it's against his better judgement. (Again, childhood precedence is still strong here.) He's also a bit of a dork...okay, 'a bit' is an understatement, but it's that dorkiness that makes him so damn endearing. He's the type to leave cheesy messages on the answer phone, take silly photos with Amy and his mates, and enjoy a couple pints at the pub at the end of the day. He does get embarrassed by things, though, and tries to hide that he is, and he will cry if something has upset him a great deal but he only really lets Amy see that side of him. But he's the type of person who'll remember little things that he's done for people, remembers names, and remembers what they did for him. He definitely isn't the kind of man who'll forget anniversaries and such.

Physically, Rory has a tendency to rub his head when he's a bit nervous, or give a little half-wave at someone when greeted. He does tend to gesture a bit, like he'd hold up a finger if he had a thought on the tip of his tongue or wanted someone to hold on and back up on that insane thought-train of theirs, or shrug a bit when he doesn't know something. His body language now is more relaxed, though it is a bit hard to drop those physical tics.

So basically, Roryness can be summed up like this: Rory is a nice, somewhat quiet, down-to-earth, observant dorky guy who really has come into his own recently, but still observes a modicum of caution and preparedness in any situation while still acting as a voice of reason amidst the chaos--even if that voice of reason is sarcastic and dry.

Other Skills/Abilities:
He has a lot of medical knowledge as a nurse and had tried to become a doctor, but didn't do well at the time. By this point in his timeline, he actually can handle a sword pretty damn well (unlike his previous attempt wielding a broom against the Saturnynian, Francesco) and since he's a centurion, he's in command of his own unit of men, so needless to say he's a decent fighter and leader. (That sort of knowledge is due to the programming of the Auton soldier; Rory even says his head was full of Roman stuff, which would explain that part of his abilities.) He doesn't need sleep. Like. Ever. Perhaps before the programming kicked in later when the Pandorica was opened, he might have had a resting cycle built in to simulate sleep. After all, they didn't even know they weren't real.

Oh yes, in that body, Rory is actually very strong. Having a gun in one's right arm does lend itself to such strength, but one can presume he's strong . And speaking of that gun, his right hand can fold open (like so) and he can use the laser blaster to defend/attack. It's strong enough to kill a human with a single shot, and it can take out a weakened Dalek. He's also got hearing that's far better than a human's and is probably even better than the Doctor's--or in the very least, comparable to his.

Granted, the majority of these Auton-related abilities will go poof once he's human again, but at his exact canon point, he's not even aware of them himself (except the sword fighting stuff. That's pretty obvious from the get-go.)

Other Weaknesses:
As a human, he's susceptible to the same sort of weaknesses and illnesses a normal human can suffer from. However, as an Auton, the circumstances are a bit different. He can't catch any illnesses, but he isn't indestructible. He's living plastic, so he has careful around certain things, like heat and radio signals, and any damage he incurs is permanent since he can't heal himself or even repair himself (but that is more due to the fact that he'll be left all on his own without anyone for just about 2000 years and readily available technology up to 1996 isn't exactly capable of fixing/repairing damage to living plastic.) There is the chance that his body could be destroyed because of wear, tear, and time, so he has to be pretty careful.

History:
There once was a boy who grew up in a tiny, quiet British village called Leadworth. He grew up with a few others around his age, like Jeff Angelo and another named Alec, always playing pretend and letting his mind run wild. He and his friends explored 'caves' (in the form of willow tree branches) just like Indiana Jones, or were eaten by a giant tree monsters and aliens--or even took on the role of coppers waiting to ambush bank robbers as they tried to escape with their ill-gotten goods. It was easy to pretend, and he was fortunate to have others his age in such a small village.

Then came along a Scottish girl named Amelia who lived with her aunt. Her parents had just...left one day. Thankfully, Amy had one hell of an imagination and she became quite the boon to have around for their adventures in the back gardens of their respective houses or around the village. But one day after Easter 1996, Amelia had a new game she wanted to play. Told him, their friends, anyone she could about her friend, the raggedy doctor. At first, it was...well. Amelia had a specific look she wanted for her doctor and forced Rory dress up as him and shared all the details about her encounter with her imaginary friend--well, he thought it was her imaginary friend anyway. The dressing up was a bit much, but one never argued with Amelia once she'd set her mind on something.

But...the game continued. And kept on going. And going. The stories quickly grew into cartoons and dolls, but Rory still stayed by her, through all the bitten psychiatrists and everything.

At some point, though, he began to grow up. Pretending wasn't quite as important any longer, and he had, perhaps, grown tired of always pretending to be this raggedy doctor. Sure, he had tolerated it, but for Amelia's own good (and her psychiatrists and Aunt Sharon), he tried not to bring 'the raggedy doctor' up, tried to distract her with other things they could do. A part of him never truly forgot those stories of hers--how could he when they were so ingrained in his childhood?--but other things became more important, especially to a growing boy, and childhood things were shoved to the back of his mind. Things like school came out on top, as well as silly things like the latest CDs and DVDs that were coming out, and later pubs and...girls. Or rather...one girl in particular, but he knew there had only ever been one girl for him. One whose insistence in making him dress up as her doctor when they were kids had inspired him to become a real one so he could be her doctor and not this imaginary friend she had an obsession with. Even though Amelia had grown up and out of that raggedy doctor stuff, a part of him still subconsciously felt like he was competing against that memory, even when they grew far too old for playing pretend. Rory was always there to defend her honour, in a sense, from those who thought she was still that mad Amy Pond, and even his own friend wondered why he was so interested in Amy when there were so many other, saner girls he could chase after. Rory knew Amy wasn't really loony or anything.

Once he was able to, Rory started his medical training, eventually becoming a nurse at Royal Leadworth Hospital. And you know what? He was a damn good nurse--however, he wasn't quite good enough to become a doctor. Around this time (it was never specified), Rory and Amy began to go out! But Rory knew very well the sort of girl Amy was, one who needed excitement and adventure, and he had quite the jealous and inferiority complex from feeling that he always had to do things to keep Amy's attention, to prevent her from losing interest in him. But he did manage it, even with her taking on the kiss-o-gram job. She didn't go running off with some other bloke in the village, after all.

Sometime in 2008, though, Rory had been working in the coma ward and began to notice various coma patients up and about wandering the streets while he was off-duty. Nobody really listened to him about it, though; who would when the coma patients obviously never left their beds and were incapable of doing so? And he even documented the strange appearances with the camera on his phone, going so far as to going over his own supervisor's head to another doctor to prove that something strange was going on. Unfortunately, that resulted in Dr Ramsden, his superior, in giving him a lot of time off, and that was even after Rory had heard all the coma patients call, "Doctor!"

This particular day, however, only got worse as no sooner had he wandered into the village square, he spotted yet another coma patient with a Rottweiler dog walking around as plain as day, and he was the only one to ignore the fact that the sun had been "blotted" out in a sense. Then he was accosted by the raggedy Doctor himself (and Amy), and was shocked to say the very least. He was only supposed to be a story, but there the man was in the flesh demanding to see his phone and the photos he'd taken, and there Amy was saying Rory was her "sort-of boyfriend", and Prisoner Zero was using the guise of the coma patients to get around, and really, that was very overwhelming on top of everything that day! But he weathered it well enough--well, most of it; he was in shock of the Doctor's actual existence--and drove to the hospital with Amy to clear out the coma ward. There, they encountered Prisoner Zero again who trapped them in the coma ward along with the dead nurses and Dr Ramsden (turned out to be very fortunate for him that he was given that time off), but then the Doctor came and saved the day! And then called back the Atraxi, the eyeball things that had been after Prisoner Zero in the first place and had threatened to burn the whole Earth just to get to that one alien prisoner, the jerks, just so he could tell them off for almost doing what they threatened to do! And then the Doctor disappeared again (he'd also nicked clothes from the hospital staff's changing area) and...that was that. Life was normal again.

Only...it wasn't quite that for Rory, not at first. After the incident with Prisoner Zero, he read up on all the latest scientific theories: FTL travel, parallel universes, and far more. He'd learnt enough not to be outwardly impressed by the TARDIS' interior and exclaim the line about it being bigger on the inside than the outside. Before he saw the TARDIS, however, some other important things happened! Well, one very, very important thing. Namely, in the two years it took before Rory saw the Doctor again, he'd proposed to Amy, who said yes! Things were great! They eventually put down a deposit on the village hall for their wedding reception and had booked a salsa band!

But on the night before the wedding on 25 June, 2010, Rory was at his stag party in one of the local pubs, blissfully unaware of Amy's running away into the TARDIS with the Doctor. Cheesy shirts had even been made up for the occasion! And his mates had even got him a stripper in one of those huge fake cake things, something that had made Rory a bit chuffed and a little embarrassed, but then...this happened:



Worst. Stripper. Ever.

Made even worse with the Doctor's confessions about what Amy had just tried to do back in her bedroom.

Yeah... Needless to say, things between Rory and the Doctor hadn't gotten off on the right foot. Again. Understandably so, as well. His fiancée had run out on him with her not!imaginary friend the very night before their wedding! How was he supposed to take that? But the Doctor had a plan to properly reunite them and took them to Venice, 1580. It was one thing to read up on scientific theories available in his time, but it certainly was another to just step out into a different time and place just like that. He was overwhelmed by it all, but his mind kept returning to the fact that Amy had seemingly left him. The Doctor's warnings about life in the TARDIS and how it tended to blot other things out were proven true during the course of his conversation alone with Amy while they tried to take in the fact that they were where they were together for a romantic get-away. Amy had almost succeeded to distract him from such thoughts when plot reared its vampiric fishy head and they witnessed what they thought was a vampire attack in plain daylight.

In order to investigate the shenanigans going on with the Hose of Calvierri, he had no choice but to go along with a plan he severely didn't agree with (mostly because it was pretty insulting to him for him to be considered her brother and not her fiance, as well as it put Amy in a huge amount of danger that he just didn't like). While Amy was left to unlock the backdoor access to the compound, Rory and the Doctor entered through a passageway, courtesy of Guido a father of one of the girls suckered into the Calvierri's schemes, and they had words. The Doctor told him exactly what happened that lead to the Doctor invading his stag, and then said it should have been Rory, not him, who took the onslaught of Amy's excitement. Amy's tardiness at the rendezvous point slowly exacerbated Rory's patience with the entire situation and bemoaned the state of their wedding and what'd happen if they cancelled it, and after learning what happened in the process to become "a vampire", he laid into the Doctor about how people want to take risks to impress him, so they won't let him down, and how dangerous they become to themselves when he's around.

Later on after they'd rescued Amy and had been attacked by the Calvierri girls, the Doctor had taken those words to heart and firmly told Amy to go with Rory back to the TARDIS instead of staying to help him. On their way, they ran into Francesco again, who hadn't wanted to give up on Amy that easily, and Rory fought him off!--for all of thirty seconds before Francesco's sword proved the stronger weapon against Rory's broom-fu. Rory quickly turned into the distraction long enough for Amy to bust out her hand mirror, and she shed light on Francesco's exposed Saturnynian form resulting in his dusty explosion. Something changed then for Rory as he and Amy both ran back to the House of Calvierri to help the Doctor stop the oncoming atmospheric changes the Lady Calvierri had instigated. Most likely, it had been the fervent kiss he received from Amy soon after Francesco's demise, but a part of him finally had a taste of that heightened danger and understood.

But after the Doctor had saved the day (and had somehow also stopped huge tidal waves from engulfing Venice thanks to that atmospheric device) and they were on the way back to the TARDIS, Rory had resigned himself to being dropped off back in Leadworth to wait for Amy to come back around. She surprised him when, instead, she invited him to stay with her and the Doctor. Naturally he agreed and they went on to have fun times!

One not so fun time was the dual dream that he, Amy, and the Doctor were subjected to thanks to the Dream Lord. In one, Rory had everything he wanted: he had been married to Amy for five years and settled in Upper Leadworth, was a country doctor now, had a ponytail, and best of all, they had a baby on the way. In the other, they were just in the TARDIS--well, a dead TARDIS as she had suddenly died and the Doctor had no control over it as they drifted ever closer to a cold star that would have frozen them to death long before they actually crashed into it. But the trouble was...they had to figure out which was the dream and which was reality while they continued to be switched between dreams and soon were faced with a race of aliens in the Leadworth dream called the Eknodine who were living in the forms of the over-70s in the village and sucking all the life energies from the other villagers in order to survive. Rory was convinced the whole time that the Leadworth dream had to be real because it felt tranquil, like nothing bad could ever happen there (of course, that had been before the Eknodine had reared their green eyebally tendrils from the mouths of the pensioners). Amy had tried to reason with him, pointing out various things, like why would they leave the Doctor and how they could still get married someday, but that only ramped up his insecurities. He had thought she'd chosen him, not the Doctor, and Rory continued to compete with the Doctor as the debates about the two dreams continued on and events in both grew more and more dangerous.

But in the Leadworth dream, events there reached a climax when Rory and Amy had trapped themselves in their home and Rory barricaded the nursery door--then the Doctor showed up at last (he'd been separated from them when they fled from Leadworth Castle) and then... Well, to Rory, he woke up in the TARDIS with icicles all over him and had no recollection about how the Leadworth dream ended. And once the Doctor caused the TARDIS to explode, exposing the cold star threat as a dream as well, the three of them woke up back in their proper places right before any of it had even started. The Doctor explained to them that it had been a few specks of psychic pollen from the Candle Meadows of Karass Don Slava, a mind parasite, that had fallen into the Time rotor and had heated up, resulting in the shared dream state, and how the Dream Lord was, in fact, a dark side of the Doctor's own personality, he being the only person there who had enough darkness in him for the pollen to feed off of. Rory then learnt exactly why he didn't remember the end of the Leadworth dream when Amy told him point-blank that he had died when Mrs Poggit!Eknodine blasted him. His death had led Amy's conclusion that the Leadworth events had to be a dream (and a few other things as well), but Rory had been surprised/happy to learn that Amy hadn't known for certain that she wouldn't just die when she crashed the van--more so because of what her actions meant. That she had truly chosen him, and that was what he wanted. He said he'd be happy going anywhere.

Then later on, after a failed attempt to land in Rio, they turned up in Cwmtaff, a small Welsh village in 2020 and even, distantly, saw his and Amy's ten-years-later selves waving back at them. But all was not right, according to the Doctor and the strange blue grass dotting the grounds around the church they'd landed next to, and besides, that huge mining drill thing was far too interesting to leave alone, so before Amy could go off to investigate, Rory took Amy's engagement ring back to the TARDIS--he didn't want her to lose it because it had cost him a good deal of money, even though he did like her wearing it (just...not when they were adventuring)--and deposited it in a little red ring box that he left on the TARDIS console before going out to join the Doctor and Amy. Unfortunately, he wound up getting found by Ambrose and her son, Elliot, as they had called for the police to investigate why a grave had suddenly turned up empty when the ground hadn't shown any signs of being disturbed. So, he pretended to be part of CID and investigated for a bit until he couldn't find any sort of reason for the disappearance of the occupant of the grave, and just as an energy barricade went up to trap them, Rory, Ambrose and Elliot ran into the Doctor, Nasreen and Tony outside the church. Rory tried to tell the Doctor that the graves were eating people (a theory of Elliot's that seemed quite plausible to Rory, considering all the evidence), but the Doctor told them about an impending invasion that was minutes away--and Rory learnt that Amy had been taken into the earth. Rory's trust and faith in the Doctor was put to the test, and boy he was angry, however he had no choice but to stand by and aid the Doctor. After setting up a bunch of sensors around the area with Ambrose, the sky was turned dark and the the energy was cut to the church--and then they learnt that Elliot had been left outside to get his earphones and was soon taken.

The Doctor and Rory, however, soon captured one of the cold-blooded invaders, and after being tasked with the job of ensuring the safety of the Silurian warrior, Alaya, while the Doctor (and Nasreen) went to chat with the Silurians, Rory tried to chat with Alaya. But that only resulted in her telling them how she was going to die and knew who her killer was--and left them to think about who that might be. Rory tried to talk to Ambrose, to get her to come back to help guard the creature and they had to sit and wait so they could use Alaya in the exchange. He promised her that the Doctor would get everyone back and that he trusted the Doctor with his life. He succeeded in convincing her that it had to be done and got her to go back to the church. Unfortunately, while Rory was trying to treat Tony, Ambrose attacked Alaya in an attempt to learn how her father could be cured, but she went too far and wound up fatally wounding her. Rory had to watch her die while futilely asking how he could help her. To make things even worse, the Silurian Commander, Restac (and sister of Alaya), contacted them and demanded to see Alaya. Rory tried to handle the negotiations, but Ambrose butted in, demanding that her family be returned, but the feed was cut just before Amy was about to be executed.

But she wasn't executed! Yeah! They just needed to all come down and escort Alaya back to the settlement, then everything would be just fine! Eh heh... Despite knowing how quickly things would turn against them, Rory and co. wrapped Alaya's body up and carried her to the meeting hall where Amy, Nasreen, and the Silurian leader, Eldane, had been negotiating the Silurians' return to the surface. Things went pear-shaped from there as Restac was lost to her grief and started to wake up other warriors to wage war on all of humanity. Thankfully Eldane kept his head, even with the revelation that Ambrose and Tony had set the drill to activate and penetrate the settlement in fifteen minutes' time, and set off a toxic fumigation sequence that would force the warriors to go back to their cryo-chambers. They only had a few minutes left to spare before the pulse the Doctor sent up to stop the drill would cause it to explode, when they caught sight of the crack in the cave wall. Rory tried to dissuade the Doctor from putting his hand in, and that distraction gave a poisoned Restac enough time to catch up to them and get off one blast of her weapon intended for the Doctor--but Rory knocked him out of the way, taking the blast. It was painful, but he couldn't understand how they saw their older selves on the hill, and apologised to Amy--and then he died. His body was soon absorbed by the time energy, an act that resulted in Rory's erasure from all of history. He never existed, not even to those closest to him, like Amy.

But then he woke up in 102 AD...

Rory remembered dying, remembered being in that cave with the Doctor and Amy--and then he was just a Roman soldier with his head filled with all sorts of Roman stuff; a whole other life. To him, it felt like he had woken up from a dream and soon really thought that life with Amy and the Doctor must have been a dream. But now, he was in charge of a certain number of men. He was a centurion. And he had no idea why he was there.

Canon Point: Around the time of The Pandorica Opens, but he isn't aware of his "true" nature yet. (I will note that I treat Auton Rory and human Rory as the same person, and once he goes through the end events of The Big Bang, he'll be human from then on. Yeah for reset buttons, eh?)

»Update (04/10/11): Moving on into The Big Bang where he's now a security guard (and, you know, has been around for almost 2,000 years...)
»Update (04/30/11): Moving past The Big Bang! Not only is Rory returned to his human body, but he's also married now! Yeah~~~ [Important Note: the reality description below isn't current with his canon point. Some of it applies to his game starting one above, mostly the parts about him as a Roman/Auton.]

Reality Description:
Oh boy. Rory's reality is a bit complicated as it will vastly and rapidly change as he progresses past his canon point. Right now, Rory's reality at this exact canon point consists of a Roman legion camp set up within riding distance of Stonehenge in 102AD, in England. It's a lovely field-or it was before a bunch of Romans started to troop all over it-just beyond a stretch of forest. And of course, there's Stonehenge, ancient by even that time, but with more of its stone intact since all those pesky Victorian tourists haven't come with tiny pick-axes to chip pieces of it away. Luckily, we won't have to worry about Victorians because we have...the ROMANS! Hot Italian men in armor; the Roman machine going around and doing Roman stuff like they should because it's not like anyone's powerful enough at that time to tell them no-or they can damn well try and fail. This particular bunch is under the command of Commander...well, his name isn't important. It's what they DO that does, right? ...Right?

Well, in actuality, they are faux!Romans, so craftily designed that they aren't even aware of their non-human status as Autons (or Nestene duplicates, either works). They were created as part of the Alliance's trap for the Doctor and they'd used Rory's fiancée's memories, psychic residue, of her favourite school subject and story to create the ultimate trap and prison: the Pandorica. Because of Rory's current Auton nature, he technically belongs to the Alliance. Thanks to a huge quirk in the universe (and Amy's strong memories), the heart and soul of Rory Williams, all those memories that were thought lost when he had been erased from all of time-hell, even his face-everything wound up being preserved. He retains his humanity even if his body isn't human at all.

But why did any of it come to be in the first place? Well, it's because of these pesky cracks in the universe. Cracks that have threatened the very existence of this universe (and every other universe) and have been erasing things left and right, displacing alien species from their natural planets and homes, and even made it so such species as the Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Zygons, and so, so many others actually combined forces to stop the source of the cracks. (The Earth at that very time was surrounded by lord knows how many different alien ships/fleets/cruisers/etc.) A crack had been in the wall of Amy's bedroom all her life and followed them around in their travels, appearing wherever they went. It was a crack that had taken Rory's body in that Silurian cave after he'd died.

Luckily, those cracks won't last forever. They will eventually close, but right now, they are very much open and the source of them is about to explode.

But before Rory's life became one associated with more plastic than possibly all of Hollywood combined, his reality had consisted of Leadworth and the TARDIS. Leadworth, a tiny village outside Gloucester, was practically the very definition of "quaint". There was the town hall, Royal Leadworth Hospital, a public house where Rory had his stag party, and even a small duck pond (sans the ducks depending on the time of year). There was, of course, Upper Leadworth with its castle ruins and spectacular benches on the roadsides. Never know when you'll need a nice bench, after all-or, for that matter, a butcher's shop. Everyone knew everyone, and that included everyone's business. Everything one would ever need could be found in Leadworth. Leadworth was a place Rory had been perfectly satisfied to live in for the rest of his life. It had that sort of mellow vibe that completely worked for him. Rory's family (well, in the very least a father, according to the end credits, as well as a grandmother who made good gravy, according to The King's Dragon) and friends all still lived there, and his patients were being cared for by others in the hospital as he was about to be married. Leadworth, though, was fairly isolated from world-shattering events like the Earth's invasion by the Daleks (...well, the most recent one in canon, to be specific)-or what is probably the most likely case, people in the village decided to just move on like nothing had even happened and soon forgot. It wasn't unusual for that to happen, and in most cases, that mental act was normal for humans.

Make no bones about it, though. Earth was and always will be a veritable magnet for all things alien--including the Doctor--matter how benevolent or malevolent those alien things might be. Thankfully, humans were ignorant of the majority of the visits, and it was only when the big bads came rolling around that people did notice (and later forgot as was mentioned before). Granted, there were exceptions, but for the everyday lay person, when something so horrific and traumatising happened, it was just far easier for the mind to blink that part out of the memory. Gotta love coping mechanisms.

Now the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), that big blue police box, had become Rory's second home. He'd grasped the general concept of the dimensionally transcendentalness of the TARDIS interior without having to remark that it was bigger on the inside than the outside. That, in itself, is a huge understatement as the TARDIS interior seemed to go on forever with so many rooms that Rory had stopped counting after a while. Such rooms were the sickbay, wardrobe, the console room of course as that was the first thing you stepped into, a room with a swimming pool, the library, the kitchen, and on and on. While inside the time and space ship, they could safely go anywhere and anywhen in the entire universe, but it was when they stepped outside it that the game changes. They could mean to go one place and turn up at another, or go somewhere they wanted to go and actually arrive there-all depending on the mood of the TARDIS or how well the Doctor piloted the ship that time. The places they went were both magnificent and horrifying, fun and dangerous, depending on what they came across in their travels.

"They", of course, were Amy Pond and the Doctor. Amy was Rory's ginger-haired fiancée and childhood friend. Many of the things Rory got involved in, whether by choice or not, had been because of her. It was her running off with the Doctor that got him involved in travelling in the TARDIS with them in the first place! After an adjustment period and some issues having been dealt with, he came to like it. He had Amy, the most important thing to him, and that was all that mattered.

The Doctor...well, apart from being the one Rory had dressed up as in his childhood, had been many things to Rory. He'd gone from being the man who stole and his fiancée away the night before their wedding and had been the object of Amy's adrenaline-fuelled lust after a particularly scary adventure together, to someone who completely overwhelmed Rory with the sort of explanations he offered for the weird stuff going on, then ultimately to someone that Rory would trust with his life. The Doctor, with his young face, old demeanour and odd dress sense, had become this mixture of a friend and pseudo-paternal figure in a way. It was all very weird, like anything normally having to do with the Doctor.

Eventually, he'll get Amy, the Doctor, Leadworth, the Earth, and the TARDIS back as his reality, but not before the TARDIS explodes, the universe collapses, and he lives almost 2000 years as a plastic soldier protecting a large box on an alternative Earth.

See? Complicated.

First Person Speaking Sample:
[the tall, gangly man in Roman centurion dress doesn't speak when he first steps onto the Plane. His hand moves automatically and rests on the hilt of his gladius as his eyes slowly take in the sights around him.]

Right...stars and galaxies above and below...? [he trails off again, cautiously walking forward, his armour clinking lightly as he moves, until he reaches the information kiosk. Rory's eyebrows rise slightly in mild surprise when he reads the sign, but decides to humour it. he gestures vaguely with his hand as he speaks.] Okay, "help"?

[he jumps back a bit in surprise when the holographic woman pops up and tells him where he is] The what? Now I know I've gone completely mental. [he doesn't choose a brochure as he backs away from the kiosk]

All right, you got me. You can wake me out of this dream now! Or, you know...that other one. [a pause] If that is a dream, I mean. A literal dream within a dream? [he lets out a little nervous chuckle] Who's ever heard of that?

[considering his uncertainty about what life was real and what was a dream before even coming here...]

Third Person Writing Sample:
A strong wind rustled the edges of the tents where hundreds of men slept, whipping the heavy, rain-soaked cloth against their tethers, and open flaps slapped against the tent walls. Light from his men's fires at their end of camp flickered and spurted as a light rain drizzled down and the wind threatened to put them out, but they remained huddled together to prevent the fires from going out. Rory shuddered where he stood with his back towards the wind and pulled his cloak tighter around him before he adjusted his helmet in an attempt to keep the rain from dripping on his face. But that was all it was, really; an attempt. Most of the droplets that had been threatening to fall for the past couple minutes were blown straight into his face. He couldn't help sighing; it was just his luck.

He was grateful, at least, the rain had finally calmed down from the torrential downpour it'd been earlier, though that did nothing to make him feel any drier. Water had trickled in under his armour and soaked into every single garment he had on while he'd stood watch. Made him feel completely chilled to the bone, but there wasn't too much he was able to do about it.

Could be worse, he thought, resigned to the cold.

But his train of thought halted right as he finished thinking that. No, this is worse, he reminded himself. He couldn't remember one single time when he'd been this wet for this long. Well no, that wasn't quite true. There had been that one time with...no wait, there had been other times, hadn't there? This campaign in Britannia had seen many a rainy day, but no, not even that was right. He groaned softly, pressing the heel of his palm against his temple. Nothing felt right in his mind! All the memories in his head didn't make sense. He was a Roman centurion; he was a nurse; he proudly led men into many a battle against the Celts; he fought against a vampire-fish alien with a broom; the army was his life; Amy was his life...

He shivered against those thoughts, as well as the gust of wind that whipped around him, and he tucked his hands underneath his arms, but found little warmth there either. Eventually, he just settled for letting them hang at his sides, hands clenched into fists so at least his fingertips were warm. He was going mad, he was certain of it. It was the Dream Lord all over again, but he'd... He had died, hadn't he?

"Sir...?"

Rory glanced over at the nearest man, and for a moment, he couldn't quite remember what his name was. Claudius? Cassian? Marcellus? He knew he knew the name and it frustrated him that he couldn't quite remember. So many Roman names...

"You all right, sir?" the soldier asked again.

He felt his men's eyes on him then and he smiled faintly at them, and gave a little shrug. "Yeah, of course I am, Claudio." The name had left his tongue confidently and unbidden, but he had a feeling it'd be the right one. "You know how it is; long days, long nights." The answer felt rather lame to him, but the soldier nodded in agreement anyway. "Listen," he continued, feeling a need to just get away from them, "I'm going for a walk, I mean, going to check the perimeter. Won't be long." Thankfully, they left him to his thoughts and continued to talk amongst themselves, their voices half-lost in the wind as he started to walk away. It wasn't all bad, being a centurion. They respected him...or at least he thought so. Certainly seemed like it.

The voices and meagre warmth of the campfires quickly faded as he moved farther and farther away, his feet squelching in the mud with every step. Soon, the wind and rustling of the nearby trees were the only sounds to keep him company. He stopped near the treeline and closed his eyes. That one time from before--that simple yet cherished memory--finally surfaced, and as he remembered, a small smile began to play at the corners of his lips.

How could he have forgotten it? He'd been invited over to Amy's house one very windy night and the dinner he planned to make hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. The chicken wasn't thawed completely but he cut it up anyway, too stubborn to go out and buy more along with a couple vegetables he'd forgotten to buy in his excitement. It was his first time in a long time that he was able to cook for her, plus her Aunt Sharon was out of town. Unfortunately, his fingers were so frozen by the time he was done prepping the chicken that he hadn't notice he'd sliced his thumb open until he went to wash his hands. She teased him for that one as she played nurse for her nurse, and he liked that more than he admitted at the time. In the time following his accidental attempt at fileting his thumb, the vegetables and rice he'd made for the stir fry ended up severely burnt and the salt shaker cap had burst off, spilling all the container's contents over the chicken when he really just wanted a pinch of it. He spent the entire time as they picked through the non-burnt portions of the pseudo-stir fry apologising for dinner being such a bust and that he really was a good cook any other day--but she'd silenced him with a little kiss and reminded him of the other meals he'd made in the past that were at least a step above salt-crusted chicken. He smiled nonetheless, knowing that was her way of teasing him.

What he remembered best of that night, though, was after the electricity had been knocked out. They lay on her bed, his arms wrapped around her and her fingers twined through his. Candles were strategically placed to avoid the bits and bobs she had lying around her room so they had some form of light. Occasionally they'd talk and joke about the different sounds outside and what they sounded like to them, but soon they both had fallen silent and just listened to the wind--and then he was left to listen to the sounds of her slow, steady breath as she fell asleep. For a while he didn't move, not wanting to wake her, however after he'd lost feeling in one arm, he decided he'd risk it and carefully, awkwardly, moved her just enough to dislodge his arm. He had to do it anyway; he didn't want to leave the candles burning all night long.

After he'd blown them out, he grabbed a blanket from the foot of her bed and spread it carefully over her before he climbed in to join her. She stirred once, mumbling something that he definitely couldn't understand, and pulled the blanket tighter around her. Consequently, that left him with very little of it as he had hoped she'd grab the other much longer end and had given her more of the blanket to begin with. Once he'd resigned himself to this and had settled in again, he let himself just listen to the wind and Amy's breathing.

He found a pleasant sort of peace there that night, one that he probably wouldn't ever be able to put into words, and he knew for certain that he had to start shopping for a ring. Some money had already been set aside for such a thing, but right then in that very moment, he knew in his heart that it was time to-

His eyes snapped open and for a fleeting moment, he was angry at the sound that had so abruptly shaken him out of his reverie. He wanted to be back in that room with her, to smell her shampoo in her red hair and warm body against his, but instead, he was staring at tree limbs bending in the wind with rain pelting down his face. At least he thought it was rain. The sounds of the forest were so loud now, but he thought he heard one sound in particular that made his heart leap.

"Amy," he said softly, and suddenly burst into a run towards the trees. "Amy! Doctor!" he shouted. His feet threatened to slip out from under him, and his helmet fell off, but he grabbed the nearest trunk and steadied himself. Wildly, his eyes darted everywhere, searching for signs of the TARDIS.

But as the wind died down, there were no lit windows, and no glowing light on top of that silly police box façade. No TARDIS at all.

No Doctor.

No Amy.

What he did hear was the clinking of armour coming up behind him and he spun around, his hand immediately going for his sword, but he didn't draw it. It was only another of his men who had been on watch, and in the crook of his arm was Rory's helmet.

"I heard you shouting for a doctor, sir!" the soldier said, panting lightly. "Are you hurt?"

Many answers swam through his mind--none of which would help him seem particularly sane at that moment--and really, he just wanted to be left alone. He was so certain he'd heard it. They were coming back for him, weren't they?! Yes, he died, but he had woken up here, so maybe he hadn't or something. He had no clue. None of it made any sense to him but there he was, hoping for the impossible.

"No, I just lost my balance," he responded finally, and snatched the helmet away. As an afterthought, he added in a more grateful tone, "Thanks. Thought I'd lost it chasing away that...thing. I don't know. I couldn't exactly see it well enough."

"I didn't see anything at all, though, sir. Maybe you were imagining things? Erm, in a good way, I mean!"

Rory nodded and put the helmet back on. "I know. Let's head back and forget about this."

Perhaps I was, he thought as he strode back to camp, the soldier he was sure was called "Marcellus" clanking along behind him. Perhaps that life with Amy and the Doctor had all been a dream after all. One hell of a one if that truly was the case, but...a part of him didn't want to believe that. How could the dreams, the memories, be so very real when nothing he saw in his mind's eye when he thought of Amy and that night seemed to make any sense in the world he was in now?

Of course, the short answer to it all was the simple and confirmed fact that he was finally starting to crack. What else could it be? Nothing else fit.

When he finally got back to the others, he rubbed his hands together and held them out towards the fire as he nodded in response to their greetings. But as he glanced at his hands, he couldn't help turning his left hand slowly, his eyes drawn to his thumb. His heart made another little leap, but he wasn't sure what to think about it.

In the light of the flames, he could just make out the thin light line of an old scar.

Did you read the rules? Yes!