Name: Serey
Contact: the2ndhunter[at]gmail[dot]com / kouject
Other Characters: Lucifer
Character Name: Vastra
Age: Unknown (Silurians tend to look young no matter their age, for argument's sake we'll say about 70 or 80.)
Species: Silurian
Canon: Doctor Who
Canon Point: At the end of Deep Breath
Character Info: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Vastra 
Personality: Much of Vastra's personality revolves around her species and her history as a Silurian living amongst humans. Vastra is a Silurian, otherwise known as 'homo reptilia'--Lizard Lady, essentially. In general, Silurians are seen as villains in the Doctor Who series, despite being a race that tends to avoid war except in cases of self-defense. However in both the more recent series and in the older seasons, Silurians have generally taken the antagonistic role in whatever situation the Doctor is involved in. This is perhaps because before homo sapiens, Silurians were the dominant species on Earth, and extremely technologically advanced. When it was predicted by several Silurian scientists that a large meteor was going to strike the Earth, some Silurians retreated underground in hibernation units to wait out the pseudo-apocalypse. Some fled the planet on an Ark (“Dinosaurs on a Space Ship”), and some passed off the prediction as the ravings of fanatics. But of course, the meteor did strike Earth, and most of the Silurians were wiped out along with the dinosaurs they co-existed with (in “Deep Breath”, Vastra notes that she hasn't seen a dinosaur since she was a little girl). Humankind was left to take the reins and dominate Earth while the Silurians remained in hibernation underground. 

Flash forward to about the year 1880, in London. The beginnings of the London underground were in full swing, which meant digging--lots of digging, and consequentially the discovery of a hapless pod of hibernating Silurians, Vastra among them. Terrified, the tunnel diggers killed almost the entirety of what Vastra called her “sisters”. Vastra awoke and seeing her sisters being murdered, immediately turned on the tunnel diggers and began killing them (and eating them--Silurians are carnivores) one by one. It was simple enough for a skilled Silurian warrior, and an obvious action to take against a visible threat. This incident not only shows how Vastra is willing to take immediate and deadly action against an attacker, but how honor-bound she is to her people, and how she feels responsible for protecting the innocent. After killing the initial band of diggers, Vastra lurked in the tunnels and took revenge on any innocent tunnel digger that crossed her path. Such a violent plan is somewhat uncharacteristic for a Silurian, however Vastra awoke to find her sisters being murdered by what used to be a primitive people. As a warrior, the last of her clutch, and a “monster” in the eyes of humans, it's clear why she reacted the way she did and immediately took to protecting herself and seeking revenge.

Fortunately, once the Doctor heard of her existence and the problem she was posing in the fledgling London Underground, he came to reason with her. Logic says that in the beginning, Vastra didn't listen to him and probably tried to kill him as well. But the Doctor is very persuasive, and Vastra isn't violent or evil at heart. She only reacted in such a knee-jerk fashion because it was most likely her duty to protect her defenseless sisters, and because she feared for her own life. She was in a strange time, in a strange place, feeling hunted and despised. Anyone would react violently. However the Doctor persuaded her to stop attacking and come out of the tunnel and into the world. Which was no doubt also terrifying, but Vastra is brave enough to not only take the Doctor at his word in a stressful moment, but to enter into a new situation and meet the obstacles that come with it.

And there are obviously many obstacles to living in the human world as a very-clearly-lizard-woman. But Vastra managed to convince most of London society that she was simply a normal woman with a strange skin condition, and non-TV canon works suggest that she's very successful at being a Victorian lady. 

In “A Good Man Goes To War”, Vastra displays some of that joking charm and grace around the Doctor (“I'm trying to be delicate, I know how you can blush.”) and her wife Jenny (yes, she's a Victorian Silurian Lesbian. “Ians” everywhere.) when she asks jovially if she's being insensitive again for suggesting she can't tell most humans apart. Another instance of her joking nature is when Jenny asks how Vastra managed to locate Jack the Ripper. Jenny asks, “How did you find him?”, and Vastra responds, “Stringy, but delicious all the same.” It's a morbid joke, but a joke nonetheless. The Matt-Smith-proclaimed 'Minisodes' leading up to “The Snowmen” also depict Vastra using her relationship with Jenny to purposefully make a member of Scotland Yard uncomfortable, and she and Jenny even laugh about it later. The man is clearly flustered by Vastra's bold declaration that no, she wasn't in love with Strax of all people. So clearly she indulges herself in a bit of “Victorian Propriety Chicken” and finds fun in making people squirm (she even drinks blood as though it were wine in front of Clara during “The Snowmen”, and makes that fact known simply to unnerve Clara).

She's also quite blunt when she needs to be. Not only does she make several comments that call into question the target's intelligence, routinely, she turns her barbs onto the Doctor, Strax, and Clara. In “Deep Breath”, Vastra blatantly prods Clara and accuses her of not being a friend to the Doctor because he isn't a young man anymore. She gets Clara angry enough to actually snap out of her obsession with looks. She says, however, that she wears a veil to gain acceptance of strangers when it is necessary, suggesting that perhaps she is not entirely convinced that she belongs in a human society.

Her manner of speech and word-choice suggests a well-brought-up Victorian lady, and she certainly dresses very conservatively (yes, it's probably to save the makeup artists their sanity, but Victorians were known for their conservative dress--something that Vastra picks up without any apparent complaint). She even rebukes the suggestion made in “The Snowmen” that her relationship to Jenny is improper by saying, “I resent that implication of impropriety, [Jenny and I] are married.” I suspect that their marriage is probably a combination of Vastra's devotion and love for Jenny and the concept of Victorian propriety concerning couples and living together with one's lover. However despite her outward appearance of someone attempting to follow customs, Vastra clearly flagrantly disregards some societal norms for the sake of her own happiness and amusement. She follows them in her own way, a way that makes her happy.

The only thing that Vastra does acquiesce to is wearing a veil out in public or in front of “strangers”. 

But underneath the veil is the same Silurian Warrior. Vastra's fighting style consists of two katana, sometimes wielded together, and her manner of battle dress is very Japanese-inspired. This suggests that after her awakening, Vastra spent some time in Japan studying swordplay (the Silurian preferred method of combat is usually firearms), probably around 1881 (she also went to Egypt in 1881 and was mistaken for a god--and even after that she didn't come back with a swollen head!). Her style of combat and views towards fighting as seen in “A Good Man Goes To War” are very much rooted in bushido and fighting honorably. She and Jenny take a pair of human guards by surprise, and instead of killing them outright they just hold them hostage (though Vastra isn't above threatening them a little: “Oh please, try it. I'm ever so hungry.”). She also says, when asked by the Doctor who one of the fallen Clerics is, “I don't know, but she was very brave.” Vastra doesn't need to know who someone is or what they've done previously, she finds honor and worth in moments of bravery and doing what's right. This valuing of bravery is seen again in “A Good Man Goes To War” when the Headless Monks are closing in on the Doctor's alliance, Amy, Rory, and Melody. Vastra is the one to steady the troops by saying, “The child, at all costs, protect the child!” The group then takes on a horde of Headless Monks, Vastra even taking on a few by herself and emerging without any major injuries. She is all about the moments of bravery and staring down bad odds and fighting on anyway even if death is waiting for her. 

Another incident that demonstrates this honorable tone to her battle-outlook and her life, confirmed by The Brilliant Book 2012, is Vastra's first meeting with Jenny. Jenny was being sexually assaulted by a Chinese gang in London and Vastra, seeing this, attacked and killed the gang single-handed (and then most likely ate them). She didn't have to save Jenny, and Vastra probably didn't even know who she was at the time, but Vastra isn't the sort of person to just leave someone to be attacked and hurt when she can do something. 

Yet another example of her willingness to fight for the defenseless is Vastra's choice to join Scotland Yard as a consulting detective. At the beginning of “A Good Man Goes To War”, she returns to her home having killed and eaten Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper isn't a direct threat to her or to Jenny, but Vastra took up the job perhaps in penance for what she did in the tunnels and perhaps because it fulfills the clever side of her that needs puzzles to work out. But obviously she enjoys it and is good to the point where Scotland Yard calls on her regularly. In “Deep Breath”, Vastra is quickly called by members of Scotland Yard when a dinosaur appears in the Thames River, and obviously commands enough respect to get officers to come to a restaurant taken over by automatons. So she's not just a free-lance detective as she appears to be in “Crimson Terror”, she's accomplished enough to be an official consultant.

Vastra protects her friends in other ways that don't involve fighting, too. In the minisodes and “The Snowmen”, Vastra is seen taking great pains to protect the doctor emotionally. She tells Jenny to have pity for the Doctor instead of be upset he isn't helping their investigation, because he has two broken hearts instead of one (“Lady Vastra Investigates”). When Clara is searching for the Doctor in order to obtain his help, Vastra puts Clara through a test where she can only answer in one word answers. Vastra does this to protect the Doctor and ascertain if Clara is lying to get close to him for some less-than-urgent purpose (“The Snowmen”). Clearly she isn't the sort to leave the innocent and defenseless without her help, either, which is a complete 180 from her days in the London Underground. Strax joins Jenny and Vastra after “A Good Man Goes to War” after the two of them heal the wounds he sustains in the battle. They really didn't have any obligation to do so, but after healing him Jenny and Vastra even convinced him to come to 1880s London and join their group given Strax was something of an outsider as a Sontaran Nurse. She is very much a skilled warrior, and has the heart of a brave warrior as well, which demands she protect her allies, those in danger, and her friends in any way she can.

However, her first and strongest love is for Jenny. Sometime between “A Good Man Goes to War” and “The Snowmen”, Jenny and Vastra are married. It's clear that she trusts Jenny to take care of herself, because Vastra doesn't seem to have any reservations about Jenny investigating alone or charging into a battle like she does in “Crimson Terror”. However, Vastra does snap when she believes that the Whisper Men have stopped Jenny's heart in “The Name of the Doctor”. She threatens to cut Strax to “a million pieces” if he doesn't restart Jenny's heart. Normally she has more patience for Strax and treats him as a friend, but Jenny being threatened causes her to lose it a little.

Vastra does not let people push her around, nor does she sacrifice her own feelings for anyone else's sake. She always lets everyone know what she's thinking and feeling, be it questioning a policeman's grasp of biology or hissing at her own wife when she's displeased. She also possesses the emotional strength to turn on Strax in “The Name of the Doctor” and fights him off when he attacks her. She can put aside her own feelings and emotions, not easily, but she can do it.

Vastra has a tendency to fight for the defenseless and protect her friends with an almost vicious determination, but that doesn't mean she's 100% a saint. Vastra does kill the headless monks who attack the party in “A Good Man Goes to War”, and she doesn't have a problem with it. She takes every opportunity to make the traditionally inclined uncomfortable with her and Jenny's relationship, and call into question the intelligence of nearly every Scotland Yard operative we see her interact with. Vastra even went so far as to rob a couple of banks after she and Jenny first met, simply because Vastra enjoyed a little luxury and wanted to support herself and Jenny-- honestly I can't see her lasting very long in the circus freak show she was apparently part of (“The Brilliant Book 2012”).

While Vastra is depicted as fairly calm and not very confrontational, she is a very fiery personality. She's a warrior, and probably quick to a fight, quick to defend. Not immediately violent with swords drawn, but perhaps a little quick to take offense or make a hot retort. She does tend to say things without thinking (even asking Jenny if she's being insensitive “again” in “A Good Man Goes To War”), which could get her into trouble with people who don't know her terribly well. It's also likely that while Vastra follows human customs, she doesn't always think they're the best way of doing things seeing as she mostly insulted humans as a species in "A Good Man Goes to War". She may live among them, and protect the defenseless, but it doesn't mean she's in love with every human she meets or can sympathize with their daily troubles. And while she's very patient with her friends, I would think that Vastra isn't terribly patient with people she doesn't care about and outright and immediately hostile towards anyone she doesn't like. Given Vista City is primarily occupied by human-shaped beings, I can't see her being very warm immediately, which could be a serious pitfall for her. She does refer to “people” as “apes”, and men as “monkeys”.

But, even though she says she can't tell one human from another in “A Good Man Goes To War”, Vastra doesn't hate humans. Obviously--she's in a relationship with Jenny and works with humans in Scotland Yard and the various members of the Doctor's alliance. She doesn't hate anyone on principal anymore, and she accredits her reluctance to act out of anger or fear to the Doctor. Vastra is calm and refined in her everyday life, willing to play around a little with her friends, and very much down-to-business and fierce in a fight. Despite all of the loss she experienced in her more recent years, she has decided to make a life for herself out of the ashes, and is determined to make it an interesting life.

Chosen Powers: Low-Level Telepathic Ability- Vastra convinces Twelve to assist telepathically with her fictitious sleep problems, then bounces the help back at him to knock him out. How she did this is really unclear in canon, and she never uses it as a weapon so it's probably not a strong enough ability for her to weaponize or use with any regularity.  At best, it could probably be used to have silent conversations between willing subjects, or potentially knock out someone she's having a willing telepathic-connection with. (Regain Minor Power: 15MP)
Chosen Equipment: Cloaking Device (30MP), Jump Boots (15MP)
Relevant Skills: On top of being a very skilled warrior and swordswoman, Silurians also have a peculiar talent for stinging victims with a venom delivered through their extremely long and stretchy tongue, much like a frog-tongue. One touch can kill a full-grown human, however it's reasonable to assume that Vastra is able to control the venom delivery (during an exchange with Jenny, Vastra says “I don't know why you keep me around”, then stings a hapless Cleric with her tongue, paralyzing him. Then Vastra gives Jenny a suggestive look. Yes, this is Moffat making a lesbian reference, and obviously Vastra isn't going to, ahem, kill Jenny with her tongue). For the purposes of Interstellar, Vastra's venom is incompatible with non-Doctor-Who physiology. It's space-time-stuff. Enjoy being licked by a lizard for no easily discernible reason! Her other physical abilities include the ability to put on familiar accents (she adopts a Scottish one in “Deep Breath” to calm the doctor), and storing oxygen in her lungs for a fairly long period and even share with another person via mouth-to-mouth if necessary (“Deep Breath”).

In addition to her Silurian abilities, Vastra herself is very determined, very brave, and probably a great strategist given her talent for taking on criminals like Jack the Ripper by herself. But she's also able to adapt into a new situation without a great amount of difficulty or angst. One of the worst situations she had to adapt into was during “The Name of the Doctor” when Strax turned on her. Vastra had to kill him in order to protect herself and reach the Doctor and Clara, though she clearly was very disturbed and upset by the action she took. Vastra had to look at the bigger picture in terms of rescuing everyone including Strax and the Doctor. She's a very fluid person, but not willing to bend and let someone threaten her, her friends, or the innocent. She takes drastic action when necessary no matter how much it hurts her.

In “The Snowmen” it is suggested that Vastra was the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In the minisodes, Vastra is seen working as a consulting detective along with Strax and Jenny, investigating crimes and supernatural happenings around London. They are legendary, according to the minisodes, and Vastra is even called “The Great Detective of Paternoster Road”. In addition to her prowess as a warrior, Vastra is no doubt also quick-minded, and can solve these mysteries and crimes much like Sherlock Holmes. Holmes' strange solitary nature and peculiar habits, as well as his lack of social skills towards those he isn't close to, are also traits Vastra shares, solidifying her role as an influence for the classic character.

She also appears to have an aptitude for futuristic technology. Her carriage is apparently outfitted with a “power lock” system (“Deep Breath”), and she's familiar with techniques to introduce soporifics into both candles and paper (“The Name of the Doctor”).

Character Goals: Vastra is first and foremost interested in bringing the Doctor back, but given the dire situation the rest of the musicians have been placed in, she isn't about to grab him and haul bustle back to their time and place.  For a Doctor Who character, this kind of insanity is like a particularly tricky Friday night.

Writing Sample: Test Drive Meme w/ Connor