River the Echidna (current version)

"I've never been one to say very memorable or meaningful things, which is the reason why not many people quote me..." - River

River the Echidna is an easy-going and upbeat girl who is somewhat afraid to admit that she's overly oblivious to other people and her surroundings. She doesn't do much in her spare time, but if there's anything interesting going on, then she'll likely get involved. She was born on an island called "Ali'ikai", but currently she resides in an apartment building in downtown Station Square. If I could find the money and effort to hire a voice actor, she would be voiced by Mae Whitman.

River the Echidna is a character created by KnucklesFangirl (KFG for short)

Personality
River, at first, seems to be extremely skeptical of new people and very cautious around them. When in the presence of Mobians or Alien races, she’s much more open and talkative. However, this is the complete opposite around Humans, and she becomes more introverted and shy around them. She doesn't really have much against them, she just feels somewhat uncomfortable around humans. River, even though she’s paranoid of strangers, always gives new people at least one chance to prove that she can trust them.

Then after that, she becomes a completely different person. She becomes outgoing, humorous (however she makes mostly juvenile humor), a bit brash, and brutally honest towards others and herself. She has a tendency to run into things without thinking, but laugh about it afterwards even when no one else laughs along with her. River becomes a go-with-the-flow kind of person; whenever something comes up that confuses or concerns her, she calmly shrugs, accepts it, and moves on. But it doesn’t apply to all situations.

On a side note, River has Claustrophobia, and is extremely uncomfortable in small areas and window-less rooms. She freaks out a little bit even if she's just in a group hug or something similar. Another fear she has is causing conflict. She's okay with being dragged into a problem and trying to solve it, but if she's the one who causes a problem then she begins to panic and have a bunch of weird emotional swings.

Powers and Abilities
Being an Echidna, River has electroreception. It is a biological ability to detect electrical currents that are given off by movement, and it is used mostly by aquatic animals for hunting purposes. However, due to beinga short-beaked Echidna, this ability is extremely weak compared to other animals who have it. She can detect weak presences that are nearby her, but that's about as strong as it gets.

River, as her name might suggest, is a Hydrokinetic. Basically, she can control water and anything that has water in it. If she’s in a humid environment, she can pull water straight out from the air, but normally she would need some other source like a lake or a puddle or something. However, in a dry and bare place like a desert, her power is almost completely useless since there is no water source. But in the rare moments when she’s in extreme desperation, River has been known to injure herself (not severely, though) and use her own blood as a weapon.

Thanks to a having a great ability to defend and dodge, she relies mostly on a Tank style of fighting when she is in a group. She tries to make herself the target for the opponent(s) so that she can prevent any damage to her allies while they attack when the enemy is distracted by her. However, in a one on one battle, she relies on the simple technique of hitting as hard as possible and trying not to die.

Weaknesses
As you may have noticed, her fur color is no where near normal considering her race. This pigment mutation is due to Chaos radiation, which is also the reason behind her powers (if it can turn a Chao into a water god, then it should be able to turn some girl into a Hydrokinetic). Of course, with every blessing there has to be a catch of some sort; in her case, she's forced to co-exist with the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, if she dies or gets hurt, the Emeralds are fine, but if the Emeralds are damaged, misused, drained of their energy, etc. she suffers from it. Depending on what the Emeralds are put through, what happens to River can range from annoying headaches to death.

She also has varying reactions to Chaos Energy itself. If River is given too much positive chaos energy or too much negative chaos energy, then it throws her body off balance and disables her powers. However if she is given a large amount of both negative and positive, her powers become extremely strong and she is able to use them without the need to move. But the side effect is that it is extremely painful to endure the overload of energy, and her powers are rarely under her control.

Also, as mentioned before, she needs a water source to be able to use her powers. It's not too hard, considering that 70% of the planet is covered in water, but it can still be a drawback sometimes. As for her fighting style, more intelligent enemies that can thoroughly analyze her (like Metal Sonic and Emerl for example) can clearly see her tactic and immediatley attack the others.

Fryst the Wolf
River and Fryst have an... interesting relationship. Both are very similar, yet extremely different. They can relate to each other with their similar powers and backgrounds, and they both act as some sort of support for each other. Whenever Fryst suffers a panic attack, the other reminds her that it isn't the end of the world and that everything will soon get better. Whenever River is acting up with her problems, Fryst is there to calm her down, and surprisingly cheer her up despite the wolf's pessimistic personality. They would be together a lot more often, but Fryst is a wanderer, and only shows up every once in a while.

Brody the Puppy
Surprisingly, River acts much more mature than she usually would when it comes to Brody. She tries to act like an older sister figure despite the fact that the two are only neighbors, and he plays the role of a little brother pretty well. He can get annoying, overly excited, and acts really weird sometimes, but she still looks after him like he's family.

On a side note, the "brother and sister" similarities are more through her perspective. In Brody's perspective however, he percieves her more like his "third mother"; the first being his biological one, the second being his adopted one. But since they aren't actually related biologically or legally, she's just a mother-like figure to him.

Characters Owned by Other Users
When it comes to other people's characters, she has a pretty casual relationship with most of them. She hangs out with them and talks to them every once in a while, but she isn't close enough to be considered a best friend. A few others know her a bit better, but not enough to be considered close.

As a side note, she doesn't have any romantic relationships, but a certain character has shown interest in her... however, being the oblivious idiot she is, she doesn't notice it at all.

History
River was hatched prematurely thanks to an incident on her home island, Ali'ikai. Due to this, she was extremely fragile and wasn't expected to live more than week. However, the only thing that saved her was a single Chaos Emerald that was in her father's possession, and it vanished to a Special Stage after it was used. Not only did it ensure her survival, but it gave her a drastic pigment mutation and Hydrokinesis, the latter which wasn't even noticed until she was much older. But of course, it had to come with a price, and thus she was bound to the Emeralds for life.

She had a bit of a rough time growing up. While her parents were nuturing and accepting, every other islander thought she was strange due to her color, and several (but not all) people avoided her. At the age of five was when River discovered her powers, and it wasn't a secret to anybody. Everyone knew about it, and ever since then they've feared and outcasted her because they associated it with the water god, Chaos, whom is seen as a demon-like figure in their culture. As a child, she was only insulted and teased, but as she grew older it eventually became torment and complete discrimination. All of this turned her into an overly agressive and pessimistic preteen, which worried her family that couldn't do much to stop it. At the age of 14, she hated everyone as much as they hated her...

... that is, until a certain biplane crashed on the island. This was the first time she met anyone from outside Ali'ikai, and was very curious about the two travellers that crashed there. She watched them from a distance until finally confronting them, which was when she learned that they were Sonic and Tails. Realizing that there was a completely different world outside of her home island, she managed to convince them to take her along when the plane was repaired and ready to go. Arriving in a foreign land, she went on to meet plenty of other people that accepted her, which made her slowly grow into a calmer and more optimistic person, leading her to where she is now.

Cartoon Comics
River has appeared in cartoon comics several times. Her first appearance starred her previous design. In this comic, she participates in a water balloon fight, but after 5 minutes, it quickly turns into a water balloon war. Seeing as how she is the only one who has actual control over water, she fights against both sides screaming "YOU SHALL SUFFER!" and attacks both of the armies with a massive tidal wave, but accidentally destoys a city by doing so.

Her second appearance shows her current design, and she instead plays a minor role with this one. All she really does is participate in the angry mob that chases Paws the Wolf out of the Cartoon Comics building. In another, she is only in one panel and is shown being knocked out of the way by Static the Cat. But for the most part, she's seen casually hanging out with the other characters... and accidentally drowning people every once in a while...

Gem High
In this roleplay, River first appears in the "After School Again" chapter, where she is walking around the neighborhood, upset that she had to transfer to a different classroom as punishment for punching a teacher (which isn't shown in the roleplay, as none of the other characters were in the classes she used to go to). After several minutes, she accidentally bumps into Upsilon the Mink, and the two awkwardly stare at each other as they try to apologize.

In a later chapter, she is walking to school after being dropped off at the Train Station, where once again she runs into Upsilon. They walk to school together, and the day continues normally. During classes, she is introduced to other characters such as Tesla The Hedgehog, Hazel Moon, Hedge, and etc. but doesn't interact much with them. After the day is done, River walks back to the Train Station only to see that her ride home to Station Square left without her, and she is stuck waiting another hour for the next train to arrive. Here, Upsilon is encountered again and the two start another conversation, learning more about each other while gaining a friendly relationship. Finally the train arrives and River goes back to her home.

It is shown that she lives in an apartment complex in Station Square, and is a neighbor of Brody the Puppy, who is anxious and concerned about her being so late coming home, but is quickly calmed when he finds that she's alright. Skip to the next chapter, and River almost becomes late for school by sleeping in, thankfully being awoken by Brody just in time. She rushes to get on her train, and finds that thanks to her panicking she still has half an hour to make it to school.

She walks from the Train Station alone, and becomes lost in her own thought. Because of this, she doesn't pay attention to her surroundings and accidentally trips over a rock, creating a large gash on her knee. She tries to ignore the pain and keep walking like nothing happened, however Upsilon (who was a bit far away from her) notices this and runs up to help her by letting her use whatever that white thing around his waist as a temporary bandage.

Once they make it to the school, she departs to the infirmary to have the injury properly helped. Shortly after, she hides behind a corner and uses Hydrokinesis to clean the blood out of Upsilon's white cloth thing, but is accidentally caught by Hedge. She begins to panic, being shy about her powers, until suddenly Hedge asks her out to the School Dance. Unsure of how to react as she's rarely spoken to him, she becomes confused and tries to work some things out, leaving him embarrassed and a little confused as well

(Eventually I grew bored and this is the point where I left the Roleplay)

30 Character Development Questions
1.) Describe your character’s relationship with their mother or their father, or both. Was it good? Bad? Were they spoiled rotten, ignored? Do they still get along now, or no?

Until recently, River’s parents were her only friends that weren’t Chao (the Chao thing will be explained later). They had a pretty strong trust and loyalty between each other, and they rarely got into fights. The only reason River left them was because she was pissed at everyone else but them, however she didn’t really think about the consequences of that and she kind of ruined the relationship between them for a while. However, they've forgiven her for the most part.

2.) What are your characters most prominent physical features?

Well her obnoxiously bright fur color is pretty obvious, considering it’s the exact opposite of every other Echidna (I mean seriously, all of them are red or orange, meanwhile cyan is 255 green and 255 blue, absolutely no red). And her ponytail’s pretty noticeable when she has it up, since not many people style their quill things like that.

3.) Name one scar your character has, and tell us where it came from. If they don’t have any, is there a reason?

I’d imagine she’d have some pretty small faded scars from when she was a kid. She was a bit more reckless back then, and didn’t really care about safety all that much. As for any other injuries, they’ve never been enough to leave a big physical scar on her.

4.) How vain is your character? Do they find themselves attractive?

NOPE. NOT AT ALL. She doesn’t really consider herself to be pretty, just more of a “meh.” However, she’s not one of those annoying facebook girls who post a beautiful picture of themselves and fish for compliments by saying “OH MYAH GAWHD I’M SOOOO UGGLLY!”

5.) What’s your character’s ranking on the Kinsey Scale?

<p class="MsoNormal">About a 2… what? I stated that she’s questioned her sexuality several times before!

<p class="MsoNormal">6.) Describe your character’s happiest memory.

<p class="MsoNormal">Her happiest memory was when she first made it to the Chao Island when she was around 6 or 7, and for multiple reasons. The first reason is that only a handful of people have made it to the island, and she was the first one to do it without any problems. The second reason is that since no one was there, it was like her own secret hideout that no one but her could reach. And finally, it’s where she met all of her childhood friends, all of which were Chao. Yeah, that’s kind of depressing, I know, but she didn’t care about it much.

<p class="MsoNormal">7.) Is there one event or happening your character would like to erase from their past? Why?

<p class="MsoNormal">Well, considering how much she was bullied in her childhood, there's a lot of moments she'd love to erase. But there's one that probably ranks highest on her worst memories. When she was around 10 years old, Ali'ikai suffered a horrible tsunami on the southern region, which was where she and most of her family members lived. Multiple people that she knew died in the natural disaster; her Aunt on her Father's side, several Chao from the Chao Island, and some other villagers that she was acquainted with. Of course, being the only person on the entire island who had water-related powers, many people blamed her for the entire disaster. This was the worst that it had ever gotten, because in previous years she was simply left out of ceremonies or other kids just pushed her around a bit, but in this case, nearly everyone was accusing her of murder. This was her breaking point, and as a result she pushed herself into becoming an aggressive, easily frustrated, and pessimistic preteen, which lasted until about a year ago.

<p class="MsoNormal">8.) Day of Favorites! What’s your character’s favorite ice cream flavor? Color? Song? Flower?

<p class="MsoNormal">Ice cream: Chocolate, because who doesn’t like chocolate? Color: Probably red and white, considering that every single outfit I’ve thought of for her, she has those colors. Song: Down the Road by C2C, not really for the lyrics or anything, but she likes the idea of a song mashing up two song genres (country and techno in this case). Flower: She kind of likes Irises for their interesting shape.

<p class="MsoNormal">9.)  Who does your character trust?

<p class="MsoNormal">She seems to have a strong bond with people who are overly serious and can be a bit annoyed by her, but they never actually hate her for it. For example, Fryst is one of her close friends, and Fryst gets annoyed by River all the time and they whenever they do snap at each other, they quickly apologize just minutes later.

<p class="MsoNormal">10.) Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.

<p class="MsoNormal">The first major turning point was when she first discovered her powers at 5 years old. Back then, she didn’t know how to react. She didn’t know if she was supposed to be afraid or proud of them, but clearly everyone else feared her powers since they’re extremely similar to Chaos. Then the second turning point was likely the Tsunami incident, which caused her to undergo a big personality change. Finally the third major turning point was when she first met Sonic and Tails when they crash landed on the island. For one, this made her (along with practically everyone else) realize that there was more to the world than just their island, and two, if it weren’t for them, she would have never been able to leave Ali’ikai and meet all the friends she has now.

<p class="MsoNormal">11.) Is there an animal you equate with your character?

<p class="MsoNormal">An Echidna? I have a feeling this quiz wasn’t necessarily made for Sonic characters…

<p class="MsoNormal">12.) How is your character with technology? Super savvy, or way behind the times? Letters or email?

<p class="MsoNormal">Oh god, River is HORRIBLE with technology! Think of how you’re grandparents always have trouble turning on the TV or working their computer…  that’s what she’s like with it, only she ends up accidentally breaking half of the technology she tries to use.

<p class="MsoNormal">13.) What does your character’s bed look like when he/she wakes up? Are the covers off on one side of the bed, are they all curled around a pillow, sprawled everywhere? In what position might they sleep?

<p class="MsoNormal">Her bed looks like a hurricane slept in it. No, seriously, she wakes up blankets on the other side of the room sometimes. As for positions, they’re constantly changing. Some nights it’s a nice tucked in position, and then the night right after she’s posed like a starfish.

<p class="MsoNormal">14.)  How does your character react to temperature changes such as extreme heat and cold?

<p class="MsoNormal">Growing up in a tropical island, River doesn’t know what cold is. Therefore, she does horribly when faced with it. Just 50 or something degrees Fahrenheit (or 10 degrees Celsius, for all you non ‘muricans and really small countries in the Caribbean) is enough to make her think it’s cold. However she really likes snow. As for heat, she can endure it pretty well. She doesn’t really complain about it all that much.

<p class="MsoNormal">15.) Is your character an early morning bird or a night owl?

<p class="MsoNormal">River is definitely a Night Owl. Staying up to 2 AM is normal for her; some say her record is 8 in the morning before she finally passed out.

<p class="MsoNormal">16.) Are there any blood relatives that your character is particularly close with, besides the immediate ones? Cousins, Uncles, Grandfathers, Aunts, et cetera. Are there any others that your character practically considers a blood relative?

<p class="MsoNormal">Yeah, compared to most Sonic characters, her family's pretty big. Most other characters would only have immediate family, or maybe just a sibling or just a parent. River has at least a dozen other relatives, so I'll just list them off and give a small description of her relationship with them. On her dad's side, she has a Grandfather that she doesn't interact with much, an Uncle that kind of hates her, and two younger cousins who look up to her. As for her mother's side, she has a Grandfather and Grandmother which kind of like her, an Uncle who is neutral towards her, an Aunt (married into the family) who doesn't like her, and three slightly younger cousins which all like her. I'll probably sketch them sometime, but for now, just imagine what they look like.

<p class="MsoNormal">17.) What’s your character’s desk/workspace look like? Are they neat or messy?

<p class="MsoNormal">She doesn’t have a workspace… either that, or she used to have one but it just got so unrecognizable because she never cleaned it…

<p class="MsoNormal">18.) Is your character a good cook? What’s their favorite recipe, whether they’re good or not? (Microwave mac-and-cheese applies.)

<p class="MsoNormal">Fun fact: In Ali’ikai, it’s actually normal for the men to cook. In other words, River can’t make decent food to save her life.

<p class="MsoNormal">19.) What’s your character’s preferred means of travel?

<p class="MsoNormal">Whatever’s convenient at the moment.

<p class="MsoNormal">20.) Does your character have any irrational fears?

<p class="MsoNormal">I would say Claustrophobia, but that fear is kind of instinctual from what I’ve read. Probably will have to go back and edit this as well…

<p class="MsoNormal">21.) What would your character’s cutie mark be?

<p class="MsoNormal">Probably a wave or water droplet or something…

<p class="MsoNormal">22.) If your character could time travel, where would they go?

<p class="MsoNormal">The future, just to see what the heck Silver was complaining about.

<p class="MsoNormal">23.) Is your character superstitious?

<p class="MsoNormal">Nope. Not at all.

<p class="MsoNormal">24.) What might your character’s ideal romantic partner be?

<p class="MsoNormal">Well, I can never really seem to get a right shipping with River (as you can tell by that one comic I made) but I can always see her being really well off with people who act serious, but have some really silly traits that throw people off. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve shipped her with canons before… multiple canons. Most of the time, it’s Knuckles (they don't call me KnucklesFangirl for nothing), but in my mind I have put her together with Espio, sometimes Mighty… yeah, I’m a horrible person for shipping FC’s with canons… I await your hate comments.

<p class="MsoNormal">25.) Describe your character’s hands. Are they small, long, calloused, smooth, stubby?

<p class="MsoNormal">Gloved and basically the same as every single Sonic character… but sometimes they look really weird because I suck at drawing hands most of the time.

<p class="MsoNormal">26.) Second day of favorites! Favorite comfort food, favorite guilty pleasure, favorite outfit, favorite hot drink, favorite season, and favorite holiday.

<p class="MsoNormal">Favorite comfort food: Poi Bread; most people wouldn’t see it as “comfort food,” but it reminds her of home (in a good way, of course). Favorite Guilty Pleasure: She tends to sing a lot when she’s alone… really well and really loudly too. Probably loud enough to fill an entire stage with clear sound. Sure, a lot of people sing, but whenever someone walks in on her singing her heart out, she immediately panics and runs to the nearest hiding spot in embarrassment. Favorite outfit: Pajamas, because they’re really comfy. What more is there to say? Favorite hot drink: Coffee… explains why she’s always staying up so late… Favorite Season: Winter; the snow just fascinates her. Favorite Holiday: Halloween.

<p class="MsoNormal">27.) Pick two songs that describe your character at two different points of their life, and explain why you chose them.

<p class="MsoNormal">First song is No One Mourns the Wicked  from, well… Wicked (the best part in my opinion is around 2:26). Okay, it’s a broadway song, so listening to it without knowing any context of the actual story is kind of confusing. Anyways, most of this song pretty much explains her relationship with people throughout her whole life, told through the perspective of everyone but her. For one, nearly everyone she knew hated her for her color and powers. Then because of that, she responded with even more aggressiveness back towards people, and since violence and aggressiveness is looked down upon in her homeland, she was hated even more. Thus “Wickedness was thrust upon her” as the lyrics say (assuming you actually listened to that WHOLE THING). Now for the second song, Fuck it All  the parody of Let it Go from Frozen… yes, I’m serious. This is the actual song I’m using. No, that’s not me singing the song, and yes, I know the singing isn’t THAT good. But anyways, this song explains her emotions upon leaving the island in a nutshell. It’s basically the moment where she’s done with all this crap, and leaves with a big “SCREW YOU!” to everyone she knew back then, and she also gained a huge sense of freedom in doing so.

<p class="MsoNormal">28.) If your character’s life was a genre, what would it be?

<p class="MsoNormal">I always imagine it as a comedy… but with some really depressing moments every once in a while. Kind of like how the trailers for “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” made it look like a fun and happy high school movie, but it ended up being one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen.

<p class="MsoNormal">29.) How does your character smell? Do they wear perfume or cologne?

<p class="MsoNormal">… What kind of creepy question is that?!

<p class="MsoNormal">30.) And finally: Write a letter to your character, from yourself.

<p class="MsoNormal">Dear River,

<p class="MsoNormal">Yeah… if you’re pissed off about anything, I’m probably the one to blame. One, I’m a human, and I made you to really dislike them. Two, I made your backstory so crappy. And three, I intentionally like to make you act like a comic relief character. As we all know, comic relief characters never have any good luck.

<p class="MsoNormal">Love(?) from your creator, KFG

Section for ideas I'm considering making canon

 * Possibly make a new character to be an enemy/rival that is based off the Biolizard, seeing as she is somewhat based off of Chaos.


 * Might give her secondary powers that only come in when she's given Positive or Negative Chaos energy.


 * Also might give her a slight accent that slips out when she's angry.

Quotes
"I'm the only one who can control water here... YOU SHALL SUFFER!" - Don't get into a water balloon fight with her...

"What the heck is a 'Lippies'?" - Discovering Lippies

"OH COME ON!" - Easily getting frustrated

"This is what I don't get: I talk like an American, look like an Asian, appearently I'm Hawaiian, but Echidnas are Austrailian... WHAT AM I?!" - Ethnicity confusion

"Nice going, idiot. Now you made him sad." - Blunt as always...

Theme Songs
Back in 7th grade choir, we had an assignment where we had to match songs of our choice to our emotions and memories and etc. so that's what this section is kinda for...







Trivial Facts

 * This character is a reboot of River the Echidna, who still has a page here that you can read.
 * She hates it when someone calls her blue and not "cyan".
 * The Chaos Emerald she was exposed to was cyan, which caused her fur to be the same color. If the emerald was any of the other colors, she would have matched that color.
 * River knows two languages, her dominant one being English, and her secondary being Alikian (it's a fictional language, so don't bother googling it). Sometimes she uses her secondary language to secretly insult someone without them knowing.
 * Throughout all but one of her designs, River's shoes have stayed exactly the same.
 * While she's my first character on the wiki, she's actually the 13th Sonic character I've ever made. I guess you could say there was a lot of Trial and Error in making her...
 * She's kind of a Chao magnet. If she's in an area where Chao live, they immediately flock to her even if she doesn't want them to. However, this is the complete opposite with the animals that Eggman uses in his machines, as they immediately flee at the sight of her.
 * During the reboot, several ideas were considered that were completely scrapped. One of the ideas was her being half Chameleon, another was having her be half whatever the heck Chaos 0 is, and another consisted of her being a clone. However, these ideas seemed pretty odd after a while and they were scrapped.
 * Her fighting style is based on my own experience with MMO games, since I enjoyed playing as a character with heavy defense/health.
 * If she ever does get a super form, then her fur color would become lighter and her quills would move like hair underwater instead of looking like there's wind constantly blowing at it.
 * Speaking of colors, if River was born naturally, her fur color would be a dark red. Also, she would have a tail.
 * Her current design was somewhat inspired by the training uniform Mulan wore in her movie, while her Genderbend's design was inspired by Ryu from the Street Fighter series.
 * So far in Cartoon Comics, she has nearly drowned Thunder Punch, Blue Jay the Blue Bird, Dark Ace the Mongoose, Dash the Turtle, Emily the Hedgehog, and Sam the Rabbit (twice for him).