river song appreciation week: Day 5 | May 29: Favorite Theme – Mirroring Rory
Fibbing: “This won’t hurt a bit.” ↰ ↳ “I lied.”
Insecurity: “But who ever said he loved me back?” ↰ ↳  “Amy, basic fact of our relationship is that I love you more than you love me.”
Notable Warriors: “I’m River Song, check your records again.” ↰ ↳  “Do I have to repeat the question.”
The Doctor’s Reality Check: “This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?” ↰ ↳ “You know what it's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.”
Death and devotion: “If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.” ↰ ↳ “And anyway, what else is there? Dying of old age downstairs, never seeing you again?”
River Song Appreciation Week is back—an annual celebration of our favorite time-travelling archaeologist, space-queen, and Luna U's infamous darling professor. After several past editions (most recently in 2023), this fan-favorite returns on May 25-31 and will now be an annual celebration hosted by @expectiations. We’re bringing RSAW back to life with even more ways to celebrate!
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đź“ś Week-Long Schedule
Day 1 | May 25: Favorite Scene(s)/Episode(s)
Day 2 | May 26: Favorite Quote
Day 3 | May 27: Favorite Regeneration
Day 4 | May 28: Favorite Trait
Day 5 | May 29: Favorite Theme
Day 6 | May 30: Favorite Dynamic
Day 7 | May 31: Free Day
🎉 Community Vote
We’ll be running various River-centric polls across platforms (Twitter polls, IG Stories, Discord channel polls, etc.)—keep an eye out for opportunities to vote!
💡 Creative “Igniters”
Feeling stuck? Pick one quote that captures River’s essence and riff on it however you like:
• “For time may be a river, but the mind is a tide. They say the river can’t be turned, yet the tide can shift and slide.” ― Nishant Prakash, Falling In & Out
• “Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.” ― The Wonder Years
• “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ― Helen Keller
• “Forever is composed of nows.” ― Emily Dickinson
• “The thing with heat is, no matter how cold you are, no matter how much you need warmth, it always, eventually, becomes too much.” ― Victoria Aveyard, Glass Sword
• “It’s very painful to start loving someone when holding on to the idea of hating them keeps you safe.” ― Fern Brady, Strong Female Character
• “Time isn’t the only thing that can surprise you.”
Use these as optional prompts—no pressure, just sparks for your imagination.
🎨 Optional Fan Challenge
Quote-Inspired Fan-mix: Pick a quote and build a playlist around it.
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đź“ś Quick Rules & Reminders
Keep River front and center. Other characters are welcome, but she’s the star.
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Tag mature content (NSFW, triggers) clearly.
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Let’s light up the days leading up to May 31 with gifs, fanfic, art, and musings worthy of River Song herself. Time to show our space-queen how much she means to us once more—geronimo! 🚂✨
Entry for @riversongweek | river song appreciation week:
day 6 | May 30: Favorite Dynamic
Rating: somewhere between Teen and mature, maybe, leaning towards teen
Genre: Fluff
Warnings/Topics: Homophobia (not active but undertones/implications, mainly the possibility of someone outing another person is discussed and someone mislabels another person, also someone decides to stay in the closet), swearing, wolf whistling, French kissing, alcohol consumption, vague age difference between make out partners where one is barely an adult and the other definitely an adult
Words: ~1.5k
Mels comes out to her parents while playing Never have I ever. Technically, Mels doesn't intend to come out, she's just launching yet another playful attempt to make them face their feelings for each other. To make the penny drop, so to say. Coming out is just a welcome side effect.
"Never have I ever fancied a boy at our school," she says, taking a swig from her bottle and immediately on the next round following with ", and never have I ever fancied a girl at our school, " taking another swig.
It flies over their heads spectacularly. The rule violation, the coming out, even the matchmaking attempt. They just both blush scarlet, Amy takes a sip for her drink and avoids their eyes, then, the next round Rory does the same. Mels is this close to hitting her own forehead in frustration.
Amy realises later that night. Or, rather, she circles back to that moment once Rory has left and they're lying in her bed, the dark (and the tipsy) making it easier to confess secrets.
"I'm almost certain Rory is gay," she says and of all the takeaways someone could have had from her coming out, that would not have been among those Mels would have bet on.
"What the fuck?" she blurts out and Amy clicks her tongue, the ever present mum-impulse to chastise her for swearing showing.
"He was blushing on those crushes from school questions," Amy explains and Mels rolls her eyes, glad she can't be seen in the dark.
"He drank, though," she points out. "On having had a crush on a girl."
"Yeah, obviously, he would," Amy huffs like Mels is the one being willfully naive. "To cover it up."
"I was not trying to out him," Mels murmurs, realising she just might have risked it.
Because while her father is most certainly not gay, he's very probably not straight either.
"I know that, love," Amy sighs. "And I don't blame you. You didn't know."
"Amy -" Mels starts and she hopes Amy doesn't hear she has to stop for breath because she's physically holding herself back from giggling. "Sometimes when someone says they fancied a girl, they really just fancy girls. Doesn't mean they don't also fancy boys, of course."
She thinks for a beat and decides that, yes, if Amy is already being stubborn and prefers to lie to herself about Rory, she's at least going to shove her own truth into her face until she sees it.
"It's why I drank both times," she adds.
It's quiet for a moment. Then Amy asks:
"You did?"
Mels bites her lip against a grin. "Quite."
"You like girls?"
"And boys," she confirms. "Any gender really."
'It was for other reasons I phrased the prompt that way,' she adds in thought.
Amy moves next to her, then the nightlight comes on, brightness attacking Mels' eyes. Amy is kneeling on the bed, looking down at her with shimmering eyes.
"We've got to go to a gay bar," she says.
"What? Right now?" Mels asks and she doesn't quite expect Amy to agree, but then she's pulled out of bed - in her nighty - and towards the door.
"We've got to celebrate!" Amy claims - maybe just a tad more tipsy than Mels has been believing - and who is she to argue with that?
They do change out of their night dresses - if Mels is going out, she's going out looking cute - but they cycle all the way to the next bigger town in the dead of night, since there's no night busses in Leadworth. More sensible people would probably worry about drinking additional alcohol and getting back in one piece but Amy is on a mission and Mels knows how to hotwire a car. And how to stomach her booze.
They find a queer bar that is still open, Amy promises to pay for any drink Mels wants to have and declares they both have to find a woman to make out with until the end of the night. Mels is swimming in happiness at her easy acceptance - and the possibility that maybe both her parents are not exactly straight after all.
By the end of the night, Amy has found a blonde butch firefighter who amicably agrees to kiss and hold her and pronounces that she could 'see herself getting into this'.
Mels has been dancing with the firefighter's girlfriend, who's a few years older and kisses like a goddess and when they load their bikes onto the back of the couple's van in the early morning, Mels has a hickey on her neck and two phone numbers written onto her wrist.
Amy falls asleep against Mels' shoulder on the backseat and the firefighter asks if 'her boyfriend has broken up with her'. Mels realises Amy must have mentioned Rory in front of these strangers.
"No, they aren't together," she says. "Yet."
She learns that Rory figured it out eventually, too, a few days later in school. He comes by her desk before class, pressing a handful of brightly coloured bracelets into her hand.
"I didn't know which one you prefer, so I got any I thought might make sense," he mumbles. "They didn't have polysexual, unfortunately."
Mels checks the little ribbons of each bracelet, making up the colours of the different flags under the queer umbrella. She spots the bi flag, pan, lesbian, omni, a rainbow one, aromantic, grey asexual and one she doesn't even recognise. A sound escapes her that she will deny under torture is a sob and she jumps out of her chair to hug Rory. Someone behind them whistles and Mels flips them off without looking.
"Thank you," she whispers into Rory's ear. "I love them."
"Is the right one among them?" he asks and Mels waves the pan bracelet at him, grinning.
"Yep," she says. "Plus the genderqueer flag, but you couldn't know."
"Oh," Rory says, scratching his head. "Maybe I should have asked, first."
Mels considers the aro and bi bracelet.
"I could refactor these," she hums. Then, uncharacteristically cautiously, she ventures: "That is, if you don't want any for yourself?"
Rory takes a deep breath, then his hand closes around the bi bracelet.
"I'll - uh - go with this one," he says, avoiding her eyes. "For now."
She's tempted to hug him again but Rory already looks embarrassed enough.
"I did not, you know, mean you," he says, very quickly. "When I drank for the crush, that is."
That option has not even appeared to her, for obvious reasons.
"Me neither," she reassures him. "And I didn't mean Amy either."
"Good," he breathes a sigh of relief, quickly supplying: "Because that would be awkward, right? If two of us - with us all being friends, I mean."
"I don't think it'd be awkward if you and Amy were together," she says, revelling in how his face lights up.
"Well, I hope the people you're crushing on are worth it," he changes topic, clearing his throat. "You deserve someone fantastic."
"Aw, would you give them the shovel talk?" Mels teases and he shrugs bashfully.
"If necessary," he promises bravely and Mels shoves his shoulder playfully.
"I'll let you know," she grins, decidedly not telling him she had a very adult woman's tongue down her throat a few nights ago. Some things are better only shared with Amy.
Other things, however -
"Tie it for me?" she asks and holds her hand out to him. Careful as always, Rory ties the colourful ribbon around her wrist, securing it with a double knot. He lets her do the same for him, smiling when she holds their wrists together.
"Amy's gonna be so jealous and want her own," she jokes and Rory almost chokes.
"I don't - I'm not sure I want to talk much about this yet," he pleads and she nods her understanding. Telling Amy would surely speed some things up, but this is not her call to make.
"I'll give her the rainbow one, anyway," she decides. "Rather: You should give it to her, you bought them after all."
Rory blushes scarlet again, but he takes the bracelet and makes his way over to Amy who Mels knows has been inconspicuously watching them the entire time.
When class has started she plays with the bracelet on her wrist, strings running through her fingers. One glance at her parents confirms they're mirroring the gesture and at least in her mum's case, there's a certain dreaminess to her expression.
A self-complacent smile sneaks onto Mels' face. Maybe this wasn't quite a fruitless matchmaking attempt after all. And if it still doesn't help, she's just going to stop being subtle. That's much more her style anyway.
Thanks for reading!!
Yay, I managed to write an entry after all :) It is quite unedited, as you might have noticed, but I think it does the job of showcasing some lovely Pond dynamics 🥰
In my mind, the lesbian couple in the bar is some AU version of thasmin with a butch 13 who have stayed together and will travel for al of Yaz's life. But that's my personal vision, everyone can have their own.
Btw this entry is also a bit of a stand-in for the favourite regeneration day bc I didn't manage to do more than one but Mels should have been heralded that day.
Also, I don't think the Ponds are all in one class? But anyway, maybe this was some sort of assembly or something. Or maybe they are for some subject or other. Anyway, feel free to disagree with my sexuality headcanons, I change my mind there every day, too. I hope you enjoyed!
- Jason Moran, writer -
Castaways, Behind the Scenes Interviews (The Death and Life of River Song: Ace and Tegan) 59:54
@riversongweek River Song Appreciation Week: Day 4 | Favorite Trait
ALT text:
[over a gif of River shooting Nazi diners in Let's Kill Hitler, a gif of River shooting the Dalek in The Big Bang, and a gif of River putting her gun into her holster in The Day of the Moon]
“River will just wade through people, and just kill indiscriminately and not think twice about it, if she’s doing what she sees as the right thing. It’s sometimes not.”
Bonus continuation because I transcribed it for fun:
“Ace and Tegan, they’ve travelled with the Doctor, who does have a strict moral code. I mean, a lot of people still die, but the Doctor is trying not to kill people, that’s the big difference. River is a little bit more morally flexible, shall we say. I think that’s an interesting dynamic, in that they have learned from the Doctor, and they have taken that message onboard very much. River remains River, which results in some fun dialogue exchanges.”
@riversongweek day 4 - Favorite trait(s): Her daring spirit and nerdiness, because they go hand in hand. Her escape plan in The Husbands of River Song hinges on a meteor strike she studied as an archaeologist, and in The Pandorica Opens, she graffitied the oldest planet in the universe in High Gallifreyan, which I imagine is very difficult to learn, just because she can. She is passionate about knowledge and being a menace to society, both.
