Ficlet: Yes/No/Perhaps

[bagheera_san]

Title: Yes/No/Perhaps
Rating: all ages
Characters: Three, Jo, Delgado!Master/Three
Prompt: #6 Farming
Summary: A while ago there was a macro on ihasatardis that inspired this.



Sometimes humans baffled him. This was a good thing, because the Doctor would hate to be stranded among boring people. "I didn't know you had an interest in agriculture, Jo."

She rolled her eyes and mock-punched him in the arm with her tiny fist. "Crop circles, Doctor. I bet you know exactly what I'm talking about. They're made by aliens, aren't they? Look, I've read an article about them here."

Jo brandished a brightly-coloured and not very respectable looking glossy magazine at him. The Doctor decided to humour her, but couldn't help his amused smile. "There are many strange things out there, Jo, but have you asked yourself why anyone would travel all the way to Earth just to destroy some poor farmer's hard work? Most likely they're some kind of prank."

"Well, they might want to communicate with us," Jo pointed out, undeterred. "Perhaps for once they're friendly aliens!"

"Perhaps."

The Doctor had found the article in question and peeked closely at the photographs of vandalised wheat fields. He blinked, straightened the paper and looked again. His brows rose. The penmanship was very neat. Someone had gone to a great effort to ask a very simple and slightly silly question. 'Yes/ no/ perhaps' indeed. He put down the magazine, suppressing a laugh.

"Jo, we're going on a trip to Hampshire."

"I knew it! They're real!"

"Not quite. They are a prank, I suspect, but definitely not a human one." Under his breath, he added, "He can't possibly be serious."

"Well, what are we going to do? Shouldn't we tell the Brigadier?"

He shook his head and steered Jo out of the lab. "Not this time, Jo. We're going to do something not quite legal – we're going to reply to the message."

"Oh!" Her eyes sparkled with excitement and mischief. "Well, we shouldn't tell the Brigadier that, you're right."

"No, I doubt he would approve."

"What are we going to write, then?"

"Oh, something very simple. 'No, absolutely not.'"

The fact that the Doctor had answered at all would speak for itself.

Comments

[lukita.livejournal.com]

*giggles* The great thing about your ficlets is that I can know next to nothing about Doctor Who and still gets it. :p

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Hee :) That's good!

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i'm commenting in the wrong order, but never mind - the ending is so good. all of it is, i love jo (in general, but particularly her insistence on believing what the media tells her about aliens despite the doctor mocking her for it, and being right - which is the important thing about jo) and the doctor doing something illegal for kicks, but i particularly love the doctor being so deliberately and knowingly annoying. how the master must hate him.

excellent use of prompt too.

p.s. intrigued by the macro. have you a link?

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/ihasatardis/913994.html

This is one of the macros, but I could swear there was another (though none of them had Three, but if there was a Who adventure with crop circles, it would be a Three story.)

[x-losfic.livejournal.com]

The fact that the Doctor had answered at all would speak for itself.

V. cute. Poor intensely frustrated Master. What a complete contradictory ass Three can be.

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Hai lost person! :D (Last line was added as an afterthought when I realised that I had once again made things a little too one-sided *g*)

[x-losfic.livejournal.com]

Hey, moving continents is hard work! :p

But yes, until that like I was like 'OMG POOR MASTER THREE JUST THINKS YOU'RE FUNNY AND KIND OF PATHETIC AND LAUGHS AT YOU WITH JO.'

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

It was as if I had your little beta voice in my head, complaining about lack of shippy-ness. You've trained me well!

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnort*

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

:D

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaahhhahaha, YES. Definitely "are you asking me out on a date?" time. I love this idea:D.

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

The Master has tried weirder things to ask him out on a date :P

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a refreshingly different approach. I LOVE Jo having the mag and babbling about it and Three going "oh dear"--that's such perfect characterisation.

[dirty-smudge.livejournal.com]

I like the "perhaps", it's kind of cheeky. And very in character for Delgado!Master.

(I want to give him a cookie. Don't you want to give him a cookie? He looks like he needs a cookie. Just, you know, in general.)

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Need of cookies: fact.

The perhaps is like when you pass notes in school: Do you want to go out with me? And below are three boxes: []yes, []no, []perhaps. (And Three is actually a perhaps-Doctor. Whereas Five and Six are no-Doctor and Seven is a yes-Doctor if we believe the audios and Ten is the one who's passing the note with the option yes (please say yes).)

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

three would write some long condescending stuff about note passing being totally immature and stupid but he would still mark off a box. :D

also: this fic is WIN

[redvelvetaddict.livejournal.com]

Need for snuggles: also fact.

This was delightfulllll <3

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

Oh my lord, the joyful little noises this just produced. The whole thing is lovely, and then the last line makes it gold. <3

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Thank you :) (btw I love your icon because it's a little BLACK heart)

[dragonlit.livejournal.com]

Love the Doctor taking the challenge to respond. Crop circles indeed! Cute.

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[teaji.livejournal.com]

Basically passing notes, but with aliens and crop circles:)
WIN. Except I still want to thump Three for being a tease.

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[elviaprose.livejournal.com]

I know this fic is really, really old, but I just found it and I adore it and it makes me want to ramble to everyone I know about how wonderful Three/Delgado!Master is. Just thought I'd drop you a line to say so.