Playthings
Written from a prompt by Merindab, who asked for the Ninth Doctor meeting Gabriel. Predictably, Gabriel’s up to his usual mischief. Unfortunately for him, dicking with The Doctor is a bit like rubbing the lamp of an evil djinn. You may get what you want, but nobody said you’d be satisfied with it. Just hope it doesn’t kill you.
—-
“Penny in the air…” Gabriel trailed off as the Doctor ground to a halt outside a Hot Topic.
The Doctor picked up a plastic TARDIS from a sale cart and turned it over in his hand. The little box released a wheezing bray from the daisy of pinholes at the bottom, no doubt activated by the motion. The Doctor’s eyebrows shot up. Gabriel tried not to feel smug.
To be fair, he didn’t try very hard.
The Doctor scuffed a free hand through his thin hair. “In this reality, I’m on telly?” He asked, “You mean, documentaries?”
“Nope,” Gabriel drawled, and nudged the Doctor gently around towards a wall of tee shirts. Over and over, logos of various shapes shouted ‘DOCTOR WHO?’ He read the line of growing tension in the Doctor’s broad shoulders. “…Penny drops.”
“I’m not real.”
