#god when reno and grand opening is over i am gonna sit down and cry in relief. except christmas is one week later whyyyyyy

[i-am-become-a-name]

Advent Prompt: 06/12/2022: Someone save me from the FOURTEEN PAGE CRICKET GAME in the Black Orchid novelisation, please. (pages 20-34)

Even after the subdued stay at Cranleigh Hall drew to a close, longs days of walking in the grounds, or taking refuge in the library to allow the family time to mourn and deal with the formalities of planning a funeral, Nyssa had remained withdrawn and pale in spite of the beautiful scenery that surrounded them and Tegan’s attempts to cheer her up.

The Doctor attributed it to a general unease around Ann Talbot, and her abduction by Ann’s unwell ex-fiance, but even as they said their goodbyes and stepped into the TARDIS, she remained quieter than usual, and Tegan kept shooting her worried looks when she thought no one was looking. Adric, Rassilon help him, had no such delicacies in social manner, and asked loudly “Is it tradition that terrans locked their children in the attic?” and Nyssa abruptly stiffened while Tegan exclaimed the boy’s name in horror. She ushered the younger girl, who’s face had gone very pinched, out, and muttered poisonous things about boys having stomachs bigger than their brains.

The Doctor sighed loudly, idly at flicking controls on the console, and said: “No, Adric. It was not an ideal situation. They were simply trying to... do what they thought best.” And the multitude of sins that phrase covered could fill all the empty spaces in this universe and still spill over in to many others. He glanced up to continue of the theme, but Adric had already lost interest in what had happened at Cranleigh Hall, and was instead curiously watching the coordinates the Doctor was entering, muscles working on their own initiative, with no input from his conscious brain. But as he registered the numbers, he smiled. Somewhere quiet and uninhabited, just what the doctor called for.

-

When the TARDIS landed so soon after they had left, Tegan stared at the ceiling of the room she shared with Nyssa in outraged shock. She had expected at least some consideration for Nyssa from the Doctor, rather than throwing them straight back into peril, and she glanced at her uneasily sleeping friend before creeping from the room, pointedly moving to a stomp once she was in the corridor where it wouldn’t wake anyone.

But there was no one in the console room, and the doors stood wide open. Frustrated they had evaded her intention to yell at someone of Nyssa’s behalf (and she was far too nice to have considered yelling for her own sake) Tegan stomped straight out through the doors, heedless of what waited outside. She came to an abrupt stop as her eyes adjusted to the scene in front of her- it looked as though they were in a clearing, trees towering lush-leafed undergrowth, silent but for the wind rusting the foliage, and the hollow thunk of the Doctor using a piece of fallen... log? to hammer in the third of a- a laugh escaped her as she recognised the hastily collected wickets, a sturdy piece laying in the grass nearby that had been clearly put aside to serve as the bat.

-

When Nyssa stirred, the gentle whisper of the TARDIS in her brain alongside the homey surrounds, she wandered curiously through the empty corridors, drawn by the friendly yelling and laughter coming through the console room’s door.

Tegan was standing in front of some kind of primitive wooden art piece, wielding her own piece of wood and trying to protect it from the Doctor. She saw a flash of red cricket ball, making this... Nyssa allowed herself a small smile, to see her friends so happy, up until Adric spotted her and demanded her presence on his team, citing solidarity in cultural ignorance, and Tegan immediately started bickering good-naturedly with the Doctor over what seemed to be some kind of method he had used to throw the ball to her earlier, and their voices rose in a joyful and healing chaos.