Disclamer: I DO OWN DOCTOR WHO!!! SO HA!! (I wish)
Okay, this is a story based off a prompt from my Choco-Nilla-Pocky. "I lost the game." (If you have no clue what "the game" is, it is explained in the story)
I Lost the Game
Rose and the Doctor were sitting in one of the TARDIS's many rooms, sipping tea and recalling some of their numerous adventures. They found themselves laughing at the fact that the royal family were werewolves. Or becoming solemn and sad when they recalled when Rose had stopped her father from dieing. Now, Rose was criticizing the Doctor for practically sleeping through the entire Sycorax invasion at Christmas. He was poorly defending himself.
"I had just regenerated! My cells were still rewriting themselves, if I had been up and about, saving the day as I always do, I might still be out cold right now!" He argued, though his voice had an amused edge to it.
"Well you had me invoking the Shadow Proclamation! That thing was going to eat me or something!" Rose retorted, but it was all in good fun.
"But he didn't. I saved the day. I win," he said with a smug grin, and leaned back into the chair, taking a sip of tea.
"Oh! Remember when we got locked in that room on Versillias Nebula 12?"
"Um… Yes? But what does that have to do with the Sycorax?" He asked, slightly confused.
Rose shrugged. "You didn't win then. I had to bail you out once they let me out. So I won then," she said, sharing in his smug attitude.
The Doctor frowned. "Funny how your human mind works. Seems to jump from subject to subject, it's so random," he remarked, as he usually commented on other species or races when someone (mainly Rose) was putting him down or he felt frustrated.
Random… Something about that word clicked in Rose. Perhaps the Doctor was right about her mind jumping randomly from topics, because that one word brought up a memory from her childhood that she hadn't thought of for a while. About a game she and her mates used to play…
And suddenly, she remembered what it was. "I lost the game," she announced, suspecting that the Doctor would have no idea what she was talking about, but happy because of the other childhood memories that the game had brought with it.
So, she was surprised when the Doctor's smile was wiped away, leaving him gapping at her in surprise.
"What did you say?" he stuttered, the look on his face confusing Rose, as declaring that someone had lost the game never offended someone before. Maybe it was some weird alien taboo thing. Sometimes she forgot the Doctor wasn't human, but then he did something strange or reacted weirdly to things humans did or said, and Rose was reminded of the fact that he was a 900 year old Time Lord.
"That I lost the game. Old game I used to play with my mates when I was…" she trailed off, the look on the Doctor's face was making her want to burst out laughing, but she bit her lip and held it in.
When he didn't say anything, but kept looking appalled, she went on. "You know, if you think of the game, you lose it… a grace period after losing it, so no one else can for some time. I used to play that it was half an hour, but some people have other times…. Okay, will you stop looking at me like that?" The look was funny at first, but now it was starting to bother Rose. The Doctor shook his head.
"Sorry, are you talking about 'The Game?' It has no other name? And all you have to do is think of The Game, and then you lose? Do you know how it started?" All of these questions were fired at Rose rather quickly.
"I've only known it as The Game. Maybe other people call it something else. And yes, that's the only rule beside the grace period," she had to think about the next question a couple of seconds. "I'm not sure. It kinda just became a game. I think one of my friend's cousins taught it to her, and then she told the rest of us," Rose recalled. "Why? Why've you gotten so shocked?"
"'The Game' is played on the planet Xenoclyflux. Everyone on the planet is required to play, and when you lose, you must become the ruler's personal servant, which is more like a slave mind you, for a week. I guess that would count as the grace period. But Xenoclyflux was sucked into a black hole millions of years before Earth even came to existence! And now humans are playing The Game!" the Doctor ended his speech by throwing his hands in the air for exaggeration.
"So… you're saying that somehow, that game got passed from a dying planet, to Earth? How could that happen? Did one person survive? Maybe a space ship with messages crashed into Earth? Maybe…." But she broke off, for now the Doctor was grinning his I-know-something-that-you-don't grin at her. "What?" Rose asked, not liking the smug look on his face.
"Oh, I know how it got to Earth. You know, it only takes one explanation…"
"Wait, are you telling me that you started the game?"
"Weeeeellll," he said, elongating the e's and l's. "I wouldn't say started. More like, brought it over to Earth. I had no idea it would last so long though…." He said, leaning back in slight ponderation of the matter. Then he grinned. "And you, Rose Tyler, have lost, and again, I win." His smug grin turned into a big smile and Rose smiled and began to laugh, thankful for the fact he wasn't issuing alien cultures and making her his slave for a week.
"I lost again," she said suddenly, remembering that when she had played with her friends, there was always a some what pervy aspect to it. The Doctor stared at her, his head slightly cocked to one side.
"How…?" He asked, but Rose made not intention on answering him.
If Rose and the Doctor had been on Earth, it would have been a week's time since Rose was reminded of The Game. But time in the TARDIS passed differently, what with all the 'hopping back in time and then forward.' So you never really knew how much time has passed.
The Doctor had suggested going to see the planet where the people all walked backwards, "It's always fun to do things in reverse for a change!" as the Doctor had put it. But alas, when they had stepped out of the TARDIS they had not done so backwards, and were instantly snatched up and were brought to the local 'police station.' They had to wait in a room for someone to come and give them a sort of 'trial.' The Doctor was taking this moment to reprimand Rose for laughing when the guard had almost let them off with a warning for not walking backwards.
"Why Rose, why did you even laugh in the first place?" he asked in a amused bewildered tone.
"Well…. I had something to tell you... And what the guard was saying was making me laugh!" she protested.
"What? All he said was, 'I'll let you off on this one. But if you do that to me or to anyone else again, I'll have to lock you up for it. We don't do that here.' What is so funny?" because Rose had began to giggle again.
"I lost the game…" She said after her giggles had subsided. She had been saying this for the past week at random times, and the Doctor was getting confused as to how she kept losing The Game. But it only took him a couple of seconds to final piece together the final seam that linked all the things he had lost The Game to together. He looked at her, appalled.
"Rose Tyler, you have a dirty mind."