The Crane Wife: Chapter 2 of 7

[x_losfic]

Title: The Crane Wife
Chapter: Two:Seven
Author: x_los
Rating: R
Pairing: Five/Ainley!Master
Summary: In which the Doctor's first day requires him to contend with a giant octopus, obscure points of Gallifreyan grammar, and his new Master's confusion of epistolary bickering with bonding.
Beta: aralias, sharper than a subtle knife, sweeter than sucrose

Comments

[time_testudinem]

This is so perfect that I just don't have the words. I have a weakness for slave!fic, bit this is something so much better. Banter, Science, Gallifreyan grammar! Good thing I am alone here in the office today, as there is no one to hear my Squee.

[x_losfic]

Aw, thank you so much! Yer, I too have a weakness for cliche!fic. And I'm delighted to hear the unusual-for-me delay in Sex Happening isn't putting everyone off. :p

Ah, I am discretely answering comments in the office. Oh, work...

[aralias]

tis a very good chapter - i'm happy epic five/ainley exists, and more so because it is so unusual and stuff. it's like amnesia fic, without all that silliness. as you know, i especially like the draconians and the was it good for you, and the master concealing that he knows the doctor called him a prat - it is this, i think, that impresses the doctor most. oh and the hetrosexual arm squeeze, but that's just silly, like an amnesia plot line. omg- you can do the eight times eight forgot who he was thing as your audio challenge, yes? you have nothing else to write i think.

also:

The Doctor grinned, brightly. “We’ll see, shan’t we? Now, I believe you mentioned an early dinner.

"No, Doctor," the Master said, "that was in an earlier draft. Clearly you haven't been updated yet."

This puzzled the Doctor for a moment, but then he realised that the sky was dark and had been for about 4 hours. "Ah, yes," he said, "let's go for Indian," forgetting (in this early draft) that this was a very dangerous thing to do if you primarily wore beige.

[x_losfic]

Does this count as epic? Not nearly as long as the marriage sequel...

Yeah, I like the 'no one's ever done /this/ mad shit before!! mauahahahaha!' of it. Because no, really, for v. good reasons, no one has.

You and the hetero arm squeeze--I don't think it's that hetero. :p

Do still enjoy this joke, but /yes/, dear, have fixed it and also cleaned out the drains and repaired the washing machine, you nag you. :p

At first I thought the beige thing was a weird, unexpected Sepoy Rebellion joke. Then I realized oh, curry stains...

[aralias]

i think anything that has 7 chapters is pretty epic. you could start calling them 'books' to be even more like the odyssey i guess :)

[x_los]

"And then for 15 chapters the Doctor sulked around the palace, gaining the allegiance of the mice that lived therein like he was Cinderella, eating some meals and generally concealing his True Awesomeness..."

[thirdbird]

Awww, I love it when they're all collaborate-y. Though I have to confess I'm hoping it won't last.

[x_losfic]

And it won't! Thanks for reading. :)

[asthenie_vd]

The Master had an absurd urge to ask if it had been good for him, too.

I see what you did there (I hope), and I love it. Love the whole snark&banter&OMG!SCIENCE in place of sex (though hopefully the sex will show up in time, too, no? :D). Great chapter. I didn't count the times I had to laugh out loud, couldn't, too many *g*

But, oh Master, how is this supposed to work, clearly you're looking for a partner not a slave. Do I sense tragedy there for the near future? D:

[x_los]

Totally yes. And indeed, not too long now before that crops up. Already written, actually. And excellent, thanks! It's good to hear that, b/c the tone of this chapter was a bit less comedic than the last, and I was worried that might be too jarring.

Indeed--well, but we can't expect him to just /get/ that immediately. :p And I kind of want 'Do I sense tragedy?!' as an icon with Very Distressed Looking!Five now...

[asthenie_vd]

The tone was overall less cracky in this chapter, but maybe that's why the jokes were so much more effective? I don't know, I think I felt like I had more to laugh in this one. Either way, it's a brilliant fic so far. :D

Now I'm a bit scared of all the suffering you might have in store for the Master... but then, a little suffering can be a very good thing, and at least there will be sex for them eventually, so...

btw.
icons?

kinda like so?
like this?

[x_losfic]

Thank you so much, that's so good to hear.

And you know you want the angst--you'd be like a Peri/Erimem shipper or something if angst really wasn't your cup of tea.

THEY ARE SO CUTE I MUST USE THEM OMGGGGG!!!

[ushas42]

Science!Porn is a most awesome thing. I am perfectly fine with the lack of sex-sex because symbolic-collaboration-sex is much rarer.

Yay to the Doctor for figuring out how to still save an innocent life while confined to a loo. You can't keep a do-gooder down.

[x_los]

Ah, good. Well, in we-don't-know-each-other!world, I'd be hard pressed to justify sex-sex without going through science!foreplay first.

And I love that somewhere out there a baby giant octopus now answers to the incredibly weird name of 'Doctor'...

[ushas42]

Ah, well it doesn't mean anything to him, right? Like the urban legend saying there's a Chinese girl named "Diarrhea".

[x_los]

Yeah, but still, it has to be pretty weird if you're a really big octopus who can only communicate via telepathy and tentacle-signing...