TTR: Who'd Name A Companion After A Flower, Anyway?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So you're the new girl?" Rose asked. "Welcome aboard. You'll be fine as
long as you don't drink the water and don't--"

The new arrival shook her head. "I'm not her."

"You look like her." Rose inspected the newcomer from all angles. "We all
saw the pictures. Here." She held up a copy of /Doctor Who Magazine/, and
looked around for support from the other occupants of the Round.

"No, I'm really not. I'm Jasmine."

"Who?"

"She's the companion in the audition scripts," Mel said, hurrying over.
"Jasmine is, I mean. And it says in the introduction the new companion isn't
going to be called Jasmine, so I suppose she can't be the same person."

"Hang on a minute." Rose sat down, and clutched her head. "Let me get this
straight."

Mel took Jasmine by the arm, and led her to a table, leaving Rose to her
cogitation.

"This is the Obscure Companions table," she said. "Hi, everyone, this is
Jasmine. Jasmine, this is Antimony, and this is Grant, and this is Nik, and
this is..."

"Raine Creevy." A well-dressed young woman shook Jasmine's hand. "If you're
ever at a loose end, ask Big Finish and they'll give you a series or
something. But you might have to wait a few years for them to get round to
you."

"Or if that doesn't appeal, you can try this." Grant tossed the local
newspaper onto the table. "Apparently the Corsair's looking for a new
travelling companion. 'Lusty wenches preferred' -- well, that's me out."

Sitting some way away, Rose reread page six of her magazine. "Right," she
said. "Extra companion, sort of, just 'cos someone printed an audition script.
And all we know is, she talks like Sally Sparrow and she looks like that girl
off /Emmerdale/. As if we didn't have enough doubles in here already."

"Something the matter?" the metacrisis Doctor asked, taking his seat
opposite her.

"Not really." Rose closed the magazine. "I just think people ought to watch
what they put in these magazines. Or we'll be up to here in fake companions
and fake Doctors and people who look exactly like us except they aren't, not
properly."

"Oh, definitely." He winked at her. "It'd be dreadful if something like that
happened, wouldn't it?"



{ This Time Round was created by Tyler Dion, the Obscure Companions table
by Douglas B. Killings.

'Doctor Who' characters belong to whichever branch of the franchise created
(or, in the case of Nik, didn't create) them. }

--
John Elliott

Thinks: This is what a nice clean life leads to. Hmm, why did I ever lead one?
-- Bluebottle, in the Goon Show