for magicalskeptic: A trip to the ocean

[rude_not_ginger]

"You wanted an ocean, have I got an ocean for you."

The Doctor darted around the console and scooped his jacket up from where it hung on one of the TARDIS pillars. He absolutely loved this bit. The first trip to an alien world with someone who didn't even believe in other worlds until now. Very little was more exciting.

"Now! We've got breathable atmosphere, low radiation, and a beautiful summer day. The waters of the Greeio Malgoon are purple in the summer, which is when they're the warmest and the safest. I'd have taken you to them in the winter when they're blue, but the water's acid content gets a bit high and ends up spewing out strange creatures with eyes that shoot lasers. Green lasers, they disintegrate you without much warning. Very technicolor world, the Greeo Malgoon."

He shrugged. "Still! In the summer, peak of tourist season, it's the most brilliant place for a visit."

Comments

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"Ask them?" Morgana's still adjusting to purple water. She's not entirely sure the locals are good to meet yet.

On the other hand, the Doctor wants to ask where everyone is. More so, he's so curious he's tracking them down, hence there is only one conclusion.

Moving a a bit faster through the water than him -- the splash doesn't bother her, water dries -- to catch up.

"Doctor," she says when she does reach him, "What is wrong here?"

This is the Doctor. She automatically assumes something's gone wrong.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"You get that feeling too?" the Doctor asks, because clearly that's what her implication is. He keeps his shoes in his hands and heads up the edge of the cliff.

Once over the rise, the city comes into view. It's crystalline, dark towers that shine with the sparkling sand. The spires twist up to dark red points. It would look ominous, if the Doctor wasn't so sure they were utterly peaceful. Except...

"What is that?" he asks, pointing to a plume of red smoke coming from the center of the city. "That's not right."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

The Doctor can keep believing that all he wants, there isn't the time to correct him. "What burns like that?"

Her shoes, sadly, are a little way off, and she eyes them, warily.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," the Doctor says. "We should find out."

He drops to put on his shoes and notices, for the first time, that she's still barefoot.

"Better go grab those," he says. "I don't remember what the streets of the city are made of."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana's not one to question this. If something is burning, usually, there is a hand to be offered.

It takes her a moment to gather her things and rejoin the Doctor. She doesn't take the time to clean off her feet, so there's that uncomfortable feeling of sand in one's shoes, that she chooses to ignore.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor stuffs his socks into his pocket just as she's rejoined him. He's only had enough time to put back on two pairs, so his feet feel uncomfortably bare in his trainers.

"Right! Off we go, then."

He gives her a smile, then turns and starts running towards the city.

Walking is, naturally, overrated.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

He gets a head start before Morgana starts after him. Unlike what most would suspect of a medieval lady, she's neither weak, nor slow. Nor does she fall into the cliche of not being able to run in her dress.

She does though, wish she had on fencing clothes.

The closer she gets to the plume of smoke, the more unnatural it feels and something smells oddly -- familiar, and she stops short.

"Doctor, that smell. It's like a smithy's workshop."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He stops and inhales. "I suppose it does a bit," he says. "Cooling metal, boiling water. What for, though? And how? And why here? There aren't any precious metals on this planet!"

This close, the Doctor's decided walking might be better, getting a closer look before he goes charging in. "For all we know, this could be perfectly natural," he says.

Which is, of course, when a scream pierces the silence.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

The Doctor may be stopping, but the scream spurs Morgana into action. She may not know the city, but she's picked up the general direction of whatever, whoever is screaming from the echoes.

She doesn't even think to check if the Doctor is following. She stops in the middle of a cross-street. The city reminds her more of the architecture of elsewhere than Camelot. She is sure the scream came from this side street, but cannot see a soul.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Morgana, wait!"

But it's too late, and she's off. The Doctor bolts after her, but she's a lot quicker than he expected, and he ends up a few steps behind no matter which direction she runs. When she stops, he skids behind her, barely braking himself before he runs into her back.

"We haven't had the Talk yet," he says. "But rule one, Morgana, is---"

There's another scream and it sounds like it's coming from right around where they're standing.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana holds up her hand when the Doctor starts talking. She's trying to listen, can't he see that. She's too busy concentrating to even chastise him for standing too close.

"Do you hear that?"

Someone is whispering.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No," the Doctor says. He leans down to where her head is, but the only thing he can hear is the sound of the ocean in the distance.

"Hear what? What do you hear?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Well, now that is just annoying. How can the Doctor not hear?

"Doctor, listen. Someone is hurt."

There's another scream and it makes her jump.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor strains his ears.

"That's not someone hurt, that's---that's a TARDIS taking off," he says. Without considering the implications, he darts towards the noise. A TARDIS could mean anything. It could mean something brilliant, it could mean something horrible. It could mean---

He stops. "Wait. How could it be a TARDIS? I would know."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

While Morgana has only heard the noise, granted, a few times, A TARDIS is most certainly not what she hears.

Besides, what she is hearing is in the opposite direction altogether, so while he darts one way, she goes another, rounding the corner, out of sight.

That smell, the smithy smell gets stronger, as does the whimpering voice she's hearing.

"Hello?" Whoever is whimpering, she does not wish to frighten them.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Morgana, I have a feeling what we're hearing isn't what we think it---"

He spins around. She's out of sight.

He groans. "It's rule one! Don't wander off! She needs to listen to rule one!"

He heads back to where they were.

"Morgana!" he hisses. "Morgana!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

The whispering is getting louder, like Morgana's finally found the source of the voice.

"Hello?" She says again. Off in the distance, she thinks she can hear the Doctor.

Morgana.

It's a voice she would know anywhere, and, a voice, that no matter what it's trying to tell her, would never be here. This isn't elsewhere and Morgana isn't gullible.

She turns and head right back from whence she came, only stopping when she nearly runs into the Doctor.

Morgana sounds nearly out of breath not because of the running, but because of the surprise. "Someone is playing a trick on us."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" he snaps, because now is the best time for snapping, clearly.

He looks back from where she came. "Why, what did it say? Morgana, what happened?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

She looks back when the Doctor does. "Just my name. He only said my name."

She did hear it, she hopes.

"I heard him, he was hurt -- I thought -- he could not be here."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Him," the Doctor says. "Who is him?"

He thinks about the people she cares about that she'd run to. Arthur, her father, maybe? Someone else?

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"A little boy, Mordred. The one I looked after when he was ill." She also committed treason for him, with Arthur's help, but that's going to be left unsaid.

Morgana's sure she's told the Doctor about him. "I heard him." She looks again back to the side street. What if she's wrong? What if this place is like elsewhere?

No, that is not possible, she tells herself. "I knew then that it was a trick."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor nods. "Whoever you'd run to, that's what they're using to call us. But why, what for? What could they possibly be doing in here?"

He reaches down to take her hand and begins walking away from where they were, further into the city.

"And where is everyone?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana lets him take her hand. Usually, she does not for a variety of reasons, but, at the moment, she is spooked enough to permit comfort over propriety.

"I thought this was supposed to be busy. Something about people who travel here this time of year." Tourism -- not a big industry in Camelot.

And because she's not going to be dragged around the city like she's one of those girls she's teased him about how follow him blindly. "Doctor, do you have any idea where we are going?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"It should be," the Doctor says. "This is the summer, and they're usually very busy during the summer. Lovely water, pretty place, everyone wants to come by and see it. So why aren't they?"

He turns another corner and calls back. "Not a clue! But we'll know it when we see---"

And once he turns another corner, he's faced with a wall made entirely of steam.

"It."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

The heat radiating from the steam causes Morgana to pull him back towards her. She's worried he'll get burned. Once a good few feet back, she gives a quick once over to make sure it hasn't happened already.

To cover the concern,"Obviously, whatever is doing this does not want us there."

And then she notices something remarkable about the steam -- something that is so not remarkable, it is worth noting.

"Why is that not purple?"