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]

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?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

When she pulls on him, he very nearly stumbles into her, which could be less awkward, he supposes. Still, he gives her a quick nod of thanks before turning back to the steam.

"It isn't purple," he says. "That's odd. It should be purple, or giving off some sort of purple light. Steam is just evaporated water. And the water here is always technicolor, always."

He takes another step back and pulls his sonic out of his pocket, giving it a zap in the direction of the blast.

"Oh, now, that is interesting."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"What did you just do?"

Whatever it is her might-be-a-screwdriver does not do that.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Checked the localized polarity of the area," he explains, simply. "Basically, I just checked the makeup of the water."

He holds the sonic out to her and points to a series of lights on the corner.

"Non-acidic. Your equivalent of Earth well water."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

The lights mean nothing, and or does she nod pretending they do. Instead, Morgana only looks confused.

"But you said we were on Greeio Malgoon." Those words do not trip trippingly off the tongue. "How does water from, home get here?"

You'll have to excuse her, but this is all extremely new to someone who, six months previously, didn't know the universe had more than four elements.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Oh, we are on Greeio Malgoon," the Doctor says. "But this water isn't from here. This whole steam cloud, it isn't from this place at all. Some sort of imported wall."

He steps around the wall slowly, holding his hand out to judge the heat.

"Definitely real, but why put this hear? What could they possibly want it for?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"Why would anyone import water? There is plenty of it."

And, there goes the Doctor, standing far too close to the steam for Morgana's liking. Where she's from burns are easily deadly, so excuse her for worrying.

"Doctor, would you please come away from there."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Maybe the water on this planet doesn't steam hot enough," he theorizes, refusing to move from where he stands. "Maybe it isn't as impressive a lightshow. But what for? And where are all the people? Why isn't anyone putting this out?"

There's a sudden wail of a siren, and the Doctor takes a step away from the steam.

"Air raid sirens," he says. "Something else imported from Earth."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Someone says air raid, and no matter what era one is from, the automatic response is to look up, which is exactly what Morgana does.

She also covers her ears.

"Doctor," She hopes he can hear her over whatever unearthly noise that is, "please, move away!"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He doesn't now what's about to attack them, but he has a feeling it isn't going to be pleasant.

"Inside, quickly!" the Doctor calls. He reaches up and grabs one of her wrists, pulling her towards the nearest crystal building. The walls are smooth and dark, and once inside there's only the barest hint of light from the sparkling floors.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana is not one to flake out in a crisis, and she doesn't here either.

Once inside the building, she pulls away from the Doctor, and heads back to the door.

It's fumbling, as she's still not used to it, and can't be certain that what she has will work, but tries her might-be-a-screwdriver to try and lock the door.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor grins at her reaction, and grins even wider when he hears the lock click into place.

"Brilliant," he says. He offers her his hand again. "Come on, let's get downstairs. If there's an actual air raid, I don't want to be on the upper level of a glass building, do you?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Despite everything else, Morgana's willing to give him lenience here, and takes it. Any implication she might be justifying, would be unwise.

And, of course, a question that is perfectly rational to her. "How can we be attacked from the sky." Although, the logic, if such a thing were possible, to be out of the way of any falling glass, is unimpeachable.