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

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The water wasn't real. That makes sense, he thinks, now that he's out of the water. It always makes sense after the fact.

He moves his shoulder carefully. "I think it is real," he says. "Much easier to built a turret than to flood a room with water. Or psychic energy, whichever they've used in this case."

He reaches up and puts a hand to her shoulder. She looks uninjured, but he'd be lying if he pretended he wasn't worried.

"We have to get out of here," he says.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Perhaps one advantage of living in a time when four elements were the foundation of the scientific principle, is that Morgana knows about water -- and none of this made sense.

"At least we can be reassured the wound is clean, but it still needs to be bandaged." She doesn't like that he's still bleeding, but at least it's not festering with whatever was in that fictional crimson liquid.

She has to ask. "Whatever they are using to frighten us, Doctor, it nearly killed you. How are we going to distinguish what is real and what is not?"

And, it nearly killed him, something she would rather not repeat.

Morgana is distracted when she realizes the hand on her shoulder is touching bare skin, she looks around for the overlay -- crumpled on the floor. It's about now awkwardness settles in but she can't quite bring herself to release his hand.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's used to seeing his companions in far less clothing, so her lack of overlay doesn't even register to him. Moments earlier, she was tearing his clothes to get a look at his wound. Everything after that is really just more of the same.

"We just assume everything is real and avoid it," he says. "Something like this, well, it's not something we can assume is an illusion until we've properly figured it out, eh?"

He struggles to sit up, but keeps his hand in hers. He thought he'd lost her. That thought was far more terrifying than he'd admit.

"The steam outside," he says. "Must also be an illusion. Earth Water won't make an appearance in this world. It shouldn't, at least.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

When the Doctor struggles to sit up, Morgana has to stop herself from helping. She's not certain how much, and where the Doctor's pride would kick in, and offering help, like this, would infinitely annoy every other man she's ever known. He's still keeping her hand and she's letting him, for the moment.

Morgana tilts her head slightly. His explanation made absolutely no sense, in any way to her. "So everything is real, until we know it is an illusion?" She's new to all of this, and such a concept is a little hard to wrap her head around it.

On the other hand, what the Doctor mentions afterward does click. "That was the first place where an attempt was made to keep us out. Before, it was to distract us, separate us, but that was the first to try and keep us away. That, and the other room, the formal hall." The concept of a boardroom didn't exist in her time.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Now I think they're trying to frighten us to death."

He clears his throat and he can almost taste the water.

"Nearly worked, too." He looks over to Morgana, then away, awkward. "Thanks, by the way. That's twice--no, three times---you've saved my life, now, you keep that up and I'll owe you more trips than you can take."

He gives her a smile, then nods. "Out is where we need to go, I think."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"Thus, if it is particularly terrifying, and almost impossible, I shall not believe it. Something involving brute force," the turret could never be called an elegant weapon, "is real. It is like there are two different systems at work here."

The idea of more trips than she could take sounds as impossible as the flooded room, yet far more appealing than Morgana would admit. Instead, she covers it by smiling, a little wryly. "Doctor, you still owe me one trip to the sea. I am sorry, but I do not think I can count this one, anymore."

It is now that she releases his hand, and stands up to fetch her overlay. She secures it quickly, and feels more appropriate once it is on. She nods to the Doctor's jacket, as she always feels she needs to keep track of his things. "You are right, we should go."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor picks up his jacket and tosses it over one arm. He's not going to be able to put it on, not with the state of his shoulder.

"Oh, all right. Another trip to the sea, then." He's not about to complain. If he's perfectly honest with himself (which he won't be), he'd like to keep this 'one trip' going for as long as he can.

"You know what else we need? A trip to a diner, I think. Somewhere that serves real, proper food. I'm starving!" He leads the way to the door and peers around the corner. Nothing again, just the eerie light.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

This time, Morgana reaches for his hand as if it's far more natural than she like would think about.

"I agree with your plan to find food. Is there even a place to eat on the TARDIS?" Morgana's from a time when blights and droughts brought about shortages all too quickly, she's not one to turn down food.

"Are we heading back to the formal hall, or outside first?"

And, the question that got lost, literally in the bullets and flood moments ago. "You said you had an idea earlier. Do you care to share?"

That wasn't a request.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"More of a revalation," he says. "Figured out who set this up. Because G.M., that stands for Greeio Malgoon, yes, but that's not what people generally call it. The only people who call it that are the locals. The ones who live here all the time."

He nods back down the hall towards the formal---er, the board room.

"And we need to find the outside, I think. If we don't find whoever's still pulling the strings first."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana squeezes his hand a little, to get his attention. "Are you planning on telling me what it stands for, then?" She asks as they make their way down the hall, but she slows nearing the turret.

"Why is that not firing?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"It stands for the planet's name, but it's a local name like..." he chewed on his lip, trying to figure out how to explain it. "Is there something the people of Camelot call Camelot? Just them, nobody else? Because that's what G.M. is. The little girl and her father, they lived here, they were locals, and they were planning something on the beach."

He approached the turret cautiously, but all the lights inside were dark. He tapped the side of it with his foot. "Must've used its energy up powering that room for us. Better keep moving before it wakes up."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"Camelot is just Camelot, to whoever it may be, locals, foreign dignitaries, and across classes." This might explain her ongoing confusion.

"And of course she lived here, we saw her room, but why is that relevant?"

And Morgana is more than happy to avoid the turret, and starts trying to steer the pair of them towards the stairs -- or, what was a set of stairs and is now a very steep ramp.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I think they were trying to make G.M. about the people who lived here, but something went wrong."

He nods and then sits at the top of the stairs. It looks like it'll be quite a fun slide, actually.

He gives her a smile. "Allons-y." And slides.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

She watches the Doctor slide and really wishes she were in fencing clothes, but she isn't and Morgana is nothing without her dignity, so, cautiously, she makes her way down the ramp. She does a pretty good job, at looking steadier than she really is.

Years of court etiquette are certainly not going to be overcome on the first trip, if, at all.

"Something went wrong is an understatement, Doctor." She says, crossing the foyer to the door, and uses her might-be-a-screwdriver to unlock what she thought, earlier was wise to keep locked.

"I think we will feel better once we are outside."

Exiting first, the second she steps out, she hears a hissing, angry voice, witch and she closes her eyes for a second and repeats aloud. "It is not real."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Whatever Morgana is seeing, the Doctor can't see at all. He reaches for his sonic and holds it out, waving it over the space. "Nothing there, Morgana," he says, firmly, in case she can't believe it. "Whatever is there, it's trying to keep you inside. You just have to remember it's not there."

He doesn't push her, he doesn't pressure, he just waits. She'll go when she's ready. When she believes it's not real. He has that faith.

Doctor--- a voice hisses from behind him. It's the Master's voice. He knows it. He freezes and looks back. There he is, just as the Doctor left him in Elsewhere. Suit, manic grin. But he can't be here. He's not real.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

There's a breath or two, and another accusation, before Morgana's calm enough to believe the truth -- no one from her home is here.

When she does open her eyes, she sees the Doctor look behind him, and she knows, from the stance, and the stare, that he's seeing something, someone important as well. "Doctor," her voice is probably gentler than he's ever heard it. "Now you have to remember whoever it is, is not real."

She puts a hand on the arm holding his jacket. She can wait equally as patiently.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Master could be anywhere. He could be. And part of the Doctor doesn't want him to be an illusion. Part of him would rather die than lose the Master again.

He can't dispel it. Inside, he's too desperate for it to be real.

"Just go," he says. "We have to get out of here. Quickly, go, now!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana stiffens, slightly. She's seen inside his head and knows exactly who it is to bring out that tone of desperation.

"The both of us, or just me? You sound uncertain. Whatever is happening they want us to separate. Remember that."

And Morgana is not above using low blows to snap him out of this. "Please do not tell me you would be willing to abandon me for an illusion."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Feisty.

"Leave her alone," the Doctor barks automatically.

You never change. Always playing with Earth girls, the Master says.

No, not the Master, the illusion. It's an illusion. It's not real, no matter how much the Doctor wants it to be.

He opens his eyes, and the Master is gone.

He turns to Morgana and nods to the door. "Quickly."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana moves aside to let the Doctor through, and they are back out in the street -- no sirens and no ghosts from the past following them either.

For the second time, it's Morgana who chooses to reach for his hand. She says, without irony or even annoyance at the possibility, "Thank you, Doctor, for not leaving me for your illusion."

Something Morgana will never think about -- if there was ever a flesh and blood choice. Her pride's never going to tolerate it.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"You're far more interesting anyway," he says, just a little flippantly. He reaches back for her hand, only to find she's reaching for his. He gives her a small smile. This can work out, he thinks, the pair of them traveling together.

There's a rumble of thunder and a crash of lightning, strange and alien, above them.

"We need to find the central hub computer," he says.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana smiles back with the semi-smile she uses when trying not to feel too enthusiastic about something. "I should hope so," she replies with equal flippancy.

She's back to feeling comfortable with the slight temperature difference between them.

She looks up at the sound of thunder. "Is the rain here purple?" It's as much out of curiosity as it is trying to distinguish if the sounds are real.

They make their way back through the street to the steam, which flickers in front of her, and she squints a little, in an automatic response.

"That building is real, is it not?" She's indicating a small, almost shed sized metal building, whose style is jarring with the rest of the architecture.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," the Doctor admits. "But we need to just assume everything is real until we know otherwise."

The steam before them, though, he knows isn't real. He finds himself grinning.

"And they want us to stay away." He squeezes her hand. "I think it's about time we worked on defying what they want properly, don't you?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

"The last time I defied them, they locked us in a room filled with --" Morgana stops in mid-sentence and her expression turns to one of disgust, as she thinks back to the room without the door -- or -- at least -- they thought did not have a door.

"Everything was a trick. The cold, the door, all of it was created to try and drive us out, or punish us for going inside." As annoyed as she is at being so thoroughly tricked, it causes her to realize something else. "That is a lot of effort to keep us out of one little girl's room."

When he squeezes her hand, she leans in a little, and says, conspiratorially, "I do believe it is time to defy their rules."

With that, the steam, for her, stops flickering and disappears entirely.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor closes his eyes and when he reopens them, the steam vanishes, leaving them a clear pathway to the shed. He turns to her and grins.

"I've never been much for rules."

And, in protest, he hears a crumbling sound, followed by the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing in the distance. Things that would frighten him, make him run away.

He nods, and starts towards the shed. "There's more illusion here than reality right now."