Yellow Dust -- A Doctor Who Short Story
Jul 27, 2019 23:22:28 GMT -5
Captain Americat and 𝕮𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖊 like this
Post by mintedstar/fur on Jul 27, 2019 23:22:28 GMT -5
Takes place after ... er ... whatever the last two seasons were. So KAYLA this mean you better read with caution or bookmark for later. XD
This is based on an RP I had with a friend of mine, which takes place after The Doctor regenerated into the 13th version (which is in itself a spoiler, Kayla. You better not be reading still if you made it this far. Go watch the other seasons.) The newest season isn't really counted as canon because this is basically 'if The Doctor crashed her TARDIS somewhere other than Britain'. And she picked up a new companion.
Also, this is what happened after Missy. KAYLA ... STOP READING.
But generally there aren't that many spoilers. I just don't want Kayla inferring anything.
This is from the POV of my OC, Samuel. He's a new companion to The Doctor and an actual, real vampire. The rest is explained at the start of the story.
This is a different Missy. Totally RP partner's version. Also, a very, very awesome version.
And that's it!
Samuel braced his feet against the table, shoes on the wood and chair tilted back while he looked up at the ceiling. He was trying, out of boredom, to see if it was moving at all. It wasn't. He wondered if it would if they were actually traveling instead of sitting in the void between times and places. The ceiling was, for a spaceship, rather boring.
He wondered if the inside styled itself more to The Doctor's tastes or if it had more to do with the people who traveled with her. It wasn't moving, but he knew that when they were in the console room the whole room tilted and squirmed around a bit, like they were on rocky water. So there had to be some movement. Or was it just that he was moving with it and he didn't notice? Or maybe because he just got used to it after a while?
His chair tilted far enough that he was in danger of tipping over. Hurriedly, Sam stood up. The chair didn't follow suit and instead tipped over with a clatter. Sam looked down at it and wondered if anyone had heard. This place was big enough that if he went somewhere he didn't know he could scream often, and no one could hear. He had experience with this, actually. But it also made this place, for all the novelty and amazingness ... boring.
Other than The Doctor and Missy, there was no one here. He was stuck in a time machine that stopped places sure! But while they were between trips which The Doctor deemed 'child friendly' or while she and/or Missy were off saving some galaxy without him, here he was, stuck watching ceilings which didn't move. It sounded like a really fun time, honestly. He didn't think he was prepared to do much more of it.
There were the video games, which The Doctor had, and they were good. Of course, they were good. When Missy was around, Sam would drag them into playing with him. Sometimes The Doctor would too. But Sam didn't always want to bother them. Both Time Lords had a life.
How were you supposed to have friends when you traveled through time and space in a blue police box? Sam had visited Earth more than once, but it was always during different times and he was always doing it as Missy's idea of schoolwork. Which was amazing and all. No one else he knew outside of his guardians had seen this - well, maybe Jack and a couple other friends of The Doctor. But they weren't here. They weren't coming along. And that was the problem. He couldn't exactly tell anyone on Earth what was going on. Who would believe him? And what about the people who were his age and he got along with? They were all dead before he'd even been born. Apart from the vampires and Jack, he didn't know any other mortals so tangled up with the history of Earth that he might actually run into them in the years he visited. And vampires weren't easy to find (Sam had heard the fishes who said they were vampires story from The Doctor and didn't believe it).
So, he was rather unlucky in making friends there, though it wasn't like he was going out and trying. What with being a vampire himself, most centuries didn't take very kindly to his introduction into the mix. Even if he never said anything about it, any long-term interaction would have spoiled the matter sooner or later.
He had better luck on other planets, but by better luck he was a bit more open around who he saw. But with his ... conditions ... there weren't as many planets to visit. It had to be at night. It had to be a place which wasn't too overwhelming to the senses. And it had, according to The Doctor's attempts, to be safe for a twelve-year-old.
Thirteen. Whatever. The difference wasn't that large, and Sam had concluded that people were probably going to forget which age he was anyway.
It all limited him and what he could do. How could there be that many planets out there with intelligent life in perpetual night (or at least with a long enough night for him to do anything) and also didn't care about a forever twelve-year-old? Who also needed to be careful about things like how strong he was and his senses.
For example, Time Lord blood apparently had been decided as poisonous, just because the vampires that The Doctor and Missy knew (including Sam) had to agree on the fact that it really didn't smell right. Not rancid, if that was possible, but certainly unappealing. Whether it would do anything or not, no one seemed to know for sure, but no one was willing to risk it. But just because that was one reaction to one alien species didn't mean it was for all.
There had been two separate cases where Samuel had been faced with the extreme ends. It had made The Doctor and Missy a bit more wary about taking to anywhere other than Earth since then. There had been one planet – or rather, an area of one planet – that had seemed fine to begin with. But when Sam had started walking around, he’d gone from feeling slightly nauseated to almost sick. A hand pressed over his nose; he had explained to Missy in gasps between breaths – before he’d just held his breath all together once he had finished explaining - that there was something in the air that was making him feel bad. Something about the planet’s surface, The Doctor had decided, just effected vampires. Maybe an allergy or a smell or sound of some sort. Humans apparently had no problem. Once a couple of minutes had passed back at the TARDIS, Sam had made the very bad joke that all humans had to do was stay on that planet and they’d be free from vampires forever. Either that, or vampires would never be able to open their mouths for as long as they were on it.
A different occurrence, a month after that had happened, was when they had exited the TARDIS – The Doctor had said she needed to pick something up from a friend, and that it was important, but it should be fine for Sam to get out and see something other than the inside of the ship. Sam had stepped out, looking over a star filled sky, then across a large expanse of what appeared to be tents, overlaid across an almost desert like backdrop. That was all he’d been able to tell before the first person (or whatever they were called, The Doctor hadn’t given an introduction) exited their tent to see who had landed with the classic TARDIS sound … and Sam had pressed his back into the wood of the ship, hand over his mouth and every muscle in his body tense against the roar inside of him. His eyes became the deepest crimson Missy and The Doctor had ever seen and he’d been pulled back into the TARDIS by his arms while he’d almost leaped at the very confused alien.
As soon as the door slammed, he had calmed down, his body trembling as the vampire version of adrenaline – which was closer to bloodlust – exited his body. His hand slowly lowered from his mouth and his arms wrapped around his body. His fangs were out, and eyes were still red, but they slowly faded back brown. In a stutter, he’d explained that he wasn’t sure why, but there had just been the smell of blood on all those bodies and it had been something far more potent than any humans blood he’d ever smelled. It was a hesitant explanation, which just caused Missy to look at The Doctor in slight mystification. They got it, Sam knew, it was what to do with the information.
He was told to remain in as far back of a room as the TARDIS got and that he’d eat before they left. He’d already eaten that day, of course, and he was reluctant to again. But he did, even though at that this point he still would rather go days without eating. It hadn’t been the reason this time, at least. He’d assured left and right that it wasn’t, and The Doctor and Missy knew he didn’t lie.
So planetary trips were a bit rarer than the ventures to Earth in different times across history. But he did admit that it was still fun, even though he didn’t have a chance to make friends. It just meant he was lonely until the next trip – or perhaps during a trip. Just because they were moving didn’t mean Sam didn’t have opportunities to be very sad some days or just wanted to invite someone over to play something or call someone or …
He realized he’d been looking at the fallen chair for far longer than he should have been. He bent down, lifting it up and carefully setting it down again in its upright position. At least the perk of living in a ship that was very close to living herself was that it was harder to damage things like doors and walls. Even the furniture and things weren’t something he had to worry about too much. He still did though.
The kitchen was boring. This, after a couple minutes in it and looking at the ceiling, was what he had decided on.
So, he got up, intent on finding at least one of the Time Lords. Not because he was bored, or anything like that. He just wanted to ... check on them. See if they were doing anything that they needed help with. The latter of which was more likely to be Missy, but Missy wouldn't admit it unless they could somehow claim it as a learning experience for Sam.
Sam alternated between thinking they cared about his education and that they just liked having someone to boss around. If someone had ever said homeschooling was easy, they had never seen Missy's brand of it. Which was a mix of really fun and scary difficult. Nothing Sam couldn't do, but the challenge didn't exactly make him feel warm and fuzzy toward the learning.
After checking four rooms which he thought one or both of the Time Lords might be in, including their room, the console room, the other kitchen, and the small whatever the work area was called, he found The Doctor on the second random door he tried. Trying random doors usually seemed to work for anything from if he was lost to if he just needed to find something. He was pretty sure it was the TARDIS who was doing it, but he had no way to check other than asking. He didn't want to ask. He wanted the satisfaction of thinking he was just lucky.
The room looked had a pool in it. It actually did have a pool, and a fake ceiling. The ceiling was currently insisting it was overcast. Sam looked up at it and wondered if a fake ceiling could rain. He hadn't seen it rain, but so far it was doing a pretty good job of mimicking cloud movements and other sky-y things.
He looked back down again and at The Doctor, who had a pool net in one hand and was looking pensively at the water.
"Does it need cleaning?" Sam wondered. He didn't think that was possible. He didn't even know the room had had a pool net.
"No," said The Doctor, still watching the water. "I'm just tryin' to catch - ah ... there it is!"
The net reached out and scooped something out of the water. It had appeared the same color as its surface, so even Sam hadn't been able to see it until it had moved. The Doctor held it up like it was some price from fishing, looking it over as it rattled.
Sam could tell it wasn't anything organic. Unless a clattering, almost clockwork and plastic hybrid thing counted as organic. It might on some planet though.
"What's that?" he questioned.
"Old science project I think," said The Doctor, squinting at what was in the net. It had gone back to mimicking its surroundings and looked like part of the pool net. "Shoddy. Could do better now. But it's got a nasty bite and didn't want it wondering about."
She turned and walked slowly toward a small box which Sam hadn't noticed because it was behind a deck chair. The lid came off, the contents of the net was dumped into it, the lid went back on.
"Did ya come here to swim?" questioned The Doctor as she tossed the net away. "I gotta make sure that it didn't replicate or something. Not sure what water does to it. But it should be fine."
She sounded confident, but she had that tone in her voice that Sam was always pretty sure meant she wasn't that confident at all.
"Uh, no," answered Sam. Even if he had been, he wasn't now. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind until The Doctor mentioned it. "I just came to see what you were doing and found you with the pool net."
The Doctor's expression wasn't easily described, so Sam didn't try further than knowing that 'fake innocence' was in there somewhere.
"Do you know where Missy is?" he questioned, for lack of something to say other than he had nothing to say. The Doctor at least found an answer for that. She nodded and said, "Last I saw, they were heading for the console room."
Sam frowned. He must have just missed them. Either that, or they hadn't been going to the console room - just towards it.
The Doctor seemed to interpret the frown as something else, or maybe she just saw right through Samuel's flimsy excuse of being here when he was so clearly bored. She smiled a bit knowingly and said, "I bet we can take a bit of a jaunt somewhere, hum Sam?"
Sam tried not to too obviously perk up at the thought. "We could," he said as nonchalantly as possible.
He followed The Doctor back to the console room. It was in honey amber colors, like it had been for as long as Samuel remembered. It would probably have been dimly lit for humans, but it looked fine to him. Missy was, in fact, in the room as well. They were messing with the controls.
Sam had originally assumed only The Doctor could run the TARDIS, but apparently the TARDIS just had a grudge against Missy. For some reason. He hadn't gotten a straight answer from them when he'd asked about that.
"Were you planning on going somewhere?" Sam asked.
Missy glanced up, like they hadn't expected anyone to come in. They dropped their hand away from the console and shook their head. "No. Were we?" they both answered and questioned, though both seemed to be directed at The Doctor more than Sam. The Doctor stepped over to the console, hand lightly brushing past Missy's as she flipped some switches along the dash.
Sam hurriedly sat down, knowing full well how this worked. The movement of the TARDIS nearly sent Missy and The Doctor crashing into each other, but they both steadied themselves again.
"We are now!" said The Doctor, grinning. Sam grinned too. This was certainly a change from the kitchen and staring up at the ceiling!
+++
The sound of a TARDIS landing sounded like a broken washing machine to Sam. Maybe that was just because someone else who'd traveled on the TARDIS (a certain vampire) had mentioned it once. Now he couldn't get the description out of his head. The journey was as rough as usual, but that was just it. It was usual. He was amazed he could get used to time and space travel.
After a couple of mishaps of before, notably the one little night trip with the desert tents, Missy and The Doctor exited first. This clued Sam in that they weren't on Earth. Even a futuristic version.
Come to think of it, he wondered when Missy was going to start teaching him future history. Sam had made a joke about it once. Missy hadn't taken it like that.
He knew The Doctor hadn't taken him anywhere sunny, but he still exited with care, looking out the door first before bounding out onto the stone. He need not have worried. They weren't even on the surface of any planet. They were underground. Not like he could tell that with his eyes. Looking up, it was just dark, with a scattering of lights which were star-like but were just unlike stars to clue people in after viewing them for a while. If he looked around the rest of the area. They had landed on a road, with lamps on either side. They looked like lamps, anyway, only they were floating instead of attached to anything and the light wasn't that effective at penetrating the darkness. Even with vampire eyesight. The walls might just have been too far away to see. Sight was just ineffective at telling anything more than there was a path, with a fork in the road, which led to more distant lights. And the other direction was the lone lamps and far off not-stars. It was his nose and ears which told him where they were. Missy's slow walking down the road echoed. The Doctor's "You doing okay, Sammy?" echoed as well.
"Fine," answered Sam, starting after both Time Lords. His own faint voice came back to him.
He didn't like the earth-y smell around him, but he didn't complain.
"Where are we?" he asked, jogging a couple of steps to catch up with The Doctor.
"Onsra," said The Doctor, not looking back but willingly providing the information Sam had been looking for. "Mining planet for the most part. But it also has farms."
Sam was puzzled, looking around the darkness. "Farms? What do they farm?"
"Mushrooms," Missy said snarkily. "Or maybe fungi." They shrugged one shoulder in what might have been sarcasm. They hadn't said much since they got here. Sam wasn't too sure why. Usually they were chattier. Then again, their moods were always a bit all over the place.
"Are we going to somewhere?" Sam asked.
The Doctor pointed down the road they were traveling where several lights shone similar to the ones every now and again around them like stars without being stars. Only these were all collected in the same area and roughly located in the same direction as the road was going in. Sam looked in that direction with curiosity.
By the time they got close enough to see the buildings, which didn't take that long, Sam was wondering if there was an alternate purpose for being here other than just the fun trip which he assumed had been the intention. It seemed likely. The Doctor did that a lot. Missy didn't. They seemed to know exactly when they were going to do something and why. The Doctor got dragged into things.
"Do you know anyone here?" Sam asked, because it seemed likely. The Doctor and Missy seemed to have been everywhere.
"No," said Missy, bluntly.
"Yes," said The Doctor, at almost the same time.
Usually, they never went somewhere where Missy had been before. From the blunt statement Sam had a feeling that maybe it was just because Missy was just the sort to have a really bad temper. Not always around Sam, but when they got testy, Sam sometimes saw that shining through.
But The Doctor seemed to know everyone. Sam found that amazing.
He glanced around at the buildings which had started to pop up. They were small buildings, with stilts which descended into the darkness below. They were walking over some drop off, but Sam couldn't guess how far it was. The houses weren't made of wood, but metal and stone. The stilts looked like they had been carved from the stone as well.
"Are we going to see the person you know?" he asked The Doctor, eyebrow arching.
The Doctor shook her head. "I am." she said. "Ya not. Missy and ya can walk around and explore."
Sam didn't mind very much, but he still frowned. Splitting up had never proved too stressful in the past, but he still didn't care for it. At least when it came to Missy's little field tips they usually stuck together. The Doctor narrating all the way and often tossing in little facts devoted to really silly thing.
"Does Missy want to go with me?" he asked, looking at Missy with a slightly worried expression on his face. Missy hesitated, then nodded to both him and The Doctor. The hesitation had been what Sam had been concerned about.
"We'll head this way," they said, nodding in the direction of a branching road which led out into another part of what Sam assumed was the town. The Doctor looked like she was frowning as well but then the expression was replaced with a small smile. "Okay. We can meet back at the TARDIS when we're done. Or I'll come find ya."
It wasn't an exact science of a meeting up plan, but so far it had worked out. Missy split off from The Doctor and started walking away, toward more identical houses. Sam shuffled after them. So far, he hadn't seen any other people and as he jogged to keep up he had to ask, "Where is everyone?"
Missy looked around as if they'd only just noticed that they were the only one walking around the lit roads. "Maybe they're at work. This is supposed to be a mining community. Or maybe we just can't see them? I honestly don't know. I've never been here."
They pursed their lips and continued walking, hardly looking left and right. Their mood had dipped even further into being moody. Sam continued to keep up without much difficulty.
"Where are we going to go while The Doctor's doing something?" he said after a little while.
Missy seemed to consider. "I was just walking around," they admitted. "I suppose we can see if they have anything to eat or otherwise entertain ourselves."
Some spark of cheerfulness seemed to work its way back into Missy's strides and they looked both one way down a road and then another. It seemed as deserted as all the other roads they had passed and Sam had yet to smell anyone. Not that he always could, because alien planets weren't exactly working out for a young vampire's senses.
"We can try to find some people," Missy said after a couple seconds of looking around. "Try knocking on a door. That building looks larger. Probably a business of some sort."
They stepped forward and Sam continued to shuffle after them. Missy was aware Sam was lonely and Sam was aware that there was nothing they could do about it. But they still explored worlds with him regardless and he was grateful that they still tried.
Missy's hand rapped against the metal door. "Hello?" they called.
There wasn't any response and Missy shrugged, squinting at the walls. There didn't seem to be any windows, but instead a thin sheet of what looked like metal was over it.
Sam couldn't help feeling a fair amount of disappointment. He had wanted to at least see something while he was here. But it didn't seem like that was going to be the case.
Then the door creaked open and an eye looked through the door. Missy and Sam leaned a bit to try and see who was looking around the edge of the metal, but it slammed with a clang before Sam could see more than a slightly humanoid appearance, but a very yellow looking eye.
"That probably isn't a good sign," Missy said, wrapping their knuckles against the door.
"What isn't?" Sam asked nervously.
"Getting doors slammed in our face," said Missy. "It usually mean you aren't welcome."
It took several persistent knocks before the door was once again cracked open and a head poked its way out. Sam's original assumption that the owner of the yellow eye was humanoid persisted, but this time he noted that they were somewhere between his and Missy's height, had a shock of straw yellow hair (or it looked like hair anyway), skin that had probably never seen sunlight, wore what might have been a tunic, and what appeared to be a set of extendable claws that they were nervously extending in and out into the pads of their own hands.
"Why aren't you inside?" they said, looking left and right as if they expected something to be on the streets. Sam suddenly got why Missy had said something about this not being good. He happened to agree. It sounded like something was outside ... and so where they. He shifted nervously.
Missy, however, seemed very calm. "Uh huh," they said. "And why's that? We were just halfheartedly looking around for a place to get food or entertainment or so forth. You see we were just passing through. But we can go ...?"
They jabbed a finger back the way they came.
The sandy haired creature seemed to find this even more nerve wracking and Sam started to worry about the pads of their hand. The claws didn't seem to be doing any damage to the off-light skin, but that didn't mean he wasn't getting sympathy pains from it.
"N-not a good idea," they said, sounding surprised. "How did you even get down here? We're on lockdown. No transportation to or from the surface."
Missy didn't ask questions like The Doctor asked questions. Sam had learned that early on. Missy leaned forward, their eyes meeting the yellow, horizontally slitted ones. They had to bend over a bit to do it.
"And what," they asked, with patience that oozed from every word and didn't reach their eyes. "Is the reason you're on lockdown?"
They almost sounded excited.
Sam could almost feel Missy glance at him. The small, sandy haired humanoid didn't turn their eyes anywhere, but their head tilted back and their claws dug at the metal as they removed them from worrying at their hand.
"Uuuum," they said. "A-a-a grey lipard came out of one of the tunnels yesterday. W-w-we've been waiting for it to go away."
Missy straightened just a little. "Okay. And what does it do and what does it look like?" Their eyebrow arched.
The humanoid creatures looked from Missy, to Sam, to Missy again ... and then slowly slid from Missy to a place passed their right arm.
One slightly pointy clawed paw-hand grabbed Sam's arm and he saw the other grab Missy and there was a tug. "Like that!" exclaimed the humanoid.
Sam's head whipped around as he and Missy were pulled into the larger building and the metal door was slammed behind them. He got the impression of at least six legs, a mouth like a beak or a drill bit, and a set of red eyes.
Then the door was closed and Missy was shaking off the paw-hand of the creature. They looked mildly affronted as they watched a dark shape move near the 'window'. They looked at it for a very long time, frowning.
Sam knew that they were thinking about The Doctor and how either she'd already had a run-in with that thing or that she was going to. Sam was thinking the same thing.
Missy turned back to the creature. "What's your name," they asked. Sam didn't hear them ask that sort of question often. It sounded like they'd forgot to consider it might be important. The creature was still fidgeting with their claws.
"Uuuuh," they said. "Grrtsez," they finally settled on. It sounded like someone gargling rocks in the back of their throat while trying to pronounce 'Gert'. Missy nodded briefly, eyes distant with their mind on other things.
Sam's mind was on other things too. He had finally taken a chance to look around the house that Gert (he couldn't even mentally pronounce Grrtsez and he hoped they'd understand) had dragged them into. It didn’t look like any house he had seen before. Missy had knocked on the door because it was bigger than the others. Now that Sam was in it, he had to admit that bigger wasn't by much. The place wasn't much larger than the smaller flats he'd seen before when The Doctor visited friends. But the thing that stuck out to him was the fact that it wasn't a house at all. Not unless Gert slept on dirt and used a mushroom the size of his foot as a pillow. Sam could admit that Gert was small, but they weren't that small.
"This is a mushroom garden!" he half exclaimed. There was even a very small light that was like the one which lined the streets. Gert looked around where they were standing as if they'd only just noticed where they were.
"Uuh, yes. Yes it is. All the larger huts are." They looked back at Missy warily, probably expecting the Time Lord to glare at them again.
Missy had only looked around at Samuel's exclamation and said, "I suppose that makes sense. Easy access to the surrounding huts." They didn't sound that interested. They were still watching the window.
"Should we try and find The Doctor," said Sam.
"Yes," muttered Missy. "Or rather I should."
Which meant their puzzled expression was based completely on the fact of Sam and what to do with him.
Sam felt his skin prickle with shame. He wanted to help, but both Missy and The Doctor were very insistent about leaving him out of anything that might be risky. He got it. He really did. But it did make him feel pretty helpless.
Gert was looking nervous and the light reflected off their yellow eyes. "I really don't think you should go out there," they advised. Missy ignored them. But Sam had to agree.
"What does it do?" Missy said after a long second.
"Didn't you see its nose?" asked Gert, sounding slight dubious that Missy wouldn't know anything about these creatures. "Or the eyes? It can see in the dark. And tunnel through stone."
"This house is made of stone," Missy pointed out, waving at the walls.
Gert was still looking slightly know-it-all. "And metal. Why do you think all the important structures are a combination of the two. It was serious money to get this sort of alloy down here though. None of it comes from this planet. Let me tell you." It sounded like they'd been personally affronted.
"I'd really rather you didn't," Missy pointed out, waving a hand away. "Okay. It destroys rocks and can see in the dark. What does that have to do with people leaving streets. From what I heard about what you do down here I would have thought you would have put a little leash around them by now and gotten them to do your work."
Gert looked funny when they were offended. Their sandy hair stuck up at very odd angels and their eyes widened. "It eatspeople," they said incredulously at the suggestion.
Sam could practically see something budding on Missy's lips that they wanted to send back at the humanoid, but they seemed to give it up.
"Fine, fine." They looked at Sam and Sam knew he was still the problem. He looked away from Missy and Missy seemed to grow even more frustrated.
"Sam," they said. Sam looked up. "Stay with Grrtsez."
Sam almost yelped in shock as Missy stalked toward the door. "What?"
"Stay. Here." Missy said again. Sam knew they were worried, but that didn't stop him from feeling a well of his own stress bubble up in his throat.
"Okay," he said quietly. He knew he'd be left out. That The Doctor and Missy would just tell the story later if they told it at all, but it was always going to feel less than experiencing it himself. He looked at Gert. Gert didn't look that happy about it either, but they hadn't said anything. Or, in fact, they did, but only as soon as Sam looked at them.
"Uuum. If you don't come back, he's going to end up working on the mushrooms."
Missy looked scathingly at the humanoid. "I will be back."
Then they spun, opened the metal door, and Sam could no longer see them as the door clanged shut.
Things stayed quiet. He didn't hear or see anything outside and Gert seemed to just be fidgeting with their hands inside.
Finally, Sam turned his head and pointed at the palms of Gert's hands, "Doesn't that hurt when you do that?"
Gert looked down, as if they hadn't noticed what they'd been doing.
"N-no. My claws aren't very sharp. They're for digging, not for injuring. And the pads on my paws are tough. It takes a bit to cut them."
They glanced up at Sam and tilted their head. Sam had asked a question, so he guessed he wasn't surprised when one was returned to him.
"Are your eyes white?"
Sam shook his head. "No. They're just reflective. Like a mirror." Then he realized from the odd look on Gert's face that they probably didn't know what a mirror was. "Like water," he amended and Gert seemed to accept this better.
Then they lapsed back into silence, Gert still picking at their paws. Soon, Sam just sat down in the corner.
"How long do you usually have to wait for those ... grey whatever to go away?" he asked.
Gert didn't correct him on what the creature was called and just said, "It'll get hungry and move on. And then it probably wont come back. It must have found a weak place in the metal ring around the town. It probably wont find another."
Sam tilted his head, worried still, but just proceeded to bite his own lip to work off some of that energy.
Gert seemed to be looking at him with the same sort of hesitation that Sam had looked at them when they'd been nervously picking at their hands. Sam made an effort to stop shifting around. Instead he looked around the room again. It was dark, for the most part, but he'd already assumed that Gert could see in the dark at least better than a human could. They reminded Sam a bit of a cat, if a cat was humanoid and seemed to be wearing something akin to a tunic. He studied Gert then. Gert studied him back. Sam looked at the room again. He was fairly sure Gert had not stopped studying him.
"What?" he finally asked. "Haven't you ever seen a human before?"
Gert nodded. "I have. But humans don't usually have glowing eyes."
"'Human-shaped-being,'" Sam corrected himself. Okay, so Gert was technically right, but that didn't mean Sam liked them staring.
"And I wasn't staring because of that. I've never seen yellow dust like someone so much."
Sam's eyebrow twitched. "What now?"
Gert pointed with a claw, but they were pointing at Sam, so that didn't help much. Sam looked down and around himself. He didn't see anything, not yet. Then ...
The mushrooms near him were ... glowing a bit. He looked over at Gert. They weren't glowing around them.
"Why are they doing that?" he asked.
Gert shrugged. "It's just the bacteria which feed off it. That's what we use for the lights." They nodded at what Sam had forgotten about, which was the single light in the room.
"Usually when you harvest the mushrooms then they aren't as boring dark colored as this," said Gert.
"More glow-y?" Sam suggested. Gert looked blankly at him.
Well, either way, Sam would have rather liked to know why bacteria was acting weird around him - which he really hoped it didn't act like bacteria at home, because wasn't that what made you sick? (Missy might have needed to revisit Biology with him, because he honestly couldn't remember.) He watched the mushrooms with narrowed eyes, but other than the fact there seemed to be a light, refloating layer of dirt and dust present around them, he couldn't actually see anything more threatening than glowing. Gert, however, seemed to take his silent glaring at mushrooms as curiosity.
"You can eat them," they said. "And use it in some medicines too."
Sam didn't have the heart to tell them he really wasn't interested. Anyway, it stopped him worrying about Missy and The Doctor when most of his attention was focused on the Missy-appointed-babysitter. As far as he could tell, Gert was just the same as any other boring person at his old school where they had really wanted him to look at their science fair project. He knew this was Gert's job, but he really couldn't help be bored out of his mind.
He might have been tuning out when Gert said, "Oh, they're going to do something cool now."
Their pointing claw waved around a bit at the mushrooms nearest Sam and Sam watched them with even more wariness than he had before.
The mushrooms nearest him, which were still that yellow color that Gert had first called them, seemed to stop glowing for a very long pause. Sam wondered if that was the only thing interesting about all of this.
Then one near him flared a brighter yellow and in a hurrying wave the others followed, branching out from Sam, to Gert, then hit the edge of their beds and flowed back to Sam. The young vampire's eyes reflected the colors and his mouth, by the time the lights had reached him, was a small 'o'.
"Why ... how are they doing that? Is it because of me?" he asked.
Gert shrugged. "Maybe. Might be because of your eyes. Usually the only other thing that's bright is them. Even if you're just reflecting the light back at them."
Sam covered one eye and part of the mushroom patched dimmed. He covered the other. Then peaked just a little between his fingers. The lights had dimmed even further. Then he dropped his hands and the lights flared up again. Sam ogled.
This was how a ruffled, and very tired looking Missy and Doctor found him. Playing with the own reflective light from his eyes while Gert perched on a small rock slab which doubled as a chair and watched him. They looked up as soon as there was a knock on their door and hurried to answer it, pulling it open.
"No need to worry," assured The Doctor, almost as soon as Gert saw her. She pulled back her hair, which didn't make it look any less tangled. "Little pest problem isn't around anymore. Moved on."
Missy, behind her, looked if possible a bit more testy than they had before. The expression dropped a bit when they noticed what Sam was doing.
"Having fun?" they questioned, slightly mystified.
Sam looked over and shrugged, not willing to admit that he was (he'd gotten to do some things in Morse Code before Missy and The Doctor had turn up. Some of it were worries, because it wasn't like Gert looked like they understood him. The rest had been slightly rude comments about being left behind).
"Well," Missy said. "I want to go. Say bye to your friend - or friends if you count Grrtsez. I need a shower. And to put my feet up."
"Wimp," Sam said, rolling his eyes as he stood up. There was a faint impression of glowing lights swirling dizzyingly around along the floor, but the effect was ruined by the dim light from the open door. Sam waved at Gert - he even tried pronouncing their name and only got a mild wince from Missy as he got it wrong. Grrtsez-Gert didn't seem to mind and waved a clawed hand back.
The trip back to the TARDIS was quicker, at least to Sam, than it felt like it had been.
He'd tried pressing Missy and The Doctor about what had happened, but The Doctor had said 'Not now' and Missy had brushed him off completely. Then again, Missy seemed like they had been through the mill more than The Doctor did. When they reached the TARDIS, Missy practically leaned against the blue door until they were let in and then stumbled off, muttering something about only calling if it involved food.
The Doctor was left with Sam, which was much how this whole ordeal had started. She glanced down at Sam as she pulled a couple levers, twisted a couple dials, and generally moved in what looked like a completely random order around the console.
"Did you have fun?" she asked. The question seemed to be an important one to her.
Sam had to sit down so as not to get tossed around like the last olive in a jar. He considered the question before answering with, "It was enough."
This is based on an RP I had with a friend of mine, which takes place after The Doctor regenerated into the 13th version (which is in itself a spoiler, Kayla. You better not be reading still if you made it this far. Go watch the other seasons.) The newest season isn't really counted as canon because this is basically 'if The Doctor crashed her TARDIS somewhere other than Britain'. And she picked up a new companion.
Also, this is what happened after Missy. KAYLA ... STOP READING.
But generally there aren't that many spoilers. I just don't want Kayla inferring anything.
This is from the POV of my OC, Samuel. He's a new companion to The Doctor and an actual, real vampire. The rest is explained at the start of the story.
This is a different Missy. Totally RP partner's version. Also, a very, very awesome version.
And that's it!
Yellow Dust -- A DW Short Story
Samuel braced his feet against the table, shoes on the wood and chair tilted back while he looked up at the ceiling. He was trying, out of boredom, to see if it was moving at all. It wasn't. He wondered if it would if they were actually traveling instead of sitting in the void between times and places. The ceiling was, for a spaceship, rather boring.
He wondered if the inside styled itself more to The Doctor's tastes or if it had more to do with the people who traveled with her. It wasn't moving, but he knew that when they were in the console room the whole room tilted and squirmed around a bit, like they were on rocky water. So there had to be some movement. Or was it just that he was moving with it and he didn't notice? Or maybe because he just got used to it after a while?
His chair tilted far enough that he was in danger of tipping over. Hurriedly, Sam stood up. The chair didn't follow suit and instead tipped over with a clatter. Sam looked down at it and wondered if anyone had heard. This place was big enough that if he went somewhere he didn't know he could scream often, and no one could hear. He had experience with this, actually. But it also made this place, for all the novelty and amazingness ... boring.
Other than The Doctor and Missy, there was no one here. He was stuck in a time machine that stopped places sure! But while they were between trips which The Doctor deemed 'child friendly' or while she and/or Missy were off saving some galaxy without him, here he was, stuck watching ceilings which didn't move. It sounded like a really fun time, honestly. He didn't think he was prepared to do much more of it.
There were the video games, which The Doctor had, and they were good. Of course, they were good. When Missy was around, Sam would drag them into playing with him. Sometimes The Doctor would too. But Sam didn't always want to bother them. Both Time Lords had a life.
How were you supposed to have friends when you traveled through time and space in a blue police box? Sam had visited Earth more than once, but it was always during different times and he was always doing it as Missy's idea of schoolwork. Which was amazing and all. No one else he knew outside of his guardians had seen this - well, maybe Jack and a couple other friends of The Doctor. But they weren't here. They weren't coming along. And that was the problem. He couldn't exactly tell anyone on Earth what was going on. Who would believe him? And what about the people who were his age and he got along with? They were all dead before he'd even been born. Apart from the vampires and Jack, he didn't know any other mortals so tangled up with the history of Earth that he might actually run into them in the years he visited. And vampires weren't easy to find (Sam had heard the fishes who said they were vampires story from The Doctor and didn't believe it).
So, he was rather unlucky in making friends there, though it wasn't like he was going out and trying. What with being a vampire himself, most centuries didn't take very kindly to his introduction into the mix. Even if he never said anything about it, any long-term interaction would have spoiled the matter sooner or later.
He had better luck on other planets, but by better luck he was a bit more open around who he saw. But with his ... conditions ... there weren't as many planets to visit. It had to be at night. It had to be a place which wasn't too overwhelming to the senses. And it had, according to The Doctor's attempts, to be safe for a twelve-year-old.
Thirteen. Whatever. The difference wasn't that large, and Sam had concluded that people were probably going to forget which age he was anyway.
It all limited him and what he could do. How could there be that many planets out there with intelligent life in perpetual night (or at least with a long enough night for him to do anything) and also didn't care about a forever twelve-year-old? Who also needed to be careful about things like how strong he was and his senses.
For example, Time Lord blood apparently had been decided as poisonous, just because the vampires that The Doctor and Missy knew (including Sam) had to agree on the fact that it really didn't smell right. Not rancid, if that was possible, but certainly unappealing. Whether it would do anything or not, no one seemed to know for sure, but no one was willing to risk it. But just because that was one reaction to one alien species didn't mean it was for all.
There had been two separate cases where Samuel had been faced with the extreme ends. It had made The Doctor and Missy a bit more wary about taking to anywhere other than Earth since then. There had been one planet – or rather, an area of one planet – that had seemed fine to begin with. But when Sam had started walking around, he’d gone from feeling slightly nauseated to almost sick. A hand pressed over his nose; he had explained to Missy in gasps between breaths – before he’d just held his breath all together once he had finished explaining - that there was something in the air that was making him feel bad. Something about the planet’s surface, The Doctor had decided, just effected vampires. Maybe an allergy or a smell or sound of some sort. Humans apparently had no problem. Once a couple of minutes had passed back at the TARDIS, Sam had made the very bad joke that all humans had to do was stay on that planet and they’d be free from vampires forever. Either that, or vampires would never be able to open their mouths for as long as they were on it.
A different occurrence, a month after that had happened, was when they had exited the TARDIS – The Doctor had said she needed to pick something up from a friend, and that it was important, but it should be fine for Sam to get out and see something other than the inside of the ship. Sam had stepped out, looking over a star filled sky, then across a large expanse of what appeared to be tents, overlaid across an almost desert like backdrop. That was all he’d been able to tell before the first person (or whatever they were called, The Doctor hadn’t given an introduction) exited their tent to see who had landed with the classic TARDIS sound … and Sam had pressed his back into the wood of the ship, hand over his mouth and every muscle in his body tense against the roar inside of him. His eyes became the deepest crimson Missy and The Doctor had ever seen and he’d been pulled back into the TARDIS by his arms while he’d almost leaped at the very confused alien.
As soon as the door slammed, he had calmed down, his body trembling as the vampire version of adrenaline – which was closer to bloodlust – exited his body. His hand slowly lowered from his mouth and his arms wrapped around his body. His fangs were out, and eyes were still red, but they slowly faded back brown. In a stutter, he’d explained that he wasn’t sure why, but there had just been the smell of blood on all those bodies and it had been something far more potent than any humans blood he’d ever smelled. It was a hesitant explanation, which just caused Missy to look at The Doctor in slight mystification. They got it, Sam knew, it was what to do with the information.
He was told to remain in as far back of a room as the TARDIS got and that he’d eat before they left. He’d already eaten that day, of course, and he was reluctant to again. But he did, even though at that this point he still would rather go days without eating. It hadn’t been the reason this time, at least. He’d assured left and right that it wasn’t, and The Doctor and Missy knew he didn’t lie.
So planetary trips were a bit rarer than the ventures to Earth in different times across history. But he did admit that it was still fun, even though he didn’t have a chance to make friends. It just meant he was lonely until the next trip – or perhaps during a trip. Just because they were moving didn’t mean Sam didn’t have opportunities to be very sad some days or just wanted to invite someone over to play something or call someone or …
He realized he’d been looking at the fallen chair for far longer than he should have been. He bent down, lifting it up and carefully setting it down again in its upright position. At least the perk of living in a ship that was very close to living herself was that it was harder to damage things like doors and walls. Even the furniture and things weren’t something he had to worry about too much. He still did though.
The kitchen was boring. This, after a couple minutes in it and looking at the ceiling, was what he had decided on.
So, he got up, intent on finding at least one of the Time Lords. Not because he was bored, or anything like that. He just wanted to ... check on them. See if they were doing anything that they needed help with. The latter of which was more likely to be Missy, but Missy wouldn't admit it unless they could somehow claim it as a learning experience for Sam.
Sam alternated between thinking they cared about his education and that they just liked having someone to boss around. If someone had ever said homeschooling was easy, they had never seen Missy's brand of it. Which was a mix of really fun and scary difficult. Nothing Sam couldn't do, but the challenge didn't exactly make him feel warm and fuzzy toward the learning.
After checking four rooms which he thought one or both of the Time Lords might be in, including their room, the console room, the other kitchen, and the small whatever the work area was called, he found The Doctor on the second random door he tried. Trying random doors usually seemed to work for anything from if he was lost to if he just needed to find something. He was pretty sure it was the TARDIS who was doing it, but he had no way to check other than asking. He didn't want to ask. He wanted the satisfaction of thinking he was just lucky.
The room looked had a pool in it. It actually did have a pool, and a fake ceiling. The ceiling was currently insisting it was overcast. Sam looked up at it and wondered if a fake ceiling could rain. He hadn't seen it rain, but so far it was doing a pretty good job of mimicking cloud movements and other sky-y things.
He looked back down again and at The Doctor, who had a pool net in one hand and was looking pensively at the water.
"Does it need cleaning?" Sam wondered. He didn't think that was possible. He didn't even know the room had had a pool net.
"No," said The Doctor, still watching the water. "I'm just tryin' to catch - ah ... there it is!"
The net reached out and scooped something out of the water. It had appeared the same color as its surface, so even Sam hadn't been able to see it until it had moved. The Doctor held it up like it was some price from fishing, looking it over as it rattled.
Sam could tell it wasn't anything organic. Unless a clattering, almost clockwork and plastic hybrid thing counted as organic. It might on some planet though.
"What's that?" he questioned.
"Old science project I think," said The Doctor, squinting at what was in the net. It had gone back to mimicking its surroundings and looked like part of the pool net. "Shoddy. Could do better now. But it's got a nasty bite and didn't want it wondering about."
She turned and walked slowly toward a small box which Sam hadn't noticed because it was behind a deck chair. The lid came off, the contents of the net was dumped into it, the lid went back on.
"Did ya come here to swim?" questioned The Doctor as she tossed the net away. "I gotta make sure that it didn't replicate or something. Not sure what water does to it. But it should be fine."
She sounded confident, but she had that tone in her voice that Sam was always pretty sure meant she wasn't that confident at all.
"Uh, no," answered Sam. Even if he had been, he wasn't now. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind until The Doctor mentioned it. "I just came to see what you were doing and found you with the pool net."
The Doctor's expression wasn't easily described, so Sam didn't try further than knowing that 'fake innocence' was in there somewhere.
"Do you know where Missy is?" he questioned, for lack of something to say other than he had nothing to say. The Doctor at least found an answer for that. She nodded and said, "Last I saw, they were heading for the console room."
Sam frowned. He must have just missed them. Either that, or they hadn't been going to the console room - just towards it.
The Doctor seemed to interpret the frown as something else, or maybe she just saw right through Samuel's flimsy excuse of being here when he was so clearly bored. She smiled a bit knowingly and said, "I bet we can take a bit of a jaunt somewhere, hum Sam?"
Sam tried not to too obviously perk up at the thought. "We could," he said as nonchalantly as possible.
He followed The Doctor back to the console room. It was in honey amber colors, like it had been for as long as Samuel remembered. It would probably have been dimly lit for humans, but it looked fine to him. Missy was, in fact, in the room as well. They were messing with the controls.
Sam had originally assumed only The Doctor could run the TARDIS, but apparently the TARDIS just had a grudge against Missy. For some reason. He hadn't gotten a straight answer from them when he'd asked about that.
"Were you planning on going somewhere?" Sam asked.
Missy glanced up, like they hadn't expected anyone to come in. They dropped their hand away from the console and shook their head. "No. Were we?" they both answered and questioned, though both seemed to be directed at The Doctor more than Sam. The Doctor stepped over to the console, hand lightly brushing past Missy's as she flipped some switches along the dash.
Sam hurriedly sat down, knowing full well how this worked. The movement of the TARDIS nearly sent Missy and The Doctor crashing into each other, but they both steadied themselves again.
"We are now!" said The Doctor, grinning. Sam grinned too. This was certainly a change from the kitchen and staring up at the ceiling!
+++
The sound of a TARDIS landing sounded like a broken washing machine to Sam. Maybe that was just because someone else who'd traveled on the TARDIS (a certain vampire) had mentioned it once. Now he couldn't get the description out of his head. The journey was as rough as usual, but that was just it. It was usual. He was amazed he could get used to time and space travel.
After a couple of mishaps of before, notably the one little night trip with the desert tents, Missy and The Doctor exited first. This clued Sam in that they weren't on Earth. Even a futuristic version.
Come to think of it, he wondered when Missy was going to start teaching him future history. Sam had made a joke about it once. Missy hadn't taken it like that.
He knew The Doctor hadn't taken him anywhere sunny, but he still exited with care, looking out the door first before bounding out onto the stone. He need not have worried. They weren't even on the surface of any planet. They were underground. Not like he could tell that with his eyes. Looking up, it was just dark, with a scattering of lights which were star-like but were just unlike stars to clue people in after viewing them for a while. If he looked around the rest of the area. They had landed on a road, with lamps on either side. They looked like lamps, anyway, only they were floating instead of attached to anything and the light wasn't that effective at penetrating the darkness. Even with vampire eyesight. The walls might just have been too far away to see. Sight was just ineffective at telling anything more than there was a path, with a fork in the road, which led to more distant lights. And the other direction was the lone lamps and far off not-stars. It was his nose and ears which told him where they were. Missy's slow walking down the road echoed. The Doctor's "You doing okay, Sammy?" echoed as well.
"Fine," answered Sam, starting after both Time Lords. His own faint voice came back to him.
He didn't like the earth-y smell around him, but he didn't complain.
"Where are we?" he asked, jogging a couple of steps to catch up with The Doctor.
"Onsra," said The Doctor, not looking back but willingly providing the information Sam had been looking for. "Mining planet for the most part. But it also has farms."
Sam was puzzled, looking around the darkness. "Farms? What do they farm?"
"Mushrooms," Missy said snarkily. "Or maybe fungi." They shrugged one shoulder in what might have been sarcasm. They hadn't said much since they got here. Sam wasn't too sure why. Usually they were chattier. Then again, their moods were always a bit all over the place.
"Are we going to somewhere?" Sam asked.
The Doctor pointed down the road they were traveling where several lights shone similar to the ones every now and again around them like stars without being stars. Only these were all collected in the same area and roughly located in the same direction as the road was going in. Sam looked in that direction with curiosity.
By the time they got close enough to see the buildings, which didn't take that long, Sam was wondering if there was an alternate purpose for being here other than just the fun trip which he assumed had been the intention. It seemed likely. The Doctor did that a lot. Missy didn't. They seemed to know exactly when they were going to do something and why. The Doctor got dragged into things.
"Do you know anyone here?" Sam asked, because it seemed likely. The Doctor and Missy seemed to have been everywhere.
"No," said Missy, bluntly.
"Yes," said The Doctor, at almost the same time.
Usually, they never went somewhere where Missy had been before. From the blunt statement Sam had a feeling that maybe it was just because Missy was just the sort to have a really bad temper. Not always around Sam, but when they got testy, Sam sometimes saw that shining through.
But The Doctor seemed to know everyone. Sam found that amazing.
He glanced around at the buildings which had started to pop up. They were small buildings, with stilts which descended into the darkness below. They were walking over some drop off, but Sam couldn't guess how far it was. The houses weren't made of wood, but metal and stone. The stilts looked like they had been carved from the stone as well.
"Are we going to see the person you know?" he asked The Doctor, eyebrow arching.
The Doctor shook her head. "I am." she said. "Ya not. Missy and ya can walk around and explore."
Sam didn't mind very much, but he still frowned. Splitting up had never proved too stressful in the past, but he still didn't care for it. At least when it came to Missy's little field tips they usually stuck together. The Doctor narrating all the way and often tossing in little facts devoted to really silly thing.
"Does Missy want to go with me?" he asked, looking at Missy with a slightly worried expression on his face. Missy hesitated, then nodded to both him and The Doctor. The hesitation had been what Sam had been concerned about.
"We'll head this way," they said, nodding in the direction of a branching road which led out into another part of what Sam assumed was the town. The Doctor looked like she was frowning as well but then the expression was replaced with a small smile. "Okay. We can meet back at the TARDIS when we're done. Or I'll come find ya."
It wasn't an exact science of a meeting up plan, but so far it had worked out. Missy split off from The Doctor and started walking away, toward more identical houses. Sam shuffled after them. So far, he hadn't seen any other people and as he jogged to keep up he had to ask, "Where is everyone?"
Missy looked around as if they'd only just noticed that they were the only one walking around the lit roads. "Maybe they're at work. This is supposed to be a mining community. Or maybe we just can't see them? I honestly don't know. I've never been here."
They pursed their lips and continued walking, hardly looking left and right. Their mood had dipped even further into being moody. Sam continued to keep up without much difficulty.
"Where are we going to go while The Doctor's doing something?" he said after a little while.
Missy seemed to consider. "I was just walking around," they admitted. "I suppose we can see if they have anything to eat or otherwise entertain ourselves."
Some spark of cheerfulness seemed to work its way back into Missy's strides and they looked both one way down a road and then another. It seemed as deserted as all the other roads they had passed and Sam had yet to smell anyone. Not that he always could, because alien planets weren't exactly working out for a young vampire's senses.
"We can try to find some people," Missy said after a couple seconds of looking around. "Try knocking on a door. That building looks larger. Probably a business of some sort."
They stepped forward and Sam continued to shuffle after them. Missy was aware Sam was lonely and Sam was aware that there was nothing they could do about it. But they still explored worlds with him regardless and he was grateful that they still tried.
Missy's hand rapped against the metal door. "Hello?" they called.
There wasn't any response and Missy shrugged, squinting at the walls. There didn't seem to be any windows, but instead a thin sheet of what looked like metal was over it.
Sam couldn't help feeling a fair amount of disappointment. He had wanted to at least see something while he was here. But it didn't seem like that was going to be the case.
Then the door creaked open and an eye looked through the door. Missy and Sam leaned a bit to try and see who was looking around the edge of the metal, but it slammed with a clang before Sam could see more than a slightly humanoid appearance, but a very yellow looking eye.
"That probably isn't a good sign," Missy said, wrapping their knuckles against the door.
"What isn't?" Sam asked nervously.
"Getting doors slammed in our face," said Missy. "It usually mean you aren't welcome."
It took several persistent knocks before the door was once again cracked open and a head poked its way out. Sam's original assumption that the owner of the yellow eye was humanoid persisted, but this time he noted that they were somewhere between his and Missy's height, had a shock of straw yellow hair (or it looked like hair anyway), skin that had probably never seen sunlight, wore what might have been a tunic, and what appeared to be a set of extendable claws that they were nervously extending in and out into the pads of their own hands.
"Why aren't you inside?" they said, looking left and right as if they expected something to be on the streets. Sam suddenly got why Missy had said something about this not being good. He happened to agree. It sounded like something was outside ... and so where they. He shifted nervously.
Missy, however, seemed very calm. "Uh huh," they said. "And why's that? We were just halfheartedly looking around for a place to get food or entertainment or so forth. You see we were just passing through. But we can go ...?"
They jabbed a finger back the way they came.
The sandy haired creature seemed to find this even more nerve wracking and Sam started to worry about the pads of their hand. The claws didn't seem to be doing any damage to the off-light skin, but that didn't mean he wasn't getting sympathy pains from it.
"N-not a good idea," they said, sounding surprised. "How did you even get down here? We're on lockdown. No transportation to or from the surface."
Missy didn't ask questions like The Doctor asked questions. Sam had learned that early on. Missy leaned forward, their eyes meeting the yellow, horizontally slitted ones. They had to bend over a bit to do it.
"And what," they asked, with patience that oozed from every word and didn't reach their eyes. "Is the reason you're on lockdown?"
They almost sounded excited.
Sam could almost feel Missy glance at him. The small, sandy haired humanoid didn't turn their eyes anywhere, but their head tilted back and their claws dug at the metal as they removed them from worrying at their hand.
"Uuuum," they said. "A-a-a grey lipard came out of one of the tunnels yesterday. W-w-we've been waiting for it to go away."
Missy straightened just a little. "Okay. And what does it do and what does it look like?" Their eyebrow arched.
The humanoid creatures looked from Missy, to Sam, to Missy again ... and then slowly slid from Missy to a place passed their right arm.
One slightly pointy clawed paw-hand grabbed Sam's arm and he saw the other grab Missy and there was a tug. "Like that!" exclaimed the humanoid.
Sam's head whipped around as he and Missy were pulled into the larger building and the metal door was slammed behind them. He got the impression of at least six legs, a mouth like a beak or a drill bit, and a set of red eyes.
Then the door was closed and Missy was shaking off the paw-hand of the creature. They looked mildly affronted as they watched a dark shape move near the 'window'. They looked at it for a very long time, frowning.
Sam knew that they were thinking about The Doctor and how either she'd already had a run-in with that thing or that she was going to. Sam was thinking the same thing.
Missy turned back to the creature. "What's your name," they asked. Sam didn't hear them ask that sort of question often. It sounded like they'd forgot to consider it might be important. The creature was still fidgeting with their claws.
"Uuuuh," they said. "Grrtsez," they finally settled on. It sounded like someone gargling rocks in the back of their throat while trying to pronounce 'Gert'. Missy nodded briefly, eyes distant with their mind on other things.
Sam's mind was on other things too. He had finally taken a chance to look around the house that Gert (he couldn't even mentally pronounce Grrtsez and he hoped they'd understand) had dragged them into. It didn’t look like any house he had seen before. Missy had knocked on the door because it was bigger than the others. Now that Sam was in it, he had to admit that bigger wasn't by much. The place wasn't much larger than the smaller flats he'd seen before when The Doctor visited friends. But the thing that stuck out to him was the fact that it wasn't a house at all. Not unless Gert slept on dirt and used a mushroom the size of his foot as a pillow. Sam could admit that Gert was small, but they weren't that small.
"This is a mushroom garden!" he half exclaimed. There was even a very small light that was like the one which lined the streets. Gert looked around where they were standing as if they'd only just noticed where they were.
"Uuh, yes. Yes it is. All the larger huts are." They looked back at Missy warily, probably expecting the Time Lord to glare at them again.
Missy had only looked around at Samuel's exclamation and said, "I suppose that makes sense. Easy access to the surrounding huts." They didn't sound that interested. They were still watching the window.
"Should we try and find The Doctor," said Sam.
"Yes," muttered Missy. "Or rather I should."
Which meant their puzzled expression was based completely on the fact of Sam and what to do with him.
Sam felt his skin prickle with shame. He wanted to help, but both Missy and The Doctor were very insistent about leaving him out of anything that might be risky. He got it. He really did. But it did make him feel pretty helpless.
Gert was looking nervous and the light reflected off their yellow eyes. "I really don't think you should go out there," they advised. Missy ignored them. But Sam had to agree.
"What does it do?" Missy said after a long second.
"Didn't you see its nose?" asked Gert, sounding slight dubious that Missy wouldn't know anything about these creatures. "Or the eyes? It can see in the dark. And tunnel through stone."
"This house is made of stone," Missy pointed out, waving at the walls.
Gert was still looking slightly know-it-all. "And metal. Why do you think all the important structures are a combination of the two. It was serious money to get this sort of alloy down here though. None of it comes from this planet. Let me tell you." It sounded like they'd been personally affronted.
"I'd really rather you didn't," Missy pointed out, waving a hand away. "Okay. It destroys rocks and can see in the dark. What does that have to do with people leaving streets. From what I heard about what you do down here I would have thought you would have put a little leash around them by now and gotten them to do your work."
Gert looked funny when they were offended. Their sandy hair stuck up at very odd angels and their eyes widened. "It eatspeople," they said incredulously at the suggestion.
Sam could practically see something budding on Missy's lips that they wanted to send back at the humanoid, but they seemed to give it up.
"Fine, fine." They looked at Sam and Sam knew he was still the problem. He looked away from Missy and Missy seemed to grow even more frustrated.
"Sam," they said. Sam looked up. "Stay with Grrtsez."
Sam almost yelped in shock as Missy stalked toward the door. "What?"
"Stay. Here." Missy said again. Sam knew they were worried, but that didn't stop him from feeling a well of his own stress bubble up in his throat.
"Okay," he said quietly. He knew he'd be left out. That The Doctor and Missy would just tell the story later if they told it at all, but it was always going to feel less than experiencing it himself. He looked at Gert. Gert didn't look that happy about it either, but they hadn't said anything. Or, in fact, they did, but only as soon as Sam looked at them.
"Uuum. If you don't come back, he's going to end up working on the mushrooms."
Missy looked scathingly at the humanoid. "I will be back."
Then they spun, opened the metal door, and Sam could no longer see them as the door clanged shut.
Things stayed quiet. He didn't hear or see anything outside and Gert seemed to just be fidgeting with their hands inside.
Finally, Sam turned his head and pointed at the palms of Gert's hands, "Doesn't that hurt when you do that?"
Gert looked down, as if they hadn't noticed what they'd been doing.
"N-no. My claws aren't very sharp. They're for digging, not for injuring. And the pads on my paws are tough. It takes a bit to cut them."
They glanced up at Sam and tilted their head. Sam had asked a question, so he guessed he wasn't surprised when one was returned to him.
"Are your eyes white?"
Sam shook his head. "No. They're just reflective. Like a mirror." Then he realized from the odd look on Gert's face that they probably didn't know what a mirror was. "Like water," he amended and Gert seemed to accept this better.
Then they lapsed back into silence, Gert still picking at their paws. Soon, Sam just sat down in the corner.
"How long do you usually have to wait for those ... grey whatever to go away?" he asked.
Gert didn't correct him on what the creature was called and just said, "It'll get hungry and move on. And then it probably wont come back. It must have found a weak place in the metal ring around the town. It probably wont find another."
Sam tilted his head, worried still, but just proceeded to bite his own lip to work off some of that energy.
Gert seemed to be looking at him with the same sort of hesitation that Sam had looked at them when they'd been nervously picking at their hands. Sam made an effort to stop shifting around. Instead he looked around the room again. It was dark, for the most part, but he'd already assumed that Gert could see in the dark at least better than a human could. They reminded Sam a bit of a cat, if a cat was humanoid and seemed to be wearing something akin to a tunic. He studied Gert then. Gert studied him back. Sam looked at the room again. He was fairly sure Gert had not stopped studying him.
"What?" he finally asked. "Haven't you ever seen a human before?"
Gert nodded. "I have. But humans don't usually have glowing eyes."
"'Human-shaped-being,'" Sam corrected himself. Okay, so Gert was technically right, but that didn't mean Sam liked them staring.
"And I wasn't staring because of that. I've never seen yellow dust like someone so much."
Sam's eyebrow twitched. "What now?"
Gert pointed with a claw, but they were pointing at Sam, so that didn't help much. Sam looked down and around himself. He didn't see anything, not yet. Then ...
The mushrooms near him were ... glowing a bit. He looked over at Gert. They weren't glowing around them.
"Why are they doing that?" he asked.
Gert shrugged. "It's just the bacteria which feed off it. That's what we use for the lights." They nodded at what Sam had forgotten about, which was the single light in the room.
"Usually when you harvest the mushrooms then they aren't as boring dark colored as this," said Gert.
"More glow-y?" Sam suggested. Gert looked blankly at him.
Well, either way, Sam would have rather liked to know why bacteria was acting weird around him - which he really hoped it didn't act like bacteria at home, because wasn't that what made you sick? (Missy might have needed to revisit Biology with him, because he honestly couldn't remember.) He watched the mushrooms with narrowed eyes, but other than the fact there seemed to be a light, refloating layer of dirt and dust present around them, he couldn't actually see anything more threatening than glowing. Gert, however, seemed to take his silent glaring at mushrooms as curiosity.
"You can eat them," they said. "And use it in some medicines too."
Sam didn't have the heart to tell them he really wasn't interested. Anyway, it stopped him worrying about Missy and The Doctor when most of his attention was focused on the Missy-appointed-babysitter. As far as he could tell, Gert was just the same as any other boring person at his old school where they had really wanted him to look at their science fair project. He knew this was Gert's job, but he really couldn't help be bored out of his mind.
He might have been tuning out when Gert said, "Oh, they're going to do something cool now."
Their pointing claw waved around a bit at the mushrooms nearest Sam and Sam watched them with even more wariness than he had before.
The mushrooms nearest him, which were still that yellow color that Gert had first called them, seemed to stop glowing for a very long pause. Sam wondered if that was the only thing interesting about all of this.
Then one near him flared a brighter yellow and in a hurrying wave the others followed, branching out from Sam, to Gert, then hit the edge of their beds and flowed back to Sam. The young vampire's eyes reflected the colors and his mouth, by the time the lights had reached him, was a small 'o'.
"Why ... how are they doing that? Is it because of me?" he asked.
Gert shrugged. "Maybe. Might be because of your eyes. Usually the only other thing that's bright is them. Even if you're just reflecting the light back at them."
Sam covered one eye and part of the mushroom patched dimmed. He covered the other. Then peaked just a little between his fingers. The lights had dimmed even further. Then he dropped his hands and the lights flared up again. Sam ogled.
This was how a ruffled, and very tired looking Missy and Doctor found him. Playing with the own reflective light from his eyes while Gert perched on a small rock slab which doubled as a chair and watched him. They looked up as soon as there was a knock on their door and hurried to answer it, pulling it open.
"No need to worry," assured The Doctor, almost as soon as Gert saw her. She pulled back her hair, which didn't make it look any less tangled. "Little pest problem isn't around anymore. Moved on."
Missy, behind her, looked if possible a bit more testy than they had before. The expression dropped a bit when they noticed what Sam was doing.
"Having fun?" they questioned, slightly mystified.
Sam looked over and shrugged, not willing to admit that he was (he'd gotten to do some things in Morse Code before Missy and The Doctor had turn up. Some of it were worries, because it wasn't like Gert looked like they understood him. The rest had been slightly rude comments about being left behind).
"Well," Missy said. "I want to go. Say bye to your friend - or friends if you count Grrtsez. I need a shower. And to put my feet up."
"Wimp," Sam said, rolling his eyes as he stood up. There was a faint impression of glowing lights swirling dizzyingly around along the floor, but the effect was ruined by the dim light from the open door. Sam waved at Gert - he even tried pronouncing their name and only got a mild wince from Missy as he got it wrong. Grrtsez-Gert didn't seem to mind and waved a clawed hand back.
The trip back to the TARDIS was quicker, at least to Sam, than it felt like it had been.
He'd tried pressing Missy and The Doctor about what had happened, but The Doctor had said 'Not now' and Missy had brushed him off completely. Then again, Missy seemed like they had been through the mill more than The Doctor did. When they reached the TARDIS, Missy practically leaned against the blue door until they were let in and then stumbled off, muttering something about only calling if it involved food.
The Doctor was left with Sam, which was much how this whole ordeal had started. She glanced down at Sam as she pulled a couple levers, twisted a couple dials, and generally moved in what looked like a completely random order around the console.
"Did you have fun?" she asked. The question seemed to be an important one to her.
Sam had to sit down so as not to get tossed around like the last olive in a jar. He considered the question before answering with, "It was enough."
