Chapter Text
‘It’s purple.’ Amy stated, feelingly slightly dumbstruck as she stepped out onto the planet’s surface, taking in the lilac skyline with its violet swirling clouds, atmospheric vortices the Doctor had corrected her, with a small adjustment of his bowtie when she pointed them out to him. A large, meandering magenta river carved its way through the valley, cutting into the deep plum rock cliff faces. A settlement giving off small chutes of puce smoke circling lazily into the sky was visible in the valley in the far distance.
‘Yes, fantastically so wouldn’t you agree. All the shades under one glorious atmosphere. Amy Pond, I formally present you… planet Viola.’
Amy looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. At least it explained the purple ensemble he had donned especially for the trip, tapping the side of his nose when Amy had asked after it during the journey there.
‘Ta-dah.’ He added thoughtfully, throwing his arms out in a flare of theatrics.
‘Viola?’ Amy repeated with a slight smirk, ‘Imaginative.’ The Doctor turned to her, scandalised.
‘Well, you can hardly judge, you named your planet after mud.’ He strolled forward, muttering under his breath to himself. Amy snorted and followed in the Doctor’s wake.
‘So what’s so special about Purple World.’ She started brightly, falling into step next to him. ‘I thought we were going on an adventure to expand our minds beyond all reckoning.’ The inferred air quotation marks were ignored by the Doctor who kept his pace up.
‘This all looks rather…earthy… just in a different, very singular, hue.’ Amy continued, motioning at their decidedly purple surroundings.
‘This is an adventure, Miss Pond. This planet is more famous for its cross-dimentional, trans-universal, one in a million, thought-you’d-never-see-in-your-lifetime, menagerie of awfully rare and dreadfully extinct intergalactic beings.’ He turned his head to her, expectation plastered across his face. Amy blinked blankly at him.
‘You brought me to a space zoo?’
He took a deep breath and tapped his lips, forehead wrinkling in thought.
‘No. Well. Technically, yes. But,’ He wiggled his eyebrows, ‘intergalactic menagerie has a certain je ne sais quoi.’ Amy couldn’t help but smile.
‘You’know Edinburgh Zoo have got baby pandas, we could have just gone there.’ She called out defiantly after him, trailing behind his marching pace. He stopped in his tracks and turned slowly, a smile creeping up the side of his face the way it often did when he knew he had the upper hand in a conversation.
‘This zoo has the rarest of all the rare species in the known universe. Forget pandas, here you can see the last of the gnorgnoids, the fabled merander-beings and even, if my sources are correct, which they usually are…a dragon.’
Silence.
‘A dragon.’ Amy repeated dumbly. ‘As in, giant mythical lizard. Wings. Scales. Breathes fire. Hoards gold.’ The doctor beamed at her.
‘Edinburgh Zoo haven’t got one of those, have they?’
***
‘It’s a bit…’ Amy took in their deserted surroundings, a set of rusted gates, a small unmanned booth next to it, a ball of tumbleweed lazily rolling by in the gentle breeze. ‘Quiet?’
They had meandered down the side of the hill, the path coming to an abrupt end outside an unassuming cluster of concrete-esq buildings that stretched back out of sight behind the gates. It was a bit of an anti climax, if Amy was being honest with herself.
‘Well it is,’ The Doctor pulled out his pocket watch with a flourish, the one with four spinning hands, three dials, and symbols Amy had never seen before around the edge of its face, ‘a Tuesday afternoon.’
A small floating orb, no bigger than a football appeared in front of them with a small pop, and started beeping loudly.
‘Nothing to worry about, harmless biological scanner, just checking us over, making sure we’re not bringing any diseases in. Can’t be too careful about those sorts of things when you’ve got rare species to be looking after.’ The Doctor exclaimed happily as the orb floated in front of her. She eyed it suspiciously as a little laser light scanned up and down her body.
‘Human.’ It declared in a distinctly robotic voice. ‘Least concern.’ It floated forwards to the Doctor and repeated its ministrations.
‘Timelord.’ His smile faltered slightly as the robotic voice spoke again. ‘Functionally extinct. Conservational status, engaged.’
He turned, eyes wide, the orb now flashing (purple). ‘Ah. Yes. Forgot about that-’
The orb disappeared with another pop.
And so did the Doctor.