Chapter Text
The croupier robot held the cards close to its chestplate, its slot-machine-esque eyes staring at those around the table.
Everyone else also held cards and were eyeing other players.
“Now, my dears.” - the robot hummed, with its voice sounding like a jingle of coins. - “Time to finish this.”
It flipped its cards and put them on the table - three Vipers, one Osiran. Not the strongest combination out there, but strong enough to stop some over-confident gamblers.
And the players began to flip their cards too.
The first player - a Sontaran in a panama hat named Raab, angrily exhaled and slammed his cards on the table, with his punch leaving a visible dent in the table.
The croupier instantly turned to Raab.
“That’s a third strike. You have been warned, Raab, yet you continued throwing tantrums. I will now have to use some more serious ways of persuasion.” - it hummed, now monotonously and even a bit aggressively.
Raab’s face was twisted with anger. He was about to stand up and yell all the slurs he knew at the robot, but the latter was faster - its head instantly unfolded, revealing a raygun. It instantly charged and blasted Raab. He swung and dropped dead behind the table, with his hat slowly falling on his corpse.
The croupier’s head took its original shape, and then it picked up Raab’s cards. It gave out sort of a laugh.
“I don’t blame him actually.” - it said, with its jingling voice back. - “Look at this rubbish.”
It turned and showed the remaining three Raab’s cards - one skunk, one Tivolian, and two Ogrons. The two players laughed, the third one gave a bit awkward laugh before anxiously looking back at his cards.
The croupier grabbed the late Raab’s chips and put them inside his chest capsule.
“By all means, continue.” - the croupier encouraged.
The next player - an insectoid called Bzeek, revealed their cards. They had a pretty strong combination too - one Viper, two Ice Warriors and one rather nasty Meep. That combination could actually give them and the croupier a duel round, if everyone else gets excluded.
A gorilla-like humanoid near them called Vaargeal gave out a disappointed groan, as she placed down her cards on the table too. One Rutan queen, one Killoran and two Racnosses - a solid combination, but the one that gets completely obliterated by those that Bzeek and the croupier had. Surprisingly, Vaargeal was pretty calm about her loss, and instead turned with interest to the next player - a human.
He looked at her cards, then at Bzeek’s, then at croupier’s, and then at his.
“Yes!” - he exclaimed happily and slapped his cards on the table. He had one Time Lord, one Daemon, one Pting and one koala. That combination made those that other players had pale in comparison.
Bzeek’s double jaw opened to its full width out of shock. Vaargeal tapped the human’s shoulder.
“Good game.” - she said and smiled.
The croupier’s slot-machine eyes started spinning, eventually stopping at a picture of a bag of gold.
“Congratulations! You have won the jackpot! Take it all, you lucky…” - after that the robot gave out a loud bleep, even though the human pretty clearly understood what word it was bleeping out.
The robot moved over the table and opened its chest capsule, revealing a few chips inside.
“Hold on, that’s it? I saw you grabbing a whole Raab’s jackpot in there!” - the human sounded angry. - “And that’s not even one tenth of what he had!”
“When the chips are placed inside my chest captivity, they are compressed into a lesser amount of chips with larger bearings. Check for yourself” - the robot took one chip out of its chest and showed it to the human.
The chip said: “499998 credits”.
“Ah.” - the human seemed embarrassed now. - “I see. Thank you.”
He took the chips, put them in his pocket and left the casino tent.
As he was checking out his new jackpot, someone approached him.
“Rory, were you just gambling?” - a female voice asked.
Rory sighed.
“Yes, Amy. But I won! A lot!” - he bragged with his fistful of chips.
Amy instantly grabbed his hand and forcefully moved it down.
“First of all, be quiet. You don’t want to lose those. And second of all - why on Earth do you need so much?” - she asked.
“To spend.” - Rory shrugged. - “We are at an intergalactic market after all. There could be lots of interesting stuff here.”
Amy considered for a second. On one hand she knew that the Doctor probably won’t allow them to take any of the stuff they get here with them if they choose to leave him. On the other hand - you only live once.
“You know what? Let me try too.”
Amy was about to enter the tent, but Rory stopped her.
“Yeah, sorry, you’re gonna have to wait about half an hour”
Amy lifted her eyebrow.
“Why?”
“Cleaning a body isn’t a quick process.”
As Amy was about to ask what on Earth did he mean by that, someone else quickly approached them.
“Ah, there you are!” - the Doctor exclaimed. - “I was looking for you for ages. Don’t you ever run away like that. I had to loosen my bowtie to run faster.”
The Time Lord straightened it.
“Oh come on, Doctor, I was only away for a few minutes.” - Rory began, but Amy interfered.
“We were looking for you for an hour!”
“What are you talking about? When I entered that tent it was 13:23 on my watch, and now it’s…” - he looked at his watch.
It was 14:31.
“Oh.” was the only thing he could say, as he guiltily looked at his co-travellers.
“Come on, let’s have a drink. I know a place with wonderful juice here.” - the Doctor smiled and waved his hand, so that his companions would follow him. Of course, they had no choice.
“Well, here we are! The Rutan's Tendril!” - the Doctor waved with his arms around the bar.
Amy and Rory looked around. That bar didn’t actually look that different from other bars on Earth except, well, this one being crowded with aliens.
“How about you two go get us a table, while I go get us some Drago Juice?” - the Doctor smiled and rubbed his hands together. - “You’re gonna love it. The best juice you’ve ever tasted.”
“Sure.” - Amy replied and smiled.
The Doctor nodded and went to look for a bartender, while Amy and Rory very quickly found a place - a round table with three chairs, two of which they took.
“Cozy.” - Amy looked around. - “Actually, it kind of reminds me of the bar we used to visit at college.”
Rory looked around.
“Really? Compared to this one, that one is a…”
But he was suddenly cut off, when his chair moved. Rory clinged into it and turned around, only to find a man, who was moving his chair away from Amy. After he was done, that man took the third chair, placed it between the couple and sat on it. Both Amy and Rory looked at him with their mouths opened out of shock and sheer audacity that this man showed. And also strength, but just a bit.
This man was about fifty years old, he had a long, almost rectangular face. His eyes were grey, his hair were also giving grey, but he painted them a bit with brown hair paint, with the result actually looking pretty sharp. He wore a dark blue shirt, light grey jeans and a beige coat with red outlines.
The stranger looked Amy in the eyes and smiled.
“Well hello there, pretty lady.” - he said, with a very clear cockney in his speech.
Rory cleared his throat.
The stranger threw a quick glance at him, then turned back to Amy.
“Wat are ya doing here all alone? Do you mind if I keep ya company?”
Rory cleared his throat again. Louder this time.
The stranger turned again.
“Look, mate, there is a pharmacy just outside the bar. Go get some cough pills and leave us. You’re nerving this lovely angel right here.” - he said, while dismissively waving his hand at the door. Then he turned back to the shocked Amy, nodded in Rory’s direction, rolled his eyes and said pretty loudly: “Incels.”
He laughed. Unlike Rory.
He grabbed the stranger by the collar and pulled towards himself.
“Listen here, you nutter.” - he began, while staring the stranger in the eyes. - “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but that’s my wife you’re trying to hit on! So either you shut up and leave, or…”
The stranger cut him off with a burst of laughter. It was in fact so loud, that some people around them began to give these three looks.
The stranger actually had tears in his eyes because of how hard he laughed.
“Your… your wife!” - he burst out laughing again, before eventually calming down. - “Oh sweet Rassilon, that's the best joke I’ve ever heard! I like ya, skinny.”
Amy could see that Rory’s face was beginning to turn red.
“He wasn’t joking by the way.” - she showed the stranger her ring finger with, what a surprise, a ring on it.
The stranger instantly stopped laughing and stared at it as if he saw something impossible.
He turned to Rory, then back to the ring.
“Oh, screw ya, lady.” - he pushed Rory and her hand away, and began to stand up from the chair. - “You’re pretty, alright, but so stupid. Phew, dodged a bullet here.”
But as he stood up, the Doctor came over with three almost full glasses on a tray.
“Alright, who's up for some Drago Ju…” - he stopped mid-sentence, as he and the stranger’s eyes met.
The Doctor instantly recognized him, and so did the stranger.
“YOU?!” - they yelled out in unison.