Hey, I’m sorry I took so long before reading this. I kind of let myself get absorbed into home chores for a while there, but your story was always in the back of my mind to read!

Aw, poor Ocotillo! The narrative laws are really after her, aren’t they? HQ just isn’t built for a dragon, and neither is the DIA manual . . . but I love that she still keeps trying to do her best, self-sabotaging voices aside! And I love her sense of duty, as well, wanting to clean up the TARDIS even though it isn’t her job.

I find myself both frustrated by, and sympathetic to, Matterhorn. I wouldn’t want to be around someone who’s so casually rude to the people around him, but I also understand his impatience with wanting to get his job done without being slowed down training the noobie, and how disquieting Melpomene’s blank aspect is. I’m glad that, in spite of Ocotillo’s lack of self confidence, she still stands up to Matterhorn when he crosses a line.

And speaking of Melpomene, daaaang. I’ve seen the film adaptation of CATS, and while it was the film adaptation of CATS, it definitely contained a non-zero amount of acting. And if Mel is from the stage version of canon, she ought to be even more in tune with her inner thespian! Let’s have some dancing or something, girl!

A new phrase you taught me: “made a moue,” which sounds like spontaneous cow generation, but oh well!

A couple minor errors:
In the author’s note, you have a sentence that never completes: “Matterhorn’s home continuum belongs to”

And there’s an extra space between “He” and “walked” in the sentence: “He walked over to the still-smoldering TARDIS, scrutinizing the wreck.”

Also, the Nightshade gets mentioned in a couple spots, but I have a feeling those were meant to say the Tiger Lily instead . . . maybe take a peek and double-check?

—a doctorlit is not a dog