I like the idea that Carlos is just as weird as Cecil in his own way, only it’s less noticeable because of Night Vale’s utter…Night Vale-ness. Contains mild spoilers for Episode 27: First Date.
Also at AO3, for those who prefer things there.
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Carlos normally gets his produce from the Night Vale Green Market Co-Op, but they still haven’t hosed down the blood from last Sunday’s incident and he figures he’ll stick with the Ralph’s until the numbers on his Geiger counter are a little more normal. His basket is nearly full and he’s trying not to be too obvious about inspecting the cantaloupe for teeth and hair when the back of his neck prickles. Carefully, Carlos turns to see what’s behind him.
It’s…well. Huh.
The being shifting from foot to foot in front of the organic produce is tall, painfully and mind-bogglingly tall, with gleaming blue-black skin and three sets of wings and a head that blurs from human to bovine to avian to human again. Incongruously, it’s also wearing a faded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles t-shirt and battered Chuck Taylors, but in spite of its clothing Carlos knows, deep in his gut and deeper in his heart, that the creature’s an angel.
Once, such a realization would’ve sent him scrambling in a blind panic to his car, where he’d huddle on the floor of the backseat and babble notes into his phone and wait until the parking lot was empty before he’d dare emerge again. Now, he just idly wonders if the wings are cosmetic or if the angel actually uses them to fly. They seem far too tiny for all that there are six of them, and the angel is really quite tall.
Carlos gently sets the cantaloupe he’d been holding into his red plastic basket and says, “Hi.”
“Sorry to bother you,” the angel says. Its voice is deep and musical, and makes the hair on Carlos’ arms stand on end. “Are you Cecil’s scientist?”
Carlos smiles at the phrasing. “I suppose I am, yeah. Can I help you with something?”
All seven feet and however many inches of the angel curve down into Carlos’ space like a flower bending towards the sun. Its eyes are wide and strange; their color is the hot, pale blue of the desert sky at midday. “Please,” the angel says. Beautiful and terrifying, painfully polite. “Can you tell me if I’m real?”
“I…” Carlos blinks, puzzled. “Sorry, what?”
Tags:
#Welcome to Night Vale #fanfic #perfection #well look what a lovely thing we have here
Brinens and Things 