Having a Comic Con in Night Vale had been a very bad idea. Of course, Steve Carlsberg had been saying for months that something like this was bound to happen, but nobody had listened to him (as usual) because everyone knew that he was just an idiot. As it was, he was the only one unaffected by this strange turn of events.
Carlos had been the one to bring news of the event to Cecil.
"What's a Comic Con?" Cecil had asked, leaning back in his chair at the studio.
"It's an event where fans of various different comics and other things like shows come together, dress up as their favourite characters, and talk about their fandoms. I went to a few when I was younger. It's fun, Cecil," Carlos had explained to him.
He'd explained more later, after the radio show had wrapped up for the night and moved onto the sound of cows mooing.
The two met at Carlos' apartment later where, after the usual exchange of kisses and chatter, they watched videos of other Comic Cons while sharing a bowl of Doritos.
"So people just dress up like that?" Cecil asked. Carlos nodded.
"One year I went as Bruce Banner. That was fun," the scientist recalled.
"And who will you go as this year?" Cecil wondered.
"I haven't really thought about it, actually," Carlos admitted. "Will we go as a couple, though? I've always wanted to."
"Of course," Cecil replied immediately with a grin. "Do our characters have to be a couple in the comic or show, though?"
"I don't think so," Carlos figured. "You choose someone to go as and I'll choose someone. Then we can work on getting our costumes together."
And so, the next day on his show, Cecil told the whole town that he and Carlos would be attending Comic Con and that they all should as well. He didn't announce who he was going as, though- he'd tell Carlos first before he told the town, and he still hadn't decided.
By the time his show finished that night, however, Cecil knew exactly who he wanted to cosplay as. Carlos had helpfully informed him, with the help of the videos and photos, that he didn't have to even be the same skin colour, height, weight, or gender as his character.
"Trixie? You want to cosplay as a character from a children's TV show?" Carlos asked.
"Well, who are you going as, smart guy?" Cecil pouted, slightly hurt at Carlos' reaction to his decision.
"The Master," Carlos replied, smiling as he watched Cecil's reaction to this.
"You mean that guy from that show you were watching last time I stayed over?" Cecil asked, his face still slightly red from hearing Carlos refer to himself as a 'master'.
"Well, yeah. I was going to go as the Doctor but everyone goes as him," Carlos reasoned.
"So the Master and Trixie," Cecil stated, nodding at the sound of that. "We'd better start getting our costumes ready, then. It's Friday now and the Comic Con is on next Tuesday."
Over the weekend, the two of them barely left Cecil's house. They'd originally intended to get ready at Carlos' apartment, but it was too small to house all of their clothes, body paint, and accessories.
When Comic Con finally arrived, it did so in a large building that had appeared overnight. Cecil fought the urge to scratch at his itchy white wig and instead watched Carlos as he strode into the building. He was right- there were a lot of people cosplaying various versions of the Doctor. There were also, to his surprise, a few Masters, and a very small amount of people had dressed as characters from the show he was from.
"Trixie!" a female voice cried, and a purple-clad woman leapt in front of Cecil. "How dare you set hoof back in my town." She stomped her feet and Cecil bit back a laugh at this display.
"Have you forgotten that the great and powerful Trixie has apologised and that you have forgiven her?" Cecil replied, not even trying to mimic the unicorn's voice.
"I, uh... haven't got up to that part yet," the girl admitted sheepishly. "I only watched the first episode with Trixie in it."
"He watched all three seasons again and the movie and made me watch them with him," Carlos informed the girl.
"And then he made me watch that particular season finale several times," Cecil recounted. "He cried the first time."
"I did not," Carlos blushed. Cecil laughed and took his hand as the two continued their walk through the Con. Cecil was only approached by a few more Twilights, some of whom wanted to pose with him for photos. And then there were the Doctors who either wanted to kiss or kill Carlos. While neither agreed to any kisses, they did oblige a few hugs and posed for photos when asked.
The Con ended when the sun went down. There was no winding down, no slow trickling away of people, no warning. The building housing the Comic Con was just there one minute and gone the next.
"What was that?" Carlos asked, frowning around at the confused Con-goers around him.
"I thought you stopped questioning the strange happenings here," Cecil reminded him, though he was slightly confused too. His skin felt like it was covered with fur, and the headband with ears that he'd been wearing all day seemed to have vanished. He lifted a hand and touched first one, then two furry blue pony ears. They were undoubtedly his.
Carlos pressed a hand to his chest, confused at this peculiar drumming sound that he was hearing.
"I have two hearts," he whispered, and then repeated it louder. "Cecil, how can I have two hearts? And why can I hear the drumming?"
"I don't know," Cecil shrugged, turning to look at him. "You don't look any different." But now Carlos was staring at him. "Do I look different?"
"You're covered in fine blue fur," Carlos explained, reverting to his 'scientist' voice that he used when something freaked him out. "The ears that were on your headband are real ears now, your real ones have disappeared. The tail that you were wearing on a belt is a real tail now, and the horn on a band around your head is just a horn now. Plus I'm pretty sure your wig is your hair now."
"So I look like Trixie," Cecil clarified. He was glad that he still had his voice, at least.
"Yes," Carlos nodded. "Do I look like the Master now?"
"You do," Cecil confirmed. "Now, personally I think this is pretty neat, but you're probably freaking out and want to find a solution to this."
"And how it happened," Carlos agreed. He turned and began to walk back the way they'd come. Before, all of the Weeping Angels, Cybermen, Daleks, demons, and other monsters had been interesting. Now, they were just terrifying. He began to run, gripping tight to Cecil's blue hand.
Right at what had been the entrance to the building were two Weeping Angels. Both had their hands over their eyes in the classic weeping pose, as they'd looked ever since the Con had started.
"Cecil, don't blink. Keep your eyes on the angels," Carlos told him as they walked out back-to-back between the angels.
"Oh, I think I saw that episode once before, you were watching it," Cecil replied, still cheery as ever despite the obvious danger. "If we blink, we're dead. Right?"
"Right," Carlos replied grimly, his two hearts pounding in panic. It was distinctly unsettling to have two hearts rather than one. Hopefully this was only temporary.
Somehow, they made it away from the Con without anything too strange happening. As soon as they stepped into Carlos' lab, the blue colour of Cecil's skin faded and Carlos' two hearts returned to being just one heart. The drumming, too, was gone.
"Well, that seems to have fixed it," Cecil declared cheerily, taking off the itchy wig as well as his accessories.
"I don't know how the Master can live with that drumming," Carlos shuddered. "I can see why he was so crazy, though."
"Are all Comic Cons like that, Carlos?" the radio host wondered.
"No," Carlos replied with a shaky smile. "They most certainly are not like that." He laughed, then, and hugged Cecil close to him. They, at least, had managed to get out alive.
"Carlos and his team of scientists are still trying to figure out just what made every cosplayer become their cosplay. If your loved one cosplayed as a Weeping Angel, I am sorry but they are most likely dead. A number were found frozen. And if your loved one is missing with no remains found, they were most likely sent back in time by one of the angels. Due to the massacre that resulted from this Comic Con, the Council has decreed that there will not be another Con in Night Vale. In financial news..."
Carlos smiled as he listened to his boyfriend tell the town of the terrible day that had occurred only two days ago. It had been terrible, that was for sure, but at least he'd managed to take his boyfriend to something 'normal' until it turned abnormal.