"Carlos. Carlos wake up. Carlos there is a giant glowing cloud off the west coast. CARLOS."
the daylight filtered in slow, and Carlos woke up by degrees. Joel's sharp features were made even sharper in clarity, as he was about a foot away from Carlos's face.
"..whh-?"
There was a knock on the door. Joel faded from the half moon of Carlos's barely waking vision. He returned accompanied by the smell of coffee.
"someone left coffee at the door. It's...red...but other then that it seems pretty normal."
Carlos looked down at the coffee. It wasn't quite a blood red, more of the color of red velvet cake. He takes a slow, experimental sip. Red velvet coffee. Huh.
He doesn't have much time to consider this, however, as Joel had retreated into the blur of the other side of the room and seemed to be throwing things. Then it registered.
"Glowing cloud…?"
"It's small but getting bigger. John peters- you know, the farmer? The one that stocks the grocery?- said it's whistling."
"Whistling."
"Yes."
"Maybe it's high pitched thunder distortion… something in the chemical makeup affecting density and the transmission of sound.." Carlos was half out of bed by the time he finished his sentence, moving to the dresser. He stopped, looking down at his wardrobe with the drawer open.
"...Temperature and climatic conditions on the beach?"
Joel gave him a strange look.
"humidity in the 80 percentile range. Temperatures in the high 90s. Carlos, it's july on the equator."
"...so no suits."
"Carlos. Shorts and a tshirt."
"But professionalism-"
"No one will be out at the beach when we reach it."
"but-"
"Do you need to borrow my clothes?"
"…."
Carlos reached the beach in borrowed shorts and a print Tshirt in Joel's Jurassic park Jeep Rangler. He had resisted asking how much the car cost or how it'd made it to the island. His labcoat flapped in the breeze behind him as they roared along the coast towards the fuzzy shape. Carlos had forgotten his glasses. He was clutching a clipboard.
"Current color and shift time?"
"violet, heading towards red. Fully changed in 2.3 seconds. Video's recording. The time is 11:56 am, the air temperature is 96.3 degrees and the humidity is 78.76% and climbing the closer we get to the cloud. The geiger counter is going crazy. High radiation area."
Carlos wrote furiously with a university approved mechanical pencil that appeared to be carved out of bone. It didn't matter. He'd chemically test it later- right now- the cloud. It was moving ashore, slowly enough, but they were struggling to find a high enough elevation on the beach to take readings with the thing moving.
"The density looks a lot higher then it should be- Carlos I don't like this- Carlos what are you-"
Carlos was standing in his seat as they climbed a dune, holding a metal rod upwards." The whistling was getting louder the closer they got.
"Getting a reading!"
"CARLOS-"
THUD
Carlos woke up, head pounding. His face felt raw, like something rough and heavy had slammed into him. He touched his face and pulled his hand back. Was that fur?
He was alone. The radio was playing from the side table, and Carlos decided to just lay down and listen.
Cecil's voice was sweet as always as he talked about the cloud..raining dead animals. Oh god. Carlos groaned, suddenly vividly aware of why he was in the- he looked around- ER. He was in the goddamn ER. With fur and blood on his face.
This was a strange school.
He looked up as a door opened. It was Joel, grinning.
"We have a new lab member Carlos. They've read your work and were very impressed. So I guess you're in charge."
Carlos was a little hazy.
"How long have I been out?"
"Oh, couple hours."
"What happened to the-"
"HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD. AND NOW I BRING YOU, SERVANTS OF THE CLOUD-"
Carlos went rigid, and everything went black and white and blue and violet and- vanilla….?
He had no memory of anything since he woke up. He had fur and blood on his face. Thankfully, he still had his readings.
"I think we should go out tonight."
Carlos looked up from chemical testing a bottled sample Joel had managed to get from the cloud. It was yelling, furious, it's tiny high pitched voice demanding justice, justice and bloodshed.
"We have to go out. We don't have any food in the room."
Joel kept a straight face, with some effort.
"Some people go out and find alcohol and meet people, Carlos."
"Oh. That." he looked back down at his clipboard and radiation tested the angry cloud.
"Not interested."
"Oh come on Carlos-"
"Absolutely not interested."
"Cecil goes out."
Carlos's non-pen pauses, but he doesn't look up. He's trying to be nonchalant.
"How do you know that? And that's awfully vague." comforted, he starts writing again.
"He goes to the Sigma Epsilon, or just "See" fraternity every weekend. He's not a member but apparently he gets along really well with everyone there."
Carlos's hand stopped moving again, trying to think of a reason to refuse.
"You said yourself we should get more data." skritch goes the bone pen.
Joel tried to look innocent.
"We can meet new people. People who are into science."
"Didn't you say we already had a new person?"
"She's the secretary at See. You can meet her."
"didn't you say it was a frat?"
"Nightvale doesn't believe in concepts like binding gender obligations."
"Oh."
Carlos continues, having settled himself.
"You provide- what's it called- "pregame" and I'll think about it."
Two hours later Carlos is a little bit past tipsy, holding a bottle of tequila in one hand and a flask in the other. He's trying to convince Joel to hold a funnel steady as he pours, but they're both a little splashed by the time the flask is full. It's a university flask- the cheerful slogan involving what you should do if you see something printed on it. Carlos thinks that's a lot funnier then he should. Half of the spills were from giggles. Joel, infinitely patient, guides Carlos out past josie and some rather dissaproving looking beings with wings and into the street. The Fraternity takes a while to reach, probably less from actual distance and more from loss of orientation. Carlos, who Joel is beginning to realize has never ACTUALLY been drunk before, is excitedly analyzing the blur of motor function and reaction speed. Being as none of that is even slightly about dinosaurs, Joel's grateful when they find the row of houses and the river of music drowns out the excitement. But Carlos quiets on his own when they approach the See house- an actually pretty nice log cabin with a balcony. Joel has a strong suspicion it wasn't entirely built by the school or the town. Especially since there's an axe and a pile of wood to the side. Music is spilling out into the street, the door open. There's a person standing in the doorway, with a pixie cut and blue hair.
"Joel! Is this the scientist?"
"Hey Fey. Yeah. He's a little drunk."
"Hello Fey." Carlos straightens, nervous enough to worry about his actions, and offers a hand. Fey takes it as she walks down the stone path to them.
"Pleasure. I'm Fey." Carlos notes somewhat foggily that the hand is cold, like metal. Odd.
"Have you met Cecil? I think he'd love you. He's very into science." Fey is still talking. Carlos is having a little bit of trouble focusing, but he notes that he feels pleasantly warm. Maybe that's why Fey's hand is so cold?
"Oh yes, I have. I met him on the beach outside Big Rico's. He was crying. Do you know why he was crying? It kind of upset me." Carlos is half certain there are things he is saying that he didn't really mean to, but he really does want the answers. Fey looks half chagrined and half pleased.
"Oh… you might want to ask him about that yourself. I don't know if he'd really want me talking about it."
Joel whispers to Carlos- try asking someone drunker.
Carlos feels like he could object to that. It's rude to press people for information they don't really want to disclose. But then again, if it's not public information no one else will know. And he could just ask Cecil. But it might upset Cecil. He really didn't want to upset Cecil. Fey interrupts his thoughts by offering a hand, palm up.
"You want to dance?"
Carlos looks up, and says very somberly-
"I must refuse, my father warned me that a lot of grinding occurs at college parties and I don't want to get that close to anyone."
Joel was laughing, for some reason.
"I'm Ace. You have nothing to fear from me. Besides-" Fey smiles.
"This isn't that kind of place."
"Oh. Well, I'm an awful dancer, but if you like?" When fey didn't lower her hand he took it, and they walked in through a crowd- not so thick it was uncomfortable- but definitely a party.
The first song came on, a boyband blare. Carlos had already forgotten why he was here as he jumped up and down and attempted something like dancing. The music was coming through the floor, and Fey was laughing and showing him a few moves he could do drunk.
You look so perfect standing there in my American apparel underwear, and I know now, that i'm so down-
He picked up the words after a couple verses, and after a free flow swigs of the flask he had an arm around Fey. They were laughing, Fey holding up an arm to wave it in time to the music. Joel joined them at some point, and they managed a group cluster of terrible dancing. Carlos was actually having a lot of fun. He was surprised- he didn't think he could enjoy anything but perfect experiments and communicating about his passions. Granted, he'd always loved talking to different people about their interests. Maybe he was a people person after all. But...new things. Like the fact that he really liked panic at the disco. But not quite as much as Cecil, who, Carlos had just become aware, was standing on a table singing. Not just singing- He was performing the song. It was also worth noting that he was far drunker then Carlos was, evidenced by what happened next. He was moving the mike stand like a pro, and when he turned he looked straight at Carlos. Those eyes burned into his.
Are you worth your weight in gold?
Cause you're behind my eyelids when I'm all alone
Hey, stranger, I want you to catch me like a cold.
Carlos flushed. He was leaned against the wall, temporarily out of steam.
I led the revolution in my bedroom and I set all the zippers free.
We said, "No more war, no more clothes!
Give me peace…
Cecil looked dead at Carlos with a look that was almost divine
Oh kiss me-
The way Cecil was moving was making Carlos a little dizzy. He was flushing, but when he returned the look Cecil had given him the singer's knees nearly gave out.
Oh I'd confess,
I'd confess in a room where I'm blessed.
But he didn't come and speak to me,
Cecil put a hand over his heart, and pulled off his midnight blue sequin vest. His white shirt was sticking to him in a way that definitely had Carlos's attention.
Or put my heart at ease-
And I believe that half the time
I am a wolf among the sheep
Gnawing at the wool over my eyes.
Cecil was quite the dancer, and the rest of the frat was roaring along. Fey and Joel were cheering along, but Carlos was too burned out to even react. He was- he was a lot of things. What had his papa told him about tequila? He vowed to forget it and took another swig. Things were starting to blur now. Cecil finished the song to a roar of applause and approached the group. He put his hand on Fey's shoulder and leaned closer to Carlos.
"Helllo. I was wondering if you'd like to dance. Maybe. With me."
Carlos took Cecil's hand before he could change his mind. His face was red, but half of this place was same-sex dance parners, and the rest were a little uncertain and he wasn't too concerned about judgment. He was more concerned about Cecil. God, everything about Cecil. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he'd pass that line and not have to think about it tomorrow. In any case- he wanted to dance with Cecil, so he would. It was just a dance.
Well, it was more then a dance. Mostly because Cecil could foxtrot. Even drunk. Carlos wasn't so much dancing as being lifted and spun and actually he loved it, because Cecil was overdramatic and exaggerated his movements to every part of the song. It was easy to dance with Cecil- even if he didn't know what styles he was using, even when he dropped Carlos's hand to do a few step maneuver by himself. He just appreciated being able to watch- Cecil was so vibrant in galaxy leggings and a long white top with a black swirling message- I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
He was almost disappointed when the music changed to something slower. But he found an exhausted Cecil collapsing into his arms, so not disappointed, even if he did nearly fall over. It was getting late. He should go home. He should take Cecil home. But-
He stared at Cecil. Looked him over. No bag. Nearly asleep on his shoulder, swaying slow.
Things were going together slow, but he looked at fey with a questioning expression, noting as he looked over that Joel was getting very cozy with a cocoa skinned "NVCR Intern" at least according to her shirt. Huh. He probably wouldn't be home tonight.
Fey was mouthing something. He concentrated.
Cecil won't go home.
What?
Fey made a kind of desperate facial expression. Carlos turned his attention to the drunk and cuddly radio host.
"Hey, Cecil?"
"Yes, perfect Carlos?" Carlos's throat went dry and he as he struggled to say something. He was sobering up, he realized. He hadn't had anything since before the first song.
"Where do you live?"
"The couch in the basement on weeekkeends, and in the break room at the statiiiion."
Carlos made his decision very firmly. He knew that at minimum, Josie would loan out the dorm couches- which were plush and more comfortable then even the dorm beds- but tonight maybe he oughta just take him straight back. It made some kind of fuzzy sense. You shouldn't leave drunk people alone, even on nice couches. So Cecil could just stay a night in the taurus room and they could ensure that no one choked on their own vomit or died of alcohol poisoning.
"Cecil, do you wanna go home with me?"
Cecil looked up at him, mouth a perfect O of shock.
"Isn't that a little forward?"
Carlos blushed furiously.
"NO! Just to sleep, you're drunk and I'm drunk and I don't wanna be alone if I start getting sick and I don't want you to be if you are. It's the most scientific solution."
"Of course." did Cecil look disappointed? No of course he didn't. He appreciated science.
They made it back to the room without mishap, and once in it they were settled easily.
Well, after Cecil vomited on Carlos.
When Carlos returned from the shower he found Cecil very asleep in his bed, clearly pressed up against the wall to make room- his body and arm an accepting curve. Carlos smiled and climbed in, falling asleep quickly- but not too quickly to appreciate the feeling of Cecil's body just barely tucked up against his.