Earl Harlan was not upset about Carlos' return to Night Vale. He was not concerned about losing Cecil to Carlos. And the reason Cecil hadn't called him back yet was simply because he was busy, not because he regretted the nights they'd spent together. Earl was not threatened by Carlos. In fact the threat Carlos possessed to his relationship with Cecil was as existent as angles, which is to say not at all. Angels did not exist, and neither did the chance that Earl would lose Cecil to a dorky scientist.
Despite this irrefutable logic, Earl felt the need to pretend the pig he was currently slaughtering was named Carlos. This didn't make him feel any better, not that he would have ever admitted to being upset in the first place, but it took significantly less time to kill the pig than was usual. Earl then killed a second pig, which he also decided should be named Carlos, and this time he went slower, giving the pig a more painful and drawn out death.
Even after all the slaughter Earl felt nervous, and he checked his phone again to see if Cecil had texted back yet, but no such luck. He thought about killing another pig, but he doubted it would make him feel better. Unless he put the pig in a lab coat and glasses, and it walked on two legs and carried various ad hoc intentions around at all times. Killing that pig might make him feel better.
Earl returned to the kitchen with the two pigs, and found that he'd missed the beginning of Cecil's show while he was outside. He felt slightly guilty, but he hadn't missed too much so he supposed it would be okay. Cecil was just finishing up traffic, and was now shifting to an important announcement from station management.
"You'll never believe this listeners," Cecil was saying, "In fact I'm not sure I believe it myself, but the growling from station management's office was quite clear according to Intern Molly. Who quite frankly, should be looking for better news to deliver, as she has yet to do a single positive thing for this station. But back to the announcement."
XoXoXoXoX
House hunting was proving to be more difficult than Kevin had anticipated. For some reason every relator he'd tried to meet with had run away screaming the moment they saw him. Kevin couldn't imagine why though, he'd only smiled at them. He wasn't even covered in blood anymore, because Carlos had deemed it to be unseemly. People in Night Vale were so odd.
However while he was out he had decided to explore Night Vale a bit, and he was learning some very interesting things about his new home. For starters, people in Night Vale held grudges. Kevin had been on the receiving of everything from glares to curses to small rocks, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep his good mood.
He had managed to find a secluded spot in Mission Grove Park though, and it was nice to be able to just sit on a bench and relax for a bit. Night Vale was very pretty, even if the people who lived there were rude beyond comparison. Kevin didn't want to go back to lab without having accomplished anything, but it was now obvious to him that he wouldn't be able to make any sort of progress on their living arrangements.
Kevin sighed and tried to think of the various job skills he had, but he'd never done anything outside of radio, and Cecil practically owned the radio. Although when he thought about it, Night Vale Community Radio did have multiple recording booths. And there were some things that Cecil's show didn't cover, and Kevin was willing to bet that science had just made that list; and while station management was terrifying beyond all belief, it was community radio, and community radio could be controlled by the leader of the community. Kevin decided it was time he visited Night Vale's illustrious leader, Dana Cardinal. After all, she'd helped him before, why not help him now?
XoXoXoXoX
"It would seem Night Vale Community Radio is going to be adding a new radio show to its list of programs," Cecil said, "This new show was requested by Mayor Cardinal, and will be following the experiments and discoveries made by Carlos and his team of scientists. It will also be hosted by one of Night Vale's newest residents, Kevin Free, who I'm sure you all remember from when Strex Corp tried to take over our little town and destroy our entire way of life. For those of you wondering why he's in Night Vale now, you can thank our Mayor for that too, as she helped to convince the Sheriff's Secret Police that keeping him in town was the worst punishment he could be given for his crimes."
Dana sighed, she knew Cecil wouldn't be happy about Kevin's knew job, but she'd been hoping he would be a bit more professional about it. Or at least not place all the blame for it on her. Hopefully the SSP would release a statement about Kevin's trial soon, she'd hate to leave the matter in the hands of Pamela Winchell.
Dana thought back to when Kevin had come to her office, he hadn't been making much sense at first. He was going on and on about radio monopolies and "the people's right to know", it took her ten minutes to get him to quit ranting long enough to actually explain why'd come to her. Dana thought it was a great idea, it would give Kevin a way to occupy his time as well allow Carlos to share his discoveries with the town without talking to Cecil. Kevin had seemed surprised that she so readily agreed to his proposal, but once he moved past that initial surprise he was ecstatic.
Dana was glad she was able to make at least one person happy, her short term as mayor wasn't going nearly so well as she'd hoped it would. The city council disapproved of nearly all her polices, and she was hardly able to get anything done because of all their vetoes. She looked over her latest proposal, wondering how they'd react to it. The idea was to make cheating illegal, because it hurt citizens and nearly cost them Carlos, who had solved more problems than Night Vale had even known it had. There was no traditions that might interfere with the law, and there would be no punishments for infractions committed before a certain period, which would allow everyone time to pick a relationship. There were also provisions for cases of polyamory, open relationships, multiple heads and/or personalities, and mind control. She hoped they would pass it, or at least not try to use the hooded figures to intimidate her again.
Dana sighed, then placed the papers in the pick-up bin for the council. Then she turned to the monumental amounts of paperwork she still needed to fill out. She sighed again, being mayor was incredibly difficult.
