Mr. Scientist (Cecilos)

Microphone

Carlos informs me about the sky and everything that's going on with it and I must say, this doesn't happen often. I suggest it may be the movement of the earth in orbit around the sun and it may be moving farther and then closer, with the sun losing mass but also accretes mass. Or the ending of the world which we can all expect to be dark. Very dark. But how would I know? I don't really understand all that goes on outside of Night Vale. Most but not all.

"There could be another object in space with more gravitational pull that we don't know about," I suggest. "but I don't know. It could seem likely."

"Possibly," he says. "but with everything there could be a million possibilities. Billions. Trillions. A mol. It's life and it's all science. But why this?"

"I haven't seen this happen in forever. Forever as in, when I was a child, forever." I say.

"Hm. I'll do some research tomorrow morning. I know everyone else in the lab will notice this change."

"Carlos...how do you keep track of time?" I ask. "The sun is weird, the clocks aren't real. How do you do it?"

"A stopwatch of course. It alerts me every 8 hours. In five hours it would beep again, so it's 3 pm." He explains.

"That's neat!" I say then instantly cringing. He chuckles.

"I guess so. I thought I would need to do this ever since I did the experiment with the clocks." We pass the ice cream shop and I grab Carlos' hand and pull him in.

"I love this place so much. It has always been one of my favourite places to go." I say walking into the colourful ice cream parlour. The walls are icy blue and the booths are fire red. The front counter is sea foam green and about four people occupy the booths, all keeping their heads as close to their ice cream bowls and cones as possible, making hissing sounds as we walk past them to get to the front counter. There are twenty ice cream choices. Chocolate , mint chocolate chip, and vanilla are the top sellers, leaving the other ice creams that aren't selling much being eaten by the radioactive ice mice that live under the counter.

Carlos spots a purple glowing one and tries to catch it. Knowing oh-so-perfect Carlos, he'd want it for test experiments.

"Dearest Carlos, will you please get off the floor?" I ask. "It's dangerous to be down there. The invisible ice mice that live under the counter could get you. I've been bitten by them too many times to remember that." Carlos gets off the floor and dusts himself off.

"It sure is dirty." he says.

"Not as much as it usually is. The radioactive ice mice that live under the counter get with the dust bunnies and mess with them so they drag dust around. It's normal." The worker has been blankly staring at me for minutes now, waiting for me to request my ice cream. "Oh, um, two scoops vanilla in a waffle cone and yes to the spoon." Carlos looks confused with everything so I ask him if he wants one of the flavours that haven't been contaminated. He says to order for him so I get him the same thing except with mint chocolate chip ice cream, then I pay. We leave and go back to our stroll. It is now 4PM and it is pitch black darkness.

There is a faint glow coming from my tattoos to light the way and Carlos just stares at them as they glow and move around.

"Is there something wrong perfect Carlos?" I catch him staring.

"No no, it's just--"

"My tattoos. I know they can do much more. Don't be so surprised with everything, dear Carlos. I know everything here is much different from what you know outside of the town, but expect the unexpected or something's going to get you." I take a scoop of my ice cream with the spoon and consume it.

Carlos eats his ice cream silently for the next few minutes. As he walks his curls bounce up and down against his broad shoulders and I just love it. I continue talking about the town and what he should expect and what to do and what not to do or it'll get you brutally killed.