A drop here, a drop there (a one-shots/snippet book)

Where he belongs (WtNV)

There is also the memory problems of the more personal nature. The ones that had Carlos standing in the middle of his own lab staring at his surroundings that was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, feeling lost and maybe even afraid. First it was confusion, followed by panic once he realized the presence of the holes in his memory. He buried himself in his work and freaked out over those impossibilities, instead of letting himself get swallowed up in the despair of questioning all that he ever knew about himself.

Instead he despaired over questioning all that he ever knew about the world and the rules of physics. Which... wasn't much better as science was his life's work and this town was constantly putting it into question, but it was at least less painfully personal and more of science which he loved.

And then Carlos almost died. And he realized the things he missed and pushed away in his mad attempts to distract himself from his own panic, and in consequence, the things he almost lost.

He cried for him. Cecil. He cried when he thought Carlos had died, despite Carlos' attempts to keep their relationship strictly professional. And so Carlos decided to take that step, and he felt infinitely more deserving of Cecil calling him brave.

Cecil became his anchor, his rock in this mess of a reality. His partner, his companion, his best friend. And he had almost never got that, never got to experience this wonderful thing, if Carlos had gotten himself killed.

Eventually he started to get used to Night Vale. What was once was frightening wasn't so anymore, and he smiled and regained his enthusiasm for science. Doing science because learning and discovering about the world, this town, was what he wanted to do, not because he'd rather do that than think about his personal problems.

Memory is a tricky thing, especially in Night Vale, and Carlos accepted that now. He accepted that he remembered he had parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, but couldn't remember their names or their faces. He accepted that he remembered a few painful things from his past, but sometimes specific scientific names would be out of his reach.

The last one took a while to get used to, but as long as he can still do his research, he was okay with having trouble explaining his science work to other people. Besides, people seemed to somewhat understand him better now than when he'd used "overly complicated" scientific terms before he arrived in Night Vale.

(Why non-scientists tended to get that glazed look in their eyes when he gets into a tangent, he never did understand. Science is so interesting!)

But while Carlos had a long long time to get used to Night Vale, the same couldn't be said about the scientists he currently had in his lab. They introduced themselves as scientists from The University of What It Is, which is apparently his former place of employment. And they are, apparently, his former co-workers or students.

At their head was a woman with silver hair, a respectable old woman with a severe face and a posture that was almost regal in its confidence. She had stared at him with wide eyes the first time they saw each other, her gaze drifting from his face, his hair, the premature white at his temple, the rest of his body. And then she said,

"Dr. Carlos Robles?"

And Carlos blinked, feeling odd at hearing his last name after so many years. His last name had slipped his mind some time in his second year (it didn't help that people in Night Vale seemed to think of "Carlos the Scientist" as his real name no matter how much he reminded them otherwise), but hearing it again now, he recognized it to be his. "Yes. Do I know you?"

"You don't recognize me? It's Dr. Sylvia Kayali. Why do look like you barely aged?"

And once they explained that he had, apparently, been out of contact for decades, and that Dr. Kayali was once only a few years older than himself before he left for Night Vale, he explained in turn that time is just weird in Night Vale. He had noticed, long ago, that time in the outside world started to move faster than time in Night Vale, but with everything that happened after so long, he hadn't bothered to keep track.

He ran a hand through his hair, feeling nervous as they walked around to look at the various experiments and machines. He had given his usual team of scientists the day off today after yesterday's...incident, so the lab was largely empty except for Carlos.

past a/n: Can't continue, ran out of juice. I wanted for the interloper scientists to come to the conclusion that something in town was manipulating/influencing Carlos, and that Carlos isn't thinking well so his decision to stay can't be trusted. So they force him to come with them, and Cecil rouses the town to rescue him. And it's made clear that Carlos belongs with Night Vale, and the interloper scientists retreat with uneasy resignation.

But... I can't continue writing.

P.S. The thing about Carlos using science as a way to distract himself from his faulty memory, that's just a possible interpretation. It's obviously not canon.