Summary: Natalia spends time with Cecil, Carlos and Perez are detained by the dog park and the lizards grow too big for the ceiling.
"I do not think that this is wise, Dr Valdez."
"But it's one of the most scientifically intriguing areas in Night Vale."
"It has an enormous electrified fence around it and is emitting a static hum. It is a crime to even think about the place."
"So that should stop us from investigating it?" Carlos sounded hurt.
Perez sighed. "No. But we must proceed with caution. If even the residents of this town find it to be dangerous when they find a five-headed dragon a minor inconvenience, we must be extra careful."
Carlos nodded. That was certainly true. He'd been shaken up for a good few hours after he'd met the notorious Hiram McDaniels. He had been hiding from Secret Police near the lab and Carlos had seen him.
Not many things frightened Carlos. Spiders were one. Now he knew about their existence, spiderwolves too. It would also seem that being in the presence of a five headed dragon with no protection had been added to that list.
"What's the radiation level?"
"It is nearing 3500 Rodens."
That wasn't good. Carlos and Perez were stood around 20 feet from the entrance of the dog park and, if the laws of physics worked properly in Night Vale, they should be frying right now. They had placed instruments in the nearby bushes in order to obtain a wider scanning field.
All of a sudden, there was a soul-tearing sound blasted at them both from above the electrified fence.
"Ahh!" Perez screamed, clutching his ears. Carlos fell to the ground doing the same as the piercing noise continued.
Carlos' head was a blur. It was filled with the noise and he felt dizzy.
He blinked hard several times, swaying as an ominous voice asked in a sweet, sickly tone to bring his gold watch to the dog park and throw it in. That's preposterous, Carlos thought at the back of his mind. I don't own a gold watch.
Hm. The voice then said. Do you have any toddlers?
No! Carlos said back mentally before he became aware of Perez who was shouting to Carlos to run. It sounded faraway to Carlos, and altogether silly. Run? Why would he run?
His question was answered swiftly and he was brought back to reality by a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see a member of the Secret Police with 'Officer Joey' written on.
"Carlos-the-scientist, you are charged with breaching the law 34654-A: citizens are not allowed to study, look at or think about the dog park. I am detaining you and your scientist friend. You are, by Night Vale law, required to be re-educated."
~
"Oh, Cecil, it looks perfect!"
"Thank you, Ms Johnson."
Natalia's face was the picture of joy as she examined her new feline tattoo in the mirror. The cat's body swirled around her hip and was a beautiful colour.
"Who taught you to draw like this Cecil?"
"I don't know. I just have always loved drawing, I guess. I picked it up properly around the time the City Council abolished writing utensils. I was allowed to continue using them longer than most citizens as I was working towards my Soul Art badge at my scout pack."
"Soul Art?"
"Oh, yes. It wasn't a popular badge because soul-extracting for actual artwork can be pretty dangerous. But if you get it right, a small extraction from a soul can make the best paint. My best friend Earl offered me a little of his for my final piece. It was the best sea-green shade in the scout pack."
Natalia blinked for a moment before answering.
"Either way, it's beautiful, Cecil."
"It's no problem." He blushed slightly.
"Have you heard about this new strip mall they're opening? Apparently they're going to have a Pinkberry!"
"No way!" Natalia said with a grin. "Pinkberry was always a rare treat where I grew up. Slightly dodgy side of Chicago."
"There is a slightly dodgy side of Chicago?"
"South side." She said. "It's not terrible, just...not as fancy. Carlos said that too, when he went."
"May I ask....how is Carlos?"
"He's good, I guess. He's been busy a lot. We all have, but Carlos will go without sleep until he fixes a problem."
"Oh." Cecil said in a surprised tone. "Why does he do that?"
Natalia shrugged with a soft smile. "He loves his work. You of all people should understand that."
Cecil blushed again. "Well, I wouldn't say that..."
"Cecil, everyone who listens to your show can tell that you work hard and love your job."
"I....thank you, Ms Johnson."
"No thanks needed. By the way, can I ask you something?"
"Yes, of course."
"Have you ever seen these before?"
She pulled out her phone and showed Cecil a picture that she'd taken that morning of the lizard nest.
"Hmm...I haven't personally. I'd ask Old Woman Josie. She was a keen gardener when she was younger. Maybe she's seen some before?"
"Thanks. I'll go and ask her soon. Do you fancy a cup of coffee?"
"Actually, I'm afraid I have to get to the station. My show starts in an hour and station management have been tetchy recently about arrival times. Poor intern Mary felt their anger yesterday as she arrived late. The shaking fear has left her in a coma, so she got off lightly."
"Geez." Natalia said. "Well I'll see you soon. I'll try and persuade Carlos to drop by. He still hasn't seen Khoshekh, after all."
"Thank you again, Ms Johnson. Safe journey home."
"You too, Cecil. I'll be by my radio."
~
"Ugh........"
Carlos gently shook the sleeping Perez as he tried to make sense of their surroundings. Everything was pitch black and it smelt like algae, the only light provided by a dim red glow from an old lamp in the corner of the room. It illuminated a small space blocked off by a typical cell bar door.
"Edwardo, are you okay?"
"Yes. Where are we?"
"I don't know, but I would imagine the police station."
Carlos said, and sat up properly just as the radio in the corner of the room next to the lamp perked up as it always did at Cecil's show time.
"Rabbits are not what they appear to be. Welcome To Night Vale...."
Carlos turned the radio down slightly, moving towards the bars of the entrance. Whatever was beyond him was hidden by shadows, but he asked anyway.
"Who's there? Where are we?"
"You don't need to know the answer to either of these questions."
"Why are you keeping us here? We only tried to-"
"You broke the law. And you will be re-educated to be proper citizens. But first, we need to know things."
"What things?" Perez said beside Carlos.
"Things. About what you know."
A thought occurred to him.
"Why haven't we been asked questions yet then?" Carlos said quietly.
"Because Mr Palmer's show is on. No-one wants to ask things when it could be put off until after his show. He is the Voice, and even we must show respect."
With that, he disappeared back into the shadows.
"Wait!" Carlos said. But he was already gone.
"So now what?" Perez asked. "We try to escape?"
Carlos shook his head. "No. We remain calm. This so-called re-education has to involve some kind of suggestion. We must merely make them believe that we believe....well, whatever they want us to."
"We keep our minds and they believe they have succeeded....that is a good plan. What do we do until then?"
"Listen to the radio, I guess."
Carlos in the end found the show to be incredibly useful. It distracted him from his fear at least. Cecil's insults about Steve Carlsberg were shocking to say the least and the drawbridge issues made him smile ever so slightly. Only Night Vale.
Perez was twiddling his thumbs as the horoscopes came on.
"Say, what star sign are you, Edwardo?"
"Taurus, though only just." He said quietly. "You?"
"Taurus too."
"I wonder what it will say."
They turned it up.
"...Aries: you will feel a haunting sadness about times gone by. Today's smell is wheatgrass and toast."
Perez's eyebrows rose but said nothing.
"Taurus: today is your annual Crime Day. All Tauruses are exempt from laws today."
Carlos' mouth dropped open.
"Does that mean...?"
"Maybe."
"We'd have to ask them."
Carlos and Perez sat in silence thinking for a few minutes until the weather came on.
"Carlos-the-scientist!" The voice came from the cell door.
"Yes?"
"My paperwork says that you and your colleague are Taurus'....which means, regrettably, you are to be set free." He didn't sound pleased.
He stepped inside the cell and walked towards them menacingly holding up a baton high above his head. He swung it at Carlos and everything was rather painful and the floor seemed to rise to his face. The last thing Carlos remembered seeing was the scuff marks on the secret policeman's boots.
~
"They're too big for the ceiling, Ellie. We need to take them down." Natalia said.
"Where would we put them though?"
"We could put them in a tank? Replicate the temperature and moisture conditions, perhaps."
"Huh. Grea' call, Ms Johnson. I'll set one up now." Jeffries smiled and got up, brushing aside his lab coat from the table.
Natalia had been making some good calls on the lizard situation. She had managed to get them water and food that they would accept within a day of discovering them, and had kept a good record of their growth. Jeffries had to admit that she would make a great doctor someday.
"Hey, turn up the radio on the way, will you? I wanna catch the end of Cecil's show." Ellie said.
Jeffries twisted the knob on the radio to turn the volume up.
"...agree with me about old Steve Carlsberg, dear listeners. We just received a report from a reliable witness that two days ago, Steve was whisked into the back of a windowless van, only to reappear earlier this morning wearing thick head bandages and eating Styrofoam shaped like an ice cream cone...."
"Poor Steve! Did Cecil not mention that?"
"No. By the way, I forgot to show you what he did for me."
"Oh?"
She pulled back her top slightly to show Ellie the cat tattoo.
"Wait...Cecil did that?"
"Yeah! Incredible, isn't it? I told him I was thinking of getting a new one and he recommended a place, but when we got there he'd done a design and it was just so great I had to."
"It's beautiful. So many colours. Can I see closer?"
"Hang on just let me get down with the nest now-."
Natalia was interrupted by a loud knocking from the door.
"Hold that thought." Ellie ran to the door.
She opened it up to find a rather shaken up Carlos and Perez, Perez with a bloody lip and Carlos with a blossoming black eye.
"Hey." She stepped aside to let them in, before observing their faces more. "Are you okay?"
"We went to investigate the dog park." Perez said.
"You wha-why?"
"It was interesting and we were getting startling readings....until we got arrested." Carlos said sheepishly.
"Carlos! Edwardo! You should know better by now! We've been here 3 months!" She sighed. "Are you okay? Apart from the obvious looking-like-you've-been-three-rounds-with-Godzilla?"
Perez nodded. "Yes, but I have no wish to ever visit that police station again."
Carlos looked at him sadly, and Ellie could see the guilt emanating from him.
"Just come in and rest. Do you have your equipment?"
"It's still in a bush by the entrance to the dog park."
"I'll pick it up later."
"No!...I mean, I'll do it. I don't want any of you put in further danger. And you're not a Taurus, Ellie. You're not exempt from crime today."
"Oh, the horoscopes. We heard them on Cecil's show. According to them, Brent will win a car, I should invest all my money in a street game and Natalia will soon be having prophetic visions."
"Well the Sheriff's Secret Police let us off, so they may be accurate in Night Vale."
"May I get the medical kit?" Perez asked after a moment of awkward silence.
"Sure, sure. You need me to help you stitch your lip up?"
"I think I will be fine.....but thank you, Dr Green." Perez shuffled off.
"I shouldn't have put him at risk like that...." Carlos said ashamedly.
"Carlos...."
"It was my fault."
"Look, you're both okay." Natalia said, coming from the lab clutching a glass tank for the lizards. "And you know now next time to be more careful."
"I guess you're probably right."
"I am. And Dr Valdez?"
"Yes, Ms Johnson?"
"That black eye actually makes you look kinda badass."
Ellie burst into laughter and Carlos managed a smile. "Just don't let Cecil see you with it." Natalia said with a grin. "He'll despair on air for days."
"Don't, Natalia." Ellie said with a slight smirk herself.
"What? I'm just saying, the man is an artist as much with despairing words as he is ink."
She winked before carrying off the lizard tank to the crack by the ceiling. The scientists spent several hours fixing up the tank and transferring the five small lizards to it. Natalia had given them all tiny leg tags too so they could be identified when measuring their body weight etc.
The scientists had also named one each, there being five lizards and five scientists. Carlos had named his Icarus, Brent had named his Gordon, Edwardo had named his Michaela, Natalia had named hers Trixy and Ellie had named hers Bruce.
The lizards, whilst not always interesting scientifically, were still a source of entertainment for the group. They were growing fast, and Carlos had a feeling that they were going to outgrow the tank. He hoped it wouldn't be too soon.
He passed a mirror and stared at his black eye.
"Natalia was righ', Carlos." Jeffries said beside him.
"Hm?"
"That great big bruisin' eye o' yours is pretty 'badass' as Ms Johnson put it."
Carlos chuckled slightly, which ended up doing him no favours in the end, as it hurt his slightly swelling face.
He would sleep well tonight.