LINKDING

<blockquote>But Cecil is never passive-aggressive. Cecil is never confusing. Cecil says exactly what he means exactly when it occurs to him—which is usually while he’s speaking on public radio. When Cecil fell in love with Carlos, he declared it immediately, and Carlos never had to go through the agonizing process of trying to puzzle out his true feelings through complex layers of communication and unreliable body language and words that never mean quite what they say.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The video, when they Skype, is clearer, though the sound is delayed on Carlos's side. Or rather, the video is premature; at Carlos's best estimate, he receives the visual transmissions ten seconds before they're sent. He's getting used to seeing Cecil's expressions in reaction to what he's just about to say.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Carlos is really terrible at taking care of himself. Fortunately, Cecil is happy to do it for him.</blockquote> ➤ or: cecil the service top

<blockquote>When Carlos invented a spacetime machine and took off into the wild, unexplored territory of the future, this isn't quite what he was hoping for.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A typical PTA meeting in Night Vale. You know, glow cloud possession, picking senior prom decorations, fistfights over grammar, the usual.</blockquote> ➤author's notes: <blockquote>An anon over on tumblr has been encouraging my hate-shipping tendencies, which honestly isn't very difficult to do. This fic fulfills the fistfights and anger management squares on my idfic bingo. (Actual anger management does not take place - it's more like just anger. But it is my id, ok.)</blockquote>

<blockquote>Carlos is absolutely objective. It’s just that it’s quite hard to stay objective when you’ve got Hooded Figures living in your kitchen, radio news reporters stalking you with somewhat dubious baked goods, and everything is so soaked with chemicals, radiation and dark magic that half the time your food disparages your cookery skills while you’re trying to make dinner.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Maybe in Night Vale, where everything else works a little bit wrong, love works a little wrong too. Maybe in Night Vale, where time occasionally stands on end and gravity pulls slightly less than usual every second Thursday, someone like Cecil, a love like Cecil's, could come without any strings attached at all.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Carlos had thought, with a not inconsiderable amount of pride, that he was no longer surprised by the strangeness that Night Vale had to throw at him. In fact, he was more often surprised by the rare normal events than the reverse. Which completely invalidated the words ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal,’ but anyway—</blockquote>

<blockquote>Carlos and Cecil experiment with collars.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Carlos sipped his coffee and stared at Cecil’s kitchen wall, horror and scientific fascination creating in him an almost disturbing level of calm.</blockquote>