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A Skeleton So Sweet - @wyntera

Drawlloween Day 24: Skeleton

His first year in Night Vale had been too stressful, too full of worry and fear and science to attend Cecil’s annual Halloween party, despite the insistence of pretty much everyone that it was the event of the season. Priorities were not where they should be; he had not had the chance to understand. The fateful event under lane five and a night under the lights above the Arby’s made things so much clearer.

This year when the invitation arrives with Cecil’s elaborate looping script in royal purple and blood red, Carlos digs through the handful of cardboard moving boxes he never bothered to unpack for an outfit he has not worn in many years. Memories of his last Día de Muertos flood his mind; if he closes his eyes he can still smell the sugar from the candies and the fire from the burning lights, the laughter of the family he may well never see again. He considers dropping the coat back into the box and shutting it all away again, but no. He wants to share this part of himself with his future, too. Priorities.

He has to clean the outfit himself if he doesn’t want Cecil to find out–he swears Cecil has eyes all over, with the way this town gossips. It takes a few hours to meticulously clean the dust and cobwebs from between the pearls, and more than a few tries to get the make-up just right.

A Carlsberg Family Halloween - wyntera

Drawlloween Day 13: Frankenstein

Read Halloween’s Day in Night Vale on AO3 by belladonnaq

Rated G - Carlos/Cecil Palmer

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Halloween Prompt Fill by Reapersun and BelladonnaQ:

@sherlockmadetea said:  (Halloween Prompt). Cecilos. In which Cecil’s Halloween costume that is “scary” (ex Cosmotologist) just isn’t according to Carlos, and Cecil doesn’t understand why Carlos is dressed as something “normal” (ex Vampire). You can decide what occupation/stereotypical costume.

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JUSTIN MCELROY: Brothers: For years, my brother-in-law was pretty mean to me. He works at the local community radio station, and he would tell lies about me from his position there…

TRAVIS MCELROY: Oof.

JUSTIN: …telling his listeners, for instance, that my scones lack salt and are tasteless, which is ridiculous.

TRAVIS: No!

JUSTIN: I am an excellent scone baker. Everybody who’s ever made scones feels like they’re good at scones.

TRAVIS: Well, if you can make them to begin with, it’s already an achievement.

JUSTIN: Recently, we have reached a point of understanding and are now quite friendly. Sometimes, however, I feel like his niceness can be just as aggressive as his former meanness. He still talks about me on the radio, and he shouts compliments about me to the government agents tasked with watching my house. It’s overly friendly, and it makes both me and the government agents feel uncomfortable. How can I help him find a balance between his former malice and his current well intentioned but overly friendly behavior? What do you think, Trav?

[A snippet of the Night Vale ending theme abruptly transitions into strong piano music]

JUSTIN: How about you need to start- I guess doing more neutral things?

TRAVIS: Uh-huh.

JUSTIN: For him to observe? Um, scamming it along-

TRAVIS: Standing right between the, right between the lines.

JUSTIN: Yeah. Standing on your lawn, uh, with as neutral a face as you can, wearing all khaki, is a good place to start. Um…

TRAVIS: Mhm. Maybe like a big sandwich baggie full of porridge or oatmeal-

JUSTIN: That’s a good one.

TRAVIS: - because it’s like, “Thank you for this, it isn’t convenient but I appreciate the thought and oh my gosh, these two just, cancelled each other out.

JUSTIN: Yeah.

TRAVIS: And maybe, uh, maybe like, uh… fly a kite, but it’s really bland and maybe like made out of like some kind of like plain white paper.

JUSTIN: Yes. That’s, yeah, absolutely. Like, informational- like, you know the parts of the tax form you that don’t have to send back but you print off anyway because you’re a bad boy…

TRAVIS: Yes. Perfect.

JUSTIN: Just make a kite out of those really boring things-

TRAVIS: Yes.

JUSTIN: - and it’s like, neutral.

TRAVIS: This is perfect. Right? Make- [Excited gasp] Make a kite out of like, saran wrap. Right?

JUSTIN: That’s gonna- you’re getting- you’re getting into some challenging aerodynamics ideas, Travis.

TRAVIS: That’s fair, that’s fair.

JUSTIN: Like really challenging.

TRAVIS: That’s fair. Uhh, maybe, okay, here’s a- You make some scones, right. Half of them: delicious. Half of them: gross. Right?

JUSTIN: Hmm.

TRAVIS: And then you just kind of mix and match.

JUSTIN: Okay, here’s, here’s some- I wanna red flag one of these.

TRAVIS: Okay.

JUSTIN: If they get one of the bad scones first, they’re never gonna go back for a good one.

TRAVIS: Oh, fair. Yeah, yeah.

JUSTIN: You noticed? [Laughs] Like, you’re not gonna house that bad one and then be like, "Lemme check- let me try, let me find out. Let me try one more time.”

TRAVIS: Okay, we do- how about, like, a perfectly made scone-

JUSTIN: Yes.

TRAVIS: - that is flavored like cut grass.

JUSTIN: [Opens mouth, pauses] … Yeah, that’s neutral.

sometimes you outgrow a piece of media, and sometimes it grows with you!