The Notes of the Mysterious Hooded Figure

Carlos never would have known about Nightvale if it hadn't been for the dreams. Every night, visions of a place in the desert where men and women in gas masks scurried past the Hooded Figures, nodded to, but denied the existence of the Angels (which, he had to admit, was an impressive feat), and every morning he woke up with nothing in his mind except pair of coordinates. Carlos finally heard the name Nightvale after two weeks of dreaming, spoken by a man with a soothing voice. A man who had shown up in every dream for the last week, but whose face he had never seen. A man he knew was named Cecil Baldwin.

At first, he passed them off as an odd dream phenomenon, because he was a scientist, and scientists do not believe in a town that could not possibly exist. But, after two months, Carlos was more believer than skeptic. And then he did something a scientist should never do-he indulged his dreams, indulged Nightvale. He looked it up. And got one hit-a website, a blog, written by someone who had the very same dreams that he'd been having. And there were more of them. Six scientists so far. And that was only the ones who had talked.

Carlos got in touch with the one who had written the blog-a woman named Mitzie. They arranged a meeting to discuss Nightvale.

In two weeks time, Carlos had met all of them- Felisha(zoologist), Mitzie(anthropologist), Bernadette(psychologist), Dennis(geologist), and John(botanist), and they were on their way, their equipment all packed into six trucks, one for each. Carlos himself worked as a chemist who had his fingers in every type of scientific pie there was.

They reached the coordinates, uncomfortable, hot and sweaty. They drove right through, although there appeared to be nothing at first. And then, quite suddenly, they were in a town that had not existed moments before. Standing nervously in front of their trucks was a multi headed and bodied creature, wringing all seven pairs of his (or was it her?) hands. At first, Carlos wondered if they had come face to face with the Roman god Janus, but no. There were too many faces, too many bodies all fused together, too many legs and too many hands.

Each and every one of the scientists slammed on their brakes and quickly left their cars, camera in hand.

"H-hello! The void told us to expect some new Outsiders today. We have something set up for you, a sort of lab, and we have all your living spaces set up. If you'll follow me, I can show you to them."

Carlos spoke first. "Er, not to be rude, but who...or what...are you?"

All its eyes opened wide.

"Oh, sorry! We've never had such high-ranking outsiders before, and it's just..." it cleared all its throats. "Sorry. We're the city council."

"You're...the...the" John fainted. Bernadette rolled her eyes and slung John over her shoulder.

"Is he all right?" the City Council asked, all its eyes swiveling to face her.

"Yes. He's fine. You're just...a lot to take in."

"Ah, right. Outsiders, follow me in your cars."

The scientists shared glances, but all of them got into their cars anyway. The City Council waited until they had all started their cars and then took off, running as fast as a car could go. The scientists were hard-pressed to follow them.

Carlos doesn't remember all the things that happened next. He remembers being shown to a labratory, shown to the city hall, shown the Dog Park, being handed a list of rules and a map and told to have a good day whether he wanted to or not.

The scientists set down their equipment and dispersed to experiment on whatever they pleased, or meet people they remembered from the dreams. Carlos went to meet the man with the purple eyes.

As he drove, he turned up the radio, which couldn't be turned off, only down.

"A new man came into town today. Who is he? What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful haircut? Why his perfect and beautiful coat? He says he is a scientist. Well. We have all been scientists at one point or another in our lives. But why now? Why here? And just what does he plan to do with all those breakers and humming electrical instruments in that lab he's renting? The one next to Big Rico's Pizza. No one does a slice like Big Rico...no one."

Carlos frowned. That didn't bode well for them...and that voice...Cecil? He was the radio host?

And the "perfect and beautiful" was a little rude. It couldn't be any of the other men, since they were both bald.

Carlos didn't appreciate anyone's sarcasm but his own, and his looks were a little bit of a sore point for him.

You see, Carlos isn't the traditional kind of handsome. He's more of the clumsy, geeky scientist kind. And, due to his clumsiness, he got injured often. He had a scar down his nose from an accident with a laser, his jaw was a little crooked from when he'd broken it, and one of his hands was badly scarred from an accident with hydrochloric acid.

So Carlos thought "Cecil fawning over me must be a silly practical joke. Maybe he thinks it would help me or something. Either way, I can set him straight about this."

After all he'd spent so much time looking like that, he'd gotten used to it.

He turned the radio to a dull hum just at the edge of his perception, and in a couple of minutes was turning into the radio station's parking lot. He caught sight of a horrible creature with tentacles and a Cheshire smile squeezing its way into the door, and decided to come back later.

At noon, The City Council arrived on their lab doorstep (the lab served as their home for the time being) and announced that the scientists were expected to speak at city hall at one o'clock. They insisted, speaking in unison, despite the scientists' protests that they needed to study all the scientifically fascinating samples they had taken from around the little town.

So, the scientists drew straws to see who would be speaking (Carlos got the short one) and were on their way, piled into Carlos' van, which had been divested of equipment a few hours prior.

Carlos stood at the podium, feeling calmer than he really should have considering who he was speaking to. He picked out a couple of people he remembered. There was old woman Josie and the angels, there was John Peters (y'know, the farmer?).

And standing at the back was a man who, despite having nothing at all about him that made him stand out, caught Carlos' attention. The man was not tall nor short, not thin nor fat, not quite handsome and yet not unpleasant to look at. He had white-blond hair and eyes that were his favorite color-purple. But not just any purple, oh no. The exact shade as the sign they had driven past on their way in. The one that said "Welcome to Nightvale" in dripping bloody cursive. Carlos thought it was probably just a coincidence. The man smiled uncertainly at him, revealing two rows of long, sharp teeth. Carlos saw an odd white smudge on his forehead.

Carlos decided to look away and start the meeting.

"Hello, er, citizens of Nightvale. My name is Carlos, and I am representing a group of scientists who came here from various parts of the US to study this town. We don't know how long we will be here, but we know it will be quitte a while, because Nightvale is by far the most scientifically interesting community in the US, and we've come to study just what is going on around here!" Carlos grinned as though public speaking came easily to him, thanked them, and made a hasty retreat.

The man at the back of the room smiled again, less uncertainly this time, and watched Carlos go.

On their way back, Carlos turned the radio back up in time to hear Cecil saying

"That new scientist, we now know, is named Carlos. He called a town meeting. He has a square jaw and teeth like a military cemetery. His hair is perfect, and we all hate and despair and love that perfect hair in equal measure. Old Woman Josie brought corn muffins, which were decent, but lacked salt. She said the angels had taken her salt for a godly mission, and she hadn't yet gotten around to buying more. Carlos told us that we are, by far, the most scientifically interesting community in the U.S, and he had come to study just what was going on around here! He grinned, and everything about him was perfect.

And I fell in love instantly. "

The other scientists laughed, and Carlos tried not to crash the car. He couldn't believe this man! What right did he have to joke about something like that? And Carlos didn't even know what he looked like...or did he? Purple eyes and a shark's smile flashed through his mind, but he pushed it out immediately. He wouldn't know until he visited the radio station and met Cecil.

Carlos frowned and ran and hand through his hair, and was struck with a sudden thought- wasn't there a barber in town? What was his name? Tally? No, Telly. Well, Carlos thought, let's see how Cecil reacts to a little trim.

But first, to the Desert Creek housing development for him.

Hello! New fandom, new fanfic! Reveiw?

-Cinnaknowsbest