☆ Player - - -

( Player Name ) : James
( Personal DW ) : trilies
( Age ) : I can drink booze now it's great
( Timezone ) : In the middle of the only desert in North America
( Other Characters ) :
Darkleer ( aim_exorable ) | Homestuck
Marceline ( redboots ) | Adventure Time
Saix ( croceamors ) | Kingdom Hearts

☆ Character - - -

( Character's Name ) : Carlos
( Character's Age ) : Never said; presumed to be in his thirties
( Series ) : Welcome to Night Vale
( Canon Point ) : After episode 27
( Playability ) : why are you people letting me have four characters

( History ) :
People are not allowed in the dog park.

( Personality ) :
If there is one thing that is immediately and blatantly obvious about Carlos, it is that science is his passion. From the first episode, Pilot, he states that the reason that he's in Night Vale at all is because it's the "most scientifically interesting town" around. Every single appearance he makes in the series has him doing something related to his passion. Episode 1 shows the most of it, with his Geiger counters going off and doing tests with his group of scientists which show that a certain house most DEFINITELY does not exist, along with a few other things. I mean, goddamn, the guy goes on a date and ends up suggesting to his partner that they do tests on trees. Carlos has science on the brain 24/7, it seems, no matter what he's doing. Of course, we also can only guess at this, as the only time Carlos is mentioned is by way of the narrator, Cecil, and their relationship seems more or less professional throughout most of the series.

In the episode The Date (27), we get to see a bit more of his Carlos' character. As mentioned before, he's definitely science-minded. Besides the whole tree thing, when the shadow creatures are plaguing Night Vale in the midst of their date, Carlos suggests he do a few experiments to see if he can save the town. However, he also seems to be somewhat awkward himself although Cecil makes no mention of it. (Biased narrator, again.) It's been mentioned before that Carlos has a habit of starting his calls to Cecil off with "I'm not calling for personal reasons". While Carlos is the most 'normal' person in Night Vale, that's something of an awkward thing to say. He also seems to speak stiffly, if Cecil is repeating exactly what Carlos says. With no other source available, it must be assumed he is. When Cecil asks Carlos if he needs any help figuring out the whole Shadow People problem, Carlos responds with "A scientist is self-reliant. It’s the first thing a scientist is." Now, we know that's a lie, because Carlos has a team of scientists with him in Night Vale, or at least he came in with a team. There shouldn't be any issue with accepting help.

This suggests to me that Carlos is somewhat socially awkward, especially with someone he likes or thinks likes him. ("I'm not calling for personal reasons" seems very much said to discourage.) It's never mentioned if he really interacts with too many people outside of Cecil, who he works with to get the word out if something bad is about to happen, and a few people in the community like Telly the Barber, which was a brief interaction. He also seems to be very self sufficient, like he stated. Episode 20 had him going down into the bowling pin retrieval area himself to see just what was going on.

Which brings me to my next point: Carlos is Very Worried about things in Night Vale. In all honesty, any normal person would be, and Carlos comes off as a very normal person beyond his chosen research destination. Very often, he seems to call Cecil to have him tell the citizens of Night Vale of the latest foreboding thing which could happen or what they should avoid. Besides being in Night Vale for the pure scientific interest of it all, he also seems to care a great deal for its people. He outright states that he's worried for them all to Cecil at one point. When it concerns the bowling alley, he goes in himself because he said that someone had to get to the bottom of it. Any normal person with a sense of self preservation would have left Night Vale in a heartbeat the second they realized something was up. But Carlos doesn't leave. Carlos stays. He's stayed for a full year, and it's likely that he'll stay longer. The science can only satisfy him so much as a reason. Carlos is a really caring individual despite being terrified of what's going on. (You can actually hear him freaking out in his one on-voice appearance in Episode 16 The Phonecall, where he panics about the clocks not being real and the stranger at his door.)

However, over his months in Night Vale, Carlos seems to have managed to calm down to some degree. At the very least, he doesn't seem to flip out when people start transforming into strange shadowy creatures in the middle of his date. A lot can happen in a year, especially a year in Night Vale. By this point, strange shit is simply something Carlos has come to expect. The question is simply 'what kind of strange shit'.

One last thing can be deduced from Carlos. It is never said whether or not he listens to Cecil's radio show. However, Cecil isn't exactly subtle. He's probably made his affections known in one way or another, by accident or purpose, although he's never pushed. Carlos had probably caught on. (Again- not calling for personal reasons.) However, after a full year and a near death experience, he finally shows that he actually reciprocates in some fashion. Carlos is a scientist. Carlos is a little awkward. Carlos worries. This all reads to me as someone who is very careful with such an important personal decision as making a romantic bond with someone, probably to begin with and only made worse in a place like Night Vale where you can be abducted by the Sheriff's Secret Police or turned into a tree or get absorbed by the dog park. However, by the end of One Year Later, he seems to have hit a revelation that sometimes you need to live and love while you still can, and that the mysterious isn't so wildly mysterious.

( Strengths/Weaknesses ) :
Carlos is (presumably) quite human, and thus has all the strengths and weaknesses associated with that. He was once injured by a small army of small people pretty badly, although with a somewhat biased narrator, who knows how severe the wound really was.

Despite demonstrating no particular physical skill in canon, Carlos is actually a brilliant scientist. It's never said in what specific field he studies in. Something to do with how you can figure out if a house exists or not, doing tests on trees...

Living in Night Vale means having to deal with all sorts of horrors and life threatening events. Considering Carlos managed to survive a good solid year before anything bad was noted to happen to him, it can be assumed that he has fairly good "not dying" skills.

His hair.

( Other Important Facts ) :
His hair is perfect.

( Sample ) :
He's going to be in a thread here BUT JUST IN CASE...

----

His first thought is Did they actually manage to get water to the Waterfront?. It's because the first sense to reach his brain isn't sight or hearing, but scent, filling his nostrils up with the smell of salt water that is positively drenching him.

Then the rest of his mind catches up and pushes past the shock, and Carlos immediately gets to his feet. Night Vale has taught him that it's always best to be up and ready, just in case you have to run for your life. But... As he twists in place and looks around him, he notices that there doesn't seem to be any threat. It looks almost like a normal kind of city, with people wandering around like everything is normal. In fact, more normal than he's seen in a long time- no one is wearing gas masks or bolting away from bags with little red flags on them.

For some reason, that almost makes him all the more suspicious. Good lord, he's been in Night Vale for too long. Still, he can't help but continue to look around, until he gaze draws upwards...

Oh. He is definitely not in any sort of desert, and he is definitely not in Night Vale anymore.

Carlos leans against the enormous coral by him for support as he reels from this sudden change of scenery, only to jolt back at the feeling of energy flowing into his palm. The coral is suddenly- glowing.

All the worry that had been bubbling in him (where was he, was the rest of Night Vale okay, was Cecil okay) seemed to lower itself to a simmer, shoved aside to be replaced by intense curiosity. Not caring that he's still soaked, Carlos rushes to the nearest window to inspect himself in the mirror. No, his eyes haven't become completely black, he hasn't gotten another finger, he isn't hearing any voices in his head... From what he can observe, the coral affected him in a completely benign manner.

Carlos' fingers start to itch and he takes a breath. No. He has to concentrate. First he has to find out where he is and how he got here. That's the most important thing.

And then he can replace all his recording and testing equipment so he can figure out just what is going on with this coral.

Carlos looks for the nearest and non-busies person, and waves towards them. "Excuse me! I have a few questions!"

( Questions? Comments? Concerns? ) :