hadn't built up my defenses by AugustaByron (PG)
Title: hadn't built up my defenses
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Categories: Alternate Universe, Pre-Canon, High School, Romance, Drama, Mystery
Length: Medium (12177 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: AugustaByron
Author's Summary:
Carlos hates the desert, and he hates sand, and he hates Night Vale, and he hates his dad's stupid job with its stupid transfers. He hates the idea of spending an entire school year in this boring town.
Review:
hadn't built up my defenses is the 'beginning of the beginning', (to butcher a common phrase), another way things might've begun in the grand saga of Cecil and Carlos. In it, Carlos is transplanted into Night Vale after his father is transferred to the town for mysterious reasons. Even more mysterious still is Carlos' first day at the high school where he, (to butcher a rather less common phrase), 'falls in crush, instantly' with Cecil, the boy assigned to show him around his first day. The story progresses as most boy-meets-boy high school romances do, with the usual gory horror of Night Vale life plodding along in the background. Still, it manages to hint at deeper, more terrifying mysteries that foreshadow the events and persons introduced in the canonical episodes.
But what makes this fic more than just any old high school AU is the way AugustaByron creates a Carlos-centric story that parallels the later canonical Cecil perspective. Carlos is attracted to Cecil's most prominent feature from their first meeting, an attraction that goes unrequited for some time, through a partner project and a not-date. And just like in canon, it's Carlos who initiates their relationship. Unfortunately, the very mystery that brought Carlos to Night Vale in the first place is what throws a wrench in their fledgling romance, a wrench that tightens down the bolts of their respective destinies, setting them both down the paths that will later lead them to the Night Vale we've come to know and love, warts and viscera and all.
hadn't built up my defenses
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Categories: Alternate Universe, Pre-Canon, High School, Romance, Drama, Mystery
Length: Medium (12177 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: AugustaByron
Author's Summary:
Carlos hates the desert, and he hates sand, and he hates Night Vale, and he hates his dad's stupid job with its stupid transfers. He hates the idea of spending an entire school year in this boring town.
Review:
hadn't built up my defenses is the 'beginning of the beginning', (to butcher a common phrase), another way things might've begun in the grand saga of Cecil and Carlos. In it, Carlos is transplanted into Night Vale after his father is transferred to the town for mysterious reasons. Even more mysterious still is Carlos' first day at the high school where he, (to butcher a rather less common phrase), 'falls in crush, instantly' with Cecil, the boy assigned to show him around his first day. The story progresses as most boy-meets-boy high school romances do, with the usual gory horror of Night Vale life plodding along in the background. Still, it manages to hint at deeper, more terrifying mysteries that foreshadow the events and persons introduced in the canonical episodes.
But what makes this fic more than just any old high school AU is the way AugustaByron creates a Carlos-centric story that parallels the later canonical Cecil perspective. Carlos is attracted to Cecil's most prominent feature from their first meeting, an attraction that goes unrequited for some time, through a partner project and a not-date. And just like in canon, it's Carlos who initiates their relationship. Unfortunately, the very mystery that brought Carlos to Night Vale in the first place is what throws a wrench in their fledgling romance, a wrench that tightens down the bolts of their respective destinies, setting them both down the paths that will later lead them to the Night Vale we've come to know and love, warts and viscera and all.
hadn't built up my defenses