Carlos hadn’t been to a circus in years – not since he was little. But there had been a raffle at work and Carlos had won a coupon for a free ticket. He kinda hoped that his brother and/or his dad were in town so he could invite them to go with him.
Carlos made his way to the ticket office that was set up, standing in the line with his coupon as he looked at everything around him. Some things were different than what he remembered or imagined a circus to be like, but not everything could be a dated cliche trope he supposed.
Once at the ticket office he smiled and offered the coupon. “Hey… this any good?” he asked in a joking manner.
Though
it was during this job that he began getting hurried alerts from his
phone that nearly seemed to be blowing up from the messages, as the
screen lit up each time over it would be something from the lab. As the
texts got clearer they stated something about an eager volunteer to have
blood and bone marrow extracted for cancer combatants, being that this
was a citizen of Night Vale it was worth a shot.Right?
Practice wrapped up and Carlos went to work getting ready to take samples from any volunteer that showed up. He didn’t really think anyone would show up though – Night Valiens were pretty attached to their blood, to put it mildly. But there was no harm in asking so Carlos was ready, just in case.
There was one volunteer. It was the last person you would think would want to donate anything from their body.
Skip.
He stood in the main lobby awkwardly with his hands behind his back, and his clothes baggy and makeup looking like someone had smeared glitter over his eyes. Basically, a randomly thrown together version of himself. His dark hair was brushed neatly, and his eyes were bright with interest as he wandered around the lobby.
Jake the Scientist let Carlos know that there was someone there for them. Carlos was honestly surprised, but pleasantly so. He put on a smile and went to see their volunteer.
However, seeing who it was stopped him at the door. He was so confused.
“Skip… right?” he asked as he finally started to approach.
The acrobat painted on a smile cheerfully and nodded in an eager manner, “Yep!” He beamed warmly as he straightened his posture up from his slouched position in expection at the lobby. “I’ve never been in a place like this, but I wasn’t really expecting it to be like this.. “
“Uh… well, labs come in all different shapes – every one of them equally scientific,” Carlos replied, offering a slight smile. “Um… I’m honestly a little surprised to see you here,” he admitted.
“Well,” He began as his dark eyes swept away from the walls and instead towards the scientist, a soft smile spreading like butter onto his pinkish lips, “I’ve always felt really pretty bad for people who have these horrible diseases, but since I’m not super smart and educated, I figured I’d use my body! Like I do with everything!” He cheered as he perked up and clasped his hands in front of himself.
Like he did… with everything? Carlos tried not to scrunch his nose at the implications of that.
“That’s
very… altruistic of you,” he said. “Um… well, let me show you where
we’ll be performing the procedure. It’s just in the main lab over here
– I’ve got a little station set up and ready.”
The Perfect Scientist 