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.
Loyally,
he nodded and flipped his hand over to reveal another perfectly colored
and opaque skin, no veins had popped up over time nor did it seem like
there was any to be harvested. Most people in Night Vale usually had
something odd about them, but for someone to not have veins was..
something nearly bizarre.“Well..?”
Carlos just poked at the skin, but he felt nothing. “I… have no idea,” he said. “I don’t see or even feel any veins. Huh… I thought that since you were an outsider this might be easier.” He looked at Skip. “I’m afraid I can’t draw blood without taking a really long needle into your heart. Though you’d have to be dead for that… and I don’t think that’s what you want, huh?” He wasn’t saying this in a mean sort of manner, just stating fact.
Skip laughed forcefully, “Haha- yeah..! I’m certainly not dead and I definitely don’t want to be dead, that would kind of end my career wouldn’t it?” Things were surely getting harder to avoid when it came to this specific testing, he only had so many excuses, and he really did want to help!
“Maybe we could.. Try anyway?” He offered as he fumbled with his hands, glancing up at the dark haired scientist.
“And give you a bunch of bruises?” Carlos asked. “Sorry, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.” He thought about it. “I can try a simple blood sugar test… that way I can also see how your blood flow is. Honestly, I’m a little worried.” Carlos reached over and removed the rubber strip. He noticed that there wasn’t any discoloration of the skin underneath. Well that was weird.
He mentally rolled his eyes, going more impatient and tense by the moment, this stuff was taking forever and all due to a roadblock or two that may have been caused by Skip? Bah. This was ridiculous! “Why don’t you just save your energy and just take the bone marrow or whatever it was, that you guys needed..”
Carlos looked at Skip. “Look, I don’t wanna cause you any uneccessary pain,” he said. “Going straight for the bone marrow at this point doesn’t seem like a good idea. But at least I can test your sugar and your white cell blood count from a finger prick. That’ll be much less painful than a bone marrow extraction, okay?” Carlos reached over to get the finger prick tool. “Have you ever had your blood sugar taken before?” he asked.
The Perfect Scientist 