theblackestofhats:

A soft cackle escaped him as
he beheld Carlos’ reaction to the sudden gloom, echoed from other
mouths he’d formed. Currently, he was spread through the darkness
like vines, eyes and mouths everywhere. It really was quite
entertaining, however belated, though he had no real idea who Old
Woman Josie and Erikas might be, or why they’d be able to block out
the sun. Eclipse initiators, perhaps?

“Guess
again~” He whispered, from all
directions, each of his mouths uttering the soft taunt in unison. He
didn’t really have much of a reason
to taunt his catch, but why not? It was fun, and it would be a good
trial run to see how he reacted to things like this.

Mostly, Carlos was confused. Whispers? All around him? Was
he in the Whispering Forest? No, he couldn’t be… the voices weren’t saying how
nice his hair and teeth looked. But the trees have said non-complimentary
things before, so Carlos couldn’t rule that out entirely. He started to pat his
pockets for his phone – he had a flashlight on it, and he was planning to use
it to get to his car.

“Is this the Whispering Forest? I’m afraid I’m a busy man
and can’t stay – I’m a scientist after all, and scientists are very busy.”

theblackestofhats:

The transfer had been
successful, no parts of the station left behind – although the same
could not be said for the car, which still rested back where it had
been parked. Black Hat would have expected Carlos to have noticed
something by now, with that computer the only source of light, but it
seemed that the human was quite definitively focused in on what he
was doing, something that reminded him of how Flug could get
sometimes.

It was amusing, but the horror
had no real way of knowing how long Carlos would puzzle over the
description and dating of those cells. If it took him too long, it
could get boring just hanging around and watching him. Perhaps if he
began some eerie whispers? Those were a classic. Not actually having
explored Night Vale, he had no way of knowing just what Carlos was
used to.

The scientist was quick to refresh himself on earlier
findings, thankfully, and he turned off the screen of his tablet to set it down
on the table.

But as soon as he did, he froze. Where had the sun gone? It
didn’t set early, did it? He quickly hit the light-up button on his watch to
check it. He should have had another good two hours before any unexpected
sunsets.  So… what was going on?

“Old Woman Josie?” he called out, his voice laced with
confusion and uncertainty. “E… Erikas? Are any of you there? Did… did you block
out the sun again?” If they did, then there was the potential that Carlos was in danger. Where was his danger meter again? Oh – he left it in the car. He just had to get to it somehow.

theblackestofhats:

It amused him to see Carlos
wary, though he took care to not appear to be anything other than a
simple bird as the scientist glanced around. Sometimes, people could
sense his approach, particularly those with the most exposure to
other supernatural entities – that could become either irritating
or amusing. Thus far, it seemed to be the latter.

As Carlos returned to his
sketching, and following that to his notes, photography and blogging,
Black Hat hopped nearer still, entering the shadow of the science
station thingie the man had set up. Feeling mischievous, he decided
to wait until the blog entry had been posted – going by what he
could see – before tugging at the shadows with his magic, intending
to pull everything into a currently-empty storage chamber in his
manor. One in which the lights were not yet turned on, nor the door
opened, meaning that if Carlos wanted to see beyond the glow of his
computer, he’d probably need to find the light switch.

Carlos did his best to describe the cells with words, though
nobody with a vocabulary short of Lovecraft’s himself could really do well
enough.

It was going to be tough to date these cells – the soil he
had dug up was mostly surface soil, so it was a mixture of not only old
components but newer environmental elements as well. To get a proper date he’d
have to find a deeper, and presumably more concentrated, area in the
environment to sample from. Gosh, if he could just locate the source of where these cells came from…

Carlos didn’t notice how things started to grow dark as he
went through his old notes on the blog. He was in the Science Zone, and nothing
short of a librarian would distract him from it.

theblackestofhats:

There was a peculiar scent in
the air as he drew closer to what he thought was a likely spot, from
the man-made structure standing there – a scent that seemed at
least a little like something he ought remember, but elusive. It
tugged at his memory for a bit, but his focus was torn from the issue
by the sight of someone moving below.

He swooped closer, upon
spotting the scientist, landing not far away. The scent was still
slight, but a little stronger now – seemed this guy really was
tinkering with things most mortal folks avoided. He elected to wait a
little while as Carlos drew, creeping closer so that he could connect
his shadow to that of the canopy. Perhaps he’d be able to steal the
science station as well as its owner.

Carlos thought he heard something and he looked over his
shoulder, wondering if Telly the Barber was skulking around, hunting after his
hair… A guy could only work with cactus needles for so long. . However, he didn’t
see anything. Slowly Carlos turned back to his notebook, frowning to himself in
confusion.

He wasn’t very happy with his sketch. It was completely
conceptual, and it didn’t do justice at all to what he was seeing. Just… ugh.
He set his pencil down and picked up his tablet to start typing up his notes.
He photographed the sketch and uploaded it to the blog and tried not to make
the self-critique of his work too
lengthy.