You know I adore Welcome to Night Vale, right?

[oneiriad]

Because of course I do. And Cecil/Carlos, they're adorable. And people like to write fanfic were they are adorable and that's great.

And I might possibly have been reading a lot of that fanfic. Ahem. Possibly too much.

See, I'm kind of beginning to feel like a lot of the fanfic in this fandom is the same, that people are writing the same stories. Not plagiarism or anything, just, well, the same basic plots and tropes, you know?

For instance, Carlos the scientist is mostly cute and perfect and normal, while Cecil gets to be something Lovecraftian and up to the writer's creativity. Which is fine and great and in keeping with the canon as far as we know. It's just, so far there hasn't been much in the way of stirring things up, swapping things around, making Carlos the scary one - I mean, there's a pretty good story that puts a more sinister twist to the "scientist come to study Night Vale" story, but that's just it. There's a story. So far.

But the thing I find myself craving most, the thing I haven't yet found (and if only this fandom was actually a fandom making me feel like writing instead of just reading, so I could just go out and write it myself, but I'm just not getting any of that). See, one of those stories everybody is writing is this: Carlos and Cecil's relationship are progressing nicely, they get to the sex part, only for Carlos to discover that his boyfriend's genitalia is definitely not standard homo sapiens issue. Cue a five minute freak-out followed by fluffy tentacle sex (or whatever sex is appropriate). Which is a lovely, fluffy story and enjoyable. It's just - I find myself craving the story where Carlos freaks out properly when coming face to face with Cecil's tentacles/etc. Where it's not resolved in five minutes, where they don't skip to the sex bit almost immediately, where there is time needed to process and maybe scientific investigations and maybe, just maybe (though I admit this might be too much to ask for) Carlos just never managing to adjust to the idea of having sex with Cecil.

And most importantly: that this in no way, shape or form makes Carlos an arsehole. I mean, not being able to cope with your sex life being, well, let's just say I doubt the Sheriff's Secret Police spends a lot of money on hentai - not being able to cope with that does not make you a bad person. Just saying.

Comments

[naraht]

It's just, so far there hasn't been much in the way of stirring things up, swapping things around, making Carlos the scary one - I mean, there's a pretty good story that puts a more sinister twist to the "scientist come to study Night Vale" story, but that's just it. There's a story. So far.

Came across this while browsing for posts about Night Vale, and just wanted to say that I agree so much. Carlos has always seemed the more sinister one to me and I really want more mad scientist type stuff. Maybe someday?

[oneiriad]

Maybe. I think part of the problem is that too many people take Cecil maybe a bit too literally. After all, Cecil is very much an unreliable narrator. Sure, people know that he's probably over-embroidering and from his voice messages, we know that Carlos' voice can hardly be called oaky, but still, most people still seem to take most of Cecil's descriptions about him as reliable - but even if Cecil means what he says, how far can we trust him? I mean, his perceptions are pretty skewed if that "adorable mew" is anything to go by (admittedly, Khoshekh the floating cat is implied to have some brainwashing ability, but on the other hand, we also know that Cecil has been known to be able to see and notice things others can't, so...)

Also, where is the flat-out AU fic? Come on, folks, whatever happened to cheerfully disregarding bits of canon in favour of writing a story?