#i've wanted to write a fic about carlos's proposal for SO LONG

[welcometololaland]

911 lone star tag game

thank you @tellmegoodbye for creating this tag and for tagging me 💜 sorry it took me so long to get to it. thanks also to @lemonlyman-dotcom @rmd-writes @liminalmemories21 @freneticfloetry

@chicgeekgirl89 @thisbuildinghasfeelings for the tags and @howtosingit and @captain-gillian mentioning my name, unfortunately for you i have taken that as a tag.

When did you first start watching Lone Star? Who or what introduced you to the show?

someone (it may have been @three-drink-amy) was yelling about the proposal in a group chat somewhere and i was stuck at home, injured, completely unable to walk, miserable and hating life...so I opened a YouTube video to see what the fuss was about. and then i watched all 3 seasons over the next 2 days.

Which season is your favorite?

three

Who is your favorite character? (Bonus: If you answered TK or Carlos, who is your favorite besides them?)

if you'd asked me a year ago, i might have had a different answer, but now (after over a year of almost exclusively writing carlos), i think it has to be him. i just think that i understand carlos a lot better than i used to. aside from tarlos...it's a hard toss up between grace and paul.

Top five episodes. Go!

you don't write 9 fics about push unless you really love push, so it's 3 x 04 every day for me. i'm actually sick for the pilot (1 x 01). i love a good origin story. my three others would be 3 x 13, 3 x 07 and a fight to the death between 3 x 18 for the proposal and 4 x 16 for soulmates.

If you could pick any character to be given a "begins" episode, who would it be and what would that episode look like?

i think the logical choice is nancy, because we really don't know a lot about her. the more she is on the screen the more i am starting to really enjoy her as a character and i'd like to know more. i'm also obsessed with getting as much reyes family backstory as i can. i'm CONVINCED tia lucy has to turn up somewhere. i need to meet that queen.

What is a scenario or storyline that you would like to see in season 5?

total cop out answer for me - i have no hopes because every time i start clowning i get the fear i might curse it. i'm just here for the ride, kids.

What do you think is going on in this still?

see answer above - i think the obvious answer is something about gabriel's death/the murder investigation but i'm not counting my chickens before they hatch or whatever the saying is. (also, they could def be trolling us and it's some scene in which tk is hangry and carlos is calling up the pizza place around the corner to ask where their order is because it's been 50 minutes and how long does a pizza really take?)

We all know about the elusive 5x05 spicy scene that has been teased, so what is your prediction for how it could possibly top 1x02?

it's no secret that i prefer sexy scenes when there's more at stake - a frantic hook up is hot but i prefer anything with feelings upon feelings upon feelings. so i hope whatever it is, it's emotional.

Where was the Tarlos honeymoon in your mind?

i wrote a whole fic about it, so it's hard to go against my own narrative. but i assume somewhere in texas. it definitely wasn't the under the tuscan sun remake carlos had apparently been dreaming about (but i hope they get there one day).

Shoutout one of your favorite fan creations.

there's actually too many to mention, and somehow even though i've only been in this fandom for coming up two years, i feel like i'm a relic 😂 i have so many personal favourites that have come across my dash (a lot of them due to fic/fandom rec friday which i miss with all my heart). but i do want to say that if you create for this fandom in any capacity, whether that is art, fic, gifs, vids, metas etc., your creations are such a gift. every single one adds something that the fandom didn't have before and makes us as a collective all the richer 💜 also, i think it's important to acknowledge the importance of the members of the fandom who are readers or beta readers, or even casual observers. everyone i've come across on this site or in the ao3 comments or discord has such unique experiences and personalities and adds so much flavour to this fandom! so thank you for being here! and thanks to @tellmegoodbye again for giving me an excuse to just ramble on about that.

an open tag because i'm very late, but if you haven't participated, please consider this a tag for you 💜

[theghostofashton]

ooh, 4x18 coda 2 for the wip ask game? <3 -maddie/reyesstrand

hi maddie! thank you <3

so i wrote a 4x18 coda right after the finale about carlos's grief and his journey to the wedding. it ended with the scene in the loft where carlos proposes, and for a while now i've been wanting to write another one about the wedding and the aftermath. i'm imagining it would be a collection of moments leading up to/during/after the wedding/honeymoon and beyond as carlos grieves, possibly a 5+1 style fic? i'm not quite sure yet tbh i haven't really gotten far into mapping it out but yeah carlos's journey with all of that and tk being there for him.

i don't have a ton written for it but here's a snippet:

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. He’s thought about the rabbi’s words since he heard them for the first time. The way TK completed the statement and the way he looked at him afterward, like he was precious, has stuck with him. Being TK’s beloved. Belonging to him. It’s everything Carlos has wanted for so long, and now it’s finally official, and there’s something about it, especially after everything, that feels so comforting. The past few days have been a whirlwind. It feels like his entire life has been upended. He clearly doesn’t know himself as well as he thought he did, but he knows he’s TK’s beloved. He is holy to him, and that means something. Those words in Hebrew mean something, and they’re all Carlos has right now. He can’t help but cling to them.

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

I wasn’t gonna just find out about Cecil’s engagement ring and not do anything with that information.

Here’s the post if anyone’s not sure what I’m talking about. Fanfic under the cut. 

Carlos isn’t sure what engagement customs are like in Night Vale, so he asks Janice on one of the weekends while she’s over at their house. 

“Oh, it’s just like everywhere else, I think, just a ring, and you go down on one knee, and - OH MY GOD UNCLE CARLOS ARE YOU GOING TO PROPOSE TO UNCLE CECIL?”

“Shh!” Carlos exclaims, glancing back through the screen door from the porch. Cecil is in the kitchen, making dinner, with his cat-ear headphones on; judging from how he’s dancing, his music is probably turned up too loud to hear. He’s so cute. 

“Sorry!” Janice leans closer, conspiratorially. Her eyes glitter. “But wait, are you? Are you going to propose to Uncle Cecil?!”

“Yes.”

Janice shrieks, wheels her chair forward to where he’s sitting, and throws her arms around his waist. “Oh my god! Oh my god, Uncle Carlos!!!! I’m so excited! Have you bought a ring yet? Have you decided when you’re gonna ask him?”

“Not yet.” Carlos glances back into the house. Cecil is spinning around to whatever music it is he’s got on; his pink fishnet skirt swishes over distressed neon yellow tights. When he sees Carlos he grins and then goes back to dancing. “I want everything to be perfect, you know? And I know, scientifically speaking, nothing can ever be perfect, because life has so many variables, and so by that logic no engagement ring can be perfect, because engagement rings are made out of metal and minerals and honestly? Minerals are very unpredictable, as elements go. But I would like it to be almost perfect.” 

Janice nods understandingly. “Well, maybe I could help you. He’s covering the morning show tomorrow, right? We can tell him you’re taking the day off work to bring me to the mall. We can say I need new sports gear” 

“You didn’t mention that you wanted new sports gear.”

“No, I’m sorry. That would be our ruse. We’d really be going to buy a ring.” 

“Oh!” Carlos nods. “Yes, okay, that makes sense.” 

And they do their niece/uncle secret handshake, the one they’ve been perfecting for months now, even though, scientifically speaking, nothing can ever be perfect. 

The Night Vale Mall has three fine jewelry shops: Jared’s, Kay’s, and Renaldo’s. The owner of Jared’s, who is named Yuzuki, shows them fifteen different rings, but Janice shakes her head at all of them. “These are too plain,” she says as she wheels aggressively through the aisles of display cases. “Uncle Cecil is not plain.” 

“He’s really not,” Carlos agrees. Just this morning Cecil left for work in a black jumpsuit, white pinstripe pattern belt, and matching green beret and combat boots, with rainbow lipstick. “This is fashion, honey,” he’d said. 

The owner of Kay’s, who is named Paul, offers Janice and Carlos a suspicious looking red drink from a vial. It turns out that the Kay’s had been renovated so that it was now a meeting place for a new blood cult. 

They finally find a ring at Renaldo’s, where the owner, Katherine, suggests a specialty cut diamond shaped like a beaker. “Because that’s your thing, right?” they smiles. “You’re a scientist? I listen to your boyfriend’s show every day. This one is somewhat expensive, though.” 

“That’s okay,” says Carlos. 

“Money is no object,” adds Janice. 

“Well, technically, money is an object, because in its physical form money is formed out of matter, and matter is -”

“Do you want to add engraving, Uncle Carlos?” Janice suggests, throwing him off of his scientific explanation. He decided that yes, he did want engraving. 

Katherine designs a prototype on their computer and shows it to the two, saying that the ring would be ready to pick up in two weeks. Carlos watches nervously as Janice snaps a picture. “Doesn’t Cecil follow your Instagram?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m posting this on my Finsta.”

“Your what?”

“My Finsta. You know, you have your Rinsta, which is your normal account, and then you have your Finsta, which is your more secret one for friends, and then you have your Ginsta, where you post visual sacrifices to the various gods.” 

“Oh.” He’s still not sure, but she assures him that Cecil won’t see the picture. She captions it, “Took my uncle shopping”, with the wedding ring emoji, the winky face emoji, and then the radio star emoji, which is a gravestone that reads “killed by video”. 

Cecil may not have seen the picture, but by the end of the week it seems like everyone else in town has. When he buys coffee in the morning, the barista winks and asks, “Sooo, any updates yet?” and pumps her eyebrows in rhythm with pumping syrup into his latte. When they go for walks, he notices people concealed in the bushes with binoculars looking at Cecil’s left hand. In the middle of the night when he gets up to go to the bathroom, there’s a note taped to the front of his shower curtain written in blood that reads, “Hey, if you’re looking for a romantic place to propose, I’ll give you a 15% discount. -Gino.” 

As always, though, Cecil seems totally oblivious. “Hey, look at that!” he says, pointing to the sky where a secret police plane has written, “PROPOSE TO HIM ALREADY”. “Sheriff Sam is trying to help someone propose! Aw, that’s so sweet. Sam always has our town’s best interests at heart, huh?”

“They sure do,” says Carlos, sweating.

The town continues to drop hints - dropping them on his front lawn, out of the sky when he goes outside, and one day one falls from the ceiling and lands on his head while he’s braiding his hair. “I get it, Faceless Old Woman,” Carlos grumbles. “The ring hasn’t come in yet.” 

“I am eager to attend your wedding,” hisses a voice from the shadows. “I will steal an exceptional bottle of wine for you as a gift.” 

Finally, finally, he gets a text that the ring has come in to Renaldo’s for him to pick up. He’s not quite sure how he’s going to propose, but he thinks that once he has the ring, some inspiration might strike him. 

Cecil’s show starts at four o’clock. He’s anxious about the broadcast today, since developments with the most recent town-threatening entity have been escalating. “It’s important that I update the town,” he says. 

“It’s also important that you keep yourself safe,” Carlos tells him as he fixes the crooked bow tie around Cecil’s neck. It has a pattern of slices of pizza dancing with french fries. “I want you home tonight. Please don’t get hurt.” 

“I’ll be careful, bunny. I always am.” 

You never are, Carlos thinks, but he just says, “Okay, babe. I love you.” He kisses Cecil’s forehead. 

He drives over to pick up the ring. It comes in a little velvet box that fits perfectly into the pocket of his labcoat. He chooses purple for the box color - it’s Cecil’s favorite. The ring looks even better in person than it did on the model, with the fractal diamonds glinting in light. He admires it for a moment before snapping the box shut and sliding it into his pocket. “It’s perfect,” he tells Katharine. “Thanks so much.”

“Best of luck!” they exclaim. 

He doesn’t think he’s going to propose tonight, but just in case, he goes home early and makes a nice dinner. Time passes as time always passes in Night Vale - slowly and quickly and strangely. He finishes dinner, but since he’s not sure when Cecil’s going to be home, he turns on the radio to see where he is in the broadcast. 

There’s nothing. Just static. 

Panic wells in his throat. He rushes to the counter and yanks his phone off the charger, goes to his contacts list with trembling fingers. Cecil’s number goes straight to voicemail. He tries the radio station’s phone number, and that goes through, but all he hears on the other side are dull crashes and distant roaring. 

“Cecil? Cecil, are you there? Cecil!”

Nothing.

He’s shaking now, trembling from head to foot, and he knows he can’t drive in this state, but he’s rushing to the door anyway, grabbing his labcoat off the back of the chair. Cecil has to be okay, he has to be, he -

The door flies open from the other side and Cecil stumbles in. He’s covered in dust, his bowtie is askew, and there’s a reddish-brown stain along his bare side under his crop top. Which is soaked in that same color. 

“Sweetie!” Carlos shrieks. He grabs Cecil in his arms fretting over the injury. “How are you hurt? Oh no, where did I put the rubbing alcohol? Are you hurt somewhere else?” 

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Cecil catches Carlos’s face. “Honey. Carlos. Breathe, you’re hyperventilating.” 

“I was - I was so worried about you -” Carlos sobs and hugs Cecil tight. “Fuck, Cece, don’t ever do that again!”

“I’m sorry!” Cecil hugs him back. “This isn’t blood. We had a false alarm on that recent threat and Station Management came out of their office. I spilled my strawberry-banana-spinach-passionfruit-cherry smoothie in fear, though.” 

“Oh my god.” Carlos buries his face in Cecil’s neck. “What would I do without you?” Many people, in this case, would say “What am I going to do with you?” and say this in a subtle way of not communicating what they are actually trying to communicate - which is that they do not want to be without the other person. Carlos doesn’t like indirect communication, so he says, “What would I do without you?” 

“Well, you’ll never have to be without me! Oh, and Carlos?” Cecil pulls back from the hug a little. “Do you think we can get the smoothie out of my crop top?” 

Carlos laughs. A small sob comes out, too, one that was in the back of his throat. “Yes, baby, I think we can get the smoothie out of your crop top.” 

Those first few words stick in his head, though. You’ll never have to be without me. 

He can feel the weight of engagement ring in his pocket. He thinks he might be taking it out of that pocket soon. 

[welcometololaland]

Ten Random Lines

I was tagged by @rmd-writes (thank you!)

Rules: pick any ten of your fics, scroll to the midpoint, pick a line (or three) and share it. Then tag ten people.

(10 is so bold and i cheated by re-tagging people RMD already did. so i'm not enforcing that on anyone else lmao)

ONE: Speak for Yourself (Firstprince)

Henry runs a hand through his hair and his mouth twitches in the corners slightly. "What on earth would I need a speedboat for, Alex?" "Boating quickly?" Alex replies, shrugging. "Never know when you might need to go over fifty knots." "I would have absolutely no business going over fifty knots," Henry says, as the shadow of a grin plays on his lips. "It makes me wonder if you know anything about boating."

TWO: The Morning (Part 2) (Tarlos)

“Perfect,” TK sighs absentmindedly, as he crawls up the bed trying to commit all of Carlos’ lines to memory on his way. The soft skin on his cheeks that TK loves; the firm, muscular planes of his chest; the dip next to his hip bone that fits TK’s hand so precisely. There’s a part of TK that looks at Carlos and wonders whether he’s enough to be able to hold something so precious in his hands; as if something that looks as beautiful and enticing and ethereal as Carlos Reyes shouldn’t belong to this world.

THREE: Love Game (Tarlos)

“I like being here,” TK agrees softly, pushing an errant curl off Carlos’ forehead as he wonders how on earth this man knew what he needed before he did. “I like being with you.” “I love being with you,” Carlos murmurs, sleepy and sated, and with those words and that face, TK wonders how on earth he’s supposed to keep himself a heart's length away.

FOUR: Route 11 (Firstprince)

Alex sighs theatrically and thunks his head back on the plexiglass bus window. “Ah yes,” he says, “my dream. Make sure it goes on my tombstone as well, won’t you? Here lies Alex Claremont-Diaz. Loving son, brother and incurable reprobate.”

FIVE: get it right, to get around me (Tarlos)

He’s supposed to be alone. He’s supposed to be emotionally destroyed by his failed marriage proposal. He’s not supposed to find someone who wants to be his boyfriend, and listens to all his problems without judgement, and knows too much about him, and still looks at him like he hangs the moon. He’s supposed to drown in an ocean of his unhappiness. He’s not supposed to find someone who wants to haul him out.

SIX: Luck of the Draw (Firstprince)

Alex: A dangerous assumption, Henry. I played lacrosse for years so I’m kind of talented with a stick. Henry: Fencing is rather technical. Why don’t we go with polo? I take your point that you can use a stick, but do you know how to ride?

SEVEN: Still Waters Run Deep (Tarlos)

There’s a difference in the way Carlos touches TK that afternoon - less caution and hesitation and with a flicker of unbridled yearning in the way he works his lips into their kisses - bathed in the beams of sunlight that cover the sheets. It’s as if they’ve stripped back a protective, careful layer of his façade and let loose a glow that settles all around them, full of future promises and strong feelings that TK doesn’t know how to name.

EIGHT: Baby, Make Your Move (Tarlos)

"Abuelo! Abuelita!" Isa cries, allowing herself to be scooped up in Andrea's arms. "Look! Hugo bit me!" “You’re letting the kids bite each other?” Gabriel asks, arching an eyebrow in a way that is scarily reminiscent of Carlos’ own expression. “That’s a novel tactic.”

NINE: (Not) A Cinderella Story (Firstprince)

"I like stupid answers," Henry replies softly, brushing the apples of Alex's cheekbones with his thumb. The man has ridiculously long fingers. Alex tries not to think about their potential other uses, although classical piano is probably one. "Clearly," Alex says, trying to hold onto the shred of sanity he has left. This all feels way too nice, considering they barely know each other. "You told someone your favourite food was fucking mutton pie. That's the stupidest answer I've ever heard."

TEN: Love, Communicated (Tarlos)

“But that’s the risk of love, right?” Carlos argues, frowning. “We both take that risk, TK. You could just as easily fall out of love with me.”

I tag @strandnreyes @clottedcreamfudge @indomitable-love @iboatedhere @goodwaysihope @beautifulhigh @cinnaluminum @reyesstrand @reyescarlos @liminalmemories21

this took fucking forever so i don't blame you for not wanting to do it, but i'd love to read yours if you do!