Carlos the Scientist (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notaheroascientist) wrote2014-07-08 06:25 pm
notaheroascientist) wrote2014-07-08 06:25 pm
Entry tags:
Peronality
For Carlos, his most defining character trait is the fact that he is a scientist. True, 'science' is not usually a word that can be used as a personality trait, but Carlos manages it anyway. Science is his noble purpose in life, his entire reason for being an existing, and the thing that Carlos spends most of his time thinking about and doing. His very idea of a perfect world involves endless rows of Erlenmeyer flasks filled with bubbling liquids. In fact, Carlos considers being a scientist to be so integral to his identity that he will actively reject other labels, even highly positive labels such as 'hero', in favour of just the label 'scientist'. Saying that Carlos is obsessed with science is an understatement.
In fact, even when Carlos gets trapped in a mysterious desert that is not of this world, one of his first reactions is still to be excited at all the science he can do there. Sure, he's all alone and can't get back home, but there's so many important and unknown discoveries that he can make while he's there, so it's not all bad! Analysing things, solving problems, discovering new and interesting scientific facts - these are the things that make Carlos happy. On the converse side, not being able to figure things out and solve a problem makes him frustrated and unhappy.
Also, for all that Carlos is ever the rational, logical scientist, his view of science isn't necessarily the same as our view of science, as for some unknown and strange reason Carlos does not consider botany or dendrology to be science. And while on occasion Carlos can be incredibly poetic about science, for the most part he's actually hilariously bad at actually explaining any of it. He's been known to say things like "you know, what with science and all" as explanations, as well as just flat out shaking his head and saying 'science' by way of explanation.
He's highly focused on his work, often to the exclusion of all else. His personal relationships tend to end up with him talking about science a lot, not to mention the fact that he'll also drag his boyfriend along to do scientific experiments on trees in the middle of dates. That's if he ever gets to the date in the first place, as he's also been known to get so caught up in science that he'll forget to call to cancel that date he was supposed to be going to instead. Thankfully though, Carlos has been getting much better at prioritising things other than science, largely thanks to the insistence of his boyfriend Cecil. So he'll only forget to call about those canceled dates sometimes now, and does make an effort to do non-science related things on occasion.
Science is an incredibly important part of who Carlos is, but it's also not everything there is to know about him. Next to his love of science, one of the most notable parts of Carlos's personality is his bravery. Carlos won't hesitate to put himself at risk in order to save the town (and indeed 'running around trying to save the town' is something Carlos does a lot of), but unlike everyone else in Night Vale he's very much aware of how dangerous Night Vale actually is. When the people of Night Vale want to remove a door marked with warnings about Plutonium, Carlos is the only one who suggests that that would actually be a bad idea. So when Carlos puts himself into harm's way, it's not out of any kind of ignorance about what could happen to him - he knows full well what could happen, and it does worry him, but he risks himself anyway. Over time he does get used to Night Vale's weirdness and learns to take things in stride and only worry about the really dangerous stuff, but he never becomes completely blase about it either.
He also possesses strong ethics, particularly in regards to his scientific integrity, refusing to accept $5 to go into the House That Does Not Exist because as far as he's concerned he should be doing it for science, not money. He's a hard worker, not only in regards to his job but also for normal, everyday chores - when the rest of Night Vale is experiencing a Lazy Day in which no one can do anything at all, he's running around mowing the lawn and cleaning the gutters.
Socially, Carlos can also be a bit awkward. Part of this is just how much he focuses on science, but part of it also just a bit of cluelessness on his part. He manages to miss quite a few of Cecil's romantic hints and suggestions, which is quite a few considering Cecil is not at all subtle in this. It's not that Carlos doesn't understand - he certainly does, and he does end up being the one who always initiates progressing their relationship - but he doesn't quite always pick up on cues, has a tendency to be overly literal, and just gets distracted by science a lot. Cecil claims that Carlos is never direct about what he means, but in reality Carlos can actually be very direct. He's just direct on a rather different wavelength, such as his tendency to declare whether he's talking to someone for 'personal or nor personal' reasons when striking up a conversation with them. And, awkward as he is, Carlos also doesn't let that stop him from occasionally having a bit of a flair for the dramatic, saying things like 'behold!' when revealing discoveries that he's made.
In fact, even when Carlos gets trapped in a mysterious desert that is not of this world, one of his first reactions is still to be excited at all the science he can do there. Sure, he's all alone and can't get back home, but there's so many important and unknown discoveries that he can make while he's there, so it's not all bad! Analysing things, solving problems, discovering new and interesting scientific facts - these are the things that make Carlos happy. On the converse side, not being able to figure things out and solve a problem makes him frustrated and unhappy.
Also, for all that Carlos is ever the rational, logical scientist, his view of science isn't necessarily the same as our view of science, as for some unknown and strange reason Carlos does not consider botany or dendrology to be science. And while on occasion Carlos can be incredibly poetic about science, for the most part he's actually hilariously bad at actually explaining any of it. He's been known to say things like "you know, what with science and all" as explanations, as well as just flat out shaking his head and saying 'science' by way of explanation.
He's highly focused on his work, often to the exclusion of all else. His personal relationships tend to end up with him talking about science a lot, not to mention the fact that he'll also drag his boyfriend along to do scientific experiments on trees in the middle of dates. That's if he ever gets to the date in the first place, as he's also been known to get so caught up in science that he'll forget to call to cancel that date he was supposed to be going to instead. Thankfully though, Carlos has been getting much better at prioritising things other than science, largely thanks to the insistence of his boyfriend Cecil. So he'll only forget to call about those canceled dates sometimes now, and does make an effort to do non-science related things on occasion.
Science is an incredibly important part of who Carlos is, but it's also not everything there is to know about him. Next to his love of science, one of the most notable parts of Carlos's personality is his bravery. Carlos won't hesitate to put himself at risk in order to save the town (and indeed 'running around trying to save the town' is something Carlos does a lot of), but unlike everyone else in Night Vale he's very much aware of how dangerous Night Vale actually is. When the people of Night Vale want to remove a door marked with warnings about Plutonium, Carlos is the only one who suggests that that would actually be a bad idea. So when Carlos puts himself into harm's way, it's not out of any kind of ignorance about what could happen to him - he knows full well what could happen, and it does worry him, but he risks himself anyway. Over time he does get used to Night Vale's weirdness and learns to take things in stride and only worry about the really dangerous stuff, but he never becomes completely blase about it either.
He also possesses strong ethics, particularly in regards to his scientific integrity, refusing to accept $5 to go into the House That Does Not Exist because as far as he's concerned he should be doing it for science, not money. He's a hard worker, not only in regards to his job but also for normal, everyday chores - when the rest of Night Vale is experiencing a Lazy Day in which no one can do anything at all, he's running around mowing the lawn and cleaning the gutters.
Socially, Carlos can also be a bit awkward. Part of this is just how much he focuses on science, but part of it also just a bit of cluelessness on his part. He manages to miss quite a few of Cecil's romantic hints and suggestions, which is quite a few considering Cecil is not at all subtle in this. It's not that Carlos doesn't understand - he certainly does, and he does end up being the one who always initiates progressing their relationship - but he doesn't quite always pick up on cues, has a tendency to be overly literal, and just gets distracted by science a lot. Cecil claims that Carlos is never direct about what he means, but in reality Carlos can actually be very direct. He's just direct on a rather different wavelength, such as his tendency to declare whether he's talking to someone for 'personal or nor personal' reasons when striking up a conversation with them. And, awkward as he is, Carlos also doesn't let that stop him from occasionally having a bit of a flair for the dramatic, saying things like 'behold!' when revealing discoveries that he's made.