hoo boy, Carlos sure is a thing i decided to do.
so, Yan gets the skill "Spirit Companion" which gives you a ghost that can spy on others, talk with you and cover ghost and psychic type attacks; and i took that as basically a blank check to make a whole side character to hang around Yan 24/7. the name came from a joke comic
a friend made. he was supposed to be just a random neighbour, it was supposed to be funny.
anyways. somewhere along the line while i was figuring out how i'd handle Alan and Yan’s relationship during the Intermission and what it would take for them to reconnect, i realized i had that blank check. and decided to make everything worse for everyone.
in summary, Carlos is the man Alan ran over and killed while drunk driving. he started haunting him while he was in the hospital, but when Yan visited, Carlos felt a tug his way. a mix of his guilt over what Alan did "because of him" + his powers. the passing of a haunting like that is extremely rare, which further convinced Yan that he was to blame for it.
in our campaign system, ghosts can't usually interact with the living, even with Hex Maniacs, they barely process what's going on around them at all. trying to communicate with them is a whole ordeal, that's even if they're "conscious" enough to do so. so when Carlos started to slowly but surely make attempts at contact, Yan freaked out. one one hand, this was something he'd always wanted, on the other, it was in the worst possible circumstances.
Carlos used to be some middle aged guy that refused to retire cause he enjoyed taking care of his small neigbourhood business. he had a wife he often bickered with and adult kids. Yan has done everything possible to not learn any more than that, he can't handle it. he knows Carlos and his family owned a produce store which is why he thinks Leti is just the cutest thing, plus he's the only one of Yan's pokemon that seems to like him. or even perceive him.
it's no surprise that Carlos didn't exactly like the guy who moved heaven and earth so the asshole that killed him wouldn't go to jail; but they were stuck together like the world's shittiest buddy cop sitcom. and Carlos isn't about to "go into the light" when he doesn't know what that entails, it's kind of terrifying. still, Yan was the only one who could hear and see him, so Carlos started just rambling at him. and try as he might, Yan was unable to shut down his vision and block out Carlos, so he had no choice but to listen to him.
even when Yan had to go hang out with Alan so he wouldn't do something reckless again, Carlos was there in the back, providing live commentary. a fitting punishment, he thought.
as time has passed by they've gotten used to each other's company despite everything. it's hard to hate someone when you witness their every waking moment, every failure and success, how hard they're trying, for a whole year. probably helped by the fact that they seem to share some emotional connection, so pissing each other off isn't in either of their best interest. and at some point Carlos started seeing Yan more like one of his children, a well intentioned but extremely stupid dude. eavesdropping in his conversations with Alan while seeing him juggle his long-distance relationship with Ian became equal parts frustrating and almost entertaining. Yan isn’t too receptive of his advice and is actually trying to get over his guilt, but Carlos isn’t about to let him off the hook so easily either. they still get on each other's nerves constantly, but it’s a less antagonistic relationship than when they started out.
