The Not-So-Secret Interior Life of the Scientific Moose 2/5

[tsuki_no_bara]

J2 RPS AU
PG-13
Part 2 of 5
Master post
Art


Jared loved weekends. He didn't have to go to class. He had a chance to catch up on all the things he hadn't had time for during the week - grocery shopping for more than emergency toilet paper, laundry, Haro, watching all the TV he'd Tivo'ed, whatever housecleaning chore was his on the Chart o' Chores in the kitchen. He went to the gym. If the weather was appropriate, he went for a run. Sometimes he had to go into the lab for a couple of hours. He studied and caught up on his reading.

Usually Saturdays were for sleeping in, but this Saturday, Harley jumped on Jared's bed and woke him up at eleven, which was a ridiculous hour considering Jared had only gone to sleep at eight. Harley pestered him until he rolled out of bed, stumbled downstairs, and opened the back door so the dog could go out and pee. That took all of five minutes, but Jared was up and wondered if maybe he should just try to stay up and get something done. He poured himself some orange juice and sat at the kitchen table to think about it, but was seriously considering going back to bed anyway when Chad wandered in and plopped down in another chair.

"Guess what I learned yesterday," he said.

"What." Jared yawned.

"Alona teaches Pilates."

"So?"

"So she also does yoga. She's bendy." Chad made his eyebrows jump up and down.

"And this means...?"

"She's single." His eyebrows got another workout.

"And you think you have a chance with her because...?"

"Because I am The Chad." He struck a pose. "Seriously, Jared, how long have you known me? And you still don't know about my awesome?" He shook his head sadly. Jared rolled his eyes.

"So why haven't you asked her out yet? And if you have, why didn't she say yes?"

"I am biding my time, man. I'm waiting for the right moment."

Jared just rolled his eyes again. He was pretty sure there was a reason his dog woke him up after only three hours of sleep - besides needing to go out - but he was also pretty sure that hearing Chad's plans for Alona was not it.

"Guess what else I learned yesterday," Chad said.

"Alona's got a single roommate who teaches aerobics?"

"Actually, yes. To the first part, anyway. She said her roommate would help us with our Kickstarter video."

"What do we need besides a camera and iMovie?"

"She can make it all fancy and shit. Like, she can shoot good video of us and add background music and pages from the comic with voice-overs and everything." His eyes lit up like they did when he was really excited about something and not worrying about looking laid-back and cool for anyone.

"How hard can that stuff be?"

"She went to Emerson. She was a film major. Like, shooting it, not just talking about it."

"She's cute, isn't she."

"Mmmmmaaaaaybe." Which was Chad-speak for "Oh hell yes". "I was telling Alona about the project and how we need a good video because successful Kickstarters have a good video, and oh by the way I expected her to kick in some funding, and she volunteered her roommate. So she and Kat are coming over today. Kat's the roommate."

"I guessed. When?"

Chad looked at the clock on the wall. "Like four. You can go back to bed. Why are you up now, anyway?"

"I really have no idea." Harley came into the kitchen and put his chin on the table and stared at Jared with his soulful puppy-dog eyes. Jared nodded at him. "That's why," he told Chad. "A hundred and twenty pounds of alarm clock." He rubbed Harley's ears and stood up. "I need like four more hours of sleep and then I'll be human. I'll be up and dressed for Alona and her cute roommate, never fear." He yawned and headed upstairs and back to bed. It occurred to him as he crawled under the covers that Jensen Ross' voice would probably be really nice to fall asleep to.

Alona's roommate Kat had brown hair, bright red lipstick, and an impressive rack. Jared could see why Chad was so interested in her help. She looked kind of familiar, too, but he couldn't place her face.

Kat had brought her own little video camera. Alona volunteered to walk the dogs while she and Chad and Jared talked in the living room, which was five minutes of Chad explaining the kind of video he wanted and how important it was for Kickstarter projects to have good visual aids if they wanted to make their funding goal, and one minute of Kat interrupting him to ask if he and Jared knew what they wanted to say, and if so, they should probably get to it.

"You look like the girl who played Darcy in Thor," Jared told her, having finally figured out why she looked familiar.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," she said. She pointed to the couch. "Sit." The boys sat. Kat giggled at the height difference. Jared tried to slouch. Kat grinned. "You're cute."

"Can we do this?" Chad demanded.

"I can't help it if our cinematographer thinks I'm cute," Jared said loftily. Chad punched him the arm. "Ow."

"Boys," Kat said. "Play nice. Talk about your comic so I can get some footage so I can make you a nice video so you can throw it up online and get people to give you money." She'd dragged a chair in from the kitchen and now sat on it. She looked through her camera and pointed at Chad with one finger. "Go."

"Hi, Kickstarter," he said. "I'm Chad. I'm the writer."

"And I'm Jared," Jared went on. "I'm the artist. And we're the brains behind Haro."

"And we hope you give us money."

Jared elbowed Chad in the side.

"Well, we do," Chad protested.

"How about you talk about your comic?" Kat suggested from behind her camera. "I thought you said you were prepared."

"She's got a point," Jared said. "You start."

"Haro is the story of a man named - " Chad gestured to Jared.

"Haro. Surprising, I know."

"He's a veteran of a foreign war, a homeless man with PTSD in a modern American city. He might be crazy. He's also a cowboy in a post-apocalyptic western wasteland, traveling the country trying to regain his memory and find a woman called Alys." Jared could hear the intensity and excitement in Chad's voice. He knew it wasn't just for effect - it was Chad talking about the thing he loved in an attempt to convince other people to love it too. "Which man is the real Haro? Which world is his reality and which is just fantasy? Whose is the voice he sometimes hears in his head? Who is Alys, and why is he looking for her? What's following him across the waste?" He paused dramatically.

"You can read it at harocomic.com," Jared said. "There's a link down there." He pointed down, indicating a point farther down the theoretical web page in which the video would eventually be embedded. He grinned at the camera. He could see Kat half-grinning back at him and Chad.

"This story is near and dear to my heart," Chad went on. "I've been working on it a long time, but I couldn't tell it without Jared and his art. He's amazing, and I'm not just saying that." Jared made a bashful "Aw, shucks" embarrassed-by-praise face. "Go check it out."

"So, Chad, what are we trying to fund, if you can already read our comic online?"

"Well, Jared, I'm glad you asked. We're trying to fund a trade paperback. In a perfect world we'll be able to put it in comic shops and the hands of new readers. Or even old readers who want to carry it around with them."

"Or lend it to their friends."

"Or their mom."

"Or their brothers and sisters."

"Or their significant others."

"Or read it to their dogs."

"You get the idea," Chad finished. "It looks good on the web, but it looks great on paper. It was always conceived as a print comic. But don't panic if you can't afford a book. We’re also offering it as a PDF. I wouldn't read it on a Kindle, but if you have to, it looks ok. It looks much better on an iPad."

"Can you read a PDF on a Kindle?" Jared asked.

"Yeah. But unless you have the color one you won't be able to enjoy the separate issue covers or the sepia-tone."

Well, ok, Jared understood that. "I just hope people don't expect to read the trade on their smartphones - the art looks like shit that size."

"Maybe we can put it on Amazon, in the Kindle store. Could we do that?"

"You could do that. It'd be cool but I don’t have time to research online marketplaces."

"I wonder if we need a new ISBN for that. Our overhead would be so much less. Think of all the new readers we could reach."

"Uh, boys?" Kat said. "Video?" She pointed to her camera with her free hand. "I don't have all day."

"Sorry about that," Jared apologized. "Sometimes he gets carried away." He jerked a thumb at Chad, teasing.

"It's a curse," Chad admitted cheerfully. "Where were we?"

"Putting Haro in the hands of readers and their friends and family," Jared told him. "'You get the idea.'"

"You get the idea," Chad said to the camera. "Don't feel like you have to fund everything. If all you have is a dollar, that's cool. We'll take it with gratitude. We just want to be able to see our comic on a shelf next to all the other comics we love, and we can't do it without you."

"Why don't you tell these nice people what they actually get for their money? Tell them about the color pages." Jared had done a good job on them and wanted Chad to bring them up so it looked less like he was bragging on himself.

"Good idea. The trade paperback will be the first six issues of Haro in black and white and sepia and white, looking like it does on the web site but better, with a gorgeous full-color cover and full-color title pages for each issue." Chad turned to look at Jared. "You should tell them about that." He turned back to the camera. "Jared's really proud of the color pages."

"They look really good. You can see a couple of the issue covers on the site already. I recolored the ones for issues one and two, and of course the cover of the book is brand-new, never-before-seen art, drawn exclusively for the trade paperback."

"It's pretty impressive, and I’m not just saying that."

"He's not easily impressed, either."

"We'll also have some extras in the book - concept sketches, resources and notes, a short story I wrote about a side character. More books should be available to buy after all the pledge copies have been sent out, and in a perfect world we'll be able to fund future trades for the rest of the story."

They heard the front door open and Alona call "I'm back!" three seconds before Harley and Sadie bounded into the room, past Kat, and up to the couch. Harley tried to climb onto Jared's lap.

"This is Harley and Sadie," he said to the camera, as Harley tried to lick his face off and Chad tried ineffectively to shove Sadie out of the way. "Help me keep them in kibble by funding mine and Chad's comic. If you ever meet us in person, they'll give you love."

"I think that's a good place to stop," Kat said, fiddling with her camera. Jared could tell she was trying not to laugh. Harley tried to climb over Jared to get to Chad, and Sadie took the opportunity to squeeze herself onto the couch next to Jared. Alona giggled.

"We met a couple of pugs," she said. "You should've seen it. I tried to explain to their people that Harley didn't want to eat them, he was just making friends, but I don't think they believed me. How'd the video go?"

"I got footage," Kat told her. "I can edit it into something good. You guys want some stills of comic pages in between your talking heads, right? I think that would be helpful for people who've never read it. I can turn you into voice-overs so they know what they're seeing. I can do some background music too, if you want."

"Sounds good," Chad said. Harley barked.

"Harley thinks so too," Jared added. The dog was now standing half on him and half on Chad, and his back feet dug painfully into Jared's thigh. "Ok, Harley, you said hi, now you have to get off me." He shoved at Harley's butt, and when Harley didn't move, Jared tried to stand up. That worked, and Harley jumped off the couch and headed towards the kitchen. Alona followed him, Sadie at her heels.

Kat stood up. "I'll make a pass at this and send it to you," she said. "How long do you want it to be?"

"Maybe a couple minutes," Chad said. "Not too long."

"I can do that. I checked out your comic after Alona told me about it. Looks interesting."

"I'm always free to talk more."

"Did Alona warn you about Chad?" Jared asked.

"Oh yeah," Kat said, laughing. "I'm prepared." She left the room, presumably to find Alona so they could leave.

"Thanks, Moose," Chad muttered, annoyed.

"I thought you were interested in Alona," Jared said.

"I am interested in all lovely ladies."

"Good luck with this one." Jared couldn't stop grinning at the thought of Chad putting the moves on Alona and her roommate simultaneously, and how both of the girls were likely to take it.

He went into the kitchen, where Alona had apparently given Harley and Sadie water and was now chatting with Kat.

"Thanks for the video," Jared said. "And for getting the dogs out of our hair."

"No problem," Alona said. "You meet some nice people that way." She patted both dogs on the head and went back towards the front hall, calling "Bye, Chad!" as she and Kat walked outside.

"Guess I don't have to walk the dogs now," Jared mused. "I should go to the gym. Or should I start on my homework?" Harley and Sadie ignored him. He figured he'd go to the gym now, and with the endorphins from that he'd have the energy to tackle his reading.

Kat sent them a preliminary video Tuesday morning, Chad sent her some notes, she sent a new version Thursday morning, and by Thursday afternoon Haro was an official Kickstarter crowdfunding project. Chad asked everyone he knew to help fund the book. Jared tried to be a little more selective at first - there was no point showering people with demands if they'd never read the comic and didn't care - but Chad's excitement and determination were contagious, and it was hard not to share that he might actually have a comic book in print. And he was, after all, categorically incapable of keeping anything this big and important a secret.

That night, in the lab, after sharing the Kickstarter project with his lab mates - twice, because he had to tell Danneel and Welling when he got there, and then Genevieve when she showed up later - he was so excited he forgot to be nervous and actually told Jensen Ross.

Jared's doing a Kickstarter project to fund his comic book, Jared texted the station in response to the nightly "What are you all doing?" question. It's called Haro and he's really fucking proud of it.

And much to his surprise, Jensen texted him back:

I think I've heard of it! Good luck!

Genevieve caught Jared looking at his phone like it had started speaking Swahili, and she giggled. He really was going to have to call this guy, wasn't he.

Thanks! he texted instead.

"Call and make a request," Genevieve told him.

"I thought of that," he admitted. "I'm too nervous."

Genevieve rolled her eyes. Danneel, who was apparently listening, laughed at him.

"You can talk to anyone at any time about anything," she said. "I've seen you do it. And you're nervous calling a DJ to request a song?"

"Yes?"

"Oh my god, Jared, you are the biggest dork ever." Danneel came over, picked up his phone, and held it out to him. "Call him."

"Ask for 'She Blinded Me with Science,'" Genevieve suggested. Danneel nodded in agreement and shook the phone at Jared until he took it and called the station.

"Jensen Ross, WBBR," Jensen said, and even though Jared wanted this, he was so startled to hear that voice on his phone speaking into his ear that he completely forgot why he was calling. "What's your need?"

Genevieve poked Jared in the side.

"Can I request a song?" he asked.

"That's what I'm here for. What do you want?"

"Uh. Shit. I forgot."

Jensen laughed. Jared's stomach flipped over in a way that made him feel like a fourteen-year-old girl after the cutest boy in high school smiled at her. Now he knew what it must have been like to be his sister as a teenager.

Danneel cocked an eyebrow at him and he smacked himself in the face.

"'She Blinded Me With Science,'" Genevieve helpfully reminded him.

"Uh, Thomas Dolby?" he said into the phone. "'She Blinded Me With Science'?"

"I can do that," Jensen said. "Don't sound so unsure. You make a request, I fill it. That's how this thing works." His voice sounded amused to Jared, like he was grinning at the phone. "You have a good night."

"Yeah. You too." He hung up.

"Dork," Danneel said, going back to her bench. Genevieve giggled and went back to her work as well.

Next up is a request for Thomas Dolby from an easily-rattled listener with a nice voice. 'She Blinded Me With Science' on WBBR.

Jared could feel his entire face heat up with the force of his blush. Jensen Ross the DJ thought he had a nice voice. He really needed to make more occasions for them to talk to each other.

On Monday, Dr Helfer called Jared into her office to ask him about his project, see how his experiments were progressing, and remind him about his thesis committee.

"The sooner you assemble a committee, the more we can help you," she said. "Have you given it any thought?"

Jared hadn't. Fortunately, Dr Helfer had some suggestions for advisors, all of whom Jared emailed as soon as the meeting was over. He liked Dr Helfer and thought he could learn a lot from being in her lab - even though most of what he'd learned so far was how to culture cells, and pretty much anyone could teach him that - but she knew how to put the pressure on.

"She got you too, huh," Genevieve said sympathetically in the lab that night. "This is how it starts. Next thing you know, you'll be getting regular emails asking for updates on your project, and if your experiments fail more than 40% of the time, she'll want to have a talk in her office."

"Is that what she's doing to you?" Jared asked. He'd thought it was pretty standard procedure for a certain percentage of experiments to fail, and not necessarily worth the professor busting your chops.

"Not yet. I ran into Rob, though, and that's what he said happened to him. But he also said he thinks someone's been sabotaging his project, so who knows." She shrugged.

"Rob's paranoid," Danneel commented from her bench.

"That's what I think too, but I didn't want to tell him that. He looked really stressed." Another shrug, this one accompanied by a sigh. "I get it. You'll notice I've been coming in earlier." It was only ten and she was already there when Jared showed up. He'd almost gotten used to her appearing after midnight, so this was a switch. "I can't believe it's only September and I already feel run totally ragged."

"It's almost October," Welling said helpfully from where he sat in front of the hood.

"Did you get my email about Haro?" Jared asked, to change the subject. It was a much less stressful conversation than how much Dr Helfer was demanding of them.

Besides, now he could tell Chad that he'd done his part in pimping. Because as much as Jared wanted to tell people about his web comic, and as hard as it was for him to keep it secret, he didn't love having to sell himself like this. All this deliberate self-promotion was more a Chad thing.

"I kicked in five bucks," Welling said.

"Eighteen," Genevieve added. "So I can get a book to read at my leisure." She winked at Jared and he grinned back.

"Twenty-five," Danneel said. "Ha."

"It's not a contest, Harris," Welling told her.

"I know that, Tomtom. I want a sketch."

"You guys are fast," Jared said. "Thanks. I almost mentioned it to Dr Helfer when she had me in her office."

"I would've liked to have seen her face when you did that," Welling commented. "I told Mike to kick in some bucks too. It's not Jamie's thing." Jamie was Welling's girlfriend and Mike was one of his housemates. Jared had met them both, and thought Mike was nuts but fortunately Jamie was a calming influence.

"Are you done with the hood yet?" Genevieve asked him. "I need to split my cells."

"Decontaminating. Keep your hair on."

The reason Jared preferred working the night shift was because there were fewer people using the equipment and just generally fewer people in the lab. And yet there was still always someone using the hood when you needed it.

Welling skipped out a little after one-o'clock and Danneel helpfully turned the radio on for Jared. He blew her a kiss. Genevieve took a short break to nap in one of the lounges. Danneel swore at the centrifuge. Jared took advantage of his downtime to work on the next comic book page, and kept an ear and a half on the radio for his favorite voice.

It's that time of night, ladies and gents. Check-in time. Let the DJ know he's not the only person awake time. I wish I had prizes to give you guys - tenth caller gets something, say - but they never give me anything. I guess everyone else at WBBR knows I'm the only person awake too. Let's take a break, maybe I'll think of something. In the meantime, let me know what you're up to.

"You're - what are you doing?" Genevieve asked Jared.

"Texting," he said, holding up his phone.

"'Jared is drawing his web comic and letting his fellow lab rats tease him,'" Danneel fake-quoted, craning her neck and pretending she could read the contents of his text.

"Pretty much." He grinned and put his phone back on the bench. "You don't need the hood, do you? I have to introduce a virus to a cell."

"A match made in Helfer Lab," Genevieve said. "I should tell Dr Helfer we're matchmaking the next time she calls me into her office to ask me what I've been doing."

Three ads and two songs later, when Jensen Ross the DJ ran down his list of what his listeners were doing, he got to "Jared's infecting cells with a virus" and added "Remind me never to piss you off." Danneel and Genevieve giggled, and Jared texted I only use my powers for good. :)

Danneel was leaning over Jared's shoulder when Jensen Ross replied So what good do you use your powers for? and before Jared could answer, she took his phone out of his hand, closed the text window, and handed it back.

"That means you should call him," Genevieve announced. Jared took the phone, swallowed his nerves - it was so much easier for him to make a fool of himself while talking to someone, as evidenced by his one attempt to call and request a song - and dialed.

It was the only way to shut the girls up. But he did want to talk to the DJ.

"Jensen Ross, WBBR. Speak and be heard."

This time Jared was prepared for Jensen's voice, and managed to tell him "I use my good for science" without stammering.

"What?"

Crap. "It's, uh, it's Jared, I was infecting cells with a virus? And you said never to piss me off? And I texted to say I only use my powers for good? And you wanted to know what good I use my powers for?" He wanted to smack himself in the face for being a dribbling idiot. Danneel was looking at him as if she kind of wanted to smack him too. He waved her away. He didn't want an audience if he was just going to embarrass himself.

"You're Jared the cell guy!" Jensen said.

That his favorite DJ seemed to know who he was surprised Jared enough that he actually pulled his phone away from his face and stared at it for a couple of seconds.

"Uh. Yeah?" he said. "How do you - "

"You always answer my 3:30 poll with 'Washing cells' or 'Growing cells' or 'Splitting cells' or 'Infecting cells' - I like that one - there are fewer people awake at three in the morning and listening to the radio than you might think, much less people who call in. So to speak. So I remember you."

Jared realized he was grinning like an idiot.

"I'll just leave you alone with your DJ," Danneel whispered, and exaggeratedly tiptoed to the other end of the lab.

"So what do you do, Jared the cell guy?" Jensen asked.

"I'm a second-year immunology grad student. It's all lab, all the time. But the classes are pretty interesting."

"And the lab is all cell massage and infections." Jensen Ross sounded like he was grinning. Jared saw Genevieve give him a thumbs-up.

"It's a lot of work. I mean, of course it's a lot of work, it's grad school, but it seems like you kind of do the same things over and over and any day now my PI is going to start breathing down my neck and I should be getting my thesis committee together and Jesus, I can't believe I'm bitching like this. Man, I'm sorry."

Jensen Ross just laughed. But it sounded to Jared like the kind of laugh that means someone thinks you're kind of cute, rather than the kind of laugh that means someone thinks you're kind of a dick.

"Take a breath," Jensen said. "No worries. What's a PI?"

"Principal investigator. She runs the lab. All of our projects tie into her research. Her name's Dr Helfer and I like her and she's really smart and I'm gonna learn a lot from her, but it's kinda stressful."

"Tell him about your comic," Genevieve hissed.

"Good idea," he told her.

"What's a good idea?" Jensen asked.

"The other thing I do!" Jared told the phone. "I mentioned it before, but I don't know if you remember. I'm not just your average goofball scientist in training. I draw a web comic called Haro. My friend Chad writes it. We're using Kickstarter to fund a trade paperback and I think we're actually going to hit our goal."

There was a moment of silence, and then "No shit! A friend of mine turned me on to that just last week. I'm still getting caught up, but I keep stopping to check out all the extras. You really draw that? You're good."

Jared felt himself blush. "Thanks," he said, glad that kind of thing couldn't show in someone's voice. "I love doing it. It's like school - challenging, but fun."

"I'll have to check out your Kickstarter. Tell me something, Jared the cell guy. Where are you from? I detect a hint of Texas."

"San Antonio! How'd you guess? Most people think, like, Georgia or Virginia, if they catch it."

"I grew up outside Dallas."

"Aha! A Cowboys fan!"

"Well, I kind of have to be, don't I?" Jared could hear his grin. "I like the Mavericks, too."

"I don't hear any Dallas in your voice."

"Broadcasting school kind of trained the accent out of me. If I'd stayed in Texas, maybe I'd have a twang."

"So why'd you come to Boston?"

"There was a job." Jared could picture Jensen Ross grinning a little, as if to say Why else would anyone move here? "My friend was working in a restaurant in Arlington. Seemed like a good idea."

"Do you like it?"

"Boston? Yeah. It's a nice city. Wish it didn't get so cold, though. Look, I gotta get back to work, but it's nice to hear your voice. Call me any time. Or text. Or both." Now Jared could definitely hear a smile in the DJ's voice.

"I have to tell you what I'm doing with my cells." Jared grinned. He could hear Danneel giggle over by the hood. He'd totally forgotten she was there.

"That too. I'll talk to you later." And Jensen hung up.

"Now was that so hard?" Danneel demanded.

"You didn't sound like a dork," Genevieve added.

"He knew who I was," Jared said. "He remembered that I always answer his poll with whatever I'm doing to my cells."

"You made an impression!"

"Yeah. I guess I did."

He didn't think it had even been long enough for Jensen Ross to remember his texts from night to night.

Part Three!