(no subject)
I had the brilliant idea to write this as a story told in a bar over drinks, but then I realized that the only person Len would tell any of this to would be Joe, and if both Joe and Len are having drinks, either Joe is working or they're in the back, so… listy brainstormy goodness!
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Leonard Aaron* Borden was born in Berkeley, California in 1968, and moved with his parents, the Doctors Borden, to Houston when he was 14. He's never quite forgiven them for this. However, seeing as his parents were staunchly in support of the war, and only stayed in Berkeley for the research labs on campus, he can't blame them too much for running when California got too expensive and the salary offers became too tempting.
Leonard will not talk about high school. At all**. He attended one, as was legally mandated, but he won't even admit which one. He left high school and home upon graduation, and has spoken neither about nor to his parents since. He's still not sure if they've noticed that he's not there.
For whatever reason (maybe his grades weren't good enough for full scholarships... maybe the program was appealing... maybe even with scholarships he could only afford in-state...) Leonard enrolled at UT Austin in 1986.
And that brings us to The Night Leonard Got Drunk.
Being the adorable social retard that he is, when Len asks out a girl in one of his classes, she laughs him off. His roommate, Tree the Hippie***, decides that what Len needs is a party, and drags the slightly depressed and very unwilling Borden to a nearby apartment building, where Len proceeds to become very drunk very quickly. In a moment of Madonna-fueled clever, Tree tells Len that he needs to get over this girl, and then kisses him.
Len likes it. At least, he thinks he liked it, but the hangover from hell that eats his head the next morning wipes away all certainty. So, logically, the only thing to do (after his lab partner sends him home with much water and some aspirin) is to confront Tree, point out that he seemed to enjoy the kiss, but can't really remember the details, and request an encore.
Tree obliges. Len gets an education. Yes, I will write this at some point. Promise.
I would detail more about how Len goes through school and becomes a researcher at UT, but I got my shiny piece of paper and got out. This whole grad school / assistant thing is foreign to my slaXXor lit-ness, so research must be done.
Yes.
A few character notes:
Len is at UT from '86 through '90, right at the height of the entitlement It's All About Me, trickle-down thing that makes me want to dig up Reagan's corpse and kick it. So everyone thinks that he's a coke-sniffing stock-trading whore-strangling business fuck, when really he is possessive (like Tenpou during the Li Touten thing), logical (like Hakkai v. Chin Yisou... hey, faulty logic is still logic!), and has no way to express nice happy thoughts (hence all the very good sex he and Joe have - tie bondage is love!).
I want to keep the cleaning-is-love thing going, too, so Joe is gonna end up scrubbing all those chrome surfaces in Len's apartment.
And some random quirks to flesh out the character (I love my new character-development book!):
Len would be a cat person if he liked small fuzzy animals
He has a secret passion for both Alice Cooper and Andy Bell
He, um... hates spinach. And American macrodraft (but can you blame him?)
Comments? Ideas? Porn?
*Named for the character in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, because Aaron is my muthafuckin evil superhero.
**No, not even if you ask nicely. There was no major trauma, no kidnappings or pregnant girlfriends. It was just high school, and he wants to forget it happened.
***Yes, I knew a Tree the Hippie. Yes, that was his birth name. Yes, he lived in a commune until he went to university. And yes, I only borrowed the name, and not the personality.
Edit: So Len here is only 28 in 1996. I'm betting that, while he takes over lecturing and whatnot, he's not yet a full professor. Intead, he's the whizkid researcher in physics, doing stuff with string theory and the Conservation of Matter in Multiple Realities, and stuff that involves big magnets that he can stick Joe to later... and, because it would happen, he keeps getting stuck teaching Rocks for Jocks (Geology 1) and Research Methods in Science (um, let's call that Applied Sciences 3) where he teaches stoners how to use the library. Is he working on his Masters? Is he just taking time to do research? Does he intend to become a full professor? Hell if I know - I just work here.