A normal day for Angus Worthing went by with nary a thought past how much fun he was going to have. He'd think about his Static lectures and his arithmetic classwork, where he was going to take his daily jog and what sport he was going to play that day. On this particular day, however, all he'd been able to think about was Professor Moore and his moving pictures. There was such potential in it! Angus had kept waking up the night before, full of ideas and questions and occasionally, the horn.

He was not the kind of guy to get enthusiastic about school, he was almost getting worried about it. He wondered if he was suffering from some sort of mental illness. He was standing in front of Moore's door, for Alioe's sake. He wasn't going to knock. He was going to resist all signs of academic interest. He didn't want to become a brain, he'd never get to go outside and feel the sun on his face again.

He knocked.

"Damnit." He muttered to himself, smoothing back his hair. He sighed in annoyance and then straightened his back and fixed a friendly though mischievous grin upon his face.

The door opened after a moment, but the person - or persons - it revealed bore little resemblance to Professor Moore.

"Triston, I told you it's-"
Frederick looked confused. Obviously he'd been expecting someone else. Actually, it would almost be accurate to say he'd been expecting anyone else.
"-okay... oh."
He was wearing uniform pants under a tan tunic. On one shoulder was a towel. More importantly, in his arms was a tiny doll. A very lifelike tiny doll that waved it's arms and made little gurgling sounds.
"Hi, Angus."
At least I'm not wearing fuzzy slippers.

The baby made a slightly dissatisfied sound, one that Frederick had learned was often a precursor to crying.
"Nah,nah, Nanabo."
He rubbed little Horation's back.

"Is there, er, something I can help you with?"

Fred's confusion was mirrored on Angus' face, which quickly lost all traces of it's previous protective layer of bravado. A baby? Fred's or Moore's?

"Uh, hello Frederick..." Angus said, groping for conversation. "I, uh, like your baby. Is it yours or the Professor's? Didn't know he was married."

Angus' heart sunk like a little paper ship with a hole in it.



"I'm now wondering if the opposite is true." Angus said truthfully, he didn't know much about babies but he'd always liked them. "I was looking for Professor Moore, if he was about."

Angus held his little finger out for the baby to grasp and made some cooing sounds. It made him immediately appear more natural and human than he often did. Usually Angus strode along trailing a cloud of affectations that brazened and protected him. He let it down rarely but most frequently when around children.

"What's the little guy's name? Or her name?" He asked, voice turning quizzical.

Angus appeared to like babies, and that raised him up a bit in Fred's opinion.

"His name is Horation. He's not mine, nor is he Professor Moore's exactly. The little guy's mom died shortly after he was born and since the Professor was a friend of hers, he decided to help find Horation a home. For the time being we're sort of caring for him in shifts."

"Although I'll tell you a little secret: I do think Moore's attached to the little 'un. It's just babies and research don't mix too well."
If we ever do manage to find a home for Horation, I'm not sure how Moore will react...

"So if you haven't come to poke fun at me playing nanny, I guess you'll want to head over to Professor Moore's lab. I think he's conducting some tests. Are you trying to get some research credits?"

It seemed unlikely to Frederick, but he honestly couldn't think of another reason for Angus to be there.

Angus' face fell.

"That's horrible, poor little guy..." Angus was filled with respect for Frederick and also even more admiration for Harper.



Angus sighed, just slightly dreamily. Poor Moore, trying to balance university life and raising a child. Such a cute kid too. Angus's rather sizable soft spot made some room for him.

"Hello, Ratio, I'm Angus!" Angus said quietly, before tuning in to what Fred was saying again. "Something like that... I wanted to talk to him about the moving pictures thing. It's really got me thinking."

And it had, even if some of the thoughts had been about how cute Moore was when he got flustered.

"Do you think he'll mind if I pop by?" Angus asked, not really wanting to antagonise the man by interupting him while he was busy.

"The moving- ah yes. Maybe you can convince him to go for the patent with that before someone else steals it. Even if he only sells the rights later, it could still be a source of income for his current work."
Fred sighed.
"If he had his own funds, he'd be less obliged to chase the politicos for support."

"I don't think he'll mind, but if he's in the middle of something you may want to keep it brief. He's feeling pressure to show some results soon, so he might be a bit moody."

Before he let Angus go, there was one last thing to settle. Fred's lips curled into a cryptic smile.
"By the way, you still owe me dinner."
He hadn't been intending to try to "collect", but Angus was turning out to be quite the surprise.

Angus pondered this. He was very good at getting support. There were always lots of people at his football games, maybe he could help.



Angus smacked his fist onto his open palm, a picture of youthful resolve.

"Keep it brief, right!" He said, not wanting to keep it brief at all but feeling better for being prepared.



Angus smirked at that, surprised that a man holding a baby in his arms could still try to wheedle his way into a date. He bit his lip and gave him a mischievous look.

"If you want to ask me out, you should just ask me out." He said, smiling, voice flirty. "Picking me up off the floor is worth a free lunch, tops."

Casual courtship was something that Angus had always loved. Hanging out and getting to know someone, without any of that ridiculous pressure to make some sort of political tie. Fred was pretty hot too, in a short kind of way, and Angus did love to be chased a little. Ever since that incident with the captain of the boys' rowing team... Well, he was much more comfortable with how things were now.

"Bye, Ratio!" Angus said, waving his fingers, he turned a heated stare on when he looked at Fred. "Bye, Wildboy."

His amusement and good humour were obvious. He sauntered out of Moore's office with a practiced, though casual-looking, slouch. He didn't do anything as obvious as winking but he did give Fred one last backwards glance as he left the office. He smiled to himself as he walked down the corridor to the lab. Flirting was such fun. He hadn't thought Fred would be up for it, he'd even resolved not to do it so much because he thought it might get taken the wrong way. Apparently not!

By the time Angus knocked on the door to the lab, he was humming happily under his breath.

The knock took Professor Moore by surprise.

He was lying on his back in the MAT chair, and needles as long as his middle finger were sticking out of his bare chest and arms. The machine beside him cranked, whirled and hissed as the pumps recorded tiny electric pulses; he had been slowly directing small, controlled bursts of electricity into the machine to work the engine. Needless to say, it was not a good position to be interrupted in.

"Er, who is it?" he called out politely.

"Angus, uh, Angus Worthing? I was at one of your lectures the other day, did a Fulmination spell?" Angus wondered if this was his cue to open the door, he slid it open a crack. "I was wondering if I could talk to you, unless it's a bad time."

Angus' breath caught at the sight of Moore topless. Galdori were so tied down by formalities that he usually only saw wicks or humans shirtless. Even then only in the Stacks. He decided it was time to start a movement. His eyes caught on the needles in Harper's skin and an entirely different emotion welled in him. It was like seeing someone on a dissection table, pinned down like a butterfly. Angus didn't like it at all.

"What the clock?" He said, forgetting himself and then slamming a hand down over his mouth.

Angus went red in embarassment. He rallied.

"My apologies, Sir, I was surprised." Angus' face lost its usually larrikin glimmer, replaced by seriousness. He bowed to Moore, hoping not to offend him further.

"Hey hey hey hey hey," said Harper as Angus opened the door, trying to stave off the inevitable. He winced, seeing the boy's reaction. Well, of course it looks strange to him, thought the professor. He was stuck like a pincushion and half naked. It wasn't exactly the usual way of doing teacher/student meetings.



"Er, it's all right," said Harper, not making any move to get up. Fantastic, he thought. Now my data is useless. The extra stimuli would have affected my field, and now it's going to come out with too much chatter... his mind whirred as he went through the list of possible mistakes in his head.

Realizing he should probably act like a normal galdor for once, he began pulling out the needles. There was no blood, as he'd been quite careful; it was easier to give yourself acupuncture treatment than it was to cast spells on yourself, interestingly enough. He kicked the MAT's on/off lever with his left foot, and the machine shut down with a disappointed sigh and a cacaphony of cranking sounds.

"I was just running an Axial Monic Topography test," he said, sitting up and grimacing as his back adjusted from an hour spent lying down. He didn't seem upset with Angus, or embarrassed, just a little preoccupied as usual. "Come in. I suppose Frederick told you I was down here..."

Angus realised what he'd done and wished the ground would open up and swallow him. If he'd been a better student he might have been able to ask the mona to do it for him. He'd clearly interrupted something important. That or some new kind of masochist self love.



Angus got caught in Moore's moment of introspection. His long-standing crush seemed to be entirely fueled by how single-minded the man could be. It was like he went somewhere else and while Angus doubted he understood, he wanted to know what it was like. He admired his dedication to his work, in the face of criticism and mean-spirited people. Angus was not an academic by any means but he had been raised by them. He had been taught to value diversity of opinion.

He also had a thing for glasses.

"He did... He warned me that you might be busy though, so the barging in is my fault entirely." He said, rubbing the back of his head self-consciously. "I met Horation, he's a handsome little fellow."

Angus cleared his throat and tried to focus. He'd seen naked men before, many of them and this was only half of one. By most standards, not even the most interesting half.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you about your moving pictures idea..." He asked, lamely.

He had been in the process of buttoning his shirt, but when Angus mentioned the moving pictures device, it was as though a light switch had gone on in Professor Moore's head. He grinned widely and all thought of his state of dress was forgotten.

"Really! Well! This is a lovely surprise. I thought you might want to complain about a grade I gave you." This seemed to remind him of something, because he scratched his head and added, "Then again, there's something odd. You're the fellow who did the electrical demonstration for me, aren't you? But when I looked to give Angus Worthing a top mark for the day, you weren't on my books. Are you a new student, by chance?"

"No, nev-not at all." Angus said, regaining some of his steam again. "I deserve any marks I get, honestly. I thought that demonstration was fantastic!"



Angus grinned and laughed a little self-consciously. His hand was still resting on his neck, giving him a bit of an 'aw shucks' kind of look. He bit his lip and looked down, smiling around it and looking entirely unrepentant. He couldn't see any point in lying, it'd just get picked up right away since he was crap at it.

"Yes... About that..." He said, wondering if he was going to get kicked out of Moore's office for wasting his time. "Uh... I don't actually take that class, I just go to the lectures. I think they're interesting."

Which he did. Just not always in an academic manner, though he had learned a thing or two since starting to attend.

Harper looked as though no one had ever given him such a compliment in his entire life. He turned beet red and rolled his eyes a little, obviously very flattered.

"You can get in trouble for that, you know," he chided Angus, "but as it is, as long as you're not forcing anyone out of their seat, you're welcome to sit in anytime. As so few of my students come to me seeking extra information, I'd be a fool to say otherwise."

He finished buttoning his shirt and scratched his head.

"Now, where did I leave that thing?" he asked himself. "Ah, yes, it's in my closet upstairs. I have a miniature darkroom setup, and a paper screen for projections. I was trying to figure out how to record something live-action, but I'm afraid there isn't a camera spectra in the world that takes spectragrams fast enough. Come with me."

The professor took his coat and strode to the laboratory door. As he went, he pointed a finger at each of the phosphor lamps, and they dimmed to a dull glimmer.

A lek of amorous butterflies spontaneously came into being in Angus' stomach. He felt validated in his desperate crush on the older man. Angus wanted to compliment him every day, just so he'd get to see Harper pleased and flustered again. He was well aware that he couldn't try for it any other way, not without getting himself expelled and ruining a career...



Angus was heartened by Harper's words but considerably disappointed that his shirt was now fully buttoned again.



"Really? Excellent!" Angus said, having partly feared that Moore might have put the thing in storage already. "Fred thinks you should patent that, you know. I agree with him, it's such a clever idea."

Angus matched Moore's stride, oscillating between excitement over the projector and playing with the word "darkroom". Angus liked the idea of being able to record things, having a solid account of events. It appealed to him in the way Static magic did. It was very definite, not as fragile or capricious as a truly living thing. Not that life didn't have its own joys. Angus was just aware of his interests and his own personality. He rushed in where the gods feared to tred.

"Professor Moore?" Angus asked, as another, newer thought occured. "Would they have to be spectragrams?"

"I suppose they could be engravings, too," he answered as they approached his office door. "Anything we can project from."

He opened the door and stepped inside, greeting Frederick distractedly and giving Horation a little pat on the head as he passed by to get to his closet. It was a cramped little room, but surprisingly empty given the chaotic state of the office; there was a projection sheet set up on the far wall, and the motion picture machine was resting on a stand that would have normally been used for a telescope.

"See, at first, all I was able to produce was a blurry image," he said. "As the frames were dragged by the light source, it was impossible to see them clearly. That's when it came to me. I opened up the film gate and installed a small circle of dark metal. It's attached to the motor, so it flicks back and forth while the film is moving. The eye doesn't notice. It's an optical illusion! Just like persistence of monic equilibrium causes us to ignore transitions in our fields, persistence of vision causes our eye to seek out a continuous, moving image!"

He seemed quite excited as he bundled into the small space between the projector and the side wall. "Theoretically, it's possible to do anything with this. But why did you ask about the spectragrams? Did you have an idea?"

Frederick was reading to Horation, actually it was mostly singing. It was an old wick variant of the Lone Starwatcher. His childhood friends' mother had embellished the story with many songs and was more sensitively geared towards the spokes and their wandering natures.

He faltered for a moment, slightly embarrassed to be "caught" singing. He nodded to the professor and Angus and resumed - at a slightly lower volume. He turned the page of his ragged handwritten booklet. It was the part of the story where the tiger chased the bird in the heavens. The young Fred had thought that Vespeth referred to his family when he first learned the story. Now he knew better and the memory brought a smile to his face that was apparent in his voice. Still, he seemed perhaps a little more tired than usual. At any rate, he did not have the heart to stray from his story and pay attention to what the professor was demonstrating.

"Hello Fred, hello Ratio." Angus said as he entered the office again, though with slightly different intonations.

Horation recieved the kind of voice that adults direct at puppies, it had a kind of waffle to it that no sensible person ever mustered. Fred might have noticed that the flirt had gone out of Angus' voice upon greeting him. He usually avoided hitting on people when a professor was around because it tended to look very, very weird.



Angus had approximately no idea what Moore meant. Something to do with flickering disks and sight. His enthusiasm was easier to get behind.

"Well... I was thinking... What about pictures? Could you use a picture instead?" He went a little red, anticipating getting shot down by someone much smarter than he was. "It would be easier to draw a lot of pictures of a person running than to try to get some spectragrams of someone doing it."

Harper stared at Angus as though he'd never seen him before.

"That's brilliant," he said, slapping his forehead. "I didn't think of that...I can't even draw a stick man. But if you could draw very small images onto the film strip...or, transfer a larger picture with light..."

He whipped around and pulled down a hanging scroll. It was covered in a maze of mathematics and calculations and scribbles; Angus could see very easily why Professor Moore had decided to keep this in his closet.

Running an index finger down a line of Monite-inscribed Quantitative measures, he found a blank spot and pulled a quill from his pocket. He scribbled a small note in the sparse, obfuscated, scratchy block capitals that are employed by mad scientists and small children.

MOVING DRAWINGS

"You could draw...er...a dog..." Professor Moore was clearly quagmired in his own fascination at this point, and was barely editing his thoughts at all. "Running in circles." He made some hand motions that looked nothing at all like a dog running in circles. "Oh, I'll leave the creative bit to you."

Angus' face lit up, his usual assuredness replacing his previous desire to impress. This was exciting! It'd be like a stage play only one person could do it!



Angus laughed. It was a pleasant laugh. Deep and warm, drawn from how surprised he was that his day was going so incredibly well.

"I believe you're over-estimating my artistic ability, Professor!" He said, happiness bordering on the gleeful. "I'll give it a solid gold crack though!"

Angus watched the cogs whirl in Moore's mind with undisguised interest. He'd never had a mind that moved like lightning, dashing from thought to thought. This project was probably going to be the only truly interesting thing he was going to touch in his life, unless he managed to break free of Vienda and actually travel like he'd planned to.

"Um, how should we go about testing this?" He asked, trying to pull himself from his thoughts of the future.

"Why, we create some drawings," the professor replied. "They don't have to be very good, as long as they appear kinetic when viewed sequentially. I can try to transfer them onto the film in the same way I transfer etchings, one after the other. Do you think you could produce a series of small drawings? The motion picture I had in class was moving at about twenty frames per second, so for a five-second picture we'd need a hundred images."

This seemed to the professor like it would take up a great deal of Angus' school time, so he added, "Perhaps you could get your friends to help? I've seen no end of young people drawing in my lectures when they should be paying attention."

Angus was, conveniently enough, a doodler. His margins were full of little pictures of cartoon dogs and people play football. They also contained flipbooks.



"I most certainly can!" Angus said, not actually believing for a second that any of them would be interested in drawing that much. "That is a problem these days, isn't it? Disgraceful."

Angus tried to make as much of a disgrace of himself as possible.

"How big should they be? I can go out and buy some loose paper today, start work tonight. Too easy." Angus said with a smile.

This was actually beginning to sound like an awful lot of fun. Angus was always busy with physical tasks. Being able to do something new was a welcome change and a challenge he could throw himself into.

"No larger than a sheet of book paper, if you please," he advised. "I have to fit these into my spectragram transfer machine. It's a blessing that the Arts Fair is over; we can make full use of the projectors in the Archives! Once we've tested this, Angus, we should have a showing."

He was like a child in a toy shop, not giving a moment's thought to patents or making money, just experiencing the sheer delight of creation.

"Come visit me again when you have them finished." He cocked an eyebrow sarcastically. "Only...do knock first, will you?"

Angus was excited by that thought. If they could do one show, maybe everyone could start doing them! It would be a whole new form of entertainment. Angus loved to be entertained.



Angus forgot himself for a moment. For one short second he forgot that Harper was one of his teachers and not one of his friends. His enthusiasm had shifted Angus into a more casual part of his personality.

"Aw, Professor, where's the fun in that?" Angus grinned like a naughty little kid. "Alright, I'll knock next time... I'll get those drawings done soon."

Angus shifted away and out and back into Moore's office. He waved goodbye to Fred and Horation, then was out the door and gone. He was making a beeline for his room, already planning what to draw.