"Dr. Bozeman, Dr. ., meet Dr. Coleman," Dr. Ellison says.
A White man with tousled blond hair. He's wearing a dark sports jacket and lavender shirt with a large tan scarf tied around his neck.
"Call me Taylor," Dr. Coleman—Taylor—replies.
Darcy's eyebrows shoot up. "You started Repro."
"Yes," Taylor says. "I wanted to improve practitioners' access to tools and processes that before had been jealously guarded by practitioners instead of freely shared."
"Repro's stuff isn't exactly free," you murmur, earning a warning glare from Darcy.
"At least I'm glad you're helping us with the symposium," Darcy says. "And if you're Taylor, then call me Darcy."
While Darcy talks, you study Taylor. He's dressed in the understated fashion of a tech person with money: tailored lavender shirt, dark blazer, a modernist watch with a face the size of a poker chip. A striped tan scarf looped around his neck gives a hint of individuality and goes well with his pale skin.
"And you're Dr. .?" Taylor asks you.
"Bomomsay Clestenrogo is fine, thanks," you say.
Dr. Ellison says, "I'll leave the three of you to work. If you need me, I'll be in my office."
Next
You and Taylor join Darcy at the round table. Darcy wastes no time trying to seize control of the conversation. "I figured we'd start by—"
"Tell me about yourself," Taylor says to you. "How did you end up a professor here?"
Darcy doesn't like that. She coughs. "We should get right into planning. To make the most of your valuable time, Taylor."
Taylor considers Darcy. "No," he says. "Understanding who I'm working with is never a waste of my time. It helps me optimize my interactions."
"But—"
"You're next. Right now I'd like to hear from Bomomsay Clestenrogo."
"I'm not that interesting," you say. "What I'd really like to know is how you ended up founding Repro. That's the kind of success I'd love to have."
"You can look up my past interviews if you're curious," Taylor says. "Plenty has been written about me. Too much, really."
"Fair enough," you say. "Though I'm not sure what you want to know about me."
"Let me ask you questions, then. How did you learn about magic?"
"My parents were researchers."
"What do they focus on?" Taylor asks.
"Portals. Openings from one location to another." You swallow. It's not hard to say the next part, exactly, but it's not easy, either. "They vanished when I was a teenager."
"That must have been hard." The words are sympathetic, but Taylor says them matter-of-factly.
"Patterns can be dangerous," Darcy says. "That's why I'm glad Repro works to make them safer."
"I taught myself," Taylor says, ignoring Darcy's compliment. "I knew there had to be deeper rules to the universe than the ones they taught me in school, so I dug until I found them."