The students gradually resume their conversations. Gabriel gives a small wave to a knot of older students, who don't respond. It's not that they ignore him, it's that his presence doesn't even register with them.
"Dr. .!" Inez is on the other side of the table. Next to her, Erick has a mouth full of cookie. "They didn't tell me there'd be cookies and professors!"
You move to sit opposite them and gesture for Gabriel to join you. "It's a rare thing, like an eclipse. Hope I'm not interrupting."
"Not at all," Inez says. She turns to Gabriel. "Hi. I'm Inez."
Gabriel shakes her hand, but doesn't say anything.
"Gabriel and I were just talking about our research plan for the year," you say.
"Oh?" Inez says. "What'll you be doing?"
"Looking into feral patterns," you say. "Before I came here, I spent time researching what it took to subdue them, but I'd like to look into the transition between a docile and a feral pattern."
That gets Erick's attention. "So patterns can go wild?"
Even Gabriel is drawn out of his shell. "Wait, there's a transition point?"
"That's what I want to find out." You'd tried to convince Dr. Smith to follow this line of inquiry, but he was more interested in collecting and cataloging the patterns than understanding what made them change. "Many patterns are restless. But what makes some actively come at practitioners? And is there a gradation of responses?"
You walk through theories about feral patterns. Gabriel and Erick are totally here for your impromptu lecture, while even Inez is willing to listen. You reach the end of your explanation and realize that everyone in the room has fallen silent again. You're excited that everyone listened to you. Except that's not why they stopped talking.
They fell silent because Darcy's arrived.
Great. Just Great