During the break, White had been texting - and sure enough, Brown had arrived. 

A lot of people had the wrong idea about the colour brown; they regarded it as dull, uninteresting, associated with mud and muck. In truth it was one of the most complicated colours in the world and a rarity on Aevum where neon and chrome were in fashion. Brown has arrived wearing a white button-up shirt, pants, and the most interesting vest seen in weeks. 

Red was easy to define; a simple 225 on the colour wheel. Blue and green and orange were all creatures of saturation and you could find them all on the extremes. But brown was a figment that existed in a vast liminal space away from the fringes of the wheel. Some browns touched on purple, deep and rich and warm. Some browns touched on bright yellow, or descended into black. Pale and desaturated brown-greys were possible alongside rich skintones. The brown of the mountain and the brown of the rock, the browns that flashed with shards of orange like amber and the browns that drank the depths of freezing caves, the browns of shadows and wood as it burned. In her Sunday best, Brown comes out wearing a vest with as many tones as pockets; an outfit that is drab at first but close examination reveals an optical illusion where in places brown emerges in fine stitches of red and green overlayered, or in the contrast between the near quarter of the colour wheel by volume that her aspect dominates. She has her hair up in a leaking bun, her eyes like stone and wheat, prosperity and decay.

There's a frictionlessness to her, a polite and professional courtesy in greeting that transferred into a quiet and dedicated listening. She was an incredible listener, seeming to lack any thoughts of her own, letting her head be filled with words, instructions and knowledge without commentary. She does not interrupt or comment, nor will she unless spoken to directly. 

White hasn't left, but she's clearly been demoted. She's sitting still and paying attention because it's an act of courtesy and self discipline. Brown enjoys this for its own sake.