(Untitled)

[gabriel_tam]

Regan is at a meeting, and thus the New Mayfair house is quiet when he arrives home-- early, for once.

On impulse, Gabriel sorts though the evening news before selecting the Finance Journal and the Londinium Times. With both in hand, he focuses and steps through the doorway into Milliways

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[a_horne]

Not too far away: a young lady, standing by the window. Eventually her hand falls, and her head comes up, and both her feet are firmly on the ground.

Audrey Horne has a good understanding and a firm foundation. So the saying goes.

She turns, slowly, leading with her hips (it's a night to feel things, to disturb guests with racket, to move simply, sinuously, neatly, to the music of the spheres that nobody else wants to hear) --

And stops when she sees Gabriel, startled.

[gabriel_tam]

He turns a page of the paper-- and as he does, Gabriel catches sight of the young woman staring at him.

He offers her a cordial smile, of the sort that is perfectly correct for use in a variety of business and political settings.

"Nĭ hăo."

[a_horne]

Walls up.

"I'm sorry," Audrey says politely, "I didn't quite catch that."

She did, of course. Josie Packard. Josie Packard, and Benjamin Horne, and living at the Great Northern. Plenty of businessmen in and out from the East, on the West Coast.

[gabriel_tam]

"Hello," he repeats, switching languages smoothly. "It's Mandarin. Don't be concerned, miss; not all that many do here, I've found."

[a_horne]

"It seems like everybody here does something out of the ordinary." She reaches out her hand and touches the mantel, slowly, and lets her hand fall away.

Audrey's eyes flick back to him. "Mandarin. Chinese, right?"

[gabriel_tam]

"Truer words were never spoken," Gabriel agrees dryly. "The clientele here is quite distinctive, I've found. Are you a new patron, then?"

He adds, "And it's Chinese, yes."

[a_horne]

One of her shoelaces is untied, she notices -- and ignores, for now.

Distinctive clientele, he says.

Huh.

"It's like I have a sign on my back or something." With something that's almost a laugh. "The way everybody can just...tell."

[gabriel_tam]

"I wouldn't call it that," he reassures her. "I suspect it's more that people here get a sense of those they might expect to see, for all that this is a large place."

"And I'm afraid I've been remiss in courtesy." He folds the paper and stands, offering her a slight bow and then an outstretched hand.

"Gabriel Tam."

[a_horne]

Remiss in courtesy, he says.

All right.

Audrey can play the game.

She smiles at him as she puts her hand out (as a Horne does), lily-white and ladylike, and her handshake is perfectly firm, in perfect form. "It's a pleasure, Mr. Tam. I'm Audrey Horne."

[gabriel_tam]

"The pleasure is mine, Miss Horne." He gestures at a seat across from him, adding,

"Would you care to join me? If you're new here, I'd be happy to answer questions, if you have any."

[a_horne]

It's a way to refine her game without consequences.

"Thank you." Audrey sits, delicately. "I don't know where to begin." Beat.

She leans in.

"There's a...thing. With stars in his eyes, and he says he's Dream." Beat. "Do you know him?"

[gabriel_tam]

He shakes his head.

"I'm afraid I'm not acquainted with him." There's a pause, in which Gabriel remembers a woman with red hair and strange eyes, and a fanged purple butterfly, before he shoves it away.

"Quite a name to choose, that."

[a_horne]

Audrey's head tilts.

"Do you think he chose it? I mean, I didn't choose mine."

[gabriel_tam]

"I couldn't venture to say."

Gabriel smiles.

"But if not, then I suppose it might have been something of the fashion of the time and place to prompt his parents to choose it."

[a_horne]

"He said Destruction was his younger brother and Death was his older sister."

Lips curve, slowly.

"His parents must have had a thing for the letter D, huh."

[gabriel_tam]

"It seems so."

Gabriel nods to his own drink, then asks,

"Can I get you anything, Miss Horne?"