[IC] Worlds of Fire

[RogerBW]

As far as Gabrielle is concerned, this is a strange business. She's managed for a while by keeping her head down. But caution is a wearing habit, and surely it can't hurt to play things straight just once...

Gabrielle is a tall woman in her mid-forties, cafe-au-lait skin and dark brown hair currently worn straight and above the shoulder. She could be pretty stunning if she held herself just a bit differently, but something about the way she moves whispers "don't notice me, look over there at that other person instead". She's wearing casual clothing, perhaps a little warm for the time of year, and carrying a small backpack with something else (maybe three feet long and two inches wide, in its own bag) sticking up from the top of it.

She orders coffee with too much sugar and cream - clearly not any sort of coffee snob, and apparently not too worried about her figure either - and joins the stranger at his table - sitting with her back to a wall, and scanning the room every few seconds.

"Thank you for the invitation - I suppose. I'll save my questions until after your introduction - but let me put you on notice that I have a lot of them."