That's Vegas

bailey_icon.png kenneth_icon.png

Where: Corinthian

When: August 14th, 2010

What: Kenneth and Bailey have a couple drinks and make a plan.

It's nearing the end of summer, slowly but surely, and people are rushing to take their vacations while they can. As such, Vegas is a little more of a hustle and bustle, full of people around to gamble and drink and, yes, even marry. The chapel has been full of people, both intoxicated and not, who wish, require, and demand to be married for a multitude of reasons. One of the people working reception at the chapel today is none other than the latina woman that is Bailey Lincoln.

Dressed in business casual, wearing a light, three-quarted length sleeve, white shirt and dress pants, with pink high heel shoes, she toys with a heart shaped pendant being worn around her neck. Stepping out of the chapel and toward the lobby, she takes a momentary break, a breather from all the bustling energy of the chapel that requires her attention. And, as she walks, it becomes more and more apparent that she is walking with a limp, a limp that isn't hard to miss to anyone who happens to watch her walk.

Kenneth just happens to be walking into the lobby about that time, looking well-rested and happy, dressed about the same as usual: t-shirt, jeans, boots. It's not long before he spots Bailey and breaks into a smile. "Hi, there," he says, although he gestures to her leg, looking a bit more concerned. "Something happen?"

A glance is given to Ken. "Oh, hey Connecticut." Bailey responds, taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly. "Yeah, something happened. Vegas. Don't let it be said I didn't try to warn you about this place!" She gives him a slick smile. "Besides, wearing pink high-heeled shoes does nothing for my image. Which, of course, is a terribly terrible thing!" She snorts, letting out a little laugh. "But, working in the chapel, people seem to think that pink is related to getting married or something." She grins, knowing full well the connection between the two. "So, what brings you to this fair place today?"

Kenneth lifts his eyebrows. "Vegas, huh? That's a quick way of describing it… Are you sure you should wear those shoes if you're hurt?" He looks a little puzzled about the whole chapel thing. "Uh…I thought I'd get a drink."

"Yep. Vegas. Somebody wants something, they want it bad enough and…" Bailey makes a few stabbing motions, "or they go all…" she makes a few shooting with gun motions well making little 'pew pew pew' sounds, "or they people you up. They don't call this place Sin City just for the sex, drugs, and all night boozing." She shrugs. "Drink. I know a few things about drinks. If you care to come with me, I'll lead you to the 'ye old tavern'. Also known as the bar." She makes a little motion with her hand for him to follow her as she starts to lead toward said bar.

Kenneth follows Bailey toward the bar, though he looks like he doesn't know how to respond to her description of Vegas. "So…you just accept getting mugged?" he wonders on the way.

"I didn't just accept it. In fact…" Bailey shrugs, "Kinda tried to make a deal with the guy. But he had a few more advantages than just…well, you know…" She makes the gun motion and the 'pew pew pew' sound. "An advantage or two I wasn't aware of. If I had been, I would've been all: 'Here! Take it and leave me alone!'" She frowns. "It was the strangest thing." She shakes her head at the thought, wincing and making a little pained sound as she puts a little too much weight on her bad leg.

"Well, what did he take?" Kenneth wonders. "Your purse? Did he catch you in an alleyway, or what?" Maybe Ken's a little worried that the Strip might be more dangerous than he thought.

"Oh, no, nothing like that." Bailey says, waving her hand to both the purse and the alleyway comments. As they reach the bar, she waves down the bartender. "Hey, Lou, I'll have a cran and soda and Connecticut here will have…" She looks over at Ken. "Well, he'll have whatever he's having!" Once Ken makes his order, the bartender will go to make the drinks. "You'd probably not be interested in my story of woe, anyway. I mean, it only entails part of the underbelly of the city, is all." She gives him a very serious look for a few seconds before breaking out in a grin with a little giggle emitting from her. It's hard to tell if she's serious or not, sometimes. On the one hand, her leg is hurt and she quite proficiently pick-pocketed Ken's wallet the first time they met, so it could quite be possible that it has to do with some underbelly of the city. On the other hand, she just grinned and let out a giggle.

"Gin and tonic," Ken requests with an affable smile, then returns his attention to Bailey. "Are you crazy? Of course I'm interested!" he says. "I mean, as a friend /and/ because it sounds like quite a story!" So apparently, they're friends now.

"Oh, I dunno." Bailey seems hesitant. She heaves an over dramatic sigh before saying, "It really isn't that much of a story. But it leads back to the day we saw that shooting. Remember? I got knocked over, gambling chips falling all over the ground, and over arching scramble to get a bunch of chips? Well," she pauses to looking Ken over, almost suspiciously. "After that, later that night, I was digging through my pockets, finding my keys, when I came across this little thumb drive in my pocket. Didn't think much of it at first." In short order, the drinks are delivered, each to their respective owners. "Thanks Lou."

She gives the bartender a nod before turning back to Ken, lowering her voice a little. "So, I try to find out what's on this thumb drive, right? I'm curious. Only natural. Except, I find that it won't let me access any of the information. It's…encoded? Encrypted? Something like that." She takes a sip of her non-alcoholic drink. Can't drink booze when you're working, after all! "Anyways, I know a guy who knows people. So I call 'im up." Another sip is taken. "We have our meeting place, I go there, I'm the first one there. He arrives. At least, I think it's him." She shakes her head. "It wasn't him in the end. Some guy with a gun. Really wanted that thumb drive. When I dried to make a deal for selling the information on it, he shot me. Then…" She pauses, looking confused. "Well, then something happened that you wouldn't believe if I told ya!"

"Oh my God," Ken says, looking floored by the whole story. "This is the weirdest thing! I picked up a flash drive from the ground that day, and then an FBI guy came to my /apartment/!" he says, shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm sure I'll believe you. What happened?"

"Did…you give him it?" Bailey asks cautiously. She's curious, after all, as to whether he still has the thumb drive. "Well, this guy, he didn't identify himself as anything. Not FBI, not CIA, not Nevada State Trooper. Nothin'. But this is where it gets really crazy." She looks at him for a good long moment before saying, "Do you think it's possible that people can do things like…read minds or turn invisible or stuff like that?" She continues to speak in a quiet voice, so that nobody, especially not her coworkers, can hear her.

"Well, yeah," Ken says, bobbing his head. "I mean, he was FBI, he had a badge and everything, and he said it was evidence, so I gave it to him. Scared the hell out of me." He looks kind of skeptical when she mentions mindreading and invisibility. "Uh…I mean, I guess I don't know what's possible. Why?"

A frown crosses Bailey's face. "Damn. I really wanted to know what was on it. Now I guess I'll never know. Unless…" She laughs to herself, though the laugh does not contain even a trace of humour. "Anyway, I could've sworn that an invisible hand pried my fingers open and took the thumb drive from me." She holds up her hand to him, to stop any immediate rebuttles to say that it's not possible. "I know what I saw. I know what I felt. It was not the man with the gun. And I couldn't see anyone in front of me. As soon as whatever…whoever it was took it, the device disappeared into thin air." She takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly. "And as soon as that happened, the guy with the gun seemed satisfied and left."

"Wow, that's crazy," Kenneth says, shaking his head slowly. "I mean, I don't mean you're crazy, but… Well, who knows what happened?" he concludes. "Disappeared, huh. And you never found out what was on it, or who the guy was?"

"Come on, let's face it. You think I'm a bit crazy after that. If I hadn't seen what I've seen, I'd think it was crazy." Bailey states firmly, taking a sip of her drink. "God, I could use a real drink right now. But unfortunately, I'm 'on duty'." She rolls her eyes. "Of course I didn't find out who it was. If I had, I might've attempted finding him." She shakes her head. "Makes me wonder what was on that thing that was SO important that he was willing to shoot me. And what was up with that invisible person?"

Kenneth has a sip of his gin and tonic, tilting his head a little to one side. "I mean, I have no idea," he says. "I wasn't there, you know? Who am I to say what happened?" He shakes his head. "You should probably stay away from somebody like that if he's so dangerous."

"I'm surrounded by dangerous people every single day. I ain't scared. I could be shot at any other moment, even just in some cross fire by accident. It's the neighbourhood I live in, though. If I was gonna be scared off by one guy with a gun, I'd leave this town. Hell, I'd probably have to leave this country!" Bailey responds, shrugging and sipping her drink. "Hey," she says after a moment, "you remember the name of the FBI guy who came to see you?"

Kenneth lifts his eyebrows. "You sure are calm," he says, obviously impressed. He drinks down some more gin. "Oh, uh, yeah…" he says, pausing to think a moment. "Sure, Finnegan. Agent Finnegan."

"Yeah. Calm." Bailey says nothing more on that, not refuting it. Though she's definitely got a war waging inside her. "You know what I wonder? I wonder how this FBI guy, this…Agent Finnegan knew where you were and knew that you had that thing, the thumb drive. I mean, it was such a flurry of activity, how does anyone know anything about what went on that day? Let alone your identity and where you were when we didn't give statements to the police…" She downs the last little bit of her drink.

"I don't know," Kenneth says, lifting his eyebrows. "Do you think he was an impostor?" The thought seems to occur to him only now. "I mean…his badge looked pretty real, but…I guess he could've been anyone. Maybe I did the wrong thing…"

"What do I know? I've got a natural distaste for law enforecement types. Maybe it's just my paranoia sinking in." Bailey calls over Lou. "Another for me, please." He goes off to make it and she looks back to Ken. "I'm also naturally suspicious of anyone claiming to be one. But I haven't had a Disney Princess life the past few years." She shrugs. "That and now I really want to know what was on them."

Kenneth smiles just a little. "You don't like cops, huh?" he asks, and there's a note of sympathy or understanding there. "But yeah, if guys with guns and the FBI are out looking for these things, they must be important. But…what I don't understand is how you ended up with one of those drives to begin with. Did you pick it up?"

Bailey shakes her head. "No. Didn't pick it up. It's like I said before, just dug through my pockets that night, going for my keys, when I found it in my pocket. Strangest thing. Somebody must have slipped it in there without my noticing." She gives him a look of disbelief. "And believe me, it ain't no easy thing to pull something like that off on me." Her drink arrives, she thanks the bartender, and she takes a sip.

Kenneth frowns, shaking his head. "But who would plant it on you and why?" he wants to know. "I mean, what's the point? And why are there so many drives?"

"I wish I knew! If I'd had my way, and I'd actually gotten to see who I had wanted to see, then I might know now." Bailey says, sounding annoyed that things hadn't gone the way she'd planned them. "If I had a lead, I'd start following it." She tilts her head. "Though, I suppose this Agent Finnegan is somewhere to start. Maybe I know someone who knows something about him. Or knows how to find out something about him."

Kenneth smiles quickly. "I don't know how easy it is to find FBI agents, usually. Anyway, he's probably back in Virginia or wherever by now."

"If he was an FBI agent, which I suppose he is, then maybe he works from Vegas? They're bound to have an office here, right?" Bailey smiles widely. "Connecticut…how good are you at drawing?" She asks him curiously.

Kenneth shakes his head quickly. "I wouldn't know about whether the FBI has offices in Vegas," hes says. Then he smiles. "I'm not much of an artist." He has another sip of his drink. "Sorry."

"I suppose that's alright. I was gonna say, if you could, you should make a sketch of him. But that's okay." Bailey smile softly. "I wanna know what was worth shooting me for!" As she lifts her drink up to take a sip, her fingers seem to be grasping the glass tightly and her knuckles are…glowing?

"Sorry," Ken says again with another quick smile. Then his gaze trails down to Bailey's hand. "Are you okay?" he asks, lifting his eyes back to her face.

"To be honest, I just don't like being shot at. And I like to know why I'm being shot!" Bailey says, sounding even more annoyed. "I'm sorry. I just…wanna know, you know." She takes another sip, her knuckles still glowing slightly. "At least on the street, when you're trying to make due, I can understand it. People just want something to eat, or they're doing what they can to make money, because it's hard for them to get regular jobs. This, yeah I'm around people with guns all the time, but this…this I don't know what was on the device, so I don't know why I was being shot!" She just seems to be going around in circles in her explanation.

Kenneth isn't really listening to Bailey, because he's still looking at her hand. "Um…excuse me?" he says. "You… I think something's wrong with your hand."

Putting the drink down and moving her hand about so she can get a better look at it, Bailey takes a sharp breath in and covers her knuckles. "Hmm? My hand?" She furrows her brow, trying to look convincing at being confused. After a few seconds she starts scratching her hand lightly and shows it to Ken. "This hand? What's wrong with it?" It's not glowing any more, but she does seem to act a little nervous.

Kenneth cranes his neck to one side, then the other. "It looked weird," he says, glancing back up to Bailey's face. "Maybe it was the angle," he says, perhaps generously.

"Maybe?" Bailey lets out a little high pitched laugh. Taking Kenneth's free hand, she starts leading him away from the bar. "Lou, put his drink on my tab!" She calls out to the bartender. "And you are coming with me." She says to Ken quietly.

"Um, okay," Ken says, blinking a few times. He seems innocent, at least, and pretty bewildered as he lets Bailey drag him wherever she's aiming at.

Taking the him to a quieter spot in the casino, which a person wouldn't exactly think possible, Bailey turns to him and says, "Do you know why I think it's possible that a person can be invisible? It's not just because of my fingers being pried open by some unknown force, either."

"No, I don't know," Kenneth says, keeping his voice quiet and looking Bailey in the eyes. "What's going on?"

"Now, I can't prove that there are all that many others who can do…things. But I know I can do…" Bailey holds up her right hand and from it, slowly, a light begins to glow brighter and brighter. "Well, I can do this." She concludes after her hand is nearly as bright as a flashlight. "I thought I was alone out there. I hadn't come across others like me. But it some gun happy guy is out there, working with others who have abilities, I want to know who he is…and I want to know if that thumb drive contained anything about people who could do…other things." She says as, in the blink of an eye, the light from her hand seems to disappear completely, more quickly than it had lit up.

Kenneth watches everything that happens very carefully. He doesn't even have that dumb bewildered look on his face anymore. He nods slowly, finally looking back to Bailey's face. "That's…amazing," he says. "Could it be…dangerous for people like you if people found out?" His brow furrows a little.

"It used to be amazing to me. Now it's just a part of me. Who I am." Bailey mutters. "I dunno if it could be dangerous. Maybe. I don't even know how many more people like me there are out there. There could be hundreds or thousands who hide themselves from the public for all I know!"

Kenneth nods a few times. "It's surprising you don't hear about /more/ guys like the one you ran into," he says. "I guess being able to do weird stuff like that could really come in handy for a criminal."

"God, if I'd been able to turn invisible, I'd've been able to get away with ANYTHING and I'd probably…" Bailey eyes Ken. "Wait a minute…why ain't you more weirded out by this? I'd be super weirded out if I was in your place."

"I am," Ken says, shrugging his shoulders. "But, I mean…it's there. It's…really weird, but I just saw it, right? I know /I'm/ not crazy. I assume /you're/ not…"

"You're strange. But then, so am I." Bailey raises an eyebrow. "So, Connecticut, you see why, more than ever, it's important for me to find out what's going on? At first I was just curious to know what was on that thumb drive. But now I need to know if it has to do with people like me. People who can do things that other people can't."

"Yeah, of course I see," Ken answers, bobbing his head and looking back at Bailey's hand. "So do you want to meet other people like you, or…?" He gets distracted by another thought: "How do you turn that on, anyway? Just, like, think about it?"

"Find more people like me, find out how the hell this happened to me. I dunno. Anything. Anything and everything I can find. Assuming that's what was on it. But what do I know? I didn't get past calling my guy." She rolls her eyes, thinking back on it. "Yeah, all I do is think about it. I can control the intensity and strength of the light and I can localize it to a specific part of me, like my hand. But sometimes, especially when I'm angry or something, it seems to have a mind of it's own. I've got better control of it now, but sometimes it just goes off."

"Radiation?" Ken guesses. "Pollution? Too much genetically-modified food?" Wild stabs that don't do anybody any good. He nods thoughtfully. "I guess you never stub your toe in the dark… Does it hurt? To use it, I mean?"

"I think it's kinda like…you know lightening bugs? Or those freaky fish from the bottom of the ocean with them lights on their heads? I think it's kinda like that. I just control light on a bigger scale." Bailey shrugs. "It only hurts if I use it for a long time. You know how like…a lightbulb gets hot after a bit? It's sorta like that. My skin starts to get hot. Takes a while, depending on how much light I'm using, of course. How bright it is."

"Hot, huh?" Ken wonders, looking her over curiously. "You ever go to the doctor about it?"

"Why would I go to a doctor? I ain't sick. I can just…become a human lightbulb." Bailey looks at Ken strangely. "Plus, if I did that, I might start getting poked and prodded. I don't want that!"

"I don't know," Ken says, shrugging his shoulders. "A lot of people go to the doctor if something weird happens to them."

"This is weird, but I don't think no doctor is gonna help me with this. Not unless they happen to know about people who can do strange things." Bailey responds with a shrug. "No family doctor or any other that I know of has the experience to figure this out."

Kenneth bobs his head thoughtfully. "Have you ever in your life met anybody like you?" he wants to know. "I mean, that you know of?"

"Invisible person was the first time I've ever met someone who can do something strange." Bailey crosses her arms, almost defensively. "We're kinda the freaks of the human world, I guess."

Kenneth shrugs again with a mild smile. "Everybody's a freak, one way or another," he says. "At least what makes you a freak doubles as a flashlight."

"There's a few things it don't allow me, though. I don't allow me to read minds. And it don't allow me to find stuff out by wanting. AND it don't make me able to control people. So, I gotta find things out the old fashion way. Like finding out what was on them thumb drives we don't have any more." Bailey says firmly.

Kenneth nods once, then tilts his head. "So what are you telling me all this for? I doubt I can help you very much, unfortunately."

"Everyone is capable of doing something." Bailey gives him a tiny smile. "And sometimes it's hard to do things alone. I need someone to help me find out some information. If you're willing, I could sure use your help."

"That depends on what you want me to do," Ken replies, looking serious again. "I'm not exactly looking to get shot."

"I figure we'll make it up as we go along." Bailey tries to sound reassuring. "You could always call the FBI and ask for Agent Finnegan. Hmm? How does that sound? A phone call is hard to shoot somebody through!"

"How do you call the FBI and ask for a specific agent?" Ken wonders. "I'm guessing they probably don't let you just talk to any FBI agent you want if you're just some regular guy."

"I dunno. That's for you to figure out! Plus, he came to you for this evidence. Use that. Say it's about evidence he got or something. Like…maybe there's something you forgot that you need to tell him?" Bailey suggests, thinking aloud.

"I guess," Ken says, rolling a shoulder, "But I'd better think up something good, because I don't want to get nailed for filing a false report or obstructing justice or anything by calling in false tips."

Smiling sweetly, Bailey says, "I'll owe ya one. Big time. More than just drinks!" She says happily. "But for now, I should probably get back to work. People aren't gonna call themselves up to the chapel!" She grins.

"Okay," Ken says, though he sounds a little reluctant. "Stay out of trouble until you hear from me again."

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