Castle Gulch

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Oh really now. Maybe I should see about just how clever he is." she chuckles.

[Genevieve Fontaine]

"Watch your wallet if you do. He's a shifty one," she laughed.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Shifty, you say." she chuckles. "Well, thanks for the warning." she says as she heads towards the Saloon alongside Genevieve to seek out Mr. Fontaine.

[Vincent LaRue]

Mr. LaRue had quickly taken his seat at a table in the center of the saloon, where a card game was ongoing. That hadn't taken long. He was smiling, shaking hands with the (rather nonplussed) locals, whose attitudes seemed to become much more intrigued when he pulled out a bag with a fairly hefty collection of silver dollars in it, asking to be dealt in.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Room for one more?" she asks, stepping up to the table.

[Vincent LaRue]

"So long as your money's good, so's our hospitality," LaRue said gesturing to an empty chair a couple seats down from him. "I was just introducing myself to our new friends here -- the name's Vincent LaRue, inventor and scientist, fresh from New Orleans and, prior to that the Continent," he said, with a slightly disguised Cajun accent. "Please, join us. The more the merrier," he said, riffle-shuffling the deck of cards.

Behind them, Genevieve had headed to the bar, smiling and leaning over the bar at the bartender, while the dark man in the dark hat frowned and retreated back into his own drink.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Ashlie Minamida." she says as she sits down and takes some coins from her pocket to set down in front of her. "I'm something of a scientist myself. What brings you all the way out here, Mr. LaRue?"

[Vincent LaRue]

"Land of opportunity, isn't it?" he said, expertly riffling the cards. "Plenty of room for an ambitious man to make a fortune or three."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Certainly seems to be a going concern 'round these parts. Not that I can fault anyone for an entrepreneurial spirit but I much prefer research and development for the betterment of all. Money is just a frustratingly versatile tool." she laughs.

"So, what are we playing?" she asks. If she was more cunning or cared about money it'd almost seem like she's setting up to be playing the fool when she's really just being genuine.

[Vincent LaRue]

"Well, they were playing faro when I came in, but I've convinced them to try out draw poker for a change. A little bit of riverboat living out here in the West and all that," he said, shuffling and dealing the cards.

"And, well, one can never have enough money, can you? They say you can't take it with you, but that hasn't stopped many people from trying."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Though yet uncertain if any of them managed." she says, picking up her cards. Hold'em would favor her more in terms of calculating win probabilities but surely it'll still serve her well enough.

[Vincent LaRue]

"Hard to test, yeah? Not many people out there willing to say they've come back from beyond the grave, and here's my fancy hat to go with it," Vinnie said, tossing some chips into the middle of the table. "Though that's never stopped the tales."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Assuming they didn't graverob themselves I'd have a lot of questions about that fancy hat and where it came from." Ashlie says as she matches the ante.

[Vincent LaRue]

Vinny chuckled to himself. "An...interesting theory you have, there.

So what DOES bring you to Castle Gulch, again?" he asked, eying Ashlie carefully.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Surveying the area for the possibility of a railway." she says without missing a beat. She might be fully flesh and blood at the moment but it seems her years of using lies as her one piece of leverage against her own code translated over. And she still has half a mind to actually see if she can get tracks put down somehow.

"And it's bit of an excuse to get out to the frontier and get a feel for it. Figure people here are less likely to frown upon unorthodox approaches than back east." she says without clarifying just how far east. She checked and she retained her intentionally vague blend of east-asian features.

[Vincent LaRue]

"And where, exactly, would this railroad go? I suspect you'd have to be... surveying all around the countryside, wouldn't you?" he said, putting quite a bit of weight on the word 'surveying'. "Or perhaps you've already heard of a good spot -- had one in mind before you came, even? You and your...unorthodox approaches."

The damn man was implying something, that was for sure.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I am looking for something else out here." she admits. "And as much as I want to say it's not anybody's fortune, what I'm looking for could well be hidden treasure. I have a friend with a propensity to lose himself in the strangest of roles."

[Vincent LaRue]

"I am looking for something else out here." she admits. "And as much as I want to say it's not anybody's fortune, what I'm looking for could well be hidden treasure. I have a friend with a propensity to lose himself in the strangest of roles."

"I'm not entirely sure I follow you, stranger. But if you're looking for someone out here, then we've probably come out here on the same trail."

Vinnie was playing his cards close to his chest, both literally and figuratively, but it was hard to keep someone with his...personality...quiet for long. "So, if you're out for the person who hid the treasure, then the treasure itself...no real meaning to you, then?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"There's an outside chance that my friend has been... mistaken for the treasure, believe it or not, but no, I'm not after any riches." she says as she puts down two cards to exchange. "Truth be told, I'm at a bit of an impasse because this friend is a master of disguise and suffers from a peculiar case of amnesia so neither of us might recognize the other."

[Vincent LaRue]

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow. Mistaken for the treasure? Maybe I'm just not picking up what you're putting down there, ma'am."

Two more cards exchanged. Good, if not perfect: Ashlie now had two pair!

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You've heard talk of skinwalkers outside town? Folk so in tune with the nature of an animal that they can take on it's form? Imagine the self-same but for a table, a piano, a carriage even." she says as she puts in a couple more coins to raise the bet.