Joshua Graham's Trip to the City of Sin

Part 8: Old Places, New Faces

The second section of The Strip was quite similar to the first, although it was clearly more densely packed. Gamblers and tourists from all over the state with their gelled hair, new suits, elegant dresses and all thinking they're the luckiest sons o' bitches on the playing field were walking around, travelling from one casino to another.

One thing's for sure though...

All were new faces to Carrie. Despite being necessary to keep New Vegas running, she didn't quite like the idea of stealing a person's fortune right from under their nose and tossing them out into poverty. It's the whole reason she funded Farkas' campaign, after all. Bill Ronte and Jacob Hoff were a major help too, and, surprisingly, so were the Garret Twins, the proprietors of the local bar in Freeside,

The Atomic Wrangler

That place was Carrie's favourite place to go for a quick drink. Mostly because James, the brother of the two, had once asked her to find a sex bot for his "clients" though he quickly assured her it totally "wasn't so he could use it on himself."

Carrie wasn't one to kink shame so she left him to his own devices, but not before testing the bot on herself first before delivery, of course. It was...numbing...to say the least.

Anyway, she wanted to show Joshie how capable she was for....some reason. She wasn't quite sure why she felt like she needed to show off to him, out of necessity, she guessed, but she surmised that Joshua would finally realise she could be responsible and maybe...see her differently.

"Fucking hell...I need a therapist." She thought to herself. "Wonder if Mitchell's a licensed psychologimagist or whatever it's called."

Joshua, meanwhile, was still thinking of Carrie's inconsistent strength. Actually, he was thinking of more than just that. All of her attributes seemed to vary wildly depending on the circumstances.

One time, she bragged about being able to rip off the hands of a deathclaw from The Divide using her "cyberspine" as she called it, to achieve that. Joshua thought it was another nonsensical rant by the severly inebriated Carrie but at one point, he swore he saw the glimpse of a Deathclaw's hand in her pack, repurposed into a gauntlet, akin to the Yao Guai claws the Sorrows use.

She also could formulate perfect battle plans and be able to improvise on the spot but couldn't manage to spell out a word with more than 5 letters. She was a complete anomaly, almost alien, even.

Joshua once again beat these thoughts back down and recited one of his scriptures to focus on something other than...her...

Wait a minute...was he obsessing over her? No, no...that's impossible, he knows better than that...does he?

Joshua groaned with annoyance and started to examine his gun to distract himself. He continued following Carrie to another casino labelled "The Tops".

Graham had heard of a chairman being murdered in his sleep here but didn't care enough to find out more. One thing's for sure....he was sleeping with one eye open tonight.

Carrie swung open the doors of The Tops and approached the receptionist.

"Ey Swank! How you doing pal? Business good?"

"It's doing pretty well, Miss Blake. Our cabaret acts are a smash hit."

"That's good to hear, Swank. Hey, been meaning to ask, why you still stuck behind reception? Kinda thought you'd be up in the main office, considering...well ya know, ya own the place?"

Swank seemed to act embarrassed before replying.

"Well...ya see, Miss Blake. I just think my place should be out here, this handsome mug can't be replaced, ya know?"

"Ahhhh...I get ya. You don't wanna lord your power over the other chairguys, right?"

Swank seemed to avert his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Uh...Well I uh..."

He sighs and looks down at the floor.

"Look boss...I just don't wanna end up like Benny, ya know? I'd rather just be a silent observer instead of a...well...."

"A rat?"

"Y-Yeah...a rat..."

Carrie thinks this over for a bit.

"Y'know Swank...when I took over Vegas, I thought it'd be impossible to change EVERYTHING wrong with it. I was also afraid of becoming just like House. At first, I thought if I did the opposite of what he did, I'd be fine. You can guess what happened next. Riots, looting, violence, the whole shebang. It was a mess...but then I started thinking, 'What would Mr. House do?' I looked at his past actions and decided to make them better. That's why The Strip is peaceful. Maybe you should do the same?"

Swank appears to take this advice to heart.

"Woah...Miss Blake, I...Thank you! I never thought of it like that before."

"That's why I'm the boss, Swank. Take care!"

She passed the reception area and continued down onto the casino floor, heading towards an elevator. She pressed a button and the doors opened, stepping inside and Joshua did the same. She then pressed the very top button and they disappeared behind the metal doors.