A bright flash of light from a cheap disposable camera Niha holds in her grasp cuts through the night like a knife through butter before it dims again to darkness. She hovers in the air above, standing underneath a large fountain display that's been illuminated by several colorful lights colored in an alternating rainbow of hues. She lowers the camera to check the picture with a content smile. It came out perfect! She cycled through the rest of the pictures on the camera and passes through various shots of the brightly lit casinos and statue displays they've erected for the tourist population. Niha heard wonderful things about Space Vegas from the Earthlings passing through Port Brief and word of it seemed to spread across the entire universe wherever she seemed to go. She finally took it upon herself to make a stop since she was in the quadrant anyway! It was all the easier to make the time for it with the little ship she finally managed to save up for.

It was a small used pod-craft that barely had enough room for her, but she never traveled with much company anyway. The only company she kept while abroad were the other people forced to rely on public transport services. If she met a friend that she needed to take somewhere, Niha figured that she would be able to squish them in if it came down to it. So far, her trip was enjoyable, though they wouldn't let her play like the others in the casino. They required adults of a certain age and Niha had no physical way of proving her age. When she told one of the dealers that she was a hundred years old, they merely laughed at the idea and shoo'd her away to more kid-appropriate areas. These were usually massive indoor playground structures where parents that made poor life choices dropped off their little mistakes to have some fun just like they used to in the good old days. Niha had fun playing with young people, but she didn't want to be stuck there the entirety of her trip.

So, her trip mainly became sight-seeing and visiting shows and buffets where they didn't care how old she was. Niha flies down, awkwardly opening a paper map to figure out where the next stop on her tour is. In trying to juggle and fumble between prying the crinkled brochure open and keeping her camera safe, the map ends up drifting down from her hands. Shoot! She tries to drift down to catch it, but the push of air her Ki made pushed the paper out of her reach whenever she would get close to it. This stop and go chase would inevitably end with the map finally hitting the ground in one of the dirty puddles. "No, no, no, no!" Niha quickly mumbles by the time it's too late to stop it and she lands to try to gather it up off the ground. She shakes it out with a pout on her features watching as the dirty ground-water darkens the lines and markings until it's nothing more than soggy pulp. Quietly she'd groan and whine before she tried to look around for a trash can or dumpster where she could dispose of it. Leaving it carelessly on the ground would be littering and Niha did not want to break the law by dirtying the streets.

In her search, she barely notices a small grumbling creature trying to gather themselves up out of the dirt. In the darkness, he just seemed to blend right in! "O-Oh, are you okay?!" Niha asks Sly urgently, abandoning her map to drift over to him to double-check him for any bumps or bruises with a concerned frown. It was hard to control the maternal and doting instinct that struck her when she first saw him because to her he just seemed like a small and adorable raccoon. The black markings around his eyes reminded her of a little mask and the fingers on his hands were so small like an infant's. From what she could gather from a glance, he didn't appear to be too physically hurt, but he must have been through a terrible night. The smell of alcohol seemed to cling to his damp fur like a wine stain spilled over an old shag carpet.

It was probably best for her to ignore that sour, pungent odor. Who knows if he got it by just laying in this alley, or maybe someone spilled their drinks on him and he fell out here trying to scrub it off of him. Niha needed to get to the bottom of this before she jumped to any conclusions. She reaches out to help him with getting to his feet before she asks him, "What happened to you? Did you trip and fall? Are you lost out here?" Niha rests a hand on her chest and introduces herself, "My name is Niha, by the way. I can give you directions if you need them. Or...I could. If I didn't mess up my map...but I could remember the way back for the most part." She lifts her head to squint up at the night sky, silently trying to retrace her steps in her mind. The last thing she needed was to get them both lost by accident.

WC: 892
Sly

Sly, what a fun name for a raccoon, she thought to herself. They did kind of look like sneaky little bandits with their fur, and they probably had the wit of a fox behind them to make the name fitting. She kept her musings to herself out of fear of offending the little guy. It might seem like she was trying to accuse him of being a thief, which wasn't at all what she was intending to do! Niha listens to the story and looks up at the door to the casino behind them with a frown. That sounded horribly unfair! This little guy just wanted to escape from the tedium of his boring life and get out to have some fun just like she was.

How could they throw him out just because they lost a little money from their profits? She did hear rumors grumbled under the breaths of disappointed gamblers about how rigged some of these games were. Things like how they thought some of the roulette machines were designed so the person spinning them could choose where the ball would really land and orchestrated distractions set up with actors at tables to take the odds out of your favor. She wanted to desperately believe that these were just old wive's tales and not the truth. "Ten thousand zeni..." Niha repeats after Sly, shaking her head slowly and seeming oblivious to the raccoon's lies.

"This won't stand at all! We'll just have to march right back in there and ask the manager to return your things and your winnings. If they don't want to, then we'll just tell them that we'll report them to the authorities for theft and assault. The law is on our side." The fact that law in its traditional sense was lost on the majority of Space Vegas didn't seem to occur to her as she starts to fly to the door to lead the way for Sly. She glances at the raccoon over her shoulder with a hesitant expression as her eyes drift down to inspect herself in confusion. Niha didn't believe herself to be strong in the way most people thought themselves to be strong.

She wasn't sure how being strong would apply to this situation at all but wanted to believe that he meant that he thought that she would not back down with him when presented with pressure. She didn't want anyone to have to get hurt more than they already were in this situation and wanted to try to find a peaceful solution that everyone could happily walk away from. He was so pitiful the way he shivered timidly with his dampened fur though, and the way his sad eyes shined in the light of the alley cemented her decision. She had to help him out, there would be no arguing that.

"I promise that I'll do everything that I can to help you." She tells Sly, raising her hand to give her word to the victimized creature. "You'll get everything that's yours and you won't have to worry about your dignity. Just lead me to who we'll be talking to, and I'm sure that we'll be able to figure something out. You'll be safe with me." She reaches out to open the door and hold it open for Sly to guide the way inside. Part of her was excited, she was going to actually get to see the inside of a Casino properly! She wondered if there would be enough time to take some more pictures after their business there was finished.

WC: 595 | Total WC: 1,487
Sly

Niha's head tilts up as she drifts along beside of Sly with her feet not quite touching the ground beneath her, following his lead while the bright lights and sounds of the casino capture her attention. Most of the machines were all neatly lined up in rows, and the tables were filled with a variety of people laughing while they enjoyed the company and drinks around them. It was just like what they showed on the advertisements outside! She wondered how people here were able to keep their heads enough to not get lost in all the stimulation. Without windows or clocks around here, she figured that she could waste days or hours without noticing anything was amiss.

When they reach the customer service desk the small girl comes to a stop beside the raccoon. Niha flashes the woman manning it a warm and friendly smile, she seemed to be a friendly woman. She notices Sly looking up to her for reassurance, so she rests a gentle hand on his shoulder to offer a soft squeeze in support. "Thank you so much! I'm sure that it was just a misunderstanding." Niha tells the woman gratefully. She couldn't help but wonder if she was worried earlier over nothing? This was going smoothly enough so far. Sly was probably still disorientated from what happened. He might have still been scared and just assumed the worst. There shouldn't be a need to look tough or fight anyone at all. The stomping steps have her looking over her shoulder with a frown curving her lips.

Was someone trying to bring an animal inside the club? Well, a nonsentient animal. It sounded like it must have been a herd of buffalo stampeding through. There were no buffalo that Niha could see, only the manager and the security leading through a marching charge down the walkway to the customer service desk. The dark and fuming emotions that reflected on their expressions felt a little much for trying to settle a simple disagreement, but then again, Sly did say that they roughed him up to steal his things. Maybe Niha was quick to assume that the raccoon was just exaggerating. It was also probably too much to hope that they could deal with things peacefully now.

"Don't worry, Sly. I'll make sure that they won't do it again. Let's just try talking to them. The best way to deal with bullies is to reach out to them." She whispers down to him, yelping in surprise when she's caught off guard by the poor raccoon man getting lifted up and smacked against the wall. She flies swiftly over and grabs the hulking man's hand to yank on it and try to pry it away from Sly's throat. "There's no need for this violence!" She pleads with the security while trying to free Sly, "My friend says that he won his money fair and square and you all took it from him. He would please like if it were returned to him. I know that it must be hard to run a business that has to give away money, money that I'm sure you all must work very hard for, but that's the way luck is sometimes. You win some, you lose some. I'm sure that you all will be able to make it back in no time."

She blinks in clear confusion when the man's venom is turned her way and she tries to squeeze herself between Sly and the mob, keeping herself between the two of them to stand as a wall of defense for him to hide behind. What did they mean by that? She didn't do anything wrong standing up for her friend here. Niha clears her throat, shaking her head as she politely tells the casino staff, "Thank you, but I need no lessons and we are no thieves. I'm sure that this can be settled without anymore manhandling. Or raccoon-handling." She holds out a hand in a placating gesture to keep them at bay, "Let's all just take a deep breath and talk this out, okay?"

WC: 683 | Total WC: 2,170
Sly