The abundant wasting of time and money. (Uahi, Anisha, OPEN)

[Wood]

Clad heavily in large loose fitting robes, Uahi sat alone in the back end of the game corner. The place was massive. So many machines that just the tall retro arcade classic section formed a quasi labyrinth, as if to challenge those that enter to find their way out. Scattered about were DDR machines, constantly spewing out high energy J-Pop, almost in an attempt to drown out the clatter of pinball tables, and people playing air hockey. The heavy smell of cheese pizza and beer was just enough to cover his usual putrid smell. Uahi thought little of the kids a couple rooms over vegging out on the latest new Virtual Reality units. He thought even less of the people that came to play their tabletop RPGS. Rolling Dice was just too much effort. So there he sat, at his favorite 1969 Nishijin Pachinko Machine. There were a handful of these things laying about. A good half of them broken, and none with their original metal balls. The owners of the place had set up a couple of the newer digital ones, the kind with the screens, combo gates, and flashing lights. They felt too artificial for Uahi. He sat smoking his Cigar. Lazily plopping in ball after ball, flicking the spring loaded lever.

After awhile he ran out of balls. Thumping his hand against the side of the machine, he stood up and cursed. How long had he been sitting there? He hadn't been paying attention to his bucket, which he found to be completely empty. A small handful of metal spheres sat in the release bin, prize tokens of occasional wins. Eagerly, he grabbed them up, but there weren't nearly as many as he spent.

"Damn it". He exclaimed. Counting them out, he only had $2.10 worth of balls left. Not even enough for a ride to the edge of the city. Plopping them into his plastic bucket he took a long drag from his cigar. Chemicals spewing into the air, he began to make the walk across the Game corner.

[TDD25]

To anyone else looking, it probably seemed like the giant stack of boxes was moving on its own. It took nearly all of Anisha’s perceptive power to ensure that she didn’t run the cart into any of the game corner’s patrons. Of course, with her concentrating on guiding herself to the rather neglected gashapon machines in the back, she wasn’t able to smell the stench coming off the man that passed by her until it was too late, sending her into a coughing fit that rattled the various capsules she was taking to refill the machines.

“Excuse me.” She curtly muttered, still coughing from the smell of cigar smoke that surrounded her, and pointed at the rather large “No Smoking” sign that hung on the wall over the children’s area.

[Wood]

It took a moment to notice the little girl, and another moment to figure out what she was going on about. In his focus he took another long exasperated drag of his home-made cigar. Leaning rather heavily on her cart with his left elbow, and taking the cigar out with his right, he looked to where her hands were pointing to. "Good thing I'm not over there then." Ignoring her coughing fit, he asked. "If that's the kids section, shouldn't you be over there? What you're doing looks like adult work." He spat in his hand, brushed his hair back, and grinned in a very provocative way. He wasn't going to let this little girl tell him what to do.

[TDD25]

Seeing the rather brazen attitude of the man, Anisha clicked her tongue, though it was muffled through the fabric of her vest. She removed herself from the protection of her clothes for a few seconds to speak. "The sign applies to all public areas in the building. Including walkways. Like this one." She quickly brought the cloth back over her mouth and nose, muttering under her breath, "Though with how much you stink I wouldn't be surprised if they kicked you out of the smoking areas too." Scrunching her nose as much as possible, she popped out once more. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to work." She coughed, eyeing his bucket. While discretion was probably the better part of valor in this case, considering that she likely had more to lose by confronting the man, the fact that the stench had barely dissipated during their "conversation" annoyed her. "So I suggest you get off my cart, put that out, and go collect your chump change." With that, she began pushing the cart towards the machines.

[Wood]

He watched the little girl strut off, turned back the way he had been facing, and, with his bucket back in his hand started walking again. He thought it was odd, seeing an employee. He could usually go about his business whilst only seeing the man at the prize corner. The prize corner was at the door, so that man was also the greeter, the coin dispenser, and the person you go to with complaints. He figured there were probably a couple other people working in the kitchen, mass producing the obnoxious cheese pizza he saw people carrying about the facility. Other than these people, the place was mostly occupied with customers. There were the tabletop nerds, usually keeping to themselves; the high score fanatics, playing every arcade game in the joint to get on each ones top 5 or 10 list; the pinball wizards, mastering their large metal balls; and the robot-like people trying to master the rhythm games. Occasionally he'd see a 'casual'. These were the people that only game with groups of friends after school, or the people that came for some kids birthday. They were who he had to look out for. Despite them spending the least amount of time here, they were the most apt to whine about his mere presence "OH Kick him out! He's Smoking and he SMELLS SO BAD!". What NERVE they had. He just wanted to spend some alone time in the back. He wasn't TRYING to bother anybody. Usually. All in all, getting scolded by an employee was a first for him. And such a little one at that. For once, HE would do some complaining at the front.
It took a couple more minutes of walking, as the game corner was a huge building, but he finally got up to the prize counter. There were a number of people standing about. A couple of kids pointing at large stuffed animals and lava lamps, waving handfuls of tickets above their heads. A few other possibly noticeable people were standing around, but he wasn't focused on them.
"Excuse me sir. I'd like to make a complaint about one of your employees." He had cut in front of those kids to complain. Cigar still in mouth. "Now, I realize that I get a lot of people upset because my body emits foul smells regularly. And I would first like to thank you, and the majority of your staff for putting up with it. However, this short little girl you've hired straight up insulted me for it. I find that tasteless and rude. I request disciplinary action." Then he remembered his bucket. "Also, I'd liked these returned for cash. I've clearly been having an unlucky bad day." One of the kids started crying.

(Editors note)
In Japan, straight up gambling is illegal. When people go to play Pachinko, they exchange their balls for a prize worth the number of balls they had. They take this prize next door, usually to some 'separate company' that will 'buy' your prize from you. These 'prizes' usually end up straight back in the Pachinko parlor. This form of gambling is only 'tolerated' because of the large sums of taxable money that the hobby brings in.

Since Uahi has done this before, and this isn't Japan, there is no reason for him not to be able to get money from the teller for his small amount of prize balls.