Bearings

As soon as Noah walked through that opening in space it closed behind him, stranding him in an unknown environment.

Well, unknown was a bit of an overstatement since it was a casino and Noah knew many of these like the back of his hand.

Still this place didn't seem to end, he was located in the slots and couldn't see where it ended and the table games began.

"Would you like to check in sir?"

Before he started walking down the isles to explore a soft woman's voice came from behind him, even though he was going to walk over there anyway to ask questions now he knew it existed he felt compelled to do it from deep into his mind.

That wasn't the only thing that felt strange to him, something about the woman in front of him just struck him as odd but he couldn't put his finger on why.

"What do you mean by checking in"

"Its obvious sir, you will receive a room key where you will stay, a starting amount of 5000 in chips and a gambling card that allows you to access the gambling areas all around the casino"

How he was supposed to know that it meant all that he didn't know, and that 5000 in chips felt incredibly ambiguous

"Well then I would like to check in to the casino, yes" he slightly nodded his head out of instinct, a behaviour he had picked up over his life, not that he had liked it since he had the habit of doing it too much without realising and giving himself a headache.

"Okay, give me a minute while I collect your items" She took a few steps away from the desk seemingly vanishing behind the old vintage wood.

"Wait" he said this a bit louder than he wanted but he was scared that he wouldn't be heard over the buzz of the slots behind him because he could no longer see her.

he had a brief feeling of embarrassment where his face was quite visibly red from his chin to his ears, he didn't even fully understand why he had called out for her for although he did indeed have a question for her to answer, it certainly wasn't all that important, certainly not enough to make him seem like a nutjob to anyone who might have overheard which luckily seemed to be no one that he could see.

"Wow, love at first sight"

She said this while still being out of view and with the tone of her voice making it seem like this was a common occurrence.

"I am not in love at all, not at all, you can not take my heart for it belongs to another"

"Keep telling yourself that, I'm sure you'll come around some day"

Somehow her words gave him a false sense of familiarity which he had to consciously filter to avoid actually falling for a woman he had just met.

This battle raged on in his mind even as the receptionist returned with his items in tow, which she gave to him with a playful wink before he slinked off as quick as he could without being rude.

"Don't forget to come back *giggle*" Noah's mind had already started to calm down from the weirdness that attacked it, and figuring that it had something to do with the receptionist decided to ignore her and press on through the casino floor to try and find his room.

After 20 minutes of fruitless searching Noah had sat down on the floor, looking like a drunk man laying by the wayside, actually now that he was thinking about drinks he was really thirsty yet he knew that even if he looked he probably would stay just as lost as he was currently, it didn't help that there was very little signage around at all.

`How's anyone supposed to find their way around here?` sighing he stood up again to walk around aimlessly once more.

`Wait, I'm in an area with several casinos worth of slot machines, I might as well check some of them out` he almost felt stupid for not having done it yet but this still felt incredibly bizarre, as if he was dreaming on the sofa once more even though he knew it was undoubtedly real.

The nearest machine to him seemed to have a fantasy theme to it with dragons flying across the screens idle animation, `Looks like something out of Japan or Korea` the over the top nature of the machine just seemed like it wouldn't fit anywhere else but the price seemed just a little extortionate with 100 being the base price for a single spin, `yeah probably not a good idea yet` he only had 5000 and that was in denominations of 100, 200 and 500 with bigger chip denominations existing for ease of use.

The decision not to use the machine was easy for Noah to make, but seemed harder for others as they spent chips upon chips trying to get a win with little to show for it, now that he actually paid attention the casino had a large number of gamblers with the long expanse of the room he was in having a high density of people with at least one on each row.

As he looked back a pillar of flame started firing up from what he guessed was one of the machines, it was hard to tell through the metaphorical jungle that the slots made, what followed the spectacle was applause and cheers from all throughout the floor, `I bet someone's just won a large jackpot`.

Sure enough as he made his way over he saw a short and stout man hurriedly stuffing something from the mouth of the machine into the complimentary bag that was given after checking in.

The man looked to his sides seeming incredibly paranoid that someone would come over and steal from him which seemed plausible given the lack of security that Noah had seen.

Despite the lack of security Noah saw very little in the way of attempts to steal the little guys wealth, not even from some of the towering behemoths who scared Noah, who wasn't a very easily frightened man.

The walking towers just simply watched as the man finished stuffing his bag full of his winnings and waddled off, Noah did the same, just as the other slot participants were doing as well there was just something mesmerising about watching a person be lucky Noah figured as he peeled himself away to continue his exploration.

Thinking about it he thought it a bit weird that there were people who stood at what seemed to be 6,6 at the least but then who knew, people are getting taller all the time and he had heard about people reaching 8 ft so maybe there were just quite a few concentrated here.

Moving from the winning machine Noah went what he felt was north, although he couldn't quite tell since his bearings had been lost a long time ago and he hadn't brought a compass with him.

He resigned himself to yet another long walk, in which he managed to walk all the way back to the reception desk.

"Back already are ya, that's alright I understand" he was starting to get used to fighting against the foreign feeling in his brain telling him to listen and follow the woman speaking in front of him.

"You wouldn't happen to have a map would you"

"Sure do, 1 map of the portal lanes coming right up" she scurried off again, but something she said had piqued Noah's interest, portal lanes? Sounds like something out of sci-fi but that would explain why he had only found more slot machines instead of the parts he was looking for.

He looked around the reception to get a better look around and to pass the time.

The reception desk wasn't just vintage wood, it had intricate carvings engraved all over with what seemed like gold leaf placed inside giving a slight golden hue to the entire desk without being very noticeable unless you really gave a good, hard look which could be made difficult by the receptionist and her apparent ability to capture your full attention if you aren't paying any mind to your thoughts both conscious and unconscious.

Looking to his left he noticed several large doors that had signs above them, `It better not say what I think its going to`.

`Skilled games, Physical games, Luck games, Misc games, rooms, Bars, Food court, Sports betting, god damn it all that walking could have been avoided` Noah was incredibly annoyed with himself when he read the signs since all that walking was cause by his lack of perception.

`Then what do I need the map for?` he still decided to wait for it since it would be rude for him not to, he ended up waiting for quite a while before he could hear feet moving behind the desk again.

"Got it here, sorry for the wait but these aren't usually requested for" after having seen the doors Noah could understand why they weren't requested.

"No its fine, it allowed me some time to think" that was the best excuse he could come up with for why he waited.

"Well it won't be free, 100 in chips please"

"Why did you say the in chips part?"

"Because some people like to barter with items instead and here we only take chips, now will you pay or not"

"Well now that I know I have to, I don't think I will"

"You had me get this, just to not pay" she was quite obviously annoyed, and for good reason but above being a respectful person Noah liked keeping money that he didn't need to spend unless he was gambling.

"Well if that's how you want to see it, yes I did" he didn't see any point denying or lying about what he did, it was only a couple minutes of her life, it was more impactful to his old self than to her.

He then proceeded to open the door marked games of luck and walked through before she could retort.

The room he found himself in was similar to the slots area except there were several floors that extended for miles instead of just the one.

There was also more space available to walk and see through and games being played that seemed completely alien to him.

And now that he really looked at one of the dealers he could notice the abnormally thin stature the man possessed, his skin was paler than Noah's to an almost deathly degree and his ears were as pointy as the end of a broadsword in a museum, *doesn't he hit all the boxes to be a....oh what was it now, I read about it in king of bracelets.. ELF there we go but what's one of those doing here*

"Hi there you look new around here"

While he was trying to remember the race of the dealer a group of 4 mismatched men and women came out of his blind spot striking up a conversation out of nowhere.

"I would seem to be but I see it as being no concern of yours, now please I would like to have a look around the game floor before going up to my room"

He was not one for such casual conversation without a good few beers beforehand.

"I think you misunderstand our intentions"

One of the women, the shorter one spoke up forcing Noah to bend his neck uncomfortably downwards to look at her while she spoke.

"We're here to ask you to join our gambling team, see we need another gambler to increase profits, since we're riding a high right now we thought we would get a newbie to join the group and give them some experience while allowing them to make some chips"

Noah's ears perked up at the mention of a gambling team since he had planned on either making or joining one when he had a bit more knowledge of this place.

"What games do you play?"

"We usually play on any of the card games behind us"

"Right, I don't know how to play most of them so I don't think I'll be very helpful"

He felt a bit dejected but what could he do, well over half of the games in this hall he had never seen before.

"Well we'll teach you as we go along" this time it was the other males turn to speak up, he had a friendly smile on his face which came off as more creepy than friendly.

"All you need to do to join is sign this piece of paper" he pulled out what looked to be a contract which Noah did not want to sign

"Well sorry but I don't have a pen to sign it with, nor am I very proficient in writing"

"Oh that's not a problem, just tell us your name and we'll write it for you" this was quickly becoming a problem

"Jason, that's my name" the man proceeded to write it down but after a second turned to him with a hint of anger in his face.

"Now come on, that's not your name, we're teammates and teammates don't lie to each other" to Noah he sounded just like a textbook manipulator.

"Come on, just tell us your name" the short woman chimed in again, with the same sort of voice that he had heard at the reception, *Oh this isn't good*.

"Hey man, finally found you do you mind coming with me a minute?"

Another random guy came out of nowhere but Noah saw this as his ticket to getting out of a bad situation and followed him away from the group who scowled and put their fingers in different positions which could be interpreted as insults, in response Noah put up his middle and index fingers in a backwards V at the group.

When they were far enough away the random man turned and asked him "do you have any idea the danger you were just in?"