Random Encounter: Watch the cup! (Dated) (Closed)

Nov 10th, Midday

In front of an alleyway, laid a con artist of the worse kinds. He was a dark blue earth pony, who wore a trenchcoat. In reality it made him seem more mysterious and drew in larger crowds. Also, it covered his cutie mark, which was a magic hat, with a bunny underneath. It might have told of his special talent, tricking ponies.

"Come round folks! Bet against me, guess the right cup and win double your bet!" He proclaimed as he moved the cups around. In actuality he chose who won. While moving the cups, he'd move the cup with the small ball, onto the far right. From there he'd move his backhooves onto a pedal, which opened a hole, and allowed the ball to fall in. Another pedal would force air through a tube, and push it out into the cup of his choosing, during the shuffle, or after the defeat.

He had allowed several dials to win a few bits from him or a lively mare or two. Otherwise, he took all the winnings. A large crowd had gathered around today, and he put his charm on thick. "Come on who will be next to try!" He said, practically preaching. "Dont be shy! It's worth the bits!" He said while thinking that the bits were worth it for him.

Evangeline shifted nervously around the edge of the crowd, feeling extremely out of place. All of the noises and annoying little signals irritated her with their unceasing barrage on her senses, but she weathered through because she REALLY wanted to see what the hubub was all about.

It wasn't often that she got out, but when she did, she tried to get as much things of interest into her noggin before her staff found out. When they did, it was all dragging people home and forcing them to swear they wouldn't sneak out. They acted like she was a child. Hmph.

She had started stimming without even knowing it. When Evangeline noticed this she stopped at once. It really wasn't all that bad- irritating beyond belief, extremely confusing and generally delirious to her- but she'd weather through. She had to. She had heard of this pony from all the way across the street, and she HAD to know what the big deal was. It would kill her if she didn't.

But as the crowd shifted, Evangeline found herself staring right down at the pony. "Oh, i'm sorry, is it my turn i didn't notice it was my turn what is this what is going on oh look are those cups? because i am under the impression that this might be a game now please do explain."

Gypsy was terribly interested by the display being given out on the street, the game reminded her a bit of home really, her ears flicking some as the chimes sang still so that she could see what was going on, the gypsy stepped forward when there was a chance to and spoke up. "I'll try it." she said with a soft purr almost under her voice.

Alas, it seemed that someone else had gotten into it before she did, her eyes narrowed ever so slightly in annoyance but she didnt let it last long as she let her chimes die down, trying to listen more intently to what was goingon on even if it did effectively make her entirely blind. Taking a few uncomfortable steps forward, maybe she could hear the ball? It's been so long since the last time she tried to break one of these games.

"You can go after the griffon Miss." He said with a wink. He motioned the griffons over. "Easy as pie Miss. All you have to do is place a bet, of 10 bits or less. Then I put this ball in one of these three cups. I shuffle em a bit, and if you guess the cup that correctly holds the ball, you win double your bet back. Simple enough, right?" He said, to the nervous griffons.

The crowd stilled as Evangeline stood, speechless and motionless for what amounted to maybe 12 seconds. "You offer odds of one-in-three to double your money. There are three possible contingencies, one being that this game is regarded as a game of pure chance, one being that this game is regarded as a game of some form of skill, and another contingency that the game is rigged, which granted that the odds are already highly stacked in your favor would not only be overkill, but perhaps superfluous as an exercise of random distribution."

"Judging that the game is highly stacked in favor of skill, being that using it as an exercise of chance is a farce in statistical odds, I will close my eyes and guess for twelve trials. If I generate a return of around 80 bits I can make assurance that you do not rig the game. But if the return is highly skewed in regards to the amount of victorious trials, I know you are a cheat or a fraud. What say you to these conditions?"

The charlatans face dropped into a frown for a moment but soon picked up into a smile. "See here folks? Here is a griffon who's got it all! Smarts, looks, and money." He said with a chuckle. "However I wouldn't want to deny these people 12 rounds of my game. So I offer, that keeping the bits in your head, to let the people play 12 rounds, and see if it's on par with your math. Along the margin of error, mind you." He said to the griffoness. "Deal?" He asked, sincerely.

Gypsy would step up after the griffon agreed, "My turn, yes?" she said, her chimes having sung long enough for her to step up to the table without bumping into it by mistake before she would set her hoof up on the thing and let the chimes down down, the milkiness in her eyes made her problems evident but she still wanted to play, it wasn't the first time she'd done things like this and she'd always enjoyed playing the games in her troupe.

"Let's go ahead and place down five to start with?" she said, "and see what happens hmm?"

The stallion smiled. "5 bits on the beautiful Miss!" He said, noticing the milky shine. He hid the ball in the middle cup. He moved them at full speed. Ponies wouldn't like being bested by the blind. He hoped she had somehow kept track of the ball. Causing the blind always looked bad, especially when he didn't go easy. He was still hoping to spam the Griffoness out of her money, so he'd play it fair. He finally stopped. The ball was in the far left cup. He crossed his hooves.

Without her chimes it was easy to keep track of the sounds that were actually going on around her, she couldn't actively 'see' what was going on as when she had her resonance spell running but it was so easy to hear the subtle scratching and clacking of the ball as tr flew across the table and bounced off the inside of the cup, the subtle sounds that someone who couldn't see or had practiced it might notice. And then it stopped... she waited for a few seconds as if she expected him to move again before making ab it of a show of it herself... was she helping him? Oh yes, she was. "IT's hard to tell... you were going so fast..." she said.

Biting down on her crimson painted lower lip she swallowed and first went back to the middle cup, "IT sounded like... this one but..." she said and leaned back, as if she wasn't sure which one she wanted to do, "No... it's this one." she said and pointed at the one on her left, his right. About to touch the cup before she shook her head, withdrew one last time and then firmly placed her hoof on the cup where the ball had last bounced off one of the cups. "this one... final answer." she winked that milky eye at him.

The blue stallion smirked. The wink confirmed his suspicious. He could tell she was helping him along. He was practically in show biz himself. "Are you sure?" He asked, but didn't didn't let her respond. He lifted his cup and said "Winner! Right here to the little Miss! 10 bits for you." He said and handed her the bits.

It was fun, it felt most like she was at home helping him along with this little game, she couldn't tell if he understood what she was doing but she hoped that he did at least, if nothing else it was fun for her still. she pulled the bits from the table with her hoof and a bit clumsily scooped them into a bag, "Haha! I knew I could do it!" she chimed out and dipped her head slightly, "Thank you for the game, sir." she purred softly, "Maybe we'll play again sometime?" she said as she turned, giggling mentally to herself, oh she almost wished she had more to dress in so she could do it again.

Evangeline stared down the peddler with a hawkish determination. She couldn't figure out why this game intrigued her. Maybe it was the fact that deep down she knew something was fishy- there had to be something fishy. A pony doesn't survive on the streets playing a fair game. She had no clue what she was planning to do if she discovered him, but knew it would be good. It had to be.

She watched the blind(?) mare win a simple round, and watched as several other ponies came and made their games. Why was her simple proposition so aptly turned down by the Earth pony? He lost some, he won some, but no statistically significant variation from the norm.

Finally, Evangeline found herself back up to him. She handed him ten bits and waited for him to do... whatever it was he did.

The blue stallion tipped his hat, and said "Thing been to your liking?" He smirked. This would be the last time, he played 12 fair games, he thought to himself. He put the bits off to the side, and showed the ball clearly to the crowd. He placed it in the middle cup and began the shuffle. He didn't slow for one moment. He made it as hard as possible to follow the ball. Even had a hard time keeping track. However he was fairly sure it was in the far right. "Take your guess, Miss!" He said enthusiastically.

The cups moved quickly, but Evangeline knew how to play. As a child she had stared at the rotating blades of ceiling fans in the tangental possibility that it would ever prove to be a utilizable skill. Although she no longer remembered the childish game, her brain possessed the capacity to carefully tune out everything but the ball-holding cup. It twisted and turned, and ducked behind other cups briefly. Although a pony may have lost sight of it at some point, she was always able to keep a glimmer of it within her focus.

She was confident that the ball rested in the cup to in the center. Although his leg no longer rested on any, the light tink-ing of the ball against the cup's innards had resounded at about that point on the table. Honestly, she didn't see any issue. This game would show her whether or not she was capable of tracking the ball, and the loss of ten bits was no factor in all eventualities.

"I pick the one in the center."

The blue pony smirked. "Sorry Miss-". But stopped as he opened the cup. The ball was indeed there. He stared at the ball for a moment. Then he.laughed genuinely. "Seems I'm not as good as I use to be Miss!" He said with a smile. He handed her the bits he owed her and began chanting again.

Evangeline was pleased beyond words that she had won. She placed another ten bits down. "Again."

The pony looked at the griffoness. "I've played your game miss. You've had your turn. Now please make way for the other lovely people wanting to try." he said with a smile. In reality, he was being irritated. This griffoness had overstayed her welcome. And although her shenanigans were bringing in more customers, she could potentially ruin him. Not that he didn't have a back-up plan if that happened. He'd rather not use it, however, and this griffoness was making him nervous.