Orario, South Main Street.

The scuffy-looking man running the cup-game looked up as he suddenly heard a voice call out nearby.

"You challenge others to match their eyes against your hands, correct?" The voice of a young woman called out.

He lifted his head from looking at the small crate with the cups infront of him, and instead focused on the source of this query. It was a young woman, no, a girl, and a pretty one at that. The man smiled a not-so-good smile, what with uneven teeth and all, and raised both arms in a welcoming gesture. His two associates, the ladies in slightly less clothing than this challenger, stepped away from trying to woo new customers and instead focused on flanking this new arrival instead, smiles and all.

"Heh, you're right on the money there, little missy! You got a sharp eye, care to test just how sharp?" He answered, in a playful yet confident way. The two ladies giggled in a practiced manner, like a pair of smitten girls from next door.

"Watch out, cutie!" Said one, gently grabbing the Amazoness' free arm.
"That's right!" The other chimed in. "Merek's hands are the fastest in all of Orario, I can guarantee it~!" See added with a wink.

Of course, for the charletan and his two hired escorts, this was nothing short of what was known as a free meal. A young, naive and overconfident bumpkin shows up, is convinced they're the best of whatever rat's nest they crawled out of, and ends up coming to boast and show off their skills. This girl was a new face, and she didn't have an emblem of any Familia, meaning she was likely an out-of-towner... Making her a perfect sucker to fleece.

"Whaddya say, missy? You daring to bet that little allowance of yours for a chance at raking in the big score? Or maybe you're too intimidated for that? How about a handful of Valis, maybe that's more your speed?" He said, and grinned, poking and tugging at this newcomer's bravado.

The Amazoness' expression faltered at the sight of such an... unfortunate smile, and she averted her eyes away from it and to the purse in her hand instead. Giving it a jingling toss as the two girls and the man himself egged her on, the broad grin on her face returned in full force as she plopped the entire purse down on the table and gave a laugh. "Allowance? Don't tell me the 'fastest hands in Orario' think a small purse like this is more than pocket change?"

Of course, she was just returning banter with banter in her eyes. It really was all the money she had on her, but she was still confident that once she was done here - even should she somehow lose - she could simply join a Familia and easily replace her funds with ten times as much. She was always hearing stories about how adventurers in Orario made a lot of money from their explorations and battles with the monsters in the Dungeon, so she really wasn't concerned at all. Then, if she did lose, she would challenge the 'fastest hands in Orario' again once she had improved her skills and abilities, until she did win!

A perhaps foolish attitude to take, but that really depended on the events about to unfold.

"Oh my~!"
"What a bold one~!" 

The two ladies chirped, feigning being impressed and astonished. The man let out a raspy chuckle, waving his hands in the air as if to to say [i]who knows[/i]?  He took the little bag that had just landed on his crate-table, opened it and gave a quick glance inside, before putting it back down near the Amazoness edge of the table. He then reached down next to where he was sitting himself, and retrieve a pouch that was roughly five times as big, and laid it down near his own end of the table with a heavy, clinking thud.

"Oh yeah, you're right, missy. That ain't no pocket change. And here's what you'll be earning if you can beat me." The man gently rustled the new, bigger sack of money next to him. "Rules simple, I put this under one cup, Then I shuffle the entire set, you just need to find where it ends up. One try, winner takes all." He explained, haphazardly, while holding a small, black marble inbetween his fingers.

Leela's eyes lit up at the potential prize, only to narrow in focused determination as the man started to explain. If he was offering so much, he must indeed be confident in his skills. Glancing between the cups and then to the marble, she gave a nod to show she understood while keeping her attention locked on the round black sphere between his fingers. "Agreed!"

Normally, she might have engaged in further banter. She needed to focus now, however, and she was determined to win or at least come as close to winning as she could. It wouldn't do if she simply let herself get caught off guard by a sudden start and lost right away.

"Excellent." The man smirked.

With a gentle motion,h e laid the marble down, square in the center of the table. He then took the three, non-descript clay cups he had been using and placed them down, one after the other. The center cup was the one one under which the marble was to begin with. And then, the rapid shuffling began.

Far left to far right, right to middle, middle to left, far right to far left, middle to left, middle to right, right to left, middle to right. His movements were swift and harsh, the clay scraping agains the wood undereath as they trailed across the boards. He finished and smirked, raising a mocking eyebrow.

"Well, missy? Could you keep up?"

All the while, the two cohorts in their skimpy clothes were cheering the Amazoness on with practiced words of encouragement and praise.

The Amazoness' light brown eyes flicked from middle to right, then back to middle, and then back to right once more. He was quick, to be sure, and the other movements of the cups were distracting. Her thin eyebrows furrowed underneath the bangs of her auburn hair as the shuffling came to a stop, but not because she had lost track. Rather, she was confused that after all that boasting he had gone with a simple seeming pattern.

With the encouragement of the girls beside her, though, it was difficult to really dwell on it much. Giving a confident nod, Leela thrust one of her fingers towards the cup on the right and declared: "That one, to the right!" Then, she crossed her arms under her chest with a self confident and just slightly smug smile on her face. If she could keep up with the 'fastest hands in Orario' already then she must be further along in her training than she had thought!

"Ooooooh~!!" The two girls next to the Amazoness plaed their hands infront of their mouths in mock anticipation as the choice was made.

"Well now..." The man said, his shoulders slightly slumping. He reached over, gently put his fingers around the cup, and lifted it a few inches up...

... Only to reveal nothing. There was no marble.

"Looks like you lose, missy." The man's expression exploded into that of what you would find on a naughty child who ad just pulled a prank. His toothy grin and gleeful eyes were nothing short of the very definition of smarmy smugness. With a practiced, effortless reach, he nabbed the pouch on his victim's end of the table and plopped it down on top of his own, much larger bag.

The two women let out disappointed [i]aawww[/i]-sounds amd looked at the Amazoness as if they were puppies that had just been struck with a stick and made very, very sad.

"Too bad, sweeite." One said, teary eyed.
"Better luck next time, okay?" The other tried, gently holding the loser's hand with both of her own.

The Amazoness just stood there, surprised, for a few long moments after the reveal that... Somehow, she had lost track of the marble after all? She would have sworn up and down about the the pattern he had used - Was he actually much faster than she had given him credit for, and managed to slip in an extra move that she overlooked entirely? At what point had it happened?

Leela let her eyes drift to the other cups. Maybe it was in an entirely different cup than she had thought? Her expression dumbfounded, she half-murmured her confusion out loud. Shrugging her hand free of the girl holding it, too focused on having been beaten and the uncomfortable feeling of losing nagging at her, she paid little mind to the condolences she was being offered. She didn't need sympathy, she needed to figure out where her mistake was!

Especially with that look on the man's face! He had beat her fair and square, but something about that expression irked her. Gesturing with a wave of one hand at the remaining cups on the board, she asked in a serious, almost studious tone. "Where was it? Which move did I miss?"

"Uhm, sweetie, that's not-" One of the two ladies started, taking a step forward, but Merek raised a hand that signalled for her to stop, and so she did.

It wasn't uncommon for sore losers to get like this. They were always so confident that they had picked the right cup, and in most cases, they had! But, Merek was prepared for such demands, after all, he would be a pretty lousy conman if he didn't expect something like this every now and then.

With a less smug, but still really irritating smirk, the middle-aged, bushy eyebrowed, scruffy-looking man moved his hand to the middle-most cup. With two firm, almost overly dramatic, taps on the top of it, he said.

"Right back where it all started, missy."

Lifting the cup with a yanky flick of his wrist, sure as the sun shines, there it lay. The black marble. Staring the Amazoness back in the eye with its smooth, uncaring surface gleaming in the morning light.

Leela stared at the marble for a few, long moments. That was the proof, then, that he really had slipped a move past her and been much faster than she thought after all. Which... Didn't feel any better, and actually felt worse than if she had simply not felt like she could keep up at all, but it was there staring her in the face. With one, loud sigh, she reached up to scratch at the side of her head and untucked the spear from her side.

Then, suddenly the clack of the butt of her spear being banged against the ground sounded as the Amazoness took a deep breath. Back straight, stance wide and chest puffed out, she declared in a tone that held a sense of determined finality to it. "I admit to having underestimated you today, 'fastest hands in Orario', but I will be back!" 

With that said, she turned away to head back onto the streets once more. After a few steps, however, she paused before quickly turning around and gesturing with her spear towards the man and spoke again in the same tone at first before quickly shifting to a lighter, casual one. "But before I go! How do I find the familia of the gods from here?"

As the woman declared her defeat, loud and clear for anyone nearby to hear, Merek's face lit up with even more glee. This woman was fantastic! Not only had she fallen for the sham and been fleeced of her money, but now she admitted that she had lost fairly, meaning any musings or murmurs about him potentially cheating had been cleared away like a gust of fresh air throgh a stuffy room. What's more, the bimbo had declared that she would return to try again - a notion that made the man almost crack up with laughter, but he managed to contain it to a broad, tense smile instead... A smile that twitched at the edges.

As the Amazoness left, the two girls waved her off and half-yeleld soft invitations to come and play again. When she stopped and pointed her spear back at the con-artist though, he momentarily felt a bead of sweat form on his brow... Only to be at once dispelled by her question.

Right. This girl was a moron.

The trio burst into laughter, though the two women did what they could to hide it behind hands that covered their motuh. Merek, on the other hand, had his hands on his hips and roared in amusement.

"You daft girl? Look around! They're practically everywhere! Just look for those overly big manors with the flags and banners and such. You'll find one wherever you go in this city" He yelled back, in an actual act of sincerity... If only to further earn the patronage of his potential golden goose.

"If you're unsure where to go, you could always visit the Guild over in the north-west part of town." One of the women called out in addition, smiling happily - from amusement, at the expense of this silly girl.