Practice makes Perfect

[heartofasun]

"Tails."
"Tails."
"Tails."
It didn't take an astute observer to realize she wasn't just beating the odds of probability, she was calling them correctly before they landed. Time, after time, after time. The coin she was flipping might look familiar to any Andromeda crew still on board. Dylan had given it to her, back when she was purple. And still had a tail. It was a fun game she played. Messing with the right influence at the right time. Only this time it was with a coin and not people. That way Dylan wouldn't get mad at her.

He didn't understand. How could he, he was organic, mortal, trapped within his own limited perceptions and understanding. Still, that was part of the reason she needed him. He wasn't just any ordinary mortal. She needed him. All the possibilities, all the best possibilities, circled around him. She just had to get him to understand her methods were necessary. He needed to trust her. "Tails."
"Tails."
Trance flipped the coin onto the back of her hand, the motion practiced and almost boring. "Tails."

Comments

[agathaheterodyne]

Agatha didn't know just how long the replicator in her room would keep working, she hadn't yet taken it apart to figure out its capacity. So she used it for tools and parts, worked at the machine shop in the concourse for more parts...

So she came to Ten Forward to eat. Walking past with her tray she stopped to watch the woman, almost memorized by the flipping coin. Trance's appearance? Didn't register an eye blink. The coin... did.

"May I see the coin?" she asked, setting down her tray as she watched, eyes locked to the motion.

[heartofasun]

"Of course." Trance stopped flipping the coin to hand it over to Agatha. "Please be careful. It has sentimental value." Her hands were now unmoving, gone was the frequent twirl of her fingers, snap of her wrist in the same fine tuned, monotonous motions it took to flip a coin.

"It's a regular coin." She enjoyed watching the woman inspect the coin, try and find out the trick, how it worked. How she worked.

[agathaheterodyne]

She looked at the coin, then hefted it gently. "If it's a gyroscopic stabilizer, it's about the best balanced one I've ever felt," she said, a bit awed. "The heft isn't notably different from expectations based on size and observable alloys. What's the control mechanism?" she asked offering it back. She was clearly fascinated by this tech that she couldn't even see.

[thelasttimelord]

Suddenly, so very suddenly, Trance has company.

One rather unassuming, tall, suited, ruffly haired, not-quite-a-man, with an amused smirk hovering around the bottom curve of his mouth, sitting backwards on a chair, so that his arms can be crossed over the top of that back, chin resting his arms. Head tilted watching the fall of the coin. Or perhaps, it's not the coin he's watching at all, as his eyes are on her face when he speaks.

"Do you how minute the probability of that is?"

It's fond, almost more like a joke or a secret, curious and coy in one.

[heartofasun]

Trance gave the Doctor a smile. That was one thing she could oblige. She was very good at probability. "The probability of 58 tails in a row with 0 heads? 2.88 quadrillion to 1." Why yes, Trance was also a walking calculator. "I haven't seen you in a while." Trance continued flipping the coin.

"Been keeping busy?" She did enjoy her talks with the Doctor--in any of his incarnations. She wondered how he would feel talking to another her, a different universes take on the same being.

[thelasttimelord]

The ease with which she answers, while smiling, keeps his own smile in place. There are few people with whom he would ask, and would get an answer, and who would do so cheerfully on this ship zipping through the universe. He tilted his head back and forth with a wiggled side to side move of his shoulders.

"Oh, you know." The Doctor grinned. "A little of this. A little of that. This place isn't lacking for mysteries and wonders."

By itself, and because of the current circumstances, and each of those people who keep coming through.

[ltcolonel]

John comes by to look over her shoulder, and check that this isn't a trick coin, with tails on both sides. "You've got a lot of luck, or you really hated heads." He smiles and folds into a seat at the table for a chat.

"If you are this good with a coin, no wonder you said you'd clean up at poker."

[heartofasun]

"Doesn't everyone like tails? Tails are pretty. Besides, I used to have a tail. It was purple." She offered, smiling. "Beka would always say I was her good luck charm."

Trance continued to flip the coin, working seemingly on memory, not paying attention while she talked to John. "Harper still owes me a million thrones. Well, fake thrones. It ended up being fake money. It would be fun playing a game or two, well, against someone who isn't Harper." She loved her BFF really, but she knew all his tricks. And part of her still wondered if she made Harper nervous, ever since her transformation.

[ltcolonel]

"Purple is a good colour." John blurts it out for some kind of response. Since he and his friends have never had tails, he's got no basis on which to decide if a tail is pretty or not.

"We could play for stuff we can find on the ship. Like raisins." Raisins are a good substitute for money, right?

"Does Harper plan to build you a throne?"

[fatalist_physicist]

Rosalind was still acclimating to the Enterprise. It seemed like there was a new miracle behind every door. If Comstock could see this place he'd have a cranial aneurism. It pleased her that she understood quite a bit of what made the ship tick, but it pleased her even more that there were new mysteries to uncover.

Like the woman flipping what sounded like a double sided coin. Rosalind looked up from her PADD, frowning curiously. "Please excuse me, but my I examine your coin?"

[heartofasun]

"Of course."

Trance stopped flipping the coin, turning it over in her hand and offering it to Rosalind. Since coming her this woman was not the first to be curious as to the trick behind her coin flipping. It was an amusement. Her younger, previously purple self would have thought it cute and quaint to watch the chimpanzees try and figure her out. But her older self knew better, and had been around organic mortal for long enough to know they were each special, and not at all inferior.

[fatalist_physicist]

Rosalind took the coin and examined it. It flipped normally for her. She handed the coin back, looking around at all the marvels that surrounded her. "Do you manipulate probability? This coin reminds me of a thought experiment I performed with a colleague once, where we thought a coin passed through time or universes might only be able to land on one side"

[madman_inabox]

Eleven caught himself staring has he walked by Trance's table, with his soda and one of those straws that somehow made extra fizz. He understood how difficult calling those kinds of results were, nevermind doing it before the coin actually landed.

"Has it been heads yet?"

His answer was no, since he had the feeling that she knew the outcome before it happened.

[heartofasun]

"No. Why would anyone want heads when they can have tails?" What could she say, she missed her tail. Although it wasn't like she couldn't regrow another one. Still, it was a problem. Last time she had a tail, she had been recognized. Surely it was just a coincidence it got shot off at the next opportune moment.

"Are you enjoying yourself? Staying in one place for so long must be difficult."

[madman_inabox]

He supposed that was a good a reason as any, as he took the seat across from Trance.

"I'm getting used to it," he'd had a lot of practice staying in one place recently. First the year with Amy and Rory and then all that time on the cloud over Victorian London.

"But the ship moves, so we're not completely stuck in one place."

[themerlin]

"Not bad at all." Merlin hummed as he watched. Now that was intriguing. "You have some very interesting skills, milady." and he was curious, yes he was. What made such magic? Or science? Or both? Not that it mattered. It just made him grin to watch her do it.

He watched the coin flipping, and then nodded. "Very nicely done."

[heartofasun]

"Thank you." Trance didn't look up, continuing to flip the coin back and forth, back and forth, always landing tails side up.

"I don't think I've seen you before. I'm Trance Gemini." She offered, her skin glittering gold and yellow in the artificial light of the Enterprise

[themerlin]

"A pleasure meeting you, Miss Gemini. My name is Merlin." He grinned, watching her coin, and her flipping.

"Why are you doing that?" it seemed a logical question to him.

[theycallmetodd]

Seated a table over, the old Wraith quietly watched the repetitive motion, yellow eyes tracking the motion of the shining coin as it spun in the air until it was caught, only to be flicked up again. This woman, whatever she was, was not simply beating the odds, that much was obvious. Unless there was a trick he wasn't yet seeing, she was predicting the outcome. Or, rather, causing the outcome, as it would seem.

Watching this, there were plenty of questions running through his head, all of them centered around how.

Except for one.

"Is there a point to that?"

[heartofasun]

"No."

Trance turned and smiled at the yellow eyed alien, continuing to flip the coin, each time landing tails.

"I'm just bored. Actually, this is getting boring too." She put a hand out to catch the coin, and flipped it, smiling. "Tails." Trance stopped the coin and glanced again at Wraith. "I'm Trance Gemini."

[theycallmetodd]

He made note of the name, but didn't offer his own in return. Not as a sign of disrespect, but rather he just continued the conversation.

"Then why do it if it not only lacks a point, but also bores you?" That had to be the very definition of wasting time.

[whereishe]

Yuna watched as she flipped the coin hearing the boring droll as she called each side. It was amazing, practice but it felt like something more. Something the ex summoner couldn't put a finger on. She walked up making sure that her presence was known before speaking.

"Your really good at that." It was a statement more than a compliment. "You must have practiced a lot."

[heartofasun]

Trance looked at her, still flipping the coin, still landing tails. "For a very, very long time, yes." Probablity was a funny thing, you had to account for all sorts of oddities and events in the time stream. Sometimes, the littlest thing would change events, other times, it would have no effect.

"Yes...very long."

[dreams_dont_die]

Dylan's been watching, before he approaches her.

Of course he's been watching. There's no missing Trance in a room, even though he's gotten used to her no longer being purple by now. She still stands out, with those horns and that head of hair and, yeah, okay, the leather she wears.

What stands out even more, though, is the dance of the coin as it spins again and again through the air, to be caught and slapped back onto her hand.

He'd taught her how to do that, once upon a time, even given her a coin, maybe that very same coin, to play with. Of course, he hadn't had quite the run of luck she's having. And anyone who believes that's just luck doesn't know Trance.

Whatever difficulties the two of them have had, Dylan can't keep the amused smile from his face as he pulls out a chair and settles down at her table.

"I make that six in a row," he says, his voice wavering somewhere between amused and awed.

[heartofasun]

"Actually it's 57. " Trance commented back, not losing her concentration, looking up and smiling at him. "Hello Dylan. I think it's time we talked, don't you?"

There were things they had to do in this universe, things they had to do back home, and right now, with the strain and fragmentation between them, those plans weren't getting done. Trance was not getting closer to her Perfect Possible Future. And that future started stopped with Dylan.

She tried to make it work without him. It didn't. She needed him. And Harper, and Tyr and Beka. They all had roles to play. Integral roles. Even Telemachus. She could make that work. The pieces could be put into play.

"Do you remember when you gave me this coin?" Trance stopped a moment and held it up.