---

Despite his paper incident, Donny was trying to keep steady in the race. He needed to forget everything behind him and focus forward: Focus on getting to that finish in first; High on the board at the start, and he'd keep it that way. Now, all he had to do was clean his mind, keep his surroundings in check, and not get distracted--

Instantly, he found himself distracted.

He saw that woman; The one on the poster, and the one who was probably still smelling like horse shit. If he kept to her blindside she might not notice him creeping around to overtake her. But thoughts of running past her ran cold with the savage sight of her doing something crazy: She took one of those large metallic spheres from her hip, and to his surprise, she threw it at a horse in front of her. It almost reminded him of one of his boomerangs with the way it moved through the air; and the collision it made with one of the horses was enough to cause such a wave of destruction that it knocked out an entire wave of racers. And to top it off, she caught the sphere as she passed by!

"_{Holy shit.}" Donny muttered, mind adjusting to the witnessed chaos. How did she do that? There was no way that ball could do that; It made no sense! Donny found himself genuinely shaken by the display of talent from Jules. She was more fearsome than he could've expected, but that throwing ability... However she used that sphere in such a way? He wanted to do that. Oh, hell yeah he wanted that. It was badass, to just give the most minor reason for wanting to be able to do it. Though, with how he pissed her off before... She'd probably try to kill him at the end of the first stage.

Thoughts wandering to the poster, he realized that he had some potential way to get her to play along. A sly smile crossed his face--

_{"OhgollyOhgollyOhgollyOhgolly.."}

N a n i ? !

Whatever smile he had was replaced with a large frown and wide eyes. That gunslinger from earlier had sped past him like a bullet! This made him realize that, for a fact, he was supposed to be racing right now instead of worrying about all the dumb shit. What had he just got done motivating himself to do?! Donny shook his head before his heels kicked against O'Riley, getting her to pick up speed. "Shit!" He swore irritably, attempting to catch up to those damned racers. He barely offered the pile of flesh and broken bones any note as he raced past; Having priorities right now.

These people were just full of damn surprises!

---

Though he tried to catch up, Donny found himself falling more behind: He had pushed his horse too much, too early: And that was clear as not only had Jules stayed ahead and Simon bolted for the lead; But some large man dashed straight past him with nothing but a tip of his hat. What the hell?! Where'd his speed come from? The way he was bursting ahead, Donny felt dream as they reached the finish line; Fourth wasn't the worst position, but his competition was clear. Three people tiered above him, and three people that needed to be kept out of the top rankings during the next stage.

It wasn't until Donny actually reached the finish that he realized that woman, Jules, hadn't even placed top 3: In fact, that lady with the rein-levitating powers? She was ahead. How?! He fucking passed her earlier; Or did he? Were her powers beyond just levitating things? So many things were sketchy, especially that gunman placing first. He seemed pretty harmless despite shooting a guy in the middle of the road, but hell, he was clearly more competition than Donny was expecting. All together, this really sucked.

So Donny actually placed fifth, and this made him slightly angrier. He irritably swung a fist at the air because of the results, but paused as they announced that 'J.ZEPPPOLI' had been placed 20 positions back as a penalty for interference. Seriously? He actually was in fourth now? This took a sudden turn for the awesome.

Donny kept riding, hand waving out at those who were celebrating the race. Though most of them gathered around that gunman; Simon, huh? Number 1313... There had to be some lucky with getting duplicate numbers, yeah? Whatever, he couldn't be bothered. He needed to prepare, quickly, and set back out. He may have gotten fourth this time, but it wasn't going to happen again: He was going for number one, and he'd be watching out for Mr. Ten Gallon Stache and Plump Psychic Lady while doing it.

For the moment, he was focused on finding that Jules woman soon. That throwing technique she managed to use; He was curious about it. And he wanted to know how to do it to help himself in the race. Sure, he threw shit at her, but he felt like with her scoring such a shitty position in the rankings of Stage 1, some desperation for a small man of genius might be in order.

Slowly, Donny began scheming...

---

Annie might've had the biggest grin on her face she's ever had. As she gripped the reigns in barely contained excitement as she saw the finish line get closer and closer. She flicked a glance left and right, looking for any last minute trouble. The only thing she could see was a single moustached rider ahead of her. Was she really that far ahead? There's no way, was there?

The line grew bigger and bigger and bigger, until...

"THE WINNER OF THE STAGE IS CLEAR!"
Annie's cries and cheers blended in with the rest of the crowd as she rushed through, her fists in the air. From what little she heard from the announcer, she had come in second. She was quite proud of herself, second place out of all these people? And as such a novice racer, too! The first place winner was someone named Simon. Maybe she'd try and find him? His big ol' moustache shouldn't be that hard to find among all these faces.

Annie would sit on the sidelines, offering handshakes and high-fives for a few moments, before she would take Slow Ride to a nearby post next to a water trough, and take a walk with Neon Knight. "Whew! Well that was fun, eh, Neon? So uh... What now?" "Well, now we should rest while we can, before we head off to the next stage. It'll be in the Arizona Desert. You'll need lots of water if you're to survive that heat. Both you and Slow Ride. For now, perhaps you should interact with your fellow racers? Either that, or maybe get a drink at a tavern around here."

Annie gave a long stretch before letting her eyes wander around the "town" for something to occupy her time with. Perhaps a visit to the bar was in order? Either that or maybe see if she could get some sweets? If all else fails she could always see if Neon Knigh could draw any attention. If people could see him, that means they probably have "Stands" too, or at the very least some other sort of ability she'd need to watch out for. For now, she put one foot in front of the other, wandering aimlessly for the time being, until either something or someone catches her attention.

---

Simon had been so distracted by the prospect of moving towards the goal as fast as he could, that he didn't even realize no one was in front of him by the time he actually made it through. The burst of speed, combined with his own panic that hadn't yet worn off, had somewhat disoriented him. It wasn't until he heard the Announcer declare him the winner that Simon realized he even finished. Thankfully for the mustached jockey, his horse was smarter than he was, and had stopped herself before they could plow into something and hurt themselves.

Simon blinked once, then twice. His mouth felt horribly dry. He had won the first portion? Really? Simon's goal was to place among the top ten, anything more seemed like wishful thinking. The only reason he was confident enough to enter in the first place was because he believed his patience would allow him to outlast most of the other jockeys. But somehow, through panic and fear alone, Simon had blown by the other, far more talented jockeys.

He hoped the weren't mad. Simon would hate to have painted a target on his back this early in the race. But knowing his luck, he immediately began to suspect that now several people would attempt to take him down to ensure he didn't place high in the next leg of the race. Simon suddenly felt a bit queasy. Wasn't winning meant to feel good? It had, for a minute, but now it had given way to fear. Lots of it. So much so, that Simon didn't even notice the cheering as he dismounted from Cecilia, and took hold of her reigns. He felt both sweaty and cold, and began to look at the other racers nervously. As if suspecting one of them would pull a gun on him should he lower his guard.

Simon shakes his head. Even for him, this paranoia was excessive. He really had to get himself together here. "Y'did good, girl. Better than yer rider, in fact." Simon says under his breath, placing his hand on Cecilia's head. She pressed against it, and looked up at him with those glassy and empty eyes that were kind of terrifying, and hid how intelligent of a creature Cecilia really was. Right. He could have himself a first place pity party later. First Simon needed to get Cecilia some food, water, and rest.

He begins to lead her away from the crowd in search of all three of those things. Only to be stopped abruptly by a group of men and women who had watched the race. They swarmed him, some shouting praise, some just trying to get attention, and some trying to propose business deals. It was all very overwhelming for Simon. "Uh- I- Well, y'- Hold on now-" Simon hadn't stuttered in years, and it was embarrassing for it to start back up again now, but he couldn't help it with all of the information overload. One of them, who was louder and thus scarier than the others, managed to be heard over the noise. "Mister Garfunkel! How do you feel after winning the first leg of the race?" Simon winced. "Uh, well, I'm sorry?"

---

Well, there wasn't a whole lot going on at the moment. Nothing really caught Annie's eye, and Neon wandered aimlessly behind her. There was a bar close by, but Annie wasn't exactly a drinker. She enjoyed wine and whiskey as much as the next gal, well, probably a little more than the next gal, but she was a strong believer in moderation.

At least 20 minutes had passed and the two had just been walking in circles. Annie grew more and more bored by the moment. Neon began slouching as he walked, obviously bored. On a whim, Annie closed her eyes and looked in a random direction. She turned to her left and opened her eyes. There was a small shop directly across from her. A candy story, or something to that extent. "A candy store? Now how in the world did I miss that?" Annie felt her pockets. She still had her wallet on her, and some random assorted coins in her jeans.

She ran across the street in a hurry, and burst through the door into the wooden building. The store had many varieties of candy, taffy, caramel, lollipops. There were a few other knickknacks, like small wooden trains, but that's not what was important. Like a theoretical kid in a literal candy store, she grabbed a paper bag from a stack and began walking around the store, filling up the bag. The bag comprised mostly of cubes of caramel, wrapped pieces of Saltwater Taffy, and a large novelty sized lollipop. For Neon. She slammed 25 cents down at the counted and ran out the door, where Neon Knight was waiting.

Practically shoving the lollipop in Neon Knight's large gauntleted hand, she skipped along through the town. Neon had flipped up his visor, which held only blackness inside of it, and somewhat reluctantly put the lollipop inside, holding on the the long stick it was on. While trying to figure out the foriegn flavor, Neon suddenly felt something knock against his chest. Looking down on the ground, he noticed he had walked into a blonde boy, who had some attempt at a ponytail going on. Annie was quick to the scene, being literally right next to Neon. "Oh no! I'm sorry fella! Neon must of not been looking where he was going. He's pretty tall, and usually doesn't look down." Annie extended a hand to the boy. "Again, I'm real sorry. Would some caramels make it up to ya?"

---

Simon's apology seemed to only invigorate the crowd more. Apparently, much to Simon's chagrin, apologizing for getting first place during the first leg of the race actually created more questions than it answered. Which was incredibly unfortunate, as Simon could not focus on one particular question. His head was practically spinning, the attention was overwhelming and totally terrifying, despite it not actually being that large of a crowd. His gaze ghosts over the people surrounding him. No exits. He couldn't escape unless he started shoving, meaning Simon couldn't go back to his trusted tactic of fleeing. He did have one more tactic to avoid scary situations though.

Simon's hand seemed to ghost down his side, towards his holster. The movement was subtle, and smooth, which was why the crowd wasn't freaking out. They just hadn't noticed. Simon frowns just before grabbing at his six shooter. He didn't plan on shooting any of them, of course. His idea was to fire some warning shots into the air, and then make a break for it. But Simon realized that this was actually considerably more rude than asking them to move aside, and also might get him in a lot of trouble.

Deciding he really didn't want to upset anyone, Simon's hand moves away from the holster.

Which meant he had to figure out a new way of fleeing the scene. Running and shooting weren't options, he was pretty much out of ideas. Just then, someone touched his arm. Simon let out an incredibly unbecoming yelp, similar to what one might hear if they accidentally stepped on a dog's tail. He also whirled around with wide, scared eyes. Simon managed to calm down slightly when he realized it was the intimidating woman who chased away the thugs after Simon shot one. She seemed to be good people, helping a stranger like the Badger Man out like that. Scary, but good.

His brow furrowed as he heard her out. A drink? Simon didn't tend to partake, but..hmm. He could probably use a nice refreshing glass of orange juice. Plus, heading somewhere with someone as intimidating as her would probably prevent the crowd from following him. W-Well, I s'pose I've got time fer a drink." Any attempt at playing it cool was lost when he immediately stuttered. Also, his voice cracked near the end of the word drink.

"Sorry fellers, I've got things ta do." Simon moves forward, hoping the crowd would part. To his surprise, they actually did. He assumed it was because he had an excuse to leave. In actuality, it was just because Simon was physically imposing despite being an absolute wimp. "I've just got ta' find a place fer Cecilia to rest at first." Simon informs the intimidating woman as he moves out of the crowd, which soon disperses as he leaves.

It wasn't too hard to find a nice place to tie Cecilia's reigns to. The small area was clearly renovated to accommodate the race. So after ensuring Cecilia was secured, fed, and watered, Simon bumped his head against his horse's. "Ah'll be back in a jiffy, don't ya worry." He said quietly. Though, the truth was, Cecilia was absolutely fine on her own. It was Simon who was being reassured. Cecilia had become his emotional support horse.

Simon proceeds to head back to the scary woman, and then to the bar, fidgeting slightly as the intimidating woman walked beside him. He was supposed to make small talk, right? But what could they talk about? All Simon had done that was noteworthy was getting first place via fear alone. That wasn't impressive, and even if it was, it wasn't much to go on. "The name's Simon, by the by." He says quietly, realizing that introducing himself would probably be polite.

Before he could continue talking, he came upon the bar, and immediately froze up. Simon hovered just outside the doorway. Clearly visible to those inside the bar, but too nervous to actually enter it. The reason being, someone had kicked the door straight off its' hinges. Likely someone angry and scary, given the fact that normal folk didn't tend to boot doors down for no reason.

---

Maybe he should've just taken the money.

Donny had enough to get him through the next stage, at least, he hoped so: At least a light load would let him travel more effectively, right? That was the bright side to it, if there was one. Well, the whole training thing seemed to be a plus; He just had to get back now, to make sure he'd be there when Jules left. As much as he loved a good bet, the whole situation prior to the first stage kind of made him want to avoid gambling with idiots in a saloon, so that was a bit of a bust all-in-all. What to do with the time he had left, then? Maybe see if there were any critters about? Maybe swipe something?

All of these thoughts were interrupted when he slammed into a wall: Or at least he thought it was a wall, but upon actually observing the space in front of him after falling onto his ass, there was nothing. Eyes peering down there was a small shadow on the ground; Causing his eyes to slowly rise upwards to see a large... Floating... Lollipop? What was more concerning? The fact he slammed his face into nothing, or the fact there was a lollipop floating in the air with the stick end aiming at him? He squinted his eyes at the sight, more confused than scared; At least until a voice came along and turned him stiff.

That woman again; The one with the abilities, and who beat him in the race. Her words confused him further; As she acted like he didn't just bump into air, and instead, a person: They were the only two people here, who was this 'Neon' she was talking about? Unless... That lollipop in the air wasn't just a lollipop. It was something *carrying said lollipop.*

He wasn't sure if running was practical. She was acting nice, but how far could he take that for granted? Maybe he had just gotten spooked before, and was overreacting? But hell, an invisible man? This was some form of cheating, right? He wasn't shy from cheating himself, and he was already dealing with a cheater, but hell. Two heads were better than one, and this lady brought the extra head from the start: What a madwoman! His terror was getting cancelled out by how confusing this was, and how impressed he kind of was with it. Crazy stuff! All he could do is give in to the bizarre happenings, taking her hand and standing up surprisingly without betrayal.

"It's-- No problem. At all! You're both fine!" He stated, staring at the floating lollipop momentarily with distrust before becoming intrigued by her offer. He'd heard of caramel before but hadn't ever tried it himself. A moment of skepticism from the offer caused him to quietly take a second and think; Though if she wanted him wiped out he figured Mr. Invisible over here could've decked him ten times over. "Never tried it before, so why not? Definitely enough of an apology for me."

_{Especially if it ensured his safety with this giant invisible man next to him.}

---

Simon was having a really bad day. He was really feeling like crying in a bath right now, but unfortunately for him, that would involve escaping this situation. Which was..challenging. Fleeing from a bar full of ruffians was easy, Simon had done it lots of times. A lot more than anyone else, really. Perhaps, in hindsight, some of those bars were not ruffians just for talking loudly and laughing at slightly inappropriate jokes. But he was getting off topic even in his own darn thoughts. The problem was, one of the ruffians was not only familiar, but currently closing in on him.

The imposing fellow riding the imposing horse that had stressed Simon out during the first leg of the race. Still, Simon hadn't actually done anything to anger this imposing fellow. All he had done was inform him that his bag was loose, and ridden off. So surely there wasn't going to be an altercation- Then the imposing stranger started talking. If Simon weren't the type of person to hold himself to standards mentally and physically, he would have internally sworn.

Even in Simon's world composed entirely of paranoia, sad country songs, and cute animals, he wasn't able to predict the reasoning for this anger. While he was expecting him to be angry due to Simon placing first, that wasn't the reasoning at all. What Simon could gather was that this individual considered Simon's attempted good gesture to be rude, and that him riding off- while a race was underway -was even more rude. Simon certainly could have at least given a 'good bye' before riding off, but in his honest opinion, the retaliation from rude behavior to standoff in a saloon was a bit excessive. Granted, Simon was the type of man to think any retaliation from any party (including himself) was excessive.

Still, this fellow was certainly itching for a fight, and since running away would likely only delay the problem until the next leg of the race, it was time for option two. Simon's hand ghosts down to his holster, a practiced movement that was so fluid it was actually incredibly noteworthy. It was the only thing Simon did that wasn't tense and nervous, after all.

But as a would-be pacifist if he wasn't so itchy with his trigger finger, Simon decided that words should probably be traded before he unloaded on someone who may have just had one of those faces that made you nervous. "N-now, hold on there feller. There has been a considerable misunderstandin' between us." Simon waves the hand that wasn't resting on his six shooter in a placating manner. "Y'see it was not my intention to offend. I only wanted ta inform you that yer bag was comin' undone."

Simon suddenly felt way too hot in the face, and cold everywhere else. A combination of embarrassment and anxiety welling up as he spoke. He could feel the sweat on his forehead. "An' as fer the issue of me moseyin' on without another word, I wasn't tryin' ta slight you in any way, no sir. I merely overhead a somewhat aggressive comment from you. An' it is a rule of mine to avoid aggression and violence whenever I can."

Simon's voice cracked several times as he explained, and he wasn't even close to successful at hiding how terrified he was. But he believed he managed to lay it all out there as well as he could have. Surely there would be no misunderstandings, right? Well, the atmosphere was still feeling real tense, so maybe he wasn't gonna be so lucky. Just then, the woman who introduced herself as Jules interrupted in an attempt to diffuse the situation, and slung her arms around both parties of the conflict. Simon could practically feel the tension rising as she did this. He was gonna throw up from stress, he could feel it. It was totally going to happen. He definitely was not overreacting.

He was definitely overreacting, but it was still scary.

---

Well the boy certainly seemed to accept her apology fast. Maybe he was used to running into people? He was certainly short enough. Either that, or he was so terrified, he had come around full circle to being calm again. It wouldn't be the first time she's seen that reaction to Neon. "Gimmie just a second here..." Annie opened her paper page of sweets, digging through the top of the candy to grab a few cubes of caramels at the bottom. Should she throw in something else? A piece of taffy maybe? It was about this time when Neon Knight spoke up.

Neon Knight took the lollipop out of his visor, it being slightly smaller than when he had inserted it. "Hey, sorry about running into you like that. My name is Neon Knight. Who might you be? Are you in the race, too?" Neon Knight stuck out his hand to shake with the boy, but the blonde boy didn't respond, and seemed fixated on Annie and her candy. "Uh, hello?" Neon wiggled his hand and fingers around in an attempt to get the boy's attention. Annie stopped digging and looked at Neon. Then at the boy. Then back at Neon. "Uh, I don't think he can hear ya, Neon. Or see ya for that matter." Getting the idea, Neon's plated metal hand grabbed the boy's outstretched hand and shook it himself. The handshake was a little awkward as Neon Knight was almost two feet taller than the young man."Not quite what I meant there Neon, but whatever works."

"Anyways, here ya are!" Annie dropped four cubes of caramels and a wrapped piece of blue saltwater taffy. "And uh... if ya could..." Annie leaned in closer to the boy. "Could ya please not spread rumors about me havin' magic powers or nothin? People'll come up wantin' me to do tricks and things, and ol' Neon here ain't exactly a fan of doing stuff like that. Anyways, my name's Annie. Annie Ohkae. What's your name there young fella?"

---

Donny stared at Annie with his head tilted to the side, watching her dig into the bag she had. He felt a slight breeze for a moment, thinking it to be relaxing, at least until she looked up from the bag and away from him; Then at him. As she looked away again, his eyes trailed with hers until he saw the floating lollipop again. It seemed closer than before and that made him uncomfortable; Considering how the general area was quiet, he hadn't heard the invisible man move, either. And if what the woman was saying was to be believed, he also couldn't hear him speak? The hell was that? Was this actually an invisible man, or something of her weird imagination that she claimed could talk?

That's when he felt the sudden grip on his hand. Instinctively, he tried to yank his hand back; But he couldn't budge it as his hand seemingly shook in the air, the skin of his hand obviously being pressed down by something metallic, though he couldn't see it. Just what the hell was this thing? It wasn't audible to him, he couldn't see it, yet it was obviously wearing something bulkier than normal clothing considering both the impact and the current handshake. Her powers were possibly larger in scale than he thought, and his mind began retracting back into the fear stage; His hand quickly getting sweaty as the invisible thing known as 'Neon' didn't let go. Ahahah, oh boy...

_{"Uh, thanks."} Donny murmured, spare hand now filled with the candies she dug out. Whatever happiness could be found in these candies quickly disintegrated as she leaned close and made a simple request; One that shook Donny, honestly. 'Rumors' of magic powers, huh? That was oddly relevant to his thoughts from during the first stage... Oh, god. This really was all planned from then, wasn't it? This was no accident! They collided and she did this all to give him this warning; No wonder she was so friendly with telling him this shit: It was such a passive and friendly confidence, too. That just made it more unnerving.

"R-Rumors? Me? Of course not; Lips are sealed. I never witnessed anything." Damn... Donny had convinced that Jules to work with him, but then this was happening? What was this, some sort of karma? She introduced herself; Annie, huh? Hopefully they were okay now that they came to an understanding. Hopefully he'd be released soon, though, perhaps saying something was more practical. "It's Donny; Donny Brando." He answered, eyes momentarily peering down at the caramels in his hand. Nervously he popped one into his mouth, chewing it skeptically for a moment, taking in the flavor...



Eyes momentarily lighting up, Donny's mind went from fleeing, to consuming. "Horhly shyt thibs tahstes increbibible!" Donny announced, directly after dumping the rest of the cubes into his mouth. Despite feeling like his mouth was going to be stuck shut, this was the greatest! Why hadn't he tried this shit earlier? Hell, it almost made this whole interaction worth it! Now if only he could manage to swallow it instead of his mouth turning into a small cavern of sticky caramel.

---

Annie watched as horror slowly overcame Donny. Which was almost immediately replaced by excitement as he shoved the caramels into his mouth. Neon quickly let go of Donny's hand as he nearly exploded in excitement. "Well, glad to see you like them! They've got 'em on sale over at that candy shop right over yonder." Annie pointed a dusty gloved finger at a nearby candy store. It didn't exactly have a name, it was just called "CANDY SHOP" in bold black lettering, along with a cartoony looking piece of candy painted on a wooden disc that dangled near the entrance. "Maybe they should try a different form of advertisement. I didn't even see it the first time around." Annie put her hands on her hips. "I think they were a penny each. Shouldn't be too hard to get them. Most of the time you can find one or two half buried in the ground."

Annie scanned the area around her. Like uh..." being a professional Archeologist required a keen eye for detail to distinguish what could be part of an ancient artifact, or just an everyday old coin. She's probably found at least a dollar in coins over the past couple of months. "Oh, here we go!" Annie noticed an odd glint in the road and skipped over to it, bending over and scooping up a half buried shiny penny in one fluid motion before hurrying back to Donny. "Ya just gotta know where to look. Anyways..." Annie flipped the coin over to Donny.

Annie turned around and gave a gentle wave. "I'm off to get me a drink. You're welcome to follow along if ya want, but you can do yer own thing if you want, too." And with that, she began walking towards the nearby tavern. Neon watched Donny, however. There was a primal hunger in his eyes. What was in those caramel cubes? Neon decided he'd keep a close eye on him, to make sure his hands didn't reach for her pockets to fuel his newfound addiction. Neon put his novelty sized lollipop back into his visor, the colorfully swirled candy disappearing into the darkness of his helmet.

His gaze was focused like a laser, any finer and a beam of light would have shot out of his eyes into the skull of Simon. The tension in the air was thickening and not just from the help of Air Bag either. It was starting to become the start of an old fashioned duel. It was ages since he had last been a participant in one, his hand hungry to stretch its fingers and speed. Joseppi in the moment didn’t care much of what Simon has to say for himself as he knew all too well from a life of law enforcement that people would say anything to get out of the trouble they made for themselves. The challenge of a duel was dancing on the top of his tongue, his mouth forming the sentence before letting it out. Just as he was about to talk he was interrupted by the girl who seemed to be quite taken with the stammering mustache. Unintentionally, Joseppi whipped his gaze towards Jules, his eyes now fixated on her instead .

“Now listen miss, we were having a nice conversation until that poster hit you in the face. Making you mad was not my intention at all. I would like to make that up to you and ask what you saw, but as for being friends with him” he said exasperated with his thumb pointing over his shoulder, “I don’t quite see that future in the cards right now.”

The cowardly lion finally seemed to find the courage he had when he crossed Joseppi on the first leg of the race. He turned back to Simon as he spoke. “Why wait till after then to tell me about it? Unless you’re hiding someone or [i]something[/] in that body of yours. Go ahead and call them on out” Joseppi dug into him trying to see if Simon would call his bluff on knowing he was a stand user. Not only was his accent as heavy and annoying as he was but the excuses he was using were just the same. “Now let me get this right. You came and joined this race expecting to avoid aggression and violence the whole time?!” Joseppi guffawed violently. “What kind of idiot do you take me for?” He asked.

Joseppi had almost forgot he had an audience until the bartender interjected. “I don’t want any trouble in this here establishment. You already knocked down the door so please leave.” Joseppi turned his back to the two brushing off jules arm in the process. “You’re right good sir how rude of me, I’ll just take this out—-“ suddenly a stray bottle flew from behind Joseppi and smashed into his back shattering on impact. It seemed as though one of the patrons was getting antsy in anticipation of the fight and got ahead of himself. The original target was meant for Simon but somehow he had missed, probably from intoxication, but nevertheless it hit Joseppi instead.

The room once again fell deathly silent. Joseppi smile froze on his face and his eyelids appeared stapled shut. After what felt like forever, branches off veins popped through his skin in anger as he whipped around and summoned airbag. Both arms aiming for each competitor behind him. Only one word could be heard echoing throughout the area, “ORA!”

---

Simon had a habit of getting into exceptionally unfortunate situations, it was part of his darn life at this point. Just something he had to accept, and overcome. Some folk had weird looking noses, some folk were born without noses, and Simon's nose got stuck into trouble against his will. He frowned internally. That metaphor weren't so good. But that wasn't the point. The point was, while Simon could usually accept that it was just in his cards to have awful luck, this time around things were different. Simon was not the type of guy to get angry, no sir. Usually he just got sad. But he was starting to feel his fear mix with irritation at how absolutely awful this fellow's manners were.

Being angered that Simon was somewhat short with him earlier was one thing, but the fact that this no good varmint was dead set on making it into as big a deal as possible had Simon all riled up. He was treating him like a dang criminal just for leaving partway through a conversation! It wasn't right, and it was that type of behavior that really got under Simon's skin. Being pushed around and bullied, he was used to. But being treated like a villain was a bridge too far.

With that said, it wasn't as if Simon planned on actually doing anything about it. Getting frustrated was one thing, but retaliation just wasn't in his nature. And it seemed as though Jules had managed to defuse the situation somehow. What, seconds ago, seemed like the start to a gunfight, had now turned into the rude fellow declaring that he had no intention of befriending Simon. That was fine, he could certainly live without having someone this actively aggressive as a friend.

And then he turned his attention back to Simon, and began to speak. Simon could feel his forehead crease and his brow furrow. Was there some sort of miscommunication between them? Simon had been talking about his satchel coming open, but this fellow was making it about ghosts. Which, one, was totally off topic, and two, unfortunately confirmed Simon's suspicion that there were more haunted people than just him. The rest of the scary fellow's jeering was lost in the haze of Simon's own mind as he tried to work out how they had gone from open bags to scary ghosts.

Simon was drawn out of his thoughts by a bottle flying by him, and shattering across the scary fellow's back. Ah, shoot. That was bad. Simon had better say something quick. "Alright now, before you start gettin' mad pardner, please look 'round so you can discern that it clearly was not us who tossed that at ya- PERFORM THIS WAY!" Simon was forced to interrupt his own sentence when the scary fellow whirled around, and began to manifest a ghost.

His own ghost popped into existence right in front of him, and while he couldn't actually use it until performing several tasks, he could still manifest it as a shield. "Wha-" The ghost had less than a second to speak before the scary fellow's ghostly arm slammed right into its' metallic face. Perform This Way's own durability helped considerably cushion the blow. But haunted and ghost weren't actually prepared for the blow, meaning they didn't have time to ground themselves. The force of Perform This Way being pushed back transferred to Simon. If that weren't enough, Perform This Way was smacked right into him. Sending both of them flying out of the bar, and straight towards Jules. "YOU BOAR BRISTLED GOON! YOU SUMMONED ME RIGHT INTO A PUNCH!" Perform This Way shrieked, Simon was a bit too dazed to respond snappily, but at least he hadn't taken the full force of the blow.