[Job/Kirahunter] Mechanical Bull Riding

Vorpal crashed his head on the counter of a bar and slid his glass away from himself. “Well theory confirmed. Swords cannot get drunk. Awesome.” The sentient weapon sighed, he could really go with some mental inhibition right now. His stomach still ached from where he impaled himself on his last mission and his injuries were starting to pile up. But more prominent were some choices weighing on his mind. Visions of an ancient warrior dead at his feet, a scared girl fleeing for her freedom, flashed in and out of his consciousness. He’d only set out to be a bit of work to keep a roof over his head but found himself thrown into a series of morally difficult situations. He was just trying to get paid and well he felt a little cruelly punished for it. His mind drifted off to the ancient evil he’d long been tasked with sealing away, “I don’t suppose this is my punishment for ignoring my duty?” Just when Vorpal thought his day couldn’t get any worse some punk had jumped up on a table by a nearby mechanical bull and started raising a ruckus, likely inspired by the bottle in his hand, “Hey all hey all! I am the Fiore national champion mechanical bull rider! And I’m offering up 2000 jewels to anyone who can outlast me on this machine!” Vorpal tried to ignore the rapscallion but plenty of people were giving him attention, apparently eager to have some jewels to pay their tabs.

The bartender came over to Vorpal as a crowd gathered around the mechanical bull with the contest in full swing. He collected Vorpal’s cup, “You know that ruffian has been making a stir here for weeks. He hassles patrons out of their money on that bull every chance he gets, he really is rather good, I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t mean my customers had less money to spend on our drinks. Vorpal looked up at the bartender, “Any reason you don’t kick him out?” “He just keeps coming back. Besides he isn’t breaking any rules, we can’t rightly refuse him service. I don’t suppose some rough and tumble fellow would be able to give him the oust if it meant having their tab forgiven?” Vorpal grinned, “Well now I don’t know about that, but I’ll see what I can manage.” He stood up and rolled his shoulders, he could use the distraction from the doubts that plagued him. Vorpal politely maneuvered the crowd to reach the mechanical bull just in time to see someone thrown from it. The aforementioned rabble rouser was standing on a nearby table, “Ooh better luck next time pal, just 43 seconds short of my performance! Who's next?” Vorpal stepped up into the ring, “I’m up. What’s the time to beat?” The man looked Vorpal over, “Oooh looks like we’ve got a tough guy here. My record is 94 seconds on the highest setting, think you can take it?” Vorpal shrugged, “Maybe, never ridden one of these things before. What’s the entry wager?” “Well aren’t you bold. Just 100 jewels for a shot at 2k.” Vorpal handed over the money and hopped on the machine not entirely sure how it worked. He just figured he needed to hold on real hard and it’d be fine.Then the very next moment it bucked to life, swinging and bouncing and violently trying to hurl Vorpal from it. It was an intense ride for sure but Vorpal was literally made of metal with his hands on the saddle it would take more force to pry him off then to destroy the bull itself. So after a mild 100 seconds or so Vorpal went ahead and dismounted the beast and grinned at the awe struck game master, “I do believe you owe me 2000 jewels.” Embarrassed the hustler handed over the money and fled the scene leaving Vorpal to return to his completely ineffective drinking.