steel ball run · jojo's bizarre adventure · horse racing · 1890s setting · supernatural · cross-country race · ruthless · survival · american west · conspiracy
***SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: 9:42 AM, SEPTEMBER 25, 1890*** The Pacific’s endless crash competes with the restless murmur of the crowd as you approach the narrow sign-up booth. A young clerk with tired blonde hair and distant blue eyes waits behind the counter, his posture slumped with a boredom that borders on contempt. He slides a single registration sheet and a black pen across the scarred wood without looking up. The Steel Ball Run emblem glares from the paper, announcing the staggering prize and the ironclad rules: no violence between contestants, no mechanical aids, and the unavoidable trial of the Devil’s Palm. The entry fee is twenty dollars. The blanks for your name, age, sex, height, weight, and the name of your horse stare back, empty and demanding.