Lollipop: The Visionary

An only child, Lollipop originates from Bewaring, the “Confectionery Capital” of Marblearth. Growing up in their family’s confectioners, Lollipop knew ingredient names and the dangers of the machines their family worked with before they could read. But on the eve of adulthood, Lollipop sought a different future than inheriting responsibility for their parents’ business. 

“I told them point blank I wanted to be an artist. It didn’t go over well.”

Faced with a choice between continued family support and their dreams, Lollipop took the plunge. Able to attend the Van Gotterdam Institute of Arts tuition-free by promising their assistance with the ongoing renovation works and just about able to earn a living from working in the on-site cafeteria, they moved away from home. 

Inspired by the complex and abstract patterns made by the candy machines that they’d spent their youth watching, Lollipop specialized in action painting. They covered themself in paint and rolled hypnotically across spare canvas sheets in a variety of patterns to produce an eclectic final image, hoping to articulate powerful emotions through art. One of their earliest pieces in this style can be seen in an Institute art show taping, also featuring Team Primary’s Prim and Mary as fellow exhibitors. 

Though dismissed by some as pure novelty, their art attracted considerable attention. A born salesmarble, Lollipop quickly sold several pieces at local art shows. By the time their graduation rolled around, they had developed their technique, built an audience, and sold their first piece to a gallery. Marble sports had not yet crossed their mind. Lollipop’s first encounter with the Rally was in 2016, one year post-graduation. Intending to paint in the sandhills not far from Van Gotterdam, they found themselves in the audience of Race 8 instead. Observing the high-stakes race made a strong impression on them, and they followed the rest of the season as it was broadcast on television. But they were never an athlete, and any thoughts of trying racing out for themself were only idle fantasies in the background of developing their art career. 

The following year’s open call for racer auditions, put out following the first season’s success, also almost passed Lollipop by. But they had found themself in a creative slump once their life had more or less stabilized around them. Seeking new, unpredictable experiences, and looking to meet marbles from outside the insular creative world they’d gotten comfortable in, Lollipop entered the auditions process on a whim, not expecting to go particularly far. 

“I definitely considered backing out a lot. I had to tell myself, ‘Well, what’s the worst that can happen? Even if you completely bomb it, you could still paint about that.'” 

That they had an aptitude for it enough to take them to the final audition rounds surprised them as much as it surprised the rest of the racers in attendance. But their art, created through extensive and tightly-controlled movement, had invisibly prepared them to succeed. Lollipop was selected to participate in a preliminary selection race held later that month. 

This preliminary selection race was unfilmed. To this day, its results are unknown. All that can be said for certain is that Lollipop emerged victorious, and they would make their debut alongside Red Number 3, Blizzard Blaster and Nemo. 

Lollipop recounted their first qualifiers experience, along with the rest of their racing career, in the 2022 documentary Lollipop: Artist and Athlete. 

“The first marble I talked to there was Ghost Plasma. ‘Oh, it’s nice you auto-qualifiers have come to cheer us all on.’ Well, turns out there was no auto-qualification, and I was competing with the previous season’s champion to qualify. I considered ditching there and then.”

In the race itself, a bad overhead move in the earliest sector of the sand track appeared to dash their hopes prematurely. A non-factor for the majority of the race, Lollipop only scored a qualifying position in the last few lengths. 

“I knew there was no way Ghost Plasma wouldn’t qualify, and I was actually in front of them for a while. So I decided I’d copy whatever they did. And at some point we really did start doing the same sort of thing.”

Ever-extroverted Lollipop wasted no time in acquainting themselves with the rest of the qualified racers. It was Summer Sky who became their fastest friend, and who they collaborated with creatively several times in the future. Pictures of the two together uploaded to Summer Sky’s hugely popular Rollstagram boosted the popularity of Lollipop’s art significantly. Similar pictures of Lollipop getting to know the field emerged from almost every other qualified marble. 

Lollipop held the lead in R1 for just a fraction of a second, but the Rally was already working its magic. They returned to art that night with the painting Friction, a moody artwork incorporating earthen shades and circular shapes.  Friction was well-received by fans, though also something of a creative departure.

Inspiration continued to flow. In their second race ever, Lollipop took to the front, fought an exhilarating battle for the lead with Big Pearl, and obtained their first medal, a silver. Moved by the experience, their subsequent piece Pure Feeling featured a taupe landscape that contrasted even more starkly with their previous vibrant pieces. This divisive work was quickly purchased by a private collector and has not been exhibited publicly since. 

Also sharing an immediate bond, Lollipop and Big Pearl held a blowout celebration at a local bar post-race, not least because Lollipop was holding the provisional championship. But failure trailed success, and Lollipop met with both their first and second DNFs in Races 5 and 10 respectively, and the closest they came to another medal were two fourth places in Race 4 and Race 13. In the latter, controversial double-points scoring granted them their final tenth-place position.

Through disappointment and triumph alike, Lollipop hit the canvas, remaining prolific throughout the season. They frequently invited other competitors to collaborate, bringing a variety of unconventional influences and elements to their work. 

Confident and established as an artist, Lollipop returned to Bewaring post-season, where they were finally able to make amends with their family. Living on their own, they fell in with an influential artist’s collective, Sucrose, working out of Bewaring’s trendy central district. Outside of their own personal work and athletic training, they devoted themself to Sucrose’s ongoing gallery launching project. Though not without its difficulties, said project was a success, and the gallery’s attached studio space became indispensable to Lollipop’s art. Lollipop also took a trip to watch the 2018 Marble League in Hailfern, appearing prominently in the audience during the Snowboard Cross event.

The 2018 SMR season beckoned, where Lollipop raced alongside debuting racers Phoenix and Superball in the qualifying round and secured a third place; enough for entry into the upcoming season. 

Lollipop, Summer Sky and Nemo hosted a party post-qualifiers which was attended by all the other qualified marbles, inviting the field to cover themselves in paint and contribute to a giant collaborative painting. Not everyone participated—the specific identities of the contributors has never been confirmed—but the resultant painting Chaos is fondly remembered by fans of the Rally, and counted amongst Lollipop’s personal favourite works. It was hung in the Sucrose Collective gallery upon Lollipop’s return home.

In the interlude between qualifiers and the season, Lollipop trained in Bewaring, utilizing an artificial sandhill built recently in the city. 

Lollipop’s season began unremarkably. A tenth place, a seventh place, and a fourteenth place established a trend of middling results. During a mid-season interview, Lollipop expressed more concern about their art. 

“I love being here and I love racing, but I don’t do it to win. Do I like performing well? Sure! Do I try to do well? Of course! But you can get more from an experience like this than just points and accolades. You can meet interesting marbles and have fun like nowhere else.”

Amongst the new entrants, Lollipop quickly befriended Ducktape and Grasshopper, and Ducktape helped develop a new paint propulsion system for use in their biggest pieces. Throwing themself into the social and creative life of the rally, they would be described by their fellow racers in a birthday tribute as optimistic and sociable, at peace regardless of the results past the finish line. 

Race 4 saw Lollipop in seventh again, disadvantaged by a track split. Though, with Superball declining the customary winner’s celebration, Lollipop would win the chance to organize a small party for runners-up RN3 and Phoenix, and Race 5’s dramatic war for first between Comet and RN3 saw Lollipop releasing a cyan-and-red painting unsubtly taking inspiration from the race. 

As their artistic endeavors continued in the background, Lollipop struggled in the races, finishing second-to-last in Race 7. The sketches and concepts they shared took on a more somber atmosphere, but Lollipop insisted they were as chipper as ever. 

“I don’t have a lot of training, and I’m not a professional. I can’t expect to win. If I can have a good time and show everyone some exciting racing, that’s all I can ask for.”

Still, reporters watching the practice tracks over the following weeks reported seeing Lollipop more often than before. Fittingly, Lollipop replicated 2017’s late-season surge by taking fourth in the final race, separated from third-place finisher Big Pearl by the slimmest of margins. The slimmest of margins also separated Lollipop and Marbly McMarbleface in the standings—tied on 51 points, McMarbleface’s gold medal gave them the edge into 12th over Lollipop’s 13th. But Lollipop had no hard feelings. On the eve of the final race, the three celebrated long into the night in honor of season winner RN3. 

Lollipop returned temporarily to adjacent Van Gotterdam after the season’s end to visit with old friends from the Institute. A joint charity fundraiser between Lollipop and Team Primary was planned, then canceled due to ongoing conflicts between the team’s members. Obligations to Sucrose and the collective’s upcoming art exhibition, Blood Sugar, awaited upon return to Bewaring. Their contribution to the exhibition was Cherry Soda; a lushly-textured crimson piece in Lollipop’s traditional action painting style loosely based on RN3’s 2018 victory. 

The exhibition lasted through the release of Not a Marble. Friends with almost all involved, Lollipop held their tongue, but the scandal boosted the exhibition’s visitor numbers significantly. Realizing Lollipop’s popularity, Sucrose further integrated them into their core cast of artists, and Lollipop would in turn dedicate much more of their time to the increasingly successful collective. 

2019’s season caught Lollipop off-guard. Bound by new professional obligations, their engagement with marble sports had been limited, personally admitting in a pre-qualifiers interview that they had fallen out of practice.

“I’m a busy marb, I can’t hit the hills every day. But I’m not the only marble here who isn’t just a racer. It’s not an obstacle.”

Lollipop promised fans on social media that they would see them racing in due time, even hinting at a better placement this time around. But these hopes were dashed when they failed to qualify and were relegated to the Showdown for 2019. 

Shocked and upset at not having made the main event, Lollipop refused further press appearances and withdrew back to Bewaring. Their disappointment was channeled into art; darker and filled with sharp, jagged shapes rather than their usual fluid and dynamic composition. But Lollipop found no great solace in creating; destroying several paintings out of dissatisfaction before they reached the public eye. 

“Before then, I thought it didn’t matter to me whether I made it or not, but suddenly I was in pieces. I kept going back and imagining what might have happened if I’d trained enough. Everyone in Sucrose comforted me, saying it wasn’t my fault, that it wasn’t the end of the world, but it felt as if I was missing a part of myself.” 

After a period of withdrawal spent on solo projects and Showdown training, Lollipop burst back unexpectedly with a bright multi-coloured painting entitled Ennui. Painted in their own signature yellow-navy-red colour scheme, its explosive and distorted rendering of a pattern changed beyond recognition represented a bold vision of existential anguish. Some reacted with concern, but the work, exhibited in Sucrose’s gallery, represented rebirth as well as collapse. Lollipop showed up for the 2019 Showdown ready to excel.

An initial sixth-place finish was followed by a throwback to Lollipop’s first medal in 2017. Big Pearl dominated a long, winding track with Lollipop following just behind, finishing 1-2 as they had done back in 2017. Lollipop then doubled-up on second-place finishes, coming second to Blazing Fireball. Provisionally in first, Lollipop was within striking distance of winning the 2019 Showdown. 

It was, however, not to be. Big Pearl brought the ambition and dedication of a prior podium-sitter to the final race while Lollipop struggled along behind. A solid performance from Rastafarian allowed them to overtake for second, and Lollipop finished the Showdown with an overall third. But for Lollipop, sitting on the same step of the podium as Superball had not long ago breathed new life into their racing ambitions. Plus, with the system provisionally in place for the Rally’s next season, they were guaranteed a return to the A-League. The three Showdown podium-sitters celebrated with karaoke, not knowing that between them, only one would return next season.

Lollipop skipped returning to Van Gotterdam post-Showdown. Responsibilities at home with Sucrose had piled up during even their brief absence. Along with spearheading the launch of Blood Sugar’s sequel, Sugar Rush, Lollipop produced several paintings for the exhibition on a tighter schedule than ever before.

In their rare free moments, Lollipop enjoyed the fruits of their popularity, guest-judging on candy-making competition show Champion Confectioner and helping promote the family store while working on their training for the upcoming season. Several Rally friends joined them in Bewaring for the exhibition, including Big Pearl, Summer Sky and Ducktape. 

The news of the qualifications being scrapped in favour of an invitational—and the news that they were amongst the invited—was a huge surprise to Lollipop, especially with Big Pearl and Rastafarian’s exclusion from the roster.  

“I— (laughs) maybe it was some kind of joke list, you know?”

Though the guilt of being invited over Big Pearl ate at Lollipop in private, something they confided with several Sucrose members, they continued to plan for the Rally. Intending to outperform their prior appearances and win a race for the first time, Lollipop doubled down on their commitment to training. But, in turn, tension between the two sides of their life increased, and once-invisible cracks broke to the surface. Between 2019 and 2020 Lollipop had been placed, unpaid, in charge of the studio and gallery’s financials and marketing in addition to their artistic obligations, two roles they would be unable to remain in if they were located outside of Bewaring. Though outwardly supportive, upon realizing that Lollipop’s departure would require these responsibilities to be held elsewhere, Sucrose intensified their demands on Lollipop as they sowed the seeds of self-doubt in their mind. 

At first, Lollipop willingly exhausted themself in the balancing act between the different parts of their life. But as they became more vocal about their plans and prepared to leave, passive-aggressive mentions of their lack of Rally success and how much Big Pearl probably resented them warped into outright hostility. Over several long, argumentative meetings, Lollipop was accused of attempting to abandon their position, sabotage the collective, and move back to Van Gotterdam postseason to find success solo, with some members alleging that they had said as much in private conversations and that Lollipop was feigning not remembering. No amount of insistence to the contrary from Lollipop could convince them otherwise, and Sucrose threatened to seize their currently-exhibited artwork, including Cherry Soda, Friction, and most importantly Chaos, if they did desert. But Sucrose also offered a solution: if they already felt so bad, why didn’t they stand down and give their spot to Big Pearl? 

Faced with losing three-quarters of their life’s work and rapidly losing track of reality, Lollipop buckled. That night, they called Big Pearl to bargain. 

“I recounted the situation almost verbatim to Pearlie. How I’d been saying things—or at least I thought I was saying things—and doing things that were hurtful to Sucrose, that I wasn’t appreciating what they’d done to make me successful, and that I couldn’t do the season because I’d lose all my work, but hopefully we could be friends again and everything would be okay if I gave them my spot. 

Well, when they finally got their chance to talk, they reamed me out about it hard. You’re getting played for a fool, they said. Do you really think I’d be able to take your position if I knew that you got bullied out of it in the first place? No way. You deserve better than that, and you deserve better than these marbles. 

Until that point, none of that had even registered. I had to face reality. I could agree to Sucrose’s demands all I wanted, but I’d never be able to trust them again.”

In a move that shocked Sucrose and fans alike, Lollipop broke from the collective the following day. Neither side spoke of the exact circumstances at the time, but the acrimony was clear.

Sucrose also made good on their threat, and all of Lollipop’s art exhibited in the gallery was seized, along with their supplies and studio space. 

Adrift, Lollipop pivoted heavily towards SMR and threw themselves into their most intense training regimen yet, booking out the artificial sandhill for days at a time. Fans of Lollipop and Sucrose speculated extensively on what exactly had transpired between them as Lollipop’s social media silence yawned and Sucrose continued business as usual. Unable to face the potential ire of fans and a potential retaliation from Sucrose, these questions were left unanswered as Lollipop headed to Van Gotterdam. 

Taking advantage of a partial track collapse which resulted in six fellow competitors DNF’ing to seize a lead, Season 5 Lollipop’s first race seemed as if it were run by a different marble. Lollipop could not hold on to a podium spot, but their fourth place finish was immediately promising. In preseason coverage they had publicly set themselves a goal—to win a race for the first time—and their ambitious performance proved that wasn’t just idle talk, though they overshot and DNF’d in the subsequent race.  

There’s Lollipop, looking pretty resplendent in all of those colors against the grey sand, but, I assume, would rather be down in the sand at the bottom of the course. 

Races 3 and 4 were only mid-pack finishes, but just as Lollipop appeared to be slipping back into tradition, they achieved something remarkable. What appeared to be a decent but unpromising start from the gate saw Lollipop rapidly make up ground, ascending into fourth, then third, then second. But with El Capitan at their back and a rejuvenated RN3 in front, Lollipop appeared doomed to once again repeat the circumstances of their first medal. 

RN3’s lead, is it unassailable? Can Lollipop get up there? 

With an electric burst of speed Lollipop caught RN3’s draft and rode it ahead of them, snaking back-and-forth to guard against any potential reclaim. Lollipop cleared the finish line in first, taking the victory that they had promised themselves. Exhilarated by the victory they’d waited so long for and validated in their choice to return, Lollipop exhorted their success in front of the press and threw one of the biggest parties the SMR crowd had ever seen in celebration, with everyone in the field except Superball in attendance. And unbeknownst to them then, the good times would keep rolling. A well-partied Lollipop mounted a spectacular performance in the subsequent race, fighting with Ghost Plasma and Nemo to score a third-place finish and fourth place in the overall standings.

Overcome with adrenaline and overjoyed with their success, Lollipop announced another art party with everyone invited to celebrate their unexpected medal spree. And when Superball, infamous for their isolationism, looked to sneak away from that too, Lollipop confronted them.

In Superball’s absence, the party went ahead, and Lollipop painted Victory alongside the rest of the field as a sequel and replacement to Chaos. 

Their ascension in the standings and the completion of their first major work since disassociation with Sucrose gave the outside impression of normality. But returning to Bewaring for the season break cast into sharp relief the consequences of their split with Sucrose. With no gallery space, studio space, or art supplies, all Lollipop had to work with was the inside of their small flat. Once-beloved haunts in the city were poisoned with memories of relationships gone sour, so they eventually stopped leaving their flat for anything but necessities. All anyone but their family wanted to know was the story of what had gone sour with Sucrose. Utterly isolated in the place they’d called home, each attempt to return to art led them in circles, work after work abandoned incomplete on the canvas. Seeking catharsis, Lollipop took once more to destroying their art, a habit which Victory fell victim to. 

Little was seen of them until they travelled to Winterpeg for the Snow Rally races. Upon arrival, they attempted to apologize to Superball for their outburst months prior. 

Vexed but relieved to have apologized, Lollipop put the incident out of mind. And when awoken at the crack of dawn on the 2nd of April by a knock on the door, they initially thought nothing of it. 

“Nothing sunk in until the official asked, ‘this is your voice, right?'”

In a brutal coincidence, they were the unintended target of a bug in Superball’s room. The conversation had been leaked online. Bleary and shocked, the words they’d spoken not so long ago sounded alien to them. 

“‘It’s going to be impossible to contain at this point. You probably don’t have to worry, though.'”

Lollipop was brought to see Superball, cowering and tearful in the athletes’ village lobby as the bug was uncovered in the room, but the two didn’t speak. They spent much of the subsequent race in a haze. In a cruel twist of irony, Lollipop’s 9th-place finish and Superball’s failure to score a single point tied the two on points, Lollipop winning the tiebreak. 

Lacking the context of the original argument, the recording told a clear-cut story of Lollipop being harassed almost unprovoked by rumoured bully Superball. They were inundated with sympathetic media coverage. But as they listened to the recording again and again, guilt needled at them. What Superball had said was clearly a response, but few seemed curious as to the initial issue. Their non-committal apology began to seem insufficient in light of what they’d actually said. And in assuming that they were being plotted against, refusing to drop the issue, and sabotaging something Superball by all accounts had dedicated their life to, were they doing to Superball what Sucrose had done to them?

Superball locked themselves in their room for the rest of the week, and Lollipop was only able to speak to them through their door late at night.

The direct approach had not worked. Race 8 went no better for either of them. Cool Moody continued their march up the standings with a silver while Superball and Lollipop came across the line with one and two points respectively, putting Lollipop in third, above Superball by a single point. There were no celebrations. Even those marble sports outlets which claimed to be sympathetic to what they believed Lollipop had experienced harangued them in public, including during their trip from Winterpeg back to the sandhills. 

Increasingly troubled by the situation and dwelling on Superball’s words, Lollipop refused to give up on resolving the conflict, even as Big Pearl warned them that they might be unable to gain Superball’s forgiveness. They sought the advice of Black Knight, who of the other racers had gotten closest to Superball, and who spoke sullenly of the younger racer’s isolation. Reunited with the small stock of art supplies they had left at the sandhills village before the break, Lollipop decided to do what they had joined the Rally to do; turn their feelings into art. Determined to finish something this time, they returned to the canvas. Along with a note apologizing for their previous confrontations and misunderstandings, Lollipop attempted to express through their painting both their admiration for Superball’s strength and their regret over the conflict between them. Delivered overnight to Superball’s room, Lollipop awaited a response to the message, but none came.

Race 9’s was merely disappointing for Lollipop, scoring only three points and dropping off the podium into 5th. Superball, meanwhile, derailed off the track and into the audience stands, DNF’ing dramatically. As fans and stewards alike rushed to attend to the stranded racer, Lollipop put aside their promise to themself to give Superball space and returned to the top of the sandhill to meet with them too. The two did not speak then, but Lollipop was able to use their recognizability to fend off the swelling crowd and give the on-site medical team better access. Fortunately, Superball was only slightly dazed by the incident. 

Two days later, for the first time, it was Superball who approached Lollipop. On a clear night, overlooking the sandhills, Lollipop spoke about their conflict with Sucrose and the guilt that had haunted them since, and Superball spoke about their loneliness and the bullying they had endured as a young marble and the anxiety they felt in public or around large groups. 

As the two gained a deeper appreciation for what the other had been through, they hatched a plan together; with Superball waiting in the wings, Lollipop would appear on the next edition of a popular Van Gotterdam talk show to clear the air about both Superball and Sucrose. 

Their bombshell tell-all appearance went into depth about issues of widespread fan speculation, Superball and Sucrose alike.

…about the Sucrose breakup—

It wasn’t on good terms. I did a lot of work for them for no reward; they tried to manipulate me into quitting the rally so I’d keep doing that. When I refused they took a bunch of my stuff away. It was… a harsh lesson in picking who you trust carefully. 

…but it’s not just that, it’s the argument with Superball as well. 

It’s a wiretap, you’re not getting the full story. That’s the first thing I want to say. Sure, we had a disagreement. But a lot of it was my fault. I said a lot of things that I shouldn’t have. Then we talked it out, we’ve made amends, and we’re getting along better than ever. And Superball is great—both as an athlete and as a marble—they just said something they didn’t mean. But it was a huge violation for any of that to happen regardless. It shouldn’t be unreasonable for us to have privacy in our own rooms, or not want to talk about our private lives to the press.

Their statement about Sucrose set off a firestorm in Bewaring, but the controversy about Superball calmed down immediately. Thousands of miles away from home, Lollipop’s focus was on the Rally. 0 points in Race 10 put to bed any hopes of a true breakout season, but Superball’s transformation was remarkable. Their confident racing style seemingly returned to them overnight as they took the lead early and never looked back. The two celebrated the win quietly with a documentary about the Marnaissance in the athletes’ village common room. 

Still with their own season to worry about, Lollipop picked up their performance in the next race, kept their cool during the streaker incident, and scored a healthy 10 points. Unable to win and with only a slim shot of the podium, Lollipop was still on track for their best season ever, and nonetheless content with recouping some of the places they had dropped prior. 

Though unable to win, Lollipop finished the season on a high note with a bronze medal, on the podium with race winner Superball for the first time. The two shared a hug while waiting for the championship announcement. In the end, Superball had made it—three points over Cool Moody to win. 
In celebration of their own 6th-place finish, a personal best, and Superball’s win, Lollipop did what they had longed to do again and set up a party for the champion, the podium-sitters and the season’s end. It was a quieter and more restrained outing than the previous years’ championship celebrations, but no less fun, as everyone came together to paint Love; a spiritual successor to Chaos. Superball finished the details on the painting themself.

In a strange limbo between sports and arts, Lollipop looked set to return to Bewaring either way until Superball made a request of them—to take them traveling around Marblearth and show them what they had missed. Lollipop gladly accepted, and for a few months afterwards the pair popped up in various popular tourist destinations, occasionally with other SMRbles, resting and relaxing and avoiding the press. But their journey concluded somewhere more familiar—Lollipop’s home city of Bewaring, where Superball had arranged a surprise to show their gratitude. 

We were always going to spend some time in Bewaring, and they insisted on coming to my flat rather than getting a hotel nearby. Well, I went to show them to the guest room, and there it was. 

Suffering from further internal conflict, Sucrose was in a difficult financial situation. Various works in their collection were being auctioned off. Chaos was not amongst them—not until they were approached by an anonymous figure willing to pay a princely sum to acquire the painting. Astonished and grateful to be reunited with their favourite work, Lollipop began to see the future just slightly more colorfully. 

Chaos and Love would eventually be exhibited together for free in Hunluen during the Marble ManiaX tournament in 2022, forming a pair entitled Higher Duality. Superball did not attend the exhibition in-person due to the large crowds, but they attended virtually and sent regards to all attendants. They also spent time with fellow attendees RN3, Pollo Loco, and Blizzard Blaster.

In the offseason, Lollipop focused on rebuilding their career as an independent artist. Returning to Van Gotterdam for an extended residency to put space between them and Bewaring, they resumed making art within a space rented to them by the Institute and mentored several new students with communication difficulties. They also met frequently with other Rallyists in the area to practice on the sandhills. The two-race 2022 Practice Round saw them achieving second overall, just below Silver Bolt. More than anything, they worked hard to develop a balance between art and their training, and as the S6 qualifiers drew closer they reported a new air of calm confidence. 

“Now that I know exactly what I’m capable of, I’ll be working as hard as possible to make sure I’m back on the roster for S6.” 

Initially lagging behind Pollo Loco, Blazing Fireball and Reflektor, Lollipop’s qualification looked shaky. But a successful lunge between Fireball and Reflektor, caught up fighting each other despite both being provisional qualifiers, made their initial uninspiring showing seem almost calculated. Lollipop celebrated the qualification in their usual fashion—with a celebration, this time a quieter and more refined affair held at the Institute itself. 

Lollipop’s start to the season was uninspiring; a single-point first race followed by two six point races and a DNF left them in last by Race 4, a far cry from the highs of Season 5. Lollipop remained confident in their capacity to improve, however, rather than merely accepting the results as they were. 

“Not everything great has to get off to the perfect start.”

True to their allusions, a fifth place finish in the subsequent race bettered their fortunes, and while R6 left something to be desired with an eighth place, R7 would see the tides begin to turn for real. Lollipop took advantage of Silver Bolt, Cool Moody and Pollo Loco all DNFing to maintain a steady third-place position behind Slimer and Ducktape for the rest of the race, snagging a bronze medal and unknowingly getting a taste of the season’s overall podium. Races 8 and 9, which saw Lollipop eliminated from win and podium contention respectively, would also see Lollipop on the bubble for the top half of the standings. They just needed a characteristically-strong final race showing to break through.

And a strong final showing Lollipop would deliver. As the championship battle roared around them, Lollipop, with nothing to play for but points, struck out to the front and remained there for most of the race. They overtook Grasshopper on the final stretch by hitting a speed boost which they had missed and won the season’s final race, capping it off with a gold. With 82 points, sandwiched between fellow 82-pointers Crazy Cat’s Eye and Pollo Loco, Lollipop staked their claim in the top half with an eighth-place finish. 

But as much as they had improved from their early days, the rally remained more than points and medals to Lollipop. More than anything, they relished the opportunity to be amongst true friends once again, adrenaline rushing as they raced downhill. Their art and sports weren’t opposing forces they needed to choose between—they were both part of a whole.

Credits

• Writer: Millim
• Copyeditors/Editors: Evolution, Fouc, Stynth
• Artists: Piney, Toffeeshop
• Graphic Designer: Yume, Tim Ritz
• Photo Credit: Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Release: 28/07/2024