At the bottom of the sand slope, still covered with a thin film of sand, Pinky Toe was greeted enthusiastically by the rest of their team. A mood soured by anxiety after their first-race wipeout only made their victorious comeback sweeter, and the Rosakan team was by far the loudest amongst those greeting their racers near the finish line basin.
“Amazing! Absolutely amazing!” Pinky Rosa cried, drawing Pinky Toe into a breath-stealing hug.
“Never let me doubt you again,” added Pinky Winky apologetically.
“You really gave it your all out there,” Pinky Promise mused. “I knew I made the right decision putting you in here.”
“Everyone… Thank you! Let’s go to karaoke again tonight, alright?” said Pinky Toe in return, and the cries from the group grew into a frenzied celebration.
Standing slightly back from the rest was Pinky Panther. The team had agreed early on that they were the natural choice for the finale event, regardless of how the season would go for them. In turn, and as captain, Pinky Toe had put themselves in the position of having to secure them a good start. Now it seemed that fate was conspiring to put Panther in the same position they’d been in the year before; facing down the final event with a podium finish hanging in the balance.
Their eyes met, and with a glance Pinky Toe could tell Panther was thinking much the same. They had light-heartedly cheered their captain on after their first-race DNF, but the sinking-in of reality played out in their distant and stormy expression.
“One moment, please,” Pinky Toe requested calmly, and they broke through the encircling mass to stand at Panther’s side. Understanding the situation, the others dispersed.
“Are you feeling okay?” they whispered.
“Just thinking,” Panther replied. “That’s all.”
“Is it too much pressure? I’m sorry.”
“Not at all. I did it last year, didn’t I? And I wasn’t really any good at Elimination Race before either. So, I’ll be fine.” They seemed to be reassuring themselves just as much as they were reassuring their captain. That could only worry Pinky Toe more, and they cast their gaze back down to the sand.
“Well, whatever happens… Know that I’ll always be proud of you, alright?”
“Awwww, cap. You’re gonna make me cry.”
After the heart-pounding finish to the Sand Rally, Snowy and Alpine reconvened at the bottom of the slope. Though spirits were high amongst both of their teams thanks both to their placements and their first real head-to-head of the season, all of their attention was on each other.
“Another medal,” Alpine began, impressed. “I guess there’s no stopping you, huh?”
“Not now I’ve got a good start at Honeydome, too. Next week, I’ll be on the podium again, y’hear that?”
Alpine sighed under their breath. “About that… Don’t you think this might be a little too much for you to handle? Two events already, then another two in a row…. You’re good, but three’s the usual limit for a reason, right?”
In an instant, all of Snowy’s cheer melted away. “Do I have to listen to you about the decisions I’ve made for my team?”
“I… no, you don’t. I didn’t mean to imply that at all.” A more experienced captain’s plans were beyond reproach. And if there was an athlete out there capable of truly handling four individual events in a single season, Snowy was a compelling candidate.
“You only want to do your single strongest event? Fine, then,” Snowy continued unabated. “That’s your choice as captain. But that’s only what’s right for your team.”
Alpine couldn’t argue with that either. Snowy was right. And they could read the unspoken facts, too- that amongst the Snowballs, ever since Snowflake’s departure, Snowy was the unquestioned star. The team’s savior, too. And that wasn’t something they could understand.
Maybe they were being silly. Maybe this really was just their own lack of perspective.
“Of course,” Alpine replied sheepishly, the wind taken out from under their wings. “I don’t mean to tell you what to do.”
Snowy turned their back on them. “It’s all settled, anyway. Make sure Frost knows to watch out for me, because I won’t be going easy on you.”
“Sure,” Alpine replied. Too late, perhaps, because Snowy wasn’t waiting around for their reply. They had vanished already, leaving only their tracks in the sand as evidence that they were there in the first place.
The difficulty of the new sand rally course had caught Momomo off guard. Two successive DNFs had not put them in the greatest of moods, either. But they weren’t alone in having failed to finish twice; so they sought out Razzy, who’d experienced the same.
They found the Racers’ rallyist on an embankment of sand a short distance away from the course’s end, alone and muttering to themselves. Momomo approached tentatively, and Razzy seemed not to notice them as they did.
“Tricky course out there,” they said, smiling. “Sorry you had the same hard time as me.”
Razzy stared intensely at the sand, not making eye contact. “It’s fine,” they mumbled, though Momomo gained the distinct impression that it wasn’t.
“Still, I think we both did our best, right?”
Razzy gave no response. Their expression was dark and distant, and they seemed to have barely registered Momomo’s words if at all.
“It will all be fine,” Razzy replied, low and cold and not to Momomo’s words. “I’ll fix things. It’ll all be okay.”
Momomo laughed nervously under their breath. “Yeah, I kinda wish that I was the one running next week like you. I for sure don’t envy our racers.”
Without replying, still mumbling, Razzy moved past them and into the distance, away from the informal congress area where everyone else had gathered. Momomo did not stop them. It seemed futile to try.
Though at the bottom of a sloping sand hill, Red Eye felt on top of the world. What their gold implied was evident to them. What was usually just points was now a massive advantage awaiting them, perhaps a greater award than the points themselves; pole position in the following week’s Honeydome finale event.
As they breathed in the crisp Buzznya winter air, White Eye sidled up to them wordlessly, hanging like a shadow.
“You can see it, can’t you?” they said, voice full of conviction. “How they’re all looking at you now, captain of the next Marble League champions.”
Truthfully, it wasn’t something they’d paid attention to. Others’ impressions of their victory hardly mattered. It was theirs and theirs alone. “It’s not over until it’s over,” they replied, mustering humility.
“Now, now. Think about it — Red Eye on pole for a circuit race. Who in their right mind on Marblearth would bet against your win?”
Red Eye glanced across the cold sands at Speedy. They’d gathered with Quickly for what looked to be a tense conversation with Whizzy. “I could think of a few,” they said.
“Then don’t think,” White Eye said. “Just do. Do what you’ve always done. You know that I have the utmost faith in you.”
Beset suddenly with a creeping unease at the grand prospects ahead, Red Eye nodded nonetheless. “Of course. I promise to make you proud.”
An Excerpt from: Buzznya’s Excellent Hex Cell Bent Streets: A Guide
While most of Marblearth uses a standard square grid system, cities in the Buzznya metropolitan area use hexagonal tiling instead. Although this may be disorienting to some, it has a plethora of benefits. For example, each intersection connects incoming drivers from a maximum of three directions rather than four, and with much shallower angles. Furthermore, the inability for vehicles to “go straight” at an intersection promotes heightened driver awareness and slower speeds in. It also encourages marbles to simply walk to their destination.
While historically in Buzznya, words such as “avenue,” “street,” and “drive” have had specific meanings, nowadays, they are all practically synonymous. In larger cities, roads that run along the north-south direction are named, while the smaller roads running easterly and westerly are numbered, and are often called “chutes.” Addresses are almost always include the nearest named street, although in some cases with particularly long lateral stretches of road, numbered streets may be used.
For longer journeys, the extensive subterranean railway (or sub-way) system is your go-to. An elegant system of train lines connect each city in Buzznya, from Buzzpig to Buzzkill, as well many places of interest between and within. It is the cheapest publically funded transportation system on Marblearth. In fact, traveling inside a city is free for all residents! For ease of identification, each line of the sub-way has a distinct color coding, and as of 2021, a typological character for those with color-blindness.
Credits
- Writers: Millim, Yume
- Copyeditor/Editor: Stynth
- Graphic Designer: Yume
- Reference: Marble League 2023 Event 15: Sand Rally 🐝
- Release: 20/11/2024
Project Marblearth 