Hunluen – 1/9/24 Exiting the elevator onto the bustling streets of Hunluen, Ruzzy didn’t realize for a few seconds that the sun had set in the half hour they were underground. The block was a blinding array of shops and food vendors. A department store opposite the vendors beckoned customers with neon arrows flashing inContinue reading “M1S5 Memo #1: The Places Between the Races”
Tag Archives: Raspberry Racers
Roll to Survive: The Racers of Marbula 1 Season 5
What unites all these 40 racers is a passion that has not faded. They take on the track for a chance to win – to record their name in history. Project Marblearth looks back at where they come from, along with their hopes going forward.
High Stakes, High Rollers
You see it on every sign and screen at the Kinikolu Resort and Sportsplex: “THE PARTY NEVER ENDS.” Over the past two months, the Marble Survival 100 Tournament host site has lived up to that promise.
Each week, a new obstacle course at the Survival Stadium rises out of a cloud of artificial fog. An athlete from each Marble League team then races day after day to avoid elimination. Those who remain have survived getting battered by rams, smacked four ways by fidget spinners or treated as playthings by the Bell Carousel.
Their reward for this gauntlet will be more than a championship trophy: it will be publicity. Online or on the airwaves, the Elite Eight’s faces are plastered on marketing throughout Marblearth. In the tournament’s first weeks, fans and passersby in Kinikolu could still catch an athlete on the sidewalk or having fun. Now those remaining are hard to access, marbles who seem more like myth on the outside.
As the excitement grows, who is stepping up to the moment while staying true to themselves? The stories over one week, when ten marble survivors turned to eight, tell the tale.
Hearts Aflutter and Minds Abuzz
Fragmented rose-pink clouds decorated the orange-yellow sky. A thin morning haze hung over the city streets down below. The moon had disappeared beneath the horizon and the sun, burning the wispy edges of the clouds with its light, had emerged in its place.
The cycle of the heavens was beginning anew, and a new day was breaking over Buzznya.
ML2023 Memo #8: Hanging in the Balance
After a Balancing revenge victory seven years in the making, the Rojo Rollers expected Mellow Yellow to bring it up in the form of showing off the gold medals and constant reminders of revenge from 2016’s very first event; the furthest thing from actuality, which took the form of a party meant to celebrate bothContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #8: Hanging in the Balance”
ML2023 Memo #7: Funnels All the Way Down
To their fans, the sight of the Shining Swarm and Pinkies on the three steps together was a welcome throwback. But they were missing someone. In their post-podium walkabout chat, Sterling, Rosa, and Sheet had been joined by Pulsar, who was content with having advanced out of the heats. In the midst of a livelyContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #7: Funnels All the Way Down”
ML2023 Memo #5: Running Fast, Running Past
On Snowy’s bedroom wall hung two individual golds. The first they’d earned during S1’s Short Circuit GP. There they’d learned that to stand alone on the top step of the podium was an incomparable experience. The second was from the 2022 Showdown’s Sand Rally, the final event, before which the Snowballs had been sixteenth andContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #5: Running Fast, Running Past”
ML2023 Memo #3: Riding a Fine Line
Following Razzy’s injury, Ruzzy had stepped in as the Raspberry Racers’ finalist in Marble League 2020’s Hurdles. Pit against three athletes who had prepared months in advance for the event, the odds were stacked against the reserve who had been watching from the stands just moments ago. Yet in an incredible upset, they’d claimed theContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #3: Riding a Fine Line”
The Highest Glory – Part 2
This is Part 2 of “The Highest Glory”.Link to Part 1 Sunday, 16:30 BIT Others keep telling Mallard, Captain of the Green Ducks, that they’ve worked as hard as they could in this Marble League. The athlete themself is unsure. They remember their medal-winning feats, like all those clean hits they took to grab theContinue reading “The Highest Glory – Part 2”
ML2022 Memo #8: Sprint
Hours had passed since the Sprint event, and as we welcomed Green Eye into our reporting booth, they noted that their heart had been racing since the starting gate lifted for their record-breaking heat. “No, don’t worry about me…” A medical official was passing by in the hallway as Green Eye rolled into the suite,Continue reading “ML2022 Memo #8: Sprint”
Project Marblearth 