DUSK · the Long Night · Nocturne

INK

The Ghost

You lose track of Ink, and then Ink is second.

The shard

The shard that was not being looked at when the Whole broke, and kept that. Ink is the darkest object on the track by a wide margin and the hardest thing on the grid to keep hold of with your eyes.

Ink has never been quoted. Nobody has managed to be looking at the right moment.
—

How Ink races

Ink gains ground in exact proportion to how far it is from wherever the camera is looking. Near the fight, Ink is an ordinary marble. Off the edge of the frame, Ink is the fastest thing in the race — and the closer it gets to the action, the more that advantage bleeds away. Ink arrives at second place and stops being able to go any further.

The signature

Unwatched

Everything Ink gains, it gains off-screen. The advantage dies the moment the shot finds it.

What it costs

Self-limiting by design. The power switches itself off as Ink approaches the action, so Ink has an extraordinary record for finishing second and a very thin one for winning.

The tell

The eyes. Ink's pupils are almost the same black as its body, and they lift toward a dim violet while the advantage is live — the only way to see, from the face alone, that Ink is currently gaining.

Feeds on

plinkosieveorchard

Comes apart in

runIn

The voice

Hear Ink

A small low "boo-woo". Ink is the ghost of this championship and gets the cartoon version of that, not the haunted one.

In the race mix — C3, 131 Hz, Arrival

Muted for as long as Ink is gaining. The first ping anyone hears from Ink is Ink already being there.

The record

12thChampionship

18Points

2Starts

0Wins

1Podiums

2ndBest

4.0Average

2ndLast out

R05 2nd of 6 last-gasp steal
R02 6th of 6 clean win

In the stands

Has the highest rate of viewers rewinding to work out what happened, which is a compliment paid in retention.

Rivalries

INK

Nocturne’s Two Shadows

Both built to finish second. Neither built to lead.

Not yet met on a grid

PLUM

Nocturne gains from position and never from power, and these two are the doctrine at its most literal. Ink is fastest where nobody is looking and slows as the camera finds it. Plum is fastest one place off the front and is cut off the instant that place would become first. Two different mechanisms with the same ceiling, and they reach it together.

Whichever of them gets to second first, the other is stuck behind it — and neither can do a thing about the marble in front.