LIGHT · the Lantern · Prism

PEARL

The Debutante

Newest name on the sheet. Has not yet learned to be afraid of the sieve.

The shard

The last shard found, and the only one still being surprised by the Descent. Pearl arrived after the others had already learned what each section does to them, and is currently going down the track without that knowledge.

Everyone keeps warning me about the sieve. It seems fine.
PEARL

How Pearl races

Pearl is quick at things Pearl has never seen. The first funnel, the first sieve, the first plinko field — each met with a complete absence of caution, and genuinely fast because of it. And each one is only ever met once. Every section type Pearl learns is a section type Pearl is no longer fast at.

The signature

No Fear Yet

The first encounter with any section type, taken flat out. There is no second encounter like it.

What it costs

A decaying asset, and the decay is the whole arc. There are ten section types; Pearl meets five or six a race, so the advantage is gone by the middle of a season. Pearl becomes an ordinary marble in public, over thirty rounds, on purpose.

The tell

The largest eyes on the grid, and they get smaller. Pearl's face steps down by a fraction each time a section type is learned — the only face in the championship that changes across a season, and it changes toward everyone else's.

Feeds on

sievefunnelplinkocauldron

Comes apart in

Nothing on the track is specifically bad for this one.

The voice

Hear Pearl

An "oo-hee-YU" that turns up into a question and stays up — the one voice the phrase-level fall is switched off for. Nobody has explained the sieve yet.

In the race mix — A6, 1760 Hz, Unresolved

Two notes that do not resolve, the first time Pearl meets a section. The second time, they do — the sound settles down over a season.

The record

9thChampionship

19Points

2Starts

0Wins

1Podiums

3rdBest

3.5Average

3rdLast out

R06 3rd of 6 comeback
R02 4th of 6 clean win

In the stands

The only trend line in the championship that is supposed to go down, published every season, and it is the saddest chart the sport produces.

Rivalries

PEARL

Two Kinds of Not Knowing

One has never learned. One is learning, and it is costing her.

0–11 meeting

LIME

Lime attacks everything with no idea which sections reward it, and will still be doing exactly that in season four. Pearl is fast precisely because she has not met a section before — and every one she meets, she is a little slower at forever. The same inexperience, and only one of them gets to keep it.

Pearl wins this in the early rounds and loses it, permanently, by about round fifteen.