DUSK · the Long Night · Nocturne

SLATE

The Veteran

Been down every chute before. Unimpressed by all of them.

The shard

The oldest shard on the grid, off the part of the night that had been dark longest. Slate has seen every section type the generator can draw and has an opinion about all of them, none of it enthusiastic.

Yes. That one as well.
SLATE

How Slate races

Slate takes the first serious hit in every section and simply refuses most of it. Not a swerve, not a block — the impact arrives and less of it lands than should have. It happens once per section, and Slate spends the rest of each one racing normally and looking put out.

The signature

Seen It

The first heavy contact of a section, absorbed. The second one hurts exactly as much as it should.

What it costs

Only the first. Slate cannot choose which hit to spend it on, so a glancing knock at the top of a section wastes the whole thing, and the pile-up forty frames later is taken at full price.

The tell

The cap, and a flinch with no eyebrow in it. Slate reacts to a heavy hit with roughly the enthusiasm of someone acknowledging a parcel.

Feeds on

bumpersorchardpillars

Comes apart in

plinko

The voice

Hear Slate

A gruff "HAHN-huh" that falls away on both syllables. The sound of having seen this section before.

In the race mix — D3, 147 Hz, After the first

The first hard hit of every section is dropped from the mix entirely. Slate’s signature is a hole in a busy texture.

The record

20thChampionship

7Points

1Starts

0Wins

0Podiums

4thBest

4.0Average

4thLast out

R01 4th of 6 last-gasp steal

In the stands

Carries the largest stand of viewers who arrived for someone else and stayed for Slate.

Rivalries

SLATE

The Immovable Object

One is a heavy hit. One is immune to the first hit of every section.

Not yet met on a grid

AMBER

Amber's whole race is heavy contact, and Slate's whole race is refusing exactly one heavy contact per section. So the first time Amber arrives, it does not work. The second time, at full price, it works perfectly. The rivalry is a question of whether Amber can be patient, and Amber is not built for patience.

Slate cannot choose which hit to spend it on. Amber cannot choose to wait. Both flaws are load-bearing.