BLOOM · the Garden · Bloom

VIOLET

The Showman

Has never won quietly and does not intend to start.

The shard

A Garden shard that came out of the break facing the audience. Bloom's doctrine is amplitude — more of whatever is already happening — and Violet is the purest reading of it, applied without discrimination to good news and bad.

If they are going to look, they should get something.
VIOLET

How Violet races

Violet is only interesting at the extremes, which is exactly where Violet spends the race. In the lead, faster. In last, slower. Anywhere in the middle, an entirely ordinary marble taking no part in proceedings. A Violet race is either a procession or a disaster and both are worth watching.

The signature

Never Quietly

Leading gets more lead. Last gets more last. There is no third setting.

What it costs

Perfectly symmetric — a losing power exactly as often as a winning one. Violet's grand performances and its collapses are the same mechanism, and Violet does not get to choose which one today is.

The tell

The bow, a winner's mouth the moment the lead is taken, and full open panic in last. Violet is the most readable face on the grid from a thumbnail.

Feeds on

runInboostRamp

Comes apart in

sievefunnel

The voice

Hear Violet

A full "ta-DAA-ya" with a wobble on the held note. Nobody asked for the wobble, or for the third syllable.

In the race mix — A4, 440 Hz, At either end

A third harmonic appears and the decay doubles at both extremes. Violet is literally louder leading and losing.

The record

17thChampionship

12Points

1Starts

0Wins

1Podiums

3rdBest

3.0Average

3rdLast out

R01 3rd of 6 last-gasp steal

In the stands

The most clipped marble on the roster. Half of those clips are Violet losing.

Rivalries

VIOLET

The Argument About Being Watched

One performs at both extremes. One refuses the premise entirely.

Not yet met on a grid

CINDER

Violet is faster in the lead and slower in last, because either is worth watching and the middle is not. Cinder trades away every extreme it has for a result that is the same every round regardless of what the Descent put in front of it. They are the two available answers to a daily race, and the championship is thirty rounds long, which is Cinder's entire argument.

Cinder finishes ahead of Violet more often. Violet has been on the podium more times. Both facts are the point.