Numbers

Everyone in Aurelia Coast is a lottery ball, and there are three kinds. Unnumbered balls are the vast majority. They have no form-up code and can't play in the games. Numbered balls are a very small share, with numbers from 0 to 70. Marked balls once carried a number and now wear a mark in its place.

Only one active ball holds each number at a time. There is only ever one 7 in the games.

Every numbered ball starts as a single digit. Most are born with their number, usually into families where others are numbered too. A numbered ball with two unnumbered parents is rare, as Sly is. Now and then Mother awards a number to a ball who has earned it, as she did for Gasket.

Double-digit numbers are reached only by moving up. Mother may offer any numbered ball the honor of a higher number; a 4 might be offered 16. Locals call it aging out. The ball either accepts, or declines and stays in its position forever. From a single digit, moving up also means a place in the double-digit games.

A number is vacated when its ball retires, ages out, becomes unrepairable, leaves or is removed. Mother refills a single digit by creating a new ball. A double digit is refilled by promoting another ball into it.

A retired ball keeps its number as part of who it is. Arturo is still 49, even though another ball plays the 49 position. So more than one ball can carry the same number, but only one plays it.

Numbered balls are treated like royalty. They're deferred to, called "sir", and met with silence. But the royal treatment depends on being able to form up. A numbered ball who can't gets no respect.