ML2023 Memo #6: All is Fair in Tug-of-War

During their MFC days, the Pinkies had begun a victory tradition. For each medal earned, they would get an at-table barbecue and follow it with a round of karaoke. It had continued until the 2022 League, where blowing their voices out after every piece of hardware earned quickly became incompatible with the sheer and sudden uptick in their podium placements. Especially when every marble sports outlet on Marblearth wanted an interview with them. 

Now, they could revive their tradition. They’d filled up on meat and noodles earlier that night, full of energy again after the exhausting Tug-of-War. But they quickly ran into a roadblock; the fight to determine who’d sing first. 

“No fair! I mean, no offense, but you weren’t even in the event!” Pinky Rosa exclaimed. Pinkydink had an uncanny ability to predict the long straw, and this time was no exception.

“Yeah, but I made your lunchboxes and got the audience cheering for you,” replied Pinkydink, smiling mischievously. 

“Actually, I think I was the one who got the long straw.” Pinky Panther interjected, holding up a long green straw that swirled in a hypnotic pattern at the top. 

Pinky Winky glared at them. “That straw’s from your drink.”

Panther snorted. “Maybe, but you guys love my BGM! The song that gets you so hyped up you want to commit a crime!” 

Rosa rolled their eyes teasingly. “That’s not a good thing.”

Though their squabbling was in jest, the team was still at an impasse. From the corner, Pinky Promise piped up.

“Let’s resolve this,” they said, tranquil and confident. “As this victory was as a team, your captain should have the privilege of leading you in.” 

The team was astonished at their declaration. Pinky Toe had never sung first, owing to their shyness. They hadn’t even taken a straw. Now Promise was putting them on the spot. 

“I, uh…I guess I could. But I have no idea what I’d sing, so…” 

Sensing their captain’s anxiety, Panther spoke up again. “Maybe something we could sing together?” 

Everyone in the booth nodded in unison, agreeing to support their leader.  

“But what are we actually singing?” Winky asked. 

“Good question!” Pinkydink said. “Now we’re in Buzznya, how about we sing a regional classic?” 

Toe blinked. “Huh?”

Pinkydink smirked. “Only the legendary Don’t Stop Bee-lieving.” 

Eyes lit up around the room. Even as far away as Rosaka, they’d heard of the legendary ballad of two bees finding each other in the darkness of the Buzznyan night. 

“Alright,” Toe agreed. “As your captain, I’ll do it.” 

Three, two, one… “Just a small town bee,” they all sang, “livin’ in a lonely tree!”

“Ewwwwwww. It looks super gross. Do we have to?” Yellow Eye asked, squinting at the off-colour bottle of liquid placed on the team’s table. 

“You have to keep promises,” Blue Eye retorted.

Green Eye grimaced. “I mean… is it really such a big deal…?”

Red Eye had bought the bottle of Non-Descript Yellow Soda as a joke in 2022 after they’d gotten last in Block Pushing. We’ll share this bottle when we finally medal in a strength event, they’d said, confident that such a situation would remain hypothetical for the rest of their careers.  Everyone had laughed, agreed, and mostly forgotten about it. 

Red Eye wanted to eat those words now. But with Blue Eye pouring the soda into everyone but Cyan’s glass, their choices were beginning to seem limited. 

“Let’s get this over with,” Red Eye grunted. They shut their eyes and steeled themselves. Then, alongside the others, they knocked back the entire glass in a single gulp, careful not to let it linger. 

They tasted the musty, soured flavour nonetheless, almost retching as it hit them. Similar sounds of revulsion were heard from around the table. 

“So how’s it taste?” Cyan asked. 

Red spluttered and groaned. “Uh… Tastes like victory.”

Following a second gold medal placing them at the top of the standings, the Bumblebees had decided that they should spend the two-day break enjoying some peace and quiet away from the fans. The day after Tug-of-War, the five of them had bid farewell to Queen and packed their bags for a Hubelino-reunion camping expedition in the woods alongside the Maniacs and Blackjacks. 

Swax, Bumble, Minty Fresh, and Heart had split off from the group to go deeper into the forest, further from the city lights, to set up camp. Before the fire was even lit, Fresh had begun telling ghost stories. 

“Yeesh, you’ve officially spooked me now,” Swax whined, shivering. Fresh’s tale about a spirit that lurked in cold places and sucked the breath from its victims had bordered on terrifying, and it wasn’t helping that Bumble was still struggling to get the flames going. “Where’d you get such a hardcore story from, anyway?” 

Fresh smiled, happy to have successfully scared Swax. “Misty told me it.” 

“Explains why it was set on a secret mountain,” Swax grumbled. 

“I didn’t know you’d been speaking to Misty,” Heart hummed. The Hazers’ notorious secretiveness was not easy to break. 

“Sure I have! We’ve started up an MVM club. Another silver medal and you might get in, Bumble.” Fresh laughed. 

The fire finally roared to life, illuminating everything with a warm nostalgic glow. “Well, I’ll do my best,” Bumble said. “MVM would be nice. But… Team podiums make a more important point. They prove everyone who thinks a team of ex-rivals can’t be successful or work together wrong.” 

Lit up by the crackling flames, Bumble watched as Fresh and Heart turned to each other, exchanging between them a knowing look. 

“Hey, what’s with the conspiring over there?” Bumble protested, half-jesting. Fresh and Heart both jumped in their seats. 

“What conspiring?” Heart said, bluffing coolly as usual. 

“I mean… we could probably tell them, right? As long as they keep it secret.” 

“Please no more ghost stories,” Swax pleaded. 

Fresh chuckled. “Nah, this one’s a story from the beginning of the Hubelino Tournament.”

Swax and Bumble settled down together on a log by the fire to listen as Fresh started to set the scene. 

“So… there’s something about the tournament you don’t know the whole truth of.” 

“What? Really?” Though their team hadn’t been in the first edition, Bumble had been a fan since the beginning. It was hard to imagine there was anything they didn’t know by now. 

“Yeah. Right before the start, two athletes each from the Bluefastics and Valiant Violets had to pull out. Dory, Mako, Salvia and Vivid. Without eight full teams, we almost couldn’t put it on,” Heart replied. 

“It was looking disastrous. But they recruited four athletes who’d lost their team when their tournament ended in 2015. Two of them went to each team under the same pseudonyms, and that’s how Hubelino was saved.” Fresh added. 

“So, wait. The ones we know aren’t the same as the ones in 2016?” Bumble asked, shocked. But at the same time, it made sense- those four never joined in with the stories told in 2018 of 2016. 

“That’s right.”

“Wow…”

“It’s an interesting story,” Swax interjected, “but the Bluefastics and Violets weren’t that great, right?”

“Sure, they didn’t do amazingly. It was tough for them.” Fresh added. “But that original team, now ex-rivals, reformed more robust than ever. They even became champions.”

“Wait, they’re still out there? Could I meet them?” Bumble asked. 

Heart and Fresh shared the conspiratorial look again. 

“Here’s the thing… You already have,” Heart said.

Bumble’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what?” 

Em collapses onto the grass dramatically. “I can’t do it,” they say, panting. “My energy… is gone.”

“Stop being so dramatic, Em,” Ruu chides. “Maybe if you didn’t miss gym class for two years you wouldn’t be so weak.”

Saffy gives Ruu a cross look. “Not cool.”

Em sits up, still exhausted and distraught. “It’s a twenty-minute walk to the stadium, and the popup Showdown signing ends in fifteen.”

“What, you made us run half the way for nothing, then?” Ruu says, a hint of annoyance in their voice.

Saffy ignores Ruu, instead looking into Em’s eyes and shaking them. “Hey. Would the Stars quit just because things seem difficult? Would the Wolfpack? The Ducks? Momo?”

“Well…”

“No, they wouldn’t!” Saffy exclaims. “The Em I know doesn’t give up, no matter what. You’re going to get up, run over there, and get all the signatures you can!”

Em leaps up, energized by the pep talk. “You’re right!” They let out a whoop as they dart off down the street once again, leaving their two friends behind.

“How’d you do that?” Ruu asked.

“I know how to push their buttons. Sometimes they just need a bit of encouragement.” Saffy lets out a wistful sigh. “I hope they make it. I really want them to be happy.”

Later that day, a grinning green marble makes their way home with a plethora of signatures; one blasting off, one on fire, one leafy green, and one in a shell.

Credits

• Writers: Flamigiri, Millim
• Additional Writing: Toffeeshop
• Copyeditor/Editor: Stynth
• Graphic Designer: Flamigiri
• Photographer: Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Reference: Marble League 2023 Event 6: Tug-of-War | Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Release: 04/11/2023