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buckybarnesbingo · 4 years

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BBB Discord Party Round Robin

What started out as simple summary, one prompt and one sentence per person, ended up being so intriguing that we went all-out and created a fic! Each person was given about half an hour to write up to 300 words, and the option to cross off one of their bingo squares, and this is the glorious result!

Prompts

dragon

window cleaning

potato salad

cat stalker

sharing a bed

beach

Participants

@rebelmeg

@fightingforcreativity

@ladydarkphoenix-blog

@psychiccatpanda

@dreaminglypeach

@ibelieveinturtles

LiquidLightz

@menatiera

Summary: To say that Bucky had been surprised when a FREAKING DRAGON showed up at the summer BBQ at his beach house would be an understatement. How should the ex assassin have anticipated a dragon, who seemed to have followed his cat to the BBQ? It didn't seem to be dangerous as of yet seeing as the two were happily sharing potato salad.

When Tony showed up late, he nudged Bucky, "Hey Buckaroo - I brought - WHOA! I didn't know you had a... cat."

Sure, it’s the cat that surprises you, Bucky thought, but Tony was still talking a mile a minute around the cookie in his mouth, “So, anyway, I brought that- fuck, is he your window cleaner, he’s gorgeous!”

"Window cleaning is just one of the many services I offer," the dragon said swinging it's head around to stare unblinking at Tony.

Bucky jolts back and stares at the dragon as he recognises the sound of that voice, then quickly pulls his phone out to text Steve... "where exactly are you right now?"

Steve doesn't answer his phone, obviously, but a telltale notification sound pings from somewhere inside the dragon's belly, audible through the slightly open mouth of the creature, and Bucky has to rub the base of his nose, muttering, "of fucking course you do this reveal to me after we've been sharing a bed for weeks."

And you can find the rest of the fic under the cut!

@rebelmeg

Tony, another cookie in his hand, held up a finger. “Um, excuse me, I hate to be nitpicky about weird details when Steve has apparently turned into a dragon, BUT…” he pointed at the dragon. “Did I hear a cell phone in there? How did you manage to SWALLOW A CELL PHONE?”

Steve turned his large, scaly head in Tony’s direction, and it was amazing, he actually managed to have an extremely Steve expression on that reptilian face. “Classified.”

Tony snorted and dipped a plastic spoon into the potato salad. “You’re a lying liar who lies. And you’re going to need some very intense tech support for that phone by the time it gets… out. And oh, ew, all of the options for how it gets out are just disgusting.”

Bucky, who had been standing there fighting the temptation to call Steve (he wanted to see what happened when the swallowed cell phone started vibrating and ringing), dragged himself back to the conversation. “Steve, I think you might wanna tell us exactly what’s going on.” He glanced at the cat that was now sitting next to Steve and very daintily licking its paws. “Maybe start with the cat?”

LiquidLightz

The dragon remained stubbornly quiet, a strange fiery blush spreading across its face.

Bucky waited him out for a full minute before he threateningly pulled out his phone and began to dial...

"Ok, OK!" Steve caved in as the first riffs of ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ echoed around inside of him and Bucky’s eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously as he mercifully ended the call while Tony coughed up cookie crumbs from all his cackling… great, thanks Nat! One more thing he would be having to explain later in excruciating detail.

Raising his huge snout skyward with a big defeated sigh, Steve let out a little spurt of fire before starting on some ridiculous explanation about how he had wanted to look good for the BBQ, so Nat suggested he go to a day spa she knows, but he had nobody to leave the cat with and so he took him along since they offered pet day care services...

He trailed off as the laughter of everyone around him burst out in a crescendo and he leveled his steely gaze back down on them, now irritated beyond embarrassment.

Bucky was the first one to compose himself, once Tony started making hot stone massage dragon jokes and he quickly recalled what was most pertinent here.

"Steve, can you please get to the part where you're a dragon and if this is something you've been keeping from me or a temporary mishap?" Bucky was not exactly sure what he'd prefer, since, well, dragons are pretty magnificent and he wouldn't mind having his own. His mind began to wander into the possible perks of a dragon boyfriend and whether Steve could fly now.

@psychiccatpanda

Dragons can scowl - that was a thing Bucky knew now.

Steve harrumphed and glared, trying to work through his embarrassment. “So I never actually made it to the day spa. I went to bed last night and the cat I adopted when you got Alpine - d”

“Inky?” Bucky asked.

“No, I called him Beetle,” Steve said with a puff of steam.

“Still say Beetle’s a dumb name for a cat,” Bucky mumbled.

Tony nodded in agreement and helped himself to another cookie. “I’m gonna start the grill, okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine Tony,” Bucky said and then tried to turn the conversation back to the dragon boyfriend issue. “So you slept with the cat and now you’re a dragon? Or were you a dragon before?”

“No. I’m not a dragon… well, I wasn’t,” Steve sighed. “So Beetle slept with me, sneezed… and turned into a guy named Loki. I freaked out, he got mad, and turned me into a dragon.”

From the grill, Tony said, “So where’s this guy now, Steeb?”

“I wish I knew,” Dragon Steve said miserably.

“Meow?” Alpine interjected himself and twined between the dragon’s toes and Bucky’s legs to situate himself at Tony’s feet. He looked up with wide blue eyes.

@menatiera

Steve turned his gaze to the cat. “I know, I know,” he said. “Food will be ready for you soon.”

Bucky’s eyebrow arched up. “If you tell me that you can talk to animals…”

The fiery blush somehow deepened on Steve’s dragon face. “Uh, not all animals. But cats… I think they speak a dialect of dragon, somehow, because I kinda understand them now.”

Instead of answering, Bucky decided it was a good time to stuff his mouth with two cookies at once, lest he let out a scream of excitement.

Alpine jumped on the table, and started to rub his face to Steve’s scales. He kept this up, right until Steve started to breathe heavily, and with one final tickling of his full body, Alpine threw himself off the table and ran under the cover of it.

Steve sneezed.

Several times.

With violent force.

The table turned out to be an inadequate hiding place, as it was blown away by the wind of the squeeze, along with most of the BBQ supplies, including the plates, utensils and napkins.

Tony was saved thanks to Bucky’s quick reflexes, who dragged him out of the way of a flying pitcher that was full of hot water to become Bruce’s tea later.

Steve was sniffling and scratching his snout. “Sorry,” he said nasally, then he stared at the ground. “Uh. I think the phone’s out.”

Bucky didn’t want to know. But he kind of did. “How did it get to your lung? Or is a dragon belly connected to sneezing somehow?”

Alpine slowly walked back into the scene, stepping into the dragon snot with delicate disdain, and poked the phone with his nose. He meowed a few times.

“He wants us to look at it,” Steve translated. “He says something about messages. Or notes? I’m not entirely sure. I’m not fluent in cat yet.”

@dreaminglypeach

My boyfriend the dragon isn’t fluent in cat yet, Bucky thought. How is this my life?

“Well, go on, then,” Tony encouraged, wafting his hand at the phone as Alpine curled into Steve’s side again, seeking warmth despite the fact that it’d been far too goddamn sunny all day.

“I would,” Steve said, raising one clawed… paw? Hand? Strangely enough, Bucky had no idea what the anatomy of a dragon is. “But there’s this whole no opposable thumbs issue at the moment.”

Tony looked at Bucky. Bucky looked back at Tony. Neither of them moved to pick up the phone.

“He’s your boyfriend.”

“And?”

Tony scoffed. “And that means you get to be the one playing with the phone he ate, duh.”

“I hate you,” Bucky said. “I hate both of you. And whoever this Loki jackass is, I really fucking hate him.”

Steve made a bizarre snarly noise, maybe a draconine laugh, maybe a growl, then nudged the phone in Bucky’s direction with his nose. “You know the passcode,” he said, baring a whole load of pointy teeth at him.

Dutifully, Bucky picked the disgusting thing up, wiped the slime coating it on his jeans (well, those were being burnt now), and tapped out his own date of birth to unlock it.

“Ha!” Tony said when it unlocked, peering at the screen over Bucky’s shoulder. “Stark Tech. Can’t beat it. I’d like to see an iPhone keep working after spending time inside a dragon.”

“Do we know a Valkyrie?” Bucky asked, ignoring Tony’s bragging to look at the long string of messages Steve apparently received over the last three hours. “Because she sure seems to know you, and boy is she unhappy.”

“Never heard of her,” Steve answered. “What’s she say?”

“Rogers,” Tony read, “be careful, Thor’s brother is

@ladydarkphoenix-blog

on the loose and looking to cause trouble. Not sure what exactly but he is looking for mischief. Well that can't be good."

"Obviously not seeing as I'm now a dragon," Steve snorted in annoyance, a small puff of smoke escaping his nose.

"So how do we fix this," Bucky inquired as he sent back a text explaining the situation as it was before setting the phone down to not have to deal with the slimy mess for a moment. As the three discussed options and people they thought might be able to help, Alpine let out an angry yowl as he seemingly started floating away from where he'd been napping.

Steve let out a low rumbling growl, "don't touch him Loki or I'll eat you myself…"

Loki appeared, holding a fighting Alpine by the scruff to protect himself from claws and teeth. "Now is that any way to speak to an honored guest?"

@fightingforcreativity

“An honored guest my ass,” mumbled Bucky, pointedly ignoring the snickering coming from Tony.

“My my, so rude the company you keep, Anthony.” Loki drawled, still holding Alpine and only slightly being turned towards the three heroes. “I was just hoping my gift was well received.”

Tony sputtered at that. The assassin turned towards the other brunet, a questioning eyebrow risen. Tony, though, ignored him and started to ramble at Loki, “Serious? I hate that name. Stop calling me that, Reindeer Games! Why are you here? And what’s going on with Steve as a dragon? I mean sure, dragons are pretty cool and he’s quite a beauty like this but c’mon, Lokes, usually your mischief is directed against Thor not Steve.”

Sure, Bucky could say something about Tony obviously eyeing his dragon boyfriend up- and what a mess that was- but he was more interested in what the heck really was going on. Maybe after they figured out Loki's motive, Bucky could think about why Steve preened under Tony’s compliments.

Also, Bucky wasn’t sure what was going on at all between Loki and Tony, but by the look of it Steve had an idea. How Bucky could interpret his boyfriend’s limited facial expressions at the moment, was another mystery to be shoved in the ‘to never investigate’ box.

Before Loki could answer, the dragon rounded on him. “I told you to let him go!”

Steve’s hiss was threatening and Bucky didn’t blame Loki for gently putting Alpine back done and backing up a bit after that. “Fine. The good captain was collateral damage in my attempt at wooing.”

Everyone froze at that.

‘Wooing? What the…?!’, Bucky thought disbelievingly.

The first person to recover was Steve though, and cautiously the formerly blond asked, “Wooing who?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Anthony of course!”

@ibelieveinturtles

There was stunned silence as everyone gaped at Loki, then Steve started huffing, little bursts of flame spouting from his nostrils.

"Are-are you laughing at me?" Loki demanded haughtily.

Steve shook his head. "The look on Tony’s face!" he chortled. "It's like he doesn't know whether to be flattered, insulted, or just plain horrified."

They all looked at Tony, who made an immediate attempt to control his face.

"Flattered," he said hastily, "definitely flattered but, er, I'm not sure how Pepper's gonna react."

Loki drew himself up. "It was her suggestion," he said.

"Pepper suggested you turn me into a dragon as a courting… gift?"

Loki nodded. "She assured me you have the ego to pull it off."

Steve began to huff again and this time, both Loki and Tony glared at him.

"What?" Steve asked.

"She's not wrong," Bucky interjected in an effort to save his boyfriend from all the attention. "Also, she may have mentioned to me last week that dragons are her favourite mythical animal," he finished.

"Indeed," Loki said, smirking. "She told me she always wanted to ride a dragon."

Bucky's laughter joined Steve's draconic huffing and Tony’s expression changed.

"Really?" he asked.

"Of course," Loki replied. "It is a most exhilarating activity."

Bucky stopped laughing as an idea slammed into his mind. He turned a speculative gaze in Steve's direction. Steve must have felt the weight of Bucky's gaze as the giant head turned to look at him.

"Something on your mind? Steve asked in a surprisingly quiet voice.

Bucky nodded. "That riding a dragon thing," he said.

Steve's eyes glittered. "You wanna try it out?"

"Yes."

They looked at Tony and Loki who were now standing much closer together and seemed to be deep in some sort of negotiations.

"Climb on," Steve said. "Before Loki remembers to change me back."

Bucky scrambled up Steve's outstretched leg and settled himself in front of Steve's wings.

"Ready?" Steve rumbled, and without waiting for an answer, launched himself into the air.

Bucky whooped as they climbed. This had undoubtedly been the best BBQ ever.

--------------------------------------------------------

Title: BBB Round Robin Fic Collaborators: Rebelmeg, Fightingforcreativity, Ladydarkphoenix, Psychiccatpanda, Dreaminglypeach, Ibelieveinturtles, Liquidlightz, Menatiera Squares filled:

Rebelmeg: Y2 - tech support

LiquidLightz (LLightz): B3 - spa day

Menatiera: U4 - hot water

Dreaminglypeach: B1 - sharing body heat

Ladydarkphoenix: U5 - "Don't touch him!"

Fightingforcreativity: B4 - Collateral Damage

Ibelieveinturtles: K2 - Whiplash

Ship: Stucky, hinted Stony or Stuckony, Pepperony, pre-FrostIron /FrostPepperony Rating: Gen Major Tags: round robin fic, dragon Steve, animal transformation, Loki shenanigans, cats, multiple ships, hijinks and shenanigans Summary: To say that Bucky had been surprised when a FREAKING DRAGON showed up at the summer BBQ at his beach house would be an understatement. How should the ex assassin have anticipated a dragon, who seemed to have followed his cat to the BBQ? It didn't seem to be dangerous as of yet seeing as the two were happily sharing potato salad.

When Tony showed up late, he nudged Bucky, "Hey Buckaroo - I brought - WHOA! I didn't know you had a... cat."

"Window cleaning is just one of the many services I offer," the dragon said swinging it's head around to stare unblinking at Tony.

Bucky jolts back and stares at the dragon as he recognises the sound of that voice, then quickly pulls his phone out to text Steve... "where exactly are you right now?"

#buckybarnesbingo2020 #bbb2020 #bingo fills #round robin #party game #collab fic

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ofaylin · 4 years

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⌠ BAHAR SAHIN, 19 CISFEMALE, SHE/HER ⌡ welcome back to gallagher academy, AYLIN KALELI! according to their records, they’re a SECOND year, specializing in LINGUISTICS, CULTURE, & ASSIMILATION; and they DID go to a spy prep high school. when i see them walking around in the halls, i usually see a flash of (hair pulled back with a chanel ribbon, lycra boots with razor blades in the heel, champagne and french macarons in a bubble bath, wiping your tears with a $100 bill). when it’s the (leo)’s birthday on 8/3/00 they always request their FRENCH FRIES from the school’s chefs. looks like they’re well on their way to graduation.

hi, hello, i’ve been sitting on this idea for a while and i was going to wait until june but with all these new characters i just got too excited ?! so, fuck it, i’m here now, i can’t help myself. for plots, feel free to message me here on tumblr or hmu on discord @ #kati7600, but check out her intro below the cut ! // ty @gallagherintro

INSPIRATION.

bex baxter – gallagher girls

carmen cortez – spy kids

blair waldorf – gossip girl

cher horowitz – clueless

torrance shipman – bring it on

jackie burkhart – that 70s show

BACKGROUND.

both of her parents work for the national intelligence organization of turkey, they’re big shots and they make a lot of money! she has two older sisters and she’s born into a world of wealth and expectations. it won’t take her long to learn more languages than years she has lived, and waking up early to run drills and do obstacle courses with her sisters is routine.

picture perfect on the outside, the household within goes through turmoil. her mother is promoted to the director of the NIO and it puts a strain on her parent’s relationship. her father starts taking more business trips, and aylin and her sisters spend nights sitting on the top of the stairs, listening in on phone conversations. aylin’s the youngest, so she doesn’t really understand what’s going on and needs to have it broken down.

aylin had always LOVED her parent’s love story – they met on a mission and they were partners for years, it’s all very romantic. so the divorce leaves her confused. how could you stop loving someone? how could you just give up?

both of her parents are an active part of her life, the divorce is...fairly amicable and they share custody. the only thing aylin doesn’t like is her father’s new girlfriend, young and totally uninvolved in the world of espionage. the girl could be her sister. aylin spends her time split between two houses, half-belonging to each, but her parents feel GUILTY so aylin quickly learns how to use that guilt to get what she wants, whether it’s freedom or material goods.

she’s a little spoiled, but it doesn’t satisfy her. nothing really does, it just makes her feel sort of empty, so she works harder, filling time with books and training with her older sisters who tell her cool stories from their spy prep schools and teach aylin things they’ve learned when they come home for breaks. aylin long for the day when she’s not splitting your time between other people’s homes and she’s in a place that she can really call her own.

she goes to the same spy prep school that her older sisters did in london. she’s competitive from the get-go because she’s a kelali and people already expect things from her to begin with. she smiles when people call her by her sister’s name or mention her mother, but inside she’s seething, eager to prove that she’s good because she works hard, not because she’s someone’s sister or daughter.

it’d be a lie to say that aylin didn’t step on a few toes, and the way she skyrocket to valedictorian is a little less than savory – she reports her competition for illicit activities, and...perhaps she planted something in their locker idk!!!

she has her pick of spy prep colleges across the nation, but her mom really encourages her to choose gallagher. why? that’s weird, her mom never went there and neither does the rest of her family! but aylin really likes the idea of a place that’s all hers and she’s always wanted to see america, so she chooses it. she’s a bit smug about being ahead of others because she’s been reading books on espionage since age 4, and if you don’t know sixteen languages, stay out of her way.

PERSONALITY:

PROUD. aylin is a very proud person, she grew up in an affluent household with important parents. when faced with a challenge, it’s her pride that tends to motivate her to be the best because she feels like she has something to prove, and she’ll turn her nose up at you until she gets it. this also makes her stubborn.

INTELLIGENT. aylin was raised in an environment where she was being trained since her childhood, knowing about espionage since she could speak, but she also has an iq of 122, so not quite genius level but she’s getting there. she’s the head cheerleader type that you’d be surprised is actually really good at math.

HARD-WORKING. queen of taking on too many extracurriculars at all times! honestly she tends to overexert herself until she burns out, but she wants it all – the exciting social life, the straight As, the meaningful connections, the parties, when does she sleep? maybe never.

SNOBBISH. honestly, she doesn’t mean to come off as a snob but she definitely does because she hasn’t really known anything other than crystal dishware and fancy clothes. she doesn’t even comprehend that other people don’t come from the same place of privilege that she has.

FUN-LOVING. the girl you want to party with! just because she’s a good student, she wouldn’t want you to think that she doesn’t know how to have a good time. aylin operates in extremes, so she parties just as hard as she studies and has a tendency to get carried away, but let it be known that she’s doing this for herself and not for anyone else’s attention.

MANIPULATIVE. aylin will step on toes to get what she wants, and she’s not scared to fight dirty. she tends to stay in the lines of what’s legal of course, but if she sees a window into getting what she wants, she’ll say what she needs to in order to get it. honestly, she can be a bit callous with the way she uses people and doesn’t always understand the effects of her actions. she would tell you that the ends justify the means. yikes.

INDEPENDENT. doesn’t need you or anyone else and wants you to know it. her confidence is genuine and real, and she doesn’t attribute any of her accomplishments to her family name – she’s not insecure about it, she knows that she’s good at what she does.

HEADCANONS.

started school early, so she’s a bit young for her grade by a year. she sees this as a positive thing and will brag to you about how she’s younger AND smarter. annoying.

acts like she really likes healthy food and eats a salad in public ( will tell you that’s her favorite food ) but she’s weak for things that are greasy and fried and will be pigging out in secret. her favorite food is french fries but you probably wouldn’t guess that about her !

languages she knows: english, french, turkish, arabic, german, kurmanji, italian, dutch, spanish, mandarin, japanese, latin, hindustani, malay, russian, bengali. some are better than others and some she reads more than she can really speak.

taught herself to skateboard since coming to america since it seemed like the thing to do based on watching american films. she will ride her little penny board in high heels and loves it ! and you thought i couldn’t make her more annoying !

tons of expensive lingerie but u can look but don’t touch.

bisexual but still not interested in you.

leo with a virgo rising and cancer moon. i am so SORRY !

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

SERENA TO HER BLAIR. literally her best friend ever, but they probably have a sort of on-off friendship because they’re strong personalities and get in each other’s business. however, when it comes down to it, they’ll always put the other first and they love each other immensely, would kill a man for the other. but they’re also pretty competitive too.

GIRL SQUAD. i just want her to have a couple close girl friends that are all close...you know. i would love if one of them was more subdued and totally chill about everything, maybe a wallflower type, and then another that’s kind of nerdy ? but also cool, you know. i’m just dreaming.

EX/BESTIE. aylin and this person used to date like forever ago, but mutually decided that they made better friends than romantic partners. they care about each other a lot, and they probably make jokes about how they USED to date. a healthy ex connection basically !

ON/OFF THING. because for every healthy ex i also want something kind of toxic. essentially it’s not good for either of them and they just keep going back to each other because, well, it’s a place of comfort or whatever. they drive each other fucking crazy though and no one can keep up with whether they hate each other’s guts today or if they’re all heart eyes.

SWORN ENEMY. but for a justified reason, like aylin probably screwed them over for something academic or even in a campus club or something. if your character went to a spy prep school, maybe they’re the person that aylin screwed out of the valedictorian role ? might submit a WC for that cause. fun.

PROJECT. like my fair lady, be aylin’s eliza doolittle, let her she’s the man you, whatever. essentially, your character might by shy, nervous, or new to the spy world and aylin wants to give them a metaphoric ( or maybe even physical ! ) makeover and help them get acclimated, teach them the ways of the world. i’m also picturing that pic of the lesbians, u know what i mean. i can’t find it, but i google searched “girl doing the other girls makeup, gay”

FORBIDDEN FRIENDSHIPS/LOVE. idk something totally not allowed. if this was sooner i’d want her ass to have a crush on a witness protection kid. however, her parents work for the turkish NIO, so perhaps your muse’s parents or family have been involved in something rivaling that so they’re not supposed to get along.

MARRIED COUPLE FRIENDS. these are friends that are so close that they’re practically a married couple?? i’d love to do a platonic m/f thing with this, where they fight and get on to each other like they’re married but love each other like it too. lil grandparents of their friend group.

CRUSHER. someone who has a crush on her, probably because they’re fascinated with the idea of her and not her true problematic self. she’d probably be kinda rude to them and i’d love to plot this out long enough for that crush to turn to dislike once they recognize the selfish parts of her or notice she’s been making fun of them. maybe a flipped scenario.

ONE NIGHT STAND. maybe after a few too many drinks, they hooked up. something recent so we can make it super awkward and potentially funny.

SET-UP. your character’s parents are close friend’s with aylin’s and they’re trying to set aylin up with your character. aylin and your character are NOT compatible at all and it’s hilarious.

OVERSEAS. they met while they were both abroad together one summer, and they accidentally got into some trouble with international police maybe just for being too drunk on the streets or acting stupid, climbing stuff. aylin considers your character a liability and has avoided them since, disregarding the fun times they had.

RIVALS/ENEMIES WITH SEXUAL TENSION.

EXISTING CONNECTIONS.

NAZ FARHI. her cousin. the two of them don’t NOT get along...but aylin really thought she would come to a school and be the only one of her family members there and then naz showed up ! determined to make it clear that she’s the best.

JO TRAN. rival/dislike. took one of the upper-level courses because she could and her attitude got on jo’s nerves because what doesn’t get on jo’s nerves. aylin’s just the epitome of everything that pisses jo off.

KASSANDRA SUTTON. bad friend to. one of those friendships where one person takes more than they give, and it’s not ON PURPOSE, but kass is really just so easy to take advantage of, aylin’s ALWAYS running to her when she needs a favor.

#gallagher:intro

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fucking-zawa-sensei · 6 years

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Skyscraper

Title: Skyscraper

Rating: T

Word Count: 2k+

Categories: fluff, high school

Notes: This one is for @yaycreamymancakes who is so awesome and I adore their art so much. They make me smile a lot with their shenanigans on discord, even if I’m mostly a lurker around those parts. They requested some highschool erasermic, in which Hizashi as a growth spurt over summer break and Shouta just can’t keep his eyes off him.

Read it on AO3 here

Skyscraper

The teachers had warned them that the summer before their senior year would be difficult, but as Shouta pulls out the seat of his desk and flops down onto the hard surface, watching as his classmates sink into their chairs in much the same, defeated way, he’s thinking their teachers could have been a bit more serious when they’d tossed the advice out into the air like they were saying something as trivial as, “it’s hot today.”

These internships were nothing like the short, almost laughably simpler ones of their first and second years.

Shouta’s back still aches from all the nights he’d spent hurling himself across rooftops, trying to keep up with his pro hero mentor, while simultaneously coming to the realization that he had years to go before he’d truly master his capture weapon.

Tensei comes into the classroom with a soft smile on his face that almost makes Shouta think his family had taken it easy on him when he’d continued to choose their agency for his studies, but the weak wave the boy gives Shouta before sitting down says otherwise.

Shouta groans and folds his arms on his desk, dropping his head down to rest atop them, blocking out the chatter of his classmates as they wait for the last students to trickle in before homeroom. He’s almost about to doze off when he hears a few people nearby let out little gasps. Unable to shove away the curiosity itching at the back of his mind, he lifts his head just enough to peak out from underneath his long bangs.

The student in front of him shifts to the side and he can see what everyone is staring at.

Or, rather, who they’re all staring at.

Hizashi was always an attention grabber, with his bright hair, styled to stand up, his even brighter glasses, and usually many bracelets, rings, or other accessories adding pops of color to his otherwise standard uniform. Being best friends with the boy, Shouta had gotten used to all the exciting decorations, all the extra pizzazz Hizashi put into every outfit and movement, always talking with not just his hands, but his whole body.

Most of his other classmates had gotten used to it by now as well, having spent the past two years in class together, but those aren’t the thing that is catching everyone’s eye now.

What’s different about Hizashi is not something he’d put on, it’s his height.

It’s his towering, immense height.

Hizashi had been rather small before, perhaps even a little more than usual for his age, a few inches shorter than Shouta if his hair was down.

Now, Shouta isn’t standing up, so it’s hard to tell, but Hizashi looks several heads taller than him.

He looked like a skyscraper, dragging his long legs over to the desk beside Shouta’s.

Shouta can’t help the way he sits up, watches with wide eyes as his friend walks behind him before pulling out his chair and sitting down. Shouta doesn’t miss the way Hizashi’s knees bang the bottom of his desk when he first scoots his chair forward, apparently not used to his new height yet himself either.

When Hizashi turns toward Shouta, he panics, dropping his head back into his folded arms, turning the other way, pretending he wanted some extra sleep before homeroom. It wouldn’t be hard to believe. He’d done this before when he had spent too much time training or just hadn’t been able to sleep well the night before. After the first few times where Hizashi had asked if he was feeling unwell, the other boy had learned to just give Shouta his space and he’d usually recover enough to have lunch with Hizashi and their other friends by the afternoon.

Shouta hears a soft sigh behind him and Hizashi’s chair creak a little as he shifts his position.

He wasn’t sleepy right now.

If Hizashi could see his face, he’d see that it was a vibrant, bright pink.

Shouta’s eyes were wide where he hid them behind his arm.

Somewhere along the lines last year, Shouta had realized he had a crush on the other boy, but had been doing what he thought to be a damn good job of hiding it. Now, though, now, with all that extra height, with those long limbs and sun kissed skin, apparently having spent a large majority of his internship outside during daytime, Shouta can’t keep the heat off his cheeks.

Hizashi looked damn good.

Shit, shit, shit, Shouta curses inside his mind.

It felt like being dragged back to ground zero, like he was realizing his feelings for the other boy all over again, the same way he had the first time, when Hizashi had fallen asleep at the kotatsu during one of their study sessions and Shouta had draped a blanket across his shoulders with a softness he’d never treated anyone else with before. He remembers the moment so vividly, staring down at Hizashi’s peaceful, sleeping face and realizing this boy was someone he could never imagine being without.

Yet, with their internships sending them to separate cities, demanding all their free time, he hadn’t seen the blond all summer break, and had apparently missed quite the change.

“Shit, Hizashi, look at you!” he hears Tensei’s voice trail behind him, as the boy comes up to talk to Hizashi.

“Haha, yeah. Turns out I’m a late bloomer or whatever,” Hizashi laughs out.

Shouta keeps his head tucked safely away, but tilts it just enough to not muffle his ear.

“I’ll say! You must be taller than me now!”

“You? No way!”

“Stand up, let’s see!”

Shouta hears Hizashi’s chair screech as it’s pushed back and the other boy presumably stands to compare his height with Tensei.

“Oh, wow, guess I am!”

Shouta bites his lip.

He’s taller than Tensei?

His face gets impossibly hotter.

At this rate, he’d have to keep his head buried for all of homeroom.

Hell, at this rate, he wouldn’t be able to look at Hizashi ever again.

“How does it feel?” Tensei asks. “Hit any lamps?” he jokes.

Hizashi laughs again and Shouta hears more shuffling and the chair creaks again.

“Ah...I don’t know. I’m still getting used to it. It kind of hurt when it happened, to be honest. Growing pains,” he says, with his tone dismissive. Shouta frowns, his mind switching tracks as he picks up the uneasy lilt to Hizashi’s words, his concern for the other boy overriding his crush.

He lifts his head, turning to look at Hizashi, his flush having disappeared. Hizashi’s eyes widen and it takes Shouta aback for a second, seeing that green gaze uninterrupted by his glasses, which have been pushed back onto the top of Hizashi’s head. The blond’s thumb and forefinger are still pressed against the bridge of his nose, where he’d apparently been rubbing before Shouta had decided to join the conversation.

“Ah, hey, Shouta!” Hizashi smiles, dropping his hand away from his face and pulling his glasses back into place. “How was your summer?” Immediately, Hizashi’s voice has ticked up back to its normal, happy pitch.

Shouta feels the heat resurfacing along the back of his neck and quickly tries to shake off the thought of, he’s happy to talk to me.

“Exhausting,” he answers. It’s the truth. He was still tired and sore from the weeks of training.

Tensei hums his agreement from where he stands above them.

“I feel that,” he says. Tensei rubs at his arms, just below where his engines are. “I thought I was going to lose a limb a few times there. At least with my internship being with my family, I didn’t have to explain when I almost fell asleep at dinner a few times.”

Shouta snorts and Hizashi full on belly laughs at the imagery of Tensei passing out into his salad.

“Yeah...sleep was hard to come by,” Shouta comments, resting his chin against his hand. He’d worked with an underground hero, knowing by now that, that was the path he’d be going down, and while he’d thought adjusting to no sleep at night would be easy for someone like him, he’d collapsed on his bedroom floor a few times coming home after work, not making it to the bed.

“How about you?” Tensei asks Hizashi.

The boy shrugs.

“Ah...the internship really wasn’t so bad...but my quirk got pretty out of control when my growth spurt happened. That wasn’t fun,” Hizashi admits, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at his desk.

“Sorry to hear that,” Tensei says, placing a hand on Hizashi’s shoulder. “It’s better now?”

Hizashi shrugs and Shouta is about to open his mouth, try to say something, anything to get the smile back on the blond’s face, but their homeroom teacher walks through door, calling their attention to her.

Tensei moves back to his seat and before Shouta can say anything, they’re thrown quickly into the first day’s classes.

It’s not until lunch that he gets the opportunity to say anything to Hizashi, but by then, the other boy already seems to be in a better mood, and they’d promised to meet Nemuri at one of the benches outside the school to catch up now that she’d graduated. Shouta walks beside Hizashi as they make their way to the meeting place, unable to stop himself from continuously glancing at the other boy, letting his eyes roam up and down his towering body, still not used to having to look up to see his face.

“It’s weird, huh?”

Hizashi’s question throws him for a loop, making him stumble a bit in his gait.

“W-what?” Shouta asks.

“Me being so tall, it’s weird, isn’t it?” Hizashi asks again, looking down at Shouta with a small, almost insecure smile.

“No,” Shouta insists.

“I see the way you keep looking at me,” Hizashi says. He pauses his step, and Shouta casts a helpless look over his shoulder as Tensei keeps walking on ahead of them, leaving them alone.

What was he supposed to say to that?

Yeah, you’re right. I can’t keep my eyes off you?

“Um…” Shouta mumbles, looking to the side.

“Is it my clothes? I know they’re kind of awkward now...they don’t fit right. I had to get bigger ones, but now these are too big…” Hizashi says, pulling at his shirt. Now that he mentions it, Shouta could see how Hizashi’s clothes sag around him in ways they never did before, obviously too large for his slim frame.

“I guess they think that if you’re tall, you’re also really muscular or something,” Hizashi says. “Not me, though, I still got these sweet, sweet chicken legs,” Hizashi jokes and rolls his eyes, but Shouta hears how his tone is too dark to really be considered funny. It’s too self-deprecating.

Was he really feeling bad about the way he looked now?

“What? No!” Shouta says. “You look…” Shouta runs his hands through his hair. “You...the reason I keep looking at you is because I think...I think you look really good. I think…well I just...like it...I like the new you.”

This time, when the blush comes creeping onto his cheeks, he doesn’t hide it. There isn’t any way for him to cover up his face anyway.

“You like it?”

Shouta nods.

“You like…”

Shouta lifts his head, looking at Hizashi, only to see the blond is also flushed.

“Me?” Hizashi finishes his sentence and Shouta’s heart takes off, immediately kicked into overdrive.

His mouth feels incredibly dry. He opens it, but nothing comes out. There are no words in his head, and now he’s just standing there, wide eyed and slack jawed in front of his friend.

Hizashi waits, but as Shouta continues to not respond, he chuckles a little awkwardly and starts turning.

“I...uh...sorry…I guess I got the wrong idea...I-” Hizashi starts mumbling as he moves to walk away, but Shouta grabs his arm.

“I do.”

Hizashi looks back at Shouta and he holds his breath.

“You do...what?” Hizashi asks.

Shouta can’t believe he’s going to make him say it.

“Like you. I do. I do like you.”

Just like that, Hizashi’s grin bursts onto his face, and Shouta’s heart flutters.

“Good! Great!” Hizashi shouts and steps closer to Shouta, laughing. “Good! Because I do too! I like you too!”

“N-no way…” Shouta whispers.

“Yes way! I like you a lot! I was so worried...when you turned away this morning…” Hizashi’s gaze shifts down to the ground. “I thought you didn’t like the way I looked now...or that something had happened over the summer and you didn’t like me anymore…”

“No, never,” Shouta says, moving his grip down from where he’d been holding Hizashi’s wrist to grab the blond’s hand instead, intertwining their fingers. “I’ve liked you for a while now, since last year. Nothing has changed. Well…”

“Well?” Hizashi asks, squeezing his hand.

“I guess you got a bit hotter…”

Hizashi’s face goes pink.

“Shouta!”

He smirks as the blond pulls his hand away from Shouta’s and uses it to cover up his face, flustered by Shouta’s comment.

“Are you two love birds going to join us anytime soon or are Tensei and I just going to eat by ourselves?” Nemuri shouts from where she’s waiting on the bench with Tensei.

Shouta had almost completely forgotten about lunch, and by Hizashi’s shocked expression, apparently so had he.

Hizashi smiles down at Shouta and offers his hand again, which he takes, and they begin walking toward their friends to undoubtedly answer a whole lot of questions Shouta really didn’t care to talk about.

It’s okay, though, he’s sure Hizashi can give them all the details.

He was good at talking.

More than that, he was good at understanding Shouta’s needs, the way he wouldn’t want to share everything that had just happened between them, wouldn't want to gush over the fine details like Nemuri was bound to.

Hizashi squeezes his hand and Shouta looks up at him.

“I’m so happy,” he says.

Shouta smiles and the words come out easy, “Me too.”

#erasermic #maizawa #erasermic fanfiction #aizawa shouta #eraserhead #present mic #yamada hizashi #aizawa #bnha #mha #maizawa fanfiction

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yang-xiaodonna · 6 years

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What's a Doritos salad? It sounds good

Hey dude!! First off I wanted to apologise for taking so long to answer, school is a bitch.

But this is a really good question since I won't shut up about it and a bunch of people have asked me this question repeatedly so I've decided to take this opportunity to make a sort of dorito salad masterpost.

But if you're not interested in all the drama and don't care about why it's a meme on my blog, a dorito salad is a salad made with lettuce, salad dressing, cheese cubes and of course, doritos. And they kinda look like this if you go to a restaurant :

It looks a bit different from the recipe I mentioned but that's because it's the one I use to make it at home, I'm not a good cook OK ajjwjsjjs

So the masterpost:

The meme all started with this lovely post by @lamb200345567 and me

And then it kinda escalated to an inside joke between us and the server, we would continously tease each other about it and try to get people on our side of the argument

we would talk about it on the daily and convinced someone in the discord server (you're the best Ethan) to write a bumbleby fic about it, here's a snipet of it BTW along with the link to the fic (you should check out his other ones too btw)

Remnant's Kitchen - Chapter 1 - ChaoticEther - RWBY [Archive of Our Own]

we even sent anon hate to each other over it

After a while I convinced Lamb to try one and she loved it so I won jsjajwkaksj, so the discourse kind of ended and while I do miss it I'm also kinda glad it's over.

In conclusion, dorito salads RULE

#not rwby #asks #i finally did it ahajjaja #also #u made the eyebrow less tdp post?#we are now mortal enemies sjwkkw #jk jk #dorito salad discourse #rainbow roses #discord #so far all of my asks have been dorito salad related and i am living for it #bumbleby #just cause of the fic #which you should all read

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tjkiahgb · 6 years

Text

Episode Recap: 2.25, “The Cake That Takes the Cake”

We find Andi and Bex looking at rings to start the episode. I know money is probably tight, I know the proposal is unconventional, I know they’re shopping for Bowie, but why are they looking through the kind of rings you’d get out of the vending machines you put quarters into at the grocery store?

(Also, why is Bex wearing more rings than an 18th century pirate?)

I’m surprised these rings aren’t stored in plastic acorn capsules.

Andi finds a yin yang ring and they realize the message it sends about the universe and everything is the perfect one, even though the ring itself looks like it fell out of a Cracker Jack box.

They celebrate by screaming wildly in the middle of a jewelry store.

Meanwhile, Cyrus and Buffy hang out at the outside basketball courts on a snowy, freezing cold Summer Winter Spring morning.

(Why is that school bus parked in somebody’s driveway?)

Sorry to call out an actor here, but um... Sofia is not good at basketball. Like, at all. In fairness to her, she wasn’t cast to be a basketball player. She’s a very good actor. That’s her strength. Well, also dance. She’s also a good dancer. But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, basketball is not her forte. (Luke is better, but not great either. When you watch the one-on-one later, pay attention to how almost any time someone looks remotely fluid performing a basketball related action, you don’t see their face. It’s... noticeable.)

I say all this just as a fan of basketball who’s having a difficult time watching this scene. Anyway, I’m not really blaming her as much as the director. They’ve done a pretty good job this season of making her look good on the court, but this long, uncut shot of her dribbling and awkwardly pulling up to shoot was a poor choice.

Cyrus tries to pump Buffy up, especially because there’s a basketball game on Friday and Cyrus wants Buffy to rejoin the team. Buffy won’t though.

Cyrus thinks it’s because of TJ. He tries to explain that TJ’s a completely different person. He even got a “C” on a math test.

(It was what now?)

Cyrus says he was like a puppy. Buffy, undeterred, says he’s still a puppy she doesn’t want to play with.

Listen, Buffy’s feelings of anger towards TJ aside, “I don’t want to play with that puppy” is an inherently false statement like “I don’t need oxygen to live,” or “I’m perfectly fine with being set on fire,” or “Oh, you don’t have Coke? That’s great! Pepsi was my first choice!”

Andi and Bex walk together just a couple hundred yards from where Cyrus and Buffy are.

Same bus, same house.

Season’s almost over. Sort of sad the last time the GHC shared the same room was when Buffy and Cyrus walked by in the background of Andi and Jonah’s date planning at Cloud 10, and their last interaction was 15 seconds of looking at each other while Jonah and Walker talked at the art show. Andi and Bex should’ve stopped by the court to say “Hi” at least.

But they didn’t. They’ve got their own thing to do. They’re planning the proposal for tonight. Andi is upset they’ve already used the “hide the ring in a pizza box” plan. They decide to hide the ring in a cake instead. Feels like someone should tell them you can propose without hiding rings in food. In fact, most proposals aren’t “hiding rings in food” based.

Andi decides they should drop in on Bowie at Red Rooster and invite him to dinner, real low-key and casual. It’s such a simple plan. All they have to do is not act like a dentist just pumped them full of nitrous oxide. There’s no way it can fail.

Welp. Maybe they should’ve just texted him? Bowie thinks they’re up to something but isn’t a detective, so he’s unable to piece together anything more than that.

Later, Andi and Bex put together the cake. They stuff the ring inside.

Not a fan of this at all. The pizza plan had the ring safely in a holder on top of the pizza. This is a big hazard! The only thing preventing tragedy is an easily movable toothpick. You want a surefire way to ruin a proposal? Have the guy you’re proposing to choke to death on a little chunk of metal. You are playing with fire here.

Still, they’re happy with their plan. Until they turn around and see they’ve made a huge mess.

One bigger than you might think possible for making just one little cake. And why are there sprinkles everywhere? There are no sprinkles on the cake! What were they even doing in there?!

This has become such a mess, they decide they can’t continue to make food here. They’ll use Celia’s kitchen (and her dining room and her dishes) instead and leave this mess to animated forest animals to clean up.

Bex, if you leave this mess sitting out for the rest of the day, the only animals that are going to show up to take care of it are ants. Do you want ants? Because that’s how you get ants.

Cyrus and Buffy show up at the gym. Cyrus excuses himself to grab something out of his locker, which should be Buffy’s first clue that something is up. There’s no way Cyrus has anything important in his gym locker.

TJ shows up. Buffy says, “Well, well, if it isn’t Jock-iavelli” thinking she’s gonna catch TJ off-guard, but TJ knows who Machiavelli is because he has a numbers-related learning disability, not a lack of intelligence.

Buffy really walked into that one.

TJ tells her he got a two-game suspension for Buffy doing his homework. That makes Buffy feel better. It also feels like something he could’ve mentioned to soften the blow back in that scene that shall not be mentioned. If he was suspended from the team with Buffy, that certainly makes the outcome of that scene look more like a careless mistake on his part than a Jockiavellian chess move. It’s two months later and the writing of that scene still bothers me with how incoherent and discordant it is. But, really, though, who even cares anymore? (I mean, besides me. I do. But I’m not well. So...)

TJ’s back on the team and wants to know why Buffy isn’t coming back. He tries to goad her into playing when Cyrus shows up too soon and blows his and TJ’s plan by asking if they’re going to do a one-on-one match or something.

Buffy figures out their game but still grabs her gym clothes to get ready. She doesn’t turn down a challenge, even a sloppily executed one.

Yeah. You gotta at least do a dry run. Use Trash Can Buffy. She’s hasn’t been talked to in weeks and is probably very lonely.

Speaking of very lonely, Bex visits Celia, but only to trick her into leaving her house. Bex has gotten Celia a suite for the night with room service and spa treatment (all charged to Ham, of course).

Sort of feels like: you know Celia’s having a tough time, and you know she loves Bowie, why not let her stay and be a part of this? I get if it’s going to be intimate, but Andi’s going to be there. It’s already two generations of Mack women. What’s one more? She’s close family. It’s not like you’re inviting Gus.

Celia heads off to her one night vacation and Bex sneaks Andi into the house via the backdoor. Andi has supplies for dinner and a newfound appreciation for pots.

Pots. Is there anything they can’t do?

Back at the gym, TJ and Buffy start their one-on-one. Cyrus keeps score. Former bitter enemies! A competitive one-on-one! Friendships on the line!

What will happen?! The drama is starting to heat up and then we cut to--

ASPARAGUS!

SALAD!

A CHEEEEEESE PLAAAAAAATEEEEEE!!!

Can you feel the excitement?! Is it pumping through your veins like so much red hot blood?!

Bex takes a chicken out of the oven!

Andi shucks corn!

Fasten your safety harness! You must be this tall to ride and women who are pregnant or thinking of ever becoming pregnant should get back. If you have a heart condition, you’d better look away! You. Will. Die!

I’m sorry. I know I’m going in way too hard on this scene. It’s still Andi’s show and her story still has to be at the forefront. But this episode was killing me.

I know everything before the big scene at the end with Bowie -- the ring picking, the planning, the cake baking, the food preparing -- is all in service of setting it up. But the dramatic stakes in these scenes are almost nil. It’s just like, a bunch of happy montage stuff. Which I normally don’t have a problem with on this show -- it’s usually cute and peppy -- but when you compare it to the actual interesting stuff that’s going on at this exact moment in the gym? The two scenes are so many dramatic miles apart that you can’t stand at one and see the other. It’s somewhere beyond the horizon.

And it’s especially irritating when you’re cutting away from the gym in the middle of the drama to this fluff. It’s giving me whiplash.

Anyway, Andi asks Bex how much corn she should shuck and Bex says to shuck ‘em all and let God sort them out.

Then Bex just starts listing food they have sitting on the counter in plain sight for all to see.

They wonder if this is too much food. Andi remembers they made a cake, too. Bex says that’s right, they did make a cake! Do you remember when they made a cake? Do you remember that scene? I do. It was literally five minutes ago. It wasn’t even in a different act. It was this same one after the commercial break. But I’m so glad to be reminded. Thank you for reminding me. Let’s remember some more things. Remember when Andi was shucking corn and asked how many corns she should shuck and Bex said shuck ‘em all? That was good times. I hope this scene continues for several more minutes as we just remember those moments. Maybe Bex can list the foods she sees near her one more time.

Terri Minsky, if you read this, I’m sorry. I’m just joking around.

But you do make me crazy sometimes.

We head back to the gym where several basketballs bounce across the floor like Old West tumbleweeds.

It’s also kind of a weird thing to happen in a gym with only three people in it. Who knocked over the basketball cart?

TJ and Buffy trade baskets back and forth. Cyrus is fading but still keeps score.

It feels like this puts TJ at a disadvantage, because of his dyscalculia. This is blatant math privilege.

Buffy finally beats TJ to the rim and puts in a layup to win their battle. Buffy celebrates and the crazed fan in attendance storms the court.

Cyrus and Buffy hug. TJ and Buffy congratulate each other on a good game. Cyrus says that means the plan worked. It’s been proven through science that TJ and Buffy can play together and thus, Buffy needs to rejoin the basketball team.

But Buffy says she’s still not going to. But she’s not going to quit basketball. She’s starting a girls’ team instead. Cyrus and TJ give her props for having an even better-er plan than their plan.

At Celia’s, Bex and Andi anxiously await Bowie’s arrival. He finally shows up, but he says he’s brought a surprise with him.

And that surprise is, a group of vagrants?

Or it’s just Bowie’s band. Or maybe... both?

The band showed up out of the blue and they’re staying for dinner. So. That’s neat. What a neat little thing for them to do without asking ahead of time.

Andi and Bex decide they’re still going to go through with the proposal, though.

TJ, Cyrus, and Buffy walk together out of school. Cyrus thinks they can all be friends now. TJ thinks so, too. But Buffy is not so sure because she hasn’t done anything horrible to TJ like he’s done to her.

She thinks she’s forgiven him but friendship might still be out of reach. Maybe, she says, if TJ delivered the best apology ever. Cyrus asks him to give a shot. TJ takes a deep breath and...

Wait. Let’s stop a second here.

We’ve talked a lot about the acting on the show this season, especially as far as the kids go. There have been several really touching, deep moments that they’ve handled with excellence.

But nothing. Nothing! Compares to what happens here.

If you came to me before this episode and told me that TJ was going to deliver his end-of-redemption-arc apology to Buffy via a super-sincere, basketball-themed rap, I would’ve shouted “No!” and I probably would’ve taken a swing at you. And that’s knowing full well it wasn’t your fault. It’s not even with intent to hurt you. It would just be my body reacting to that stimulus with some kind of violent impulse I couldn’t control. Lashing out at that specific moment because it would be the only way I could think of to express myself.

But here’s the thing. The fact that I not only didn’t cringe so hard that I burst into flames while watching this, but that I actually thought it worked and I really liked it as a moment? Give Luke all the awards for pulling that off. Give him an Emmy. Give him a Tony, too. Give him the whole damn EGOT and throw in a People’s Choice Award and a Nobel Prize in Physics with it.

So, Luke/TJ/DJ Fruity Mixitup launches into this crazy rap and it’s so... freakin’... sweet. He’s not making a joke about it or anything. It’s heartfelt and honest. This is like publicly apologizing to a trash can to the tenth power. I still can’t believe this is happened.

Terri Minsky, I forgive you for all the food montages.

Also, I know there’s been some talk about Cyrus making him do this, but there’s no way that entire thing was freestyle. Some is. He obviously had to incorporate the new information about the girls basketball team. But the rest? I mean, I’ll argue all day that TJ isn’t dumb, but I don’t think he’s some rap prodigy. He absolutely knew coming in that he was going to apologize to Buffy today. It was part of the plan. And if he didn’t spend a couple of hours writing out the majority of that rap, he at least took the time to sit down and outline it. You don’t just drop a Liam Neeson reference out of nowhere.

Buffy accepts the apology. Maybe they can be friends.

TJ heads off, but not before looking back.

Which is interesting to us as an audience, because we understand the significance. But in the show, only Jonah and Amber do. Cyrus and Buffy don’t.

So you’d imagine the conversation would go like:

Buffy: Is he looking back here? What does he want?

Cyrus: I don’t know. (shouting) What?

TJ: (shouting) Huh?!

Cyrus: What- do you need something?

TJ: What?

Cyrus: Did you forget something?

TJ: No. I’m just looking back!

Cyrus: Why?

TJ: It means something! It has significance!

Cyrus: Huh?!

TJ: Forget it! We’ll solve this in season three!

Cyrus: (waving) Ok! Bye!

...and scene.

Back at Celia’s, this odd, odd dinner party is in full swing. Bowie and the only guy in the band who talks exchange stories from the road when Celia shows up to bust the party.

Celia’s upset until Bex explains they’re going to propose to Bowie. And then Celia is not so upset anymore.

Back at the dinner table, they prepare the cake. Before they can get to the ring, though, the only guy in the band who talks speaks up. He has something to say first, to Bowie. See, the band came here especially to see Bowie. Then the band member gets on one knee.

Terri Minsky, you monster! For making the gayest moment in this episode occur between Bowie and his band’s drummer, you are once again on the bad list!

Even Celia’s like, this is some gay stuff going on here.

The band member says the band has booked their first international tour and they need him back. Bowie is honored but thinks about Andi. The band member asks him to come for just six months, but Bowie can’t.

But then Andi and Bex tell him he can, so Bowie says he’ll think about it.

Andi and Bex break off to talk. They want him to go on the tour. Bex says for that to happen though, she can’t propose, because if she does, he won’t leave. Andi says propose and tell him it’s ok to go. As long as he’s locked down, it’s all good. Celia shows up and says don’t let him go in the first place. The argument continues. Bex says they can’t propose if one of them doesn’t want to, but Andi says that’s a new rule and not allowed.

Oh, right. This is why you don’t do joint proposals.

They want to cut the cake out in the dining room. Andi and Bex tell Celia the ring is in the cake and she, rightly, points out that that’s a worse choking hazard than the toothpick she pulled out of it.

They go running out to the dining room and Bex does the only thing she can think of: shoves her hands deep into the cake.

Then Andi joins in. And so does Bowie.

Celia warns the band members that none of these three have washed their hands, as if those guys don’t look like they eat most of their meals off the floor of the tour van.

After thoroughly destroying the cake, Bowie comes across the ring.

He wants to know what it is, and Andi and Bex respond as only Macks under pressure can: with a lot of “Um”s.

We cut to black and that’s that for season 2.

Whew. What a ride. And now begins another long, cold hiatus.

Hey, if you’ve read any of my recaps this season, thank you so much. I’ve got a few more things planned for the near-term following this, but pretty shortly I’m going to take something of a hiatus, too, to do other stuff with my life until season three. I’ll pop in and out, but I probably won’t be doing too much writing, so if you want to discuss some of what’s happened, send your asks in soon. Feel free to send silly asks, too, but fair warning, I’m aiming to just do some analysis type posts related to season 2 for now, while it’s still relevant and fresh in our minds. I’m not ignoring you, but silly asks will probably be put off until season 3.

Otherwise, see you guys on the other side.

#Andi Mack #Bex Mack #Cyrus Goodman #Buffy Driscoll #TJ Kippen #Bowie Quinn #Celia Mack #Andi #episode recaps

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cashewally-sarcastic · 3 years

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Please 🥺

Well this all stems back to the food discourse that happened over the course of a couple hours in the HKU discord, it was about what did and did not count as a sandwich.

With that, all food discourse has been cursed. We've had Mac and cheese salad and hot chocolate soup discourse too.

Not only is soup a bit of an inside joke, but because of the hot chocolate soup discourse, the soup discourse I reblogged caused more chaos. After that, everything fell into place.

#That's the tldr #ask @sarcasticmudkip they're good at explaining #anons asking

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ecoorganic · 4 years

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The Improbable Story of Boxing's David Benavidez and His Fighting Family

Disputes, death, a shooting, a drug suspension and now, a pandemic—José Benavidez Sr. and his two sons have persevered through it all in their collective chase for championship belts. Now it's up to David Benavidez, one of boxing's youngest champions, to keep the family's dream alive.

The latest home for one of boxing's youngest champions is the last place anyone would look. There are reasons for that, starting with the gunshots back in Phoenix that split apart and redirected the paths of the fighting Benavidez brothers, threatening to derail their father’s dream. José Benavidez Sr. had stolen food, slept in cars, carried guns, boosted stereos, learned a sport, opened gyms, fought off rivals. And then, finally, on the verge of grasping all he desired, the plan he scratched and begged and worked tirelessly for started to fall apart.

After all of that, he says his life became “a little bit more complicated.”

Three years after the shooting upended all his sacrifice, Senior and his sons—José Jr. and David, who won his first belt at 20—can be found in the greater-Seattle area in Renton, Wash., a hotbed for elite youth basketball near the waterfront headquarters of an NFL power. Their gym is tucked into a strip mall of impossibly diverse options: fish house, halal market, teriyaki restaurant, copy spot, haircut place, climbing space for kids and the massage parlor, Blissful Knead. The windows to the gym are covered in the likenesses of the Brothers Benavidez, who have been trained, goaded, prodded, protected, angered and managed by their father their entire lives. The artwork serves dual purposes, at once announcing that boxing’s most challenged—and perhaps most challenging—family has arrived, while also blocking anyone hoping to peer inside.

In 23 years, David Benavidez and his family have lived something like 23 lifetimes. Even in boxing, a sport where complicated father-son relationships trend toward the extreme, the Benavidez boys present an outlying case study in family dynamics. They have shot guns and been shot at. Been threatened with lawsuits and sued. Moved to five different states. Confronted everything from rival promotional companies, internal discord, reports of their “toxic” relationship, the shooting, the death of a beloved uncle, a drug suspension and, now, a pandemic. All to arrive here, of all places, preparing for Aug. 15, when David is favored to batter Roamer Alexis Angulo at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on Showtime.

The story of David’s improbable boxing climb—and Junior’s sudden fall—is a tale soaked in violence, heightened by hyperbole and grounded in unwavering confidence. And it’s almost impossible to believe. It’s the story of a father and his two sons, the boys on which he imposed his ambitions, creating champions and chaos and three perspectives on one dream. A family that stands perpetually on the precipice of greatness and remains in danger of losing everything.

Senior: Mexico, 1970s

Before Senior knew anything about boxing, he was just a boy who had been abandoned his entire childhood. His parents separated when he was two; his dad walked out on the family, and his mom left for the United States, leaving her son with her mother, who was in her 80s and too frail to care for a young child. So before he raised two boxing champions, Senior, as he likes to say, raised himself.

His stories can sound apocryphal to the point that even his sons wonder where they might be embellished or touched up. Senior says that until age 11 he worked in fields, harvesting or planting corn. He says he also stole food, and when he couldn’t find any scraps to pilfer, he ate leaves sprinkled with salt, discarded fruit he found in garbage bins, “little animals from the mountains,” plus dirt. Yes, dirt.

He says he moved to California at 11, summoned by his mother. He says his stepdad kicked him out. He says that he quit school after eighth grade, ran with gangs and even started one of his own, teaching fellow members how to steal radios from cars. He says he sold drugs, sleeping with a 9 millimeter under the pillow. He says he never considered another life, until …

Senior: Phoenix, 1992

Senior can still remember the first day he saw his namesake, that beautiful little boy he would call Junior, the first of his four children. Still a teenager, Senior moved to Arizona with his family and secured a job at the Ritz-Carlton, ascending from dishwasher to banquet captain over the next 15 years. He bought a house, settled down and was happily married for a time.

If Junior’s birth marked a revelation, David’s arrival, in 1996, only reinforced Senior’s desire to succeed regardless of what it took. Even in his relatively peaceful new existence, he still worried constantly about his children, wondering whether they would pay for his mistakes. “I always thought for some reason I was going to die,” he says. “I could see this moment, my death. So I said, God, give me another day, so that I can make them stronger.”

Senior placed his children into soccer and baseball and distance running and swimming, strengthening them in any way that he could find. But they appeared drawn to one sport above all others: boxing.

Senior: Phoenix, 1990s, early 2000s

When Senior decided to become a trainer, manager and boxing aficionado, all he knew at that point was the greatness of Oscar De La Hoya. Still, he proved an eager student, showing up at gyms, pestering anyone who would entertain his endless questions, buying instructional videos and tapes of old fights until he wore out the family VCR.

Senior says he started to wake Junior at 5 a.m. for roadwork at “age two or three.” He made mini pads for the little boy to hit. Before Junior was in kindergarten, Senior started to place him with opponents of increasing skill level, for longer durations, wanting to drain his son’s hyperactive energy. This, he told both boys, is what sacrifice looks like.

David: Phoenix, 2000

The boy his father calls “our ugly duckling” also began training as a toddler, although with far less acclaim. If his brother was the prodigy who hardly watched fights, David was the fan, who always did. Hoping to bond with his father, he studied Marco Antonio Barrera, “Prince” Naseem Hamed and Roy Jones Jr. at the same time he watched cartoons. He also woke up at 5 a.m. to run two miles, just like his brother, who, once he started school, would jog the mile from the family home each morning, doubling the distance with a longer route.

By age eight, Junior had won dozens of amateur fights. His parents would divorce. Junior would go to live with his father, while David went to stay with his mom and younger sister. This marked the first time the brothers’ paths diverged.

David: Phoenix, 2008

At home with mom, David stopped boxing and took up a new hobby: eating away his feelings of not measuring up to his father’s expectations or his brother’s immediate success. After school, David would make two packages of ramen noodles, down both, then slam an Oreo sleeve, then scarf down dinner and dessert. He favored hot Cheetos, cake with extra frosting, nacho cheese, Taco Bell and Mountain Dew Code Red. He never ate Happy Meals, starting instead on the value combos, even supersizing them. He gained 80 pounds, ballooning to 260 or so by age 12.

At school, kids did what kids do. When David told others that he boxed, they pointed at his physique and cracked jokes. “Fat ass!” they taunted. “You don’t box!”

Senior: Los Angeles, 2009

While David stayed in Phoenix, his father and brother moved to Hollywood, like some pugilistic Clampetts, so that Junior could turn pro. By then, Junior was an 11-time national champion with more than 100 amateur victories, a prodigy in every sense who had won the National Golden Gloves title at 16. Sometimes, the Benavidez boys slept in their car, or with Freddie Roach, who welcomed them to Wild Card Boxing Club, his famous training ground at the corner of Santa Monica and Vine.

Then, David called his dad one day. At age 13 and overweight, he wanted to move back in with them and return to boxing.

“If you do,” Senior told him, “you will become champion of the world.”

José Benavidez Sr. and his two sons

David: Los Angeles, 2010

When David stepped into Wild Card for the first time, his father did a double take. “Dang,” he said. “You’re just so god--- fat.” Many at the gym laughed like David’s classmates. They knew Junior, who was ripped, handsome, charismatic and marked for stardom. David? A teenaged Butterbean, with speed despite his size and newfound power behind his punches. “In my mind, he felt depressed,” Senior says. “He didn’t talk to nobody. He would only talk to me.”

The Benavidez boys resumed their regimen. David cut out all drinks except for water. He stopped eating rice, bread and pasta, save for the occasional treat. He ate fish, chicken and salad after waddling through every morning run. The weight dripped off him, but he retained the power. Senior started to run his mouth about his youngest, saying things that seemed unbelievable at the time. “He’s better than Junior!” he would shout. “He has more heart! He’s more grounded!”

“I tried to convince people,” Senior says now. “They would laugh in my face.”

Junior: Los Angeles, Phoenix, 2011–13

One year after turning pro, Junior had already notched 14 victories with 12 KOs. His career remained the family’s shared aim. But the more he won, the more the circle expanded, and tension escalated between Senior and the crew at Wild Card. To rebuild a cocoon, Senior moved back to Arizona and opened his own gym. He fell in love again, remarried and had another daughter. With four kids now relying on one pro and his father-trainer, Senior became even more strict, assuming absolute control. His boys couldn’t go to the movies. They rarely saw their friends. “It was bad for them,” he admits. “They had no childhood.”

Back in Phoenix, Senior says his sons rebelled. Junior says the brothers had grown weary of all the rules, all the I-ate-dirt stories. They didn’t have to struggle the way Senior had, but he never ceased to remind them of his sacrifice. Senior says that sometimes he believed that Junior “hated” him, a notion that Junior denies, saying he understood his father’s methods, the cost of training and national tournaments and his dad’s desire to maximize his immense talent. He knows his father often pulled up at McDonald’s with $2 and change, bought a pair of double cheeseburgers off the value menu and gave one apiece to each son while his stomach rumbled. “I did have a rough childhood,” Junior says. “But that’s how my dad was: rough. The thing about him is he’s always going to find a way.”

David: California, 2012

With Junior firmly established as a contender, Senior spent more time trying to elevate David to the same place. That meant David would spar grown men at age 15. He dropped a 200-pounder with a chiseled frame. One suffered a broken nose; others crumpled to the canvas. At that point, Senior suggested that David try his skills against professionals and world champions, and David learned one of the great lessons of boxing—that every fighter feels fear every time they fight and that anyone who says otherwise is lying. He felt scared when he stepped into the ring for sparring sessions with Kelly Pavlik, Peter Quillin and Gennady Golovkin, all champs who hit so hard he’d lose his breath.

GGG came to advise David like an older brother, offering strategy tips and even suggesting the services of his trainer, the highly regarded Abel Sanchez. Father and son shot GGG a quizzical look. This was prime GGG, set to make his U.S. debut and become a pay-per-view star. Surely, he was simply being kind. No, he told them, I’m for real.

David: Mexico, 2013

As the young boxer’s confidence rose, Senior decided that David, at 16, should also turn pro. By then, David had dropped to almost 100 pounds to 170. But he would have to fight in Mexico, with only 15 amateur bouts on his résumé, because no sanctioning body in the U.S. would ever approve an opponent of that age.

The bout took place in Rocky Point, the fishing and resort town southwest of Phoenix, over the border. “I was,” he admits, “super scared.” Senior heard all the complaints. “A lot of people told me I was crazy,” he says. “That I’m stupid. That I want to get rich off of my kids. It got in my mind, you know. Like, maybe I am. Maybe I’m making a mistake.”

David had never fought without headgear, in front of a real crowd. But his family packed into the stands, including his favorite uncle, his mother’s brother, U.S. Army veteran Moises Balladares. David won by knockout, in the first round, against an opponent who would never fight again. The danger was real but not as heavy as he’d imagined, the result of another Senior calculation, all part of the plan.

The family dream shifted in that moment. Now, Senior and his boys all wanted the same thing: for both David and Junior to hold belts at the same time.

Still, the Benavidez boys were broke. What they made went back into their operation, or to the whims of the boys who took the risk inside the ring. Senior continued to crisscross the country, bolstering his training methods, visiting respected camps like those run by the Diaz brothers, Sanchez and Robert Garcia. The plan had fallen perfectly into place. Now, he planned to build on it.

His oldest won a world title first, just as Senior had designed. In Las Vegas, against Mauricio Herrera, Junior nabbed the WBA super lightweight belt by unanimous decision in 2014. He had no idea that night when he celebrated that he would fight only three more times before The Incident—and only six more times in the next six years.

No one could have anticipated the wild, dubious, impossible sequence yet to come.

Junior: Phoenix, 2015

Senior saw his namesake’s behavior change. Every dime that Junior made from fighting he seemed to spend on fast sports cars or put toward fancy guns. He bought a Colt .38 with an image of the grim reaper carved onto the handle. Senior would hear his boy speeding away from the gym, in one souped-up ride or another, the engines revving like on the infield at Daytona. Every time he heard a helicopter overhead he thought the police were giving chase. When someone torched one of Junior’s rides, a Mercedes, many around the family speculated that someone had tried to collect on one of Senior’s unpaid debts. False, he says.

After months of sleepless nights, Senior decided to confront his oldest. “Guess what?” he thundered, taking aim at his son’s reckless lifestyle. “You’re going to get in trouble. You think you’re a superstar, you’re a champion, you get free s---, you can do whatever you want? You could end up dead.”

He always yelled the same thing at Junior. You’ll understand when you’re a parent!

David: U.S. Virgin Islands, 2015

Even though David won his first 10 fights, with nine KOs, any interest in signing him remained scarce. Top Rank Boxing passed. So did Golden Boy Promotions. Senior started to lie to his son, telling David there was interest, while all but begging for deals in the background. He worried his mere presence helped more than it hurt, and he felt like he couldn't help either boy achieve their dream.

The trajectory changed that summer, when undefeated boxer Julius Jackson, who had won the WBA super middleweight title the year before, invited David down to picturesque St. Thomas for sparring. David could hardly believe his luck—a free, all-expenses paid trip to a tropical island where he’d stay at the oceanside mansion of a prominent politician and bank $1,200 per week for a month.

A woman picked up Senior and David at the airport on a cloudless afternoon. “I hope your son doesn’t get hurt,” the woman said, highlighting the perceived danger in the matchup.

On the first day, the first time they engaged, in the first round, David battered Jackson into an early submission. That’s super rare in sparring and almost unheard of for the champion/host. “I’m not even playing, I landed like an 18-punch combination,” David says.

Jackson’s trainer called Sampson Lewkowicz, the boxing manager and promoter, and told him: You’re dumb if you don’t sign this guy.

“After that, his life changed,” Senior says of David. “I didn’t know he was that good. He was the ugly duckling. Nobody had believed in him but us.”

Junior: Phoenix, 2016

On the night that three lives changed, Junior went outside the home that he shared with his girlfriend to walk his Schnauzer and what he claims was a $10,000 cat, the exotic pet indicative of his warped perspective. Outside, he started down the street, his head buried in his phone, immersed in Snapchat updates. After the dog started barking, Junior noticed a man standing nearby, wearing, oddly, a dark hoodie in the triple-digit summer heat.

As the man slowly approached, Junior noticed his mustache, sideburns and a familiar expression he often saw from opponents—fear. The man asked whether his dog bit. No, he responded, as he bent down toward the dog and heard the first shot from the gun that pierced the femoral artery in his right knee. Junior raised his right hand in front of him, and the bullet meant for his head instead glanced the edge of his pinkie finger.

“Dude,” Junior told his assailant, “you a b----.”

Junior called his father first, then David. He worried more for his career than for his life. He screamed into the night, until an ambulance’s siren drowned out his wails. He told his father that he failed him, ruining the dream they shared. He told his brother not to worry, that he would be all right. As the news spread, extended family and friends expressed shock, outrage. But not Senior. “When I heard he got shot, I knew it was coming,” he says.

The Benavidez boys believe that someone close to Junior ordered the shooting, after a dispute over a woman that Junior had “stolen” from one of his gangster friends. His father had warned Junior, both of what might happen and what he stood to lose if anything went wrong. But despite all the sacrifice, all he’d done and all he’d left behind, he couldn’t save Junior on that night.

Senior started to sink into a depression. His oldest had turned into his old self. He pointed the blame inward and thought: I created a monster.

That was only half of it.

David: Las Vegas, 2017

One brother’s rise continued while the other brother’s halted on that street, their paths diverging once again. Junior was shot where the knee bends, just under the kneecap, and, as the ligaments and cartilage healed, everything twisted into knots. Doctors wondered whether he would walk again, let alone fight, ever. The shooting had forced the family to again opt for relocation, at first back to Los Angeles. “It just made me paranoid,” David says. “Just being there in Phoenix. I still really don’t go back much. It’s something you never forget.”

David won on ShoBox, the prospect showcase for Showtime. He fought at bigger venues, like the Barclays Center, the MGM Grand and AT&T Stadium. More knockouts. More buzz. And, finally, a title fight, scheduled for Sept. 8, 2017, against Ronald Gavril at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. The whole brood planned to be there, again, just as they had for his first pro bout in Mexico.

With three weeks left in camp, David received a frantic phone call from his mother: Her brother and David’s beloved uncle, Balladares, had been fatally shot in Arizona in a standoff with the police, the circumstances murky. The cops said he was threatening to kill himself. David worried about his brother, that he might lapse and seek vengeance for his uncle’s death. He took three days off from training to consider canceling the title shot. Ultimately, he believed his uncle would have wanted him to fight—not just for himself, but for his brother, whose dream and knee had both been shattered.

As the fight drew near, David came down with the worst flu of his life. He could hardly get out of bed and he still had to drop eight pounds in the final 24 hours before the weigh-in. Boosted by intestinal fortitude—and guilt over his family’s saga—David made weight, dragged his weary body into the ring and scratched out a split-decision victory, good for the family’s second world title.

At age 20, David was officially boxing’s youngest champion, but he hardly felt like celebrating. He went to the hospital afterward, to receive treatment for a broken hand, and he could hear the nurses, incredulous, talking to the man in the next bed over. A drawn curtain separated them. As the doctor ticked off the man’s injuries, listing a concussion, a broken nose and a broken jaw, David realized that it was his opponent sitting next to him. He felt bad in that moment and wondered: What was the purpose of all this? Why him? His father? His family?

All their futures now hinged on him.

“I do this to make you happy,” he told his older brother after he won the title.

“Don’t,” Junior responded. “You’re going to have problems if you’re not happy with yourself.”

David: Las Vegas, 2018

The higher David climbed, the heavier it became to carry his family history and burdens. For a while, that worked in his favor, serving as the best kind of motivation, intrinsic and essential. In February 2018, he dominated the rematch with Gavril to retain his title. But he also started down the familiar path of self-destruction, of women and parties and drugs.

David wanted to move back to Phoenix, his father says, to party with his friends, the exact path that Junior had taken to nearly fatal results. His father wanted to scream. Instead, he tried to calmly lay it out for David. He had left everything—his house, his gym, his second family—to help David secure the belt that hung around his waist. And David wanted to throw all that away? For drugs? If that was his choice, Senior dared, then take it. David stayed.

They moved to Oregon, then Las Vegas, where the Benavidez boys found trouble yet again. David signed with Top Rank behind his father’s back, then changed his mind, then decided to go with Lewkowicz, who paid back David’s $250,000 signing bonus and assumed control of his career.

Months later, still in Vegas that September, David tested positive for cocaine. His third title defense was canceled. He lost his belt without losing a fight and was suspended for four months. His family lost something worse. Their dream. His father’s dream. Again.

Senior: Las Vegas, 2018

The father says he struggled more than his sons ever knew. Late at night, unable to sleep, Senior wondered if his methods had caused their collective downfall. “I felt terrible,” Senior says. “I really wanted to kill myself. I just wanted to give up. I’m sacrificing my wife, my little girl. I’m f------ broke. And I’m supposed to be protecting them.”

Story of my life, he says. Push, prod, inch higher. Ignore those who question motives. Make something from literally nothing. “And, then, boom,” Senior says. “Something happens.”

Senior, Junior and David: Renton, Wash., 2019

Through all the mishaps and bad decisions and the shooting, Senior continued to move camp. Both he and his youngest son desired the same aim. Something closer to normalcy. A place to begin to reclaim all that they had lost.

Eventually, they all settled outside Seattle, near the airport. One of David’s friends grew up near there, and he swayed David with his descriptions of the summers, plus the chance to build a boxing haven in one place nobody would ever expect. David bought a house near the water. Junior got a spot nearby. Senior opened one gym, grew it and then opened another, in that strip mall, with images of his homegrown champions covering the windows, preparing for business to boom in the spring of 2020—until the coronavirus pandemic hit.

After topping J'Leon Love in his postsuspension comeback fight, David won back his belt in September 2019, knocking out another world champion in Anthony Dirrell at the Staples Center in L.A. Three fights he expected to be made never materialized. But despite his own career stall, the positive test, the death of his uncle, the injury to his brother and COVID-freaking-19, he had found something near Seattle that he had never had as an adult. Stability felt good. His girlfriend became pregnant with his first child, a boy he plans to mold into a fighter, another link in the family business. She’s due in September. “It seems like home now,” David says. “Like how it felt back at the beginning.”

David: Renton, Wash., 2020

David knows what’s possible, starting with his next fight. Should he continue to win, the options at super middleweight appear endless, from Canelo Alvarez to Caleb Plant and Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders and Gilberto Ramirez. He wants all of them, he says, especially Plant. Should David make a run through that gantlet, he’d be staring at pay-per-view millions, a Hall of Fame career and a lucrative move up to the 175-pound division. Big if, of course, but hardly more far-fetched than what has taken place to now. David also knows he’s not even 24 years old, still a year or three from really entering his prime.

“I really want to see the Canelo fight,” Junior says of boxing’s top draw, a candidate for defining fighter of the post-Mayweather-Pacquiao era. “I guarantee he’ll beat the f--- out of him.”

David says, “I want them to mention me and Canelo, like they mention Manny and Floyd.”

As for Junior, David says, “I want to take care of him, too. I told him, if you ever need anything, just let me know.”

Junior: Renton, Wash., 2020

The first champion in the Benavidez family isn’t sleeping much these days. That’s due mostly to his daughter, born four months ago, the impetus behind extending his break from boxing. Junior had never really taken time off before, except after the shooting, when he came back in less than two years and even fought Terence Crawford, perhaps the top boxer alive, for the WBO welterweight belt. Senior advised against that matchup, saying Junior wasn’t fully recovered, and yet Junior acquitted himself well, going deep with the formidable champion, who scored a final-round KO.

Through all that, Junior understands, finally, what Senior told him. He is, after all, a parent.

Now, he says, “I’m going to be back. I will be world champion again.”

David simultaneously worries about Junior and believes in his comeback chances. Sometimes, he feels guilty. For two healthy legs. For two world titles. For all that’s still in front of him. He still wants both brothers to hold belts at the same time, making all three dreams reality. “The thing that sucks is he’ll never be the same,” David says. “I try and motivate him, but [the shooting] stuck with him. It was probably the people around him who did that. I don’t know. It just sucks. He has—what is it?—PTSD.”

Senior: Renton, Wash., July 2020

Despite the unfathomable adventure that led here, Senior would seem to have everything he ever wanted. At last. His oldest boy is a former world champion who survived two bullets and turned his life around. His youngest boy, also a world champion, still has countless opportunities in boxing, despite the drug suspension. By September, God willing, both boys will be parents, and Senior will be a grandfather twice over. His gym is open now, with plenty of customers and space carved out for his boys to train in pristine cleanliness so as to avoid COVID-19. Senior says that David’s fight against Angulo on Saturday isn’t the culmination of their life’s work, it’s closer to the beginning of what’s possible. Nobody is eating dirt.

Perfect, right?

But everything, as usual with the Benavidez boys, is not exactly as it seems. Unprompted, Senior begins detailing another fight outside the ring. Their fortunes have changed again, but he still seems to see disaster looming, always and forever. He worries that he and his sons are no longer aligned, that he's losing his influence as they grow older. “People are going through their heads, you know,” he says. “They want more. They gotta think about their own families. Sometimes, I wonder: do they care about me?”

The tenor of the conversation changes. It’s darker from then on. Would he do everything again? “Well, I’m broke,” he says. He pauses for so long it seems like he has stopped answering. But he eventually continues. “I don’t know, man. It’s so much sacrifice. At the end of the day, people say I’m a thief. Me!”

He cites the promotional companies that turned him down, the nights spent in those cars, the double cheeseburgers he watched his sons eat. He mentions the long list of boxers who lost millions in divorce courts, even their own belts. It’s like there’s what he knows he should say and what he wants to say and those notions are warring in his head. “Sometimes, it just hurts so much,” he says. “When you work so hard, and you don’t get a little bit of credit. Or they would prefer listening to other people.”

His eyes well with tears. “I just want a big f------ hug, you know,” he says. “I don’t need money. I’m here, with my little girl, training the boys, doing what I love doing. I want that hug. It’s more important than anything.”

Senior pulls back the curtain on the private training space. He points to a framed picture hanging from the wall. It’s him and his two boys, just children, and they’re posed inside the ring, smiles stretched wide across their faces. That picture means everything to him, perhaps even more than the belts. “See,” he says, “when they were little, before …” He trails off, the implication clear.

Read more of SI's Daily Covers stories here from Blogger https://ift.tt/2E0GVLN

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wordsbetweenthelines · 7 years

Text

hey there self

today was GRANDMA’S

waking up came entirely too early

you got a shower

dressed entirely in harry potter clothes including new whomping willow shirt and new owl socks

ate the last of the breakfast casserole

and off to grandma’s!

you got to play dj in the car and alternated between hamilton and emergency calming playlist

yummy chicken sandwich stuff and yummy macaroni salad and yummy pigs in blankets for lunch

and then the kids couldn’t wait any longer and tore into the presents, lol

you got a heated mattress pad, so you will be so cozy in bed.....as soon as you can work up the spoons to put it on

and you opened up one of henry’s toys for him, and you and dad did a pretty spectacular roleplay as the baby, if you do say so yourself (”hello I am henry and I am a baby who likes baby things like this toy right here thank you gg!” “okay now you have to finish with what henry would actually do” *SHOVES ENTIRE BOX IN MOUTH*)

and dad read out his twas the night before christmas fart joke rewrite and everyone laughed so hard honestly you’re surprised no one peed

oh! and dot and katie and todd went sledding which was delightful........to watch..........from inside :P

on the way home, mom and dad stopped at a friends’ house so you played with their dog, who is a Very Important Dog with a Very Important Job but she was off duty so you got to pet and snuggle and play with her and she is a wondrous delight

then canes for dinner, and you watched ncis the whole way home, ‘cause mom and dad were sportballing on the radio

at home, you fed the pets

and chatted with stream team

you are loving discord, as a means of being able to chat with whoever of stream team, regardless of actual stream, and also regardless of wifi

tomorrow

clothes

teeth

breakfast

litter box

put laundry away

put mattress pad on bed

help make dinner

midnight bubblebath???

#bad brains sabbatical

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ecoorganic · 4 years

Text

The Improbable Story of Boxing's David Benavidez and His Fighting Family

After all of that, he says his life became “a little bit more complicated.”

Senior: Mexico, 1970s

Senior: Phoenix, 1992

Senior placed his children into soccer and baseball and distance running and swimming, strengthening them in any way that he could find. But they appeared drawn to one sport above all others: boxing.

Senior: Phoenix, 1990s, early 2000s

David: Phoenix, 2000

David: Phoenix, 2008

At school, kids did what kids do. When David told others that he boxed, they pointed at his physique and cracked jokes. “Fat ass!” they taunted. “You don’t box!”

Senior: Los Angeles, 2009

Then, David called his dad one day. At age 13 and overweight, he wanted to move back in with them and return to boxing.

“If you do,” Senior told him, “you will become champion of the world.”

José Benavidez Sr. and his two sons

David: Los Angeles, 2010

“I tried to convince people,” Senior says now. “They would laugh in my face.”

Junior: Los Angeles, Phoenix, 2011–13

David: California, 2012

David: Mexico, 2013

The family dream shifted in that moment. Now, Senior and his boys all wanted the same thing: for both David and Junior to hold belts at the same time.

No one could have anticipated the wild, dubious, impossible sequence yet to come.

Junior: Phoenix, 2015

He always yelled the same thing at Junior. You’ll understand when you’re a parent!

David: U.S. Virgin Islands, 2015

A woman picked up Senior and David at the airport on a cloudless afternoon. “I hope your son doesn’t get hurt,” the woman said, highlighting the perceived danger in the matchup.

Jackson’s trainer called Sampson Lewkowicz, the boxing manager and promoter, and told him: You’re dumb if you don’t sign this guy.

“After that, his life changed,” Senior says of David. “I didn’t know he was that good. He was the ugly duckling. Nobody had believed in him but us.”

Junior: Phoenix, 2016

“Dude,” Junior told his assailant, “you a b----.”

Senior started to sink into a depression. His oldest had turned into his old self. He pointed the blame inward and thought: I created a monster.

That was only half of it.

David: Las Vegas, 2017

All their futures now hinged on him.

“I do this to make you happy,” he told his older brother after he won the title.

“Don’t,” Junior responded. “You’re going to have problems if you’re not happy with yourself.”

David: Las Vegas, 2018

Senior: Las Vegas, 2018

Story of my life, he says. Push, prod, inch higher. Ignore those who question motives. Make something from literally nothing. “And, then, boom,” Senior says. “Something happens.”

Senior, Junior and David: Renton, Wash., 2019

David: Renton, Wash., 2020

David says, “I want them to mention me and Canelo, like they mention Manny and Floyd.”

As for Junior, David says, “I want to take care of him, too. I told him, if you ever need anything, just let me know.”

Junior: Renton, Wash., 2020

Through all that, Junior understands, finally, what Senior told him. He is, after all, a parent.

Now, he says, “I’m going to be back. I will be world champion again.”

Senior: Renton, Wash., July 2020

Perfect, right?

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