11-09-2021, 04:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2021, 01:47 AM by Asked Madden. Edited 2 times in total.)
Probably not PG-13. Doesn’t really get messy, but read at your own discretion.
Playing their final days in Asia, both Leonardo and Raphael knew that their time wearing the same jersey might be coming to an end. Playing together since they were baby turtles at the tender age of 32, the brothers had more or less given up on trying to convince their two other brothers to join them in declaring for the DSFL draft. Michelangelo and Donatello were more focused on their academic pursuits for the time being.
With that said, Raph always felt a closer connection with Leo. The two were almost attached at the hip. They were always hanging out and there wasn’t one without the other. They played on the D line with an almost sixth sense, being able to work together to open up holes in the O Line that didn’t exist. They liked the same shows, same food and just generally hung out together at all waking hours.
So, when it was getting closer to the draft and scouts had begun reaching out there was a small air of sadness in Raphael’s soul. He figured that the chances of them being able to continue this awesome life was going to be broken up. He knew that Leo was being scouted quite heavily as an early pick, and he was going to be later, but with 8 teams in the DSFL the chances were pretty good that he was going to be destined elsewhere. A quick look at the draft class and rosters as well showed that it was a pretty defensive heavy class with a lot of Linemen, and he wondered if any teams would be willing to spend 2 of their top 3 picks on the d line.
There was a small upside to this though. Raph and Leo would be able to compete head to head on different teams, trying to stuff the other brother’s offense in a showdown. Maybe even get a playoff game where the best turtle would have a large impact on their teams prospects.
Resigning to the likely scenario Raph figured he might as well try. Each team who reached out to him got most of the same response. Honestly location didn’t matter much. Any team drafting a D Line would basically have room to play them, so he wasn’t worried about that, so if all other things were the same then he told the scouts or GMs that the only other thing was a potential to play with his brother Leo. If a team were to land both of them he would be over joyed to play, and they could rile each other up, pump up and push each other to be their best.
The cone of silence around the draft happened on the Monday evening prior to draft. Due to covid restrictions, and the fact that the DSFL has such a large international draw they actually draft in advance, and then put together a quick presentation on draft day. This allows the players to not have to sit through 5 hours of mostly dead air to find out where they are headed. It also means teams can do a bit of a production as they have time to prepare. The down draw to this is teams will usually cease scouting activities on players once a player has been drafted, so you can switch from a lot of engaging deep drilling questions such as “What is your opinion of pineapple on pizza?” to radio silence for days before finding out your destination.
Raph was grateful that he had Leo to burn off some steam with during this week. They chatted about the draft, about the teams and their impressions of them many times during the first 4 days of the week. Whether they were working out, or eating, or working out, or eating they would be chattering away about what teams impressed them, which ones didn’t leave much of one and possible scenarios.
The night of the Draft finally crept up on the Thursday and the brothers settled in front of the TV with a full pizza each. The first pick came on time and the draft commentators began their process of breaking down each pick. Well the turtles were not waiting very long. At pick number 4 Tijuana’s General Manager came into view and dropped an absolute party bomb: at number 4 overall Tijuana is taking Defensive End, Leonardo McTurtle!
The McTurtle brothers jumped up and screamed, dancing around their dorm, bumping shells, munching some ‘za. They calmed down, re wound to the pick announcement and listened for the breakdown. It sounded like there was some surprise as this was the first D Line pick, but anyone in the upper echelon of the war rooms seemed to know this was coming, and the Tijuana GM had only good things to say about Leo, they even had him around the team for a few weeks last season as he declared a few weeks earlier than Raph.
Instantly both brothers focused their attention on the screen as they caught up to the live feed that was a few picks further along. Defensive players seemed to be the hot commodity so far and they were flying off the board. Raphael had a good conversation with Tijuana and with his brother there he was honing in on their next pick. 2nd round seemed early for him, but it didn’t matter to him, he was going to do his best whenever he was picked up.
Round 1 ended, and the upcoming teams showed Tijuana at the bottom of the list. 9th pick gone. 10th away. 11th, Tijuana next. The green flashed up on the screen and the brothers didn’t even have to see the name, it was Raphael’s picture – they were going to stay united!
**************************************************************************************************
The rest of the week was filled with excitement and goodbyes. They were flying over to Tijuana early to try to get settled before camp. Luckily for Raph, Leo had some contacts from the previous season so they were able to leverage those to help them get settled. They got into a nice hotel, and the team even arranged for their very own tour guide, a local named Abril!
She showed Leo and Raph the Town. A lot of people spoke some English and they learned that they would be able to get by, but still having a local showing them the ropes was a huge help. They tried a few street vendors for some of the classics – Tacos and Churros and they were the best damn versions of each they had ever graced their stomachs with! Moving on they found a small bar off the road. Abril asked for 3 tequilas, and all 3 downed them. Then she asked for 2 more rounds, they drank the first down quickly, then sipped on the last one. She lead them down the stairs at the back to a basement with a shady looking bouncer.
After a few whispered and rushed words and what looked like a quick exchange of case, he stepped aside and let the three pass. Raph looked around in amazement. The tiny staircase had opened up into this sprawling big room. It looked state of the art, there was LED lighting everywhere, lounge couches, and a few platforms near the middle of the room. There were servers happy to wait on any of the guests, and many bars scattered throughout. Noticeably people were taking care to avoid the stages, walking around them with caution when Raphael spotted a donkey being led around the room. His eyes grew wide with shock as he realized what was about to come next as the creature was slowly being moved to the front. He smacked Leo on the shoulder to get his attention, when he saw and processed the same thing his jaw dropped.
Abril noticed what caught the attention of her guests and started laughing. “You guys want to see a show?” And she got out of their section and walked towards the closest stage.
The turtles were absolutely frozen in shock. They weren’t ready for this. It’s just a stereotype, right?
Abril went up to the man leading the donkey, and acquired a microphone from him. She turned it on, and the crowd quieted at the sound of the microphone was pumped throughout the room.
“Is there any man or woman with the courage to accept my challenge?”
Some murmuring was heard around the room.
“No one strong enough to take me?”
A behemoth of a man pushed his way through the crowd and slowly made his way to the stage, standing opposite of Abril. Without a word he turned to the crowd and began… stripping?
Once he was down to his underwear the turtles noticed that it was very flashy, bright neon blue and green.
Abril gave the mic back and in a flurry ripped off her outfit. Who knew tear away pants were still a thing? She was left standing in a Wonder Woman pose, a bright yellow unitard with red lightning bolts.
The two wrestlers took up positions at opposite ends. The man leading the donkey had apparently changed into a referee uniform and moved into the middle of the ring.
“Preparémonos para la fiesta”
The ref dropped his raised hand and like a blur the two came together. The turtles winced as they thought their guide Abril was about to get clobbered. After the two rolled over a few times on the ground and what seemed like minutes ticked away, Abril somehow had her leg wrapped around the behemoth’s throat, slowly closing off his air.
Thud, Thud, Thud. The meaty claw hit the floor, tapping in desperation. The ref gently pushed Abril in the side indicating that it was over, she was the victor. She instantly relaxed and released the behemoth’s neck, standing up and being celebrated by the crowd.
The ref went back to his donkey and pulled out a blue bottle. He handed it to Abril, and she grinned, triumphantly as she popped the cork and drank down a few gulps. The crowd roared, and people got up and started heading to the stages in the center of the room to sign their names up for a fight that night.
Abril weaved her way through the crowd, stopping at several tables before making it back to theirs. The turtles were both still sitting there dumbfounded. She laughed and said “What were you expecting?” as she held the bottle out.
“Definitely not that!” Raphael exclaimed as he grabbed the bottle and filled up some glasses.
Leonardo chimed in “Here’s to drinking the good stuff, to our new bodyguard apparently, and never pissing off Abril”
They laughed and chatted the next few hours, sharing stories, meeting people that Abril deemed they should, making all the connections one needs to make to truly succeed in Tijuana. Once the last sips were had out of the bottle Abril looked pointedly at them “well fellas, looks like we’re empty. Who’s getting us a refill?”
Understanding what she was getting to the McTurtles looked at each other, nodded, and pulled out their bandanas. Red for Raph, Blue for Leo, and tied them around their heads. They tipsy – walked to the close stage and put their names down.
The lights shone bright over their heads and a ref came up. Talking to each of them in Spanish that neither had the current mental capacity to attempt decoding, they nodded along and before they knew it they were squared off.
Fists met faces, kicks met torsos, shells met shells. It was a slugfest. The large turtles were trading blow for blow until they fell over, collapsing in exhaustion. With both turtles stuck on their backs, unable to flip themselves over the ref finally called the brutal match. He rolled over both turtles, gathered them in center stage and held their hands up, looking towards their table. Abril pointed at Leo, the ref dropped Raph’s arm and the crowd cheered.
Raphael made his way back to the table, dejected and asked Abril why did she think Leo won the fight.
“It was punch for punch, but I just think he looked cuter”
“Well that’s the best way to lose if you gotta lose”
Leo showed up a few minutes later with a full blue bottle and set it down on the middle of the table. Following behind him were 4 waiters, each carrying a platter of various bar foods. It had everything from tacos, to wings, dry ribs, pizzas, and even more tacos. Both turtles had worked up a healthy appetite in the fight, and Abril was even able to steal a few tacos and some wings away from their snappy mouths.
Bruised and bloodied the turtles talked, laughed and drank the night away. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon to the east when the three amigos made their way up the stairs and out of the bar. The city was quiet and peaceful, not much was stirring at this early hour. Abril looked at Leo, then to Raph and asked the turtles a question:
"Are you guys ready to head back to the hotel now, or can I have one more surprise?"
The turtles exchanged a look. They were tired, but starting to hit their third wind. "Let's go, we are yours for the rest of the night" Raph said with Leo nodding his head enthusiastically along.
"Great, then follow me, it's a quick walk" Abril exclaimed very excited.
The turtles followed along, Abril was weaving in between buildings and alleyways for a few blocks until one alley spat them out in a quiet neighbourhood. Looking around there was no sign of Abril at all, just as Leo was making a full sweep of their view the driver side window of a car parked across the street rolled down.
"Come on, we don't have all night. Climb in!"
The brothers looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and fist bumped.
Climbing in the back to leave the front open for Leo, Raph closed his eyes for a quick relaxing moment.
"wakey wakey sleepyheads. You're going to miss the show!"
Rousing from his sleep Raphael saw Leonardo had fallen asleep as well. Taking a moment to look around and gather his thoughts, he saw that they were parked on a beach. Abril had wandered off a little bit down the beach to a pop up bar.
Once the brothers were out of the car they saw there was a big blanket set up on the sand. Abril was almost back to them carrying 3 coconuts. She handed one to each of the brothers and kept one herself. Reaching into the car she pulled out a small bottle of rum and popped it open, pouring a bit into her coconut.
They are Pina Coladas. It'll help get something in your stomach, and they are the best ones you will ever experience in your lives! The three cheered one last time, grabbed some blanket and sat down looking east, watching the sun rise over the hills and the city, bathing their new home in warm rays of happiness.
Their new lives in Tijuana was off to a hot start, and there is sure to be many more tales of their heroics to come.
2557 Words
Playing their final days in Asia, both Leonardo and Raphael knew that their time wearing the same jersey might be coming to an end. Playing together since they were baby turtles at the tender age of 32, the brothers had more or less given up on trying to convince their two other brothers to join them in declaring for the DSFL draft. Michelangelo and Donatello were more focused on their academic pursuits for the time being.
With that said, Raph always felt a closer connection with Leo. The two were almost attached at the hip. They were always hanging out and there wasn’t one without the other. They played on the D line with an almost sixth sense, being able to work together to open up holes in the O Line that didn’t exist. They liked the same shows, same food and just generally hung out together at all waking hours.
So, when it was getting closer to the draft and scouts had begun reaching out there was a small air of sadness in Raphael’s soul. He figured that the chances of them being able to continue this awesome life was going to be broken up. He knew that Leo was being scouted quite heavily as an early pick, and he was going to be later, but with 8 teams in the DSFL the chances were pretty good that he was going to be destined elsewhere. A quick look at the draft class and rosters as well showed that it was a pretty defensive heavy class with a lot of Linemen, and he wondered if any teams would be willing to spend 2 of their top 3 picks on the d line.
There was a small upside to this though. Raph and Leo would be able to compete head to head on different teams, trying to stuff the other brother’s offense in a showdown. Maybe even get a playoff game where the best turtle would have a large impact on their teams prospects.
Resigning to the likely scenario Raph figured he might as well try. Each team who reached out to him got most of the same response. Honestly location didn’t matter much. Any team drafting a D Line would basically have room to play them, so he wasn’t worried about that, so if all other things were the same then he told the scouts or GMs that the only other thing was a potential to play with his brother Leo. If a team were to land both of them he would be over joyed to play, and they could rile each other up, pump up and push each other to be their best.
The cone of silence around the draft happened on the Monday evening prior to draft. Due to covid restrictions, and the fact that the DSFL has such a large international draw they actually draft in advance, and then put together a quick presentation on draft day. This allows the players to not have to sit through 5 hours of mostly dead air to find out where they are headed. It also means teams can do a bit of a production as they have time to prepare. The down draw to this is teams will usually cease scouting activities on players once a player has been drafted, so you can switch from a lot of engaging deep drilling questions such as “What is your opinion of pineapple on pizza?” to radio silence for days before finding out your destination.
Raph was grateful that he had Leo to burn off some steam with during this week. They chatted about the draft, about the teams and their impressions of them many times during the first 4 days of the week. Whether they were working out, or eating, or working out, or eating they would be chattering away about what teams impressed them, which ones didn’t leave much of one and possible scenarios.
The night of the Draft finally crept up on the Thursday and the brothers settled in front of the TV with a full pizza each. The first pick came on time and the draft commentators began their process of breaking down each pick. Well the turtles were not waiting very long. At pick number 4 Tijuana’s General Manager came into view and dropped an absolute party bomb: at number 4 overall Tijuana is taking Defensive End, Leonardo McTurtle!
The McTurtle brothers jumped up and screamed, dancing around their dorm, bumping shells, munching some ‘za. They calmed down, re wound to the pick announcement and listened for the breakdown. It sounded like there was some surprise as this was the first D Line pick, but anyone in the upper echelon of the war rooms seemed to know this was coming, and the Tijuana GM had only good things to say about Leo, they even had him around the team for a few weeks last season as he declared a few weeks earlier than Raph.
Instantly both brothers focused their attention on the screen as they caught up to the live feed that was a few picks further along. Defensive players seemed to be the hot commodity so far and they were flying off the board. Raphael had a good conversation with Tijuana and with his brother there he was honing in on their next pick. 2nd round seemed early for him, but it didn’t matter to him, he was going to do his best whenever he was picked up.
Round 1 ended, and the upcoming teams showed Tijuana at the bottom of the list. 9th pick gone. 10th away. 11th, Tijuana next. The green flashed up on the screen and the brothers didn’t even have to see the name, it was Raphael’s picture – they were going to stay united!
**************************************************************************************************
The rest of the week was filled with excitement and goodbyes. They were flying over to Tijuana early to try to get settled before camp. Luckily for Raph, Leo had some contacts from the previous season so they were able to leverage those to help them get settled. They got into a nice hotel, and the team even arranged for their very own tour guide, a local named Abril!
She showed Leo and Raph the Town. A lot of people spoke some English and they learned that they would be able to get by, but still having a local showing them the ropes was a huge help. They tried a few street vendors for some of the classics – Tacos and Churros and they were the best damn versions of each they had ever graced their stomachs with! Moving on they found a small bar off the road. Abril asked for 3 tequilas, and all 3 downed them. Then she asked for 2 more rounds, they drank the first down quickly, then sipped on the last one. She lead them down the stairs at the back to a basement with a shady looking bouncer.
After a few whispered and rushed words and what looked like a quick exchange of case, he stepped aside and let the three pass. Raph looked around in amazement. The tiny staircase had opened up into this sprawling big room. It looked state of the art, there was LED lighting everywhere, lounge couches, and a few platforms near the middle of the room. There were servers happy to wait on any of the guests, and many bars scattered throughout. Noticeably people were taking care to avoid the stages, walking around them with caution when Raphael spotted a donkey being led around the room. His eyes grew wide with shock as he realized what was about to come next as the creature was slowly being moved to the front. He smacked Leo on the shoulder to get his attention, when he saw and processed the same thing his jaw dropped.
Abril noticed what caught the attention of her guests and started laughing. “You guys want to see a show?” And she got out of their section and walked towards the closest stage.
The turtles were absolutely frozen in shock. They weren’t ready for this. It’s just a stereotype, right?
Abril went up to the man leading the donkey, and acquired a microphone from him. She turned it on, and the crowd quieted at the sound of the microphone was pumped throughout the room.
“Is there any man or woman with the courage to accept my challenge?”
Some murmuring was heard around the room.
“No one strong enough to take me?”
A behemoth of a man pushed his way through the crowd and slowly made his way to the stage, standing opposite of Abril. Without a word he turned to the crowd and began… stripping?
Once he was down to his underwear the turtles noticed that it was very flashy, bright neon blue and green.
Abril gave the mic back and in a flurry ripped off her outfit. Who knew tear away pants were still a thing? She was left standing in a Wonder Woman pose, a bright yellow unitard with red lightning bolts.
The two wrestlers took up positions at opposite ends. The man leading the donkey had apparently changed into a referee uniform and moved into the middle of the ring.
“Preparémonos para la fiesta”
The ref dropped his raised hand and like a blur the two came together. The turtles winced as they thought their guide Abril was about to get clobbered. After the two rolled over a few times on the ground and what seemed like minutes ticked away, Abril somehow had her leg wrapped around the behemoth’s throat, slowly closing off his air.
Thud, Thud, Thud. The meaty claw hit the floor, tapping in desperation. The ref gently pushed Abril in the side indicating that it was over, she was the victor. She instantly relaxed and released the behemoth’s neck, standing up and being celebrated by the crowd.
The ref went back to his donkey and pulled out a blue bottle. He handed it to Abril, and she grinned, triumphantly as she popped the cork and drank down a few gulps. The crowd roared, and people got up and started heading to the stages in the center of the room to sign their names up for a fight that night.
Abril weaved her way through the crowd, stopping at several tables before making it back to theirs. The turtles were both still sitting there dumbfounded. She laughed and said “What were you expecting?” as she held the bottle out.
“Definitely not that!” Raphael exclaimed as he grabbed the bottle and filled up some glasses.
Leonardo chimed in “Here’s to drinking the good stuff, to our new bodyguard apparently, and never pissing off Abril”
They laughed and chatted the next few hours, sharing stories, meeting people that Abril deemed they should, making all the connections one needs to make to truly succeed in Tijuana. Once the last sips were had out of the bottle Abril looked pointedly at them “well fellas, looks like we’re empty. Who’s getting us a refill?”
Understanding what she was getting to the McTurtles looked at each other, nodded, and pulled out their bandanas. Red for Raph, Blue for Leo, and tied them around their heads. They tipsy – walked to the close stage and put their names down.
The lights shone bright over their heads and a ref came up. Talking to each of them in Spanish that neither had the current mental capacity to attempt decoding, they nodded along and before they knew it they were squared off.
Fists met faces, kicks met torsos, shells met shells. It was a slugfest. The large turtles were trading blow for blow until they fell over, collapsing in exhaustion. With both turtles stuck on their backs, unable to flip themselves over the ref finally called the brutal match. He rolled over both turtles, gathered them in center stage and held their hands up, looking towards their table. Abril pointed at Leo, the ref dropped Raph’s arm and the crowd cheered.
Raphael made his way back to the table, dejected and asked Abril why did she think Leo won the fight.
“It was punch for punch, but I just think he looked cuter”
“Well that’s the best way to lose if you gotta lose”
Leo showed up a few minutes later with a full blue bottle and set it down on the middle of the table. Following behind him were 4 waiters, each carrying a platter of various bar foods. It had everything from tacos, to wings, dry ribs, pizzas, and even more tacos. Both turtles had worked up a healthy appetite in the fight, and Abril was even able to steal a few tacos and some wings away from their snappy mouths.
Bruised and bloodied the turtles talked, laughed and drank the night away. The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon to the east when the three amigos made their way up the stairs and out of the bar. The city was quiet and peaceful, not much was stirring at this early hour. Abril looked at Leo, then to Raph and asked the turtles a question:
"Are you guys ready to head back to the hotel now, or can I have one more surprise?"
The turtles exchanged a look. They were tired, but starting to hit their third wind. "Let's go, we are yours for the rest of the night" Raph said with Leo nodding his head enthusiastically along.
"Great, then follow me, it's a quick walk" Abril exclaimed very excited.
The turtles followed along, Abril was weaving in between buildings and alleyways for a few blocks until one alley spat them out in a quiet neighbourhood. Looking around there was no sign of Abril at all, just as Leo was making a full sweep of their view the driver side window of a car parked across the street rolled down.
"Come on, we don't have all night. Climb in!"
The brothers looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and fist bumped.
Climbing in the back to leave the front open for Leo, Raph closed his eyes for a quick relaxing moment.
"wakey wakey sleepyheads. You're going to miss the show!"
Rousing from his sleep Raphael saw Leonardo had fallen asleep as well. Taking a moment to look around and gather his thoughts, he saw that they were parked on a beach. Abril had wandered off a little bit down the beach to a pop up bar.
Once the brothers were out of the car they saw there was a big blanket set up on the sand. Abril was almost back to them carrying 3 coconuts. She handed one to each of the brothers and kept one herself. Reaching into the car she pulled out a small bottle of rum and popped it open, pouring a bit into her coconut.
They are Pina Coladas. It'll help get something in your stomach, and they are the best ones you will ever experience in your lives! The three cheered one last time, grabbed some blanket and sat down looking east, watching the sun rise over the hills and the city, bathing their new home in warm rays of happiness.
Their new lives in Tijuana was off to a hot start, and there is sure to be many more tales of their heroics to come.
2557 Words