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deliverydefresas · 7 years

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masters of the scene

This has been on my drafts since June yet I’m only writing (and posting it ofc) now. The idea came out in the middle of the night, and somehow I managed to wake up and tell Pau before it erased from my mind completely.

Shout out to cupcake and my baked goods bc without them I’ll probs would’ve have never managed to do it, and probs would never written it lol

It’s an au i think you’d like so I really hope you do <3

AU: Matteo Balsano is a famous singer who has been crushing on this one girl he saw every day behind a window many years ago, back when he first started recording his debut album and inspired his first big hit, “Princesa”. Luna Valente, professional Olympic skater turned actress is at a local (and very popular) talk show to promote her breakout movie. This is where it all starts.

ITALIAN POP PRINCE OFF THE MARKET?

RUMOR HAS IT MATTEO BALSANO, ARGENTINA’S FAVORITE ITALIAN BOY HAS FOUND HIMSELF A NEW GIRLFRIEND. SEEN LAST NIGHT AT A POPULAR CLUB IN BUENOS AIRES, WITNESSES AFFIRM STRANGER’S SINGER WAS ACCOMPANIED BY A ‘BEAUTIFUL BLACK-HAIRED BEAUTY’ AND THE COUPLE COULDN’T KEEP THEIR HANDS OFF EACH OTHER.

IS THIS THE END OF HIS PLAYBOY ERA? READ MORE ON PAGE 26!

“Why do you even bother reading that bullshit, bro?”

“It’s amusing how they’re so sure you’re dating your cousin.” His best friend told him, sipping on his coffee while flipping over the pages of the tween magazine that had been delivered that morning on his doorstep.

He groaned, disgusted. “It’s not amusing, it’s fucking gross.”

“If you had let me clarify since day one who Flor was to you, this wouldn’t be happening.” Gastón reminded him, taking another small sip of his cup. He resumed his reading once he found the page with that article; “hey look, they say her name is Clara and that you’ve been dating for over two months; ‘a whole new record for our Italian Casanova Balsano!’” Matteo flipped him off.

“First of all, ‘day one’ would mean you were my lawyer at 19, without even finishing one year in Law School, you dumbass. And second, it was you who gave me the idea of protecting Flor’s privacy.”

“I was very smart at 19, thank you very much.” Gastón threw the magazine at him, which he dodged easily and got into the kitchen and prepare himself an espresso, but smiled fondly at his friend anyway.

It was hard to believe so much time had passed since he was discovered in that small bar years ago, when all he had left were his songs, his guitar, and the support of his best friend for over fifteen years. Going against his father’s wish of a diplomatic future for him hadn’t been easy, especially when you’re an eighteen-year-old boy with no working experience or a survival plan. Having had his parents’ back his whole life, the abrupt change of living alone and financially supporting himself was a challenge he hadn’t foreseen for at least another four years; but it had been an experience so groundbreaking, and so eye-opening that he wouldn’t dare to have it any other way, at all. Gastón had helping him a lot by letting him crash in his room multiple times, as well as approving and correcting his songwriting before he even presented it to a crowd.

His way of repaying had been hiring him as his lawyer as soon as he was out of law school, even if it went against his management’s ideals. Matteo would rather have someone he trusted 100% and minded his interests first, than a stranger whose decisions would favor anyone but him. Call him stupid, or naïve, but he had blind faith in Gastón, and knew it had been for the best. His friend hadn’t been first in his class for nothing. (He did like to joke it had been because of his pretty face and good hair, though).

"At least now they'll drop that 'Mambar' crap, since I'm 'off the market' and whatnot."

"I don't know, bro;" Gastón laughed, "they're capable of saying you're cheating on Flor with your ex."

Matteo groaned again when he realized Périda was right. Dating Ámbar back in the day had been proved to be a mistake, even when they'd never confirmed their relationship to the media (or anyone outside their circle of friends); because the rumor hill and theories didn't disappear to this day. Gastón liked to joke that he could get married and have ten kids, and even then Ámbar would get mentioned as the mistress at least once. It certainly didn't help that he shared management with her, since they always made sure they were photographed at any event they happened to be at the same time. They were lucky they didn't hate each other or were dating anyone else yet, because it'd make everything more annoying.

"She still in town?" Gastón passed him his cup, and he dropped it in the sink for them to clean later. He nodded.

"Yeah, she's got a promo interview for her movie with Jazmín tonight, then she leaves for promo tour past-tomorrow morning. She invited us to the show, by the way."

His friend arched his brows, questioning, "to Ja Jazmín? She's not trying to set me up with Delfi again, is she?"

Matteo smirked, "how did you know?" He laughed when his friend's face turned white, "don't worry, stud, I heard she's seeing Pedro now; you lost your chance with her. Ámbar just said she wanted to say her goodbye's since they're leaving right after the premiere tomorrow night, and will be out of the country for a month and a half."

"That's never stopped her from disappearing before without telling you, though. Not even when you dated." The italian shrugged. It wouldn't be the first time Ámbar planned something for her convenience without explaining it to him first; and he trusted her enough to be sure it wouldn't put him in a bad place to the public. She could be a mean bitch, but she wasn't one to hit that low.

"Beats me. Maybe she just wants more promo, since the RB guys will be there, too."

"Her name isn't enough, now?" Gastón joked, grabbing his portfolio from the couch, arranging his tie with his free hand. It was almost nine, and he didn't doubt his friend was late already. Frankly, he didn't even need to work at his dad's firm, since he paid him more than enough to be his only client; but his best friend wouldn't dare to leave his family's business to a stranger once his dad retired.

Matteo shook his head, "more like, her name's the only recognizable one. The protagonist and her co-protagonists are all professional skaters; Ámbar's the only professional actress turned skater for the film."

Gastón whistled lowly, "blondie really knows how to pick challenges, doesn't she."

"She did date me, y'know."

"Sure thing, casanova. I'm leaving now, don't miss me too much, darling." Jokingly, he blew him a kiss, which his friend caught in the air and, with a wink, left him to go to work - already late.

Since he'd finished his latest tour a month ago, and was procrastinating songwriting, Matteo decided he'd spend the morning sleeping. He'd order pizza in the afternoon, maybe sleep some more and then shower so Gastón and he could leave some time after dinner.

For now, though, his bed was calling to him.

“Luna, we’re on in twenty.”

She nodded, smiling as nicely as she could with her nerves doing flip backs in her belly. Ámbar had reassured her Jazmín was nothing but nice, but there was a little voice in the back of her head that was screaming with excitement. She was not only going to be in national TV, but also in one of the most popular (if not the most popular) talk shows in the last decade. Ja Jazmín was it when you wanted your name to be out there. Her background wasn’t in the film industry by any means, but she knew very well what this opportunity meant for her and her career.

Even if she didn’t plan to leave skating like, ever, her dream was opening her own rink and teaching people her passion, and she was working very hard to achieve the recognition she needed to make it happen one day.

Her parents laughed that with two Olympic Medals in her bag, she still chose to go out of her comfort zone and pursue an acting career; but how could she not, when the Marissa Mint, the three times gold medalist asked her personally to play her in her autobiographical movie? Her idol, the one person she had looked up to in her professional life, asked her to play her, a legend in the skating community. Luna couldn’t say yes fast enough.

And so it began; after winning her first gold in the 2020 Olympics, she took a break to start her new career move. She spent a whole year with Juliana (as she had asked to be called), learning and practicing all the moves, steps and choreographies that had made her what she was to date; the best female skater known. And even then, she still didn’t feel like one year had been enough to learn everything she had to offer, but rehearsals and filming schedules were approaching, and her one-on-one had to end.

Soon she was joined by Ramiro Ponce, a silver-medalist male skater that was to play her love interest; Jim Medina, bronze medalist that had been only decimals away from silver, and a close friend she’d made since they were both in the 2016 Olympics, and who played one of her team mates. Then there was the only professional actress turned skater in the movie, Argentina’s princess, Ámbar Smith. Luna had to admit she’d been intimidated by her in the beginning, her icy attitude and proud personality made her a little hard to get to know her, but the girl took a challenge and surpassed it. By the end of her training, if Luna hadn’t known she had never skated before in her life, she wouldn’t have guessed it. After all, she had had to learn how to skate Olympic-worthy, not just professionally. She played the rival’s team’s captain, and she was splendid. Luna admired her a lot for that, since Olympic skating was very hard to achieve after just one year of training.

Once group training started, the small group formed a nice relationship. She could say, honestly, that these people were her friends and she appreciated them a lot.

A year later, months after filming had ended, it was time to start promoting the movie all around the world, sharing with the public what Luna liked to call ‘a new side of a legend’, since the movie itself wasn’t just skating, but also the aftermath of one of the most heartbreaking falls in sport’s community.

“Earth to Luna?” her best friend’s sweet voice called, gaining Luna’s attention to the real world again.

“Is it time already, Nina?” She asked, shaking her hands, wishing it were that easy to calm herself and get rid of her nerves. Her friend smiled, but shook her head in negative.

“Jazmín’s team came to say Ámbar wanted to introduce you to some of her friends before the show started, since they’re making a brief appearance to show you and the movie support.”

“Her friends?” She repeated, trying to remember if the blonde girl had told her about it before. Her mind answered with silence. She knew Ámbar had asked her to invite the Rollerband, since Simón was her best friend and she knew it, but beside that, Ámbar hadn’t spoken about inviting more famous people with her.

Nina shrugged, “I heard she invited Matteo Balsano and Delfina Alzamendi, but you already know Delfi. Maybe Matteo invited someone else, too?”

“She knows Matteo Balsano?”

Nina laughed, most likely at her lack of knowledge in popular culture. “He sang with her in that musical years ago, ‘Prófugos’, I think.”

“Oh, the one where she played an Asylum escapee, right?” Nina nodded, extending her hand to help her stand up from her chair, “I didn’t know Matteo starred there, too.”

“He didn’t, he just sang the promotional song with her.”

Luna nodded, flattening the skirt of her dress while she stood up, stumbling a little thanks to the height of her heels. She loved Yam to death, but her choosing on heels could be her death. Besides, she wasn’t that little, she really didn’t need that much additional height.

“Well, my dear Watson, shall we go meet Princess’s friends?”

“We shall, my dear Sherlock.”

“You finish my cupcakes and I swear to anything you find holy, Balsano, your balls will be decorations for my car’s mirror.”

Matteo gulped his last bite of a strawberry cupcake, not out of fear but because if he didn’t, he’d probably choke on laughter. Gastón, sitting beside him, wasn’t as thoughtful and choked on his chocolate cupcake.

“You say the most endearing things to me, Ámbar. Why did I let you go, again?”

“I let you go.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to.”

His friend scoffed from her make up chair, “I didn’t invite you to eat my food, you ass.” Matteo rolled his eyes, grabbing another cupcake from the food table, and licked the top of the icing.

“Then why did you? We both know it’s not because you’re leaving after tomorrow, as I’m going to the premiere tomorrow.”

Ámbar smirked, turning away from the mirror to look at him, “I have a surprise for you.”

He was immediately suspicious, “it’s not another song about mirrors, is it?” Her smirk turned into a scowl.

“You know what? I changed my mind. You can choke on that cupcake and die, Matteo Bastardo.”

Gastón, who had finished choking by now, gave her a thumbs-up. “Nice one, blondie.”

“Eh, I give it a seven. Not very original.” A voice called from the door, taking them by surprise. Jazmín winked at them, leaving the door open as she walked into the dressing room. She kissed everyone on the cheek as a greeting before she spoke again, “why do we want Balsanito to die?”

“Isn’t existing a good enough one?” Ámbar said, gaining Matteo’s middle finger in response.

“Is this the way you greet your hostess? I came here to greet you, and this is what I get. Shame on you, I should just say a monologue on how much you suck.” Jazmín joked, and put her hands on her hips in mockery. Her words, of course, fell on deaf ears.

Matteo was about to respond when a knock on the door interrupted them. The first one to turn was Ámbar, and when she saw who it was, smirked again in his direction.

“Surprise.” She mouthed at him, standing up. Matteo frowned, confused as he wasn’t sure what she was talking about; then, he turned to look over where she was looking, too.

He froze.

In a couple seconds, he was taken back to six years ago, outside a recording studio; watching her smile, laugh, beaming at a person who wasn’t him.

“It’s you.” An affirmation in a mere whisper. Green eyes blinked at him once, twice, confused.

“I beg your pardon?” A question in a polite, yet stunned squeak.

Matteo could barely make out Jazmín’s amused call.

“Well, well, well… Isn’t this interesting?”

#soy luna #lutteo #luna valente #matteo balsano #my lutteo ff #my sl ff #mine #well arent i on a roll with these famous au lmao #not proofread bc well gotta be messy ot go home

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junker-town · 7 years

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The Mexico City Marathon and 6 more tales of cheating throughout running history

The history of marathon cheating involves porta-pottys, doppelgangers, strychnine, and A LOT of incompetence.

During the 2017 Mexico City Marathon, more than 5,800 runners (and counting!) were disqualified out of 28,206 participants. That’s more than 20 percent of the field at one of the world’s biggest races, thrown out for a silly array of infractions ranging from course-cutting to hiring professional runners to compete as other people.

This may be one of the bigger (biggest?) example of cheating in the history of marathons, but it is faaaaaar from the first, or the most egregious. Turns out, the sport is rife with scofflaws going back centuries.

Why people go to such extreme lengths to cheat marathons, I have no idea. Unless you’re an elite runner, you have to pay to enter, and you know how long the course is. No one’s pulling the wool over your eyes. Not running is much, MUCH easier than signing up, cheating, then getting caught. It’s not like cheating in cycling — at least those people have staked their livelihoods on winning.

While we may never understand them, thank goodness these people exist, because their failures are hilarious.

2017: The Mexico City Marathon might as well have not taken place

There’s corruption, and then there’s whatever the hell happened in Mexico City. Among the near-6,000 people who were thrown out of the race, 1,296 posted times that would have qualified them for the ultra-prestigious Boston Marathon, according to Runner’s World.

Derek Murphy at the website Marathon Investigation (who SB Nation profiled in March) has been all over the case and discovered that thousands likely jumped onto the 26.2-mile course late in the race, or worse. One facebook page has been collecting evidence, including photos of people wearing marathon bibs riding the subway. One man appeared to wear two bibs during the marathon, one of which belonged to a woman named “Maria,” who posted a Boston-qualifying time.

Via Marathon Investigation

I encourage you to read all of Murphy’s work on the Mexico City because hoo boy it’s a doozy. It’s hard to tell exactly how many of the gross discrepancies are actually examples of cheating. Murphy seems to be so flabbergasted by the extent of the disqualifications that he’s almost hoping there was some kind of technical error.

"I'm not going to say all 5,800 runners—or anyone that missed a mat—cheated," Murphy told Runner’s World. "It's a bigger number than I've ever seen. It's kind of baffling to find this much error."

1999: Man hides twin brother in a porta-potty to dominate an ultramarathon

Ultramarathons are one of the most maniacal endurance on Earth. The Comrades Marathon in South Africa is one of the oldest and most famous. It also comes with relatively lucrative cash prizes, incentivizing tomfoolery like Sergio Motsoeneng’s gambit to earn in a top 10 finish.

During the race, in the time that elapsed between the first and second photos being taken, Sergio had apparently switched his watch from his left wrist to his right wrist and inexplicably grown a scar on his left shin. When the photos came to light, Bester, the scorned 15th place finisher, knew that something was up.

As it turns out, the competitor Sergio Motsoeneng was not one, but two people. Forty-five minutes into the race, Sergio ducked into a porta-potty. Inside, his identical brother, Fika, was waiting.

I’m surprised that we don’t hear about more runners doing The Prestige routine. Perhaps it occurs more often than we think and everyone else is smart enough to make sure their watches are on the same wrist.

1980: Woman rides the subway to win Boston Marathon

You see it all the time in heist movies: The accomplished thieves make a tidy living pulling off small-scale jobs, then get into trouble when they bite off more than they can chew. That was Rosie Ruiz’s problem.

Rosie Ruiz would have been the 3rd fastest woman to win a marathon on this day in 1980... if she hadn't faked it: https://t.co/snvv9CcELY http://pic.twitter.com/MRNlnlUyRc

— Mass Humanities (@MassHumanities) April 21, 2017

If Ruiz hadn’t shot for the stars — say, only tried to come in top-20 instead of win the whole darn thing — perhaps no one would have noticed that she had taken a subway until roughly the half-mile-to-go mark. She collapsed into the arms of police officers at the line to sell her the fake, but was stripped of her title eight days later after spectators found it suspicious that she wasn’t sweating much at the line. And that she couldn’t remember what happened during the race. And that the second- and third-place finishers couldn’t recall ever seeing her pass. And also she somehow didn’t appear in any photos and video footage of the race. And people spotted her bursting out of the crowd at Commonwealth Avenue.

Ruiz did a really bad job of cheating, is what I’m saying.

2010: Chinese students just pay other people to run

Seriously, if you’re going to cheat anyway, why run at all? At the Xiamen International Marathon in 2010, at least 30 runners were disqualified, many of them for paying faster impostors to take their place. There was good reason in many cases, however:

If they run a marathon in good time, students can earn extra points for the "'gaokao", the entrance examination for China's highly competitive universities that some children and their parents will go to huge lengths to shine in. ...

Scoring well on the university entrance exam has spawned all sorts of high-tech cheating methods, which saw 40 people detained last year.

In one case in the northern province of Shanxi, six people - including one teacher - were detained for allegedly selling receivers to students so they could be fed the correct answers during the tests.

1904: The St. Louis Olympic Marathon is all sorts of messed up

The long version:

youtube

The short version:

The “winner” of the race, Fred Lorz, actually dropped out of the race nine miles in, was picked up in a car by his manager, then ran the final seven miles of the race after the car broke down. He had his picture taken with Teddy Roosevelt and was about to be awarded the gold medal when the then-second place finisher, eventual winner Thomas Hicks, ran into the stadium, near-dead from the stychnine he had been fed during the race as a stimulant.

The whole race was about as weird as any international competition can be. It also featured feral dogs, two other near-death experiences, and raw eggs. I can’t recommend the video up above enough.

2009: Reality star rides along with camera crew

Sometimes multiple parties are invested in your finishing in a certain time frame. That was the case of Dane Patterson, who set a weight-loss record on ‘The Biggest Loser.’ He got a three-mile ride in an NBC van so that the crew could take a photo of him finishing an Arizona marathon before the six-hour cutoff time.

“When I got to the marathon, I understood that after six hours, the marathon was going to be close,” he told Roker. “At mile 17, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make it in that time. The producer wanted that shot of me going through the finish line, so that decision was made.”

Patterson insisted he never intended to cheat or deceive anyone. “I went back after the filming was done and ran those three miles, because I was planning on running the entire marathon and that’s what I did,” he told Roker.

490 BC: Pheidippides runs 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce Greece’s victory in battle over Persia, then collapses dead

The Greek hero on which the Marathon is based actually ran roughly a mile less than the 26.2 miles for an official marathon established by the International Amateur Athletic Federation in the early 20th century.

Pheidippides is a fraud and literal human garbage.

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