#shqaskmemes

[shockwavespeedster]

🍜 - Someone who’s A Great Cook (bonus if you describe the dish)

Nadia and Montay Costa

His childhood neighbors, Ben got to experience traditional Italian foods, as Nadia loved making homemade dishes for he family, something her third oldest and second son inherited. 

Nadia’s mushroom risotto was her staple dish. Even kids who didn’t like mushrooms loved the dish, as it just tasted that good without having the mushroom texture a lot of people don’t like. She only ever used fresh ingredients that she made from scratch, no premade spices or sauces. 

Similarly, despite it being a simple dish, Montay’s spaghetti Bolognese has made it impossible for Ben to ever eat normal spaghetti ever again. Montay would make the sauce himself from scratch, which he now serves at a local restaurant back at Ben’s hometown.

They also made other excellent Italian dishes, their various desserts being Ben’s favourites. 

[speedstersdad]

📪 - A Neighbor

The Costa Family

The Costas consisted of the father Guglielmo (Gulli), the mother Nadia, and their four children, Emilia, Massimo, Montay and Seraphina, in that order. They moved in a few weeks before Ben was born, and became good friend with Richard and Beatrice. 

After Beatrice died and Ben was born, Richard was working to the bone to pay off debt and provide for Ben, barely able to afford babysitting. Thankfully, Nadia and Gulli stepped up, and babysat Ben whenever Richard needed it. Due to this, their youngest, Seraphina, and Ben became best friends.

In return, Richard helped the Costas adapt to America. While they spoke very good English, they still struggled with official documents, so he helped out with those sort of things best he could and helped integrate them with the locals. Due to this, the two families spent a lot of time together.

Richard is still very close with the family to this day, even being the godfather of the Costa’s first grandchild, Emilia’s son Sergio. When he was moving to New York, Seraphina, Massimo and Montay helped him out. While neither Nadia nor Gulli really use anything other than emails or letters to keep in touch with friends, being a big old fashioned, Richard has an active dialogue with the three eldest children, while Seraphina has left the country. 

[shockwavespeedster]

👻 - Someone They Don’t See Often

Shockwave’s Closest Childhood Friend

Ben’s oldest friend was a tomboy named Seraphina Costa, nicknamed Sephy. Her family were neighbors and moved shortly before Ben was born, with Sephy being only a couple of months younger than him. 

They were also a part of his local parish, so their parents soon became good friends. Seeing how Richard was struggling with work and debt, the Costas would often babysit Ben as he grew up. Sephy’s family is originally from Italy, and hearing stories about their home country and Europe was where Ben’s interest in travelling came from. 

Despite being a petite girl, Sephy was always incredibly feisty and outgoing, much more courageous than Ben was, and while Richard was busy, he’d always spend time with her. The two had crazy adventures as children, and even though everybody thought they’d grow up to marry each other, they considered each other siblings.  While she never understood just how bad things were for Ben and his father, she knew Richard worked himself to the bone to provide for Ben.

They joined the track team as soon as they started school, and Sephy was there when Ben first developed his powers. She was the first and only person in his personal life he ever told about having powers other than his father, telling her of his intentions of being a superhero. Both were really excited about his future all through school, Sephy being there to encourage Ben every step of the way. 

However, the more Ben succeeded in his track team, the more popular and arrogant he got. By their final year, Sephy and Ben were still friends, but didn’t hangout nearly as much. After he left to New York to become Shockwave, he eventually became distant from everyone, including Sephy. 

Over the years, Sephy always kept her rebellious tomboy spirit with a huge heart. After finishing high school, she went to study at university to become a nurse, and graduated fours years later at the age of 22. Instead of staying in America, Sephy works with a charity to travel to different countries in desperate need of medical help.

Because of this, she has only seen Ben once since he left for New York, and that was when she helped Richard move into his new place just before she graduated. Since then, she has lost contact with pretty much everyone except her family, as she’s simply to busy with her work and travelling to countries in need. 

[speedstersdad]

🐶 - A Pet

Bluebell

Richard never had his own pet until he got Bluebell, a rescue puppy gifted to him by his son for his birthday shortly after he moved to New York. As Ben said, ‘to replace me with whenever I’m gone’, something Richard could never do, but he loves having someone to look after. Before being rescued by the shelter and adopted by Richard, she was abandoned and found alone in the streets, barely a week old. 

Bluebell is a two year old Blue Heeler, also known as an Australian Cattle Dog, who Richard has taken great care of, training her himself with the help of a professional trainer and providing her the best quality of life a dog could ask for. He makes sure to give her all the exercise her a dog her breed requires. 

Being an extremely active dog, needing both physical and mental activity, Richard makes sure to have both long early morning and after work walks, while having plenty of toys in his apartment to entertain Bluebell while he’s at work. Bluebell is extremely friendly, always looking to make new friends, and is fiercely loyal to Richard. If she ever feels like she or Richard are in danger, she’ll bark aggressively, but that rarely ever happens. 

While he’s strict on some ends, such as her diet and not chewing things she’s not supposed to, Richard is very lax about her sitting on the couch besides him, having laid a blanket on top so she doesn’t her fur all over it. Their evening routine after their walk is to have dinner together in front of the TV, before Bluebell jumps up on the couch besides him and snuggles up to him while Richard pets her. Bluebell usually falls asleep during this time, and Richard always carries her to bed in his bedroom, but she usually ends up jumping onto the bed at some point in the night, so that when Richard wakes up, it’s to enthusiastic face licking.  

Despite her rough and lonely start, Richard’s endless love and affection has made her a strong, happy and healthy pup, and who Richard is forever grateful to have as a faithful companion.