Reuben

ephemerality

pairing: Vil/Cater words: 2.0k

Cater sucked in a breath and stood all at once, his hair whipping around behind him as he spun to face Vil. The man was still looking down, staring but not really seeing anything at all. A quick twist of Cater’s lips, and then he molded them into a familiar smile. That same traitorous hand that had yearned to reach out found itself being extended to Vil, who looked up sharply. His eyes were glistening. Cater hated that.

or: the bittersweet time before an inevitable parting

“I applaud your dedication. A deliberate approach makes it easy to handle whatever comes your way.”

“Double-check everything”, “Never go with your first instinct”, “You can never be too careful”

Riddle - Messi fan through and through. Messi is associated with strategy, technique, collaboration, and evidence based thinking, and while Riddle can be impulsive and irrational I do not think he aligns with faith based thinking strongly enough to be a Ronaldo fan, unless Ronaldo were his mother, that is.

Trey - Messi fan. Doesn’t care much but he’s seen the stats.

Cater - Messi fan. Messi is also associated with western liberalism/leftism (and you know, Cater is a chronically online bisexual I think he falls into this), in large part because he stays out of scandal, unlike Ronaldo.

Deuce - Ronaldo fan. As stated above Ronaldo is associated with faith based thinking and stubborn conviction, and Deuce has been shown to follow orders without question and has expressed stubborn tendencies.

Ace - Tossup. I think he could be either or but he probably plays up his love of Ronaldo to ragebait people.

Leona - Messi convert. Before this year’s World Cup, a lot of professional soccer players claimed to prefer Ronaldo, they claimed him as their idol and hero, but all of the scandals surrounding him, from SA allegations to poor sportsmanship to declining performance have led many to quietly repeal their support of him. Leona would be one of those people.

Ruggie - Ronaldo fits demographically. I don’t think he has strong opinions on the modern discourse. Overall I actually think he’d be a Maradona or Pele fan. But if he’s a Maradona fan, well, he’d have to answer the question of Messi v Ronaldo with Messi.

Jack - Ronaldo fan. Stubbornness, as stated above, is associated with Ronaldo fans. On top of that, people who support Ronaldo generally have higher self esteems and trust their own judgment more than Messi fans, a trait I believe applies to Jack.

Azul - Messi fan. Messi just wins more. It’s that simple. Azul may meet many of the qualifications for being a Ronaldo fan, but numbers are his language and he’s seen the numbers. He wouldn’t stake his claim to knowledge on a losing dog.

Jade - Likes to slander both of them just to ragebait people. Claims Messi got most of his goals on penalties or that Ronaldo only has less goals because he was a midfielder and then turns around and claims Ronaldo is a goal stealer and completely deranged.

Floyd - Ronaldo fan but literally only for the ragebait. I think his actual favorite would be someone cutesie like Mbappe

Kalim - Ronaldo fan. Egotistical, stubborn, and a faith-based thinker, Kalim fits every criterion of a Ronaldo fan in his heart. “I’m happy as long as all players have fun” he claims. But he’s not. He’s not.

Jamil - Messi fan. Originally, just to be contrarian to Kalim, but he really genuinely enjoys holding Messi’s stats over his head and as such would totally get way too into it. Celebrates big whenever Messi wins and Ronaldo loses. The smug Messi fan you’ve been told to hate.

Vil - Ronaldo fan. He’s pretty, he’s arrogant, and he obviously takes care of himself. He plays hard and wins in flashy ways. Vil would find someone like this easy to relate to.

Rook - Ah, mon cher, they are both beautiful! To witness la passion here… it is enough to make one lose himself in the spectacle. I appreciate both and all! The competition can be absent from my mind, remaining only on the field

Epel - Ronaldo fan. Big strong masculine man who is tall and handsome and absolutely dominates the field every time he plays what’s not to love.

Idia - Messi fan on a very objective basis. “Messi’s the GOAT” delivered in the same way one might say “the sky is blue”.

Ortho - See above. Might ragebait by pretending to be the type of kid who thinks Ronaldo is the GOAT because he watches IShowSpeed.

Malleus - I cannot imagine him caring. I just cannot. Fuck.

Lilia - Well the GOAT is clearly Pele.

Silver - Believes Messi is the GOAT, hasn’t put much thought into it and will not put much thought into it.

Here’s how I think Azul would be as a camp counselor

He is very clearly culturally Italian, this is something I think most people agree on, especially as the Coral Sea seems to be based on Italy with the tweels’ family and Azul’s business model seeming to be a reference to Italian organized crime, the original film taking place in the Mediterranean, and Azul’s mother running an Italian restaurant.

Azul was a victim of what is, allegorically, racially targeted harassment as a child. People made fun of him for being visually different, beyond just being chubby and slow he was an “ink-spewer” an “octo-twerp” he has admitted that there just aren’t a lot of cephalopodic merfolk where he lives/went to school. If you really read into his dreams in book seven you can really see how the people of the Coral Sea treat people who are different. Azul becoming the bully likely meant emulating the behavior of his peers from school. He recognized and internalized disdain for those different and used it to place himself in a position of power, teasing the freshmen for being land dwellers in a similar way to how he was likely teased for being an octopus.

Azul also displays very clear signs of imposter syndrome. I mean, down to his unique magic. He does not trust in his ability to organically build skills and thus feels the need to take them from others and develop upon them from there, but get this, Azul is very talented! Even after losing all of his contracts Azul is still at the top of class rankings (below Riddle, but nobody can ever be above Riddle), he can still sing, he’s still incredibly powerful even if his casting pool is limited. He constantly laments starting late in terms of his magic development but he shows so much skill and aptitude through his own hard work and dedication to being better. No doubt a lot of this was imparted on him by his grandmother who he describes both as spoiling him and treating him with “tough love” to “help him grow and develop as a person” but also it is more common for minority demographics to experience imposter syndrome than non-minority populations. It’s clear in Azul’s flashback when he calls himself “hopeless in studies and athletics” he is parroting things he has been told about himself. Him being different made him stand out, worsened the bullying, and created this idea in his mind that he must lie and cheat and steal in order to surpass those who have wronged him. He doesn’t believe in his own abilities, he just doesn’t think he’s worth anything as is. He thinks he is inherently worse than those around him.

Finally there is the immigrant aspect. Azul is a merman who has come to land to make a better life for himself and pursue capital ventures he could never hope to achieve in his homeland. He forces assimilation (exemplified through the human potion, which he admits is unpleasant) and pushes himself outside of his comfort zone constantly to learn about life on land. While it was blatant emotional manipulation, dream Azul’s admission that life on land seems too scary for him to ever brave feels a bit like a subconscious admission to his anxieties (Azul displays symptoms of GAD but that’s a topic for another time).