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hardylettuce · 4 months

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Who's up for a crackpot Metalocalypse theory?

Brendon Small said in an interview, "there's one song on the record that I think kind of embodies what the future would be. I don't know if it would be as mystical or as crazy, but it would be funny."

I believe the song is Gardener of Vengeance.

The thing that sticks out to me most about the quote is that he thinks the future is "funny," which is saying something in a comedy series. I assume that means it's something that contrasts the show we've seen thus far. Brendon has another quote about Metalocalypse and AOTD where he said, "part of why I really had to finish this is because that to me was the arc from the beginning— selfish to selfless. Alone to together. That’s the big arc in the series." So if we assume the next chapter would continue that arc, it has to be something that continues the theme of growth and togetherness.

Let's think about where the series ended. Dethklok has stopped the apocalypse, but they haven't really saved the world. Metal rained from the sky, a lot of cities were destroyed. Even before that, it's probably it's safe to assume climate change existed in the show, but think of all the ways Dethklok themselves have made it worse: The environmental destruction caused by the liquid recording technology, raising the sea level in Doublebookedclock, destroying a chunk of the rainforest in Dethcarraldo, etc. The world is trashed, and a lot of that is Dethklok's doing.

So then we look at Gardener of Vengeance's lyrics. It's a song about the planet and nature, which is already notable for the "go into the water" band to be writing a song about the land. It describes the "punisher of industry" who is doling out "retribution for the toxic station." The earth is getting revenge on the people who abused it, either literally (some sort of nature spirit hunting people down) or figuratively (the planet no longer supporting human life).

Remember how the last song on Galaktikon II was called Rebuilding a Planet? My theory is that a season 5 or another movie would be about how Dethklok, being the most respected figures in the world, now has to do just that. And it's not metal to try to convince the world to lower their carbon emissions, or plant more trees, or even give up some of the things they think are fun because they realize how harmful they are. But it's what has to happen for the planet to have a future, and Dethklok's finally mature enough to care about the future.

This is even more speculative, but I think that could also be a theme: Living past the point where you thought it would be over. For the characters, that's having survived the Metalocalypse. But the show itself overcame death by getting a movie ten years after a very brutal cancellation. And I think it's a very human emotion a lot of adults deal with. Maybe you have a health condition or struggle with your mental health, and assumed you wouldn't live past a certain age. Or maybe you're just a teenager who can't imagine being 30. But then miraculously, one day you wake up, and it's your 40th birthday. Now what? What do you do with this time you never really thought you'd get?

In any case, I think the future of Dethklok would involve reconciling being both a death metal band and a symbol of hope for the world. It would be about taking responsibility for their past actions, and having to keep showing up and doing the right thing every day, instead of having short-term objectives like in Requiem or AOTD. It's not glamorous, but maybe it's fulfilling to be … Givin' Back? To the environment this time?

#Metalocalypse #I assume it'd be easy to get Nathan on board with saving the ocean #But it'll be harder to navigate writing a song about killing all billionaires (except us)#If this ends up being right I'll pass out #But of course we'd need some time in there for the Skwistok/Nickles double wedding #Haha I'm kidding ... unless??#It's probably best to ignore the tags

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tendertenebrosity · 5 months

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Prev: One, two. This is fanfic for the book Ocean's Echo, containing my own OCs.

It had only been training manoeuvres, but Davi’s first flight drawing on Saelin’s powers was something else. For the first time, he fully understood why this was considered to make an pilot architect’s career.

Davi pulled his headset off and turned to Saelin with a grin as the shuttle hovered.

“Oh, well done, Saelin!” he exclaimed, his heart still thundering with the excitement of the chase, the triumph of pulling them through it. The sense of being two-as-one lingered, an awareness of Saelin’s limbs and heart and mind in the chair beside him, the whisper of chaotic space beyond the metal walls of the shuttle. “You’re a natural! That was incredible! I knew you’d be good at this - we are going to be unstoppable.”

Saelin tipped his face up, the same adrenaline rush visible in his quick breathing and bright eyes for all of one second. Then - so fast Davi barely had time to register it - he was retreating from the sync. Davi was closed out of the lingering echo of reader senses with a snap.

“Excuse me,” Saelin said, sounding strangled. He dragged his own headset off and turned his face away, one hand shielding his eyes. “Can - I - Sir, permission to leave?”

“Leave?” Davi repeated, baffled. He quested out along the sync-bond and found nothing but a cornered-animal panic that made him pull back. “We’re in a shuttle, Sae- Agent Thirty-two. What do you mean, leave?”

“I - I know,” the reader said, still sounding odd. “I can’t - I can’t - permission to step away - please - ”

Davi had been opening his mouth to say no, to demand an explanation, but that last word got to him. “If you’re unwell, I can bring us in to dock without you,” he said curtly.

“Thank you, sir,” Saelin said, as if through gritted teeth. He fumbled with the seat restraints, threw himself out of the chair, and crossed behind Davi heading for the back of the shuttle.

Davi brought the shuttle back in to dock, easy enough it didn’t require much thinking. What was the problem? Things had gone well.

Saelin had been consuming the navigation training materials with a dogged and single-minded focus that Davi had thought boded well. The navigation officer who’d been training him had said he was ready, and hadn’t had anything negative to report about his attitude. Davi had even seen the reader’s careful blankness give way to a smile once or twice, voice lifting as he grasped one of the concepts.

This was the first time they’d actually put all of it into action, and Davi would understand if the reader was nervous - Davi himself had been nervous - but everything had gone as well as it could possibly have gone.

So what was the problem?

“All right,” he said, putting the headset aside again, taking a moment to straighten the one that his reader had thrown haphazardly onto the navigation panel. “I’m going to need an explanation for that, Agent Thirty-two.”

To Davi’s confusion, his reader had found a corner to cram himself into, on the brushed-metal floor beside one of the seats, with his knees drawn up to his chest.

“Sorry,” he muttered, seeming embarrassed as he uncurled himself and got to his feet. “I - I apologise, sir.”

“What’s the problem?” Davi asked.

Saelin didn’t meet his eyes, fixing his gaze on the division pin on his shoulder instead. “No problem, sir,” he said, voice strained. “Is that - do you want to do another run on the course?”

“No,” Davi said. “There isn’t time.”

Saelin’s shoulders dropped in what Davi instantly knew was relief. Then why did you suggest it?

“I want,” Davi continued, “To know what’s wrong. Why you dropped everything and ran.”

“Nothing is wrong,” Saelin told Davi’s division pin. “Then, are we finished with this training block?”

“… yes, but…”

“May I return to quarters? I’m not hungry.”

Later, in their quarters, Davi alternatively stood and paced. Saelin just stood.

“I want to know what’s wrong with you, is what!” Davi said.

“Today, or in general?” Saelin said, a short-lived quirk in his face rapidly smoothed away. “I understand reading is genetic. I’d like to go to bed now, sir.”

Davi ran a hand through his hair. He realised that he was standing in the doorway to the tiny shared bathroom, and that Saelin probably wanted him to move aside so he could get ready for bed. He planted his feet instead.

“Look, I don’t know what you were expecting, from today,” Davi began. “You’ve not seen chaotic space before, I know. Things were… fast-paced. But the training course was a breeze, especially with you along. Today was a big success, no matter what it felt like to you. You did great. You should be proud.”

If anything, the reader’s face went more blank. “Thank you, sir.”

Apparently realising Davi wasn’t going to move, Saelin turned away, and sank down to sit on his bunk instead. He checked the schedule on his wristband, then laid it calmly in his lap and stared at the wall.

“Does it not seem like a success to you?” Davi asked.

“It does. I’m glad it went well.”

“So that’s why you ran away, then?” Davi pressed. “You’re just so glad it went well you had to go off into the corner for a cry or something? Come off it.”

Saeling said nothing. His gaze remained on the wall. The sync bond was as closed off as he could make it - as if there was a wide corridor, running between their minds, and Saelin was pressing himself against the wall at the far end.

It would be easy to cross that distance. Davi was only being polite in not doing so.

Does he think I’m stupid? Davi wondered. Does he think I’m negligent enough that if he just sits there like a grey rock I’m going to get bored and go away? Does he think if you ignore a problem for long enough it will cease existing?

“If there is a problem,” Davi said, trying to be patient. “If you are unwell, or there was something wrong with the sync that I haven’t noticed - ”

“There isn’t.”

Davi gritted his teeth. “If there is a problem,” he repeated. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to fix it, if you won’t tell me what it is. We need to communicate.”

“Nothing is wrong with me, sir,” Saelin said, staring straight ahead.

Davi wanted to yell at him - to grab him by front of his uniform and shake him - to tell him Davi wasn’t a moron and he didn’t appreciate being treated like one. Anything to get Saelin to do something that wasn’t sit there and tell transparent lies with a blank face.

Instead, frustrated and angry, he did something that he was not proud of - but it was so easy, much easier than doing any of those other things. As easy as thinking about it.

“Saelin, tell me why you’re upset.”

Saelin took one deep breath, eyelids fluttering as the command took.

“I hated going deep into the sync,” he said, the strangest combination of flatness and turmoil, words spilling out of him uncontrolled. “Not during, but after. While we were in the sync and working, it felt good, and that’s what I hate. I’m upset that it went well. I was good at navigating and I don’t want to be good at navigating, I want to go home. You said ‘well done’ and touched my mind like… like… fucking smug and affectionate and possessive, your reader, I don’t want to be your reader, I don’t want your approval or your affection. You’re revolting. We were one, I was you, I know you. Arrogant asshole, you think this is just great, you think we can be fucking friends. Friends when you practically own me. We were together and it worked and I’m good at it and the sync felt right and I hate it, hate the sync, hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you - ”

“Stop,” Davi said. The bulkhead, the wall of their quarters, bumped into his waist and he realised he’d stepped back. His hand out as if to hit the off switch on that vicious litany of misery.

Saelin shivered, arms wrapping around himself as the command faded. He licked his lips, obviously deciding on something to say of his own choice. Davi didn’t want him to; he wanted him to shut up, but this time he managed to restrain the reflexive movement to write him.

“So,” Saelin said. “Happy? Sir?”

“No, I -” Davi opened his mouth, but couldn’t find any words. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“What did you make, a month?” Saelin asked, and he was looking at Davi now, why the fuck had Davi wanted him to look at him, the blank stare at the wall had been much better than this. “Not unless it’s necessary for work, isn’t that what you said?”

“I’m sorry,” Davi said, automatic, guilt like a stone in his stomach. He tried to mask the shock on his face. What were you expecting him to say? Why the hell would you give him such an open-ended command? “I - I didn’t - ”

“Oh, you don’t have to apologise to me, sir,” Saelin said, his voice light and deferential and barbed. “I’m a conscripted reader. You’re allowed - nay, encouraged - to write me as much as you like.”

Davi sat down on his bunk with a thump and put his head in his hands. “I said that I’d - It’s not supposed to be… I shouldn’t have…”

What were you expecting? You had to have an idea. You couldn’t have expected him to like you, after seeing how miserable he was initially?

Davi was used to being likable. People did like him. Maybe somehow he’d thought that would… carry over. He’d gone out of his way to try and put the reader at ease, hadn’t he?

“Am I in some sort of trouble, now?” Saelin asked. He shook the wristband to indicate his schedule. “Do I get a punishment work detail, or something? There’s not a lot of room. Sir.”

“No.” Davi squeezed his eyes shut, counted to five, then sat upright. “That wasn’t fair of me, and I’m sorry. Perhaps it’s best if we just… forget this happened.”

Saelin was looking at him again, and Davi badly wanted him to stop. The sync bond was back to being empty and tidy, but now Davi could see the currents swirling underneath the smooth surface. “All right,” he said. “In that case. May I go to the deck two rec room and read for a while? Sir.”

“Sure,” Davi said, relieved. He lifted a hand in a wave, and reached for some sort of equillibrium; to get back into the rhythm they’d had for the last few weeks. “Sure, go on. Don’t… don’t stay out too late. We have… more training tomorrow.”

You don’t need him to like you, Davi told himself. You just need him to obey you.

Well, fucking great news, I have that covered. That’s the one part of this job that is given to me as a freebie!

Saelin gathered a couple of book cubes in silence, opened the door to the hallway with a hiss. He hung back in the doorway for a moment. “Davi?”

Davi looked up. “Yes?”

Saelin met his eyes, and they were hard and cold as glass, and in them Davi read the echoes of hate you, hate you, hate you.

“A word of advice from a reader,” Saelin said. “You should be careful what answers you go looking for, because if you don’t like what you find, there isn’t any putting them back in the box afterwards.”

“Yes,” Davi said, letting his head fall back into his hands. “Thanks for that.”

#mind link #nonconsensual mindlink #telepathy #telepathic whumpee #navigating fucked up power dynamics #Saelin #Davi #haha what is a scene transition who cares #Ocean's Echo fanfic

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