Metal Slinger

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse and cursing.

“Nothing is feared more than the giant squids rumored to be found in the most remote parts of the ocean. They have no known home, no known origin. The only evidence of their existence are the abandoned boats they leave behind, left wandering aimless without a soul on board. The bodies of the crews are theorized to have been pulled underneath the water never to be seen again.”

Jovie’s recounting of the tales of the giant squid parallels the lives of the Alaha people, suggesting that their instinctive fear of sea monsters reflects their more abstract fear of their own disastrous fate if they fail to reclaim a homeland. Since the Alaha have been banished to an eternity far from land, they also have no “known home,” as they have been kept at sea for generations. When they die, their bodies (and their society) will, like the victims of the rumored giant squid, be pulled underneath the water. This legend thus reveals a culturally specific fear of a water-based society that fears that it will be unable to leave any mark of its existence on the world after it is gone.

“Thanks for throwing me under the boat, asshole.”

Jovie’s mental complaint illustrates the fact that Schneider’s world building draws upon real-world sayings and conventions. By taking a real colloquialism (to “throw someone under the bus”) and changing the method of transportation to a boat, Schneider subverts the established imagery of this common saying to deliver a reminder that life on the sea affects every aspect of Alaha’s culture, even its language.