And so it came to pass in the year 2002 that Mystik Spiral performed a new song for just seven people, at 2AM. Last week, it had been nine people and Trent was suspicious that one of them had passed out and thus didn't count. Nick agreed with him that their sound might have died out - maybe, in the end, it was time for the band to call it quits. Or maybe he should listen to Max's cousin and go out to another town. Better move far from all he'd ever known than admit the dream was dead and he was going to have to do...
...well, something else. Hrm.
And so it came to pass that Trent Lane found himself in Closet Space with a beer in hand, lost in thought and hoping to be lost in booze until a solution came out of the sky on his behalf. Which never seemed to happen without Janey and her friend around the way it used to.
Another man was at the bar, gaunt and haggard and hunched over a beer like it was the lost Grail. Trent recognised him - one of the teachers from back when, DeMartino. The angriest man in town. Who knew he went around places like this? (The bartender, Trent guessed. He'd know stuff like that.) Maybe he was just passing through and didn't know what sort of bar this was, like Tommy Sherman that one time (ha ha).
Trent rarely went there either. Closet Space was tacky, retro-70s (actually it was just 70s and never renovated), full of middle-aged Mr Normals and Missus Normals hoping nobody saw them come in or teenagers and students looking like they'd explode. Trent stood out, though not as much as DeMartino who was causing several teenagers and students to come in & abruptly come back out again. But this was a place the Spiral never played and their fans wouldn't be - unless, he guessed, those fans were gay, and then it probably was - and so it was a good place to think.
"I DON'T have time to WASTE," snapped DeMartino suddenly.
"Huh?"
"You keep LOOKing at me. If there's something you WANT, get ON with it, I've only so many YEARS left."
"Hmm." Trent considered this. Mr D was pretty old. "I was just planning to sit around and wait for something to happen. That's how I wrote From The Futon."
"That's great." DeMartino downed his beer in a truly impressive chug. "Come ALONG if you're COMING."
It wasn't the best one night stand Trent had ever had but it also wasn't the worst. That would be the time he had sex in the toilets and fell asleep partway through and also it was the Zon's toilets. He couldn't speak for DeMartino, who made love like a starving man ate a cake. Afterwards the man seemed embarrassed and Trent patted him on the head, saying "there there", out of no other idea.
DeMartino yelled at him for that and then he seemed to feel better, so that worked.
On a whim, because DeMartino was a teacher and old and thus hopefully smart twice over, Trent said: "I've got a choice about whether to stop making music or to leave town-"
"LEAVE TOWN!" snapped DeMartino.
"Huh. You su-"
"THIS TOWN is a PIECE OF CRAP! Not ONE good person lives here by CHOICE! If you can - if you have the opporTUnity and the STRENGTH - you should get the HELL out. Your music, that... that LOUD stuff, is that really something that can FLOURISH in a town that things GLEN MILLER is the best?"
"We done okay so far." The man just looked at him and Trent signed. "No we haven't. But it was enough once-"
"And now you're getting OLDER. I had that happen to ME in the BEAT days." DeMartino sighed, long and terrible and slow. "And so I SETTLED. I settled HERE. Teaching HERE. I should have left YEARS ago."
"Hm. I guess I'll leave then." Trent smiled. "Thanks, Mr D. And hey, why don't you leave too?"
"And do what."
Trent thought about it. "Teach. But, like, some different kids."
DeMartino went on to teach elementary school and run various help groups for emotionally sensitive children. He retired at 62 after another heart attack, which was five years more than he'd have managed at Lawndale High and he actually missed the work.
Trent Lane and Mystik Spiral went to Mirage and continued to be mediocre, but at least it was cheaper there and Trent could eat and buy toilet paper. He finally became a passable guitarist and formed a new band, Mystikal Explosion.
Closet Space turned out to be a laundering scam by the mob but stayed open after the mayor & chief of police mysteriously bought new sports cars.
A "Random Pairing" challenge arranged by JoeMerl. This slots between scenes in the Mystik Spiral pilot script, as seen in the Daria DVD boxset, while Mystik Explosion hails from Susan Lewis's "Catching Up With The Daria Gang" article.