8-3: All about Mayhem
They appeared outside Fluttershy’s cottage. Mayhem knocked on the door before opening it.
Normally he would have teleported inside, but he thought it would be rude to bring a bunch of strangers inside without her permission.
“Mommy!” he called out, seeing her sitting down reading a book.
She looked up, a little surprised. “Mayhem! You’re back early. Did something go wrong?”
He shook his head. “No. Not at all.”
“Oh. Then… you’re done already?” She looked up at the clock. “It’s only been a half hour.”
He shook his head again. “No. I’ve only gotten through one of their wishes so far. We got to have a pirate adventure.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It really was, but it was a little intense for them with how real it was. They wanted to relax a little before we moved onto the next one. One of them suggested playing with some cute animals to destress so I thought we could play here for a little bit.”
“Oh, that sounds lovely.”
“They’re all outside waiting for me. Would you like to meet them?”
She nodded, putting a bookmark in the book and getting up.
They went to the front door, where Fluttershy looked between the four children. “Hello, everyone,” she said warmly.
She noticed all of them staring at her strangely. “Is something wrong?”
“Mayhem called you his mommy,” said Chocolate, “but you look so… normal.”
“Yeah,” said Flash. “When he said ‘mommy’ we thought you’d look more… more…”
“Like a monster!” finished Sweet Pea. She immediately gasped and threw her hooves over her mouth as she realized what she said. “Oh, I didn’t mean… it’s just, if I didn’t know you your appearance is just like something you’d see in a horror story." She realized she was only putting her hoof deeper in her mouth, and was almost in tears as she tried to salvage things. "Um… I mean… uh…”
Fluttershy wasn’t sure how Mayhem was going to react. She still remembered his first meeting with Flurry, and how he left voluntarily out of the fear he was going to hurt her.
Mayhem walked forward and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay, Sweet Pea. Don’t cry.”
“B-but… I…”
“ I don’t want anything to ruin this special day. I can tell you’re sorry, and that’s enough for me.”
Fluttershy and Twilight both smiled.
Sweet Pea slowly returned the hug. “I’m sorry, Mayhem. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“My friend Flurry Heart was born with big wings. Even though she’s only six her wings are adult sized. When we were helping her through her self-esteem issues one of the big things Twilight taught her was that if someone looks down on you for your physical appearance then it’s up to the one involved to show that they’re more than that.
“Maybe you just haven’t gotten over how I look yet. I know I don’t look like anything you’ve ever seen before, so maybe it’s just hard to come up with a word to describe me that’s not hurtful. Whatever the reason, I’m willing to give you another chance as long as you still want to try being my friend.”
“O-okay,” she said quietly.
They hugged a little longer, then Mayhem let her go. “You okay now?”
“I think so…”
“Well, we came here in the first place to relax after playing through Flash’s game, so now you need it more than ever.
“Anyway, this is Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy nodded. “That’s my name. Mayhem and I have a mother-son relationship, but we’re not blood related. I guess the most accurate way to describe it is that I adopted him into my life because he needed me.
“When I first met him he was very rambunctious and didn’t care about love or friendship. He only cared about what made him happy, even if it inconvenienced others. The reason he didn’t care was simply that he had never experienced it before. When I looked past his selfishness to show him affection he quickly found that he liked it.
“From that moment he’s changed drastically for the better. Having been exposed to true, unconditional love from me, he wanted more and more of it, and I was happy to provide it. He began to think about others, wanting to see me happy.”
She picked up Mayhem and held him to her. “He’s been a delight since he changed. He helps me feed the animals and sleeps with me at night. He just makes me feel so happy, especially when I see him growing like just now, when he forgave Sweet Pea.”
Mayhem let out a happy squeal, always loving it when Fluttershy paid him compliments.
“That makes sense,” said Flash. “Twilight did say there were only two of them in the world… that she knows of, anyway.”
Plum got a sad look on her face. “But, then…”
“What’s wrong?” asked Mayhem.
She squirmed a bit. “Well, maybe it’s wrong to ask, but… if you’re adopted, then what happened to your real mother?”
“I never had one,” said Mayhem. “Draconequus magic isn’t like pony magic. In a sense I’m just an illusion like the world we were just in. My daddy created me as his child, so I look just like him, but I can only exist through his magic.”
Unsurprisingly they all reacted with confusion. “So, wait,” said Chocolate, “if you’re just an illusion then why is Twilight doing all this? I mean, what's the point of becoming friends with you? Aren’t you just going to disappear and forget all of this?”
“It’s… not as simple as that,” said Twilight. “Discord is the original, and, technically, only draconequus. A draconequus has chaos magic. It allows them to do chaotic things, like creating those worlds you were just in.
“I guess the main difference between Mayhem and those pirates is that Mayhem has his own personality. His creations have pre-created personalities and act according to certain rules that he sets up in advance, but Mayhem has his own personality, likes, and dislikes. He’s capable of growing and changing and doesn’t act according to rules but his own thoughts and desires.
“That fake world is made by magic, but Mayhem is magic.” She picked up a clump of dirt in her magic. “You can see my magic aura surrounding this dirt. For ponies that is the extent of it." She moved a part of the dirt away from the rest. "But imagine for a moment that one day part of the magic in the dirt split up and could think and do what it wants.
“He has a limited amount of magic keeping him in this world, and when he uses it all up his mind returns to Discord, at which point Discord can just use up some magic to release him again.”
“That’s all… really strange,” said Chocolate. “It’s making my head spin just trying to process it.”
“Well, you don’t really have to understand his origins to have fun together, right?”
“No… I guess not.”
Sweet Pea sucked on her cheek. “Does it… bother you at all?” she asked Mayhem.
“Does what bother me?” he responded.
“Don’t you always have to be careful, never knowing when the next spell will send you back?”
“It’s not a problem. I usually have a pretty good idea of my limits. And even if I go back I just have to ask to come out again.”
“What does it feel like?” asked Flash. “I mean, when you’re inside, um, Discord?”
Some of the cheer left his face. “I don’t like it. I've only been out in the real world for a few months. When I first started learning about friendship I was only allowed out for little bits at a time. Mommy didn’t trust me to be on my own if she wasn’t around to keep an eye on me. And every time I had to go back in I hated it.”
“Wait a minute!” said Plum, looking horrified. “Twilight said you were over a thousand years old before, but you said you only came out recently. This Discord was keeping you trapped inside him all this time even though he knew it was making you miserable?”
“But wait,” said Chocolate. “If you’re that old then how come you still look and act like a kid our age? Something doesn’t add up.”
Flash chimed in right after. “And if you’re just a creation of Discord does that mean he can make a million Mayhem’s if he wanted?”
Twilight was pleased by all their questions. Cup had made a valid point that kids who saw Mayhem’s power might only be concerned about what they could get out of him without caring about the person behind the power. Tree Leaf’s response to that did seem to be happening. The fact that they were all questioning about his origins and trying to find out more about him rather than hurrying things along to the next wish showed that they were focusing on him as an individual rather than just selfishly thinking about their own wants.
She found that she was curious too. Plum had brought up something she had never thought of before. “I’d like to know too, Mayhem. How is it that it took so long before you and Discord became two separate beings?”
“That’s something I’m curious about as well,” said Fluttershy, turning around and setting him down so they were all standing in front of him. “We first met Discord about eight years ago now. If you felt so disconnected from Discord’s attempts to befriend others then why didn’t you speak up to him earlier?”
Mayhem got a pensive look on his face, seeing everyone’s curious faces. It was something that he himself had never thought about until he was asked. He crossed his arms, his face furrowed in thought.
“I think,” Mayhem finally said, “that the reason I took so long to split from Discord is just that... I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know?” asked Fluttershy.
“Didn’t know what?” asked Chocolate.
“I didn’t know that I was a different person," Mayhem responded. "Me and Discord were one being for a long, long, long time, so I didn’t really know that I could be separate from him. I thought his thoughts were my thoughts, and his actions my actions.”
“So, then… when did you realize it? What sparked the change?” asked Twilight, fascinated by this new info. After all, she was delving into a magic that few had ever studied before.
Once again Mayhem grew thoughtful. Trying to think about the past, it was hard to differentiate himself from Discord. He shuddered a little at how uncomfortable that revelation was. The more time he spent in the real world the more he hated the thought of being stuck inside Discord.
He shook his head to clear his mind, trying to pinpoint it. “It’s… hard… to… to pick an exact moment. Maybe it started before I first came out into the real world, but the only thing I know for sure is that Pound and Pumpkin were the trigger.”
“Who’s that?” asked Flash.
“They’re friends of ours,” said Twilight. “Kids about your age. One of my best friends is their aunt.”
She was trying not to be impatient, but still that itch for new information was cropping up, her eyes hungry for knowledge.
“What about them?”
“The day of Mommy’s party Daddy gave them just a tiny sliver of his power so they could pull some pranks they shouldn’t be able to.
“My memories of that are a little fuzzy. Daddy was watching all of it, but from my end I can only remember things blurry.” He closed his eyes tightly, focusing as hard as he could. “All I knew was that suddenly things felt different. I was a part of not one, but two other ponies. Not only that, but their ideas and memories were fresh and different.
“The pranks they pulled and the games they played were very satisfying. It was like living a whole new life that was very enjoyable. I wouldn’t have been able to say it that clearly back then, but I think I can say that now.
“And then… suddenly it was gone. I was gone.”
“What do you mean?” asked Fluttershy.
“I found myself back home, inside Discord. Pound and Pumpkin had gone a bit overboard showing off, and used up all the magic he gave them. They complained, and he gave them a little more magic. Suddenly I found myself inside the twins again.
“I think that that’s what clued me in. I started inside Discord, then I went to the twins, then back to Discord, and back to the twins. The constant back and forth, experiencing someone else’s thoughts and memories and ideas, made me realize that I wasn’t just Discord.
“After all, I had only met the twins on that day through Discord, so I knew nothing in their memories was anything that I remembered. I could only see it because my consciousness was inside of them.”
“Fascinating!” said Twilight, her eyes twinkling.
Fluttershy chuckled into her hoof.
“I… I did a bad thing after that,” said Mayhem, looking at the ground guiltily. “As I came to realize I was my own individual I began to mold myself into a real being. I found that I could talk to them, and by dangling the idea of more power in front of them I talked them into taking almost all of Discord’s power.”
“Mayheeeem,” Twilight said warningly. If he went and blabbed about how he had nearly murdered them all it would ruin everything she was trying to do. He would lose the support of all the children.
She knew he had already said enough the other kids were going to be curious if she shut him down right now, so she thought it would be best if she did the talking. “Well, they did succeed. While they only had a sliver of power the most Mayhem could do is simply talk to them, but once they had that much of Mayhem inside them he had enough power to take them over and complain to Discord directly about how much he disliked what his life was.
“He refused to relinquish his hold on the twins because he didn’t want to be stuck inside again, but we felt it was too dangerous for him to hold onto them. Chaos magic is unstable, and is only really meant for those who have bodies that are capable of containing it.
“If it’s only a tiny bit it’s fine, as it will burn itself out given a little time. But they took in so much that it nearly destroyed their bodies.”
All the children shivered. “It… it was really that bad?” asked Plum.
Twilight nodded. “Mayhem was a little too addicted to his new freedom to care about the results so long as he didn’t have to go back into the darkness with no control. He lashed out, trying to do whatever he could to remain, even if it was by hurting others.
“In the end we had to hit him with Rainbow Power to force him out of the twins bodies, both so they could get their own minds back as well as to stop the overload of magic from breaking them.
“Once we healed the twins injuries Fluttershy expressed concern over Mayhem. She could tell that his actions, while selfish, were motivated partially through fear. That was the first time Mayhem was brought into the real world.
“The reason he cares for her so deeply is mainly that she showed him kindness and gave him the name he now has.”
She could see the children digesting this information. She thought she had done a pretty good job of not lying, even if she was fudging the complete truth of that day. Taking what she had learned she thought she could see why Mayhem had been so quick to try and kill them. It just wasn’t Discord’s style to kill others or otherwise render them incapable of experiencing chaos. Having just realized his separateness she could understand that beneath his vindictiveness really was a fear of disappearing and being helpless.
Of course, she couldn’t completely write it off as just fear. His grand plan had been to give everyone a little bit of chaos magic and see Equestria rip itself apart in misuse of that power. Although, given how quickly he had abandoned that plan when just shown a little bit of kindness and affection, she also saw it didn’t take much for him to change his course.
“Wait a second!” said Fluttershy. “I just thought of something. When Tirek invaded he stole all of Discord’s magic. If just having a tiny sliver of magic inside the twins was enough to make you realize you were separate then why didn’t you realize it back then?”
Twilight turned to her friend, acknowledging the strangeness of it.
Mayhem’s bottom lip jutted out. After a while he said uncertainly, “I… I don’t know. I’m trying to think of a reason but I really don’t know. I can remember his time with Tirek because it's part of his memories, but I don't remember anything after he stole Daddy's magic until after his defeat. There's just a big gap there.”
“Hmmm,” said Twilight, her eyes narrowed in concentration. “Tirek is another one with strange magic that few ever have. He grew stronger from absorbing the magic of others. That, in itself, is not unheard of, but when he took the magic of a pony their cutie marks vanished as well.
“I haven’t had a chance to study his magic, so I have no concrete answers, but I have a few theories.”
Mayhem was staring hard at her, curious as to what she would say.
“When I fought Tirek it was after he had absorbed Discord’s magic, and yet he never used magic like Discord. He only used brute force and magic beams. We fought to a stalemate, and rather than using Discord’s powers to trip me up he resorted to using my friends as hostages.
“It may be that Tirek simply converted that magic into his magic. Thus, it wasn’t chaos magic anymore. No chaos magic, no Mayhem.
“Tirek was a very selfish individual, stealing magic from everyone he came in contact with simply so he could be the most powerful. Perhaps his will was so strong that it negated your consciousness from stirring.
“Maybe it was the difference between Discord freely giving Pound and Pumpkin his power and Tirek forcefully stealing it.
“However, the most likely explanation I can think of relates to what I said earlier about his magic also taking cutie marks away. A cutie mark is a sign of one’s identity. It details what one is most gifted at. Their meaning may not always be immediately apparent, but it is a fact that cutie marks show your special talents. If one’s cutie mark proclaims who one is, then taking it away also takes away what makes someone who they are.
“Discord isn’t a pony, and thus doesn’t have a cutie mark, but having his powers stolen still took away a large part of who he was. Thus, Mayhem was affected too. He only became separate when he realized he was separate, but he couldn’t formulate his own identity when hit with a magic that disrupts one’s identity.”
“It sounds like… all your theories are partly true if that’s the case,” said Fluttershy.
“I… guess you’re right.”
“This is all sounding pretty complicated,” said Sweet Pea.
“Yeah,” said Plum.
“So what about the other stuff we asked?” said Flash. "Are there more Mayhem's?"
“I don’t believe that Discord could make more Mayhem’s,” said Twilight. “At least, not ones with real personalities. Even though Discord gave Pound and Pumpkin his magic they both only talked with Mayhem, not Mayhem and another consciousness.”
“In all the time I’ve known him neither Discord or Mayhem have stated something about a third consciousness inside,” said Fluttershy. “I won’t say it’s impossible, given how long it took Mayhem to come out, but all signs point to Mayhem being truly unique.”
"I have my own question for you, Mayhem. I told you Discord gave me a little of his power so I could stop your magic if need be. Do you know what I'm thinking right now? Can you see all my memories?
"I ask that because, if you really are just one consciousness, then how is it that you could be in multiple ponies at once? Even if Discord gave some power to Pound and Pumpkin then shouldn't you still have been a part of Discord?"
Mayhem shook his head. "I can't see anything inside you. I think that only works when I'm not out in the real world. When I'm not inside Discord I can't see or feel him either."
"Interesting.
"As for Chocolate'’s question, our belief is that Mayhem is just the living embodiment of Discord’s magic, which is chaos magic. Mayhem, being a part of Discord, is as old as he is, but he’s only truly become his own individual being for a few months.
“He has Discord’s memories, but not his life experiences. For example, Discord changed when he experienced Fluttershy’s kindness, but when Mayhem first surfaced he didn’t care about love or her. At least not until he experienced it personally. That’s when he understood why Discord changed.
“Being that he’s so new to the real world he still has much learning and growing to do. This is why I brought the four of you here today to meet him. I know I can’t force anyone to be friends, but Mayhem needs them right now so he can become his best self.”
“Why?” asked Chocolate.
“Hmm?” Twilight’s head tilted a little. “Do you not want to be his friend?”
He shook his head. “It’s not that. You said before that he has other friends, so why do you need us?”
“Ah, but recall what I said when I mentioned them. I told you that he’s played these games before he created the new safety rules, and they wound up getting hurt. His friends forgave him, but their parents were pretty upset over what happened. Right now he’s not allowed to see them, so I’m trying to find him new friends to fill the gap until that day comes. It’s something of vital importance.”
“Vital importance?” asked Sweet Pea. “I love my friends too, but is it that big a deal?”
She nodded. “It is in his case. It’s of the utmost importance.”
“Why?” asked Plum. “Why is it more important for him to have friends than any of us?”
“As a being of chaos magic his mindset is naturally childish to assist it. He needs a little chaos now and again or he gets backed up and begins to lose control of himself. It’s why he was so out of control when he first got to experience being inside the twins. It’s also why his friends got hurt during his games. He didn’t have any restraint.
“Think of it like… a sweet little kitten. That’s his normal state. It’s how he usually is, harmless and fun to play with. However… when life becomes too stale he slowly turns into a ferocious tiger. His games become a little too intense and he grows rambunctious, putting his fun before safety again.
“Since Mayhem is magic we can’t just put a magic nullifier on him to keep him in check. That only leaves locking him inside of Discord if he gets too keyed up, something none of us want to do to him as it takes away his sense of agency.
“That’s the true purpose of this friendship exercise. He gets to work out his boredom so he maintains control, and in return he gets to grant your wishes to bring you happiness. Everyone wins.”
Tears slowly came down Mayhem’s eyes. “I can’t blame their parents for being mad at me. I acted horribly.
“When the game ended I found my friends still waiting for me, just happy to see that I was back to being the friend they recognized. I think that hurt worse than if they had just yelled at me."
He hugged himself, quietly sobbing. “I… I… I don’t ever want to become a tiger again! I want to just be a sweet little kitten forever.
“T-that’s why I need you… all of you. I want to use my powers for the right reasons and to make other ponies happy.”
He looked at them. “Please… please be my friends.”
The children couldn’t say they exactly understood everything they had been told. In fact, it was all a bit much for them to comprehend. Mayhem was unlike anything they had ever met before, his origins completely nonsensical from an ordinary pony’s perspective.
What they did understand, easily, was that he was in pain and in need of reassurance.
Flash quickly trotted over to give him a hug. He had experienced what Mayhem’s powers could do when used for good, and it was awesome. It was everything he could have ever asked for in a fantasy adventure, and he had absolutely no desire to push Mayhem away.
Sweet Pea was the next to approach. She hadn’t had her turn yet, but that wasn’t important to her. It wasn’t why she was doing this. Mayhem had forgiven her when she had insulted him. She felt it was only right to comfort him in return.
Plum and Chocolate were last, hugging him as well. They didn’t have a personal reason like the other two, but even if he was strange they still felt he deserved to be part of the world.
They all wanted to help him through this, and all that amounted to was just playing with him a little. It was hardly a difficult request.
“Thank you, everyone,” Mayhem said genuinely, feeling their support.
Stats
Page generated in 0.029 seconds
Total duration
1,130 users online
2,154,502 hits today, 2,814,898 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I love the ending of this chapter. That was wonderful.
Very sweet, and also very interesting. I have my own thought about Mayhem, chaos magic, and how he came to be.
He realized he was separate from Discord when placed in Pound and Pumpkin and experienced what they did. He can’t see or feel discord when outside, and same goes for the magic currently in Twilight. I’ve considered Discord the embodiment of chaos before, like the grim reaper is for death, but he also seems to be serving as a vessel. His magic was removed and he remained, but not acting chaotic nearly erased him.
Could more, if not all of Discord’s magic, become its own entity if placed into a new vessel where it experiences new things away from him? And if so, I would think plenty of activity is required for that to occur, since Twilight is currently in control, though she has little chaos magic and has used it only once, if I remember correctly.
And Mayhem came out a child after having children as a vessel. If the magic in twilight became independent, would it also be a child due to how little it is, or would it be adult but still have a power limit? Would it have a more mature personality? Maybe one like Twilight with a dash of chaos?
I am going to need time to digest all of this information.
9900405
Sure. Let me know what you think of this when you've sorted it through.
When I initially conceived of this idea of Mayhem's origin it was going smoothly... until I remembered Tirek stealing Discord's power. I thought I was going to have to scrap the whole thing. But I found a way to write around it and come up with a plausible excuse why Mayhem didn't show up back then.
9900264
You bring up some interesting thoughts. I like it.
Here's my thoughts on the matter.
I've sprinkled pieces of this information throughout the story. When Fluttershy is talking to Masky about him she calls him "an eternal child." The general idea there isn't that he took the form of a child because he shared the body of children, but the other way around. A child is most likely to be chaotic, so when he was formed he naturally took the form of one.
During the twins birthday party, while Mayhem is being chaotic and making snowball fights indoors Discord spent most of the party off to the side just observing. What I was going for there is, without Mayhem's influence, consciously or unconsciously, he's a lot more 'normal.' Of course Mayhem's absence doesn't render him anti-chaos, but he's just less likely to be chaotic.
In that vein you could say that Discord is mainly a vessel, and his magic controls him rather than the other way around, but I wouldn't look into it that deeply. Think of it less like Discord is possessed by his power, and more like the spoiled kid pulling their father by the hand to what they want. They can exert their power and say no, but sometimes it's just simpler to let them have their way to stop their fussing.
Maybe it's possible for another personality to form, but it's very unlikely. If it ever did happen it would have to be when Mayhem is out AND another being besides Discord is hosting chaos magic, as Mayhem's big issue is that he didn't realize he was different until he saw memories that weren't his.
I guess with Mayhem's community service that will happen on a weekly basis, but even if it's possible in-universe it's just something that's never going to happen because of what that would mean from an out-of-universe perspective. We're finally getting a real focus on him, learning about his origins, and then we're gonna throw in Havoc or Chaos or whatever name? It would feel redundant to just have another Mayhem type character without any of his character development.
I also just like the idea of Mayhem being a truly unique being. If there were more of them he would lose his uniqueness, and the Mayhem clone would just be a parallel of Mayhem's development anyway.
9901232 Alright. Thanks for the elaboration. I was just letting put some speculation I found interesting.
I would've thought that Mayhem taking a childish form may have had something to do with Discord's chaotic magic imprinting on the twins' childish nature. But then Mayhem's origins would get more complicated, because it could partially imply that Pound and Pumpkin could also be considered his parents. And then there'd be the part with Twilight having some chaotic magic potentially meaning that if she didn't use up that magic and just gave it back to Discord, would Mayhem begin to imprint on Twilight?
As for him being a separate entity, I could also theorize that it wasn't always like that. I think it's possible that Draconequus aren't immortal and do have a limited lifespan, though gifted with longevity. Perhaps Draconequus can asexually reproduce. At some point, the magic takes on it's own personality. And over time, is able to be separate from the original. That being said, is it possible that Discord's origins are similar in nature to Mayhem's? Perhaps Discord is also just a manifestation of magic and an incarnation of yet another Draconequus.
Also, I think I'm convinced that the word "Draconequus" is a non-plural noun like "sheep".
9902893
You bring up some interesting points also, but there is a problem with your theory. Mayhem always vanishes when he uses up too much magic. Discord remained even after being completely drained, so he can't be the product of another unknown draconequus.
Delta also felt like Mayhem only came out as a child simply because he was placed in the bodies of children, but i feel it's much simpler than that. He's a child because a child is most likely to be chaotic. I made a comparison to them about the whiny, spoiled child who drags their parent by the hand to whatever catches their fancy. The parent is always in control because they're stronger, but sometimes it's easier to just give in rather than see them go on a tantrum.
Of course, back then Discord willingly joined in because they wanted the same things. After Discord became good he still had a chaotic side to him, his magic always pushing him to act but he got better at not listening. If you look at the twins birthday party, while Mayhem is off creating snowball fights and everything is dissolving into utter chaos he's just off to the side observing. He does mention that he's doing it for Mayhem's benefit, since he doesn't want him to have to leave the party twice, but it does suggest that, without Mayhem's influence he's much tamer.