"Canis! We've got a meeting!"
I hear his dog get up. I can hear it wagging its tail, which… I think that's because it knows what I smell like and not because it likes clinical depression too. The Justice League's research seems to say that animals aren't directly affected, but I don't think we'll really know until mating season. Pets do better for the same reason that pet owners do, and with farm animals there's not a lot of difference.
Since most animals lack the higher, more
complex reasoning that the Anti-Life seems to rely on for its effects. Their worlds are smaller, simpler and more closely tied to their instincts.
I wait a few more seconds, and think about whether I should knock again. Dr. Mist passed around Dream Catchers, but I didn't see Canis pick his-.
EXTATIC JUBILATION!
The door slides open, and Canis… Looks like he's been working out? He's smiling, and there's sweat on his face. Actually, he looks kinda-.
...Okay, he should be glad there's no other New Gods around to have heard
that little outburst...
Did I just catch him j-? No. Not thinking it. Not thinking it.
"Kid Flash. We have a mission? Another broadcaster to take down?"
Let me guess, he enjoys capturing their collapse in his drawings later?
Because he's the only one on the team who can get close without getting overwhelmed. Superboy could handle it, but… His heat vision kinda takes out the whole block.
"Not this time. We're heading to Gotham. Mannheim's going there-"
Kon still not got a handle on the
wide-angle nature of his sunbeams, huh?
He grins like he just got real excited.
"-and we're going to spy on him when he does."
Don't look down, Wally. Just keep your eyes above his shoulders. And hope that his armour hides any
physical signs...
Canis nods, and… I don't know what he was hoping for. I don't exactly get why he didn't go over to Mannheim when this all started, but he hasn't held back when we've fought regular soldiers or the Justified.
"It will no doubt prove instructive."
By 'held back', you at least means he isn't
avoiding fighting them. Since I expect he only resorts to low-lethality moves under sufferance.
"Can I..? Ask you a question?"
Brute looks around and sniffs at me, then goes back to his water bowl.
Heh, doggy not interested in speedy-boy now that there's no promise of
immediate munchies, eh?
"You want to know why I do not serve Mannheim."
"Well… Yeah. Darkseid's obviously cool with him… You always said that Darkseid's your… Y'know-."
The joy of dealing with a Token Evil teammate.
"My master."
I.. nod. "So what's up with the whole… Thing."
Oh, this is going to be
good...
Canis shrugs, like he doesn't think it's a big deal. "Darkseid has not ordered me to serve this… Human. So I fulfil the last orders I received. The Anti-Life makes it easier to… Perceive them."
"But he's basically Darkseid in a human-suit. Isn't it the same thing?"
Huh. I suppose since Apokalips is bathed in this kind of aura all the time, this
does seem more normal to him...
He looks at me like I just let off in an elevator.
"No. Darkseid has clearly touched him, but that is all that it is. There is so little of substance to the souls of most humans that-"
Gee, what a
wonderful pair of images.
"Thanks, Canis."
"-the fleeting contact has turned him into something more." He sounds really contemptuous. "He is no more Darkseid than your shadow is you. No, no more than your footprint is you, than someone who wears your old shoes is you."
So... Mannheim's soul is more or less a thin veneer of vaguely Darkseid-shaped tinfoil, barely holding together? One good poke would pop his bubble? Can't wait to see it happen.
"Oh. Good, 'cause my last set of boots went in a charity auction."
Canis gets that distant look he gets when someone gives him an idea.
...Goddammit, Wally.
"Yes. He is Charity Auction Darkseid."
I… I don't know what to say to that. I mean, I know I never want to meet Retail Darkseid, but after… What Uncle Barry said about Apokolips, and what OL said about Darkseid… I kinda knew that anyway.
To be fair, OG Darkseid is less
Retail model than He is the hand-made and custom tailored
original mass production uses for a template. Like the RX-78-2
Gundam compared to its RGM-79
GM successors. (The GM is sometimes joked to mean 'Generic Model', after all.)
"So, are you..? Ready?"
Canis nods and grabs his mega rod. "Let us meet."
No need to, er... Clean up? Catch your breath? Wash your hands?
I step away from the doorway, and he strolls out with Brute right behind him.
And it-.
That hallway now feeling a lot
smaller now, I bet. Neither Canis nor Brut are
small fellows, after all.
Okay, look, I'm not saying that I want everyone to be as stressed out as I am. It's just that most people are… Stressed out and depressed by this. Even the ones who are immune to the direct effect of the broadcast aren't exactly turning cartwheels about human civilisation only carrying on because no one's got the motivation to finish it off.
But Canis is like this is normal. I think he's actually more relaxed than he was when the world was still working.
It feels like
home now. Which is kind of depressing in its own right.
I've gotta ask…
"Is this..? Normal for you?"
Oh-ho, going there, Wally? Better hope you're ready for the answer.
"I've lived in this mountain since-."
"No, I mean… The Anti-Life… Thing."
...Oh, yeah. Canis has been there for at
least a year, hasn't he? Plenty of time to settle in.
"I was born on Apokolips, where Darkseid's power is absolute and his nature manifest in all things and people. Be glad that you have the privilege of experiencing it while still yourself; few do."
"I can't imagine what that was like for you."
But in this case, there's still hope of it
ending.
"Much like this, but I was smaller and weaker. And I had fewer friends."
"So this is better."
It's different. I suspect Canis would not say it's
better.
"It is beneficial. I do not think I would have formed properly here. And I would likely never have known the glory of Darkseid."
"So all the misery and horror and the inability to feel anything… Good?"
More obstacles to overcome? Hence the upper-class being
hard assholes. Entirely
evil assholes, but that's the nature of Apokalips.
"Kid Flash, the human species has access to dozen of different forms of recreational drugs. Do you not?"
"Yeah?"
Now where's
this going?
"Depressants, stimulants and hallucinogens of all kinds. Some adversely affect your health, for a short duration, a long duration or permanently. Other don't, and once the buzz fade they leave you as you were before."
"Not what the PSAs say, but… So what?"
To be fair, it's easier to simply say 'these drugs are bad, m'kay?' to kids than try to explain the
subtleties.
"Have you ever consumed any?"
"No? I've never had-. I mean, aside from the… Speed formula."
Though to be fair, that's the kind of drug you only
need to take once to change your life.
"Your life has been more violent than that of most humans from your home city."
"Yeah, I-." Wait, does he mean, like, anxiety medication? Or some kind of sleep-aid? I guess that a place like Apokolips probably doesn't have drug laws. "I haven't needed anything."
Unlike, say, Comics
Roy Harper. The Seventies, folks!
"But you know that they exist. You could take such things."
"I don't think my parents would like it, but, sure. It's possible."
And even in a superhero world, most of the medicinal drugs would still have side-effects.
He turns his head back to smile at me.
"Then you understand. A world without Darkseid is like being consumed by narcotics, insulating you from the true reality we all live in but too frequently ignore. It is childish and foolish to prefer it…" He shrugs. "But perhaps it is not so bad to be a little childish sometimes."
...Uh, thanks, I
think?

Canis has a
strange mind...
I just… Stop. I stop in the corridor and stare after him.
That's-.
Yeah, that's the kind of statement you need to take a long time to
process.
That's just so totally…
Messed up.
Indeed, Wally, indeed.
But I don't think he's lying. I think that's how he actually sees things. And if this keep up…
A whole lot more people will see things that way when it's over.
If nothing else, the pharmaceutical companies will make a killing.

Or the suppliers of less
legal options.