text: Roo’s Journal January 12, 2021 I met up with Dingo for lunch today. It was...honestly I’m not sure it was the best idea with how I’ve been feeling lately. Dingo always could tell when something was off. It’s that stupid superhearing of theirs I swear, they can tell your heartbeat is different or that your breathing is different. There's got to be some explanation for it. They caught on to me not too long in. They had just finished talking about a promotion, apparently, Solar Man was impressed with them tracking down a lost kid in the Rockies a few days back and moved them to Search and Rescue operations. Makes sense, despite the claws and teeth they were never great with the whole “combat” thing. Anyway, I guess I must have...changed my expression or something when the topic came up or something like that cause pretty soon they were just staring at me. They asked me what was up and I tried to dodge the question. But they wouldn’t drop it. Said they knew something was up, that they could smell it (Note to self, look into scents connected to emotional state, might be how they do it). Eventually got me to crack on the “Feeling like a joke” thing. They...they just kinda let me vent to them for a bit. About my frustration with work, about how low I had been feeling lately...eventually, I started talking about Genus, and then they looked a little upset. Genus wasn’t pleasant for us. It wasn’t pleasant for any of us who were left in that butcher’s shop since we were kids. The things they did to us, we don’t like to talk about it. Too many bad memories I guess. But they let me keep going until they could tell I got it all out. They told me about this...ID guy, they go to. Apparently, he’s some kind of specialist in Superheroes who need psychological help. Told me they go to him for help with their PTSD and a few other things that happen to kids you grow in test tubes. They want to make me an appointment with him. And all I can think about is whether or not I should let them. I mean...I haven’t heard of any other hero doing this. Would signing on for counseling make it worse? I mean if the guy’s not secure, if people find out, I’m not just a joke of a hero, I’m a joke of a hero with mental issues that might make me seem unstable. But what if it helps. I mean. There's no risk in trying at least right? I might take them up on it. Anyway, I need to go back to work. The Mayor’s doing some...big...something downtown. I think it’s a toy drive. He wanted to get some kid-friendly heroes in so he called in the Super Pals and Flexo invited me to come along. Might be his attempt to get me some exposure but well...the Pals aren't exactly the most respected team on the block either. They’re the kid-friendly little guys club and Flexo tries to make the less popular heroes look good whenever he can. I’m gonna go to it. Maybe going out for something that doesn't involve Super Criminals and schemes to reverse the State’s gravity and float it to the moon or something. Besides, it’s not like we’ve got anything major going on hero wise, I can take a few hours off. I mean, is the world gonna end if I just make a public appearance? Who cares about the joke hero. The Martyr and the others will be able to handle things without me for an afternoon.