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Quote1 I die, Horatio. God knows I tried as only a chimneypot can try, but they don't want strangeness and unpredictability in their lives. They tire of it so soon, though they never tire of tedium. Sooner or later, they'll wish they'd listened... Quote2
-- Mr. Nobody



Appearing in "After the Cabaret"

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Synopsis for "After the Cabaret"

John Dandy has been released from the basement vaults of the Pentagon, and now, changed by his visit to the abyss, he seeks to destroy the Brotherhood of Dada.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nobody is in the midst of a campaign for presidency, and his penchant for the absurd and meaningless has won him mass appeal - especially from those who have been affected by the hallucinogenic effects of Albert Hoffman's Bicycle, which he had strapped to the campaign bus. He makes the crowds wait for him while he eats dinner with the Brotherhood before his big speech. Robotman and Josh Clay of the Doom Patrol have found their way into the waiting crowd, and are unsure of how to proceed. Cliff would rather avoid an outright fight, particularly since he believes that the Brotherhood does have the right to free speech. He intends to give Mr. Nobody a chance to speak, and then decide whether or not to trash his bus. As Cliff and Josh wait, a newsman begins interviewing the crowd as to their opinion of Nobody's campaign, and those opinions are worrying.

The Brotherhood's last supper is a meal of mashed up newsprint, with printer's ink to wash it down. Reluctantly, they follow Nobody's lead, and eat it all, though they wonder where the Toy - a new and expected member of their group - is. As dinner comes to a close, Nobody says a prayer over the table, and then kicks the table over. As Nobody prepares to make his speech, The Love Glove confronts a woman who has been manipulating his behaviour, and insists that he will not betray Mr. Nobody as she demanded of him - not in exchange for sex. In response, she shoots him through the chest.

Nobody's speech is a rallying cry for rebirth - without changing anything at all. While he promises to do nothing but destroy everything, while leaving it all completely untouched, he declares that he has already attained the office of President. Rather than do as presidents do, he unveils the remains of Painting That Ate Paris and explains that a world of mystery and novelty resides within it. He suggests that the crowd wish very hard, and try to dissolve the boundaries between the painting's world and this real one. At that moment, John Dandy gets the go-ahead, and he crashes through the bandstand to attack the podium.

The government's agents throw teargas into the crowd, annoying Cliff and Josh who struggle to avoid being caught in the stampeding crowd. John Dandy focuses on Alias the Blur, shattering her mirror. As that mirror shatters, the actress Ilse Kraus - whose continued survival in coma had been the only thing maintaining the reflection's own existence - flatlines. In response, Agent ! rams the tour bus into Dandy, sending him flying.

Searching his pockets for Vitamin B3 to counter the bus' effects, Josh and Cliff try to push toward the stage while the soldiers prepare to shoot down Mr. Nobody with sniper rifles. Agent ! takes several bullets, collapsing in a pool of blood. Before he dies, a small model airplane flies out of his chest and surprises the soldiers, revealing that he had the element of surprise within him all along. The last thing he needed to know before dying.

Thinking he has killed all of the Brotherhood but its leader, Dandy makes a run for Mr. Nobody, and trips suddenly. Number None has struck again! Angrily, Dandy rips one of the many faces that surround him at all times out of the air, and hurls it at Nobody. The face affixes itself to his body, and to Nobody's great upset, he transforms back into his old self; Eric Morden. Now a man, he is susceptible to a skewering by Dandy. Suddenly, though, the Love Glove shoots across the stage, and knocks Dandy in the chest. With Dandy distracted, Cliff climbs up onto the stage and sees to Morden, who is dying. He begs to have the face removed, and to be put back into the painting, so he can heal. Obliging, Cliff carries him toward the easel, only to see the government agents set the painting on fire.

Trying to prevent Nobody's last wishes from being carried out, Dandy leaps at Cliff, who easily tosses him at the snipers on a nearby rooftop, knocking them all back. Dying, the Love Glove struggles to apologize for his role in the failure of the plan. Unfortunately, he dies before receiving forgiveness. Nobody himself is dying too, and bemoans how close he had come to succeeding - and warning that one day, those who turned away from him will miss him. Before Cliff and Josh's eyes, he crumbles away to dust. Arriving much too late, the Toy appears on the scene, wondering where the rest of her team mates are.

Later, a young girl skips onto the now abandoned scene of the disaster, and discovers a scrap of the painting, taking it for herself.

Trivia

  • The use of Thorazine by soldiers is to counter the psychotropic effects of the bus, given that Thorazine is an anti-psychotic. Josh Clay searches his pockets for Vitamin B3 (aka Niacin) for the same reason.

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