Chapter Text
"There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing." - Aristotle
University sucks sometimes.
You work your ass off to pay for an education so that you can get a job so that you can pay off the debt you accumulated to pay for your education. It’s vicious.
‘Though, I suppose complaining about it isn’t gonna change anything.’ You walked down the abandoned streets of City Z, looking around, not exactly sure what you should be doing. You had a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other.
Your human geography professor had assigned your class a fourteen page paper on a city of your choice. It seemed a cruel sort of thing to do in a 200 level course you chose as an elective but here you were. This class was supposed to be your easy class but it certainly wasn’t turning out that way. The instructions were fairly simple, at least: you were to select a neighbourhood, note the important landmarks, social and public places and speak on the land use. After all that, you were to talk about the different ways in which we try to make cities more welcoming. It wasn’t that the task was difficult per se, it was simply a matter of actually starting it.
So, here you were, walking about in search of… something. Maybe you should have paid more attention to what the professor was saying last class, rather than doodling on the corner of your page. Still, starting projects was always difficult for you. Once you found your momentum, you were good to go but you mostly seemed to flounder about uselessly until that happened.
Now, normally, you would never think of going to a potentially dangerous place such as the abandoned area of City Z but you were determined to get a higher grade than that ass Chet. You chose this city thinking it’d provide you with an interesting perspective.
Chet was of the typical arrogant sort, with his ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude and his tendency to speak down to others. He might have seemed like a decent sort at first, but after you took a closer look you found he was artificial and shallow; the kind of person you walked away from regretting every interaction.
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to pick up on the fact you didn’t quite enjoy his company and so he tended to hang around you. He would sit next to you every class, treating you as if he was doing you a favour by providing his condescending insight where it was not welcome and writing rude notes about the genuine comments made by your classmates in the margin of his notebook. No, you did not particularly enjoy Chet. The worst part was that he wasn’t completely hopeless when it came to grades. He did fairly well for himself and, maybe it was petty of you, but all you wanted was to get a higher grade than him in this class. And so, here you were, traipsing around the deserted area of City Z in hopes of a good grade.
Breaking yourself from your rather unhelpful train of thought, you stopped your inattentive walking to take a look around. You stood in the shadows of buildings long left abandoned, the sun still high in the sky, peeking its head through the grey clouds as it slowly made its way to its brief meeting with the earth below. The weather had started cooling rapidly once October had hit and a chill was starting to set in, nipping at your cheeks and nose. Many of the buildings around you seemed to have seen better days, their windows shattered and, in many cases, large portions of the walls and roofs caved in.
Of course you had heard of the monsters that supposedly roamed City Z but you weren’t overly concerned about what might be lurking about. Truth be told, most of the monsters seemed to be after some insanely large goal like world domination or something so irrelevant to you, such as simple acknowledgement from heroes. In fact, more often than not, if you didn’t bother them they didn’t bother you. At least, that was your experience. So, no, you weren’t too worried. Those monsters could come at you if they liked but you weren't no fool! You still had your ace in the hole. You had pepper spray.
You'd be fine!
...Probably.