November 2, 2023

Our school had brought an artist called GREEN to perform on campus but no one had heard of them. We were given a pamphlet about Backpack Battles as we entered the meeting hall. After some extra seats had to be fit into the the hall, I was separated from the rest of my classmates and somehow ended up right next to the stage. The performer came onto the stage and started asking the audience questions about recipes and mechanics from the game. I didn’t feel like answering any of them despite knowing the answers. I started doodling on the backside of the pamphlet.

I had drawn a scene with two robot pandas dueling in the middle of a city among other things. A friend had noticed I was drawing and held it up to show the others sitting nearby. He later saw that someone else had drawn something similar and asked if I had copied them. Even though I was certain it was the other way around, I didn’t want to fight about it in public and gave him a “whatever” before continuing to doodle.

I woke up at a picnic table not far from the stage but everyone was already gone.

–

The three of us were in search for an underground parking lot but we somehow got lost in the underground streets. Despite being underground, the place resembled a wet market after business hours with its harsh lamps and wet surfaces. After several junctures we ended up at the airport. I tried asking around if anyone knew what the nearest parking lot was but they kept assuming that I was here to board a flight. “Come back when you’ve reserved a ticket online” they kept telling me.

One of us had called home to confirm that we had in fact made a wrong turn somewhere so we went back the way we came. It was already 10 PM by the time we got home and the stairways that went to the subway system were already shut. We had no choice but to stop for the night empty-handed.