Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 59: Game Over

"I swear, you don't know what you're missing," Liz Allan said to her friends Kitty Pryde and Gwen Stacy, before a look of sublime joy crossed her face as she took another bite of her strawberry ice cream. Kitty was enjoying a cookies and cream ice cream, while Gwen had settled for vanilla, and the girls were sitting on a park bench as they enjoyed a break. They were at Empire State University's outdoor quad, having come to watch a 'battle of the bands' competition between several musical groups made up of ESU students, enjoying performances from up-and-coming talents like Three Dice Night, Undead Boxcars, the Waters Of Sylph, The Shooting Stars and Vintage Brokenhead.

"Strawberry is gross," Gwen shot back, as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I mean-ugh, what's that smell?" she asked, as her nose picked up a particularly strong scent of body odor.

"It's probably those guys," Liz replied, pointing out a group of hipster-looking students who were walking by the bench where the girls were sitting.

"I don't get it," Gwen frowned. "Why is it that so many people these days go out in public looking like they just got out of bed?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they don't shower," Kitty pointed out. "Would that explain the vintage clothing that looks like it came from Goodwill?"

"Well, vintage clothing has been popular for a long time now," Gwen replied, reminding her friends of the fact that they had all made good use of vintage clothing before, "but so many of them just look like slobs and hobos. I mean, we have our limits!"

"You guys don't get it," Liz interrupted them. "So many of these hipster-types see themselves as independent-minded, forward-thinking progressives who take pride in not adhering to the culturally-sheltered mainstream and embracing the counter-culture, including indie rock, intelligent art and cultural deconstructions."

"…Seriously?" Gwen asked in disbelief.

"I'm just repeating what they told me," Liz shrugged.

"I suppose that's what they like to tell themselves," Kitty muttered with a scowl. "I'm sure that the immigrants who are struggling to get by enjoy having to share neighborhood space with a bunch of pretentious, arrogant, slumming douchebags who appropriate their cultural fashions, pretend to show solidarity with them when they can afford decent meals and showers, make a big show about being independent thinkers when they're all a bunch of conformists in their own subculture, congratulate themselves on being superior to the rest of society, live off of Mommy and Daddy's trust funds and produce shitty 'art' while looking down their noses at anybody who dares to actually like anything that's mainstream or popular," she finally finished.

Liz and Gwen just stared at her.

"…Where did that come from?" Gwen asked in amazement.

"…Sorry," Kitty said in embarrassment. "I just get annoyed by people who make such a big deal about how different they are from the rest of us, and how that supposedly makes them special. It gets really galling when they don't have a care in the world, compared to what some of the rest of us have to deal with," she pointed out.

The girls resumed eating their ice creams in silence as they mulled that over. Gwen knew full well what Kitty was talking about, given the harassment she'd had to endure for being a mutant. Gwen's boyfriend, Randy Robertson, had also alluded to her the dangers that could come with being black in America.

She felt rather guilty for ruining the positive feeling they'd had just a minute ago, and so she decided she should try and change the subject.

"So, how was Harry's first semester as a Film student?" she asked Liz, referring to Liz's boyfriend Harry Osborn. Long under the thumb of his abusive father, business tycoon and supervillain crime lord Norman Osborn, Harry had been freed from his father's control ever since Norman had suffered permanent crippling and brain damage during a fight with Spider-Man earlier that year.