People will often say that protector-tech or not, we Vanguard are still human. That might be true for some of my colleagues, but not me. It was a gradual process, so I can't tell you when exactly I stopped being human, but I just am something different now. It's not better or worse, it's just more comfortable for me. My humanity was holding me back, so I shed it.
This is both philosophical and physical by the way. I have done so many changes to my biology and genetics, that not a single human cell or a single human gene remains. So no. Not every Vanguard is still human. But that still doesn't give them the right to look down upon others as lesser. Not going to name names, but everyone knows who I'm talking about. And if you don't, I envy you because apparently you never had the displeasure of meeting him.
- Vanguard Foxfire in an interview with Daily Propaganda, 2056
"Liebe Fahrgäste! Aufgrund einer Betriebsstörung kommt es zu Verzögerungen. Dear passengers! Due to disruptions, there will be delays."
The speaker system once more repeated that announcement, devoid of emotion, like usual.
I had long since given up being mad at the disembodied voice bearing the bad news and instead just resigned myself to being stuck here in this subway station.
Well I wasn't stuck stuck, I could leave whenever I wanted to, but I didn't really have anywhere to go regardless.
Most people had left, taking a subway in the opposite direction, hoping the blockade only affected line U2 and not U4. A futile effort according to social media.
Somehow there was an alien invasion happening in the middle of Vienna. And apparently we had people with superpowers fighting them?
I scrolled through Bluesky, trying to ignore just how much had gone wrong this day. Figures that the aliens would choose to attack right now when it's most inconvenient for me.
But at least we had some guy in some form of cosplay summoning copies of himself to fight off the aliens and some foxgirl going full Irelia on them.
I couldn't really make out details, because the footage was shaky and recorded from what seemed like very far away.
The announcement was repeated one more time. I laughed bitterly.
It was funny in a sort of morbid way to hear "We're being delayed because of a delay, sorry" over and over again.
At this rate I was never going to make it to the university. If aunt Luna was even still alive or there after all of this.
I genuinely didn't know what to do, if she wasn't there.
I had limited interactions with her growing up, but she didn't strike me as the kind of person to turn away her niece, if she comes looking for a place to stay while she's figuring out her life.
Oh right. I cringed. I would have to pretend to be her nephew. Wouldn't want a repeat of this morning.
At least mom had no contact with her, so there was no chance she could out me...
I was about to go do some more doomscrolling, when another announcement played over the speakers.
"Liebe Fahrgäste! Die Störung ist behoben. Wir sind bemüht, den Normalbetrieb so schnell wie möglich wiederherzustellen. Dear passengers! The disruptions have passed, we are trying to restore regular service as soon as possible."
I didn't think it was possible for people from Vienna to cheer at an announcement made over any sort of public transport PA-system, but here we were.
I hopped into the next train going in the direction of Karlsplatz after that announcement and - though considerably slower than on a regular day, I was soon standing in front of the University of Vienna.
Well the main building anyways. I figured this would be as good a place as any to start looking for her. Or her office.
After looking around for a bit, I found a list of names with numbers next to them. Probably a list of what room whose office was in. Sorted alphabetically by last name.
Dol, Dol, Don, Dom, Dor, wait hold on.
I recited the alphabet in my head, to make sure I wasn't misremembering anything, but no. The letter P was, in fact, between the letters M and R.
Which meant that Aunt Luna's last name - Doppler, same as mine - should be between Domero and Dormeninger.
But it wasn't.
"Can I help you? You look lost."
A voice startled me.
I turned around, to see a security-guard looking at me.
"Uhh yes, I'm looking for my Aunt's office? Dr. Luna Doppler?"
He shook his head.
"If she's not on that list, her office isn't here. You could try looking her up on u:find and see if you can find anything there though."
I thanked him and he wandered off, back to his security-post.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I pulled out my phone and googled "u find uni wien" and after ignoring some ads, I was looking at a search engine specifically for people teaching at University of Vienna, apparently.
I didn't know why this was a thing or if it served some other purpose, though the lecture-directory button did suggest that, but I was going to use it nonetheless.
I entered her name and it didn't give me a room, but at least it gave me an address: Fakultät Physik, Strudlhofgasse 4.
One look at my wayfinder app later, I was back on my way to the subway station I just came from, because the fastest way to get there was via a tram that stops there.
The layout of the station was a bit confusing at first, but after realizing line 40, the line I would be taking, stopped underground, I arrived at the tram-stop just in time to see a tram labeled 40 drive off. Great, I would have to wait 10 minutes.
10 minutes and two tram stops later, I found out that I did in fact not have to wait 10 minutes, because turns out lines 37, 38, 41 and 42 also go from Schottentor to Spitalgasse.
But regardless, I navigated my way to the specified address and started off by walking in the opposite direction of where I was supposed to be going, much to the dismay of google maps.
I eventually reached the faculty of physics building, entered, and stared at the walls in search of a list like the one back at the main building.
I did find one next to the staircases and this one thankfully did have Aunt Luna's name on it. On the 5th floor, apparently.
I considered taking the elevator, but after actually looking at the elevator, I decided it would be better and safer to just climb the stairs. Or the scaffoldings outside the building probably.
After what can only be described as far too many stairs, I eventually made it to the top floor of the building and I was only barely wheezing.
I decided to sit down on one of the benches to catch my breath and in the meantime look up the room-number on the map displayed on the wall opposite of the staircase.
Unlike google maps, this map came with a clear "you are here" marker as well as "the orientation of this map is like so" marker.
I would have to go to the right, follow that corridor around one more right turn and then the second to last door on the left.
'Alright, I hope she's still here for some reason.'
As much as I wasn't looking forward to pretending to be him again, not that I ever really stopped, I would hopefully at least get a place to stay for now.
As I rounded the last corner, one of the doors immediately stuck out. Unlike every other door in the building I had seen so far, it was colourful.
It had a progress pride flag stapled to the door. I didn't know stapling things to their office doors was something professors could do, but apparently they could.
As I got closer, I realized that the room behind the pride-flag door was the room Aunt Luna's office was in.
Which threw up about a million questions, like
1) Did that mean Aunt Luna wasn't straight?
2) Was that why mom's relationship with her was strained?
And most importantly:
3) Did that mean Aunt Luna would just accept me?
I moved to knock on the door, only now seeing a postcard in trans pride colours specifically, reading 'You are safe and welcome here' underneath the handle, and to my shock, the door just slowly swung open, as if it had only been leaned close and not really shut.
And as if everything else I had - apparently - learned about my aunt in these past moments wasn't mind-blowing enough, a woman, who was clearly Aunt Luna, was in her office.
She wore some kind of black jumpsuit that didn't really know whether it wanted to look like leather or metal, so it just did both, with a pistol strapped to her hip and most importantly fox ears on top of her head.
Holy shit my aunt is a superhero.