Chapter Text
Choosing to apply for Gotham University’s aerospace engineering program was probably one of the greatest decisions Danny had ever made. Besides becoming the ghost king, of course. After donning the crown that he won from defeating Pariah Dark, he was forced to learn more about ghost culture and biology. Which meant that he finally realized that his rogues weren’t actually rogues. They were play-fighting with him. Go figure. As king, he finally took the time to talk with the other ghosts and helped them fulfill their obsessions without causing wanton destruction, leading to happy ghosts and a town that no longer needed protection. High school was a breeze once he no longer needed to fight ghosts at all hours of the day, and he got his grades high enough to apply for a scholarship for Gotham University’s aerospace engineering program.
Most people would think he was crazy for willingly moving to Gotham. However, those people probably weren’t used to the brand of crazy that was Amity Park. A normal college would have been excruciatingly boring compared to the daily chaos in Gotham. Nah, Danny wasn’t concerned about it at all. Daily rogue attacks would make him feel right at home. The only problem was his need for ectoplasm. As Danny learned more about ghost biology, he realized that not living in the ghost zone meant he needed to immerse himself in ectoplasm. Amity had plenty of ambient ectoplasm in the air due to the portal and all of the ghosts, so the necessity of an ectoplasm-rich environment had gone unnoticed. That wouldn’t be the case in Gotham. Clockwork had informed him that he would need to find some way to consume ectoplasm as the city had much less ambient ectoplasm than Amity Park. However, with all of the deaths that occurred in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country, there would be enough ambient ectoplasm that he only needed to supplement his diet. The easiest way would be to find non-sentient blob ghosts floating around the city. This wouldn’t be too hard, but it would require him to duck and hide around people to consume the blobs without standing out too badly. The other way was to eat raw meat. Since raw meat came from dead animals, he would be able to get ectoplasm from the meat. Except fresh raw meat was expensive. And Danny did not have the money to buy the freshest meat on the market in the amount that he’d need to eat. He also didn’t have the stomach to butcher an animal himself. So, cheap supermarket meat would have to do.
It also helped that Gotham was always cloudy. Weird thing to be happy about, right? Yeah, Danny would’ve thought so, too, until he realized that his ice core resulted in him being more susceptible to heat, which included disgustingly hot summers and the freaking sun. Gloomy Gotham still had some hot summers, but at least he didn’t have to worry about covering himself up at all hours of the day and carrying an umbrella around like some kind of vampire.
Danny chuckled to himself as he set his suitcases down in his room. Whatever could be said about the city, the dorms were pretty luxurious. The dorms were individual bedrooms with a shared bathroom, living room, and kitchen/dining room. At least he didn’t have to worry about keeping his roomie up with his tinkering.
Keys jingling outside made him pop his head out of his room curiously. The dorm entrance revealed a guy with black hair and green eyes pushing a surprisingly large suitcase. The man paused at seeing him, seemingly appraising him with a glance. “Hello. I suppose you are my roommate for the proceeding year?”
Danny blinked at the man’s proper speech. “Yeah, I’m Danny.” He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as his roomie fixed with him an intense stare. “I’m majoring in the aerospace engineering department. What’s your name?”
The other guy clicked his tongue but walked further into the common room. He pushed his bags off to the side before holding his hand out. “My name is Damian. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The guy turned back around and started bringing several boxes from the hall in.
“Nice to meet you as well!” Danny smiled. Although he was a little stiff, Damian seemed like a really nice guy. This would be great! “Are you fine with me taking the left side of the fridge?” He paused for a second. “Actually, do you have any food allergies? Like I should be careful about where I put peanut butter or something like that?”
Damian blinked at him in surprise. Danny wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. Was it really that weird that he was trying to be respectful of his roomie’s diet? “Nothing along that vein of thought, although I am a vegan.” Damian’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “That isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”
“Of course not!” Now it was Danny’s turn to be surprised. That explained Damian’s earlier surprise. People must’ve given him flack for that in the past. “Dude, more power to you. One of my best friends is an ultra-recyclo vegetarian. I’m totally cool with you being a vegan. I’ll be sure to keep any meat I have in the fridge to the far side so it doesn’t accidentally touch your food.”
Damian’s brows lifted in shock. “That is impressive. I appreciate your consideration.” His lips pressed together tightly for a moment. “Vegetarianism and veganism have become much more commonplace in recent years. However, I still manage to come across intolerable bigots who find my lifestyle to be… attention-seeking.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Some people, am I right?” He shrugged his shoulders before going back to unpacking. “Trust me, I’ve heard the same thing so many times from Sam.” Danny flashed Damian a wide grin. “You’ve got nothing to worry about from me.” And with that, Danny went back to unpacking his stuff. Damian quietly went back to his unpacking as well, but Danny noted how the other seemed to go from being annoyed and stressed to being much calmer. This was looking like the start of an awesome friendship!