[Console - Video]

[valevectorian]

[The feed opens up with a headshot of a guy at the console. Moppy white hair that barely touches his shoulders, red eyes, pale skin. An expression that seems to embody a mixture of boredom and annoyance. A black choker encircles his neck, with a black box connected to it and wires that go from the box to somewhere behind his ears. A person who doesn't know any better would likely mistake it for a fancy, if unusually designed MP3 player. He takes a moment to glare daggers at the screen before proceeding to speak.]

To start off, I'm only going to bother with three questions.

[The rest could always wait.

Accelerator holds up the pointer finger of one hand.]

One- I don't care whether you're someone I'd hate or tolerate; does the name 'Academy City' mean anything to anyone else here?

[He holds up the middle finger now.]

Two- I need to know if anyone's come across a girl named Misaka who speaks in the third person. She was with me right before I woke up in this weird-ass place.

[He holds up a third finger.]

And three...

[Deliberate pause. His eyes narrow, brow furrowing. He hates to bring this up in case it brings too much attention to the topic he plans to ask about, but it's too important to ignore for the time being.]

Three. What's the norm for supernatural abilities when you're not from here?

[He's felt drained since he woke up. No matter what the truth of the nature of this place was, his connection to the Misaka Network doesn't seem to be compromised. His power, on the other hand, seems to be barely functional, based on the few testing attempts he made when he first woke up. Something was up.]

Comments

text;

[skeletonenigma]

There's no one called Misaka here.

[Skulduggery knows most of the Foreigners by name, if not quite by face, and he would certainly know if someone was speaking in the third person.]

What supernatural abilities are you worried about?

text; assuming that was in English, he'll go ahead and switch to that.

[valevectorian]

Do you need to know to answer that?

text; yep all in English, sorry for not clarifying!

[skeletonenigma]

[Shrewd. More cautious than the average new arrival, it's good to see.]

It depends on the type of ability. Some are more fickle than others. The majority, however, return to full strength within twenty-four hours.

[valevectorian]

How "fickle" has it been for the psychic types?

[That's all the detail Mr. Skully's going to get for the time being. Psychic and magic abilities are the only two kinds Accelerator knows about.]

[skeletonenigma]

That, I'm afraid, also depends. The more passive abilities return more quickly. Active, concentration-required abilities take a little longer, and they don't always return at the same strength as before. If you can read minds, for instance, I wouldn't recommend trying to read Asti's.

[... Mr. Skully?]

[valevectorian]

. . . Isn't that fucking great.

No, it doesn't include mind reading. That's an ability I'm glad not to be cursed with.

[skeletonenigma]

Pity. The one thing Keeliai's missing is a mind-reader.

[But process of elimination, while slow and frustrating and heavily inefficient, is still a perfectly viable method of discovery.]

I should probably also mention that with Asti's state undetermined, the way magical abilities behave might be completely different from our experiences thus far.

[Trolling? Not quite.]

[valevectorian]

Guess you'll have to keep looking elsewhere.

And? What does that have to do with me?

[skeletonenigma]

You might not get your powers back at all.

[valevectorian]

[He twitches and sneers as he reads that on the screen. After a moment he sends the following reply:]

I have good reason to believe the "at all" part won't fucking happen.

[skeletonenigma]

[Hm. Intelligent, certainly, but willing to engage strangers on the consoles over a matter of pride. Was that low self-confidence masked by vitriol, or something else entirely?

Different from Bakura, at least.]

What reason is that?

[valevectorian]

I wouldn't have been able to use this fucking console in the first place, and I'd be covered in sunburn.

[skeletonenigma]

[Passive protective abilities. Also interesting.]

Unless this world's sun is different from yours. Would you mind letting me know if your powers do return in full? I'm trying to establish a pattern.

[valevectorian]

[True, Accelerator is assuming that the sun here emits UV rays that operate on a close enough set of laws to what he's used to that his automatic UV ray deflection - one of the only side effects of his ability that have any presence under Normal Mode - would work as expected. But even if it that isn't the case, he can at least confirm that somehow he can manage to get reception to the Misaka Network. The mechanics behind that... well, who the hell knew. But oh well. He can worry about that later.]

If I feel like it.

[skeletonenigma]

Thank you.