[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

[valevectorian]

Is that right. And where is this "Midnight Hotel"?

[whitelotustile]

It has a few entrances. Here. let me just get the directions. I don't suppose you can read... Chinese, I think? The consoles don't translate text.

[valevectorian]

...

[During that notable pause, his expression clouds darkly, annoyance practically visible radiating off of him.]

That depends on the characters used. I'm Japanese. I can also do English, French and Russian.

[Anyone who knows Chinese would probably know how Japanese kanji were borrowed from Chinese and then simplified. Depending on how complicated the Chinese was, he may or may not be able to BS his way through them.]

[whitelotustile]

I'm afraid I don't come from your world. The language is one of those peculiar coincidences.

But, perhaps it would be better if I read the directions. I had to make guesses as to how to write the street names, since they're all in kedan.

[valevectorian]

...That would be better.

[While he doesn't bring it up, he's still very much processing the bizarreness of everything the old man's words imply. You can see it in the way his brow knits together even further while he doesn't let up on the mix of annoyance and confusion on his face]

[whitelotustile]

Do you know where the console you're at is?

[valevectorian]

Near the border between Metal and Central.

[He doesn't specify which of the two sectors it was in, but "near the border" ought to be good enough.]

[whitelotustile]

All right. Here are the directions to the entrance in the metal sector.

[it might sound like a maze, but Iroh is trying to get the simplest route, that takes mostly the main streets.]