Night 50: F-A Block Hallway

[nobleobliged]

[from here]Like a ghost story, Natalia told herself as one hallway opened into another. Reminding herself that these were the same halls she had been escorted through during the day had not served to ease the hairs on the neck, nor her quickening heartbeat. An adventure, a quest through haunted rooms to find the one responsible. That she was not,

Comments

[bullygeneraleva]

[[From West Wing, South Hall 1-B.]]

"So," Evangeline asked as they rounded the corner into the women's rooms block, "Where do these eager young ladies of yours await, hm?"

The thought of that flatly earnest doll waiting in nervous anticipation of Junpei of all people was enough to make her laugh. Empathy for the trials of young adulthood was something she was always going to be short on, having no matter how you looked at it skipped that particular stage of life.

[whos_da_man]

"Uh... gonna check their rooms. Didn't get a chance to get to the board today." Junpei wasn't about to tell Evangeline he'd been stuck in his room sick all day. Mostly sick. He'd felt much better later in the day, but the nurses made him stay anyways. "Just gonna jet real fast. Be back in a flash, babe

[bullygeneraleva]

Evangeline had indeed at least followed him enough to see which rooms he was checking; she was not going to go and let herself get ditched while he talked to whatever probably-vapid friends he had all night. Or the doll, which would have been even worse; her eagerness to martyr herself for Junpei's sake was immature in its own way, but far more interesting than simple schoolground chatter, which was all it took for Eva to classify her as not-to-be-missed. Not when the alternative was sitting out in the hall listening to her radio and the PA, anyway.

"Got dumped, did you?" Eva responded in English. "Let's go see if we can get into the basement."

The accompanying smirk fell slightly as she belatedly realized he'd spoken in Japanese, when normally she only heard English. What now...?

[whos_da_man]

Junpei opened his mouth to respond, because of Evangeline's tone, when he suddenly stopped. What they hell did she just say? It was English - he knew that - but...

Okay, whatever dumped was he had no clue but after a few moments, he was able to puzzle out that she wanted to go someplace below. That kinda pointed to the basement. So she did want to do what they did every night and fail miserably. Good thing she didn't say 'take over the world' because then he'd have to snicker.

"O...kay." He gave her an odd look. Why the hell was she talking in English? She could understand and speak Japanese perfectly fine. She must be messing with him.

Junpei was not amused.

[bullygeneraleva]

The clueless staring said it all. "We're going to the basement," she repeated in Japanese.

"Before you ask, I always speak English and it isn't being translated anymore," she tried to preempt any time-wasting questions. And, well, if it happened to impress upon Junpei the strength and quickness of her oh-so-incisive intellect that was good too.

[whos_da_man]

"I know that," Junpei replied, silently glad Evangeline was using Japanese. His English wasn't the best, but he wasn't going to tell her that. "It's not like I don't know English. I do go to school."

Her explanation at least explained why her Japanese sounded different, the slight regional accent being distinct from his own making it stand out to his ears, even if she was as fluent as a native speaker. He gestured for her to lead the way. "So how does the translating thing work, O Ancient All-Knowing One?"

[bullygeneraleva]

"I'm sure you can butcher your way through enough words to pass a class," Eva said dubiously. The fifteen years she'd spent in ninth grade had given her ample time to mature her generalized dislike for the activities of children into a specific and personal hatred for modern education.

Eva started them back out towards the halls, and met the question with a shrug. "I could tell you how I'd do it, but the mechanics of their system probably aren't anything I've seen before. They're doing a lot of work, though; there's lip synch and even the conversational lag from shorter or longer phrasings between languages is hidden or eliminated."

It wasn't impossible or anything, but you'd need to keep a lot of spirits or AIs or whatever balancing a lot of plates for it to all work out. "It's a lot of effort considering how flimsy some of the rest of the charade is."

[To Main Hallway, 1-West.]