"Yes, that's a phone," she confirms with just a glance toward the object. "Oh, that's because of your gloves. They're designed to only take input from skin and certain tools, and only a few materials don't block use."

She leads to an apartment building...it's certainly shabby. No real effort made to hide that, either. But hey, it's a place. The apartment Mercedes and her brother share is up a couple of floors. They can talk more about magic and such once they're settled and have tea.