Xaviers!

Natalie turns her head to follow his gaze, obviously confused at the strange pause.

As far as Natalie can tell there's nothing out of the ordinary going on anywhere in the direction Sean is looking at.

"Do you see the creepy woman?" Sean asked softly.

"No," Natalie says, not really sure what to make of this. She begins sifting through the phone signals in the area, not listening in, but looking for them around the place Sean seemed to be looking.

There's plenty of signals all around them and for all Natalie knows Sean is looking at somebody at that table. With a bit of sorting through it she can pretty much sort out which devices belongs to whom. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary aside from Sean, really.

Meanwhile the woman doesn't seem to move at all and, aside from her behavior, she doesn't seem particularly creepy. Maybe a bit disheveled, but she's not alone in that, really. Still, something about her just feels off. And then it hits him. Something Natalie probably would have noticed immediately could she see her. Around her neck she's slung some old headphones that he's maybe seen in images or, hell, museums. Flimsy foam covers over speakers that are basically just connected by a slim band of metal. They look like they belong to one of those old portable cassette players but nobody is that hipster, right?

"She's wearing a tape player," Sean said, "I haven't seen one of those since a museum back home had an exhibit on..."

Sean had a sudden realization ans paused again to open his senses to the flow of magic around them.

"Hrm, not enough programming in one of those for me to pick up," she says, "at least not from here. But I don't see anyone like that."

Sean can definitely feel something. Of course on campus there was always the sensation of the Lighthouse that pulls on his magical senses like a maelstrom, but aside from that there is some kind of presence. Cold, like an early morning mist and as ephemeral, yet strangely familiar. It feels almost nostalgic in a way that doesn't quite make sense. The impressions are wrong, not his own. Like a familiar picture viewed through a filter, or maybe the other way around. A favorite song performed by the wrong band.

"Odd, feels like she's... out of place. Like a puzzle piece that just doesn't fit properly," Sean says before standing. He begins walking towards the woman drawn towards her by the way she seems out of sync and yet familiar.

Getting up and walking towards her inevitably means she's out of view for a moment as Sean rounds his table and steps out into the path between tables. She disappears behind one of the people she's sitting next to and once Sean gets close enough that he should be able to see her again the spot is empty.

Natalie's attention turns more towards Sean at this point, watching him a little uncertainly.

Seeing the woman has vanished again Sean is tempted to reach for a magic and a spell forms in his mind, but he holds back for the moment. Instead he looks around the room while walking back towards his table.

The woman is nowhere to be seen.

Natalie frowns, sniffing anyone taking or posting pictures in the XUB at a moment to see if any of them had picked up the person Sean described. She continues to watch Sean with some concern though.

Sean sits back down at the table and sighed before reaching for his cup of coffee. He scans the room over his cup of coffee before looking at Natalie.

"And now you know why mages are frequently considered mad," Sean said, "It's because sometimes entities enjoy taking the piss."

"I'm checking. Maybe someone else saw her," Natalie says, somewhat distracted.

There's a couple of people who were taking pictures. Selfies, friends and so on. In none of them is anybody who would fit the person Sean was talking about. A couple of them are kind of weirdly distorted, like the phone was on vibrate and got a call when it was taken maybe. She thinks. There's a lot of devices around and sometimes the impressions she's getting from the machine are a little sketchy just from spreading her attention out so much.

She snags the images with the distortions, sending copies to her phone. "There's some weirdness, but it could be just hiccups in the network and there's a lot of signals around here."

"Could I take a look at the photos?" Sean asked. "Might be nothing, might also be a distortion because of her."

She nods, setting her phone on the table. It unlocks on its own and brings up one of the distorted images. "Might be nothing. Wouldn't be the first time I've had an image come through distorted."

If Sean squints he can tell himself that he can see the face of the young woman in one of the pictures in the way that one can interpret the image of Jesus into burnt toast. It feels a little more substantial than that considering it's a specific person and not some generic bearded guy, but at the same time, tilting his head even a little makes it just look like pixels smudged around and maybe he's just trying to see something.

"Like you said it might be nothing," Sean said after looking through the pictures. "It looks like she's there, but it could just be wishful thinking on my part to not look like a complete loon, aye?"

"No, I get that. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do with the image. Pixels are either there or they're not. Best I can do is see if we have something at the Point that can make guesses about what might be there. And I've been kicked out of the Point for a bit, so it might be some time before I could do that."

"Could be nothing, but if she appears again I'll be taking you up on that," Sean smiled. "You got kicked out of the point? You try to reprogram the Danger Room or something?"

"The Headmistress finally realized just how much time I was spending out there and decided I needed some 'time off'," Natalie says, supreme irritation leaking from her voice. "All the interesting stuff is out there anyway."

"You must have been spending quite a bit of time there for the Headmistress to notice," Sean said.

"End of term, nothing else to do, so why not? Not like there's a lot to do out here now that winter's settling in."

"Other than sitting inside hunting apparitions? Not much," Sean smiled. "Been spending most of my time at the point as well, but the Headmistress stays away from my workshop."

"She's not a big fan of non-scientific explanations, so that doesn't exactly surprise me."

"It did at first, but most people tend to react how the Headmistress did," Sean said before drinking some of his coffee. "My workshop is probably a bit too 16th century for her anyways."

"She's a big fan of robotics and automation," Natalie says with a nod. "I can't say I disagree, but I'm aware there's likely things I can't readily explain. I tend to believe mostly that's because I just don't know enough. And on some subjects I'll never know enough, so best to just leave those alone in some respects."

"Quite," Sean said, "Magic is just like studying anything else. Just with far fewer reliable sources of information."