Xaviers!

Seeing as the buildings on campus were being shut down Sean lead Hannah to the only coffee house he'd been to in Maldon. Whoever owned it was in the Christmas spirit and had decorated it perhaps a little too much, but it seemed comfortable otherwise with a fireplace and book lined walls surrounding the usual allotment of tables and armchairs.

"This is pretty nice." the ghost walking next to Sean says. "I can see why you'd like it."

Sean queued up to order coffee like a proper British man

"It's all the books isn't it?" Sean asked with a slight smile not really considering at that moment that other people might be made.. uncomfortable by him seemingly having a conversation with himself.

"I mean... little bit." she chuckles.

People do seem to notice something is weird, but it's Maldon and people are at least a little more accepting of it than elsewhere. And there's invisible mutants, right? So Sean talking to somebody they can't see and ordering coffee for two by himself doesn't come across as completely strange.

"I used to lead camping trips for kids," Sean said leaving out the part where he had learned all the wilderness survival skills in order to find hidden magical places out in the middle of nowhere. He led Hannah to a table by the fireplace once the coffee was done.

"Oh? That's cool. You do have the facial hair to pull off outdoorsman." she nods as she walks through the table to sit down on the chair. Not like she can pull it out. How she's actually sitting down is up for debate, but the contradiction in what she treats as solid and what not doesn't seem to occur to her.

"I also have a wardrobe with what most would call too much flannel," Sean smiled he looked at the coffee he'd gotten for Hannah and his smile faded slightly. He reached out and traced a series of runes on the outside of the cup charging it with magic and making the cup sturdier. "Can't really do much for the coffee.""

"Do you or have you ever felled a tree with an axe?" she asks with a slight chuckle before trying to pick up the coffee cup and being pleasantly surprised when she manages to close her fingers around it. It even feels vaguely warm in her hands. "Oh wow... It worked!"

"I was hoping it would. Not sure why it works or would work, but it does and maybe I'm too tired for the why," Sean smiled. "And I have felled a tree with an axe while wearing flannel and suspenders."

"So more of a hedge wizard then?" she teases.

"You're not wrong," Sean laughed. "Though I always thought of hedge wizards as covering themselves in animal blood and drinking mushroom tea."

"Eww..." she chuckles. "Why would anybody chose that over books, dry as they might be."

"Magic does weird things to peoples minds?" Sean asked. "Or maybe it's that only people with bent minds who can do magic. I imagine the hallucinogenic mushrooms also help. Probably also doesn't help that Hogwarts doesn't exist."

"How did you learn how to do this kinda stuff?"

Sean leaned back and drank some coffee as he gathered his thoughts.

"Over the last five years or so? A great deal of digging through the stacks in old libraries, online auctions, and other places. After getting them I work through them to figure out if the book is full of a bunch of bollocks or not," Sean said, "Or making deals with a person who I know has already verified books. Before that a great deal of experimentation on my own without books. Just manipulating reality willy nilly really"

He paused for a moment again and drank more coffee.

"I've been able to use magic since I was a toddler though. My parents will tell guests stories of me using it to blow up the kitchen, play rooms, and the like. It's probably why I ended up having a maid full-time to make sure I didn't burn the house down. But suppose I just instinctively knew magic, the words, how to build a spell, how to modify that spell to make it work more efficiently. Almost like a voice in the back of my head guiding me through the steps I needed to follow. Saved me on several occasions when a book had a flawed spell or like in the house while we were fighting vampires."

"Natural nature wizard. That's pretty cool."

"A sorcerer," Sean said, "Or at least that's what the dungeons and dragons books I looked at when I was little said."

He paused for a moment.

"I was more than a little naive as a kid, which is probably why the dog never forgave me for trying to turn it into a dragon."

"Did you? Manage to turn it into a dragon, I mean."

"No," Sean said blushing in embarrassment. "He grew scales and well, lets just say it worked very... incompletely. Took me most of the day to fix it. He never looked at me the same ever again after that and wouldn't stay in a room alone with me. Can't say that I blame him."

"The poor thing..." she chuckles. "He musta been so confused."

"Confused, sad, and a bit angry especially when he breathed fire for the first time..." Sean said, "Was something of a challenge catching him when he tried to run away, but it worked out in the end."

Sean covered his embarrassment by drinking more coffee.

"And your parents were cool with all this? They didn't freak or anything?"

"They thought I came into my mutation early and they are mutants themselves, so they 'understood'," Sean said, "I kept the more... mystical bits to myself. Didn't think they'd believe me if I tried to explain it to them. They are, or at least were, both scientists and the idea of magic being real would probably give them a migraine."

"Not knowing what's happening can be pretty scary..."

"At first it was frightening to use my abilities," Sean said, "But it always felt... right. Like it was what I was supposed to do. When I was touching the skeins of magic around me all was calm, peaceful, like..."

Sean struggled with finding the best words to describe the feeling he was trying to get across.

"...like sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold day."

Probably not the best words.

"I think I get it. I don't really understand what's happening to me, but even just the fact that there's some sense to all this feels... reassuring? Even if the answer's mostly just 'It's magic.' right now."

"And at least 'it's magic' doesn't mean we can't look into it," Sean smiled. "Just wish I had more... actual answers for you."

"After everything I've been through, I guess I can be a little more patient." she smiles slightly.

"Yeah, that would give you a certain kind of... perspective on things, aye?" Sean asked.

"Sure, let's go with that, it sounds less depressing." she says with bit of a forced chuckle.

"Kind of pathetic that that's the highlight of my existence right now though, isn't it?"

"Suppose," Sean said, "It has been the focus of every conversation we've had too. Can't say I know much else about you really."

"Yeah... Not really sure I do either. I feel like I've been a bunch of different people and I'm not really sure who that makes me." she admits, not really looking at Sean but instead studying the cup she's holding intently.

"All of them and none of them I suppose. Like a brick isn't a wall, but a wall is made of bricks," Sean said lamely while watching Hannah stare at her mug.

"In practice that's... mostly just confusing." she says, forcing bit of a chuckle. "I'll figure it out. Cherry-pick my way through it, yeah?"

"The psychology end of this is out of my depth," Sean said, "If you need something summoned from another plane, lightning bolts thrown at something or need to know how to splint a leg while lost in the wilderness? Sure."

"I'll keep that in mind. Doubt I'll need to splint my leg, but maybe I still enjoy hiking. I know I have a couple times..."

"Remember any places in particular?" Sean asked.

"Vaguely? I remember liking the woods near Canterbury..."

"I've only ever hiked the Via Francigena there," Sean said, "We could drive there though. So long as you don't mind a little winter hiking."

"I don't mind. I don't really feel the cold anyway."