Arthur at least seems a bit more relaxed. There's a touch of humor in his voice, though it's self deprecating.

"Ah, see, there we are! I have an uncanny knack for accidentally doing all sorts of things someone ought not be able to accidentally do. I once blew up a building trying to open a door."

Oh Dog but he wishes that were hyperbole or bluster. He really hadn't meant to do that, he'd just been trying to get out alive. But he thinks that, in present company, he won't be judged too harshly. If it's even taken in seriousness.

She seems quite nice.

"But really...it's just something I have a bit of a hard time wrapping my head 'round properly. My degree's in engineering, I know gadgets and machines. Things I can feel and see and just look at and figure out. Can't do that with magic."

He can't hold a spell in his hands, run his fingers over it and understand how it works by how it's made and joined together. It's all ephemeral and esoteric. With machines, it all just clicks. Magic is like grabbing at smoke. That might also do something terrible if you grab at it the wrong way.