In truth, the Professor walked through life barely noticing much of anything. Always with his head in a book, or locked away within that wagon working on his studies. He wasn't intentionally rude, or even standoffish. But for over twenty years James had forsaken just about everything else in pursuit of honing his craft. A few people managed to keep the bookish man tethered to the present. A few like his old friend Kristoff, his bedfellow and undead companion Eva, and his apprentice too. But beyond those three Blackstone barely noticed anyone else.
So when Kieran apologized for bothering him, and spoke of a vested interest in someone named Jack, it took a moment or two to register just who the Scot was talking about. "Jack...of course." A vague memory of the young man flashed in the Professor's mind, though how Kieran was connected to Jack was completely beyond James. Actually as he pictured the young man in the wheel chair, Blackstone realized he hadn't actually seen or spoken to Jack in quite while. Not since that night when they used the magic to bring Zion back into the past.
Hearing that Jack had ended up in a coma the first time around was real news to the Professor. Though learning that the second trip had left the young man weakened made perfect sense. After all, he knew that the scientific law of the conservation of energy applied to magic just as much as it did to anything else. And energy couldn't be created or destroyed, but only changed from one form into another or transferred from one object to another. So when Jack used his power to bring them all here, that energy had to come from somewhere...and in the young man's case it had been pulled directly from him.
A new bit of news was presented as Kieran spoke of having unlimited time on Earth, yet instead of posing any number of the questions already swimming around within his active mind, Blackstone remained silent. Simply sitting there and taking it all in; processing the information as he puffed on his pipe, and as the smoke wafted up into the air the scent of honeysuckle was there instead of tobacco.
After the request was finally made, to tell the Scot what he knew of time travel, James paused to think it all over carefully for a moment. Only to finally nod his head slightly before when a decision was made. "Speaking with you on the subject of time travel is perfectly fine. Though perhaps it would be easier if you could tell me what you know of it already. If only to establish a baseline for how much you understand. That way we can avoid a crash course in matter you're already familiar with, and jump right into the meat of what you wish to know."