Mach sort of sat, sort of splatted on that chair as blue eyes blue watched the other man fiddle and wiggle about with the mess of mechanical components that lay strewn on the bench before them. The schmooze touted a pout as he suckled lazily upon the e-cig that he'd been given since his real smokes could 'potentially damage' the sensitive electronics of all the robots about. The damn things didn't even vapor! They just....gave him nicotine, which really was only the fourth most important things cigarettes did for the man! But then again he was imposing on the fellow that at the moment seemed to be ignoring him as they worked, snagging a few things here and there to investigate them before dumping them in favor of scrutinizing something else. Taking another buzzing drag a tick of annoyance crossed the schmooze at the elongated silence. "Did you fucking hear me!?"

The man paused at the growled comment, a goggled gaze cast back but by the thin manner of those lips the look was not pleased. "Yes, I did hear you. My auditory reception and processing abilities are quiet capable, particularly after my own a-"

"Than you should answer me rather than....than screwing with whatever the hell you're fucking with." Fingers pinched at the tension that nestled beneath the bridge of his nose, a tired sigh leaving him almost immediately after he snapped at the man. "S-Sorry Reg, just-"

"It's a new type of small recon droid with sabotage and subterfuge capabilities. Able to infiltrate and perform deep investigations in spaces as small as six inches....or will be capable of such once I work out it's problems." Pressured, those words pushed out without inflection of emotion or concern for what had just been said to him. And with those words the schmooze deflated once more feeling the lethargy of depression come over him as this was one of the few people in this land that he could talk easiest with. Another sigh escaped him as his brow came to rest upon the chair back surrendering to the fancy of the madsci's broken way. "You are right though. It doesn't sound like she took what you told her or the actions you did into consideration when she reassessed her judgment of you."

The schmooze blinked as the man suddenly veered back onto the topic he'd been pressing for the past hour. "Wh-wa, er, r-right!" I mean, I just never could win wi-"

"It also sounds like you stayed the same as you were too." A blunt observation as the man picked up some random, wibbly limb and looked it over before grabbing what looked sort of like a voltmeter and began probing said metallic appendage.

The stunned silence which took the hunter didn't last long before sputtering outrage erupted. "T-That's not true! I was changing! I was making an effort!! I-"

"Yes, you did. And it's on her that she did not acknowledge that. But you were still secretive. You still held things back for her 'protection' and you hide behind the fact that she never asked"

"W-Well she didn't! She stayed willfully ignorant on her own accord."

Touching the probe to two points the odd metallic limb suddenly came to life and started to grasp and squirming at the madsci's hand, clawing a few cuts into the man's forearm before he removed the probe with an approving nod. "She did. Which is really crummy of her and sounds as though she doesn't have an excuse for such other than wishing to be so willfully ignorant. But that's still not an excuse for you to have kept your cards so close to chest, now is it' I'll answer: no it's not. A lesson you both could use to heed."

A bitter sneer crossed the man. "What, so your saying this is my fault' Just like that..." That sneer turned into a dirty 'tch' as the man hit the back of the chair in frustration. "It's always my fault, yeah' Every fucking time things get brought up it's always on me. I'm the bad guy. I'm the asshole. Fuck, I know the whole sick, sad story of that, believe me. I'm Mach after all.....but to hear that even from you! Gods damn it!"

The evident agitation prompted the slightest raise of attention from the man's work as he tested another limb with that probe eliciting the same response. "I'm saying it's both your faults for missing the cues of the other. Seriously, you don't think she feels the same way' That every time something is brought up she feel's she's being blamed for it' A common pattern really....no one likes to admit blame for something and would rather project a feeling of persecution rather than guilt. From my understanding you both do this."

There was a stunned blink at that. "W-Wait, what....why' I mean, why would she" I..I never-"

"The same reasons why you felt you were always being blamed of course. Lack of understanding of her position, lack of communication, lack of empathy. You say that she didn't understand you? Well, to me it sounds that she said the same sort of things about you. So tell me, can you say that you really so understood her?"

"W-Well...I tried....I ch-"

"Did. You. Understand" Changing is one thing, understanding is another. You can change without understanding something Mikleo. It bothers you that she didn't understand, didn't make the effort, but can you say you truly did?"

Another weary sigh left the man, a slight wince of pain at his recently broken nose still hurt. "I....I thought I did.."

"Than just as she you failed to convey such. And so the two of you kept hurting each other." The man set the limb down picking up some other strange part that didn't respond to the same touch of that probe as the others. This warranted a lift of brow from the man as his head cocked to the side at the cheeky.....thing.

For Mach's part he just sighed as he lulled once more along the back of that chair, a deep melancholy coming over him as he considered the madsci's words. Minutes would pass in blissful silence by Regi's reckoning before the schmooze lifted his bruised features back to the man. "Well, what about that shit the crazy bitch Lillith was telling me about how she did this all for me. I mean, what kind of bullshit is that when I made it clear time and time again that I wanted to be with her....but she just wouldn't believe it?"

Even though the man was wearing multi-lense infographic goggles Mach could almost see the veritable eye roll as the madsci took some of his focus off of his work once more. "Ah, the woman that was kicking your ass before you shot her with a dispel spell....total dick move, by the way....and then whom you went drinking with and proceeded to bed all in the same night." Regi paused a moment to consider all this. "You know, I wouldn't share that story with too many other men. I couldn't care less one way or another and I still feel like I should be kicking you one in the scrotum for that bit of charismatic magic. But I digress. You're right, that is Serah's bad. But then after you left you went and did the very thing she figured you would do."

"W-Well, what was I suppose to do!" She said I had no future! Said she couldn't be with me because....because..." The man's teeth ground some at the very thought, the plastic of the e-cig creaking beneath the crush of teeth before an exasperated sigh helped vent that tension. "But if that was just to drive me away...

"It worked, did it not' Remarkably well."

Blue eyes blue shot the madsci a tired look. "Y-Yeah....it worked....but-"

"It was cruel. Horrible even. A literal slap to the face of any regular person and so much worse for hunters who are much more profoundly touched by such given their sterilization and limitation of life" The man spoke frankly as he turned what looked like an eye about before his attentive gaze.

"Y-yeah....I mean....damn. That's some serious crap man."

"Hmm." A shake of head as the eye in hand was dropped for another. "Bad enough to make you go off and purposefully hurt her by becoming exactly that which she said she hated about you?"

"I did....didn't do it because of....that is..." The hunter deflated as his breath leaked from him in flabbergasted fits and starts trying to deny what he knew held a bitter truth.

"That's not the sole reason, of course. Likely not a major or even a minor one. But there was still some vengeance to be had. It's written all over your face....from the beating you happily took form the hands of that teenaged girl."

"GLAMOURED consort of demons with other magics girl!" The defense a little too energetic as the man groaned at his still tender ribs. "But still, what she said....what she did" That wasn't right....not in the least! She all but told me that I....I got no reason to try to be Eli....that I should just be 'Mach.'" Bitterness dripped from those words as the schmooze plucked the e-cig from his lips so as to deposit anywhere else obviously done with the insult to smoking.

Of course such tones held no sway to the other as they didn't even flinch away from their work. "Or else she was trying to show you how your un-invested nature could hurt. Granted, teaching someone something about their behaviors by preying on their greatest feelings of failure and destroying all that was positive rather than, say, speaking rationally about it does seem almost psychopathic in nature....and that has to mean something coming from someone who's typically called 'mad' on a daily basis."

Mach just stared dumbfounded as Regi laid out that possibility. "W-W-w-wait. You think she was trying to teach me a lesson!" I mean, the brat said she was doing this as some way to make me happy....but you think-"

"It's probably both if we follow Occam's razor." Pausing from his work to look up at the schmooze, the man frowned lightly. "Sadly, the truth is what it is regardless how ugly it may well be. What she did. What you fell back on in kind. It says something about the both of you....and why this relationship has ended as of this time. It would seem the both of you need to grow, get past that which hinders each other, and decide what it is that you two truly want." The hunter fell into quiet reprieve, his mind reeling from all the different possibilities and thoughts and concerns raised by the madsci's candid observations. Whatever they were they just wore down the man that looked more and more defeated by what doubts and demon's whispered in his ear. "But....but I love her. Those words carried weakly from the schmooze, a meek denial against that which was looking more and more true.

"Just because you love someone doesn't mean they are good for you. This pointed out as the other began assembling bits and pieces into something more whole. "But that can be applied either way. Because what you are was not good for her either....or so it would seem she believed such. She just acted upon it. That was either foresight or veiled maliciousness....I would go with both. Problem with people " they are so many shades of gray. Nothing is ever binary. Never just one or zero.

"So you're saying I should talk to her....try to patch things up an-"

These words drew the madsci's attention away from that mess of slithery metal. "What' Get back together" No. No, no, no. You should most certainly not do that."

Mach paused, a tired gaze lifted to the man as a brow lifted. "I....shouldn't' But, didn't you just say that all of this was some misunderstanding of the grandest proportions" A gods damned farce?"

"Yes, I did. Misunderstandings that only grew more severe while you two were together in the capacity of a single mating pair. It speaks to underlying problems that need to be addressed and questions that the both of you need to consider and answer. But none of this can be accomplished together....not as a bonded pair. That would just lead to another collapse of things."

"But....but how are we going to work it out if we're not together" If we're not striving for a life together?"

Regi sighed tiredly as he set down that misbehaving mess of appendages, cut up fingers rising to lift the goggles up so as to cast a silvery and red glowing gaze to the hunter. "Maybe you shouldn't' Maybe the two of you aren't meant to be together in that capacity. You yourself said that your friendship was always sort of 'rocky' when you were courting her....a time frame which I feel obligated to remind you that she kept you pushed away during as well. And this has only continued into your relationship but then the two of you were suddenly so concerned with 'making things work' that you forgot what problems lay beneath."

"S-So that's it....I should just give up on us" Give up on her when...when..." The man's teeth ground silently as those words stuck in his throat.

"The two of you should learn to be friends. To open up to each other in a way that you could not do while you were together. Take things slowly....learn of each other and help each other grow and develop together. And while you do that the two of you should explore your options, explore what it is each of you want, and what it is that prevents you from attaining your goals with the other."

A sour 'tch' left the man as he shook his head. "But we don't have time! That's the thing! I-!!"

"Mach! Sit up straight for me." A sharp interrupt as the madsci seemed to change gears without the aid of a clutch....or transmission.

Mach blinked at the sudden order spoken with authority. Despite himself he sat up some. "W-Why, what does thAAH FUU...!" A hand shot to the burst of blood and pain that blossomed from his shoulder thanks to the sharp talon of the octo-robot which now lodged within, launched from the wiggling limb still held innocently enough in Regi's hands. "YOU GOD DAMNED....AAARG! I'm going to fucking kick your ass you stupid, motherfucking-!"

"Does that hurt" The question posed simply in the face of the hunters torrential rage.

"WH-WH-WHAT" Are you FUCKING kidding me!" Of course it hurts you jackass! You shot me with a knife!"

These words drew an approving nod from the madsci which only boiled the schmoozes blood more. "See. So you are alive. Now. And you will be alive later. And you will continue to be such until such time that you are no longer as such."

"W-Well yeah, that's the point, isn't it' I'm alive, and then in two years I-AHG!" A sneer held on the man as he pulled that bloody piece of metal from his shoulder, the offending point thrown aside angrily. "I won't be....I-"

"You have to live for the hear and now, not live for your death. Amid the pink ones possessive insecurities and paranoid self-preservation she likely could not compete against your living for your own death."

"W-What' No, I...I was living for our future, for-"

"Which is unfair to her that she was your only claim to the future and not simply the life you two shared. You didn't live for the future, you were living for her future. Securing things for her for when you were gone but that's the thing....it always revolved around you being gone."

"N-No....that's not....I mean...." Mach struggled with his thoughts, his words in the face of that pain and the cold truth of the others words that rained upon him like lead. What could he say against that' How could he deny that which hung so heavily upon the man as his very own cross to bear"

"If you are to have a future with another, you must live. To live is not only to enjoy the here and now....but to truly settle in without fear. You said Lulu....the purple haired one; you said that she claimed pinkie would follow you to the depths of your grave. You're afraid that she would be tormented all along the way, that it would break her. But that's the rub. If you two are truly making the most of it, living rather than living for the end, than it would just be two years well spent. And while you suffered only three months of her not living, always angry she was just living for her end how could you assume she would want to do that for years" You said yourself it was difficult to be with her as she just 'waited for death?....but you never had to suffer the long route of that because she died. And she came back willing to try again. But you don't have that luxury. Just as you tried to brace for her permanent end you can't assume anything will come and save you. You will die in two years. The question is how you live those last years?"

The schmooze squirmed beneath those words that just stood uncaring before him, mocking him with a truth he understood but had no idea how to apply for fix. It all made him feel foolish and incompetent at once. "But...she never said....never....never hinted that..."

"'A change in a person's will is something personal....she can't have it done for her, she's gotta accept it herself' are the exact words I believe you told me when I proposed doing a brain augmentation to improve her outlook on life. The same holds true for you too. Whether she did or didn't try to illicit such a change in you, it's inevitably up to you to decide what happens. If you accept life or not. She can be there for you, but she can't force you just like you couldn't force her. She stayed with her convictions, literally, to the bitter end. Her's was just closer in proximity..."

The man gripped at the back of the chair as a lifeline to the world that just spun away from him, the truth presented being a bitter truth. Minutes rolled on in the troughs of self loathing and doubt until those blue eyes blue finally lifted once more to find Regi still watching, a stolid if uncaring beacon of a strange hope. He knew the madsci didn't....couldn't care for his plight, not really. It was an almost physical impossibility given how long they'd been unshackled but even still the hunter couldn't help but think there may have been a kindness in that artificial gaze. "C-Can't cut a guy some slack can you..." A wry and tired smile curled cruelly on rugged features.

"The universe is a hard place, cruel and vicious even. But it can be beautiful....if you let it in. Your body is a bag of ever rotting meat atop a skeleton of re-purposed stone all formed from the corpse of stars fated to return to that very mix. But as commonly fabricated as all of that is even including the very ether that makes up your 'soul'; the spell that is you, the very essence of who 'Mach' or 'Blackjack' or 'Eli' is solely unique....one of a kind. It is cast once, molded in a particular manner until it finally collapses. But how it shines while it churns against the entropic dark." The madsci smiled thinly at that thought, the odd gesture directed to the broken man. "Overwrought perhaps" I suppose I could augment your mind to have a brighter outlook..."

And just like that the magic was lost as a dirty smirk rose up in the hunter, threatening to roll into laughter that just seemed so wholly inappropriate for all this shit that stood before him to deal with. Of course the mad grin that now graced Regi's angular cut features just pushed the man over the edge, the laughter rolling forward like the waters from a broken levee. It took the schmooze a few long moments before he could regain control of himself with a shake of head. "N-No Regi....t-that won't be necessary..."

"Are you sure" It would take less than an hour?" An excited pressure now finding the man's words.

"Yes, I 'm sure."A quick response as Mach could feel the dangerous territory which he threaded by letting the other wander too far down that road of madness which he so lived in. Sobering some the man sighed as he sat up from his slouch, fingers moving to press at the still tender hole that had been made in his shoulder. "So....grow huh?"

The madsci had returned to their pet project, applying pieces here and there to the little robot. "Yes. You need to learn to live, she needs to learn to accept, and you both need to learn to trust."

A brow quirked at the others words. "Learn to accept?"

Goggled gaze lifted slightly. "Yes. From what I understand she simply could not accept you as you are. She loved you for who you were but wished for you to be something different, conformative."

A mild smirk escaped the hunter. "She wanted me to be exclusive. That's-"

"Not a problem for you, never has been I figure. But she always figured it was. You are a giving and caring individual....it is your very nature. Some could even consider it foolish yet you've always raged against such a conformist view. And her take on it is a duality that she needs to overcome. She loved you because you never gave up on her even when she was little more than a lost cause at that point mired in her own selfish bubble of 'protecting others.' And when she had you? She hated that very trait. It's preposterous but the truth nonetheless. Suppose jealousy is a hard emotion to overcome when one is so big hearted yet insular.

Mach considered this silently, his jaw working. "So....so what am I suppose to do about that?"

"Become her friend....truly. Let her see your devotion to your friends....and how it doesn't hold a candle to that which you have for the one you love. But you must be willing to live....and you must be willing for her to see the monster that your devotion can breed. She needs to understand both the good and the ugly which is nothing more than different facets of who you are. But then I suppose that mean's you'll need to stop trying to separate such yourself. That you stop seeing yourself as 'Elly' or 'Mercado' but simply as you. Annoying little habit that you hunters have....trying to 'hide' behind your namesakes when they are little more than extensions of who you already are."

Silence filled that void as the man weighed the others words. "And what if she can't accept that?"

"Then that is something for you to consider when you decide if it's worth it to try and pursue a romantic relationship with her again." A simple shrug. "Same as the knowledge that she will willfully hurt you to push you away or that she'll punish you with your fears so as to change you....or that broken as she is she still makes your heart leap and purveys your thoughts constantly."

A tired smirk escaped the hunter as he eyed Regi finishing up those final touches to that cold and lifeless robot which sat upon the bench before them. "That simple huh...?"

"There's nothing simple about it. And you may die in the time it takes for you two to fully understand each other enough to make a proper go of things. But if it is meant to be than it will happen. You will change. She will change. And the two of you will fall in together for whatever future may exist. It may not be a long or happy one....but you'll still have it together. And if not as pair bonded mates" Then as deep friends....if she herself would even want this. Veritas Amara Libertas, it is what it is." Prodding the motionless robot a slight hint of a frown pulled across the madsci's features as it rewarded his work by adorning that lab bench as a paperweight. "Hmm..."

Readying to pull a limb back off the other was surprised by a new set of hands pushing into the mix as Mach had finally dragged himself from that chair, moving over to the project. "You're solution is elegant....magic is not. Here....let me see." Mach looked tired, broken, and defeated even though there was the barest hint of a warm smile upon him as he set to work on the small robot. Lifting up some of the panels he began wordlessly altering some of those hidden glyphs and spell patterns built into device until finally something clicked, the eight limbs jerking rigid as if they'd suddenly had a breath of life breathed into them. "That should work....but it'll need tuning. There is a lot of....static....in the relays."

For Regi's part they just watched in quiet fascination as the hunter worked, a touch of a sly smile pulling on the man as he saw that creature suddenly move if just a little. "You're moving too. Does that mean you have an answer?"

Those words brought a wary smirk to the man, head shaking in tired disagreement. "I haven't a fucking clue to be honest. But....I think you're right....I do need to keep moving. Growing. And hopefully together....if she's willing." A soft touch of a frown at that last part, fingers instinctively curling over the hard, familiar form of that cell phone in his pocket which had told him none to recently the worrisome news that he was blocked from contacting the pink haired ones number.

He'd screwed the pooch and she was angry, he understood that. But if anything his little meeting with Lillith had taught him that maybe he was too; that all this had gotten under his skin. They were both hurt and raw from all of this....and for completely different yet interwoven reasons as was made so clear from the detached madsci. He'd have to tread carefully, bide his time until things calmed down enough where he'd not go flying off the handle when provoked. Because deep down, past the hurt and the pain and the anger the man knew he still loved Serah....even if he knew he couldn't or may never be able to really be with her. Maybe that made him an idiot....maybe that made him greedy....but the heart was a large and complicated thing. And she was a part of his, would be so in some manner or another until the particular spell that was 'Mach' finally collapsed returning him to the dust of the cosmos

"Well, good luck on all of that. If you change your mind about the brain alteration don't forget my offer, yes?" The madsci's words were wry yet distracted as they were already pushing past the hunter to look at what adjusted had been made to the small robots matrices. For Mach's part he just smirked as he stepped back from the bench, moving now for the curtain of beads that lead out to the store front. The man almost made it before he words once more caught his attenion. "And hey, remember: there are others that will stand with you. Why not practice a little change for them as well" You never know what may come out of the mix....but maybe it'll be good....maybe it'll try to rip your face off. Beautiful and vicious!"

Mach simply smirked as he offered a backhanded wave back to the man before pushing through the veil of beads, hand moving to his cell phone to check the time. It was still pretty early in the day and he had a hell of a lot on his plate to think on and contemplate. So much swirling around in his mind, trying to find purchase and placement....and being stone sober was not the way to go about such. And so he made the decision to go get a new shirt, maybe put on some makeup to mask the worst of the bruising, and head over to the Inn to catch a drink alone while he considered when and how he should attempt to approach Serah so as to try and start the process of healing. Because she wanted to be his friend....and from there, well, who knew?