Rude Boy, Badman' both monikers that most perfectly captured the willful machinations of the hunter for the past few days. Mach had taken to a binge of alcohol, cigarettes, and violence among the rabble that he was most familiar; an attempt to escape or work through whatever foul thoughts and mood that hung heavy upon him. There was no glib smile to be had, no pretenses to that ever friendly nature of his as he tore it up in the seedy parts of the Docks district or kicked pricks among the slums and drug hovels of the Marketplace. It wasn't like he was seeking death or anything; but he was seeking that feeling, that frenetic energy that came when you laid yourself on the line and let the chips fall as they may. He hadn't forgotten the mess that he had just been in regarding a potential end to his existence, but at the same time he certainly wasn't going to let such dictate his life. Hell, if he let every little brush with death scare him then he'd not take another step forward until the end of his days.

A lazy drag was taken from the cigarette that burned lazily between his lips, the subtle tone of copper mingling with the Tabaco and Clove as the blood from that split soaked into the filter. Tattered hands with knuckles near worked down to bone patted about his person tiredly, a familiar rectangular patch fished out from his breast pocket looked over as it crushed emptily between his fingers. Shit' it was looking like he'd have to make himself at least a little presentable to go buy another pack, maybe another bottle of rum while he was at it as those clarion calls from the abuses and injuries to his person were starting to get loud enough to be bothersome. But for the moment he was just going to enjoy the cool of the brick wall against his back, he head thudding against the solid surface as he let his gaze roll skyward.

"What the hell are you doing man?" A weary sigh laced with smoke escaped him as those blues swam along the sea of stars. He'd not really been keeping track of time, the minutes and hours left to blend into an indistinct soup. Only the ease which he could see the hell he was raising acted as some demarcation of time into discreet and flowing moments, a sign that the world still marched forward even if he was just swimming around in circles. Another puff would kill that smoke, the smoldering butt let to fall under heel as he finally built up the will to push away from the wall with a groan. He didn't really bother looking where he was going as he set off in some direction he vaguely recalled seeing a convenience store prior; rather, he left his gaze heavenwards among the clouds as his mind was.

It took him a moment for that streaking brilliance falling through the sky to register in his tenderized and pickled mind. Blues ticked along its course, a distraction from his throbbing mind and knuckles as well as something, anything else to consider than the thoughts which had been plaguing him as of recent. "Star light, star bright?" He smirked at that muttered phrase, a bit of local lore that rattled to the forefront of his mind. He'd heard about it from some of the children that had stayed up late to see his return from his fundraising for the orphanage during the Beltane street fair - a superstition that if one where to make a wish upon a falling star then the wish would come true. Of course he thought the notion sort of laughable, the thought that any deity or whim of the universe would be swayed to act upon a prayer spoken during such a specific set of circumstances. No, he rather more saw such as a veiled attempt to give people some hope when they were bad up for such, some excuse to feel a little less rudderless in the passage of their existence.

A chuckle escaped him. "Fuck" when did I become such a jaded bastard??" A self-depreciating smirk tugged upon tender, rugged features; at very least he already knew the answer to that question. Those blues watched as the light finally petered out, the flame extinguished as whatever fell finally gave up to ghost. Mach watched the now stagnant sky for a moment or two longer in before a random bit of humor bubbled up. "I wish' for a gin on the rocks." His hand raised, palm to the heavens as if to await his divinely ordered drink. A minute passed with only the dull activity of the crickets to break up the monotonous silence before finally a smirk escaped him. "So I'm agitated, I'm jaded, and I'm an idiot' great." A roll of shoulders as he started off into the night once more, his patience for such frivolities obviously worn out for the moment.

- - - - -

It was growing apparent that not only had he gone the wrong way to find a convenience store, but the way he had chosen was the worse one ever. A grumble escaped him as blues ticked along the bone pale beach that he found himself upon illuminated by the sickly light of the double moons which hung above. He regarded the slowly lapping waves of the dark sea whose waters looked like some sludgy monster beaconing hapless travelers to their doom; a moment or three passing before he felt something just snap.

"FUCK!!!" He yelled out, a kick of sand as he raged in the serene calm. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, god damn fuck! Fuck me! Fuck this place! Fuck it all!" Another kick, and another, and he even crumpled up that empty pack of cigarettes from his pocket and chucked it out to the insulting sea with the mortuary lighter still in it; just aggravated at the world in general. And when he was finished he'd just flop back onto the sand with a muted thud, gaze cast skywards as he took deep breaths both to recover for his tantrum and to try and calm the rolling storm of emotions within.

He could barely hear the world around him over the rhythmic thrum of blood coursing in his ears, the ragged flow of breath. But as he calmed so did the sounds of his cage like body dwindle, the serene quiet of the world around him returning....though it wasn't nearly as quiet as it should have been. Blues swerved as he sought out an out of place sound that hadn't been there before, was that clapping" There....there wasn't anybody who witness that was there!" He groaned inwardly as blues fell upon a lone figure standing atop of a pile of craggy stones which traveled off along the shoreline. He'd almost smirk at how crappy his luck seemed to be at this moment but really he had very little mirth at the moment. Instead he focused what little positive energy he could muster into a wry little grin, hands raising in a 'you caught me' look.

"That was a pretty spectacular breakdown, yeah?"

Those blues snapped wide as something jerked within his mind. He turned an incredulous look to the lone figure as he sat up, one hand falling upon his caster. No....that was impossible....he knew that tone very, very well.

"Gin?" His tone was unbelieving, bewildered even but then that was natural right' The man, Benjamin Reeves better known as 'Gin', was dead. "No....no. Who the hell are you to be mocking my friend!" This was issued in a growl, his fingers sliding along the familiar rubber grip of his gun.

"I'm not mocking Gin man, I am Gin....or something like that?" The man sounded uncertain himself even though he looked the part well: amber eyes and slicked back brown hair with that Guido doorknocker of his all atop of a well cut scrappers form decked out in linen. It was the Gin that he remembered, the Gin that he'd raised hell with for ten years prior, had confided and lived life with....the Gin that had the better part of his torso turned to ground meat by a rail gun bolt a month prior.

"Don't fuck with me man! I swear I will end you and end you painfully, I guarantee it." He drew his caster now, leveling it off at the man's head.

"Hey! Hey! Look, I'm as lost as you are! I don't remember shit other than hearing you saying 'Star Light, Star Bright' or some sappy bullshit like that! Next thing I know....boom, atop of some rocks and your pissing off at the world!" He held his hands up in a placating manner though the man didn't seem terribly concerned about the gun pointed at him.

There was a blink or two as he listened to the man's explanation, gears working to come up with a solution. A pregnant pause stretched out before something clicked. "Shit....really!?" A grown escaped him as he wasn't sure whether he was really lucky, really unlucky, or just being dicked around by some power or another for giggles. Gin gave him a bewildered sort of look. "Pernokov's Shadow..."

And now that look turned inquisitive as they racked their brains for information on that particular phenomena. A moment or two would pass before something lit up, a snap of fingers in a serendipitous manner. "Pernokov's Shadow! That shit that happened to Huggy while hunting them Basilisks in the Ederlvian Ruins!?"

And now Mach knew that some part of the universe was just screwing with him as he let out an exasperated sigh. "...I wished for a 'Gin on the Rocks'...." An exchange of looks, a wry grin shared between the two men in a moment of silence before finally they burst into laughter.

"Oh....oh geez....'Gin on the Rocks'...!" Gin gasped for air as he laughed, near doubling over. "Th-the universe mu-st really hate you right now!"

For his part Mach was glad he was still sort of lying about as he wasn't sure he could stand and laugh as he was....not with those tender ribs that he was sporting. "Y-y-your telling me!!!" A cackle escaped him, wild and unbridled by the sheer ludicrousness of it all while the other was finally upon their knees, gasping and pleading for air. It would take a good minute or two before that uproarious laughter would finally die down, giving way to the serenity of the night that cloaked them. Both men had been reduced to tears at the bit of poor humor it seemed though Mach was a little more composed after it all at least.

And when the last of the laughter finally finished the two men shared a knowing look, a subtle nod was exchanged before Mach leveled that caster once more at the other and pulled the trigger. There was a crackle, a whir and a pop before the air right in front of the gun burst aflame. The miniature gulch of flame spun fast like a dervish, condensing down before one final bang sent it on it's way. In an instant the destructive ball made contact with Gin's head....or would have if the man were truly there. Rather the flame simply passed through the image of the man, sailing out over the sea.

Gin didn't look terribly surprised at this outcome but then again Mach knew he didn't look any more shocked himself. "So you are just some filled in afterimage..." A tired sigh escaped him as he holstered that caster once more, form slumping against the sand as he let his gaze return to the stars above. Was he disappointed" He couldn't say....or perhaps more it was something more to add to the 'doesn't want to say' pile.

"Looks like...." Gin sighed as he sat back now upon the rocks, getting comfortable which was a weird thing to watch as Mach knew the man didn't really exist. He wasn't sure exactly how or why this image had been created here and now, but it was. "I do kinda wonder though why here and now. I mean, yeah, you wished for it and yeah, someone's fucking with you....but still, not exactly simple magic at work here."

All he had for the apparition was a roll of his shoulders. "Planet tied to a transdimensional magical snarl that may or may not be semi-sentient. Looks like I drew the weird card today."

The other man smirked. "Weird indeed. This has got to be up in the top twenty if not top ten of fucked up."

"Seven I think....below the fiasco with the mermaids and the harpies with that false god thing." Mach's tone took on that lifelessness once more as he talked shop with, for all intents and purposes, himself.

Gin quirked a brow. "The mermaid thing is six now" I thought that was five?"

"Five went to some big demon monster thing being summoned by a cult of soul puppets using an orgy..." There was a mild pause as he thought. "Modern stuff with an 'unreal' friend here....postmortem for you." Added for the benefit of the apparition though he wasn't sure why he did such.

"I see....shit, that does sound wild." A chuckle escaped the man. "Sounds like you're making yourself some real fucked up friends as usual man..." A smile pulled upon Gin as he shuffled now to produce a pack of smokes. This only garnered him a sharp, jealous look of those blues though the man ignored such as he lit up a cancer stick. "That's good Eli....real good." His tone grew softer as he smiled. "But I gotta wonder why you're looking like a shit sandwich all by your lonesome right now."

Mach crossed his arms beneath his head as he stared up into the expanse of stars above. "Just....thinking, yeah' No need to drag anyone else down with me for that."

Gin took a drag off his phantom smoke, ambers watching as the hazy cloud he exhaled faded into the gloom of the night. "Thinking huh' Right....I haven't seen you this bad off since that time you claimed your namesake....and before that it was after Elena..."

Mach felt his features pinch involuntarily, his jaw tighten at the mention of those two events. Usually at this point he'd have gotten defensive about such but then what was the point if he was simply conversing with a shadow of his own creation. A shadow of his best friend. "Yeah....well..." His voice carried off in the breeze as he found he really had nothing to say against that. Of wait, he did. "Fuck off."

Gin smirked. "Ain't happening buddy. You asked for a Gin on the Rocks and some asshole set of circumstances decided to give you just that....and apparently right when you needed such." The man took a drag off his cigarette. "So whats the matter Blackjack?"

A snort escaped him as blues ticked back to the apparition. Why was he bothering to talk to something he knew wasn't real" Was it because this little delusion so wore that face" "That." He stated simply, opting simply to play along with things rather than question the weird too much. He could deal with the consequences of such later and he couldn't deny that he felt perhaps just a little better having this one, shadow as they were, to sound board off of. "The game....it's just wearing me a little thin recently, that's all..."

Gin's amber eyed gaze looked feral yet warm in the moonlight, a half smirk up him. "The game..." The man shook his head before letting his gaze follow Machs to the heavens, silence befalling the two as they retreated to their own thoughts for a moment. "So damned fucked up....creating glass monsters....feeding stupid fuckers to the abyss until they grow up broken and then offering them a carrot to march merry to their graves." The man spoke with a poetic lilt, smoke escaping him in meandering fits.

For his part Mach simply offered a roll of shoulders to that, another jealous look cast to that cigarette. "I know, I know....that's our lot. Sign with the devil and you loose the chance to bitch about how shitty your deal is. Look at you....hopeless fucker gets a family and is almost out when you get turned to fertilizer." A thin smile forced upon his face. "But you gotta do what you must....kick the pricks as you must until you punch it and hope all your best laid plans turn out for the best." He hadn't realized he was clenching his jaw until he heard the unnatural tremble to those last few words. A tired was pushed out, trying to force that well of negativity that clawed at him out with the exhaled breath for gods knows the umpteenth time tonight.

"So that's it..." Gin spoke quietly as he took one last drag from that cigarette before casting the rest out to the hungry sea. "You know what? Fuck the plan." There was an uptick of brow to that, blues turning to Gin. "You heard me right....fuck the plan. Biggest god damn joke we've convinced ourselves to believe in man."

"Your rather cheeky for shadow..." Mach chuckled mildly as he dismissed the apparitions words.

"Yeah, I was Gin afterall. " The man grinned. "But come on Eli, look at it. I followed the plan and all it did was..." His words faltered some. "....was leave my little girl without a dad....I tried so hard to make a future so she wouldn't grow up like I did and now....now she is man. Little dose of shitty reality because I fucked up....and there ain't a damn thing I can do about it now."

Mach felt himself pale a little at that recollection, his stomach sinking as he could still hear Gina's anguished tone. "Yeah....you did...." His words were mild, lifeless over accusatory. "And so did I....but come on man. It-its for the right reason. We know this. I mean shit, even if you did make it to retirement you'd have had what....seven more years of a slow death after that' I don't....I don't even have that luxury." He fell silent for a long moment, letting the gentle slosh of the waves carry his words and his thoughts away. "We..."

"....Do as we must." Tired blues ticked over to meet that amber gaze. "But you know....fuck what must. To hell with it all." Mach's lip twitched as he shifted up onto his elbows, a bitter retort brewing on his lips though the apparition that was Gin pushed forward. "What' Going to say 'but we've decided to die without dragging others with us" To keep ourselves separate from the world to lessen the impact our inevitable ends will have"' Going to point out how those were my words" Yeah...well....they were stupid. Or at least stupid to try and blanket everything with them....a lesson you don't really catch until you get that pretty picture show at the end."

Mach felt that retort catch on his tongue as the other beat him to the punch though the acid still burned, the bile still gurgling. "Hey, we know it's stupid....the idiotist of idiocy that we follow hook, line, and fucking sinker but if it lessens even a little of the burden than..."

"Then it still ain't worth two shits." Gin stuck his chin out defiantly. "Come on Mach, when did you become such a pussy' Running away from your problems....man, we used to light it up like there weren't no tomorrow. What the hell happened to that guy....the Eli that I could go to hell and back with?"

"Same thing that happened to his best friend who was supposed to live his stupid fucking sappy life but instead got himself drilled!" Venom curled in those words that he snapped at Gin. Was this how people felt whenever he pushed them and they didn't want to be pushed"

The other man blinked in the face of those words, a slight grimace at how hard that pill was to swallow. "Yeah....sorry..." His tone was quiet and apologetic, a slight frown before those amber eyes lifted defiant once more. "But that's the point man. We only get one shot at this....and while we may see our ends coming, that ain't a guarantee that we won't get blindsided along the way. Three years from now.....three minutes....it's all the same thing yeah' Gotta live like there ain't no tomorrow....but at the same time minimize the regrets we leave behind."

A derisive snort escaped him. "Yes. That is the point. Try to minimize the regrets of those we leave behind....vanish like a shadow. And I am living."

Gin shook his head. "Your fucking occupying space and mistaking existing for living. The man tsked as he corrected Mach. "And the point ain't about minimizing regret....Not of others though it is pretty ballsy for us to try and engineer such with them. No....what I mean is our regrets man. No one's an island....even glass monsters."

Mach sort of felt like he'd heard those words before, spoken to another. It was an unpleasant mirror that he didn't like to look into. "Hey....but what about the hurt' The pain of it' What good are selfish actions when....when....all it'll do is breed regret."

"Then you face the regret....you live with the consequences....day in and day out until the end." Those blues snapped to the man as he spoke somberly. "Look....there is no death without regret....without fear. Those are just pretty little lies we tell ourselves so as he can try to do what we think is best for the world....for ourselves. But it's all just a fucking delusion man....an easy way to run away."

He could feel his jaws working as he listened to the others words which painted an unflattering mirror for him to gaze into. That torrent of emotions and thoughts that had been plaguing him these past days still clung to him, clawed at his resolve and yet.....yet. He could see the him in that mirror his dead friend painted....and while he was an idiot he knew for sure that he didn't like the Mach that he saw reflected back to him.

"Which would you rather live with....or rather have on your plate at the end....the regret of never trying or the regret that you tried and shit all nothing came of it?" Those amber eyes watched him as he processed it all, and apparently something must have lit up in Mach as a grin pulled upon Gin's features.

"Live huh...?" Mach chuckled to himself at that so simple of an answer. So simple and yet he would feel it changing something within him, that howl of anger and self-loathing calming.

"Live....and you know who told me that?" Blues ticked to the man as they shot him a knowing gaze, that grin upon him saying all that need to be said.

"Damnit..." He muttered the word as his hands rose up to scrub at his features. "Damnit!!!" He yelled into his hands as he felt like the dumbest shit in Twitville.

Gin's cackle didn't help that feeling any but then again Mach could seem to stop grinning. "You know what you gotta do now, yeah?"

He scrunched his face around a little bit longer, scrubbing away all that weary agitation that had been a constant upon it the past few days. When he felt he'd gotten the last of that sludgey feeling scrubbed clean those hands would fall away, a wry smile upon him. "I know..." He breathed out the words in a sigh. "I know....I just....I wonder if..."

"Stut up, stop thinking, and act man....shit. I mean really....when did you start winging so much?"

Mach chuckled lazily. "When I started fearing death again I think..."

A scoff escaped Gin. "Than stop....live to live and let death have it's day when it comes. Ain't no need to dwell on it yeah?"

"Yeah....I know..." He shook his head, that feeling of idiocy finally starting to fade allowing his thoughts to organize. Organize free from that fog, that malaise that had been hanging over him. "Hey....Gin" Do you...?"

The man shrugged. "Not a clue man....all I know is that something is bothering my brother, some shit was clogging you up and you needed a little boot in the ass." A grin and a smirk crossed the other hunter before he turned his head as if hearing something from far off. "Shit....looks like it's my time to head out....get my wings or some crap like that for helping a damsel in distress."

The two chortled at this jab. "Punk asshole. Didn't know they gave out wings to folks cooking in the hot place now....or that there was an expiration on shadows."

The man cackled as he shrugged. "What can I say, it's a fun place. And hey, strange land with strange rules....it is what it is." A sort of rolling 'c'est la vie' motion was made with his hands. "Just feel lucky that you got me a shadow of me for this amount of time. But yeah...get to Eli....march on forward brazen and stupid. Live....for all it's hardship and worth." The man threw off a lazy salute as he turned to continue off along the rocks though there was a pause. Hands fished into his pockets. "Oh yeah....and remember....folks are pulling for you....even shitty universes it seems."

Mach smirked at those words as those blues watched the man moving. Why did he have that sinking feeling watching a shadow walking off" "H-Hey Gin! Is....is there something I can do for you man....last request or something like that?" He wasn't sure why he was asking an apparition of his own mind such a question and yet somehow he felt he just had to.

Amber eyes turned back, a wry grin upon the man at that question. "Find someone good to stink eye the first few boys that try to get with my Gina." That response was shot of quickly, almost as if he'd been prepared for it.

"Oh' Don't trust me with the task?" A wry grin of his own pulled on him as he joked with Gin....the shadow of Gin. It was just such a comforting feeling, to pal around with someone who understood him as the jerk that he was.

"Mach, your kicking it in three man. If any guy is hitting on her in that time frame I don't want you to eye them....I want you to put a bullet in them!" Gin cackled at this as he cast one last grin back before tossing the pack of cigarettes he fished out from his pocket at Mach.

Of course he didn't bother to move as those blues watched the pack lazily sail towards him, laughter upon him at the man's parting words. "Ha! Sure, sure, man....and hey, thank. I...OW!" A blossom of pain flashed as that pack made contact with his shiner causing him to instinctively curl up some, hands cradling that offended eye. "Son of a bitch that hurt!" He rubbed at the already bruised ocular, cursing mildly in his mind before something snapped. Wait....what? What the what!"

That one good blue eye snapped to the pack of cigarettes that now laid upon the sand next to him, shock and disbelief painting his features. "How....that..." Blues ticked back to the rocks though he'd find no evidence of the shadow who he had just been conversing. This....this was impossible. Pernokov's Shadows shouldn't have been able to do that.....so then what....but then the fireball and...

Mach tried hard to wrap his mind around what the hell just happened though he found it hard to work around those niggling words that still hung fresh within his mind. 'Live.' It was such a stupidly easy answer and yet it was one he'd been dodging. He'd been trying to diminish damage, minimize hurt and yet in the process of it all" In the process he'd forgotten that he still had to live...still had to keep walking forward and making mistakes, fucking things up and trying, and trying, and trying.

Was all of this due to that wish upon that falling star" He couldn't exactly say it wasn't but at the same time a part of him didn't want to believe it was true as it made absolutely no sense at all. But then....did it' All he really needed to know was that he'd gotten the boot to the head that he needed.

"What would I do if I were to die in the next three hours..." He mused over this question quietly for a moment though he already knew the answer. It didn't involve just sitting here feeling sorry for himself, that was for damn sure. It didn't even involve smoking or drinking either as he stuffed that pack into his pocket now as he set off for the city. There were things he had to do....after a shower and change of clothes though. He could spare an hour for that, right' And so he was off into the night once more with a fire in his eyes and a new found weariness towards random children rhymes in this land so full of weird.

(For this here awesome playable!)