“I actually meant… No, nevermind” Caius stopped himself before he could correct her remark, laughing softly. He had wanted to say that it was her physical appearance that made insecure people lose themselves, but… Even Caius, as oblivious as he was, knew he was playing with fire if he tried to stress that word or its meaning. He had said it objectively, and calling attention to it was just asking for trouble. Or at least, it had when it came to Celes. He wasn’t putting himself through that again.

It seems he had learned, at least a little. So he changed tact. “I think you’re selling yourself short. You’re incredibly kind and patient, and in any world, that’s nothing to look past” he pointed out. “You say you’re nothing special, but, at risk of sounding pompous… The women I know, the women I work with, they’re something else. They’ve led armies, saved the world, forged covenants with the gods, fought gods, BEEN gods. When I say you fit in with them, I don’t give that word lightly. You may not be a combatant like them, but in my time… Everyone knew of Cindy Aurum. A miracle mechanic, rumored to have been able to turn the King’s Regalia into a flying car. That’s amazing Cindy, and I don’t think you understand just how incredible that is, especially without ready access to tech from either Lucis or Niflheim. And the Cindy of my time did all of that while keeping Hammerhead running as a sanctuary from the daemons, one of the last.”

His hands had animated a little as he zoomed into an invested focus on that point. “Nobody I know can do what you can. You might not see yourself as anything special, but… I do. And I’m sure Noctis and them feel the same way.”

He took a deep breath, realizing then he had gone on a bit long. And maybe a bit too strongly. Self awareness had hit him like a truck in that moment, and he chewed the inside of his cheek. “Sorry” he blurted out, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. Cindy, true to his word about her, immediately tried to help when the unfortunate beverage got clogged in his nose. He nodded in thanks as he managed to fix his breathing. Though it’d take a bit more work on his part to get rid of the discomfort. The bitter beverage really stung his nose. “You’re welcome to the Rest at anytime, just let me know.”

He’d rather forget about Alex, honestly. He wasn’t worth losing sleep over. Even if he did chuckle a bit at her next remark about Sorel. At least she seemed open to the idea of having a break day with the group of them when the opportunity came. His attention was piqued at her talk of a custom car though. “What kind of vehicle are you trying to build?” he inquired curiously. “I’m nowhere even remotely near the genius in machines that you are, but I did build my own from scratch once so I might understand a bit at least.”

And maybe getting it out of her system and out of her brain would help her stress on it a bit. He couldn't do anything about that road trip right now, but he could at least try to help in the here and now where he could.

This Cindy was, apparently, taken from a time before she had actually succeeded in creating a flying vehicle. Caius didn’t remember all the details, but he had overheard conversation amongst the Glaives of the King’s personal vehicle being rebuilt by the legendary mechanic, and then made to be able to fly. While Sonora’s flying cars were built with far more advanced tech compared to what one could find out in the wilds of Lucis outside the Crown City, Caius remembered being amazed at the prospect. He hadn’t seen fancy cars all that often in his travels to begin with, so hearing that one could actually fly like the Nifs’ giant airships could? It had been an inspiration – one central to continuing his work with machines, and even with weapons, long after he had become a Kingsglaive himself. Before, his mechanical skill had been a necessity. But Cindy had made him want to actually keep working at it, and improve. Something that had been instrumental for him on Zephon. Cindy didn’t know it, but she had been a part of him in some way before they had even met.

Something that he wasn’t sure if he could tell her, if he was being honest. It would probably just be weird. But maybe he could find a way at some point to say it without sounding like a creep? “You are definitely something,” Caius remarked with a small laugh. “Last I heard, you had practically taken over your grandfather’s garage already before the darkness came. And not a soul was surprised.”

He was glad to hear she would be taking some time for herself, and making some connections here in Zephon. He knew how easy it was to get lost in your work, after all. Even if he really did need to learn to actually adapt that thought process to himself… Either way, he had sat up straight and given Cindy his full attention, curious about what she was building. So it was some kind of… Challenge build? Interesting, he had to wonder just what she could come up with? “I would like to see it, next I am in the area” he admitted then, but he frowned and scratched his head sheepishly when Cindy said the same about his.

“It’s… Kind of back on Eos” Caius relinquished with a sigh. “It wasn’t much compared to what I’ve heard about your exploits. Just a project I spent a good year on, salvaging what I could find when I wasn’t hunting daemons, or when trying to recover from injury and couldn’t fight. I needed a vehicle and lacked the gil to buy it – not that I was old enough to buy one anyway. But I did learn a lot from trying to build it, using old mechanical reference books I found lying around and a lot of trial and error. I miss it, honestly, it was my only real company back then. Probably got mistaken for a pile of junk and scrapped for parts after I was sent here, though.”

“I would appreciate that, thank you” Caius extended his appreciation when Cindy offered to grab a new set of drinks. She herself then extended a perspective that Caius hadn’t really thought about, at least in terms of building. Getting a fresh perspective outside of your own wasn’t just useful in battle, apparently. Eventually, looking at it on your own just becomes a blur… Interesting. “I hadn’t thought of that. Guess I’m still too reliant on my own skills alone, even now” Caius admitted softly. “Might even be what’s held me back from making the most of what I’ve been building. I’ll have to try it your way sometime.”

It had been a good long while since he had actually been at the workshop. Some nutjob Celes hired had taken over his workbench while he was gone, and he had heard more than one explosion since. However, the girl was a genius, and Caius knew she was getting far more use out of the space than he was. He could do maintenance on his weapons with the tools he brought with him, but he hadn’t had time lately to do anything beyond that.

Maybe when this mess was all over, he could look at it again. Maybe seeing what Cindy was working on would provide some inspiration? Speaking of builds, Cindy reasoned that at least if it did get scrapped, someone likely found good use of it. He smiled, bittersweet, not sure how to explain that it didn’t really make him feel any better. “This is probably strange for me to say, but… It was really my only companion for a long time. And keeping it going was about the only purpose I had back then, besides surviving myself. I’d spend hours getting it just perfect, with any materials I could scrounge up, or buy in a pinch if I had the smallest bit of extra gil. I kind of miss it.”

Caius sat up fully to face Cindy when she asked about doing more events. “Haven’t thought about it yet. I took whatever I could find that would take me far away, so Lumey could get some time with her sister. I haven’t checked the board since” he admitted, scratching his beard in thought. “Suppose if you’ve got time to kill, we could go take a look.”

It seemed Caius had not been able to see the logical benefits of having help in this case. But that had been true of his entire life, really, and Caius was just going to have to learn their merits one thing at a time. This was a start, at least, though he wasn’t sure of when the next time would be that he would have need to look for that sort of feedback. Though Cindy then brought up the possibility he could work on something here. Doing something small, even… Hmm.

“Well, I have upgraded my own weapons. Similar to how I heard your grandfather would” Caius spoke up to start. He held out a hand and summoned his weapons, one at a time. A gunblade, modified from a longsword. It had been a gift from his father before he had passed, and Caius had outfitted it to serve him well. It also had a retractable guard, which Caius would push on a mechanism to cause the guard to retract before doing so again to bring it back. Something that allowed him to modify his fighting style to fit each situation. And then there were the twin daggers, both with gunblade-like functionalities.Their barrels weren’t that large, indicating they didn’t have a lot of power behind them. However, the mechanism seemed to be rigged for repeated use, and the paint on the triggers had worn far more than the rest of it. Which was strange, considering it looked like it hadn’t been long since their last bit of maintenance. Of course, this was because they were outfitted for rapidfire, meant to overwhelm opponents while the bigger gunblade was for overpowering them.

“I’ve also built a few weapons, though I don’t have a need to use them. I’ve sold a few to merchants for some extra gil, or given them to promising Dragonblades” Caius continued to muse aloud. “I uh… Built a cabin. It’s not exactly a decor’ marvel, but it puts a roof over my head. I haven’t worked on any projects since, I’ve been pretty busy.”

What would be a good next project to do? He wasn’t all that sure. Either way, Cindy was up for looking into something to do. So Caius finished his drink and got up.

“Alright. Let us see what we can find.”