Now that little, off-hand comment makes sense. It's like a knife to the gut, because he may be part machine now, but he can still tell magic when he sees it, especially when it winds up being relatively ineffective at this close distance.

Oh Toby.

"No collar, just me. I'm gonna come closer, all right?" And as he does, he takes her hand, guides it up to his face where she can feel the difference between the warm flesh of his cheek and cold metal where the eye implant starts. "Disabled my eye. She can see through it when it's workin'. Good thing I'm pretty damn defective, yeah?"

His sense of humor is still pretty terrible.