Slow Torment (OPEN)

[Liadon]

Liadon frowned. This definitely smelled suspicious, the way they were keeping Marisa from visiting Fox. He sighed before he spoke.

"If you want, I can try and find her...though you'd need to tell me what she looks like. If I do find her, I can see about delivering said message."

Liadon then sighed as Fox mentioned that he shouldn't try to hurt Strages...if only Fox knew what happened when he got angry enough. But then...he might very well lose Fox, as well as everyone else, as a friend if they did know. He decided to keep his mouth shut on that matter, though he did raise an eyebrow at the mention of the smell. Fox launched into an explanation before he could ask though. When Fox was finished, Liadon stayed silent for a moment, simply arranging the few puzzle peices he had together so far in his mind, trying to make them fit. Suddenly, he set Fox down and got up, beginning to pace back and forth in the middle of the room, looking quite deep in thought. This was something Liadon did when brainstorming...he felt it helped him think better if he was up and moving around. Yes...yes, he thought Fox might be onto something here. If only he knew what this different scent meant. Unless....

"Fox....tell me something. This...other scent...does it even remotely match any other scents you might have encountered? Like, is it similar to any others?"

Liadon didn't stop pacing though, he did turn to look at Fox as he asked this question. Depending on the answer Fox gave...he might have something to work with in terms of gathering reasonable conclusions. Maybe.

[Fox]

"Well to be honest... it does sort of smell similar to Strages himself. I didn't really think anything of it though since they always seem to be with him every time I've seen him. I mean when things spend a lot of time together they start to mingle scents... but this doesn't seem like that now that I think about it." Fox looked up at Liadon after speaking, noticing the intense manner with which his friend was pacing the room.

Fox's ears perked up then as he realized that he hadn't told Liadon what Marisa looked like. He had something better than a mere description though and dove under his pile of toys, burrowing beneath them like a gopher. He soon popped back up with a teddy bear in hand. It soon became apparent what he was up to when he undid a small button on the back of the toy and pulled out a small picture that Marisa had given him. It was her in her room holding Mr. Clipclop and smiling. Just seeing her picture was enough to make Fox smile again, setting his tails to wagging once more.

"This is what Marisa looks like! She doesn't always carry Mr. Clipclop with her though." Fox explained, pointing at her in the photo before pointing at the stuffed horse.

"If you see her, just tell her you're my friend."

[Liadon]

Liadon nodded thoughtfully as Fox spoke...if this were true...then perhaps Strages was manipulating them some other way than pure electronics? Or maybe Fox was right, and they were just around him enough to have gotten his scent on them.

"Fox...this next one is really important. I need to know if they have that scent that's like Strages all the time? Or...do they sometimes have it, and sometimes not? You see...when he took me in to do a test run of his system....I noticed some irregularities with how things were being run. So...I'm looking at a few ideas of something we -may- actually be able to blackmail him with. Maybe..."

He then watched curiously as Fox rummaged around in his toy pile, and undid a button in its back so as to reveal a picture that he showed to Liadon. It seemed to be a woman holding a stuffed figure, and she actually looked fairly cheerful. It was definitely clear that Fox cared about her with how the picture made him react. He studied the picture, memorizing her face before nodding and handing the picture back.

"I see...all right. I'll have to see if I can find her after I'm done here. Might be able to get something done with her help, actually..."

[Fox]

Fox tilted his head to one side, resting the side of his face in one palm as he thought hard on what Liadon said. It was hard to remember what everything smelled like all the time, but Liadon said it was important so he was going to do his best to describe it as accurately as possible. "Well... they always seem to have his scent to them. It's just, sometimes it's much stronger than it usually is for brief moments. It's actually really weird now that I think about it more. I don't think I've really ever experienced a scent shift like that before to be honest... but then again I've been stuck in one asylum or another for most of my life so it might be a normal thing that I just don't know about." The kitsune seemed to wilt again as he was unable of coming up with a more concrete answer for his friend and it felt like he was letting him down.

"I'm sorry I can't explain it better..." His ears drooped down submissively without him really meaning to. All the recent experiments he'd had to suffer through had taken even more of a toll on him than he was willing to admit.

[Liadon]

A slight glimmer of victory came into Liadon's eyes, despite Fox's feelings of defeat. Fox had just confirmed a possible suspicion Liadon had...a possible answer to the question, "If Strages' computer isn't controlling the robots, then how are they responding to him?" The answer, Liadon suspected, is that he may actually be hiding that he is a mutant himself. After all, the human brain can process things differently than a computer...and even give more complex commands. But, to his understanding....a "telenos" brain could process even more than a standard human. If his theory proved true.....then that would EASILY explain how Strages was controlling all these things. He actually let out a semi-mirthful chuckle in response to Fox's apology before speaking.

"Oh, don't feel sorry Fox...this information just confirmed the validity of a theory I thought up not too long ago. Especially if it -isn't- a normal thing to encounter. We may have blackmail material of our own, now...the tables should soon be turning, I think."

He then walked back over and scratched Fox behind the ears again. He was glad he was able to do something to put the little kitsune at ease. He was a good friend, and really wasn't fond of anyone who treated him wrong....and now he had a theory that could very easily make the predator the prey, in a sense....especially if it were true.

[Fox]

"I don't understand... why does that change anything at all? All those machines are a mystery to me..." Fox admitted, still of the mind that even a simple radio was something magical. The Asylum had done quite a good job making sure he was kept ignorant of most technology and that his learning had been quite stifled. Robotics and computers were beyond his understanding to put it mildly.

Yet it seemed what he'd told Liadon had made his friend happy, and that made Fox happy. He started to make a soft murring noise as his friend scratched behind his ears again. It was nice to have someone nearby who really cared about him, which was why Fox hadn't wanted to put any of his friends in danger. Yet it seemed they didn't want to see him hurt either, and that touched him deeply.