Fox let out a half a laugh that was almost a scoff and then leaned over to draw something, before getting immediately stopped by a petulant paw reaching out and pressing on his arm as Patricia glared up at him. No drawing, only petting. He looked at the cat a little helplessly and then started petting her again.

"Well, I guess technically I'm trying to uh - detransmute? Is that a word? I'm trying to break down something into the original magical components. Which makes sense if you're working with magic from my world, not so much when you're trying to figure out how the hell the thralling crystals work." He gestured at the crystal lying next to him.

"They're pretty damn uptight about their magic, and while that normally wouldn't be a problem for me, I don't like working in a playingfield where I don't know how to disable all the traps. Does that even work as a metaphor? Do they use traps in sports? They must. I'm sure they do, I'm sure I've heard it used that way for sports. Golf, maybe? Do they have traps in golf? They should. Just make huge ass pit traps and watch the golf carts fall in." He's rambling. Sorry.

"Where was I? Right. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out if there was anything that was incorporated into the crystal when it was thralled with the communication magic we use. Backwards engineer, I guess. But since I still haven't been able to figure out the base mechanisms to magic here - other than that mine seems to work fine so they must be somewhat compatible - I kind of have to do this a lot more delicately than I might have otherwise. Magically looking for the needle in a haystack."

He paused and looked up at Gilbert apologetically. "I am not good with metaphors. Did any of that make sense? I'm Fox, by the way."