[ there's a pause, because of course there's a catch. ]
Which means you'll need to find better ways to focus.
[ if Stiles' panic had said anything, it's that his emotions aren't entirely under his control. while Loki was a slave to his own whims and desperations, he knew how to weave himself through a spell. he had already made the fatal mistake of manifesting his own guilty conscious. ]
The runes I taught you, there's dagaz. Use that. See how long you can keep your thoughts clear. No straying.
Hey, I can focus! [ his initial indignation fades like a stroke of lightning, though, as he amends, ] ... sometimes.
[ Loki has been teaching him a while now — no use trying to deny what he already knows. his focus is a fickle thing, coming and going; sometimes, he can focus for hours on end, his mind sharp... other times, managing half an hour feels like an accomplishment. ]
Dagaz, yeah. Hyper-consciousness, [ he only takes a second to shift through the different meanings in his head ] okay, I can do that.
[ a considering pause. ] How long should I be able to keep my thoughts clear? Just for reference.
[ eyebrows go up while his expression changes through the sudden exclamation of I can focus! and on to sometimes. Stiles had the attention span of a goldfish, all the while somehow still able obsess over the smallest detail when something caught his eye. thoughts moved from one to another, became a spiral that was hard to draw back from.
Loki knew how that was, but his was expressed. when he got bored, he schemed.
teaching him wasn't like teaching Billy Kaplan. ]
Oh ... I don't know. [ a pause, a consideration. then: ] How long do you want to be able to protect yourself?
[ excuse you, his attention span covers at least two goldfish. maybe three. no — his focus is fleeting at times, at others steady as a rock. he can only hope it is the latter, with this.
it shouldn't surprise him, Loki turning it around once again (it seems to be what he does, always, twist words and thoughts and spin them around until you were dizzy simply from trying to follow), and yet it gives him pause. because... that's the question, isn't it? ]
... right. So I practice until I can clear them all the time. [ he won't, he won't let himself be vulnerable, not when he has an actual chance of making this work. when he has something more than the knowledge of runes and the inner workings of magic on his side. ]
Thanks.
[ because intending or not, Loki managed to calm him down, give him a goal, make sense of this. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ there's a pause, because of course there's a catch. ]
Which means you'll need to find better ways to focus.
[ if Stiles' panic had said anything, it's that his emotions aren't entirely under his control. while Loki was a slave to his own whims and desperations, he knew how to weave himself through a spell. he had already made the fatal mistake of manifesting his own guilty conscious. ]
The runes I taught you, there's dagaz. Use that. See how long you can keep your thoughts clear. No straying.
no subject
[ Loki has been teaching him a while now — no use trying to deny what he already knows. his focus is a fickle thing, coming and going; sometimes, he can focus for hours on end, his mind sharp... other times, managing half an hour feels like an accomplishment. ]
Dagaz, yeah. Hyper-consciousness, [ he only takes a second to shift through the different meanings in his head ] okay, I can do that.
[ a considering pause. ] How long should I be able to keep my thoughts clear? Just for reference.
no subject
Loki knew how that was, but his was expressed. when he got bored, he schemed.
teaching him wasn't like teaching Billy Kaplan. ]
Oh ... I don't know. [ a pause, a consideration. then: ] How long do you want to be able to protect yourself?
[ because that was key here. ]
no subject
it shouldn't surprise him, Loki turning it around once again (it seems to be what he does, always, twist words and thoughts and spin them around until you were dizzy simply from trying to follow), and yet it gives him pause. because... that's the question, isn't it? ]
... right. So I practice until I can clear them all the time. [ he won't, he won't let himself be vulnerable, not when he has an actual chance of making this work. when he has something more than the knowledge of runes and the inner workings of magic on his side. ]
Thanks.
[ because intending or not, Loki managed to calm him down, give him a goal, make sense of this. ]
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It's as the mortals say: Fake it until you make it.
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[ finally, that draws a grin from him as well, accompanying words that should sound annoyed but really, really don't.
(besides — he's got a point. as he seems wont to do.) ]