Welcome to Gaia! ::

Long smiled widely, "So it's not all bad! If this whole shutting down thing does worry you. I suggest take something he likes, or he obviously does have some capability in, and make him work at it. Don't push him too much but as he gets older make him really work at it, master it, because when it comes to shutting down for something like that. It's often as case of convincing them that they can't balk at trying again and working harder."

It sounded like he knew his thing, of course they did raise Donovan. Lin couldn't imagine her father as a child, but if the stories Selena had were anything to go by....

"Don't be afraid of challenging him either as long as it is within reason, sometimes they just need to know how to feels like to succeed after much failure. Hey, he's smart right? Go out and get him a book of math puzzles, he might like that, and those take a lot of trial and error and thinking."

"Or you could just translate it for him, and read it to him, work it out with him," Long replied, "Working with your kid is important, even if it's something fun. That way you can judge how challenging is challenging."

Then again, Long was fond of puzzles, even if he wasn't very good at them. It was something he and Daemon use to do together.

"But anyways... it doesn't matter what you choose, as long as he'll like it and be at least somewhat challenged."

"You know, it makes me want to ask what you did with father," Lin murmured looking at her grandfather.

She knew at times the two butted heads, but that was because they were so different.

"Well...." Long replied, "Let's just say when he got old enough I use to take him on artifact hunting with me. It wasn't the same, but I had already tried before then to teach Donovan a bit of fire magic. He didn't like it really, and he more preferred runes. There's a reason why he took up brush art. He has the patience of a rock when he decides to exercise it, I get twitchy after ten minutes."

"Wait... how are you making it into the centre of the city in time? We live further from the city than the Winters," Long spoke up.

No one wanted to have the Laus too close to the city, but that went with most clans. Besides they tended to hog a lot of land for their families.

"Well... originally I was just going to have the goggles delivered..." Lin trailed off.

"You could teleport there," Mi reminded her, "Your distance has improved though I'd imagine it might not be a smooth ride if you took another person with you...."

"We've heard stories," Long replied noticing the look on Earendil's face, "We've actually never seen it, but we know from the stories from when Lin was younger to now that it's improved. Granted not enough to teleport directly into the city, but you two could take several jumps, it would be quicker."

Lin looked thoughtful at that, she had taken people along before. Not everyone liked it though.

"That could work.... it's not a skill I use normally."

"But it seems natural enough seeing as you have used in it self defense," Mi replied.

"At the very least we might get half way there," Lin chuckled a bit, "Well... we'll see later. But we've already decided not the van."

"Well to be fair, your father should retire that van, he doesn't need it anymore," Mi muttered.

"But we do have horses," Long added, "But... you'd need someone to bring them back afterwards."

"The manor," Lin replied.

This had always been a surprising fact to Lin since before the marriage of her parents the Winters were actually closer to the Mizu's by marriage. Though she had a feeling it had to do with the amount of time her grandfather spent with the Laus before marrying.

"We could walk back to the Winters grounds easily, considering where else we've walked to in the past."

"That sounds like a plan," Lin nodded at this.

She quite liked the idea to be able to do that, even though she didn't plan to go into town. Though that being said it was a good thing she brought her bag anyways.

"If that's the case, then don't stay here too late, there's only so many hours in a day after all," Mi reminded the two.

"That's because they are," Lin replied realizing she had never told Earendil.

She had always taken it for granted because she traveled enough between worlds to notice the change. Often she would either stay up really late or just force herself to sleep for a long time to make that adjustment. Though lately there just hadn't been any time.

"Gaia has 24 hours in a day, though I never stopped to see how many hours in a day exist in Arda, but I'm pretty sure by now it's more."