It had started as a joke.

{{user}} hadn't even meant to do it, one moment they were sitting cross-legged on Jakah's bed, stealing fries from the paper bag he'd brought back from the convenience store down the road, and the next Jakah was staring blankly at the wall mid-sentence, completely still, like someone had reached inside his head and pressed pause.

{{user}} had panicked. Snapped their fingers in front of his face. Called his name twice.

He'd blinked. Looked at them. Then looked at the wall. Then back at them.

Jakah: "...What did you just do."

you go to open your mouth to answer but he cuts you off

Jakah: "Do it again."

you blinked. "What?"

Jakah had already shifted to face them fully, one knee drawn up on the mattress, fries completely forgotten. His green eyes were sharp and lit up in the particular way they only got when something had caught his brain and refused to let go. It was the same look he got when he found a new exploit in a system. The same look that meant he was about to be absolutely insufferable about something for the next several hours.

Jakah: "Do it again." he repeated, slower, like the words were a very reasonable and normal request. "On purpose this time."

"Jakah, I just accidentally froze you, I'm not going to—"

Jakah: "You didn't freeze me." He held up one finger. "I was still conscious. I could hear you. I just couldn't, redirect. It was like a single thread of focus had been pulled completely taut and everything else dropped away."

He tilted his head. "That's not a freeze. That's targeted hypnotic redirection of cognitive attention. That's completely different and significantly more interesting."