"...That's fine." Vanyel doesn't look at either of them, just finds a free chair and curls up in it. 

Lancir taps his shoulder. "Try to unshield a bit, lad? I can't See in any detail right now, you're blocking it." 

We can make an appointment for later, maybe, if you're not ready?

"No. I can do this." Vanyel closes his eyes and seems to deliberately unwind the tension in his shoulders. "Lancir, is that enough?" 

"That's perfect. Good work." Lancir smiles warmly at him. "All right. Bella, I'm going to unshield as well, so that you can pick up on this." He closes his eyes. 

Bella piggybacks along on his Sight.

Vanyel's 'house' is...very different from Lancir's. 

It looks like something that was originally more elaborate, or at least complicated in its layout, with several storeys, a sort of loft or garret reachable only by a rickety ladder, a porch, and a cellar with a hidden trapdoor. 

It's also just missing a large swath of what used to be one of the central rooms. It looks a bit as though someone might have started an oil fire, or maybe some kind of actual explosion. There's a blackened pit without a visible bottom and everything around it is splintered or shattered.

There's a reasonably sturdy sort of fence or scaffolding around the hole. It's clearly made of a different 'material' from the rest of the house, non-native, and looks like it was built and added to in stages without much planning. It's not impermeable; there are various gaps and chinks where the pieces don't quite 'fit'. 

Elsewhere, there are quite a lot of more minor patches, like metaphorical tape or string, holding splintered bits together, or holding them away from the not-quite-airtight attempt at a fence. 

She sucks in a little air through her teeth.

"Seen enough?" Lancir says quietly. He doesn't sound any happier about it than she is. "Er, questions? I don't know how much sense that made to you." 

I think my first impulse here is to knock him unconscious and take out all that stuff and then do my version of association blocking and then wake him up and go from there?

Lancir seems a bit startled, but...less dubious about it than she might have expected. "Hmm. Well, if you're going to be working with him, it does seem like our ways of doing this are different enough that they'll be, er, messy to combine. Especially if you can't actually see what's going on, I hadn't realized that." He grimaces. "And if it does put him out of commission for a few weeks afterward while you figure things out, it's not the best time for it but it's not the worst either. So. Vanyel, I think it's up to you?" 

Vanyel looks like someone who is completely terrified, and trying very hard to hide it. "I, um... Are you sure it's all right if I can't do things for a while?" He sits up straighter. "If you're sure, I want to do it." 

I mean, I'd try to get you up and about faster than that but it does seem like it'd make things better in the long run to only have one version of modification in your mind. It's possible that we should get that list you wanted to make first?

"I don't know if I can... Oh. Yfandes says she'll help." He scrambles around blindly for a piece of paper – Lancir notices and puts one in his hand, and Vanyel starts writing out a not very neat list of places and subjects. "...'Fandes thinks that's the important ones except for the..." He bites his lip hard enough to draw blood. "Are you going to block the, um, the bad thing too? I...don't know what to do...if it's right there where I can think about it again." 

We should decide what to try in advance. I can keep you artificially calm. I can do a short term block for nightmares and keep you calm whenever you aren't asleep, for a couple days, if you sleep enough, but I can't keep that up for long and someone would need to bring us meals and I wouldn't have the arts to spare for extraneous talking. We could use the time to figure out what else I might try, and then I could wake up before you, knock you out, and get it done without you having to be sensate for it. If that doesn't sound good I can try to think of something else.

He thinks about it for a while, brow furrowed, and then nods slowly. "I'm...pretty scared about what to do if we don't think of something in a couple days," he admits. "But if you're willing to have Lancir put the block back if it's not tolerable and you can't think of anything, then I'm willing to try it." He shrugs. "I guess I managed without having any blocks for...nine months? I don't know how but I did. So...I want to try it." He hesitates. "Um, can you ask Savil to come be here when I wake up, though?" 

She can be there if you want and she's available. We can also ask her to contribute to the list, maybe?

"That's probably a good idea." Though he looks reluctant about it. "She's busy now because she's, um, covering for me on renewing shields at Healers'," he shoots a self-conscious glance at Lancir, "but I think that she's free after that." 

I don't think getting you functional will take weeks. If something urgent comes up then with advance permission I could try to make you forget the traumatic event altogether for short periods but it wouldn't work well long term.

"I'd be very surprised if something of that level of urgency did come up even in the next few weeks," Lancir says. "I think this is a good idea." He sighs, looks past both of them. "Honestly, the tools I have aren't a great fit for this situation. Though if it's all right with you – and Vanyel – I would appreciate having a chance to look at what you end up figuring out with my Sight, see if there's anything we can learn from it." 

"It's fine with me," Vanyel says quickly. "I mean, it'd be really surprising if anyone ended up in the same situation and I hope it never ever happens," his voice cracks and he swallows hard, "but it did happen, I'd want you to know more things to help." 

If it's all right with Vanyel I can work while you observe but you can't distract me.

"That's fine with me." 

Since I need to be able to read the list I'll have to write it. She has paper on her.

Vanyel picks up his copy of the list and reads it off in a monotone, while clearly trying to pretend that it's about someone else and not him.