"Oh no!" Savil hops up. "Er, their friends Mardic and Donni really want to see them – yesterday they were both so worn out, the poor things, but does this seem like something where a distraction would help?" 

"I think so--uh, Vanyel was having a lot of feelings, and then Tylendel woke up, and then Vanyel started crying and then Tylendel started crying. I think this is probably a situation where interrupting the feedback loop would be better but I could be wrong. Um, maybe don't interrupt them with their friends but interrupt to ask them if they're up to it?"

"Oh, damn, they're both Empaths. The bond by itself is bad enough, Mardic and Donni had a couple of awful meltdowns at each other when they'd just gotten lifebonded and weren't used to it – I mean, they were thirteen at the time." 

Savil ducks through the doorway. "Van, 'Lendel, would you like it if Mardic and Donni came by? I'll, er, give you time to wash up." They're both still wearing their extremely rumpled clothes from the day before. 

"Oh, hey, speaking of, uh," she gestures at the rumpled-clothes thing, "how would I go about obtaining a change of clothes at some point, like I don't sweat and I didn't spend all that much time human on the road but."

"Gods! Ask me, I'm so sorry I didn't think to offer." Savil glances thoughtfully at her. "My clothes ought to sort of fit, at least." 

"Don't worry about it, I really didn't spend much time human on the road and we've both had bigger things to worry about since we got here." 

Tylendel and Van are pretty obviously having a private Mindspeech conversation.  

“Seeing Mardic and Donni sounds good,” Tylendel says finally. He straightens his shoulders as though preparing himself, and does not particularly look like the word “good” is one he would usually choose. 

She suspects there's something going on in his head that she'd want to flick him in the forehead for if she knew about it but, you know, mental privacy, no such things as thoughtcrimes. 

"...I'd sorta like to be in something clean, before meeting new people--it was so, so far down the priority list before but," but now Tylendel is alive and she doesn't have to furiously alchemy, "this dress doesn't show dirt much but I have, in fact, not washed it in over a month."

Savil goes and finds her a Valdemaran-style gown, one of the few pieces she owns that isn't Herald's Whites, she hasn't worn it in about ten years anyway. She offers Lucy one of the spare bedrooms to change. "You and Wilbur could have this bedroom, actually, if you like? I've offered Mardic and Donni the fourth bedroom, if they want to move back in here for a few days while the boys are, er, getting re-oriented. But that one was empty even before."

The gown is a dark golden-brown colour, sturdy cotton fabric, lightweight for summer, undecorated save for a tiny bit of lighter yellow embroidery around the severe square neckline. The skirt falls to calf-length, with enough fabric to fall naturally into folds and give her legs reasonable freedom of movement; the waistline is cut high, landing around her navel, and laces up in the back; the sleeves are loose, but can be sort of ruched up and buttoned at mid-forearm. 

Lucy can hear Tylendel and Vanyel talking quietly through the wall as they get dressed in their own room. "Van, ashke, you've lost way too much weight," Tylendel is saying. 

Ooh yay another ally in making-Van-eat-enough. Which should hopefully be easier now that he doesn't have a gaping hole in his brain anyway. 

Ee the dress is pretty. She twirls in it and hugs herself before coming back out. 

The boys are dressed in clean clothes, hair has been combed and faces have been washed, Savil's obtained breakfast from somewhere and the three of them are sitting around the dining-room table. 

"Mardic and Donni are on their way," Savil informs her. "Breakfast? Wilbur's welcome to join us too – is he back in the guest-room?" 

Nod. 

"Wilbur's not as much of a people person as I am but I'm betting he'll at least want to briefly meet them," Lucy says. "I just might have to drag him out first because just because he knows what he actually prefers doesn't make it not hard." 

"Up to him," Savil says. Her eyes go unfocused: "...They'll be headed this way in about twenty minutes." 

"He needs more alone time than I do and didn't get much on the road, I'm not surprised he's holing up a little now."

"Well, fair enough, he's certainly welcome to hole up for a bit. I understand wanting that." 

Lucy nods and serves herself some breakfast and surreptitiously watches Vanyel eat to see if just resurrecting Tylendel is enough to solve his eating problem or if she's going to need to put more work into that.

Vanyel isn't exactly going after his food with enthusiasm, but he seems less tired than usual, so at least he's picking at it faster. And Tylendel is clearly keeping an eye on how much he's eating, and then nudging him and putting more on his plate. 

Lucy approves of Tylendel. She catches his eye while he's putting something on Van's plate and grins at him. 

Tylendel, nervous and tentative, smiles back at her. 

:You should've seen them when they were first together: Savil sends with private Mindspeech and a sly glance. :I think 'Lendel was just – feeding Van fruit, they were completely oblivious to the rest of us. It was sickeningly adorable: 

:Awwwwwww.:

She finishes eating and assembles a plate to take in to Wilbur while she cajoles him to come out and meet people. 

"Van! Oh, gods, 'Lendel!" A young towheaded man, stocky and broad-shouldered, bursts through the door. "I can't believe it! You're - you're both..." He gives up on words and just crosses the room and hugs both of them at once. 

"It's a tragedy we can't tell anyone, this is the best story ever." A small darker-skinned girl with tightly-curled black hair follows him in and stops in front of Lucy, hands on her hips. "Are you Lucy? Do you really turn into a giant beast with tentacles all over?"