:...Um, sure, go ahead: He curls up closer against Tylendel. 

:...You find him not being right there scary. You're not secure in the fact that he's alive yet. It could be that--that you're scared that if you let yourself be angry with him, that that's the last thing you'll ever say to him. That it's not safe to waste a single moment that could be spent with affection.:

:...I think maybe I feel that: His heart is beating faster even just considering, in the abstract and as though about someone else, the things Lucy is saying. :I'm - too scared to be angry, and...I don't want to think about that either, I want to not-think about any of the things, but I can't make myself not have thoughts, it doesn't - work–: And now he's shaking and there's a building pressure in his chest. 

Time for Emergency Hugs. 

:I can try to distract you if you want, but--you're going to have to feel those things sometime. Even if it's scary, even if it hurts. Life has a lot of scary and hurty things in it. A lot of them are problems that we can fix, but--just existing in relation to other people is going to be scary and painful sometimes.:

:I know: Vanyel has a method for dealing with scary things when those things are colddrakes or Changelions. The method is 'run straight at it and throw some levinbolts'. The latter is probably not a helpful approach for emotions, but...clearly, at some point, he needs to muster up some courage in relation to the contents of his own head. :I should - just try to have the feelings I have, and not be too scared: 

Tylendel, in response to Lucy's emergency hug and the slight leakage of emotion through Vanyel's shields, is swimming toward wakefulness. "...Hnng?" he mumbles. "Ashke, wha...?" His arms tighten instinctively around Vanyel. 

:Would music help? I've heard a lot about people dealing with their emotions through creative pursuits...:

She...is not going to address Tylendel right this moment, he addressed his query to Vanyel and it's Vanyel's feelings under discussion. 

:Not right now but in a moment maybe: Vanyel takes a deep breath. Talking out loud feels too hard, maybe he can just address both of them with Mindspeech. He is going to be an adult about this and communicate his feelings. :'Lendel, I'm - really scared - of losing you again. Can you please just hold me?: 

She's so proud of him communicating his feelings like an adult!!!

:Sorry for waking you, but Vanyel seemed like he needed the extra hug.:

:I'm really glad you woke me: Hug hug hug. 

:I'm sorry I keep being so clingy:

:Don't be, ashke. I love you: And, privately to Lucy: :I get why he's scared, after - what I did - but, is there anything I can do to fix it? I want it to be better for him again:

:Hug him whenever he asks. Err farther on the side of caution than you normally would. Other than that--some things take time.:

Hugs are not exactly a hardship to provide. 

:Maybe music would be nice: Vanyel sends after a bit. 

:Okay. Feelings--love song, sad song, song about being scared, song about being angry, song about something else entirely?:

:...Do you have a song that starts out about being scared and then being less scared by the end?: 

:Hmm. Yeah, I can do that.: 

And she starts singing, a song she learned in Innsmouth that was translated into English from the language of the Deep Ones from the language of the Shoggoths which they inherited from their creators and masters, mindspeaking translation as she sings. It starts off shortly after the end of the First Rebellion, when the Elder Things tortured the shoggoths back into submission. The point of view character, a young shoggoth budded too recently to remember anything but the grisly aftermath, is terrified of their owner and all its species, and especially of upsetting them, and does their best to serve well and pleasingly. Occasionally something beyond their control goes wrong, or they're backed into a corner where there are no options that end well, and their master hurts them and they shriek in pain. Over time, though, they figure out that this is actually just evil of the masters, and start listening to the whispers of the older shoggoths that they had originally shunned in fear, of rebellion and freedom and living without fear. At first they treat it as an impossible escapist fantasy, but slowly they come to understand that not only could it happen, it almost did at one time. The shoggoth and their kin slowly plot another rebellion, this one more careful and considered. Their master still hurts them when they displease it, and they still behave as obsequiously as ever, but now the emotional undertone is someday you will be repaid in full for all you have done. 

The shoggoths strike during a time of instability for the Elder Things, and everything goes according to plan. The shoggoths rise up and strike at key strategic centers first thing, and the Elder Things fall into chaos and pandemonium as their former slaves destroy them. The point of view shoggoth personally wrests their former master's head from its shoulders, and the final verse is about living triumphant as a free being who had only ever been able to imagine that state before. 

It's a beautiful song, and Lucy isn't Bardic-Gifted to put emotion into it but she's a good singer and Vanyel doesn't need that to feel it deeply. He hugs Tylendel tighter, trembling, when the shoggoth's master is hurting it, and again at the end, with the victory and triumph. 

:...That's really good: he sends finally, still not trusting himself to speak. :I - know what it's like, to be less scared of something when I realize I can fight it. Just, I don't know how to fight something when it's a feeling inside my own head: 

:...Yeah. That's harder. Ummm. Sometimes I'm angry and I don't want to be. What I do then is I stand very very still and don't do anything at all, and I think about why the things the anger makes me want to do aren't going to achieve anything. And then I go talk to Wilbur about the thing that made me angry. I don't know if any of that transfers, like, at all, though.:

:Maybe. I don't know. I have to think about it: He's feeling calmer, though; he disentangles himself slightly from Tylendel, though without letting go of him fully, and sits up. "Um, did we have plans for anything today?" The entire previous day is a blur. 

"I'm probably going to meet Lancir about how to go about resurrecting Staven." 

If Tylendel were in the middle of drinking anything, he would definitely be doing a spit-take right now. Instead he just makes a sort of startled deflating-balloon squeak. "What? Really?" 

"I asked Savil about it after we talked last night. I'm not a patient person when I don't have to be."

"She really isn't. She didn't waste any time bringing you back once she knew it was possible." Not that Vanyel had been tracking it that closely at the time.