Lots of people are like that. - also the emissaries from the Noldor found Valdemar very ugly, distractingly so, and that seems like the kind of thing that'd affect Vanyel very negatively.

Huh. 

Everything in Valinor is shockingly beautiful by human standards. That seems like it might be a species difference, in aesthetics generally and in how hard people weight beauty versus other things? It could also be that the Quendi had thousands of years in paradise, with lots of time and space to focus on beauty because they weren't scrabbling just to survive. Whatever the cause, that - probably was very good for Vanyel, actually. Music is good for him too and it's such a huge part of their lives over here. 

He doesn't even particularly think of music as important to him, for a Quendi, but you certainly can't just plan on doing without it until you're done with a war.

Leareth has gotten the impression that unless someone intervenes on his behalf, Vanyel will plan on doing without literally anything pleasant or enjoyable until he has dealt with his responsibilities in an emergency. He suspects this is to some extent a problem that the Heralds' culture has in general, even more than most humans. They are very self-sacrificing. Leareth isn't sure if that's part of the gods' intentions with making the Companions and the whole system, or if it just emerges by itself if you selectively grab a lot of people who are very motivated to help others even when it's very costly, and then have them mostly only spending time with each other. 

Well that's a terrible idea, especially if there are an infinite number of emergencies. Which seems kind of likely, they're two-for-two so far. 

It's a pretty bad idea. 

Vanyel gets back. "I got us lots of breakfast!" 

"Oh excellent. Hmm, what are those, I don't think I've seen them before -"

A lot of it is foods that he's only eaten in k'Treva Vale and misses, Vanyel quickly discovered he could make those appear. He can tell Maitimo the names of these nuts and those berries and this other fruit that has a weirdly breadlike texture. 

Then he will try to have a lovely breakfast without moving any part of him in contact with Leareth at all.

Leareth wakes up to his surroundings enough to realize that this is pretty inconvenient for Maitimo, and shuffles away from him so he can eat his food in peace. 

"So the plan is to go back to Tol Eressëa, after which I'd really appreciate a Gate out to Vinyamar so I can check in with people there. I won't need more than a day or two."

"I can definitely do that. I do want to check in with back home again but not urgently. Randi's probably not going to need a Gate back for weeks at this rate, and if I'm using the Silmarils I can manage a few Gates a day, so that's not too much a limiting factor. What's in Vinyamar?" 

"Our first city in Beleriand!" And more motivatingly Findekáno. "It's in good hands but I want to bring the news from Tol Eressëa and hear about how they're doing."

"That sounds like a good idea. Hmm - do you have any way of communicating that isn't a Gate? I'm trying to think if there's anything I know and could set up." :If Leareth and I both had our magic we could just be on opposite sides of the ocean and use the standard communication spell: he adds privately. :I...doubt that'll be for a while, though: 

I think it shouldn't be for a while. It'll be good for him when he gets it back but that's - not a reason to rush, not while he's having really bad nightmares and flashbacks.

"Communication across the ocean would be really useful but I don't know how to wrangle it. If there are more people from Velgarth who want to come through we could station some there?"

:Oh, right, having nightmares and also powerful magic is - actually pretty bad, I don't know if I thought to warn you of that? I, um, have been known to occasionally set things near me on fire – not in years and years, don't worry! He probably has better control than I did, generally, but, er, might be better not to test that. Also he's a Mindspeaker and I doubt he wants to be projecting it at people in his sleep, that would give everyone a bad day: 

"Good idea, I'll ask about it when I next get in touch," he says out loud. "There've got to be mages who would be interested." 

"I think checking in every few weeks should be more than enough in the interim, though. Maybe every week." 

"Seems good." 

Once they're finished eating they can pack up and ride out? 

They can! He'll sing, and point out landscape features and villages.

Vanyel comments a lot on how beautiful everything is, with great delight. He harmonizes along with songs when they're ones he knows well enough. 

Leareth tries to stay focused on their surroundings and the songs and commentary, and not have any other thoughts. 

Then in the space of about a week they can make it back to Tol Eressëa, where Leareth can get Melody's help with the flashbacks and nightmares and maybe with sorting out and reordering his memories.

Melody has a lot of experience with the nightmares and flashbacks part; she can't instantly fix it but she has a lot of tools and options for making it easier, and in particular she thinks they can make headway on improving his sleep, which will help with other things because being tired all time is not great. 

For the sorting and reordering... "Huh. Wow. Maitimo, want to have a look at this?"

(Vanyel has discreetly taken himself elsewhere, he's had a lot more time to get used to Leareth's - current state - but hanging around while the person who's been his Mindhealer through some pretty harrowing experiences is instead seeing Leareth is too weird and uncomfortable, actually, in addition to the fact that it's pretty private and Leareth presumably doesn't want him there.)