"How early is too early? I can ask that they come after noon instead."

:Noon or a bit before noon is probably fine? Leareth was awake by then today, and that's after he was up half the night, which I'm hoping won't happen again now that he's a little more used to the space and we have the new drugs to try: 

"Okay." She writes back, and gets a reply quicker this time. "There we go."

:Thank you! Er, are you going to come in too - or is the dog person already aware of the situation and that we'll need to communicate by telepathy and Leareth might read their mind?: 

"I'll be there too, and I'm going to clarify about the telepathy situation before the appointment."

:Sounds good. I don't think I have any more questions or requests now: 

"Okay. Do you want me to hang out here in case something comes up or give you guys some space?"

:Probably give us some space?: Leareth may or may not be bothered by someone else in their house, but Melody is having a hard time switching off the part of herself that feels that she's being a very bad host if she just wants to drink her tea in peace and not interact.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow a little before the dog appointment if nothing comes up before then."

And off Dree goes.

The clothing delivery shows up later that afternoon.

Clothes! Exciting! 

Leareth is still in bed, though he was convinced to eat some late lunch and is now back at the language exercises on their laptop, so Melody separates out his clothes in the delivery, leaves them folded beside his door, and immediately tries on all of her new outfits in front of the bathroom mirror. 

They don't fit her as well as tailored ones would, but they're comfortable and the stitching is so small!

Well, she went for a roomy style anyway, the fit is pretty forgiving. Which is probably good, because she's likely to get much less exercise here than she did in Tol Eressea when she was trooping back and forth across the island between Leareth and her other patients most days. 

Leareth does language practice until Melody comes to coax him out for dinner, and then he tries on his own new clothes. 

His are in various dark colors and sort of robey, like the Elf clothes.

Leareth likes them. He spends a while examining the cloth and stitching and design in minute detail, marveling at the fineness and precision, wondering what technology must have been put to use. The threads are so thin as to be hard to make out unless he's holding the cloth right up to his face. 

He would sort of like to be clean before getting changed, but he has apparently acquired a deep terror of the shower and absolutely does not want to go in there again. He ends up making do with an awkward sink birdbath, and puts on one of the robey outfits, and joins Melody in the living room to do some more language tutorial practice, though it turns out that after forty-five minutes he's yawning and his concentration is slipping. 

The language learning program will be there for him when he is ready to do more. It is infinitely patient.

Nobody bothers them the rest of the day.

It's just barely past dusk, but Melody isn't going to keep Leareth up just in hopes that she can sleep in later. She brings him one of the sleeping pills from the first three, tucks the other two in her pocket so she'll have them available if he wakes up in the middle of the night, and then cajoles him up the stairs to his bedroom, tucks him in with water and his notes within reach, and sits with him until he's asleep. 

She's tired, but not sleepy; it turns out that long midday naps are perhaps a bad idea for sleep regularity. She goes to bed anyway, lies awake for a while thinking about their various problems, and eventually sleeps. 

The new drugs do seem to help! Leareth only wakes up once, and he doesn't project or even yell especially loudly; Melody only actually wakes up when he Mindtouches her plaintively, at which point she gives him the second drug as well. He dozes off again without too much trouble and, though he half-wakes a few more times, he's drowsy enough to drift back under the surface. 

He does still sleep in quite late; when he sort of wakes up a little after dawn, he's still very groggy and has no impetus or desire to get up. 

She slept the WHOLE NIGHT this is great! 

Melody has a pleasant morning to herself, drinking tea in the sun by the window and doing some language tutorial practice of her own. (She's very far behind where Leareth is on it.) 

By the time the dog-owner arrives for their greeting visit, she has Leareth up and sitting downstairs, though he's still yawning and too fuzzy-headed to focus on the language practice. She should maybe either try a different drug combination tonight, or else make sure to give him both early enough in the evening that it's not still in the process of wearing off at noon the next day.

Dree shows up before the dog person and lets them know she's there but waits outside.

And then there is an old man with a dog on the back of his nyoom! Even not quite all the way grown up this dog is pretty big, and comes up to the man's hip. It follows very docilely and sits when told at the doorstep, and then Dree knocks.

Melody lets them in. :Wow! That is a big dog. Come on in, I'm Melody - Leareth is just inside: 

Nyooms are also an excellent technology. Once they have an income source and also Leareth is more settled and in a state where he might ever want to leave the house and immediate surroundings, Melody should think about obtaining one for him, it would make errands a lot less tiring. 

"Hello!" says the man with the dog. "This is 448 - we don't give them names ourselves, don't want anyone to feel awkward about changing it."

:Fair enough! Leareth is just this way: 

Leareth goes very still as soon as the dog enters the room along with the old man, holding his face expressionless, but Melody is used to reading him and she doesn't think he's scared, just - adjusting to the situation. 

"Do you want me to send her over to you or not yet?" the man asks.