:I can look around, but I don't already know any programmers, it's, uh, a high-frustration occupation and a lot of people aren't cut out for it:

:Huh. I'm now more surprised Leareth managed to get this far before having a meltdown about it, presumably most people learning it here are not horribly traumatized and also can read fluently. I guess he's also extremely stubborn. Anyway, he would probably enjoy talking to someone who does it, he seems really engaged and excited about it: 

:I'll see if I can find somebody!:

:Thank you!: 

Melody drops the connection and reassures Leareth that Dree is going to try to find someone who can help him figure out what happened and fix it tomorrow or at least soon, and in the meantime, programming is known to be very frustrating and the standard advice is to take a break and calm down. And also their soup is going to get cold. 

On reflection, Leareth's head does feel gluey with exhaustion and all the concepts and instructions he was trying to follow are swimming. This is also not a state that makes him feel much like eating dinner, but Melody is just going to keep nagging him until he does, so he pets 448 for a couple of minutes and then drags himself up and joins her in the dining room. 

Melody has put some of the dog food in a bowl and set it on the floor. (She can't read the label on the bag or anything but the large picture of a dog on the side makes it pretty clear.) 

There is soup! Melody also cannot read the soup packet ingredients lists so she grabbed one of them at random. She's pretty curious what it'll be like and whether it comes out any good. 

Leareth sits and starts unenthusiastically consuming soup. 

448 goes NOMF NOMF.

The soup has freeze dried vegetables and tiny pasta granules and lots of spices in it.

It's not as delicious as the cakes and Melody should probably make sure Leareth gets more protein than this at most meals, but it's easily on par with anything the Palace cooks in Haven put out, if not with the best of Quendi food. She is pleased. 

Leareth seems about ready to collapse and is half falling asleep propped against the table, so Melody takes care of getting 448 a bowl of water as well and then taking her out into the yard to do her business. 

448 will respond with considerable relief to "go time".

Wow, she's such an impressively well-trained dog! All of the (few) dogs Melody has interacted with (that were allowed indoors at all) would just have yapped at the door if they needed to go. She makes a mental note to ensure that they let her out more often tomorrow. 

Leareth is swaying on his feet with sheer exhaustion and needs considerable coaxing, and Melody's arm to lean on, just to get up the stairs to his bed. Maybe tomorrow he should do his programming in bed so he can nap immediately afterward. 

He does remember to call 'come' so that 448 will follow him. 

Sigh. "You should take your sleeping pill. I know you're half asleep already but we're testing if it keeps you from waking up at night." She gets him the next one to try per the instructions, and water. "If you wake up hungry I put snacks in that drawer." 

Melody grimaces. "Also, Leareth, if you want to sleep with your dog literally in bed with you, you're going to have to shower tomorrow." 

That sounds like a tomorrow problem for tomorrow Leareth. Tonight-Leareth is going to fall asleep snuggling his warm soft fluffy dog. 

Snuggles!!! 448 is a happy dog.

Some combination of the new sleeping pill and having a SNUGGLY DOG lets Leareth sleep almost through the night. His dreams seem to be less vivid, and less subjectively stressful than he would usually expect given the content. 

It does, at one point closer to the morning, make it very hard to wake up fully enough to actually stop having the current nightmare even once he's fairly sure that he's dreaming and is quite tired of the repetitive montage. He struggles through gluey blankets of sleep-haze and makes quiet unhappy noises and gets slightly closer to awakeness, but the main result is that he is pretty sure he's in his bed but there are still dream orcs having some kind of stupid argument with Sauron around him. 

...lick lick lick?

That is very unexpected! It doesn't fit in with the orcs at all! Leareth squirms and confusedly drags himself fully awake. It's still dark. He's pretty sure that he knows where he is but he's still foggy enough not to be entirely sure, and he tries to make a mage-light and this predictably does not work, but does produce a jolt of panic.

Which at least has the upside of waking him up a little more, enough that he can trace back his surprisingly-hazy memories of where he went to sleep. Reminding himself that the other world they're in and the house specifically are safe does not actually feel very reassuring, though.

The thing that actually helps him calm down is that 448 is there, and would presumably be raising an alarm if there were any real danger, and is separately warm and huggable. Leareth rolls over and wraps his arms around her and tries, with eventual success, to relax enough to go back to sleep. 

In the morning, when it gets light enough outside that the sun filtering through his curtains wakes him, Leareth is mostly non-groggy. He's also not at all motivated to move or get out of bed, but this happens regularly. Melody will probably come nag him eventually, and in the meantime he has water and snacks right there. Investigating the snacks is also an action, and takes a few minutes to work up to, but eventually he manages to retrieve and open one of the bags of flavored popcorn and sample it. 

Sniff sniff sniff?

Is it safe for dogs to eat popcorn? Probably. If it's just made of corn then Leareth can't see what the problem is. 448 can have one of the exploded kernels. (Which are also covered in flavorful powdery stuff that clings to Leareth's fingers and threatens to make a mess in his bed.) 

Nomf! Wag wag.

Melody, meanwhile, has been up for a while and is grabbing her opportunity to force her way through some more language tutorial before Leareth wakes up and inevitably wants the laptop back. (Fortunately, he doesn't appear to have broken anything except his 'code editor', the tutorial program works fine.) 

She is grumpy about this, but it's just going to get more and more embarrassing how far behind Leareth she is. She is cheating heavily with Mindhealing and rewarding herself for each twenty minutes of practice with another of the custard cakes. Probably she should eventually go check on Leareth, but if he's not calling for her them he's presumably not in distress, and she kind of desperately wants a little more peace and quiet this morning. 

Leareth eventually finishes the entire bag of popcorn (though probably a quarter of it went to 448.) 448 also keeps trying to lick the powdery flavor stuff off his fingers and anywhere else he spills it, which mostly results in everything being very sticky. 

The popcorn is salty; the impetus that finally drives him out of bed is that he's thirsty and out of water. Leareth goes to the bathroom, rinses some of the dog spit off his hands and fills his cup and drinks all of it in one go. He glares at the shower and wonders if 448 would be willing to go in with him and if that would help. Melody will probably veto this plan on the grounds of 'wet dog smell' though. 

Eventually he makes his way downstairs.

Melody has finally given up on any more language practice and is staring wistfully at the laptop, wishing she could remember the process to find more 'movies' - she sort of wants to watch the ones about therapy, now that she has a chance of understanding one word in two. 

"Morning! Sleep well?"