"I mean, yeah, good programmers make good money," says Shory. "It's probably not his comparative advantage since he's, uh, magical? But yeah, you can freelance it."

:Oh, sure, I don't expect it to be his comparative advantage in the long run. Just, in the short run I think he has a lot more trauma related to doing magic, and doing - things, just, in general - I'm wondering if it helps that programming is a completely new thing that doesn't have any pre-existing associations for him: 

"Maybe! I'm not a psychologist but that sounds like it approximately holds together."

Shrug. :Anyway, I'm assuming you don't want to just keep hanging around here if Leareth is done doing programming for the day. Should we make plans for you to come back another time, or - is there a way for him to contact you? ...I guess he can probably just Mindspeak you if he runs into problems, now that you've met. I don't know where you live but he has a lot of range: 

"Wow, no need for that, I have an email address." She writes it down.

:....How does email work?: 

"I can explain email," says Dree, from where she's been reading in the corner.

"Off I nyoom!" chirps Shory, "bye, it was fun!", and she lets herself out.

:Goodbye!: Melody turns to Leareth. :Hey, Leareth, if you stop your music for a few minutes Dree can show us how to do emails?: 

Leareth is substantially more tired than he had realized, and has been half falling asleep on the sofa, but he nods and sits up straighter and pauses the adaptive radio station. 

Dree helps Leareth sign up for an email address ("leareth" is not taken but she adds some numbers for security anyway; they can be hidden most of the time) and another for Melody (does she want her name transliterated or translated?)

Leareth is very droopy and noticeably struggling to concentrate, but he manages to follow what Dree is doing well enough that he expects he'll remember how to access his 'email' later. 

Melody is not following the process as well as that! She's also not sure what distinction Dree is trying to draw when asking about how she wants her name written. 

"- I don't know if this is a side effect of telepathy or what but your name means something, right? 'Melody'? Do you want me to put in the name the way you say it or the way you mean it except in Kayshu?"

:Huh! I guess it does. I think I want it transliterated the way I say it, I'm not in the habit of thinking of my name as a word that way, if people address me with the Kayshu word that means the same thing I'll just get really confused: Her lips twitch. :You know, Leareth's name means something too. In a dead language, though, maybe that's why it doesn't come across: 

"Maybe! He can change his email address later if he likes." She transliterates "Melody".

:What do people normally use their 'email' for? Is it like sending letters to your friends except you do it through the laptop and not on paper?:

"Sort of! And they don't have to be your friends, a lot of people post theirs publicly. They're uniquely identifying so they're also good for signing up for websites that require accounts."

:Huh. So, for example, I could use 'email' to talk to other therapists and ask questions? Once I can read and write better in Kayshu, I mean: 

"Yep!"

:That's really neat! I bet Leareth would be willing to have people email him if they have magic questions, I am getting the sense that he finds doing almost anything on the laptop nonstressful whereas having to meet with people he doesn't know face to face is generally pretty stressful: 

"He's remarkably quick with the language based on how far he was able to get with programming before Shory showed up, so maybe in a week he can post a temporary alias - uh, not his actual email address, just something that will work like it for a period of time so he doesn't keep getting messages for months from the same posting - and take some questions!"

:That's probably a good plan: Leareth is going to be very motivated to answer people's questions, but it also seems predictable and inevitable that 'questions about magic' will run into a lot of the things that still upset him, and Melody feels much less doomy at the prospect if he can deal with inquiries in writing from the safety and privacy of their house. :And, yes - I think Leareth is just pretty good at learning things in general, when he puts his mind to it? Also he says your world is really good at pedagogy. I think most of the things he's studied in the past did not make it nearly so easy and fun to learn: 

"Well, it's important! Having good educational experiences instead of bad ones set people up for success."

:This world is really amazing in a lot of ways, you know: 

(Leareth, deprived of both laptop and music, has now flopped back down on the sofa and is in the process of dozing off.)