:...Fine. If you stop responding to me I'll turn the water off: Which will probably involve getting soaked herself in the process, but Melody is super not going to take her clothes off too, it will scare Leareth and also offend every single professionalism bone in her body. 

She nudges the shower door open wide enough for Leareth to scoot himself in. 

Leareth will slide himself under the water and then sit there quietly panicking about it! 

448 sits when told, and stays there, watching him undertake this strange and wet adventure.

The water keeps getting in his face and his eyes. It's not actually impairing Leareth's breathing especially but it feels like it is. He tries to cup his hands over his forehead to keep the water off and this only sort of works. 

:Leareth? Are you all right? Talk to me: 

He's shivering even though the water is, this time, a completely reasonable pleasant temperature. :I cannot say I am enjoying this experience: 

:I know. You're doing really well. I'm proud of you for trying it: 

That is a very stupid thing for her to be proud of him about. 

Thirty seconds under running water is not going to be nearly enough to actually get his hair clean - and his hair is still mostly-sort-of in a braid anyway - but Melody is not feeling inclined to push it further today. :That's enough. Do you think you can turn the water off or should I do it?: 

Leareth cannot currently see anything because he has water in his eyes and is also covering his face with his hands. :Can you do it please: 

Melody will get herself somewhat wetter in the process of doing this, and then pile some towels on Leareth without bothering to ask him to move. The floor just outside the shower is now almost as wet as inside, anyway. 

Leareth would really like his dog to be within snuggling range now! "Here," he manages shakily after a few seconds. 

Dog is here now! Dog is putting her forehead on Leareth's hip. Her fur sticks to him because he's damp.

Leareth is shivering despite being thoroughly piled with warm towels, and not managing to take any actions to dry himself properly or move off the uncomfortable wet tiled shower-interior, and trying to figure out why his brain is so loudly confident that everything is terrible and he's in danger. Presumably it's linking to some sort of very bad memory, but his torture memories are not in order and there are a really absurd number of them and they are very much not catalogued neatly. 

...Yeah that did not go as well as Melody might have hoped. She sighs, and gets Leareth dried off, and then with considerable effort and gentle coaxing, persuades him to relocate to his bedroom. She unpacks one of his Quendi sleeping robes for him; it seems worth giving him that familiarity. 

She perches bedside him on the bed. :Want to talk about it?: 

Leareth pets 448 and does not make eye contact. :I have no idea why it is so upsetting. It is probably because of a torture memory but I am not finding which one: 

:That makes sense. I can maybe try to help you trace it down later, but right now I think you should just try to relax and calm down. I'll get you the laptop and you can listen to music?: 

Sure, that sounds fine and like it does not really require taking any actions. 

:It might go better if I try first thing in the morning? I think I am more reactive and easily upset if I am already tired, and especially if I have already been startled and needed to calm down a number of times: 

Melody gets him the laptop. (His hair is in even worse condition than before, somehow, and it's making her sad, but she should at this point probably just help him brush it. Which will be an ordeal. Maybe this world has hair products that make brushing tangled hair easier? They've certainly got 5000 of everything else.) 

:That's fair, but I don't really want to push you harder on this. You're very traumatized and it's to be expected that some things that seem innocuous to most people will be awful for you, and I think we should actually just avoid things that remind you of being tortured. I'm going to think about other workarounds. We could probably wash your hair in the sink - doesn't sound comfortable, but it might be more neutral for you: 

Leareth HATES THIS. He wants to be able to just DO WHAT MAKES SENSE and not have a thousand stupid pointless emotional tripwires in his brain. 

It's never productive to dwell on this, though, so he just restarts his instrumental music station, and closes his eyes and pets 448 and tries to stay in the here-and-now. 

Melody would go look on the internet for bathing-related products and/or email Dree, which is presumably less disruptive than Mindspeaking her, but 1) Leareth is using the laptop and she doesn't have her own yet, and 2) she is not actually very competent to navigate search engines yet. 

She sighs and goes downstairs to make herself another cup of tea. And check what time it is, to make sure it's still during Dree's usual work hours. 

It is still during Dree's work hours!

A long Mindspeech conversation at this range will be exhausting, but probably she can manage a short one? Melody reaches and stretches out with her Gift. :Good time to interrupt?: 

:Sure, what's up?:

:Leareth is terrified of the shower. I hoped it was just because he had a bad initial experience and it'd get easier if we could push through anyway, but I'm pretty sure it actually just reminds him of being tortured by the evil torture god. I don't want to keep subjecting him to that but I'm not sure what the alternatives are. Can you just - buy bathtubs?: