:Maybe? I never really had time to sit down and go through all my records to categorize them that way. There are only five Mindhealers in the entire kingdom - er, population is something over half a million but less than a million - so I usually only saw people if they were very badly off, or else I only saw them once and never got any real kind of followup. I do remember noticing that some people who are depressed have a lot of very big mood swings and intense negative emotions that are hard for them to handle in non-self-destructive ways, and some people are less intensely sad and more just tired all the time and not very motivated. And those do look different to Sight as well as just from observing the patient and asking about their life. I'm much better at doing things for the first kind but that might be a thing about Mindhealing rather than a thing about how badly off the patients are: 

"Interesting! Yeah, it's not currently a settled question if those are definitely different things or not. How fast can you tell this sort of thing - you want thousands of data points for a big study -"

Melody frowns. :If someone comes in with a summary of what they feel is wrong with them and what's bothering them the most, I think I can usually get a sense within twenty minutes of looking at them with my Sight. It takes longer if getting them to answer questions is like pulling teeth. Which is unfortunately true of kind of a lot of patients in my world. But if the patients already have a therapist and a pharmacist and you have existing notes on what's wrong with them and what you've already done for them, I think that would help a lot: 

"Yeah, your big advantage here definitely wouldn't be taking a history! Assuming that cuts it down by, say, half, I guess you could check over a few dozen people in a day, which is - pretty good but it'd definitely take you a while to referee a big set of data points even not taking into account travel time."

:That sounds about right. I expect I could get a lot faster if I had a bunch of practice with one particular kind of patient? Since it sounds like you already have a system of figuring out what problem someone has that's much more sophisticated than we had. Anyway, I wouldn't mind doing that if it seemed especially valuable, but I'm worried I would get incredibly bored after a few weeks of just seeing a dozen people every day with the same problem: 

"Maybe you could do some kind of spot-check for big data sets - just the ones who happen to be able to make it to this city, say - and switch types periodically, look at eating disorders one month and psychosis the next and anxiety after that. Ooh, you could evaluate nootropic effects, I bet, that would be much easier to get a data set for locally - I'm assuming you don't want to fly all over the planet because you have a patient here and who likes planes, right -"

Melody is staring at her. 

:I - sorry - I have so many questions! What are 'planes'? What's an 'eating disorders', it sounds like it's a different thing from how some depressed people lose their appetite and have trouble eating enough? What are 'nootropic' effects?:  

"- eating disorders are a whole category! There's not eating enough, but there's also eating too much, or eating weirdly specific things well beyond normal allergies and preferences - the classic example is eating only bread till you die of scurvy but I think that only happened just that way one time, a lot of people with this are still okay with taking supplements for their vitamins insofar as that works. Some people classify having a fear that everything you have to eat is contaminated as an eating disorder, I think it's more like a paranoid delusion, I guess now you're here and you could check! Nootropics are drugs that help people think better, but for most of them it's really hard to get a scientifically convincing result out of them."

:Wow! That's such a good idea! I would be delighted to help with research for that. - The eating disorder thing sounds fascinating, I had no idea that would be a thing - I mean, apart from the thing where sometimes people who nearly starved once get very weird about food later, but your world doesn't seem like the kind of place that still has famines. Anyway, I wonder how much the different kinds would look similar to me: 

"I wonder that too! Maybe you should tour a research hospital. Or an emergency vacation place."

This is the point at which Leareth wakes to murmured voices in the distance.

He feels...really good, actually? At least mentally. Physically, his mouth is weirdly dry and he's slightly dizzy and he has to pee ferociously. Getting to the bathroom is really not helped by the 'slightly dizzy' and he stumbles a bit into the wall on his way. 

Melody doesn't immediately interrupt the conversation when she hears his footsteps, but does lift a hand when she hears a mysterious thump. 

:Sorry. Sounds like Leareth is finally awake. I should go make sure he's all right: 

Leareth is guzzling water directly from the bathroom tap, but he straightens up when he hears her coming. :Good morning: 

"It's not strictly speaking the 'morning' anymore," Melody says dryly. "Are you all right?" 

"Yes? Why would I not be all right?" 

"Well, you did just sleep for about fifteen hours! I guess if you're feeling fine then maybe you did just need it." 

"I am a little dizzy?" Leareth acknowledges. "If I was asleep for that long it is probably just because I have not been eating or drinking anything." 

"Could be. Well, come down as soon as you're ready and I'll get you some breakfast." 

She heads back downstairs and apologizes to Kelta for disappearing on her. :And I've got to make Leareth something for breakfast. Do you want anything?: 

"I brought a sandwich, I have really annoying allergies, but thanks!"

:That sounds inconvenient but much less inconvenient in this world than it would be anywhere else I've lived!: 

She starts making toast for Leareth. :Anyway, sorry, where were we - oh, right, emergency vacation places. What are those? It sounds nice!: 

"Well, it's not nice to need one but it's nice that they're there if you do! If you need a break from - everything, pretty much - you go to one and it's basically a hotel but with much more consumer-focused service, onsite pharmacy, intercept services if people are trying to pester you. Normal hotels are usually convenient to other things and emergency vacation places usually aren't, so they can have nice naturey stuff and you can go lounge in a hammock and do nothing and catch up on sleep and get some distance from whatever's wrong with you. They're a good tool if you're surprised by a mental health emergency and aren't totally discombobulated by being away from home at all, but of course it's better to see crises coming."

:...Huh. Wow. That seems like a really good idea! I can think of a dozen times I could really badly have used that being available as a place to send one of my patients: 

K'Treva Vale sort of served that purpose for Vanyel, of course - and had the advantage of also, kind of, being home for him - but it wasn't somewhere free of all social obligations. She finds herself trying to remember if Vanyel even had an opportunity, during the hurried months after the war, to actually visit. 

If not, it might be too late now. They weren't sure yet, at the point when she and Leareth were dropped off, which side the Tayledras and their Goddess would take in the war. 

Leareth meanders down a few minutes later. He's changed into a clean outfit and splashed water on his face, but his hair is at this point even more of a matted disaster. 

This is kind of embarrassing. They have a guest! What if their guest judges Melody about this? 

She makes no comment, though, just gives Leareth his plate of toast with cheese on it. 

It would be nice at some point to get slightly more variety in his meals, but Leareth doesn't feel like asking for it while Melody is still the one doing all the work to cause meals to happen at all.

He sort of edges past Kelta, his expression very neutral and not really making eye contact. :Melody, can I use the laptop now or did you need it?: