Nod. :I think that's everything, then. It's been pretty good language practice just having you both here today - I'm getting close to being able to understand the language without using Thoughtsensing at all. Thank you for arranging for Kelta to come over: 

"No problem. Next, pharmacist." And Dree departs.

Melody should perhaps theoretically be doing something productive, but Leareth is in possession of the only laptop, so instead she sits herself at the kitchen table and PLAYS with her FIDGET TOYS. 

The squishy ball is so squish! The 'water wiggle' is gorgeous, but also very mysterious, and at one point she squeezes it too hard and shoots it across the room. The wheel-in-a-wheel is fun to spin. The grabbable object with dials looks like something her granddaughter would adore, but Melody is not too proud to poke it and hold it in weird positions. At least while no one is watching. 

Leareth tries one more time to get his code to work and a different mysterious thing that wasn't the thing he wanted happens! So instead he does more language practice and intermittently checks his email to see if Shory has a suggestion. 

Shory's reply explains how to take a screenshot and asks him to send some of the thing he's trying and the result.

Wow, you can do that? That's so clever! 

Leareth is going to send her such a thoroughly documented story-in-screenshots of what he was trying! He screenshots the page of instructions he was originally following, and what happened in the code editor, and then the instructions he found when attempting to search for troubleshooting suggestions for that error, and what happened when he tried that, and in short he ends up with a dozen screenshots attached to his reply. 

Shory gets back to him five minutes later with a screenshot edited to circle the problem in red and explains what he should do there instead.

This time it works! Leareth is very pleased with himself. He emails back to confirm it worked and thank her, and then keeps going. Eventually manages to extract himself from the work enough to go to the bathroom, and remembers to take Forgiver out into the backyard as well. (With shoes, this time.) 

He's barely paying attention to his surroundings because his head is completely full of programming. 

Melody keeps an eye on him through the window while she plays with the squishy water tube thing. 

Forgiver is pleased that it is go time! It could stand to be go time somewhat more often, in her opinion.

Leareth should definitely figure out how to get better at remembering to let her out regularly! And probably he should be making sure she gets more exercise. Maybe for now he can take her on a walk around the house a few times, while he mulls on what he would need to look up to figure out how to add reminders to his half-finished to-do list app. 

Forgiver is fascinated to go around the house! She wants to look at things and smell them!

It's...nice. Following Forgiver around as she explores and inspects and sniffs reminds Leareth to pay attention to the here-and-now, to his body and senses. He still has a tendency to flinch away from that, but - this is a good moment. Practically the opposite of being tortured. It's peaceful. 

What sorts of things are there to see and smell in the vicinity of the house?

There are plants! There are animal burrows! There are the laundry machines, and the hose, and the patio table and chairs, and a storage bench, and a couple pieces of litter that have blown here, and lots of dirt, and a garter snake that is more scared of Forgiver than she is of it.

Leareth investigates the laundry machines and the hose and the storage bench, and makes a mental note about the table and chairs - maybe he and Melody can eat out here, sometimes, when the weather is nice. 

He nearly steps on the garter snake while in the process of trying to figure out what's bothering Forgiver. 

- Leareth's snake-related experiences in recent years were often VERY BAD. He makes a strangled sound that doesn't have quite enough air behind it to count as a scream, and tries to dive away from the snake and ends up facedown in the dirt and completely unable to move or respond in any way. 

Forgiver tries to nudge him over onto his back with her nose, licking him a lot in the process and whimpering.

Leareth is vaguely aware that something is happening to him, but it seems to be coming from a long way off, and sort of blended into the indiscriminate awfulness that he expects the past, present, and future to contain - 

- no, that isn't right - 

Leareth does not especially respond to being licked or nudged. 

Forgiver goes back to the door, but can't open it, and comes around again to lick Leareth more.

Still not responding in any way. 

Melody doesn't look over at the right time to see Forgiver approaching the door, but after a couple of minutes she starts to notice that she hasn't spotted Leareth or his dog at all for a while? 

:Leareth: she sends. 

Yeah okay fine she's going out there to check on him. And detouring by the living room to grab one of the fuzzy blankets off the sofa first, because the most obvious reason for Leareth to be ignoring her is because something out there scared him and he's too panicked to respond. 

Oh, a blanket! Forgiver will snatch it from her and put it on Leareth.

Melody has never more intensely wished for the Gift of Animal Mindspeech, so she could ask Forgiver what in all hells happened out here. (The snake is at this point long gone, and unable to provide hints.) 

She sits down next to Leareth and carefully doesn't touch him. Forgiver seems to have him plenty covered in the licking department. :Hey. I'm here. I don't know what happened that was scary, but I don't see any sign you're in danger: