There are eight Andalites under a lot of stress and not-thinking about the last day and trying to believe that they're probably safe. 

And there is one Andalite throwing all of his energy at just holding his body approximately still in a normal-enough fashion, and every single part of his tapestry has worn away like it hung out exposed to the elements for decades or something. He's trying not to use it. it does not look like it would hold up to the strain.

What. Okay, he almost has to be the Andalite who was Visser 3's host for decades, that they were speculating about back on the ship. Also aaaaaaaaaaaah. This is what she gets for thinking to herself, out on the border at Horn less than a month ago, that the whole 'war duty Mindhealer posting' thing was getting repetitive after four years and she was bored. 

Melody is not at all bored and is only internally screaming a little bit, which is not noticeable at all in her body language. 

She takes a deep breath, and addresses all of the Andalites in Mindspeech. :I'm Melody. I think you all know of the existence of Mindhealers in Velgarth, and that Nayoki is one. I'm from Valdemar and volunteered for the war effort along with Herald Vanyel, so I'm here now. I actually spent the last four years down at the front helping soldiers who'd had traumatic experiences during Valdemar's war, and Matirin asked me to talk to everyone here about how you're feeling and figure out if I can help. All right? I think for now I'll take five minutes to talk to each of you and then go from there: 

She doesn't head for Alloran first. He might benefit from a bit more time to think about what, if anything, he wants to say to her. Also if she just does this in order around the circle, starting with the person closest to her, it looks less like she's singling anyone out. 

The way this Andalite feels is that he is overjoyed at the triumph over the Yeerks and now understands even better how evil they are.

Melody nods and says sympathetic things and asks them a bit what the worst parts of the last day were, and then moves on. 

Alloran is number four, in her randomized ordering. :Hey: she says, in private Mindspeech. :You're Alloran, right? You were Visser Three's host: 

He does not move. The other ones twitch their tails, at uncomfortable questions. <Yes.>

Well, he can answer a yes-or-no question, that's something. Going by his tapestry, she was worried he might be completely catatonic for the next while. 

...Damn it, why is she suddenly being a Mindhealer to aliens, working across a massive cultural gap she barely understands, with patients who seem to just not have half the concepts she takes for granted with humans. 

:I'm so sorry. I cannot imagine what the last twenty years have been like for you: Pause. :This is probably considered very rude among your people, so I apologize for that, but I think it's easiest to be frank. I have magical Sight that shows me people's minds, and yours is a mess. But I think it's fixable, with a lot of time, if you're - motivated to get better, and willing to work with me on it. I want to help: 

<I know that I am broken. It is my wish to still be of service to my people, for whatever I am worth.>

Now doesn't seem like time to argue with the entire Andalite framing on mental and emotional issues, even though she is starting to hate it with a burning passion. Also he's not actually wrong. 

:I understand. I'm still doing triage now, so I'll ask you a few questions and move on, but we'll come back to it. Can you tell me what kinds of feelings you're having right now?: 

Alloran doesn't have a Thoughtsensing talisman, which is really helpful, it makes it a lot easier to correlate what the aspects of his tapestry are actually like to him, internally. 

<I have forgotten how to move my body. I feel anger and hatred for the Yeerks about this.>

:That's a deeply reasonable emotion to be having right now, for that reason and I'm sure a thousand others. Would you like me to help you figure out how to move your body again? I'm not sure I can do it in five minutes, but I can try quickly, and if not I'll come back to you right afterward: 

<I would like that.>

:All right, hmm. Try to wave your tail or something? That might help me see what's going wrong that makes it not work: 

He can move it but not fluidly, and it doesn't move exactly how he expects, and it's dangerous to flail an Andalite tail around without precise control of it, he could cut off his own leg or something.

That is a pretty inconvenient problem to have! 

What does his tapestry look like when he's trying to do that? 

He's terrified of being too broken to be of any use anymore, and he's terrified of humiliating himself by moving his tail wrong in a way that's obvious to all the other Andalites, and he's not going to kill himself now that it wouldn't help, now that his information about the Yeerks is likely needed, he's not that weak, but it's all he's thought about for twenty years and still the only motion that feels like it would be achievable naturally, and whenever his body does move in response to his commands it's terrifying and disorienting and everything swims in his vision.

He hates Visser Three so intensely. He wants to personally watch when he dies.

Wow, where does she even start with that.

She takes a deep breath. :I - think there's a lot we can work on, here, from various angles. It'll take time and patience but I think you're up for that and I'm really glad of that. Hmm. I think a big chunk of this is - well, humans at least will get rusty at any skill they don't use for a long time. Learn a language, and if you don't speak it for a decade, it'll take a bit of practice to come back fluently. Much faster than learning in the first place. And - I think everything in your mind is like that, right now, because for twenty years someone else was using it instead of you: 

Only a hint slips through in her mindvoice of how awful and upsetting it is, looking at the results of that etched into the living, breathing, experiencing person in front of her. :I don't have an easy fix on the moving thing, but...would it help to not be around other Andalites for a while, so you can focus on getting back in practice without worrying what they'll think?: 

<I don't know. I've been - alone for a very long time. It's hard to be around people but it is frightening to imagine being alone again. They are my people, even if I am not worthy of them.>

She is not going to argue with him on that she is not going to argue not now she's doing triage, but gah. 

:I absolutely don't want to subject you to being alone. But - there are humans? Here on Velgarth. Or, I don't know how much the Visser learned about Valdemar's Heralds, but - there's a setup here where magical intelligent horse-shaped beings bond to humans. I think some of your people have been considering it sort of analogous to Andalites, except made of two symbiotic parts, and the Companions are herd animals and seem to get along really well with Andalites. You could, if you wanted, have some of them keep you company while you're practicing things that feel stressful to do in front of Andalites, they're so incredibly not going to judge you negatively about it: 

<I think that anyone with reasonable standards for conduct would judge someone negatively for being unable to walk.>

:If a soldier under your command had all of their legs broken by the enemy - and also couldn't morph it off yet for some reason - would you judge them negatively for not being able to walk?: 

<Yes! They would be unable to do any useful things. 'unable to do any useful things' is probably the most straightforwardly negative assessment of a person you can have, other than 'dead'.>

Gaaaaaaaaaah. Melody does not scream even a little bit, though. Her expression and mindvoice are mild. 

:All right, fair. Your current condition does - give predictions about what kind of work you can do right now. The way humans think about this, though, is - hmm. I think 'negative judgement' is maybe lumping two things together, here. One is predictions of what work we can give you. The other is - whether you're worth helping, whether people like you and want to be around you and care for you and help you get better. And I don't know how Andalites are with this, but among humans, if a soldier has their legs broken by the enemy, their colleagues will absolutely want to be with them and help them get better, if they can. And - for humans, again, someone being unable to walk because they were enslaved and tortured by the enemy for decades, is in principle not any different. It predicts that you'll need longer to heal, because you can't just morph off this damage, but it doesn't make you any less deserving of help and it won't make humans or Companions less willing to be around you: 

<Humans enjoy the company of crippled people?>

:I mean, not literally all humans, but - many humans get a lot of fulfillment and sense of meaning out of knowing that they're helping someone in need. Especially Healers. And - my entire job is that, right, and I actually like my job a lot. Also I know a human girl back on the Dome ship who stayed up most of last night even though she absolutely did not have to do that, because someone was injured and she wanted to be there to help. Do Andalites not have that motivation, at least in some people?: 

<- obviously duty frequently obliges a person to do many things that are unpleasant or difficult, and to do them uncomplainingly. There are many Andalites who work in medicine, and are frequently around injured and broken people, and they perform their duty admirably. But just as a soldier very accustomed to killing hopefully does not come to enjoy it, I would not expect a doctor to come to enjoy being around people who are not functioning properly. - satisfaction from fixing them, maybe.>