Melody does that, and nudges the door mostly shut so that she won't disturb him by walking around but can hopefully still hear him if he wakes up, and then she can EXPLORE their new HOUSE. She is going to look in all the bedrooms and the bathroom and examine all the furniture and go around opening every closet and cupboard and cabinet and drawer to see what's inside. 

She can turn up:

- most of a tube of cinnamon toothpaste
- a bottle of shampoo, vanilla coconut scented
- a plastic truck small enough to fit in her hand, yellow with red trim
- a silicone spoontula, a nylon turner, a metal ladle, and a chef's knife
- flatware, mostly spoons but also some forks and knives and a few grabby tong things and some disposable straws in assorted colors
- a big steel frying pan and a smallish steel pot
- three paperback books she can't read, one missing the cover and the other two bearing pictures of a) a huge dog with wings and their master b) a planet seen from space, mostly purple
- a plastic comb
- salt, MSG, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder, somewhat caked with neglect
- a bottle of cleaning vinegar under the kitchen sink
- a stash of paper towels and toilet paper and facial tissues, in a closet
- a handheld vacuum cleaner, charging in the same closet, and also a broom
- a dog bed under the blue bedroom's bed, somewhat chewed and bearing the hair of animal visitors past
- a square glass casserole dish
- plates and bowls, chipped and mostly mismatched
- an old flyer for a bagel shop
- half a pink crayon
- a stash of spare sheets and pillowcases

This people are in some sense really absurdly wealthy! This is fascinating, even if at least a quarter of the objects are entirely mysterious to Melody. She squeezes some of the cinnamon toothpaste onto her fingertip and sniffs it and still doesn't have the faintest idea what it's for. The handheld vacuum cleaner is equally baffling. The tiny dollop of shampoo lathers between her fingertips, so it's...probably soap...but she's mystified as to why it smells like it should be edible. (She does not risk tasting it.) 

She does manage to figure out via trial and error that the crayon is for drawing or writing. The cookware seems entirely adequate, if somewhat random. Leareth's probably going to want the books, he can't read them either but Melody has no doubt he'll try to use them to learn the local alphabet and get started on properly learning to read. 

She selects the room with the windowseat and unpacks her things in it, and eats some bread with cheese and sliced meats on it, and then goes to investigate the bathing facilities. 

It's not that different from what she was shown how to use in the hospital. The shower curtain has seahorses on it. The sink in this bathroom is deep enough that you could fit a toddler in it, but there's not a tub for adults, just the shower.

That's too bad. Leareth likes baths and, while he's usually fairly independent with basic life tasks these days, when he's this exhausted he approximately just won't bathe unless coaxed through it. 

She uses the weird edible-smelling soap goo to wash herself and her hair, and then puts on her second spare pair of robes, and starts washing the first set in the sink. 

Leareth wakes up while she's doing this, mostly because in the process of tossing and turning he managed to slide off the beanbag onto the floor. He instinctively checks the wards with his mage-sight while only a quarter of the way awake, and they AREN'T THERE and he can't remember where he is and he tries to osanwë Maitimo which takes less concentration than Mindspeaking and nothing happens and - 

Thoughtsensing - right, Melody's there - right, other world, though he's still disoriented about where he is specifically. 

:Melody?: 

:Hey. It's okay. We're at the house they found for us somewhere remote. Nothing unexpected or bad is happening. I'll be right there: 

He's on the floor and he would kind of prefer not to be but changing that state of affairs would require taking actions. 

Melody is pretty sure that she's way worse at this than Vanyel, but she goes in, trying to move slowly and predictably, and opens the curtains to let in some light, and starts recounting a list of the groceries that have now arrived and her discoveries while inventorying the house, and eventually they can relocate downstairs so she can make Leareth a sandwich as well while they wait for the night-shift person to be available for introductions. 

About twenty minutes past sunset Dree is back, this time on her own nyoom, a scooter. She knocks on the door.

Melody goes to let her in, teacup in hand. :Thanks for coming back to do this, I appreciate it. ...And this house. It's really nice. Er, do you have any other updates for us, on selling our gold or anything else?: 

"Apparently the Premier wants to send someone to visit you but is concerned about how telepathy might interact with classified information, so they're trying to hire a temp who'll just translate for you," says Dree. "There's some bidding on the gold, it's best to let that run for a few days so people who are interested have time to hear about it but it's already bid up high enough to cover your stay here and all the other incidentals that have accumulated so far once the sale's made. I'm glad you like the house. My colleague is awake now and ready to meet over the phone."

:That's a reasonable worry! It's possible to use Mindspeech without actually getting any surface thoughts not deliberately sent, but it's admittedly a lot harder with non-Mindspeakers, you don't shield and you can't actively project. I'm fine to wait on the gold sale if it's acceptable to pay for those things after the fact. And I'd be delighted to meet your colleague over the phone!: 

Maybe they can go to the sitting area for this, and Leareth can decide if he wants to join them? :Leareth: she sends. :Do you want to meet the overnight 'social worker' too?: 

Sure, he can come do that. 

Dree puts her phone on the low table and stands it up on its case and calls her co-worker, who answers after a minute and appears on the screen eating a piece of toast and propping a baby on his shoulder. "Hi," he says. "I'm Nalu."

Oh, there's even a picture! Melody smiles and waves. "Nalu," she repeats carefully; she's memorized enough word-sounds to guess that this is probably the name part. She points at herself. "Melody." 

:Dree, what direction and distance is he in, approximately?: 

"Nalu, you live in the Amber Grove area, right?"

"A little downtown of it but yeah."

Dree closes her eyes to orient to a mental map and then gets up and turns and points. "That way, maybe three miles."

This turns out to be a really hard way to do this! Three miles is technically within Melody's range but it's pushing it to reach someone un-Gifted at that distance, and she's going to have to jump past a lot of other minds that aren't Nalu. Heralds who do Mindspeech relay duties are probably a lot better at this, but Thoughtsensing in itself doesn't come with a search function. 

:Er, can you ask him to try to really loudly think my name? Might help me pick him out without needing to read random other people's surface thoughts so much: 

:Do you want me to try?: Leareth offers. :I suspect I might have more practice at using Mindspeech in this way: 

:...Sure, if you want, and then you could pull me into a link: Privately, :- and maybe try not to read random people's surface thoughts, they haven't agreed to that: 

"Sure, I can try to think 'loudly'," says Nalu, and he does that as best he can.

Melody keeps looking, but Leareth finds Nalu in less than thirty seconds, before she's made much headway. He's more experienced at distance-mindreading than her and he has a much stronger Thoughtsensing Gift in the first place. 

:Hello: he sends, and then pulls Melody in. 

:Melody here!: Wow, that's harder than she expected. Projecting to an un-Gifted mind takes more energy to begin with and at that range she can just barely do it for a couple of words. Which is probably fine, if all she needs to do is alert them to an urgent problem? 

:Would Nalu be able to come over here if we need help with something?: she thinks to check with Dree. :It'd be pretty hard to have a whole conversation at this range - Leareth could do it fine but I should assume that a lot of the things that could come up involve Leareth not being up for that: 

"Yes, he can come out if you need him," says Dree. "He often spends entire nights at home not having any social work emergencies but he's on retainer at the department anyway specifically so if one happens he can come out and help."

:Hello!: says Nalu. :Gosh, that's really something. Can I hang up now? If the baby wakes up she's going to be very interested in the phone:

:I think that's all we needed: Melody smiles and waves again. :You've been so helpful, Dree, I really do appreciate it: