He selflessly rips it all out.

He grabbed ahold of the big, ugly thing and pulled. It fell free like a rotten tooth, tumbling out of her mind. Some loose chunks of detritus flowed out with it and he scooped them up - stuff like her grudge against her brother, her dislike of her natural hair color, and a few other odds and ends.

To Ashley, it felt like vomiting psychologically. There was a gushing sensation like something flowing out of her, followed by a void so intense it seemed to suck at the edges of her mind. She felt every muscle in her body relax and she practically melted back into the seat with a sigh. This wasn't a problem, she realized. It was a blessing. Ashley let out a satisfied hum, then turned to her husband. "What was that?"

Jamie was a little surprised by how abrupt her transformation had been. Her body, face, and voice all seemed like they belonged to a different woman. In a moment, he realized, he had completely reworked her psyche. "I couldn't figure out how to just extract the anxiety around this new power. So I guess I just took it all."

Ashley raised her eyebrows. "You took all of my anxiety?" She kicked her shoes off and put her bare feet up on the dashboard. "Yeah, it feels like you took away my anxiety."

"Do you want me to put it back?"

She chuckled. "You know, I feel like I ought to, but I don't. I really like this. Man, I was carrying around so much worry and stress! This feels like heaven."

"Yeah, it was pretty big and intense. I had to kind of work to get it out."

She sat up, eyes shining with curiosity. "Wait, so you're like, physically going in there?"

He searched for words to describe it. "Not exactly. It's weird. I kind of use different metaphors at different times. The whole thing is very, very abstract - sometimes it's like reading a list, sometimes it's like sifting through a box, sometimes it's like taking apart legos. For what I just did to you, it was kind of like pulling a bad tooth. A really big, rotten tooth."

Ashley was listening, rapt. "So what else can you pull out? Can you put things in?"

He shrugged. "I think I can pull and push basically anything. Think of the sentence, 'I am blank' or 'I have blank property'. However you complete that, I can take that."

She thought for a second. "So you can take my job? What would happen?"

"I don't know. Want to try it?"

Ash shook her head. "Nah, that sounds kind of boring. I want to try something interesting. Why don't you..."