"Is Zazi actually working for my brother?"

"Nnnnnnyeeeehhhh??? It's complicated, man. Zazi finds your brother an endless source of entertainment. Assistance comes when it would help the action get there quicker so they can watch. Or meddle. Watch with a side of meddling if they feel like it. They're a hivemind, they keep their options open basically always."

"Maybe it wouldn't be entertaining to stop us or ambush us or whatever.

"I'm still annoyed that they managed to lie to me."

"Yep. Hivemind. Pick a bunch of thems that don't know the details, and throw them into one body, bam, best liar ever. I didn't even know they could be human shaped until the diner, that was new."

"...what'd they do before, buzz at you?"

"That, and they can talk without the human-shaped body with, like. ... I dunno, spores or whatever."

"Guess that makes sense."

Now he needs to fish for another topic because Julai is right there and if he doesn't distract himself he is going to vibrate through the seat. He's almost in range of the February plants, and he's never managed to get Nai's trick of hiding—when he was talking to Yvette he could stop actively projecting but that's a whole different skillset than being able to actually become invisible to plants. And maybe that's not so much of an issue, Nai is probably gonna be expecting him what with how Morgan is bringing him over and Yvette herself if she's alive is a great motivator, so surprise isn't really a tool he has on his arsenal, here.

He's not, really, actually sure what he's going to do, there. Nai does actually have him outclassed in firepower, and if he doesn't want Zash going into the February compound then he is just not going to be able to get in full stop. But he has to do something, and at least if he tries and fails he'll know what failed and be able to iterate on it.

Someone else seems to be thinking about tactical viability, too.

"Probably our best bet is to make nice with Zazi, actually. I know you're pissed at them, and yeah me too, but. ... They want the show to go on."

"I want to exterminate them."

"Sure, sure, but later, though."

"And if we make friends with them, what then? They rekidnap Yvette," who is 100% alive and fine, "and bring her over to us? They could've done this already if they wanted to."

"I doubt they'd do that, I'm thinking more like. Assist in direct physical confrontations. Because it'd be very boring if you got your ass kicked and then got stuffed in a jar forever, right?"

"I don't think I'm so outclassed that I have no fighting chance. I can read Nai's intentions directly if he's not shielding and his body language if he is, the best he can do is try to interpret our sisters' translations, so when it comes to immediate battlefield tactics I have a leg up. ...but yeah, maybe, I guess. I'm not sure what Zazi could help with other than maybe provide a city-sized worm."

"Iunno. They're crafty as fuck, I doubt the only way they could help is by giant worm. Their knowledge and everywhereness is definitely their biggest asset, not having big thing that goes chomp. Anyway, I'm just saying, maybe think about it. You want to win more than you want to get revenge, yeah?"

"...I want Yvette back, and safe. Everything else is secondary."

"... Even casualties of the civilian variety?"

"Please don't make me have to choose. I, I don't, I don't know what I'd choose."

"I wasn't planning to, I want to know which way you'd flip in advance. Doubt she'd appreciate that, anyway."

"I don't know," he says, anguished. "I, if, I think I'd." He swallows dryly. "I don't know. This is why I didn't want to, to be in love with her. Because now I don't know what I'll choose."

"Yeah, I get it. Nevermind, sorry for asking," sighs Morgan, who has indeed run into something akin to this topic before. She just wants to know what to prioritize, okay!!!!

Yeah, he can't really offer much guidance here. "I'll be able to talk to my sisters any minute, now."

And Knives will probably be able to notice that Zash is present at around the same time.

"Tell 'em I said hi."

He might hear something before his sisters, actually. Just from sheer familiarity, and also the fact that this voice in particular is psychically screaming.

"—YVETTE," and yeah okay fuck this fucking car he is now accelerating to maximum speed.

This jostles his passenger, who does not quite fall over, but it's a near thing.

"WOAH what the hell we're heading towards her man????"

"She's, there's, something's happening I can hear her—"

"What, like. On the psychic plant network??? How???"

"I don't know!!!"

"Fuck, okay. ... But she's definitely, obviously alive, though?"

"Alive and being tortured is still bad. So it really depends on how badly she's getting tortured."

“That’s better than dead!” Usually. “... Wait why would they be torturing her. The hell would that even get them??"

"I don't know she's not being coherent and my sisters aren't either. Nai... seems busy? He's not hiding but my sisters can't get his attention."

"I'm not saying fucking ask her I'm saying think about it. Knives does torture when people piss him off, but how does that attach her to the psychic plant network??"

"—sorry my mind is all over the place. I... have no idea. It's her, it's absolutely her, not just my sisters relaying, but—Conrad experimenting on her?"

"Right, but why would he experiment on her? When he wants new subjects, those are easy, and younger the better for Doctor Psycho, for growth pattern science reasons or whatever." She frowns. "... Maybe not experimenting. I know the doctor wants to die, and Knives won't let him."

"You're gonna need to follow that chain of logic a couple of steps further here."

"I'm just thinking that the engineer that specializes in saving and healing plants would be hella valuable to them, actually. So. They probably want to keep her. And are making that happen."

"They're. Making her immortal? Like Conrad?"

"I mean I don't know, I'm not there, but that's my best guess."

"That... that..."

"...that would be the best possible news."

"It might also mean she can't leave. But yeah."

"I said that Brad's arcology is the safest place on this planet but if Nai isn't hurting you I think February beats it. —still bad but, but I was afraid she'd be—"

“Yeah, I know. Better than the worst option. Don’t celebrate yet, though. February might be safer from like, siege or outside attack? But it’s filled with an ever changing cast of psychos. Plus, do you think she’d like being trapped somewhere?”

"No, she would hate it, but I'm really having a hard time not being relieved here."

"Man I do not work in complicated feelings shit, feel whatever you want. I'm just trying to keep a realistic perspective of the situation at hand."

Because someone in this car has been bad at that when it comes to anything involving one person in particular.

"No, I know. I don't think any of this changes anything. ...except that I won't try to kill my brother I guess, it wouldn't have worked anyway but this way I won't waste my time with it."

"Okay. Well. ... Can you slow down a bit, you're going to break the car. It's in the manual, it's not supposed to go this fast for long periods of time."

...fine. He can slow down the car.

And he'll send Yvette a pulse of love.

The reply is confused and weak and more than a little delirious with pain, but there is one.

[.... Zash...?]

But recognition is about all she can manage right now.

!

!!!!!

[Yes my love it's me I love you so much I'm coming I'll rescue you—]

[hurts, hurts hurts hurts]

Then:
[love]

[consent is not one of your brother's kinks]

[??????]

Yeah, she's in no condition to be more coherent than that, it's back to being in agony.

"Yvette just said, and I quote, 'consent is not one of your brother's kinks.'

"What the fuck."

"... yeah, no fucking idea what to do with that. So I concur. What the fuck."

"She didn't mean it literally, I'm pretty sure, I think his sexuality is even more offline than mine, but... Whatever's happening is something she might've wanted to say yes to? So it's not that bad?

"Wishful thinking."

"You might be reading too much into it, I wouldn't take too much stock in what someone says under torture, but yeah, that'd be nice. Uh, entrance to the compound is over thataway," she points.

THATAWAY GO GO GO GO wait no just go go go go he shouldn't go too fast but HE WANTS TO.

Sigh.

"Okay, we're close enough that you can go turbo without probably breaking the car."

TURBO GO GO GO GO GO GO

Morgan has had like a month of putting up with this kind of shit. It’s one of the reasons she’s been sleeping so much.

"Entrance there," she says, pointing at a large rock that doesn't particularly stand out from the rest of the available rocks.

Okay he actually has to slow down now for this. "What am I looking for?"

"Nothing, I'll get out of the car and open it. I was supposed to bring you here, remember?"

"...right." So he drives over there, pulls up, and gets off.

"You're finally here!" says a suddenly appearing hivemind. "At that rate we thought you were never—"

Whoops his finger slipped into his gun's trigger. Six times.

"—rude!" they call after recoalescing.

"You stole his girlfriend," sighs Morgan, as she gets out of the car and gets to getting the entrance open. This involves poking a bit of rock and then offering her hand up to a keypad that appears. Then the rock lifts up, and there's a ramp large enough to accept a vehicle.

"And now drive in, we'll park inside and take the elevator down."

He shoots Zazi a dirty look and gets back into the car.

And Zazi starts sending some bugs into it too.

"Are you trying to convince me to exterminate you?"

"Ooo! Scary!"

The other bugs coalesce into a second body. "Don't be a spoilsport, we just want to watch."

"Zazi's likely got a bunch of themselves already down there through like, a dozen other entrances that they know about. Half of which they probably made. They're just fucking with you."

"They are succeeding and if they think I am above chasing down every single spore left on this planet until no worm is ever born again—"

"Oh, Mr. Zash, don't spoil it! We want to be surprised." Body 1 disperses. "Especially after you see what we did to Yvette—"

He slams the door shut. "Get in, Wolfwood."

"Ahuh."

In she goes.

Zazi prods him some more but he just ignores them and follows Morgan's directions.

The car is parked in a sensible little garage that looks like it's for exactly this purpose, and then from there they ride an elevator down.

Morgan doesn't know precisely where Yvette is, but she knows where Conrad's human experimentation labs are. So she takes Zash there. Zash can likely triangulate which part of it Yvette's in.

It helps that she's still screaming.

Yeah, at that point he just sprints. There are many corners here and he keeps hitting minor dead ends but he's still running at the speed of an independent plant so he finds his destination quickly enough.

The room Dr. Conrad is in is spacious and has two doors into a lower level split into two rooms, as well as large windows overlooking both rooms. Each of them has an operating table; one of them has Yvette, and the other has Nai.

Yeah now Conrad has a gun to his temple.

"You don't want to do that."

"What are you doing."

"Linking Ms. Marlowe to your brother's gate so she can become a plant hybrid."

Wait what.

Dr. Conrad continues working on whatever's going on in the computer. "She will appreciate your presence."

...he'll walk over to the window to look at her, the arm holding his gun hanging limply at his side.

Yvette's table is a mess of gore, and she herself isn't looking much better. There's bruising all over her body (as her cells are forcibly replaced from the inside out) and tears from where she thrashed too hard against the tubes going into her. Her hair's gone white, not from stress, but because the newly grown hair follicles from her several-times-over-replaced scalp just come in white. On a molecular level, they were the closest stand in to her human hair that was plant compatible. She isn't capable of properly physically screaming, there seems to be a bite guard in place to keep her from biting her own tongue off, but she is more than making up for it psychically. He can feel her fury and her violation and her pain. She has a vague understanding of how she got here, and what's happening, and she's really fucking mad about it, actually.

But she can, vaguely, tell that Zash is here, and she quiets her screaming (just a little) to reach for him. It hurts so much. She loves him and missed him and why the fuck is she being treated like this they could have fucking asked first, she could have braced or something!!! She could have been attached to Zash's gate instead of sharing one with a guy she SORT OF WANTS TO STRANGLE RIGHT NOW.

"Why. Did you do this. Why are you doing this."

"Master Knives did not want her to die."

Zash turns around to glare at him. "I got that part already."

(Psychically he is sending her all his love and more, he is so happy she's alive, he's so relieved, he is fucking livid at Nai but he loves her so so much he will be here with her for as long as this takes—)

"You will have to ask your brother."

"And you're going to tell me that I can't disturb him for reasons."

"No, actually. She has been successfully connected to his gate, now. The connection is still fragile, however, so you might want to hold off on seriously hurting him because it might hurt her."

Zash growls and then kicks the metal door leading down to Nai's half of the room until it's been entirely bent out of his way so he can go yell at his brother.

[don't worry love]

[I got there first]

Nai has had to deal with directly having a screaming, angry, agonized woman directly hooked into his gate and showing him all of the things he fucking did wrong.

She does not, on principle, object to this procedure. She even kind of wanted it herself, because she's not a fucking idiot. However, consider:

If sex is equivalent to the intimacy of being entwined to someone on a psychic level, through his gate and personhood itself.

Then rape is equivalent to this.

Does he want to know what it's like on the other side of things? To be powerless and weak and at the mercy of his lazy fucking whims? To watch the destruction caused by how he didn't want to bother to go find a better human to be his instrument to act upon the world? To have her efforts to improve the world (and there's an echo of her grief and rage of Jeneora) casually torn apart by him because he didn't want to bother listening to the other side of things? Because he was certain he was right and righteous and correct in all things?

Here it is. This is what you, Nai, have done to her, Yvette. On a personal level. Hint: it's not nice.

She thinks that she might be able to kill him. Actually, she even sort of wants to. There's probably even a clever way she could hijack his gate from him and make it her own, if she were motivated enough.

He was incorrect. She is not a plant. There was no grand conspiracy from the networked plants of December. She is and always was human. She is not an endless font of goodness and empathy and kindness. She has all of those things, but because she's nurtured them. Because she cherished them. Because she wanted to be good and empathetic and kind.

With his actions, he has been stealing the opportunities for humans to nurture the virtues he so loves. Then he has been condemning them for not being good enough. He wants to know how she was able to be so good when all of the humans he's met aren't? Here's his answer, or at least part of it, and it's very simple. December is very fucking far from Julai. She was safe and comfortable enough to have space to try to be good. To grow strong enough to be good when it's hard, when it sucks. Probably there are humans that are better than she is, that don't need this kind of safety, but it's obvious from her sense of self that she absolutely needed it.

If he'd had his way, she might have been born, but she's not sure she could ever have been the sort of person she is now.

The sort of person who will not kill him, actually. Even though she kind of wants to.

She knows, and is in fact making herself know, that... he didn't mean for this to happen. He was like-a-child, spoiled and impatient and used to always getting his way. He meant well. He always meant well. The urge to defend his sisters and to immortalize her is real and pure and true and is precious and should be cherished.

Just he needs to grow the fuck up about it, because implementation is more important than intention.

Stop it, idiot. Or you'll keep doing this.

Oh. Right. He's in love with her. And there's a good reason for it. Yeah.

And with this context, it turns out that the reason Nai is unresponsive is that he is... doing the mental equivalent of whimpering. Or crying. Or something. He's not hiding, but he's. Extremely not okay. And extremely not wanting to be bothered.

...you know what, dumbass, you made your bed now lie in it. Zash is certain he'll have sympathy for his twin later but right now he actually doesn't want to yell at Nai anymore. He wants to be with his girlfriend it's complicated.

He climbs back up the stairs, pets the door he kicked down in apology, and then walks to the other one (which the doctor helpfully opened for him) then goes downstairs to Yvette's half of the room.

"Hi, love," he says, and there are so, so many different things he's saying with this, and she can hear them now. He is so impressed with her. She is so brave, and so good. He loves her. He missed her. He was terrified but he shouldn't have been, of course his amazing hypercompetent girlfriend it's complicated would figure it out. It was very silly of him to expect otherwise. He's sorry he took so long, he could've stopped Nai if he'd been quicker, and he's sorry she's in so much pain and he will be with her for this.

[don't be stupid Zash]

(It is hard to be perfectly efficient in a complicated world, and he shouldn't beat himself up over it. He's a person. He's flawed. He makes mistakes. But he deserves the same care and treatment he offers to everyone else. He's doing his best, and that's more valuable than all the perfect efficiency in the world.)

[of course I can be your girlfriend/partner/wife/lover]

(It is ridiculous and silly for them to not be together. They're in love. They've got complementary life goals and skillsets. The trouble he's had putting a name to her is [=] to the trouble she's had putting a name to him. How about they stop that and make it official.)

[you're stuck with me now]

[also FUCKING HELL DOES THIS HURT]

[love love love love love love love love...]

[I need to make you a ring to make it official]

[you're alive you'll live forever we can stay together forever] [love love love love love love love]

(He's not even being very stupid, right now, because even self-flagellation takes a back seat when he's so overwhelmed with relief and love and, and, and...)

...oh.

He's crying now.

That's. That's a thing that's happening right this second.

He's not sure when it started, he hasn't cried in... decades, probably. Hasn't allowed himself to. But he is so completely, thoroughly, vastly overwhelmed with feeling right now, he was so scared that she was dead, he tried not to think about it but he's actually very bad at not thinking about terrible things and this was the most terrible possible thing, and now she's. She's fine. She's in a lot of pain, and he's so sorry about that, but she's alive and he hopes she'll forgive him if he even cherishes her pain a little bit because it means she's alive and she's gonna live forever with him and—

Yeah he's gonna be ugly sobbing for a while.

She sends him her love all the while. She's just so glad that he's here. She loves him so much.

And eventually, after a period of time neither of them are in any state to keep track of, her body stops being at war with itself.

[love]

[because I desperately need a shower]

Regenerating all of her cells didn’t get rid of the old ones. Those instead paint everything unfortunate enough to be anywhere near her. She is really, truly covered in her own gore.

[I will]

He's managed to stop crying in that time, but he's not exactly presentable. A lot of the goo she's been expelling got on him, and he doesn't give a shit because she's alive. Back up the stairs he goes.

"Hi!"

He completely ignores Zazi—it's kind of impressive, really, his eyes don't even snag on the Beast's presence, it's literally like they're wallpaper—and he offers Morgan in the corner there a small smile before turning to the doctor. "Is she done?"

"Not completely, but the part that required her to be there connected to the equipment is over."

[I heard that]

[this biteguard is uncomfortable]

Morgan gives Zash a smile back. But otherwise yes she's just going to keep on sitting here in this corner. To keep Conrad from. ... Conrading.

[coming, my love~]

And okay he's perhaps still a little bit mad at Conrad because he unceremoniously turns her restraints into so much scrap metal before pulling them off like they're tissue paper. He's more careful with the biteguard because it's his love's precious face and he doesn't want to hurt her but it is soon enough off.

[good riddance] is what she says of the equipment. Best that this gets destroyed sooner rather than later, so it's never ever used again.

"Thanks," she murmurs, and with the bite guard off she can give him a proper smile. Then she sits up, looking pained. "Nnngh."

[still hurt/sore/regenerating or something]

[carry me?]

She then sends him directions to the room in which she'd been staying, and the wonderful shower therein. Because: holy shit, regenerating every cell in your body several times over is messy.

Of course he'll carry her, even if she could fly he would carry her, he might need to be physically attached to her at all times for the next month. When he's back upstairs he ignores Zazi once again, and this time he's also added Conrad to his list of people to ignore. Morgan, though, he kind of still likes even if she kind of was betraying them in a way? He doesn't know, it's confusing, he doesn't have room in his heart right now for anything other than being in love.

(Nai left his own operating table and vanished away somewhere before Morgan arrived.)

She does reach out for Nai as they go, because she can at least always talk to him, wherever he's gone. Probably find him, too, but he doesn't want to be found and she doesn't want to look. They've had enough intruding on each other's space for a long while.

[I am, for the most part, grateful and appreciative of the results of your actions]

[wheee, immortality~ :D]

[???????]

Then, because she's pretty sure he needs it right now, she sends him all of the things she does, in fact, like about him.

He's brave enough to stand up to the whole world and his own twin brother to protect those that can't protect themselves. He's cute and sweet and good at thinking (and also graphs) and it's super clear he was incredibly, insanely handicapped by not being able to read or project to humans. He's been suffering so, for so long, alone and lonely and surrounded by crazy people and unable to see a way out. He should stop hating the human side of him, because it's also the side that gives him agency and foresight and argument. There is good there, there is beauty there. She hopes he can see it, and will love it as his sisters do. As she herself does.

And then she'll leave him alone, because no seriously the poor guy had her yelling in his head for who knows how long, that has got to suck so much.

[?]

[:(]

[everything okay?]

[talking to Nai]

[he needs a hug]

And then, because she does notice Nai replying, she sends him a little psychic equivalent of a hug.

...yeah okay now that she's fine Zash is kinda able to feel sympathy for him again.

At the hug Nai does the psychic equivalent of shrinking away and hiding in a corner.

Yeah.

[love] she sends to Nai, and then yes she'll leave him alone.

And it is long past time that she had a shower.

Zash... is free to help her with that.

[considering we got kind of interrupted...]

[yeah I grew a whole dick for you and here you are thinking about my brother, tsk]

He's absolutely helping her with her shower—or, at least, accompanying her in it, because it hasn't been a month yet so he's still contractually obligated to be touching her at all times.

[don't even joke about that you have no idea how goddamned difficult it's been here without you]

[identical twin brother!! of the man I love!! right there and koala hugging me with legs and everything!!!!!!!]

Actually, no, they can stop talking about this, they have other things to do. She's still not 100%, but whatever percentage of her is present is Zash's. AHEM.

[oh have you been having twin threesome fantasies]

[I wouldn't be totally opposed]

[I'll need to consult my budding sexuality on this later though right now it's just you]

Now, see, there are two nice things about being psychic: he doesn't need to use his mouth for speaking, and they can share all of their emotions and feelings and sensations with each other all the time. That makes it very easy for them to figure out the best ways to make each other feel good. There's a constant stream of [lovelovelove] in the background of everything, and that only makes things better.

[just us] she agrees.

Sex as and with a psychic plant hybrid is really really great, actually.

And so are the cuddles in the afterglow.

Honestly though the thing where they can just be in each other's minds is still his favourite. He hasn't had this in a century and a half and it feels... so good. He's a plant. He's not meant to be alone, in his head. It feels like finally breathing in after spending most of his life underwater.

[so where did you even get my DNA] is one of the many thoughts that come unbidden to his mind, and which he can just share without having to convert it to words.

Being in each other's minds is admittedly also really, really great. She likes it here. It's comfy.

[..?]

[and where the hell do you think I did. that giant blood puddle when we first met. I was onto you from the start you absolute goof.]

[were not]

[you were suspicious you were not onto me]

[I could tell, I was there]

[just keep telling yourself that~]

[I will, thank you very much]

(lovelovelovelovelovelovelovelove)

[I'm having trouble having any kinds of coherent thoughts]

(lovelovelovelovelovelove)

[I hope you're okay with mindscape stream of consciousness]

[it's comfy here! I like it]

(lovelovelovelovelovelovelove)

[I am absolutely about to crash though, I don't think I've slept in literal days]

Oh.

Oh oh oh they can sleep together and he doesn't have to block his feelings out anymore and have to go under after her and wake up before her for fear of tipping her off. They can just. Share their feelings. And not hold back.

Oh he thinks he might start crying again. Yep, there he goes.

[???? you've been doing that???]

[I'm here I'm here I'm here]

But yeah she's absolutely not going to be able to stay awake to comfort him properly. She'll just fall asleep nestled in his arms, sending a sleepy, unconscious (love)

That's okay this time he'll stay up after her only because he's holding her and sobbing. They're good tears, though, and he shares his entire emotional landscape with her while he does it, and listens to her dreams, and just exists alongside her.

Eventually he manages to fall asleep, face still puffy from crying, and in his dreams he can be with her too.

(...he got what he wanted. So why does he feel so wretched?)

“I suppose none of them are in any state to go hunt down and kill Legato,” sighs Morgan.

"Nnnnope. Though we'd hoped there would've been more fighting, it's such a shame there wasn't any!"

"Truly, my heart, it bleeds. Maybe we should go stop by one of the big cities, see if we can buy several thousand tiny violins for you."

Well now Zazi has to make the sound of violins come from nowhere for Morgan. It's only appropriate.

"Oh, look, you beat me to it. Good for you." Her eyes slide over to Conrad. "Oi. Doctor. Were you the one responsible for Livio's new cyber-brain fashion accessory."

"Yes." He will not look up at her from the computer for some reason.

"Why am I not surprised. Oh wait! I've met you. Whatcha doing, there? Important work?"

"Yes. I am working with Ms. Marlowe's new systems to improve the conditions of some of the plants. I do not have as much familiarity with this side of things but I am doing what I can."

"Fucking damn it she's corrupting us all," hisses Morgan, suddenly furious. "Fine! Fine. Go ahead, have yourself a fucking blast."

He does not ask her what she had hoped he'd been doing instead, or what she wanted to do about it. He doesn't want to know.

"Hmmm this is getting boring, who can we go bother..."

"Have you considered introducing yourself to humanity at large. Maybe getting yourself some other fucking people to poke."

"Oh we've done that to some people! Did you know some humans have this illness called 'psychosis' where they see and hear things that aren't there? Those are fun!"

"Ahuh. I bet. Hey, bug, do you know how to play chess."

It's one of those things she picked up on the steamer while the lovebirds were busy making eyes at each other and fretting over the plant that was being treated horribly.

"Yeah!" Does Morgan mind having a floating chess table made out of worm spores? Zazi can make one of those.

No, she doesn't mind. Her life is weird as fuck already. They can play.

Zash doesn't wake up before Yvette, this time. Partly because he doesn't want to, partly because he hasn't slept in weeks and he has a lot of it to catch up on.

...well not exactly, he still doesn't actually need to need sleep, but he can choose to need it and that's about the same thing. And he's having such great dreams!

And Yvette has recently undergone some changes that result in many things, one of them being that she doesn't require as much sleep as she once did.

.... She's never seen Zash sleeping while touching her. He's taken naps in the back or passenger seat of the car while she drives, but not. Right here, in her arms. Where she can feel his dreams and happiness and, and, and himness. She missed him so much. She's been falling asleep alone for what feels like forever.

Probably she should, like, go do important things or something but. ... But. He's so cute and cozy and happy!!!!

He doesn't wake up before her, but he does wake up soon after, stirred awake by her own thoughts. "G'morning," he mumbles, yawning hugely.

The bleariness isn't exactly fake, it's just that he could choose not to be bleary if he wanted to. He does not, currently, want to. This is very cosy and he is very happy and he loves her very much and actually waking up in her arms like this is threatening to send him into yet another crying fit.

Get a grip, Stampede.

"Good morning," she says fondly, petting him.

She is trying very hard not to think about all of the things she's got to get done (research needs to be disseminated and Elendira and oh no she thinks she broke Nai and...) but she's bravely trying to clamp down on those urges because, actually, he does in fact deserve to just have. A lazy morning with the woman he loves. He must have been so worried.

He was so worried. So so so worried. But they'll have all of eternity to have lazy mornings together, it's fine if the first morning after her complete transformation and following the series of related events isn't that lazy.

(Zash has decided he doesn't want to use words. Words are for people who aren't psychic.)

In priority order:

Nai is the least urgent of that bit. He'll keep, and some misery directly caused by his own actions is probably good for him. Builds character or something. And going after him while he's still trying to not be found—he's hiding from everyone but Yvette, right now—isn't likely to be very productive.

Disseminating research is important but also not very time-sensitive. There's a chance any given bit of it will help plants but the chance isn't that large and probably bigger chunks of coherent research are more effective. Besides, it's not just a matter of emailing a bunch of people some random equations; they need to work on presentation, on a way to make it reach a very wide audience, on a way to make it be credible enough—and, most importantly, on a way to convince people to stop sucking their plants dry, which is the most critical part of making everything else work as intended.

Elendira is a lot more urgent, what with how she's a murderous psycho, but a little bit of poking the plants turns up that she's not in the compound anymore and Dr. Conrad's best guess is that she went after Legato, who apparently called her an "angel of God". Now, maybe if they fix Nai they can get him to recall his missionary, but Zash suspects it won't be that easy at all.

(Yeah, words are dumb and they are psychic. They can just skip those things for right now.)

Oh, good. She's immediately soothed by how he supports her in her ruthless pragmatism. It was in retrospect kind of silly to think that for some reason he wouldn't be immediately and gleefully on board with it. She is very silly. Sorry, love. Having him prioritize is really really helpful and she appreciates him for it. (Having him back is SO GREAT.)

She's not sure how to go after Elendira and ??? Legato, who is that?? oh it's Morgan's asshole ex-boss gotcha gotcha okay yes definitely him too, fuck that guy, while Nai is out of commission. Zazi could track them but she suspects that they wouldn't, and Conrad (the fucker) is already apparently on it, so. .... Uh, Brad, could they get Brad in on it?? Can they contact him? He has resources, and actually now that she thinks of it she bets he can help a bunch with presentation of how to not be an asshole to plants research. (That's what she calls it in her head, it's 'how not to be an asshole.') Oh, oh, wait, since she thought of Morgan, should they check on her to make sure she's not about to die of Conrad running out of time due to her super healing and fix it if they can?? If she dies she's gone forever, something something hook Morgan up to Zash's gate maybe?? That's probably possible, right? Though that should probably wait if it's not a flaming emergency because there is definitely an adjustment period.

It is perhaps becoming apparent that the reason she is so organized and systematic in meatspace is because her brain is a little bit of a mess. She's a little bit all over everywhere.

He loves her so much.

So, he, uh... expects hooking anyone to his gate will not be straightforward at all, what with how, uh, he doesn't actually have direct access to his own gate. There are some things he can do sort of on intuition but direct manipulation? No. They'd probably need Nai for that, too, and maybe even Conrad, though if he doesn't miss his guess—and he doesn't, the plants are just now confirming that this thought he's having is [=] to some thoughts Conrad's had—Conrad kind of wants Yvette to take over all of his (good, useful) research and finally be allowed to die. So maybe she could figure out how to do it.

Brad's team can probably help with presentation! Communication is difficult, the reason the arcology's managed to be secret this long is that it's actually a repurposed ship and it has an artificial sandstorm surrounding it at all times and it moves with the sandstorm. Kind of like a sand steamer, but way more competent at it; he's pretty sure even Nai wouldn't be able to find it. There are some drop locations he can leave a message at and some other drop locations where he can fetch a message from, and he's got practice at not thinking about those explicitly so even though the plants could fetch it from his innermost thoughts they'll respect his request not to. But all that said, there's no fast way to contact them, which is another part of their security measures. They are, effectively, cut off from the external world except at semi-random intervals in semi-random locations.

Yes, yes, fine, she will not throw her own beloved into the grinder of suddenly sharing a gate with someone else. Especially after she so thoroughly yelled at Nai about doing that exact thing. It's just that she worries, okay. Her feelings about Morgan are a little complicated right now because apparently she was lying to them and attempting to get Zash here, but Zash clearly (kinda?) trusts her so she's fine going with that. Whatever their complicated feelings for the child super soldier are, she doesn't want her to die.

Okay, so, yes they should see about contacting Brad, but that will take a while to get an answer back from.

Conrad... wants her presence to mean that he's allowed to die. Huh. Well, she's kind of fine with this. She's not sure if she could just take over all his research, though? They work in very different spheres of science, but, well. She does have forever now, doesn't she. She'll see about trying to pick up all of his work so they can all be rid of him.

Also maybe they should stop trying to tactics and instead tell each other all that's happened while they've been apart? That seems like it might be smart.

They can do that! Has he mentioned he loves her? Because he does, he really does. This thought has been brought by being reminded of THAT BEAUTIFUL CHECKLIST. She is the best and she was so so so correct that he and Morgan absolutely needed it, they were SO out of their depth with that car. They didn't even realise they had to CHARGE the car, that's how out of their depth they were.

....

Wow, uh. When she'd made it she had thought she was being a bit overzealous and that it was just an excuse to do something with her unspoken adoration of him instead of pining. She's glad it came in handy but really??? You forgot to charge the car??????

She loves him, how the hell did he function without her for a hundred and fifty years.

He walked. He thought they'd had this conversation before? He just walked.

But that's so inefficient!

Anyway, yes, fine, moving on. Here is what she has been doing while she's here. She. She maybe kind of accidentally seduced his brother? Sorry?? And also she has, like, so much data on how to help plants now, it is insane, there was literally not a better place for her to be than February when it came to proving how INCREDIBLY AND TOTALLY RIGHT SHE WAS, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Zash should probably stop repeating how much he loves her every time she has any thoughts like some holy litany but has he mentioned he loves her? He loves her. A lot.

Also, really, she seduced Nai? ...well, does she like Nai back? Maybe they could come to some arrangement.

One thing that, uh, might be somewhat relevant and which he already suspected but which the plants here are able to see better: the way he feels about Nai is [=] to the way Nai feels about him and the way he feels about Yvette is [=] to the way he feels about Nai. And now that he's asking them they are indeed confirming that the way Nai feels about her is... well, not [=] to the way the little V with Zash as a hinge does but it's, like, directionally correct.

But, but. Incest??? Wait they're all nonhuman people that will likely never breed and she was kind of uncomfortable purposefully making a person on this dustball and she's probably just bringing in her own weird human hangups into this extremely unique relationship and also this was not among her list of potential possibilities and she really feels like Nai needs to grow a bunch as a person before she's willing to hit that so if you'll excuse her she's just going to hide in his arms from all of the scary things, please and thank you.

All very fair considerations! And it's not really romantic exactly anyway, it's more of a—uh, unfortunately this is still telepathy so he's going to have various vague thoughts related to this if they don't change the subject so if she wants him to not think those thoughts maybe they should talk about something else?

Yeah, she is seeing some downsides of telepathy, but it's still totally worth it because he loveloveloves her, and she loves him back, and it's honestly just really great to hang out in the mind of someone she loves and is loved by.

... oh you know what this means, right, Zash?? SHE CAN TALK TO PLANTS NOW. HI! HI PLANTS, she's sorry, she was distracted and is still getting adjusted to this whole hybrid whatever thing that she is, but hi all of you she loves you very much and they are looking GREAT on that helping people project!!

They love her right back!!!!!

And also, uh, she will learn two things: one, wow Zash was very much still doing a lot of translation legwork even when he was starting to get distracted; two, she does not have any automated methods of turning plant psychic output into human-readable output. Her mind is still very much her own, as she had it before, and she is now being—well, probably the right word for this is "dogpiled"—she is now being dogpiled by dozens upon dozens of plants who all LOVE HER VERY MUCH and are SO HAPPY SHE CAN HEAR THEM NOW they really enjoy all the work she's been doing even if they don't understand it at all.

(Hey! Hey! Does she remember the ones from Jeneora? They remember her from then! They were happy to meet her! And the sand steamer one, too, though Yvette managed to talk more directly to that one then.)

She is buried under a pile of adoration. It's overwhelming, but also kind of great. Extremely cozy, even if she absolutely cannot pick out most of the details of... anything they're saying. She's trying but there's only one of her and many of them.

One thing does stand out to her among the din of love. YES of course she remembers the ones from Jeneora, how could she have forgotten? The answer is she could not have. And hi [sand steamer plant], she can just say your name now!!! It's very exciting, that she can do that!! And they're all SO CUTE she loves them SO MUCH look at them all!!

There are many conversations happening. She may get the impression that actually... the plants themselves... can in fact not keep track of all the conversations that are happening. They are not great at impulse control and they are all talking to and at Yvette at the same time even though they can't keep full track of each other.

They don't particularly mind not being directly responded to, though. They're perfectly happy to just be in her psychic presence, watch her thoughts and emotions in reaction to what's happening, and sort of do the psychically not-silent-at-all equivalent of being in companionable silence. Companionable chaotic crowding and chattering, if you will.

(The ones from Jeneora are concerned about Jeneora. Is it okay? What happened there after Nai found them? That bomber guy was very scary!! They loved him too but he was very strange and very scary, they wish he hadn't been so scary so much at everyone...)

This will absolutely become overwhelming soon enough, but for now it's still very charming. Adorable little chatterboxes, aren't they.

Even though... she does now have to answer awkward questions.

They're all doing this by thought, so it's immediately obvious, and she can't really sugarcoat it: Jeneora is not okay. She doesn't know a lot of the specifics, because she had to leave (because they asked her to leave and also she had the sand steamer plant to help), but. Yeah. :( And she doesn't think just putting them back will just fix it, she's pretty sure the humans scattered to the wind. She wants to just put them back and make sure they don't get sick and can help everyone forever and ever, but. Specifics pending. She'll have to investigate and figure out the best way to maximize their assistance onto the world. In ways that will not kill them, anyway, because they are precious and furthermore if they die they can't help anyone at all.

Oh.

Oh they don't like that.

All of them, actually, are immediately taken over by grief when Yvette's thoughts about what happened there are echoed by Zash's. Dozens upon dozens of plants, all grieving for the lost humans in unison, the ones lost to death and the ones lost to the wind. They know their names, and they miss them. They start sharing thoughts of all of those people with each other—mostly just the two from Jeneora sharing their thoughts with their sisters, but a couple of Jeneorans had visited other cities so some other plants can supply a little bit more.

Plants can't cry, but if they could, they would be.

Not all plants can cry.

But some can.

Yeah.

She holds her Zash and pets him and shares in grief. She'd already cried about it, and then quietly grieved, and then unquietly grieved, by throwing it all in Nai's face as a weapon (sorry), so she's... too emotionally exhausted on the subject to shed anymore tears. But yeah. It sucks. She is unhappy. :(

When, exactly, was the last time he cried? Not since... since...

...not since February. Not since Luida.

Fitting, then, that it's here that he's letting himself feel the grief and the pain of the past hundred and forty years. That it's here that the dams have all broken and he's feeling the flood of emotion. He'd kinda hoped it would just happen once and then he'd be done with it, but no, it seems like he's just... gonna be set off by stuff. At random times. Just be hit with the need to bawl his eyes out.

Well, he supposes "all of the plants simultaneously grieving for the people lost in Jeneora" is not that random a time to grieve. But he's pretty sure this isn't going to be the last time.

It's okay. He's more than allowed to cry. She loves him and he's been alone for so long.

Though, now she wants to go and DO SOMETHING about the source of their sadness, that being humans dying. It is bad and should not be. Is there a way she can make him portable so he can be snuggled and loved by her while her brain gets busy on how to save the world? Probably there's a newsfeed, uh, somewhere in here, she can get an idea of the sociopolitical situation of the world and how to put some plants back for maximum people saving? Hmm...

He can't be made portable but he can, at least, hold her hand while they go find... somewhere... with a computer? Also she has human nudity taboos, right, she's gonna want to find clothes that aren't currently in an irrecoverable state from having been subjected to her transformation procedure, does she have any? Zash's own clothes were kind of also subjected to her transformation procedure and although they'll eventually regenerate in the meantime he should find something else.

Yes, Zash, she was going to put on clothes first. That wasn’t in question, but it’s cute that he remembered. She has extra sets, she’s been here a while. He probably won’t fit into her clothes, though, so uh. … does he have any spare in the car?

Anyway yes she can put on clothes. This is slightly complicated by needing to be touching him at all times, but not by very much.

He doesn't have spares, no, he doesn't produce any kinds of human waste including sweat if he doesn't want to so it's usually just dust and blood and then he just washes and/or regenerates his clothes. They can probably find something? He's, uh, still a bit distracted by the grief and not in top shape w.r.t. problem-solving.

Very reasonable. She will solve it for him, then.

His clothes are much less completely unsalvageable than the set that was unfortunate enough to contain her while she was changed. Therefore: they will be washed to get most of the ick out. From there, is he fine wearing damp clothes that will dry quickly even in this climate controlled underground environment, or is more problem solving required?

Nah he's fine. Damp clothes can go on.

Okay then! Off to get back to work while gently tugging along a beloved by the hand, sending love at him all the while.

There are probably multiple places with computers on this compound but the ones Yvette is most familiar with would be that one room she had her procedure in (haha no) and the plants room, so plants room-wards they go.

It's a long enough walk that Zash mostly manages to get himself back together. It helps that the plants are also moving on from their familiar grief and no longer looping over it.

But there's someone already in there when they get there. He was floating in front of one of the tanks but he turns around when they walk in and... makes some kind of facial expression.

Through the link Yvette has with him she'll be able to pretty easily identify the emotions he's feeling. Or, well, perceive them; he doesn't know what emotions it is he's feeling and that makes it harder. They're overall not entirely positive, even though there is definitely a strong undercurrent of relief and happiness at seeing Yvette alive and well. Plus something... a lot more bittersweet... about seeing Zash.

Wait had he been in this room all along? How did the plants not—oh, right. He's been psychically hiding himself from everyone and the plants themselves seldom use their eyes to perceive the world so he's probably just been here and they never thought to look.

Well, this is awkward.

Super, super awkward.

[love/reassurance] she sends to Nai, gently and tentatively. [do you want/need space...?]

Which is a complicated sort of thing to send, but basically amounts to if he would like to avoid her she will cooperate with that because she doesn't want to hurt him (anymore), and generally speaking she wishes him well.

He slowly floats down to the platform, eyes darting between the two of them. Even with the connection to Yvette that he can't shut down, it continues to be very difficult to read him. Eventually his eyes settle on Zash and he says, "Your clothes."

"—hm?"

"They're wet.

"Why?"

Zash starts giggling. And then goes from giggling to laughter, and then from laughter to full-belly teary-eyed howling guffaws. He's holding onto Yvette's hand but that's as much as he can manage as the laughter starts to rock his whole body and he has to lean against her to not fall over.

...why is he being like that??

It helps that Yvette isn't trying to read him, because uh. Sharing a gate. Give the poor man some space after she kind of threatened to kill him. That sort of thing.

"They were gross and needed to be washed. So I washed them," she answers, also looking at Zash with some confusion. As she dutifully keeps him from falling over while he laughs. She's in his head and she's not entirely sure why he's laughing. Something about it being very mundane and also very him?

Zash can't hide from Nai and yet Nai still can't figure out why this is happening.

"Come, here, you, dork," he says, drawing big breaths between the words because he might pass out from the lack of air. He doesn't need air but still.

He looks at Yvette. Then at Zash. Then at Yvette again.

[help?]

"I said, come here, you, idiotic, monumentally stupid, fucking, dork!!!!"

"...you're insulting me."

But he does... walk over... to them???

[he missed you terribly and wants to hug you] she provides.

[... I sort of want to hug you too.]

...he's so confused??????

Yeah fuck him, Zash is pulling him into a hug and leaving space for Yvette to join them if she wants to.

She checks (with Zash, since he seems to know Nai's mind better than Nai himself, and also she's trying not to creepily stare into his fucking soul) that this would be okay, and then. Yes hug.

Zash arranges the three of them so that Nai is effectively sandwiched, and now he's no longer laughing too much to support himself but he's still grinning.

oh.

Nai starts crying.

[you idiot, you dork, you fucking asshole, I hate you so much, I want to fucking kill you why are you like this you ass]

Like this, so emotionally inept, the first thing he says to them is about Zash's clothes being wet, Zash missed his non-sequiturs so much, missed his adorably confused face, missed his mind—

—(which he, at some point, stopped hiding, because there's no point in hiding apparently, apparently Zash at some point in the last century and a half learned how to read him even without telepathy which is the most bullshit possible thing but if Nai had to guess who would be able to figure that out of course it would've been Zash)—

—and he is going to yell at Nai so much, but later, because what Nai needs to do right now is get a hug from his two favourite people in the world.

How does Zash know—

It's fucking obvious you doofus!!!!!!

Yvette helpfully draws a parallel between her work mapping out possibilities of things-that-can't-be-directly-perceived via bits of data that one can see, and this! They are not exactly alike but the principle is [~] rather closely equivalent. That's how!

Regardless, he is getting such hugs.

...the parallel does, in fact, help.

"You're still wet," he says with his facemouth because his brainmouth is kind of not fully online.

"Then fucking fix it, you're made of bullshit."

"I'm made of Nai." But he can, in fact, make the water quickly evaporate off Zash's clothes.

He's kinda still crying. And very confused. And confused about his confusion.

He doesn't even know what to ask!!!!! Why is he being hugged? He thought they hated him? Or, at least, were very very mad at him? Not "get better overnight" mad, "actually really for real very mad" mad!!!!!

"Yes you are," agrees Yvette, amused.

So... they kind of are really mad at him? But there is a time for the sharp scalpel of judgement, and there is a time for gentle hugs of healing to help steer him towards being comfy/happy/correct-to-himself. They have had enough of the former, it is clearly time for the latter. So he's getting hugged because they care about the [Nai-template-source] over being mad at [Knives-he-made-himself]. This was a bad path that they want to steer him away from, but they do in fact still love him and want him to be okay.

...

He hates Knives but he still needs to be Knives—

No! He! Doesn't! For god's sake, Nai, get out of your own head for ten fucking minutes and listen to the people who love you and let them help you figure this out.

...but the plants—

He thinks Nai has ample evidence that both Zash and Yvette are going to be able to figure out how to make the plants not hurt. Forever. They can do this, and will Nai listen to them and stop listening to Knives and understand that Knives is unnecessary. Knives has always been unnecessary, Zash has been trying to tell him this for a century and a half and he just won't listen—

But—

No buts! Shut up and be hugged!

okay

Huuuuuug.

Nai seems to be doing something called the sunk cost fallacy! It is where people, who have previously invested time/energy/effort/sacrifice to accomplish something, stop questioning if continuing on that particular course of action is still the best idea or not. Because if they stop, all of their previous investment is wasted. Except this is not how things work; circumstances change, investments don't justify returns just because they seem like they should, and thinking like this can lock someone on a path that is not the most optimal.

Does he sincerely think that being Knives is actually necessary, with all of the evidence in front of him, if he re-evaluates right now, as if he is starting here and had no previous history with the subject?

He doesn't know!!!! Yes? No??? Maybe????? He hasn't done the maths and he can't, he can't just do what feels nice because what feels nice is just believing them and being sorry and apologising and having to, to, to face, to

to face everything he's done

and if everything he's done was wrong, then what does that make him, how will he be able to live with himself if he was wrong, he can't have been wrong—

Yep. Sunk cost fallacy, right there. See the pattern of thought? [=]

And... she's not entirely sure, it's his own path to walk and it is indeed scary and daunting and seems impossible. It's the kind of thing that begins one step at a time, taking each day as it comes. He can climb a mountain, if he just starts walking in the right direction. And humans really have messed up, too, and Nai really has saved many plants from their stupidity. It is and was grey and messy and awful. She thinks that instead of beating himself up over being wrong, or trying to pretend that he was never wrong, he should re-evaluate everything as if he is starting from scratch. Who is he now, and how does he want to conduct himself in these circumstances?

She is absolutely certain that he's strong enough to admit when he makes a mistake (because everyone makes mistakes) and grow.

He much preferred his hugging sessions when they didn't involve reevaluating his whole life.

[Nai. Stop. Breathe. We're here for you. You don't need to figure everything out right now. You don't need to figure anything out right now. You can just... exist here. With us. Think about something else. Talk about something else. Not everything has to be about this.]

But it has been about this, everything has been about this, that's who Knives is, and if he isn't Knives then he doesn't have... anyone else to be. What does he even talk about, what does he even think about, if not this?

Zash has a sug—

—heeeeey it turns out when his sexuality is online he suddenly starts coming up with all sorts of innuendos and sexually charged suggestions without having to even think about it hahahahaha who'da thunk.

...why is human reproduction related to anything here.

He guesses that's a different topic but ??????

… yeah, sorry, this is her fault. She brought human sexuality into this equation. With her existence and presence and libido. She owns up to it. She’s the corrupting influence here. Look it’s, it’s nice and pleasant and biologically beneficial. Also, it’s kind of one of the closest things humans have to the sort of mental intimacy plants have. Not exactly the same, but [~]

Basically, he’s offering it as a pleasant alternative to this complicated and thought driven [conversation], that also displays care and intimacy. Without dumb complicated thoughts getting in the way.

By... breeding?

Zash sporfles. [that sure is a way to put it.]

[I kind of want to share memories of what it was like but the freshest ones are with Yvette and she probably feels private about it, I can try to dig up some old ones?]

She feels... private... about breeding.

????????????????????????????

…..

…..

…. No, it’s, it’s fine, he’s allowed to use. Their time together. To show him. What he means. It’s. It’s for bridges of communication and and and it’s. It’s okay. She can consent, none of Zash’s previous partners can do so, and she’s not against someone being introduced to porn human reproductive practices through her.

(But she’s going to be super embarrassed and hide about it. Squeak. Yes she’s sure about this but no she’s not going to look at either of them about it BYE)

Here it goes.

(It's kind of hot. He hopes Yvette doesn't mind that he finds it kind of hot.)

Humans feel that way about breeding?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Evolution has caused humans to have erogenous zones and those trigger emotional responses so yes actually! Humans feel that way about breeding! And other sorts of things that aren't breeding but that involve breeding organs!! And then for some reason humans also evolved erotic responses in body parts that aren't directly used for breeding, such as breasts, or necks, or inner thighs, or...

And... they feel private about it. And Zash was suggesting that they do something like that together? Because it feels nice?

It wasn't a serious suggestion, it was kind of a joke.

He doesn't understand why it's funny.

It's funny in a 'playful wordplay that will often unbalance humans' kind of way, because humans are weird about this subject. See: their human right now. Who is still helpfully assisting in translation/communication even while she's slowly turning pink. Look, her ears are now pink!!

(She doesn't mind that Zash finds it hot. ... It is admittedly kind of hot.)

So... it's funny because... humans... don't usually breed... and think breeding is a private topic... and so bringing it up breaks the expectation for normal social interactions while... simultaneously being about a social taboo.

How can something be funny when you need to keep track of so many different things for it to make sense???

He loves Nai so much.

Nai kind of feels like he's being made fun of.

No, he's legitimately very cute, and human culture sounds incredibly insane when he describes it. It's kind of amazing, especially in contrast to her own experience. As a certified once-human, it was absolutely normal to keep track of lots of these social things because ?? something about humans being very social and liking reliable expectations and set cultures about stuff. She's not entirely sure. She went into engineering, she is not a very social human.

He's never going to understand any of this.

Yes he will, Zash believes in him.

...also Zash is kind of starting to cry again. That's a thing that's happening.

...why??? Nai isn't crying anymore and he's the one who had an unexpectedly pleasant surprise after being very sad for a while.

(Which is Naispeak for "oh oh oh no I don't know what to do please don't cry why are you crying?? I didn't mean it I swear", Zash helpfully translates to Yvette. While still crying.)

(Honestly it's so useful that they can still manage to translate to each other while Having Emotions! Go them.)

Zash is going through an adjustment period and hadn't let himself cry in a very long time; this involves a lot of crying. Which is fine, poor man needs it so much, it's (one of the reasons) why she's required to be in constant physical contact for the foreseeable future. He is crying from relief because he missed Nai so much and here he is, he's back. The Nai Zash loves, not the Knives that Zash had... kind of super complicated feelings about.

...but... he was here all along.

Was he, actually? Or was it Knives? If Zash walked into February, would it be Nai or Knives that would've greeted him?

Yeah.

He really, really missed you, Nai.

Snuuuuuuuuggle. They're really cute and she's really glad they can be together properly now.

.... Do either of them mind if she just, you know, scootches them all over to the console and gets back to some kind of work...? Listen she's an unapologetic workaholic, it's how she copes with things, okay.

This is stupid, is what Nai thinks as he unceremoniously floats them all at the same time so they can go be by the console. Why would anyone need to scootch? He is made of Nai. He can do these things.

Zash starts sobbing.

She mostly meant it in the sense that they all move over here, she wasn't picky about the how! The way he chose to implement the scootching was very cute.

Anyway she's going to start trying to see if she can figure out what the heck is going on in the world through this console. She can still send a message to Conrad, right?

Yeah she can. It's actually pretty simple, and there's a nice intuitive interface. Probably Nai needed to call Conrad often enough that he just made it as painless as possible. There's even a special icon there.

(Zash can't float, himself, so he decides it is time for him to pull Nai onto the floor with him so both of them can snuggle while leaning against Yvette's legs. At least 40% of the reason why he's doing this is because it'll be really cute.)

(O...kay.)

(Zash you need to fix your gate.)

(Nai, Zash loves you but please shut up, he still has very complicated feelings about his gate and his arm and he would rather not deal with that right this second.)

(...okay.)

Excellent!! Then she can get to directly planning… what to do. How to put the plants back and save as many lives as possible. That sort of thing. She is so incredibly not qualified for this. But she’s all they’ve got, so she’ll try to be enough. At least she has very cute boys she can lean down and pet as she gets stressed.

Refugee crisis: yeah that’s happening. She’s not surprised, but it sure does make her unhappy.

… She’d thought that she couldn’t fix this by just putting the stolen plants back, but actually… that might literally be the best option. The equipment for assisting them in matter creation without straining them too much, and the infrastructure to turn the ultra efficient raw materials into something that’s usable, is definitively not portable. That was all located where the plants that fueled it were. So… her job is to figure out which of the locations that had their plants stolen are closest to as many people as possible. Which are most capable of being able to handle a large influx of very upset, very desperate people. And then, probably, rough estimates of what kind of strain the plants that are put there are going to be under, and how many plants would need to be sent to compensate for that.

Maybe she is qualified for this after all.

...they can't just return the plants, the humans are just going to go right back to hurting them!!!

And besides, Nai may have, perhaps, accidentally, in some cases, slightly trashed those places. A little bit.

Well obviously they will be 'returning' the plants that are the healthiest, not just the ones that had been there, and probably in larger numbers than what had been there. The new arrangements will be efficient and kind to the plants because she is good at her job, actually. But he does bring up an excellent point about humans not following the directions their plant engineer (read: now Yvette) gives them and will not accept being told to not fucking touch anything, so they need to have some sort of setup there, too.

Also, can he give her a list of the places he trashed? That'd be very useful for her project of which ones are usable in the future.

He doesn't know which ones his minions trashed—he thinks the sand steamer may be a goner?—but he can try to remember them. And he assumes she doesn't want the very old ones? He's been doing this for a century and a half, some of those have probably been consumed by time by now.

Also, Jeneora Rock was not his fault, he adds a touch defensively. If that human hadn't shot at his robot with a grenade launcher—

Nai.

...grumble grumble. He's sorry. He guesses.

Nai.

He's sorry, okay?! He didn't mean to destroy the town! It was an accident! Genuinely! He wasn't aiming for the rock with the grenade launcher! He just wanted to grab the plants and go!

She pets him. Jeneora Rock was a bit of a mess for a number of reasons, including that bomber that was probably there for her, because plant engineers are valuable. As she is, uh, currently showing and has shown in this facility. She doesn't even really blame him for twitching and getting all plants evacuated after he heard one screaming while being hurt for what was essentially no rational reason. She wasn't aware the rock collapsing was an accident, actually, that makes her feel a bit bad about all of that yelling she did at him. Not entirely, because he really needed it, but... it does color the situation a bit better.

Honestly though, Jeneora is going on the 'mostly intact' end of the spectrum, because while the rest of the town was rubble, the bones of the plant factory were fine! She would know, she was briefly buried alive in there. A town can be rebuilt by ordinary human hands, the infrastructure to handle multiple plants is much harder to come by. In a similar sort of vein, even if the sand steamer was completely and utterly unharmed, it's entirely disqualified. It was built after the Fall, and to only handle a single plant, and shove a lot of the work onto that plant instead of outsourcing it to a factory or human workers. It's basically useless to her purposes and can go rust in the desert for all she cares.

Also if Nai would like to be distracted by work instead of squidgy emotions none of them really know how to deal with: the obvious people to ask about the state of the plant factories at the time the plants were stolen is, you know. The plants themselves. He's better equipped to handle that than she is, would he like to do that?

(Zash is not allowed to have a job. Zash needs cuddles and the reassurance that his two favorite people are A: themselves as he loves them, B: not going to die, and C: being happyish, which is going to be by being little workaholics.)

YES screw this whole "feelings" noise he wasn't good at those before being Knives and he's definitely not good at them now. Though he does still want to be hugged and petted so it's good his work can be done entirely telepathically. He's still not amazing at properly translating plants, not as good as Zash is, but he's better than nothing, and he extra does not want to be doing anything other than this.

Zash can do it, he's way more used to translating for humans, Nai can just translate them for him and then he could—

Did she fucking stutter.

Zash is the mental equivalent of swatted with a rolled up newspaper. No working! None!!

...but—

It would be against the principles they are operating by for them to have a plant who is currently in recovery to then be put to work despite this being past their comfort/safety threshold.

Which is to say:

NO.

...fine. He supposes he is kind of still breaking down in tears at the slightest provocation. But in his defence the slightest provocations present are the two people he loves most having thoughts! And feelings! In his head!!!! He thinks breaking down crying is very reasonable actually!!!

It is absolutely very reasonable, and so he should SIT THERE and BASK in his two favorite people working together for a humanitarian goal and have his feelings in peace and comfort.

Engineer's orders.

Alright alright he'll stay put.

(The plants are SO EXCITED about all of this!!!! They can help people again!!!!!!! They've missed helping people!!!!!!!!)

...Nai is having some kind of emotion about this.

Is the emotion, perhaps, "oh come ON I just rescued all of you and you just want to jump right into the endlessly hungry maws of the monstrous humans again"? Or maybe "PLEASE don't be so easy to abuse and do any self-care"? Or alternatively just a sort of instinctive association between plants wanting to help SO MUCH and being tortured to death by humans?

...all of the above? Mostly the last one.

Naaaaaaiiiiiii.

They will not be tortured to death, because they (Yvette, Zash, and Nai) will not let them, the plants will be sort of returned but still considered under their jurisdiction or something. Which is to say: if they start getting tortured to death, it will be noticed and they will put a stop to it directly.

... But she's really glad the plants are happy, too. She understands very well how annoying it can be to be trapped in a little comfortable box that is nonetheless cut off from the outside world with no way to affect it. It's kind of why she went rogue and got a car and a guide and drove out into the desert like a crazy person.

Well, how do they do that? They don't exactly have a ton of fast transportation, here, planes haven't been reinvented yet and the number of—

Nai had been under the impression that Yvette had been very clear about how much work Zash was meant to be doing right now and the reasons for why that amount is zero.

[Et tu, Brute?]