Zash can introduce Morgan to these people, too, and they can Discuss™, though for a lot of this they will in fact need that tactical map which will probably work better once the town is more cleared up so that the townies can show them places. He'll give an overview of his ideas based on his remembered layout of the city, some suggestions that he expects the townies can improve upon, but once that's done the most immediate way to help will in fact be using the two bullshit superhumans to start clearing the rubble.

And the town did in fact decide they'll take the plants, so a message can be sent up to Nai to bring them over.

"So, uh. Telepathy," says a woman named Maria, who lost her legs to a boulder when Nai destroyed the town, to Yvette while Zash and Morgan are out cleaning the place up. "Are you two together in your heads? All the time?"

Yvette does not have bullshit superstrength, but she can make herself useful without it. Mostly this involves doing domestic chores; if she yawns a little while cleaning things up, oh well.

"Not quite. We can be, if we're near enough to each other, but it gets harder and more lossy with distance. And with Zash it's by preference, we're not stuck in each other's heads. We can give each other space. Just, um. We kind of prefer being together."

"In your heads?" She shakes her head. "If I'd had my husband nagging me in my head as well as in person I'd have—well." Uncomfortable shrug. "Doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

"... Sorry," she winces.

Then, because obviously Maria does not want to linger in the land of grief, she attempts to apply levity directly to the trauma.

"The novelty might wear off after a while, we're in our proverbial honeymoon stage with it. Besides, between the two of us, I'm the one nagging, which is much more fun."

"He seemed to be having fun with it so I can buy that."

"He is absolutely delighted to be nagged and bossed around," she agrees. Then... she doesn't know what else to say, so. She'll just keep sweeping; no one has cared to do it for a while, for obvious reasons, and the dust certainly built up.

"So uh how'd you meet. I know you said you ran into each other in the desert when you came but, uh, I'm getting the impression the two of you were somewhat less than straightforwardly truthful with us then."

"Oh, I found him hanging upside down as a warning to others," says Yvette, a little fondly. "Left for dead but somehow not. We'd met just a little bit before we showed up in town declaring we were married."

"...you weren't even together back then? Fooled all of us, you looked completely enamoured."

"Nope! I thought he was an escaped super soldier from Julai, and Vernon thought it was smarter if we all pretended to be as uninteresting as possible. Apparently the best way to do that was by marrying us off. I'd say he didn't realize how right he was, but then again, maybe he did." She gives a sad smile. "He was good with people, that way."

She still misses him. It hurts less, now, it's easier to think of him fondly instead of just feeling a stab of agony, but. That doesn't mean it's entirely gone.

"...he was pretty good at his job, huh? Managing you. And afterwards... you survived because the Human Typhoon managed to keep you out of danger? Have expected him to drag you into danger instead..."

"He was. Good at his job. And I didn't, really, keep out of danger, without him. I survived because Zash and Morgan -- uh, that's the blue haired girl he's being super strong with -- worked very hard to keep me alive, and even with that it really just. Came down to sheer dumb luck. I should by all rights be dead by now."

Yeah, you should be, she doesn't say. Sometimes the people who deserve to live get crushed by rocks and the people who don't just live anyway by sheer fucking dumb luck and that's how it goes on this rotten pebble they call a planet. She just looks away and sighs.

"...why'd you come back? After everything. Why here, why us?"

There are a lot of reasons, but she's pretty sure Maria doesn't want to hear about the rational ones right now.

"... Because I could help. We, could help. And, um. I didn't realize it at the time, because I was a bit of a dumbass, but, um. You were very kind? Even after. The smart thing to do would have been to at least steal my car."

Snort. "Rosa's too much of a softie. I'd've told her to keep the car if I'd been, you know. Not delirious with pain and maybe bleeding out."

"Yeah, well. Fair enough if you had, really. I'm a dumbass city slicker who didn't know the value of what I sat on. But I also think you'd have dropped me off somewhere in civilization, after robbing me blind. Besides, no take backs, you were nice to me and so nyeh, get your just desserts."

She snorts again. "Jury's still out on what those are. No good deed goes unpunished."

"... No, it doesn't. The world is cruel and unfair and awful. Take the universe apart and you won't find a single atom of justice or one molecule of mercy. So, you know. Fuck that noise. I'll be nice out of sheer damned spite."

"Oh, good, thought you'd be another insane robot with only positive emotions like Zash, glad to see there's any fire in there."

"Not to worry! My insane robot emotions come in an entirely different flavor of madness, thank you. I am perfectly capable of rage and spite and murder. Who do you think shot that damn bomber?"

"Not the fucking Human Typhoon, that's for sure. For a guy with such a pacifistic streak he sure does leave a trail of dead bodies, broken people, and lost babies." Aaand that got a bit too personal again, whoops.

She thinks it's mostly because when there's trouble he runs towards it, not away, and so he's there when the fallout happens. Which is a lot, because of the effects of Nai and Zazi and fucking Conrad and the crazies they've let loose on this poor dustball.

"Well. He is now stuck with me, and I still have Vernon's gun, so." Awkward shrug. "Though for the record my aim's godawful, I unloaded the whole revolver at someone and only about half of them hit. And not even anywhere vital!!!"

"You'll learn eventually I'm sure," she says, and there's only a little bit of condescension there.