....

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.