He is very cute, though Yvette can't help but feel a bit like she's corrupted the poor alien boy with strange human things. Sorry, Nai, humans are complicated and messy. Possibly she's corrupted Zash as well, considering she talked him into turning his libido back on, but. That's a little different, okay!!! They'd been doing fine until he went and wanted to kiss her!!!!! (They had not been. This is a lie.)

Soon enough she is down there for hugs.

(Zash had missed his libido. Losing it sucked. It was, you know, better in the long term for his mental health but... sex is an important part of living a fulfilling life, to him, it turns out.)

Nai and Zash are both still sitting at the piano, playing it together, Zash's head on Nai's shoulder with his eyes closed while using Nai's instead.

(Okay, fair point. He's part plant and part human, having a libido is not something she just magically introduced him to, that's selling him short.)

While the logistics of piano chairs means there really isn't room for her there unless she ends up on a lap, she can just sit next to them on the floor and leaaaaan. Close enough to hugs for everyone's liking?

Nai can fly her. Or himself. Or Zash. Nai's telekinesis is very good they do not need to be constrained by mere physics.

Well they're not breaking physics per se, they're just—

Zash. He knows.

Oh! That works. In that case she can give them ~flying snuggles.~

Legato once again fails to immediately show up, which is both relieving and incredibly suspicious and worrying. If he's watching them, he should know that they have the plants now and most importantly that Nai is there which makes whatever he's going to try all that much less likely to succeed.

Unless it doesn't, which is the really concerning possibility.

So Zash is constantly on edge as they continue to refine their defences, fretting about what Legato is planning, what if he hurts these people, what if he kills these people, what if he has something Nai can't counter, what if he's not even coming here and he's letting them be distracted here and doing something elsewhere and then they have to choose between staying here and going elsewhere to help and whichever choice they make means people die...

Zash hates waiting.

His waiting is soon over.

It is important to understand that Legato doesn't, exactly, want their efforts to fail and to tear Jeneora down entirely on principle. He doesn't believe humans are worthy of mercy, and thinks his god is being led astray, but he also is not so arrogant as to think he is more knowledgeable than God himself. This is a test, not a capitulation. And since it is a test, what it needs is an outside element simulating the effects of humans being terrible. Because they inevitably will be. He is providing a valuable service by simulating this element. What's more, he can assure the safety of the most important things in the world (the plants) while doing it, which is ultimately much safer than leaving it to humans to screw up.

For the plants, anyway. Humans are immaterial, as is their suffering.

The only hiccup in this plan coming to fruition is God himself, but in his experience, God is wise and perfectly amenable to reason. Zazi can deliver unto him a neat treatise, penned by Legato, explaining his logic. It is much safer for the plants if Legato causes mayhem now to stress test Zash's hopeful system. Legato has a vested interest, and will in fact work very hard, to make sure that the plants themselves are entirely unharmed by the chaos that is planned to be unleashed. This is better than random human elements can say. But, for the sake of a fair test of his brother's ability to actually make hard decisions himself, God himself will need to give them room. Because, obviously, if Knives stays in Jeneora, he'll just ultimately solve any problem, and his ability to problem solve is not under question here.

Now the thing about Zazi sending Nai a message is that most of the bugs near or at Jeneora are not part of a Zazispectrum that's friendly to Legato so they have very little way to act there; they definitely can't form a Zazibody without being noticed.

However, Jeneora has a resident worm-catcher, doesn't it?

So the next worm Tonis runs into is a worm that has a little note attached to it.

Well first it is caught, is what it is! Ha! Tonis hasn't been as good at climbing to all of the places worms can be since he lost his arm, but he is still pretty good!.

And then he sees that the note is addressed to Mr. Nai, and, oo! Ooo he has a messenger job to do. That's exciting, messenger jobs sound like fun, and Mr. Nai is very important.

"Thank you for the messenger job," says Tonis, very solemnly. The worm with the note goes with the rest of the worms he's caught, and then, as is tradition, one of the group can be released back to the rest of the hive. The rest are gifted to his mother for consumption, even though that job isn't as important anymore, and then he's off to do his new important job!

That is how Nai gets his note delivered. By small child caaaaarefully walking up to him. And giving him a poke.

"Hey."

Outside that one time when he was playing piano with Zash, Nai has not left the plants factory, and usually the only people who go into the factory are Zash, Yvette, and very occasionally Morgan. So he is very bewildered when someone else comes and even more bewildered when he notices the size of this person. Was he ever this small? He suppose he must've been.

He floats down until he is sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at this child and squints.

The small person produces a letter and offers it to him.

"Letter. For you."

"Why."

”I’unno. Worms wanted it brought to you.”

Oh. The fucking Beast. "Why didn't they just talk to me," he grumbles, telekinetically grabbing the letter.

"...thank you for delivering it."

He gives a very serious nod.

”’s polite to tip your messenger,” he says, with utmost gravitas.

Huh???

"What do you want."

“…. I’unno,” he admits. ”New worm catchin’ net?”

"...ask Zash for one."

”’Kay!”

And with that, he scampers off.

What a bewildering small person.

Anyway, he telekinetically opens the letter and starts reading it.