[2163] Starved Vines, part 2

This is part 2 of a short story that keeps getting longer and longer, but will hopefully be under 10k words. Feel free to jump in and start critiquing right here, but the plot will be confusing if you don't at least skim Part 1 first.

If you've already read part 1, be aware that some details were relocated from Part 1 to Part 2 to improve the overall pacing, so you might get deja-vu on a few lines.

I'd find these things especially helpful, but don't feel obligated to address all of them:

• Did you like the humor or not?
• Is the balance of action-to-exposition appropriate?
• How is the pace of the story? Too fast / too slow?
• Are any sentences difficult to understand because of their structure?
• Does the dialogue seem natural and believable?
• Are there any specific words or phrases that I overuse?

Here's the story:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f8GkvFkeaXPOQ5aNIRL-eTyNonAoQmX24bmCaAqU9CA/edit?usp=sharing

My critique for this post: [2448]