where you think you're going | Glowfic Constellation

from_scratch

"Yeah, you're not going to be able to handle the same volumes I can as quickly. But however they're generating it they had to haul all their materials through a heck of a maze, I bet you can outpace them. You could turn it into air too but it'll be slower, densities are farther off. You can also outright shrink it and then turn it into water."

near-the-sun

"I can't even really see where it is anymore." He squints at the expanding cloud of combined steam and noxiousness. It clears up until he can see the goo again; then another big chunk of goo turns into water and explodes immediately into steam. Repeat.

from_scratch

"Here, I'll blow the steam out of your way." Air to the rescue.

near-the-sun

Eventually there is a big blob of water surrounding the portal and no more goo in sight.

from_scratch

"You wanna shrink that or go for a swim?"

near-the-sun

"Swimming is fun."

from_scratch

"All right then. I'm expecting more goop and other unpleasantness in the maze, I hacked my way through a lot of it but the aliens have likely re-unpleasanted it by now. You'll get a little quicker with practice anyway."

And he lets the both of them out of the shuttle and leads the way through the blob of water into the portal.

near-the-sun

And Elarron turns unpleasantness into water. And fumes into air.

from_scratch

Which makes this trip much pleasanter than the one Cam took the other way!

"They got around me while I was on Earth," he says. "So there must be multiple routes through the maze between clam planet and Earth. I didn't check the whole maze. Want to, as long as their current strategy seems to have been 'plug the hole and run like hell'?"

near-the-sun

"Yeah, sounds like a plan."

from_scratch

So Cam goes down avenues of maze he hasn't visited yet. And drops relays on portals.

near-the-sun

And Elarron ensures that the relays are untroubled by goo. Or burning sand. Why is all this stuff so horrible.

from_scratch

It's pretty horrible! But Elarron is an angel and things do not have to be allowed to horrible around him.

Map map map.

near-the-sun

Water water water. Some of these Spheres are getting pretty drowned. Whatever, it's not a big problem.

from_scratch

Yeah, Elarron can go back and shrink the water if anybody wants to use them for any non-aquatic purposes.

near-the-sun

There aren't any live aliens around, anyway, just lots and lots of noxious substances.

It turns out there are multiple portals from the maze to Earth. Five in total. They are all abandoned, and three of them are full of burning goo. Elarron waters it.

from_scratch

Well. Here they are on Earth.

"Welcome to Earth. I am afraid the aliens killed all the cool wildlife. Didn't know what a butterfly was. But it's still Earth."

near-the-sun

"What's the deal with Earth?"

from_scratch

"Humans come from Earth. Well, humans come from the Earth I know about, anyway, and since your clam planet turns out to be a Sphere with a maze leading to Earth it seems like a reasonable bet that your lot did too."

near-the-sun

"Huh. I like my planet better," says Elarron, looking around.

from_scratch

"Well, you're not really seeing Earth at its best," Cam objects, producing his computer and a little slideshow of landscapes and pictures taken from orbit.

near-the-sun

"Eh. You're not going to win me over; it doesn't have an Aluvanna. But it's pretty."

from_scratch