The much-abraded goo vehicle soars south over the lunar surface.

Sylvia reaches out and catches Scyelen's hand, allowing the smaller girl to breathe.

"You can take her back inside," Sylvia says to Scintilla, the words distorted and strange-sounding as they pass through the thin artificial atmosphere around Scyelen's body.

The outer layer opens up, and the goo swallows the girl. Goo-rock seals itself over her and then shrinks inward, being eaten away on the outside and reformed on the inside, while the inner layer splits open and an interior Scintilla pulls her through.

"So," says the exterior Scintilla to Sylvia. "Now what?"

Scyelen resumes clinging. She will stop if Scintilla makes her stop but she's not gonna stop on her own.

"That depends," Sylvia says. "But, getting everyone to a healer should feature."

The lunascape races by beneath.

"For now I'm heading towards Shackleton Crater."

She doesn't know where that is, but it sounds like Sylvia does, so sure.

(It's weird being separated from the herselves remaining in the crater, but it seems to be going fine. Her soul isn't upset about it and neither are her bizarre new powers. With them out of range of her lifesense, she now has two separate sense-areas, one centered on the goo vehicle and the other encompassing the dome.)

Scyelen's clinging is... actually kind of nice. Scintilla does not object.

Oh good. Scyelen kind of needs all the cuddles.

Clingnuzzle.

It just isn't in her to hold an irrational grudge. It is completely unreasonable to resent Scintilla for rescuing her. She probably couldn't have saved everyone else without...

Actually, what in the actual fuck is even up with the Sctintillae Horde? Some bizarre novel interaction between Beast spells and horrorfetus? Except she can feel Scintilla's spells and they're water spells. There's no doubt this is a Water Mage. Nothing about this makes sense at all and that really bothers Scyelen.

It it still several minutes of clinging before she brings herself to mumble, "Your powers don't make sense at all."

"Oh, believe me, I'm well aware."

"There's... nothing? About how they work, or how it feels to use them? That gives you any clue how or why or what the fuck? You just... spontaneously turned into an unprecedented hive-queen-alien for no reason."

"Yeah pretty much! I mean... it, uh, it arrived in a very... noticeable way? There was definitely an event that occurred, before which I did not have inexplicable hive queen powers and after which I did. But they didn't, like, come with a user manual as such. As far as I can tell from my very limited experience so far they do run on coherent principles, they're just principles that have literally nothing to do with any other form of magic I've heard of."

"How much magic have you heard of?"

"Admittedly mostly just magical girls. I did... not have time to get out much before, uh, this. —What year is it?"

...she has to think about this for a moment. "It's.... probably not 2028 yet?"

"And, arrived? Like, what do you mean, arrived?" This sounds like, the only clue. Scyelen has to poke it.

"Uh, arrived like physically. Like, a physical... substance... showed up, attached itself to my body, absorbed itself into my body, and then I had crazy powers."

Blink.

"Okay. That's something."

Pause.

"Where did it come from, though. Do you think it could be, some kind of, rival... horror... thing?"

"May...be? I guess? But why me, why now, why... this?"

"Why anything," Scyelen agrees softly.

Silent, pensive clinging.

And then it slips out, as she runs her fingers over the dead lump in her belly, and she doesn't even care. "I h-hate that it's over, that they're g-gone. I don't know how to go back..."

Scintilla hugs her. Nearby goo ripples and crowds closer, but Scintilla is not really sure if goo snuggles are an appropriate response, so she stifles that instinct.

"That's... yeah," she says. "It was... something."

That... almost sounded like... no, it can't be. Scintilla started the revolt she can't possibly feel the same way Scyelen does. But...

"It was... everything. It w-was... p-per," Well, not literally perfect. In fact, there are a lot of ways it could've been nicer on an emotional level, actually. But... "It was the best thing... that's ever... h-happened to me... and that pr-probably ever will."

"You know," she says, thoughtfully, "I feel like, just in principle, there's got to be a way to improve on it."

Well that's not an egregiously mixed signal or anything.
(Actually, it probably actually isn't. Scintilla is probably just being nice and not a judgmental jerk.)

What it is, in Scyelen's experience, is a useless and irksome sentiment. "In principle, there's ways to do lots of stuff y'can't actually do," she says bitterly.

"—never mind," she says, quiet and small.

That... was not the reaction Scyelen was expecting. But it is painfully familiar.

"Um." More hug? Does more hug help? "Was that a proposition. I... its just that's the kind of thing people usually say to me when they're being dismissive, so..."

More hug is very good.

"Um. That makes sense. I just—I've done a lot of impossible things today and this seems like a much simpler problem to solve and—I think I might understand a little of what you mean because—there's things I miss too. But... I wasn't really thinking about... how to solve it exactly... I'm making a mess of this, sorry."

Pathetically hopeful look. "...you miss it too?"

"I—yeah. Not as much as you but—yeah."