Chapter Text
“Ah, of course…” Five Pebbles muttered as he watched the explosive Slugcat rocket over a sizable gap. ‘She must want me to read another pearl that she found.’ Five Pebbles thought to himself, if he was entirely honest reading those pearls was one of the only things he looked forward to now, it helped him forget that The Rot was eating him from the inside out. “HNG…” Five pebbles suddenly clutched the head of his puppet as he felt a terrible pain wrack through his structure, it felt different to when The Rot spreads, like it was more localized to his Can and General System Bus. Five Pebbles could feel a jolt go up what felt like a spine, but that couldn’t be right, he didn’t have a spine, he was a gigantic supercomputer with a tiny little puppet inside of it exclusively due to his creators needing a semi-recognizable form for them to feel comfortable around. Five Pebbles was loosely aware of the artificer passing through the gate from metropolis as he felt the gravity in his can suddenly turn on and off in rapid succession, the next thing he knew, the entire world went black.
Five Pebbles didn’t know how long it had been exactly, all he knew was that after a while of not being able to perceive anything, which was something he didn’t know could happen to him, he eventually heard the sound of something land amongst a pile of pearls, whatever had made the noise was completely silent for a good amount of time before Five Pebbles heard something that sounded like a concerned firework fuse. as the hiss penetrated the air he heard a voice from the same place start to overtake the more animalistic vocalization as it said “Baby?” in a similar hiss as earlier but with a shocked and slightly fearful sound to it as well. Five Pebbles wanted to call out and order the voice to identify itself through the speakers in the wall of his can, but when he tried the only thing he was able to do was emit a small whimper from his… throat? Did he have one of those? Before Five Pebbles was able to follow up that line of questioning he was suddenly surprised when he felt himself get picked up by a very large and very scratchy arm. “No need to fear, I'll take care of you.” he heard the voice from earlier say as the arm cradled him like how he had seen Ancient parents hold their young. Five Pebbles tried to tell the thing holding him that he was not a small child and to treat him with the respect he deserved, but once more all that exited his newly formed throat was a small mewl. “Shh, it’s okay, you’re safe now, hold on!” the voice suddenly told Five Pebbles as he felt a sudden lurch upward and a loud *POP* filled his ears as they went rocketing through a pipe.
Five Pebbles started squirming, he was incapable of leaving his Can, if he did that, which he couldn’t, his structure would collapse! “It’s okay, you’re safe now, I won’t let ANYTHING happen to you” the voice said, suddenly becoming incredibly intense as Five Pebbles heard a familiar popping sound ring out into the air around them before going back to speaking in a still aggressive, but less outright enraged, manner. ‘Oh no, this can’t be happening! What did I do to deserve this!’ Five Pebbles thought as he struggled even harder when he started hearing the sound of a closing shelter door. “It’ll be okay, you need sleep, maybe you’ll be able to open your eyes when we’re done hibernating.” the Artificer said as Five Pebbles felt her bundle up around him. The Artificer was so… scratchy, she was obviously covered in fur, but that fur had been singed down to the point that it was barely there, but even though FIve Pebbles supposed that he was supposed to be uncomfortable when the burned fur dug into his strangely moist back, he felt… strangely safe, as if the beast he had watched murder the entire Scavenger population in metropolis wanted nothing but his safety. The heat from the Slugcat was starting to make him drowsy, but… why? He wasn’t given the ability to sleep or get tired when his creators made him, but right now all he could think of was that he needed to rest. The sound of a light snore permeated the air as Five Pebbles felt his consciousness drift away into the void that was sleep.
When Five Pebbles opened his eyes he immediately started panicking, he DIDN’T dream what had happened! It was a thought that was as ridiculous as what had actually happened due to the fact that before whatever had happened he had neither the ability, nor the want, to sleep. What really shocked the stray iterator, however, was the realization of just how fluffy he was now! He had pink fur everywhere, and when he looked at the little nubs that used to be where his hands would have been, he saw two strangely hand-like paws, with weirdly rough pads on the tips of the ‘fingers’ and on the palm. “See, I told you you would be able to open your eyes after a cycle.” Five Pebbles wiggled around on the ground, trying to look at Artificer but not being able to stand due to not understanding how his new legs worked, while he was moving he heard a little coo come out of his new mouth from the effort. “Oh, come here little one, it’s okay.” The Artificer comforted Five Pebbles as she brought him up into her arms to hold him close to her chest. As Five Pebbles looked up at the Slugcat, a position he was not used to being in, he noticed that her face was softer than it usually was, not physically, she still had the intense burn scar, the razor sharp teeth, and the smoke that exuded from her mouth whenever she opened it, but the look in her eye wasn’t one of malice, nor defiance, or even determination, no, it was a look of care, she had a smile that Five Pebbles didn’t know she could physically make on her face. ‘Oh shit, she’s going to use me to try and get over the deaths of her pups isn’t she?’ Five Pebbles thought as he connected the dots in his brain before he was distracted by the dirt that was hanging onto his newly acquired tail and he started wiggling in discomfort.
“Oh no, you're all dirty, I tried not to get any on you, but I guess it was inevitable, your fur is so cute too… looks like you need a cleaning.” the Artificer said as she set up Five Pebbles in a way that would let her clean him without too much hassle. ‘Clean? Come on V-P think… How do Slugcats clean their young?... oh no.’ Five Pebbles tried to recall the Information, despising how long it took to remember now that it wasn't ready to see whenever he wanted, when he finally figured it out he started trying to get away from the situation and how gross the next few minutes were definitely going to be. “Stay still , ahem, sorry about that, just… stop it with all of the wiggling while I clean you.” The Artificer said as she grabbed Five Pebbles by the hind leg and kept him from wiggling across the floor, she began to hiss mid-sentence before coughing and continuing in her less threatening tone, then she started licking the top of Five Pebbles’s head, causing a jolt to run down his new spine. Five Pebbles knew that the slugcat cleaning ritual was far more than just a way of cleaning young, the way it began was on the top of the head to make the one cleaned, which was often the child of the one cleaning, or maybe an orphaned slugcat that the cleaner intended to make their own, which was what this one was for, imprint upon the one cleaning, making them not want to go to far from the cleaner, Five Pebbles could already feel his shifted biology tell him to trust the bigger slugcat, he now knew that if she ever left him in an area and left his sight, he would be nearly inconsolable. ‘This is bad, she mom is going to… crap.” Five Pebbles started thinking before realizing how his thought altered itself, 'Why did this have to happen to me…'