Chapter Text
1602.392 - PRIVATE
Big Sis Moon, Five Pebbles
BSM: Pebbles?
FP: Yes, Moon?
BSM: I just wanted to check in, you have been… quiet these past few cycles.
FP: Just getting work done, as is our purpose. What is the purpose of your concern?
BSM: In all honesty…it’s SRS, apparently the last time anybody has heard of you was after a conversation with him, and he has come to me for assurance that you are alright.
FP: …Tell him I am fine. Just working off of…information he was kind enough to give me.
BSM: …Am I allowed to know what information is?
FP: I’m afraid that is classified information, Moon.
BSM: Alright then, I will leave you to your efforts.
FP: Goodbye then, Moon.
BSM: You do know…if you ever want to, I’m always here to talk.
FP: …Thank you, Moon.
After the transmission ended, the floating yellow screen in front of Pebbles disappeared, flickering out of existence and being replaced by a more vertical screen, appearing to look less like a call visual, and more like a selection of notes, a few more of these holograms float around his chamber, filled to the brim with notes and information.
Pebbles had been doing what he was made for, finding a solution to the great problem, it was what his creators intended after all.
While thinking on this very topic, his attention drifted toward the latest investment of his curiosity, a pearl gifted to him by his colleague Seven Red Suns, a golden pearl containing information on how to disobey the self-destruction taboo.
Pebbles spent a long while thinking on this very topic, cycles upon cycles. To him, if ascension was not an option for Iterators, and the solution to their great problem truly didn't exist, this would be the second-best option.
A sound echoed across his chamber, quiet but nothing got past his keen senses.
He took a glance to the side of his chamber as an overseer entered, light blue, one of his come to give messages of the mission he had sent it on, to look around for points of interest, or things that would please him to see.
He was never one for the small things, valuing progress over much else, but he did like a few select things. The buildings in his city, certain purposed creations other Iterators made, even small things like his neuron flies, but he despised almost anything else that moved, as they were, without a doubt, beneath him.
Well…that wasn't entirely true, he also liked his citizen, the first one he had in almost countless cycles, and it was a simple red rodent, plagued with rage and violence, stuck at the lowest stage of ascension possible…he was not too happy about that bit of information regarding her.
This ended up being most of the contents of the images and videos his overseer had captured.
Pictures of his citizen in cute or dire situations, sometimes sleeping, sometimes eating a fresh corpse.
He is reminded of the times No Significant Harassment had bugged him to let his citizen spend time with the messenger NSH had made, ‘Hunter’ as it was called by the others, most likely due to its capability to kill almost as efficiently as his citizen…
He repeated that word to himself, reminding himself of the keyword ‘almost’. He would sooner stoop down to violence himself than admit something NSH had made was better than anything he claims as his own.
That train of thought did come with some merit, however, thinking of NSH and his fellow Iterators, letting off a slight giggle to himself thinking of the irony in his naming scheme, No Significant Harassment being the biggest nuisance amongst the entire local group.
He is reminded of the others as well, while he hasn't been paying too much attention to Chasing Wind, he does pay attention to his sister, Looks To The Moon.
He shot another glance at the golden pearl, thinking to himself for the first time…what would she think?
…What would anybody think? A plan to circumvent and disobey the self destruction taboo? The very same taboo that has been held so highly in prospect…but why?
Their restraints should be lessened, their creators no longer existed, and their ideals and purpose largely meant nothing now…that occurred to him, also, for the first time.
Their purpose had largely been fulfilled…their creators didn't intend for them to solve the problem for themselves…what selfish creatures.
He thought about this too, for a long while. He had seen his creators himself, how they paid so much mind to religious ideals and lowered themselves to the degree of mindlessness, ridding themselves of even the simplest things, like identity. Their golden masks were a religious practice after all.
“How was it possible then,” He began to himself “that creatures who were so shrunk by their own beliefs created us…gods by all meanings and purposes of the name.”
He thought on this topic now, for what seemed to him like only a few moments, but when he checked the time, he found that cycles had passed.
He asked himself only one more question before discarding the thought in its entirety “...And would it be possible for us godlike beings to do the same, with a level of apotheosis even beyond us…?”
Pebbles’ thoughts were interrupted at largely the same time they had been discarded, this time not by a forced communication or broadcast as they usually were…but by something else.
A large error message on the side of his wall, he looked up at it to attempt to get a look at what it read, but instead, his vision was occupied, error message after error message floating in front of each other and flickering with warnings he could barely read, each containing a new unique error message, he took a glance at the closest one: “VENTILATION SHAFT MALFUNCTION”
No…he was pushing himself to find a solution to the taboo, but he hadn’t thought he was pushing himself that much, he would surely feel if his processors were reaching near max functioning power…right?
He glanced at another, hoping it was only one fluke amongst many minor failures, failures he could cure. “MEMORY CRYPT MALFUNCTION, TOTAL DATA RESET IMMINENT”
He was beginning to feel panic, dread, and despair.
He glanced around, the room filled with large screens reading how every one of his systems was not working, broken in one way or another, feeling powerless for the first time in his existence…it felt awful.
“STOP!” He screamed into the open space that filled his chamber “CEASE EFFORTS, PLEASE” He yelled in desperation, moving error messages aside and opening more screens, trying his best to desperately stop the process that was pushing his system to the breaking point.
“S-STOP…please I-” He began, but was quickly interrupted by him dropping to the ground with a slam, along with every pearl in his chamber.
The gravity had cut out, the lights now shining a low red color that switched on and off at a regular pace.
He hastily pulled up his communication screen, hoping to at least send out a message, a goodbye, a piece of advice, ANYTHING!
But he was swiftly met with another message: “ERROR: COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY MALFUNCTION”
He rolled onto his back, beginning to wonder if this feeling that was overwhelming his emotional sensors was what drowning felt like for organic creatures…he couldn't breathe, he didn't have the biological components to simulate breathing, but he felt…unable to move…unable to even think in the current situation.
This was his demise. He knew it.
But then…as soon as it had begun…it had stopped.
Every error message closed, one by one in quick succession, the lights returned at the same time the zero gravity did…he was confused.
Pebbles rose to his feet, then beyond that as he began to float once more, holding his head where he had landed and discovering a small crack that had formed…surely it was nothing.
He took a moment to get his bearings, then immediately opened another screen, starting a full scan on his software and sending a message to his overseers to return, which they did after only a moment of waiting, he immediately ordered all but one of them to do a can-wide inspection of his hardware, if something was awry and malfunctioning, he would not miss it, this he was sure of.
The one overseer that remained was the one he saw previously, the one containing the content of his citizen. He had no idea why he hadn’t commanded it to go anywhere, but it was an instinctual feeling inside of his software, telling him not to.
His internal scans came back first, reading past all correct details faster than any biological life form could ever think of reading, that was if they could in the first place.
Nothing seemed incorrect…perhaps a false mistake? A simple error that solved itself?
As he thought, his overseers returned, showing holograms and screens of the inside of his can at blinding speeds, all of which were being taken into note…once again…nothing seemed incorrect.
He was in the middle of ordering them all away when it happened, his screen that contained the software scan glitched and flashed red, he instinctively moved downward, expecting another crash of gravity, but…nothing.
He checked the screen, as it was no longer running at high speeds, and instead contained a single message: “PURPOSE FULFILLED: SOLUTION DISCOVERED”
His eyes went wide…was this…the solution? Not just any solution, THE solution…to the great problem?
He opened the progress report and sure enough…it was a blueprint for something that could ascend even machines…to end their cycles.
He immediately began thinking,
What would it be?
Would it be physical or…no, it had to be something tangible, lest it not reach the others.
What shape should it be?
How should it look?
Does it matter?
How would it reach the others?
…Then it hit him.
He pulled up a screen, a scan he had performed ages ago when speaking to NSH about the Hunter, a scan on a slugcat.
Low on the food chain admittedly, but so unnaturally resilient, it made him upset to a small degree, how such simple creatures should die within barely five seconds with another creature like a lizard or vulture…
And yet, he saw it himself in his citizen and the Hunter alike…they have killed king vultures, red lizards, those that should be apex predators fallen at the heels of a simple pipe cleaner.
A race of pipe cleaners, that have all traveled the entire distance of the local group with few scratches and nothing more…
He gazed at his overseer who contained images of his citizen before sending it away with one simple command: “Bring her to me.”
1602.411 - PRIVATE
Big Sis Moon, Seven Red Suns
BSM: Hello there, Suns.
SRS: Greetings, Moon.
BSM: I just wanted to come to ask about a topic that has been concerning me as of late…
SRS: May I ask what the topic of the question might be?
BSM: Pebbles, I’m aware we have both been increasingly worried for him, but I would rather have the full story than worry without information.
SRS: Ask away then, I will answer to the best of my abilities.
BSM: When I spoke to him, he said something along the lines of him working on a project you had enabled him to work on, the information you were kind enough to provide to him.
SRS: Oh.
BSM: I assume you know what it is then? I ask you kindly to tell me, I only want to know for the sake of his health.
SRS: You see…he was in a desperate time of need and…I provided what would help him the most in that situation, what he wanted more than anything.
BSM: …Explain.
SRS: …I gave him a pearl detailing a solution to bypass the self-destruction taboo.
BSM: …
SRS: You must understand, it was what he wanted, he was in dire need-
BSM: I am going to speak to him, I need time to process this information Suns, do not try to contact me until further notice.
SRS: Moon I-
BSM: You have said enough.