Work Text:
NSH: This is the suggestion I’m planning to send to Moon. Any notes?
Five Pebbles squinted at the attached image, which looked vaguely like a microbe design.
Hara had been suggesting all kids of maintenance organisms and mechanics designs. Their paranoia, at least at the moment, seemed completely unwarranted.
But Pebbles had accepted that their Local Group would, at some point, need it.
After a couple solid minutes of squinting, he leaned back on his umbilical, accepting that he had no idea what the image contained.
He would love to just lie. Say whatever the heck Hara was planning was a great Idea.
But this would go to Moon, and if he approved of some insane idea, he’d only look worse in the process.
Pebbles cursed the ancient that made his void-awful eyes, then begrudgingly video called Seven Red Suns.
Suns answered immediately, a blurry image of his chamber appearing in a small hologram.
“Pebbles? Is there something wrong-“
Pebbles immediately moved the hologram of Hara’s design into Suns’ camera’s focus.
“I need you to tell me if this is okay.”
Suns paused, focusing on the image.
“It’s a good anti-rust design. Did you make this yourself, or…?”
“No,” Pebbles answered immediately. “I just…needed help looking it over.”
There was a moment of silence.
Suns knew what he meant. This sort of thing happened far too often.
“…You could just tell the others. I know you think they’d be rude-“
“Suns, stop. I just…I don’t want to have this conversation again. …Thanks for helping me.”
Pebbles hung up immediately.
He ignored any guilt for how he treated Suns, instead focusing on making a vague but good report on Hara’s microbe design.
— - —
Pebbles hung from his umbilical, looking at an image Suns had sent him blankly.
The image was just a blurry mess. His eyes must be getting worse or something. It wasn’t nearly this bad when he first got them.
Suns had, thankfully, sent a short description of the image alongside it. Pebbles let the description’s data flow through his mind, not even bothering to attempt to read it.
It, according to Suns, was an image of their newest organism design. A slugcat.
It looked like a small blob of purple. Then again, from what he remembered, slugcats usually looked kinda blob-like.
The idea of Suns wanting to make one for themself was both odd and adorable.
Pebbles’s thoughts were interrupted by a notification. Moon was calling him.
This wasn’t out of the ordinary. Moon called him once every couple cycles to ‘check in on him’, or rather to critique him on his little he interacted in the group broadcasts.
What was unusual was the fact this was a video call.
He had always suggested Moon only call him.
At first, long before his eyes were taken, he requested it for his privacy’s sake. He liked being alone, and if he had to be called, he’d prefer to still feel somewhat distant.
Now it was because of how obvious his different eyes looked. Moon would immediately know something was wrong, and has been for a long time now.
No, nothing was wrong. Pebbles just needed to decline the call request, and inform Moon that he didn’t want a video call. It was probably a mistake anyway.
He declined her call request, and quickly got to work making an excuse and request for an audio-only call.
[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Looks to the Moon, Five Pebbles:
FP: Apologies for declining your call. I request that, instead of a video call, you use only audio calls or broadcasts to communicate with me.
A simple message. One he’s used many times before.
Whatever Moon said probably wouldn’t be that important anyway-
LttM: I actually had a model of our filtration systems I wanted to discuss with you, if that’s alright.
Oh.
Oh Karma no.
Pebbles’s umbilical dipped towards the floor of his chamber as he tried to think clearly.
She wouldn’t find out.
He was fine.
FP: You can just send me the model.
There. Then Pebbles could just send the model to Suns. Then he’d describe it for him. Pebbles would get another lecture about telling Moon in turn, but it would be worth it.
Pebbles quickly checked Suns’s contact, only to find them marked as busy.
Void’s below.
He heard a ping as the filtration systems model was sent to him.
And it looked like a karma-damned mess.
There was no way of getting out of this.
Pebbles felt his puppet shake.
Maybe…maybe he could just ignore Moon.
LttM: Pebbles? Are you there?
Why now, of all times, did Suns have to be busy??
LttM: If you don’t answer soon, I’m going to activate a forced call.
She’d never threatened him before. And now she was going to find out…
Pebbles put his hands over his eyes, a miserable attempt at keeping his secret.
Moon called him. This time, he has no choice of whether to accept or not.
A hologram of her chamber sparked into fruition, a large screen in front of him.
Pebbles didn’t dare look at it.
If he had to look at the blurry, unrecognizable form of his sister, he would break.
“Pebbles?”
Her voice was the same, at least.
“Pebbles, please, look at me.”
…
Pebbles slowly and hesitantly removed his hands.
He couldn’t make out Moon’s face, but her audible gasp said enough.
“What…what happened? Are you alright??”
“I’m…I’m fine,” He eventually managed to say. “I just…I just don’t…”
Karma, how would he explain this?
“I have different eyes.” There. Simple, and obvious. Now for the harder part. “I had to have my old ones replaced…after an accident.”
An accident. More like an attack, a crime against him.
No, no, he wouldn’t think about that.
It took a long while for Moon to respond.
“When did that happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It happened a couple cycles before the Mass Ascension. And…I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to worry.”
“How did it happen, though? Was it an accident, or…”
…
“It wasn’t an accident. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He refused to think of about it.
Thankfully, Moon didn’t question the event further.
“Can…can you see okay?”
Pebbles stared at the hologram of Moon’s chamber, trying desperately to make out the shapes in front of him. He had to be fine.
But he definitely wasn’t.
“No, not really.”
“…Huh. That makes sense,”
“What do you mean?” Karma, did he look blind? Was she laughing at him behind his back or something?
“I’ve just noticed that it takes you longer to respond to the images and videos Iterators send you.”
Ah. That made more sense. She’d been suspicious for a while, then.
“Does that mean you struggled to see the model I sent you?”
Oh, that. Pebbles pulled up the hologram again, projecting it close to his face.
It must be pretty detailed, to be this messy and incoherent.
“Yeah, I can’t understand any of this.” It felt good to admit it, surprisingly.
“I…I’m sorry, for not noticing any of this sooner. How have you been reporting on the Local Groups designs and such-“
“I send them to a friend, who describes them for me.”
He was going to have to explain himself eventually. Suns would be proud, or maybe just relieved.
“You told someone else, before me?”
Oh. Now she sounded hurt. Maybe this was a mistake…
“I…I apologize for not telling you first.” That’s all he could say, really.
“Who did you tell?”
“…Seven Red Suns.”
“You told an Iterator from a different Group, and not me?”
Why did he tell Suns? He could have found another way to view things. His overseers were far too low quality, but he could have worked towards making an updated version.
He could have done it alone, but he didn’t.
Because he knew Suns would understand, no matter what.
And, for some reason, he didn’t know if Moon would do the same.
“Again, I apologize. I should have told you, but I didn’t. That was my mistake.”
“…I’m glad you at least told someone. Is there any way I can help?”
Pebbles quickly racked his processes for anything useful. There was nothing they could do, though. Information on Iterator biology was hidden from them by their creators, so remaking his eyes wasn’t an option.
The closest thing to replicating Iterator biology, that Pebbles knew of, was Hara’s neuron fly pet project. And that would take an incredibly long time, if possible at all.
“There’s nothing to be done. …I do request you don’t video call me again.”
“Alright. I understand. I’d like to have some time to think about this, but before I end call, I have to ask if you plan on telling the others.”
“No.”
“Alright. I’ll be free if you need me.”
[Video Call Ended]