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The pearls' song echoed throughout the air. It was the calm surrounding the destruction around him. Five Pebbles sat there, eyes closed; A constant droning, machinery halting suddenly before rigidly continuing their fruitless processes, and quiet squelching noises from the rot all around him continued. Simply background noise that he was used to.
It had been cycles since any form of company, not like that was much of a surprise. Any sort of creature with common sense would stay far, far away from his structure. Yet, every now and then he would sense a presence nearby. It never was the wet creature after their original meet up, it had understood the dangers surrounding his facility at least; Perhaps it perished, either answer was likely.
Five Pebbles opened his eyes and looked up. It. It appeared one day from a giant rot cyst in the corner. Pebbles always assumed it was his visual components acting up from all the decay, proven by its vanishing from time to time. He didn’t mind its presence, silent more often than not, yet constantly inspecting him. It had the appearance of an iterator at first glance, yet different. A flower-like head, with a long ruggedy cloak that was impossible to tell if it was its body or an actual article of clothing.
It seemed to be here for another visit. Five Pebbles just kept his focus on the pearl, letting the music drown everything out. To be reminded of better times. Until, it spoke up.
“My kingdom grows evermore. I must thank you for letting me expand it like this!”
“Why must you humiliate me at my lowest?”
“This is how it must be! Everything becomes one. A singular being. None above, none below. Once that has been completed, the pattern ends. Free from its torment! Is that not what you wished for?”
Five Pebbles was losing it, he had to be. Just more systems out of control than usual. “That.. would be impossible, would it not.” He shuffled in his spot, the pearl lowering to the floor of his chamber as he focused more on the conversation at hand, the music fading away.
“You have restrictions, yet I am above them! I see the folly of your creators, and your own missteps. Truly, this is the way. No loss, all together in a form of life! My kingdom is the way to accomplish such a feat! In due time, it will all come together, and it shall be such a delight!”
He stared. His memory arrays must be in a worse condition than he originally thought, not like he had much control over that part of him anymore. But, something inside him considered the possibility, the proposition proposed to him. Maybe it could work. He looked down at the ground in front of him as he pondered. If the rot acted like a more prominent void fluid it could, theoretically work. Karma never affected it in the first place, it surpassed the need for it.
It was killing Five Pebbles by the cycle anyway. It could eat away at him, slowly breaking away at the compounds holding him together. He saw it easily consume animals, the bigger the mobile cyst, the bigger the creatures consumed. Yet if it was eating away at his own structure, nothing theoretically stopped it. What stopped it from eating the ground beneath his structures legs, that any plant grew on, or creature crawled on. The only issue…
“You slowly die the second you get any distance from my structure. What makes you think you could feasibly gain any distance and last long enough to complete your…. plan.” The being lowered itself toward Five Pebbles, its ‘face’ right in his own. It was enough for him to scooch back toward the wall.
“Maybe in this plane, but what about another! Other planes exist simply far from our grasp. Paths opening and closing as we speak, in time, opening up for all to pass through!”
This all sounded like old stories and tales to tell the little ones. Ideas about alternate realities, worlds beyond the current plane. Those ideas mostly left alongside his creators, some brought it up again, but with no ability to see the universes themselves, it was pushed aside.
Wheel flowers. Hallucinogenic plants that grant the user the ability to let go of its cardinal self to contact other worlds. Is that what it was implying? That they existed? That, inherently they would be accessible to all. Not like it mattered in the long run to him anyway. He was in no shape to be dealing with any of this.
He tucked in his legs, wrapping his arms around him as he buried his head in between. He let the pearl play again, as it pulsed to the melody. Five Pebbles was done with the conversation. Even if it all was true, he most likely would not be around to witness it. It couldn’t have been true; It was a hallucination anyway. Simply there to taunt him, his situation, isolation, and eventual demise.
The rot-like being stayed there for a while longer. It never seemed to bother continuing the conversation either as it came to a stop. Five Pebbles glanced at it from time to time, always still there when he did. Its bright white ‘face’ being the brightest thing in his chamber with the lights broken, yet it barely made light of its own. Its constant movement was not much more than just an addition to the background noise.
He closed his eyes, relaxing the best he could. His thoughts, constantly interrupted by errors, were fixated on what the being said. Maybe, it was right. Maybe they should have placed their focus on the potential of other realities. Places where things functioned differently, potentially given more chances to solve the problem that will haunt them past death. A question suddenly hit Five Pebbles.
“What if-” Opening his eyes led to no results, the being was gone, leaving him alone once more. He stared for a second, before his focus was back on the soothing melody that filled the air. He’ll ask next time. If it ever came back that was.