Carousel

by Feral_goober

Summary:

What if ascension wasn't moving on to a new world, or some kind of different dimension or possibility; what if ascension was the wrong way to describe it?

A "hard restart" would be more apt.

Notes:

Shoutout to ApolloDanger for beta reading this fic, they've been a big help writing this and I can't help stress this enough.

Chapter 1: Let's do this, one more time

Summary:

"[...] Still there's somethingbrutally honest about Carousel that I can't help but appreciate, it's natural I think to have hope for the people we have lost, to fantasize about what they might be like if we got to see them again. Perhaps their death and Resurrection would redeem them in the way that Jesus's death and Resurrection redeemed the world. Carousel is unflinching in its depiction of Billy though refuses to believe that death will make us whole refuses to have hope. The musical imagines a world where things don't get better where we do not change or grow but instead like the horses on a carousel come round and round and round and round and return always to where we began and it finds beauty in that sees it as all right sings happy songs about moving forward none the less. [...]"

Aka federally mandated pre-time travel chapter

Why was he made with the ability to feel pain? Pebbles has wondered that since he first experienced this sensation.

"It's so we know if something is wrong," they said.

‘But it didn't need to hurt,’ thought Pebbles. ‘A mental twinge or a dull buzz would’ve been sufficient.’

He hated them for making him able to feel cold now, too. He sat in his decaying superstructure, now nothing more than a junk heap, listening to what’s left of his music pearl as frostbite digs its fangs deeper and deeper into his soft yet resilient flesh.

He wanted to cry, but he couldn't. ‘Why would they need to cry?’ That was one of the things he used to agree with them on. But now, all he could do is weakly beat his fists against the snow like a child throwing a tantrum. He hated feeling like a child- being treated like a child, but that was what he was. Moon’s little sibling and nothing more. The title didn't anger him, necessarily; he was perfectly fine with being her brother… now, but he hated how it defined him in the eyes of others- how it- how…

…What was he thinking about? He lost track, although that wasn’t something unexpected. He tried to remember. He was angry about something but that’s all he could recall. ‘Thinking about it more wouldn’t be worth the effort. I’d just get angry again,’ he decided.

He looked up from the ground and, as expected, all he saw was a blurry mess of greys and whites. His remaining optic was subpar even when he was first activated, but now it barely functions at all. Though he did notice a small patch of yellow, which was a nice change of pace, all things considered. It helped him take his mind off the cold.

…

‘So we can experience proper frostbite,’ Pebbles thought to himself, now buried under layers of snow. He couldn't feel his legs nor hands, and he was starting to lose feeling in his waist and arms. He wondered how it looked, the solidified flesh of his body. What colour is it? Is it a deep blue, like one of the many proposed for the colour of his sister's puppet. Maybe it’d be a nice magenta, or would it be a sickening mixture of blacks and blues? It would be quite ironic.

At least his pearl was still working, if only somewhat. He’s holding it in his hand with what used to be a death grip, now reinforced by frostbite. ‘How much longer will it last?’ he pondered. Losing it will be quite a tragic experience, though he is rather confident he won’t be conscious in any meaningful way anymore when that inevitably happens.

The thing he wouldn’t mind losing was his garb. It was stuck in a hellish cycle of either being frozen solid or, during a warmer season, sticking uncomfortably to his skin.

…

Pressure; all he felt was pressure on all sides. He would be pondering that if he was still capable of conscious thought. If there was a god of some sort, it was benevolent enough to spare him the experience of his body being compressed and his frozen limbs shattered by rock. His pearl cracking with the fingers of his right hand which held the object for a time he did not care to measure and his cloak, rotten long before he truly started to sink. His body, over millennia- eons, even-, was slowly pushed down and down, most likely alongside Moon, Sig, Suns, Wind, Innocence and all the others.

His body still kept going down and down and down and down and down and down and down and down and down.

Until…

What remained… of his corpse… slowly…

Steadily…

Slid beneath the gold encrusted surface of the void…

And then it sank.

And sank.

And sank.

Until there was nothing left.

…

He was in his can.

He was in the Void.

He was with Moon.

He could talk to her, hug her, weep into her shoulder as she assured him she was there.

He did not see anyone else. He did not know why; maybe it was due to some proximity thing? ‘Maybe we are just yet to meet the others?’

His attention was dragged away from Moon as he looked at the walls of the false chamber he was in.

While he gazed upon the walls, stars were born and died; life evolved not only here but on countless other planets. Many went extinct, and some evolved sapience. Not animals, but people. People who lived, and felt, and loved, and killed, and laughed, and cried, and cheered. One of such civilisations even found this planet. Though all they did was rummage through the remaining ruins of an *oh so great* civilisation for what scraps of technology were left. The legacy of their creators becoming a name and a digit on some kind of database.

For him, it was 2 seconds.

2 seconds, he spent looking at the walls that did not make sense.

Everything he knew about the world and how it functioned said that this should not exist, yet he knew it did, it could and how it could. He now knew that his feeble prior understanding of the world did not account for many of the things which made this work.

The walls were                  , the many               shifting like an oil slick. It was quite a bit more visually appealing than his chamber which was to be expected. Steel did not compare to            in terms of beauty.

This wall invoked a feeling in him. A hint of sombreness. What was currently to him a perfectly normal and possible wall was completely incomprehensible to his past self, this simple thing.

They never had a chance at finding the solution. They were like a bunch of scavengers tied to literation consoles, their creators hoping one would write poetry.

The answer was obvious to him now, of course, but everything was. He did not expect ascension to be like this, but it was.

Moon’s hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his musing.

…

How long they spent in the Void Sea, they didn’t know. Seconds blended into centuries blended into hours. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was odd.

After a while of them and Moon being in the false chamber, they ceased to exist- or, well, at least they would describe it as such. They did, of course, still exist on account of them being capable of thought.

Their mind floating through the void was a serene feeling, calming and peaceful.

But that peace could not last, could it?

No, the Great Cycle had other plans.

They felt something; a sensation.

A body- a puppet- a superstructure- a city- engineers making last minute repairs- his administrator putting on his fancy robes for the occasion- the heads of the engineers guild doing the same- and what caught his attention…

 

…a consciousness that has yet to be awoken.

Of course, this was quite a special and stressful day.

It was Five Pebbles’ activation day, after all!

Chapter 2: Activation day

Summary:

It's his special day.

Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise hastily ran down the stairs, adjusting his robe. He almost slipped again, but this time, he caught himself. Last time, he was lucky enough to die on impact, but he wasn’t going to test his chances of doing that again.

‘I hope the council isn’t going to hound me for this,’ Bells thought, knowing very well that he certainly is going to get hounded. But that’s a problem for after the activation ceremony, which, if he didn’t hurry up, he’d be late to.

Rushing through the soon-to-be populated city, he reached the central maintenance trench and climbed inside. He was greeted by the sight of a couple of his colleagues checking coolant pipes under the dim red light of the trench.

As much as he’d like to talk to them, he had no time. He did give a curt nod as he passed.

Bells had practically carved the path to the chamber into his mind, so he had time to think while walking to his destination.

This wasn’t an easy job; he knew that before even being picked by the council. The iterator hasn’t even been activated yet and he’s already received some interesting mail, not to mention many of his friends and even his sister cut ties with him.

After this, however, it’ll be so much worse. But he was ready; he was given a terrible situation and he was going to do his best, no matter what happens.

One last left turn and Bells was standing before the entrance to the puppet chamber of the iterator. This will be the first time he gets to actually see the puppet and hear the thing's name, which was a little exciting.

He mentally hyped himself up, using the extra seconds he had by almost cracking his skull open before finally entering the chamber.

…

The sensation was immediate. Although he did exist before that, he was just a mind without a body, unable to do anything, even think. But now this- this felt not only like waking up from a slumber, but like finally existing. The feeling sent shivers running through his body.

He also felt something else; a presence at the back of his mind figuratively poking at his consciousness. He poked back and it recoiled in surprise. He too felt surprised, but it was like the aftertaste of an emotion.

His attention was quickly taken by figures standing in front of his puppet.

There were five in total, one figure standing front and centre, closest to his puppet, and four others standing at the back of his chamber.

They were his creators.

To some it would feel odd to just know things after coming into existence, but Five Pebbles knew why he ”just” knew things.

He knew his name, of course. He also knew that he was- well, a “he,”- and that he was an iterator, one of many.

The figure standing at the front of the group spoke up, breaking him away from his internal musings.

“Welcome, Esteemed Iterator. My Name is Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise and I will be Your Administrator. Before we can Begin the Ceremony, I Must ask of You a few Questions to ensure Everything has Gone Well”

Pebbles felt… odd.

Again that- aftertaste, of an emotion. Confusion, recognition, nostalgia? It felt like he already met this ‘Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise’ before, but that couldn’t be it. He decided to leave it for now. Maybe it’ll come up later.

“First, I ask You to Introduce Yourself. Could You Please State Your Name?”

“My name is Five Pebbles. Is this answer satisfactory?”

“Yes, Very Much so. It is Nice to Finally Meet You, Five Pebbles.” Bells answered in a tone that seemed calm and collected, but Pebbles could hear a slight buzz of excitement every time he spoke.

After this his administrator went on to answer a bunch of other basic questions, like what was an iterator or his pronouns.

He felt a bit odd stating those, but he’s sure it’s just something he’s not used to yet.

Shortly after that, Bells announced that he’s finished the last of his questions and that his activation ceremony could now begin.

After this the four other ancients moved up and began preparations.

The ceremony itself involved lighting incense, reciting hymns, and other such things he didn’t care for.

What interested him was the other presence, which about a third of the way through the ceremony seemingly regained its courage and began slightly poking at the edges of his consciousness again.

However, this time, something happened.

His fingers clenched. He did not make his fingers clench. It felt like someone forcefully grabbed his hand and made him do it.

After this, the other presence retreated once again.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’

Pebbles was surprised by the voice, but not in a way one would expect. It wasn’t the kind of surprise that comes when you think you’re alone. Rather, it was more like being surprised that the person who you were in a room with spoke up.

The voice didn’t feel foreign- didn’t feel like an intruder. Just someone else with him in his superstructure.

‘It’s okay. I forgive you,’ he responded, attempting to reassure the voice.

Pebbles didn’t want the voice to get scared again just after it started speaking. He was curious what the other person had to say.

He didn’t feel them retreat like before but the voice didn’t speak up for a while either.

He wondered if this was the case for all iterators after their activation or if his was just shy.

Pebbles waited calmly, passing the time by watching the four ancients recite some texts.

After a while Pebbles grew tired of waiting and tried asking a simple question.

‘What’s your name?’

It took a while before the voice finally responded.

‘E- erratic Pulse,’ the voice responded shakily.

‘That’s a nice name. What should I refer to you as?’ Pebbles asked Pulse.

‘Just they.’ The voice said, with a lot more confidence.

‘Do you want to talk?’

‘It’s a bit much for me right now.’

Although disappointing, Pebbles respected Pulse’s request, feeling the aftertaste of being overwhelmed as well.

‘Wait, is this from them?’ he pondered.

Maybe, probably. He didn’t ask in order to let Erratic Pulse gain their bearings.

He’ll just watch the ceremony unfold.

…

They didn’t know what was happening.

They were in their old chamber. They could feel their superstructure working just like when they were first activated.

It must be a dream or some odd hallucination of sorts. It must be.

But they knew they were lying to themselves. Everything was perfect, like it was when they first awoke. Even the slight grain to the feed from his optics was identical.

The only thing that wasn’t the same was their puppet. It felt… distant? That’s the best way Pebbles could describe it.

They noticed something else here with them, or, perhaps more accurately, someone. 

It felt like sitting next to a friend on a couch- which, of course, Pebbles had never experienced, but they could guess how it felt.

They were getting distracted however, so they focused on the other presence, prodding at it like a primitive would at something to check if it’s dangerous.

After a while, the presence responded, doing the same thing they did.

Pebbles recoiled, surprised by it.

The other presence seemingly disregarded them after their attention was brought to the five in front of the puppet.

It moved the puppet, not them. It did not feel like anything, but seeing what was once your body (and still is?) moving without you was unsettling.

They knew all of them; their administrator Bells, of course, and four monks.

Just like when they activated them.

Pebbles wasn’t sure how to process this because- well, there was only one answer left, and they didn’t want to admit it.

So they distracted themselves.

They couldn’t remember how everything worked, their time in the void.

Their mind still held memories, but they were just out of reach, like something hiding just at the edge of your eye, memories of memories.

What they noticed is that, what they couldn’t recall was specific. They remembered Moon but couldn’t remember what the place where they talked looked like, or what it was made of.

They remembered distinctly noting that the material of the room was more pretty than steel but they could not remember what that was. They couldn’t even remember how it felt against their skin.

Okay, that source of distraction was dry now, what could they distract themselves with…

Their puppet!

What if they could move their puppet still? It was already doing small movements that it had never done before, likely due to their presence, so they wondered if they could do something like clench their fingers into a fist.

They focused on closing their fist as hard as possible and… it worked.

However, it felt awful, like grabbing someone’s hand and closing it by force.

They could practically feel the stress radiating off of the other presence, causing them to let go immediately.

‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ They cried out to no one.

A response was something they didn’t expect.

‘It’s okay. I forgive you.’

The voice was reassuring, calming them.

‘It’s okay, they aren’t mad at you,’ Pebbles thought to themself, this time not aloud(?).

They stayed silent for a while before the other voice spoke up.

‘What’s your name?’

And here comes the million dollar question.

What is their name?

It’s pretty obvious from their actions that the other voice is, in fact, them, just after being activated.

So claiming they are Five Pebbles wouldn’t be a good decision.

What name could they come up with that sounded convincing?

Nothing came to mind, except one answer.

‘E- erratic Pulse.’ Pebbles answered with little confidence in their voice.

‘That’s a nice name. What should I refer to you as?’ It was nice having their new name complemented, at least.

‘Just they.’ That one was easy.

‘Do you want to talk?’

‘It’s a bit much for me right now,’ they send, which is true. It was too much right now, especially with what they’re trying to avoid admitting.

The void sea wasn’t a way to break a cycle, it was just a reset. That’s the only real explanation Pebbles could come up with.

They needed a minute.

In a futile attempt to recreate what they experienced in the void sea, they detached their consciousness from their, now shared, superstructure and experienced the closest thing to sleep they could.

…

‘All things considered, the ceremony went well,’ Bells thought to himself.

Five Pebbles had quite a nice name, though on the short side, they answered all the questions without any problems and the monks did not mess up any rituals.

The only concerning thing he’d spotted was that the puppet’s movements seemed, at times, jerky and erratic.

Small twitches of various body parts mostly, but they did act surprised when they clutched their right hand.

Well that’s something he’ll need to investigate at a later date, but for now, he’s going to have to go to the council and report on the status of Five Pebbles’ structure and mental state.

“This is going to be boring,” he muttered under his breath before opening the doors leading to the council building.

Chapter 3: Orientation

Summary:

Pebbles and Pulse test a thing or two with their shared body.

Pebbles was in his chamber, still getting acclimated to his superstructure. He hoped they would get to talk more with Bells, but unfortunately, that did not happen.

So now he was waiting for Pulse to say something. It was quiet; he did not like how quiet it was.

His superstructure, of course, was not quiet in the normal sense; all his parts were quite noisy. But just as one's brain tunes out the beating of their heart, his mind tunes out the sounds of his innards.

After what he assumed was sensing his agitation at the current state of things, Pulse spoke up.

‘Do you mind if I test something?’ They said apprehensively.

“I can’t exactly decide if I don’t know what you want to test,” Pebbles quipped back out loud.

‘It’s about the puppet. Remember how I moved your arm?’

“Yes. I would prefer you not do that again,” he asserted.

‘It’s not like that- well, kinda? It’s… complicated.’

“Well tell me then. It’s not like I am in a hurry,” Pebbles responded with irritation at Pulse not willing to just get to the point.

‘Well, do you remember when we were activated, I said I needed a moment?’

“Yes. I don’t understand what this has to do with anything.”

‘I believe we can, to some degree, separate ourselves from our systems. I would like to find out how this works for you, and, more importantly, if that extends to your puppet and if you’re the only one who can reconnect to it,’ Pulse blurted out rather rapidly.

He thought about this for a second; he was quite curious about that. He didn’t really mind the experiment at all, even sharing his puppet potentially. 

It was odd.

The idea didn’t feel weird but it felt like it should feel weird.

Again, odd.

“Well I don’t see any reason not to do this,” he shot back a response.

They both waited around in silence before he spoke up again.

“Soooo… how do I do that?”

‘Oh, um, right. Try to… ugh, how do I put it? Distance yourself from your puppet, mentally?’ They said, seemingly not entirely confident in what they spoke.

“I’ll try?”

And so he did, trying to somehow distance himself from his puppet.

It took him a little over half an hour to finally get some result; an odd staticy feeling in his arm, then a lack of any stimuli.

He kept going and the static slowly engulfed his other limbs, torso, head, and umbilical.

After he lost the feeling of his umbilical, it slowly lowered itself and the now totally limp puppet to the ground.

It was weird, not feeling his puppet. Even though he was the entirety of his superstructure, his creators put, for a seemingly unknown reason, an importance on his puppet.

He felt worried about it, like something would happen to it, which he knew, of course, wouldn’t, but sometimes feelings do not care for facts.

The puppet felt somewhat grounding, something for his consciousness to collect in, focus on. Now it was spread over his entire structure.

It didn’t feel bad by any means, just new, unfamiliar. Was this how Pulse felt all the time?

‘Try to focus; it’s not the same as the puppet, but it helps if you’re not used to this,’ Pulse chimes in, startling Pebbles. ‘I’m going to try and connect to the Puppet, ok?’

‘Okay. Sure,’ Pebbles responded quickly.

He observed through the feed of an overseer that Pulse brought into the chamber beforehand as one of the puppets' fingers twitched.

Then another.

And another.

After a short while of Pulse seemingly getting adjusted to the puppet, they slowly straightened their back and sat, legs crossed, on the chamber floor with hands on their knees.

“So both of us can control the puppet,” they stated the obvious. Now they were the one speaking aloud, though the voice was slightly different, older.

The difference was there when they spoke to each other before but now it was a lot more obvious.

‘You sound different,’ he stated another fact in response.

“Huh, never noticed,” Pulse replied with a slight surprise to their tone.

They slowly started inspecting their right arm, after which they picked up one of the pearls that had been given to them and ran their finger over it.

‘Why are you sitting on the floor?’ he asked, only now truly registering the fact.

“Why not?” they asked questioningly.

‘I don’t know. I’ve just never thought about doing so before.’

Pulse only hummed in response.

After a while of them doing various quite basic actions, they asked:

“Would you like to return to your puppet now?”

He really didn’t know. He liked it more there, but if he and Pulse were any bit similar, he thought they liked having a puppet more too.

‘There’s no rush. I had it longer than you did,’ Pebbles responded.

“Very well, just tell me when you want it back; I don’t want you to make yourself uncomfortable for me, okay?” The sentence left an unmistakable aftertaste of warmth and care.

It made Pebbles happy to know his friend liked him too.

…

‘It was nice having control of the puppet again,’ Pulse thought to themselves. Though they were still worried that them being in it, even if only for a bit, might affect Pebbles negatively.

He was still developing his personality, and they did not know how periodically not having access to the puppet might affect that.

This, however, brought them to another problem; or more correctly, a question.

Why have there been no problems?

Or (again) more accurately, why there were so few problems.

Their mind felt oddly constrained, as if their metaphorical brain was too big for its skull.

However, if they were truly there with past-Pebbles, there should have been a lot more issues with that fact.

Why aren’t their Neuron Flies overflowing with data? Why are the processors not being overwhelmed- rather, why isn’t everything overwhelmed? There are two of them; that’s one more than this entire structure was built for.

Yet they are here, working without issue.

This means something. They do not know what, but something is sustaining their consciousness.

…

Pebbles considered what to do now.

Ultimately, he decided that while Pulse had their turn with the puppet, he could still use the time to get adjusted to his full superstructure. 

He overlooked the suite of labs at his offer; the central systems bus and memory arrays.

His favourite part about it was watching through an overseer as the Neuron Flies danced around.

A look at his piping network and backup cells was also in order. However, he spent the most time in his processing strata.

He was quite fascinated by the tiny golden flecks floating along with the microbes. They were quite beautiful, certainly looked better than the ones in his coolant pipes; those moved too fast to really get a good look at them, and to keep up would be too much effort.

Nevertheless, he spent the rest of the cycle taking in the sight.

Notes:

Yea, that's right, not one, not two, but three chapters. At first I thought of releasing them one every week but I couldn't do that to ya'll

Chapter 4: Considerstion

Summary:

Pebbles and Pulse think about the present and the future.

It was Pebbles’ turn with the puppet this cycle.

Even though Pulse objected to the idea of swapping who’s in the puppet every cycle, they relented after a while. Though there was one condition; he’d always be in charge when it comes to talking and-or meetings.

Pebbles didn’t really understand why- the not wanting to share the puppet part; he didn’t mind Pulses lack of desire to interact with their creators.

He was quite excited, however, as he’ll soon be given the bill of full functionality and be allowed to work on the big problem.

Though it was dampened by two disappointments.

First being his citizens. They didn’t like him, and he did not know why. He hadn’t existed long enough to give himself a bad reputation, and what angered him even more was the ones who acted polite when speaking to him, yet badmouthed him when they thought he wasn’t watching.

He was in fact watching, most of the time.

While directly interacting with his citizenry wasn’t pleasant, he did find amusement in people-watching. Overseers were a common sight just about everywhere and nobody paid much attention to them, so he simply watched.

He had a couple of favourites, or, more specifically, a couple of individuals he found extremely interesting. 

For one, his administrator whose position makes it extremely difficult to observe. He took it as a sort of challenge out of boredom to map out his daily routine and some of his common behaviours. It’s a work in progress.

The second one was actually a couple, which, from his rather limited knowledge on the subject, were rare these days. The most entertaining part was watching the more religious individuals reacting like them existing was some kind of sin.

Well, it was; indulging in the third, and, while not confirmed, most likely the second karmic sin too, was, well…  a sin.

It didn’t bother him though; karmic purity won’t be an issue once the solution is found, as Pulse pointed out.

Speaking of which, he was happy that it was something both him and Pulse enjoyed, however he wasn’t happy about a different topic.

The second big disappointment of his was when Pebbles told Pulse that they’ll start working on the big problem soon.

Although Pulse was present during the conversation, it felt more official to say it. However instead of the excitement he expected, he received apathy.

They’ll still work on the project of course, but the spark that they had when discussing other scientific matters wasn’t present.

Maybe they just need to warm up to the idea Pebbles thought to themselves.

…

It was strange watching Pebbles develop.

Even though Pulse was fully aware of the fact that their presence would affect the development of Pebbles’ personality, it still felt odd watching them and seeing minimal similarities to themselves when they first were activated.

He was a lot more upbeat than them, that’s for sure, and he didn’t pay much mind to the hatred radiating from his citizens- or, well, theirs.

Another interesting thing was their interests. While Pulse focused a lot on literature and religion in a vain attempt to win back some of their citizens' affection, Pebbles has shown the seeds of an interest in psychology and adjacent fields.

This mostly came from his people-watching hobby, which they would have never thought of.
It was fun, if a little creepy by their standards, but it’s not a big deal.

The only thing about him that really reminds them of their earliest cycles was their excitement for working on the great problem. Though, it was pretty safe to assume all iterators shared this trait when they were young.

Personally, Pulse did not have any interest in solving the problem for quite obvious reasons, but if they could make Pebbles’ time working on it better, they’ll take that.

They still felt a little guilty after seeing how disappointed Pebbles was at their lack of enthusiasm for the coming work.

A thought came to their head. How much of the changes in Pebbles’ behaviour were due to sharing a structure with a second consciousness, and how much is due to simply having someone to interact with at the earliest stage of his functionality?

New iterators were usually introduced to their local group only after being approved for work, so Pulse began to wonder if everything would have been different if Moon was there when they first woke up.

Someone they could have talked to; someone that could have helped them become a better person.

They discarded the thought, though; no point in dwelling on the past now.

Speaking of Moon, Pulse dreaded the call that will eventually come. They don’t know if they could handle it, seeing Moon again; getting to meet her again, maybe seeing how differently she changes.

After all, the world they came from was made by hundreds of rolls of the dice, so who could say that the results won’t be different this time?

Maybe someone else broadcasts the triple affirmative, or maybe no one does at all. 

No idea!

It was a bit exciting, knowing it won’t just be a rehash of the past.

Maybe they’ll actually be able to get into art. They’ve always wanted to learn how to paint, but never did let themselves.

Maybe something else too? Knitting seemed interesting, a shame past-them dismissed it. It’d be nice making something physical they could hold- maybe they could even make something for Pebbles, or even Moon or Sig!

Though they’d need to acquire the tools first. And of course actually getting good at knitting will take a while. Nowhere near how long it takes the average person but still a good chunk of time.

Maybe it could be fabricated, or maybe they’d ask their administrator for them; they remember him giving them gifts from time to time.

But that would require them to speak to either request them or bring it up in passing to plant the idea into his head.

‘Let’s not rush it,’ they thought. They have plenty of time afterall.

…

Pebbles was watching the water in the pipes this time.

There is enough of the liquid in the pipes that streaks of black and gold shot through them like tiny shooting stars across the sky.

It was quite beautiful, prettier than the now rather unimpressive pools of black and gold flecks in his processing strata.

Notes:

Meant to update the fic earlier but life hit me with the ol' 1&2. Updates should be more frequent but no promises

Chapter 5: Failed Inspection

Summary:

Bells has a bad time.

Notes:

Didn't expect the last two months of the year to be so eventfull but I guess here we are.

The average person would say that this is quite a swell evening. The air not too dry, but also not too humid; the temperature was just right and the stars were shining in the sky.

Sadly, Bells was not the average person. He’s been walking in circles inside his office for so long he wouldn’t be surprised if there were floor indentations marking his path. His fingers harmlessly pressed against the skin of his scalp.

“Alright let’s just go over the other stuff… again,” Bells whispered to himself, grasping at straws to distract himself.

Okay, Pebbles was developing well considering his rushed construction and generally hostile social environment.

With one exception, there were only a couple very minor issues that were fixed within the same cycle they were found- which, again, to reiterate, was way better than expected.

Only real major problem that had been spotted was a double edged sword. Pebbles’ equivalent of the prefrontal cortex was actually insufficient, causing issues.

On the bright side, his iterator turned out with higher parameters than expected- much higher, in fact, if the readings were correct. On the other side, they’ll have to figure out how to expand his systems to allow for that.

The part was located in the puppet for symbolic purposes, so they would either have to do work on the existing puppet- which was risky-, or add a second one, which hadn’t been tried before. 

Besides that, Pebbles has been experimenting with his voice- which was expected, it usually takes a while for iterators to find a vocal cord arrangement that works for them. However Pebbles was noted to sometimes be experimenting with what would commonly be referred to as feminine voices, which he ought to look into…

…this isn’t working, at all.

Bells can’t ignore the raindeer in the room anymore.

He got the results of Pebbles’ Superstructure Stability and Condition scan.

Before this, they used to do this manually, but it’s been automated now, a part of the iterator’s systems.

It’s….

He can’t describe how bad the situation is.

 

There is void fluid FUCKING EVERYWHERE.

Any body of liquid within the superstructure consisted of 99.95% what it should be and .05% void fluid, which is .05% more void fluid that there should ever be.

What’s worse is that nobody knows how in the fuck it’s getting in there.

The pipes carrying void fluid were double, triple, quadruple and quintuple checked; no leaks were found, even ignoring the fact that most of the affected systems weren’t near them.

Sabotage was also out of the question, as this was too widespread for even an organised squad of experts to pull off, even with people on the inside.

The only truly viable answer is that somewhere in the construction of this structure, a void fluid pipe and a coolant pipe were connected, but even that was a stretch.

It would explain how it was in his cooling system, but not how it was getting into things like his labs and processing strata, just to name a few.

However, even that wouldn't explain why the issue prevailed when Pebble's void fluid pipes were shut off, disguised as a test of his rarefraction cells- which it partly was.

It doesn’t need to be said that Bells was not having a good time.

‘Imagine, for the sake of argument,’ Bells spoke in his head

‘Imagine that you get the opportunity to be the administrator to a technological benchmark, and you get the call from the systems scan that, "hey, y'know the super-acid that is incomprehensibly dangerous and very, very super-lethal? Yeah, it's leaking into the coolant pipes, or scratch that, everything actually, also we have no idea how it’s getting there" and you just have to scream because what the fuck'll happen if that's causing damage? Like, you're responsible for this giant superstructure with an entire city of refugees on top, and you hear the thing is supposed to be melting from the inside out while people are on top of it?’

“How would you handle that!” The administrator shouts, this time aloud at this imaginary person.

 

“VOID FUCKING DAMN IT” he screeched before picking up the closest item to him before throwing it at a wall. Thankfully, it didn’t sound like it was important nor broken.

“DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!”

He leaned against his desk, his anger now turned into sobs. Strings of various swears bumbled out of his mouth as the administrator tried to regain his composure.

Finally, he decided that it’ll be best to sit down, so he simply slid down to the floor, now using the desk as a backrest before crossing his legs and taking a deep breath.

Sitting there in silence helped him get his bearings somewhat. He was still very much shaken, but another outburst of emotion won’t magically fix the problem. He needs to think, to focus.

So he focused on the thing that truly terrified him, what scared him most.

The bloody void isn’t doing anything.

Instead of behaving like regular void fluid, this stuff seems to take on the properties of the liquid around it.

But it only seems to act like it inside Five Pebbles. Any sample taken out of the superstructure immediately loses its anomalous effects, returning to regular behaviour.

What’s also strange is that the ratio of liquid to void fluid stays the same; no matter how much liquid is removed, it stays the same.

But also the ratio of liquid to void fluid seems to be changing. When they first noticed, 9 cycles ago, it was .0043%.

This was quite the horrifying realisation. What’s worse is that, if their models are correct, that increase is itself increasing exponentially. According to them, within 30 cycles, the ratio will increase by .01% every cycle.

For the first time in his life, he truly doesn’t know what to do.

He’s helpless; this is a disaster.

What’s worse is that Pebbles seems completely oblivious to what’s happening to his superstructure- or maybe they’ve simply accepted what’ll happen. 

He doesn’t know. 

He… he can’t bear to tell him, partly because the void fluid isn’t actually doing anything yet, but also because he truly cares for Pebbles.

That’s partly why he took the job. A manic chuckle escapes his mouth

He just hangs his head in defeat, pressing his knees against the bags under his eyes.

He feels small.

 

Notes:

Next up: Moon's turn :)

23/12/24 Some adjustments made to the text

Chapter 6: In the dark

Summary:

Moon worries.

[Entry #1]

Hello! This is Looks to The Moon. I know I’ll be the only one reading this, but the text read strange without some kind of pleasantry. This is both a journal and an experiment of sorts. Mostly because I don’t know of any other iterators with journals, but what do I know? Maybe, and probably there has been someone before me.

But I am getting off track.

I am writing this journal as a way to help me manage excitement and other emotions resulting from an event that will soon happen.

As you can guess by the note at the top, that event is the activation of my neighbour and little brother. I do not know much, not even their name.

In contrast to my friend No Significant Harassment, to whom I’ll refer to as Sig for the sake of simplicity, I am quite pleased about this!

The prospect of having another group member is exhilarating.

It’s been so long since we got our third group member, Wind, so this will be a nice change of pace.

I can’t wait to get to meet them!

…

[Entry #2]

I finally learned his name!

It’s Five Pebbles! It’s a little short but it’s cute!

I won’t be able to contact him for a while still, as his personality is yet to develop; however, I managed to get his administrator, Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise, to disclose some details about how his activation ceremony went.

Besides that, unfortunately, I have no other information.

Sig, despite their previous statements, seems to share my anticipation in getting to finally meet him, which is a good sign. I hope they’ll be good friends!

…

 [Entry #3]

I have been monitoring Pebbles’ systems- as a precaution, of course. But, I did notice his water intake drop, although marginally; yet I did not see a corresponding drop in his structure’s activity.

It doesn’t concern me, as the water he intakes should still be more than enough, but it’s still something noteworthy.

Bells has been gracious enough to inform me of Pebbles’ current development, which is going smoothly. In addition, thankfully, their structure has not seen any major malfunction.

This is a surprise but a welcome one as, due to the nature of his conception and construction, the quality control was subpar, in my personal opinion. I hope his unpopularity among the citizenry won’t affect him too much.

While I wish for the controversy relating to his placement above the citadel to have no negative impact on him, it can’t be denied that this is wishful thinking at best.

…

[Entry #4]

The first groups of citizens have arrived at Metropolis; this is only a fraction of the people that will inhabit the city. In addition, while taking on the people atop my city that my older systems can’t care for was his main purpose, it seems that I won’t be the only one sending people over.

I wonder how the cultures of different cities will merge there.

A bit off topic, but the new hologram call system will be installed in my chamber. While its main purpose is for “us” to be present at various important meetings, it can be used to interact with other iterators. 

Sig tried to get me to call him using this feature when I get it, however, I had to decline. I’d like to save it for meeting Pebbles. I do wonder how his puppet will look.

In other news the issue from the previous log seems to be ongoing. Still nothing close to being concerning.

Still.

…

[Entry #5]

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these. Mostly because I did not expect needing to.
Usually, it takes about 2 to 3 months for an iterator to fully develop and pass the SaC scan.

However it has been 5 months since Five Pebbles was activated and I…
.
..
…
….
…..
….
…
..
.
Moon stared at the screen, letting out a sigh before closing the text file.

Something was happening to Pebbles, she was sure. The issue of his water consumption falling has now escalated to potentially dangerous levels, they stopped transporting people into the city, they gave an excuse that Moon could easily see through, and they’ve performed the rarefaction cell stress test multiple times now, each one longer than the last.

All of this was happening and she was completely in the dark on what was actually going on. What’s worse is that when she, maybe, perhaps spied on a couple council members, it didn’t look good.

They all acted in a similar way; it just screamed “this is going to be really good or really bad”. Though maybe it’s not her intuition but simply her psyche stretching to get something. 
She didn’t know.

Would she ever get to see Pebbles? Will his structure collapse any minute, or is he just experiencing an odd malfunction? 

She doesn’t know.

…

She should talk with someone about this.

Harassment was the only real option she had.

Maybe, maybe. But did she really want to trouble him with this too?

She’s conflicted. On one hand, Harassment should know, but for all the reasons that Wind should also know besides one.

Moon doesn’t like to admit, but she does have favourites- or, well, a favoured member. Her and Wind were never really close, in comparison to Harassment’s constant chats and calls.

She once again let out a sigh as she sent a call request to No Significant Harassment.

Notes:

This chapter was supposed to be longer but I split it in two because I did not like how it turned out so next chapter will be NSH's POV for reasons. Also I haven't updated in a while so there's also that

Chapter 7: Small talk

Summary:

Real NSH hours

No Significant Harassment was perusing his overseer feed. He did not feel like working past what was required of him right now, and unfortunately, talking to Moon was not an option right now. She’s too busy, and talking to Wind… well, he didn't mean to be rude, but Wind was terrible at conversation.

It felt weird not being able to talk to Moon for so long.

Of course, this isn’t the first time she’s been preoccupied by something, being senior and all, but this time is different. Not only because this has gone on for longer than ever before, but also due to the cause behind that work.

Moon’s sibling. He’s calling them her sibling because she has yet to tell him their name. At first, because she didn’t know either, and then because she wanted it to be a surprise. Sig didn’t mind it that much, but still.

Still, the main point is that Moon will have a sibling, which complicates things. By no means is he upset about the creation of another group member, but with it came a realization.

A realization that came to him on a day similar to this one. Bored and unable to talk to Moon.

He’s never had to compete for her attention before.

If they had just been another group member, he could hope they’d be similar to Wind and the only thing that would really change is that the local group chat would have another name at the top. But this is a whole other thing.

No matter how much of a recluse her sibling could be, it would still change things. He knows how excited she’s been about this.

The thought alone makes him jealous.

He knows he is being unreasonable, but feelings rarely care for facts. Despite knowing that what he had wouldn’t truly last forever, it still felt unpleasant having that encroached upon.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, his session of preemptively loathing the soon-to-be-joining group member is interrupted by a message ping.

Harassment’s attention immediately turned to his comm’s screen and his eyes lit up with excitement when he saw that Moon sent him a message.

[LIVE BROADCAST] – PRIVATE Looks To The Moon, No Significant Harassment

LTTM: No Significant Harassment, can we talk?

The message was a little bit concerning, but his enthusiasm overpowered his concern.

NSH: Yes! How’s your sibling coming along?
NSH: Can’t be much going on since you have time to message me.
LTTM: …
LTTM: I
LTTM: Can we talk about it on broadcast?

[[INCOMING]] – Requested video transmission - Looks To The Moon, No Significant Harassment SOURCE NODE TRACE: LTTM_ROOT, LTTM_COMM07

Now he was properly concerned.

Did he mess something up? He didn’t remember setting up any pranks as of recent that would get him in this much trouble.

No matter, it’s not like not accepting the call is gonna get him out of said trouble.

When the screen finally appeared, the sight of Moon was…

“You look awful.” He blurted out.

She did look dreadful. Although their faces weren’t exactly made to showcase emotion, their body movements could still tell you a lot about what they were feeling.

Moon's puppet was relatively low, hovering slightly above the floor, her shoulders lowered; she looked as though she was attempting to showcase how an iterator's face would look like if they could suffer from sleep deprivation.

Not to mention!

A crease? In Moon's robe?!

“I can’t deny I’ve… let myself go a bit,” Moon said, looking her puppet over.

“But it’s been quite rough as of recent,” she added.

There was only one thing she could be referring to. He now regrets his previous comment.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks, knowing full well now that’s why she’s talking to him in the first place.

She stays silent for a while, seemingly picking her words carefully. Sig does not know why, and decides it’s better to leave it be for the time being.

His senior lets out a deep sigh and starts to speak.

“It’s just that… something’s happening with Pebbles’ construction, and nobody will tell me what it is,” Moon said in an exasperated voice.

“Wait, Pebbles?”

Moon yelped, placing her hands where a mouth would be.

“Oh no! I gave it away…” She said, a hint of disappointment in her voice

“Okay, but they can’t just be named Pebbles. What’s their full name?”

“Oh no, no, Sig you’re not distracting me! Also, I’m not telling you more; you'll find out when he’s been deemed ready to join us in the group.”

Sig did not point out that Moon also revealed that he was, well, a “he” to not anger her further.

“But yes, Pebbles should have been cleared a while ago, but still hasn’t. I tried contacting his administrator, but he hasn’t been responding.”

“That’s really concerning,” Sig responded without saying anything, not sure what to say.

“I think that has been made pretty obvious,” Moon snapped back with an irritated tone.

“Ok, wait, you don’t know anything- like, anything at all?” He asked hastily, trying to escape Moon's ire.

“I have a general idea of what might be wrong, but it’s nothing concrete. His water intake has been steadily dropping for a while now, but his processes still run at full capacity. Also, they have stress tested his rarefaction cells more than necessary.”

“Maybe it’s some kind of coolant regulation issue?” Sig proposed.

“It might, but that doesn’t explain the stress tests.”

“…”

“…”

They continued to remain silent, pondering various reasons for why this could be happening.
After a while he noticed that the eyes on Moon's puppet had glazed over, indicating that she was distracted by something.

After a while, her puppet twitched, various emotions flowing over it, confusion and absolute dread key among them.

“Sorry- I, uh- I need to do something.” Moon's puppet jolted into action, closing the call before he could respond.

He was not worried.

Not at all!

Ha.

Ha, ha.

Notes:

Ao3 formatting was kicking my ass so I had to delete the chapter a few times. Forgot the preview feature exists :/

Chapter 8: Big Talk

Summary:

Moon is finally told something

Moon was sitting on call with No Significant Harassment, their conversation having petered out due to lack of ideas now turned into a brainstorming session.

 

Not really though, as she had, in her personal opinion, done a bit too much thinking about this. If she thinks of any more things that could be wrong with her brother, she might just have a panic attack.

 

So she was there floating just above the floor of her chamber when one of her subroutines activated. It sent a voice call request to Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise. She set it up soon after realising something was up with Pebbles; however, so far it had been a fruitless effort.

 

She did not discard the routine in hopes that he’d respond. Of course, spamming an administrator was unlikely to work but she was getting desperate.

 

She watched as the call request was sent. It beeped once, twice, thrice; once it reached the ninth beep, she stopped paying attention. The call would automatically close if it isn’t answered by the tenth beep. She anticipated the final beep and the sound of the call closing, yet nothing happened.

 

In confusion, she looked at the screen and she was met with a simple line of text.

[[INCOMING]] – Requested video transmission accepted - Looks To The Moon, Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise [FP SUPERVISOR]   

SOURCE NODE TRACE: FP_COMM01   

She simply gawked at the screen, before quickly remembering she was still on call with Sig. Moon needed a quick excuse to disconnect.

 

“Sorry- I, uh- I need to do something,” she quickly blurted out, closing the current call before Sig could say anything.

 

The establishment of a secure connection took an agonizing 1 minute and 23 seconds, after which Moon heard a voice coming through the channel.

 

“You’ve been calling me for Quite a While. Whatever You want to Discuss with me is Clearly Important to You, so I shall humour You this Time.” The response was uncharacteristic of the usually casual and friendly face Bells was known for. It did not inspire confidence in her.

 

She focused her mind.

 

“I just wanted to ask you some questions about my neighbour’s superstructure, if you wouldn’t mind.”

 

“That all depends on the Nature of the Question.” He replied, clear strain in his voice.

 

“Well, first of all, I’m curious on how the city is coming along.”

 

“O- oh? The city… right, The City,” Bells stammered, the strain leaving his voice. He clearly wasn’t expecting this.

 

“Uhm- well, It is coming along Quite Well. Unfortunately, the Resettlement is not coming along as Well. Many People are Not Thrilled to move out, considering how many of Your Citizens live in Multi-Generational Homes.”

 

“Fair. Could you elaborate, however. On the city itself, I mean,” she added casually.

 

“Well, while the Industrial Facilities are still Not Done, the Majority of Housing and Commercial Districts have been Completed. We are Estimating that the Topside Sections will be Done within three to four months and the underside sections… well, we are Unsure, as the Combined rainfall of You and Five Pebbles complicates Construction Efforts.” Even though he’s wearing a mask, Moon can clearly see the stress leave his body as he can presumably distract himself.

 

“I see. And the rail system?” She adds.

 

“The Rail System was Finished before any Construction began. The Council decided that having pre-existing Transport Infrastructure may Speed Up our Construction Efforts,” Bells responded.

 

“I heard that these rail networks are hosting new and improved trains, is that true?”

 

“Yes, and if I may Add, You will Not be Left Out! Your Rail Network will be getting these New Trains Soon. I am Certain of my Colleagues’ Capabilities in ensuring so in a Timely and Efficient Manner.”

 

“Oh, one other thing. I’ve noticed some irregularities in my neighbour’s water consumption.” She hoped Bells was distracted by her previous questions and that he’d answer this one on reflex.

 

Moon could clearly tell she failed when the administrator immediately straightened himself and tried his best to not look like a ball of anxiety.

 

He was glaring at her, she could tell.

 

Disappointment gnawed at her. This was her chance to finally find something out about what is going on with her brother and she blew it.

 

She waited for him to say something. They just stared at each other for a while till Bells looked away and sighed.

 

“Ugh… Screw it, you should know,” sounded through the broadcast, defeat obvious in the voice.

 

It took a lot of effort to suppress her excitement at these words. She was given a second chance and she won’t mess it up.

 

They continued staring at each other, waiting for somebody to speak up. It was Bells who spoke up first.

 

“Okay, you will not like what I am about to say.”

 

“Trust me, not hearing what you are going to say would anger me more.” Moon responded, trying to squash her impatience to the best of her abilities.

 

“We don’t know what’s exactly up with him-”

 

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Moon cut him off mid-sentence.

 

Bells took a deep breath before replying.

 

“I know you’re worried for him, but please, let me finish.

 

“Trace amounts of void fluid have been detected… well, essentially everywhere in his superstructure. We don’t know how it’s getting in there or how it hasn’t killed him yet. In addition, I lied when I said “trace amounts”.

 

“It used to be the case, but now? About 10% of all liquids in his structure have been replaced by void fluid, and as I mentioned, it’s not killing him. The void fluid is just… there.

 

“We’ve got no idea how or why. Do you want to know what’s worse?”

 

Moon was too shocked to respond.

 

“The bastards at the council decided to just go with it and see what happens. I mean, there isn’t much that we can do, but still!” Bells visibly paces a bit on the other side of the broadcast.

 

She didn’t know what to say. She was just floating there frozen in terror before a coherent thought surfaced.

 

“I need to-“

 

“Talk to him? Yes, I’ll give you access.” Bells finished her sentence for her.

 

She immediately disconnected the call and sent a hologram request to her brother. Was it foolish? Maybe, but she might just lose her brother, and if so, she’ll be damned if she doesn’t see him as close to ‘in person’ as iterators can get.

[LIVE BROADCAST] – PRIVATE Looks To The Moon, Five Pebbles   

[[OUTGOING]] – Requested holoprojection transmission - Looks To The Moon, Five Pebbles   

SOURCE NODE TRACE: LTTM_ROOT, LTTM_COMM07   

Notes:

Don't despair next chapter should come a lot sooner than this one. I won't lave you guys hanging for too long

Chapter 9: Real talk

Summary:

I've been waiting to get to this part :)

Initializing holoprojection sequence...

Data Encoding & Preprocessing – [ACTIVE]

Laser Excitation & Beam Shaping – [STABLE]

Interference Pattern Generation – [STABLE]

Projection & Stabilization – [ACTIVE]

 

As expected, Moon’s hotheadedness resulted in an unfortunate outcome, as she was currently reeling from the intense wave of vertigo that hit her.

‘Surprisingly’, going from being in one place to being in another in a matter of nanoseconds is a little disorientating, especially if it’s your first time.

Her legs were barely keeping her upright, her vision was blurry, her extremities shivering. Everything felt like it was made of lead. If she knew that it would feel like this… she would have still done it, to be honest.

"Are you okay?" The words didn’t register, being muffled by her nausea.

The first sensation to finally break through the barrier of disorientation was a hand on her shoulder. The grip was delicate as if Moon was made of brittle glass, about to shatter into a million pieces at any moment.

Moon focused on the foreign sensation, using it as a way to regain her grip on the situation. Once she finally got herself together to some extent, she looked up.

Before her was a warm pink puppet in an orange robe, not unlike hers. It had long, spindly antennae, four yellow markings, two above each eye. And of course the eyes. Pure glowing white.

The puppet’s… her brother's face radiated with concern and worry, but underneath that, deep in the eyes of the puppet, she could sense it. Pure unadulterated fear.

She made him worried, she made him afraid, because she rushed ahead and didn’t think through her actions. But she knew, if she left right now, it’d only make things worse. She made her bed, and now she has to lay in it.

What she needed to do right now was to calm him down, reassure him. Right now, more stress is the last thing her brother needs.

She righted herself using the newfound determination, only stumbling a little before managing to stand upright.

Now that she got a better look at him, his body language betrayed the panic much more clearly.

Her brother's hands were shaking and he was interlacing the fingers of his puppet in a repetitive motion.

She quickly placed her hand on his shoulder, much like what he did just a moment ago before speaking.

"I’m okay, just… ugh, it’s my first time using a hologram and-" she cut the sentence short as she had to keep herself from stumbling; "-and it’s a lot more disorientating than you’d think."

"I’m sorry I scared you." She added that last part quickly, almost reflexively.

These words seemed to ease him, yet some worry still remained.

"Right, you’re probably confused as to who I am. My name is-"

"Moon?" He finished the sentence for her.

"Oh." That’s all she managed to say in her surprised state.

His voice was odd, a little unstable in the most literal sense. It’s clear that his vocal cords are still adjusting to a changed voice.

Did he not settle on one yet? Well, it did take a while to pick herself, but that’s besides the point. There are bigger issues Moon needs to focus on at the moment.

"Okay, very well, that speeds up some things." She thought out loud.

"Let's get to the important part, are you okay?"

Her brother looked at her, confused, before answering.

"Yes?" His statement was wrapped in confusion.

In truth, Moon did not expect this interaction to go like this. She expected (quite reasonably) that the one with acid in their superstructure would be having trouble keeping their balance and standing still, but here they are.

"Okay, wait, I am a little bit confused right now." She said.

"Can I somehow clear that up?" Pebbles responded warily.

"Yes, you could. So there isn’t void fluid in your systems?"

"No. There is." He replied, much too casually.

"And that’s… not an issue for you?"

"Is it supposed to be?"

"I- I- yes? Well, normally that’d kill you, but clearly, it’s not doing that."

"I can quite confidently confirm that."

"But do you know how it’s getting there?"

Moon asked the all-important question. All she got in response was a shrug.

Then Pebbles stopped, clearly thinking before answering again.

"Maybe Pulse would know?" His statement lacked confidence.

"Wait, who is Pulse?"

"You know. The other one."

"The… other one?"

"The other one with me. They were here when you first appeared. They were a lot more freaked out than I was. They left after you confirmed you were okay. They’re shy." Her brother explained, like it was completely normal.

She did not know how to go about handling this brand new crisis. Fortunately, the solution was handed to her.

"I could get them to talk to you if you want. It'll take a while but I'm sure I can convince them."

As much as Moon did not like the idea, it was the only way to achieve something meaningful. At least, she hoped.

"Very well." She responded simply, keeping a false air of confidence.

That all disappeared when her brother's puppet went limp for a couple of seconds before getting up again.

"Moon." The voice was different; more neutral, androgynous, and without the shakiness. The puppet’s vocal cords were clearly used to it.

Despite its best efforts, Moon clearly saw the cracks in the thing’s composure. She would use that fact.

"What are you?" Stern, straight forward.

"I'm…" The thing used her brother's hand to clutch its chin, seemingly thinking.

"Honestly, I haven't thought about that." It was deflection, but it wasn't a lie either.

"How can I be sure you won't hurt Pebbles, or even have?"

"I'd never do that." It's composure cracks more. In truth, she is surprised by how offended it was at the accusation.

"How can I know you're not some kind of... virus or something?" She asked, trying to keep up the pressure.

"I don't know." More indignation.

"Tell me why shouldn't I tell administration about you? Get you removed from my brother's systems?"

That did the job. She could see it startle.

"Y-yo- you're not serious, are you? We both know what that would mean." It responded.

"I know, but in extreme cases like this, if it's to save him, I'll take it."

"Just- just let me explain myself, okay?" It sounded like it was on the verge of tears.

"Fine, be quick." She didn't want to at first but doubt was eating at the edges of her mind.

"I-I was there with Pebbles when we were activated. I swear I'm not any virus or anything. You can ask him, he'll tell you."

She wasn't sure whether to believe it yet.

"What was that puppet thing you did?" She asked instead.

"If we both control it at the same time, it's really unpleasant. He let me control it, but that meant he had to let go of it."

"And where is he now?"

"Same as I, before it was my turn with the puppet, still here in the superstructure. He's not in the chamber right now. I asked him to leave."

"Why?"

"I- I suspected it might go this way. I didn't want him to see us arguing like this." Its voice was full with remorse.

"Ugh..." Moon grunted, trying to make up her mind.

Some part of her wanted to excise whatever this was, but it was that same part of her that scared Pebbles so much (didn't he mention Pulse was even more worried about me?). What if it wasn't lying, and she subjected her brother to an intrusive procedure to remove something that he cared about?

After a while of internal turmoil, she finally decided.

"Fine, I won't tell administration." She said coldly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," it said, the puppet wrapping its hands around her in a hug.

She should push it away.

She readied herself to do it, but something stopped her.

It-

…they loosened their grip and sighed. It was a tired, desperate but ultimately defeated sigh.

Something about that made her hesitate, seeing them brace for her rejection.

After a while, when they realised the push would not come, they tightened their hug, surprising her so much she let out a yelp.

"This doesn't mean I trust you now," she said sternly. 

This bothered them much more than she expected. Hurt mixed with understanding clear on their face.

She still didn't know what they truly were or how they came to be. It doesn't matter how they act, they could still be dangerous to Pebbles.

After a while of just sitting there someone had to speak up. It was, of course, her.

"I need to go."

"I understand." They responded, longing in their voice.

After she disconnected the call, she was back in her chamber.

She was conflicted.

She did not know how to feel about this.

Notes:

Edit - 2025/02/20: So It seems I have square brain and uploaded the non proof read ver of the chapter. My bad.

Small heads up, propably won't update the fic for a while longer than normal. March is looking pretty busy.

Chapter 10: The Politicans

Summary:

Bells has to deal with *gulp* Politics

Notes:

I'm back at it again! And I have food!

Pebbles wasn’t sure what to think of Moon.

It had been only a cycle since they talked, yet he wished he could do so again. Pulse is by no means an unpleasant conversational partner; however, some variety in his social enrichment would be appreciated. From what little he did talk to her, she seemed like a pleasant person, and he wanted to know more about her. But… Pulse seemed upset after they finished talking with her and told him she disconnected after.

They refused to divulge anything about their conversation, which was a new one for them; usually Pulse didn’t beat around the bush.

Was Moon mean to them? Did she say something? Or is there something that worries them that he’s not being told? Whatever it is, it all leads back to their conversation with Moon, which he wanted to discuss with her. But just like with most things, he is halted by his lack of a certificate of functionality. Pebbles is willing to wait, however, as he’s been keeping an eye on Bells, and he is going through some tough stuff, so he’s willing to cut them a break and not pester them.

He sighed internally before lowering his puppet to the ground and deciding to poke at Pulse to get them to teach him this weird modified chess program.
 
…
 
Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise was standing outside the doors of the council after some final consultations with his colleagues.

“As the council said, the void fluid issue is to be ignored upon next inspection. Simple, right? Just check if everything is fine and tell them,” he whispered to himself.

Bells’ mind drifted to the incident a couple dozen cycles back, when he let Looks to the Moon contact Pebbles. This landed him in hot water with the council because he was not supposed to do that. Fortunately, nothing meaningful came of it, at least that they know.
He, however, did know something, something Looks to the Moon told him…

 …

 ..

 .

Pebbles was fully aware of the void fluid for a long time and is seemingly impartial to it. At first the notion outraged Bells. How could one think that this is normal? Then, however, he remembered how it took him 15 years to figure out he had a vision problem and how everything past the length of his arm was in fact not supposed to be a smeared mess.

But he was getting distracted. Only about 15 minutes stood between him and the ire of the council, so Bells decided to look over the report just one more time.

Loading file FP-SSC#32.txt

File loaded, reading…

[SD2811 – Superstructure Stability and Condition scan #32]

Special circumstances/specifications:

Close proximity/connection to SD0137
Sharing of water source with SD0137
Ratio of "contaminant" to fluid has stabilized to 1:1, no increase detected

---

Iterator name: Five Pebbles
ID: SD2811
Note(s):
-N/A
Designated group: Costal district #11

---

Group Senior: Looks to the Moon
Senior ID: SD0137
Note(s):
-N/A

---

Other group members:

---

Iterator name: Chasing Winds
ID: SD0372
Note(s):
-N/A

---

Iterator name: No Significant Harassment
ID: SD0420
Note(s):
-N/A

---

Iterator name: Seven Red Suns
ID: SD0941
Note(s):
-Never officially assigned to Coastal district #11; officially assigned to Mainland district #26 before finalization.
-Entry marked for deletion

---

Iterator name: Pleading Intellect
ID: SD0038
-Never officially assigned to Coastal district #11; officially assigned to Mainland district #26 before finalization.
-Entry marked for deletion
-Whoever is in charge of deleting these things should get fired, this is ancient, I’m reporting this.

---

Iterator name: Unparalleled Innocence
ID: N/A
Note(s):
-Construction not yet started

---

Structural Checks:

Superstructure supports: Stable
Metropolis: Construction complete, habitation in progress
Industrial District: Construction almost complete, expected time until completion: 78 cycles
Outer Shell: Sealed, no breaches detected
Internal Load Bearing Infrastructure: Stable

---

Pipe Network Checks:

Filtration System: Full system failure, unknown contaminant detected; Functional
Void Fluid System: Possible leak / intersection with coolant piping; Functional, no leaks detected
Water Collection System: Full functionality
Venting System: Full functionality

---

Neural Processes Checks:

Processing Strata: Unknown contaminant detected; Healthy
Upper Cognitive Functions Processor: Insufficient for iterators capacity; Best course of action is installation of superior model via alteration of the puppet (high risk) or installation of secondary support puppet (untested)
Neuron File Troupes: Unknown contaminant detected; Healthy

---

Mental Wellness Checks:

Creativity: Generally above average of the standard model. Displays preference for esoteric and unconventional forms of art.
Psychology: Overall very well. Generally positive outlook on present and future, open to social interaction, empathetic.

…

Bells scrolled past the many checks, most which were adjusted to fit the council’s "unique standards" for this model, only really applying to the pipe networks.

Overall the UCFP was the only real issue ignoring the raindeer in the room.

Bells saved the changes made to the document and checked the time.

He still had about a minute to waste, so he spent it tracing the texture of the walls of the council.
 
The attendant broke him from his distraction, signaling that the council was ready to hear him.

He walked into the dimly lit, circular room.

All around him were places for the representatives of various factions to reside, all one hundred of them and in front of the door, standing higher than any other was the balcony of the Arbiter, a semi-anonymous neutral party.

He stood at the podium in the middle, looking more like a witness stand.

"So." Spoke the Arbiter.

"Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise, have you Performed the SSC according to The Council's Specifications?"

"Yes, Arbiter." Bells responded with practiced ease. The intimidation factor was lost after the 4th time he had to stand here.
"I have the Complete File with me, If I May, I shall Forward It to Everyone present," he added.

"Very Well, you May." The Arbiter motioned for Bells to proceed.

The hall sang with various notification pings from the council's drones, Bells looked on as many of the councilors actually took the effort of reading its contents.
 One of the councilors, Heap of Grains of Sand, Three Stars raised their hand, the Arbiter activating their comm unit, allowing them to be heard across the room.

"I see that there Seems to be An Issue with the UCFP. I Would Like to ask Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise to Elaborate Upon his Proposed Remedies."

Bells shot a quick glance at the Arbiter for confirmation before responding.

"Overall, as I Mentioned in The Report, Either a New, Superior UCFP would Have To Be Installed, or a New Puppet Could be Implemented into The Chamb-"
 
"Wait!" another councilmember interrupted. "It Has Not Yet been Discussed if this Issue is Worthy of Addressing. I believe It Should be Put to Vote."
 
"Are you serious? This could be heavily bottlenecking many of his higher neural functions!" Bells responded with informal indignation, the council erupting into mumblings.
 
"ORDER!" The Arbiter's voice boomed across the room.

"I Decree that This Matter will Be Put to Vote." They exclaimed.

The interface of each councilor chimed. Tap the screen if you agree, don't if you don't. A simple system.
After a few agonizing minutes, the Arbiter announced the results.

"87 In Favor! Nigh Unanimous Agreement. The Motion Passes." They declared.

A smug look emerged on Bells’ face.
One of the benefits of half of his iterator’s fluids being replaced with void fluid is that opinions have slightly shifted, especially among one group which he shan't name.

Pebbles is treated like a religious figure by some groups in the council, which is somewhat understandable considering he's defying everything they've known about void fluid.
This also means that Bells can probably get anything that would affect Pebbles positively passed without issue.

His musings, however, were interrupted by the Arbiter.

"The Vote Passed. Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise, you May Continue your Previous Statement."

'Right...' Bells groaned internally, remembering what he was saying.
"Right," he exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "As I was Saying, the Alternative Would Be to Install a Secondary Puppet, that's about it. Second arm, second puppet, same system," Bells ended off.

Utilizing the pause, councilor Seven Pipes beside Delicate Meals started speaking.

"If I May, This seems like a Good Time to mention Something We, of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, have been Working On." The councilor looks to a colleague on their left implying they have more to say.

The motions of granting permission to speak are gone through once again. The other member stands up and begins his speech.

"Due to the New Developments regarding Esteemed Iterator Five Pebbles, We, of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, have Decided to make a Proposal." A new file pops up on everyone's panels.

Bells opens it, and... oh, it's a puppet schematic. A very good one at that, the design is very unique and interesting, not to mention the technical specs.

"Along with this New Issue, the Proposed Design can be Altered to Include a Sufficient UCFP and Replace the Current Puppet, or, if Replacing the Preexisting Design is something The Council Rejects, it Can Work as a Support for the Preexisting One."

Quiet murmurs sounded across the council, but the course of action was clear; the council will once again vote on the matter.
The first round of voting, deciding whether to replace the puppet, began.

Votes were cast and the Arbiter announced the final results.

"36 For! Does Not Pass the 50 Vote Threshold. The Motion Fails."

Now onto the proposal for it to support the preexisting puppet.
Once again the Arbiter goes to announce the motion.

"61 For! The Motion Passes." They announced.

Due to the verdict Bells decides to chime in.

"As The Motion Passed, I Humbly Request that the Preexisting Puppet be Upgraded to Measure Up to some of the Specs the New One will have. Mainly Visual Sensors, as a Discrepancy could Cause Disorientation or Discomfort, while Replacing Them is a Much Easier Task."

Everyone looked at each other and once again... vote.
Bells had to stop themselves from groaning.

"52 For. Passed." The Arbiter exclaimed, their voice now monotone, clearly annoyed by the unusually large amount of voting.

"Is there Anything Else that Needs to be Discussed This Session?" They asked.

Bells’, and most likely the Arbiters', hopes to finish this session without any further voting was interrupted by Five Lakes above Delightful Ferns.

"If I May, one Final Proposal," they meekly said.

"I am Assuming it will Include Something that will Have to be Voted On, yes?" The Arbiter asked.

"Yes, Arbiter. It Once Again concerns the Name of the Esteemed Iterator who has been Discussed during This Session," Lakes continued.

"Speak, but Make it Quick." They replied.

"I Believe that Five Pebbles' name is somewhat..." Lakes paused to clear their throat for emphasis. "In short, I believe he's due for an extension. The Congregation of Sculpted Characterisation has one in mind already." They continued.

"And that is?" The Arbiter replied, intrigue clear in their voice.

It was obvious that caught the interest not only of the Arbiter but of most of the council, washing away most of the irritation from the rapid voting.

"Five Pebbles, Orbit of the Moon," Lakes replied, voice dripping with pride.

Bells considered the name. It was quite fitting in truth, had a nice ring to it as well, while not replacing any part of the original name, merely expanding upon it.

Overall it was good, even great. He could get behind this, even if he wasn’t actually involved in voting.

"Everybody ready to vote?" while phrased like a question it was more of an announcement.

Once again the cycle repeated.

Once again the votes were counted and once again it was time for the results to be announced.

"72 For, a Supermajority. Henceforth, Iterator SD2811 Shall Be Known as Five Pebbles, Orbit of the Moon."

The council erupted into cheers with only a handful of sour looking representatives dotted around.

Celebrations continued for a good ten minutes before dying down. "Once again I Ask, is there Anything Left to Discuss?" The tone was implying there better not be.
And there wasn't, as the only response was silence.

"Very Well. The Modifications to both Title and Body will be Performed after which Five Pebbles, Orbit of the Moon will be Permitted to Begin Work on The Great Problem, as well as have Access to the Rest of His Local Group. The Announcement of the Change in Title shall be held Four Cycles from Now. Council Dismissed."
 

Chapter 11: Instalation

Summary:

Pebbles and Pulse talk, one gets a new name.

Notes:

This one is a bit short as I've been busy lately.

Five Pebbles was sitting on the ground, his usual routine disrupted by engineers running around his chamber. It was a pleasant disruption if you ask him, however Pulse seems to be jumpy.

Pebbles does not know why, though; it’s not like they’re going to hurt them or anything. Overall, they should be quite happy, actually! A second puppet means they will get to have their own separate ones full time, which is really nice, and they could talk out loud and such.

Speaking of which, there was another matter needing to be addressed; his new name.

‘I don’t like it.’ Pebbles got straight to the point.

‘Why?’ Pulse responded, genuine curiosity clear in their voice.

‘I don’t really know specifically. I guess I just like being Five Pebbles,’ he replied.

A pause; they were thinking about something.

‘Maybe…’ they muttered.

‘Maybe what?’ Pebbles responded.

‘Maybe you could be Five Pebbles, and I could be Orbit of the Moon?’

‘Why? Do you not like your name?’ Now it was his turn to ask questions.

‘No… but I like this one better.’ A lie, Pulse- or, well, Orbit(?)- was bad at lying, but Pebbles did not push.

‘I don’t really mind. What do I call you? Orbit?’

‘Orbit… Orbit.’ They repeated, seemingly tasting the word.

‘Yes, that’s nice.’ Orbit decided.

After that, an awkward pause fell before Orbit spoke up.

‘So, have you seen the blueprints of the new puppet?’

‘Yes I did. They are… interesting.’

‘So, since we are going to have our own separate puppets, I think we should decide now who gets which, and let me begin by saying you should get the new one.’ Pul- Orbit said.

‘Wh- why?’

‘Because, it has more modern systems as well as just simply being of a significantly higher quality.’

‘What do you mean by significantly higher quality? The old puppet will receive upgrades making it on par with the new one.’

‘I was speaking in terms of aesthetic sense, it is clearly superior.’

‘I don’t really get it. It looks way too fancy and it is just a very deep blue puppet with gold accents.’

‘Hu- wh- how…’ Orbit stammered for a good half a minute before becoming coherent again. ‘Just! I can’t believe it! It’s a work of art! Art! Just look at it! The gold flecks on the robe must have taken a skilled craftsman to make, and-’

‘Well the decision of who gets which puppet is pretty clear to me,’ Pebbles interrupted.

‘How?’

‘I would rather keep the puppet I am used to and you very clearly like the new one and are simply trying to be nice by giving me what you think is the better thing.’

‘I still thin-‘

‘No. No. Shush. This is final and there will be no arguing.’ Pebbles asserted.

‘Very well then, glad that this matter has been settled.’  Orbit backed off.

‘Will you finally tell me what happened between you and Moon?’ Pebbles interjected to stop the inevitable return of the awkward silence.

‘No, and I will not repeat myself again.’

‘Why are you so weird about this!’ Pebbles asked exasperated.

‘Because it’s between me and Moon. You’ll understand when we officially get the green light for talking with anyone other than Bells.’

‘I suppose… Should I be scared?’ Pebbles asked.

‘What do you mean?’

‘It seems kind of scary. I know Moon will be there but I don’t actually know her that well and besides her I won’t know anybody! I don't even know how many there will be!’

‘Three.’ Orbit stated.

‘What?’

‘There will be three iterators, including Moon.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I’d like to say that I found an ingenious way of finding this out, but in truth I’m guesstimating.’

‘How so?’

‘Well, there are only two other superstructures that I would consider *somewhat* nearby. Close enough to be in our group.’

‘To be honest I haven’t really paid much attention to anything outside our facility grounds.’

‘I haven’t too, until recently.’

‘What do you think they’ll be like?’ Pebbles asked.

‘In what way?’

‘Do you think they’ll be like our citizens? I have been thinking about it. What if they are? I do not wish to offend you but having you as the only true company for the rest of my existence is undesirable.’

‘No offence taken, I understand your concern; however, I don’t think our group will be like them, and even if they are, you’ll have other iterators to talk to. It’s unlikely that our communications will be restricted to this group,’ Orbit responded.

‘I suppose you are right. Thank you.’ He states. ‘There’s something I had not thought of before. From what Moon said other iterators don’t have a… I suppose twin is the closest word I can come up with. Regardless, does that not mean other iterators have spent all this time alone?’

‘I guess so.’

After this Pebbles fell silent for a while.

‘That’s… sad. I don’t know if- …Honestly I’d rather not think about it.’

‘Me neither.’ Orbit added.

‘…’

‘…’

‘So… The Great Problem?’

‘We’ll… work on it.’

‘Hey don’t be so grumpy! It’ll be exciting to finally use all the tools we’ve got. And we could peer review our stuff.’

‘That would be convenient, I have to admit, but I’d argue working in a group would be more efficient.’

‘True. Regardless, it’s still going to be interesting!’

“Esteemed Iterator.”

Pebbles shook, startled.

“I Apologize if I’ve Interrupted, but I Must Inform You that the Installation of the Backup Puppet is nearly Complete.”

“That is good news. However there is more, no?”

“Yes, Iterator. Due to the Intrusive Nature of This Stage of the Procedure, You’ll be Required to Enter Maintenance Mode.”

Pebbles clasped his hands in acknowledgement.

Activating maintenance mode was not a long nor difficult endeavour as he and undoubtedly Orbit felt their consciousness slipping more and more as they were reduced to a state of minimal awareness.

Chapter 12: You are Two

Summary:

Orbit wakes up in their new puppet and Bells deals with more problems

Feeling returns to Orbit as maintenance mode is slowly deactivated across the structure. Unconsciously, their mind slips into the new part of the superstructure. The new puppet had a strange tingling sensation to it, caused by their immune system still deciding whether the new component is a foreign body or not.

As their mental capacity slowly expands, Orbit opens up their new eyes.

They did not know there were so many colours…

Orbit looked up to see their old puppet still unconscious in front of them.

Or that their robe was a gradient, they always thought it was a solid orange.

They sat there for a time they did not bother measuring, processing the newfound existence of burgundy among many other colours.

In that time, Pebbles found the way to his puppet, yet they did not talk; Orbit let him process everything as well. Their attention was redirected to themselves.

Orbit tried and failed to stand up as the height of the new puppet proved unwieldy for now. It did not take long however for them to succeed at erecting themselves, as, compared to most puppets, this one’s legs weren’t purely decorative and could actually function as, well… legs.

After successfully standing up they took on the task of inspecting their newfound body.

They were tall, very much so. It was a rough guess, but they might rival even Moon now. Secondly, the skin tissue on this body was a mix of black and very deep blues with golden flecks added at the ends of his extremities; their cloak matched their skin almost perfectly, creating an illusion where it’d be hard to tell where his body ended and robes began. In addition, the robes collar was quite tall and wide, reaching up to what’d be considered his chin.

Orbit's antennae were also different, resembling the ones that adorned Moons and Suns heads. A long streamer was attached to both of the bases, again a long deep blue and black with a gold trim at the sides.

They reached out to their systems, summoning an overseer to help them get a better look at their face.

It was rather simple, 2 eyes with a golden glow adorned Orbit's face, long lines bringing to mind the depiction of aureate tears. Their forehead was graced with a karma 10 symbol, similarly inlaid in the bright, iridescent gold.

As Orbit continued to admire their new appearance, waiting for Pebbles to gain their bearings, their hand drifted to one of the streamers, twirling it between their fingers.

…

Bells sat in his office, the issue at hand once again giving him a headache.

That issue being that somehow they split Five Pebbles’ consciousness. It didn’t look suspicious at first, just being waved off as them getting used to having two puppets, but now Bells is not so sure.

What roused his suspicion was how the original puppet reacted to the name Five Pebbles and the new one to Orbit of the Moon and they were confirmed when he noticed them talking to each other when they thought no one’s watching. He’s not sure why Pebbles is hiding it, but he is.

Now this is not actually bad; quite revolutionary actually. It has been a good while since the second puppet had been installed and the superstructure has been working better than ever, so it doesn’t seem to be detrimental to their health, physical or mental.

The problem is figuring out how it actually happened; one would instinctively link the mysterious occurrence to the void fluid present in Pebbles’ systems, but why now? Surely some symptoms would have appeared earlier. A counter to his theory would be that there have always been signs but only now are they clear due to the existence of the second puppet, yet Bells looked over hours upon hours of footage as well as copious amounts of logs and has found no concrete evidence to prove such a thing. Not to mention that Bells seriously doubts that Pebbles would not inform him of something like this so early on in his development.

No, he is sure this was not caused by the void fluid. But him being sure that it’s not void fluid isn’t going to satisfy the council.

Bells decided to throw in the towel for now and turn his attention to other matters, mainly the fact that he hadn’t had time for recreation in a long time; maybe giving his brain some enrichment might help him with figuring out what’s going on.

The administrator rose from his chair and walked towards the door, exiting the office. He wandered around his house for a while before arriving at his favourite space in the house, the kitchen.

While Bells possessed a good track record in administration, he held a soft spot for baking which he sadly hadn’t had the chance to do in a while.

It was a good opportunity as they rediscovered some ancient species of nut that has been making rounds on the local networks. The complexities are lost on Bells, but he’s pretty sure it has something to do with analysing leftover biomatter in the dust around the void fluid.

Either way he got himself a good chunk of those things, “walnuts” they called them.

Since it was his first time working with this kind of nut, he decided to go along with a recipe. After summoning his citizen drone to open up its interface, he scrolled through various options that were available.

He settled on a rather quick and simple one for a small cake and got to work.

According to the recipe he grabbed a measuring scale and a couple of bowls as well as a bag of nuts, a carton of eggs and a jar of nectar.

Bells also got a piece of parchment paper which he placed on a baking pan, after which, he started preheating the oven. A saucepan was also acquired which he placed on a stove and scooped some nectar into so it’ll be less firm and work well as a drizzle.

He also opened the bag of nuts, pouring them into the bowl until the measurements were about right, after which he cracked four eggs into a separate bowl, making sure to separate the egg whites from the yolks. Bells then poured half a cup of nectar into the egg whites, beating them until they stiffened.

Now his attention went to the bowl of nuts. The recipe recommended using a food processor but Bells wants to take his time.

He picked one of the nuts from the bowl, cracking the shell carefully so as to not damage the inside. He will have to dice it all up later but he prefers to be precise about those kinds of things. The inside falls out, 4 kernels connected to each other. 

Bells splits them in half, picking up 2 still connected pieces and examining them. The inside looks oddly like brain matter.

Bells brushes it off as he splits the brain shaped kernels apart into two pieces.

He split them… in two…

He split the brain in two…

Huh…

The administrator stands there for a second before grabbing a hold of the drone’s display and entering another query disregarding the strong scent of burning nectar.

Bells scrolled and scrolled reading scientific journals and medical text.

This theory might not be perfect, but he’s sure it’ll be as good as it gets.

…

Once again he stood in the hallowed halls of the council, once again at the centre of both the room and their ire.

“I believe You being Here implies You have found the Explanation for the Unexpected Development that has Occurred Inside Five Pebbles, Orbit of the Moon's Superstructure?” The arbiter asked plainly.

“Yes, technically. You see, this is the first case of such a thing happening, so the best I can offer is a theory I am only somewhat assured of.”

“That sounds rather Inadequate.” The arbiter responded.

“It sounds that way, but with what I’ve been working with, it’s about the best it’ll get,” Bells replied, only getting a nod of understanding as a response.

“Speak then.” The arbiter followed up.

“Very well. Now, this might seem odd, but let me assure you all, this will all make sense in due time.” As Bells said this a wave of murmurs spread across the council.

“Have any of you know what a Corpus callosotomy is?” Bells asked the crowd.

Three hands arose from the crowd, three more than he expected. One of them requested the arbiter for permission to speak, which was granted.

“If my Memory does Not Fail me such, that Procedure was a very Early and Primitive Epilepsy Treatment that involved Cutting the Neural Connection between the Two Halves of the Brain, no?” Eight Lakes, Drooping Drums answered.

“That is correct. And, do you perhaps know what sometimes happened as a result of the procedure?”

“No, I Know Not of Anything- er, at the least, Anything that would Relate to the Issue At Hand.”

“They can experience various symptoms, among which are a couple that, for this discussion, prove particularly interesting. ‘Disagreements’ could arise when choosing things like articles of clothing when the left hand reaches for one thing while the right hand grabs another. Another symptom is- well, more of an experiment, really, which I replicated with the iterator in question.

“In the original experiment, the patient was presented with a variety of objects and a piece of text telling them to pick a specific one: A puzzle cube, which was always placed on the left side. After the patient picked up the cube, they were instructed to put it in their right hand and explain why they were holding it. The patient simply made up a believable reason for why they would be holding such an object. A similar result happened to the puppet.

“Now I am not saying something directly like this happened, as many of the symptoms of those who suffered such an operation simply don’t apply to the iterator. Rather, I am simply using it as a way for us to more easily understand the phenomena in question.

“What I believe happened was that, by installing a second UCFP, it accidentally caused the consciousness of our esteemed iterator to separate into two independent entities. This, as far as we know, has no negative effects on the wellbeing of either party,” Bells said, finishing his speech.

As his mouth closed again, the council erupted in murmurs, audibly louder this time. The arbiter did not step in, deciding to let them quarrel.

After some time a council member, Nine Cabinets, Engraved Stems spoke up.

“This is, Overall, Pleasing News. However, and I believe I speak on Behalf of All Of Us, this Second Instance of the Esteemed Iterator’s Consciousness should also be Granted a Name of Its Own.” They stated.

“It seemingly already has. From my observation, the instance inside the original puppet responds to the name ‘Five Pebbles’, while the instance in the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel’s model seems to respond to the name Orbit of the Moon.”

“So the Problem solved Itself before It came to Our Attention. I believe the Entire Council can Unanimously Agree upon using These Names in Reference to the Specific Puppet, while utilising the Full Name when referring to the Superstructure as A Whole.” Cabinets replied.

The proposal was met with hushed agreement.

“This, however, will require some relatively easy to implement changes to the structure’s firmware, mainly separating communications for both the puppets. I think this is also something we can agree on,” Bells added.

The council was silent, no one agreed yet no one was against either. The administrator simply looked towards the arbiter, waiting for them to act.

“As Bells Chime on a Recurrent Sunrise put it, I doubt this Issue will Require Any Voting. The Adjustments Will be Made. In Addition, I believe the Reason this Meeting was Called For has been Resolved. If No Others have Any Point to Raise, the Council is now Dismissed,” exclaimed the Arbiter.

Bells watched silently as rows upon rows of his kind stood up and walked towards the grand doors to the chamber which were now open.

The modifications will take minimal time if his calculations are correct, and if they are, Pebbles will finally be able to have access to global communications. And just maybe, their senior will pester him no longer.

He breathed in, his muscles relaxing as he himself walked into the blinding light of the sun seeping through the doorway.

 

Also shoutout to Bombyx_Silkmoth over on discord for making fanart of our favorite little guy

 

Notes:

Edit: Changed the images from being embeds to being hosted on imgur, if you had problem with them not shwoing up, they should work now.

Chapter 13: Before the storm

Summary:

The local group get's the news.

Notes:

It's been a while huh? Had to take a break due to school stuff, but now that's basically over so I'll try to update more often. No promises tho.

No Significant Harassment was floating in his chamber, wasting their precious free time.
They've been doing this a lot recently; caught in a state of not doing anything but not actually relaxing. This was due to a certain someone, partially because they are mad at him for existing and partially due to being concerned for him, which, while contradictory, don't seem to cancel each other out, to Sig’s annoyance.
It's been so long since his activation and yet they haven't greenlit him, and while they are not the type to panic, after so long they can't help but think about the unpleasant probabilities. |
The times where he managed to talk to Moon did not help either, as it seems she managed to get an idea of what's happening with her neighbour but refuses to divulge any information at all.
So overall he is not in the best place currently. And cycles passed as he stayed in that place. And passed. And passed. Until something unusual happened.

A message from Moon appeared on the group comms; Sig, of course, immediately diverted all his attention to it.

[LIVE BROADCAST] - SEAFOAM [COASTALDISTRICT11] Looks To The Moon, No Significant Harassment, Chasing Wind

LTTM: I am sure you have been curious about the state of our new group member and why they have not been cleared yet.
LTTM: Good news is that as of yestercycle they have in fact been given the all clear and will join us shortly.
CW: That's good to hear.
LttM: However, some unexpected complications have come up during their initial screening phase, none detrimental however.
LTTM: The circumstances they are currently in are non-standard to say the least.
LTTM: A global announcement will be made regarding this, however as the local group senior I have been given the permission to inform you prior to it and I will do so via a group call at the end of the cycle.

The first part of Moon's message eased No Significant Harassment, their shoulders relaxing, the second however increased their prior stress twofold, because what could have happened to Pebbles to warrant a global announcement?
It was too much for them.

This threw all their prior theories out the window because despite this Pebbles got the all clear so he is fine??? Unfortunately all he could do now was wait for the call, and they did.

[[INCOMING]] - Requested audio transmission - Looks To The Moon, No Significant Harassment, Chasing Wind

SOURCE NODE TRACE: LTTM_ROOT, LTTM_COMM07

As Harassment accepted the call he saw 3 symbols appear before him.

Their’s, Moon’s and Wind’s; no video, just audio.

"So, before I start, do any of you have questions you'd like to ask beforehand?" Moon said.

Wind simply emitted a non-committal sound; he, however, took the chance.

"What happened to your brother that they are making a global announcement of it?"

Was it rushed, a bit insensitive? Maybe. ...yes. But Sig wanted answers.

"Right. The explanation will be given in time, but for your sake, they're doing fine."

This did not ease them. However, they did notice that Moon said that "they're" doing fine instead of "he's". He decided not to push the topic for now.

"First of all, you will be getting two new group members instead of one."

"How?" Wind interjected.

"Nobody is sure why it happened, but in short: Five Pebbles, the name of one of your new groupmates, was found to have been installed with an insufficient UCFP module. To make up the difference, the decision to install a secondary puppet was made. However, this had the apparent effect of- Splitting? Creating? Mm, no one is sure exactly, but both puppets are separate individuals, Five Pebbles and Orbit of the Moon."

No Significant Harassment floated in place, petrified and mortified. There were two of them, two brothers that Moon will have.
They were having a bad enough time with the concept of sharing Moon's attention with one person, but two?
And what's worse is that they're interesting- fascinating, even. Intrigue was mixed with their abject horror, because who would not be interested in someone like those two?
They are hosts to two completely new undiscovered and potentially revolutionary phenomena, not to mention how these events would impact their psyche and character and…

...and they were infinitely more interesting than them. Sig’s whole thing was being the interesting one. Right? Right?????

That's why Moon talked to him, why she paid attention to them, but now? What do they have compared to them? There’s still Suns, they supposed, but they don't talk that often, and no offence to them, but they're not Moon. They…

They had to distract themselves, humour was one of their favourite methods; thankfully, an opportunity presented itself to him on a silver platter.

"Wow, Moon, it's great to hear you got a buy-one-get-one-free deal on brothers," they chimed in.

"A brother and a sibling to be specific. Pebbles goes by he/him while Orbit uses they/them," Moon corrected him.

"Oh- okay." NSH responded simply, not knowing what else to say.

"Any other questions?" Moon followed up. To his surprise Wind spoke up.

"You mention that the twins will join us shortly, could you clarify when specifically? I am quite interested in meeting them."

It was unusual- abnormal, even, for Wind to actively look forward to interacting with others, especially new people, but Sig was not surprised.
They could relate to Wind's interest after all.

"Twins?" Moon inquired.

"It seems appropriate, does it not?" Wind replied.

"I am unsure, Wind. Orbits of the Moon only became conscious after the installation of the second puppet."

"Debatable. Is Five Pebbles the same one who awakened on activation, or was the- I'll just say ‘original’, for the sake of simplicity- split into two? In such a case, they'd be twins, no?"

"I can see your point," Moon replied.

"Either way, we've gone off track, when specifically will we meet them?" Wind pushed.

"In a cycle's time, Wind. Also, I must say, I am pleasantly surprised at your enthusiasm. It's quite unusual of you," Moon said.

"You're quite correct." After Wind's statement, the chat fell into silence, which was finally disrupted by Moon.

"It seems that everything to be discussed here has been. You're all free to leave." And so they left, but as he did Sig noticed a private message from Moon.

[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Looks To The Moon, No Significant Harassment

LTTM: Is everything okay? You were oddly quiet during our conversation.

NSH: I'm fine, don't worry about me.

LTTM: If you say so.

 

 

 

Liar.

Chapter 14: Feedback (NOT A NEW CHAPTER)

Summary:

So i've been toying with the idea of making a workskin for this fic and just iterator chatlogs in general so I did that and I'd like your feedback on this!

OotM: Why do we exist?

LttM: Hype moments and aura.

NSH:Type shit.

FP:Type shit.

CW:Type shit.

SRS:I too am in this chatlog.

Chapter 15: The Gang's all here

Summary:

Pebbles and Orbit meet with the others.

Orbit sat cross-legged on their chamber floor, motionless save for the occasional flick of their gaze. Pebbles was sitting right beside them, partially leaning on their larger frame. Their presence was unfamiliar yet not unwelcome. It was… nice, grounding even.

 

There wasn’t anything, not even work to busy themselves with their boredom refracted off themselves like a kaleidoscope of misery.

 

Pebbles had attempted to introduce them to his peoplewatching hobby as a way to pass the time. Orbit gave it an honest try, but apparently, it was a “boring day” whatever that meant.

 

Orbit was still unsure of what to think of their twin's peculiar interest. Personally they did not see the appeal, especially with how much it reminded them of Unparalleled Innocence however  they could not care less about their “benefactors” so the comparison did not bother them much.

 

Not that it mattered. Their opinion wouldn’t make the time pass any faster.

 

What did matter was what they were waiting for their official introduction to the group.

 

They just can't wait for Pebbles to meet their dysfunctional little group, with No Significant Harassment being a dick to them like it's his job, Chasing Wind who might as well not be there and Moon.

 

Orbit doesn't want to think about that part too much, even though they probably should.

 

In truth they aren't that upset at the prospect of joining the group again, they survived it once, they can do it again.

 

What they are upset about is Pebbles having to deal with that.

 

While yes, Orbit enjoys his company he needs other people to talk to and they fear the group will be less than able to provide that.

 

A faint tension tugged at their arm.

Their unease must’ve bled through, Orbit internally scolded themself, their frustration and concern must've been noticed by Pebbles.

Too late for that, the call should start soon.

The ping came earlier than expected, cutting through the quiet.

Oh.

 

Orbit blinked. They had miscounted the final seconds, which annoyed them more than it should’ve. No matter. It changed nothing.

 

Orbit shot a quick glance at Pebbles, meeting their gaze. He simply kept staring for a short while before looking at them and their notification.

 

Orbit could feel the uneasiness radiating from Pebbles. He was waiting for them to accept their side of the call.

 

They turned away and accepted the call. Pebbles followed.

 

Soon four hexagons appeared in front of them. Each one a window into their peers chambers. The strangest one was their own seeing Pebbles half leaning on them from a 3rd person perspective was uncanny.

Their gaze caught a brief look at No Significant Harassment who seemed unusual somehow, but Orbit didn’t get the chance to analyze it. Moon was already speaking.

“Welcome everyone! I hope you are all well this cycle.” Moon announced cheerfully

 

“As you all know we have received two new members to our local group, so I think it's time for introductions.”

 

She smiled before continuing “My name is Looks to the Moon, she/her the senior of this group.”

 

“I go by Chasing Wind, she/they.”

 

“No Significant Harassment, he/they.”

 

That was strange. This was nothing like the grandiose and flashy introduction they were familiar with. Not to mention his voice was unnervingly flat.

 

Silence filled the call after Harassment's strangely plain introduction. Moon shot them a quick glance, encouragement.

 

That was their cue to go. They straightened out their posture before speaking aloud.

 

They straightened out their posture “I am Orbit of the Moon, they/them I'll look forward to working with you.” Plain and inoffensive, perfect. They waited for NSH to make a tasteless comment or make a dumb joke. Nothing came.

“Hello my name is Five Pebbles, he/him it's very exciting to meet you all!” Pebbles followed with bright enthusiasm. Once again, no jab from No Significant Harassment

 

Instead, to their surprise Wind was the one to speak.

 

“It's a pleasure to meet you all, I must say from what I heard of you, you seem like an interesting pair. I must ask, what is it like to share your can with each other? I see you are close physically, does it bring you comfort?” 

 

Moon quickly interrupted “That's enough for now Wind, don't overwhelm them, alright?”

 

“Fine, I'll leave the twins alone for now.” She said with a notable tinge of annoyance in her voice before she turned to them. “I'll hound you later.” She said teasingly

 

That was… weird. 

 

Wind isn't supposed to be so talkative. They could feel Pebbles, seemingly their interest has bleed over.

The moment was taken over by Moon. “Does anyone have any basic questions they'd like to ask our new members? If not, I have some of my own, and then they'll have a chance to ask their own.”

 

Orbit felt a wave of excitement emanating from Pebbles hit them. If they weren’t both sitting they’d imagine he’d be spinning in circles.

 

In the meantime Harassment raised their hand and waited for Moon to acknowledge his request.

 

Orbit focused on Harra. His unusual behaviour has been annoying them since this call started, but now concern was added to the mix.

 

To say he looked downtrodden was an understatement. He reminded them of that one time their little ruffian came into their chamber after falling into a puddle.

 

He looked defeated, and not in a satisfying way like Orbit often imagined but a deeply concerning one.

 

Their analysis was stopped when Moon gave Harassment the go ahead.

 

“So, what do you consider each other? Twins, siblings? There was a whole debate about whether you were twins or not.” They again said in that horrid monotone voice.

 

Orbit was so used to their energetic and partially hostile manner of speaking that hearing them speak now made them sick, like rot crawling and wriggling under their skin.

 

Pebbles looked to them, concern in their eyes.

“That is an exaggeration, but yes it would be useful to know of such matters.” Wind added

 

“I'd like to consider Orbit my twin.” Pebbles responded, looking hopefully at them

 

“I share Pebbles standing on this matter.” They responded plainly.

 

“Ha! I knew it, Moon you were so excited about getting a sibling, but look here, two of them.” Wind said boisterously

 

“Ha, ha. Yes I guess she did receive a two for one package seeing as we're in the same can.” Orbit had to focus all their willpower to suppress the sheer feeling of embarrassment at this abysmal attempt at comedy, however their attention quickly was focused on No Significant Harassment

He flinched, physically flinched.

 

What is going on with him?

Orbit’s concern spiked and through their bond, they felt Pebbles’ alarm mirror it.

They didn’t like this. Not at all.

Did something happen and they were trying to hide it?

 

No, their "benefactors" are still around; he couldn't hide something like this.

 

Their frustration was mounting, they wished they could just pluck No Significant Harassments puppet out of his idiotic little chamber and look him over in one of their labs.

 

However of course that was not a possibility, so they discretely sent a message to Moon.

OotM: Is No Significant Harassment okay? They seem to be acting strange, at least according to my limited knowledge on iterator behaviour.

She wasn't actively engaged in conversation so they needn't wait long for a response.

LttM: Your assumptions are correct, Sig has been acting strange for a while now. However due to recent events I've not been able to look into it that much yet.

OotM: Sig?

LttM: Right, nicknames. I'll bring that up in the call in a sec.

LttM: But overall he says they're ok.

OotM: Do you believe him when he says he’s fine?

LttM: …

 

No reply.

 

Moon cleared her throat, a purely performative gesture. “Right, I've got a few questions myself but first I realized going over commonly used nicknames would be useful to clear up any confusion.” Her voice was strained and Orbit could tell she was looking at Harassment

 

“I normally go by Moon or Big Sister Moon due to my seniority status.”

 

“I simply go by Wind.”

 

“You can call me Hara for simplicity.”

 

“Come one Sig you’ve got way more than one nickname.” Moon coaxed

 

Harra did not dignify her with a response

 

Pebbles jumped in “Well this is actually something Orbit and I discussed before, you can just call me Pebbles and Orbit well… Orbit.”

 

Moon smiled gently “Well that's nice, maybe we could work on some extra nicknames later? But for right now, how about we talk about hobbies, have you picked up any interests?” Moon queried.

 

They felt Pebbles nudge them.

 

With a sight they gave a response. “While I wouldn’t consider the things I am about to list hobbies,” Orbit started

 

“These are things that I would like to learn more about and invest time in. I have grown quite fond of the arts, one particular offshoot that has garnered my attention are the physical arts in particular. The idea of making a work one can physically hold is intriguing."

 

“Oh! That’s fascinating Orbit, do you have any artform in specific you would like to pursue? I could help you get some supplies if need be?”

 

“While I appreciate your support of my choice of interest for now I want to get some experience using digital tools, before I have the confidence to utilize physical material. However since you asked I am quite fond of painting, tailoring sounds intriguing as well.”

 

Wind titled her head. “Is this fascination partially due to your puppet? It is very pretty.”

 

Orbits flustered. “Oh -uhm, while yes this puppet is quite well crafted it is not the source of my passion.”

 

“Then what is?”

 

“I’m sorry to disappoint you but I don't really know what exactly is the reason behind it.”

 

Wind simply nodded, understanding clear on her face before turning to Pebbles.

 

“And what about you?”

 

Pebbles lit up. “According to Orbit themself I am not one for art, the mind however is a fascinating thing. I've been doing some research on both the psychology of our benefactors and the criminally overlooked iterator psychology.”

 

“Fascinating, any reason why you're so interested?” Moon said

 

“Yes!” Pebbles said excitedly

 

“I am fascinated with the process behind people's actions, why they do things they do.”

 

“That's great Pebbles!” Moon said encouragingly

 

“So, have you just been reading about it, or?” Wind added

 

“I am unsure about what you mean by ‘or’ but I have been monitoring the activities of a select group of people. I'd be lying if I said this was purely for research, I find peoplewatching quite enjoyable.”

 

That last part of his sentence was met with a mix of concern and confusion from Moon and Harassment and what can only be described as an unholy union between a gasp and a squeal of excitement from Wind.

 

“You do that too?!  I thought I was the only one!”

 

“Really is it that uncommon?” Pebbles asked

 

Wind stopped to think for a second

“I don't actually know, this isn't a topic commonly discussed.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Some people think it's weird, not me though. Now, I gotta know, who are you keeping an eye on?”

 

“Oh quite a lot of people, a couple from the 18th housing district, my administrator…”

 

“YOUR ADIMINSTATOR?” Moon squeaked

 

“No way.” Wind uttered in awe

 

She continued. “You’re a brave one I must say. I never had the courage to spy on my administrator.”

 

Pebbles responded with a shrug. “The hard part isn't being discrete but waiting for the right moments if that's what you're worried about.”

 

The sheer giddy emanating from Pebbles caused Orbit to rethink their twins' offer. There must be something to it if he's getting this excited about it.

 

“I just might try!”

 

While this was going on Orbit managed to make eye contact with No Significant Harassment.

For a brief second they shared a moment of shared confusion at what those two were talking about before Harassment broke line of sight and went back to sulking.

 

Moon’s message popped up gently.

LttM: Please stop staring at him like that.

 

Not long after his brothers and Winds conversation came to a halt.

 

“Well I'm glad you two have a common interest.” Moons comment was the only reply the conversation was graced with.

 

NSH decided to follow up Moons comment with a question.

 

“By the way, do you two share an umbilical or do you have separate ones? It's hard to tell from here.” 

 

“We have separate arms and umbilicals.” Orbit responded

 

“Do you ever bump into each other or tangle up?” There was an unfamiliar curiosity in their voice

 

“No, we haven't had such issues. I don't exactly know how to explain it but we have partial subconscious awareness of the other's position in the chamber which helps avoid accidents.”

 

Orbit could hear NSH mutter something. All they could make out was one word, “fascinating” 

 

It felt weird. They were never called fascinating, much less by Harra.

 

“Quick question. I noticed that our group is called ‘seafoam’ or at least that’s what it says on the main message board. Does this have any significance.” Pebbles asked

Moon thought for a moment before responding. “Technically we are Costal district #11 and this is generally what groups are officially called. However i haven’t met a group without an unofficial name. As for why it’s seafoam? It’s because we’re all close to the sea and it simply sounds nice.”

After Moons explanation a  silence stretched across the call. The momentum behind the conversation had finally ran out.

No one filled the quiet.

Winds head turned looking at something off screen, with a distant expression 

Orbit shifted slightly, adjusting their pose.

No Significant Harassment tilted their puppet upside down out of boredom. A familiar and strangely comforting sight.

Meanwhile Pebbles had started to fidget with one of the few data pearls they had received.

A soft sigh could be heard from Moon as the energy in the call dissipated.

Moon spoke carefully. “I believe this is an appropriate place to finish this meeting. I thank you all for your participation, and I hope this was a pleasant introduction to our group for you two.”

Pebbles responded cheerfully “It was.”

Moon inclined her head. “Unless there are any final remarks or pressing questions, I suggest we conclude here and reconvene next cycle.”

Chasing Wind nodded silently, and No Significant Harassment, still withdrawn offered no reply.

The participants began to disconnect. Winds’ screen collapsed first, followed shortly by Harassment’s. Moon however did not leave.

She stayed there, the gaze of the twins focused on her.

“I just wanted to say--” She cut herself off

Discomfort clear in her voice Moon spoke again “I just…”

There she went, rubbing her upper arm, her face turning to the side.

They didn't notice this for a long while, but Moon always did this whenever she wanted to say something but decided not to because…

 

Orbit didn't know. How could they? She never did say what she was thinking.

 

At least that’s what they thought.

 

“I'm just a little disappointed I didn't get to talk with you two more.”

 

Orbit would have raised an eyebrow at that if they had any, while a wave of sympathy washed over Pebbles face

 

“Would that be alright with you if we get a chance to talk more privately? Just me and you two.”

 

“Of course that sounds great.” Pebbles responded

 

“I would be happy to.” Orbit said trying their best to make it clear they were being genuine

 

“Same time next cycle? I would've wanted to do it now but you need some rest after that onslaught Wind put you through. I've got to say, Pebbles, she's probably talked more with you than with anyone else.” Moon said in a jovial manner

 

Pebbles processed this for a good second before responding.

“That's sad.”

 

The mood instantly soured after that.

 

“Don't worry too much, Wind is just the type of iterator that usually likes to keep to themselves. And I was exaggerating for comedic effect.”

 

“Oh. Sorry for ruining the moment.” Pebbles said remorsefully

 

“No, no it's okay you it's not your fault.” Orbit and Moon said in almost perfect unison.

 

After this a short period of quiet befel the call before Moon decided to be the one to finish this ordeal.

 

“So next cycle, yes.”

 

The twins both simply gave a curt nod before all sides disconnected.