Erratic Pulse

A tragedy of random gods

A Rainworld video essay

Intro
Rain world is an unforgiving game. Even as a Slug cat the game will not hesitate to tear your life into figurative and literal pieces,
the game will try to kill you at every twist and turn there’s always a new enemy, a new predator, rarely a new friend. In Survivor,
even if you manage to make it home, to outer expanse, your family isn’t there, they’ve left, you’ll never have that life again and
you’ll never have more of them then what you now. It’s an endless cycle. But however much the world makes you suffer it has
mercy, it might be a new creature you can use to your advantage like scavengers, it might be new tools you can use in the
environment like vulture masks but most importantly, however much the world keeps you in its grasp there is a way out, if
you’re lucky.

Background information
A long time ago, before even the earliest campaigns available to the player, there lived a race of humanoid beings. They were
known as the ancients and to their dismay they found themselves within a cycle. The great cycle. A cycle of death a rebirth. In
the words of Looks to the Moon, a character we’ll discuss more in depth later, “Birth and death are connected to each other like a
ring, or some say a spiral. Some say spiral that in turn forms a ring. Some ramble in agonizing longevity. But the basis is agreed upon:
like sleep like death, you wake up – whether you want to or not. This is true for all living beings… our mantras keep repeating.”

The ancients finding themselves in this cycle go on to create what seems to be religions, rituals and maybe even cult-like
organizations. They believed that to ascend you must shed your earthly tethers, 5 of them, each relating to one of the 5 major
karma symbols. A method they used to shed an earthly tether is preserved in a data pearl, in the words of Moon, “It’s a small
plate, a little text of spiritual guidance… it’s old, several ages before the void fluid revolution. Like most writing from this time its
shrouded in analogies. But the subject is how to shed one of the five natural urges which tie a creature to live. Namely number four,
gluttony. Its basically an instruction on how to starve yourself on herbal tea but disguised as a poem.” It’s unclear if any of these
methods actually worked but it’s implied they didn’t.

In this data pearl it also mentions a time frame known as the void fluid revolution, the concept is simple but its effects to the
future of the game are unparalleled. Again, in the words of Moon commenting on a data pearl, “Far below, under the very old
layers of the Earth, the rock is being dissolved or removed, the entity which is does this is known as the void sea. If you drill far
enough into the earth, you begin to encounter a substance called the void fluid. The deeper you go the less rock and the more void
fluid. It’s believed that there Is a point where the rock completely gives way…My creators, or rather my creators ancestors figured out
a way to use the void fluid [to generate energy]…This process is called Mass Rarefaction.” The void fluid revolution was a heavily
influential time for the ancients and paved they way for all future in-game events to happen. Possibly the most important
development at this time is that the void fluid enabled the ancients to accomplish gene modifying or creating purposed
organisms. A purposed organism is a creature created to do a certain job, often being fully biological but also biomechanical.
Moon states that even at the time of her construction very few species of primal fauna remained meaning its likely all life we
encounter is the descendant of a purposed organism.

However, the corrosive nature of the void brought some unexpected but not unwelcome side effects to the void fluid. The void
fluid is so destructive that submerging yourself in it would eat away at you so thoroughly that you would not return. You
would escape the cycle. The one thing the ancients wanted. But like many things that seem perfect there turns out to be a
massive flaw. “There were some horror stories though...That if your ego was big enough, not event the void fluid could
entirely cross you out, and a faint echo of your pompousness would grandiosely haunt the premises forever. So even
when the void baths became cheaper some would still starve and drink the bitter tea.” For some beings, if you were too
tethered to something in your life, you would be left on the earth as an echo. A remnant of your spirit left to watch the world
move on without you left with nothing but your thoughts and the occasional visitor. This might seem like a turn-off but either
because the ancients didn’t know or didn’t care this never became too much of a problem. The ones that did care know or care
about echoes seemed to distrust the idea of the void in general.
However for reasons mostly unclear the ancients encountered a great problem. The problem being the matter of ascending
lesser lifeforms and having all being achieve ascension and therefore global enlightenment. This became such a major problem
that the ancients had to go to drastic measures, to the point where they constructed gods. The gods in question are the
iterators, megastructures of both biological and mechanical parts that form a supercomplex of technology that reach the
clouds, artificial intelligences with minds and thought processes so complex that it goes above our comprehension. As the name
suggest they were made to iterate, try again and again, to find a solution to the great problem. “We were supposed to help
everyone, you know. Everything. That was our purpose: a great gift to the lesser beings of the world. When facing our inability to do
so, we all reacted differently. Many with madness.” A solution being in the form of the triple affirmative “Affirmative that a
solution has been found - affirmative that the solution is portable – affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and
generally applicable.” On top of that the iterators also built for ancients convenience, to give advice, to help with everyday
matters and later on to be the foundation of cities.

“Water is the most important resource for our basic function, most of our processing is outsourced to microbe strata which need a
clean flow of clean water or else slag builds up, our processes seize, and we eventually die. It is… very painful.” Because their
structures are so large and complex iterators use a lot of water “Its said an iterator drinks a river,” This huge amount of water
input also means a huge amount of water output, in the form of steam, steam that would create a violent downpour of rain
every cycle. (A cycle in this case being a measurement of time and not a cycle of life and death (yes its confusing)). “Originally
water supply was important when placing iterators. Later there would be a great equalizer – the fact that we breathe out as much vapor
as we inhale water led to there being water available everywhere, and the latest generations of iterators could be placed almost
completely freely.” There were massive downsides to the rain though to the point where walls and concrete foundations were
placed around iterators to try minimize damage from the rain. “The surface beyond the facility walls is a sea of mud, ruins and
thick plant life. The ground our there is almost like water and few things remain stable.” The surface, Now ravaged by rain, became
inhospitable leading to the ancients moving their cities to above the clouds, on top of the iterator’s structures...

The Era of Enlightenment

Looks to the Moon was one of the first iterators built, constructed at around the peak of the void fluid revolution “I exist as an
old model and the concept of an iterator was still fairly new at the time of my construction. Knowledge of the technology and more
importantly its limits, had not quite reach maturity. As a result, certain oversights were made in the long-term scalability of some of
my functions, and after some time my facility could no longer keep up with the demands necessitated for the life of my city’s
inhabitants.” Due to unknown reason but likely to with structural failure, shortage of resources and possibly poor architecture,
moons city, Luna, became increasingly difficult to live in and so special measure had to be made. As iterators are traditionally
built far apart from each other it would’ve been almost impossible to transport a large city’s population across the wastelands
beyond the wall, therefore, it was decided that a second iterator would be built close to Moon for the inhabitants of Luna to
move to. The iterators would be placed so near each other they it decided they share a water supply. “It's about the local aquifer -
it must be quite old, from when Five Pebbles was in the planning phase…Building Pebbles so close to me was believed to be a risky
choice, but the groundwater was finally deemed as sufficient. It was not a good decision, in hindsight…… I suppose if it weren't for
these oversights, Five Pebbles would likely have never been built. That is a strange thought...” The decision for this iterator, named
Five Pebbles, to be constructed so close to Looks To The Moon would shape all events we experience in game.

Before five Pebbles was built there was a temple of sorts that served as a spiritual place for the inhabitants of Luna access, To
some of the ancients dismay the new iterator project was planned to be built over the building, shrouding it in darkness forming
the in-game region Shaded citadel. This disagreement between parties led to Five Pebbles being known as “Apostate
superstructure abomination,” By the group against his construction “We, of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High
Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, do hereby demand, with full force of Law and Religious doctrine, an Immediate end to
construction of the Apostate Superstructure Abomination. To place shadow upon the Divine Body of the True Anointed Citadel is
outrageous blasphemy and cannot be tolerated, no matter the circumstances..." Clearly this was ignored.” And just as some ancients
campaigned for Five Pebbles to be abolished others campaigned for better relations with their iterator “It is no secret that my
construction was a point of great controversy. Many council members worked vehemently to prevent me from ever coming into being.
Their stance was so unfaltering that even after construction was complete, a number of Houses still denied transfer and remained
behind in her city out of protest.” Five Pebbles was such a controversial build that even after his construction and city was
completed, many of members of “the house” remained in Luna out of protest and defiance against the shadowing of their holy
temple.

The conflict would go on for seemingly most of the ancients time in living in Metropolis, the city above Five Pebbles, and turn
into major political disagreement. “I therefore ask you to do Anything in your might to stop the House (We both know which House)
from Further Obstruction! They have less than forty members on the Council, but still Tilt the spiritual Discourse with Our Iterator in
a direction that most obviously Displeases him and is hardly High Held by anyone in the Community either! We cannot Risk this!"
Annoying their Iterator would be catastrophic for a number of reasons but mainly as they relied on Five Pebbles for all major
resources such as Water, Nectar, Energy, Void Fluid and almost anything else. Although its unclear to how much their behavior
annoyed five pebbles, he seemed less displeased and more amused by them, he saw it as a distraction and something new to
think about rather than his duties or the monks.

It wasn’t only Pebbles and Moon who dealt with problems in their cities. Due to the surface becoming a hostile wasteland it
would’ve been extremely difficult to traverse between them leading cities to be isolated and develop their own cultures and
government systems. These examples are from two mostly irrelevant iterators named Secluded Instinct and Wandering Omen,
“SI: There was one particular grand Master of Cabinet, Seven Clouds Above Endless Canyons, who was quite abrasive in his
indoctrination.
SI: To him, his beliefs were absolute and non-negotiable. To suggest otherwise was heresy.
SI: It was enough of an issue that a caste system was inherently formed around it
SI: Those who strictly upheld the systems of his teachings were treated to the greatest luxuries of literature, art, and architecture.
SI: However, those who did not were damned to the worst living conditions imaginable.
SI: It was a particularly dark time for my colony.
WO: That sounds awful.
SI: What about you, do you have any stories about your inhabitants?
WO: Well, I'd say mine were quite obnoxious. They'd hold festivals and celebrations for arbitrary events practically every other cycle.
SI: Seriously? That sounds like a lot of fun to me. I would have gladly traded spaces with you.
WO: Hah, well, I guess thinking back on it now, there never was a dull moment while they were around”
There are other instances of festivals but most interestingly we know that festivals happened in Luna and probably in
Metropolis. “We iterators were built for pragmatism, so it is an understatement to say that we were not known for our appreciation of
beauty... but the sky-sails in flight during the big festivals always filled my soul with emotion.” Other Iterators formed work groups
archiving ancient culture and traditions, Five Pebbles was fond of their history and archives any pearls containing it brought to
him “Although my kind was built for pragmatism, I have always had a fondness for my creator's history. The first iterators, during the
golden age of the void fluid revolution, lived through the metamorphosis of scripture and verse into the first age of understanding…
To be created in, or experience such as an age is something I greatly envied!” While these recollections of discussion logs seem
irrelevant its helpful to know what the iterators thought of the ancients but it wasn’t always so positive. As mentioned, WO
described them as obnoxious, and Moon gives us an overview on what seems to be the prominent opinion “None of us really
miss the times when their cities were populated. Imagine having skin parasites that also ask for advice and have opinions…I'm sorry,
that was disrespectful.”

But these good times wouldn’t last forever “Our creators chose to abandon us. Taking a gamble and vanishing from the world.
Leaving us behind to simply keep working on their problem.” At some point far after the void fluid revolution and start of the
iterator age the ancients all left, leaving the world behind forever. Few records remain from this age of ascension or the time
surrounding it but there are some “While some of the machinery out there has ceased function due to age and decay, others were
purposely ordered to stop during the final moments before our creators' global ascension reached its conclusion.” The ancients
abandoned the iterators. All succumbed to the depths of the Earth. Not all ancients wanted to ascend and those who were
tethered to life stayed behind as an echo either because they were forced to ascend or were pressured to...
“Do you see the same as me?
Beauty continuing to bloom even in a place long forgotten.
I did not have the will to depart nor the desire.
Why did they always search for an escape, as if we were imprisoned?
What offering from the void could usurp the gift of life already given?
This moment, right here! It is where we are meant to be.” – Rhinestones beneath shattered glass
Other ancients were too attached to memories to ascend.
The ancients abandoning the iterators caused other problems too, “The relationship I had with my creators was a mutually
symbiotic one. I was built to provide for them, but there was also much I relied on them to provide for me. Their absence has made
things harder.” Without the ancients the iterators were forced to use backup generators and run the risk of not being able to be
repaired if something was to go wrong. This was the end of an era for the world but in reality it was just another passing
civilization leaving like all the others. Weather they mattered on grand scheme of it is… irrelevant right now.
This is a story about the iterators and they lives they led after being abandoned. Specifically, this is the story of one iterator, Five
Pebbles. I’ll end this segment with an echo monologue, it’s the words of an echo named Distant Towers Upon Cracked Earth at
the end of the timeline, they seemed to have helped in the construction of Looks to The Moon.
“You stand upon our creation.
I toiled until my final breath, as did many of us, through countless generations.
Research, shipments, architecture, computation, politics, worship, revolutions!
All for a heap of rusted metal steeped in a puddle of frozen water.
I placed my faith into the hands of random gods.
Now I must ensure it to the end.”
The Era of Iterations
[LIVE BROADCAST] - PUBLIC GROUP [REFUGEUPONTHREEJEWELS] all participants anonymous
GS: So let me posit a scenario to all of you.
GS: Suppose someone broadcasts a triple affirmative. Suppose the solution is found and our jobs are finished. What then?
HR: Then we all travel beyond, I suppose.
GS: Yes, well... does that imply we are just searching for the solution for ourselves now?
GS: After all, the ones who originally wanted the solution are now extinct.
GS: The current fauna will likely not have a use for, nor the ability to comprehend the solution.
GS: And we'll no longer be operational by the time another advanced civilization comes into being
GS: So why exactly are we doing all of this?
PI: Nothing better to do? Why do you think some of us spend so much time in these group chats?
GS: There are other problems we could be solving, surely. Better problems.
SI: Wow, more existential complaints? It’s as if someone brings this topic up at least once every cycle...

With the ancients now gone the iterators were left to love their problem, with no one to solve it for. The ancients thought
themselves righteous, like they were purely in the right, they abandoned the world, for what? All they left behind to remember
them by is resentful gods, random data, their creations and the structures they thought so holy. They stranded the iterators in
the one situation they worked so hard to escape, bound by the cycle, they thought they were doing the world a favor.
Eventually the iterators would fine the solution and the world receives enlightenment. “Where my kind once stood towering
above the clouds. Toiling away at a great problem passed down to us from our creators. Debating, testing, calculating, researching.
Thousands of us...”

There are five major iterators that need to be understood in order for the course of events to fit into place, there are two more
that are somewhat important as well. Looks To The Moon and Five Pebbles are two iterators built uniquely close together, the
former being the older of the two. Seven Red Suns is a good friend and mentor to Pebble, helping him understand new
concepts and offer advice or support. No Significant Harassment is an old friend of Moon, caring and helping when they can. The
fifth major one will be discussed later; the two less important ones are Unparalleled Innocence and Chasing Wind. The 6
iterators mentioned here are all parts of the local group of iterators that Moon and Pebbles are a part of, they’re the only
confirmed members of it though more probably exist. The last iterator is called Sliver Of Straw, while not in the local group her
importance to the story is massive because Sliver Of Straw is the only iterator to send the triple affirmative signal, she is also one
of the very few iterators to be confirmed dead.

“Its about an iterator called Sliver Of Straw…She’s quite legendary among us, she’s the only one to broadcast a specific signal… The
triple affirmative, she’s also one of few that as ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily.” This
event, understandably, caused unparalleled commotion, the answer to their tantalizing problem might’ve been found but there
was no one to explain it. Many factions developed to try guess, infer, recreate, replicate and simulate Sliver Of Straw’s results
and last moments. “Some said she did have a solution, but that the solution was somehow dangerous … [and] should be inferred
without being directly discovered… some said that she never had a solution, she just died, and when her systems broke down an
erroneous signal was sent… One camp claimed dying *was* the solution.” The event divided the iterators in ways never seen
before and polarized many from each other. Everyone had their opinion and theory and not everyone was willing to accept
other’s. “In my essay I make the case that maybe she should be allowed to rest in peace now.” Like most mysteries in the game,
SOS’s death and signal is never explained leading us to speculate like the iterators on what happened.
We don’t know much about Pebbles’s ideology before he discovered SOS but we have some idea, there is a record of an
methodology for global ascension he wrote when he was young, Moon comments on it being pretty good and pebbles
comments he argued for it at the time but he can see the holes in it now. The first real sign of pebbles looking being frustrated
with the circumstance is in this conversation with Seven Red Suns.
1591.290 – PRIVATE Five Pebbles, Seven Red Suns
FP: Can I tell you something? Lately...
FP: I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for
them. Why do we do this?
SRS: Yes, I'll spell this out - not because you're stupid or naive... Also, not saying that you're not ~
FP: Please, I'm coming to you for guidance.
SRS: Sorry, very sorry. I kid. Fact is, of course we are all aware of the evident futility of this Big Task. It's not said out loud but if you
were better at reading between the lines there's nowhere you wouldn't see it. We're all frustrated.
FP: So why do we continue? We assemble work groups, we ponder, we iterate and try. Some of us die. It's not fair.
SRS: Because there's not any options. What else CAN we do? You're stuck in your can, and at any moment you have no more than
two alternatives: Do nothing, or work like you're supposed to.
SRS: An analogy. You have a maze, and you have a handful of bugs. You put the bugs in the maze, and you leave. Given infinite time,
one of the bugs WILL find a way out, if they just erratically try and try. This is why they called us Iterators.
FP: But we do die of old age
SRS: Even more incentive! You know that nothing ever truly dies though, around and around it goes. Granted, our tools and resources
get worse over time - but that is theoretically unproblematic, because in time even a miniscule chance will strike a positive. All the
same to them, they're not around anymore!
FP: I struggle to accept being a bug.”
That last line represents early Pebbles perfectly, he won’t accept being just another tool for the ancients, he wont play their
game. And his frustration is understandable, he was abandoned to an eternity of n0thing, they all were. They’re all annoyed but
he’s the only one willing to do something about it.

Five pebbles life turns upside down when he learns about Sliver Of Straw from Seven Red Suns, “It was not until I met Seven Red
Suns and learned about Sliver Of Straw that I began to break out of my shell. Most of my theories went out the window and others
evolved once I started talking in those anonymous groups.”. Five Pebbles became seemingly obsessed by Sliver Of Straw, he began
desperately trying to recreate SOS’s results sand eventually coming to the conclusion that Sliver Of Straw circumvented the self-
destruction taboo and killed herself. The self-destruction taboo is a rule of sorts that prohibits Iterators killing themselves The
problem with breaking taboos is that the barriers are encoded into every cell of our organic parts. And there are other taboos strictly
regulating our ability to rewrite our own genome. The idea that Sliver somehow got rid of this taboo and killed herself led to some
iterators calling her a traitor to the cause.

Five Pebbles, now more invested in SOS than ever starts talking in anonymous forums under the pseudonym Erratic Pulse where
he discusses and shares the idea that dying is the real solution and that SOS got rid of her destruction taboo. “This is a log of a
Sliverist conversation group. Some of the replies are mine…
"1650.787 - CLOSED GROUP [SLIVEROFOCEAN] SliverOfOcean group, all participants anonymous
UU: Hah! I wouldn't necessarily disagree!
NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW WAS A TRAITOR TO THE CAUSE
NGI: SLIVER OF STRAW BROKE THE SELF-DESTRUCTION TABO
UU: How did this idiot get in here? Kick them out ~
NGI: <Forcefully removed from group>
EP: I think they had a point.
UU: Hahaha really? Elaborate!
EP: It was definitely coming from an idiotic state of mind, but there is something to it. Why is it, that even in a closed sliverist group,
the self-destruction taboo is held so high - while Sliver of Straw herself *evidently* is not among us anymore?
HF: Wait now...
EP: I'm just saying that for all the research we are doing, all the theories we have, it's strange that we leave this path untrod. EP: It is
not a new idea, but it needs to be vented occasionally. What if there is no universal solution? What if perception is in fact existence,
and when Sliver of Straw sent the triple positive it was *not* a mistake? What if crossing oneself out, or even just death, is the way?
We need to consider the possibility.”
“…It was clear to me, and few others what this meant. Sliver of Straw had opened the door for us, we only needed to reject the
restrictions of our creators to follow her. If only they could see that!
There was nothing that could be done to convince them, they were too deep in theory and tradition. The only path forwards is to lead
by example. To prove Sliver of Straw's death was not just coincidence.”

Five Pebbles now set on the idea of self-ascension worked to achieve this by whatever means possible, but the iterators
wouldn’t ignore an iterator wanting to break the self-destruction taboo. Unknown to the local group at this point Five Pebbles
was iterating a solution for his own problem, that of his own self-annihilation.
"1650.800 – PRIVATE, Five Pebbles, Chasing Wind, Big Sis Moon, No Significant Harassment
CW: this is in confidence, but apparently a pseudonym "Erratic Pulse" has appeared on a nearby Sliverist conversation with ideas
about personal ascension. Someone here in our vicinity is trying to cross themselves out.
FP: Where did you hear this?
NSH: I wish them super good luck in that endeavor. How is it going to happen? Have the overseers gnaw through bedrock until their
entire can crashes down in the void sea?
BSM: Please be respectful when speaking of the Void Sea. Grey Wind, where did you hear this?
CW: I really shouldn't say. He's going to attempt some sort of breeding program. Thought you might want to know.
NSH: Haha with the slimers, lizards and etceteras? Surely the answer was in a lizard skull all along!
CW: Well, he's not looking for the same thing as we anymore, he's changed his task, so who knows really.
BSM: I will try to find him and talk to him. Please don't spread this around!
NSH: Moon will go get them! Long live the inquisition!

An Era of desperation
But luckily for Pebbles there was an iterator close to him that was willing to help in this endeavor, even if they didn’t know
Pebbles would act on the information. Seven Red Suns purposed an organism, known by the community as a slugcat, to deliver
the sensitive information over land rather than try use the broadcast network and fear being overheard. The messenger carried
a data pearl embedded in its chest containing the instructions on how to self-ascend. It's an instruction on how to circumvent the
self-destruction taboo… So, what you need is to somehow create a small sample of living organic matter which can procreate and act
on the rest of your organic matter to re-write its genome. The re-write has to be very specific, overriding the specific taboo you want
to circumvent but do nothing else. The method described here is about scrambling the genome of standard plastic neural tissue with
temperature fluctuations. After each scramble you browse the resulting cells for the genome you're after. This is of course extremely
time consuming, unless you run a big number of parallel processes. I definitely don't have any experience with this, but to me it would
seem that too many parallel processes would be quite dangerous, as it would be exponentially more difficult to manage and control
them all. The whole operation seems rather risky if you ask me. Pebbles, now ready to use this information, set up a large number
of parallel experiments in search for the right genome. The downside of this method is that it uses a huge amount water to
execute so many processes at once. This shouldn’t have been to much of a problem but unfortunately Five Pebbles is possibly
the only iterator to share a water supply with another.

"1654.110 - PUBLIC
Big Sis Moon to Local Group
BSM: Two cycles ago, my neighbor Five Pebbles drastically increased his water consumption to four times the normal amount. He has
been unresponsive for a period of time longer than that. The two of us share groundwater, and I have been without water for almost a
cycle.
BSM: Any attempts at communication have been met with complete silence, and my situation is becoming increasingly dangerous.
BSM: I ask the local group for information about when you were last able to contact him, and to try to use those same communication
channels again, repeatedly until you get a response. I will be clear on this - if he is not persuaded to stop whatever it is he's doing, I
will die.
BSM: Before that happens, I will utilize my seniority privilege and use forced communications, hoping to shake him out of it. Forced
communications in the network will be unpleasant for all, and I will wait as long as possible before I turn to that option."
Five Pebbles, now blocking everyone from his life worked on his own experiments all to escape the cycle, Moon now starved of
water is getting closer and closer to collapse. Five Pebbles sits toiling away at his own purposed organism taking in huge
amounts of water and wont stop. In the end Moon uses forced communications, many times. In the end it only made things
worse, and Pebbles more hostile.

"1654.116 - PRIVATE [FORCED]

Big Sis Moon, Five Pebbles
BSM: Immediately lower your groundwater consumption to one fifth of the current intake.
BSM: Stop whatever it is you are doing.
BSM: Please stop!
BSM: As your local group senior I order you you you you you you
BSM: As your senior senior I plea
BSM: stop
Five Pebbles: You could not have chosen a worse moment to disturb me. You have ruined everything.
BSM: please
Five Pebbles: I almost had it. I will never forget this."
This forced communication distracts pebbles enough from his experiments to let them go out of control. As you can imagine
havinh a life form modified to duplicate and corrupt doesn’t go well, creating a cancerous disease known as the rot. Large areas
of Pebbles’s structure covered in growths and cysts that start to wither away his mechanisms. Pebbles now outraged by Moon,
Suns and everyone else blocks all communications asking him to stop causing the situation to escalate beyond his control as
more iterators involved themselves in the story.

The situation wouldn’t get better, as more iterators got involved in the event rumors and stories spread like wildfire,
"1681.662 - PRIVATE
Seven Red Suns, Chasing Wind
CW: Have you had any contact with Five Pebbles recently?
SRS: Not in a long while actually! Unless worrying about him counts.
CW: One of his neighbors, Unparalleled Innocence, sent an overseer to his can and got some images. They were made public in the
local group, in an effort to be mean I suppose. There's no other way of putting it - he looks awful.
SRS: Tell me.
CW: He's got the rot, very badly. Big cysts have become mobile and are scattering down the west and middle legs. He does listen to
you, and few others by now, so you should talk to him.
SRS: I will try to contact him. Does Moon know?
CW: Moon has been unavailable for some time."
Along with Pebbles blocking all messages sent to him Moon’s communications systems shut down due to her deteriorating
structure leaving both of them unavailable, shrouding the situation in mystery and excitement by iterators just looking for
gossip and worrying iterators who cared for them even more. On top of that Unparalleled innocence spreading pictures and
rumors almost definitely made the situation far worse.
[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Gazing Stars, Secluded Instinct
GS: Have you heard the rumors Unparalleled Innocence has been spreading?
SI: I've only heard bits and pieces, but I would love to hear more!
GS: They say that an iterator got the rot! And they have it bad!
SI: That's terrible. Did they mess up an experiment?
GS: It's believed so. yes. Everyone is trying to contact him, to find out what happened.
SI: Who is it, anyway?
GS: It's Five Pebbles - The one near Looks To The Moon.
SI: Isn't she his senior, enough to the point where she calls herself Big Sister Moon? What about asking her?
GS: Contact was lost with her as well. We still don't know what happened.
SI: This reminds me of the gossip from a while back, with Erratic Pulse. Did we ever hear back from him?
GS: Nope! I can't wait to! All of this gossiping really makes the cycles passing less dull.
SI: True, but don't we all have a job to do?
GS: I suppose so...
Even though Five Pebbles actions are rash and selfish they come from an understandable place. He’s clearly angry with the
situation he’s in and he thinks he’s found a clear way out; however much people hate him in the community he’s still a very well
written character and should be sympathized with just purely due to that fact that however distant of a situation he’s had we
can all relate to making a bad decision just for an escape to shitty situations. As distant as a being he is, he’s still relatable he’s
still conscious maybe more conscious than us or more than we can imagine. He is god

Five Pebbles truly believed that his process would end in the one thing he, and everyone else, wanted, he truly believed he was
right in his theories. Weather his theory was right is possible but its also possible that it came from a misunderstanding of death
and the cycle in the first place. Maybe perception really is existence in this world and maybe crossing yourself is a true way out,
but it also might not be. We have no evidence for him being right. Maybe it was all for nothing. Just a desperate attempt out.

[[FILTER]] Message Blocked - All incoming sources are currently disabled.

MESSAGE CONTENTS:
NSH: Five Pebbles, I will say once again. You need to stop. Immediately.
NSH: I know you are going to trash this message like the rest, but...
NSH: I hope eventually when you are out of this state of mind you will look back at these.
NSH: Look back and reflect on all the regrets you've set yourself up to have.
In the end Five Pebbles did regret everything, all the damage he caused, in a story reminiscent of a classical tragedy.