Chapter Text
In the past Eons, very little has changed for the wandering soul named Seven Grains Of Sand. She knew that her fate was sealed, she would be trapped in karmic limbo until entropy claimed her mind, with little hope of seeing the outside world.
Besides the brief glances she catches as attuned creatures pass along, there was no way to see beyond the veil.
The past few glimpses she has seen revealed that the rail line she wandered was becoming increasingly derelict, which didn't concern her until some attuned creature passed by when she was resting her feet in Metropolis's grand station. Through the glimpse that she got, It looked like it had been completely abandoned, left to rot for uncountable cycles.
In Metropolis.
Something grave has happened.
For the past while, she agonised about this revelation. She could barely remember the last time she had gotten to catch a glimpse of the city, but her mind told her that it was not supposed to look like that, nobody planned to abandon it. It was the centre of new development, breathtaking and modern, and being placed in the only passage through the surrounding mountains, it was the only travel junction that connected to the rest of the developed world. If the Greater Metropolis Station has fallen into disuse, then it must be a bad omen.
Lost in thought, she wandered down the familiar rail line. The quiet tapping of her feet was all she could hear or feel, until she felt something unusual. A buzz, like a wave of pins and needles washed over her, snapping her away from her thoughts.
Looking around and squinting her eyes in confusion, Seven grains of sand watched as the faded memories that stitched together her world came into sharp focus, as if she were remembering them for the first time once again. The fuzzy rail line she wandered regained all of its lost detail, and the wear pattern that she forgot long ago returned to it, decorating the surface of its tracks and coils. Turning her head, she could see Chasing Wind's towering superstructure from afar. Its antennas, ladders, exhaust tubes, and industrial clutter once again decorating its distant surface as if she were looking at it from the access deck of a locomotive once again.
It is a shame that she had only passed along on the trains, for if she had ever visited, she would have taken advantage of her newfound clarity to journey to the oracle's superstructure.
Despite this small blessing, Seven Grains Of Sand was perplexed. She knew this hadn't been caused by an attuned creature crossing paths with her, because these were still her memories, and she was not restrained to a single location.
What could have caused this then?
As Seven Grains Of Sand wandered down the tracks towards metropolis, to try her luck there, she heard a noise, breaking the stifling silence that blanketed the world around her. The air reverberated with a deep, warbling sound that shook through her entire body.
It was completely unnatural to her, and what accompanied it was the sound of echoing footsteps. Her glowing eyes widened beneath her mask as she froze in place.
Slowly, she turned to face the noise, not knowing what to expect.
There was a vaguely person-shaped mass of black fog, staggering along behind her on two legs, fuzzy and unfocused. Trailing along behind it were wisps of smoke, pulled back in long strands as reality warped conically outwards behind them. It was like they were pushing their way through a large sheet of plastic. She stood stock-still, eyes wide beneath her mask as she backed away from the wraith.
Before she could turn to bolt away from the terrifying apparition, it broke through whatever invisible wall was holding it back, and with a stumble, it promptly fell to the ground. Behind them a hole was torn in the world of memories, which quickly began mending itself. In the meantime it gave her a view of a decrepit rail line, almost completely eroded away. It was the outside world.
The outside world. That alone made her completely freeze. Her breath hitched as she watched it seal itself, the unruly plants being replaced with the short-cut turf that was once there uncountable cycles ago. Piecing things together in her head, she looked down at the crumpled form several metres in front of her, now in sharp detail.
They were unlike anyone she had seen before, no longer did they look like a ghostly apparition.
they were a completely different species from her, she could tell that much. They were clothed only in a humble black robe and they wore no mask. Sporting dark grey fur, a fluffy but short tail, and a peculiar golden scar on the left side of their face. They were a completely alien species, with only some general similarities between themselves and her.
"Hello, stranger," She cautiously said, feeling a little frazzled while trying to make heads or tales of the unusual situation. The second the words left her mouth though, the stranger's stunning golden eyes snapped open, baring the tenth karma symbol. Just like her.
"oh."
Kintsugi Had no clue where he was being led, he could see nothing but the blank void that enveloped both him and his unusual guide. The odd stranger who was guiding him looked at things he couldn't see and traversed around invisible terrain he couldn't perceive.
They pulled him along by his handpaw, seemingly very eager to get to wherever they were taking him.
After walking for a while, the stranger slowed to a stop, and gave an affirmative hum after they observed their featureless white surroundings. Kintsugi had already concluded that they are able to see the environment, while for whatever reason he couldn't. He'll have to find out why later.
The stranger turned their head towards Kintsugi, dreadlocks swaying, and looked at him with expectant, golden eyes. After a couple moments of staring at each other, the stranger began miming out actions, making their exquisite decorative robes wave about. They were acting out the motion of pushing something, before gesturing towards Kintsugi.
Kintsugi just blinked and tilted his head, confused at what this strange person was trying to do. ‘Were they opening an invisible door perhaps? No, it couldn't be that, they were gesturing to me after,' Kintsugi furrowed his brow. 'Aha! They are trying to communicate with me!' Kintsugi thought, visibly brightening.
The stranger, though, seemed impatient. They huffed before approaching Kintsugi and placing both of their hands on his shoulders, pushing him back slightly.
"Castii tev'se daasii?" (what are you doing?) Kintsugi asked, as he walked backwards with the force of the gentle push. After a second or so, he felt a resistance against his movements, and the stranger's eyes widened.
"Cortasei!" the stranger said in celebration, whatever was happening seemed to be exactly what they were wanting, evident by the elation that danced across their face.
As Kintsugi backed up further, it became harder and harder for him to go any further, until, with an abrupt jolt, he was pulled away from the stranger's hands by an unseen force.
*Ding!* one of five pebble's sensors chirped at him, trying to get his attention, but he brushed the errant notification aside in favour of his current task.
*Ding!* it went off again, annoying him slightly. He glared at the aberrant notification, before waving his hand to brush away the hologram once again. It was just a proximity sensor. He'll have to fix that later, once he's done with damage control that is.
*Bleep!* a different notification went off, making Five Pebbles glare even harder and grumble, brushing it away with more force than necessary.
*DING!* *BLEEP!* *BEEP* *DING* Suddenly a massive fluctuation of alarms go off, completely obscuring Pebbles' view of the diagnostics panel. He was startled, jerking back from the notifications in front of him. "What's going on now?!?" he growls, a hint of anxiety mixing in with his annoyance.
As abruptly as they started, they ceased, leaving only the proximity sensor actively refreshing. He slowly closed the distance and read the lone alert remaining on the blue hologram. There was something slowly making its way towards his can. Did that maroon slugcat accidentally break something and come running? He knew he shouldn't have kept it around. With a sigh he turns around at a sluggish pace, preparing to chew out his citizen for damaging something. Soon enough, the entrance lights up, signalling that something was traversing through it.
"*Sigh* What important conduit did you chew on Ruffia-" Five pebbles abruptly stopped speaking, and for a split second all his functions cease and restart, sending a shuddering rumble throughout the entirety of his superstructure. His umbilical locks up, keeping his puppet from slamming to the ground during the short reboot. Somewhere, Artificer raises her head in alarm, and begins sprinting in Five Pebbles' direction.
The once floating occupant slams to the ground with a yelp, and after a moment they groaned as they turned to lay on their back. They slowly stand up as the structure around them shudders. They looked around at their surroundings, confused, before focusing their attention to Five Pebbles' catatonic puppet.
After a moment to reboot, Five Pebbles' puppet reactivates, and his umbilical drops him a few feet before he steadies himself. Soon, pebbles looks down at his uninvited guest, and asks a question.
"WHO and WHAT are you?" he asks, but he got no answer from the wide-eyed thing in his can. Five pebbles was entirely caught off guard by the strange bipedal creature. For a split second he mistook it for an ancient, but that was quickly corrected. They had large, pointy ears, un-striped dark grey fur speckled with thin flakes of gold, a simple black robe, and large, glowing eyes. What was most odd to the iterator was that this gold-scarred individual wore no mask, which was pretty taboo for the most part. Overall, they were just something else entirely.
All of Five Pebbles' scans came back inconclusive, and for a handful of seconds the two just stared at each other. Pebbles hovered warily on his umbilical arm, and the strange... Thing stood on the ground, staring up at him with an owlish look on their face. Their wide, startled eyes blinked at him. They were studying him.
"Wait a second," Pebbles said as he lowered closer to them. He realised what design decorated the eyes of the stranger. "The tenth Karma symbol? Really, what are you?" Pebbles said, a mix of interest and apprehension present in his computerised voice.
"Ah... persaii tev sii?" the strange being said, seeming to find their voice. They looked around as they spoke, before returning their gaze to Five Pebbles. "... A tev ve'se'ah?"
"...And you don't speak vernacular, or anything in my data banks at that." Five Pebbles thought aloud, drifting closer to the stranger while bringing a hand up to tap on his pink faceplate, right where a mouth should have been.
"Let's fix that then." Five pebbles said, slowly becoming more and more interested in getting to the bottom of this. It has been a very long time since Five Pebbles has actually been able to converse with someone else besides another iterator. Five pebbles activated his anti-gravitational system and began raising the stranger into the centre of the room.
"kaii, Kaii! Kaii! Kaii!" The stranger worriedly yelled, flailing their arms and legs for purchase the higher they were raised. As Pebbles raised his hand, the latent energies in his can converged on the interloper, filling the room with a blinding light and an audible *pop!*, marking them with the sign of communication. They were then let go by the anti-grav system and dropped like a lead stone. Pebbles flinched as the stranger ungracefully hit the floor, subverting his initial expectation for them to gracefully land on their feet from the small drop. Pebbles watched with expectant worry as the interloper groaned and held their head, slowly climbing to a kneeling position.
"Ughhh, ouch-" the stranger paused and furrowed their brows at the strange word that left their thin black lips. They lifted one handpaw to their mouth, trying to figure out why they responded in a weird way. Their brows furrowed further when they felt no injury on their face or muzzle, and they opened their mouth to feel at the sharp pointy teeth on each side. "What?..." they mutter in confusion, before visibly recoiling, once again seemingly disturbed by suddenly and uncontrollably speaking in tongues.
"If you are wondering,-" The interloper's head snaps towards Pebbles, staring at him with wide, startled eyes, "-do not fret. Your mouth is not injured. I have simply gifted you the ability to speak and understand the common tongue. You may call me Five Pebbles." the Iterator said as he lowered himself down, meeting the stranger's glowing eyes with his own.
Pebbles watched intently as the stranger warily got up to their feetpaws, keeping their eyes locked on him, and slowly began backing away.
"I mean no harm, stranger," Pebbles called out to their retreating form. "I only wish to find out what your business is here. Why don't we start with you telling me your name, if you have one?" Five Pebbles continued with his poor attempts at calming the terrified stranger.
"S-stay back." the stranger says as they back into the wall... And then they keep going.
Pebbles watched on, flabbergasted as the wall of his can warps backwards, allowing the stranger to push into it. Before he could get any words off, his vision was suddenly filled with hundreds of alerts and notifications, just like what happened right before the interloper appeared.
By the time pebbles cleared his vision of all the alerts, the stranger was nowhere to be seen. It was like they were never there to begin with.
"What the ACTUAL FUCK?!?" Pebbles yelled at the empty space where the stranger once was.