Breakthrough.

|5|

Despite the comforts of the hug granted to him by Suns, Five Pebbles knew that both of them, quite simply, had work to do.
And So, he pried himself away- despite the feeling of mild displeasure it brought. The only issue, was when he tried to open a window to similarly help with the problem, Suns literally walked their hologram over- and hugged him again, and simply, refused to release him.

"Suns, let me go- We have work to do here, and you've comforted me plenty."
Pebbles remarked, his tone mildly sour.

"You are most certainly not working in your condition! I will not let you possibly injure yourself further. You need rest, Pebbles- and hugs, well, hugs are just a bonus."
They responded, just holding the small iterator close. At least this simulation always managed to succeed in successfully portraying suns.

"Suns, I swear to void below-"
Pebbles was swiftly cut off.

"Shhhh, quiet, little bug. I refuse to let you overstress yourself. Now sit down, and lets just talk- I can work on the problem later."
Suns' response cuts him off, their face mildly cheery. They end up patting the small iterator on the head, giving a quiet, and subtle noise of amusement.

Grumpily- Five Pebbles' puppet sat down, while Suns smothered him like an overly-affectionate cat, clinging onto him.

Thinking about it- it'd been an eternity since he'd interacted with Suns, in any capacity- so, this wasn't unwarranted.

And despite this, and his attempted escape- he couldn't help but enjoy the comfort.

-
–

-
___
SYSTEM OFFLINE.

ATTEMPTING REBOOT...
_____–__–
_
___–___–_______-_—_
REBOOT FAILED.
–__–_
SYSTEM OFFLINE. _-_-
_
-

Suns, once again- Was Visiting Pebbles' chamber, the quiet thrumming of machinery surrounded them both.
They may've let Pebbles start doing some mild work, but was constantly bothering the Iterator to get him to have plenty of breaks.
They... didn't want to see Pebbles spiral again, and it seemed these constant visits? They were helping greatly.

While the both of them, even working together had hardly discovered anything that'd hinder the rot- they did find it disliked frigid temperatures, and Five Pebbles had since been working around-the-clock to produce dry ice, and cool his chambers.

The result? The Rot seemed to hardly be spreading- but, it still seemed to be everpresent. Fortunately, everything was stalling it to the point it wouldn't be harmful for many cycles- and yet... It was still present, everpresent in Five Pebbles' Superstructure.

The strangest thing, though, was when a peculiar Slugcat entered his domain- and that day was today, when Suns was still sitting with him, in a projection.

The small creature managed to slip through the pipes in the ceiling- after having climbed up the wall, and killing the entire local scavenger population... this strange rodent was now in his chambers. His... overseers had neglected to alert him it was so close, but it didn't matter.

The Holographic image of Suns stood, and then simply spoke to him-
"Would you like me to leave? This creature probably wishes to converse with you..."
They remark, adjusting their cloak slightly.

"I... suppose so, talk to you later?"
He responds, and receives a nod. He closes the transmission, and looks at the creature- which is meddling with the pearls on the floor of his chamber.

And so, he bestowed it the Mark of communication- hoisting it into the air, and then altering the very fabric of it's mind. To intelligent creatures like this- it was no difficult task.