A Vanishing Gear |BEING REWORKED|

A Request

 The first thing she noticed was that she wasn't touching the ground at all anymore. She hadn't come down from her last leap, she was just floating there in the middle of the air in this place. It was disorienting, to say the least- And then there was the matter of the... thing... in the middle of this box.

First she saw some kind of metal appendage, maybe a tail, stretching up from one of the walls to the top of the box, at least ten times the length of the slugcat's entire body. She looked up to the end of the tail... wait, no it was an arm, to which was attached the strangest creature.

It was a purplish color, with elongated limbs that bent in the wrong ways, and no snout. The creature also had antlers, the same material as the arm, and random ribbons of light snapped at the walls of the chamber from a ring of light rotating lazily behind the creature. Now that the slugcat looked at it more closely, she could also spot loose wires floating outwards from the back of its head. Of all the wrong things in this wrong place, this was the most wrong of all.

The thing turned to look her right in the eyes, with a look of something the slugcat couldn't read. Disgust? Contempt? Or was it something different?

It moved closer to the slugcat, suspended by the arm. She tried to wriggle clumsily away from it, but without anything anchoring her to the ground, she couldn't really do much. The thing made some odd chittering noise, held out a hand, and an odd, popping sensation shot through the slugcat's head. She stiffened up, still floating, and suddenly everything made sense-

"..done this before, let's see if it works... hello?"

The slugcat looked up at the sound of the greeting, still awfully confused, and more than a little bit frightened. The strange creature hovering in front of her smiled, a bit of non-verbal communication she somehow knew the meaning of.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just here to help."

Slowly, the weight returned to the slugcat's body, and gravity took her back down to the cold metal floors of the chamber. The metal beast's arm craned downwards to bring it closer to the slugcat, though never actually touching the floor. The little, colorful orbs that had been floating around settled to the ground as well, rolling in small circles before stopping.

"My name is Dawning Realization." It- no- she pointed to herself for emphasis. "I'm what you call an Iterator, and this place- it's where I... live. My relationship with this structure is kind of complicated," she chucked to herself, "but that's all you need to know for now."

Now that she'd calmed down a bit, the slugcat was able to get a better look at this... 'Iterator' thing. Dawning Realization. She was draped in a robe, a long, flowing one in a deep maroon tone, which highlighted its-her purplish metal frame. She was also missing her right arm- this whole time the slugcat hadn't noticed it.

Almost as if reading her mind, Dawning Realization looked down at the place where her arm should've been; right at the shoulder.

"Oh. That? I got into an accident with a lizard a while back."

The word 'lizard'. Suddenly the slugcat was able to remember the concept it conveyed. The scaled beasts, like the blue-scaled, six-legged one she'd seen earlier. She remembered their teeth, too- a memory of fear, just a split second, crossed her mind. Lizards, as far as she knew, were dangerous. Even to things that dwelled within these convoluted places, that could convey any strange concept in a heartbeat, that needed not stand on solid ground, still had to worry about lizards. That made Dawning Realization seem a little bit less scary.

"And it looks like you've made a friend..." the Iterator trailed off, staring down at the eye creature from earlier. "Wait. Wait, you're not one of my overseers."

The eye- no, overseer, shone another symbol into the air, one the slugcat didn't understand- but Dawning Realization seemed to know its meaning.

"You came all this way? From Intrepid Thought?" gasped the Iterator, a look of reverence in her eyes. "My, my. It's been a long time since I've seen anything of hers-" She stopped herself, and looked back at the slugcat.

"It seems that I've become sidetracked- my apologies. I have something very important to say to you, slugcat. You're here for a reason."

"One of my siblings is... not doing very well. Something's gone terribly wrong with him, you see? And you're the only one who can help me with that."

(thanks for reading, y'all! new parts coming soon!)

(also i swear it's not five pebbles. i only realized it might've come across as that the day after i published this chapter.)