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#Reconstructure
tawdry sail
eternal pendant
Reconstructure
Prologue: Signal Fixed and Retrieved
The time was Epoch 1168 and the 358th cycle dawns upon the World. Creatures waking up from their dens or descending downwards from the sky in the search for food. Scavengers exiting their homes, setting up their merchantries and tolls. For other intellectual creatures, this was just a regular cycle to them, doing their regular life. Some fight an unwinnable battle, some live together with their family or colony, some continue their return back home and some live with the oddities of the world. One in particular, however, had just finished a favor for someone and was returning to said person.
The shelter’s mechanisms start to open up as the rain dies down and eventually disappears. Mechanical whirs fill the shelter, which awakens and startles the little creature inside. The creature after getting themselves together stretches their paws and legs upwards, getting themselves ready for the cycle ahead of them. A stream of chilling winds flow into the pipe of the shelter, blowing right at the creature in it. The creature ducks as the wind enters, the feeling being mildly uncomfortable due to their constant wet skin. The creature though, when ducking their head, hits something that was below them. The other creature opens both of its eyes as it looks up at the creature and opens its mouth slightly.
The creature backs off to another side of the shelter, falling to the ground and making sounds to try to convey a message to the other creature. However, this doesn’t deter the other creature as it reaches the creature with its jaw gaping open, and licks the creature. “Hey! Hey! Stop it! You know what I’ve said! That tickles!”. The creature pushes against the mouth of the other creature and gets up from the ground, petting it on the head as it emits a sound that was conveying a feeling of enjoyment and love. The first creature was a slugcat, named Rivulet, and the second creature that was with her was an Eel-like Lizard, who had no name himself.
Rivulet navigates her way around the lizard as she enters the vent that had opened up with the shelter, leading right towards the pipe that was pumping cold air into the shelter. It was still very cold inside the shelter as wind was still entering, but Rivulet pushes through it as the lizard follows behind her. There was a stinging sensation all over Rivulet, but she didn’t exactly know at the moment because she was focused on escaping the cold. She enters the pipe and starts traveling down it, with the lizard following just behind.
Rivulet pops her head outside of the shelter, watching as not rain drips from the sky, but snow starts to fall. One little snowflake lands on her head, melting into cold water that falls down her head, causing her to shiver. While she was doing that, the lizard pops out of the pipe, knocking Rivulet out of the pipe as he walks over to Rivulet and nudges her with one of his front feet. Rivulet pushes against the lizard’s hand as she gets up from the cold ground. Rivulet looks around for one of two things. A place to exit the cold and some food for both her and her friend.
Posting the first bit of the prologue, in order to see if anyone here would be interested 
copper briar
Good so far! I’m noticing some improvement from the last time you posted an excerpt here
Glad you got the thread up too!
Also cute. Love that she has a lil eel lizard buddy
eternal pendant
Good so far! I’m noticing some improvement from the last time you posted an exce...
I’m
Far more consistent
with the present tense 
eternal pendant
yea
copper briar
Proud of you for revising :3c
eternal pendant
** **
Rivulet navigates her way around the lizard as she enters the vent that ha...
On a nearby ceiling laid a few blue fruits, around three of them, all spread out by a few feet. Rivulet runs over to the fruit, with the lizard following behind slowly. As Rivulet prepares a jump to get the fruit, the stinging pain comes back as she falls to the ground, writhing around. The lizard catches up to Rivulet and nudges her with his foot once again, but Rivulet doesn't move him back. Her eyes were closed and she was stiff. The lizard taps her with his nose, and yet no response. The lizard looks around, wondering what he could do in a situation like this.
The lizard looks up, seeing the fruits and looks down once again, seeing Rivulet right below the fruits. The lizard opens his jaw and lightly picks up Rivulet from the ground, approaching a nearby pipe that was connected to a large wall. The lizard lightly sets Rivulet into the pipe and pushes her into it, causing her to go through it and to the other side. While this happens, the lizard starts to scale a nearby wall and get on the ceiling. He walks over to the fruits and knocks them down using his hanging tail. Though the lizard couldn’t stay steady on the ceiling and falls down, hitting the ground and shaking the surrounding area, causing the fruits to move around and start moving.
The lizard, after getting off the ground, slowly starts to head towards the three pieces of blue fruit, setting all of them in his mouth. He goes towards the pipe and enters it, finding Rivulet laying on the ground on the other side. The area they both were in was a gate, but that doesn’t matter at the moment as the lizard drops the fruit by Rivulet’s head and lays down right next to her, waiting for her to wake up.
After a quarter of the cycle, Rivulet wakes up abruptly as she pounces up and looks around her surroundings. It was so much warmer where she was at, but she didn’t exactly know where she was at. When she was last conscious, she was outside trying to get some fruit. When she lands, she looks down and finds 3 fruits on the ground and only a few feet from the fruits was her friend, the lizard. Rivulet bends down and picks up the fruits, looking at the lizard sleeping. The pieces were put together as Rivulet realizes that the lizard had taken her out of the cold and gotten fruit for her. Rivulet walks over to the lizard and pats its head, but upon noticing the bruising on the lizard’s back, she stops petting the head.
Rivulet, with a heavy heart, decides that she doesn't want the lizard getting hurt because of her. So she takes the fruit, eats one of them and takes the third one on the ground, and enters the gate. The gate starts to create mechanical sounds and starts to close behind her. Rivulet looks back and sees the lizard, soundfully sleeping on the ground. The gate closes and water dumps onto Rivulet, it felt incredibly nice to have some decently warm water pour on her after the cold waters of Moon’s Remains. The gate in the middle opens as the final drop of water falls on Rivulet. Rivulet passes through the gate, standing still for a moment to eat the other 2 fruits the lizard had gotten to her.
Rivulet enters the pipe on the other side of the gate, finding herself in a long ascending staircase that seemed to have a weird history with what looks like art of random people. Rivulet assumes these are what Star’s talked about as ancients. Rivulet was about to take another step forward towards the pipe that was on the floor in front of her, but another sharp pain surges through her. After this time though, Rivulet decided to actually not ignore it and see what it was.
It was worse than she thought, she thought it might have been a few sharp and deep cuts, but no. It was instead cuts all over her body that wrapped around the body, creating a spiral pattern around her body. All of the cuts were already healed and not bleeding, leaving a darker navy colored scars, completely different compared to her regular azure body. It caused her to shiver, seeing her body changed so much because of delivering the Rarefaction Cell. Though it was for a noble deed so she decides to just keep moving forwards.
Popping her head through the pipe, she can feel the notable shift in gravity, the fact that her walls were now glowing a very slight blue with runes flashing on the walls. Rivulet was so captivated by the new life this place seemed to have that she didn’t realize she was slipping out of the vent. Rivulet’s grasp on her surroundings breaks, causing her to start falling down the room filled with platforms. Except it was an extremely slow descent due to the lowered gravity. It was comparable to the time she was in possession of the Rarefaction Cell. Rivulet carefully moved in the air to avoid the platforms, eventually reaching the bottom, which was filled with water and a pipe underneath that water. Rivulet dives down and enters the pipe.
It was a similar situation in the second room, a long drop with platforms in the way. Rivulet drops down, once again moving in the air to dodge the platforms that were coming her way. Except this time, Rivulet stops on a pole upon noticing seven neuron flies approaching her, all glowing blue and slowly shifting between different colors before stopping at blue again and scanning Rivulet with their eye, going back down into the pipe below and entering it. Rivulet falls down after them, curious why they scanned her. Rivulet reaches the water at the bottom, diving downwards and entering the pipe below. Falling out instead of being able to peep and landing on a small little pile of junk.
Rivulet looks upwards, dusting her face off as she looks upon the person she did the favor for. Looks to the Moon, an iterator, looks down at a screen, right above Rivulet. She was still sitting on the junk, but multiple screens emitting from Overseers now in the room. Moon raises her still functional arm and swipes the screens, looking at different slugcats who have entered her room and tried to help, old iterator broadcasts and some old footage.
“Little sleek one… no that doesn’t work. Ruffles.”. Moon puts her screen to the side and looks at Rivulet directly. “Ruffles, you were the one to do this weren”t you? I can’t even describe how helpful this has been! So much to look at, so much to catch up on! Even some of your own kind have appeared to help me out! A yellow one in particular helped, but I don’t think they belong to anyone.”. Moon flicks the screen a few times, showing a picture of a purple slugcat named Spearmaster. “And this is Sun’s messenger! It was sent a long time ago, purposed to give message pearls to us Iterators. The pearl it had shown me before was a message to Pebbles from Suns, and I apparently rewrote that pearl for a broadcast, and it got through!”. Moon flicks the screen again, this time to a red slugcat, named Hunter. “Awww. It’s so nice to know even after all these years, NSH was always the one to care for me! I know he cared before, but training another messenger to deliver not only a message, but a Slag Reset Key as well! 17 to be exact.”. Moon sounded a bit flustered talking about NSH. “Anyways! Because of your little action, I was able to recall all my overseers once again, and even if my umbilical cord is damaged beyond repair by myself, I can live like this. I need to keep looking through everything, so don’t mind if I’m busy for a moment, but you are, and will always be welcomed to stay here. Now.. where was I-”.
Moon stopped for a moment, flicking her screen a few pages back, to see Pebble in a terrible state with the Rot. “Wait for a moment Ruffles. There is someone I wish to talk to.”. Moon brings up a broadcast screen, and while it was hard to read from the backside, Rivulet could make out the name “Five Pebbles”. Moon starts to type away at the broadcast, eventually sending the message directly to him. “This is the local group senior, Big Sister Moon. After help from a friend, functions have returned to my Puppet, albeit limited. I’m capable of reading and sending broadcasts for the first time in many, many cycles through the communication array. While range is still limited to only nearby my structure, I want you to know Pebbles, that this message is directed to you. I know this is out of the blue, and I know you may ignore this due to what happened back then. But if you are able to send any signal, any transmission that you are safe, send it to me. After all, I am your big sister~. I’ll always be here in case you need someone to talk to.” Moon swiped past the message, putting away the screen and reaches out to pet Rivulet with the functional arm, but before she could, she notices the wounds on Rivulet.
“Oh dear! What happened Ruffles! I’m so sorry, I was so focused on everything returning around me that I didn’t even notice the state you are in!”. Moon realizes what she had just said and lays her arm on her lap. “Right. You aren’t able to communicate with us Iterators.”. Rivulet, after all the laying down she did, finally stands up and looks at Moon. It was an awkward moment for the both of them, as they were just staring at each other, but eventually, Rivulet gets the courage to say something. “...hi?”. Moon freezes for a moment after hearing this, then gasps in shock, hearing that an actual organism spoke back. “...How?”. Moon remarks. “It’s a long story.”. Rivulet says back to Moon.
I realized I didn’t put how Rivulet can talk with Moon in the Prologue
I’ll just put it in later when I cut back to them.
Meanwhile, Over at Five Pebbles, one of the cords start to glow as Pebbles is listening to his Music Pearl. He receives that Broadcast from Moon through the core of his rotting room. He brings one of his last overseers to him and brings up the screen, reading through the broadcast out loud that Moon just sent him. Once he finishes reading it, the overseer disappears and he sits there, contemplating the message he had just read and why Moon would send it. “You aren’t mad at me? Why? I single handedly caused your structure to collapse… You, Suns, all the others who tried to contact me… My outrage from so long ago has caused so many issues. Did everyone really only wish to be there for me? I… guess it's comforting now to know that even through countless iterations and countless fights. I don’t have to be alone.” Pebbles picks up the pearl again and starts to play its tune. “Thank you for your time with me Moon, Suns, Sig, all of the others. But sorry, the damage I have received is far too great to send a signal your way, I won’t be seeing any of you again. Once again, sorry.”
Back at Looks to the Moon, Moon was listening to Rivulet’s story, countless adventures and about some iterators she had met. “Gazing Stars misses me as well? I knew we talked a bit but I never thought it was enough to make her care for me.”. Rivulet begins talking now. “She’s said she’s tried to contact you over seven times during your absence!”. “Oh. Perhaps I should send a message back. Do you mind Ruffles, if you can travel back, go see her, Suns, Significant, all of them. Go and tell them that I’m alright.”. Rivulet ponders this request, but then starts thinking about something Stars told her she was planning. If she wanted to talk to them, maybe this information would be useful. Rivulet gathers up the courage to say it. “Hey Moon! I actually have something to tell you.”. Moon tilts her head, curious. “What is it Ruffles?”
red igloo
Saving for future reading.
red igloo
Thanks, past me!
stark fulcrum
Also saving for the future
eternal pendant
Also, neat story.
Thanks
eternal pendant
Ruffles being able to talk to Iterators is a headcanon we share.
It’s more so due to their mark of communication