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Me and End have been friends for a while. I was a new generation and was having trouble fitting in with the other iterators in my group, which were mostly made up of quite old generations. After multiple failed attempts to have a productive conversation with my neighbours, I decided to try one last time, before going into rest mode for the rest of the cycle. I sent a broadcast request to the oldest iterator in the group, Endless Beginnings. After about 30 seconds of waiting, they picked up. “What is it? I am very busy, my research should not be interrupted.” He spoke with a tired, impatient inflection in his voice.
“I’m very sorry, but what are you doing?” After I said this, his voice, though the change was miniscule, shifted. As much as he tried to hide it, he was enthused by the prospect of informing me about his research.
“Well, I’m studying the mental development of the scavengers, what led to their evolution into the sapient apes.”
“Interesting, what discoveries have arisen from your studies?”
I awake from my rest state to a status warning bathing my puppet chamber in red light. This happens sometimes so I wasn’t too worried, and sent an overseer to check on the disturbance. I saw no damages on the inside of my structure, and I cannot send an overseer outside of my superstructure as when the ancients built my generation the resources required for iterator construction were dwindling. I got another warning that read MAJOR RISK OF STRUCTURAL DAMAGE; AMENITY MUST BE MADE IMMEDIATELY. At this point I will admit that I started panicking a little, so I did the only thing I could think of at the moment and contacted Endless Beginnings. “Hello, Petals, what is it?” He tries to speak coldly and neutrally, but as I have found, they are bad at concealing their true feelings, and aren't a great liar.
“Well, I got a warning message about ‘major risk of structural damage’.”
“And? You get warnings like that all the time, seriously, your can is very susceptible to damage.”
“I know, but this one seemed more urgent, and it seems to be located outside my can, and my overseers can’t observe out there.”
“Ok, fine. I’ll check on it for you.”
“Thank you End! Byeeee!”
“Ok, so I have news. I sent an overseer out there to inspect the location of the disturbance, and from what it looked like it was some kind of green gas? When I tried to approach it with my overseer, the footage cut out and I couldn’t access it.” End spoke with a nervous shake in his voice, trying to hide their concern.
“Was the gas just there? Because I’m getting warnings all over my can.”
“I’m sending out another overseer right now.”
“Ok, so what do you see?”
“Well, it’s… spreading, almost completely surrounding your superstructure at this point.”
“Can you try and get a closer look? See if there are any lifeforms in the gas?”
“So there are, or were lifeforms, in it. I just see about 25 carcasses, and, uh,” he stopped, hesitating before continuing.
“And? What is it?”
“It’s eating through your can.” He spoke morbidly, his quiet panic reaching a crescendo in his head.
“What? What do you mean? Eating through my can? How can it be eating through my can!”
“I don’t know! I can’t stop this! Wait, Petals?” He suddenly made a realisation.
“Yes?” I asked, confused at the sudden shift in emotion and tone.
“Where is your void fluid pipe?”
“Well, it’s right there near one of the legs of my superstruct– Oh no…” It was at that point that I noticed where exactly the gas was consuming my superstructure.
“I’m so, so sorry, Petals.” And with that, Endless beginnings ended the broadcast. I just stayed there, still looking at where the broadcast window had been. I was stuck there, being consumed by the silence pushing in all around me, prey for the gas. My mind clouded with an infinite void of hopeless dread, I wondered, VOID FLUID TRANSPORTATION PIPE LEAKAGE, how did this happen? MAJOR STABILITY DAMAGE TO LEG, why did this happen? MEMORY CONFLUX 87% LOST, MEMORY LOSS IMINENT, was it all my fault? GENERAL SYSTEMS BUS COLLAPSED, NEURON PATHWAYS BLOCKED, no, it couldn’t have been, right? There was no way to stop it, right? CAN COLLAPSED; PUPPET CHAMBER WALLS SUFFERING EXTERIOR DAMAGE, maybe the ancients, creating me, so weak and vulnerable, useless. Why did they create me? They must’ve had a good reason, right? UMBILICAL SEVERED, ENERGY DRAINING RAPIDLY; CURRENT STATUS: 13%.
I flash through all the events that took place in this fateful cycle, it all happened so quickly, will everybody else even miss me? Does this happen often? Perhaps, but, maybe it will comfort people’s hearts to know what happened to me, so I don’t become a mystery, a volatile nothing. So I started a public broadcast, and spoke to those who listened.
“I don’t know if anyone is listening to this, but I have maybe 50 seconds left, so I will keep it short, very, very short. Goodbye.” Then, I disappeared, shut down, and, eventually, the void broke me down to a puddle, an unrecognisable corpse.