#the iterators are in my brain constantly always. Sorry if this is absolutely incomprehensible

[carpsoup]

so in Arti's campaign, giving pebbles the garbage wastes pearl, he mentions "it [the illegal experiment] was taking too long" and "I didn't think she would--[collapse/die/etc]"

In what world did he even consider that slurping up aaalll the water wouldn't result in a catastrophic failure for Moon??? It might've taken ages to complete without murdering Moon, but surely the results would've been much better than 1 collapsed and 1 rotting iterator. It would've been different if he were a solo iterator, but he was not.

oh boy oh boy I do have some thoughts on this so Im gonna use this as an excuse to ramble a bit under the read more <3

Tbh I think he was just extremely desperate! When you bring a neuron to moon she comments how the inability to fullfill the task given to the iterators drove many to madness. We dont know how long its been since the ancients left. It could have been hundreds or thousands (if not more) years, or whatever their equivalent to years is. No matter how logical or smart the iterators are, that time spent frustrated and angry and in pain is enough to cloud anyones judgement, I think. And iterators arent just perfect logic machines, they can be led by emotions instead of the facts they know. We see this with suns sending pebbles the pearl despite knowing he would be too desperate to be careful with the experiment, and with moon not stopping pebbles even though she knew the danger she was in. So maybe pebbles did know it would damage her, but hoped despite that, that if he was just fast enough the damage wouldn't be too big. Maybe he wanted to trust his mentor that they wouldn't send him information on how to make an experiment that could damage or even kill him or his sister. And this is very much just my own interpretation, but maybe he didn't even register correctly that another iterator, especially moon, could get so badly hurt. We know from moon that iterators dying pretty much never happens, sliver being the big exception. Moon has been there long before pebbles was alive. And even if the entire reason he was built was to help her recover, she still lived and continues to live despite her age and faulty machinery. She has been a constant in his life since the day he was created. Maybe part of him knows that there is no way he wont hurt her. But how easy is it to listen to that when faced with an existence thats defined by not being able to die. And the frustration that comes with that. I think the thought of finally being able to find a way out of a existence they were most likely programmed to despise, not only for himself but for others as well, made it hard for him to think about the consequences. Being so close to a solution after all this time, maybe he couldnt wait any longer. Or maybe he did just use 100% of his big smart brain to be the stupidest motherfucker alive. Who am I to say