Five Pebbles (character)

Five Pebbles is the iterator met at the heart of the Five Pebbles supercomputer, inside the General Systems Bus subregion. He is one of only two iterators you can meet in the game, the other being the ailing Big Sister Moon.

Gameplay
Five Pebbles is initially non-aggressive to the slugcat and will vary his interactions based on the game's difficulty. The first time you meet him as the Monk or the Survivor he will raise your karma to rank 10 and bestow you with a mark, allowing you to understand the intelligent entities of the world. Meeting him as the Hunter will instead provide the same effects as meeting an Ancient, and will add 5 to the character's cycle count. Lastly he will give you directions to escape the facility and ultimately complete the game.

His dialogue is precise and clinical. He hints at feelings of dissatisfaction and the futility of his purpose (calling himself a "reluctant" gift to the world, for example). After talking to Moon later, it is revealed that the rain started because of him using massive amounts of water to power himself, ejecting tons of water vapor into the air. He also created the Garbage Wastes region dropping massive amounts of waste and sludge to the ground. His mental state is unstable, and he nearly killed Moon using four times the amount of water he needed and draining Moon of nearly all her water. An Ancient found later tells the slugcat that the mark is an incredible gift.

Pebbles' Insanity (Spoilers)
Pebbles was one of seven known iterators, working to solve the great problem: how to allow all of the "lesser creatures" of the world to ascend beyond the cycle of reincarnation. The problem of ascending without the Void Fluid was so great to the ancient civilization that ruled the world that they created huge, complex supercomputers housed in enormous structures high above the ground, large enough to house cities atop them. The artificial intelligences within worked to figure out this and their failure to do so drove many, including Five Pebbles, to madness. In his distress, Five Pebbles began running his systems at incredibly high power, taking up extreme amounts of water in the process. Doing so deprived Big Sister Moon of her water supply, eventually causing the Looks to the Moon facility to collapse and leaving Moon in a near-death state. When Moon forced a command to stop the excess water consumption to Five Pebbles, he reacted with rage, cutting off communications with her entirely. Additionally, due to the huge amounts of water running through his systems, the excess water vapor formed massive clouds that started the rain. He also created the Garbage Wastes region by dropping massive amounts of waste and sludge to the ground in an attempt to get rid of "the rot" plaguing him. His mental state is unstable due to this iterator-born illness, and it is in this state of calm insanity that slugcat finds him in.

If you visit him for a second time, he will be displeased by your visit, and only let you stay a short time. Stay too long and he will seemingly electrocute the slugcat, killing it. On third visit, he becomes hostile and demands slugcat leave immediately. If slugcat does not leave, he will electrocute it. Any later visits will result in an immediate death.

Backstory
Five Pebbles is one of many semi-organic supercomputers known as iterators. The other iterator you can encounter is Moon.

Bringing neuron flies to Moon after encountering Pebbles, or bringing colored pearls for her to read, reveals that Five Pebbles is corrupt and is the cause of the Looks to the Moon facility's collapse. In addition to this, Five Pebbles is also responsible for the deadly monsoons due to the amount of water he uses to cool his systems.

Pebbles' dialogue with you hints at the fact that he was left here by a civilization that no longer exists. The lore Moon can read for you confirms this, as well as naming other iterators who may or may not still be active, and revealing the reason they were all built.

Yellow Slugcat (The Monk)
"I am growing increasingly impatient with the traffic of your kind through me and my premises."

"During previous interactions, I have been rewarded no other response than a blank stare. Yet you apparently have sufficient ability for communication to circulate complex instructions on how to enter this chamber among each other."

"You and your kind have the same problem as everyone else, from the microbes in the processing strata to me, who am, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison. We all want a way out. It is only unfortunate that you have collectively decided on... me as your solution to that very elemental desire."

"The last one I gave some help and some general directions. I will do the same for you."

"Go west. Past the Farm Arrays. Where the land fissures, go down into the earth and search your way deeper."

"Now in return I ask you to whatever grunts, moans and eye-twitches you employ to forward a message to your community."

"Please stop scratching your way through my memory arrays."

"Speaking of, on your way out please use the access shaft."

White Slugcat (The Survivor)
". . ."

"...is this reaching you?"

"A little animal, on the floor of my chamber. I think I know what you are looking for."

"You're stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. You want a way out."

"Know that this does not make you special—every living thing shares that same frustration. From the microbes in the processing strata to me, who am, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison."

"The good news first. In a way. I am what you are searching for. Me and my kind have as our purpose to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others. A strange charity—you the unknowing recipient. I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone.

"The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself."

"For you, though, there is another way. The old path. Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals. The mark I gave you will let you through."

"Not that it solves anyone's problem but yours."

"At the end of time none of this will matter I suppose, but it would be nice if you took another way out. One free of... frolicking in my memory arrays. There is a perfectly good access shaft right here."

With Green Neuron
"Let us see what you have here."

"Eleven... no sixteen! Sixteen slag reset keys."

"I've seen several before, but one or two will be useful."

"However, it seems this delivery was not intended for me. Everything suggests it was tailored for the specific predicaments of friend of mine."

"Her name is Looks to the Moon, and her state is considerably worse than mine. She's a short distance to the east of here—much shorter than customary. A circumstance that has led to some difficulties between us."

"I am not without responsibility for her situation. It would only be suiting that I aided in this rescue mission. As other endeavors have proven futile. I'm not ashamed to admit I've become more invested in day to day matters."

"I will do what I can to assist you."

"Unless you are aware, you are not well."

"I was not medical facility even when the equipment was functioning. But I will attempt to do something to buy you little time."

"You do not have much time. It is admirable what you choose to do with it."

"Send my regards."

Without Green Neuron
"I barely listen to the overseers any more. I have concluded that the movements of animals on the premises absolutely and completely lack relevance to my endeavors."

"With you, they have been very persistent ever since you entered my Farm Arrays. You were on an unusually deliberate path."

"Now you are here."

"The images showed you carrying something. You are not any longer."

"Did you lose it along the way? Or did you give it to Looks to the Moon?"

"In the latter case, I hope it was of some help to her. Not that I can imagine what one of you could be able to do for one of us, but she needs all the help she can get."

"..."

"You seem to have been in contact with an iterator before, so perhaps you are already aware."

"You and I have something in common, little creature. We both have something... unfortunate growing in us."

"In my case, there is not much to be done. For you however, there there might be a way. The old path."

"Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals."

"I will give you something that might be of help."

"I suggest you hurry."

Trivia

 * Five Pebbles can move freely around his chamber while Big Sister Moon can only slide around her island, because of the damage she has sustained.
 * Unlike Moon, Five Pebbles wears a cloak. Some images indicate Moon may have dressed similarly to Five Pebbles before her ruin.
 * Five Pebbles reveals that his hardware is succumbing to damage -- and by extension the other remaining iterators are probably in similar states, apart from Moon, who is worse off.
 * Five Pebbles has no HP in his code, rendering him unkillable.
 * The Daddy Long Legs appear to have been born as some sort of corruption of his facilities, and other iterators refer to this condition as "the rot," indicating it is not unique to him.
 * If you stay for too long in his room, Five Pebbles will kill you.