#iterator saiki

Iterator Saiki, Kuusuke is the oldest member of their local group and is only a Sliverist because he's CURIOUS (and if the members of his local group wants to die and escape the Cycle, especially as their Cans slowly but surely break down, it would be a good idea to know instead of them spending centuries slowly but surely rotting away), and poor Saiki keeps being bothered by various Slug Cats (his friends without psychic powers) and other members of his local group (the Psykickers). Akechi is the only Scug he intended to have because he's oddly good at doing maintenance. How did he end up with a colony.

i love this but i pose you with another variation:

kuusuke pulls a five pebbles while sharing a water supply with kusuo. he was jealous that this iterator who was supposed to be his YOUNGER brother was such a newer and better model (unlike LttM who was actually the older one), and that all the ancients were moving to kusuo's superstructure...and so kusuo collapses. the water was used up to find a solution (oversimplified but i dont feel like rambling about the complexities of what the iterators were built for and what the sliverists were trying to do for my followers who dont know rain world, sorry) just like pebbles, but it was also out of spite. kuusuke...didnt think the newest generation of iterator could suffer from lack of water so easily, either

kusuo wants to get rid of all the scugs that keep bothering him, but hes too weak to do anything (which he hates because he used to be a GOD in comparison to these animals), and theyve even been helping him. one of them even saved him from death to begin with, sent by a friend whos distraught over what kuusuke did to him (one of the psychickers as another iterator. idk which of his friends would be the hunter scug)

...and he company isnt that bad, he supposes...he was awfully lonely

as much as i adore and am writing the fic with saiki being a scug, iterator saiki is also super fun to think about, and i love your idea, and his friends being scugs who harass him like 5P and his scugs in rain world is perfect.

Also random Iterator Toritsuka thought. When he lashes out at Kuusuke, inadvertently starting the entire thing, he was just expressing an opinion he, Aiura, low-key Saiki, and a bunch of other Iterators had for a while. Everyone was sick and tired of his complaints about Saiki's existence, and Toritsuka just so happened to be the one to snap. Anyone could've snapped and be the catalyst. Everyone knows this, and Aiura has pointed this out to Toritsuka many times after Kuusuke cut off all connections and started draining away at his and Saiki's shared water supply, causing Toritsuka to tell her what happened in an attempt at asking for help at figuring out how to fix this.

But even with this logic, even with others supporting him, the guilt is still there. Sure he's rightfully angry at Kuusuke, but he was still the one to finally light the fuse to everything that happened, even if it was by accident.

But he knew how to help revive Saiki. Sure it'll take a while for everything to be in place for his plan to safely happen, but that's just more time to prepare. So he started to carefully build a Purposed Organism. One that'll survive the trip, revive Saiki, then stick around as a companion to Saiki.

Sure the end result, Nendou, was a bit simple minded, but he's still perfect for the task. Sure he had to rebuild his genome almost from scratch right when he thought Nendou was complete due to it attacking Nendou's body, but that just meant he had more time to figure out a route from his Super Structure to Saiki's submerged one and find his Puppet Body. Sure the most direct route has Kuusuke's Super Structure right in between his and Saiki's, but that just means that Nendou can wreck the place, just a bit. Maybe steal one of Kuusuke's precious pearls to pay a Scavenger toll.

So he made the Slag Code Neuron, gave it to Nendou, then prayed that his efforts weren't pointless. Because if they were, he doesn't know if he'll still be sane.

while it wouldnt be a longfic like my isekai scug saiki au, im so very tempted to make this au into an extended oneshot ough

again just: yes to everything. even if toritsuka feels at fault, the only one responsible is kuusuke himself. anyone couldve caused him to snap. hell, he couldve caused himself to snap. it was just sheer unluckiness that made toritsuka the end result

also very very crack idea: scug nendou has the chin as remnants of Rot cysts that almost afflicted him lmfao. he doesnt have the Rot, its inert and can't harm him or reproduce, but those cysts just remained even with his genome being fixed

toritsuka was very worried when his purposed organism seemed much less intelligent than the average slugcat, which already aren't exactly geniuses. but nendou succeeded anyways because at the very least he never forgot the goal he'd been programmed with.

his efforts were not pointless. and while kusuo can't communicate with anyone or do much at all, and can barely remember anything...he's alive again, and his puppet isn't laying face down in the mud and water anymore, so thats something

Also yeah Toritsuka is strong so he's allowed to literally rip the Rot Cysts out of Nendou's back. That was part of the logic regarding that thought. ...that and just, he's allowed to have a severe flash of anger when he realizes he has to delay bringing Saiki back to fix a mistake he made in creating Nendou. At least he managed to make it productive instead of detrimental.

Also Nendou thoughts! Like, Nendou was created with a purpose in mind. He knows how much hope his creator put into him when he was sent out. And even if he has problems with remembering when a Cycle is close to it's end, or realizing a threat is nearby until it's right there in his line of sight, he knows how to SURVIVE. He's always prepared to eat something until completely full, so that by the next Cycle he doesn't need to hunt as much to prepare for the Cycle after that one. He always has a spear in his back plates, ready to be grabbed and used, just in case. He stock piles Pearls in various Shelters, in case he encounters a Scavenger Toll. He may not be intelligent, but he was designed to SURVIVE and bring back Saiki. He was designed to have his back against the wall by a Vulture, and manage to get away, leaving a Vulture corpse behind him, wearing its mask. And considering the fact that he did his job, and continues to live afterwards? Well, that shows that Toritsuka made him correctly. Something that, at times, Toritsuka reminds himself of whenever the grief and misplaced guilt of what happened to Saiki threatens to drown him.

...meanwhile before all of that Aren gained a great amount of fear of Mera after, from a distance, he witnessed her completely and utterly BUTCHER a Scavenger Toll group, grabbing a corpse, and then dragging it along with her as she left. To the point that when she came down to them years later with clothes it took him so, many, Cycles to be able to not constantly keep an eye on her out of fear. Much less hibernate in the same shelter as her.

yesyesyesyes. its a miracle aren didnt get the rot himself tbh. and is still able to survive relatively normally, aside from the bizarre way he must eat, and his lack of ability to communicate in the slugcats verbal language.

its hard to believe nendou is as powerful and good at surviving as he is, especially to the slugcats that try and talk to him. they wouldnt have believed he was the one with the slag reset keys if kusuo had not confirmed that nendou was the first thing he saw upon revival. at least hes pretty sure it was nendou scug, as hes pretty distinctive.

also toritsuka does have a tiny moment where he cant believe he made a mistake in creating a purposed organism that was worse than the mistake a nearly dead iterator made to a purposed organism. but creating life is challenging, even for the iterators and their godly levels of intelligence.

i imagine aren was just on neutral terms with the scavengers before seeing mera do that. he sometimes gave them spears if they possessed items he wanted like grenades or lanterns, but didnt interact very much. but after mera's massacre of the toll (she didnt even eat any of them! she just took one and left to who knows where), he actually helped the few scavs that survived get back to their shelter, because it would be very bad if they decided all slugcats need to be killed. hes on decent terms with them after that.

the other scugs around kusuo were wary but willing to let mera into the chamber with a close eye on her, but aren flat out refused, telling everyone (even if kusuo had forgotten sign language in his collapse, aren still remembered, so he taught the other scugs the best he could so he could communicate) what he saw her do to the scavengers. she wasnt killing them for food. if she had, she would have maybe picked off one of them. she was killing for sport

but he lets her in with a wary gaze when she explains that her grudge has been left far in the past, and that it existed to begin with because scavengers murdered her parents and siblings in cold blood. she regrets her own actions, even, but whats done is done. her only goal now is to deliver these robes to the ruins of an iterator before her

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○ Fandoms/Interests - | Hollow Knight | Rain World | Worm | Saiki K | BoTW | Dinosaurs and Dragons in general | ○

And, well, he was just so angry in the moment that after ensuring Nendou couldn't feel any pain or discomfort, he needed to do SOMETHING. And it even gives him easier access to Nendou's genome to rework it! So really, who can blame him for his, violent, methods of getting rid of those Rot Cysts? The Ancients? They LEFT THEM. So really, why should he care about what they think?

...also on a less angsty note Saiki, despite his limited memory, managed to remember Aren, because he's Saiki's creation, when he woke up. Which Aren greatly appreciates because EMOTIONS.

And on a different note, the reason Aren even has a name is two reasons. The logical one (an ID number wouldn't work if he can glitch out whilst saying it, confusing his creation, so a name will lead to less confusion in the long run), and the emotional one (hard not to get attached to the being your creating to act as your savior, and harder still to not grow to care for them when through his Overseers he saw how hard Aren worked to complete the tasks given to him).

aren was at the main communications array at the sky islands when kusuo collasped. he was heading back to the superstructure through the Precipice bridge between kusuo and kuusukes structure...but when he reached the end of kuusukes side, it just ended. it dropped into nothing but collasped ruins. that was a horrifying moment. aren had noticed that his creators overseers weren't following him anymore, and he heard the earth shattering sounds of the superstructures collapse...but seeing it in front of his face hit the hardest

just like SRS and Spearmaster, kusuo never gave his creation the mark of communication, as they used sign language so that their conversations could be two way instead of one way

aren wasn't supposed to be mouthless, unlike SM who was. kusuo just messed up and he regrets it. he wanted aren to be capable of eating through the tethers from his spears so that he could ALWAYS find food, as there would always be at least some creature to feed on, and he didn't even have to stop to eat. but he was also supposed to have a mouth like a normal slugcat. kusuo was badly damaged from lack of water already and hadn't realized the changes to his organisms digestive system to allow for the new way of gaining nutrients had completely deleted the normal one until he was finished, and there was absolutely no way or time to make a new messenger.

post revival and pre rarefaction cell...kusuo probably can't remember much of it. the common spoken language is hard enough to grasp, let alone a secondary one. its a miracle he remembers aren at all, but thankfully he does, and he remembers a decent amount of the local group too. at least kuusuke got fed up with kusuos messenger ignoring him after kusuos collaspse and forced a mark of communication on him, so at least he can understand kusuo again

iterators are partially robotic so i imagine theyre very physically strong tbh, so that makes sense. mily angst and comedy bundled into one there huh

Logically she knows otherwise, but that didn't stop her from letting her emotions bleed through in the creation of Akechi and ensuring that no matter what, he will be able to grab Kuusuke's Rarefaction Cell. And no matter what, Saiki will be better off. If it's given up without a fight she'll be happy.

But if there is a fight? She'll feel VINDICATED.

YES agh the emotions

Part of her is also viciously happy about how decayed the Rot has left kuusuke, when her overseers see the inside of his can while following akechi (for the first time in ages because kuusuke is no longer capable of maintaining a lockdown from overseers), simply because it means kuusuke will not be strong enough to stop even a weak slugcat from frolicking in his superstructure, let alone a powerful, purposed one

she feels horribly bad at the same time. but she stays focused on the goal. she knows he has at least one cell left, because zero gravity is still somewhat functional inside of his structure. she just doesn't know if its the only one he has left

when scug akechi gets to it and rips it out, and all anti gravity shuts off...its clear that it actually was his last one. but kuusuke caused the literal death of her closest iterator friend, and with this cell, kusuos communication arrays might become functional again. and besides...the Rot was just going to destroy this rarefaction cell like it had the rest of them.

a lot of her anger dissipates when she sees the sorry state of kuusukes chamber and puppet, but honestly? she mostly feels a sense of bitter revenge. because he got what was coming

shes glad her slugcat didnt stay in the chamber long regardless. she didnt want to see anymore. and he had a duty to do, one her overseers needed to be present to guide him through, because gills or not, the submerged superstructure was still horribly dangerous

also: when akechi enters kusuos chamber, the other slugcats visiting him that cycle nearly maul him on sight because hes holding a suspicious orb that radiates power that could be a bomb for all they know. but kusuo speaks before they can do anything.

"That's...a Mass Rarefaction Cell. The emergency power source of an iterator's superstructure. Even one of them is enough to keep one of us functional. Where...where did you get that?"

the others have marks of communication from their past visits to kuusuke, so they can understand that this is an important object that akechi is amazing for bringing to kusuo

even in his current sorry state, kusuo can piece together the situation. someone in his local group created a purposed organism to deliver a rarefaction cell to him. and he has a guess as to which iterator it was stolen from.

he tells the slugcat where he might find the access shaft to the submerged ruins of his structure anyways, because its already been stolen, so it might as well be delivered to where it needs to go, provided akechi can survive the dangers of the trip, which he does. being able to potentially communicate with his local group again, and access his overseers so he can see places other than his chamber, sounds so nice, too..

thank you for the ask it made me FEEL at 2 in the morning i adore your asks so much <3 at lesst im assuming all this iterator saiki au stuff is thr same person ahdhah maybe even the same person who sent a ton of my scug saiki au asks eheh

Anyways clothes! Clothes for Saiki. ...Mera lives in the city on top of Kuusuke's Super super Structure. She has access to clothes, even if they'll be a bit oversized. After a while her Slug Pups will grow up and leave, probably joining the group in the Outer Expanse.

And Kuusuke, who knows his little brother is still alive due to Teruhashi and Kaidou's regular Neuron raids, who through checking up on him via Overseers, even if Aren won't hesitate to kill them on sight, doesn't have any clothes, and has a citizen right near some clothes literally on top of him.

Whose time is slowly running out due to the Rot he created. Because he was so caught up in his grudge and spite that he didn't realize he messed up and is now paying the price. And, he can at least encourage Mera to move off of him and towards his brother, with clothes to act as a way to avoid the understandably over protective Scugs from attacking her on sight via being a peace offering. He can't exactly have her bring the Rarefaction Orb, she's not nimble enough to get to it, and her explosions might damage it and cause it to explode, killing her. So clothing will have to do.

It's the least he can do for the brother he crippled.

ACK thats so so SO good

and because of this he doesnt really fight akechi when he comes to take his remaining rarefaction cell. hes dying, and its just going to be rotted away. the cell might as well go to someone who deserves it more. and even without the explosions blowing up the cell, mera cant breathe underwater like akechi can. she has zero way to navigate the submerged ruins of kusuos structure

aren killing kuusukes overseers on sight is perfect omg. he would, absolutely. him and the scavs can be overseer killing besties lmfao

also the clothes could even be scrapped iterator outfits. i read a RW fic where artificer found clothes for five pebbles in an old engineer building, meant for him before they made his current one. so theres a chance its even one of those lol

Also going to let you know, but I had the random mental image of Saiko being the kid of the Chieftain Scavenger Mera went after and killed. After that he gathered up as many Scavengers that were willing to leave with him, and did just that. Creating one of the nomadic tribes of Scavengers in the process. He's not really involved in anything unless the Scugs encounter his tribe or they go to live in Saiki's collapsed structure for a short while before leaving after seeing Scugs hanging around it. They're just there, out in the world. And very much doing their best to avoid pissing off any Scugs.

Chiyo, Hii, Rifuta, Kongou, Takahashi and Satou are various Scugs in Teruhashi and Kaidou's previous colony. They're currently living in the Outer Expanse because there's food, shelter, and in case Kaidou and Teruhashi ever come back they want to be there to greet them. Kongou was also the leader of their colony, and currently their very effective protector because he is a responsible adult. Other than that, they're just living their best lives.

Also funny thought. Teruhashi and Kaidou more often than not go to collect Neurons for Saiki despite already giving him plenty. They're doing it partially out of spite towards Kuusuke because, via use of charades and Nendou already having a vague idea about what happened, they know Kuusuke is responsible for Saiki's current state. That and he's just a jerk in general. Saiki is unsure if he should convince them to stop, or let them do their thing to avoid wasting any effort.

pffft amazing. and those two memes resonate very well with saint. i also think of the "blows up pancakes with mind" meme as saint haha.

saiko being a scav is very interesting! but it makes a lot of sense because of their interest in pearls :o

hopefully none of the scugs to visit kusuo have ever eaten his neurons...they can eat kuusukes all they like, he has hundreds of thousands. but poor kusuo has so little, just like moon :[

i agree with your points and dont have more to comment on them, but i have a new idea too: maybe one of the purposed scugs was sent with an outfit for kusuo, or one of them found one, just like how you can find LttM's tattered robe as some of the slugcats in rain world. cause the collapse definitely wouldve washed away his fancy iterator outfit, and nendou wouldnt have been the scug to bring one because revival was moat important, since kusuo was very much not functional in the slightest. and hes still barely functional until akechi is sent to steal a rarefaction cell

i got rambly lol. i have mild ideas for all the iterators in this au and i wish i could draw </3 also: i wonder if kuusuke would end up with the rot at all. maybe instead of a forced broadcast causing him to mess up, since he shut down all communications and unlike 5P, kuusuke is the administrator of the local group, and so kusuo couldnt force a broadcast, he gives himself the rot via his own hubris. he just straight up messes up the process by himself, if he does have the rot in this au