Five Pebbles (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labugrynthian) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pm
labugrynthian) wrote in datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pmhollow knight/rain world crossover content
[ five pebbles condescending to slugcatbugs about karma five hours unskippable]
labugrynthian) wrote in datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pm
no subject
As Hornet follows the Overseer's direction, so too does this other creature follow Hornet; there's the soft clack of rock against rock as it picks up a stone for, apparently, safety's sake. It scrambles to keep up with her, but keep up it does, even over the falling-apart bridge.
Unlike many of the sealed shelters that still exist in this crumbling place, this one is far larger; a proper building, rather than a cramped chamber, with a wide, tall set of sealing doors. Seemingly, it owes its preservation to being in the shadow of larger structures, and thus being somewhat shielded from the slow erosion of harsh weather.
There are murals on the stone walls, painstakingly illustrated by some long-gone artisan; their colours have an almost eerie cast in the pale light of the blue and white plants that have sprouted and grown in the inside of this shelter. The scattered, shattered remnants of what might have been furnishings and left-behind belongings are proof enough that anything of the original inhabitants was either destroyed or picked over long ago, but the moss and grass creeping over parts of the shelter promise a vaguely comfortable rest, at least.
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Descending into the shelter and finding it a proper shelter, rather than just a watertight box in the ground, is a welcome relief. She'd been concerned that it might be a tight fit between herself and her new companion, but they'll both have room to rest. Hornet herself will even have room to work! She can actually do something productive during the downpour, rather than having to wait until it passes just to waste precious moments that could be spent traveling.
While these thoughts are all in the back of her mind it is, unsurprisingly, the murals that truly capture her attention. She'd seen ones very much like these just before she'd met Five Pebbles. They were one of many subjects she'd declined to ask about in favor of matters she'd considered more important, but now she wishes she had. For them to be at the top of Five Pebbles's superstructure was one thing. For such carefully rendered copies to also be here speaks to something that may have once held much cultural significance.
"Little scout, are you still there?"
The Overseers always seem to disappear when the rains draw near, but just as equally never seem to be far.
"I'd like to ask Five Pebbles a question, if your messages can still reach him in the rain."
no subject
Overseers generally do not enter shelters; they do monitor what comes out, but it's rare for them to follow something in. This one, however, has; when Hornet calls for it, it wriggles out of a duct in the wall.
It blinks several times, then projects a image of Five Pebbles in his chamber briefly. It seems like it's not reacting negatively, so it should be fine to ask a question.
no subject
"I saw murals similar to these—nearly identical, in fact—in the chambers near the top of your structure. I'm wondered if they were simply art, or if they held some greater significance to the people of this land."
She and Five Pebbles can't speak directly, but Hornet has grown familiar with the Overseer and its method of communication. There's still plenty that's lost in translation, but she's confident she can get something out of this conversation. In fact, now that she has the murals in front of her again, she realizes that the symbol the Overseer uses to signal nearby predators looks like a combination of two of the symbols in the murals. Maybe she can start to learn the local language in earnest.
no subject
He sends a sequence of images in response to her question; the first mural with one bug killing another, then two of the colourful roaches fighting. The symbol the Overseer uses for danger is flashed at her several times.
The second mural, then two large centipedes locked in what seems to be some kind of mating embrace.
The third mural, then two scavengers leaning against each other companionably, clearly walking somewhere.
The fourth mural, then a winged creature feasting on the body of a hard-headed roach. The Overseer flashes a symbol it's used before, to indicate something that's edible; then the symbol it uses for danger.
The fifth mural, then a sequence of images; scavengers searching for something, a red and scarred bug much like the one Hornet is sheltering with reaching for a blue 'fruit', various pictures of the native fauna in the business of living their lives.
He taps his claw against his cheek thoughtfully - how to associate this with the terms they'd talked of before, without proper speech? - and then begins to draw up a diagram of his own. Nothing more is sent for a few moments, and then finally, the Overseer displays a circle with the five symbols on the mural and five more, evenly spaced around it in some kind of order. The last and final symbol at the top, highlighted in gold, is a circle with a cross through it; the others are duller.
no subject
The murals and their accompanying images are already helping her make sense of the symbols. She's glad to see that the symbol for danger really does seem to be a combination of two of the mural symbols. Violence or conflict combined with food. Or, no, not quite food. Consumption, perhaps? The act of eating? Two of the others she thinks she at least gets the broad implications; the second set of images is fairly straight-forward, even if she's not certain if the image is meant to indicate the simple act of mating or the more complex nuances of taking a mate, and the third is easily read as companionship or family.
The fifth one evades her, however. The accompanying images seem to have little directly in common, only being simple displays of bugs living their lives. Perhaps that is the meaning, then. Life, existence, the mundanity of moving from one day to the next.
Though its presentation is more esoteric, she's grasps the meaning behind the circle of symbols much faster. The even spacing between them makes her think of the spokes of a wheel, and it's only too easy to connect it to the Wheel that Five Pebbles once discussed. A circle, a cycle, and these five acts are a crucial part of it. And the other symbols, Five Pebbles might not define them but she can see the pattern in their form. A larger circle enclosing four smaller ones, and at each new stage another smaller circle is eliminated until they've been crossed out entirely.
"These murals represent acts," she finally says, after a long contemplative silence. "And these acts are... components? Of the Wheel you and this land's residents are bound to."