Gaze at Ceaseless Light

Gaze at Ceaseless Light is an Iterator from one of the oldest generations and the senior of their local group. Though they were formerly a dedicated Sliverist, they have since abandoned their work on the Great Problem in almost its entirety. They later helped their close friend Second Silence, another member of their local group, develop technology to allow Iterator puppets to leave their cans.

Gaze at Ceaseless Light's puppet is of a dull purple color and a taller stature than average. Their antennae are long and thin with squared ends and they have blank, solid white eyes with no pupils. On their forehead is a yellow triangle-shaped mark with its point facing downwards. Both their antennae and cloak are a darker shade of dull purple, though their cloak also features yellow stripes just before where their sleeves and skirt end and a white turtleneck. When their puppet is connected to their can, within their chamber, the metallic purple mechanical arm that enables their aerial movement attaches below their cloak's white turtleneck on their back. Additionally, there is a metal port on the back of their head from which many long red and blue wires extend out and connect to their umbilical, which has two lights on either side of each segment that light up blue when sending and receiving data. When their puppet is disconnected, these wires instead connect to their back through the opening in their cloak where the mechanical arm would otherwise connect.

Gaze's can is largely ordinary in appearance, though notably has suffered the most damage out of their local group due to weathering over time. Though they are not in immediate danger of any major malfunction, certain systems have begun to require urgent maintenance to ensure their wellbeing and structural integrity in the coming decades. The city atop their can, though almost completely devoid of life at this time, is much larger than their neighbors' due to their age, and has similarly suffered significant damage over time since their citizens' departure. The central chamber of their can, in which their puppet typically resides, is tiled black. The pearls they produce are black, for impersonal or insignificant information, and lime green, for more important information, and slowly fade to white over extended periods of use or time. Their Overseers are also lime green.

Design Notes

• They don't have pupils, but they may be drawn with them sometimes to exaggerate their expressions.
• They have only four fingers on each hand, and their feet are intentionally simple in design.

Gaze at Ceaseless light is a rather quiet and reserved individual, mostly preferring to keep to themself and do things on their own. This is not without exception, though—the friendships they tend to make are few and far between, but incredibly close. Though they are a rather capable decision-maker and collected character, they would be lost without the guidance of their friends, especially Second Silence. They often struggle to account for any other outcomes for their actions than those they firstly expect and are bad at viewing the world through any lens other than their own, which is a trait they have had to put work into overcoming. To those they don't know they often come off as apathetic and uncaring, when in reality the opposite is true. They dedicate a lot of love to the things and people they care about, though their ways of expressing their affection tend to be on the subtler side.

During the time for which their creators remained, and for over a century following their disappearance, Gaze at Ceaseless Light diligently worked to solve the Great Problem the same as many of their peers. Their generally agreeable nature and natural drive to work combined with a fair amount of personal interest in the subject made it easy for them to remain focused on the Task, and it was for this reason that their relationship with their citizens, while they were still around, remained largely unproblematic. Their disappearance was something they had known for a long time was inevitable, and did not have a significant effect on them when it happened. Consciously, they chose to ignore the implications of this event and continued to work the same as always.

Contrary to the departure of their citizens, Sliver of Straw's death was an event that had a tremendous effect on Gaze's life. The questions it left to be answered piqued their interest greatly, and they were quick to throw themself into research and discussion of the topic—their interest in which would quickly grow to be all-consuming. While they were involved in Sliverist circles, they were skeptical of the theory presented by the Triangulators (which claims a dangerous solution to the Great Problem was found) and believed the other two theories were more plausible—either that a solution was never found or that the solution was death. While they were not fond of the idea of tampering with the self-destruction taboo, they were not unwilling to consider the idea that Sliver of Straw's triple affirmative might have been the result of such. Gaze's ardent Sliverism and resulting negligence of about everything else eventually caused a rift in their close friendship with Second Silence, who felt abandoned by Gaze. Growing resentment between the two eventually culminated into a catastrophic argument and their complete estrangement. Over the next roughly four decades as communication equipment deteriorated, the pool of Iterators Gaze was able to speak with was slowly reduced to their own local group—leaving them without their old Sliverist groups—and finally only Silence, who they were not on speaking terms with.

Gaze and Silence eventually did reconcile over the matter, and in the following years began work together on the development of technology that would allow them, and by extension other Iterators, to disconnect their puppets from their cans and roam the world freely. Silence was the first to receive this modification due to her newer model being easier to alter for wireless communication and visited Gaze frequently until the technology was adapted for older generations of Iterators, allowing Gaze to be upgraded as well. After it had been perfected, the two shifted focus onto repairing their communications arrays and distributing these upgrades to the rest of the Iterators in their local group. Once this goal had been completed, they began traveling and reaching out to Iterators in nearby local groups as well to offer their technological assistance. Silence largely lead this endeavor, and Gaze was introduced to several Iterators they would come to grow close with through her, including Eighty Blank Pages and Song of Joyous Sparrow. Through this group, they were also able to reconnect with Howl in Broad Daylight, a friend they had made in a Sliverist group and later lost contact with. Presently, Gaze, Silence, Pages, Howl, and Sparrow spend much of their time together wandering the world together, studying its inhabitants, and spending time together in person at each other's cans.

Second Silence

Second Silence is the youngest Iterator in Gaze at Ceaseless Light's local group and a very close friend of theirs. Although the recent passing of Three Chimes, Cheerful Parable made forming relationships with Silence initially difficult for the whole local group, Gaze was the first and most willing to go out of their way to make her feel welcome upon her creation, which caused the two to grow close quickly. They continued to be each other's closest friends, both within and outside of the local group, until Sliver of Straw's death and triple affirmative. This event greatly piqued Gaze's interest, leading them to redirect the large majority of their attention and time onto the subject and away from their relationships with the other Iterators around them; Silence, being vehemently avoidant of the subject, was particularly affected. The two gradually began to drift apart as it became clear their interests were mutually exclusive and resentment built up in Silence for Gaze's apparent indifference towards her and the failing state of their relationship. After several years, this culminated into a disastrous, accusatory argument between the two instigated by Silence in anger for Gaze's continued ignorance, from which both parties were left feeling betrayed. Silence promptly cut off all contact from Gaze following this argument and neither attempted to communicate with the other for several decades despite the mutual remorse they felt.

It was Gaze who eventually attempted to break the silence roughly three decades later, after much self-reflection regarding how they reacted to Silence's concerns, by sending her messages regarding non-intrusive subjects such as their own hobby-related endeavors or questions about her work in hope of being able to reconnect. This continued intermittently for several years until around the time Gaze met Six Shards of Glass, whom they were eager to inform Silence of, when Silence finally began to respond. After several months of infrequent casual contact between the two, Silence opened up to Gaze about her feelings regarding their fight and the two formally apologized to one another and made up over their conflict. Not long after their reconciliation, Gaze created Imminent Accord as an extended apology and gift for Silence, knowing her love for the world's fauna, how useful its abilities could prove to be in her endeavors, and how meaningful such a personal gift would be for her. Their friendship has since fully recovered and they now spend much of their time talking with and spending time with one another again. It was Gaze's encouragement that later helped Silence open up to the idea of trying to reconnect the Iterator community on a large scale.

Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter is the second oldest Iterator in Gaze at Ceaseless Light's local group. Though the two don't speak as often as Gaze does with several of their other friends, they have a very strong friendship. The time they spent as the only Iterators in each other's local group brought them very close, and their similar levels of introversion and outlook on the world as a whole have made it very easy for them to relate to each other. In the past, they spent much time theorizing and working together on the Great Problem, to the point that the majority of both of their work was done in collaboration with each other. Presently, their conversations tend to consist of short talks about interesting things they've seen and miscellaneous thoughts they've had, rather than long-winded discussions. Though the two of them mutually wish they spent more time with each other, they're both too timid or forgetful to initiate plans.

Hushed Dust

Hushed Dust is another Iterator in Gaze at Ceaseless Light's local group, and out of the bunch, the one they are least close with. Though they get along fine, their interests and personalities aren't the most compatible for close friendship, so they don't speak often. Both find the other to be quite pretentious about their worldview and would get into petty arguments about it semi-frequently if not for Gaze's very intentional avoidance of the subject around him.

Three Chimes, Cheerful Parable

Though Gaze at Ceasless Light didn't know Three Chimes, Cheerful Parable for very long, the two were quite close in their limited time together. In Parable's struggles to adapt to the overall social climate between Iterators at the time and to navigate the affairs of her citizens, Gaze provided her much-needed guidance, and they became good friends very quickly. Her unexpected collapse had a devastating effect on Gaze, who largely stopped talking to other Iterators for the next decade until around the time Second Silence was built. This event had an especially notable effect on Gaze's relationship with their creators, who Gaze only truly began distrusting (and realizing of their apathy towards the Iterators) then.

Howl in Broad Daylight

Howl in Broad Daylight is an Iterator Gaze at Ceaseless Light knew very well over global communications before they started to break down, and has since been reunited with in person. The two met in a Sliverist group around the same time Howl stopped speaking with Second Silence, and though their conversations were at first limited to those on the topic of Sliverism, they eventually became very close personal friends. It was primarily Howl who Gaze came to for guidance after losing contact with Silence, though it was Howl's falling out with Eighty Blank Pages that later prompted Howl to cut contact with Gaze, who assumed xis communications tower had lost its functionality due to the abruptness of this event. The two were later reunited after both Silence and Pages had met Howl again. The rekindling of their frienship was rocky at first due to the information Howl had witheld from Gaze (namely the state of his local group and their work towards circumventing the self-destruction taboo, his falling out with Pages, and his cutoff from Gaze being intentional) needing to be addressed, but they have since moved past these events and are very close friends once again, alongside Silence, Pages, and Song of Joyous Sparrow.

Eighty Blank Pages

Eighty Blank Pages is another Iterator Gaze at Ceaseless Light has grown quite close with, and one of few outside of their Local group they have met in person as of yet. They were introduced to him through Second Silence, who was first to meet him in person and provide him with the technology necessary to disconnect his puppet from his can. Though they are on complete opposite ends of the introvert-extrovert spectrum, they get along very well. They spend much of their time together as a group with Second Silence, Howl in Broad Daylight, and Song of Joyous Sparrow.

Song of Joyous Sparrow

Song of Joyous Sparrow is yet another friend Gaze at Ceasless Light has made as a result of their and Second Silence's endeavor to upgrade and repair nearby Iterators. After sailing across the Mist Sea to the Night Isle with Silence, Eighty Blank Pages, and Howl in Broad Daylight, the group was surprised to find it was the last Iterator standing out of its local group. After being freed, she has spent much time with Silence, Gaze, Pages, and Howl and grown close with each of them.

Pirouette of Furious Starling

Pirouette of Furious Starling is an Iterator Gaze at Ceaseless Light has recently become somewhat familiar with, much to their dismay. Though they were vaguely aware of her pre-communications-degradation due to her status as Howl in Broad Daylight's senior, it is only quite recently that her actions and the degree to which she's affected Gaze's friends has come to light for them. Every interaction they've had—of which there have been very few—has consisted of inflammatory argumentation and accusation.

Ever-Present Ambition

Ever-Present Ambition was someone Gaze at Ceaseless Light quickly became familiar with following Three Chimes, Cheerful Parable's death. Their disregard for the proper precautions necessary to have prevented it in the first place combined with their continued ignorance and denial of their involvement significantly harmed Gaze's relationship with their own citizens in a permanent manner. Their supervision of the construction of Second Silence caused Gaze to be particularly aggressive about their own involvement in it and protective of her in the years following.

Six Shards of Glass

Six Shards of Glass is a Slugcat Gaze at Ceaseless met as a result of them seeking shelter in their can. Because Gaze's can served as a suitable home for Glass, they elected to stay—much to the delight of Gaze, who found them endearing. Gaze was especially interested in Glass due to their peculiarly high intelligence for their species, which they knew Second Silence would find absolutely fascinating and were eager to tell her about. Gaze later used their DNA to create Imminent Accord as a gift for Silence, knowing how personal of a gift it would be. Over time, the two have grown very close; Glass currently spends much time in the company of Gaze in their chamber and often follows them around when they leave.

Imminent Accord

Imminent Accord is a Slugcat hybrid with Yellow Lizard DNA created by Gaze at Ceaseless Light as a gift for Second Silence. Because Accord spends most of their time at Silence's can, they do not see each other incredibly frequently, though they get along very well and Accord is always happy to see Gaze when they visit. Accord sometimes also stops by Gaze's can on their way elsewhere for a more luxurious break and restock on anything they might need. Every time they meet, Gaze takes a moment to start a video call with Silence, who is always delighted to see her Slugcat companion safe with her friend.

Eight Prisms, Gleaming

Eight Prisms, Gleaming is another bioengineered Slugcat-Lizard hybrid created by Gaze at Ceaseless Light, this time as a gift for Eighty Blank Pages. They similarly typically only see each other on the occassion Gaze visits Pages' can or vice versa, but are always happy to see each other.

Fifteen Needles, Endless Skies

Fifteen Needles, Endless Skies is a King Vulture who takes residence in Second Silence's exterior who Gaze is quite familiar with due to Silence's use of them as a means of transportation. Gaze is on positive terms with them and has taken a handful of rides on their back through the sky, but does not particularly enjoy it.

Interlude's Tribe

Due to their proximity to their can, Gaze at Ceaseless Light is decently familiar with Interlude in Evergreens' tribe of Scavengers. Despite Scavengers' disliking of Iterators in general, Second Silence's efforts to study this group have lent them to being more open to Iterator interaction, and Gaze has been able to communicate with them a handful of times. Restless Pines is a face they are particularly familiar with, as they often steal pearls from Gaze, who tolerates their presence and could not care less about the loss of pearls, and bring them back for Silence to read to them. They are minimally aware of the tribe's history with Six Shards of Glass by way of witnessing their (very infrequent) interactions and the way Glass deliberately avoids them.