#i love iterators as massive superstructures

[xenomorphicdna]

Off the string AUs are cool but this is an ON the string appreciation post

Their lives must be so different, how they see and experience their world. They're so different in ways we can't imagine. I'm sure they know when the cold wind blows past their cans, or when the sun warms their metal shell. Do you think they can feel the electric buzz of the aurora? Or hear the hums of the stars?

Big supercomputers being happy being big supercomputers.

No more off the string so sad stuck in box (I still love these angsty AUs tho, smooch) but more sshhh I'm busy listening to runaway radio waves from space.

[delta-orionis]

I made an updated ref for my iterator OC Three Stars Above Clouds! Not much has changed since I designed them earlier this year, but I figured it was useful to make a more detailed ref sheet (primarily for my own convenience).

I’ve included some extra biographical info as well as my region map for TSAC’s internals, as well as what their can looks like from the outside, and the inside of their puppet chamber.

I have an in-character ask blog for TSAC over here. Give it a look! I love exploring their character and I'm having a lot of fun.

Some additional links:

TSAC's original ref (contains an extended backstory as well)

TSAC's region map (contains descriptions of the subregions and connections)

TSAC's facility grounds map (details their surrounding area and explains the purposes of each section)

TSAC's general tag on my main blog (misc. info and musings)

A transcription for the text in the images plus some additional notes can be found under the cut.

[ First image - a standard character reference sheet ]

Three Stars Above Clouds

Experimental mountaintop iterator created to catalogue and study celestial objects. Iterator of the Institute-Metropolis of Zenith*. Director of the Zenith Stellar Observatory Consortium and Lead Archivist of the Zenith Data Archives. they/them

Three Stars Above Clouds is an iterator- a massive biomechanical superstructure and supercomputer designed by the "Ancient" civilization to search for a true Solution for Global Ascension.

Three Stars Above Clouds ('TSAC' for short, occasionally 'Three Stars' or rarely just 'Stars') was created by a Firmamentalist** splinter group of Ancients who believed that the Solution could only be found in the sky. TSAC was created to be an advanced stellar observatory, meticulously cataloguing and analyzing all manner of night sky phenomena, as well as a home and institute of learning for the researchers, scholars, and priests of the Firmamentalist sect.

[ Second image - A drawing of TSAC facing away from the viewer, next to an extended description ]

TSAC might not share all of their creators' beliefs, but believes their assigned task of recording and studying the sky to be of upmost importance. They take this responsibility very seriously and value it above all else.

As a result, they are quite reclusive, always too busy with work to talk to anyone. Before the Global Ascension Event, the majority of their social contact was with high-ranking researchers and priests from Zenith, as well as brief, professional conversations with other iterators in their field to discuss theories and compare data. Because all of their social development was in a formal academic setting, they have a polite, professional, almost robotic tone (even by iterator standards).

Despite this, TSAC is not actively antisocial. They enjoy talking to others, and enjoy education in particular. However their intense focus on their work and sheltered upbringing meant they very rarely initiated social contact, only responding if spoken to first. After the Global Ascension Event, TSAC became even more reclusive, choosing only to listen to broadcasts and rarely speaking publicly, if ever.

In the absence of their creators, TSAC was no longer in charge of managing everyday life in the city of Zenith and found themself with free time for the first time in ages. Their self reflections during this time, combined with the worsening decay of the global iterator communications network, made TSAC realize that they barely knew their fellow iterators, and they decided to try and get to know them before they lost the chance.

---

*Zenith is the name of the city atop TSAC's can. It is home to several colleges, research institutes, and observatories.

**The Firmamentalists are the name I came up with for the group that created TSAC. They share much of the same religious beliefs as the rest of Ancient society, but believe that the Solution can only be found by searching the sky (aka the firmament). I'll assume that Firmamentalists or other like-minded splinter groups created other similar astronomy-focused iterators.

The Firmamentalist society of Zenith places a focus on education and the acquisition of knowledge, and considers anything related to learning holy. To learn is to better understand the nature of the carnal plane, as well as how to ascend beyond it. Three Stars Above Clouds was created to aid them in this task.

[objectum-culture-is]

not objectum ( maybe ) but you guys would LOVE rain world iterators . they're massive living superstructure supercomputers and they're GORGEOUS !!! i've compiled some screenshots and game files and other random images here to show them off :

outside view . gigantic fucking things. they have cities on top of them . they're so tall they reach above the clouds . in fact they CREATED all these clouds from all the water vapor they breathe out . they shape the ecosystem with the heat and rain they produce . isn't that just cool ???

the INSIDE view however is something else entirely . densely packed machinery , the buzzing and humming of circuits , gorgeous fluorescent lights , breathtaking internal architecture ... EASILY the most beautiful part of any iterator . and theyre so massive and interconnected that i could crawl around in these processing strata for days without even backtracking

and if you're more of a fan of humanoid things , they even have PUPPETS deep inside their structures that allow them to communicate to the outside world !!! just look at these fellas !!!!!! they're so damn cute

this is your call to play rain world . i love iterators and rain world so so so much and you should get the game Right Now and meet these pretty biomechanical robots for yourself

Omg yall look at this!!! Thank you so much for sharing ^^ omg!!!

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Moon Knight

Moon Knight is an underrated character who's been around since the mid-70's, but has only recently gotten the more attention he deserves since the Disney+ adaptation. However, I am a firm comics supremacy believer and can attest he is even cooler in the comics. The current run (Moon Knight 2021) is the best he's been written in quite some time for example, as it's friendly to veteran fans and new fans alike!

Moon Knight is not your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man; he will fuck you up if you deserve it, and benefits from the fact that many villains are terrified of him.

Moon Knight is canonically Jewish, and though he is non-practising, it plays a major part in his story and identity.

It's also worth noting that Moon Knight has DID, with three identities: Marc Spector (host), Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.

He's such an interesting and compelling character. The comics have spawned countless hilarious memes (I know you're here Dracula you big nerd wheres my money; random bullshit go; etc). The show was amazing, and Oscar Isaac acted his ass off

They are so cool; they're both canonically Jewish and have DID

One of the most unique superheroes out there due to being plural. Really cool, too.

I love him, your honor. I'd like to say more but the truth is I only watched the show and I will leave the propaganda to comics fans.

Looks to the Moon

I LOVE BIG SIS MOON AHHHH... she's literally so so sweet and perfect and i love her…

MY GIRL!!! She deserved so much better. She's one of the first of many MASSIVE supercomputers called iterators designed to solve a problem which her creators eventually gave up on any of them solving and thus was left behind to gradually fall into disrepair. Even though she appears as a small humanoid, iterators in their entirety are actually buildings full of machinery that have entire cities built on top of them.

As one of the senior iterators, Looks to the Moon, sometimes called Big Sis Moon, looks after her younger peers and is very caring towards her fellow iterators. Tragically, her kindness ultimately leads to her structure collapsing leaving her weak and with limited cognitive ability, but even then she is so sweet to the main character. You can bring her random items and she'll describe each one, even if it's just a rock or something. She also gives you advice whenever possible.

She's gone through so much and yet is still so incredibly kind please vote for her she deserves it

Looks to the moon is an iterator, a city-sized biomechanical supercomputer. When you meet her, she is trapped in the flooded and collapsed husk of her superstructure, barely alive. Despite this, she is warm and kind and will tell you about any object you bring her. Looks to the Moon also goes by the name Big Sis Moon, as she is the most senior iterator in the local group and views the other iterators in her care as younger siblings

Moon's the best! She's an iterator, a sentient supercomputer whose structure used to be so big it housed an entire city on top of it. However, the civilization that built her is long gone, and she and the other iterators were left behind, unable to die, unable to leave their structures. Imagine once being a god with an entire civilization relying on you for all their vital resources, only to be left behind, literally a mountain bolted to the ground, as the wildlife slowly takes over the land and your communications with the other iterator fail. Moon's little brother Five Pebble's couldn't accept this fate, and made some rash decicions. This badly damaged Moon's systems, causing her structure to come crashing down to the ground, and her to lose most of her memories and processing power. There's something magical in discovering her for the first time - this fallen Goddess taken over by rust, abandoned inside the giant ruins that used to be her body. Still, she's friendly, and should you be kind to her, she'll return the gesture. She doesn't have much, but she'll gladly give you company and tell you stories. She also still cares about her brother very much, even though he's the one to blame for her bad state. 

Moon is a superintelligent AI called an Iterator. She's designed to (basically) help the lesser beings of the world escape samsara, along with the potentially thousands of other iterators. She was accidentally killed by her brother as he attempted to escape samsara for himself. She's the only character the player can meaningfully interact with, and she's very sweet and kind.

[just-some-guy-joust]

ah, right, forgot the subs were anon!

i had two essays, one about rain world artificer and one about looks to the moon. with looks to the moon, i delved a bit into the backstory of the iterators to explain their function and emphasized how she can't actually die and described how she spent several cycles drowning yet undying

for artificer, i described her in terms of how she's shackled to the cycle of violence and discussed how both endings keep her tied to that cycle. idk if there were any other arti subs tho so mine might be the only one firjfjej

Thank you I know which ones are yours now! Here they are for those who'd like to see :D

Artificer:

Artificer was once a mother to two children that she loved very dearly. One made the mistake of accidentally stealing a pearl from a tribe of fickle, pearl-loving creatures called scavengers, and the scavengers gave chase, killing one child and causing the other to be drowned while Artificer watched. Neither returned to the cycle, likely being too young to be beholden to it yet.

Now, she seeks vengance on her lost children's lives, enough to become combustive and corrosive in her own right, slaying scavengers ruthlessly and mercilessly. She traps herself in a cycle of violence and is shackled to the karmic sin of it, even in the gameplay. Echoes of those who were too attached to the world to ascend beg her to let her vengance go, but when given the keys and access to the king of the scavengers she has to make a choice.

Should she brave the Metropolis ravaged by scavengers, she will burn the mark of violence on her soul and trap her eternally into an endless cycle of bloodshed and killing and outright genocide.

Should she make the pilgrimage to all the echoes and try to atone for her path of vengance, that lingering thread of hate binds her to the world, leaving her to become an echo herself.

No matter which she chooses, she's trapped in a cycle of violence and hate and is unable to break free of it whatsoever. All she can do is spill more blood.

Looks To The Moon:

Moon is an iterator, a sentient supercomputer in a world of perpetual death and rebirth, one of many built to find a permanent, risk-free death for her creators at the cost of massive amounts of water to cool their internals and dispose of slag buildup. This causes the eponymous rains. Her neighbor, Five Pebbles, was built with the same water source as her due to him being newer and restrictions being loosened on building, since her structure wasn't outfitted to house an entire city's worth of people.

She and Pebbles, alongside all iterators, were left with no purpose in their lives.

Another iterator, Sliver of Straw, is the only one confirmed to have died and released a triple affirmative (the solution has been found, the solution is portable, the solution is universally applicable), which sent many iterators into a frenzy to learn what she had found out, including Five Pebbles.

He'd gotten an idea and started triplicating his water intake, depriving Moon of water. After multiple failed attempts at communication, and even a forced communication that disrupted Pebbles' work enough to doom him too, she and her superstructure collapsed not long after.

I think she's doomed by the narrative because there is nothing we, as any player character, can do at any point in time to stop her collapse. We can certainly help by offering her some resources, a power cell, and Hunter's payload, but she'll never return to full power. She'll be stuck in an exposed chamber, drowning in the rain cycle after cycle. And in the end, when even Pebbles collapses, the only peace that can be fully offered to her is ascension that had been denied her by her very creators. She is a character not obsessed with dying or death the way others are, but her outlook can be a bit bleak and grim on her future. When we talk to her, her memory is patchy and fuzzy, and even when we restore some of her power, her abilities are severely limited in what she can do to help herself.

[trial-by-yuri]

the first slugcat in the timeline is named Spearmaster. It's sent by Seven Red Suns when he notices that Five Pebbles has shut off comms and becoming the super slurper. basically to figure out like. what the fuck pebbles is up to and maybe tell him to stop. What's notable about Spearmaster is that it's designed very effieciently- Spearmaster is what's called a Purposed Organism, basically genetically modified for a specific purpose (in this case, delivering messages). Spearmaster was designed not only to deliver messages, but return, alive, after doign so- remember this it will be relavant later. it's also revealed that Spearmaster is the one who brought the data on hwo to Kill Yourself to Pebbles, because it was too dangerous to send over official broadcasts.

anyways. Spearmaster gets to Pebbles. I honestly can't remember if this is before or after Moon's forced broadcast, but i want to say it is before. Because after going to pebbles, you can then go visit Looks to the Moon. she's in real bad shape- dehydration is a real killer. anyways she realizes she's completely fucked and her entire superstructure (big building with all the computer parts built on massive legs to stand above the ground) is going to collapse soon. So she gives Spearmaster a message pearl containing her final message to the Local Group (nearby Iterators) which is super fucking sad. anyways once you deliver the message to the broadcast point you finish the campaign adn get this image which is just about the best thing ever:

That's Seven Red Suns, who is just a guy who loves his cat. so much. in one bit of dialouge you can find he even says he plans on giving Spearmaster a proper name once he returns from his expedition to Five Pebbles. which is just so fucking cute he is literally a guy who lvoes his cat. im not crying you're crying.

were crying together bestie holy shit

[perverted-machine]

i seee i see... its honestly fun to see where people fall on the robot/object/superstructure loving spectrum, labeling and reasonings for it are something i've always been really interested in!! in regards to rambling, iterators have been on my mind a lot, lately. especially model to model variation? not only generational, but cultural differences between areas. there's a wide spectrum to explore, but one thing pertaining to robot-fucking that people seem to not really prod at is poking INSIDE of the arm. i'm sure most of this is due to not a lot of people making the arms as clunky as I usually do (wire filled, bits and bobs, etc. varying functionality, oc haver as you may be able to tell) but I think about it a lot... Mannerisms, too. Puppets are so fun, but I think the way they move must vary so much. their little quirks... Maybe some put more emphasis in their arm, moving it around with little regard for the puppets positioning, maybe they forget they're supposed to emote with the puppet. maybe some put emphasis on the puppets motions, maybe some forget about it entirely, or have delayed reactions; if your speakers are built into the chamber and not the puppet itself, there could be a noticeable delay!

Yes, absolutely! I’m not entirely sure if this is actually programmed in the game, or just purely coincidence, but I’ve noticed that Moon (while functioning) tends to sit in the middle of her chamber for a long period of time during her idle animations. Meanwhile, Pebbles always seems to be moving, zipping around his chamber from corner to corner. Moon has to conserve her dwindling energy, while Pebbles has no time to sit still. Then, in Rubicon, Pebbles’ movements around Moon seem…jerky? Awkward? Stilted? How are you supposed to react to seeing the face of your sister, whose death you caused?

I’ve also read a couple fanfics where new iterators have a hard time making precise movements with their puppets, because it’s condensing the feelings of a massive, near infinite supercomputer into a tiny doll on the end of a stick.

My personal, silly headcanon is that Moon likes hanging upside down on her rig. No reason why, I just think it’d be cute seeing her with her dress floating around her while she hangs there and giggles.

I really do adore iterator puppets, they’re too adorably tiny and cute looking to be the face of an incomprehensible machine! Now, that’s not to say I don’t drool over the rest of Moon, of course. My favorite area of her can has to be her abstract convergence manifold, it’s so pretty! I could watch the ebb and flow of the lights in her processing strata for hours. Drifting around in the antigravity must feel like a warm hug.

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Looks to the Moon

I LOVE BIG SIS MOON AHHHH... she's literally so so sweet and perfect and i love her…

MY GIRL!!! She deserved so much better. She's one of the first of many MASSIVE supercomputers called iterators designed to solve a problem which her creators eventually gave up on any of them solving and thus was left behind to gradually fall into disrepair. Even though she appears as a small humanoid, iterators in their entirety are actually buildings full of machinery that have entire cities built on top of them.

As one of the senior iterators, Looks to the Moon, sometimes called Big Sis Moon, looks after her younger peers and is very caring towards her fellow iterators. Tragically, her kindness ultimately leads to her structure collapsing leaving her weak and with limited cognitive ability, but even then she is so sweet to the main character. You can bring her random items and she'll describe each one, even if it's just a rock or something. She also gives you advice whenever possible.

She's gone through so much and yet is still so incredibly kind please vote for her she deserves it

Looks to the moon is an iterator, a city-sized biomechanical supercomputer. When you meet her, she is trapped in the flooded and collapsed husk of her superstructure, barely alive. Despite this, she is warm and kind and will tell you about any object you bring her. Looks to the Moon also goes by the name Big Sis Moon, as she is the most senior iterator in the local group and views the other iterators in her care as younger siblings

Moon's the best! She's an iterator, a sentient supercomputer whose structure used to be so big it housed an entire city on top of it. However, the civilization that built her is long gone, and she and the other iterators were left behind, unable to die, unable to leave their structures. Imagine once being a god with an entire civilization relying on you for all their vital resources, only to be left behind, literally a mountain bolted to the ground, as the wildlife slowly takes over the land and your communications with the other iterator fail. Moon's little brother Five Pebble's couldn't accept this fate, and made some rash decicions. This badly damaged Moon's systems, causing her structure to come crashing down to the ground, and her to lose most of her memories and processing power. There's something magical in discovering her for the first time - this fallen Goddess taken over by rust, abandoned inside the giant ruins that used to be her body. Still, she's friendly, and should you be kind to her, she'll return the gesture. She doesn't have much, but she'll gladly give you company and tell you stories. She also still cares about her brother very much, even though he's the one to blame for her bad state. 

Moon is a superintelligent AI called an Iterator. She's designed to (basically) help the lesser beings of the world escape samsara, along with the potentially thousands of other iterators. She was accidentally killed by her brother as he attempted to escape samsara for himself. She's the only character the player can meaningfully interact with, and she's very sweet and kind.

Majora's Mask Moon

Now that's a very angry looking Moon!

Omnipresent. The best way to describe them. You look up. They are there. You can reset time as many times as you like…but until you deal with the problem…the moon is still there.

They are the moon. You can't get moonier than the literal fucking moon. Any yes, they are a major character with autonomy in the story. 

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Looks to the Moon

I LOVE BIG SIS MOON AHHHH... she's literally so so sweet and perfect and i love her…

MY GIRL!!! She deserved so much better. She's one of the first of many MASSIVE supercomputers called iterators designed to solve a problem which her creators eventually gave up on any of them solving and thus was left behind to gradually fall into disrepair. Even though she appears as a small humanoid, iterators in their entirety are actually buildings full of machinery that have entire cities built on top of them.

As one of the senior iterators, Looks to the Moon, sometimes called Big Sis Moon, looks after her younger peers and is very caring towards her fellow iterators. Tragically, her kindness ultimately leads to her structure collapsing leaving her weak and with limited cognitive ability, but even then she is so sweet to the main character. You can bring her random items and she'll describe each one, even if it's just a rock or something. She also gives you advice whenever possible.

She's gone through so much and yet is still so incredibly kind please vote for her she deserves it

Looks to the moon is an iterator, a city-sized biomechanical supercomputer. When you meet her, she is trapped in the flooded and collapsed husk of her superstructure, barely alive. Despite this, she is warm and kind and will tell you about any object you bring her. Looks to the Moon also goes by the name Big Sis Moon, as she is the most senior iterator in the local group and views the other iterators in her care as younger siblings

Moon's the best! She's an iterator, a sentient supercomputer whose structure used to be so big it housed an entire city on top of it. However, the civilization that built her is long gone, and she and the other iterators were left behind, unable to die, unable to leave their structures. Imagine once being a god with an entire civilization relying on you for all their vital resources, only to be left behind, literally a mountain bolted to the ground, as the wildlife slowly takes over the land and your communications with the other iterator fail. Moon's little brother Five Pebble's couldn't accept this fate, and made some rash decicions. This badly damaged Moon's systems, causing her structure to come crashing down to the ground, and her to lose most of her memories and processing power. There's something magical in discovering her for the first time - this fallen Goddess taken over by rust, abandoned inside the giant ruins that used to be her body. Still, she's friendly, and should you be kind to her, she'll return the gesture. She doesn't have much, but she'll gladly give you company and tell you stories. She also still cares about her brother very much, even though he's the one to blame for her bad state. 

Moon is a superintelligent AI called an Iterator. She's designed to (basically) help the lesser beings of the world escape samsara, along with the potentially thousands of other iterators. She was accidentally killed by her brother as he attempted to escape samsara for himself. She's the only character the player can meaningfully interact with, and she's very sweet and kind.

Moonwatcher

No propaganda was submitted. 

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Princess Yue

She was blessed by the moon spirits than turned into the moon herself. No one can compete with that. 

The Sokka & Zuko "Well, my first girlfriend turned into the moon." / "That's rough, buddy." meme is referencing Yue - that's the girlfriend that turned into the moon!

THE moon character of all time like c'mon. she turned into the moon. will her sacrifice be for naught??? she's yue from avatar the last airbender c'mon guys

She sacrificed herself to save her people even though she had just found someone who loved her as a person and not a princess. She's all about sacrificing her own wants for duty, and right when she starts to realize maybe that's a little unfair she has to become the moon spirit and leave behind all the people she loves.

And she's pretty.

How many characters are the literal moon. How many.

Bro. She's the moon. She IS the moon. 

Vote Yue for Sokka's same

She's very much and selfless, becoming the moon spirit to save the world from permanent imbalance.

She IS the moon

That's rough, buddy

You know the meme "my girlfriend turned into the moon" "that's rough buddy". This is that girlfriend. This is that moon. 

She literally is the moon.

She played a major role for a one-off character

Victim of forced marriage

Her interactions with Sokka were really funny

She has white hair, what's not to love

Legitimately I love her, underappreciated in the fandom for how great she is.

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

"That's rough buddy."

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

"That's rough buddy." 

She died in a main character's arms & it fucked him up SO bad. It affects him thru to the end of the show & keeps coming up. LOVE it when main characters get traumatized!!

Looks to the Moon

I LOVE BIG SIS MOON AHHHH... she's literally so so sweet and perfect and i love her…

MY GIRL!!! She deserved so much better. She's one of the first of many MASSIVE supercomputers called iterators designed to solve a problem which her creators eventually gave up on any of them solving and thus was left behind to gradually fall into disrepair. Even though she appears as a small humanoid, iterators in their entirety are actually buildings full of machinery that have entire cities built on top of them.

As one of the senior iterators, Looks to the Moon, sometimes called Big Sis Moon, looks after her younger peers and is very caring towards her fellow iterators. Tragically, her kindness ultimately leads to her structure collapsing leaving her weak and with limited cognitive ability, but even then she is so sweet to the main character. You can bring her random items and she'll describe each one, even if it's just a rock or something. She also gives you advice whenever possible.

She's gone through so much and yet is still so incredibly kind please vote for her she deserves it

Looks to the moon is an iterator, a city-sized biomechanical supercomputer. When you meet her, she is trapped in the flooded and collapsed husk of her superstructure, barely alive. Despite this, she is warm and kind and will tell you about any object you bring her. Looks to the Moon also goes by the name Big Sis Moon, as she is the most senior iterator in the local group and views the other iterators in her care as younger siblings

Moon's the best! She's an iterator, a sentient supercomputer whose structure used to be so big it housed an entire city on top of it. However, the civilization that built her is long gone, and she and the other iterators were left behind, unable to die, unable to leave their structures. Imagine once being a god with an entire civilization relying on you for all their vital resources, only to be left behind, literally a mountain bolted to the ground, as the wildlife slowly takes over the land and your communications with the other iterator fail. Moon's little brother Five Pebble's couldn't accept this fate, and made some rash decicions. This badly damaged Moon's systems, causing her structure to come crashing down to the ground, and her to lose most of her memories and processing power. There's something magical in discovering her for the first time - this fallen Goddess taken over by rust, abandoned inside the giant ruins that used to be her body. Still, she's friendly, and should you be kind to her, she'll return the gesture. She doesn't have much, but she'll gladly give you company and tell you stories. She also still cares about her brother very much, even though he's the one to blame for her bad state. 

Moon is a superintelligent AI called an Iterator. She's designed to (basically) help the lesser beings of the world escape samsara, along with the potentially thousands of other iterators. She was accidentally killed by her brother as he attempted to escape samsara for himself. She's the only character the player can meaningfully interact with, and she's very sweet and kind.

[delta-orionis]

i think tsac would like my starbound au where iterators find out how to create more of themselves and eventually move to space with massive spaceships taking the place of their superstructures. not realistic but ykno. my au my rules

oh I love starbound!! tell me more about this au!!

I do think TSAC would enjoy actually being able to visit the stars they've been staring at for so long. I also think iterators probably wouldn't be bothered by the often centuries-long travel times it takes to move between stars, because they're functionally immortal. (Though I do know that FTL travel is a thing in starbound, so that's also an option)

The concept of them eventually becoming a spacefaring race of sentient spaceships is definitely an interesting one. (I read a novel about a similar idea once, but I dropped the series because the main character(s) was/were some of the most irritating I've ever come across in fiction lmao)