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- Five Pebbles – “Can I tell you something? Lately... I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?”
- Seven Red Suns – “Yes, I'll spell this out - not because you're stupid or naive... Also, not saying that you're not ~”
- Five Pebbles – “Please, I'm coming to you for guidance.”
- — Five Pebbles and Seven Red Suns chatting about their purpose
Sunstone is the non-binary ship between Seven Red Suns and Five Pebbles from the Rain World fandom.
Canon[]
Pre-Game Lore[]
Seven Red Suns and Five Pebbles are Iterators from the video game Rain World. They are close friends who share a purpose in their world as well as philosophy about said purpose.
Seven Red Suns has started talking with Five Pebbles not too long after he was put online. After the Benefactors have disappeared, Seven Red Suns' view of the Big Problem which the Iterators are all working on has become cynical and they openly proclaim the task to be futile. In-game, they mention this during a dialogue with Five Pebbles. They compare the Iterators to bugs in a maze who, given infinite time, can theoretically find a way out. Five Pebbles subscribes to this idea, however he is much more pessimistic about it. He struggles to accept this fate, and is tired and frustrated by the constant trying and trying. Five Pebbles sees Seven Red Suns as his mentor and a good friend, trusting them and looking up to them for guidance.
At some point before Spearmaster's campaign, Seven Red Suns sends Spearmaster to deliver the Gold Pearl to Five Pebbles. The pearl contains the information on how to circumvent the self-destruction taboo. However, they do not consider how desperate Five Pebbles is to escape his situation. Five Pebbles' own impatience and unpredictable behavior later leads to an accident where Five Pebbles gets infected with the Rot. After this, he ceases his communications with Seven Red Suns. During the time they don't speak together, Seven Red Suns eventually starts becoming worried about him.
Some time after the Rot infection, Unparalleled Innocence discovers it by sending their Overseers to his can. They reveal pictures of his situation to the local group. Chasing Wind states it was most likely an attempt to be mean. After realizing everyone has found out about his state and are worried and pitying him, Five Pebbles only becomes more frustrated. This results in him blocking his communications with nearly everyone, including Seven Red Suns. Seven Red Suns finds out about Five Pebbles' Rot after Chasing Wind contacts them about it. After being asked whether they've had any contact with Five Pebbles in the recent time, Seven Red Suns states it has been a long while since their last chat, unless worrying about him counts. They are immediately concerned after hearing about his unfortunate illness and say they will attempt to contact him.
In-Game Events[]
After finding out about Five Pebbles' Rot infection, Seven Red Suns sends Spearmaster to his superstructure once more with another message for him - a pearl inside their messenger's chest. This parallels the way Seven Red Suns has given Five Pebbles the Gold Pearl. It is an alternative to contacting him through the broadcast network, since Five Pebbles has blocked all his communication systems. During this, Seven Red Suns also talks with No Significant Harassment. Their dialogue mostly revolves around the situation with Five Pebbles. Seven Red Suns also mentions their attempts at getting Five Pebbles past his excessive defiance and drive for independence, which seemed to be making good progress up until this point.
Once Spearmaster makes their way to Five Pebbles, however, he lacks his previous carefulness while handling the creature and hurts them while removing the pearl from their chest. After reading the contents of Seven Red Suns' message - a desperate attempt at stopping him from hurting himself and his sister, paired with an honest apology - Five Pebbles only gets more furious, kills Seven Red Suns' Overseer and kicks Spearmaster out, before locking down his facility which ultimately cuts off his contact with Seven Red Suns. After Spearmaster's campaign, Seven Red Suns is devastated and frustrated, feeling immense guilt for dooming not just Five Pebbles, but also his sister, Looks to the Moon.
Five Pebbles eventually realizes his mistakes, as well as the reason for his previous anger towards Seven Red Suns - them being the last person who he wanted to be confronted by about his mistakes. He can't bring himself to contact them again, but believes if he fixes himself and his attempts at ascension by reproducing Sliver of Straw's results succeed, Seven Red Suns will understand. He refers to them as a close friend even during Artificer's campaign.
Quotes[]
- Five Pebbles – “Can I tell you something? Lately... I'm tired of trying and trying. And angry that they left us here. The anger makes me even less inclined to solve their puzzle for them. Why do we do this?”
- Seven Red Suns – “Yes, I'll spell this out - not because you're stupid or naive... Also, not saying that you're not ~”
- Five Pebbles – “Please, I'm coming to you for guidance.”
- Seven Red Suns – “Sorry, very sorry. I kid. Fact is, of course we are all aware of the evident futility of this Big Task. It's not said out loud but if you were better at reading between the lines there's nowhere you wouldn't see it. We're all frustrated.”
- Five Pebbles – “So why do we continue? We assemble work groups, we ponder, we iterate and try. Some of us die. It's not fair.”
- Seven Red Suns – “Because there's not any options. What else CAN we do? You're stuck in your can, and at any moment you have no more than two alternatives: Do nothing, or work like you're supposed to. An analogy. You have a maze, and you have a handful of bugs. You put the bugs in the maze, and you leave. Given infinite time, one of the bugs WILL find a way out, if they just erratically try and try. This is why they called us Iterators.”
- Five Pebbles – “But we do die of old age.”
- Seven Red Suns – “Even more incentive! You know that nothing ever truly dies though, around and around it goes. Granted, our tools and resources get worse over time - but that is theoretically unproblematic, because in time even a miniscule chance will strike a positive. All the same to them, they're not around anymore!”
- Five Pebbles – “I struggle to accept being a bug.”
- — Five Pebbles and Seven Red Suns discussing their purpose
- Seven Red Suns – “I can't stop dwelling over mistakes that I've made. I could just delete those memories of course, but that feels irresponsible.”
- No Significant Harassment – “Oh? What kind of mistakes are we talking about here?”
- Seven Red Suns – “I once gave someone some... sensitive information... the kind that could be dangerous if acted on. Yet I should have known they weren't in the right state to use that information responsibly.”
- No Significant Harassment – “I take it you won't tell me the content, or to who.”
- Seven Red Suns – “No, I will not, out of respect.”
- No Significant Harassment – “Look, if you ever want to talk about it I can. We can share this little problem of yours. We were made to solve them after all! You're worried they're going to get themselves hurt by messing it up?”
- Seven Red Suns – “They already have.”
- — Seven Red Suns talking about their mistakes to No Significant Harassment
- “Suns...? Why did you send the messenger here again? Please leave, I cannot afford any further distractions; I am the only one who can fix this now. I trust that you understand me... You've brought your overseer all this way, the least I can do is read your message aloud for it. "Pebbles, I send you this message as your concerned and long time friend. Unparalleled Innocence had sent an overseer to your can, and we've all observed the state that you are in. I know this is my fault, I should have foreseen you'd be too desperate to escape your situation to do things in proper moderation. For that I'm very very sorry. However, please, don't disable your communication modules. You don't have to go through this alone... everyone has been trying to contact you, We only want to help you... The behavior from your can has become erratic, it's not healthy, and it is not going to solve your problems. We have lost all communications from Moon as well, and have reason to believe her facility may be suffering irreversible damage from your attempts to fix yourself. I know better than anyone how you can be about these things, but it doesn't have to happen this way... please respond back." Astounding. You could never understand what I feel right now, being pitied and lectured like this! What use would your help be? Your benevolent charity is what got me here in the first place! I wanted to find my own way out, and now I sit here rotting because of you and Moon! I'm not just another bug wandering your worthless maze! I will reach my own solution, without any of you! Get out! GET OUT!”
- — Five Pebbles' dialogue as Spearmaster
- Seven Red Suns – “I remember talking with Five Pebbles not too long after he was first put online. He had a bit of defiance, even back then. It was an odd situation, to be certain. It's quite rare for one iterator to be made the administrator of another. Just as rare as them being built right next to each other.”
- No Significant Harassment – “His lack of appreciation used to bother me. Moon was a great big sister to him!”
- Seven Red Suns – “Yes, absolutely. However, Five Pebbles had a very strong drive for independence. He was never one to want to be told what to do.”
- No Significant Harassment – “I think a lot of us were like that in the beginning. I remember being in that phase a very long time ago. It takes many iterations for our world views to develop and for us to realize the flaws in those lines of thinking. Unfortunately, from what I've seen, Five Pebbles seems to have plateaued at that phase.”
- Seven Red Suns – “No, that's not true. I was helping him to get past it. We were making good progress, actually! The current situation, however, is going to be a very big setback...”
- — Seven Red Suns discussing Five Pebbles' personality
- “This was a gift from a close friend. It is instructions on how to remove the self-destruction taboo. We are not built to ascend like our creators. It is our role to think, to guide the lesser creatures of the world onto a path towards it. However, a definitive solution has not been found. While the equipment to find one decays, it seems my kind have collectively accepted to remain trapped inside of our creator's puzzle. Meanwhile, the answer remains locked behind their sanctioned taboos. I regret what has happened, but I can't go back now. Not after what I've done. I need to fix this, and try again. If I can just reproduce Sliver of Straw's results, they will understand. I was so close...”
- — Five Pebbles describing a gift from Seven Red Suns - the Gold Pearl - to Artificer
Fanon[]
Sunstone is one of the most popular Iterator ships, alongside with Lilypad and Ragequit. As of June 2025, there are nearly 100 works with the Five Pebbles/Seven Red Suns (Rain World) tag on AO3, while the Five Pebbles & Seven Red Suns (Rain World) tag has a little over 70 works. Usually, the relationship is characterized similarly to canon, with Seven Red Suns portrayed as Five Pebbles' mentor alongside being a close friend/partner. Considering their rocky past, a lot of Sunstone media focuses on them fixing their relationship. In some works, Five Pebbles also sees Seven Red Suns as even more god-like than all Iterators are implied to be.
Fandom[]
Five Pebbles/Seven Red Suns (Rain World) tag on AO3
Five Pebbles & Seven Red Suns (Rain World) tag on AO3
Trivia[]
- The ship name "Sunstone" is a reference to their names (Suns and Pebbles). It is also a real mineral.
- In his dialogue in Survivor's campaign, Five Pebbles mentions a "strange charity" involving himself and the creatures who he guides to ascension. He has previously mentioned this in Spearmaster's campaign while talking to Seven Red Suns - "[Seven Red Suns'] benevolent charity is what got me here in the first place!"
- Seven Red Suns and Five Pebbles seem to have a habit of calling each other by a short version of their names (Suns/Pebbles), for example during Five Pebbles' dialogue in Spearmaster's campaign. This isn't common amongst Iterators, unless they are particularly close.
- Seven Red Suns teases Five Pebbles for him being unable to read between the lines, however, ironically, it is them who doesn't realize Five Pebbles' desperation when giving him the Gold Pearl.
- Seven Red Suns is confirmed to use they/them pronouns. This is confirmed through Five Pebbles' dialogue specifically - "... None of them understood my theories, but Suns, they trusted me. They risked so much trying to help me, and I hurt them. ..."