idk if it’s just the buildingkin in me but nobody conceptualizes the iterators correctly. the puppet is not their “true self”, making them “off-string” wouldn’t make the puppet like an individual human. the puppet would die. that’s an amputated toe. the iterator would survive, ofc, but the puppet wouldn’t. the puppet isn’t even vital. sure it’s good for communication and humanization, but the iterators in their post-mass ascension society could hypothetically get along fine without them. because they can talk to each other without their puppets.
the iterator is the superstructure. that’s the brain, the organs, the meat. that’s their body. the iterator is the ecosystems inside it, the overseers made from it, the metal and flesh of their walls. puppets are not nearly as prominent to an iterator than the fandom deems them to be.
— an unspecified rain world kin