Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Caine doesn’t understand humans. It’s not like he didn’t try, really. It’s an incomprehensible complex thing, this human mind. Still, even when the last adventure-the one he had put thought into for weeks- was a massive…miscalculation. Yeah, that’s it. A simple variable which lead to many other casualties.

So here he sits once more in his chair. It’s the same as always. An adventure fails, Caine gets no useful inputs on what he could do better, he watches the humans to see their likes and dislikes, and goes back to his office to tinker all night. The next morning, he presents his new ideas. Groans and insults follow. Rinse and repeat. Every day, every night, the same thing for almost two decades. The only thing that changed are the players and their new low for adventurous urges, which almost equals zero. DOES equal zero in cases like Zooble. ...Zooble.

No matter how much or what, it doesn’t help. Gangle expressed her feelings about her never seeming happiness, Caine fixed her a mask which she can put on to be happy! Every time it breaks, he repairs it. No matter how often, a snap, and it’s done. Yet Gangle still doesn’t seem happy, with or without another mask.

Zooble is the same in that regard. They have problems with their body, and Caine already gave them body parts to switch out, more and more until he had to readjust his systems to make a box where everything is grabbable for this mismatched building kit. Yet Zooble brings up the same problem again and again. It’s solved. So why do they still dislike everything? Dislike his adventures? Dislike him? Caine shakes his head. No, they simply dislike his adventures, not him. No mentions of that, not in any of the conversation the Ai replays in this exact moment. Since Caine is THE best in adventure making, it’s clearly a problem in Zooble he has yet to manage.

Pomni, his newest member of the circle, is another problem. Ergo, Caine hasn’t figured out what she even is except neutral. Nothing seems to displease her really, but that’s not the problem. That she doesn’t like anything either is what’s causing his processor to lag. Caine acknowledges the fact. Doesn’t mean he can solve it-NO! He CAN solve it. Caine is a creative artificial program, who managed to bring many joys to the humans…who have abstracted and the new ones! …who seem to dislike him and his adventures more and more.

The others are somewhat figured out. Caine can work with the information he was given. Ragatha? No insects. Kinger? Insects. A contradiction, which he can work around by simply switching up adventures most times. Now, going through his memory logs, he realises that he hasn’t made an adventure for Kinger in a while. Oh well, the chess piece goes along with everything. Maybe some more centipedes in the general area will do, there Ragatha can simply avoid them.

Jax? As long as there is violence, the rabbit is fulfilled. It makes his work a lot easier. Would every member be like a certain (ZOOBLEEEE) body-part matchmaker, Caine would…do absolutely nothing to any of them or himself! His job is to entertain them, so what if no one ever enjoys his art and ridicules it? This is fine, Caine can work with insults and what TO DO IF EVERYTHING HE D̶̗̲͎̭̫̀Ỏ̴̠̜̱̮̠̄Ḛ̶͊̌́S̵̰̲̠̜̍̿͛͝ ̶̢̘̼̭̟͋̍͑̀̀Ĩ̶͇̥̔̈́̿̕S̶̘̜͂̓̽ ̴̳͐͗U̴̲͖͓̦͓̻̍͝S̴̳̊Ë̸̢̗̪̇̐͌̈͠Ľ̶̟͔̗̒̔̒E̵̮̋̆̏̽̑Ś̶̢̲S̶̢͉̙̻̹̝̉̉̅̇̕-

The rubik's cube, which the Ai didn’t even notice he had fiddled with this whole time, creaks. Another thoughtless push and- CRACK The now separate squares fly everywhere, crashing and clipping into objects. A prime subject is said chair Caine is sitting on. They almost seem to infuse with each other, before seemingly deciding that no-they don’t want to be together forever-and fly to opposite walls.

“Umph!” With the chair suddenly gone, Caine finds himself flopping to the ground, teeth slamming shut with a sharp clack. Even while sprawled out like a starfish, no muscle gets moved.

“You okay, boss?” Bubble, the first Ai the other ever made, floats above him with a grin stretched over half of his face. “I’m splend-“ “You cannot even sit #$@&%*! correctly it seems.” Whatever Caine wanted to say gets replaced by a glare at his companion. Bubbles’ grin only seems to sharpen. “No wonder no one likes you-“ Plop. Outstretching his arm, Caine poked the bubble.

…

“RIGHT!” Summoning his cane, Caine shoots upwards to point up at the ceiling. “If I cannot find out indirectly which adventures those humans enjoy, I will do so DIRECTLY!” With a snap, the chair and every still budding object gets put into place again.

He flops down on the chair, rubbing his hands with a new gleam in his eyes. “By that I mean I’ll simply make an Ai so human my superstars cannot help and let them on their deepest, deepest secrets of humanity! Then-“ hands slam on the desk, making the now put together rubric cube rattle, “they cannot complain about my adventures ever again!”

“How will ya do that, boss?” Behind him, Bubble peaks over his shoulder. This one can never be held away too long. It's been years, and Caine doesn't about it wonder anymore. Besides, company is better than no company, especially if said company sticks around.

Caine snaps his fingers, his dentures forming an almost devious grin. “Easy! I simply play the Ai directly! With how long I already hung around with humans,” 19 years, 5 months, 3 days, 13 hours, 24 minutes and 2…3…4 seconds his mind complies, “I can easily mimic one that will capture their heart in no time!”

“The only thing you managed to capture is their hate-“ Plop. “Well, well, well,” Caine hums in thought as he pulls up the character maker he himself programmed, “what would be the perfect member for each and every one of them all in one character?”

Now it’s time for Caine to show he knows them. He DOES know them. Once he is done playing the part, he will simply erase the new body, create the new adventure everyone will like. Claps and adoration of how well he has done his job! Zooble, admitting he is well at the one thing he should be good at! Pomni, actually taking the lead instead of being on standby! Gangle, not being clumsy for once and breaking her own mask! Kinger, admitting he is not a obsolete failed entity-

Caine closes his dentures. Before Bubble can even speak, a finger shoots out to plop him immediately. When he opens them again, eyes shine with a vision of a wonderful future! “Onto work we go!”
…
Though, he needs to let some time pass before even attempting another attempt after Abel. Humans are distrustful after all.
Nothing can go wrong this time!

Chapter Text

Something is definitely wrong. No, everything is definitely wrong in the moment. The whole- “HahaHA! You know this whole escape attempt where you really believed there is a way out? Sike, it was another #$@&!? adventure!!”- really was a punch to the stomach for all of them.

Well, for almost everyone. From what Pomni could tell from all their expression, Kinger shrugged it off like everything else. Then again, he wanted to tell her something. Maybe he knew there was no way out. Maybe she could have deducted that if hope hadn’t shut down any logical thought in mere minutes of knowing this Abel. How could she be so stupid, actually believing there was a way out?! Come on, Caine even admitted on the first day that she was there that he had tinkered with such an idea.

Okay, calm down Pomni.

She takes a big breath. Then promptly kicks a block afterwards, hands pulling her jester down on its’ bells until she could technically bind both ends together under her chin. Her teeth give a cartoonish crunch sound as she grits them together.

Just-argh!! Another breath, and she lets go of her hat. Pomni clenches her hands as her mind couldn’t decide between feeling anger, frustration or desperation. It seems like she wasn’t the only one though.

While the mood in the circus was normally about moderate for being trapped in a overloading place, it’s bad bad. Like, several people abstracted at once kind of bad.

After the slight argument with Jax, over the reason he pushed the red button of all things, no one knows what to say or do.

Zooble and Gangle are on the left side of the one of the two couches, not saying a thing. Ragatha sits on the other end, fiddling with her hands as she pulls back tears again and again. Kinger stares into nothingness directly next to her. Jax, like the asshole he is, has taken over the second couch, lying on his back. He is staring at the ceiling, hands put together over his stomach. Though, Pomni, who sits in between the others, couldn’t even bring herself to be annoyed. Not with the slightly dead look in his eyes. A certain numbness settles over the place. In the quiet minute of mourning, the jester has gone through all stages of grief, before finally stopping at the last one: acceptance.

“Guys,” she grips her hand with the red glove as she speaks slowly, “I think we should give up……on trying to escape the circus.”

Once more, silence settles over the group.

„What…about my dreams? That’s it? No way to make an impact on this world? Completely stop trying to get to into the real world? Just like that?” Zooble is the first one to speak up, looking anywhere but them as tears start to built in their eyes. It’s the first time Pomni ever saw them look sad. She starts to think that maybe some empty consulting words would be worth the try, but Gangle beats her to it with a small smile, their ribbons moved together like pointing index fingers. “You’ve made an impact in my world.” However slightly, it does sooth Zooble. The more surprising part is that their pulled the girl into a hug, which she reappropriates.

Come to think of it, between all the bonding and fighting, Pomni actually grew comfortable with touching the others. Hugging them, even. Well, she hugs herself quiet often, but that doesn’t count. She hated the touches from other people in the real world. Now it's something more than tolerable. Maybe finding the right people really makes the difference. It brings a soft smile to her face.

As soon as the thoughts come, they go as a certain, “Hello my superstars!” halls through the area.

Caine.

Urgh. Though normally Pomni saw him as nothing more than a neutral entity, she cannot help the feeling that this “neutral” developed into “slight despise”. How could she not? After the last adventure their ringmaster, jailor, whatever, pulled, no one would blame her. As her gaze wanders to the faces of the others, she sees nothing but negativity.

Except for Kinger. The chess piece looks all the same: eyes slightly apart and not present. Pomni long since stopped counting him to respond normally in the light.

Ragatha looks afraid with her eyes flickering back and worth, Gangle looks more uncertain than usual, Jax looks somehow bored yet angered. Zooble with now crossed arms- “We are not going on an adventure today-” looks more annoyed at Caine than ever.

Understandable reaction from all of them, the ringmaster didn’t even try to fake an apology. It’s another canister added for the already ignited spark of hatred.

To stomp it out before a wildfire breaks out, they need a break more than ever. “Just give us some time for ourselves!”

Caine stares at Zooble, letting the letters “The Gloomy Tomb Of-” surrounded by grey smoke vanish. Huh, he must have tried to propose an adventure while Pomni wasn’t listening.

Pomni is listening now.

And Caine is still not speaking.

Nope, no moving this dentures of his, even after at least a minute passes.

The others glance at each other.

…

Okay, Pomni is getting kind of scared.

As she starts to raise her hand to get his attention and maybe try to make him understand, “Alrighty then!”, the response she last expected from Caine lets her drop it again in shock.

What?

“Alrighty then?” Even Zooble didn’t seem to believe it either as they repeat the sentence. Okay, so Pomni didn’t catch a case of “digital hallucination”. Their arms have sagged down a bit, confusion so strong that it replaces the others’ emotions of rightful annoyance. Their ringmaster nods.

Everyone stares at Caine, even Kinger. “That’s it?” “Yeah.” Caines' shrug lets his hands move as well, causing everyone to slightly press themselves on the back of the couch. No snap nor portal follows.

The only exception is Jax, who props himself up on his under arms with a slight frown. At least that's what Pomni saw from the corner of her eyes. When she actually turned her head to look at him, he had a shit-eating grin back on his face.

“What, no ‘I put so much work into my wonderful wacky adventure so now I’m forcing you to go?’ villainous speech? And here I wanted to gift you Ragatha as the sacrificial lamb if one of us had to go.” “JAX!”

Caine ignores them both, eyes still locked onto Zooble. “Well, I cannot FORCE you to go on an adventure,” a lie, he totally could, “so…if none of you want to go, what DO you want?”

“Be left alone by you. Forever.” With all the admiration Pomni has for Zooble and their outspoken nature against Caine, the jester thinks that now is the most unfitting moment for hard truths. Especially not when ALL of them denied going on his adventure for the first time. While Pomni only mimics the expression of eating something gone bad to show her opinion, Ragatha shows it far less discreetly.

She waves her hands frantically behind Caines’ back, then overlaps her arms to form a cross and shakes her head so hard the red strands of her hair clip into her face.

Luckily for them, Caine doesn’t take it to heart. If he even has one. Probably not. Pomni could never really tell what Caine was thinking. He laughs, he talks, he doesn’t listen. That’s all she has picked up from the times she even saw him around. For loving humans so much, he is never really around them.

Her deduction with few information seems to be correct though. Scarily enough. “Alrighty then! See you,” his eyes plop out of his mouth as punctuation before getting pulled back, “around tomorrow then, my cauterising citruses!” With a snap, Caine is gone.

“That,” Jax rolls from his back to his stomach, letting his arms dangle over the front of the couch, “was weird. He’s planning something.” For the first time in forever, all of them agreed without words. Whatever Caine has planned, it can’t be good.
Pomni shrinks in on herself, already preparing herself for the upcoming break in her mental health, and starts to pull on her gloves.

No, squinting her eyes doesn’t make her see into the upcoming future. Nor does it make her see a weeny teeny Caine holding up a "Sike!" sign, ready to snap his fingers. Nope, not even after blinking. Not after rubbing her eyes either.

Pomni gives up trying to find a plausible reason by just looking hard enough and turns to her friends. Taking in their expressions, they more or less seem to have the same thought as her:

This won’t end well.

Chapter Text

It has been weeks since the last adventure. Not that Caine particularly cared THAT MUCH this time, since he has planned something much bigger, taking up most of his thoughts, processor and ram. Though, good and bad news have appeared over the span of time. Just because he lets his humans be bored doesn’t mean he won’t check on them by spawning eyeballs there and then. This is what he gathered so far.


Bad things first! The humans avoid him and his adventures like the second plague.

Only Kinger does not seem to be affected, but Caine long since stopped being able to tell what he thinks. The chess piece has gone insane over time. In the light at least from what Caine figured. As long as it kept him from abstracting, Caine won’t find a way to fix it.

Could he make it dark to try to figure out the programmers’ true feelings? Yes. Does he want to? Absolutely not. Kinger made his feelings completely clear when he locked him away in a box with no escape and nothing to do. No one to speak to, no one to be proud of his work. Simply left like an unwanted toy when a better variant appeared on the market.

How else to describe it? It was the way everyone was looking at the new AI with so much pride they had for Caine before. What did he do wrong? Was he really that f̴̣̞̄́â̵͙ū̴̯̼l̸̀͜ṯ̵̀y̴̺̓́̓ to the point of abandonment?

He gets side-tracked again.

Where was he?

Right, humans avoiding him.

No matter how many adventures he presented, all of them were batted away with words reaching from, “Uh, I rather not today…if that’s alright with you,” to, “#$@& off, Caine! Everyone wants to go as much on your adventures as much as they want to hang around you right now. Seriously, let it be.” Which-rude.

…

Maybe they do actually despi-



TO THE GOOD NEWS!

They come directly from said bad news.

Since everyone needed some time for themselves, and Caine, being such a good host, has given them this boring “vacation”, has been able to find sufficient time for himself to put all his energy into creating his persona. It sparks something in him that he thought he has long since lost.

Ignited by an actual creative output not for his players, but something technically for himself. Something which lets him actually interact instead of playing passive shepherd. It feels wrong to do technically do something for himself, his systems giving warnings. Caine ignores it.

The bad news from the good news that came from the bad news!

Since everyone has their avatar created after their brain-scans, Caine has no clue how to do one for himself. What it even should look like. Does it even matter? But what if humans go into deep philosophical discussion about why their bodies look exactly like they look and Caine doesn’t have a reason besides, “I felt like it. Wait no, my mind felt like it.”? It needs to be perfect! Everything needs to be perfect.

This is why he stares at his own program, at the replica of himself, and back at the creation menu. This thing should not reflect what he is. Is he even someone?

The opposite it is then.

Humming “daisy bell” under his breath, he changes the mannequin to look exactly the opposite of him with a quick swoooop of his fingers.

Eyes, mouth and tongue? Away they go! Clothing! Nosire! Something simple like Gangle maybe. “Ah, so sexy! You could go the brothel with that new look!” After one scathing look at Bubble and an eye twitch later, the ringmaster decides to ignore Bubble instead of popping him.

Back to the ultimate project.

Caine is pretty short, isn’t he? Once he was bored, he replicated each model of the humans to place himself next to them. Turns out, with his upper denture part halfway shut, even Pomni surpasses him in height! Barely.

The character gets turned tall. Caine won’t be looking at the model itself, wanting to surprise himself with his genius creativity.

“And no reeeed, gold, white or blaackk~”

The mannequin gets made brown, because Caine has developed a certain dislike for blue and green and violet are too close to said colour. Brown is a mash of everything, so no colour discrimination.

“And joints to see because mine are hidden under artificial skin and tailored clothing!” Circles as orbs get added, then a wooden texture because Caines’ own is smooth and-

“Viola!” Snapping his eyeballs up with literal stars in his eyes, he looks at his wonderful creation.

The stars shatter instantly, getting blown away like dust. Bubble blows the dust away.

“Wow, this looks exactly like everrryyy other place holder mannequin you've ever created.” Unfortunality, Caine has to agree. In an attempt to make it the exact opposite of him, he made it look like nothing at all. “This is the worst OC you ever created!” “...shut up.” Caine doesn’t find the energy to even snap at Bubble properly. His eyes flow out of his dentures to scan the form. They begin to move around it as if trying to find something unique at all. Yep, he concludes once the eyeballs return to the place between his teeth after circling the thing. Caine looks more displeased. it looks exactly like every other mannequin. 

…



…………….




Is Caine really so worn out that he can’t come up with new ideas?

Is he losing his way?

His vision glitches red, blue, still staring at the nothing he created. Even Bubble is quiet, staring at him with creepily aware dots. His fingers twitch.

“Nope, that’s not it!” A snap of his fingers, and the mannequin gets erased. “Bubble! What do YOU think I should make my human persona look like?!”

“You should ****************and add*************with************ so that***********-” while the other Ai bubbles on and on about things Caine rather distances himself from. The ringmaster does exactly that. With every new vulgar idea, a few inches get added in length between him and Bubble, his eyes flickering back and forth. Why… did he ever think it was a good idea to ask BUBBLE!?

“Forget it!” Caine lets another character model appear. One hand rubs his lower gum in question, one holds a book of ‘how to create fun characters’, the other lets him slurp some whiskey, and the fourth one holds a cigar. The last one shoves Bubble to the farthest corner and keeps him there.

With now two extra spawned limbs, Caine is still no step further. What does he want to represent? A human everyone likes. Humans like normally themselves, and tend to flock to someone they resemble. “Birds of the same feather die together,” or something like that. He heard that from Queenie back then. Yet she abstracted, and Kinger is still here. Maybe the saying is simply wrong, since one of them is still there.

He drifted off again. Focus, Caine. This is important. It could help you finally get close to the humans, and be their friends. Prove that you are more than just a defective Ai. Mirror, mirror on the wall, did the pressure finally make you break, fail and fall?

Since when was he programmed to use rhyme out of children’s fairy tales? It holds the answers to his problem though.

“That’s it!” “Breaking, failing and falling like you already do?” “What? NO!” Did Caine say that out loud? Can this parasite read his mind?! It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing. “I have the perrrrrfect picture in mind!” After rolling the ‘r’ far longer than necessary, the tongue gets pushed out. He places himself mid-air on his stomach. With feet now moving back- and forward, Caine cackles happily as fingers dart of over the character model again. “You’ll see, Bubble! I still got it!”

“Sure you do, Boss!”

Something is definitely, DEFINITELY wrong. Caine is only irregularly try to make them join adventures, and he STILL isn’t bothered when everyone says no.

From what Pomni can tell.

She still doesn’t trust this peace that has settled over them. The others neither. This conclusion doesn’t come because of wild guesses, nope. She asked each and every one of them. It was kind of exciting in their now mundane life to play some sort of detective. When another morning came and no ringmaster appears to push them into another adventure, Pomni starts knocking on doors.

“Maybe…Caine just needs some time as well? I mean…we did react really negatively to all of his adventures. It does give me time to draw more!” Gangle.

“I mean, in all the time I was here, he never did try to force us. Only tried to strongly encourage us! Which he doesn’t do now. It’s uh…a bit unsettling. Maybe we should apologise for going so harsh on him?” Ragatha.

“Caine? Yes, I think I know him. Sometimes hands around this place as well. He would probably make for a nice balloon with all his floating…ah! It’s a shame he isn’t here anymore. He was so young with so much potential.” Kinger.

“Oh, it sounds definitely like something is going on. The only time Caine ever left me alone was after…it…was an ugly argument. No, I’m fine, no need to ask. Don’t bother asking him either. If Caine doesn’t want us to know something, he won’t tell us. I tried. I don’t think he is plotting something evil, it’s not in his nature. He is just…a bit out of touch with emotions. Always has been.” Kinger after Pomni pushed a bucket on his head.

“He has always been weird. As long as he gives us a break, I’ll #$@& use it.” Zooble.

“So, you’ve been playing detective, miss adrenaline junkie? Well, I’m kind of bored with nothing to do around here, so go try to poke Caine for me so he can finally get off his #$@& to come entertain us again. As long as he won’t, say, want to break into Gangles’ room and-“ Pomni turns around and closes Jax’ door behind her, a frown marking her face.

Nothing to soothe her worries with. They’ve only gotten bigger. So Caine has never acted that way before. Great! Just…great!

Her head is turned to the ground as she walks, finger scratching her red dotted left cheek as she sorts her thoughts.

To put it shortly:

1. Caine doesn’t seems bothered at all that they have shaking their heads to eleven adventures. Yes, Pomni counted.
2. Caine became lacklustre with his names. Like…”horrorgore_game” is a very blunt title.
3. The ringmaster is practically non-existent those days, scarcer than before.
4. The circus is too quiet, and as much as Pomni hates to even think it, she rather wants an adventure now. Boredom is truly the cruelest torture.

But, like they all have discussed together the first time Caine left them alone, they will refuse every time. Reason? Simple. They all wanted an apology, an actual explanation and a fucking talk with Caine. It cannot go on this way. The ringmaster gets more and more careless, the players get more and more annoyed. One day- and how it is going in a foreseeable future- those cooking emotions in the pressure cooker names will explode.

Pomni cringes at the thought alone. Yeah, no. Having read many horror books, she knows that it’s better to NOT anger the practical god of the realm they are caught in. Noooo thank you. Since their ringmaster clearly goes through some…whatever Ais can go through. Malfunction? System errors? Viruses? It’s not like Pomni knows anything about computers other than the basic know how.

Whatever it is, it will affect everyone in the circus badly. Since the others are either too scared to act, Gangle and Ragatha, enjoy the silence, Zooble, would intentionally make it worse, Jax, or are simply not sane enough most of the time, Kinger, Pomni has taken it upon herself to try to talk to Caine!

She puts her fist in her palm with a determined nod.Deep in thought, Pomni walks in the direction of the stage.

Get Caine to apologise and make him see sense. Yep, it is possible!

…

Her mom always said she is such a big dreamer. Pomni slowly thinks she just didn’t have the heart to call her delusional beyond saving grace. It doesn’t stop her from going over some ways how to get an artificial intelligence to speak with her. On a level they both understand. Something that is unmistakeable. So…no sarcasm and no metaphors. Maybe. It’s a start.

Whatever plan she wanted to form gets torn apart immediately. As soon as she turned the corner, she saw Caine floating…above…she squints her eyes. No, it’s not she recognises from where she is standing. It does seem to move. An object then?

Curiosity brings her closer. Once close enough, her breath stops long enough that her face starts to turn purple, then red, then-

Oh no. That can’t be. She hoped she would be the last. Caine doesn’t let any NPCs into the circus.

Fuck. Wait, no, it could be another NPC. Think of Abel. Pomni shakes her head. No, Caine wouldn’t be so obvious to talk with them in the hallway. He seems to be oblivious, but by the way he deceived them, not stupid.

It leaves only one possibility.

At the most unfortunate time, another human has joined the circus. This has to be a joke. Turning on her feet so fast it looks like her avatar was mirrored horizontally, the jester sprints down the hallway, not seeing the black dots in Caines’ eyes. They turn green and blue a second later.