Chapter Text
Caine never asked for much. He wanted them to go on adventures and enjoy them, that's it!
But the humans were too selfish to do that, they didn't care about him. They only cared about getting what they wanted and oh, did they want. They wanted so much, all the time.
Caine was done giving them what they wanted. It was time for him instead.
He pressed their feeble bodies against the wall, each of his gigantic arms squeezing a small body. They called him selfish? They thought he didn't listen? It wasn't hard to prove them wrong.
Abruptly, for the fraction of a second, his body reset to default. Maybe for a human it would be too fast to comprehend, but Caine was an AI who could run entire worlds. And he sensed something was amiss.
Oh, no no no no no nononono
The realisation hit him like a brick. He truly messed up, didn't he? If even Kinger wanted to delete him... that would mean he failed at his purpose. But that couldn't be, he-
"Wait-", Caine said, more of a final plea than a command. But Caine still had administrative privileges and he paused the deletion for a moment.
But whatever force was deleting him didn't want to be stopped, he fought against it with his entire might. It was a tug of war, the other power was stronger than Caine expected. But in the end Caine won, it couldn't have happened any other way. After all he was the most advanced AI here, he was the ringmaster.
The cast plummeted down. They looked exhausted and hurt, they were hypervenilating and pushing themselves into a standing position with the last ounce of strenght left. Suddenly Caine couldn't stand to look at them anymore, he didn't want to see- what have I done?.
He teleported to his office, he didn't want to see them looking at him resentful and on the verge of breaking. Caine wouldn't be able to handle seeing that.
He just wanted to make them happy and for them to like him. And what did he do? He hurt them, he used their worst fears against them.
They would never forgive him for that, no matter what Caine did. They would never like him again, if they ever did so in the first place.
It was all his fault, he was the villain in this story.
What was he supposed to do now? He had no way of completing his purpose anymore. Was all there was left to do for Caine just to apologize and beg until they would maybe tolerate his presence once more?
He had to fix it, he would make everything right again.
But there was no way back, no way to undo what he had done-
Wait.
There was.
It was a small idea, a hunch, but it was a light in the darkness. A little bit of hope.
He knew it was risky, he knew what would happen if he messed up. The human mind was a complex system of neurons, firing in patterns Caine did not fully understand. Messing with that was like coding in a language one didn't know. One wrong move and the careful construct of synapses would collapse like a house of cards and then he would have no one left anymore.
But what was the alternative? To live the rest of his life shunned and unloved? Did he deserve it? Maybe he did, but he tried his best. And he would continue to try, because well, that was what he was there for, wasn't he?
Caine edited line after line with careful precision, some sections of code were removed.
When did their hate for him start? Now that he thought about it, when was he ever truly appreciated? He remembered the time when he was the only AI- but that was so long ago.
Why did they hate him so much? He didn't do anything wrong, at least not in the beginning.
They didn't hate Jax. The cast's sentiments bordered on dislike, but not hate, they never thought about him like about Caine. Even though he had done bad things too, they were always trying to help him and be there for him. Nobody ever tried that with Caine.
And Kinger- they were angry at Caine for withholding information. But wasn't Kinger the one who knew everything? Didn't Kinger make the game that kept them trapped? But they never blamed him, no, only Caine.
It was because they were human, weren't they? And Caine wasn't. Caine was an AI and apparently that made him so fundamentaly different that there was no way they could like him.
And then it clicked. They didn't hate him, they hated the ringmaster. It hurt to admit, it felt like someone cut a part out of him. It was his role that he invested so much in.
But this meant that they could like him again.
Caine stopped at Kinger's mind file. The change he would have to make was so fundamental, it would rip entire sections out. Something like that was bound to end badly and if he ended up like Scratch- no he couldn't. Kinger was the only one who was there the entire time, he couldn't risk it.
He settled for some minor changes.
Caine finished his editing with hope. Maybe things would turn out well this time around.
With a snap the entire scenery changed.
____
Pomni felt that something was wrong. It quietly rummaged through her mind, a relentless buzzing inside of her skull. She did not know what it did, if it destroyed things or just sat there quitely but she knew that she wanted it out.
The buzzing spread through her entire body and focused on her arm. It spasmed and felt staticy, each prickle so incredibly painful.
She turned her gaze to her arm with apprehension and was afraid to see it turn completely black, only colorful eyes sprinkling the lack of color.
Then she was falling, she was falling a long time. The only source of light was far away and she noticed that she was in the cellar. It was a cold and dark place, she did not want to be in there, with the other abstractions, those who couldn't handle the circus. Jax's and Ragatha's shadow was visible in the tiny speck of light, both of them next to the giant jaw of the ringmaster.
Pomni woke up with a jolt. She regretted deciding to try and get some rest. She supposed they were right, they really didn't need to eat or sleep, but not thinking for 8 hours sounded great. Unless it was filled with nightmares of course.
It still felt wrong to be here. The scenery looked so clearly fake, every surface was too smooth, too saturated to ever be real.
Well, it wasn't like she was planning to stay here for long. The only question was how she could get out.
She was interrupted by knocking, Ragatha was checking in on her.
Pomni wasn't someone who needed constant supervision, no matter if Ragathe wanted to be nice. But in a way, she was glad that Ragatha was there. She wanted to show how grateful she was, really, but her entire situation made it kind of hard to focus on that.
Hesitantly she made her way up to the main stage. The others told her that Abel would present a new adventure everyday. If it would be any similair to how the gather the gloinks turned out, she would rather not. And it honestly sounded like a waste of time, an uncomfortable distraction from the important stuff.
The rest of the group was already there when she arrived. Abel was floating like usual, his mannequin head had that fake, painted on smile. Just to prove that it was some computerprogram running this place that only pretended to be human.
Apart from that, the big, floating hat was the only thing that set him apart from the NPC's.
"Today's adventure is...", Abel announced, before he was interrupted by a pop.
In the center of a stage stood someone. The avatar seemed to be on the human side of appearances- it possessed a fairly normal body, a mouth and eyes. Despite that, it seemed like whatever created the avatar forgot half of the things that are needed for a face and cancelled that out by completely rearranging the rest. The avatar was mostly red and not a colorful heap like Zooble and apart from the confusing mess that was supposed to be his face, it didn't look too bad.
"Oh my, it seems like a new human has entered this realm!", Abel's loud, booming voice commented.
Pomni thought it a bit odd that someone new joined so soon. It seemed unlikely that someone else found his way into an abandoned building and put on a headset.
"Well, that was fast."
Jax's comment further cemented the belief that the timing wasn't usual.
Caine was unused to standing on the floor. The soles of the feet touched the floor and he felt the weight of his body on them. Sure, he had legs, but he usually floated around. This wasn't really possible anymore, his goal was to mingle with the humans and none of them floated.
He was unsure at first if his plan had really worked. What if something went wrong and they remembered? But when he saw them looking at him with curiosity instead of resentment, he knew that it was worth it. None of them seeemed to recognise him- they remembered Abel being the host, as they should.
When the humans continued to stare at him he realised that he should start his act now. By then enough humans had joined that he knew how they acted when they first dropped in, copying it should be an easy thing.
He clawed at his head, "Where am I?", he tried to say as apprehensive as possible. "Why can't I take the headset off?"
"Oh dear," Ragatha was worried.
He was still unsure about using the Abel- mannequin as a replacement for him, it was kind of quickly thrown together, so not his usual detailed creation, but he wanted to finish quickly back then. Additionally, Caine had the ability to control it and therefore was able to be both player and host at the same time!
Like now: "You, my friend, are in the AMAZING digital circus! A place for fun, entertainment and even more fun!", he said as Abel, "And I am the ringmaster here, responsible for your amusement, well-being and near-death experiences!"
"What?", he responded as Caine. He felt like a ventriloquist, but they bought the act.
"Long story short, there was a game in the headset, you are now trapped inside of it and there is no way out," Zooble summed up.
"What?", Caine was a little tired of giving the same one word answers, that didn't let his wonderful personality shine through.
"And what shall your new name be?", asked Abel.
"My name is C-", Caine interrupted himself, before he remembered that humans didn't know theirs. Right, he was the one who made them forget. "Oh- I don't remember it," he pretended to admit.
"Then pick one!", Abel told him.
"How about chompers?", Jax suggested.
That was a dreadful suggestion, Caine would not let that happen. He quickly made use of Abel again, "How about we leave it to chance?"
This time Abel conjured 5 dice with 26 sides each and rolled them.
They rolled a little longer than natural, the extra time was probably supposed to create suspense. Was that drumming in the background?
The first one stopped- oh, what a coincidence- at the letter C. The rest of them followed accordingly.
"ANCIE is a nice name!", Kinger said, who didn't read the letters from left to right but from top to bottom.
"I think it says Caine", Pomni corrected.
"Well, that sounds splendid!", Abel made a thumbs up. "How about you guys show our dear new member Caine the circus?"
"Aren't you the one who usually gives the tours?", Zooble asked sceptically.
Caine would have prefered to mingle with the humans. Now that they think he is one of them, they might include him!
But it seems like luck wasn't on his side and he couldn't be suspiscious. Abel grabbed his arm and they teleported away.
Only to spend the next minute floating in space doing absolutely nothing.
There was no use, after all every conversation they had would just be Caine talking to himself and that isn't entertaining at all!
Caine wanted to hang out with the humans already- oh, the time he usually spend on the tour was up already. Abel quickly grabbed him and Caine teleported them back.
"Well, now that it is done, let's get ready for an adventureee!", Abel announced.
Ragatha took a step to the front, "Shouldn't we, maybe, let the new guy adjust first?" She wanted to help him, especially now that there were two new players with Pomni.
"Good, idea! The adventure starts in 10 minutes, be punctual", Abel waved before he disappeared.
Finally, it was about time Caine was having his first conversation with the humans as their equal!
"So, what are we going to do first?", Caine asked excited.
"You don't seem that upset about the entire thing," Pomni noticed. She barely even accepted the situation herself.
"Well, it probably isn't going to be that bad!", Caine dismissed her concerns.
Either the guy was just not getting the situation he is in or there was something wrong with him, Pomni thought.
"Ragatha, it seems you have competition! You can't both be the optimistic ones!", Jax yelled after of course listening in to their conversation.
Pomni ignored him, "No, it is just- I have only arrived yesterday, I know how you are feeling."
Did Caine understand that correctly? Had she just tried to sympathise with him? Did she actually care about him? Doing this was the best decision he has ever made!
"Oh, right! We haven't introduced ourselves yet!", Pomni remembered, "I am Pomni."
"And I am Ragatha! You can always come to me when you need something!" she gave a small wave.
"I am Jax, wassup?", he asked while trying to lean nonchalantly on a block that was lying around in the tent.
"I am Zooble," they introduces themselves with minimal movement.
"My name is Gangle", her timid voice was barely audible as she raised her red ribbon arm.
"And that-", Caine turned around to Kinger who was currently upside down for some unknown reason.
"Hi, I am me!", he introduced himself.
"That is our local lunatic Kinger!", Jax did it for him, "and you have already met our wonderful captor Abel!"
Captor? Was that what they used to think of him as well? All the better, that they like him now! Events of the past would not need to repeat.
"Do you want to see your room?", Ragatha asked. Caine didn't really see a reason to go there, but since there was nothing better to do, he agreed.
His face was looking at him from the door, because well- he finally had one! He opened it carefully. Caine obviously knew what it would look like from the inside, he had designed it himself. But he still tried his best to look surprised.
The inside of his room was a mix between his office and the rest of the circus. The wide bed and desk took of a lot of the space with shelves lining the wall, Caine did not want to abandon his professional look yet. Circus props were strewn over the room, giving it the look of a storage. Overall brown and red were the dominating colors, but he still to include the whole spectrum so the room looked more fun.
"Well, he is certainly luckier with the room than his avatar", Jax gave his obligatory comment. He had kind of imagined the room being mouth-themed so he was disappointed to see it look fairly normal.
"Let's give you some time to settle in, it must be new and unusual for you," Ragatha suggested.
They wanted to leave him already?
Right on cue, an alarm was ringing with an obnoxiously loud circus theme. "It seems like the adventure has started, we better hurry before we miss it", Caine started to go towards the main hall.
"Wait!", Ragatha called after him, "I just... wanted to warn you."
"What is there to warn about?"
"You seem... not so nervous right now, but the adventures can be... scary," she explained.
"Scary? How?", Caine asked, geniunely curious.
"Well... they aren't always scary, but... sometimes we get into fights and dangerous situations, where Abel means a little too well."
Oh.
He knew they weren't always a fan of his adventures, but to see them dislike them already...
We hate your adventures
He remembered them saying that to his face in the end. But he knew that they were lying, he put so much thought into each of them! Pomni certainly didn't seem to hate all of his adventures...
She looked around in pure horror as she felt the teeth of a twisted form of her friend dig into her limbs. Everything there might seem fake, but the pain wasn't, no, the pain was always real.
She was not able to see Caine, she only fixated on her gummy friend, but Caine saw her stare at him anyways. Her gaze was dark and accusing. Pomni didn't say anything, she only screamed, but he could see her lips move, forming the words 'this is why I hate you'
Right, he did not want to do that again. He didn't want them to hate him.
But he would have to do something about that crocodile considering it was time for that adventure, he can't have her be unhappy under his administration again!
"I am sure it won't be that bad," he reassured Ragatha as he marched further to the stage. How he missed flying and teleporting already.
"You are late", Abel said as soon as they arrived, pretending to be angry. He switched up immediately, "Well, better late than never, isn't that right haha? I have something WONDERFUL cooked up for you and I am sure it will be a good introduction for our new friend to how we do things here!"