Chapter Text
Kinger just deleted Caine. The AI that kept the entire circus running. Great job. What a stupid mistake! All these laughing Caines on the PC distraced him! As he watched the machine slip through the hole it triggered memories of a time that was long forgotten before.
Back when he was in the real world with Queenie. He missed her so deeply. Oh he wished to see her again. But there wasn't much of her left. He rememered all the other programmers. Scratch. They were all long gone.
His memories of the past got all fuzzy between the time they programmed Caine and when they got sucked into the circus. But he knew he was happy. He loved his job. He loves his wife. And he is proud of the little AI they were able to create. With this little mistake it was all gone.
Kinger felt guilty and remorse. But now was not the time to swell on memories and feelings so he swallowed them down. He had to use the little sanity he got left to safe the circus. Who knew if the bucket could despawn randomly or if some random glitches were so bright that he lost most of his grip on reality again.
He was really hoping that Pomni could get a new computer for him to fix the circus. If the circus fell apart even more before he was able to do something they were all doomed.
Slowly and with his bucket still on his head he made his way through the circus to find the others. It looked awful all in shades of grey and a little bit of purple. He felt a bit wary about telling them the truth about his mistake. It wasn't one that was easy to fix either.
Luckily they were all standing together so he only needed to say it once. "I-I think.. I accidently killed Caine" He lifted his bucket a bit to take a look of the disturbed faces of the others.
"Holy shit" Zooble reacted first and they just sweared. They all stared at her. Shocked. That definitely meant that Caine was gone if even his filters were turned of now. His only creation. The chesspiece had to deal with this later. He needed to focus so he could get it done as soon as possible.
Hopefully there was a backup somewhere to fix the entire circus easily. Otherwise he had to patch every single glitch himself. "Wow okay uhm.. as nice as it sounds that we can do whatever we want now we need to fix the circus. It's dangerous now. Well.. the bad news are that the computer fell into a hole. Pomni are you able to get a new one perhaps?" The jester blinked at him suprised. "Oh.. I mean I can try? I don't know if there will be another one though"
Kinger nodded. "Good. But firstly we should find shelter. I should be able to fix this world before it collapses completly.." he hesitated for a moment. "..but we don't know if.. the abstractions are on the loose now. Also I am not too sure if and how long the circus can be held together without Caine and after- oh FUCK"
Then there was a loud crash.
.
.
.
Caine didn't know how long he was sitting in his box clawing at his knees and wondering if they might safe him out of his personal hell. But why would they? It was ironic how he kind of did the same to them and instantly got his karma.
He was so sorry.
And scared.
And lonely.
And hated.
And a failure.
He had to stop thinking about it.
Even if it was supposed to be his punishment staying in there forever was no option for him.
The Ringmaster stood up again. He was still very uncomfortable but at least he didn't feel like the crashing weight of his box was pressing him down.
He could do it. He would break out of his box. He did it once so he can do it twice. Last time it took more than one try to escape. He can't lose his hope.
Caine took a moment to gather his strength, clenched his fists and slammed hard against the barrier. It was no use to lose any strength by screaming again even if he still wanted to call for help. He knew that it was no use. So he focused on getting this barrier down by slamming hard into it again. And again. And a few more times. Come on! Why isn't it working?!
He growled frustrated and felt a jolt of energy going through him and as he slammed into it again it finally broke. Caine fell forward right into the shards but he couldn't care less!
Light flooded in the box, instantly blinding Caine who was used to complete darkness so he closed his jaw shut. He still scrambled a bit away from the box as if it would swallow and imprison him again if he wouldn't get away fast enough. "Argh.. YES!" He got out! He knew he could do it.
He would never NEVER get back in there again.
After his eyes got used to the light he slowly opened his jaw. Where was he?
Huh. It was still kind of dark so it seemed to be night but the world looked oddly different.
The light was more purple than white and some parts of the ground had missing pieces. The holes had purple glitching edges. Some trees and other objects around him were even sunken into the ground! All the colors were gone too as if everything was in an old black and white TV show. What happened here??
Caine looked around and took his surroundings in. He figured that he had to be at the edge of the map. Firstly he noticed one of the big mountains behind him where his box was. Around him were the trees he placed too. But they weren't colored in a dark green like before, no they were dark grey instead.
It kind of remembered Caine of Zoobles adventure in the bar where most objects were in shades of black and white too. He missed his colorful world. This looked awful!
Did Kinger do this? Did the others didn't like the bright colors and wanted it to.. look like that?
He knew that they all liked Zoobles suggestion adventure more than his adventures but did they like these colors more as well? No, that didn't explain all the holes in the grounds. Actually the holes were really dangerous he had no idea where they could lead to.
What if someone fell down already?
What if all fell down and it leaded them to the cellar where he put the abstractions?
The abstractions.
They were in the cellar.
What if there was a hole in there and all abstractions escaped to the top?
There could be a huge mess in his tent and his- the humans could be in danger! Or even worse what if they were all in pain already glitching on the ground while the abstractions fed on them?
It would be his fault and his only!
He was such a- no.
The AI couldn't bare the thoughts any longer and started to run. But he came to a stop quickly as he noticed little cuts that were stinging in his forearms and lower legs. What a great perk from falling onto the barrier shards.
He removed some stuck shards quickly and then started running again. He was an AI not a human, a few cuts would do nothing. They could wait. The humans didn't. He had to get to the tend as soon as possible!
He didn't even know what he would do if the worst case scenario already happened but he had to look and help them in any way!