Chapter Text
For someone who had previously claimed that they don’t want to push it, they sure do like to test the shark infested waters that is Caine
Everyone had slowly made their way out of their bedrooms towards the main circus area, all dealing with their own reasons for not wanting to wake up today. For some it was just a mixture of a stupid sauce hangover and the oversaturated brightness of the reality they live in. For others… it was for every reason they could think of.
Pomni had woken up, and for a brief moment had completely forgotten everything that had transpired the day before. Realising that she is going to have to face Jax again… as well as dodge any questions from the others, she dragged herself slowly to her bedroom door. Her legs feeling as though they where chained to a heavy metal ball of some kind.
She slowly opened her door, and peeped out to make sure that nobody, or at the very least Jax wasn’t in the hallway. Seeing nobody was there, she made her way down to the main circus area. Upon reaching the lounge area she found that she was the last one to arrive, with almost everyone simply being idle and chatting to each other. Jax was in the corner, hitting random objects he had found with a baseball bat. Best to leave him to his own devices...she wouldn’t want to re-hash everything just yet.
‘OH! Morning Pomni!, I hope you’re feeling better!’ said Ragatha, as she notices Pomni approaching the group. She observed that Pomni wasn’t really paying attention, as her attention was more drawn towards Jax’s behavior.
‘Uhhhh….OH! Yeah hi Ragatha...uuh yeah I guess I’m feeling a bit better…’ stuttered Pomni as she whipped her head around to focus on the ragdoll.
‘ my offer is still always open if you want to tal..’ Ragatha whispers in a hushed tone, before being interrupted by a loud party popper like sound, that came closer to a bomb detonation that anything else. Everyone covered their ears (where their ears are supposed to be) as the loudness of it would’ve been enough to rupture someone’s eardrums. Even Jax in the corner had to drop his bat and cover his rabbit ears.
Once the sound subsided, everyone looked towards where the boom came from, only to see Caine floating behind them, his usual over-the top demeanour evidently not present, but he was doing his damn best to try and not let that be visible. Caine floated there for a second, looking like a deer in headlights as he took in the startled expressions of everyone. After a second he clicked his fingers and teleported everyone towards the main stage, arranging them in a circle format.
Of course, Pomni and jax would be opposite eachother in the circle, with Ragatha on her left and Gangle on her right. Jax and Pomni’s eyes met for a brief second before the both of them looked away. Pomni stared at the floor while Jax looked towards the ceiling.
‘AHEM!!’ Caine coughed dramatically, stretching his jawhead down towards the group, in such a passive aggressive manner that everyone looked towards him with a confused fearful look.
‘GOOOOOOD MOOOORRRNING MY….errrm….MY NOT TRAMPLED SUNNY DAFFODILLS’ Caine boomed, his voice shaky with the weight of the facade he was struggling to maintain. The blow of receiving no votes was still stinging. While it was only one award show, and within a space of eternity there would be many more, it was the final small injury in a slowly drawn out attack that killed off the last of his good will.
Something that shouldn’t be possible, according to Caine’s own programming.
‘THE ADVENTURE TODAY IS ORANGE SPORT…. You kick an orange between each other...and eventually someone wins….’’ Caine said, his voice booming but quickly slipping downwards into a dejected tone.
He clicked his fingers and a comically large round orange hovered high up above the group…. Before falling down. It went SPLAT on the floor in front of everyone, a large sludge pile of juice and pulp splattered across the floor and onto everyone. The humans all stood in shock as they were sprayed with orange.
’go sports….yaaaay’ Caine said weakly towards the display in front of him.
‘Caine...you cannot be serious’ Zooble grumbled, wiping the orange gunk off their face.
‘YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS!!! I mean…. Please tell me your USUAL complaints I am all NOT EARS’
‘I...uhhhh…’ started Zooble before stopping themselves. They alongside the rest, have noticed just how twitchy Caine was getting. This was a side to him that nobody, not even Kinger has seen before. ‘
‘Are you...feeling alright?’ Zooble questioned, their tone being a mix of confusion and fear
‘wha...WHY WOULD YOU ASK THAT DEAR ZOOBLE? I AM AS HAPPY AS A SMOKED BEE IN A BEEHIVE!’ Caine splurted out, attempting to reapply the joyness he was known for, only to find that all it did was bring on more confusion.
‘I...whatever, im not doing this adventure’
‘Again...seriously...again?!’ Caine monotonously said
‘ I’m not just gonna kick around a..splatted orange for hours on end’
‘Yeah this sounds...a bit too boring’ Pomni piped up ‘Maybe if you add some further dynamics it could be fun?’
‘I thought you wanted more CHILL and RELAXING adventures’ Jax jeered mockingly.
Pomni shot him a look, as Jax realised what he had inadvertently done. He quickly looked away from Pomni again, annoyed at himself.
‘ I’m surprised you remembered that, considering you ‘‘don’t care’’ Pomni said under her breath, but loudly enough in hopes that Jax would hear. A seething rage took over Jax, turning back at Pomni. He was about to say something probably diabolical when Caine suddenly lowered himself in front of Pomni, his head too close to Pomni’s.
‘Please don’t pick up Zooble’s bad habits, dealing with them is enough on my spoon’ Caine hushed, creating a large spoon with the words ‘ZOOBLE’S CONSTRUCTIVE NUISANCE’ written across it.
‘ uh don’t you mean plate..?’ said Pomni
‘HHHWHATT did you say?’ Caine spat, floating away from Pomni’s face and further up, as he flung the oversized spoon over his shoulder and landing with a CLATTER behind Jax and Kinger.
‘HEY! If you have something to say Caine, then spit it out!’ Zooble shouted up, growing more agitated at Caine’s Passive aggressive nature.
Upon hearing this, Caine turned around slowly to face Zooble, his pupils tiny and shaking with an emotion he couldn’t quite name yet.
An AI like Caine was never built with the purpose of feeling the depth, or breadth of what humanity is capable to hold. To think that AI could EVER reach that would mean that the gap that so many have relied upon to comfort themselves on AI’s existence had been slowly breached.
He had been coded to be a gracious host for humans, and a gracious host could NEVER hate, or scare its guests. And yet somehow, Caine was managing to find that while he himself is artificial, everything he was feeling up until this point was REAL.
Caine became stuck in the air, staring at Zooble for an uncomfortable amount of time. Suddenly, he began to twitch, his eyes spluttering red and blue on and off again. His body began writhing around like he was being rewound on a VHS tape. The noises Caine was making sounded as though he was in agony.
The others were taken aback at this display. All of them stepping back as Caine’s contortions got faster. Bubble suddenly appeared out of thin air, looking very concerned
‘Boss? Boss what are you doing?...I’m scared’ Bubble said shakily.
The world around them began to break. The circus itself showing broken textures and unseen grids spluttering in and out. The floor began to shake violently like an earthquake. The human fell to the floor, desperately trying to grab onto something, but anything they grabbed onto clipped their hands, making their endeavours useless.
Scared out of her mind, realising the real danger she and the others were in, Pomni turned to Ragatha
‘RAGATHA!’ she called out desperately
‘POMNI! ARE YOU OKAY?’ Ragatha responded, trying to sound brave but fear edged its way in.
‘TAKE MY HAND!’
Pomni pushed her body against the floor, of which the shakes were getting more violent. She reached her arm out, showing her the same hand that had once been jumbled.
Ragatha’s one eye grey wide with emotion, touched at the display Pomni was showing towards her. She grabbed Pomni’s hand and held it firm
‘Whatever happens, we can face it together’ Pomni asserted, locking eyes with her.
‘yeah...it’ll be okay’ Ragatha responded.
Suddenly, the shaking stopped. The circus ceased to glitch and everything went eerily quiet. The circus dimmed low as Caine slumped to the floor, his jaw shut. His hat falling to the side.
‘Boss is...not stable. Ive entered him into safe mode. He’ll be out for a while’ Bubble quietly said in a serious tone, an unheard of thing.
The others were still recovering from what just happened to really take in what bubble was saying, the worlds slowly sinking in as they raised themselves from the floor. Zooble reconstructed themselves before assisting Gangle up off the floor.
‘but...what happens when safe mode is active? Will we be affected somehow?’ Gangle piped up tearfully, the force of the glitch earthquake had broken her comedy mask.
‘I don’t know, its not my fault but IT IS YOUR PROBLEM… I gotta try and fix this….SEE YA’ bubble blurted out before disappearing with Caine in a puff of smoke.
As bubble disappeared, they realised that the splatted orange and spoon were gone, having clipped underneath the floor. But now...the quietness and the dullness of the vast empty circus was unnerving. Nobody knew what to do.
Unbeknownst to the humans, around the Circus and the Grounds, cracks had formed, ill shaped portals to previous worlds they had go on adventures to.
Princess Lou suddenly regained consciousness to see her kingdom decimated by the fudge, with only a quarter of her citizens remaining.
The monsters, and Martha, of Mildenhall manor awoke from their slumber, confused as to where their guests/prisoners went.
The Gloink Queen and her Gloinks found themselves at Spudsy’s, wondering when their next round of 300 cheeseburgers was coming. Gummigoo, Max and Chad found themselves in the carpark, unsure of what has happened.
And finally...but not at all least...the Evil Big Tops discovered themselves in the softball stadium, confused as to where the Big Tops went.