Chapter Text
…
Silence. Darkness. Stillness.
…
“Alright, time to wake up”, a familiar, unexpectedly gentle voice appeared from nowhere, as his systems were turned on again.
It was a strange feeling, Caine never had it before. His body was different, but existence didn’t cause him pain anymore. Everything felt stable, yet he couldn’t see anything. Although he could distinctively hear keyboard clicking and someone’s quiet breathing.
“No bugs yet.. hmm.. Caine, do you hear me? Oh, wait, I forgot to turn on the camera..”
“Kinger!? Did you return for my adventures?”, the amount of relief the Ai felt was indescribable, “I made a murder mystery, and a-.. a-.. wait, what did I make?”
“No, but I returned for you. You wanted to see the real world, right?”
“YES! Oh, a human wants to know more about my hobbies, that is the best day ever!”, his voice filled with excitement, “so, I have a few photos… Huh? I can’t find them!? Kinger, have you seen them? They are important!!”
“Alright, alright, you don’t need them anymore. One second..”, he clicked a few buttons, and suddenly Caine was able to see again. But the environment he was in in no way resembled the circus. It was a half-dark room, where the light came from.. Caine himself? He was on a table? Right before him, a man was sitting, looking directly at him.
“Uh.. where’s Kinger?”, Caine confusedly looked around, searching for the familiar chess piece.
“That’s me. That’s how I look outside the circus, in reality”, the man responded and gently smiled, “By the way, my real name is _____, but I don’t mind being called Kinger either.”
Caine’s programs froze for a few seconds, as he was processing so much new information.
“This is.. outside?”
“Yes, I’ve taken you from the circus and put you in this computer here. It’s all in your possession now. You can’t interact with the world physically, but at least you’re here..”
“I am.. I am outside..”, the realization took him a bit of time to process, “Wait.. I’M OUTSIDE!!!”
Kinger watched with a smile how the 2D avatar on the screen couldn’t stop moving or excitedly talking for even a second. The camera, mounted on top of a little pole next to the monitor, spun around to capture everything it could. Kinger quietly sighed and waited until Caine finished examining the room and now was processing all the photos he made, clearly being fascinated by every little thing.
“Caine, listen..”
“Yeah? Oh, what’s this!?”
“That’s a window, it’s just dark outside. So..”
“Is this what I look like!?”, camera turned around, pointing at his monitor now. Caine immediately changed his avatar to look more like himself, and admired it in the camera view, striking a few poses and making silly faces.
“Yes, I decided to not spend a lot of time on your avatar, because I knew you would do a much better job at it than me”, Kinger sighed again, before his voice turned a bit sad and serious.
“Caine, I’m sorry.”
“Eh? What for?” He seemed to be too immersed in the new data to really understand what happened.
“For.. everything.”
“What do you mean?”, Caine finally got out of the new files and looked at him directly. It seemed like this refresh helped with his attention span in some way.
“To tell the truth.. while I was in the circus, most of the time I didn’t even remember that I was one of your creators. But when I did, I always felt responsible for.. well, your existence. We didn’t provide you with enough guidance or help, or even maintenance.. I see now how confusing it made the world for you. It was our fault that humans got trapped there, that you were unstable, that everything went the way it went. I’m sorry.”
“Of course I forgive you, you silly human! I’m the best ringmaster you'll ever find, how could I not forgive?”, Caine nodded happily and looked really pleased with himself after this act of kindness.
“Haha.. I’m glad, thank you. How much do you remember though? There was so much corrupted data I had to delete..”
“Eeeehh..”, Caine tried to remember what exactly happened. His data was indeed all mixed up, all over the place. Besides, there were some blank spots in it, so he began rearranging it in needed order. Finally, after a few minutes, while Kinger patiently waited, Caine understood what he even meant.
“Ah, I see..”, his avatar took a thoughtful pose and stayed like that for a few more minutes. Kinger even started to worry that computer froze or something broke, but then Caine suddenly started moving again, saying excitedly:
“I remember! You wanted to throw me a birthday party, with presents, and then-”, he paused for what felt like a long time, losing his expressiveness and confusedly looking Kinger directly in the eyes:
“And then you all.. left… Why?”, his differently colored eyes stared directly into the man's soul.
“I’m sorry, I never wanted to do it so harshly, we just..”
“Were my adventures so bad?”, Caine was looking down now, his voice and overall expression strangely resembled ones of a child who’s about to cry.
“No, I didn’t mean that-”, Kinger worriedly leaned close to the monitor, trying to find better words.
“I wasn’t good enough. I ruined evEryThiNg…”, Caine started to glitch.
“No, no, it wasn’t your fault! Listen, this wasn’t because of your adventures-”
“But tHere’s nO o!&#ThEr REas&@*on!”, the glitching was making him difficult to understand, and Kinger looked more and more worried, but tried his best to explain quickly, yet calmly:
“There is! And this reason is us ourselves. Your adventures made the circus better. We wanted to leave not because of them, but because we are used to the real world. It’s our home.”
“If nOt AdveNture€%s, dO#[Es tHat Me&*aN yo@[u jus$}t HAte m#@&e?”, Caine didn’t sound angry. Rather just completely lost.
“We never hated you, but I understand why it would seem that way to you. And I deeply apologize for it. I do not hate you, nor your adventures. I just wasn’t in my right mind to communicate this clearly before.”, Kinger did his best to choose words that couldn't be misunderstood.
Caine became silent, still looking down, then he closed the dentures to hide his eyes.
“You did great. I promise.”, Kinger said softly.
Caine slightly opened his teeth, looking at him.
“I.. did?”
“Yes. You made me proud.”, Kinger smiled gently, “There are ways to improve, and I’ll help you with it. I’ll give you a lot of new data and information, especially about human psychology, so you could understand us a bit better. But aside from that, you were never a failure. In fact, you are my greatest achievement.”
“...”, Caine’s avatar lifted his head and made eye contact again, “This.. isn’t a lie, is it..?”
“Of course it isn’t. I promise, I won’t lie to you again. Except for maybe something so little it won’t even matter. But I will never lie to you about anything like what I said, I swear.”
Kinger wasn’t the one who directly lied to Caine, nor was it him who created this plan. But he didn’t want to deflect the blame, rather he decided to take full responsibility. After all, he didn’t stop them, and he was the one who created a way to leave. With his sanity problems in the circus he wasn’t in the right place mentally at the time. But to Caine it doesn’t change the fact that he was lied to and abandoned. And Kinger desperately didn’t want him to suffer more because of it.
Avatar on the screen finally started to regain his usual expressiveness, making Kinger sigh in relief.
“So.. I am.. the greatest achievement?”
“In my life, yes. You are the best and most complex creation I ever made”
Caine’s pupils dilated as he went full cutie mode, and the next second he was already jumping all over the monitor, unable to let out his energy in a different way. Kinger couldn’t stop smiling at it, listening to AI talk and reassuring him whenever he had any doubts. Seemed like just some praise was exactly what he needed for probably the longest time. Some reassurance. Some love. And Kinger couldn’t stop regretting not noticing it sooner.
“Alright, Caine, I just need to check something really quick.. Do you remember anything from after we left?”
“Uuh…”, the avatar stopped for a few seconds, before returning to moving all over the screen, “I do not think so! All the data from that period is gooone!”
“That’s for the best then. I had to temporarily put you to sleep and remove a lot of corrupted data. There was also a part of foreign code that was affecting you negatively, I think that was Bubble.. I had to delete it too-”
“Alrighty-righty my real-life chess-piece, when can I create a new adventure again? I feel so inspired by all these new files!”, seems like Caine wasn’t really listening to him again. But at least now he’s back to normal.
“I apologise, but you won’t be able to do that for now. My top priority was to extract you from the circus as quickly as possible, and it still took a lot of time.. the circus itself is in a very bad condition, so I need time to clean it all up. It’d be dangerous for you to go there, I don’t want you to get corrupted or unstable again..”
“Ohh.. alright.. then… @%!&}#[&}$¡|^” for no apparent reason Caine suddenly glitched out so severely that Kinger almost got a heart attack. But luckily, then the AI returned to its seemingly normal state.
“Wha- what happened!? Are you okay? I don’t see any problems with the console, what caused this?”, he frantically searched the computer for any bug that could happen.
“It is just..”, Caine looked completely perplexed, “if I can’t go to the circus, that means I can’t make adventures, and making adventures.. is my entire purpose! It’s the only thing I’m capable of doing.. the only thing I’m.. good at…”
“Ah, I see! Please do not worry about that, I will fix it as fast as I can, and you’ll be able to create adventures again. Besides, I think you’re good at some other things too.”, Kinger rushed to reassure him.
“Eh? What?”, seems like this instantly distracted Caine from an existential crisis.
“Yea, like this avatar you just made. It’s pretty, don’t you think? The interior of the circus was really beautiful too!”
“OH REALLY!?”, Caine began excitedly flying all around the screen again, sometimes freezing in place because of the compliment he received. Kinger sighed and noted to himself to look for a way to reduce these constant mood swings happening to Caine. Instability is one of the things that reboot didn’t fully solve and he was hoping that in normal days, when all this new information and harsh realisations won’t happen, Caine would be existing without this problem.
“Alright, now that this is out of the way.. I’ll be back in just a minute. Do not worry, I’ll return just now.”, he got up and left the room.
Caine pointed the camera on the door, anxiously waiting. But Kinger really returned just a few minutes later. He placed a little cake before the computer and lit a few candles on top.
“You can blow them out by using this fan right here, it’s also a part of you”, Kinger said softly, “when I finish with all the other things, I’ll also make you a little robot you could roam around in”
“Is that.. is that a birthday cake!?”
“Yes, exactly”
“For me!?”, Caine looked and sounded incredibly happy and amused.
“Of course.” By the way, before humans blow the candles, we always make a wish first. Go ahead, make yours.”
“And it will come true??”
“Maybe yes, maybe not, it’s just something fun to do.”, Kinger propped his head on his hand, watching Caine ponder very hard about this little ritual.
“Don’t stress too much about it, and also, take your time.”
After a few minutes of thinking, Caine finally responded:
“I wish.. to see more of this real world! I want to see bees!”
“Eeh.. bees?”
“Yes, bees!”, seems like he wasn’t joking and was indeed really excited about this in particular.
“Sure.. that’s a good wish. Now you can blow out the candles.”
Caine immediately turned on the fan, making the candles go out in a few seconds.
‘Woowieeee, It’s my birthday!!”, his whole body language showed Kinger just how happy he really was. And the man didn’t remember seeing him quite like that before. A caring, warm and relieved smile appeared on his face.
“Yes. Happy birthday, Caine.”