Chapter Text
Nia sits at the circus couches, in the silence of the circus as she draws in her small notepad different types of fish, and small tidbits of information about them. It was her favorite way to destress and let her mind wander away.
She’s snapped out of her fish frenzy as she puts down her notepad when she hears Caine snapping his fingers to open the fractal noise and let the others out of his latest adventure. The majority of them come over to the couches or go to their room.
Zooble, having noticed Nia's antisocial behavior, decides to strike up a conversation with her,
“So, Nia right?” They ask, sitting next to her on the couch,
“Yep,” Nia responds cordially but doesn’t seem too interested
“Not to like pry or anything, but I noticed you draw a lot of fish, were you a marine biologist or something?”
“Ah, well no…I really wanted to be one but I actually was a nurse practitioner,” Nia chuckles dryly, picking her notebook up and looking longingly at the drawings.
“Wow, how’d you get into that?” Nia hesitates to answer, but is saved as Caine suddenly appears before them.
"Nia, could I talk to you for a second in my office?"
"We were kinda in the middle of something, Caine." Zooble grumbles.
"Habup! I wasn't asking you now was I?" He says matter-of-factly, holding a finger to their face and turning back to Nia for an answer.
"Zooble, do you mind if I catch back up later?" Nia says without much hesitance. Caine smiles smugly at Zooble and they scoff. It was like there was some sort of curse making it impossible for Zooble to interact with Nia, there was always something in the way.
"Yeah, sure." They huff.
"Great!" He exclaims and immediately whisks Nia away to his office.
Zooble's brows furrow as they notice how fast Nia had accepted Caine's request vs their own, she seemed closer to the AI than any of the circus members and it was growing concerning.
***
His office was surprisingly enchanting, she thought he had meant that stuffy office where they got evaluated after working at Spudsy's, but this was way more charming.
Curiosity gets the better of her and she looks through the orbs on the wall, noticing each of them were a different adventure, Caine watching as she observes a few with a look of pride that his work is being admired.
"So, I'm guessing you didn't bring me here to just show me your lustrous office," She jests,
"O-oh yeah!" Caine exclaims as he snaps and suddenly he's in his chair with a clipboard.
"So, I've noticed your recent absence from adventures, you seemed to like them in the past...what can I do to appeal to you?"
"Well... it's not about the adventures really," she looks away, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Then how am I supposed to help?" He exclaims, Nia sighs.
"I don't know if you really can, I'm just homesick is all and I can't handle the adventures right now." She explains with a bit of hesitancy as she fidgets with her hands,
"The entire point of the adventures is to make you happy and fix your problems! So I think you should be going on more adventures rather than less!" Caine points out, not understanding her reasoning.
"I know what I need, Caine. I just don't want to be around everyone 24/7" Nia snaps a little with a bit of building frustration
Caine turns away from her, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he thinks for a solution.
He then puts a finger to the air, a cartoony lightbulb shining above his head.
"Eurika!" He exclaims, whipping back around to look at her, "I am going to chaperone you for a day! That way you won't be around that many people but will -even better- have my company!"
"I’m uh-" Nia begins but Caine interrupts
"I know it's great and you're so excited, but I still gotta plan the other’s adventure still, so byeeee~"
He does a quick wave and snaps, teleporting her back to the couches.
"So what was that about?" Zooble asks plainly
"Just asking about feedback for his adventures..." Nia lies, not wanting to explain her bout of depression. Zooble nods in understanding but can't help but be a little suspicious.
"Anyways, I know you wanted to talk but I'm kinda tired...im gonna go back to my room if you don't mind," She says quickly, but before Zooble could even say whether or not they cared, she scampers away to her room.
***
As the time for the next adventure arrives, Nia lies on her bed mentally preparing herself for the day, out of anyone in the circus she was most fine with Caine, so it wouldn't be too bad she thought.
Hopefully.
There's a knock on her door.
"Last chance to join in on the adventure!~" Caine calls out in a sing-song voice.
"Yep," she responds simply
"Hm, I'll see you later then!" Caine shrugs and teleports away.
Nia feels bad staying in bed too long so she gets up and leaves her room to begin wandering until Caine comes for her.
As she goes she hears Caine's voice echo through the circus talking about the adventure he's sending them on, her mind blends the words until she hears him snap his fingers and announce,
"Now, onto chaperone duty,"
As she sees him lift his fingers to snap and probably teleport away she gets an idea,
"Polo!!!" She shouts, and with a sudden burst of energy begins running.
Caine's head perks up at the sound, immediately catching onto her scheme he shouts out,
"Marco!?" And gets another "Polo!!" But further away now, he had to get going now before she was gone entirely.
***
Five or so minutes later, Caine finds Nia lying face-down on the grass slightly outside the circus.
She seems completely exhausted as she wheezes out one last "polo...."
"Ah ha! I win!" He exclaims triumphantly.
She just lies there.
"If you wanna play games I don't know why you didn't go on my adventure, it's way more complex than Marco Polo! I can still send you in if you want,"
"I'm good..." she says, voice muffled by the grass.
"Then what do you wanna do now?" Caine asks, Nia flips herself around onto her back.
“I'm gonna lie here a bit and look at the sky,”
Caine floats down and settles next to her in the grass, looking up as well.
“Doesn’t this seem a little boring to you?”
"Living in the moment and enjoying the scenery? Never…it’s nice to slow down a bit every now and then,”
Caine looks at her, contemplating what she said for a bit and then lie*s down in the grass.
“Hm…why do you care about your adventures so much anyway?” Nia inquires,
“I’m supposed to keep you guys entertained so you don’t go crazy-”
“But why keep making them when it seems like not a lot of people like them?”
Caine looks at her incredulously
“What do you mean!! The majority of the cast loves the adventures, just because you and Zooble are ruining my spotless reputation doesn’t mean it's the majority!!” He states defensively.
“I mean they go on them, but it doesn’t seem like a lot of them like them…”
Caine visibly deflates, Nia feels bad for telling him that
“Well, I did like some of them though, I'm sure the others have specific adventures they liked…”
“How am I supposed to please all of you then!!? It's impossible!”
“I mean, would it be impossible to just leave the adventures open to go on?”
Caine slowly looks over to her
“I can't just leave all the AIs running 24/7! That's dangerous!”
“Why is it dangerous?”
“They could- uhm well they could corrupt the code!!! And you don’t want to be cast into the void, do you?” Caine waffles.
“Guess not…” She says with a bit of skepticism still present, but she drops the topic.
They lie there a bit in silence but Caine can’t help but continue to think about what she said about the adventures.
“What specific adventures did you like exactly?” He probes
“I like most of the nature ones…oh! and some of the scary ones, they’re kind of fun,”
“You actually like the spooky ones?” Caine perks up,
“Yeah, they’re exhilarating, I used to go to haunted houses on Halloween and watch horror movies all the time believe it or not, though I am kind of a wuss…” She chuckles.
Caine logs it away in his brain, with a small surprised “huh…I’ll certainly keep that in mind,”
He quiets down a bit and closes his eyes to think of adventure ideas for her, and she continues watching the clouds.
He honestly liked being able to have a civil one-on-one conversation with one of the humans, additionally just having someone to hang around without them pushing him away or thinking he was annoying was new and certainly not unwelcome.
His mind drifts and wanders as he lay there, and he feels comfortable enough to fall asleep for the first time in years.