Chapter Text
Curious. Very curious.
Caine tapped at his temples as he allowed the video to play out.
Humans really seemed to love this particular format of short-form media.
They'd change the initial ‘hook’ but they'd all end up at the same place.
Very interesting indeed.
He flicked away the screen above his office desk and sat back, crossing his legs and bouncing a foot while he thought.
Why? He had to wonder.
Humans liked variety, but they also seemed to be fixated on this type of thing. Caine guessed it was supposed to be humorous, but honestly, human ‘memes’ were still quite incomprehensible to Caine.
Some were just strange, distorted images with a single word of misspelled text.
Others were text posts, and of course the endless, cyclical trends of video media.
According to The Google, this trend had begun in 2007, and its popularity had ebbed and flowed ever sense, with increasingly creative ways to include it in media.
So he could theoretically ask any of them but Kinger, since his clock module reminded him exactly ḫ̴̎ö̶̪̂w̴̹̥͋̉ ̵͚͇͘l̵̛̞ǒ̶̥͊ṋ̶̓g̸͓̈́ ̶̮̔͂t̵̮̔̃ḧ̵́ͅe̶̢̔́y̴̤͈̌̚'̴̰͗̉d̷̼̮̎ ̵̡̪̏͠a̵̘͊̂l̸͙̀̈́l̵̤̍ ̵̟̬̉b̷͇̈e̸̗̘͘͝ė̴̤̔n̵͉̬̐́ ̸͔̘̂̕h̸̨͒ę̶̍͐r̸̯̲͝ë̷̻́͒.̴͑͆
But the likelihood of Ragatha knowing seemed relatively low. From what Caine knew about her, it seemed unlikely that she'd have been on the side of The Internet that would have shown her such things.
So that left Gangle, Zooble, Pomni, and Jax.
He hummed.
Tilted his head.
Snapped, and ported away.
“Oh, Gangle!!”
Caine knocked sharply on the digital wood and clasped his hands together as he hovered outside her door.
“I have a question for you, if you please!”
He kicked his feet, fluttering conjured eyelashes for a currently nonexistent audience.
“Do you have a moment to spare, my befeathered bundle of yarn?”
The door creaked open, and Gangle peered out, light glinting softly off the white porcelain of her comedy mask.
“Oh, hi Caine,” she said with a tiny smile. Her ribbon hands pressed together, awkward. “Yeah, I have a minute. What do you need? Do you… want to come in, or…”
Caine shook his head, letting his eyes bounce between his teeth with some bright pinging chimes.
“No need, my dear! Just take a peek at this, and tell me what you think please!”
He yanked his hat off, reached inside, and pulled a holographic screen out of it. He slapped it in front of Gangle, then swung around it, crowding close to her so they could both see the display.
Many little video windows were clustered on the screen in various sizes. Caine clicked on one in particular and it grew to fill the center of the screen, miniaturizing and pushing the other videos to the sides of the screen.
Gangle blinked, confused at the video that began to play.
It was honestly weird to see a real human person in the cartoonish world of the circus.
It was a man, explaining a self-defense move.
“Caine… umm… what is this?”
Caine pushed a finger against the smooth porcelain plane of Gangle's mask, shushing her.
“Just watch please, my deciduous shooting star.”
She did.
Caine let one eye stay focused on the screen and rolled the other to watch Gangle closely as the video played out.
When the video ended, Gangle turned to Caine, eyes huge and empty, jaw dropped.
“Caine, Caine…” she moaned, dragging her ribbons down the sides of her mask. She squeezed her eyes shut as another clip began to play. “Do you understand what you've done?”
Caine shook his head, trying to hide the uncertainty building in his core at her strange reaction.
He tried to play it off with a bit of bluster. He shook his head enthusiastically.
“No, my dear, I most certainly do not! I'm just…” he hesitated at her thousand-yard stare as a third clip played through. “I was, ahh, merely curious about why humans are so entranced by this particular—”
“Caine!”
He jumped, startled when she grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard. His jaws floated still while his body jerked back and forth under her grasp.
“Uhhh, yes Gang—”
“We have to show everyone else!”
Caine and Gangle showed everyone else, one by one, and Caine only grew more and more confused. Each human reacted a bit differently.
Zooble just chuckled, especially when they noticed Gangle, holding back tears of what Caine truly hoped were laughter, and lightly knocked Caine's shoulder.
“What is the significance of this?” He asked them.
They just snorted again, and said they'd explain after everyone else had seen it.
Pomni's face had fallen into a strange, half-lidded, flat-mouthed glare.
It didn't seem to be directed at him, but Caine wasn't so sure this was a good idea anymore.
Humans were just so confusing!
He had just wondered why they were so fixated on this, and now it seemed like it was becoming ḁ̷̣̪͇͎̘̿̇͆̂͝ͅ ̷͔̜̭͍̆͗̿p̸̢̛͙̜̹͉̲̺̈́̒̓̔͋͠ř̵̡̤̲̜̮̭̓͑̅̀o̷̡̹̭̤̮̻̦̓b̵̢͖͚͉̣́̑̏͜͜͠l̴̢͇͂ȩ̵̢̰̼͕̅̂ͅḿ̷̧̭̅̊̾́̀ͅ.̸̢͎͍̖͚̽̒
Ragatha and Kinger had been nearly as confused as Caine was.
Jax was the last one they showed, and his reaction was the most dramatic, almost visceral.
At the troupe's encouragement, Caine had set up his projector in front of The Lounge's couches.
“Do it for the vine!” Gangle had demanded, almost as intensely as when she'd acted as Spudsy's manager. “This is the most important thing you’ve ever done!”
Caine wasn’t sure about that, but he had made a mental note to find out what The Vine was, and then set up the projector and connected The Circus's sound system so that in Pomni's words, ‘Jax could experience it in all its glory!’
Caine really did not understand humans at all, he realized no matter how WONDERFUL they were, and how much he loved them. They were truly incomprehensible creatures.
Jax had begrudgingly joined them at Pomni's behest. As he'd sat and watched, his pupils had blown until nearly his whole sclera was taken up by black.
https://youtu.be/Aq5WXmQQooo?si=FVFAsc57ZiHb8bVf
Ba-da-da-da dun-duh, dun-duh, dun-duh~!
Once the video had played out, sound blaring throughout the whole circus, Jax had slowly turned to the troupe members gathered there as well.
“...what…?”
Gangle burst into giggles, Pomni straight up laughed, and Zooble smirked from their place on the arm of the couch.
Jax blinked, stiff and boardlike.
“All this set up. Getting me here. The projector. Just so you could Rick Roll me? Are you serious?”
He folded his arms, and glared at the maniacally laughing Gangle and Pomni. The two of them weren't even trying to hide it. Pomni wiped tears and Gangle flopped back against the couch to wheeze, ribbon ribs fluttering like over-excited butterflies.
Jax’s face held an odd mix of emotions that Caine really didn’t recognize. He was looking over each of the troupe in turn.
“I can’t believe this. Really? Rick Rolling?”
Caine didn’t know who Rick was or what he was rolling in, but he obviously had some serious significance to humans.
Some sort of deity or something? Or just one more thing that I’ll never truly understand?
“Y-yeah…” Pomni squeaked, eyes still streaming, giggles interrupting her own speech. “You just walked right into it! I was sure—I was sure you’d see through it!”
Gangle nodded along, grabbing at Zooble’s arm like she needed a lifeline. Zooble just watched the chaos with a hidden grin.
Caine scooted backwards in the air, flailing his hands desperately when Jax's gaze fell onto him.
The mix of emotions, perhaps some disgruntlement, some sarcasm, and maybe some smidgen of goodnaturedness was morphing into something that Caine’s pattern recognition software flagged as something that could be ALARMING, ENTERTAINING, and DANGEROUS.
Jax was considering some sort of mischief. But Caine didn’t know what.
And that was almost more nerve wracking to Caine than anything else.
Jax stared Caine down, Cheshire grin widening with every second.
Caine sweatdropped.
Uh oh.
His processes whizzed, trying to make sense of the situation when Jax spoke again.
“You have access to the internet, and this is what you choose to do with it? This was your idea?”
Jax is planning something mischievous and it has something to do with—
WAIT, WHAT?
“No, no!” Caine pleaded, shaking his head desperately. “I have no idea what this is, I was just curious and then Gangle insisted and Pomni too, and I just wanted-”
“Leave him alone, Jax,” Gangle demanded, now stifling her laughter, hiding her mouth behind a ribbon hand. “It was my idea, he doesn't know what's going on.”
No, he certainly did not.
Jax huffed, blew a raspberry, and turned away, though he wasn’t as huffy as Caine might have expected. If Caine had understood what was going on, anyway.
“I'll bet he doesn't,” Jax scoffed, and his voice sounded oddly contemplative. He tapped a finger on his chin. “I can’t believe this is the lame stuff he’s finding. Not when…”
Pomni reached to punch him in the arm.
“Aww, come on, man!” She snorted, smiling. “It's not that big a deal! Gangle and Caine got all of us! Besides, I'll bet you're just jealous that you haven't thought of taking advantage of Caine about the internet yet!”
“Please, don't do that.”
Caine's weak little plea was ignored by the group as they goodnaturedly teased Jax. There was a strange light in Jax’s eyes, and that odd little twinkle sparkled a bit brighter when he looked back at Caine.
Finally, Jax sighed, and plopped himself back onto the couch, settling his feet back on the arm rest.
“Fine, fine,” he conceded, crossing his arms behind his head. “I suppose it was a bit funny. Stupid as [QUACK] but whatever. And don’t worry!”
Jax glanced out of the corner of his eye at Caine, who shifted almost instinctively behind the nearest person, which happened to be Pomni. Her size meant she didn’t actually help hide him all that much.
“Maybe we can… hang out and poke around the internet more later, Cainey-boy. How’s that sound?”
Everyone groaned as Caine immediately shot forward, trepidation completely forgotten.
“Why that sounds AMAZING, Jax, you conniving harbinger! That would be DELIGHTFUL!”
Zooble turned to the group.
“Who’s gonna supervise that? I call not it.”
“Oh, don’t worry Zoobie, I wasn’t going to do nothing! There’s… just some stuff I wanna look at with Caine. Completely innocent, don’t you worry. Just give me the remote so I can find us something actually good to watch right now.”
Years later (around November 2023, to be exact):
Caine had found another one.
And this time, he was going to use this to its fullest.
None of the humans should know about this. That meant he had a golden opportunity not only to introduce it, but to milk it.
Time to recruit Jax’s help.
Jax helped Caine decide when and where it happened.
At breakfast.
At lunch.
In The Lounge.
In their rooms.
Outside.
Inside.
Everywhere.
Again and again and again.
Unrelenting.
They were beginning to expect it. Beginning to see the signs and avoid them, especially when Jax and Caine could be seen standing close to each other and watching.
It was becoming something unfunny to them. Something mundane, almost.
So Jax advised Caine to stop.
For days. Weeks, even.
Long enough that they dropped their guard. They forgot. Put it out of their minds.
Then the adventure happened.
It was normal, as far as adventures went, perhaps a bit more difficult and convoluted than the usual run-of-the-mill. But Caine had promised a fabulous reward at the end one that would more than make up for the effort!
And they had all trusted him.
Jax’s pretended reluctance hadn’t even been noticed. He was too practiced a liar and prankster, and this set-up had a nearly undetectable ending. Very unlikely that it would be expected.
So when the troupe finally stepped back through Caine’s portal, Caine led them all to a set of elaborate movie-theater style seating, very comfortable, promising their reward right then.
They sat, unsuspecting.
Caine played the clip.
https://youtu.be/2KI1mQAbR2k?si=sy9VL1zzijAuYcrs
Caine high-fived a grinning Jax among cries of furious disbelief.
“Aww, [JINGLE] you two!! I just got that stupid sound out of my head!”