Chapter Text
"So, why do you seem to like bugs so much?" Ragatha asked, sure bugs were kind of cute?.. Absolutely not centipedes though, just thinking of those made her grimace and squirm inside, god, she hated those so much, with their long, countless limbs and long bodies..
"Actually, I used to be really scared of bugs, but Queenie got me to like them." He chuckled, it was bittersweet to talk about her, he could reminisce all the good times the two had together, on the other hand.. he was reminded that she was abstracted, and that.. he'd rather not think about that.
"Your wife sounded like she would be a good mother, you know, not like mine." Ragatha said, even here, her mother still haunted her even now, "Actually, we did have 2 daughters out there." Kinger replied, "Oh? Well, they're lucky to have parents like you two." she smiled, it was nice to have a nice little chat with Kinger, he was a really nice person to talk to actually, she was lucky to find someone as kind as him in this place.
She could still remember all those times her mother hit her and yelled at her on those days, where no one would defend her
After a few more minutes of exchanging casual talk, the two moved locations to where everyone except Jax was, for some reason, though they hoped he hadn't abstracted in his room or something..
Jax moved to watch the group from afar, since dollface and ol' king cuckoo had moved towards the lounge as well, from what he heard they were talking about Caine or something, why did they care so much about the stupid machine anyway? He wasn't even sentient!
Yet, they kept talking about him like he ever was, they recalled their experiences with the AI like he wasn't just a weird, unlikable waste of space in the circus, but he was a waste, he could never be sentient, Caine was just a stupid, lying unfeeling machine, he bets that fucker is only pretending to be abstracted so he could gain sympathy from those gullible idiots.
After all, he had to be!... Because.. if Caine was sentient, if Caine wasn't ever part of his archetypes either like the others.. then...
He'd have to admit this was all real, that his 'pranks' did do harm, that he's basically been abusing everyone, that he was just as bad as he thinks of Caine to be, that he did do all those terrible things, that-
“You drove Ribbit to suicide!” A loud, grating voice happily chirped, cutting off his thoughts and making his head snap towards the figure that said it, and it turned out to be, Bubble?!
“HOLY SHIT!”
The group turned to see Jax, stunned and confused, while floating above him was an all too familiar, goofy and eccentric ‘assistant’ who always stuck around near Caine, teeth sharper than ever.
“Whoa there, big shot! Don't have a heart attack yet, you're too young to die!” he chuckled, floating around the rabbit as the others watched, they were just as surprised as Jax was to see Bubble alive and kicking, even when Caine wasn't.
“Bubble? What are you doing here?” Kinger asked, stepping towards the unexpected visitor, although he appeared to be friendly, he could sense a hint of maliciousness in his eyes, "Oh hey! What's kickin' old man?" he obnoxiously asked, zipping close towards the chess piece, nearly pressing his entire form against him, in response the king stepped back and swatted him away.
"How are you here? Isn't Caine-" he started, but the impatient AI interrupted, "Abstracted? Yeah, I know! But thanks anyway, Captain Obvious!" he said, tilting his entire form, smile growing even wider than before.
"And for your information, I'm my own bubble! Just because boss is basically DEAD doesn't mean I have to be dead too!" the odd and scatterbrained AI explained, zipping and flying around the group.
"What a shame boss abstracted, huh?" He said a little too excitedly, almost implying Caine's abstraction was a good thing, "Well, is there any way we can get him back?" the chess piece asked, and Bubble turned towards him, smile faltering and uneasy tension rising as he continued staring,
"..Get him back?" He repeated, the words were laced with malice, "That's rich coming from you," the floating AI replied, "You really think he'll ever forgive you of all people?" he spat venomously, smile growing wide and eyes shrunk into slits.
The chess piece took a step back, taken aback by the sudden change of behavior of the erratic AI, "I-" he stammered, before being interrupted by a shrill laugh, "Oh, calm down there, gramps! I was just joking!" he joked, sticking out his tongue and returning back to his usual goofy and carefree and playful demeanor.
"..BUT, if you really do want to have a try, I can help you!" Then, he rapidly opened up his gaping jaws and used his long tongue to scoop everyone up into his insides, it coiled around them like a snake before quickly retracting and going into his mouth.
They could feel themselves being coated with his horrid, disgusting, and unsanitary saliva, despite their protests and sounds of audible disgust Bubble simply kept his toothy grin.
"Mmm! Yummy!" the sentient soapy sphere said, causing everyone else to grimace before he quickly flew towards the abstraction, "Hey boss! Special delivery!" he quickly spat out all of them into the area where the abstraction was, and before they could properly shake off Bubble's disgusting saliva, the bizarre and jittery AI pushed them straight into Caine's abstraction,
"BUBBLE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOIN-" Zooble screamed before they were all blinded by a flash of light and being consumed into the amalgation, disappearing entirely and ending up somewhere else.
"Welp! Here we GOOOO-"
And just like that, Bubble had also entered with them, to who knows where, well Bubble knew, he was chilling in there after all!
With a grunt, the cast got up, when they looked around, standing in front of them was a hollow outline of a circus, with a simple beige path leading to it, and a never-ending black void with a white grid encompassing everything around,
"Okay, where the hell are we?!"