Work Text:
Pomni rubbed her hands together anxiously as she paced around the black-and-white checkered floor of the main area of the tent. Beside her, the rest of the group sat in a huddled formation, some obviously wanting to be there more than others.
“Okay, Kinger and Gangle, are you sure you checked every last inch of the carnival?” Ragatha asked once again.
“Well,” Kinger said as he scratched his forehead, “I think so! Of course, it was hard to see with the parade and all.”
“The parade?” Ragatha repeated.
Gangle waved one of her ribbon hands and spoke in her usual meek voice, “I don’t know what he’s talking about! He kept saying he heard music and saw a little band but I didn’t see anything…” Two teardrops fell from Gangle’s mask and she wiped them away.
“Remind me again whose idea it was to pair you together.” Ragatha pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I did.” Jax sounded smug as he sat next to the ragdoll, nonchalant as ever.
Ragatha glared at him. “Right. And what about you and Zooble? What did you find?”
“Water,” Zooble answered with a shrug. “That’s all there was at the lake. No signs of Caine anywhere.”
Pomni stopped her pacing, staring at the group with wide eyes.
“Suppose he disappeared forever,” she abruptly said. “What if there was some kind of malfunction and he’s just- gone?! We’re going to be stuck here, all alone!”
The small jester tugged on the ends of her hat, panic setting into her. She and Ragatha were tasked with looking around the tent and there wasn’t so much as a clue where Caine was. Or Bubble. They’d all started looking under Ragatha’s suggestion when they realized Caine hadn’t started their day with a new adventure… or any kind of sign of his presence, really. This had never happened before.
“Then I’d say ‘good riddance,’” Jax huffed. “All Caine ever does is torture us with his adventures. Why should we worry what’s happened to him?”
“That’s not all he does,” Ragatha retorted and rolled her eyes.
Jax scoffed. He jabbed his finger at his head. “I think you’ve taken one too many knives to the head, sister.”
“Guys!” Pomni screamed.
Everyone turned to where she was pointing in the air, where Bubble suddenly appeared with his trademark pointy smile and blank stare. Kinger gasped and Zooble grumbled under their breath.
“Bubble!” Ragatha shot up from her place on the ground. “Where’s Caine?!”
“The bossman wanted me to give you all a message,” Bubble said as he floated down in front of the humans.
Suddenly, his mouth opened and his jaw retracted, revealing a megaphone. There was the crackling of static and everyone groaned and covered their ears until the noise subsided. Then, Caine’s voice came from the megaphone.
“Heeeeeello, my superstars! I apologize for not being with you today,” Caine chuckled. “I know I must’ve caused quite the scare-! AH- AAH-[CLICK HERE FOR A FREE IPOD]-CHOO!”
A loud sneeze echoed through the speaker and then a small, colorful box appeared next to Bubble, displaying a picture of an iPod.
“Is- is that a pop-up ad?” Pomni asked no one in particular.
Caine continued. “A-as you can already tell, I’ve somehow caught a nasty virus.” He sniffled, which didn’t even seem possible given his lack of nose. “This hasn’t happened in quite a while. I thought my systems were built better to combat this sort of thing but-”
The group cringed as Caine fell into a coughing fit, interrupted by a robot voice telling them about a snazzy new game they should [DOWNLOAD NOW!] or how they could [CLAIM YOUR PRIZE FOR BEING THE 1,000,000TH VISITOR!]. Every time, a new pop-up ad would appear in the air, covering the last one.
“-it seems like my programming just isn’t what it used to be,” Caine finished. He sighed, followed by the sound of someone blowing into a tissue. Jax muttered “ew” under his breath. “Anyways! I have decided to remain in a room I had Bubble conjure for me. I fear letting myself out of this quarantine until I feel better could have disastrous consequences, like causing the rest of the circus to be infected!”
Gangle frowned. “But what are we supposed to do until then?”
“Until then-!” Caine said, as though he could hear her. “I will leave you to your own devices! Entertain one another, make up a game amongst yourselves- AGH! [HOT SINGLE MOMS IN YOUR AREA CHAT NOW]!”
Caine sputtered and bits of spit flew through the megaphone. The whole group scooted away from Bubble.
“I don’t know…” Caine finally mumbled, uncharacteristically quiet. “Just leave me be and I’m sure my code will be back to normal in no time. And remember! I’ll still be keeping an eye or two on you. Okay? Okay! Bubble, please end the transmission now.”
A pause.
“Bubble? …Bubble!”
The little AI did nothing. Ragatha cleared her throat awkwardly.
“BUBBLE, I SWEAR WHEN I’M BACK I WILL POP YOU, YOU #&-”
Bubble’s mouth suddenly snapped shut, cutting Caine off as he smiled widely. The pop-up ads disappeared along with his voice.
“That’s it from Caine! Bye now!” Bubble screeched before disappearing just as quickly as he’d come.
There was a moment of stunned silence amidst the humans before Kinger spoke up.
“I’ve never heard Caine sounding like that!” he exclaimed. His gloved hands tapped together nervously. “It must be really bad, whatever he has.”
“Yeah, he almost swore.” Even Zooble sounded impressed.
Ragatha's eyebrows raised. “Perhaps we should check on him,” she suggested. “Y’know, see if he’s doing okay?”
“No way,” Jax was the first to refute.
He crossed his arms defiantly. Ragatha did the same and stood closer to him.
“C’mon. It could be funny.”
“Nope! Not after the Kaufy situation.” Jax stood up, leaning over to scowl at the ragdoll. “I am not getting caught in the middle of something like that again.”
“Besides, you heard what Caine said!” Gangle piped up, the ends of her ribbons pressing against her cheeks in horror. “What if we catch the virus too?”
“That’s true!” Pomni agreed, still pacing.
Ragatha sighed. Maybe it was for the best then that they didn’t go near Caine, but still. Something had to be done. They couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while one of their friends suffered from… some kind of sickness. It was a bit funny to think Caine could sick, even if it was in a different way than humans.
“Why don’t we do something then? Like give him a gift to feel better?” she offered.
“That’s a great idea!” Jax said with mock excitement.
Pomni’s brows furrowed. “Really?”
“No. Why would it be?”
“Because,” Ragatha pressed, “if you were sick, wouldn’t you want someone else to give you something nice?”
“Sure.” Jax shrugged. “…As long as it wasn’t you idiots. Why do you suddenly care about Caine so much, dolly?”
“He is always coming up with new adventures to distract us,” Gangle pointed out as she stood up. Fresh tears fell down her voice as she spoke shyly. “Even if they don’t always go well, they can sometimes be fun.”
Kinger suddenly stood up beside the others. “He’s always giving us things. Like pillows for my fortress!”
Pomni resisted the urge to remind him that his fortress had been destroyed since the day of her arrival. She nodded along anyway.
“Yeah…” she said. “And in a way, Caine is stuck here with us. We should be looking after each other, right?”
That’s something she’d learned on her first day of entering the circus when she’d left Ragatha behind to explore the fake exit.
Kinger and Gangle hummed in agreement. Zooble stood up with an exaggerated sigh.
“#*$&. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do something,” they conceded. “I mean, it’s better than being bored.”
Everyone looked at Jax who stood motionless, seemingly caught off-guard by the fact that even Zooble was on Ragatha’s side. Finally, he groaned and put his hands on his hips.
“Fine!” He pointed at Ragatha. “But if you expect me to put in even a little effort, you’re talking to the wrong rabbit.”
Caine sneezed again, his teeth chattering with the force of it, and the rest of him trembled. At the same time, he shouted, “[DOWNLOAD NOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN!]”
He pulled his fluffy robe closer to himself and a shiver in the form of small glitches wracked his body. He hated being sick. Not only was he vulnerable in this state—something not very fitting for an AI running an entire digital circus—but he was leaving the humans unattended too! Who knew what one day without fun and adventure could do to their minds?! Caine couldn’t bear to think of it.
It’s why he sent Bubble back to them again, just to check on them. Also, Bubble was more of a thorn in his side than anything else when trying to take care of him. All the AI did was put on a nurse’s cap and give him cans of soup with no soup inside. Not that Caine would be able to eat the soup for any kind of nutritional benefits anyway.
He laid back against the pillows of the bed he’d had Bubble make him. He stared down at his feet, which were sporting rabbit slippers. He’d heard it was customary to wear the sort of thing when you were ill. He wasn’t sure why. Caine truthfully missed his ringmaster’s suit and top hat, which was now replaced with a bag of ice on the top of his jaw-like head. Cuddled under all these sheets and blankets just reminded him of all the work he had to do that he wasn’t currently doing. His body itched to do something, to tend to his humans, but alas.
Caine began coughing, sitting up as he did his best to ignore the pop-up ads that appeared and then vanished, full of errors and links to malware and other nonsense he wouldn’t dare to expose to the rest of the circus. Then Bubble popped back into the room.
“Bubble!” Caine cried with surprise. He set the thermometer he'd been keeping between his jaws before sneezing loudly, spewing pop-up ads along with it.
He wiped his teeth, coated in some strange substance like snot, with the back of his hand. Usually, he would be able to snap his fingers to get rid of the gunk, but that was risky in his current state. The manual way of doing things was his best bet now.
“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go be with the humans!”
“I was!” Bubble floated next to him on the bed, as though sitting with him. “But they sent me back.”
“What?” Caine’s teeth arched like they were brows. “Why would they do that?”
“To give you this!” Bubble suddenly threw up.
Caine took a second to be utterly disgusted (sometimes it wounded him to think Bubble was something of his own creation and not some horrible freak of nature, no matter how much he acted like it) before looking at the contents of which Bubble spit up for him. Upon first glance, he couldn’t tell what he was looking at. It was like an assortment of trash to an AI like him. The only thing he’d been gifted in his many, many, many years of existence up until now was the rewarding smiles and laughter of his performers—or screams, which were much more common, for some reason.
Then, as he sifted through the collection of things, he came to realize what they were. They were get-well-soon presents! He’d only heard of it being a common tradition amongst humans, let alone ever being on the receiving end of such a thing! Caine’s eyes scanned the objects with growing curiosity, like the funny-looking doll and the balloon, and- was that a card?
On the front was a message in neat handwriting reading ‘Get Well Soon!’ He opened it eagerly. Inside, there were kind words, wishing him a speedy recovery and hoping he’d get to feeling better soon. The bottom was signed by Ragatha, who had clearly written the rest of the letter. There was also Pomni’s signature, and Gangle’s and Zooble’s and Kinger’s (barely legible, but Caine got the gist), and even Jax’s!
Caine couldn’t cry but he could feel his eyes start to sting in his mouth as he looked at the other side of the card. There was a nice drawing of him scribbled in crayon, floating above the others also drawn in a similar style. At the top, there was the sun shining down on them and the moon too. An arrow pointed to the drawing that said ‘Drawn by Gangle’ beside it.
Caine really wished he could cry.
He went through the rest of his gifts too. Ragatha had made the tiny doll, which was apparently supposed to be a replica of him. She’d gotten better with her sewing skills over the years, seeing as she had to patch herself up a lot of the time when Caine wasn’t around to do it for her. He laughed to himself as he studied the doll and then placed it beside him.
There was a balloon from Kinger with more of his crude handwriting that had ‘It’s A Boy!’ scribbled across it. He had the spirit. Gangle included another drawing, this time of just Caine pulling Bubble out of his hat. Caine would hang up that one somewhere later.
Zooble gave him a bouquet of flowers, which he recognized from their garden they kept in the back of the tent. It was supposed to be a secret hobby of Zooble’s that Caine allowed them to indulge in and gave them the necessary supplies for. The flowers weren’t real, of course, and, as such, didn’t need sunlight or water to grow and survive, but it calmed Zooble to do it so Caine let them. He wondered if the others had asked about it as he moved on to the next gift.
Pomni’s was the least personable so far, which made sense since she was the newest to the circus. But she left a nice note that said ‘Sorry you’re sick. I asked Bubble to give you more soup.’ Caine sighed. He appreciated the thought nonetheless.
Lastly, Jax left him a toothbrush, which Caine could only assume was meant to be some form of prank by the rabbitoid. Caine narrowed his eyes by pulling his teeth tightly over them. Cruel joke or not, Caine enjoyed using a toothbrush every once in a while. It was like the equivalent of a massager to him. Whether or not Jax knew that and gifted it to him on purpose was a mystery, but Caine gave him the benefit of the doubt and accepted the gift wholeheartedly anyway.
“These are all for me?” Caine asked Bubble in a weepy voice.
Bubble waited for Caine to inevitably start hacking and buzzing about 'winning free phones by clicking the link below' before speaking.
“Sure are, boss! And I have a gift too!” Bubble extended his tongue, handing Caine a can of soup.
Caine prepared for the inevitable and took the soup, only to realize the can felt full. Digital soup sloshed around inside, fit to give off the digital sensation of eating, an illusion Caine usually left for his humans but was craving right about now.
Caine’s eyes became shiny and he felt himself sniffle again. “Thank you, Bubble.”
He couldn’t help but hug his beast of an AI companion and Bubble, thankfully, did nothing to ruin the moment (as was his nature). Eventually, Caine broke the hug by sneezing and yelling at Bubble to fetch him more tissues to clean his teeth with, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.
And he made a mental note to thank everyone when his code was restored to its usual health and the virus was finally out of his system. Truthfully, between the adventures he gave them every day to occupy them, he wasn’t sure how much any of the humans cared for him. He’d never been given any validation like this before.
Caine snuggled into his blankets more, more content than ever. He picked up the toothbrush in his hands and stared at it warmly. It was nice to know they were thinking of him, at the very least. Caine didn’t always understand humans and their complex emotions—he wasn’t built to, so most of them were beyond his comprehension—but he believed he was feeling one of them.
Fondness for his little superstars. Caine sighed happily. He was feeling better already.