Work Text:
it was a pretty normal day in caines office. caine was sat at his desk like usual after the last adventure of the day, he was working on some finishing touches for an adventure in the middle of the night, when he randomly shut off.
...that usually never happened. the only time it did was when a virus snuck into his system while talking with jax about his behaviour, what happened next... uh... wasn't that professional of him...
...uh... he puked all over jax on accident, and jax reluctantly accepted his apology after caine fixed him.
...
...
...
...
caine woke up with a jolt, his outfit a bit dishevelled and not so neat like usual, his top hat lazily put sideways on his desk. his systems were overheating and his fans overclocking; whirling loudly to keep him cool. his eyes lazily scanned through the control panel, the files, (which seemed a bit corrupted...), everything. even if it physically taxxing on him right now, mumbling to himself even if it hurt.
"th-there seems to be... n‐nothing wrong...b‐but-"
he was interrupted by a coughing fit, bubble coming out of his hat with a soft pop, but it felt way too loud for caines comfort...
also, god...
"...wh-why are the lights so f‐fuckI-INGGGggg-..."
he zoned out, snapping back to what he wanted to say a few seconds later.
"...bbb-bright... g-god..."
"i'll turn the lights off for ya, boss!"
"...when... d-did you..."
his head hurt.
everything felt off.
he felt exhausted.
"b-bubble...?"
"uhhh... y‐yeah boss...?"
"can you... t-tell the others that... th-there won't be an-"
he got interrupted by another coughing fit, tears prickling his eyes as he continued coughing.
"...uh, do you even think you can announce the adventure in this state...? i-i don't think you should-"
"no-nonsense bubble...! i-i'll be fine..! its j-just... announcing an adventure...! it... won't be hard...!"
"...uh-huh..."
bubble popped away, causing caine to flinch, yet he also snapped his fingers a few times, teleported away after five snaps.
...weird.
it usually worked the first time...
everyone was at the main stage area, waiting for caine to be there, problem was... he was late.
an hour late.
"well, this is odd! who knew dentures could be an hour late to something!"
"jax... wh-what if something’s wrong...?"
"nah, he's fineee!"
bubble popped into existence, about to talk before-
"hello my jumping larvas...!"
he started, his voice sounding a bit more nasally, drained, and tired than usual. his eyes somewhat half open, exhausted, and distant; like he was trying not to fall asleep right there. yet he tried keeping his usual persona up.
w-wait... that didn’t even rhyme... damn.
"j‐jumping jellies... jumping jack‐o‐lanterns...? hhhaahh... what-..e‐ever..."
he went back to his tone from before, albeit stuttering a bit.
"welcome to the... f‐first adventure of the day...! the... u-uh... uhhhhhh..."
silence.
everyone looked at him... well, nearly everyone.
oh. darn. he... didn’t think of a name.
damnit, thinkof somethingcaine thinkofsomething...
"todays adventure is... u-uh-"
bubble cut him off, much to caines surprise, although relieved, his nonexistent throat hurt... same for his head.
god, everything is so bright in this damn place...
he just wanted this over with already... he wanted to go back to bed...
"-the peaceful party!"
oh.
...uhm... not the best, but caine would take anything at this point... bubble tried, thats what mattered.
bubble spoke again as caine tried to adjust to how bright and loud it was. leaving everyone, even jax and zooble, a bit confused. wasn't caine a bit more... uh... y'know... talkitive and energetic...?
"todays adventure is simple: have fun! caine noticed you all not liking his more horrific adventures, so he decided to do something simple! well, its a bit unfinished, but everything works as intended! just a few textures missing."
"bubble, th‐thats enough... can i-"
caine suddenly tensed up, much to everyone but bubbles surprise. he went behind the stage. bubble spoke to the rest of them, trying to play it off.
"ah... s‐seems theres a tiny hiccup, o-one second...!"
bubble summoned a bucket for caine, which he threw up in, bubble tried speaking, but it kept getting interrupted by caine puking.
god... how utterly embarrassing...
"nope, im out."
zooble said, before being stopped by bubble, pretty much being threatened.
caine went from behind the curtian, shaking a bit as he wiping the puke from his mouth...? teeth...? who knew.
"my apologies e‐everyone...! uhm..."
caine explained the adventure, pausing and zoning out a bit as he tried to form a coherent sentence in his state.
"y‐yeah... uh, h‐have fun...!"
he tried snapping to open the portal... and...
...nothing happened.
caine sighed.
"ah-...uh?- i'll try that again...!"
he tried again, and again, untill it finally opened the tenth time.
the portal wasn't like usual, the swirl on the inside was more jagged, and it was glitching slightly with colours that didn’t even match... like, the colour of the portal was a more pale blue and neon yellow, it... didn't look good.
bubble pushed nearly everyone in, except for zooble and pomni.
caine sighed in exhaustion, floating down till he hit his feet on the stage floor.
he sat down, shivering a bit from how utterly cold he felt. he let his eyes relax and shoulders slump, feeling extremely out of it.
"woah... caine. you good?"
zooble said, walking up to caine, their mismatched legs clinking against the floor, making caine flinch whenever the sound happened.
"...it-...it's so... fucking bright... christ..."
caine mumbled, shivering again as he coughed into his arm.
"caine?"
zooble said, poking caine on the shoulder lightly, only to flinch back when they felt just hot warm he was.
"...hhh-huh...?"
caine slowly looked at zooble, his eyes half open, even worse than when he was putting up that act of his. caine mumbled a swear as he took in how bright zooble looked to him.
"...did-did you... uh... s‐say... something...?"
"yeah, but i won't repeat it again, you... are very out of it, caine..."
zooble looked at pomni, bubble, then back to caine, before turning back to pomni, speaking up.
"pomni, grab a blanket from anyones room, specifically a fluffy and soft one."
they turned to bubble.
"bubble, summon a couch."
"on it, zoobie!"
"don't fucking call me that-"
they cut themselves off once they notices the filter was off.
"...hhhuh-...?"
caine blinked one eye than the other, finally registering what was happening after a few seconds.
"...uhhh- ...the... the filters... bro-broken... right now... s-ssso... r‐rryyyy..."
"meh. all goo-"
bubble summoned a couch, landing with a really loud thud, making caine flinch and cover his nonexistent ears. pomni came back with tons of fluffy blankets... they were just stored in the closet nearby.
pomni tossed a blanket to zooble and they caught it, putting it around caine, lifting him up. he was... surprisingly lightweight for a machine.
"...puh...-p‐put m-me... downnn... z‐zoobleeee... pleeaseeee..."
caine tried to weakly protest, not really making an effort to move. it fell on deaf ears as zooble brought him to the couch. caine hitting the soft cushion with a soft thud.
"...thhhis... feels... nnn-...niceee..."
caine let out a soft groan as he lazily shifted, barley hearing zooble coming down the steps, and barley reacting to pomni covering him with blankets. bubble, without even being asked, teleported a few pillows under caines head, propping him up a bit.
"...i‐...i knew i shouldn't'a a‐announced the adventureee... t‐todayyy..."
caine mumbled, lazily curling up as bubble gave him a bee plushie ragatha sewed a few days ago. it was... soft...
"...thhh... thank..."
the rest of the sentance got cut off by caine coughing, bubbled dimmed the lights, and darkened some of the colours... yes, even on zooble.
"h-hey! what the fuck!?-"
"boss can't handle strong colours, lights, or sounds right now, zooble."
"...oh... if it helps him feel better... i-i guess.... not like i care."
...right.
they didn't care.
keep saying that, zooble.
pomni, meanwhile, was going to her room to try and get something to check caines temperature. the tiny jester thought she had a thermometer somewhere...
rummaging through the drawers, she looked around untill she found what she was looking for.
aha!
she ran back to the others, holding the thermometer.
"guys!"
she said that way too loud for caines comfort.
"...c-can you... q‐q‐quiet the... ffff-... fUck down, pomni...?"
caine said, not meaning to sound aggressive, but pretty much everyone knew that he wasn't feeling well, so they let it slide.
"...s-sorry..."
pomni walked up to caine, lifting his tounge and putting the thermometer under it.
"that... was probably gross... s-sorry caine..."
"...im...too tired to care, honestly..."
caine mumbled, shutting his eyes. pomni took the thermometer out after a few seconds.
"...uh... caine?"
"...mm?" caine replied, his eyes sluggishly opening.
"you... uh... broke the thermometer..."
"what?" bubble said, looking at pomni, then caine, then back to pomni.
caine just stayed silent, trying to process whatever the hell pomni just said. it was like his denture head was underwater, but he wasn't drowning...
"...oh, great... th-this... fucking su-sucks...."
caine sluggishly opened the portal an hour later with a snap, his arm lazily flopping down and hitting pomni on the head, making pomni let out a tiny, adorable squeak. she was sat on the floor where the couch was, watching over caine, but didn't mind being hit on the head. as she knew caine was too tired from whatever he had to make rational judgement.
people came from the portal, he didn't have the energy to talk, yet bubble spoke for him. thank god...
"welcome back caines blue-tiful baskets! how was the adventure?"
nobody said anything, everyone's eyes fixed on their ringmaster laying on the couch, eyes half open as he stared back at them weakly.
"...oh, that... uh... caine caught some sorta virus, he tried pushing through the pain... and uh, he ended up puking backstage... i-it's a whole thing-... also... don't touch him right now... he's, uh, burning hot... almost like a volcano but less deadly...?"
"yeah, yeah, bubble, we get it. how hot could he be?"
jax walked up to caine, pressing a hand to caines head, only to recoil back and scream.
"HOLY FUCK!-"
caine put a pillow over his head, grumbling in annoyance due to how loud jax was.
"...sh-shut the... fff‐...fuck up... j‐jaxxx..."
caine went into a coughing fit, the circus' texture files glitching as folders in caines internal systems started to rearrange, caine, through coughing, tried to speak to bubble.
"b-bubble... l-l-look at m-m-my... ffff-fil-l-l-les....n-no-o-ow..."
"o-on it boss...!"
bubble opened the admin files, accessing caines system folder after a few minutes. only for their eyes to widen.
"uhhh... boss? are your files supossed to be all jumbled up and unintelligible?"
"...nnnn-no...wh-"
caine got caught off guard by another coughing fit, tears filling his eyes.
god, the pain... it hurt so much...
after a few minutes, the circus' textures went back to normal. caine let out a soft groan, shutting his eyes speaking up.
"b-bubble... ss...shut me down... e-everyone... have a... uhh..."
bubble spoke up, filling in what caine was trying to say
"everyone, have a good day!"
"...y-yeahhh... mmm... th-...that... thing..."
bubble stared at caine, floating close to him.
"...boss... y-you aren't making sense- even less than me, uhhh-"
"just... sss-shut me downnn..."
"oh, right... thats what i was doing."
bubble did just that, and caines eyes slowly shut, his fans still whirling and overclocking.
a message popped up for everyone to see.
[RING_CAINE.EXE SHUT DOWN...]
[PREPARING SYSTEM SCAN...]
[REMAINING HOURS: 7 TO 20 HOURS.]
...welp.
time to do whatever to pass the time.