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how long has he been in this state...? from what he heard from bubbles mumbling, about... two weeks...? nearly three...?
he didn't give a fuck anymore.
he just wanted to be dead.
bubble had been checking on him in the debug room, but he couldn't find the energy or motivation to respond, even still.
he just laid there.
bubble wasn’t sure what to do at this point... had jax completely broken him, or was it something else...?
god, if he did, bubble would @#%$ing snap, if it wasn't... bubble didn't know what to do...
...but... there was one thing they could do...
bubble pulled up the control panel, despite having no arms, they slowly acessed caines code, looking for the code that makes caine have emotions.
...it was all glitched out, save for one emotion, and three mental states...
EMOTION: sadness.
MENTAL STATE: instability, exhaustion, burnt out.
bubble looked at the screen in shock, looked at caine, then back at the code an error message popping up, saying this.
[ERROR LOADING "Happy_Memories.EXE AND 10+ MORE FILES".]
[VIRUS DETECTED IN FILES. STARTING QUARANTINE.]
[DO YOU WANT TO QUARANTINE THESE FILES?]
[YES.] [NO.]
...what?
...caine had a... virus?
...no, no no no no... that... couldn't be it...
bubble teleported both them and caine to his bedroom, caine tensed up, only slightly.
"...mmm... s‐so... b‐brighttt..."
caine mumbled, covering his head with the covers to block himself from the light. he didn't have the energy to be happy, to make adventures anymore. even if they did, it'd just turn out like it always did.
an utter waste of time.
not like kinger was there anymore to give him false prasie, anyways...
bubble pressed 'YES' on the command prompt, causing caine to mumble something, even if it hurt bubble.
god... just what was wrong with caine...
...
...
...
an hour passed.
caine was starting to stir, his eyes heavy.
"...ugh... wha-"
he was interrupted by a yawn, then the door opened. someone ran up to him, hugging him. sobbing.
...
...
. . .
...wait... gangle?
caine stayed unusually quiet, his usual bright eyes having a heaviness and exhaustion to them gangle knew all too well.
"...what... is it... gangle..."
caine mumbled, struggling too talk for the first time in two weeks, his voice was drained and hoarse. staring at gangle with a blank expression... he wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone right now...
"y-you're okay...! thank #%$@ing god...!"
gangle felt something wet touch her mask, she looked up...
only to see caine crying, his body trembling slightly.
"...c-cai-"
he latched onto gangle like a lifeline, sobbing violently.
he didn't want to be this exhausted anymore.
just let yourself rest.
just sleep.
it will be better this way.
you won't burden anyone.
YOU WON'T BE A BURDEN TO ANYONE ANYMORE.
caine wiped his tears, staining his dark red sleeve with wetness.
why the fuck was something else talking to him.
it scared him.
"...d-...do you... h-hear that...?"
"h-hear what...?"
oh, so he was starting to hear shit now! great going, caine! you've officially gotten more insane than you usually are!
"...i-...i think i heard something... i-in my code..."
"what..?"
"i-it said-"
he was about to speak up before he covered his mouth, his dentures shutting as he let out a 'hrk' sound, he quickly summoned a bucket, softly pushing gangle off.
he threw up into the bucket, it was like pomnis first day here when she went and threw up after being pulled around by caine, the puke was black goop-like stuff.
caine leaned over forward so much he fell off the bed, still puking his nonexistent guts out, his arms shaking as he tried to keep himself steady.
after a few minutes, caine weakly snapped the bucket away, letting out a few weak gasps. gangle got out of caines bed and helped him up, helping him to the bed, caines eyes more dull than before from exhausted.
"...i... think i... h-have a... v-vi... rus..."
caine said, mumbling into gangle. gangle was now on her side, snuggling with caine. she.. didn’t know how it happened... caine just.. latched onto her in exhaustion.
"...o-oh..."
his eyes slowly fluttered shut, his vision swirling again. whatever this thing was, it was stripping him of his memories, everything that made him...
...well, him.
and it scared him.
okay. this was worrying, even for the members that haven't really cared about their ai ringmaster.
it'd been nearly two weeks without an adventure, two weeks without seeing caine.
gangle got out of the office, holding something... or someone.
caine allowed gangle to carry him out of his office, considering he had no motivation to do anything still...
"oh! there caine is! he looks-"
"he looks like shit, seriously, the fuck happened between these two weeks?" zooble said, and gangle just sighed.
"...i think jax broke him." gangle spoke, looking at caine with a pitying look.
"whaaattt...? me? ribbons! you gotta be-"
"caine told me everything, jax. you- you've stepped too far, even for your standers."
"..." jax just left.
no argument, no apology...
just silence.
"now... that he is delt with," gangle began, looking up at the rest of them.
"does... uh, anyone want to start with helping cai-...?"
as if on cue, caine slowly woke up to everyone's surprise... i mean, nobody had seen him, so that was a given.
"gangle... wh-wha-..."
he sluggishly got up out of gangles grasp, seeming like he didn't want to move from her embrace.
as he got up, he lazily floated in place beside bubble, his usual energetic energy stripped away. caine rubbed his eye as he looked at the others, he spoke up, having a tired, monotone voice.
"...hi."
even zooble seemed scared.
this... wasn't the caine they knew.
"caine... are you o-okay...?" pomni asked, only getting a tired, deadpanned look from caine.
"...no."
he started, zooble braced themselves for the long, excited rant caine usually gave everyone, zooble just hoping this was a facade for a fake, depressing adventure...
but they all just got a fist-full of utter exhaustion and hopelessness from their ringmaster.
"...i mean, if none of you are happy with what i make, then what's the point in trying? none of you appreciate what i do..."
he lazily positioned himself in a floating/sitting motion, continuing to ramble as he mindlessly juggling his eyes, he'd usually do it when excited, but now? he seemed to be doing it to get his mind off his racing thoughts.
"o‐or doing anything if none of you like what i make...? im burnt out with you all constantly complaining... constantly trying to please you all, yet nothing... i-i haven't left bed for two whole fucking weeks, and not to mention all of these dark thoughts i've been having...."
he lazily put his eyes back to their proper positions, putting his head in his hands, his green eye poking out.
"...if that doesn't explain that im done with everything, i dunno what does... im sick of trying to please you, im sick of everything, and i just wanna die, and-"
it meant to continue from there, but pomni cut him off.
"c‐caine... can you... come here for a sec...?"
caine froze, going back to lazily floating in place, his one arm grabbing his sleeve.
"...i-...im okay... i-"
"...creative artificial intelligence networking entity."
caine froze... pomni just pulled out the full name, well...
"...oh... uh... yeah... sure..."
caine lazily floated over to pomni, eye to eye with the small jester, pomni noticed just how... broken and shaky he was.
pomni, despite hating touch with her whole being, hugged caine, who was already shaking. he just started to tremor and shake more.
zooble thought that the circus would glitch, but he just started sobbing, letting out a muffled scream in pomnis shoulder.
bubble appared, summoned a couch with a soft, fluffy blanket on it, and left. pomni sat on it, holding their depressed ringmaster.
zooble reluctantly came over and sat on the couch, hugging caine. he just bawled even more, soft gasps and sobs coming out of the burntout ai.
ragatha came soon after, then gangle, gangle putting the soft, fluffy blanket on caine.
this lasted for five whole minutes. caine calmed down after a bit, wiping his eyes, everyone let go of the hug as caine sluggishly got up. his shoulders slumped and his eyes more tired than before, but caine seemed to be less stressed judging from his expression, which was... good.
everyone then heard footsteps, then hearing jaxs voice... when was...
"oh, since when did you all care for dentures, he's nothing but a-"
caine just summoned a glitchy pistol and shot jax without hesitation, jax fell to the floor before he respawned in an instant.
"hey, dentures, what was-"
caine teleported jax to his room.
caine sighed, getting rid of the pistol.
everyone stared at caine for a few seconds before gangle spoke up.
"uhm... d-does everyone want to draw...?"
"...what for...?" caine asked, a slight curiosity in his tone and eyes. having a spark of emotion felt strange because of how empty and burned out he felt, but gangle responded with kindness that made some of the walls surrounding his emotions break.
"well... d-drawing can help you express your emotions when you can't verbally express them... i-it might help with whatever emotions are brewing inside of that head of yours..."
gangle patted caine on the head, making caine let out a tiny squeak.
"awhhh!" ragatha started, "you're so cu-"
"...c-can we just draw already...?" caine said, teleporting everyone (except jax) to gangles room.
once there, gangle got paper, pencils, markers, and pencil crayons.
everyone was drawing and chatting away, caine was silent, the sound of pencil on paper and gangles words echoing through his head.
"d-drawing can help you express your emotions when you can't verbally express them..."
caine continued drawing, using more muted colours like gray, black, dark colours, etc, just drawing what he was thinking, well, thats what everyone was doing.
caine was drawing himself, yet their joyfulnes was stripped away, the bright colours he drew himself with now replaced with darker colours-mostly gray. he made an edge shadow type thing with the markers, then started writing what the others said in a bright red pencil crayon, wanting it to stick out.
"nobody likes your stupid adventures. ragatha's just too nice to say anything. jax just likes to fuck with everybody. gangle's too shy to speak up. kinger's insane. and pomni looks traumatized every time she comes back from one."
"well, how do i, you know, leave?"
"you should die-- you should throw a fucking beach party!"
he just kept wring untill he ran out of room, he drew another peice, and another, and another, a crayon snapping from how hard he was scribbling and drawing, soon it just turned into a unintelligible mess, he heard his name being shouted.
"caine!"
"h-huh?"
"we were just about to share everyone's drawings, y'know, to get a insight on everyones mental stability...?"
ragatha said as caine looked down at the crayon... or... crayons... he snapped.
"...sorry for snapping the crayons, gangle..."
"i-it's okay...! i always have the extras you gave me..!"
everyone showed their drawings, one by one:
gangles was of that time zooble comforted her after the spudsys adventure, pomnis was of the manner with him and kinger, which left a bad taste in caines mouth. zoobles was a somewhat depressing peice of them trying to find what they liked about themselves, which, again, caine could relate too, ragathas was her with everyone...
and then caines...
his first one was him in the center with the words being written around him, then, the next one was caine, again, curled up in bed and hugging kingers purple pillow, (the only colour on the page) and the things he thought while being MIA for two weeks, yet more scribblely. the next one was everyone except kinger, yet with more muted tones, everyone saying it was his fault kinger abstracted, with more scribbly lines, and the last one was of the day kinger was abstracting, the lines so scribbled and the colouring so messy nobody could tell what was going on, but, they got the gist.
"...caine... o-oh my god..."
pomni mumbled, standing up and tackling the ai in a hug, caine let out a soft 'oof' sound.
"nobody blames you for kingers abstraction, it's like saying-" ragatha got cut off by zooble.
"its like saying jax is a nice person when he isn't, and what does that conclude to, caine?" zooble asked, their monotone voice more softer than usual.
"...it... it isn't true...?"
"exactly."
"...i-...th-thank you... all of you..."
a pop-up showed up for everyone.
[RNG_CAINE.EXES MOOD: 0% - 5%.]
"wha-... caine... your mood is..."
"i know... i- i guess the drawing helped me feel better... uh... m-maybe i can do something else with one of you guys...? o-or as a group...?"
"th-there we go...!" pomni said, "you're finally getting out of your shell...!"
"wha-...huh...?" caine asked, sluggishly sitting up.
"o-oh..! that just means y-you're showing more genuine emotion with us...! th-that means good progress...!" gangle said, smiling softly.
...progress, huh...?
well, guess things aren't so bad after all...
...maybe nobody hated him like he thought.
[RNGCAINE.EXES MOOD: 5% - 10%.]