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what to do... what to do...
caine was stumped, for the first time after his depressive episode, he'd gotten back to making slightly simple things, not adventures or anything. but simple. but, now? he was just making a map change for the winter time, it was almost winter, after all.
"hiya boss! going back to creating i see?"
"not creating per say... just a-"
caine was interrupted by a yawn as he streched.
"-justa' map change for the 'christmas holidays'... i-i mean, who chris-t-mas? and why does he have to do with winter...?"
"boss... its a holiday, not-not a person."
"huh..?"
"just-just search it up, i guess... uh... ragatha told me about it, but i don't know how to explain it..."
"alright..!"
so, he spent the whole night recerching for activities and making the map changes for the winter, leaving the ringmaster exhausted, but satisfied.
everyone, except zooble was starting to wake up, a chill in the air. their personalities starting to shine through the exhaustion of the crack of dawn.
there was a table with tons of things on it, fluffy christmas sweaters, not the ugly, uncomfortable ones, cause no way would caine want his circus members uncomfortable!...even if he did sometimes.. unintentionally, a hot chocolate station, etc.
once everyone put their sweaters on, there was a snap from behind the curtians, and everyone was changed into comfortor clothing for the cold breeze, well, except for the sweaters, those stayed.
"good morning my jolly jackets...! i hope you enjoy the all-nighter-caine-special..! well, it was bubbles idea but thats besides the point- anyway! are you ready for-"
"caine, y-you look exhausted, p-please don't tell me your making us have an adventure in that state..."
"oh! no, no no...! i just thought we'd spend the 'holiday season' together..! i did lots of research on what you humans do during the 'holiday break' so, thats means no adventures untill 'new years'..! i... still gotta look into who this 'new-ye-ars' person is, but thats besides the point! have fun!"
they were expecting caine to teleport away, but he tensed up.
"ah, uh... i-its... uh... sorta cold... uhm... i forgot to make a sweater for myself... s‐silly me...! o‐one second...!"
caine went behind the curtian, with a snap, he changed into different outfits untill he found one he liked, coming out from behid the curtian a few minutes later.
"well, my happy hares...! h-how do i look..?"
caine asked, having a slightly dull red hoodie with dull green strips, the drawstrings having fluffy pom-poms on the ends. he also had some black tights, and had some really cute white slippers on, he also didn't have his top hat, or cane.
"apologies for the more... uh... dull colours, especially for my standers! i know, not like me, but, uh... i-idon'tknowwhereimgoingwiththisimsorry-"
"hey, c-caine... can you... c-come here for a sec?" gangle said.
"uh, sure...!" caine replied, lazily floating over to gangle, still not having that much energy as usual.
zooble flipped the hood of caines hoodie on, revealing two bee-like antennas made out of the same materials, and two white pom-poms.
"awhhh," ragatha began, "you look so cutee!!"
"wha- im not "cute"...!" caine retorted, letting out a huff. "this is simply to keep us all warm, and i totally didn't have your accommodations in mind!" caine said, joking with the others. he did add their accommodations and what they liked, caine got into action, leading to where they were now.
"i-... uh... hope everyone likes it... oh! wait! i nearly forgot something!"
caine snapped, and the circus was transformed into... well, the circus, but a winter theme.
the circus colours were less neon and moreso a bit cooler in colour, soft snow covered the ground, ice being labled as off limits. snow was falling from the circus celing, and the normal eye soring decorations replaced with trees.
"i mostly spend my time on the gifts and the winter theme, i mostly just picked a random colour from your pallet for the sweaters and hoped for the best... so, uhm-... yeah-..." caine explained, not really having that same passion for explaining things like he used to, his voice quieting to a whisper near the end. it hurt gangle, ragatha and pomni to see him like this when it was supposed to be a happy day.
everyone was chatting on what to do, watch a movie? do crafts? party? violence?... you can guess who suggested the last one.
caine summoned the suggestion box and paper and pencil, and everyone put in their answers. the one that caine pulled out first was a movie, then crafts, then party... and no, not jaxs answer last, and zooble was still asleep.
"alrightly then! on we go!"
caine snapped, and the main stage turned into a theater, there was a screen, and caine floated up, inspecting in.
"uhhh... does anybody know how to work this?-"
"i-i can!" pomni said, grabbing a remote and putting on a christmas movie, caine dimmed the lights and, with a snap of his fingers, gave everyone snacks.
...
...
...
...
an hour passed and everyone was talking about the movie, jax went to his room halfway through, mumbling about 'not enough violence' or what not. caine spoke up after a few minutes, asking a question.
"does everyone wanna do crafts...? o-or wait for a bit?"
"uhm... c-crafts sound nice... w-we did just sit and stare at a screen for an hour and a half..." gangle said, pomni nodded.
"we can always do gingerbread houses!" ragatha said, smiling softly.
"alri-"
caine got punted by a snowball.
"ha! i meant to hit rags! this just got WAY better! hahaha!"
jax continued laughing, caine set everyone into teams, startling jax.
"alright! new plan: everyone grab your gloves, and get excited, because this is: the amazing digital snowball fight..! everyone has three lives, and only one snowball to hold to make it fair...! once the last person i‐is out, uh... i-... i think you all get it... n-nevermind..." caine trailed off, stopping his explanation there, everyone giving eachother a worrying glance, except for jax. caine set up a barrier between the two teams, and gave them walls to hide behind, the barrier wasn't permanent, it was just so jax didn't punt snowballs at anyone before caine said go.
"huh... seems like i have to replace zooble..."
he lazily floated over to gangles team consisting of him and gangle, jaxs teams consisting of jax, pomni, and ragatha.
caines feet hit the floor with a soft thud and crunch of the digital snow. he spoke to bubble to get rid of his admin privileges so he wouldn't cheat. bubble did just that, and caine spoke up.
"three, two, one; go!"
bubble put down the barrier, and everyone started throwing snowballs, everyone had three hearts above their heads, including caine.
gangle lost all of her lives after a few minutes, same with pomni, not before knocking down ragatha to one heart and jax at two..
caine immediately threw the snowball at ragatha when she was caught off guard, saying that "everyone did a good job." they did, but it was just jax and caine now, caine at one heart, jax at two. caine had to play stealthy
jax and caine threw their snowballs at the same time, caine ducking so it didn't hit him, it went on like this untill jax nearly hit caine, and he retorted by throwing a snowball at jaxs chest, leaving him with one heart.
jax grumbled, throwing another snowball, hitting the wall infeont of caine instead of at him, after a few back and forths, caine threw a snowball at jaxs head.
long story short, caine won.
after a few minutes, the round was over, jaxs team lost, somehow, but jax just walked off afterwards, grumbling. caine asked for his admin privileges back, and bubble obliged.
after a few minutes of discussing what to do, and realizing crafts was next up on the list (besides the little bump in the road), with a snap of his fingers, the snowball court dissapeared, leaving a table, chairs, and a unfinished gingerbread house set for everyone.
"lets start...!" caine said, sitting down at the table and taking off his gloves. snapping them away.
"well, uh... don't need those anymore..!"
"you-you have hands?-"
"of course i do, pomni! it's only on rare occasion i show them, as the finished model for my body is... uh... still in the works-... the hands are done, though...!"
"huh."
so, everyone started, ragatha helping caine get started with the construction, both of them brushing hands a bit.
pomni was already done the construction part after fifteen minutes, working on the decorating part of it.
caine was taking things slowly, he was somewhat a perfectionist, sighing as he got some of the frosting on his non-gloved hands. the sensation feeling strange. his eyes even popped out of his closed teeth model when he was focusing, biting his tounge a bit. everyone was slightly freaked out by the collision glitch with caines model, but there was more strange things here than that.
ragatha and gangle were also taking things slow, once they were done the construction part; they gave eachother decoration ideas with the candy.
caine was the last to finish, making sure everything was okay with the construction part, finishing decorating a few minutes later.
"that was fun...!"
"party, party!" pomni chanted, startling caine slightly.
"oh..! alright...!"
jax heard everyone talking outside, and when caine was setting up, accidentally teleported some booze and eggnog to jaxs room. how he fucked that up? i dunno.
but what would jax do, you ask?
SPIKE THE EGGNOG GODDAMMIT. WHAT ELSE????-
once jax was done putting the whole bottle of booze into the eggnog, he opened his window...
and chucked the bottle out of his window, chuckling to himself as he mixed it with a random spoon he found on the stage one day.
"oh..! seems like i accidentally teleported the eggnog to jaxs room, apologies...!"
caine lazily floated to jaxs room, softly knocking on the door.
"oh jaxxx...!"
caine started, waiting for the purple bunny to open his door.
after a few minutes, jax opened the door, done mixing at this point. he gave the eggnog to caine.
"here you go, dentures!"
"thank you, jax!"
caine teleported the eggnog, and him to the main stage.
"got the eggnog..! is it okay if i try it..? i've never had any, so-"
"go ahead, caine!"
after the party got started, everyone was talking about random things at this point. once getting a cup and filling it, caine drank the whole thing in one drink. a strange feeling overcoming him a few minutes later, caines systems relaxed, overtaken by a sudden calm, but also an extra emotional reaction to everything.
"...ah, jeez... i-" caine let out a soft hic, "i-i feel... s-strange..."
jax came out of his room, a smug look on his face. zooble opened their door wearily, just waking up, looking at the scene before shutting their door.
"like the prank i did, dentures? didn't expect it to affect you first, though!"
caine stayed silent, trying to adjust to the new feeling inside of his systems.
also, why'd he feel so emotional all the sudden-
"j-jax... do 'ya always gotta be such a... f-fuckin' asshole to e-everyone here..?"
caine said, slight annoyance in his tone. why couldn’t he control his emotions???- why couldn't he stop talking!?- why can't he-
"like... i-i can't recall the amount o' time you've... b-broken gangles mask... f-for fun... plus... e-everythin' else y' have done to... e-everyone... a-and stressin' me out... w-with having to deal with 'ya b-bullshit... d-...do 'ya know when ta quit, or are 'ya just gonna... c-continue this shit t-till you e-eventually abstract like the others?"
caine slightly mumbled, staring at jax with half-open eyes. having slight sarcasm near the end, yet still being serious. caine let out a soft hiccup, resting one hand where his cheek would be, staring at the table.
"...'m...'m sorry... th-that was mean... i-... uh... wh-what was i gonna say...?"
"is caine an emotional drunk?" pomni whispered to ragatha, which she shrugged, just watching this unfold.
well, caine being drunk was a new sight, one nobody really expected.
"eh... whatever... n-nobody-" he was interrupted by a soft hiccup again. "nobody cares for what i g-gotta say, anyways..."
caine continued rambling for a few minutes before pomni just hugged him. caine looking up at pomni with a dazed expression, something like a smile appeared with his head.
"th-thanks, pomster... haha, hah... pomster... that's- thats'a funny name..."
oh, well then.
everyone continued talking, jax went to his room at this point after that tiny reality check. caine kept talking aswell, pretty much getting more and more drunk, pretty much just rambling about his feelings and how depressed he felt untill someone hugged him.
soon, nightime fell upon everyone at the circus. caine still being drunk, rambling on and on about different things.
"caine... we all should, uh, get ready for bed... and-"
"nooo... im fineee..."
"c-caine-"
caine latched onto gangle as she walked to her room, gangle shutting the door behind her. caine already being asleep before gangle could even speak again.
"o-oh... uh..."
gangle climbed into bed, taking caine off of her and putting him on first. caine whined softly, gangle climbing in her bed shortly after, caine latching onto her again.
"gee! boos got into quite a doozy, huh?"
"AH-... bubble?"
"just checking in!"
"al-alright..."
bubble popped away, gangle yawning as caine snuggled her. damn, just how exhausted was he...
gangle snuggled the covers, shutting her eyes. just aslong as caine got rest, she didn’t care if he snuggled her.
the only thing she thought of when she was about to sleep was;
merry christmas, caine.