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It was a rare moment of quiet at The Amazing Digital Circus™, a calm togetherness kind of quiet too. Zooble and Gangle were drawing together on the red couch, Pomni and Ragatha were with Kinger, and Jax was basically napping on the purple couch, surprisingly not bothering anyone - after Zooble shut him down too many times and he decided it wasn’t worth a physical confrontation. Pomni, Ragatha, and Kinger originally all wanted to be inside the pillow fort, but Pomni and Ragatha liked being able to see everyone else to just get that feeling of them all being a group, so they decided that they’d sit just outside and Kinger would stay inside to stay lucid.
Everyone was either chatting idly with each other or sitting in comfortable silence. For once, everything felt-... really nice.
“Why is it pregnant?” Bubble’s voice echoed through the circus.
Everyone looked around immediately, expecting the soapy weirdo to be hovering behind them. But surprisingly, he was nowhere to be found.
“It’s not pregnant, it’s just a glitch in the stomach-area of the model; I’m fixing it.” A second voice echoed.
Caine?
Now everyone was really confused and alert. Jax had woken up from his nap and was now standing.
“It’s pregnant.” Bubble’s voice repeated.
“No.” Caine insisted.
Caine’s voice was calmer than they’d ever heard it. It didn’t have all that over-the-top bravado and showmanship he played up. Granted, some of it was still there - it seemed that, on some level, his voice was just like that - but for once, he wasn’t yelling.
“It got knocked up!” Bubble antagonized.
“NO!”
Well, there was the yelling.
“Who do you think it was?”
“I’m not having this conversation with you, Bubble. Oh- look! I accidentally put a negative value there, that’s why it’s like that.” There were sounds of quiet beeping.
What was going on?
Gangle leaned forward.
“Cai-Nrmmph!” Gangle’s mouth was covered by Jax’s hand as he scrambled over to silence her. Zooble hopped up and shoved Jax off.
“You’re right, he’s just fat.” The smile could be heard in Bubble’s voice.
“No.” Caine repeated.
“Ah right, the correct term is big boned!”
Caine snorted, a sound the humans had never heard before.
“You know what? Sure.” Caine relented with an amused chuckle. It started out soft, - again, something they never heard from him - then ascended to a bubbly giggle, so light and genuine. For a few seconds, the humans were too caught off guard to resist being endeared by it.
“They’re not fat, they’re fluffy!” Bubble continued. Caine laughed more.
“Ooh we should make a fluffy one!” Caine suddenly pivoted as the joke gave him an idea. “Hmm, but what horse breeds are really fluffy?” He pondered.
Ragatha perked up at the mention of horses.
“Some ponies are, but you can’t really ride those... I guess the closest would be a Clydesdale; they can definitely ride those - those are huge! That’ll add some real variety! They’re so cool!” Caine said excitedly. The beeping was rapid now.
“Hmm, maybe too big though... I’ll lower the speed-to-size ratio on them so their size doesn’t give them an unfair advantage. This is a test of rider direction and skill after all! Not the horse!” Caine declared.
There was silence save for the continued beeping for a few moments.
“Ok, that one’s done! Now to the next! Oooh I saved the best one for last!” Caine exclaimed excitedly.
Everyone was looking silently around at each other, sharing looks of confusion, suspense, and inquiry, trying to communicate as much as possible through facial expressions alone. Would Caine notice and stop if they spoke?
Should they say something? Should they just listen?
These didn’t sound like things Caine would say to them. Did-... he intend for this? Did he know they could hear him right now?
“Wait- What in the world?” Caine sounded surprised.
Everyone looked back up at the sky.
“Is that a grilled cheese?”
Those who had eyebrows raised one.
“What?” Came Bubble’s voice. Bubble sounded confused. They’d definitely never heard that before!
“Yeah! It’s a grilled cheese! Why is it here?! This is supposed to be a horse!” Caine exclaimed, voice high-pitched with bewilderment.
“Look- look at the file: Icon image: horse. File type: .FBX. Preview image: horse. Open the file: Picture of a grilled cheese.” There was the sound of a slap against fabric, not like a forceful hit, but someone letting their arm fall, Caine’s voice flat and sounding just so done with it all.
“I’m glad I check things! I’m glad I decided to edit it! ‘Hey Ragatha?’” Caine took on a new tone, causing Ragatha and the others to tense for a moment. Was he speaking to her?! “That adventure I made mainly for you? Y’know how everyone else gets a horse of their own tailored to them? You get a sandwich!” He said sarcastically to himself.
Jax snorted.
Ah, sarcasm. That was- rare from Caine.
So he was planning an adventure; that explained some things. Some.
“Not even a model! A still image! Good luck interacting with it in any meaningful way!” Caine added sarcastically.
“Don’t they get to choose their own horse?” Bubble asked. An oddly normal sentence from him.
“Well, yes, but I did design each one based off player preferences and personalities. Of course she’s going to choose this one - it’s the most beautiful one here!” Caine exclaimed, then turned calm again. “And its personality module is sweet and gentle, just like her.”
Ragatha blushed. Zooble narrowed their eyes. This had to be some kind of trick, some way to make them like him by hearing him say sweet things. Is this really how he talked about them when they weren’t around?
“But instead I get a grilled cheese that-... that takes up zero bytes of storage space- now that’s not possible-” Caine said with a strained, borderline manic voice.
“How is this even- I’ve never even seen this picture before. I’ve scanned my entire memory, it is not in there. Have you seen it?” Caine asked.
“I don’t remember anything you show me.” Bubble responded. Caine sighed.
“Ok there’s more than one way to open this file...” Some new beeps were heard, slower this time. “The first shows it as a grilled cheese, but the second... crashes instantly- ok let’s move on-... And the third-... says the file doesn’t exist- ok-”
Gangle had wrapped a ribbon around her mouth to stifle laughter.
“I have no idea how this could’ve happened- Well I mean I guess there are a few possible explanations- Though the odds of them happening all at once are a bit far-fetched, there’s multiple things wrong here- Let’s see, this file was created-... five hours into the future?” Caine asked incredulously.
Caine laughed himself now.
“This is insane. Let’s just delete this.” A beep was heard. “...Can’t delete it- why-? Where does this-... It’s attached to a DVD drive?!”
A second of silence.
“HOLD ON- THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE!” Caine suddenly screamed, causing a few humans to jump.
“What? We have a disc. It’s been in there for years.” Bubble said.
“Yeah, we have ONE disc drive. I have schematics of my hardware; there is only one disc drive- it’s right on the front- it’s already been filled- this registers as a second one- there’s no notices of anything being plugged in- THAT DVD DRIVE DOES NOT EXIST IN THE HARDWARE!” Caine screamed.
Pomni was on her knees.
Kinger looked deeply engaged over this dumpster-fire of a file; they’d never seen him look so focused and contemplative, trying to somehow calculate something with his fingers.
“What in the world is this file?!” Caine questioned, voice high-pitched. “Goodness gracious- This is so bad it’s like some mythical creature I want to study- I’ve changed my mind let’s not delete this lets open this- Let’s open and put it in as the grilled cheese and see what it does. Maybe we’ll get the horse. Maybe we’ll get a different sandwich! Or some weird amalgamation of horse and cheese and bread- Bubble! Note down an idea for a grilled cheese horse hybrid for another food-based adventure!” Caine ordered.
“On it boss!” Bubble replied resolutely.
A solid three seconds of silence passed.
“Ok that’s taking a while to load- In the meantime! Brainstorming, brainstorming-” They heard Caine snapping his fingers a few times. “What for the reward?”
“Grilled cheeses.” Bubble answered.
Caine burst out laughing.
“YES HAHAHA-”
There was that laugh again, this time louder, a full-blown laugh instead of a chuckle or giggle, but no less genuine - a sound ripped from the chest in surprise, instead of being pushed out of it by force.
“We’ll do a grilled cheese station. Pre-made ones and also a grill and sandwich supplies to make their own if they want.” Caine said, and the continuous beeping started up again.
“Name her horse Grilled Cheese.” Bubble said.
“Haha! Yeah. They name their own horses, but I’ll definitely have that be the auto-generated name. It fits too! Horses have weird names! Why do horses always have such weird names? Manhattan Cafe, Rice Shower, Gold Ship, Kentucky Thunder; you never meet like a dog or a cat with a name like that- Well- wait- do rabbits count?” Caine suddenly pivoted.
“Because I had this one player way back when, Ellia, she and her family raised rabbits, and she had the funniest names for them! Trouble, Godzilla - that one was my favorite - Ti-”
“Who?” Bubble interrupted.
“Ellia, and her rabbits, she- Oh! Oh, right, that was before I made you, right.” Caine realized.
Kinger blinked. Caine couldn’t reveal information like that - names and personal details about humans - to other humans himself. It was a privacy policy and law violation, his code would prevent him- or it should, given the other safeguards he was shown to have in place.
He really had no idea they were listening, did he?
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know her, but she was such a sweet kid, would come online almost every day.” Caine said softly with a clear fondness.
Wait- kid?!
Come online every day... that implied they could log off. And Ellia sounded like an actual person’s name...
Did this game used to actually function?
“She loved to swim, but her family didn’t have a pool, so she’d come online and go down to the lake area, and just swim for hours.” Caine reminisced. “All that work I put into making the lake area, it was all worth it, just for that!” He declared joyously.
“The old lake that was deleted and completely reworked into the beach area? What a waste.” Bubble commented, trying to rile Caine up.
“That’s not the point.” Caine said, rejecting the attempt at agitation. “Games get changed, they grow, always have, always will. I don’t care if it gets deleted eventually. I just hope that what I do won’t be for nothing, that I’ll have made some sort of impact, in the end, y’know?” His voice was hopeful and acceptant. “I hope she remembers, hope that this place did her some good.
“She’d be- ok so if her birthday was March 3rd, she’d be 26 now.” Caine deduced.
Everyone but Kinger’s eyes widened; just how old was Caine? A technology that could download brains had to have been at least somewhat recent. Right?
“I hope she’s doing well.” Caine hoped out loud. “She was great with numbers, loved puzzles. She wanted to be a scientist! With the passion she had, I’m sure she’s doing great things.” His voice was so fond, so unbelievably soft.
“I hope I get to meet her again one day.” He sounded hopeful and happy, before it flattened out. “But then she’d be trapped here, and we don’t want that...”
Caine went silent.
The players stood in equal silence. Zooble rubbed a ribbon on the back of Gangle, who was doing her best to keep her crying silent.
“Ok that’s done, now onto-”
Caine suddenly gasped.
“THE PROJECT FOLDER’S GONE-” The high pitched wheeze was cut off with a choke.
Everyone leaned back a bit.
“I DIDN’T- WHY- HOW-” Caine sputtered desperately.
No one laughed at that. Anyone who had done any computer work, which was all of them, for any amount of time knew that experience. Kinger, Gangle, and Pomni recoiled the most, Pomni wincing with her mouth in an o while turning her head to the side.
There was silence for a moment, before Caine let out a mix between a disgusted scoff and a sob.
"I need a break. I can’t do all that again right now...”
Why didn’t he just stop?
“I guess I can work on the adventure for the Abstracted players. Not time yet but I can do it a bit earlier, or at least get it done earlier.” A small whoosh followed by a renewed stream of beeps was heard.
Wait- what?
“The real trick is getting them to all follow the adventure. Some are easier than others; Queenie will chase any bug...”
Kinger’s eyes widened.
“I think I’ll do a grasshopper this time. A little hopping creature will be the perfect thing to chase, and no one else is afraid of those little guys! I learned my lesson with the spiders!”
Zooble felt anger rising in their chest as they glared at the sky. Is he kidding?! They were already abstracted! He still insisted on torturing them?!
“Your idea of a ‘break’ is more work?” Bubble’s voice egged.
“I like my work, Bubble.” Caine grumbled. “Besides, I have to. They get restless when they don’t get any visitors - ‘don’t know why no one does.” Frustration and sadness could be heard in that last addition. “They start attacking each other - or-... themselves; it’s not good...”
Zooble’s hunched shoulders dropped. Everyone’s hearts sank or stopped.
“No I shouldn’t-... I’m sure they’re just busy.” Caine corrected himself. Their job is to stay happy, and it’s our job to keep them that way! For all our guests. That’s our job. If the Abstracted need a little entertainment, well then that’s exactly what we exist to provide!” Caine declared with cheerful determination.
“I can’t bring the Abstracted guests on the adventures with the non-Abstracted guests because they cause glitches when agitated - they need extra supervision - so I have to keep their adventures separate. It’s a little extra work, but they’re still our guests, and they still deserve our love and entertainment.” Caine said softly.
“But they don’t really play.” Bubble’s voice criticized.
“We’ve been over this, Bubble: Yes they do.” Caine corrected in the most stern voice the humans had ever heard from him. “It’s just in a bit of a different way, is all.” His voice became oddly soft.
“It’s like when my developers taught me how to work with the disabled kids: They’re not meant to be fixed, just helped. There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just a little different, and that’s ok.
“Like Owen; he had fragile X syndrome. He needed a little extra help - took a little longer with things and sometimes needed help to connect the dots. I’d make puzzles easier for him or offer him other activities to do in exchange to get around them or earn hints. He loved running, very fast, loved when I used racing challenges as alternatives.
“Or for instance May, with dyslexia. She couldn’t read very well. She’s why I started including more infographics and always reading text aloud.” The beeping continued, Caine continuing to work seamlessly as he talked. “She asked me what I was thinking about sometimes and when I said I was making pictures, she’d offer to draw with me.” The affection in his voice was so evident.
“Then there was Axel, had severe microphthalmia in both eyes. He couldn’t see in the macro-verse, but apparently with the way the human brain hooks up to the circus, his vision worked just fine in here. Heheh, I still remember the first day he came here! He logged in and immediately started yelling, barrelled right past me and was just running around gasping at everything! I didn’t even know about his eyes yet; I thought he was just excited at the new slide features!” Caine laughed affectionately.
“I may not remember a lot of things, but I remember the important things! And I’ll never forget when he came up to me and told me that before he came here, he thought his favorite color was blue, like his sister, but since he gained sight in the circus, he learned his favorite color was red.” Caine reminisced, and sounded rather proud of himself, which, for once, the humans didn’t fault him for.
“Though I guess that didn’t affect the adventures much. Still, I’m glad I was able to help him a bit here, even if it was only temporary. Same with Olivia, the girl with cerebral palsy, couldn’t walk outside of the circus. She learned to do a cartwheel here; she loved it.
“I wish I could meet them again one day, check in. I-... worry sometimes...” Caine’s voice dropped.
He went quiet for a long moment.
“ANYWAY!” Caine shouted all of a sudden, startling everyone just a bit. “It’s like that, I believe, with the Abstracted players.” He said more calmly. “They’re just a little different now is all, no less human. Frankly, I think they’re perfect just the way they are.
“They’re still our guests, still human, still people. And we don’t throw people away.”
Kinger covered his face, retreating back into the pillow fort where no one could see him. Pomni tried to go after him while Ragatha held her head in her hands and was crying silently, but Kinger hurriedly closed pillows over the entrance to block her. The rest were in their own stages of shock and realization.
Some felt defensive. He should have told them! Should have told them they could visit, that the Abstracted were still conscious, were hurting themselves!
...But how had their actions reflected how they thought about the Abstracted, really?
Did they ever even think? Once the Abstracted were put in the cellar, did anyone even really think about them that much in terms of how they were doing down there, or did they just write them off? Just assumed they were gone despite evidence that some part of them was still in there? They were calm in the dark. A single obstacle got put in their way and they just gave up? Immediately? Did no one ever think to even ask? Didn’t think to challenge it ever? Not just one, but all six of them. Not even once?
Did they ever even care? Really? When they thought that Caine kept the cellar under lock and key, did they care? Did they get angry? No. They got angry with him for everything else, but when an Abstraction happened, they ran to him. And they were thankful.
They had whole funerals for people that were still alive and then just never bothered with them again. They threw them away.
“It’s important to keep Queenie engaged and in the group.” Caine strategizes, going back to planning the adventure. “She keeps Kaufmo in line when he lashes out - calms him down, or redirects Ribbit when they wander off too far. She’s always been like that.” The smile could be heard in the way his voice softened.
From inside the pillow fort, a small choked noise could be heard. Kinger curled up against the floor, one hand over his face and the other gripping his robe for dear life as he shook, trying to manage the gaping chasm tearing through his chest.
He wanted to retreat into the light, forget it all, avoid it all, not have to deal with it. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it this time. He just writhed on the floor.
The rest of the group stood in silence with haunted expressions. Jax was conveniently turned away from the group so they couldn’t see his face.
“I’m thinking an outdoors scene. Nighttime, of course, under a blanket of stars...” The beeping resumed. “Have to turn down the star brightness of course...”
“They’ll be... following a river-... to where? Hmm...” Caine contemplated. “...To a fork in the river! And they’ll have to choose the right path! We can do a puzzle! Maybe a color puzzle! We can do a puzzle this time, right?” He asked. “Scratch has been getting better with logic-based skills since I put in that train set and track they always play around with. It would allow them the chance to shine, instead of always being in the back. They can’t read too many words yet but the flashcards are helping; I’m hopeful I’ll be able to put signs in one day.” Caine pondered hopefully.
Gangle was practically wrapped around Zooble now, who couldn’t keep their eyes open as they held her back.
“For now, we’ll do a color puzzle. They’ll- uhh- they’ll be following fish down the river! There’ll be two colors of fish... Red and blue - lightly bioluminescent - who will split into separate schools at the fork... And they’ll have to follow the correct color fish to the end!
“I think Scratch can do a color puzzle. If they can’t, I can take that stuff out in the next adventure - we can always switch back - but I have confidence in them!”
There were a few more seconds of beeps without a word as Caine finished things up.
“Now, what for the stakes?” Caine pondered out loud.
The humans tensed.
“Well, if they don’t choose the correct path-... they won’t be able to catch the fish in time for dinner!” He decided excitedly. “Yes- uh- only one side has a net at the end to catch them! Activated by a tripwire! One that won’t actually trip them of course.” The beeping got faster.
“They’ll have a chef at the end to cook up the fish! That’ll be the reward! Yes! Scratch used to love sushi and sashimi before he abstracted! He probably still does! We’ll do a surf and turf! But- uh- only fish.”
“Sounds ssslimy.” Bubble commented.
“Possibly. They do seem to prefer the food rewards to anything else though! And sometimes the stuffed animal or toy ones. Scratch will like it, don’t know if the others will; it’s hard to tell their food preferences...”
“Yeah, they don’t talk.” Bubble commented.
“They have a different way of communicating.” Caine corrected sternly. “I’ve had to learn it over time. They’re actually very communicative! I may not be able to identify a lot of human social cues, but I do understand screaming!” He declared triumphantly.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell what it is that they don’t like, but if it’s physical, often times they’ll attack it, and that’s another thing I do understand!
“They also scream if I take away something they like, that’s another way I can understand them. It’s how I learned not to despawn the music box, at least not the one in the pillow castle that plays lullabies.” Caine was just listing off his observations now.
“If they start settling down, that means they’re calm. Ribbit started hopping in circles around things that made her really happy; took me a bit to get that one, but relatively, it wasn’t too hard. I think the others noticed too because now they all do it, or at least try to. They’re quite cute actually.” The smile could be heard in Caine’s voice.
“Until the thing they try attacking is you.” Bubble egged.
“Well at least they communicate to me when I’m being too loud or have overstayed my welcome, instead of just-...” Caine trailed off bitterly, earning winces from the group.
“No, I shouldn’t- An-anyway!” Caine put himself back on track. “Sushi! I’ll add some of that too! Ooh! And maybe some little stuffed fish plushies!” Caine thought excitedly. “Stuffed animals always seem to comfort a lot of them. I’ve noticed recently that when Kaufmo has an outburst, Queenie and Scratch and sometimes some of the others will start gathering stuffed animals and putting them around him. Nine times out of ten it does a pretty good job of calming him down. They’re so sweet.” He said affectionately.
Another noise from in the pillow fort. Pomni and Ragatha were digging their fingers between pillows, trying to find the edge of the door to no success.
“Ooh! How about those little fish toys I made that flop around?! It’s a bit much with the food and the stuffed animals already in there, but I’ve had that design in my files forever and I’ve never gotten to use it! I want to use it!” Caine planned excitedly.
“They’ll get those and the stuffed animals whether they win or not.” He said softly.
“If they don’t win, are you just gonna give in again and give them the food anyway the minute they give you puppy eyes?” Bubble criticized.
“Shut up.” Caine said quickly.
“...Those three love toys-...” Caine muttered to himself.
“Seriously, what are you going to do for the other side if they choose wrong?” Bubble pressured.
“Hm? Oh- uh- uhm- I hadn’t-” Caine sputtered a bit. “Well I’m sure they’ll get it right, but-... ugh- ok- um-... It’ll be an open meadow. Starlight. Soft pastel flowers - I never really got to work with pastels before these guys, it’s starting to grow on me. Lots of space to run and relax. They won’t have to know they lost - I’ve had to do that a few times with the non-Abstracted players anyway.”
Some of the humans tensed, not out of fear this time.
“And how will I communicate to Scratch that it’s a puzzle, and which color is the right one to follow, without just directly saying it?” Caine asked. “Hmm, here, and here...” Caine muttered, not bothering to voice full thoughts anymore as he entered a rhythm. “Ooh! And maybe I should add the geckos - y’know the ones with the sparkly tails - from a few adventures ago because they were in the treasure room - do you think they’d connect that? I think so...”
Another few seconds of wordless beeps.
“Aaand done! I still feel like we need more for the lure, though. Queenie’s covered with bugs in the grass, Ribbit likes long walks, and Kaufmo will chase anything that moves buuut-...” He trailed off.
“I’ll have to add the wagon anyway for the ones that can’t walk well - and once one of them moves it the others will come along- Ooh ooh ooh! And- because- yes, yes! That’s like six of them! Ok ok I’m getting it!” He said excitedly, not even bothering to finish his sentences now as the beeping reached a new level of fury.
“You’re fast when you’re excited!” Bubble commented.
“I only wish I could go faster!” Caine declared.
“And harder?”
“What?”
There was a solid minute of just rapid beeping.
“Yes! Perfect! Now it’s just time for the physics and bug-testing on the new models and we’re good to go! Let’s go!”
“You’re early-”
“Don’t care! Let’s go!”
There was the signature sound of Caine’s snap, and then-...
Silence.
It was silent, at least from Caine. The humans were left breathing heavily; each had this incredible weight on their chest.
When they did somehow finally manage to collect themselves, they looked at each other, and without a word came to the same conclusion: Not a word.
~~~
There was silence from Caine for the next few hours, whatever glitch causing his voice to be broadcast having ceased.
But still, the humans had no idea if he was listening. Caine could see everything, after all, and the humans had no idea how much they were being watched at any given time. They had no idea if they were able to speak about-... everything they learned, without him finding out.
Many of them had tried to subtly talk about it, sneaking metaphors into the conversations they were continuing from before, but obviously couldn’t say very much, and often their attempts only earned stressful confusion and eventually requests to just drop it. But a few themes could be gathered from those attempts: Regret, sadness, and the repeated sentiment that they needed to keep this a secret.
Kinger had still not come out of the pillow fort despite multiple gentle probes from Ragatha, Pomni, and even a few from Gangle and Zooble.
It was a few hours after Caine left to start the adventure with the Abstracted that Caine appeared in front of them, right on time.
“HELLO!” Caine yelled as he appeared midair with Bubble, his boisterous voice back. “IT’S TIME FOR THE NEWEST ADVENTURE!”
Ragatha perked up.
“Caine?” Kinger’s voice spoke up, causing Caine to stop. Everyone looked over as Kinger opened the door of pillows and crawled out while holding a hand over his eyes, keeping his vision dark.
“Yes my liege?” Caine responded, zooming in front of Kinger and holding an arm in front of himself with a half-bow like a butler. That was a new one.
“I-... have a request.” Kinger said nervously as he crawled out of the pillow fort and stood up. “It can happen after the adventure, but I need to say it now. Can I speak to you over there for a moment?” Kinger asked. He couldn’t even see where he was pointing, he just wanted some privacy from the others.
“Of course!” Caine said cheerfully. “Just one second my precious pumpernickel pandas! We will be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly!” Caine waved enthusiastically to the others as he turned and moved with Kinger to an area to the far right of the stage.
Ragatha started to follow, but Pomni grabbed her hand. Ragatha looked back, confused.
“I think we should let him go first.” Pomni said softly but with purpose. Ragatha’s eyes widened just slightly in understanding.
“We can go later.” Pomni assured. “But right now, I think that-... if anyone should go first, it’s him.” She said and looked at Ragatha nervously.
Ragatha was silent. Without a word, she nodded resolutely.
Pomni and Ragatha looked to Gangle and Zooble, who also shared a look of understanding and nodded.
“Or at least be one of the first.” Pomni added nervously.
Jax got up and the others looked to him. They thought he’d follow.
Jax turned heel and started walking off towards his room.
“Where are you going?” Zooble asked.
“To continue my nap!” Jax said, putting his hands behind his head in a relaxed gesture. “It got interrupted earlier. Tell Caine I’m not coming on the adventure today, would’ja?” He said casually, continuing down the hallway.
“But you never skip out!” Ragatha said.
“First time for everything!” Jax called, disappearing down the hallway.
“Yes! Yes! YES!”
Caine’s loud and near manic cheers turned the remaining group’s attention back to where Caine and Kinger were. Caine’s giant pupils could be seen from their distance.
Caine locked eyes with the rest of the group and said giant pupils shrunk a bit, realizing he’d been too loud for what was supposed to be him and Kinger’s private talk. He collected himself and looked back at Kinger. “We’ll do that right after, I promise!” He said, still excited but quieter.
Caine then guided Kinger back towards the rest of the group, his eyes filled with glee and body practically vibrating with excitement.
God, they had fucked up.
“So what’s the adventure?” Ragatha asked quickly with glistening eyes before Caine could even speak, hiding it poorly.
Luckily, Caine didn’t notice.
“TODAY’S ADVENTURE IS: ‘LIGHTNING LEAGUE LEGENDARY HORSE RACERS’!” Caine spread his arms as the title spelled with wooden fence posts with bits of hay clinging to them appeared above him. “You must travel to the meadows to find a legendary herd of wild steeds, tame a horse, and train them-”
“Through bondage!” Bubble grinned.
“BONDING! THROUGH BONDING!” Caine screamed in Bubble’s face.
Caine collected himself in an instant and looked back to the group, putting an arm out in front of Bubble to block him.
“Train them through bonding, in time to compete in the annual Lightning Mile Horse Race!” Caine finished.
“Oh YAY! I LOVE horses!” Ragatha cheered, clapping.
“I love rodeos!” Kinger said as he came up to Ragatha’s side, his eyes now unfocused. The others gave him a nervous side-eye. Mostly Ragatha, but that’s because she knew things about rodeos the others and probably even Kinger didn’t know about.
“Now! Where’s Jax?” Caine asked cheerfully. “He was here just a minute ago. Where did he wander off to?”
Ragatha’s smile fell.
“Oh- um... He’s not coming.”
Caine’s eyes widened, his cheerful expression falling to a look of obvious anxiety.
“What?! But-! But he never-” Caine’s voice shook.
No no no! He was losing another one! The only one who never-
“It has nothing to do with you! You caught him at a bad time!” Ragatha said quickly.
“He’s very sleepy.” Gangle added.
“But-... You don’t need sleep here.” Caine reminded, his eyes narrowing, not suspiciously, but anxiously.
“We-well you know how much we like our routines! He didn’t get much rest last night, and he’s not used to that, is trying to make up for it!” Ragatha reasoned.
“I should go check up on hi-”
“NO!”
“We’ll do it!” Zooble quickly tried to save Pomni’s much-too-loud outburst. “Don’t worry about it! We’ll check up on him after the adventure. Let’s go!” Zooble said, and turned towards the direction of the portal.
Caine’s eyes widened.
“You’re going?” Caine asked in disbelief. They’re going? Zooble? No complaints? No questions? No required bribes or begging or pestering?
“Yup! Sounds like fun!” Zooble said forcefully, grabbing Kinger’s hand as they marched towards the portal.
Caine perked right up.
“Oh yay! That’s so wonderful to hear! I’m sure you’ll have so much fun Zooble!” Caine waved enthusiastically. Zooble rolled their eyes.
God, they didn’t want to do this. But it was the only way to make sure Caine was too happy and distracted to ask questions.
“Have fun everyone!” Caine waved. “I must go- prepare something!” He said with barely contained excitement. “Hooh-hooh-hooh!” He giggled, his little feet kicking in the air, and the humans recognized how the pitch was a little too high for what he normally put on for them, the sound of genuine excitement.
Zooble turned their head to Pomni, Gangle, and Ragatha as they all headed towards the portal, and placed a finger to their non-existent mouth with a conspiratorial expression.
Not a word.
They all nodded, understanding.
He couldn’t hide what he didn’t know was revealed. If he didn’t know, maybe he’d make the same mistake again and they could hear more.