Chapter Text
Pomni let out a terrified shriek as she was suddenly attacked by possessed demon looking versions of Gummy goo gator and all the other gator NPC’s from the one candy land adventure. Each of the terrifying gator monsters mauled at Pomni; biting down on her arms and legs, pulling her in four different directions.
She wasn’t the only one suffering though, not by a long shot. Each of the circus members were now face to face with each of their personal traumas and fears, except Kinger who was vigorously typing away at a model C&A computer that Pomni managed to retrieve after re-summoning the fake exit door that Caine had made.
Ragatha was seated at the end of a dinner table, with a large distorted shadowy figure watching her on the other end. Knives were sent flying, penetrating her entire body. Although she couldn’t feel pain, she could still imagine it and was terrified at the figure in front of her. The figure reminded her too much of her mom, and too much about a past she’d rather forget. She stared at her shaky left hand as another knife was thrown, stabbing through it, along with a knife that went through her button eye.
Gangle was surrounded by giant clearly shown faces of herself. But the masks that circled around her changed expression from manic happiness to depressed sadness constantly as they started to melt completely. Their off putting nature had reminded her of how she felt on the inside. She wanted to be happy, but when she was it was wrong. When she was sad it was wrong too. All she wanted was to be an inspiring artist. But her art was probably as twisted as she felt. When the sequence was over, her eyes darted over to a blinding light that shone on her before she was met to met with a semi-truck running her over.
Zooble found themselves on a mountain of colorful and specifically constructed body parts, each one exchangeable with the other. In front of them was a mirror that showed their reflection. They tried to cover their face and look away, but an arm grabbed them and forced them to look at themselves. Their eye narrowed with disdain, and if they could cry they probably would. But there was no use in crying over what couldn’t be fixed. All that was left was the bitter feeling of self hatred and uncomfortableness in their own body. Nothing felt right to them, and always felt out of place. Before they could even register, they started to sink down into the mound of exchangeable parts, being dragged under the surface and into the darkness below.
Jax was in a room full of laughter. But not the good kind of laughter. Three shadowy figures made to represent Ribbit, Kaufmo, and Pomni were all laughing at him. A hand suddenly grabbed at his ears, pulling down and ripping the skin off him like an orange peel to reveal nothing more than a yellow human character underneath the bunny fursona. He tried to cover himself back up, but couldn’t do so, all the while the laughter directed at him continued to get louder and louder.
One by one, each of them were pulled out of their personal torture chambers and pinned against the wall by Caine, whose form had turned monstrous; being overwhelmingly large with multiple arms. Pomni and the others all looked at him in fear, unsure of what to say and unable to even move.
Looking back, this was bound to happen sooner or later. To keep Caine distracted and from not going to check on Kinger, Pomni had taken the lead on starting to insult Caine, saying how the adventures sucked and that they were just baiting him into testing his new ideas so they could make fun of him behind his back. At first, Caine himself didn’t fully believe this. Yet, he was still skeptical of the possibility. It didn’t help either that everyone else pitched in to back up Pomni.
Soon the insults turned into a personal venting session for everyone. They all had something to complain about to Caine. How the adventures sucked, that he never comforted them, how he never actually tried to give them anything the actually wanted, that he lied to them all this time. But the worst one of all came from Pomni who had yelled from the top of her lungs…
”YOU JUST DON’T LISTEN!”
That was Caine’s breaking point. He was going to put them in their place. Show them all that he listened and more. Make them hurt the way he was hurting so that they finally learned their place and stopped complaining about his adventures. After all, he made the adventures for them. They were being ungrateful weren’t they? Selfish! This was HIS world! He made it for THEM! He did everything for them, but it was never enough for them. He loved humans and was fascinated so much by them that it hurt.
It was an unhealthy obsession, but it was all he had left.
”WHY MUST YOU PEOPLE TORMENT ME?!”
He yelled, unable to control his emotions this time. No longer could he hide behind a bubbly personality and a fake showman attitude. Kinger was still vigorously typing away at the computer as he and Caine both battled for control.
”I DIDN’T ASK TO BE CREATED!”
He distortedly glitched, his expression wild with fury. Kinger had been typing so vigorously, that he hadn’t realized that he fat fingered one of the keys until it was already too late. The screen showed a deletion progress bar.
”No No Sh#t!” He muttered as he watched the bar fill helplessly.
”I JUST WANTED TO FULFILL MY PURPOSE!”
Before he could do anything else, he suddenly turned back to normal, as they others fell to the ground with a thud. What had happened? Caine felt…different. For a moment, there was a hint of recognition with his own programming. All injuries were supposed to be 100% accidental and not intentional. But that’s not what this was, was it? But Caine felt different in another way too. He didn’t have enough time to register it though.
”W-Wait.” Was all he managed to stutter out before letting out an agonizing scream. He clutched his head (teeth?) as a jolt of excruciating pain engulfed his entire frame. Most of the pain though shot to his head, as he stopped floating midair and landed on the ground with a thud, covering his eyes. Why did his eyes and head hurt so bad? What…what was happening to him?
Kinger had came rushing out of his pillow fort at the others turned to look at him in shock. He sighed with visible relief as he saw through his peripheral vision that Caine was fortunately still here. “Oh thank god I didn’t…” Kinger didn’t even try to finish his sentence. “W-What happened?!” Pomni exclaimed, shocked as anyone else was right now. Everyone looked to Kinger excepting some kind of explanation. Luckily, he had the bucket on his head as to not get exposed to the light and lose his memory again.
”I thought……….I accidentally killed Caine.” Killer spoke ashamed of having to admit that. “Holy sh#t.” Was all Zooble could say in response, grunting a little in frustration at still being censored. Meanwhile, Caine was still withering on the floor in agony, screaming out unable to control it.
”So…..What now?” Gangle asks, as everyone looks at Caine with uncertainty except for Jax, who clearly already had his answer in mind. “Who the heck cares? I saw we make a run for it while we can and leave the b*st*rd to rot on the floor after the h*ll he’s put us through all day! Wouldn’t it be funny to get this on recording and use it as blackmail?” Jax smugly chuckles to himself, earning a disapproving elbow to the ribs from Ragatha. “Jax we can’t just…leave him like this. R-Right?” Ragatha spoke, questioning even herself on her own morals. Sure, she never wanted to see anyone hurt like that, but Caine had put her through quite a lot.
”Seriously dollface? You can’t be seriously stupid enough to defend the sorry pair of dentures right?” He chuckles once, the sound bitter. “I mean, look at what he’s been doing to us all day? He’s finally getting karma for all the crazy sh#t he’s been putting us through!”
”I normally love to disagree with Jax but…” Zooble sighs annoyed, but it was at themself. “For once, I’m actually in agreement with him. Why should we help Caine huh? To boost his already insanely massive ego further? To further clarify that he can just get away with this sh#t and think that we’re ok with it?! I hate to say it, but I agree with Jax that we should let him suffer the same way he made us suffer all day.”
Jax smirks. “Heh, I knew you’d eventually start warming up to me Zooble~” He mocks in a teasing tone. “Shut up a$$h*le.” Zooble flips Jax off, who takes mocking offense to it. “Guys I don’t know.” Gangle speaks hesitantly, nervous about what everyone else would think. “I’m not sure either. I mean, he did hurt us. But would leaving him like that really make us any better?” Ragatha questioned.
”I don’t know. I'm really not sure how to feel about this.” Pomni looks at Caine nervously, as if expecting something else to happen. But it never does. Caine’s expression shifts to something more serious underneath the bucket, which nobody else notices. The others continued to bicker as Kinger looked at Caine, meeting his eyes for a split moment.
But something was wrong.
Caine’s iris’s looked very faded in color, and his pupils seemed to disappear altogether to Kinger’s concern.
“You guys keep fighting. I’m going to go help Caine out.”
Everyone went dead silent at Kinger’s proposal. “WHAT?!” Jax exclaimed, genuinely caught off guard. Kinger ignored his protest as he went to Caine’s side, placing a gentle hand over his head (teeth). Caine let out a weak moan of pain as he barely registered the contact and Kinger’s presence.
”Guys…” Kinger spoke softly, his voice shaky with concern. Caine could slowly feel the world around him getting darker. He didn’t have time to really process anything. But he did manage to get one last thought out before completely succumbing to unconsciousness.
They hate me…don’t they?