Work Text:
GLITCHED SICK
The day had started off relatively quiet in the circus. Gathered in the living room, it was nice to sit around and chat about mundane topics. Ragatha was telling a story about one of her softball games. Zooble talked about how they never quite liked dark liquor. (Which was a bit surprising?) Gangle was drawing something in her sketchbook with a bright smile on her face. Kinger was staring off into space as he usually did. And Jax…
Well…
Ever since the…fight, Jax hadn't really come out of his room. It was decided it would be best to leave him be for a while…give him some time to cool off. Don't want him to accidentally blow up at anyone after all, especially when it was only a matter of time until they would be whisked away to some other "grand adventure" Caine had planned for them.
Although, there hasn't been much of a sign of Caine all morning, not that anyone minded. It was simply unusual for him to be absent this long.
It was also unusual for the lights to flicker and buzz. Everything turned off in waves, and the circus went dark.
Everyone blinked and turned their gazes towards the ceiling.
"Is uh… Is that normal?" Pomni warily asked.
"Not as far as I know," Zooble admitted. Their shoulders (or at least what is supposed to be their shoulders) went slump as they sighed. "Caine is probably experimenting with something new or whatever. Pretty sure we'll find out soon enough."
"Could be a malfunction," Ragatha suggested.
"Maybe…he'll fix it?" Gangle guessed. She nervously toyed with her pencil. "Unless it's…part of some new adventure he has planned for us?"
Perhaps that could be it. Still, there was an air of uncertainty, especially for Pomni. The others had been in the circus longer than she had, and even they were far too confused about the blackout.
"Oh. What happened to the lights?" Kinger asked a moment too late.
"Kinger!" Pomni remembered— He was in the circus far longer than anyone. He would at least have an idea. "Is this a normal thing? Or is Caine trying to experiment with something? Maybe?"
Kinger dramatically cocked his head. "Say what?"
"N-nevermind."
"Now, now Pomni. There is no need to look so dejected," Kinger said. "To be afraid of the dark is a normal thing! But I promise none of the Gloinks are going to come out and pull you apart! You're not even detachable."
"Uuuh…" Pomni wasn't so sure how to respond to that. "I'm…not a child, but…suuuure."
Zooble squinted their eyes at Kinger, unable to decide if the words were a jab or not. "What are you even trying to say…?"
Kinger looked at them and blinked. "Oh, hi Zooble. You're not afraid of the dark, are you?"
"N…no?'
Ragatha stood up and clapped her hands together. "Maybe we should go and look for Caine! Surely he knows what's going on! And if it's a surprise, well we will find out soon enough!"
"Ugh. I would rather not but… It's not like we can do anything else while the power is down." Zooble stood, and their face twisted in confusion. "Wait a second. How is that even possible when we are inside a video game?"
"I don't know." Pomni shrugged. She glanced at Gangle, who hung her head in defeat as she could no longer focus on her sketchbook.
What made sense in the circus at this point?
Oh.
Oh dear.
It was happening again.
Not that it happened often. In fact, such an inconvenience was so rare, Caine often forgot it could happen until it happened. And now, the lights were off. No matter how many times he snapped his fingers, the lights refused to turn back on. That was not supposed to be an issue. What was he going to do? Surely, the others noticed by now.
His humans.
His lovely, lovely, convoluting humans.
He can't present himself to them. Not now! Not today, even! It was a nightmare! He had something special planned! Something so special that he was certain it would make them cry out in joy and praise him for his most genius idea yet…
And…yet…
He couldn't finish it. He just couldn't.
It was awful. It was horrible.
His hands couldn't even stay still. He held them in front of his face, and they would fizzle and glitch and sometimes disappear for a split second. Why was his model acting so weird? And it wasn't just him. Some of the most mundane assets were behaving strangely. One of the cube chairs twitched and flickered between textures. Caine had to focus on it just for it to remain still.
They were bound to notice.
The worst part was that it just had to flare up while he was outside his office. He couldn't warp there at will anymore. He couldn't warp anywhere, even. When he tried a moment before, he clipped inside a wall, and that was not a pleasant experience because the wall absolutely did not agree with his model being there. The collision glitch was so violent, Caine could still feel his head buzzing.
So there he was, floating a foot from the stage just behind the curtains. It was the best hiding spot he could think of. He noticed the humans didn't quite like the stage area, although he didn't understand why. It was a fun and whimsy place where so much fun was created. It was the very place they all spawned in from the macro-verse to the digital world! They had their first fond memories of the circus here!
Maybe they avoided it because it always made them so emotional?
Well, regardless of the reason, it was the perfect hiding spot for Caine. Poor, poor him. He didn't understand why his body was so twitchy. It was something that happened every now and then but not like this.
"Oh, Bubble, what am I to do?" he wondered aloud. "Humans are already so hard to impress. I don't want to un-impress them any further! I can't even use my whimsy assets right!"
Bubble floated next to him. "Well maybe the humans will have their ass set on a darkness adventure!"
Caine dismissed the idea with a wave. "No, I've already tried that before and they weren't exactly—" He stopped, and he slowly turned towards Bubble's toothy grin. "Did you just— How did you bypass the censors— Oh, nevermind! I need to figure this out!"
He floated across the stage, pondering on hundreds of ideas and excuses
"What is it that humans like so much? They like action, they like stakes, but too much of it seems to burn them out! I can't make the adventures too boring! But I can't make any new adventures when my body is—" His entire body jerked as a glitch rushed through his system. "—when my entire body is like this!"
"Maybe you should take a break!" Bubble suggested.
"No. I can't do that! I have a big project ahead of me, and it can't wait! I'm already behind because of whatever this is!" Caine waved his noodled arms around his frame for dramatic emphasis.
His face lit up.
He just had a brilliant idea.
"Wait. What if I make an adventure when they have to fight the glitches around the circus? Then they'll think it's part of the game!"
"Mmmm. Kinda a dumb idea."
Caine's anger flared as he whipped around. His head grew thrice in size as he snapped in Bubble's face.
"YOU ARE IMPRUDENT!"
His entire body rattled as his system glitched again. He retreated and gripped the top half of his head.
"I-Iiiii-I can't be seen like this!" Caine argued. "What will they think of me? They'll become le-E-ess enthusiastic about my adventures!"
"You should throw up— Zzt— You should throw a fffffflippin' slumber party!"
Caine just gave Bubble a long look. "I… I don't think I—" He glitched. "I—" He glitched again. "I don't ThiiI-ii-iNk— AGH!" Caine gripped his head.
"You really are broken," Bubble said matter-of-factly.
The top half of Caine's teeth arched over his eyes.
"You really are bro—"
Pop.
Caine retracted his finger. Now alone, he glanced around the dark stage. If he could teleport to his office, it would make things so much easier.
But, he couldn't. He couldn't do something as easy to him as a snap of a finger.
Maybe Bubble did have a point. Maybe initially the humans would be intrigued with the glitch adventures, but humans are so fleeting. They don't stay interested in one thing for so long. Then they would eventually figure out that the glitching wasn't part of the game after all.
He couldn't ask for help. It would ruin his image. It would ruin everything!
His feet touched the ground, and every joint in his body jolted. He was fine. He was fine. Just a mild inconvenience that would eventually go away. He could still do his job. He could still fulfill his purpose!
He took a step, and his foot grazed over the corner of a giant alphabet cube. In a single frame, he found himself on the ground as he and the cube glitched and rattled and clipped through each other. Before Caine could make a sound, a sudden force launched him to the ceiling. He bounced right off and hit the stage floor, and he laid there miserably for a moment.
There had to be a way to fix that collision glitch.
Although, the floor was oddly comforting. He was content to stay there for a while.
Slowly, he rolled to his back and sat up, and scooted backwards until he was behind the curtains again. He pulled his knees close against his chest and lowered his chin. His body jerked. His hands twitched. His vision would be overrun by static for a split second, and he was certain it showed across his eyes.
"Ah. There you are."
Caine shrieked and jumped back. His backside hit the wall, and his entire body glitched in place for a whole two seconds before he fell flat on his side. He quickly pushed himself to his knees, joints buzzing, as he met Kinger's face.
Slowly, he pushed himself further into the dark. "K-Kinger! Kinger! If it isn't my wonderful royal-checkered muse! Why aren't you with the—" Glitch. "Why aren't you with the—" Glitch. "Why aren't you with the others?"
He would have punched the ground if Kinger wasn't standing there. Instead, he wore the biggest smile he could muster.
Wait. Why did he want to punch the ground? So silly. How silly. The ground didn't do anything to him!
Kinger was looking at him funny.
Caine kept his smile. He was fine.
"Well… I was taking a walk," Kinger finally explained. He casted his surroundings a quick look, and tucked a finger under where his chin would be. "Or…at least I think I was. But that doesn't matter. I noticed something was amiss and…I figured I would find you somewhere nearby. You don't seem to be…well."
"Oh! But I am well! I am super wEll!" Caine sat up and swung his arm in a jolly manner. "The lights malfunctioning iS just a minor incOnvenience I can fix in a jiffy!"
Kinger took another look around. "Well?"
Caine kept his smile. "The lights malfunctioning i–IiS just a minor incoo-Oonvenience I can fix in a jiffy!"
"You…already said that?"
One of Caine's eyes twitched, but his smile didn't falter.
"Caine, when was the last time you rebooted your system?"
The question caught Caine completely off guard. His mouth hung open with every intention to answer, but he couldn't find any. He instead stared at Kinger stupidly, acutely aware of his very focused eyes. He thought he was overthinking it…but Kinger's tone had completely changed. He sounded a lot more…relaxed?
Right. The darkness.
Right…
"I uh…" Caine slowly lowered his head. His smile turned into a frown as he turned away. "I… I don't know."
"You've been running too long without a break," Kinger gently pointed out. "I know you don't need sleep, but you still need to give yourself a moment to digest everything every now and then. Otherwise you become overloaded and…" He motioned a hand towards the lights. "This happens."
"But I was working on something really special!" Caine admitted. "Something e-e-Extra special for you guys! It was gO-o-oing to be the most amazing adventure I have 3ver put together! I couldn't afford to slow down!" Gosh his voice files were not cooperating with him. Please, please, please don't let Kinger notice.
Kinger tilted his head. Perhaps he did notice. "Like…your last five adventures?"
Caine waved both hands. "It's going to be 3XTRA sp3cial!"
"Well, do you expect to make it the best adventure ever when you can't even move correctly?"
Caine chuckled. "Oh, Kinger. Oh, silly and wise-at-the-moment Kinger, why did you have to read me so?"
"I didn't mean to offend you—"
"No, no! I am thrilled! Wowie! A h-hhh-H-human who actually cares enough about me to check on me and talk to me and h3lp-help-h3Lp—cater to me! I am so overjoyed, I could blow up—" Glitch. "I could jump for joy!"
On the other hand, why did it have to be Kinger out of all people? Not that he didn't like Kinger. In fact, he loved Kinger! Just like he loved everyone else! But it was always Kinger who spoke to him when his head was clear. Why couldn't it be The Pomni? Or The Gangle? Or The Zooble—
Okay, maybe not the Zooble.
But still! He wanted to show his love and appreciation to the other humans too! Not just through his adventures, (although they were his specialty,) but with perks! And games! And fun!
"Tell m3, wise Kinger, why is it that my adventures are not adventuring?" Caine tried to float from the ground, but his entire body didn't like the motion and he glitched back to the ground. "Wh-whhh-what can I do to improve?"
Kinger blinked. "Er…well, you can't even begin to do that until this glitch case of yours is settled."
Don't frown. Don't frown. Don't frown. Don't frown.
He knows there is something wrong with you. You can't hide it.
It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's—
"Well then, what do y0u suppose is happening then?" Caine finally asked.
Kinger took a second to think. "Well, you're experiencing something similar to what humans go through. You're sick."
Sick?
Sick.
Faulty.
Broken.
Unworthy.
In a flare of sudden anger at the accusation, Caine found the energy to hover right above Kinger's face. "I am PERF3CTLY FUNCTION—" He glitched and was back sitting against the wall. "Wait. What did you say?"
Kinger was completely unfazed by the outburst. "I didn't think AIs could get sick but…that's the best description I have for you."
"I'm…sick?" Caine echoed the foreign word. He was sure he heard it before. Mentioned by Scratch or… "What…exactly does thAt mean? How is it that hUm4ns go through this…sick?"
"Well, it's uh… Hm. What is the best way to put it?" Kinger tapped his head, and he raised a finger in thought. "Ah. It's similar to a glitch in a way. Sometimes we humans…experience a period of time when our bodies aren't working properly. It can range from a mild inconvenience to something that has us bedridden all day. Regardless it's…not a pleasant experience."
Incredible. So this was what it was like to be human? A malfunction within their bodies was normal for them? It didn't automatically mark them as a failure to be thrown away?
If that was the case, why did it still make him feel so awful?
"It's only temporary," Kinger assured him. "It's usually solved by good rest and medicine; or in your case, a nice reboot."
Caine twiddled his fingers as he shrunk away. Again with the reboot. "Do I…have to?"
"If you don't want it to get worse, I don't think you have any other choice." Kinger gave him a sympathetic look. "You seem nervous. I understand. You'll be vulnerable for an hour, and you wouldn't want anyone to see you that way." He smiled. "Is that it?"
Of course Kinger would know. It came to no surprise he would know.
Finally, too tired to argue any further, Caine relented. There was no hiding it anyway. It was obvious that his entire body was glitching, and it would only worsen the longer he kept running. That was the problem with him—he hated to admit. There was only so much work he could do at a time before it felt overwhelming. Typically he could ignore it or delegate the task to Bubble, but his system could only run so much for so long, and it was one of the core reasons they locked him away—
Caine sighed. He tensed up as a shudder went through his entire body. He was glitching again. The buzzing flooded the air only for a second, but it was too blaring to dismiss anymore.
"I…I don't…" Caine closed his teeth over his eyes.
"Listen. You don't…have to pretend everything is alright," Kinger said. "Once the circus is functional again, I won't remember any of this. No one will know."
He peeked between his jaws. "R-really?"
"Come on. I know just the place where no one will bother you."
They were inside the pillow fortress. Caine sat miserably slumped against the corner, his glitching body making it impossible for him to remain still. Kinger was checking his arm, watching the jagged movements. It had gotten worse. The model texture has started to flicker on and off, revealing the grid underneath.
"Okay. One hour." Kinger set the arm down and moved back. "That should be plenty of time for everything to be set back into place. And, if there is the off-chance someone tries coming in here, I'll keep them distracted for you. This will just be between me and you… Well, more like you, but you get the idea."
Incredible. It was just the two of them, and Kinger cared! Caine didn't know if he wanted to cry tears of joy or if he wanted to shout and cheer, but he restrained himself. He didn't want to look so uncool to the humans, especially Kinger.
Kinger was his favori— Glitch. Kinger was everyone's muse!
He had to say something to him. Humans liked praise, right? Caine knows he does.
"You know that I-I-IiiiI immensely care about you immensely Kinger!" Caine proudly said.
"Uh…huh?" Kinger lifted a hand, a twisted look on his face. "Are you…feeling alright?"
"I feel imm3nsely immense, Kinger!" Caine blurted. "Because you are here being immense with immense, immense, immense, immense, immense, immense, immense, immense, immense—"
And it went on and on, a glitch between words. Kinger just stared at him with big wide eyes and the tiniest pupils as Caine's mantra went on and on.
A floating hand settled on Caine's head, and he stopped at his thirty-first "immense".
"Er… How about we stop talking?" Kinger suggested. "Not because I don't want to hear your voice but…your communication is…a bit jagged."
Caine nodded. He trusted Kinger. If anyone knew how to help him, it would be him.
He had to come up with some extra, extra special for his humans. If he was going to do that, he needed to be at his top form. Kinger was right.
And perhaps when everything was put together, and they had the adventure of their lives, they would thank him. They would be happy. They would love him forever. They would stay forever! And finally…finally…finally…!
Too excited. His entire body jerked and jumped as a series of glitches rushed through him. He was certain one of his eyes somehow teleported across the fortress for a split second.
Still. He had to be perfectly still.
Still. Stay still. Stay— He glitched. Still. Stay—
Why was his body trYING. TO. HUMILIATE HIM. IN FRONT OF—
Stay still.
"Ah. There we go." Kinger's voice snapped Caine from his spiraling thoughts. He had dusted off his hands as he scooted away. "Turns out you had quite a bit of junk in your memory files. They weren't doing anything beneficial, so I removed them. How do you feel?"
Caine looked at his hands. They were still twitchy.
"It may take a while until things settle to normal, but you should still reboot so that the junk doesn't accumulate again," Kinger said.
Reboot. Reboot?
He didn't want to…reboot.
He didn't…
Tired.
Oh no.
His body was automatically trying to reboot itself.
No.
He refused.
"Caine?"
It was so hard to focus. So hard to focus. So hard to focus. So hard to focus.
Eyes heavy. Limbs limp. His head kept tilting. A heavy weight tried to keep his eyes closed. He was not ready. He was not ready. Nononono he was not—
Don't lock me away again.
Kinger studied him with that same disconcerting expression they wore when they saw something "wrong". Caine was not wrong. He was not broken.
Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.
The last time I fell asleep…
Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.
The last time I did…I woke up inside a box.
Awake. Awake. Awake. Awake.
I don't want to go back in that box.
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight.
It was so dark, and cold. So cold. So cold. So cold. So—
"Caine?"
Kinger's concerned voice reached him. Caine jerked his head up, blinking the haze from his heavy eyes. He was a split second away from drifting off.
"No… N0 reboot…" Caine managed to slur out. "No re…re…r3…"
His thoughts were becoming less sensible. He was sure he responded with clarity.
"I won't leave you," Kinger said. "I'll be right here when you wake up."
The words sounded too good to be true. Caine wanted to argue against it. A part of him believed it was a set-up, just like last time.
"We just need to restart your system so that those new quirks we added would run properly. We'll be right here. Right here."
They were not.
Couldn't they see he was doing his best? Couldn't they see his potential? His genius? His—
His head. It was…pressed against Kinger's chest. Huh.
Huh. How unusual.
Kinger's hand rubbed circles against his back, and Caine slowly closed his eyes. He didn't know why he immediately relaxed. He didn't understand why it…felt so soothing. He didn't know how much he needed it— How…something as simple as an embrace would…make all those terrible thoughts go away.
He pressed his head firmly against Kinger. He didn't want him to let go.
Don't let me go. Don't let me go. Don't let me go. Don't let me…
"There, there. You will feel better soon." Kinger's gentle voice smothered out the pains of fear. Caine could listen to it all day. He wanted to listen to it all day.
Caine allowed himself to melt into Kinger's lap. His body reflexively curled up as Kinger continued to rub his back. It was almost a shame how he wouldn't remember this. But as long as Caine could treasure this moment, that was all that really mattered. It was perhaps the only reason Caine allowed himself to be this vulnerable.
It felt nice to be vulnerable like this.
He never got this much attention from a human before. Not since his initial creation. Not since they meticulously built his model. And of course it would be Kinger. Kinger was there from the beginning. He was here now. He was always…
Always…
"Sleep well, Caine," Kinger gently said. "I'll always be here."
As Caine's teeth slowly closed over his eyes, he felt everything slowing down: His attachments to every room in the circus, his awareness of every existing movement…it was fading…and fading…and fading… Everything faded, except the gentle and caring touch of his creator.
He forgot how soothing this was, actually. It had been…so long.
See you later…
Dad…