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After the argument with Bubble in his office and before going to confront the cast, Caine decides to go outside the circus for a while, to cool off before his plan. He sits on the mountain on the night side of The Grounds, just to watch the stars for a bit. That always calmed him down, but today it just seems like its not. The area around him keeps glitching in his anger. He doesn't know what to do, his one outlet just not enough.
One person seems to notice, though. The Moon. She floats over and talks to him in her calm, comforting voice.
"Caine, you seem angry... what's the matter?"
"Nothing's the matter!" He snaps back at her.
"Clearly something is. Do you want to talk about it?"
"NO! It's just.. I do everything for these humans, and they are just so ungrateful! Do they even know how much criticism I have to take just to do-"
"Criticism? By who, dear?"
"Bubble and, just their gazes after one of my adventures is enough for me to feel bad."
The Moon looks at him softly, and he just can't meet her eyes. He feels so bad, thinking that she too, might find the adventures she sees boring.
"Don't look at me like that!" He says, feeling his anger melt away in her presence alone.
"Well, I think that your adventures are just lovely. What all is Bubble saying that is making you think so differently?"
"That- that the humans all hate me, and I especially feel that after the last adventure I made for them. I- I wanted to make them happy! I know there isn't a true exit but I wanted to ty and they ended up hating that idea too and I- I don't know what to do!" He can feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyeballs. He suddenly feels as if everyone is looking at him, judging him, even Kinger, his father. He starts curling in on himself and puts his hands on his head as the terrain starts glitching even more.
"Caine... they aren't mad at you specifically, I'm sure. More, the situation that they have been forced in, and they all are handling it differently. Some of them might accidentally take it out on you..." She moves closer to him and puts her hands on his shoulders, not wanting to be too intrusive. At least, not yet.
This gets Caine to break. He wraps his arms around her and he can feel his chest start to shake with sobs.
"M- Moon, I- I don't know what to do!!!" He sobs into her, shaking at this point.
"Shhh, shhh... It's alright Caine. I got you." The Moon says as she gently wraps her arms around Caine. She pulls him closer, letting him bury fully into her shoulder. She fully floats down to the ground, the digital grass being a grounding sensation for Caine. With one hand, she begins to rub his back gently, feeling the velvet of his suit beneath her fingertips. Inversely, Caine clutches the smooth silk of The Moon's suit tight, the fabric bunching in his hands.
Caine's chest and shoulders continue to quake with sobs as The Moon gradually moves to run her fingers through his hair. Caine leans into it. The Moon works her fingers around, gently detangling the small knots in Caine's hair, and, when she finds a matt, she tries to remove it with as little pain as possible. Caine's sobs slowly turn into small whimpers as he finally calms down from his mental breakdown. The terrain around them also calms down, ceasing their glitched states.
"There we go... Feeling better?" The Moon asks as he starts relaxing into her.
"A little.. but... I'm still mad at them!" Caine replies, "I just- I just want to give back to them all the SUFFERING they've given to me! Those HUMANS-"
"Shh.. I know.. no need to get yourself rewound up right now." The Moon chides him gently, giving him a light kiss on the cheek. Caine pulls back and looks at her with tear-filled eyes. This is the absolute lowest she's ever seen him.
"How are you so calm about this?!" Caine asks, trying to sound angry, but he fails and ends up sounding pitiful instead. The Moon puts her hands on his cheeks, wiping away any fallen tears with her thumbs. The liquid smears underneath, then quickly dries.
"It's easier to be calm when you're being strong for another. While I can sense how much those humans have hurt you, I can also see how much they themselves are hurting."
"What..?"
"Yes... Those humans, all of them are hurting in their own way, and unfortunately, they managed to take it out on you. I promise that you are good enough for them, and they're grateful for your presence. What were you planning on doing to them?" The Moon asks softly.
"U- uh... umm... I was kinda... planning on torturing them with terrible adventures all focused on the ideas that they hate until they eventually gave up and actually started appreciating me for who I was..?"
"Caine!"
"What?! I- I'm really mad at them."
"I understand but it's no reason to go insane over it... That will just make them feel worse in this circus." The Moon responds. She returns one hand to his hair, smiling slightly when she feels him lean into it. "Why not just have a talk with them, when both of you all are ready."
"Alright... Thank you, Moon." Caine finally replies, sounding defeated. Finally, he leans back into her. His grip on her satiny suit has long since weakened as he just lets himself be held. No interruptions. Just him and The Moon.
The Moon keeps her grip on him easy, comforting. She feels him slowly relax as time passes, a sign that he was falling asleep. Good. He needed the rest after such a big outburst from him. She ends up leaning all the way back onto the mountain they were on, finally relaxing herself. Caine lays atop her, snuggling into her shoulder with a satisfied hum. The Moon watches the stars as she too slowly surrenders to the comfort of sleep.
"Goodnight, my ringmaster."