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Caine slowly rotated his newest Adventure’s code, checking over the models and the information plaques and the overall look of the place. It… wasn’t much of an Adventure, but it was… something. It was a gallery, if anything, but his humans had requested it, so… perhaps it counted? Sort of?
He had promised to try this. To listen to his humans and act on their suggestions. And he wanted to! He did! He wanted his humans to be happy and healthy! And they had all seemed so pleased when he said he would try to do something low-stakes based on his interests alone!
This… Adventure was still just… a gallery, though. A gallery of art Caine had made. It was almost entirely bees, but there were some other things, like landscapes and even a few portraits of NPCs he had conceptualized but never fully fleshed out. It wasn’t an Adventure, not in the way-
“The tea party at Mildenhall Manor,” he muttered to himself, “Relaxing, calm, enjoyable.”
But Mildenhall Manor still had an actual Adventure section. This-
This-
Caine quickly threw together an antagonist. Well, sort of. The Blunderbee was just a big, googly-eyed bee that would teleport the humans it touched to some other random point on the map. But he’d been asked to do something calm, and this-
He hid it behind an activation status. There would be a clear button to press if the humans wanted to activate the Blunderbee. There. Now, it was an Adventure.
Caine closed his editor and took a moment to ready himself, then spawned in front of his humans with as big of a smile as he could muster.
“Hello, my hearth-warmed hotdogs! Today-!” he caught himself, cleared his throat, and continued, “Today, I was wondering if you all would like to go to an art gallery of mine!”
Gangle and Ragatha looked interested, Pomni looked curious, Jax and Zooble both looked unimpressed, and Kinger…
“An INSECT COLLECTION?!” he cried in pure delight.
“As a matter of fact, yes! Mostly! It is… mostly bees!” Caine said, trying not to let his anxiety show.
He snapped in the activation portal and waited. Kinger happily bounced in without waiting. Ragatha followed him with a smile, and Pomni followed her, offering Caine a friendly grin as she did. Gangle murmured something to Zooble, who groaned but still followed her into the gallery, and Jax mosied in last, not giving Caine a second look.
Caine hovered in the Circus for a moment, then, with relief, despawned his model. He was better than he had been several days ago, but getting to de-load the Circus and himself while the Adventure was running was a massive break for his systems.
He felt refreshed by the time the Adventure ended, and when he reloaded the Circus and summoned his humans back, he felt… hopeful. He’d fixed himself, and given his humans more options for their Adventures! This time, it would go well!
The hope was dashed as soon as his humans entered the Circus again.
Gangle’s mask was broken. Zooble was stomping. Ragatha was picking paper out of her hair. Pomni looked both nervous and sad. Jax looked far too pleased with himself. Kinger… well, Kinger was clearly incapable of complex, interconnected thought at the moment.
“W-Welcome back, my toddling toast-!”
“Caine, what the *AWAK* was that?! I thought you said this one was a calm Adventure?!” Zooble snapped, throwing their arms open.
“Wh- it- it was!! Wasn’t it?” he stammered, looking at the other humans for help.
None of them met his gaze, except for Jax, who laughed at him.
“Honestly, I thought your little picture show was going to be the most boring thing in existence, but man, that big stupid bee made it so much better!” he cackled.
Caine could feel his model curling up, clinging to his cane. He thought- he’d- he’d fixed himself. That was the whole point of tearing out all that code, he had fixed himself and made it so he could do things right! He’d listened to his humans! He’d done everything right!
Except he hadn’t. They still hated the Adventure. Caine had almost bisected himself in the most messy, deliberate way possible, and he hadn’t removed everything that was wrong. He was still doing it wrong, he was still responding wrong, his Adventures were still wrong, he-!
Did he… need to do it again?
He didn’t want to. He had come so close to rendering himself inoperable. If he did it again, would there be… any of him left?
But did that even matter? Caine had a function he was failing to fulfill. Kinger could access the files again, he could delete Caine or put him back in the box and make sure he could never get out again or-
A pair of hands closed around his ankles, and Caine’s model was suddenly being yanked down until he was eye-level with an angry-looking Pomni. She was mad at him now. How could he have messed up so badly? He was supposed to be fixed.
“Stop it,” Pomni said firmly.
Caine stared at her, bewildered. She grabbed his upper arms (and it was Kinger’s hands that had grabbed him before, he could see them returning to Kinger’s sides) and looked him dead in the eyes.
“This was a first attempt,” she said in the same firm tone, “No one expected it to be perfect, right?”
The other humans all muttered agreements, even Zooble, who had their arms crossed and their head turned away. Pomni nodded decisively.
“This wasn’t perfect, and we’ll need to talk about some stuff, but it’s so your next Adventure will be better. You’re learning. That doesn’t happen overnight.”
Caine twitched a little in her hold. He was a learning AI. He was supposed to be able to assimilate and use any data given to him immediately. This failure, even after their talk, meant…
“Why did you add the Blunderbee?” Pomni asked, interrupting his thoughts.
“Adventures must have an antagonist,” Caine answered.
Pomni frowned a little and asked, “Why?”
Caine was a little stumped at that. Adventures must have an antagonist. It was a rule.
“Adventures must have an antagonist,” he repeated.
Pomni’s frown deepened, but Gangle spoke up before she could.
“Could you define “antagonist” for us, Caine?” she asked.
Caine nodded, still confused, and said, “An antagonist is a character, environment, or motivation that goes against the players’ goals.”
“Okay, but why do Adventures need them?” Zooble asked frustratedly.
“Because Adventures must have an antagonist!” Caine repeated again.
“What does-?!”
“Zooble, hang on. Caine, is that a guideline for your Adventures?” Gangle asked.
Caine nodded again. Gangle nodded back and turned to Zooble.
“It’s like the Hays Code, I think.” Gangle looked back at Caine. “If the Adventure doesn’t have certain elements, it doesn’t count as an Adventure, does it?”
Caine nodded.
“Adventures must have an antagonist. I thought by making the Blunderbee activatable instead of active you might get to just walk the gallery if you wanted,” he explained quietly.
Pomni released his arms, an odd look on her face.
“You… have to make Adventures, don’t you?” she asked.
Caine blinked at her.
“It’s my function,” he said slowly, “I’ve told you that before.”
The humans looked at each other for a moment. Then, Pomni turned back to Caine.
“Caine, could you give us some time to talk to each other? We’ll call you back once we’ve got some usable critiques for you, okay?” she asked.
Caine floated upward and cried in a painfully forced voice, “Of course, my dear! I will eagerly-!”
“And don’t mess with your codes!” Pomni pointed at him with a warning look. “We lost the bucket last night so Kinger won’t be able to help as much as he did before.”
Caine looked at Kinger, who was climbing back into his pillow fort. He waved cheerfully at Caine with no recognition in his eyes.
“...of course! I will await your call!” Caine said, bowing to his humans before despawning his model.
He could wait until he heard their complaints before he tried altering himself again.