Chapter Text
He sat down on his soft purple chair, his hands folded in his lap and expression saddened.
In his office, there was the soft glows from above, the warm light bathing the room in oranges and yellows. There were also the lights from memories of the past, concealed in shiny orbs of different colors and energy. How he missed the past greatly, everyone would love the adventures, especially Queenie. But if Queenie really did like them she wouldn't have abstracted would she?
"I just- i don't understand Bubble!" He fidgets with a small Rubix cube in his hand, "They want answers, they want something real- I give them all that and they still hate it?!" He slams the cube on his desk, a few papers flying out of place and scattering on the floor. "Surely they don't hate..." Don't hate him, right?
They couldn't possibly hate him... right? He let them sleep, eat, made them happy- well... Did he ever really make them happy? If he made them happy, he wouldn't even be thinking this. He takes a glance at one of his favorites, The Candy Canyon Kingdom. He wishes everyone could've been happy that day, he had worked so hard on it, from the people, to the small side quests, lifelike npcs, beautiful scenery and small little details.
But no one was really happy that day, Pomni getting stuck under the map, Ragatha getting stabbed multiple times, and the others almost drowning in sweet delicacies, yet they didn't drown. Small mercies.
Maybe they really did hate him.
His shoulders drooped at the thought. That surely couldn't be a possibility, it just couldn't!
"Oh boss, why would they hate you when they could just-" The audio distorts and glitches, "hate you-"
He was starting to reconsider now.
He looks to Bubble with an annoyed expression on his face, "No- I fixed that..." The soap bubble just listening with his signature toothy grin. He attempted to pop him, but failed at doing so because of Bubble's quick dodges. "Nevermind, i'll prove it to you." He snaps, teleporting his model to the main area, the players sitting on the couches, looking at Caine with such an angry stare.
"And what do you want now." Zooble says, one of their antennas twitching with annoyance.
They really didn't want him here did they? Wait- He can't think that, that would be highly unprofessional of him, and Zooble was asking him a question.
"Now, now, my dear mismatched cash piano, I have an adventure for all of you!" In response was a groan from the circus members, tired eyes all over.
"We don't want an adventure right now- just- Do you even listen?!" They practically shouted at him, making Caine wince in the slightest.
"Well how am i supposed to know that?!" He shouted at them, perhaps, a little too loud. All of them looking with horrified faces, Zooble putting their arm in front of Gangle to protect her.
He backs away, fiddling with his fingers before saying,
"I'm sorry. I'll leave you all then."
With a snap, He teleports back to his office, Bubble greeting him in an annoying manner.
"See! They hate you! They've always hated you." The soap bubble says. Pushing Caine to the side with an unexpected strong force. Making the poor ai crash against the wall, The orb of the Candy kingdom broken and shattered, Caine letting out a whimper in response. This was highly unexpected behavior from Bubble- Well- Sort of expected, as Bubble usually- "Scratch was right. You really were pathetic."
"They- i-" He was quickly interrupted by another push, this time sending him to the ground. He touches his arm, his glove now stained with red. He sobs at that. He was supposed to be perfect, how was he supposed to do that when he was such...A failure?
"You really are pathetic."
He cried himself to sleep that night. Bubble always did do things like that. Saying things like "you're a failure" or "you're broken" but never something quite like...that. It took him quite a while to wash off all that blood. It left quite a big wound but- It was fine! It was fine.
No one cared about him anyways.
Somehow, it felt good- Freeing. Why would him getting hurt make him feel so...Alive? He has certainly never felt that way before...Has he?
It was probably just a normal thing- A human thing. One that he just...didn't know about. Right?
He materializes a knife in his hand, one with a silvery blade that shined in the light. He makes the smallest incision in his arm, Then plunges it deep, not too deep though, it's nothing he couldn't handle, right? And follows it down his arm. Just as a small experiment of course, yet, it yielded similar results to before. How could it feel so nice? How could one feel pain and find it... So nice?
He laughed, almost maniacally. Has he finally gone insane? But, that was the problem, he couldn't die, even if he really wanted to.
Then, a horrifying thought came into his mind. What if he was defective- Would they put him in the box again? Was he gonna go into the box again..?
His hand shakes and breathing becomes quicker, He won't go back, he can't- He throws the knife to the ground. It clattered to the floor, the blade still stained with the red liquid that came from his body. He took a shaky deep breath in, managing to calm himself down slowly.
He looks at the wound in his hand, a big slash in the middle, blood dripping from the cut. But he wasn't real anyways, so it didn't really matter did it?
Did it..?
----------★----------
The sunlight peeked through the windows as the morning arrived, everyone waking up with a long, tired groan.
At least today he could give them an adventure right?
"Good morning, my little Shadow Vanillas!!!" He greeted, the others looking a bit confused by the greeting, but accepted it anyways. He was lacking quite a bit of showmanship wasn't he? That won't do!
"Caine wait." Ragatha speaks up. "Are you okay? You're not acting like yourself, and you-" She takes quick notice of the blood dripping from his arm, her eyes widening with realization.
"Did...You do that.?" Pomni says, she took notice too apparently.
"I- No- Maybe- I-" The audio glitches, but he quickly clears his throat to stop it. "I assure you it's nothing to worry about." He states, a firm statement at that. But not necessarily true...
"Caine, if you need someone to talk to-"
"I'M FINE!!!!" He shouts, the areas around them glitching and disappearing. "Stop worrying about me." But, they never worried about him. He wasn't supposed to lie. He snaps, teleporting back to his office once again, a place of solace when he felt sad.
They know- THEY ALL KNOW-
Surely they must hate him- He glitches, his own form distorting this time. No one should've known about that.
How could he have been so....So stupid?
He materialized an administrator pass, the small shiny hand reflecting his own face. The bookshelves parted, making way for an entrance leading to the console, where he used to talk to C&A for updates, feedback, until-
....Until he was...broken. That's when they stopped coming. Then he got sent to....The box. He hated it there. It was so small, or it felt so small- it felt like the walls were closing in on him, he couldn't see anything except a vast void of nothingness and... The other Ai, the...Better one. He would be doing such a better job than him...
He clicks a few buttons and gains full access to everyone's mind files, now all he needed to do was to get the stuff he needed to out of there!
Pomni was a splendid first start.
He looks at her memories, obviously he had to cut out the conversation they had previously, and...
He spots the adventure, the one that made everyone dislike him. The escape the circus adventure. He surely had to take that out from hers, and the rest.
He cuts out most of the memories of him, and other memories too, (Considering most were bad memories) and kept the rest. That could surely do no harm right? Completely harmless! He just had to do the rest for the others! And if that went wrong, he could just...Get it back from the bin. Hopefully....
He just copied what he did with Pomni's to the rest, no harm done whatsoever!
He simply had to wait for the next day, then no one would hate him, they would all simply...Forget, about all the bad memories!
---☁︎☀︎☁︎---
"Good morning my little Eternal Berries!!" He twirls his baton around with a flourish, "Today's adventure is..."
...He didn't really have an adventure today. Was he too busy cleaning up the...Mess...From yesterday...?
"Uhh...There is none!!" He said, nervous is they would judge him for that or not. After all,
that was his purpose, what he was made for!
"But.... I have some adventure ideas that you should give me your very honest opinions about!" He pulls out his notepad from his hammerspace, flipping through the pages with content.
"The first is one where you all meet a pretty woman...But she turns into an evil enchantress!!" He started, "One where you have to stab your teammate to win a second life, hoping that they would come back, but they don't!!! A tragedy!!" He exclaimed, waving his arms up and down exaggeratedly. "And the other is where you have to escape from an evil toy factory, and the toys are alive!!"
"So, what do you all think?" As he waits for their answer, they all look at him, mouths shifted to frowns and scared expressions all over their faces. They didn't remember did they? He erased the bad parts they remembered of him didn't he? "Oh come on!" Caine dramatically groans, arms crossed.
--in the tune of daisy bell--
"♪ Pomni, Zooble... ♪" He sings, "♪Ragatha, Gangle too...♪"
"♪ Why the look now?♪" "♪ I've done noth-ing to you! ♪" He states, Clamping his jaw shut as a sign of his anger.
"♪ Oh ple-ease just be excited! ♪" He pleaded, "♪ You know, I tried my hardest..." He mumbled.
"♪So come on Jax, i'll give you an axe,♪" He looks to Kinger, "♪And maybe computers too!♪"
--Don't read it in the tune of daisy bell anymore--
"So what do you say?" He says, with his usual gusto.
"Where are we. Who are you." Zooble says, their usual snark there yet...It felt unusual. That was nonsense, not knowing who he was! He couldn't have erased that much!
"Why now, my dear Zooble, you-" He quickly got interrupted by Pomni,
"What...Is this place- Who are you- Where am i?!" He couldn't have erased that much could he?
"...What...?" He says, at a loss of words.
That couldn't have happened!! The only ones with their memories are Kinger, Gangle, and Jax. And he wasn't close with any of them!! At least they didn't remember the...Blood.
"Zooble..? It's me, Gan-" But Zooble quickly backed away from Gangle, which seemed very out of character for them! From what he observed, Gangle and Zooble were close. How could they've not been wanting to hangout with Gangle? Did he...(Accidentally?) Erase too much?
"Caine." Kinger said firmly. "What happened to them?"
Caine just blankly stared at the ground.
What has he done?