Work Text:
Caine may have been keeping a closer eye on Gangle than he was the others. It was just a precaution; the newcomers were always more prone to… situations than those who knew how to play the games. So, when she called for him, he was ready for it.
Or, well, he thought he was until he snapped to her location and found her sobbing, her arm ribbons shredded into long, thin, streamers.
“Gangle, my dear! What-”
“I’m sorry!” Gangle sobbed, holding their shredded arms away from themselves, “I didn’t- I was so angry and scared and I- help, please, help, it hurts-!”
Caine immediately snapped his fingers, reverting her model to an undamaged state. Gangle collapsed, still sobbing, but now whispering thanks to him.
“It is no problem! But, uh, how did this happen? You were really torn up!” Caine asked, glancing around the room they were in.
There was a broken vase nearby, but that was about it for things that Caine could see that would be able to cause that sort of physical harm. Perhaps Gangle had broken it and tried sweeping up the pieces with her hands?
“I… I… I wanted my fingers back,” Gangle whispered.
Caine cocked his head and floated a little closer to her, leaning forward so he looked less like he was looming and more like he was simply leaning in.
“Your fingers? Is something wrong with your controls?” Caine asked, already pulling up the control map and diagnostic/calibration tests.
“I don’t have fingers.” Gangle slowly held up the ends of her ribbons. “I just have… ribbons.”
Gangle wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed again. Caine was at a loss for what to do.
“O-oh. Um. D-don’t cry, Gangle! Would you like some- uh- gloves? They are fully articulated and will function just as well as your hands do now!” Caine offered, quickly spawning in a pair of white gloves and offering them to Gangle.
Gangle looked at the gloves for a moment, then began to cry harder. Caine slowly lowered the gloves, now even more uncertain.
“Do you… want a different color?” he asked.
Gangle shook her head.
“I want hands,” she wailed, “I want fingers, I want to be able to just grab things and use them! I want to be able to draw again! I-!”
Caine tossed the gloves away and snapped his fingers. Instantly, notebooks, loose paper, pens, pencils, and crayons appeared all over the room. Gangle… stared at it all for a moment, then wailed and buried her face in her hands.
“I prefer cartoony line art myself,” Caine said, grabbing a small spiral notebook and a mechanical pencil and sitting down next to Gangle, “But I’d love to see your style!”
Gangle didn’t uncurl. Caine hummed to himself as he drew a few bees to make sure his own controls were correctly calibrated, then he got to work sketching Gangle. The last Adventure had gone well for her, and he was drawing off a still he’d taken where she looked… truly happy.
Once he was done, Caine glanced at Gangle. She was still curled in on herself, and hadn’t touched any of the art supplies.
“Do you not want to draw, Gangle?” he asked.
Gangle didn’t move for a moment, then slowly reached out and batted a pencil away from her.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Sure you can! Just grab whatever implement speaks to you and try it!” Caine encouraged.
Gangle sighed and reached out again, her ribbon wrapping around the pencil several times. Caine cocked his head again, watching her lift it.
“Is that… really comfortable?” he asked hesitantly.
Gangle hunched further in on herself.
“It’s the only way I can pick things up,” she mumbled miserably.
Caine eyed her model’s skeleton and hitboxes, then set his art supplies down. Slowly, he reached over and took her ribbon in his hands. He unwound it, leaving only the tip lightly curled around the pencil, and let go. The pencil stayed in place, ignoring the normal physics it would have been subjected to.
Gangle stared at it. Then, using her other ribbon, took the pencil with the tip of her limb and only the lightest curl.
“Your hands work just as well as everyone else’s, my dear! Player models such as yours are not subject to the same set of physics rules as objects! Your fine motor control should be just as good, even with your ribbons!” Caine explained, quickly turning his hand into a visual blob and using it to pick up and twirl his pencil with ease, “I understand you humans have some… issues with gimmick avatars, but all player models in the Amazing Digital Circus have the same base functionali-!”
Gangle surged forward and wrapped Caine in a hug, crying again. Caine’s hands flailed for a moment, then forcibly stilled.
“Thank you,” Gangle whispered, “Thank you, I- I thought- I almost- thank you, Caine.”
“O-of course! I am here to help, after all!” Caine managed, hesitantly patting Gangle’s back in what he hoped was a comforting manner.
Gangle released him and smiled, even through her tragedy mask. Caine grinned back at her.
“Did you… really want to see my art? It’s been a while, and I wasn’t very good at it even before…” Gangle asked, suddenly looking nervous.
Caine immediately snatched up some paper and writing utensils and offered it to her.
“I would love to see what you come up with.” he said brightly, and internally preened when Gangle smiled at him again and accepted the offering.
Maybe he’d found a human who could appreciate his work. He hoped so.