Chapter Text
To say that things had changed in the Circus was an understatement.
The same was true for Caine himself.
He’d let go of his self-imposed role as ringmaster, and it felt like everyone could finally breathe, himself included. He had made real connections with the humans, became their friend instead of their captor.
If that meant having a little less control over the digital world, he would happily accept that trade. And he did.
The one thing he was relieved to still be capable of was fixing Pomni’s glitching.
He had never been able to undo abstraction, and that had always plagued him, but he could at least help in little ways. He’d assisted in the creation of the aquarium and other dark spaces around the big top. And with time and care, the abstracted seemed to actually be improving. It was extraordinary to watch.
Even after exploring the internet and learning more about the macroverse, Caine never fully understood humans. But that was the point, wasn’t it? It was their free will that drew him to them. They were capable of things that couldn’t be defined by simple code. As unknowable as abstraction was to him, their healing— and, dare he hope, de-abstraction— was something he hadn’t grasped any better. He had to trust in them to come together and be there for their companions.
The beeping from the Wacky Watch on Caine’s wrist pulled him out of his thoughts. Ah, of course! Speaking of companions, it was time to retrieve Pomni from Jax’s headspace.
The fact that abstractions were still themselves to a degree, with entire inner realms that could be accessed, had come as a surprise to all of them. No one really knew what to do with this information at first, especially considering what had happened the first time one of them had entered such a space.
It had taken a lot of convincing from Pomni to get Caine to let her do it again, and only on the condition that she’d only be there a few minutes before getting teleported out.
Her friends were not pleased to learn of this arrangement. She and Caine had both gotten an earful, but they were able to prove that nothing bad had come from entering a stable abstraction’s headspace.
The allotted time had been extended again and again and again, safely testing the limits, but they could never be too careful. So, Caine always teleported the humans back out after the time had passed.
It required a bit more concentration these days, but Caine snapped his fingers and Pomni appeared at his side. She blinked, eyes refocusing on her new surroundings, before waving to the AI in front of her. “Hey, Caine,” she said.
“Hey,” he replied, “how are you feeling?”
“Good!” she said, her cheery mood evident in her voice as she raised her arms out in front of her for routine inspection. “Everything feels fine.”
They both looked her over for a bit; it was standard procedure to check for any signs of glitching, even though nothing like that had ever happened. Not since the first time, at least.
“Alrighty, well you look fine to me, so if you’re not feeling anything strange, you should be a-okay!” Caine gave Pomni a reassuring thumbs-up. “How…” he continued, folding his hands and lowering his voice, “how is Jax doing?”
“He’s doing alright,” she replied softly. “He seems happier lately.”
For these past few visits, Pomni has seemed a lot happier, too, he noticed. She had another big smile on her face today.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Caine replied. He remembered her telling him excitedly a while back about the brightening of his lamppost, then the addition of a bench and a sky with stars. “It’s good that he has someone like you, Pomni. I can imagine how much your company must be helping.”
“Yeah… you could say things have been going pretty well.” Pomni seemed lost in thought, that fond look never leaving her face, her eyes unfocusing. She looked like she was thinking hard about something, but whatever it was, she wasn’t telling him. Was she sure she was alright? Did something happen?
But just as Caine finished the thought, she shook her head and brought herself back to the present. “Anyways. I’ll see you at D&D tonight?”
“Sure will!”
Pomni waved goodbye and left for her room, practically skipping the whole way and humming a tune to herself.
It was certainly odd behavior coming from her, but it wasn’t bad, right? There probably wasn’t anything to worry about.
She acted like this a lot after her teleportations as of late. Usually they’d leave her a little disoriented, but recently, the expressions on her face have looked more dreamy than anything else. What, had she just gotten used to it, or… ?
Caine shook his head. He definitely did not understand humans.