Chapter Text
They had all just gotten back from an adventure! A cooking journey where they all had to pitch in to fulfill orders while the time to make and serve the food got gradually shorter.
Caine had been quite proud of all the physics engines he was testing. Along with the fact that the players had to actually mix separate ingredients of different properties to properly make the food like in the "real world".
At least- that was how Zooble described it, oh! Speaking of Zooble was talking to him he must have "Zoned" as the players called it-
Zooble waved a hand in front of Caines' eyes "Hello? Earth to Caine, you alright? You just started staring into space"
Caine opened his jaws to reply, but he almost buffered for a minute. Attempting to find the correct words, that didn't usually happen. But for a minute it was like trying to individually pick words out of his vocabulary Bank
"Why of Course___ !-i- I am doing just amazing my Loquaciously Lively sea Lion! Simply reminiscing on today's Wonderful Adventure"
A glitch rattles through his body the graphics on his outfit suddenly become very stiff and polygonal for several seconds before popping back into place. It suddenly felt very bright and colorful... The whole point of the circus!
It felt like static was seeping into his code, making it difficult for him to wade through his own functions. A strange stiffness in his chest, tight, like something is squeezing in every wrong way.
His outfit which is meant to just be part of his default model feels itchy... and uncomfortable like every fiber of the imaginary digital cloth is touching him at the same time and he can feel every. single. one.
The cast exchange concerned looks. The former ringmaster is standing completely stagnant, in a rather uncomfortable looking pose; Arms slightly out by his sides, a wider stance than usual.
Caine is almost never completely still like this. Whether he's floating slightly above the ground bobbing up and down slightly, or committing to some type of weird bit that the rest of the crew doesn't quite understand; he always is in motion messing around with some prop he summoned just for the hell of it or even just rambling on about something random that he thought the others would enjoy.
Kinger takes a step forward wearing his tinted eyeglasses that Caine had made for him as an alternative to constantly keeping a bucket on his head "Hey-" snap
Just like that the AI is nowhere to be seen. It's a bit startling, Caine rarely uses his teleportation to get around anymore. Claiming that it's "healthier" for him to "get his steps in" despite the fact that he is an AI and even the rest of the crew doesn't necessarily have "muscles" that they could theoretically work out to grow ( strangely soreness still manages to find the cast after days of moving about a lot)
Caine knew that he wasn't meant to disappear like that, he was supposed to follow up after an adventure. Get feedback, hang out with the cast a bit before turning in for "sleep".
But it was almost impossible for him to focus on that or anything at all when his sensors were picking up everything all at once.
Darkdarkdarkdarkdarkdark
He wasn't even sure where he was going when he snapped his fingers to teleport. He just knew he was going somewhere dark, he was in a room unable to piece together which one exactly he had teleported to.
It was dark and quiet enough for him the colors in this room weren't exactly vibrant, bright colors? Maybe but it was less glaring when the lights aren't actually on in the room.
He worked on taking every unnecessary piece of "decoration" off of his model. Not even caring to snap it away as he ripped off his tie, jacket, vest, only exactly half aware of every action he was taking it felt hard to think about anything. Like he was thrown into a pool of fudge.
After he was done he was left just in his dress shirt his pants and his socks. He had even stripped of his top hat. Which was somehow bothering him even though the model floats above top of his jaw, he didn't have the energy to do anything except for pushing himself into the corner of the room and lying down on the floor.
His Jaws clamped shut blocking out every thing from his eyes as he curled his body into the most compact position he could manage without adjusting his model he ran one simple command stop all unnecessary functions.
The members of the circus still befuddled by Caines' great disappearing act are even further confused by the fact that suddenly the entirety of the circus shifts.
All of the overhead lights suddenly turn off. Which doesn't quite leave them in the dark, but it's much dimmer. All of the lighting comes from invisible light sources put in just to ensure that the Place wasn't unevenly lighted.
(You're able to find them if you look hard enough, the rectangles of space is that give off lighting akin to a bedside lamp. Although bringing up continuity issues just makes Caine cranky most of the time adorable and annoying at the same time)
The shaders are wonky certain objects suddenly become much more low poly looking, and a few items just suddenly go off kilter the visual models and the collisions unaligning themselves.
A general consensus becomes clear to the humans, they need to find Caine.