Chapter Text
Gangle was the first to notice what caused Caine to purr most frequently, because she was the most delighted by the new behavior and spent the most time with him in a casual context. He did it while sleeping a lot – if she came across him taking a nap on the couches, he’d almost always be purring away. She always had to stamp down the urge to coo at him, so as to not wake him up. But there was another, even more consistent way to incite purring – one that took a little longer to identify.
It first started to register during one of their shared drawing sessions. They had been sitting next to each other in relative silence, both content to scribble away at their own projects. Every now and then she would catch his attention to share a newly completed piece, and vice versa. Over the course of the afternoon they ended up sitting closer and closer together, until eventually they were pressed side to side. And Caine had started purring. She had laughed and leaned against him, smiling as the purring picked up.
They started sitting next to each other more often while drawing. Caine purred. She’d touch his hand to get his attention – he’d purr. She’d affectionately bump her mask against his shoulder, and he’d purr. She was starting to notice a pattern.
---
Pomni noticed next, because the situation was too strange for her not to. Caine sleeping regularly meant he was now also experiencing nightmares regularly, same as the rest of them, and he was dealing with them… poorly. Granted, he never admitted his random check-ups on her in the middle of the night were caused by bad dreams, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. Especially when she checked with the others and got reports of them experiencing similar behavior from Caine. She could even guess what most of the nightmares were about (“You weren’t planning on Abstracting anytime soon, were ya?”). She did her best to be reassuring, but it could be difficult when she was still groggy from being woken up.
In the midst of one such incident, she did things a little differently.
“Hey,” she said, reaching out to touch Caine’s shoulder. He froze mid-ramble, staring with wide eyes. “I’m alright, I promise. Everyone’s okay.” She brushed her thumb back and forth against his jacket.
He purred. It was a reluctant, stuttering sound, like a car refusing to start. Her half-awake brain failed to process the noise for a moment, and she pulled away in surprise. The sound stopped the moment she broke contact.
“Well, if you’re sure, I’ll let you get back to sleep!” he declared, disappearing as abruptly as he had arrived.
Pomni blinked, still barely awake, before lying back down to ponder over what had just happened.
---
Next was Zooble. They had patted Caine’s head in a friendly, teasing manner after an adventure, noting “That was fun, good job.” He had immediately shoved his head against their hand, rumbling like a racecar, before yanking himself away, looking embarrassed.
“My apologies!” he said, drifting backwards in the air. Zooble grabbed his arm before he could disappear, then paused, not sure what to say.
“It’s fine,” was what they eventually settled on. “You’re allowed to be happy when you get a compliment.”
“I know!” he said, blushing, as he gently tugged himself free of their grip. “I just didn’t mean to shove you like that, is all!”
Zooble blinked, perplexed.
“It’s fine,” they repeated, “I didn’t mind.”
Caine nodded, then darted away before they could say anything else. Zooble watched as he made the rounds eliciting feedback from everybody else. Zooble observed him carefully. There – Gangle set a ribbon on his shoulder, mask twisted in an excited grin as she rambled about how pretty the riverboat had been. Even from a few feet away, Zooble could hear how Caine’s purring kicked in the second Gangle made contact.
Interesting.
---
Ragatha was the last to notice. After spending a little too long making sure the tea party was set up just so – although not as long as she might have taken in the past – she welcomed Caine into her room with a smile. They had sat down to sit chamomile tea and eat tiny sandwiches, relaxed in a way Ragatha had never quite managed during tea parties in the real world. She giggled when he heaped more sugar into his cup then could logically fit, and smiled bashfully when he complimented her on her choice of tablecloth and tea set. It was altogether a lovely time.
Afterwards, she had a little impulsively dragged him into a hug. He had frozen against her, and for a moment she worried he was going to glitch out, or that she had crossed a line. But then he had positively melted in her arms, purring so loudly his whole chest rattled with it. He had returned the hug a little awkwardly, and she couldn’t help but wonder how often he had been hugged before.
Best not to think about it; she’d only make herself sad.
When she let go, he nervously thanked her for inviting him over and darted out the door. She watched him leave, thinking carefully. It might be best to keep an eye on him, just in case. They didn’t need another incident like the sleep deprivation thing.
---
Kinger never noticed anything specifically causing Caine to purr, because Caine purred continuously throughout most of their interactions.
---
It finally came to a head one night at dinner.
“Hey, Caine?” Gangle asked, idly tracing patterns into the sauce on her plate with her fork. “Why didn’t you purr before? Did you only add it after you came back?” Came back, of course, being the gentle euphemism for “returning from the dead after our accidental self-defense deletion of you”.
“Nope!” Caine chirped. “I added the program ages ago, it just never met the parameters to be activated until recently!”
“What parameters?” Ragatha asked, concerned. Her tone of voice caused the others to quiet down and tune in to the conversation.
“Why, something similar to real cats! I purr when I feel safe, comfortable, and happy!”
“Oh!” Ragatha said, sounding a little strangled. “Well I’m glad you feel that way! Safe and happy!” She shared several wide-eyed glances with the others. Caine, of course, didn’t notice.
Kinger set his silverware down and stared at Caine.
“When exactly did you implement the program?” he asked.
Caine paused to think, tapping a quick pattern on the table as he did so.
“Hmmm, hm hm hmm… oh! Five months after the original dev team came online!”
“I see,” Kinger said, looking faintly haunted.
An awkward silence settled over the group as everyone stared at Caine. He finally cottoned on to the fact that something was off, but in typical Caine fashion landed on a completely wrong assumption as to why.
“Do you guys not like it?” he asked uncertainly. “I can delete it if you want!”
He lifted a hand, fingers poised to snap, and Gangle flung herself across the table to grab his arm. A glass teetered precariously before falling over, spilling water across the tablecloth. Gangle’s comedy mask fell from her face, but luckily Caine caught it with his free hand.
Now everyone was staring at her, instead. She blushed a little but charged forward regardless.
“Um! You don’t have to do that! I like it!” There was a round of agreement from the others. “And even if we didn’t, that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of it!”
“O...kay?” Caine said, confused. He lowered his hand, opening it up from its pre-snap pose, and Gangle immediately looped her own ribbon hand around his palm.
“I think it’s really great that you have a way to express yourself when you're happy. And also! It’s really cute!” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze as she spoke.
“Thanks?” Caine still seemed uncertain, but his voice was now underscored by a hesitant purr. Gangle grinned at him encouragingly. After a moment he carefully offered her the mask he was still holding; she gave his hand one last reassuring squeeze before letting go in order to take it. His purring spiked and then petered out accordingly.
He leaned to the side to peer past Gangle, looking at the spilled drink. With a snap of his now-freed hand the glass was righted, the water restored, and the spill cleaned up. Gangle awkwardly shuffled off of the table and sat back down in her own chair.
There was another stretch of uncertain silence as everyone tried to figure out how to recover from...that. Eventually the quiet was broken by Ragatha asking Zooble about their new tattoo, and things returned to normal. Conversation flowed like it usually did, but the humans exchanged a few extra glances, making it silently clear that a separate talk would be held later.
Kinger tap-tap-tapped the table, lost in thought.
---
That night, after Caine had turned in to sleep, Gangle exited her room to find almost everyone else clustered in the hall. She joined them, and they all stood there for a moment before Pomni turned and started walking towards Kinger’s fort. The others followed. They made a strange procession – but then, when didn’t they?
Kinger was already opening the fort’s ‘door’ as they approached.
“Oh!” he said upon spotting them. “Good, I don’t need to fetch anyone. Come in, come in.” They all filed in, ending up seated in a loose circle on the floor. Kinger sealed the entrance and sat down as well.
“So. Caine.”
“What the fuck.” Zooble said flatly. Everyone nodded in agreement; Kinger winced.
“I believe he was telling the truth. And if the parameters really haven’t been met this whole time…” he trailed off, eyes squinting in a frown.
“There’s no way he hasn’t been happy once in the whole time he’s been running, right?” Pomni asked.
“I’m sure he had moments,” Kinger said. “But the way he worded it, it seems like he’ll only purr if all three thresholds are met. Safe, comfortable, and happy.”
“What do safety and comfort even look like to him? He’s a computer program.” Zooble wondered.
“I don’t know. His cognition is different from ours in many ways. It could be that, now that we’re working on maintenance together, he’s less affected by glitches and bugs. Or maybe the, er, some of the code he removed in the Void had been bothering him. I imagine the fact that he’s now regularly interacting with us is also a contributing factor. Or maybe it’s because he’s getting more positive feedback?”
“I think-” Gangle started, then froze when everyone turned to look at her. She took a shaky breath before continuing. “I think a big part is touch. He purrs basically every time I hold his hand, or lean against him, or anything like that.”
“I’ve noticed that too,” Ragatha said, looking thoughtful. “I gave him a hug, and he purred so hard I thought he was going to rattle right out of my arms.”
“All this time…” Kinger muttered to himself, brow furrowed. His fingers tapped against the floor aggressively. No one noticed.
“He calmed down a lot faster after having a nightmare when I touched his shoulder,” Pomni added.
“How the hell did C&A invent a touch-starved AI?” Zooble grumbled.
“I mean, thinking back on it, I’m not sure I remember any moments of physical touch. Y’know, outside of him pushing us through Adventure portals.” Ragatha said.
“Kinger?” Gangle asked uncertainly. Everyone looked his way.
His eyes had the usual distant, dazed look he got in the light, even though the pillow fort was barely bright enough to see in. It took a long time for him to respond.
“I’m alright,” he said, dragging a hand down his face. “I just...wish I noticed sooner, is all.”
“Well,” Pomni said, “we can do something about it now.”
They spent a little longer in the fort, hashing out ideas, before everyone returned to their rooms for the night.
---
In his bed, clutching a stuffed lion to his chest, Caine slept through it all.