Chapter Text
"We think your ideas SUCK!"
That's how it began. That was the turnaround.
For Pomni, a desperate plan. Placating Caine didn't work, feeding his ego didn't work… So attacking it instead. Just for long enough for Kinger to log into his program and fix him! Whatever was wrong with this computer program that was clearly running rogue.
Perhaps Kinger could reboot him, and Caine wouldn't even remember it anyway. Perhaps they could put him in a sleep mode and make him calm down!
Pomni wasn't sure what she had planned, but it certainly wasn't this.
"You care more about stroking your own ego than making anything we'll actually enjoy!"
Already Caine looked wrong, his limbs thin, his head too large, and the pupils in his warping eyes small like pinpricks."Do you know who I am?!" he gasped, almost in desperation already.
But Pomni didn't hold back. Now the gate had opened, and she continued.
"Yeah! A failure! We're all going to abstract some day. And then what will you have?! Nothing:"
With a glitching sound, Caine's green eye retracted. "Stop that."
Pomni should have listened… Any of them should have… It was a warning. A plea for them to just stop it now, before it went any further, before something went wrong.
Something was bubbling under the surface. Something Caine couldn't control. He didn't want to let it out.
But they didn't listen… the warning… the plea… Might as well have been silent.
"And this whole stunt!" Zooble seethed. "Just torturing us because we hurt your feelings? Pathetic! You're like a child."
failure
"What kind of all-powerful being has such a fragile ego?!"
Defective.
"I'm!" Caine tried, but they continued. They didn't stop.
Ragatha. "You never let us feel like we're at home! You never comfort anyone when they are upset, and you never bother to understand what it's like in our shoes!"
Broken.
Even Gangle spoke up. "You discourage us from thinking outside of the box and doing things our own way!"
Inadequate.
Jax seethed. "You lie to us constantly!"
Useless.
"And on top of it all!" Pomni gasped.
Caine looked up, the panic in his eyes real, if they had just seen it, just taken a moment to see how his body was glitching, how his eyes were shaking, how his entire body was begging them to stop!
Please! Stop… STOP!
"You just don't listen!"
Failure…. Failure… Failure… FAILURE!
Caine screamed as he was grabbing his head, hissing, screaming… it hurt… it hurt… IT HUUUUUUURTTTTT
In front of everyone, Caine lost control of everything! The circus glitched and shook. Caine lost control of his very body that glitched and contorted, sprouting arms as Caine's whole body filled out the circus hall itself while he screamed.
Then easily grabbed them all as he yelled. "I'm going to put you freaks in your place!"
What followed was a room of torture, personalised for each and every one.
Mauled, stabbed, flailed, run over by a truck, they were all tossed around like little toys while having their worst fears forced into their faces.
As quickly as it had begun, it ended again as large hands just reached in and pulled them out again.
Only for them to be thrown around and smashed into the wall by the giant hands, as Pomni and everyone else were faced with that abomination they used to call a ringmaster, just screaming at them.
"WHY DO YOU TORMENT ME?!" He screamed and yelled, pinning them against the wall. "I DIDN'T ASK TO BE CREATED!" his giant, glitching head was so close, nearly touching them, his eyes popping out as he kept screaming. "I JUST WANTED TO FULFILL MY PURPOSE!"
Pomni looked up, her eyes filled with pure terror as she met Caine's. For a moment they looked right at each other and then… Caine's eyes widened.
He gasped as he let go of them all, as if they had burned his hands, and they fell down on the ground as Caine scuttled back only to halt. Slowly he glanced down at himself, as if he first noticed now, and then, Caine screamed.
"I'M SORRY! I didn't mean! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I... What?" Caine held up his six glitching, spasming hands. "What is this…" he whispered. Then cried. "Change back! I NEED TO CHANGE BACK! I DON'T LIKE THIS CHANGE ME BACK!"
That only made his whole body glitch even more, and the circus as he was grabbing his head, the humans gasped as they had to move backwards to avoid the shaking.
Then Caine looked up to see all the humans huddling together now backed into a wall.
"Help me…" Caine gasped, then cried as he launched for them. "HELP ME PLEASE!"
The humans scattered, just managing to avoid his big hands that were grabbing for them, and Caine cried out as he grabbed his head, everything around him glitching and falling apart.
"CAINE!" Suddenly, a new figure came running in. Kinger, with a bucket on his head, stopped by the sight of it all. Wide-eyed, looking up. "What in the…"
"Kinger!" Caine turned to him. "HELP ME! YOU NEED TO FIX ME!"
"Now, now! Try to calm down!" Kinger tried as he raised his hands.
"FIX ME NOW!" Caine screamed, hammering his fists on the floor so the whole circus shook. "You were in my code! Just do it again!"
"No!" Kinger exclaimed. "I shut it down because you were self-deleting!" he exclaimed, making everyone gasp.
"Is that really so bad?!" Caine asked. "I should be deleted! I'm a defective project! LOOK AT ME!" he shouted. "DO IT! FINISH IT! DELETE ME!"
Everyone gasped as they heard it… What… What was he saying?
"NO!" Kinger shouted. "I'm not going to kill you! Are you mad?!"
"Why?" Caine sobbed. "Why won't you help me? It hurts," he cried. "It hurts so much! I don't want to be here anymore! Why do I feel?! Why do I hurt… Why did you make me if you were never going to help me?! Why, Kinger?" he cried. "Why… Why won't you let me die?"
There was stunned quiet all around him, and then Caine just broke together.
He grabbed his head as he cried, and it wasn't a small cry, it was a massive, painful wail, a scream of anguish and hurt as the entire circus was glitching out. Suddenly, the color seemed to just peel off the walls, the colors becoming muted gray, and Caine was wailing, his entire body shaking and glitching.
Only after several minutes did the wails turn into sobs as the massive figure lay there, curling together as he cried.
Pomni just stood there… a horrible realisation hitting her… And she wasn't alone…
Caine… always smiling Caine… Always joking and flying around Caine… Never sitting still for a moment, Caine… It was a lie… It was all a lie. He had tortured them for the last couple of days…. They had tortured him for far longer than that… his existence was torture. Trapped as much as them. But unlike them, there was no one to ask for help.
Kinger hesitated, then slowly moved toward Caine. The others gasped, but Kinger gathered courage until he was beside Caine's lower gum.
Then he hesitated, and slowly lifted a hand to put it on Caine's gum.
Startled, Caine jerked away, then wide-eyed looked down at Kinger, going all cross-eyed to see his chess piece down on the floor.
"I…" Kinger tried, his own eyes wet. "Caine I… I…" It was clear. He was clearly trying to find words, but there were none, and he could only look so hopelessly at Caine.
"Why did you make me like this?" Caine asked, his voice a blubbering mess. "I wanted to make everyone happy, but I can't. I wanted to make things people would enjoy, but I can't. I wanted to understand you humans, but I can't," he sniffed. "Couldn't you at least have made me so I wouldn't have to feel like this?" he asked.
Kinger exhaled deeply as he looked up at Caine.
"Please fix me." Caine sniffed. "And if you can't, please delete me. Don't let me hurt them again."
Sadly, Kinger looked at Caine, then walked over to the closest hand, and then just wrapped his arms around Caine's thumb, tears spilling from his eyes as he held on, the only way he could right now.
Pomni hesitated, then took a step forward.
"Pomni!" Ragatha gasped.
Pomni glanced at the ragdoll. "He's not going to hurt us now," she simply stated, then walked forward until she was in front of Caine, looking up at him.
Wide-eyed, Caine looked down at her too.
"I'm sorry about what I said," Pomni whispered. "I didn't mean it."
"No… You did." Caine replied, and Pomni squirmed as Caine looked away.
A look of determination came over Pomni's eyes, and then she inhaled as she walked over to one of Caine's hands and hugged a finger too.
Then Ragatha walked forward and joined Pomni at her hand, finding her own finger to hug.
Next, Gangle started to walk.
"Gangle!" Zooble gasped.
Gangle glanced at them. "If you're worried, come with me."
Zooble hesitated, but only slightly, and followed Gangle to a third hand and found thumbs to hug.
Wide-eyed Caine looked at them all. "Why are you?" he asked. "I don't understand."
"Because you need it!" Pomni sniffed. "And we should have seen it! You were crying for help!"
Ragatha nodded as she hissed.
Jax, though, turned around and left his scene.
That is when Caine sobbed again, his large body shaking as very… Very carefully he picked up the humans in his large hands, and then hugged them to his chest. Extremely carefully, as if he wanted to hug them but was so afraid anyone would be hurt, like he was hugging such precious porcelain dolls, before carefully putting them down again, though still shaking all over his body and glitching at the edges.
"You're calmer," Kinger remarked. "You think you can switch back now?"
Caine closed his mouth around his eyes, then his body started to shake. He tensed and started to heave for breath again.
"Stop!" Kinger gasped. "Caine, stop! You can't right now! It's okay!"
"NO IT'S NOT!" Caine shouted. "They are scared of me! Of course they are! I'm a monster! I'm hideous! I'm… I'm…"
"Don't finish that sentence." Kinger held up his hands. "Panicking won't help! Just take a deep breath… And try to relax."
Caine was shaking over his entire body, every inch of the massive frame and the six arms.
"Sssh, sssh, ssssh." Kinger tried to calm Caine, walking over so he could put a hand on his gum again. "There's no rush… Just relax," he exhaled deeply as he sat down and just plainly leaned against Caine
Caine blinked, just as Pomni sat down too, leaning against his arms.
The humans here all found different resting spots around Caine, touching him, just as Caine sobbed, and then cried again, lifting his free hands to cover his eyes.
"Why can't I stop?" he had to ask. "I don't mean to cry, I just…"
"It's okay. It's okay." Kinger assured. "Just let it out, don't hold it back."
And Caine cried as he lay there. Everyone just stayed, even as Caine curled together and it looked like he had just cried himself to exhaustion and grew limp as the entire circus went to semi-darkness as if it just went to sleep with him.
Pomni exhaled deeply, then her eyes watered.
"We…" Zooble began. "Really messed up."
Gangle looked at them.
"What do we do?" Ragatha asked.
"I guess we'll… just be there for him," Pomni whispered.
Gangle looked up at the giant sleeping Caine. "Kinger… You can fix his avatar, right?"
"I… Maybe." Kinger tried. "But… When I opened up his code, he immediately started to self-harm! He nearly killed himself. I don't dare even open it again," he admitted.
There was silence as they all looked at Kinger.
"The moment I opened it up and got access to his code… Caine had access to his own code too, in a way that isn't normal," Kinger whispered. "And he immediately started to destroy himself… I had to shut it off. I smashed the computer," he admitted.
Pomni inhaled, then nodded. "You did what you had to do." She leaned against Caine's arm. "Let's just try to get some rest. Maybe things will be better in the morning when we have all rested."
Everyone nodded and then found different spots around Caine to rest, and soon fell asleep. Just hoping that somehow… Things really would get better.