Chapter Text
The story takes place sometime after the events of episode 7.
Caine had been floating around the circus watching everyone from afar days after his huge adventure of having everyone try to escape the digital circus. He thought at the time that it would have made a good adventure for them all, I mean, that was something they all wanted, right? So Caine was confused as to why everyone was more upset than usual, ignoring him and refusing to go on adventures all together, and even acting more aggravated and aggressive than usual. Hadn’t he given them something they wanted?
So there from the sky he pondered what he could’ve possibly done wrong.
“Bubble!” Caine called out.
In a flash, Bubble appeared right next to him with an odd comment like usual and then asked what it was Caine needed.
“So, whatcha need, Caine?” Bubble asked.
“Do you know what I did wrong the other day? I mean, the circus members seem more upset than usual.” Caine asked.
“Probably because you messed up big time with that adventure where you had them try to escape.” Bubble replied.
“No, that can’t be so! I just gave them an adventure based on what they all wanted, right? Here, I’ll even go ask them myself to prove it!” Caine responded with certainty.
So he did just that. Caine flew out into the main part of the circus to try and find a circus member who could tell him what he did wrong. Perhaps Kinger? No, he wasn’t sane enough. Zooble? No, they never tell him anything enough to know what they want.
Then Caine found Ragatha and Pomni talking to each other in one corner of the lobby of the circus. They were just sitting and chatting like normal about their days like they normally did. So Caine popped in front of them to ask him why everyone was acting so off.
“Pomni! Ragatha! Just the humans I wanted to see right now!” Caine exclaimed with his usually loud voice happily.
“Oh… hi, Caine…” Ragatha responded, sounding disappointed but trying to keep being polite.
“Go away, Caine.” Pomni responds with a slight hint of anger.
Caine continued speaking despite how Ragatha and Pomni reacted to his arrival, “I have a question because I’m confused and worried… I don’t know why everyone seems so hostile suddenly?”
Pomni stared up at Caine with rage in her eyes.
“You don’t know what you did? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DID!?” She yelled.
“Well, no. That’s why I’m asking you.” Caine shrugged.
“You took the one thing we all yearned for, the one thing that we’d all lost hope on, and practically taunted us with it! You played with our minds! Putting panic in Jax’s mind, made us have hope only to brutally rip it from us! You lied to us too! Do you know what that does to us!? I bet you don’t because you’re not human so you wouldn’t understand! You don’t care about us, you’re just pretending, aren’t you!?” Pomni yelled at Caine, telling him how they all felt.
Suddenly, Zooble and Gangle walk over, wondering what the chaos was for.
“What’s going on? What’s Caine doing here?” Zooble asked, sounding just slightly annoyed upon seeing him.
“He came to ask us why we were all mad at him.” Ragatha answered.
Caine looked at his circus members with confusion. He couldn’t understand what it was he’d done wrong, he thought he’d just given them what they wanted, and though he did kinda sorta manipulate Jax and Pomni’s minds a bit to make them choose the ‘stay’ option, he thought they’d actually like that adventure.
“Are you kidding me!? He can’t figure out why we’re all mad at him!?” Zooble exclaimed angrily.
“Well… I really couldn't, I guess. I thought that escaping the circus is what you all wanted so I planned that adventure to make you all happy. I thought you’d like it.” Caine responded.
“Like it!? You gave us hope then ripped it away and discovered you’ve been lying to us for some time now!” Zooble yelled back.
Caine watched all the angry circus members shake their heads at him furiously and just walked away without another word. Leaving Caine still slightly confused and alone. He still couldn’t understand or grasp even a fraction of an idea on how mad they all were at him. But either way he wanted to please his circus members like he was supposed to do, so Caine decided to try his hardest to make it up to the crew. He paid closer attention to them. He watched them more often from afar. And even though he hated it, Caine even decided to use the suggestion box again.
Opening the lid carefully, he brought out a few of the ideas from weeks and months ago for the crew to try for adventures. Maybe then if they went on the suggestion box adventures they’d see that Caine wasn’t so bad. Maybe they would see just how hard he was trying. And maybe, just maybe, they’d even forgive the poor ringmaster?
Boy was he wrong.
“Hello, my wonderful wonky crew! I-“
“I thought we expressed that we were mad at you and don’t want to be around you. We are all still mad and don’t forgive you.” Zooble pointed out.
“Yes, I know, but I really want to make it up to you, so I went through the suggestion box and made up a really cool and really good adventure based on your wants.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter. We don’t want to go on your stupid adventures anymore. We don’t like you, we never did in the first place.” Zooble responded. “Nobody else would admit it though.”
Jax, who was leaning on a pillar behind the others, decided to put his own two cents into the conversation. “I bet Kinger wouldn’t like you now either, if he were sane enough to remember, I bet you destroyed his mind too. But seriously, Zooble, what are you trying to do here? Didn’t you say yourself that we shouldn’t push Caine or else he’ll hurt us?”
Caine clutched his staff tightly, “What? No! I wouldn’t…. Not intentionally!”
Jax laughed, “So you admit you could destroy Kinger’s mind and all of ours too either intentionally or not if you wanted?”
Caine’s voice grew smaller, “Uhhh, I guess..? But seriously! I would never intentionally inflict pain upon you all!”
While Caine was making a horrible attempt at explaining himself and trying to apologize to the crew, they just rolled their eyes and walked away, leaving Caine floating alone again.
“Oh man, I really messed up, didn’t I Bubble? What should I do?” Caine asked Bubble, and though the question was more on the hypothetical side, Bubble still responded.
“You should die- I mean, you should throw another fffff-fricking beach party!” Bubble said before leaving Caine alone again. Leaving him to glitch.