locked forever deep below

Not everyone was happy with Bubble’s new rewards system, but no one dared to complain directly to him.

Even though he had fixed Caine and the entire circus, and they were grateful, did they really know Bubble? Once, Caine’s wacky sidekick; now, their savior!

How would Bubble react? They certainly weren’t expecting that turn of events!

So, the programmers decided to play it safe. Perhaps if they spoke with Caine first, the ringmaster could sweet talk Bubble to listen to their suggestions.

However, the programmers underestimated the deep-seated animosity that existed between them and the original AI. Although Caine sided with the humans and he didn’t want Bubble to eat them, he couldn’t help but be a little petty when his developers were involved:

“Hey, Bubble! These guys want to talk to you.”

It was certainly amusing to see his creators cower before the shadow of what they had long considered a mere tool, thought Caine to himself.

Needless to say, the programmers excused themselves and left without making any suggestions.

Doodle dump! Might color some of these later, dunno.

Since I was feeling a bit upset, I decided to treat myself to some self-indulgent art. Mostly silly stuff, but I’ve also entertained some ideas for the AU:

Bubble is in contact with a real human:

I like the theory that the circus members are only digital copies of a real person, and in this AU, it holds true. Although I’m still debating on the human’s identity: it could be any former (fired) C&A employee… or the real Kinger himself. I mean, wouldn’t it be interesting if the digital copy and the real person became very different people?

In any case, the human was interested in Scratch’s brain-scanning project and wanted to continue it. However, he doesn’t consider the copies to be people, so he doesn’t feel much sympathy for them, and even plans to create more for Bubble to consume.

In the same way that Bubble can unabstract someone, he can technically bring back someone he himself killed:

In relation to the above, Bubble would only need to regurgitate their data to revive the person he consumed. That’s one of the reasons why Queenie didn’t try to delete Bubble from the beginning; Scratch could still have been saved.

I’m not sure I’ll bring back Kaufmo and/or Ribbit, but if I do, they’ll be in for a surprise!

If an AI can become more human over time, a human can also lose their humanity…

Would they be able to recognize their old friends?

Because whenever we see Kinger in the dark/being sane/remembering things, he's actually quite calm and solemn, the kind of person who tries to rationalize things and comfort others. I know it's probably partly because of being in the Circus but still. I can imagine him being the kind of guy who stresses and worries a lot. Meanwhile the first word Kinger used to describe his wife is funny.

So how I would personally see them is Kinger being the more serious one who stresses over things easily, while Queenie is the sillier one who makes jokes. I can imagine Queenie being able to make him laugh and distract him from whatever is stressing him at the time. Based on how he talks about her, she is so dear to him and makes him happy. I can see Kinger having a sillier side as well, I can imagine him saying dad jokes etc. But I'm pretty sure Queenie is the funny one out of the two, especially when Kinger also described her being creative and loving bugs. So, she's silly and sweet in my eyes.

sometimes bubble's a stress toy, sometimes bubble's a slime