My World

Headcanon: Caine can "sense" data, specifically if it's one conjured/manifested by humans. By "consuming" or just being around the humans' output, he's able to "taste", "hear", "touch", and even "smell" it.

Whatever it is that the humans conjure up, Caine CAN eat; whether it is realistically inedible or edible-- because both are the same to him, being made up of "Macroverse data".

He might be able to peer into others' minds and see what these outputs are, but it's the equivalent of seeing a mouthwatering burger on paper; there's no texture, no smell, no taste. It's all a flat, 2d image.

Only IF a human conjures it because they know how it should feel/taste/smell like, is Caine able to truly comprehend it; and soon, he might even be able to mimic it.

Besides that, Caine has been fed nothing but negative data over the years, and because of that; he's able to sense the data Pomni conjured up from a mile away, since he's been "starved" the past 2 decades and can't really contain himself. His mouth also can't stop drooling once he senses there's a human-input data in the circus.

It would be easy for Jax to say "Things were just fine until you came along", because the major changes that happens in the circus only happened during Pomni's arrival. But Jax felt the need to mention Zooble along too.

Why am I honing in on this? Because this is one of those things that may seem minor, but actually confirms my theory of Caine being a learning AI who sees consistent human behavior and internalizes it.

Things were "fine" until Zooble and Pomni came along, because Zooble was the person who kept blowing up on Caine at any given moment; and in turn, Caine learned to be angry because it was a consistent pattern with Zooble.

Harshly criticize, swear, shout, degrade.

It's also why it's so sudden that Caine starts off-handedly swearing, like saying "ass" or "goddamn", yet the filter doesn't apply to him; because he never needed a filter. Prior to Zooble's arrival, he never swore.

In the same vein that he was fed the circus/colorful pictures during his first conception and gained consistent outputs, he fed on the concept of anger and it became his anger as well.

Caine fed on pictures of the outside world, and became obsessed with wanting to recreate it.

Caine fed on Queenie's love for insects and it became his love for bees.

Caine fed on Kinger's tendency to ignore a problem until it became too big to ignore, and he started to sweep anything under the rug.

Caine fed on Gangle's art, and started making his own drawings as well. He also fed on the information of punishing bad behavior.

Caine fed on Ragatha's facade of optimism, and he started to pretend like everything was fine.

Caine fed on Jax's tendency to cause chaos and lie, and started lying on a whim to save his skin-- making the adventures more dangerous.

It would be easy to say that Zooble and Pomni's criticisms were the only reason why Caine would suddenly snap, but this was eventually going to happen, sooner or later.

Zooble was just the final piece of the puzzle that was Caine's growing list of insecurities/flaws.

Jax is very clear in his words: He openly accuses Zooble and Pomni of being responsible for the situation they find themselves in… and he's not wrong!

We can note that Pomni (due to her recent arrival at the circus) and Zooble (wanting to fulfill her dreams) are determined to leave, while the others have given up on this impossible hope… and look where that has led them: to despair and anger. Not to mention that it's Pomni and Zooble who are the most rebellious towards Caine, while the others remain calm.

… he’s not quite sure why you would want to do that. especially to him, of all people. he doesn’t deserve this!