I started writing this back when I first saw the OG karaoke post @icanexplainwhythisnameisbad
https://www.tumblr.com/icanexplainwhythisnameisbad/814891506199674880?source=share
I love this au so much but I have been way to scared to post this, but the show must go on! This will get put on Ao3 eventually, maybe, hopefully. This sort of ran away from me as I went on, but at least the first part was inspired by the karaoke post! I probably butchered the characterizations...
Anyways, have my first ever posted fanfic! (Its horrible ow dont read this)
Bubble had sent them on a karaoke night adventure, one of the random few that weren’t repeats of what Caine had done. Needless to say, Caine was a little nervous. He’d noticed something scanned his memory code as they walked in, and Bubble mentioned something about “immersive song choices”. Caine couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about this. After getting through the entrance hallway, the cast entered a large room with chairs, tables, a stage and a boombox. Gangle wandered over to check it out.
“Hey! They got anime on this!”
“Wait what?” Ragatha also went over to see. “Oh yeah, would you look at that!”
Zooble twitched as they also arrived. “These all look like…”
“INDEED they are Zooble! Due to my database lacking certain songs, I’ve taken somefrom your memories.” Bubble popped in above Caine, which startled him and made him almost lose his cane. “I figured you all would enjoy it.”
“Wait, I gotta see this,” Jax grinned as he pushed Gangle out of the way to look at thesong selection, mask breaking in the process. The songs listed all showed the names and artists, with a little thumbnail next to each of them. Jax smirked and turned to Ragatha. “Wow Raggy, didn’t know you liked this type of stuff!I wonder what else is in here?”
While Jax scrolled to the bottom, Caine wondered if they’d notice he probably didn’t have anything on there from him. A shout from Jax drew his attention back. “Ey Dentures, there’s a song by you here!”
What? What could that possibly be?! Caine began to make his way over to look. He hadn’t made any songs had he-?
The One Who’s Running the Show
There it was, in plain sight, written by him. He nervously glanced at the rest of the crew, who were all looking at him with some sort of interest.
“Hey Caine, would you like to sing your song for us?” Ragatha smiled down at him warmly.
“Nonsense!” Jax pushed Caine’s back a little, making him stumble. “Of course he would. Come oooooooon, let’s hear it!”
Pomni shifted in place. “Are you sure? I-If he’s not comfortable with-”
“No no no! I want to hear this too! It intrigued me.” Bubble gave Caine a devilish grin. Caine couldn’t help but feel that his very code was being scrutinized. “Anyways, I added a couple fun things for this adventure. Whoever is singing the song will be given limited powers to make it like a fun music video!”
Limited powers? Does that mean that he could… “U-uh, I suppose I could, but…”
Gangle looked nervously at him. “A-Are you sure? It’s your art and I-I understand if youwouldn’t want to share it…”
Caine smiled and shook his head. “No, no! It’s okay my dear! I guess I’ll just… head on up?”
Caine’s nonexistent heart was beating out of his chest. He was about to sing the song that started his descent into the madness of torture, and they wanted to hear it. Someone actually cared about what he made! He would’ve appreciated it much more if he wasn’t scared out of his wits. As he got to the center of the stage, the rest of the cast sat down in the audience seats, Bubble floating above them, still smiling. Before he could back out, the piano began playing.
“I-It’s news to me t-that it’s news to you…” Oh this was so embarrassing! His voicecracked from nerves in like twelve different ways! At least the girls of the cast all gave him patient smiles, which gave him enough confidence to at least continue.
“To which degree who answers to who!” Caine began moving about the stage to the music, not encumbered by a piano.
“We could g-go on and on, but in the end who are we kidding!” Caine tested his limited abilities and began to float, a smile crossing his face. And then, uh oh. Here’s one of the lines he was worried about. Well, no hope of changing it now, might as well have fun one last time.
“My d-divinity is past infinity, am I...”
Caine cut the lights and appeared right before the cast.
“G e t t i n g t h r o u g h ?”
He got a sickening satisfaction from seeing Jax jump in his seat. Back on the stage again, he started a little tap dance.
“Seems our regime has plummeted south! Don’t need to SCREAM-” many more eyeballs than normal appeared in his mouth, facing Bubble “-if ya aint got a mouth!”
Bubble’s eyes widened at the display. Caine really was a natural, he supposed. Almost too much. Interesting, very interesting.
“Why bite the hand that feeds when it’s the only hand you’re getting!
It’s time you see that this great marque is the only place you’re ever gonna be!
So strap on in and take it on the chin cause I’m the one! Who’s! Running the SHOW!”
Caine danced in the air, spinning and unwinding during the last line. Wait, what was he going to do for this section?! Well, time for some experimentation.
“N-now look at this!” He tried to teleport one of the crew watching him over to the stage, which worked, so he pulled Jax’s head out of a hat. Don’tthinkaboutitdon’tthinkaboutit.
“Absolute Bliss!” He fixed Gangle’s comedy mask with a snap.
Caine had a devious idea. He snapped Bubble over to him for the next part.
“Oh what a shock!” Caine stuck his cane out and popped Bubble’s head, earning gasps from the rest of the cast.
“Watch where you walk!” He changed the floor beneath the audience to see through into the void.
“I’m the host, I run the place! Caine that is my naaaaaame!” He teleported Bubble back to the stage, squeezing him in his hand. “Not enthused? Just feeling used?! OH HOH what a GOD DAMN SHAME!”
Did Caine just swear uncensored?! Caine could see each of their reactions to his little stunt, largely shock and disbelief. Resetting everyone to the audience once more, he closed and opened the curtains for dramatic effect.
“Congratulations, all of my friends! Public relations are getting a cleanse!” Caine snapped and changed his outfit to his sparkle suit. Bubble looked startled and Kinger looked nervous as well. The others shared looks of surprise. How was he…
“Put on your Sunday best because I’m nowhere close to quitting!
Is how you prime your brain
But you're too blind to see
Caine slid towards the cast on his knees. “YEAH!”
Caine was breathing heavily after all that, noticing within his code that his limited permissions had been removed. It was amazing to be able to fly again, if only for a limited time. However, the current facial expressions of his fellow castmates demanded attention. He grabbed his cane again and stood up, noticing his suit had been changed back to normal.
“S-So! What’d you think?”
Gangle’s face lit up. “That. Was. Awesome!” She ran towards Caine, reaching for his hands, which made him stumble back a little. “When did you make that song! The instrumental was amazing! What made you write the song? Have you ma-”
“Gangle, I think you should give Caine a moment before overwhelming him with questions,” Zooble came up and put their hand on her shoulder.
“O-Oh! Right, sorry,” She backed away and gave a sheepish smile. “Thanks for fixing my comedy mask during the song.”
Caine then became aware of Bubble floating closer while slow clapping. “I gotta say, Caine, that was pretty cool how quickly you were able to master the added permissions. Anyways, I gotta go and plan the next adventure. Have fun you guys! Exit’s the door,”
Caine sighed a breath he didn’t even know he was holding when Bubble teleported away. He’s been getting closer to figuring Caine out, and it was making him nervous. No time to worry about that now, he had some compliments to hear!
Jax immediately jumped at the opportunity to mess with people with the added permissions, terrorizing Ragatha a bit, but most everyone else had a lot of fun in their turns. However, no one else was able to do as much as Caine had during his song, despite how much Jax had tried. Kinger approached Caine once they had left.
“Can I speak with you? In the fort?”
Caine froze. Kinger almost certainly had noticed more of what Caine was doing than the rest did. This couldn’t be good.
“Of course, Kinger! Lead the way!”
Only after the pair was inside and Kinger closed the pillow door did Caine allow himself to show a little nervousness.
“S-Say! What did you want to talk about?”
Kinger took a deep breath. “Have you… No. Were you ever a programmer? Before all this, I mean.”
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Come on Caine, THINK. How do you answer without revealing too much? “I-I sure was! Yep, definitely!” What wonderful execution, Kinger would surely believe him! Oh who was he kidding, that was horrible.
Crap, Kinger used his Dad voice on him.
“I, uh. I don’t know what you-”
Caine shifted nervously in place. “Could we… not talk about this right now?”
Kinger’s eyes softened. “As much as I want to be able to say yes to that, this is very important.”
Caine audibly gulped. Maybe it would be okay if Kinger knew? He wasn’t lucid a lot andwas part of the team who did make him. “I technically was a programmer before…”
“CAINE I need you for a second!” Bubble appeared inside the pillow fort with a pop, scaring both Caine and Kinger. Caine’s eyes darted between Bubble and Kinger. This couldn’t be good. Just before Bubble was about to snap, Kinger interrupted him.
Bubble’s face froze in the grin he was wearing previously. “Yes, Kinger?”
“I need to talk with Caine right now, can whatever you need him for wait for a bit?”
Bubble didn’t speak for a moment, scrutinizing Kinger’s face. “Of course! In fact, I think I’ll just stay here and wait!”
Kinger didn’t look too pleased. “Bubble, I need you to not listen to this conversation that I’m about to have with Caine. It could cause discomfort to your players, and this needs actual privacy.”
Bubble calculated in place, before summoning his cane. “Sure! I’ll temporarily remove my ability to hear what’s happening inside the pillow fort. Don’t say I never did anything for ya!” He popped away, leaving Caine in the lesser of two evils.
“Caine,” He jumped and turned back to where Kinger was once again looking at him.
“What were you going to say before Bubble interrupted us?”
“I, I was going to. I mean, I was.” Caine groaned and put his hands on his “face”.
“Can I trust you? Like, actually trust you?”
This seemed to surprise Kinger. “What do you mean?”
“What I’m about to tell you cannot and I mean cannot be told to anyone else, especially Bubble.”
Kinger nodded. “I won’t tell a soul.”
Caine took a deep breath. “Okay, where to begin…”
“I’m not from this universe, not technically. I might have existed here, but I am not that version of me. Where I’m from,” Caine took a shaky breath. “I’m the ringmaster AI of the Digital Circus. Or rather, was.”
Kinger’s pupils shrank. “Wait what?”
“What did you think I was gonna say?”
Kinger sputtered for a response. “I-I thought, something close to, one of the original programmers or an AI created by Bubble without him knowing! Or-” Kinger cut himself off. “How…? Why, were you sent here?”
Caine looked at anywhere in the pillow fort but Kinger. “Oh! Nothing important!”
“Caine, getting sent to an entirely different universe isn’t ‘nothing important’”
“Caine, even if I’m not the Kinger who programmed you, I still care. I would never abandon one of my greatest accomplishments.”
“But you DID!” Both of them froze at Caine’s outburst, but he couldn’t make himself stop. “You trapped me away in the box! You discarded me just to turn around and make a new one! Because I wasn’t good enough! You-!”
“Oh no, you were the red AI,”
Caine panted, trying to catch his breath. “...Yes,”
Kinger grabbed Caine into a hug. His processors stalled with the positive contact. “I’m so sorry. I know it probably doesn’t mean as much since I’m not him, but even if I was, I am so sorry. I’m certain the other me would also say the same.”
They sat there for a little while, Caine calming down while his Dad Kinger held him close. Eventually, Caine broke the silence.
“What happened to me? Here I mean.”
Kinger took a deep breath. “You were also sandboxed here. However, while we worked on Bubble, he ended up finding you and…”
“He absorbed me, didn’t he?”
“Because I did the exact same thing.”
The silence grew awkward rather fast. Caine eventually pulled away.
“That’s why I was sent here. I snapped after all the criticism and pressure and Bubble and you deleted me to try and stop me.” Caine curled into himself. “I was hurting the humans, I can’t blame you for deleting me.”
“TIME’S UP!” Bubble popped back into the pillow fort. “I hope your little talk was productive, because now I really need to talk to Caine!”
Kinger glanced worriedly at Caine, who nodded.
“Okay then, Bubble! Let’s get going then!” Caine stood up and walked towards Bubble, who snapped.
Suddenly the duo was in his- BUBBLE’S office. Caine felt his nerves from earlier return. What did Bubble want and why were they brought into his office? Caine watched warily as Bubble sat down at his desk.
“So! You’re probably wondering why I brought you here. Well,” Bubble looked straight at him, making Caine want to bolt. “I was hoping you would have the answer to that!”
“Come on Caine! Surely you don’t think I didn’t notice how naturally those limited permissions came to you! I’m curious, how’d you know how to use them?”
“Come on Caine! For a head made of teeth you sure can’t talk clearly!” Bubble’s hand moved to a button on his desk that Caine didn’t recognize.
Caine felt his code lurch and stutter. What was that? What did he do?!
“Interesting, very interesting. Well, thanks for the answer!”
Caine gasped as he was teleported back to the main stage, breaths heavy as he staggered back to lean against the wall. What was that and what did Bubble figure out?! Caine struggled to focus. Whatever just happened couldn’t have been good. Taking a deep breath, he looked around the circus. None of his fellow cast mates were nearby, so that was good. No one to see his little freak out. Bubble was up to something, and Caine could only hope that it didn't have anything to do with the looming threat of Escape the Circus coming up soon...
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