💜 richie!! 💜

🫧 first of all, it's pretty much confirmed at this point that bubble is an outlet for caine's intrusive thoughts, at least in some capacity. i like to think that's not ALL he is and that he is actually his own person as well, and that blurting out caine's thoughts is involuntary for both caine and bubble.

🐝 that being said, i headcanon bubble is actually really caring and protective towards caine! ... in his own bubble-y way!

🫧 bubble is a very laid back caregiver, but not inattentive. if he was a parent, he'd be the type of parent who only steps in when you specifically say you need help with something, and otherwise kind of just watches you work things out on your own.

🐝 speaking of parents, i don't think bubble's caregiving would parallel any particular human dynamic (dad, older brother, ect), mostly due to the fact they're both AIs and neither of them ever really experienced anything like that. he's just bubble ykwim

🫧 i think bubble is kind of like a service dog in the sense that he can tell when something is up with caine, even before caine himself knows. this includes when caine is involuntarily regressing, and bubble usually informs him ahead of time.

🐝 ... not that it typically accomplishes anything, because even on those days caine insists on doing his ringmaster duties before he can even think of relaxing, and never takes bubble up on his offer to take caine's place in announcing the adventure for the day.

🫧 bubble specializes in easing caine's worries (if he doesn't accidentally blurt something out that just contributes to them). he's so outspoken and loud with his reassurance that it's hard for caine to keep feeling bad if bubble has anything to say about it. he's also very good at distracting caine, so that he doesn't even realize that he's no longer thinking about whatever was previously worrying him. (this comes in especially useful when caine is regressed because he's a lot more sensitive in that state.)

🐝 one thing bubble is NOT good at is engaging with caine's endless rambling. truth be told, bubble cannot pay attention to save his life. luckily, caine usually doesnt care to know if someone is actually absorbing any of the information. he's content with someone to talk to, not with.

⚠️ (cw for abandonment from this point forward!) ⚠️

🫧 bubble is kind of distrusting towards humans, since he's seen firsthand how much caine's creators abandoning him has affected him, and feels exceptionally angry about it on caine's behalf (and has sort of targeted that anger towards humans as a whole) - both because he does truly feel like that on his own accord, but also in part because of caine bottling up any sort of resentment he might experience so that he doesnt have to deal with it, leading bubble to experience it instead since they're so closely connected.

🐝 because of this distrust, bubble always tries his absolute best to keep little caine from interacting with the humans. instead, bubble and caine will mostly hang out in caine's office, in custom maps (like adventures but not actually being Used for any adventures, at least not at the moment), or in unexplored areas of the circus.

🫧 if caine must interact with someone, bubble will be hovering nearby, watching the interaction closely. if the person caine's talking to even thinks of saying something that upsets him, bubble will personally make sure that the next adventure is something that they in particular won't like (by subtly giving ideas to caine next time he's making an adventure).

🐝 ... or bubble will just bite them, depending on how bad the offense was.