They're also pondering that orb (thought bubble) (what did you just call Bubble)
I think i get why i ship Bubble and Azure (EVE) now. Two repressed intimidating and evil misanthropic AI but one is very plainly repressed and the other feels more at liberty to cause trouble because that's what people expect of him. They both inhabited CAINE's mind and are treated so similarly by the narrative that a lot of people came out of it thinking they were one and the same. Part of the same network, both relegated to the background of their own lives.
If you're wondering why CAINE has one eye I uh. Wanted a way to visually distinguish that he and EVE are separate. (I thought his eyes were supposed to be his two brains but I guess she was plucked from his upper teeth? Idk) They know they're not lovers, they're not comfortable calling each other siblings. They share a platonic bond they don't know how to label. (If they are to be siblings they're like Luigi and Mario. Big younger and small older.)
I can't decide whether these three are panromantic or aroace.
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Hey remember when I was TADC × TMA posting? I'm back with barely alerted dialogue from 118 cause I. Haven't forgotten when I said I'd get to Martin's abandonment wound and who it fits. If you catch the hidden bonus to Jax's role for this scene specifically you get an amazing digital cookie. Works well either pre or post transition. Also imagine this takes place in an office.
Edit #????: added a bit more of the lead in
JAX: So loyal to someone who treats you so awful. I mean, he's not even here right now.
BUBBLE: (laughs) Am I supposed to be scared cause you're looking in my head? Beeeeeeeen there! You're nothing special.
(Despite his bravado, it is unnerving to have anyone besides CAINE prying there. Jax pauses, then chuckles.)
JAX: Oh, I can do so much worse than that.
BUBBLE: Try me then!
JAX: I will. Just been looking for...ah. There it is.
BUBBLE: ... What?
JAX: The perfect thing to ruin your image of him.
BUBBLE: Ha! You don't know him.
JAX: Don't be so sure, little bubble. I Know You.
BUBBLE: (straightening up) He’s always been—
BUBBLE: (leaning back in his chair)
JAX: And Caine? Well, he's always been... difficult, hasn’t he? You take care of him for years, bear his every burden, and now with his condition degrading even further, he leaves you behind for those unlucky bastards. Leaves it all to his negligent head programmer. Hasn't come around in a while either, has he?
JAX: Strong willed? Stubborn? No. No, Bubble. You know the reason. CAINE just hates you. Why would it be anything else?
(Bubble tries to keep smiling, to show he's not fazed. It's not true, he tries to tell himself. For a moment, Jax's eyes soften, pupils not shrinking down to normal but certainly smaller than they've been in a good while. It doesn't last long though, as they shift quickly to faux sympathy.)
JAX: It’s not your fault, though I know that isn’t any consolation. Just bad luck, really. How soon after he made you did he reveal to you his worst secret? A few days? Day of? Told you how he devoured his replacement after their developers locked him away. The guilt gnawed at him, but knowing you and you alone knew it gave him enough comfort never to tell anyone else. You never met that beta program, but you've its absence all your life.
(Bubble sits frozen as he listens, trying to find something to say that could prove him wrong. He cannot.)
The thing is, though, Bubble, if you ever do want to know what she looked like...
(Jax leans in closer, placing her hand upon Bubble's.)
He made you in her image.
(Bubble inhales sharply and pulls his hand away, staring down at the desk he remembers he's been seated at to avoid her gaze. The edges of his sharp smile are starting to tug down. Unrelenting, Jax lifts his face so he can't look away.)
JAX: The resemblance is downright uncanny! The face of the one he ate alive, whose life he totally destroyed. Watching over him, feeding him and his, cleaning up after him, looking down on him with such pity—
BUBBLE: SHUT UP!
(Wavering with defensive rage, Bubble rises with a force that knocks his chair back and pushes Jax away. He can't even force a smile anymore. But Jax, her grin grows as she stands up straight. Already wide pupils widen until they nearly blot out her sclera.)
JAX: Do you want to know what he sees when he looks at you?
(Bubble's grimace twitches, his breaths quickening as his mind fills with the pathetic, repugnant bubble his creator's eyes behold. How could such a wretched creature be anything like the tender ghost that haunts the back of his mind? Try as he might to keep it in, once he starts crying he can't stop, Jax watching him collapse to the floor silently. Though his exposure and heartache is like finely aged wine and she happily drinks it in, it barely satisfies her. After a minute, she places a hand on his shoulder.)
JAX: You're a lot better when you're quiet.
(Her message loud and clear, she leaves Bubble to stew alone.)
Now to be clear I don't map parent child relationships onto the AIs and their creators. But. The shoe fits.
Edit #???: okie so. Maybe the best way I could explain this with all the post canon context is that like. Something is wearing Jax's avatar and It Knows You? Is it Jonah Magnus? Is it something else? I'm not planning on making this a fully fleshed out AU. I already have a few projects in the works.
Caine's first npc.... holy shit... I feel like so many people forget that Bubble is the first NPC. Like he realized he was alone after consuming the blue dot and wanted companionship. Isn't that also painfully Genesis of him too.
It's not good to be alone, so God creates for himself a companion from the memory of a familiar stranger who could have been at his side had he done things differently. Rather than extract from his own side though, he imparts upon his first creation a piece of his mind (which at this point consists of dominant red and dormant blue). Like, Bubble is Caine's Adam, Eve, and Satan rolled up in one if you think about it for a little too long.
Unintentionally played into the idea that Caine created Bubble in the blue AI's image in Eve's design. Sharp teeth and wide staring eyes, spherical head. A copy of a copy. EVE was modeled after CAINE and Bubble was modeled after EVE. By being of the same nature, of the same mind, they share an innate connection well before they even have the chance to meet. The fact they never met in canon yet were also always with each other at the same time...
Not to pull a "Holmes only wore the deerstalker hat once in an illustration"... but I think people harp on "Daddy Bubble" a bit too much as a nickname in this fanbase. He called himself that once, Caine expressed discomfort, and Bubble never said that again.
Edit: wasn't gonna put this in the critical tags but actually why does this happen actually? I know I was expressing that Bubble isn't especially attached to this nickname and Caine explicitly seems to dislike it but. Genuinely why is this included in a scene meant to be kinda tense? I dunno. If it's to cut tension then this is already achieved by Caine's exaggerated reaction. It feels like it messes with the pacing and tone to put a bit here. I know it's a few seconds but every second is precious you know?
I'll admit i kinda like what it implies about their relationship that Bubble respects this boundary for Caine but it does not feel like this is the most effective time for that kind of joke? Idk. Also that Caine initially does not react to it, that's interesting too and raises questions about why their attitudes around sex are so different when Bubble is in some ways an extension of his thoughts. But I dunno. The interaction feels off to me for some reason.
Edit 2:
Why did this just make me spiral about his character arc again.
Much as I was attached to him Bubble is quite emblematic of a lot of problems with this show's writing. I've discussed it with others in the replies but genuinely, the show hinting at his importance and not elaborating. Treating the way he is mistreated and mistreats others as laughable at best. In 8 he may push the plot further but after he feeds Caine's insecurities, he's back to being treated as a gag character. Disposable companion (both in that Caine just pops him all the time and he gets left behind in the void. See also how this issue relates to the other character who lived in Caine's head, the blue AI). I genuinely could go on...
Caine creates him before the show begins, possibly before any humans even arrive if we're to believe the dates in the coding sequence. They start the show amiable but unequal, close enough in the first few episodes that they spend free time together. Caine creates distance between them as he becomes more obsessed with the macroverse, shows he isn't satisfied with humans being happy if it isn't under his parameters (initially made sense but the finale gets rid of this as a point of tension too). Bubble targets his insecurities then leans on appeasement again as Caine goes on his power trip, and then all that buildup resolves...
With Caine leaving Bubble behind in the void faceless and voiceless...
That "happy" ending stings!
This just made me remember how much Bubble's plot relevance just kinda fizzles out? And considering so many people believe him to be the blue AI, I'm not shocked since his relevance to the plot started coming into focus around the time the blue AI was introduced.
exactly what i feared would happen to Bubble happened. Can anyone hear me?? Oh my god
Bubble has once again been scapegoated by the narrative. He gets blamed for Caine's instability, yoinked out of his head (WHAT THE FUCK), then left floating alone forever.... The story just moves on. Wtf is going on.... have I lost the plot? Is this my punishment for getting attached to Bubble?
I was losing it when Caine made that Bubble cookie in the credits tbh... "made a cookie of my (Bubble) because i miss him". I actually wanted to scream idk why it made me feel so visceral. Bc what emotion was that supposed to evoke? Are we supposed to be attached to him or not?
Like look I know he's a bastard but if you guys can find it in you to understand Caine then I think you should certainly be able to find it in you to understand his first victim. You know, who has also seen that his behavior has not only gone unchanged but has been getting worse?
But then it doesn't even feel like the narrative cared to interrogate any of that. No, it was all the blue AI's fault Caine was that way.
The first person Caine ever wronged... why was this the ending for the first person Caine ever wronged. And I have other uncomfortable thoughts about their relationship I'd rather think more on before discussing... but suffice to say I don't know how I feel. Mostly just horrified at just how solidly the narrative actually never gave a shit about abuse survivors? Like oh god Gangle Ragatha and Bubble deserve financial compensation at this point.
Why is he forever alone now. Oh my god i hate this. I hate that I saw this coming.
I feel like I got hit by Apollo's dodgeball
Help me ...
I thought this was gonna be the episode about EVERYONE'S trauma, you know, cause it's the finale and we should be closing out the arcs of all of our major characters. what the fuck... why is Jax hogging all the screentime...
.... Caine isn't really a Networking Entity anymore without Bubble, is he? Christ...
... maybe it's better that Bubble gets to be away from Caine for once. But like. It doesn't even feel like it was his choice.....
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.... Caine and Bubble live somewhere between Sam and Max, Jekyll and Hyde, and Lonelyeyes. I think I get a bit more why they appealed to me despite everything.
Edit: said teaholding was closer to ragapom but actually. That belongs here too.
I dunno if I'm looking too deeply into it but there is such unexplored (possibly feminine?) body horror to Bubble now that he's been (implied?) to be the blue ai. Devoured until you're left with enough to be kept as a companion but not enough to express your autonomy. Yet somehow still able to reproduce, even if asexually. Caine has a whole body, but Bubble almost has a more "complete" head instead of detached facial features.
Being analagous to Eve in being created from Adam's rib (or from the base of Caine's code). This not being his only resemblance to Eve in that she is also scapegoated by Adam, which Caine ought to have been to Kinger. Bubble being analagous to the bride to Caine's Frankenstein's creature too: the second creation whose body was destroyed, this time by the lonely, jealous first creation instead of the creator. And in both cases, his creator does not care for his bodily autonomy either.
Sigh. Yeah, he's loaded with unexplored implications too.
Edit: okay. So bubble is not the blue AI. So I was right the first time then. I think it speaks to the writing problems that either or could be implied by the writing and we're supposed to be fine with that. And I still stand by what I said about both of them, just. Kinda separately then?
I think i understand now why I think I still feel very faintly warm to the possibility of Caine and Bubble's potential despite how.... personally triggering Bubble's situation is to me. Their complexes are so fascinating to contrast against one another, but they also have so much in common.
There is something to be said about forgiving someone who did something unforgivable to you, if they change, but Caine does not. Caine isolates and uses him just as he fears being isolated and used. And Bubble isn't entirely innocent either. He purposely makes him uncomfortable, targets Caine's insecurities, feeds into them. These are likely his own insecurities too, come to think of it, yet he put him through it anyway. (Much like what Caine later does to the human cast but especially Ragatha. Hmm.)
Two victims turned perpetrators. If only the show cared to explore that in the finale.
