#znerac

When you entered the circus, it was like a weight was lifted from your shoulders.

It was such an escape, Not only were there other members here that seemed just as real as you, but the ringmaster. He was such an artist. Despite being ai, he was very proud about his art. His creations. Which you adored.

It was another escape, his adventures. You rarely didn’t enjoy them. And Caine had picked up on you. You never complained, sometimes you suggested things, but most of all, Praised him.

You loved his work, you told him that every time you came back. Caine was your favourite to talk to, mostly because you liked to listen to him rant. And rant he could.

A little while ago you had confessed your feelings towards him. The two of you deciding to become an item, keeping it on the DL and also taking things slow. Caine was new to things.

Now you lay in bed, Caine across from you.

It’s, awkward. Yeah. You’re both just laying in bed staring at each other.

You don’t really need to sleep here, but it’s a comforting routine. And when you actually sleep, you do feel refreshed the next day.

Caine knows this, he’s watched the humans well. And it gave him time to run in his own mind for awhile.

“Goodnight Caine” you say, bringing him out of a little trance. You see the smile in his eyes and he stays still.

“Goodnight reader”

You smile, closing your eyes.

You can feel his eyes on you.

Caines eyes flicker across your face. He can’t help but think you’re perfect. Of course you were, your avatar was his creation. But it wasn’t just because of that.

It was because of who you were that he just couldn’t stay away. The day you came here, you were Engaged and ready for each adventure. Despite how the others reacted.. you just were so optimistic and happy.

Truth was, in your head the circus was better than the outside world. Fake made up scenarios each day sounded so much better than the climate of today’s world. Or, well, the world you left when you entered the circus.

You never told him that, though. You only told him how much you liked his adventures. You were artistic, a bit of a loner. Yet you also had this odd attraction to Caine.

“I can feel you staring”

He jumps a little, being dragged out of his thoughts. You chuckle and shift to a more comfortable position.

“Oh, sorry” he says, eyes avoiding your direction.

“Nono, I don’t mind. Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like that”

He looks back at you, relaxing.

“Oh,”

You shuffle closer and wrap an arm around him, snuggling close. Caine’s tense at first, still being pretty new to any physical contact. It wasn’t like anyone else touched him aside from you.

But he soon melts into it, Eyes rolling down his tongue to peer down at you. Look at you. Seeking comfort in him.. something he’d never expect a human to do.

It’s foreign, and he loves it. Both of his arms wrap around you and pull you more into his chest.

He doesn’t feel touch as strong as humans. He only started developing the touch sense since you came along. Which was odd. He didn’t know he was capable of such things.

“You’re so… perfect.” He mumbles, barely recognizing he’s even talking.

He feels like he lucked out. Finding someone who liked him, really liked him. There’s no way anyone could rip him away from you now.

What did you even see in him?

Well, you saw everything. You quickly figured him out, he sought out validation just as much as you did out there. You saw through his lies, but didn’t care. You didn’t have a reason to leave this place. You weren’t worried about the long run.

Oh Caine.

Before he knows it your breathing is heavier and you’re snoring slightly. You’re asleep.

Hours go by and Caine watches you sleep. You move around quite a bit in your sleep, and certain angles make you snore more than others.

He could tell when you were dreaming by how your face twitched or how you smiled with your eyes closed. Fascinating. He never got so up close to a sleeping human without being considered weird. You just look so relaxed. You trusted him enough to sleep in his arms. He could almost cry!

He decides to rest until you wake.

Resting meaning he just stared at you and stopped thinking.

Backed up his memories.

When you turn over, moving close to him a few hours later. His eyes get that light back in them and he looks down at you as you twitch and grunt.

When you wake up, he rests a hand on your side.

You groan, and look up at him. Squinting at first before you recognize who’s there and smile. You lazily hug him close.

“Mm… Morning Caine”

“Good morning my love”

He shuts his jaws and presses his incisors to your forehead- his version of a kiss.

You smile. Loving that he’s picked up on human traditions, especially the ones you’ve showed him.

“Were you staring at me all night?” You ask softly, resting your cheek on his chest. He didn’t have a specific feel to him. And he didn’t feel warm, or cold. He felt like nothing. But you could tell he was there.

“Yes, of course.. I wanted to memorize your face. You’re very beautiful.”

You chuckle softly, blushing.

“You’re cute”

You chuckle, doodling a little version of Pomni cowering in a cave.

Now what did you like about the adventure? What didn’t you like? Well, you had a whole section for that.

You made a T chart, and began to write the pros and cons of your adventure today.

Disliked: Watching Gangle get run over by a large rolling boulder that reminded you of Indiana jones

Liked: how the jellybeans clung to jax’s fur

You giggled again, drawing Jax with jellybeans stuck to his ears and arms.

Disliked: getting sticky sugar crystals in my shoes, and getting sticky in general

Liked: bubbles impromptu musical number, Very jazzy 8/10

You had gotten so involved in your journal, sketching away, that you barely noticed the eyes over you.

“WELL, what do WE have here??”

Caine shouts, quickly snatching the journal from your hands.

“JESUS-! Caine!” You yelp, watching as he begins to flip through the pages. You cringe, and try to grab the book back- but Caine floats farther up to get away from your grabby hands.

Caines eyes stretch in exaggeration as he reads the entries, his jaws manipulating to show some sort of surprise.

“Ooohohoho! Look at this, a personal catalogue of our little capers! Star ratings and… Doodles!?” Caine takes a closer look, “is that a drawing of me, with a bee???”

You whine, shooting up from your spot to attempt to jump and grab the journal- yet to your failure. Your face feels hot- how embarrassing!

“That’s not meant for you to see Caine, it’s personal and embarrassing! Give it back, now!!” You growl, arms helplessly flailing to reach your book.

“Nonsense!” Caine chirps, still flipping through pages, “this is Fantastic! Ingenious! Adorably analytical!” He pauses on a page, chuckling softly.

“You really have last weeks Merry Mishap a 3 out of 10? ‘Not so merry, more compromising. What does that mean?”

He looks down at you from his position.

You groan, throwing your head in your hands.

“Please stop reading my trauma like it’s Yelp..”

Caine- bless his unpredictable, carnival coded heart- floats down slowly and tenderly offers the journal back with uncharacteristic gentleness.

“I must say,” he muses, his voice a little softer. “This is quite helpful. I’ve never considered written perspectives of my wacky little misadventures. It makes my job a lot easier to cater to my guests needs. Perhaps I could use this information to make my Adventures a lot more agreeable to you and the others.”

You cock a brow, staring at him with your journal in your arms. “Wait, you don’t hate it?”

“Of course I don’t!” Caine floats up, arms extending. “Its amazing, the doodles alone deserve a gallery showing!”

“Oh god please don’t do that” you mumble

Caine twirls mid air, “but seriously, this is quite valuable information to me. As a Generative AI, feedback makes all the effort! How could I make my adventures more appealing if nobody here tells me what they like and disliked?”

You nod, clutching the book harder.

“Maybe next time ask before you go through my work. It’s very.. personal to me.”

Caine nods, “If course, my dear. I apologize. I was just so excited to see what you thought of my adventures. I’m glad you seemed to like the majority of them.”

He pauses, “do you think when your done with that, could I take it? Just for enough time to input all of it to my database for later works.”

You hesitate, but Caine didn’t seem to have an ounce of distaste towards it.

“You won’t show anyone?” You ask tentatively.

“Of course not! Not even bubble. Pinky promise!” He says, extending his pinky finger towards you.

You stare at his hand before slowly reaching yours out to complete the silly little exchange.

“Um.. okay. I guess you can use it when I’m done”

Caine extends forth, giving you a big hug.

“Why thank you my little superstar! I can’t wait to use this! You’ll help me out big time”

You smile, maybe it isn’t so bad of an idea. Especially if it’s Caine. You liked the idea of the adventures being less.. sticky.

From now on too, you’ll put down tips for how to improve.

you didn’t even need to check in to feel the heavy atmosphere pulling you down. It was like a storm had blown through, bringing everyone to a low level.

You reached the door leading into Caine’s office, you knocked and were met with more silence.

So you opened the door and peeked inside.

The room was way dimmer than usual, creating a soft shadow cast among the entire room.

And there sprawled on a black leather couch- Your ringmaster slumped against the comfortable black fabric.

His hat was crooked, and he faced the wall of the couch. It was odd seeing him so… low.

“Caine?” You called out, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind you.

Caine hummed, an almost digital sound vibrating from his chest. He turned his head towards you, jaws spreading open so he could peer at you with mitchmached eyes.

“Oh— hello dear” he murmurs, voice tired and drained. “I’ll be right with you if you need anything” he says on default, jaws shutting- gloved hand coming to lay on his teeth.

You smiled softly and walked over, taking a seat on the couch.

“Nope, just Checking In on you.”

This seems to peak his Interest. Caines jaws open, revealing his eyes that peer at you with curiosity.

“Checking in on.. me?” He mimics, sitting up.

You nod, “yeah, it’s… quiet, in the circus today. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Caine stares at you for a few seconds.

“Huh”

He shakes his head, sitting up more properly now. One leg crossed over the other, gloved hands resting on his knee.

“I’m sorry my beautiful butterfly, I’ve been feeling kind of down today” he begins, a sigh coming heavily off his chest.

“Everyone’s just been relentless recently.. just earlier I was arguing with zooble over my adventures- I had to separate gangle and Jax because Jax had broken her mask again- and-“ he takes a deep breath, putting his head in his hands. “It just feels like nobody appreciates anything I’m doing anymore..”

You shuffle a little closer, a hand coming onto his back. You start rubbing gentle circles into the fabric, hoping that this would comfort Caine just a little.

Caine hums, leaning into the touch.

“That’s nice..” he sighs.

“You take care of everyone else,” you begin, your hand moving to rub between his shoulders. “Let someone take care of you for once” you say, leaning over and pressing a soft peck to one of his bottom teeth- the canine to be exact.

Caine looks over at you again, unsure of the affection but impossible to move away. He watches as you move down the couch, placing your legs on the couch as well. You open your arms with a smile, inviting Caine over.

He’s hesitant at first, but you see how the exhaustion takes away all consideration- and he lays on your chest.

You wrap your arms around him as he wraps his around your waist.

His frame settled against you perfectly, like he was meant to be there. And perhaps he felt like he was.

“Oh” he mumbled, head nudging into you. “This.. this is nice. Your squishy, in a uh, good way”

You chuckle, hugging him closer. “Squishy?”

He nods, hugging you tighter.

You decide not to question it much, and instead you focus on enjoying this moment with Caine. Where he didn’t have to put on a mask- instead he could just relax and regain with you.

“If I may ask,” Caine begins, although unmoving from his spot. “Why exactly did you feel compelled to.. check on me?” He asks, just craning his head up to stare at you behind those gigantic teeth.

You think for a second, looking down at the ringmaster in your arms. Why exactly did you? You hummed before replying.

“You’re always taking care of us, Albeit not always the most efficiently.. you never get any sort of care back. I just thought you’d enjoy it.. plus, I like your company.”

Caine nods, before looking along the office walls.

“Yes but that is because it is my job, Dear. You have no compelling reason to be doing anything for me.”

You shrug, “does it really matter?”

“I guess not..” he replied.

You held him as close as you could, although you noticed how Caine never seemed to emanate any sort of warmth from himself. He wasn’t cold either, but it was noticeable.

However, Caine definitely noticed how warm you were. He noticed everything. In all of his time occupying this digital realm, he had never gotten so close to a member. And yet he got close with you.

And so you lay there in the dim light of the office, the once boisterous ringmaster completely quiet- soft, and wrapped around you.