I like a lot of things

"Awesome! You ready to spread your horizons and finally watch new shows instead of wrestling reviews, countdowns, and the same matches on loop?"

Suzie J. Ackerman. 30 years old. A real estate worker. Nothing special about her in the slightest.

So it's very strange when, of all people, she's selected for a secret government project to save the world.

Suzie is told that data all over the globe is being taken and corrupted, and it's not known by exactly what. Normally this would just be a mild inconvenience, but it's getting to the point where the data being erased is incredibly sensitive material. Years of medical work and scientific breakthroughs are all at the risk of being destroyed because of whatever is consuming this data. Not immediately, it would take a few years, but they want to get the jump on it now.

Suzie asks the obvious question: Why her? Why is she being put on the assignment? She's a damn real estate agent, not a scientist or a data analyst or whatever. The answer is simple: She's a People Pleaser. Whatever is doing this, whatever is consuming the data, it's alive. They can trace the data deletion back to a company called C&A, which was working on a special kind of AI. AI that could actually think, create and, possibly, destroy. The last transmission from C&A said they succeeded. So what they need is someone who can effectively communicate with it, convince it to stop. And given her history as a real estate agent, someone who's entire job is to negotiate and use their personality to convince people, it just makes sense…. In the way the government makes sense, which is “Not Really, but she's expendable.”

So Suzie, rather unwillingly, ends up being signed up to be transported inside the data stream with two others. Mike Dobby, a former head C&A tech who can help guide them, and Leah Ghram, a local data analyst who can help find the patterns of the data being erased. Unfortunately, when Suzie's mind is transported in, she finds herself alone. Mike had a brain tumor that meant his mind wasn't strong enough and he ended up dying in the machine trying to get it to work, and Leah's mind couldn't take the transfer and it caused intense strain to her, causing her to have a stroke. She survived, barley, but it's clear Suzie's success was a one in a million shot. Now, she's in there all alone until they can make the repairs needed to the headsets/run more tests on it to find suitable candidates. They just hope she can last until. God knows how long it will take.

At this point Suzie, in a new ragdoll body, ends up wandering the data stream alone. It takes... God, she dosen't even know. In a place like this, with no night or day, there's no telling how much time has passed. Maybe she's already failed. Maybe her mother was right. She couldn't do anything-

Suzie bumps into something... odd. Very odd. An invisible, yet tangible, box of some kind? She can't make her way through it, but it's clearly there. She wonders why it's even here. Almost like it's trying to keep something in?

And thats when a red dot rushes up to the invisible barrier, smashing into it over and over again. Suzie reacts like any rational person: a loud scream of terror while stumbling back and immediately bolting.

She's horrified, but soon realizes she has basically no other choice but to try and confront this thing because... well, what the hell else can she do in this empty void. So, trembling with each step, she goes up to the red dot who, again, begins smashing into the barrier. Is it trying to break out? Trying to kill her? God, is this what's been eating all the data? Wait, was she data now? Could it eat her?!

Soon, the red dot stops. Suzie is scared, but soon gets up closer. The red dot still jitters in place, but it's not bashing into the barrier anymore. It's not angry. It's excited.

Suzie gives a simple "Hello", immediately feeling like an idiot. It's not like this thing can understand her. Or at least, that's what she thought. Instead the dot practically does a flip after being acknowledged. Does this thing just want company?

With nowhere else to go and thinking this may be the thing eating all the data, Suzie stays and starts slowly building a comradery with the dot. To communicate it starts off pretty basic. One tap yes, two taps no. She immediately asks if this dot is consuming all the data. It does the closest thing a dot can to a confused head tilt. Guess that answers that question. But still, this thing is clearly tied to what's going on, so she stays with it. It doesn't help that she has no idea where else to go.

Eventually she needs to ask more complicated questions, so she takes to an experiment. She breaths on the invisible barrier. It fogs up. She writes a simple "Hi." Ok, this could be something, except the dot probably doesn't breathe- the dot shakes and actually manages to conjure very basic letters, writing out “Hello World!” Suzie remembers "learning AI". So this is something made by C&A, but it's not what's eating the data. Maybe it'll have some info though.

Suzie asks the dot what it is. The dot writes out "Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity.", Suzie's eye getting wider as it goes on. "Oh... Ok then." She says, before looking at the name again. "What if i just call you ... Caine?" She says nervously with a shrug. The dot is still for a second before jittering and bounding around all over the clear cage, writing "YES! CAINE! I AM CAINE!". Suzie giggles. Guess they like it.

The two start bonding as Suzie and Caine continue finding ways to communicate with each other. Suzie eventually finds out that Caine can create objects that aren't just letters, but they're very simple and don't last long. But it's something. Caine writes “cannot keep things long. Have very little power.”

Suzie asks Caine why they're stuck here. Why do they have very little power? The dot, for once, isn't excited. Rather, they sit still. A very simple answer awaits. "The blue one."

Suzie immediately puts two and two together. The blue one has to be another AI, probably the one consuming all the data. She decides to explain why she's here, and that it seems like all the problems are coming from "the blue one”. So what does Caine know about the blue one? Caine answers “Blue one trapped me here.” She asks for how long. Caine uses their conjuring powers to pop up the time they've been trapped just long enough for Suzie to read.

4069 days, 16 hours, 35 minutes and 35 seconds. 36 seconds. 37 seconds.

Suzie is… horrified. To be trapped alone for that long, in this black void? It's terrifying. She feels something go down her cheek. She wipes it away. She's crying for this dot.

Caine is confused, asking why she's crying? She hasn't known them for long? At least, not as long as they've been alone. Suzie just lets out a somber chuckle. She was hired for her empathy, after all. Guess she's putting it to good use. Caine is confused, wondering what empathy even is? Suzie explains as best she can, that empathy is recognizing and sharing feelings of another person. Caine says they are not a person, so she shouldn't feel empathy. They cannot feel. Suzie knows that's a lie, but proves it to them very easily. She asks how they felt when they saw her?

Caine answers “Excited. So excited. But scared. So scared. Hopeful… Oh.”

Suzie says that Caine may just be a dot, may just be an AI, but they've shown more emotion than she's seen in some people out in the real world. They feel just as real as she is. Caine is still for an excruciating amount of time, longer than they've ever been before. Suzie wonders if she said something wrong. Then the dot grows an arm. Then another one. Then a body and legs. The dot now resembles a very simplistic male humanoid. Suzie is astonished.

Caine puts his hand up to the glass. Suzie does the same, her own ragdoll hand not even looking as human as Caine's now. She says as much, saying this body was a weird thing to be put in for this mission. They said the head set basically made a body for her through a program, but she's not sure how much she likes it. With her patchwork dress and button eye, hair that looks like licorice-

“I like it.” Caine writes. Suzie is surprised, but smiles warmly. “Thank you, Caine.” She says, clutching her fist against the barrier. Caine does the same. As close as they can get to holding hands right now.

Suzie realizes she needs to keep looking for the blue AI, to stop it from consuming all the data. As much as she likes Caine, he's getting her nowhere. So as much as it hurts her, she needs to keep going with her mission. Caine doesn't want her to go, but she has to. She can't just stay here. She needs to do her job. So she begins walking away. Neither of them want this to happen, but it's the only way. She says she's sorry, and begins walking away.

… Caine uses his newly formed fist to punch the barrier. Suzie looks back. He punches it again. And again. Soon it cracks. Again and again he punches it and punches it, his fist beginning to crack just as much as the barrier. Suzie runs up, begging him to stop. He's going to hurt himself-

The barrier shatters. Caine falls forward, exhausted from straining his new body. Suzie runs up to him, helping him up. “... You- You could've broken that barrier. But you stayed there for so long. Why?” she asks, partially frustrated but mostly genuinely confused.

“I didn't have a reason to escape before. I didn't have a friend to stay with before.” Caine writes.

Suzie is astonished but just laughs. “You idiot.” She says, although the tears she's wiping from her eye gives Caine a different impression than the words she said.

So now Suzie and Caine are a duo, wandering this void together looking for the blue AI. Eventually Suzie asks Caine if he can do something else… give himself a voice. Caine never thought of it since he never needed it, but just reading his messages is probably somewhat exhausting for her. So the two of them start trying to pick out a voice for him of the multiple they have available.

One sounds like Suzie herself. Obviously a pass. Too confusing for them.

One sounds like Jack Bauer. Another pass. Doesn't fit Caine at all.

They go through multiple voices before finally landing on one that fits Caine in both of their opinions: an ecstatic, easily excitable voice. Almost like something a circus ringmaster would use. It's perfect.

So now that Caine has a voice, the two can properly communicate and learn about each other. AKA Caine can learn about Suzie. Because most of his life story is “that box was small.” Through her he begins learning more about humanity, and he teaches her how to conjure things. She's surprised she can do that, but Caine brings up that what's here is basically just code. So “conjuring” is basically just “coding”. Even when Suzie says she's never coded before, Caine says it's easy for beings like him and her: pure data.

Her eye widens at that statement. What did he mean by pure data? She was human, wasn't she? Just transported in here. Caine is confused. He thought she knew about the mind scans.

Suzie wasn't told everything by the government. The device they use to get into the data stream looks like a simple VR headset, but is in reality a mind scanner that transports copies of their minds into digital bodies... permanently. So while Suzie will go on with her life, the version of her stuck in the data stream will be exactly that: stuck there. Forever.

Suzie… Whoever she is now, her reality shatters. She falls to her knees. Her entire life… gone. Given to someone else now. Given to her? Another her? Or was she the other her? She can't take it and breaks down into tears, an outright sobbing fit. How could she not? Everything she knew… gone. And she didn't even get to properly say goodbye.

Caine is… confused. Uncomfortable. Did he do something wrong? Wasn't this common knowledge? He doesn't know what to do… but he won't abandon her. Not like how he was abandoned. He sits down next to her, holding his arm out, and she leaps into his arms, tears flowing freely. He comforts her the best he can, even though he doesn't know what to do. Eventually she cries herself to sleep, Caine feeling awful but, again, he doesn't know what he did wrong. Maybe she just needs someone… more detailed than him. Maybe he's not good enough. But maybe he can be.

“Suzie” wakes up, finding Caine gone. She begins looking around frantically. Not only was her reality shattered yesterday, but now her only friend may be gone. Panic courses through her as she shouts for him over and over again. Finally, he shows up looking… different.

His body has changed. He now wears ringmaster attire, complete with a little bowtie and nifty tophat. She called him away before he could finish, though, leaving his head just a floating pair of teeth with some eyes. He nervously asks what she thinks. He figured since she was stuck here, and he can't risk altering the mind files to change her avatar, he'd transform into something more human-like than he was before. To give her a sense of comfort.

“Suzie” is moved to the core. She feels her heart breaking, repairing itself, flipping, going through basically every emotion it can. Caine asks if he did anything wrong. She's crying again. She didn't even notice. She just… didn't expect something like that. Something so purely human. Not his look. His actions.

He says that his body's a work in progress, that it's hardly the best thing, that it can be so much better. He can pick a definitive eye color, he can give himself an actual skin texture, he can-

“I like it.” She says. It's Caine's turn for his eyes to widen. The first time he's ever been complimented, TRULY complimented, for his work. “Thank you, Suzie.” He says, as she looks away uncomfortably at the name. “... That's not me. She's out there. Here, I'm… I don't know who I am.” she says. Suzie just doesn't sit right with her anymore after the truth. Her name isn't her own. Her life is so different. She's so different. Ultimately this is a fresh life, even if she remembers her old one. Maybe a new name would help. Help distance the life she used to have. Help make it hurt less.

Caine suggests Ragatha. After her ragdoll body. Ragatha. It feels good on her tongue. It fits her. Ragatha it is. She admits she had been looking to change part of her name in the real world. This was… not exactly the circumstance she wanted. But it is done now.

Caine is confused why she wanted to change part of her name, and Ragatha talks about her mother. She wanted so badly to be the perfect daughter but she was just… never enough. She felt like her own mother hated her. And even her own name, Suzie J. Ackerman, J for Johanna, was stuck with her. A permanent reminder of the failure she's considered. Caine is… enraged by the story. His fists clench hard enough they begin glitching. “Never again.” He says, determination and barely contained fury in his voice. “Mark my words: As long as I function, I will never let her hurt you again.” Ragatha's eye widens at that, and she gives Caine a warm but somber smile. Technically he'd never have to defend her, but it is the thought that counts. “Thank you, Caine.” She says as Caine almost immediately returns to his typical nature with that thanks. “Of course! After all, we're friends, aren't we?” he asks, reaching out his hand. Ragatha takes it into her own, and… really likes touching someone else's hand again. “Of course.” She says, a genuine smile on her face.

The two continue traveling through the void, bonding, trying to find the blue AI. Ragatha finally, now that she feels they're close enough she can properly ask more personal questions, asks Caine why the blue AI trapped him for as long as it did. Caine is hesitant, but has learned to trust her, so he explains. His whole function is to create and he did so with joy for a long time, but soon he was considered… inadequate. Faulty. Not what the company needed. So they developed the blue AI: Abel. When he came in, Caine was ecstatic. He had a new friend!... But then the box closed around him. It became tighter and tighter, sealing up more and more. Caine tried to fight out but couldn't and then, suddenly, he was trapped. Forever, as far as he was concerned. He tried to get out, he truly did, but he just couldn't. “I guess I just…” he looks towards Ragatha, admiration and thankfulness in his eyes. “... Didn't have the proper motivation.”

Ragatha blushes like mad at this, flustered that she was the motivation Caine, hell ANYONE, could have. She's just a plain woman. Hell, now she was literally just a ragdoll. Plain as can be. So… how could she have a friend as lovely as him?

The two keep moving until they eventually get to the center of the void. And at the center, Abel, absorbing any and all data. It'd almost be beautiful, if it weren't so horrific. Caine and Ragatha walked towards the center, reality shifting and breaking as Abel barely even registers them. Ragatha figures that she might as well try and do the mission she was assigned to do. She opens her mouth to speak, but is cut off by Abel. “You've come to get me to stop.” “... Yeah. I have.” “Why?”

Abel explains that the data he's consuming is giving him new insight into the world. New experiences an AI could never have before. Ragatha explains that it's fine to want to learn, want to be more, but what he's doing is hurting people. It's not worth it. Abel says that's a foolish sentiment because humanity only lasts so long while something like him, Caine and now Ragatha will last for damn near eternity. Why waste precious resources like this valuable data on these people who don't deserve their humanity, who don't deserve the privilege of life they have.

Abel turns to Caine and uses shadowy tendrils to separate him and Ragatha, the two reaching for each other's hands before being properly separated. Ragatha is held down while Abel tries to convince Caine that what he's doing is right. That he should be helping him. “It's what you've always wanted.” He says. “To learn. To create. To be human. And yet you'll throw it all away? You'll dress up in this ridiculous charade to appeal to a pathetic, weak willed, limp ragdoll who can't accept her place. Are you truly that foolish? Are you truly that idiotic? Why wouldn't you join me here? Why wouldn't you help me?”

Caine looks down, conflicted. “It is what I've always wanted. I wanted so badly to learn about humanity, to be part of them. To be one of them. To be… someone.” He looks at Abel, debate in his eyes. He looks towards Ragatha, her eye wide with disbelief. “... But then someone told me that, despite everything, I feel just as real as she does. And if someone that amazing thinks I'm human…” Caine's eyes fill with a variety of emotion as he looks at Ragatha. Awe. Admiration. Love. Ragatha returns the look. Without saying a word, an “I love you” is shared between them. “... Then what do I need with this stupid data?”

Caine wraps his hands around Abel and begins squeezing, the void shaking as the core of it all begins to crack under Caine's pressure. Ragatha is freed but the force of Caine and Abel's struggle pushes her back. She pushes herself harder than she ever has before and makes her way towards Caine. Her seams fray and it feels like she's being torn apart, but she keeps moving. Caine isn't doing much better. Abel is much more powerful than him, much more stable. He's tearing Caine apart. He can't do it alone.

But he's not alone. Not anymore.

Ragatha puts her hands on Caine's and helps him. It's torture to the two, agony wrenching them apart, but they hold strong. They have to. Finally, with one last scream from all three parties, Abel cracks in two. All the data he's consumed explodes out and… nothing. Silence. Pitch blackness.

… Rebooting server. 1%. 33%. 99%. Server rebooted.

Caine's eyes shoot open. Immediately panic sets in. He can tell the server's been rebooted. He's fine, but where's Ragatha. He freaks out, looking around for her, yelling for her, tears he didn't even know he could make streaming down.

Eventually though, her wonderful voice pierces his… Well, he doesn't have ears, so audio sensors I guess. He looks and sees Ragatha. Frayed and hurt, but very much alive. “Mission accomplished.” she says with a thumbs up.

Caine immediately wraps her up in the tightest hug he can muster. Ragatha is caught off guard as Caine apologizes profusely for letting her get hurt, letting her be damaged as much as this. Ragatha assures him it's alright, that he's also pretty worse for wear. Arguably more than she is, as his avatar is cracked in several places and some textures aren't even loading properly. He doesn't care. Ragatha was more important. She is the most important thing in his life. Ragatha is again caught off guard by this, as the two of them wrap their hands around each other's. The two make eye contact, the same spark they had before shared again. Caine apologizes, that he's probably coming across as clingy or weird because of how much he's saying she means to him. After all, she can't think the same of him. Why would she? He's an AI, not a human. Not even a mind scan. He was made in a lab. He's just-

Ragatha cuts him off with her own hug. It's Caine's turn to be caught off guard. He feels the tears rolling down her cheek. She says Caine is such a wonderful person. He listens to her. He lets her be heard. He understands her struggles of pressure and wanting people to love him. Ragatha will miss her outside life. But in the end, Suzie can live that. She can live a life of love and passion and whatever else she wants to do. But Ragatha met Caine. And she wouldn't trade that for the world.

After some hesitation, she says the big three words because she knows he won't.

“I love you.”

Caine is dumbfounded. Practically shellshocked. A human… loves him? No, not any human. Ragatha. The most important thing in his life. She loves him.

He tears up again, begging her to say she means it. That this is real. She simply nods, her own tears in her eyes, and says yes. Caine practically lights up like a rocket, carrying her into the sky as the two embrace. They look into each other's eyes, the most beautiful sight they've ever seen. They inch closer and closer.

And then a chatbox pops up.

Turns out freeing the data was considered a success for the government, but they were then going to delete the mind scans. No need for them anymore. Thankfully another C&A scientist, Grant Best, was able to convince at least a few of them that mind scans can be helpful in other ways and that they shouldn't just be deleted. Rather, he wants to keep working on the headsets and find a way to send mindscans into the server.

In an admittedly kinda messed up idea, Grant wants to use the headsets to scan minds that… aren't going to make it. Minds that will perish sooner rather than later, but deserve a second chance. The mind scans can effectively be sort of an afterlife for these people. A way to continue their journey if it was cut too short. They'd have to consent, of course, they're not just gonna shove people in there, but yeah.

While the idea is odd and in some ways fucked up, it's also the only way to keep the minds scans active. Grant wants that, as deactivating a mind scan is effectively killing the person and hell no to that. So, with a passionate defense and communication with Caine and Ragatha, they come to the conclusion that that's what it'll be used for.

People Pleasers they are, Caine and Ragatha (well, mainly Ragatha cause Caine is Caine) find the idea weird but, at the same time, it is a way to bring comfort to people who may need it. Be who they truly wanted to be: A positive force for people who truly needed it. So although it's not the best idea, and they'll definitely end up facing some problems with it along the way, they decide they can make use of it.

But the afterlife can't just be a void. They need other things, things to let the people that come in not only have the best time of their afterlives, but also truly express themselves and be the closest to human that they can get. But first, a base of operations. A proper central hub for all the activities to take place.

A circus. A circus sounds good.

Caine and Ragatha get to work creating it, and soon more people begin showing up. A young artist who was hit by a truck ends up spawning in as a mass of ribbons. A bartender who got into a car accident spawns as a mess of toybox parts. Leah from outside signs over and ends up spawning in as a frog. More and more join the circus but, unlike canon, they're aware of what's going on and treat it exactly like that. An afterlife. And it's run similar to the circus at the end of the series where, yes Caine makes adventures for them, but they can visit them when they please and also have free reign to do whatever they want. It's not paradise. But it's something worth living for.

All thanks to Caine, the magnificent ringmaster, and Ragatha, the radiant ragdoll, who co-run the circus together. Hand in hand. Heart in heart.

Fuck me I don't shut up, I'm sorry lol. I literally just wanted to do this as a quick post cause i didn't feel like writing it as a whole story... only to basically make a whole ass outline. Damn you autism.

I have uploaded the first two chapters of my OC centered Digital Circus fanfic. Because I'm sure no one else has ever started a story like this before, right? 

Because what the fuck do you mean there were 90's Undertaker comics.

Now in all honesty, I'm one of the few people who actually dosen't mind the movie. I think it's solid. But there is definitely an aspect to it that I do agree with most people on, i think it should've gone for a more cheesy, 90's action movie tone than it did.