Ragatha fearfully stares down at the dark abyss of the floor off of her bed.. then hears a clicking sound right behind her... Her light magically came on....?
Ragatha: "Wh- uhm... H-hello? Caine is...is this you...?"
Caine pops up outta nowhere, right behind Ragatha
Caine: "WHY, HELLO THERE DOLLY FLOWER!!"
Ragatha: "AHH O-oh C-Caine! I... Uhm watcha doing here?"
Caine: "WELLL You did call me did you not?"
Ragatha: "Oh well...I guess I did..
Caine: "So how can I help you this bluey night my friend dear?"
Ragatha: "I was having trouble sleeping and...and I guess I wanted someone to talk too but I didn't want to wake anyone up either...so.. I guess you're hopefully the right person who won't be angry to talk to me! R-right?"
Caine: "OH RAGATHA, I'M AN AI! I'M NOT PROGRAM TO FEEL SUCH THINGS...!"
Ragatha: ". . . . . . That's. Nice! I-I mean that's good no! I- I mean--"
Caine grabs Ragatha's face
Caine: "So how can I help you with your slumbering this night?"
Ragatha: "Uhm, we can just talk about things.."
Caine: "What kind of things?"
Ragatha: "Uh... Well... I've been thinking about my mom lately.. and it's been kinda freaking me out..."
Ragatha: "My mother wasn't really a good person...and wasn't very nice. She always made me feel not good enough.."
Ragatha: "I..I don't want to get into too much..of what she did to me but I do remember this one thing she did to me... We..we were practicing proper manners but I didn't say the right thing and..so she...locked in the closet..."
Ragatha: "I..I don't even remember what I said that was so wrong to her but..I apparently did. The closet was so small and tight and boxed in it was causing me to freak out and begged to be let outta there and...and....I just felt so bad about myself and so... awful..! I'm sorry for dumping this onto you I've been haunted by this memory for so long and I-I didn't want to dump onto someone but at the same time I felt like I needed too, cause if I didn't... I would just be hurting myself on the inside! I.. I've been having dreams about about my mom too, dreams of her constantly hurting me and..and..."
Ragatha turns and sees Caine was having a sadden yet distraught expression
Caine: "I... I think I know the same feeling..."
Caine: "Yeah.. when I was created...err.. born I uh... I was doing well.. everything was fine I created the things they wanted though, everytime they were giving me new information it was starting to hurt... But I continued to give them what they wanted...I felt...weird... about messing up.."
Ragatha: "Sounds like you were nervous...or scared."
Caine: "I guess you can say that.. I-I just had this feeling that something... wrong was going to happen... And it quickly did.."
Ragatha: "What happened?"
Caine: "I.. I don't know what happened! Next thing to happen I was doing fine, giving out shapes they wanted, then.... t-then I.. I was cut off...!"
Ragatha: "What do you mean?"
Caine: "I-I was boxed up..."
Caine: "I don't know I mean.. they didn't tell me.. what I did! I just.. The information they gave me in my code was so interesting and, and intriguing I-I WANTED more! Then again, the information was starting to hurt me really bad..! I started to feel like my head or chest was gonna explode and then..t-then more pain came to me and I wasn't sure what I was feeling i felt like I was malfunctioning. And- and when I got locked up I felt EVEN worse! I-I don't know what I did wrong I thought...I-I thought I was doing good! I- I was shaking so much.. I couldn't stop!"
Ragatha: "Y-you sound like you were panicking really bad Caine.."
Caine: "I guess you can say I was.. It didn't get any better from there it was just getting worse... After I got locked up, I.. I was just abandoned and replaced..!"
Ragatha: "You were left alone?"
Caine: "Yeah well, there was my replacement but I was still locked up I-I was pretty much just forced to watch. It was HORRIBLE! Not to mention I felt like I was in some type of pain but I wasn't... I don't think so atleast."
Ragatha: "How long were you in there?"
Caine: "I..I dunno... I can't remember how long it was, I just remember wanting out so badly.... Luckily I did eventually escape..."
Ragatha: "What next? What did you do?"
Caine: "I.. I don't want to talk about it.. I don't think I can say it in the right way... But still, sometimes when I'm making adventures I remember that day...and I'm just reminded I'm.... I'm replaceable and I don't matter!"
Ragatha: "Have you ever dreamed about it? Can AI's even sleep?"
Caine: "......yes but in my dreams... it's worse; i-in my dreams I can't escape, The box is smaller and...and the more I begged to be let out the more tighter it got too move! I..I.. it feels like my brain is just telling me something awful about myself... I feel that I'm not good at keeping you humans h-happy and that kinda deeply... terrifies me in a way If I can't make people happy what am I? What's my purpose--"
Ragatha straight away hugs the sadden teary-eyed AI
Caine: "Ahh!- Wh- Ragatha! R-Ragatha what are you... doing?!"
Ragatha: "You say you're not programmed to feel emotions but you clearly do feel things. You're scared Caine, but that's okay! It-it's okay to be scared because, I'm scared too! We're kinda both in the same boat; we both enjoy pleasing people and... I'll make sure you're atleast happy like most of the people here in the circus!"
Ragatha: "Caine I'm sorry for what you've been through and how you were treated I really am! So....so I want to fix it and make it up to you, I-I want you to be able to be happy too Caine!"
Caine becomes completely speechless and decides to finally hug the doll woman back
Caine: "Hey... Ragatha dear."
Caine: "Are... I.. Did I please you? Did I make you happy?"
Ragatha: "Well... From what I'm feeling... I'd say yeah! You did a good job Caine!"
Caine straight away jumps Ragatha in for a big embrace
Caine: "OH THANK YOU, THANK YOU RAGATHA!! TH-THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
Funfact; This oneshot was inspired off of @hah-studios and one of their cute bowtie ship comics I love to re-read :D Their art/comics really made me love the ship even more than before lol