Relationship : Caine x Female!Reader
Plot : What if, during Caine's massive crashout, a new human joined the circus ? (AH ! BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING)
Cw : Slight yandere!Caine, human!Reader, swearing, physical violence.
This is meant to be a multitude chapters fic.
It had been days, maybe weeks, since Caine became...Different. After his whole musical number about putting them back in their place, the atmosphere of the circus took a drastic turn. The gang tried every possible solution to avoid his 'brand new' unhinged adventures. Hiding, begging, screaming. Caine wasn't even listening anymore. He just snapped his fingers and they were off to another adventure.
Those didn't even seem complete. Walls glitched, textures were half there, and the storylines were sometimes lazy or straight up unfinished. Like Caine himself was mass producing adventures to ensure that they would be trapped in an endless cycle.
Like his passion for creating brand new worlds had vanished.
You'd think they could at least take the opportunity of being away from Caine during these adventures to take a break ? Nope ! If his hundreds of all seeing eyes caught them slacking off, NPCs would suddenly become more aggressive, faster and sometimes they'd be forced to move forward or pushed by invisible walls.
At this point none of them knew when this would end. Or if Caine would actually get tired of this constant torture. There was even a time where he shoved them right back into another adventure as they stepped out of the previous one.
"This...doesn't help." Said Jax the moment his back hit one of the lawn chairs outside the tent, in the beach area. Gangle suggested a 'nice' time outside, and since the whole group was now more united than ever before, they agreed.
"At least it's a nice change of scenery. Hey Pomni, do you want to show me those fish you mentioned when we were here last time ?" Ragatha asked, making sure that the conversation doesn't end up being about Caine again.
Time seemed to go by slowly. Maybe they were trying to savor the moment, maybe they were counting each second until Caine decided it was their turn again. "You know," began Zooble, as they helped Gangle making a sandcastle. "I never actually feared him. I mean, over the years, I just saw him as a meaningless part of my life. Something I can ignore and live without. I never thought he'd..." They didn't finish their sentence, simply sighing, before letting out a grunt of frustration after Jax crushed the sandcastle with his feet.
"What ? It's to keep you occupied. You're welcome." He said with a smirk, and then-
"That's so weird, do you think he deleted them ? Why would he do that ?" "I don't know, maybe he likes to replace and update his NPCs or something." Pomni and Ragatha came out of the water, and Zooble turned their attention on them.
"What's wrong ?" They asked, and Ragatha shrugged it off with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry, we just couldn't find the NPCs in the water. It's just nice to be out in the...." Ragatha paused, as she looked up. It was silent as everyone (except Kinger who was doing god knows what in a corner) stared at her.
"Uh guys...? Where's the sun ? W-Why is there no sun ?" She pointed out, mildly disturbed by her realization.
"Wait, I didn't see her when we stepped out." Zooble said, and another silence took over the group.
"Oookay..." Jax sighed, before continuing. "So no NPCs 'round the circus anymore. Caine defo lost it." "Defo ? Seriously ?" Zooble replied immediately, before focusing back on the situation. "But, yeah that's weird."
"It feels wrong to be out here now that we know we're the only ones around. Maybe we should go back inside ?" Gangle sounded worried, like usual, but this unsettling feeling quickly took over everyone.
So, they all began to head back inside. Big mistake.
"Ah ! There you are ! I was starting to think you all abstracted or something. That'd be really uncool of you guys." Caine floated near the entrance of the tent, no bubble in sight. Weird.
"Honestly I'd rather just abstract at this point." Said Jax in the most nonchalant way possible, before getting shoved by Zooble. "Hey ! Don't say that in front of him, we're doing the 'positive' sh*t, remember ?" They whispered angrily, reminding Jax of the strategy they had been using for a while now. Well, it didn't seem to work, but with time, maybe...
"Um...Nice...Seeing you Caine ! Is there an adventure you made for us today ? Looking forward to that !" A nervous chuckle escape Ragatha as she spoke, and Caine crossed his arms. He was truly unreadable these days, which was a drastic change from all the exaggerated expressions he'd normally take.
"Not quite, my dried starfish." His voice lacked his usual enthusiasm, and his nicknames were less and less joyous. "Today's adventure is completely up to you."
For a moment the group seemed to be somewhat reassured, until Caine snapped his fingers a bunch of times. Two glass cells appeared, one left and one right. Then, in front of the group, a panel with two buttons appeared. The exact same ones as the day they were tricked by Caine. The buttons that, in a way, started it all.
Then, Ragatha and Jax were thrown into the cells. "You, will have to choose one of them to sacrifice to save the other." Caine began his explanation, pointing at the now small and confused group. "If you press the blue button, A swarm of bugs will fill up Ragatha's cell, causing her UNFORTUNATE dismay." He said, and ignored the desperate cries of the ragdoll. "And if you press the red button, Jax will get electrocuted for all eternity. You have five minutes to ch-"
"YEAH, no. We're not doing that." Interrupted Zooble, causing Caine to visibly frown.
"You have to. It's today's adventure-"
"Caine, this needs to stop." Pomni took a step forward, surprising everyone, even Caine himself. "You don't realize that you're going too far."
"You're putting us through hell. And for what ? Because you never listen to us and suddenly we're ungrateful ?" Zooble spoke again, and for a second, Caine seemed to be internally struggling. He didn't speak. One of his hands started to glitch.
"U-U-Ungreahejsi-" His head started to shake mildly, before his unstable state got back to normal "Ungrateful ! That's all you're good at ! I work, and work, and work endlessly, to adapt to you, to shape my adventures in ways that will appeal to everyone."
In a very disturbing way, he slowly started to grow bigger and bigger, additional limbs tearing through his body until he took up most of the space.
"I made this all for you ! Human after human, I have to stare at my failure as a host when one of you abstracts. And when I try harder to keep you sane, you spit in my face !" His multiple hands violently grabbed all of them, breaking through the glass cells to get a hold of Ragatha and Jax too. Their kicks and screams do absolutely nothing against Caine as his eyes pierce through their very souls.
"If it wasn't for the fact that I can't stand the circus when it's empty, I'd have you all in the cellar in the snap of a finger ! Don't you understand by now ? I AM YOUR GOD-"
An astonishing silence took over the circus after this sound interrupted his rampage. The group, aside from Pomni, suddenly realized what this sound meant. This sound you heard if you were close enough to the stage. This sound you'd typically hear when-
The moment Caine's eyes drifted to the stage, his hands let go of everyone. The second after, he was back to normal, like he had been rebooted entirely. Except he hadn't been.
His eyes had caught you. Hopeless you, staring with horror at what you had just seen. Standing up on that stage with wide eyes.
A new human had just appeared, at the worst time possible.
The other humans barely had any time to register the fact that they had been dropped. They completely forgot about the previous argument, forgot about Caine. Everything in them screamed to run towards you. To grab you violently, to make sure that vr headset removes itself from your head, to save your life.
But they couldn't move. Caine couldn't move either. Not only did you chose a very bad time to arrive, but also...You were...you. You had hair, human skin, human eyes, human...Like you were not supposed to be here, not like that, not right now.
"My...MY ! Where are my manners ?!" Caine had snapped out of his trance, straightened his bowtie and he floated towards you. He did his usual speech, presenting the circus, all that, before randomly turning his head towards the group.
"Oh !" He snapped his fingers, and they were all teleported to their own rooms. He had moved their rooms to the void, of course ! Can't risk Jax freeing everyone with his bucket of keys after all ! He couldn't have them in the way, not for now.
"Please ignore them, my..." A breath of hesitation, or perhaps frustration, left him as he realized something.
You were perfect. Not because of your appearance, oh no. Caine doesn't actually know what a real human looks like. To him, you're just an ultra detailed humanoid character. At least he could tell that. No, you were perfect, because you were new. A fresh start, a second chance.
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
Thank you for reading (◍•ᴗ•◍)
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