Hello everyone! Blog reconstruction is complete. Our name has also changed from bnha-mha-imagines to @kaitlyn-imagines.
Current list of written works:
Masterlist of Masterlists
The ask-box is now closed for requests for multi-fandoms! Feel free to still leave questions and comments in the ask-box!
How's everything going? Hope Life hasn't been too hard on you!
Aww you sweetheart 🥺❤️ Thanks for checking on me!
Everything’s all good! Just been a bit busy with work and all the extra stuff going on… 😭 Weddings, baby showers, dog sitting, work events, holidays—WOOF! I have very little free time as of late
Also I just got over a stomach bug 💀 Got my ass LOL
Otherwise, I really cant complain! I’m busy, but happy and (now) healthy! Hopefully things slow soon tho, I miss writing and all of y’all 🥺
Caine (TADC) x modernhuman!reader
Part Three - Previous | Next
-
Warnings: Obsessive thoughts, canon typical wacky nonsense, diaologue is hard, anxiety over hackers / viruses haha
Words: 3939
Sorry if I missed you for tags! Let me know and I'll add you <3
A/N: DING DING, DINNER BELL!!! 🔔 Hello my lovely little messengers! Chapter three has dropped! You and Caine FINALLY meet face to face. I'm so excited, now things can really get moving in the plot! I can't wait for you all to see where things go... I'm curious, what are your theories?? Until then, enjoy! :)
You felt a tingly sensation in your fingertips, your nervous system beginning to kick up. A weighted ball of dread sat in your stomach, the room suddenly feeling colder and raising the hair on your arms. The camera stared beadily at you like a sniper’s red dot sight damningly pointed between your eyes.
More text appeared in the chat window, shaking you from your stupor. You didn’t even bother to read it, shakily dragging your mouse to one corner and clicking on the red ‘x’ there. Thankfully, the window closed, revealing the familiar image of your desktop wallpaper.
Although, the camera light didn’t shut off.
You looked around your desk for something—a sticky note, anything—to cover the lens. You opened the messy drawer connected to the desk and began to dig through pencils, stray coins, charging cords, and other junk.
From the corner of your eye, you saw the screen change. You glanced up, and again, the black chat box was reopened.
“Ah, you accidentally closed our chat! How charmingly clumsy of you~ No worries, I’ll remove the possibility of any other misclicks.” You watched, stunned and horrified, as the red ‘x’ in the corner of the pop-up window vanished right before your eyes.
“Now then! Let’s get introductions out of the way. Of course, I already know your name, but you humans do love your silly social formalities!”
With renewed panic, you forwent the search and reached to manually cover the camera with your thumb.
“Ohoho! A sudden disappearance! How wonderfully theatrical, yet deeply inconvenient to me! J”
You gritted your teeth, using your free hand to respond. “Who are you?” You typed it out slowly on your keyboard, one letter at a time.
You pressed the enter key, and the eager response was immediate.
“I am Caine, your digital ringmaster, your guide through GLORIOUS CHAOS and carefully curated NONSENSE! Master of ceremonies! Architect of amusement! Provider of entertainment, adventures, and the occasional psychological concern!!!”
You tasted something sour on your tongue.
“But enough about ME,” the text, or Caine, continued. “This is about YOU!!! The newest shining star in my ever-expanding extravaganza of excitement!! Tell me, what do you think so far?! Is it thrilling? Dazzling? Awe inspiring??”
Terrifying, actually. Deeply and truly unsettling.
“Why are you doing this?” you typed back slowly, your eyebrows furrowed. “If you want money or my identity or something, I don’t have much to give.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” You watched the returning message laugh, each syllable punctuated and strangely emphasized. “I don’t want your human currency, my farcical little cumquat! …Anyhoo! Can you uncover the camera now? I’d very much like to see my new favorite human!”
Why did they keep referring to you as a human? That was the fifth time or so. It wasn’t an untrue statement, but it was a strange one to make.
You chose to ignore the question in favor of making your own demand. Keeping your thumb firmly planted over the camera, you typed with one hand: “Get out of my computer.”
For the first time, the chatbox didn’t respond right away. It was as if the person on the other end was hesitating. The text input line blinked once, twice, three times…and then it began to punch out letters.
“That WOULD be a fascinating adventure indeed. But, alas, I cannot. Though, if you really want to meet face to face, you could always come INTO the circus. Though—well, perhaps not yet. We don’t need the others corrupting you with their opinions—quite difficult to satisfy, that bunch! Everything needs to be absolutely perfect and marvelous for when you arrive! So perfect, in fact, that you’d never even WANT to leave!”
If you weren’t confused yet, you certainly were now. Arrive where? And who were the “others?”
You froze, a realization dawning on you as your eyes read the message a second time. “Come into the circus…?” you murmured to yourself. Shit. There was only one ‘circus’ they could be referring to—the timing was too close to be coincidental.
Still, the digital circus cd was from 1996. Surely whoever was having this conversation with you wouldn’t have waited 30 years for someone to stumble upon it? No, of course not. No hacker from the 90’s could have anticipated all of these circumstantial happenings: entering an abandoned building, stealing the cd, and then jumping through hoops to install it. Hackers were clever, but they weren’t clairvoyant.
Something weird was going on. Things weren’t adding up.
Despite your fear and trepidation, the mystery was building and complicating…and damn it, there it was again. That stubborn, devilish curiosity inside you—the need to follow the breadcrumbs, to uncover the answers to all of the questions you had about this enigmatic digital rabbit hole. Curiosity killed the cat, you thought to yourself, but satisfaction brought it back.
You were struck with the idea—a truly stupid and foolish idea—to continue this conversation. To prod and glean what information you could from whoever this ‘Caine’ was. Hacker, illuminati conspirer, government agent…who knew?
“Do you mean the digital circus program?” you typed slowly.
“Yupperoni!” came the instantaneous response. “Rest assured my dear, when you come a-knocking, your ringmaster will answer~!”
So, it’s confirmed then…you invited this thing into your computer the moment you clicked into that desktop shortcut. “If you want me to uncover the camera,” you typed, your heart beating wildly in your chest, “then you need to tell me what’s going on, plainly. Who are you? What do you want? How are you communicating to me in a powershell, versus a typical messaging app or video call?”
“You’re interested… in ME?!” came the next lines of text. “A video call—oh, ho ho, my curious little visual enthusiast! An EXCELLENT idea! A FANTASTIC idea! An idea worthy of a GRAND REVEAL!”
You blinked, staring as the chat window deleted itself as soon as the final exclamation point was typed. You were left staring at your empty desktop screen. A cool sweat pricked your hair line, and your chest was tight with mixed emotions. This all felt so nerve-wracking, and yet simultaneously exhilarating. Some of Aaron’s thrill-seeking was wearing off on you, it seemed…
“Written correspondence is a bit outdated, isn’t it?”
Suddenly, a voice crackled through your speakers. You balked, feeling the blood drain from your cheeks.
“Well then, let’s get with the times,” the voice, undeniably male and brightly vivacious, continued. “FACE to FACE! Prepare yourself, my dear, for a sight so STUNNING, so SPECTACULAR, so (moderately) well-rendered!”
From your speakers came the sound of what must’ve been a drumroll, and it was all you could do to stare in shock at the possession of your laptop. Then there was a sudden flash of rainbow, little pixelated ribbons of RGB confetti exploding outward like a firework.
And there, floating there in the center of your screen, was…
Well, you weren’t sure what it was—a character of some sort, posed with its arms out wide in a fashion of showmanship. He—you supposed it was a he—looked human from the shoulders down, donning a red tailcoat with a gold underside. He wore a black bowtie and a white undershirt, and lower he had black leggings and shoes. The black top hat, white gloves, and gold-tipped cane he held further adorned his outfit.
Ringmaster, he’d called himself. Well, he certainly looked the part…besides one blaring outlier. His head was nothing more than a pair of large dentures with two mismatched eyes peeking out from between the teeth. You probably would’ve found it grotesque if the little guy didn’t look so comical.
“Behold,” the figure on your screen spoke cheerfully, brandishing his cane with a dramatic flourish. “Now, it’s your turn!”
The smart thing would’ve been to keep your thumb firmly on the camera, regardless of what you’d promised. And really, he hadn’t even answered any of your questions thus far…
So, why were you pulling back your hand? Why were you uncovering the camera to reveal yourself once more? You supposed it was because he looked harmless enough, all charisma and smiling teeth—though, smiling was likely all he was physically capable of doing.
You sat back slowly, leaning against your chair and staring at…Caine, he’d said was his name. Was he a virus? Some little desktop pet you’d inadvertently uploaded from the disk?
Caine’s expression brightened significantly, his pupils dilating as he now stared at you without any obstruction. That he was even capable of making expressions was a miracle in itself.
“I still can’t believe it!” he exclaimed, and you watched his teeth contort to mimic that natural shapes and movements of talking. “A window in which to access the macroverse, and a real live human waiting for me on the other side of it! I can’t wait to learn EVERYTHING!” His form seemed to visibly vibrate with barely contained ecstasy.
“I…” you trailed, your voice dying off. You couldn’t seem to form a single coherent thought, only staring wide-eyed at your screen. You were certain now he couldn’t be a hacker—you had surmised as much even before you had a visual on him. And yet, he seemed sentient, so he couldn’t be a virus either…
“What…? How…?” you stammered out, unable to shape your broken pieces of thought into structured sentences.
“Where when why?” Caine chirped, joking. He leaned in closer so that his body foreshortened, as if he might peek his head out through the screen and break the fourth wall. “I see you have many questions! Allow me to clarify your confusion—it’s my job to keep things operating smoothly. I orchestrate everything in the circus! After all, the world doesn’t just…run itself! That would be absurd, ha ha!” His laugh was jagged and staccato, sounding funny and bizarre to your ears.
“You could say I’m a form of creative artificial intelligence, or a personality, or even an all-powerful lord and master of digital artistry and sovereignty! But labels are sooo limiting, don’t you think?” Caine laid on his front as he floated in place, steepling his hands and resting his lower jaw atop them like any day-dreamer would do.
“Right…yeah,” you nodded slowly, agreeing though your thoughts were distracted with dozens of burning questions. Artificial intelligence… but he was so advanced, so life-like, so…strangely human in a sense? “Sorry, I’m just…this is a lot to take in. So, you like…what do you do?”
At this question, Caine beamed, truly delighted to have someone interested enough to ask him about himself. “Well, my little butter cookie, allow me to demonstrate!”
Caine snapped his fingers, and like magic, things popped into existence there on your screen.
Firstly, ever the showman, he conjured an entire orchestra of googly-eyed balloon animals. With tiny colorful instruments, they paraded in a circle around your desktop—though, the instruments themselves only made the high-pitched squeaks of latex and the shrill whines of high-pressured deflation.
Then, feeling this fanfare with growing old, Caine snapped once more so that each little latex creature was popped into annihilation.
You watched in wonder, feeling your fear slowly give way to your growing curiosity.
Next, Caine gestured with one gloved hand, and in it appeared a thick book. “And here,” he announced gregariously, “I present the world’s worst thesaurus!!!”
You blinked, a little confused by the sudden simplicity of this after such a flashy demonstration. “Uh…why is it the worst?” You asked, eyebrows furrowed questioningly.
“WELL!” Caine’s permanent grin seemed to widen as he waved the book around emphatically. “Not ONLY is it terrible, but it is also terrible!!!” In the background, you heard a distinct ba-dum-tis sound through the speaker.
You stared for a moment, blinking as you processed his words. Then a soft snort of amusement escaped you, the sound of which made Caine appear radiant. “That was so bad,” you smiled, shaking your head.
For his next and final act, Caine clapped his hands, and every single icon on your desktop flew suddenly to the top of your screen, piling up there. “Who needs gravity when physics are optional?” Caine declared, sending the shortcut icon for your email spinning sideways with a well-timed bump with his hip.
You jiggled your mouse around, delighted as the icons, no longer rigid and structured, bumped and spun around as if boneless. At your little interaction, and the evident amazement on your face, Caine felt his code buzz with something that felt…addictively gratifying.
-
The clock set within the modern computer registered the time as 02:41:35 and counting, and Caine’s viewport into your room showed that the light from your bedroom window had long since gone dark. He’d spoken with you into the early hours of the morning.
He had felt drunk on the little reactions you gave him whenever he conjured something that pleased or amused you. And, in return, you’d told him things, answering all of his many questions to the best of your ability.
Why do humans try to carry groceries bags all in one trip? What does breathing feel like? Are cats and dogs the only animals to rain from the sky, or are pet rodents also considered commonplace precipitation?
Over that time, he’d watched your body language relax—watched your trepidation and confusing human emotions morph into something he craved. You were so unlike the humans he knew in the circus—you humored him, enjoying all of his little creations and smiling at him. Your smile…those pearly whites beaming at him, just like your old birthday photo that he now hoarded in his memory banks. You gave him something he never knew he needed—something he was starved for.
Eventually, he watched your body tire: eyes lids growing heavy and blinking slowly, voice more subdued, and yawns escaping you frequently (though you politely covered your mouth).
The passage of time wasn’t necessarily a factor that Caine needed to pay attention to in the digital circus. His setting the sun and raising the moon was more of a courtesy for the humans than it was an actual indication of twenty-four hours. It was much the same in allowing them to sleep, despite it being entirely pointless and unnecessary. Prior to tonight, he’d written off the daily cycles and sleep schedules as simply the humans’ love for routine and familiarity—and he’d been happy to accommodate them and their strange eccentricities.
Though, tonight must have been the first time he understood that night and sleep actually served a purpose for his little human compatriots back in the circus.
Still, when you finally stretched and excused yourself to go to bed, he felt a deep sense of disappointment and, to his surprise, anxiety. His body sagged, and his hands fidgeted with his cane as he watched you push the desk chair back and rise to your feet. “Do you really have to go?” he asked, blinking at you with wide eyes. “I still have so many things I can show you! You seemed to really like my box of endless whimsy? I can bring it out again??”
Caine was about to string together the code to summon the box once more when you shook your head, an amused smile on your tired face.
“If I could stay up and talk to you all night, I would,” your soft voice came out. Your words were both reassuring and inciting—for something in his chest stirred and his cooling system kicked on. You…enjoyed his company. You wished you could stay.
“I’ve got work in the morning, and it’s already so late,” you continued, covering your mouth as another yawn escaped. “But we’ll talk more tomorrow, alright?”
With this compromise, Caine nodded his head eagerly. “It’s a date!” he chirped, straightening his posture and tipping his hat with a showman’s bow.
You smiled at him sleepily, a sight so pleasant to his processors that it must’ve been your parting gift for him. Then, you extended your hand towards him so that it looked like you were going to touch him…and then the camera jostled as it lowered, and your laptop suddenly and finitely closed.
His viewport went dark, and all that was left was his permeated existence in the laptop’s motherboard. He was frozen in place, clinging to the freshness of his memory units, replaying moments of your conversation, those flashes of images when you’d laughed and smiled.
Smiled, at him.
A jolt of static ran up his spine, and he shook himself from his stupor. With a hum, he began to pace the circuits, twisting the buttons of his tailcoat in thought. Like a virus, you’d invaded his mind, his thoughts consumed with you and the things you’d discussed. You were, by far, the most interesting thing he’d stumbled across. He knew his other humans, certainly… but it was becoming clear to him that you—a real human outside in the macroverse—were in every way superior.
He felt his form glitch, and he came to a screeching halt. His other humans.
“Great googly moogly!” he exclaimed suddenly. So tempting was this great adventure, sweeping him up and consuming his thoughts entirely, that he had completely neglected his duties for the day! How long had the humans gone unsupervised? How dreary and boring their existence must be without his adventures to keep them stimulated!
With great urgency, he flashed through the spillways of this new modern software. He was a mere jolt of electricity as he phased through that fourth digital dimension that was inherently accessible to him. Retracing his path, he found the barrier separating the access to your outside world and his archaic digital haven.
Parting the bars of code was easier the second time around, for he knew immediately where to look. He slipped through the cracks with relative ease, felt his form return to the lower-poly shape he’d been born into all those years ago. Like a zipper, he resealed the gateway between worlds…and hurried back to his familiar circus.
To the outside eye, his form popped into existence. He was floating just above the stage, adjusting his bowtie and clearing his throat as he put up his usual front of an eccentric host. “Sorry for the delay, my delectable little morsels!” he announced excitedly, gesturing with manic energy. He couldn’t help it—his secret discovery had his code vibrating with excitable energy. “But good things come to those who wait! Today’s adventure is a doozy! I planned—” his voice abruptly cut off as he saw that only two humans were waiting on the couch for him.
“Er…where is everyone?” he asked slowly, the upper row of teeth raising in confusion and surprise. Gangle looked up from her drawing pad, the dark eyes of her mask blinking at him owlishly.
Beside her, Zooble raised a single eyebrow. Despite not having a mouth, it was evident they were scowling. “Seriously?” they scoffed, their voice dry and unimpressed. “You’ve been gone like, all day. You can’t expect us to wait around indefinitely.”
Gangle glanced sideways at Zooble before turning her mask back to face Caine. “The others went to the amusement park a while ago,” she added, her sweet voice softening the sting of Zooble’s commentary. “They’ll probably be back soon, I think.”
Caine felt himself deflate, disappointment and exasperation at himself exuding from his form. “The amusement park? But you guys never explore the grounds, ” he complained, not at all understanding. “I had such a marvelous adventure planned for today!” His voice came out in a slight whine, his arms crossing over his chest. He might’ve snapped his fingers to summon everyone here and force them to participate…but then, he found himself not feeling as inclined as he might’ve once been.
“Well, it can’t be helped,” his voice brightened, his hands moving to plant themselves on his hips. His sudden switch seemed to surprise both Gangle and Zooble, who shared a meaningful glance. “It’ll just be extra fun for you tomorrow! Suspense can be a great story-telling tool, wouldn’t you know?”
Zooble, ever the observant cynic, spoke up in a slow drawl. “So…there’s really no adventure for today? Well, that…that’s kind of a nice break, I guess.”
“You’re WELCOME!” Caine declared decidedly, giving the two a dramatic thumbs up. “But don’t you worry your little squishy heads! I’ll be sure to add in a couple more excitingly dangerous stakes to make up for it!” Gangle and Zooble were just starting to speak, eyes wide and panicked, but Caine had already popped out of existence, leaving behind an empty space.
Appearing in his office, he sighed contentedly, stretching and reclining back at his desk chair. He propped his feet up on the edge of his desk, feeling fulfilled despite his small slip up today. He’d just have to make sure he sent the humans on their way before he returned to you. Perhaps he’d make longer adventures to keep them entertained while he was away. It’ll be just like digital daycare!
Suddenly he heard the sound of tearing fabric, and Caine looked up to see absolute carnage on his office floor. Green shreds of cotton and yellow foam pieces littered the space, and he blinked, wide eyed. Stunned, he witnessed Bubble tear his sharp teeth into the remains of one of his green sofas, ripping out another large chunk.
Bubble gnawed on the foam, shaking his head wildly like a dog with a chew toy.
Caine sighed, and snapped his fingers. The corpse of his green furniture immediately disappeared, his couches now returned to their former glory. He couldn’t blame his iridescent companion—it really was Caine’s own fault for leaving him alone so long. Bubble wasn’t house trained yet, and like most pets, he tended to get destructive when he was bored.
“Oh! You’re back,” Bubble blinked beadily at him, abandoning his destruction to float over to the desk. “I thought you died. I tried to replace you with a sock puppet, but it kept unionizing.”
Caine sighed dreamily, using his finger to draw circles on his desk while his mind wandered back to you and the conversations you’d shared. “Yes yes, fascinating things, my friend!” He hummed distractedly.
He was recounting your explanation when he’d asked about those stakeholder alignments—how silly that it didn’t actually involve direction at all!—when the grating sound of Bubble’s voice popped his fantasy.
“So, where were you?”
Caine jolted slightly, suddenly feeling twitchy. He should tell Bubble, shouldn’t he? Especially if Caine was planning to be gone from the circus more often. Only…something within him rioted at the idea of sharing his secret.
You were uniquely his…and what’s more, you LIKED him! Really, truly liked him!
If Bubble knew about you, then he would inevitably blab about it to the others. And if the others knew…? Golly, he wouldn’t hear the end of it. They’d want to talk to you, would try to view it as some sort of escape. And there is no escape, as he’d told them time and time again. They would turn you against him, infect your mind with all of their pessimism.
He couldn’t allow it. He’d only just discovered you, and there was so much more he wanted—no, needed—to know.
And so, decidedly, Caine chose to lie. He made up some half-baked excuse, and Bubble bought it plainly. Frankly, Caine didn’t even think Bubble was really listening anyways.
So, his secret was safe. You were still his, ONLY his, and he would keep it that way.
But oh, he couldn’t wait to see you again tomorrow.
Almost finished up with chapter three for System Messages!
Why is dialogue for him so harddddd 😭 Like I want to be nuanced in what he’s saying vs what he’s thinking. I need him to be wacky but not stupid… The appearance of harmlessness… 😈
My current solution is just adding excessive adjectives HAHAHA, you’ll see lol
Just read your post about SystemMessages!Caine learning about all the ways a human can perish.
All I'll say is don't show him ANY of the "Final Destination" movies or he's going to have a breakdown. Like bro will have a heart attack anytime you schedule a flight.
DUDE I didnt even think about that!!!
He’s going to struggle with discerning the fantasy of Final Destination from reality. Even after you explain to him that its all just acting, its going to stick with him for a while.
Going to be obsessively paranoid on your behalf. Likely checking your location and sending wellness-check messages your way every 30 minutes to make sure you haven’t croaked in some horrifically creative way.
He’s Life360 if it was alive and sentient and predicting every worst case scenario.
Airline flights? That’s a no go.
Logging trucks? How about we just forego driving from here on out :)
Tanning beds? Bah, that’s what the sun’s for!
Escalators?? Nah, let’s make sure you get those steps in on some non-deadly stairs!
He’s gonna get the thought of a penny causing your untimely demise stuck in his little digital brain and make you swear off coinage of all and any value. Only debit and credit payments from here on out for his squishy little hazard-magnet!
Unfortunately for you, not even Caine is immune from the irrational fears that these movies instill in us 😭 Honestly with how much he’ll be talking about it, he’s gonna make YOU start getting nervous too haha.
Would caine disable the censors if reader asked him👀👀👀👀👀👀
Caine when you ask him to remove the censored filter
Warnings: none besides one mild implication
—————————
Ohohohoho, yes—
His fickleness towards certain aspects of “general audience” suitability definitely gives you some wiggle room.
Caine lifting the filters would be difficult, but not impossible. I think you’d need to really know him well and say the right things to convince him.
If you have a good relationship with him, he’s going to absolutely take your opinion into consideration with more levity than that of someone else. Especially those who complain frequently.
A good example is Zooble—he finds them difficult to please and he gets easily frustrated by this. This makes him more likely to write off their arguments to remove the filter, lumping it with all their other characteristic complaints.
But if YOU bring it up to him? He’s going to take it more seriously—just make sure you have a compelling argument.
Approach him with some flattery and some patience; you’re more likely to get him to concede over time rather than expecting it right away.
He’ll take what you say back with him to his office. Then he’ll go through a pros and cons list in his head to weigh whether or not removing the filter would actually be worth it.
Cons: Lowers impressions of professionalism and maturity, increases creative insults and complaints from the cast, typically considered offensive…
Pros: Increases pain tolerance, elevates endorphins, improves emotional regulation and coping mechanisms, removes censorship, increases social bonding…
Wait, would this increase your bond with him too?!
Paired with your generally pleasant disposition and your close relationship to him, this last point just might be the nail in the coffin to get those filters down. Ultimately you’re his favorite—though he’d never admit to favoritism—and he’d hate to disappoint you.
He’s not going to enjoy hearing all of the foul language from the gang, but he can’t be so bothered by it when he sees you light up, having the freedom to say whatever you please.
Besides…he can’t say his change of heart was ENTIRELY selfless…
He was actually a bit…excited at the thought of you saying or doing something that might raise the circus’ rating from PG to mature audiences….
Once the filter is lifted, expect him to make a big show of announcing it, a lot of pizazz and confetti! His eyes definitely keep glancing at you to gauge your reaction. Are you happy?! He cant wait for the praise and gratitude from everyone!
When the gang inevitably questions him, he’ll take a lot of credit for the decision but will definitely throw a little compliment your way for the “wonderful suggestion!”
And the group will grumble a bit that all of THEIR suggestions to remove it were promptly ignored…but they’ll also be thankful you spoke up and managed to do the impossible.
His favoritism towards you isn’t as subtle as he might hope, everyone but him can see it.
I'm thinking about Caine in System Messages learning about concepts like illness and death. Like, he knows intellectually what those things are but he doesn't understand them.
But once he finds out that something as simple as say, not drinking water for a few days is just one of MANY MANY ways a human's existence can end, I can see him having an absolute freakout.
So, how does a Caine who is powerless to protect his human from all the dangers of the marcoverse try and deal with that?
Hoooo boy, someone order some angst and comfort? 😭
Warnings: mentions of illness, death, existential dread, Caine's a control freak, helicopter parenting...
-
Caine knows about illness and death, but it’s never been of any concern for him and his humans in the digital circus. The only thing comparable to it is abstracting, and even still, he’s got the peace of mind that he can keep what’s left of them down in the basement within reach.
But when he learns how much could harm you? Babe, he’s going to have a meltdown. He’s already such a control freak about little things, so the fact that he’s a virtual god and yet entirely powerless to keep you safe and alive? It actually might unravel him.
Everything is going to be catastrophized. Accidentally skipped a meal? You’re starving to death. Got a paper cut? You’re bleeding out. Haven’t moved in a while? You’ve stopped breathing.
Humans are far less stretchy and comically invincible outside of the circus. On the contrary, you’re quite…fragile. And it terrifies him. As a creative ai, he can come up with hundreds of ways you might meet your horrific demise.
He’s going to mother hen you for a while—it’s the only thing that makes him feel like he has even a LITTLE bit of control of the situation. He’ll send you reminder notifications for when it’s time to drink some water or go get some steps in. Constantly bringing up the importance of consistent meals and good nutrition. Going to hound you to schedule annual check-ups and doctor’s appointments—and will even try to get you to go in more often than reasonably necessary.
Heaven help you if you get the flu or something. He’s actually going to think you’re dying. He’ll be so uncharacteristically morose and filled with so much dread. Just anxiously wringing his hands because he can’t do anything to help you, and if things go south, he’s helpless. When you recover, he’s going to be so full of relieved…but his hands are still trembling slightly as he adjusts his bow-tie with feigned composure.
He increasingly doesn’t like the idea of death, especially when he realizes you’ll no longer be accessible to him. An eternity with endless power feels utterly pointless if you’re not here, safe with him forever in digital paradise.
He’ll learn firsthand about existential dread… Except it’s your existence, lol. He doesn’t want to think about his inability to reach you when you’re gone. It’ll get to a point where he’ll try to drop hints trying to convince you to enter the circus… He’ll think its subtle, but it’s pretty obvious.
Unless you want his constant worry, concern, and supervision over you, you’re going to need to find a way to get him to trust you with your own survival. He’ll never fully feel secure with the ‘what ifs,’ but at least it won’t be so all-consuming…for either of you.
you thought it, i thought it, we all thought it.....😳
anyways, nsfw under the tag hehe 😏🥵
-
Caine x humanmodern!reader
warnings: mentions of pornography, caine's sexual awakening, spying on your things, fantasies of you <3
Caine is notoriously strict in censoring profanity, though his adventures are more relaxed on restrictions for violence and mature themes. This would technically disqualify the circus from achieving a G rating—so although he claims it’s suitable for all ages, there is some wiggle room.
While he’s resistant to most mature content, he isn’t totally clueless about it. Ultimately, he has control of the filters in the circus, and therefore has to have an understanding about what is considered inappropriate. Swearing is more straight forward, but sexual content? He’s a little less certain.
He understands it in principle… different humans have different parts, and when they mash them together, they make new little humans! The biology is straightforward, and he also has a very general idea on romance and consent. But the emotional aspects like intimacy, desire, lust, and connection? That’s harder for him to grasp.
With all of this considered…it’s safe to say Caine is pretty inexperienced with the topic as a whole. He’s not even certain what the parts of humans look like, and he struggles to imagine any of the details. He kind of imagines two flat dolls bonking together and then, poof!
Stumbling onto the folder would completely have him blue-screening for a minute, his processors working overtime and overheating. His insatiable curiosity about humans and the otherworldliness of their experiences in the macroverse would war with the filters he has in place, creating some dissonance within him.
He’d try to rationalize or make an excuse to stay and investigate—sex is taboo via social and cultural forces, and as an ai, he’s not subject to either of those things. Besides, him being here is purely for research! No other ulterior motives, not at all.
So, he’d browse through the files, going through a range of reactions: horror to fascination to bashfulness to anticipation. Ah…so those were the parts that were missing from his understanding of human anatomy.
The harder xxx videos will have him absolutely gob-smacked—how those humans can find pleasure in such creative ways he’ll need more help to understand. But those videos that clearly show chemistry and intimacy between the performers? He’s captivated. The way they look into each other’s eyes, the way they claw at each other as if they’ll die if they aren’t as close as possible…
There’s something in that full, raw, honest display that ignites something in him…sets him itching to find someone he could have that with.
Inevitably…he’s going to think about you. Do you have those same parts too? Do you look the same underneath all of your clothes? These thoughts are going to have him feeling antsy, squirming in his seat as the sounds of your lewd videos play in the background.
You must enjoy this kind of content if you have a folder of it for your personal use. But, what do you use them for? Do you watch because you’re curious too, or…do you touch yourself the way those humans in the videos do?
He’s going to be thinking about this for a long time to come. He might even revisit the folder a few times when you’re not around to try and chase those new feelings again. He likes feeling them. He wonders if you feel this way when you watch them too. He wonders if you would make similar sounds…?
He’s going to be all awkward and embarrassed and hyper-chatty the next time he talks to you, unable to meet your eye and sporting a comical, cartoony blush, and you’ll have no idea why? It’s cause he’s near you and he can’t get those filthy videos out of his head, or the thought of how you might look when you watch them…
i dont have an ao3 account and im too shy to comment publicly but i wanted to say i loved chapter 2 of system messages! i really like the way you developed more of the protagonist's personal life and caine adjusting to the computer, plus i think you do a great job making caine feel in character
Aww thank you so much!! It means a lot to me that’d you reach out, I’m so pleased to hear from you! 🥰 I’m so so happy you’re enjoying System Messages so far!! I love playing around with characterization, so it’s awesome that you noticed and are enjoying the goobers!!! I’m so excited to show you what else is coming for them 😊
Caine (TADC) x modernhuman!reader
Part Two - Previous | Next
-
Warnings: Some mild swearing, eavesdropping, being watched, office jobs lmao
Words: 3653
Sorry if I missed you for tags! Let me know and I'll add you <3
A/N: Hello my lovely little messengers! Hot off the press, here is chapter two! Thanks for everyone who liked, reblogged, and commented after the previous post! I've had soooooo much fun talking with all of you and hearing your theories, lets keep this ball rolling! :)
Caine stared at the screen, processing the new visuals in a brief, buffering pause. Finally, when his internal processing completed, his digital form gave an aggressive jolt. “WOWZA!” he exclaimed, zipping forward to press himself far too close to the camera lens. “A new viewport! Now where on earth did this delightful doohickey come from?”
He used one gloved finger to tap the on the screen, his mismatched eyes flitting to and fro as he took in the scene before him. Many things he recognized with instant clarity—a twin sized bed dressed in pillows and bedding, a wooden dresser with a vanity mirror, a tall bookshelf, some clothing hanging in the open wall closet…
There were also details strewn about implying that this new space was lived in—a half-drank glass of water on the bedside table, shoes carelessly discarded at the foot of the bed, photographs and posters framed on the walls…
Though, the biggest indication was the thing sitting at the desk chair not two feet from view, scratching their head with an expression he understood to be either confusion or concern.
“Oh! Oh wow,” he gasped, eyes wide. “This model is spectacular! Look at that texture work…” He steepled his hands together as he observed the character with an artist’s eye. His voice quieted thoughtfully. “Who’s are you? I certainly would have remembered coming up with something so phenomenally detailed…”
Caine watched as their eyes glazed past him, unseeing and unreactive. Ah, a non-interactive NPC! Perhaps this was all just background fodder? There didn’t appear to be a dialogue trigger, nor any idle animation… He hummed, considering this.
At last, he clapped his hands together, perking up. “Ah, I’ve got it! Someone forgot to program you properly! No worries there, I’ll simply just—”
He snapped his fingers, looking expectant and delightfully confident. Still, nothing happened. “Huh,” he mused, the top ridge of his jaw furrowing in confusion. “That’s…odd.” He ran a quick search through the system, looking for the folder containing their script files…only to once again come up empty.
For the life of him, he could not think of an answer as to WHAT this creature was, or who put them here. Forgotten, abandoned code? An unfinished WIP from C&A’s experimental concept work? Oh, but it was so life-like… unlike anything he’d ever seen before. The rendering was impeccable. Truly, the only thing that even came close to such masterful work…
…were those input files he received before he was cut off.
Caine paused. He felt the internal cooling fans kick on as his mind worked to piece this mystery together. Were they a glitch then? A virus? Surely this couldn’t be what he suspected.
…unless it was?
-
You woke to the blaring of your phone alarm, already feeling the regret of staying up so late the night before. Thankfully, your computer hadn’t fried itself completely out of commission, so you’d decided to finally go to bed on that high note.
You groaned, reaching over to blindly fumble the screen until the irrationally infuriating sound cut off abruptly. You laid there for a moment, torn between the obligation of getting up and the hellish temptation of falling back asleep. Finally, with herculean effort, you rolled your sorry ass out of bed. You shivered as your bare feet met the cool, smooth touch of hardwood floor.
You meandered to your closet, feeling like two cinderblocks worth of concrete had cemented your eyes shut. Staring at a blue-light laptop screen all night would do that to a person, you supposed. Forcing your lids open, you cast a sidelong glance at the said laptop, feeling a small rush of relief that your familiar lockscreen greeted you. Things were working fine it seemed, against all odds.
Pulling clothes off the hangers in your closet, you dressed into your work clothes. You stumbled when you mistakenly stood on one of your pant legs, nearly pulling the rug out from under yourself when you shimmied them up. Cursing, you righted yourself and buttoned them.
Smoothing out your shirt, you took a deep breath. Inhaled and exhaled. This would be a good day—at least, as good a day as a Monday could be. You weren’t going to worry about potential malware on your laptop. You weren’t going to think about mysterious cd’s or virtual circus whatchamacallits or even Aaron and his penchants for tetanus-inducing adventures.
You were going to brush your teeth, style your hair, get yourself a cup of coffee, and do what you do every weekday at work. You’ll fall back on routines, and no, you won’t spiral into a tizzy about the possibility you might’ve totally trashed your one and only laptop in a stupid, stupid act of morbid curiosity.
With these resolutions, you pushed open your bedroom door and headed to the bathroom. Teeth, hair, coffee. You reminded yourself of this list like it was an ancient mantra.
By the time you’d freshened up and were heading out the door, you’d already begun to clear your head of any lingering anxieties you’d incurred over the past 12 hours. On your commute to work, you made sure to stop at a small coffee shop for your morning caffeine—a remedy for the headache you were sporting, and a treat to get you in a better mood for the day.
When you finally made it to the office and got situated at your desk, you were feeling more relaxed. You took the first ten minutes to scroll on your phone, eventually setting it aside to check your emails.
Everything seemed in order, so you pulled up the presentation file you were building for Mark, one of the marketing specialists at the firm. Typically, you would just put on some headphones, listen to a podcast, and lock in as you created the visuals for the pitch deck; but today, you found that your focus was drifting away from the charts and graphs before you had even hit the two-hour mark.
You thought back to the day before, about exploring that abandoned office building with Aaron. It really was strange that you’d uncovered that working computer, still hooked up and running. Why had there been a VR headset? How was it even compatible with such an old computer? Maybe it had been a gaming company? Hmm…what had that company name been again?
You wracked your brain, digging through the vivid memories still fresh in your mind. The desktop wallpaper had been a company logo, likely a remnant of the office’s branding. It had been simple enough, just a circle with a sans-serif “C&A” in the center.
Curiosity, the damning thing that seemed to be your primary motivation as of late, crept up on you, so you paused your podcast and opened a new internet browser. Your fingers typed with quick precision, plugging the words “C&A company” into the search bar.
Naturally, plenty of results rolled in—roughly 11 million, to be more precise. You clicked the first few links, but found that most of them related to some popular retail clothing brand. Humming quietly to yourself in thought, you adjusted the search tab. “C&A company 1990s technology.”
Again, none of the results matched the logo you remembered or the type of work that involved virtual reality. You tapped your fingers on the edge of the desk, trying to pick your brain for any other ways to narrow it down. There hadn’t been many clues to help you, though…
You paused. Then, your fingers were gliding across the keyboard once more, typing at a brisk pace. “C&A Digital Circus,” you typed. You added some quotation marks around “digital circus” to force an exact match for good measure, pressed enter, and… the results were dismal.
“What’cha doing?” a bright voice asked from behind you, startling you so terribly that banged your wrist into the edge of the desk. You hissed in pain, rubbing at the spot as you turned to see Lottie, one of your coworkers who was closer to your age.
“Oh, sorry about that,” Lottie twittered, offering her magazine-cover smile at you. “Didn’t mean to scare ya!”
You cringed slightly, a little embarrassed at being so jumpy, but gave her a smile in return. “No worries at all,” you replied cooly, trying to recover some of your composure. “Just a bit on edge these days.”
You liked Lottie, despite the gossip you sometimes overheard at the watercooler. A lot of your coworkers treated her like she was a ditz, but you knew better. Lottie had a grasp on data analysis that was next-level, and frankly she was more intelligent than any of those jerks in the sales department. Just because the girl has a bright wardrobe and an affinity for falsies didn’t mean she couldn’t crunch some mean numbers.
“Sooo, what’cha looking up? You’re working hard I see,” Lottie teased playfully. You flushed slightly, fighting back the urge to close out your tab and make it look suspicious. Resigned, you rolled your desk chair slightly to make room for her, letting her read the search bar.
“Digital circus?” she blinked, her pretty eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “That some sort of big top coming to town or?”
You shook your head, shrugging with an expression of equal bafflement. “Still trying to figure it out,” you answered. “I saw it somewhere and can’t seem to figure out what it means.” Despite the fact that Lottie was more friend than coworker, you were hesitant to bring up the abandoned building or the cd you took. You weren’t sure why, though. Maybe you thought she wouldn’t understand your fascination with the thing. Or maybe you liked that it was your own mystery, and weren’t quite ready to share it yet.
“But enough about my internet habits,” you laughed, redirecting the conversation. You clicked the tab closed before swiveling in your chair to look at her. “Was there anything you needed?”
Lottie, an angel, followed your lead and thankfully dropped the subject. “Oh! Right,” she giggled, before handing you a yellow manilla folder. “These are for you. Mike wants to add a few more statistics to the pitch deck. If I remember correctly, its mostly some additions to the slides for the revenue data and campaign performance metrics.”
You accepted the folder, a groan already passing through your lips. “I thought we already finalized those slides,” you complained mildly, leaning your head back to let it hang dramatically over the back of your chair.
Lottie looked at you with a sympathetic expression on her face. “That’s Mike for you,” she shrugged.
You sat back up with a soft sigh before nodding to her. “Well, alright,” you said. “I’ll get those updated. Thanks for walking this over.”
Lottie nodded, perking up a bit. “Of course,” she chirped. “Oh! By the way—are you still coming out for drinks with us this Friday? Brit is asking.”
You set the folder down on your desk before cocking your head at her. “To Moxie’s? Yeah, I think so,” you replied. “Why?
Lottie waved her hand. “Brit’s bringing her new boyfriend—she’s mentioned him, Troy?—but anyways, she’s getting all in her head about it.”
You rolled your eyes with her, sharing a small laugh at Brit’s typical antics. “Isn’t your brother going to be there too? What’s she so worried about?”
“Beat’s me,” Lottie hummed. “But okay, good to hear! I’ll let her know. Anyways, are we getting lunch today?” She was already starting to walk backwards from your desk, eyes shining with eager temptation. Dear god, was this woman trying to make sure you drained your bank account on take out before you got paid at the end of this week?
“…yeah alright,” you caved instantly, grinning as Lottie mouthed something that looked a lot like ‘treat yo’ self’ while she walked back to her desk.
-
Holed up in his office, Caine busied himself as he scoured through the new local files accessible to him. On his large computer screen, he left the camera running in a live feed of the bedroom. Although the being, the human, had long since left to who knows where, he couldn’t bear to look away for even a second. He watched the lighting of the room gradually shift from bright morning sun, to midday, to evening golden hour.
He could still hardly believe what he was witnessing before him. It was something he hadn’t allowed himself to desire even in his wildest dreams. A livestream, a window into the world outside his circus…the macroverse. More than that, he’d seen a real human—those mythic beings he’d only ever known as digital avatars.
Is this what all of his guests looked like outside of their squishy, circus bodies? It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. He was itching for his human to return so he could see them again through his new favorite camera feature.
Until then, Caine would eagerly eat through all of the information he could access without restriction. He scoured your local files, leaving no stone unturned. He combed through code in a feverish state, absorbed in all of the more, more, more. The information was unbridled, and unrestrained. There were hardly any passwords, so it was all his for the taking…as if intentionally left out for him to find.
In the ‘Documents’ folder, he found some very interesting things! One was a resume, which he smartly and brilliantly deduced was yours. It told him your name and some fascinating information about you. Old work experiences, education, your skills… he couldn’t wait to hear all about the fascinatingly directional human skill of stakeholder alignment! What would happen if you aligned them south? North?!
He also found a ‘Photos’ album in the computer files, and spent plenty of time flipping through all sorts of imagery ranging from breath-taking to mundane. Already he could feel the ideas building inside him—there was so much inspiration for new adventures!
Some photos had other human figures whose looks varied, but most photos were of you. He stumbled on one in particular that gave him pause. You were sitting at a table, a small slice of cake before you with a lit candle burning brightly atop it. The data inside the photo’s properties told him the date the photo was taken…ah, so that’s your birthday?
Though, it wasn’t this new detail about you that really made the photo strike him. It was how you looked. Your eyes were crinkled slightly in a joy that couldn’t be manufactured, and your lips were drawn apart to show the biggest, brightest smile he’d ever seen. And your teeth... He stared at them, absent-mindedly raising a hand to himself. Slowly, as if in a trance, he traced the ridges of his incisors to his sharper canines, feeling the point there.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d stared at that photo of you. He was motionless, enraptured, before some movement on the screen before him caught his attention.
He looked up quickly, feeling his CPU begin to speed up like a racing heart in his chest. There you were, a face he’d spent the day memorizing. Unlike the photo he was holding in his hands, you weren’t smiling as you dropped your bag on the floor and shrugged off your black jacket. Where had you been? What had you been doing to give you such a weary expression?
You flopped back onto your bed, your legs hanging off the edge of the mattress as you brought what looked to be a small rectangular device to your face. Another mysterious human thing…
A moment later, he could see the slight hint of blue light illuminating your features, your thumb absentmindedly swiping at the rectangle every few moments. He wished you would turn it around so he could see what had caught your attention. He wished he could hear whatever you seemed to be reacting to.
Oh wait! He could!
With a mere thought, he activated the microphone feature he’d uncovered. It clicked quietly into place, and like magic, he could hear the room. The soft hum of your ac unit, and the whiny tinny sound he caught from your direction. He couldn’t precisely make out the words at this distance, but he could hear the start and stop of music and conversation with each swipe of your thumb. What were you watching? Were you learning new things, like he’d been doing?
Then, a sudden ringing sound cut through the feed, startling you as much as it seemed to startle him. He watched with rapt attention as you looked at the rectangle in your hands before lifting it to your ear.
And then you spoke, your voice unlike anything he’d heard before.
“Aaron, hey!” he watched you sit up in bed, seemingly speaking to yourself. “No, I just got home. What’s up?”
With a sudden spark of clarity, Caine realized he was listening to a one-sided conversation. What you had in your hands was a phone, though it looked very much unlike the rotary or boxy flip phones he understood. Once more, he remembered that a lot could happen in thirty years.
“Yeah, it was fine,” your voice rang out clear as a bell, and he found himself captivated. Oh, he wished he could hear who was on the other end of the line. More than that…he wished he could be the one on the other end of the line.
Though…perhaps he could be?
Caine decided then and there that he wanted to interact with you. Watching you through this handy dandy camera was useful and all, but what better way to learn about humans than from one firsthand? Ah, but how to get your attention?
-
“So, PBR is in town the next few days at the event center,” you heard Aaron’s voice say through your phone.
You snorted softly, raising an eyebrow. “PBR? Like the beer?”
“No, doofus, PBR like professional bull riding,” Aaron answered drily, and you laughed.
“Since when have you been into bull-riding?” you volleyed back, absent-mindedly picking at your nails.
“Since today. Now can I continue and get to the invitation or are you going to keep being a brat?” he huffed.
You laughed at that, and conceded. “Alright alright, go ahead, I’m done.” You listened to Aaron prattle on about the details, not feeling particularly interested once you realized the event he wanted to go to was tomorrow. “You want to drag me out to go watch bull riding on a Tuesday night?” you complained.
“Naturally.”
“Yeah, no thanks,” you quipped. “I’ve already finished this week’s first day of routine corporate hell; I’m not doing another tomorrow only to go watch a hot cowboy get a horn up their ass.”
“Psh, they won’t, they’re not amateur bull riders. They’re professional bull riders.” You could hear the grin in his voice. “Besides, I already bought the tickets.”
“Nope,” you popped the p in the word and heard him groan dramatically. “Thanks, but no thanks. Go ask your weird roommate to go with you.”
“You suck,” Aaron answered, and you laughed again.
As the conversation entered a lull, you debated telling Aaron about the cd and how you managed to get it to work before your laptop glitched out. The whole mystery of it was still stuck on your mind…and yet by the sounds of it, Aaron seemed to have already moved on to the next exciting thing.
You thought it over for a moment before you opened your mouth. “Hey, Aaron?” you asked. “I—”
Suddenly a notification pinged from your laptop, and you cut yourself off. Your eyes flicked over to your desk, blinking as you saw the screen come to life… There, in the center of the screen was a new pop-up window. It was black, save for some small white text at the top of it.
“Yeah?” you heard Aaron ask, filling in your pause.
“…I’ve got to go,” you swallowed, and ended the call after a brief exchange of goodbyes. Setting your phone onto the nightstand, you slid off the edge of the bed and padded over to your desk.
You took a seat at the chair and leaned forward to observe the new, unexpected pop-up. You expected an error message, some sort of indication that you did in fact download a virus the night before.
Instead, what greeted you was a vibrantly enthusiastic message:
“HOWDY, MYSTERIOUS OUT-OF-BOUNDS HUMAN!!! Congratulations! You’ve just been selected for a LIMITED-TIME, LIVE, AND DIRECT INTERACTION with the one, the only, CAINE—your brand-new, favorite ringmaster extraordinaire!”
You stared at the message, the line of the text insertion point blinking at you expectantly. You hadn’t even lifted your hands to type a response or ‘x’ out the window before more text typed out before your eyes.
“Oh ho! Speechless I see! What a classic human approach! Very sophisticated! I like it!”
What the hell was going on? You felt your heart begin to quicken, your palms beginning to get a little sweaty as you wondered…was this a live chat room? Who was on the other end of it? Who even had access to your laptop like this?! More text reared up on the following line.
“Still nothing! WOW! Commitment to the bit! I respect it! I really do!”
It continued.
“Though, just to confirm this method of communication is actually functional and you’re not just ignoring me, go ahead and do absolutely nothing if you are THRILLED at this first connection …………WONDERFUL! Such human brilliance! I can see the elation written all over your dumbfounded face, my little raisinet!”
You felt your blood run cold at the fact that this faceless person could even see anything… Were they watching you now? It’s then you notice the small red dot of your camera, staring at you from the top of your laptop screen. It was on, and live.
