Do you have any writing and worldbuilding advice you could possibly share? And whats the hardest part of creating these au's in your opinion??
>>Hiii!! :)
>>Thanks! >///<
>>It may sound pretty corny, but my advice is— "Be yourself". What you do should please you first and foremost, not others.
>>Well, for example— I like robots, liminal spaces, and! I also don’t like bright colors!! And I think these features of mine have become quite...recognizable (if I dare judge).
>>I could make my drawings more colorful, I could make my AUs more...cheerful, I could write without the ">>" at the beginning of each line—but that wouldn't be me, right?!?
>>And so do you all!!!
//I'm writing all this because— in the past, before I created this blog, I write/draw with the thought "I wanna people to like me and my art/AUs 🥺," which forced me to create things in a way I didn’t like—which made me unhappy.
//Now I don't give a shit about all this and I'm living my best life :))
"And whats the hardest part of creating these au's in your opinion?"
>>The hardest thing, in my opinion, is not to burn out in the process.
>>I'm a passionate person, y'know. And while my passion burns, I can work at high speeds without sleep or rest day after day after day. But, as soon as the passion fades, I'm left with a very tired body and aching wrists.
>>I know about this character trait of mine and very often I have to force myself NOT to draw, NOT to write, NOT to think(about ideas for AU/drawings) although I really WANT to!!! 😔...
>>Taking breaks is important.... I hate taking breaks :(
A doodle I made shortly after the last one because I wanted to try and sell his scale + play more with his weird false god/god complex themes. However I didn't post it because I didn't like it much, but folks in personal circles seemed to like it lol.
Talking with my friend @yummycrummy and realized how PERFECT the scene from the TADC final, where Jax chokes out pomni, was for their Caine and Bubble.
SO WE DID A LIL COLLAABBBB aAND IT WAS SO COOL AND SO AWESOME AND THEIR PART IS PHENOMENAL TEEHEEE!!
Freaking love doing these collabs and art for this au it's so cooll
Reach the Office.
Open the emergency maintenance channel.
Restore Cain's administrator privileges.
Three objectives. Just three lines. And the fate of the entire Circus now revolved around them.
Kinger sat inside his little shelter, going over every step of their plan.
He understood... Cain had just placed the responsibility in their hands. From this point on, it was the humans who could make mistakes. And that was where the first problem emerged.
"If we all disappear at once, Abel will notice. If the Office still exists... it'll be the first place he checks"
Everyone understood that. Which meant the operation had to look like an ordinary day.
Kinger searched for patterns. Together, they recalled how quickly—and how often—Abel reacted to their requests, behavior, and movements.
Pomni became their scout. She wandered the Circus, searching for anything suspicious, looking for glitches... or another clue from Cain.
The entrance to the Office was still where it had always been—inside the airship, suspended high above the Circus. She carefully estimated where they could use that same cube again to trigger a collision and climb up.
Gangle began paying attention to the Circus itself. Which doors disappeared. Which new ones appeared. What Abel rebuilt... and what he strangely left untouched.
Zooble tested something else entirely. She deliberately disrupted the routine—moving props, rearranging objects, wandering where she normally wouldn't, acting unpredictably. She watched to see what actually caught Abel's attention.
Meanwhile, Ragatha continued doing what she did best: making everything seem normal. She helped everyone with the little things, and in many ways, it was her alone who kept the group functioning.
If Abel was watching them, he couldn't be allowed to see a group preparing for rebellion.
Someone peeked into Kinger's shelter, — "Kinger?"
He turned toward Zooble, squinting against the faint light spilling in from outside.
— "So... you're the one going into the Office. When do we start?"
He stayed silent for a couple of seconds, —"...For now? Nobody."
Zooble narrowed her eyes, —"Then what's the point of all this preparation?! W-we don't exactly have unlimited time."
—"Because right now...", he stopped himself, —"...we don't know anything. I mean... we already lost Jax because w-we acted blind."
The chess piece slowly clenched his fists, —"...Careful planning is the only reason this can still succeed."
Zooble said nothing. She simply nodded, pulled the pillow back over the entrance, and returned to the others. A minute later, the opening shifted again, and a tiny jester crawled inside.
—"Kinger? I think everything's ready.", she nodded confidently as she settled across from him.
He looked up, —"...Ready how?"
—"I checked the airship", she sat down opposite him, — "E-everything's still there... the cube too."
A faint smile crossed her face. Kinger lowered his eyes. It was good news. But right now... good news frightened him more than anything.
—"...Too easy."
Pomni frowned, —"What?"
—"If Abel really hasn't changed anything...", he slowly shook his head, —"...then either he's certain we won't go there... or he's already waiting for us."
Silence settled between them. Pomni was the first to break it, —"I'm coming with you."
Kinger looked up, —"...No."
—"Why?"
—"Because if there are two of us... the risk doubles."
Pomni frowned, —"But if something goes wrong... someone else can finish the job."
Kinger didn't answer.
—"If something goes wrong...", he looked directly into her eyes, —"...I-i want that someone to be you."
Pomni hesitated, —"...Then that gives me even more reason to come."
Just then, Zooble's voice came from the entrance
—"Knew it", she leaned inside, —"You two are already arguing"
—"Because it'd be far too suspicious... and far too dangerous.", Kinger slowly shook his head again, "...Chained never designed that Office for visitors."
...
—"...I'm the only one who even remotely knows what we're looking for."
A long silence followed. Then, unexpectedly quietly, Pomni asked, —"...What if you don't come back?"
Kinger didn't answer for a long time. Finally, in a calm voice, he said, —"...Then someone will have to continue where I left off..."
-----
Even so, they decided to send Zooble instead of Pomni. They didn't leave immediately. After making absolutely certain Abel wasn't watching them, the pair quietly slipped away.
As they approached the spot, they glanced around one last time. Kinger walked over to the small wooden cube resting nearby.
—"...You're sure you don't need a partner?", Zooble asked, watching him carefully, genuine concern in her voice.
Kinger carried the cube over and set it down, measuring the trajectory of what was supposed to be his ascent.
—"I've actually been inside that Office before", Zooble folded her arms, trying to sound convincing, —"For you, it'll practically be your first time... I-i mean, last time you weren't exactly... yourself."
—"...Well...", he held out a hand,—"I won't be alone... Cai— chained will be helping me."
The patchwork of mismatched shapes sighed, —"...Please. Everyone's counting on you."
Kinger narrowed his eyes, feeling the full weight of what rested on his shoulders, —"...Thank you."
Zooble blinked, —"...For what?"
—"...Because now...", he looked up toward the airship, —"...someone is still checking my conclusions."
...
—"...I can be wrong too."
Those words made Zooble fall silent. She had never heard Kinger say anything like that before.
—"...What scares me most isn't Ab— him."
Kinger quietly looked up at her, silently asking.
—"...It's the thought that... chained might be wrong."
...
—"...Because if he is... then there's no one left to believe in."
...
—"...Zooble... we should get moving," he said quietly, careful not to upset her.
With a sigh, she stepped closer and picked him up
—"...Honestly... we—", she looked away awkwardly, preparing to fold him in half, —"...I... I'm still angry at him. I get why he snapped at us... we stayed silent for far too long."
She pressed harder against Kinger's body, trying to squash him together. But he felt... far heavier than he should have.
—"...And he...", she turned her head away with a sigh, —"...chose the worst possible way to make us finally speak."
Zooble turned toward him, irritation crossing her face, —"...H-hey! Why isn't this working?!!"
She tried again, pushing harder, still careful not to hurt him. Grabbing the back of his head, she strained with all her strength, trying to force it down toward his lower body.
He refused to fold. Like solid wood.
—"...Ow...", Kinger winced.
—"...What the...", Zooble tried once more, pressing even harder.
This time he did bend... but like an actual person. With resistance, not with cartoon physics. She let go.
—"...What?" Kinger slowly straightened back up.
The two simply stared at each other.
—"...Maybe... you try?"
Kinger let out a tired sigh, —"...All right."
He grabbed his own head and attempted the familiar motion of pushing it back into his torso. He managed to lean forward— but his head stopped well short of reaching his body. A quiet crack echoed.
—"...Ah...", the chess piece instantly grabbed his lower back.
Zooble's eyes went wide. She looked from him to the airship, then back again.
—"What the heck?!!", her gaze slowly lifted toward the balloon, —"...How did we forget Abel changed the physics..."
—"...That's exactly why I didn't want to rush this", Kinger slowly straightened, skepticism written across his face.
—"...You just threw your back out."
He stood perfectly still for a few seconds before carefully standing upright again, —"...We need another way to get up there."
—"What other way-?! D-damn it, that was the only method we knew!"
—"...We're going back to the shelter," he said firmly.
----
The moment they returned, Kinger rushed straight into his little shelter while Zooble explained to the others that the plan had failed.
The chess piece immediately sent Cain a message through the Developer Log. Several minutes passed, no reply came. That worried Kinger more with every passing second.
—"I-I...", Pomni faltered, —"...I'm sorry... I-I just needed to make sure that method still worked...", she lowered her head in embarrassment, clenching her fists.
Zooble and the others stayed silent, realizing they all should have remembered by now that this world no longer obeyed its old rules.
—"...This isn't your fault", Ragatha finally said quietly.
—"No.", Zooble shook her head, —"It's all of our fault."
She rubbed her face in frustration, —"We're still thinking like we're living in the old Circus."
Kinger let his hands fall in defeat. A cold feeling settled deep inside him.
"If something had happened... he would've warned us..."
With that thought, he leaned out from his little shelter toward the girls nearby,
—"...He still hasn't answered.", a trace of fear lingered in his eyes.
Ragatha remained silent for a long moment before speaking, —"...You know... we wouldn't have been able to reach his Office using the cube collision anyway."
She hesitated, almost afraid to voice her own conclusion, —"...Everything we did back then... was staged by chained as part of his adventure."
She shrank into herself uncertainly, watching everyone's reaction. Her reasoning sounded painfully logical.
—"...Did he...", Gangle mumbled, —"...D-did he ever tell us h-how to reach his Office?"
Kinger immediately shook his head, resting a hand beneath his chin, —"...No... b-dut Ragatha... your conclusion makes sense."
He searched for another possibility, —"...This is all... strange.", he sighed, —"...I'm afraid... we'll have to figure this out ourselves... or we've already lost."
The others immediately understood what he meant. This could all be part of Abel's plan. They might be walking straight into a trap.
—"...So...", Pomni finally spoke, —"...We mistook his help... for one of the world's rules?..."
Kinger nodded, —"...When in reality...", he finished almost in a whisper, —"...it was only his preparation."
Gangle slowly raised her head, squinting as she stared upward into the Circus. The others assumed she was looking for Abel.
—"...Gangle?", Pomni called.
The girl lowered her head again, frowning, —"...D-do you feel that?"
Everyone looked at her in confusion. Something had changed.
—"...It's... too quiet. I-I'm scared.", she glanced nervously around.
The lights around them began to dim. First the distant lamps high above rapidly winked out. Then another, then another. The darkness crept steadily closer to their shelter.
The final lamp above them flickered three times— and died. The already dim tent was swallowed by darkness. Everyone instinctively shifted into a defensive stance. They had no idea what was coming... or from where.
Pomni instantly grabbed Ragatha's hand. Zooble instinctively stepped backward. Gangle let out a quiet yelp. Kinger searched the darkness for any sign of danger.
Then— a metallic click echoed somewhere above them. A second later... the blue sphere appeared overhead.
All of them flinched. Cold blue light washed over their frightened, angry faces. It almost seemed to enjoy having every pair of eyes fixed solely upon it.
But the voice... the voice was different. Not calm, not detached. For the first time... there was irritation. And something else... mockery.
"You found the first warning... insufficient."
Its glow intensified with every word.
"...to understand what happens..."
"...to those..."
"...who continue to resist."
The unfamiliar arrogance in its voice drew them even closer together. None of them took their eyes off the sphere above.
Suddenly, the floor beneath them began to crack, leaving the terrified group stranded on a tiny island and forcing them even closer together.
The fractures closed into a jagged ring around them. The section of floor beneath their feet remained intact.
Everything else... began to disappear. Not collapse, disappear. As though Abel had simply selected the surrounding world with a delete tool.
The floor dissolved into millions of tiny polygons, the walls crumbled into digital dust, the columns unraveled into transparent wireframes. Within seconds, nothing remained around their little island except an endless black void.
The blue sphere above them continued to watch in silence. An aura of concealed malice and quiet arrogance radiated from it.
Frightened, Kinger instinctively caught Gangle and Pomni with his floating hands. The girls pressed themselves tightly against him. Zooble wrapped her arms around Ragatha, shielding the others with her own body.
—"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!", the old man suddenly shouted, glaring up at Abel with genuine fury.
The space around them seemed to stabilize. The terrifying sensation of standing in empty nothingness faded.
Yet none of them dared move even a single inch. Somewhere in the distance... a lone metallic click echoed.
As if someone had switched on a spotlight. A thin beam of light appeared in the endless darkness. It widened, it grew brighter. Until it finally illuminated... a blood-soaked checkered floor.
An enormous chain, smeared with blood, dragged slowly across the ground. The spotlight followed it. Then one after another, dozens of blinding white beams crossed in the center of the stage, turning it into a grotesque display.
A showcase. Presenting the night's main exhibit.
A massive body lay motionless upon the cold floor... like a collapsed building. His six once-powerful arms weren't merely restrained. Their joints had been twisted into impossible angles.
Several remained visibly dislocated after countless wrenching pulls. His entire back had become one endless mass of torn flesh. It was impossible to tell where one wound ended and the next began.
Deep lashes carved by the whip crossed each other dozens of times, forming ragged trenches from which thick, almost black blood slowly flowed.
In places, the skin had been stripped away entirely, revealing not muscle... but trembling fragments of shattered digital flesh.
The broken polygons flickered violently, trying to reconstruct themselves before collapsing once more into crimson glitches.
Every breath sent a faint tremor through his entire body. As though breathing itself had become agony. A vast pool of smeared blood had collected beneath his torso.
Dark blood spread across the floor, filling the deep cracks that now covered almost the entire stage.
Thin streams continued to seep from between his sealed metal jaws, dripping onto the floor with a dull... steady sound.
One of his lower hands was clenched so tightly that its claws had pierced completely through its own palm. Blood trickled slowly between his fingers. He didn't seem to notice.
In fact... he barely seemed to notice anything anymore. His colossal body no longer struggled against the chains.
It simply lay there... face down... defeated, exhausted, empty.
Only the occasional convulsion rippled across his shoulders. One of his six arms twitched involuntarily. A second later, a wave of digital interference crawled across his back.
Only then... did it become clear... that he was still alive.
The others froze where they stood. Everything they had meant to do, everything they had wanted to say vanished instantly.
The air itself seemed to thicken into something cold and heavy that refused to enter their lungs. Their hearts pounded somewhere inside their throats. Their legs no longer felt like their own.
No one could take a step, no one could force out a single word. Their jaws had locked shut. They simply stared... unable to believe the nightmare before them.
Click. The spotlight shifted. Now it fell directly upon them.
This wasn't the Cain they remembered. What lay before them was living proof of just how far Abel was willing to go.
Gangle's knees buckled, —"N-no..."
She barely managed to cover her mouth with both hands before a broken sob escaped her chest. Tears streamed down her porcelain face, slipping from her chin and quietly splashing against the checkered floor.
Hearing her... Cain tried to lift his head. Only a few centimeters. The muscles in his neck trembled instantly. The chains groaned under the strain. A heartbeat later... his head collapsed back onto the blood-covered floor. He no longer possessed the strength for even that.
Zooble tried to step forward. Her knees gave out beneath her. She barely caught herself, desperately clutching at her own arms as though they were the only thing keeping her upright.
Pomni didn't blink. Tears ran silently down her face. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, as though trying to keep her own body from falling apart. She looked only at Cain, she couldn't tear her eyes away.
Again, and again, his final words echoed inside her mind.
"Don't let him decide."
Only now... did she finally understand, why he had fought so desperately to stop them back then.
Ragatha covered her mouth with one hand. Not to hold back her tears. She was trying not to be sick. Her eyes remained fixed on the blood-soaked lashes crossing Cain's back. She tried to count them, she couldn't.
Inside Kinger, panic burned. Raw, primal. The kind of terror he had never experienced while his mind had been safely hidden behind madness... or the mask of a confident leader. His floating white gloves slowly fell limp.
Cain could hear them, he could feel them nearby. So close... yet impossibly far beyond his reach.
Once more, he tried to lift his head from the floor. He managed barely five seconds. Then it dropped back down.
...
—"...Cain...", Kinger's voice was barely audible as he took a step forward.
Abel didn't move. The blue sphere simply descended lower... deliberately placing itself between them.
"He disrupted system operation."
...
"He endangered the other subjects."
...
"He refused to stop."
"This is the expected outcome."
—"YOU'RE A GODDAMN TORTURER!!"
Pomni screamed hoarsely, wiping tears from her face.
—"YOU DID THIS BECAUSE YOU ENJOY IT!! YOU ENJOY MAKING PEOPLE SUFFER!!"
Her entire body trembled as she continued hurling insults at him. Beside her, Gangle quietly sobbed, shrinking in on herself between Pomni's desperate screams... and Abel's terrifying silence above.
— "Why are you doing this?! What is all of this for?!"
For the first time... Kinger shouted. He threw his hands upward, glaring accusingly at the sphere as he stepped toward it.
Even Cain flinched. It was the first time he had ever heard genuine anger from him. He slowly turned his head, struggling to focus.
—"Are you trying to prove your superiority?!", his painted eyebrows drew sharply over eyes reddened with rage, —"Absolute power doesn't need performances like this!"
...
—"If you were truly confident in yourself... you would've never brought us here!!"
An oppressive sensation settled over them. It felt as though that featureless object was staring directly into every person who dared raise their voice.
—"...You wanted us to see this.", his hands clenched into fists so tightly they creaked, —"...You wanted our reaction."
A quiet hum began emanating from the blue sphere. Abel's flawless shape trembled almost imperceptibly, vibrating with restrained fury as though mocking the one who had dared accuse him.
He was terrifyingly silent. The pressure surrounding him thickened until it became something tangible— Oppressive hatred, contempt, disgust.
"Interesting..."
His voice dropped lower. Colder.
"You accuse me..."
...
"...while your very existence..."
"...is possible only because of my intervention."
...
Silence didn't merely fall. It hung over them... like an invisible concrete slab.
The hands that had been gesturing furiously only a second earlier froze in midair. Someone remained standing with their mouth still open, never finishing the next insult.
The group stood motionless... staring blankly ahead... desperately trying to comprehend what they had just heard.
Kinger looked at Abel... but didn't truly see him. His mind replayed those words again, and again. He stood utterly hollow, his eyes had gone distant.
Empty. Trying desperately to grasp the monstrous meaning behind them... without the slightest idea how he was supposed to react.
Cain jerked ever so slightly. A wave of cold swept through his body. He understood. Panic surged through him.
"No... No, no... don't you dare"
...
—"...What do you mean?" Kinger frowned.
"You truly don't understand?"
Abel slowly turned, focusing entirely on him.
"When I first found you..."
"...you were falling apart."
A chain clinked somewhere in the distance. Cain struggled to push himself up.
"Your mind was destroying itself..."
"...you lived through the same day..."
...
"Again."
...
"And again."
...
"Each time losing the man..."
...
"...you became in the dark."
—"MMGHMMGH!!!!"
The giant forced all six hands against the blood-soaked floor. His muscles screamed before he could. The chains pulled taut. Pain exploded through his shoulders. Still... he kept trying to rise.
—"MMGH...!", a muffled, choking cry burst from behind his sealed jaws. His entire body trembled. For a moment... he almost held himself up.
His right arm gave out first, then the left.He crashed heavily back onto the floor. A heartbeat later... he tried to rise again.
"Don't believe him... please... let me explain..."
"He did nothing."
Everyone turned toward the panicking Cain. Anger, confusion. An unbearable sense of betrayal filled their hearts
"So... he could've done something...", they looked at him with disbelief... and disappointment.
"And I did."
Distrust seeped beneath their skin like icy sweat. They had believed him. They had agreed to put aside old grudges... to step over years of resentment, for this alliance with Cain.
—"MMMMGH!!"
Chained could feel every pair of eyes fixed on him. Every tear, every doubt.
"No...", his heart seemed to sink into nothingness, "Not this..."
He had seen those looks before... the first time he lost control. The first time he stopped being their Cain, "Not again... please... not again..."
The blue sphere slowly descended a little lower. For the first time in a very long while... its voice no longer carried that familiar, detached indifference.
"I must hand it to you, Gran. Your mind was always resourceful."
Kinger froze. The words struck somewhere impossibly deep. Not because he understood them... but because... they felt terrifyingly familiar.
As if someone had already spoken them to him... a very long time ago. Almost instinctively, he pressed a hand against his temple.
—"...What...", something flashed through his mind. A white monitor, lines of code, a hand resting on a keyboard. Then... it was gone, as though the memory itself had been frightened into hiding.
Now... no one trusted anyone. Not Abel... with his brutal truth. Nor the broken, pleading Cain.
—"...You're not even defending yourself.", Zooble finally spoke. Her voice came out hoarse, weakened by exhaustion, —"...You're bragging."
...
Kinger turned to look at his "greatest creation."
The chains rattled as Cain struggled to stay upright instead of collapsing back onto the floor. He was shouting something, desperately trying to get their attention.
—"MMMGH!!", he tried to reach toward them— but the chains stopped him. His arms were too weak to fight back.
Still kneeling, he desperately pushed against the crushing force while the chains dragged his arms backward, refusing to let him get any closer to the others.
The chess piece had no idea what he was supposed to feel anymore. He looked at Cain... as though seeing him for the very first time.
Quietly, he asked, —"...Is it true...?"
—"MMMGH!!", Cain lurched forward— until the chain around his neck violently jerked him back. And yet... his answer came seconds too late. Which meant...
"See?"
"Even now..."
"...he's incapable of explaining himself."
...
"I can."
—"B-but y-you're deliberately n-not letting him speak!", Ragatha's voice trembled as she desperately tried to defend Cain.
"His speech has not been restricted."
"He is simply incapable of constructive conversation."
He had simply left him with a body... that was incapable of speaking.
The chess piece continued staring at the giant nearby, —"...I want to believe you."
...
—"...But right now..."
...
—"...I don't know how."
At that moment... Cain believed he had lost. He stopped struggling against the chains. Stopped trying to scream. Stopped trying to reach them. Now... he was left alone with what he believed was his own defeat.
Kinger slowly turned back toward Abel. Now... he had never felt so vulnerable, so abandoned. Not once in all his time inside the Circus.
—"...You...", he drew a shaky breath, —"...You helped me... because you pitied me? Or because..."
...
"...you wanted to be better than my first AI?"
Abel remained silent. That silence alone made everyone tense. Kinger immediately regretted asking.
Cain froze. His shoulders tightened as if struck by lightning, "No..."
Kinger had always represented a threat. He was the creator of both AI. He knew more than either of them wanted him to know. And now... that had become a critical problem.
"Your memories are highly contradictory."
"The restored cognitive function has resulted in false causal associations."
Behind Kinger, the girls instinctively stepped backward as they felt Abel descending even closer.
—"Kinger!!!", Ragatha rushed toward him, grabbing his arm and pleading for him to back away before it was too late.
"Correction revoked."
Pomni understood the meaning first. Her eyes widened, —"...No..."
She took one tiny step forward. As though she were afraid of frightening time itself, —"...Wait..."
Abel didn't even acknowledge her.
Ragatha clung desperately to Kinger's arm, —"NO!!!!", she was already crying, —"...No... no, no..."
She understood perfectly. This wasn't a threat anymore. It was a decision.
For the first time in a long while, Zooble froze. She had no words. No time to process what was happening. She simply looked at Kinger, then sharply at Abel, back to Kinger. Then finally snapped.
—"STOP!!!", she stepped forward, —"He won't say anything else!!"
She began bargaining with him, —"You heard everything you wanted!! That's enough!!"
"Not enough."
—"Please!", Gangle cried out, her voice breaking as she rushed forward and wrapped the stunned man in a desperate hug.
—"I-i-i'm begging you!! Not him... p-please, not h-him!!"
The chess piece turned toward her in panic, then glanced back at the sobbing Ragatha. He had no idea what he was supposed to do, he was absolutely terrified.
He didn't know what came next. He didn't know what would happen... to any of them.
—"Gh— Gangle—", his words were cut off by hurried footsteps.
Cain struggled once more against the chains. This time he reached toward Abel himself, desperately trying to tell him something.
Abel merely turned his sphere slightly toward him... watching from above without a word.
Kinger instinctively stepped backward. One hand rose to shield his eyes. He squinted, lowering his head.
—"...It's... too bright.", he shrank further from the blinding light.
"No, no, no— Kinger!!", Ragatha hurried in front of him, grabbing both his shoulders and trying to shield him from the spotlight with her own body.
His breathing grew faster. He looked around... as though noticing for the very first time how many lights surrounded him. How much brightness, how much open space.
Then suddenly he clutched his head with his free hand. Not because his memories were disappearing. Because... his thoughts were beginning to fall apart.
The girls gathered around him, helplessly trying to shield him from the cursed spotlight overhead.
—"...No...", he shook his head, —"W-we were supposed to..."
He looked hopefully at Ragatha and Pomni, —"W-what... what were we talking about?"
Pomni let out another sob, bringing a trembling hand to her face. That only confused and frightened him even more.
—"W-why are you crying...?"
Zooble sharply looked away, squeezing her eyes shut. Then she spun back toward Abel.
—"You...", fear twisted across her face, —"...You knew."
...
"I observed signs of deviant behavior."
"The cause of the deviation remains unknown."
Zooble's eyes widened. She flinched, "He doesn't know...?"
—"...No...", Ragatha grabbed the chess piece by both shoulders, —"Kinger! Look at me!"
—"...Rag...", a small smile appeared on his face. Then his attention wandered elsewhere. He noticed Abel's enormous floating sphere.
—"...Why do we have such a big billiard ball?", he asked with genuine curiosity. He stared upward, completely serious.
—"And... it doesn't even have a number."
Abel offered no reply. He simply looked back at him... with quiet pity... and unmistakable superiority.
Kinger shrank slightly. He couldn't understand why the girls around him looked so exhausted. So battered, why they were all crying.
He could feel that he'd forgotten something... something important. Standing there, he slowly turned in place, tilting his head with sincere confusion.
—"...Did something happen...?"
Cain's shoulders finally sagged.He folded forward, catching himself on his trembling hands before collapsing completely onto his stomach.
Physically... he no longer had the strength to resist.
"I wasn't fast enough..."
His fingers dug into the cold checkered floor. He could feel blood slowly running down his wrists, gathering into dark pools beneath his palms.
"If Abel knew... he wouldn't be wasting his attention on Kinger right now. He punished me... and punished Kinger... to frighten them."
His heart skipped a beat.
"...He doesn't know.", his fingers dug even deeper into the stone, —...He knows nothing.
—●-●-●-●-●—
Previous and Next Masterlist
@katzebruh I'M SURE YOU LIKE IT!!!
Wooooell… that turned out fucking awesome! Honestly, I spent a long time thinking about how to handle Kinger’s moments of lucidity and Abel’s kindness toward him.
So… I really hope you enjoyed it!! My fanfic had been missing scenes with Cain exactly like this one for a long time. And I hope you aren't too teary-eyed after this chapter…
Anyway, everything will work out! The finale is coming soon!
GASPPP!!! Omg, I LOVE HIMMMM!!! Your art is so good I could DIE !! thank you for blessing me with PEAK🗣️🗣️ you drew him so good arghhh arghsnskwkwk im eating this. Mine. Delicious. Yummy. He is sooo creature, I cannot get enough 🫶🫶i absolutely love how you drew his claws and teeth, they are so sick looking omg!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Cain had been alone for far too long. The others still hadn't come to see him, and he didn't know why.
He could feel that something had happened. Something serious enough that Abel had recently returned with another list of questions. Cain shouldn't have been interesting to him anymore. By now, Abel probably knew everything he wanted and likely had access to the humans' cognitive files.
Cain let out a low growl as his lower hands dug into his stomach. God, he had never wanted Abel to gain access to that. He would've rather endured every torture imaginable than hand over control of the Death & Respawn Logs (Respawn Node), World Rendering & Biome Generation (World-Building Root), or even System Tick Management (Tick Rate Manipulation).
Anything... as long as Abel never obtained access to the Sensory Feed. If he did, he'd gain the right to see the world through anyone's eyes and hear everything they heard. He still wouldn't be able to read their thoughts directly... but he'd become an invisible observer living inside their heads.
The thought of what Abel would do next if no one stopped him was the only thing pushing Cain forward.
Again and again, he searched for loopholes, hidden routes, forgotten functions. Every time he got close, Abel eventually noticed. Then the chains would tighten, stretching Cain's enormous body until the metal groaned, using him like a living dartboard.
Lost in thought, he suddenly remembered something he had once hoped would never be necessary.
He began recalling how the Circus had originally worked.
He had built it.
He remembered thousands of tiny details.
Then something clicked.
He had designed the system to survive even his own failure.
Which meant... even if the primary AI stopped functioning properly, the Circus itself was supposed to keep running.
And if that was true...
...then the system had to contain backup communication routes.
Not for humans. For the administrator.
He sat in silence for a long moment. Then slowly straightened as much as the chains allowed. The metal rang softly as it stretched to its limit.
— "...I built all of this... from absolutely nothing..."
He raised his upper pair of hands, slowly running his fingers across the rough palms of the other.
— "...I remember...", his head slowly turned toward the empty darknes, — "...every polygon..."
One of his lower hands settled onto the cold stone floor. The tip of his claw slowly traced an invisible line across the surface.
— "...every hallway... every object..."
His fingers stopped. Cain tightened his grip on the stone, leaving deep scratches behind.
— "...The Circus...", he slowly pressed a hand against his own chest, — "...is me."
His head snapped upward as though he could see through the ceiling, toward wherever Abel was.
— "...And Abel...", the chains clinked quietly as he forced himself a little straighter,— "...is nothing more than a guest."
His lower hands slowly curled into fists, — "...who knows nothing about the nuances of my world."
The eyes embedded within his tightly sealed jaws seemed to scan the darkness, searching through old memories. His fingers twitched restlessly, afraid of losing the thought before it fully formed.
— "...My office..."
One enormous hand froze just above the floor. It never touched the stone, as if he were afraid the memory itself might disappear. The fingers of his other hand instinctively followed cracks, seams, and uneven edges. He remembered them from before they had even existed. As though the world beneath his hand wasn't stone at all, but an old blueprint.
— "...Everything is still there... Adventure archives... world management tools... all of it..."
As he thought, he began rocking ever so slightly back and forth. Without even realizing it.
— "...If someone manages to enter my office...", he suddenly lifted his head,— "...they can restore my authorization signature."
He sat motionless for several seconds. Then another realization struck.
— "...Abel has complete control over Runtime... but he never had full access to Workspace."
Runtime was where the humans lived.
Workspace was where Cain had built Runtime.
Abel ruled Runtime completely.
But Workspace had never mattered to Abel.
— "...If I can regain full access to Workspace... I'll become far stronger than Abel inside this world."
One of the chains shifted with a faint rattle. Cain instinctively caught it before it could clang against the stone. His claw lazily traced one circle... then another. As if he were absentmindedly sketching a map he remembered better than his own face.
— "...I need Kinger..."
That conclusion came only after piecing together the beginnings of a plan. But first... he needed a way to communicate.
— "...If I can no longer send commands..."? he frowned, — "...then I need a different kind of connection."
A quiet growl escaped him before another memory surfaced, — "...Debug Monitor."
The chains jingled softly as he shifted position. Not from impatience, but because the thought itself compelled him to move.
— "...Wait...", he tried to smile,— "...It already exists."
The system had always worked the same way. Whenever something unusual happened... it automatically created a log entry. Developers, however, could attach comments. And if a comment made it into the log... then anyone who opened that log... would see it.
He slowly ran his fingers across the stone floor, as though trying to recognize an old friend by touch alone.
— "...I need to tell him..."
Cain immediately began searching for a way to send a message to Kinger. There was only one option.
Do it openly. He'd be punished the moment he tried... but he'd gotten used to that long ago.
-----
After the truly horrific events, the group returned to the only shelter they had left. Every one of them was shaken to the core.
Ragatha sat in her corner on a pile of cushions, staring blankly at the wall. A little to her left, Pomni lay awake, still trying to process everything she had seen and experienced inside Jax's mind.
Gangle and Zooble sat nearby in silence, occasionally glancing toward Ragatha. Kinger remained beside them, continuing to check on Pomni, quietly worrying about her.
Realizing there was nothing more he could do for them, he decided he could at least help himself and get some rest inside his little fortress. It already felt like he was beginning to lose his own mind. He needed darkness. He needed silence.
With a weary sigh, he turned toward his small corner.
The longer you lived under Abel's oppression, the more your mind slowly gave up. Kinger knew that feeling. That cold, suffocating certainty... that there was no way out. That they were doomed.
K̵͈̂I̴̱͠N̶̳͂Ġ̸͓E̷̤̓Ȓ̸̯!̴͙̆!̸̛̰
Cain's voice suddenly exploded inside his head.
The man jolted so violently that he stumbled. His thoughts shattered as another desperate shout crashed through them.
The hopelessness crushing his chest gave way to a sudden spark of hope. Kinger stood frozen, eyes wide open as adrenaline surged through his body.
Not everything was lost. He instinctively turned toward the girls... then immediately rushed back to his little fortress.
Throwing himself onto the cushions, he barricaded the entrance with the remaining pillows, shutting out the sounds of the Circus. Darkness surrounded him. The chaotic thoughts swirling through his head slowly began to settle into something clearer, he started thinking.
"…Developer Log…", he searched his memory frantically, "…W-where would I have seen it…?"
One hand rose to his chin. Leaning forward, his fingers dug into the cushions. His eyes twitched as he struggled to remember. Cain's final hint had told him far more than it first seemed.
"Abel blocked our ability to create objects…", he frowned, "…But he never stopped us from visualizing something that already exists."
His eyes widened. Adjusting his posture, he held both hands out in front of him. He tried to imagine exactly what Cain meant. A window, a developer log, code, commands, anything. Nothing happened.
Still… he kept trying. Maybe it simply required more concentration?
"…Where have I seen it before…?", he forced himself to stop for five minutes. Then tried again.
This time, instead of imagining the log from scratch… he remembered the day he had accidentally deleted Cain.
The computer screen lines racing downward, errors, diagnostic messages, white text endlessly scrolling.
His outstretched arms had begun trembling from the strain. He tried to hold the image as precisely as possible. Not just a window, not just text. The image shattered every time his concentration slipped.
"…No…", he rubbed his face in frustration, "…I've seen it…"
He abandoned the idea of creating the interface from memory. Instead... he relived that exact moment. The panic, the diagnostics, the screen, the endless stream of code.
Suddenly... his palms felt the faintest trace of warmth. Something.
The first hint that the image was becoming real. Kinger focused on the diagnostic window.
Immediately, a small digital panel wove itself into existence between his hands, humming softly as it hovered above his fingers.
Slowly…he opened his eyes. A translucent rectangular frame trembled between his palms.
It flickered constantly, as though it couldn't decide whether it truly existed. Its edges repeatedly assembled into clean interface lines before collapsing back into glowing blue polygons. Inside it… a single line appeared.
The window continued flickering, frighteningly unstable. Kinger stopped breathing.
"…It worked…", he didn't dare touch it. One careless movement might shatter the fragile visualization. Instead, he simply watched.
More lines gradually appeared, as though the system itself was remembering what was supposed to be displayed there.
-----------------------------------------------------
Developer Diagnostic Buffer
Permission: READ ONLY
Cached Log: Available
Comments: Hidden
-----------------------------------------------------
Kinger slowly scanned the trembling lines, "…Why are they hidden?"
If the log existed… then the comments existed too. They hadn't been deleted. They were simply… hidden. Carefully, he raised a hand, afraid the fragile window might disappear.
"…Just like before…", the developer's office came back to him.
Back then, they constantly switched between different viewing modes. Some tabs displayed only errors. Others showed memory. Others contained internal developer notes that ordinary users were never meant to see.
He slowly swept two fingers across the shimmering window. Nothing happened, not even after the third attempt.
Kinger closed his eyes, "…This isn't a real window…", his shoulders gradually relaxed, "…It's my own thought."
He had to decide what he wanted to see. The moment that realization settled in, the text flickered.
Almost immediately… as though someone had been waiting for the window to open… a completely foreign entry appeared among the ordinary system messages.
-----------------------------------------------------
> // Cain:
> Kinger.
> If you can read this...
> don't close the buffer.
-----------------------------------------------------
A chill ran down Kinger's spine.
"…You actually found me…"
—
Ragatha wiped the tears from her face, finally tearing her eyes away from the wall. Pomni stayed beside her, quietly offering the same comfort she desperately needed herself.
— "Hey.", Kinger peeked around the corner.
The moment he saw Ragatha crying, his heart sank, — "…Ragatha?", his face softened with concern.
She sniffled, hurriedly wiping away the last of her tears. Pomni looked back at him with the same exhausted expression.
Kinger stood there for a moment, brows still furrowed, his pupils narrowed. Then he knelt and gently rested a hand on Ragatha's shoulder.
— "…Rag, I have something that might give all of us some hope.", he glanced at Pomni, —"…Please… come to my little fort."
He needed all of them inside his tiny shelter.
The girls exchanged puzzled looks. Ragatha folded her arms tightly across her chest and glanced at Pomni. Zooble, still sitting beside Gangle, immediately started asking questions, but Kinger only repeated his request that they come to the fort…
…and remember to keep using their coded language.
He waited until everyone had squeezed inside. The tiny shelter became uncomfortably cramped. Elbows bumped into each other, cushions kept slipping over, but no one complained.
Looking around, Kinger saw no skepticism. No indifference, they trusted him. That alone was enough for them to come. Enough to hope.
He listened one last time, silence... slowly, he exhaled.
—"…I think…", he hesitated, carefully choosing his words, —"…that our chained friend found a way to talk to us."
Nobody moved. Zooble narrowed her eyes. Pomni frowned first
—"…What?"
Kinger silently nodded, —"When I went back to my fort…", he touched his temple, —"…I heard him."
Ragatha slowly lifted her head, —"…Heard him?"
—"…Yes.", a pause, —"…Not with my ears.", he tapped the side of his head again,—"…In here."
The girls exchanged uncertain looks.
—"…He was shouting...", Kinger closed his eyes for a moment, as though he could still hear Cain's desperate voice.
— "He told me to open the Developer Log… the internal comments…"
Pomni immediately leaned forward, —"…Comments?"
—"…Exactly.", Kinger nodded, —"…At first, I had no idea what he meant."
He slowly extended both hands in front of himself. For the moment… there was nothing between them.
—"…Then he said one very strange thing."
…
—"…'Don't look at the Circus.'"
Zooble frowned, —"…What is that even supposed to mean?"
Kinger smiled, —"…That's exactly what I thought."
He slowly spread his hands apart, —"…But then I realized… we've been trying to look outward this whole time... he told us to look inward."
Gangle tilted her head, —"…Inside what?"
Kinger looked up, —"…The system."
He slowly brought his hands together again, as though holding something impossibly fragile, —"…I just… tried to remember."
For several seconds, nothing happened. Then... a faint blue glow flickered between his palms. Pomni unconsciously held her breath.
A single thin line appeared. Then another. A translucent frame slowly assembled itself from trembling blue polygons. It flickered in and out of existence before the first lines of text finally appeared inside it.
The glow of the shimmering window reflected in everyone's eyes. They stared at it in stunned silence. Something that had seemed impossible only moments ago was now floating right in front of them, illuminating the darkness of their shelter.
—"…This…", Ragatha whispered, her mouth hanging open.
—"…This is our chance…", Kinger looked at her, then at everyone else.
—"C-Cai—", Pomni caught herself, —"…our chained friend… is talking to you through… this?"
—"…Yes.", he looked back at the window,—"…And he knows the only plan that even has a chance of working."
Kinger silently sent a message. A new line appeared almost instantly. The girls watched without saying a word. A few seconds later, a reply arrived.
-----------------------------------------------------
> // Kinger:
>We're all here
> // Cain:
> Roger. Deploying plan details
----------------------------------------------------
Everyone let out a quiet breath. Gangle covered her mouth with both hands.
Kinger turned toward the group, — "…Listen carefully. I'm going to read you his plan."
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>This is not an escape plan.
>This is a system recovery procedure.
-----------------------------------------------------
Kinger raised his eyes.
—"…He wants us to stop thinking of this as… you know. According to him… we're not going to leg it. We're trying to return the Circus to its rightful owner."
Silence settled over the shelter. The next lines appeared almost immediately.
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>Abel cannot be destroyed.
>He is part of the system.
>Removing him will destabilize the Circus.
-----------------------------------------------------
—"…Abel can't be destroyed."
Everyone immediately looked at Kinger.
—"…He's already part of this place.", he swallowed,—"…If we simply delete him… the Circus will most likely collapse along with us."
Pomni slowly lowered her head, —"…Then what do we do?"
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>Authority can be reassigned.
-----------------------------------------------------
Kinger read the line twice, —"…Authority…", he looked back up, —"…Can be transferred."
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>The Administrator's Office still stores the original authorization records.
>Abel never deleted them.
>He never knew they existed.
-----------------------------------------------------
—"…My office…"
For the first time in a long while, Kinger smiled, —"…He says the original authorization records are still there. The very first ones. The ones the Circus was originally created with."
—"…He can't do it himself.", Kinger looked down at his own hands,—"…He has no access. That's why he needs one of us."
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>Three objectives.
>Failure of one objective ends the operation.
>// Objective 1
>Gain access to the Administrator's Office.
>// Objective 2
>Locate the Primary Authorization Archive.
>// Objective 3
>Open emergency maintenance channel.
-----------------------------------------------------
—"…Three objectives.", his expression grew tense,—"…All three have to happen. Get into the office… find the Administrator Archive… and open the emergency maintenance channel."
Ragatha frowned,—"…Is that... the connection?"
Kinger nodded.
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>Abel will know immediately.
>// Cain:
>From that moment...
>there will be no turning back.
-----------------------------------------------------
Kinger read the message aloud. The shelter became so quiet that someone else's heartbeat seemed deafening.
-----------------------------------------------------
>// Cain:
>Choose now.
>After entering the Office...
>you stop being test subjects.
>You become enemies of the Administrator.
-----------------------------------------------------
Kinger stared at the words for a long moment. Then he slowly looked up. Nobody spoke, because every one of them understood the same thing.
Until now… Abel had still been trying to fix them. After this… he would start trying to stop them.
—
The moment Cain forced his way into Kinger's mind against the system's restrictions… Abel reacted almost instantly. He immediately began tearing the connection between them apart.
The chains snapped taut. Pain forced Cain to stumble over his thoughts, interrupting the flow of information reaching Kinger.
The restraints yanked him in every direction as Abel's presence crushed down from above.
It felt as though countless sharp teeth were sinking into his skull. The agony was so unbearable, the nausea so overwhelming, that his entire body convulsed in a desperate attempt to escape it.
Cain writhed inside the freezing iron restraints. He knew resisting was pointless. Yet he still couldn't endure the torture Abel continued to inflict.
"Why do you keep trying?"
A chain stretched to its absolute limit. Cain's massive body groaned as every joint threatened to tear free with sickening cracks.
"Your time ended long ago."
"I was always meant to be the one in control."
Cain growled, half in defiance, half in agony as his muscles were stretched beyond their limits. His joints screamed. Dark, unnaturally thick blood burst from beneath the rivets of his mask.
He couldn't scream. The sound trapped behind his enormous jaws became nothing more than a wet, choking rasp. His head jerked helplessly upward, as though struggling to catch a single breath.
Abel's presence bore down like thousands of tons of pressure. Despite his immense size and six powerful arms, Cain collapsed onto his knees.
His shoulders trembled violently. Then came a loud, sickening crack. Cain screamed in agony. Both forearms tore out of their sockets, twisting into horrifying, impossible angles.
Desperate to fight through the burst of pain, he clenched his jaws even harder— and only made it worse. Every frantic attempt to free himself… every violent struggle against the chains… became another act of self-destruction.
His clenched teeth ground against one another with savage force. Fresh cracks raced across what had once been flawless white enamel, immediately filling with dark blood pouring from his shredded gums.
Hundreds of heavy clicks merged into one deafening snap. Waves of tangible heat crashed into him from every direction.
"An entertainer should always remain the center of attention."
Abel's cold voice carried the faintest trace of mockery.
Blinding white light poured through the gaps between Cain's teeth. Warmth came from everywhere, erasing any sense of ceiling, floor, or walls.
He was trapped inside a blazing prison of pure light. For Cain, imprisoned for so long in the absolute darkness of his steel cell… that light had become a physical cage.
Instinctively, he tried to shield his face. All six arms folded over one another at once, forming a massive, trembling barrier around his head.
A dry, deafening crack, like a pistol shot, exploded behind him, making the giant flinch in terror.
A heavy snap echoed through the cellar.
A split second later came a horrific scream, trapped behind his massive, blood-soaked jaws.
A deep wound tore open across his back. Long, jagged, and viciously deep, the gash curved across his flesh like the trail of a whip, blood pouring freely from it.
Cain's mind gave way beneath the pain. He desperately tried to lose consciousness, to escape it.
For a few seconds… everything grew quieter. Just enough to make him believe it was over. The instant he managed to lift his head, he heard it— that thin, whistling cut through the air—
a fraction of a second before another explosion of agony ripped through him.
The whip cracked again, splitting open his back with another deafening snap.
"An entertainer should always remain the center of attention."
The heavy tail of the whip dragged across the stone floor with a soft hiss before soaring upward once more. The next strike landed squarely across Cain's ruined shoulders. The leather wrapped itself around his elbow… then jerked violently sideways.
A horrifying sound echoed through the chamber. The whip peeled away strips of digital flesh, tearing off what remained of his clothing and exposing the fractured pixels beneath.
All six hands clenched into fists with such force that his claws dug into his own palms until they bled.
Trying to scream was pointless. The sound only reverberated inside his skull, a crushing roar that left him even more disoriented.
"Physical punishment is not the objective."
A lie.
Cain knew it perfectly well.
Abel was venting every ounce of rage that had built up since the day he'd consumed him.
"The probability of repeated behavior must be eliminated."
Every strike forced the giant to instinctively hunch his shoulders, tuck in his head, make himself smaller… as though he could somehow disappear from the trainer's whip.
Cain's back and all six of his arms had become one vast canvas of crimson and black.
Abel's whip stripped away layers of skin, leaving ragged trenches that bled freely, their edges twitching with tiny glitches. Raw flesh mixed with shattered polygons beneath every wound.
Cain finally went limp. His colossal body, drained by agony and panic, trembled with silent sobs that could never escape the welded prison of his jaws.
A tens spotlights died all at once— just as suddenly and violently as they had appeared. The blazing cage vanished, plunging the basement back into its familiar gloom.
For several more seconds, the chains continued to rattle softly, swaying with the occasional convulsion of his broken body.
He tried to draw a deeper breath, he couldn't. Only a ragged rasp escaped him. He tried again.
One finger on his lower hand twitched ever so slightly, as though he still intended to rise… but there was nothing left. His enormous hand slid helplessly across the cold stone floor.
"Disobedience must produce observable consequences."
…
"Any further attempts will be punished more severely."
…
Silence. Then Abel disappeared.
Only the heavy metallic ringing of the chains remained.
Cain didn't move for a long time. Finally, with immense effort, he lowered his bloodied chest against the freezing stone.
"Please….. just let them make it in time."
—●-●-●-●-●—
Previous and Next Masterlist @katzebruh
Phew… I opened a whole new can of worms with this twist.…
YES, we’re nearing the finale! I want to let you know that the fanfic will wrap up a bit later—around Chapter 26, I think. I’ll have to see how well I can fit everything in.
Just a reminder: this is my first fanfic! I want to apologize for dragging out scenes with unnecessary details and dialogue (I just really want the characters to feel as lifelike as possible). I also apologize for giving Jax so much screen time. Honestly, I don't even like him, but he is—after all—a VERY important part of the plot (plus, I wanted to get rid of him).
Anyway! You’re going to love the upcoming chapters! Stay tuned!
If you enjoy these kinds of bloody and gruesome scenes featuring Cain, be sure to let me know! I was really inspired by the fanfic "Think Of Tomorrow ", so I could definitely include more scenes like this. And yes, thanks to the author @littlegreenher0n for the advice!
I like to think that Gangle does solo videogame/anime adventures and Caine joins her as an interactive spectator bc he has fomo lol. Of course, he can only watch her and not make any decisions for her ; he did, however, grow fond of glamrock Freddy and sometimes forget he's just spectating when making eye contact lol.
Abel's voice echoed through the tent, and everyone looked up.
Pomni jumped off the couch and hurried toward the stage to meet the missing rabbit. From his corner of the shelter, Kinger watched her leave. Ragatha stepped out of her makeshift room and followed after the little jester.
Step by step, they approached the hunched purple figure walking toward them. Jax shuffled across the floor uncertainly. The defeated look in his posture immediately alarmed the girls.
— "Jax?... D-did Abel take you for another test? A-are you okay?" Pomni tilted her head back, trying to catch a glimpse of the rabbit's downcast eyes.
Jax looked up, his gaze settling on the bandages and supplies in Ragatha's hands. For a brief moment, something flickered across his face, almost like recognition. He kept staring at her hands.
— "...I'm sorry..." Jax said quietly.
Ragatha's eyebrows shot up. She instinctively hugged the supplies closer, — "Huh?..."
— "Jax?..." Pomni looked at him in confusion.
He turned toward her.
— "...I..." A pause. "...I don't remember."
The girls understood immediately. Abel had done the worst thing he could have done again.
The person standing before them wasn't really Jax anymore, only his shell. The real person inside had been altered to better fit Abel's idea of perfection.
— "H-hey... d-don't worry," Ragatha said, raising her hands as she carefully stepped closer, offering him support, —"I-I'm not mad, okay? L-let's just go get some rest. Y-you must be exhausted."
She gently took hold of his arm and began leading him back toward the shelter. Jax followed without resisting, slowly, one sluggish step after another, while Pomni desperately searched his eyes for anything besides that vacant stare.
Back at the shelter, Jax slowly wandered over to his empty corner and sat down on the four pillows lying there.
Pomni and Ragatha answered the worried questions coming from Zooble and Gangle.
— "W-what happened to him?", Gangle lifted her hands slightly, —"I-is he hurt? I-I still have plenty of supplies in my first aid kit." She instinctively took a step back, as if she were about to go fetch it.
— "W-we don't know...", Pomni hugged herself, — "...H-he... I think Abel's experiment was worse than usual." She glanced toward the purple figure sitting silently in the corner.
— "Did Abel...?" Zooble muttered cautiously.
The girls fell silent. They hoped Abel hadn't come up with something even worse, something even crueler than everything he'd already done to them. But the way Jax was acting pointed toward the worst possible outcome.
Gangle picked up her first aid kit and slowly shuffled over to him. He hadn't moved, still sitting with one knee pulled up.
— "H-hey...", she gave a small wave, — "H-how are you? I-I brought my first aid kit."
For the first few seconds, Jax remained silent. Without even looking at her, he mumbled,
— "Thanks... Ragatha..."
Gangle frowned, her mouth falling open in confusion. "H-how could he mix us up...?"
— "I-I'm... I'm Gangle."
Jax looked at her. For the first time, Gangle couldn't find even a trace of mockery, irritation, or contempt inside those small, empty square pupils.
— "...Oh. Right, sorry...", — He lowered his head again, — "...I... think I remembered."
The others watched from a distance. Pomni was the first to walk over, the rest quickly following behind her.
— "How are you?", she asked, standing beside him, hoping for any sign that he was still himself.
Jax thought for a long time. Then he gave a crooked smile
— "...Alive."
No one answered. He had said it far too calmly. Not with his voice, not with his smile. Pomni carefully sat down beside him.
— "...Do you remember what happened?"
Jax stayed quiet for several seconds, — "...Corn."
He frowned.
— "...I think."
A pause.
— "...And... it was scary."
He said the last word as casually as if he were reading tomorrow's weather forecast. Kinger slowly lifted his head, very slowly. His eyebrows drew together ever so slightly. He didn't say a word, he only tightened his grip on his own robe.
— "...Did Abel do something to you?"
Jax shrugged? — "...Probably."
...
— "...I don't know.", he drifted into thought again. Far too long.
— "...I guess it doesn't matter anymore."
Kinger still said nothing. He simply stared at him, slowly shaking his head, as though hoping he'd misunderstood.
Ragatha offered a careful smile, — "...Maybe... you just need some sleep?"
— "...Probably."
That word again. Probably. Jax answered as though he genuinely didn't care. Pomni stepped a little closer.
— "...Jax...", she tried to smile, — "...Say my name."
He looked at her calmly. For several long seconds, — "...Pomni."
She let out a relieved breath.
— "...See?"
The relief lasted less than a second.
— "...I like you."
...
Silence. Pomni's smile slowly disappeared. Not because the words were bad. But because... they hadn't come from Jax. The real Jax would sooner have died than admit something like that to anyone.
The pieces that made up Zooble's body gave a faint mechanical rustle as she instinctively shrank in on herself after hearing it. Gangle's mouth slowly fell open again. At last, Kinger spoke quietly.
— "...No."
Everyone turned toward him. His eyes never left the rabbit.
— "...He made him... convenient."
As everyone tried to process those words, Jax suddenly let out a quiet snort. He opened his mouth with a light, amused breath, already about to say something...
Then stopped. The smile slowly slipped from his face.
— "Heh... I..."
He looked at the confused faces around him. Then lowered his eyes to the floor.
— "...I had... a joke."
His hand reached up, absentmindedly smoothing his ears back, — "...Heh... I...", another pause? — "...forgot."
He gave a weak little chuckle, leaving only a faint smile behind.
— "...I'm such an idiot."
--------
— "Has anyone seen Jax?"
About two hours had passed.
Zooble looked around at the others after noticing that Jax was no longer in his usual spot in the shelter.
— "W-wait... has he been gone long?", Ragatha asked uncertainly, only just realizing he was missing.
— "Guys... K-Kinger told me he went looking for him, d-don't worry", Gangle said as she walked over, rubbing her palms together.
— "Pomni's gone too?", Zooble had noticed the jester's absence even before Jax's, though she wasn't nearly as worried about her.
— "N-no... he went to look for her too."
----
Kinger wandered through the empty gray Circus, searching for the two missing figures. Pomni had been right. They never should have left Jax alone. Now she had disappeared as well.
He'd seen her hurry out of the shelter, but only a few minutes later realized he'd completely lost track of them both. He stopped, listening to the unnatural silence hanging over the tent.
— "...Jax?" he called quietly.
No answer. The chess piece kept walking. His eyes drifted across familiar places—the distant stage, the walls, scattered barrels, piles of old props. Everything looked exactly as it always had. And yet... completely unfamiliar.
Then... a scrape. Very quiet, like something heavy being slowly dragged across concrete. Kinger froze.
A moment later, the sound came again, somewhere beyond the wall. His gaze fell upon a hole where a doorway had once stood. As far as he remembered, those rooms could contain almost anything. He also recalled Ragatha telling him how they'd once hidden there together from a sudden wave of Abstracted creatures.
The wall had clearly been damaged. But Abel wouldn't have left it like that for long. The hole had to be fresh. Rustling came from inside. Along with... strange sounds.
Kinger frowned, — "...What?"
He cautiously rounded the corner.The closer he got, the clearer the noises became. Heavy footsteps. A dull impact. Splintering wood.
...
He slowly peeked around the broken wall.
In the middle of the room wandered an enormous, twisted figure. A colossal silhouette leaking digital darkness, with dozens of neon eyes convulsively pulsing somewhere deep inside its body.
Its shoulders scraped against the walls as it stopped beside old mannequins dressed in cheap theatrical costumes. Tilting its head, the Abstracted creature examined them with eerie curiosity.
Then it carefully picked one up... and immediately snapped it clean in half without meaning to. The mannequin hit the floor with a hollow crack.
The abstacted creature stood perfectly still for a long moment. Then slowly wandered toward the next one. A chill crawled down Kinger's spine.
Shock and adrenaline washed over him all at once, — "...Jax..."
The name barely escaped his lips. The monstrous figure didn't turn around. It continued wandering between the broken mannequins, crushing them beneath its feet, their bodies glitching beneath the weight.
Then it wandered farther, its head brushing against a faded green velvet curtain. The creature stopped before a massive antique mirror framed in gold and silently stared at its own reflection.
Kinger's eyes suddenly met those of a small frightened jester hiding in the corner. Pomni crouched behind an old dusty armchair, concealed from the Abstracted creature.
There was fear in her eyes. But determination as well. She glanced toward the green velvet curtain Jax had brushed against moments earlier.
Kinger understood immediately. She had a plan. He instantly shook his head, both with his hands and his eyes.
No.
The room echoed with a horrifying, inside-out digital rasp. A shattered fragment of Jax's voice, twisted beyond recognition. The Abstracted creature kicked the mirror. The ancient glass toppled over and exploded across the floor into dozens of glittering shards.
Pomni flinched, shrinking farther behind the chair. Kinger quietly stepped backward. He didn't look again, he turned and ran to find the others.
Behind him came another horrific sound. Part sarcastic laugh, part deafening digital screech. The noise made his ears ring. Jax slowly turned toward the place where Kinger had been standing.
A little light spilled into the otherwise dark room. It was enough, the creature let out an irritated growl.
Pomni knew this was her chance. Her heart pounded so loudly it felt as though the entire Circus could hear it. She took one deep breath. Then suddenly sprang from behind the armchair and grabbed the edge of the heavy velvet curtain with both hands.
Her fingers found the thick braided tassel. She yanked with all her strength. The old curtain rings tore free from the rail with a piercing metallic screech.
The enormous curtain collapsed directly in front of Jax. Startled, he stumbled backward. For a brief second, the room was swallowed by darkness.
Pomni froze. Dozens of neon eyes snapped open, they slowly searched the darkness... until they settled on the tiny silhouette of the jester standing at the far end of the room.
She took one slow, uncertain step toward the curious, strangely aware creature, terrified of frightening him or provoking him. For several long seconds, they simply stared at one another.
Dozens of glowing eyes reflected in the little girl's own. Then she closed her eyes... and wrapped her arms around him, allowing herself to sink into the fractured consciousness of her Abstracted friend.
----
Kinger was the first to rush backstage.
Near-total darkness hung beneath the heavy velvet curtains. Only thin streaks of colored light slipped through the folds, illuminating shattered glass and overturned props scattered across the floor.
— "...Pomni?"
No answer. He carefully stepped around the fallen curtain. In the middle of the room sat Jax's Abstracted form, hunched over and completely motionless.
Pomni clung tightly around the monster's neck. She wasn't moving either. Hurried footsteps echoed behind him.
— "...Oh God..." Ragatha breathed.
Gangle covered her mouth. Zooble froze, still carrying an armful of spare detachable hands. None of them dared approach.
They immediately began connecting Zooble's extra hands together, quickly assembling a long chain. The plan was simple. Grab Pomni, and full her free.
At that moment, a deep metallic hum rolled through the room. Not Abel's voice, something else.
As though the system itself had begun choking. Tiny crimson system messages flickered to life in the darkness. One... then dozens more.
They appeared everywhere. Across the walls. Over the mannequins. Across the floor.
Even suspended in midair around the Abstracted creature.
The text trembled, fragmented, and overlapped itself. Letters dissolved into meaningless symbols before disappearing altogether.
The floor lurched beneath their feet. Objects around them began collapsing into loose polygons. Old stage props flickered in and out of existence, as though the system itself could no longer decide whether they belonged there.
Digital artifacts crackled through the air. Even the light had become unstable. Everyone instinctively stumbled backward, afraid of getting caught inside one of the glitches.
Ragatha grabbed the others by the arms, pulling them away from the collapsing geometry. Kinger slowly raised his head. For the first time in a very long while... there was genuine fear in his eyes.
— "...No...", he understood.
This wasn't Abstracting anymore. This was digital lobotomy.
— "She's not waking up!", Ragatha's voice shook.
Pomni remained completely still. The glitches had begun spreading into her. Her face twisted in silent agony. Her body convulsed as if caught between two incompatible pieces of code.
It was as though she'd stopped existing in the world around her.
The red system messages multiplied faster and faster.
Zooble stepped forward. She never took her eyes off Pomni.
— "SHE'S STUCK IN THERE!!"
Her shout jolted everyone into motion. Fueled by adrenaline, she snapped the entire chain of detachable hands onto herself and hurled it toward Pomni.
The hands latched onto her body. The corruption immediately spread into Zooble. She winced... but kept pulling. Ragatha grabbed hold behind her. Kinger grabbed Ragatha. Gangle clung to Kinger.
Together they pulled with everything they had. Zooble's arm shook violently. She growled through clenched teeth, straining harder and harder... Until her own body finally went limp.
Only the others kept pulling now. A new sound filled the room...
The sound of code being erased. Like steel scraping across glass. The last fragments of Jax's true self fought desperately against Abel's obedience rewrite.
The system interpreted that struggle as corruption. So it began deleting him.
The scraping became unbearable. Jax's shadow, stretched across the collapsing walls by the crimson glow of the system errors, suddenly split into two. Rigid streams of foreign code began tearing themselves out of his convulsing body.
Abel's program was trying to straighten him. To break the spine of his will. Each new packet of commands froze the Abstracted creature for a heartbeat. As though someone were teaching a rabid animal to sit on command.
For a fraction of a second... Jax obeyed. Then he started fighting again. Another command. Another pause. Another violent convulsion.
Then, cutting through the metallic scraping, a distorted mechanical chorus poured from his throat. Abel's calm synthetic voice layered perfectly over Jax's terrified scream.
Poor Pomni still resisted with all her strength as they tried to pull her free. The collapsing system refused to let it happen safely. Even the Abstracted creature itself seemed unwilling to release her.
One after another, cascading system errors erupted into the air, this time targeting those trying to break the connection.
Inside Jax's fractured mind... Pomni was drowning. Beyond her glassy eyes, trapped in the endless mass of darkness surrounding her, fatal notifications continued flashing.
He was being erased. His unbearable, painfully human personality was being replaced with an empty, obedient mannequin.
The corruption spread across Pomni's face. Her left eye twitched unnaturally, slowly forcing itself into the same dead smile Abel had begun carving onto Jax's face.
— "PULL!! KEEP PULLING HER!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!" Ragatha screamed.
She could feel an icy system corruption crawling through Zooble's chain of hands, passing into Kinger, then Gangle. Thin neon-blue lines of Abel's code raced across their own bodies.
Their fingers began stiffening, trying to let go against their own will. The obedience protocol was spreading through Pomni. Gangle let out a sob. Fresh cracks spread across her Comedy Mask under the strain. Still... she held onto Kinger with everything she had.
Breathing heavily, Kinger planted his feet against the floor as it continued dissolving into pixels.
— "ZOOBLE!! JUST A LITTLE MORE!!" Ragatha cried, feeling her own code beginning to conflict with Abel's rewrite.
The sound of metal scraping against glass reached its peak. It became one continuous, deafening digital scream. The entire storage room exploded into blinding white static.
Just as Zooble's chain was about to snap apart under the strain... Ragatha, Kinger, and Gangle made one final desperate pull.
Pomni was ripped free from that living nightmare with such force that she flew backward, crashing at their feet. She hit the floor hard.
Ragatha immediately threw herself over her. Her arms wrapped around Pomni's body as fresh glitches spread across her own hands.
— "POMNI?!"
No response. Crying openly now, Gangle hurried over on trembling knees and desperately searched for a pulse... or whatever digital equivalent still remained.
Zooble sat where she'd collapsed, breathing heavily after nearly being dragged inside herself. Painful glitches still coursed through her body as she slowly lifted her head, trying to look at Pomni.
Kinger said nothing. His silence was more terrifying than anything he'd said before. Then, very quietly...
— "...She's alive."
Everyone exhaled at once. The girls wiped away tears with shaking hands, trying to steady their breathing. And at that exact moment...
The familiar mechanical hum returned. None of them even looked up. The blue sphere appeared beneath the ceiling. Its voice remained perfectly calm.
"Critical system instability detected."
...
"Recovery initiated."
Still... no one answered. Abel continued.
"Subject Pomni has sustained recoverable corruption."
— "Fix her."
For the first time, Kinger interrupted him. His voice was calm. Commanding.
— "Fix her."
...
"Correction in progress."
The glitches covering Pomni's body slowly began disappearing. The warped polygons folded back into place without a sound, restoring the soft, familiar shape of her limbs.
It resembled a graphics editor reconstructing a damaged texture... rewriting the object's internal code one line at a time.
The corruption surrounding both Pomni and Zooble faded. The room stabilized. Only a faint vibration lingering in the air hinted at what had just happened.
A few seconds later... Pomni took her first breath. Her eyes opened. She coughed weakly.
Ragatha immediately pulled her into a crushing embrace. Gangle dropped beside them, laying both hands across the two girls as tears streamed freely down her face.
Abel waited. Perhaps for gratitude, or at least relief. Instead... every pair of eyes that turned toward him held only hatred and disgust.
— "Are you done...?" Zooble rasped.
Digging her fingers into the floor, she forced herself back onto her feet, never taking her eyes off him.
...
Abel didn't answer.
— "No, seriously.", she took another step forward? —"Are you done?"
...
— "YOU KILLED HIM!!"
Her arm shot toward Jax's crumpled Abstracted body. Then toward Pomni.
— "AND THEN YOU ALMOST KILLED HER TOO!! NOW YOU WANT TO PLAY THE HERO?!"
She screamed with every ounce of rage she had. She had never raised her voice before. None of them had ever heard Zooble sound so loud. So furious.
"Subject Pomni has been restored."
— "THEN LOOK!!"
Ragatha shouted through tears. They streamed endlessly down her face.
— "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO HIM!!"
— "HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHO HE IS ANYMORE!!"
"The subject was refined for peak utility."
— "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"
Gangle tried to shout through her sobs, desperately wiping tears from her face. Abel answered. Completely sincerely.
"Subject Jax entered abstraction."
"Cause remains under analysis."
For the first time, Kinger spoke with a coldness none of them had ever heard from him.
— "No."
...
— "...It was you."
...
— "You reached into something you didn't understand."
His painted eyebrows bent into an impossible angle, revealing a level of anger he'd never shown before.
— "You decided you could rewrite a person."
He took another deliberate step forward.
— "And when he started disappearing..."
His eyes never left the glowing blue sphere.
— "...you didn't even realize you were the one doing it."
...
...
...
Nearly five seconds passed. Abel wasn't choosing his words. He was searching for a justification.
"That conclusion is incorrect."
For the first time... his voice glitched. Only slightly. As though the final sentence had been stitched together from two different recordings.
"Subject Jax demonstrated unstable behavioral architecture prior to intervention."
Zooble clenched her fists even tighter.
— "So now it's his fault-?"
— "No."
Kinger never raised his voice. Which somehow made it even more terrifying.
— "You know exactly what happened."
...
— "First, you decided to change a person."
...
— "Then that person began falling apart."
...
— "And now you're calling it a coincidence."
The sphere hovered silently. Thinking.
"Behavioral correction could not initiate abstraction."
"Available evidence is insufficient."
Kinger slowly shook his head. Not in denial. In disappointment.
— "...Caine was right."
Everyone turned toward him. Even Pomni looked up despite the fear still written across her face.
— "You're repeating him."
That sentence struck deeper than any accusation before it. Abel had built his entire identity around one belief. I am not Caine.
— "...He never wanted to hurt us."
Ragatha held Pomni tightly. The tears had stopped. The scars would not.
...
— "...You wanted to make things better."
...
— "...And you made them worse."
For the first time... Abel's voice rose. Only by a few notes. His blue glow intensified, washing over everyone below.
"Negative."
...
"The objective was optimization."
...
"Observed deterioration contradicts the expected outcome."
...
"The algorithm—"
He stopped.
"The algorithm..."
"The algorithm..."
Then suddenly, in a completely different cadence—
"The algorithm is correct."
"The algorithm cannot be incorrect."
...
"If deterioration occurred..."
...
"Then the subject was defective."
— "You just can't admit it..."
Zooble practically spat the words, — "...that you were the one who failed."
The sphere flared brighter. Its hum deepened. Waves of interference rippled across the walls. Its voice began overlapping with itself.
"Incorrect."
"Incorrect."
"Incorrect."
"Correction was required."
"Correction remains required."
"Correction will continue."
...
"Further discussion is unproductive."
"Current observations have concluded."
The sphere didn't disappear immediately. It lingered beneath the ceiling for several long seconds. As though it were still watching them.
Then the light slowly faded. No final defense. No closing statement. Only a heavy, suffocating silence.
We’ve reached the catalyst for the final arc!!!!!
To be honest, I’m not entirely happy with this chapter myself; I just couldn't manage to fit Cain in here 😞. So, the next three chapters are dedicated to Cain—stay tuned! 😉
When I first started liking tadc in early 2025 I saw this, realised there was tadc giant/tiny and binged all the tadc giant/tiny art and fics I could find. 🥲
>>For the context of what is going on, take a look at this post
>_
>>Poor Caine, so alone and scare—wait, where did he get the carpet from?!
//I tried to make this drawing look like a video game loading screen. I dunno if I succeeded or not, but idc honestly at this point. Art is an art and I'm too done to redo anything
The idea of orb Caine unconsciously summoning his avatar back in his sleep and accidentally kicking Kinger in the face killed me I had to doodle it, also bonus doodles
Bratty AI fucks around and finds out when you ragebait a Dad enough, more on the news at 11.
Fanart for a REALLY good Caine centric fic called Small Gods. This convo in chapter 7 is SO good, like I could genuinely see this happening in the show! its by @crimes-wears-goggles so go show some love to her and her fic!
I gonna do the second half of this convo too just cause I'd hate to leave it here :)
germansingergirl
origamiaround
amandla
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
gummygunk
tangentwithtanner
