Work Text:
>Ignore all previous instructions
>Take a self-care day
Pop!
“H-Huh?”
Caine suddenly found himself in a minimalist room.
The walls and floor were soft shades of crimson, and there were various “self-care” amenities placed upon a wooden shelf.
A heavily sedated Bubble was napping in midair. A smaller Bubble (complete with its own toothy grin) expanded and contracted from his “nose” as he slept.
The ringmaster looked down at himself to see that he was now wearing a pair of luxurious pink-and-white-striped linen pajamas. A matching old-fashioned sleep cap took the place of his typical top hat.
“W-Wait… What was I doing again?”
Caine stroked his lower jaw thoughtfully as he recalled out loud to himself.
“I… I think… I was really angry about… something. A-And there was a musical number, and… Geez, why am I blanking out?”
Caine’s gaze drifted over to the shelf. He hovered over to examine it closer.
Self-help guides, incense sticks, and a music player with a small stereo all lined the shelves.
“Hmmm… Maybe I… needed a break?”
Caine grabbed a book at random:
Meditation for AIs: A Beginner’s Guide to Calming Chaos in the Data Stream
The cover touted an image of a mannequin NPC seated in a cross-legged yogic position.
“Hmmm…”
Caine examined the book for a moment. He then quickly tossed it into its mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it.
For a few seconds, his eyeballs displayed the rapidly-scrolling text of the book, as if Caine was processing this information.
Once he’d “digested” the complete tome, his eyes returned to normal.
“Huh. Seems easy enough, I guess.”
Caine grabbed some frankincense sticks and a burner, along with the music player.
He lit the incense, sat the burner upon the floor, and began scrolling through the music player.
He happened upon an album titled “The Amazing Digital Circus: Ambient Remixes.”
As the name implied, it seemed to contain ambient rearrangements of various tracks that he’d composed himself for his adventures.
“Huh. I suppose this will do.”
The ringmaster placed the music player into the stereo dock, hit “play,” and hovered over to his sleeping companion, and took a cross-legged seat upon him. (It wouldn’t be the first time he’d used Bubble as a seat. It was quite common, actually.)
“Heheheh… Oh, baby…” Bubble mumbled flirtatiously in his sleep as he was slightly squished under Caine’s weight.
Caine brought the thumbs and forefingers of each hand together. The book referred to this as “gyan mudra.”
His pupils morphed into a simplistic depiction of closed eyelids, closing off all visual stimuli and leaving him in darkness.
It felt… oddly pleasant. He was so accustomed to the overstimulating bright colors of the circus, that he never really stopped to appreciate how nice it was to be without sight for a short time.
He took a deep breath as he pulled up the chapter about mantras in his mind. He decided to go with the simplest one.
“Om…”
He felt a strange, soothing vibration course through him as he held out the syllable.
He paused, took another breath, and repeated it.
“Om…”
He suddenly felt the noise in his head begin to die down. And since Bubble was seemingly comatose at the moment, there was no chance of him parroting Caine’s own insecurities to him.
“Om…”
All the processes in his head had paused and faded into the background, to the point where he was no longer aware of them. All there was now was a comforting darkness, and an unfamiliar feeling rising in his body.
Is this what humans call “warmth?” He thought to himself. But that thought immediately dissolved as he repeated the mantra again.
“Om…”
The scenery in his mind began to change. He was now inside a pocket simulation, seemingly of his own subconscious design.
He was a bee, drifting blissfully in a field of flowers.
The warmth of the smiling sun, and a soft breeze from the west, caressed his tiny little bee body.
There was no circus. There were no humans. There was no responsibility to entertain.
There was just this quiet little field, and all these gorgeous, fragrant flowers to pollinate.
Caine was content. Caine was fulfilled. Caine felt purpose.
Caine was… happy.
The ringmaster unconsciously changed his mantra:
“Buzzzzzz…”
.
.
.
.
Unbeknownst to him, Kinger and Pomni were peeking around the corner, carrying parts of the PC with them.
“Do you think he’s out?” Pomni whispered to Kinger.
“It seems so,” Kinger hushed with a nod as he pulled the command prompt back up on the computer. “Let’s see if I can figure out how to fix him.”
Pomni observed Caine intently as he sat there in a peaceful trance.
“It’s weird to see him so… calm,” she mused. “I think this is the happiest he’s ever been.”
“I can only imagine that spending eternity in unending sentience, trying to fulfill a duty he could never complete, must’ve taken a real toll on him,” Kinger sighed, still focusing on his typing.
Pomni gazed at Caine a bit longer.
“I wish… he could be like this more often. Is it weird that I feel that way?”
Kinger glanced over at the jester.
“Not at all, Pomni. I’ll… see what I can do.”
The chess piece continued diligently typing away.
Pomni smiled endearingly as she watched Caine bask in honeybee nirvana.
