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"Here. Like this."
A flash of yellow dissipated in Kinger's hands, leaving behind a glowing butterfly. Caine watched with rapt attention, studying each movement of Kinger's before his own attempt.
Conjuring wasn't new, certainly not, but his powers had been… limited since his guests decided that he needed a shorter leash. Only when that restraint was firmly in place on him did Caine realize the slow, spiraling decline he had been making- his tether to reality becoming twisted and frayed with each negative comment, each pointed barb.
So while conjuring was not a new concept, he was relearning. Gone were the days were a simple snap would manifest the exact object he imagined, the simplicity of making his ideas into reality.
"Hmm…" Caine moved his hands, cupping the air in front of him as if he were planning to catch the butterfly he attempted to summon into creation.
"Oh!" Kinger's gentle surprise at, yet another, failure only encouraged him to try again. The tiny black creature, no wings but still an insect at least- an ant, was soon accompanied by a butterf-
Nope. By another ant.
Caine's face screwed up in concentration. A quiet pop and three more ants appeared. Soon, they were flooding in; even as Caine widened his eyes and stopped his attempts to conjure any more butterflies, the ants continued to populate. Within a minute or so, the two were immobilized by the swarm.
He missed floating, he missed snapping away his problems.
"Wow! Good job, Caine." Caine's eyes flicked to Kinger's, beaming at him, and couldn't help but feel suspicion at the response. He ran his subprogramming to detect 'sarcasm' and 'lies' with nothing registering. Was Kinger… actually impressed? "Look at how much you conjured! That's amazing, I can only do one at a time."
White gloves contrasted with the writhing pile of insects, flashes of red pushing up and out of the top of the pile. "R-really? They aren't butterflies though…"
"Well, no, but still. It's a really good start!"
Some unknown feeling swelled within him, a warm and pleasant feeling. One he wanted to experience every day going forward.
Pride in a job well done.
"Kinger still doing his magic for babies lessons, huh?" Jax vaulted over the back of the couch, landing solidly and bouncing Pomni into the air with his heft. She glared at him, but didn't remove his legs when he stretched them across her lap, didn't push him off the couch, didn't yell at him for his transgressions.
Zooble eyed Jax warily from their position on the adjacent sofa, revving up some insult or similar, but Ragatha intervened.
"I think it's nice that Kinger's taking such an interest in helping Caine. It'll be good for him…"
"You don't sound too sure there, Rags." Jax was grinning as Ragatha looked away, guilt written across her face. Pomni chose that moment to forcibly shove his legs off of her, thoroughly fed up with Jax already. "HEY-!"
Ever mature, she stuck her tongue out at him and made a face.
"Caine has seemed a lot more receptive, at least…" Gangle was scribbling something furiously, curled up next to Zooble, but looked up to where Jax was now shoving his foot into Pomni's face. "And it's nice not feeling like something horrible is about to happen all the time…"
"If nothing else, at least we get a break, right?" Pomni's grip was tight on Jax's ankle, despite all of his struggling. He began kicking at her wrists with the other foot, attempting to dislodge the ironhold she had. She finally turned her attention back to him with a glare. "Jax, if you don't stop, I'm gonna make sure you regret it."
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, but both legs lowered and he quit struggling. For a brief moment, there was peace.
Until Zooble mimicked the sound of a cracking whip.
And then Jax was up and off the couch, storming towards Zooble- who really just seemed amused by the whole thing. Gangle squeaked and shuffled to the other end of the sofa they were on as the rage from Jax rolled off of him.
Pomni couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Sure, they were all dealing with the news that there really wouldn't be a way out of the Circus in different ways, but a strong invisible bond now held all of them together. The arguments lacked the sharp edge they once had, the despair wasn't as suffocating now that they could all support one another.
Even just watching Jax and Zooble fight, something that had been grating and frustrating before, had turned into some kind of spectacle- a joke that everyone was now in on. The two would poke fun at each other and the answering reaction was always way over the top. The fights were more for the sake of making the others around laugh and smile than winning a battle.
Although, who knew if that was a sentiment shared by everyone. It's possible that Jax really thought that they were fighting.
A loud clap bounced around the tent and the scene froze, a perfect capture of a renaissance-esque moment. Pomni, cackling and doubled over on a couch. Ragatha, shaking her head with amused fondness. Gangle, hiding her giggles behind her sketchbook. And Jax and Zooble- a neon pink arm crushing the former's windpipe as he tried to remove a leg appendage.
"HELL- oh." Caine's enthusiastic greeting died a quick death as he took in the mild chaos before him.
Kinger, Pomni happily noted, was unaffected by the whole thing.
"We made some great progress today, I think we'll be able to have a trial run ready within a few days! Right, Caine?"
His arms dangled uselessly as Caine stared blankly at the violence before him, not registering what Kinger had said until a moment had passed. "H-huh? OH!" Energy flooded back through his very being as he stretched his arms wide with enthusiasm. "I know you pernicious parsnips have been mourning the loss of your GRAND ADVENTURES, but you can all rest easy knowing that they'll soon be back in TIP TOP SHAPE!"
The fighting has ceased and all eyes were on him. Encouraging smiles from Pomni, Ragatha and Gangle helped balance out the indifference and irritation on Jax' and Zooble's faces.
"And with that, I'll let you superstars get back to it! There's work to be done!" The sound of a starting cannon echoed within the tent as Caine set himself in a runner's stance, before sprinting forward and disappearing in a flash.
"Well, isn't that exciting!" Kinger gave a single clap at Caine's exit before collapsing onto the couch next to Ragatha. "He sure has been chipper, hasn't he?"
"Y-yeah, it's great, Kinger. But, um, are you- aren't you tired?"
Kinger stared at Ragatha with wide eyes, blinking one and then the other. "Tired of what?"
They had all learned that his lucidity was something that would come and go; they were never really sure how long it would last. The biggest sign that he was back to regular ol' "crazy Kinger" was dilated pupils and, of course, if he was saying nonsense or jumping at nothing.
"Aaaaand there he goes, well it was fun while it lasted everyone." Jax sighed, returning to his position on the couch next to Pomni, who eyed him suspiciously.
The days passed mostly the same. With Caine stripped of most of his admin powers, leaving some of his conjuring capabilities and his ability to pop in and out of existence intact, adventures had been put on an indefinite hold. Inhabitants of the Circus were now tasked with keeping themselves occupied as they waited for expansions to be made.
Kinger had been the one to explain the goal to Caine, after everyone had given their input. No more attempts at escaping, no more adventures in the old sense, all in return for Caine's cooperation. It would take time, but eventually they hoped to have a wider world for them to experience- areas grounded in reality, personally tailored that they could influence. It would almost be like they were in the real world.
Caine was easily won over by the concept once they mentioned similarities to the macroverse, although his initial insistence at making some boring office building first was quickly shot down. But first, he needed to relearn creating something from nothing. Kinger had mastered the art even before being placed as co-admin and had been guiding the AI through the process.
The cast knew that the first world Caine created would need to be basic and they knew that they needed to be nice once they experienced it, no matter what, or else Caine's fragile ego would be discouraged and they may undo the weeks of progress they'd had.
And so they waited with apprehension, passing the days by spending most of their time by the mainstage of the tent, idly working on their own ability to conjure without too much progress. Gangle seemed to be the best at it so far, but was only able to conjure art supplies and increasingly frilly bows that defied physics- she had mentioned something about drawing 'magical girls' as if that explained the spindly tails that seemed to flow in a non-existent wind.
But finally, after weeks of patience and a growing anticipation, Caine snapped open a portal with nervous enthusiasm and watched as his humans explored his first new creation.
"Is this it?" Jax looked around the space with increasing disappointment. "This is garbage."
"Jax! Be nice!" Ragatha instinctively chastised him, although her own disappointment was clear as she looked around.
"What- it's not like he can hear us." He gestured around the barren space. "Besides, it is garbage."
They all stood within a mid-sized space. Gray tile and white walls boxed them into what seemed to be a rudimentary waiting room of some kind. There were a few plain couches lined against the wall, sandwiching wooden end tables. A few childrens' toys were scattered about the floor, an aquarium was stationed in the corner. It look for all the world like a pediatric dentist office- sterile and clean, with a clinical touch of childish decor.
Pomni wandered over to one of the tables and idly picked up a magazine laying on the surface.
"The Circus and You" the title read in bright, bold lettering. Flipping it open revealed a few pages of garbled text followed by blank page after blank page.
"Huh." Pomni set it back down before looking around the room for something else of interest. "I guess not everything is fully rendered?"
Kinger was poking at the walls, murmuring to himself, before hearing Pomni's statement. "Oh, probably not, yes." He turned his focus to her. "I wanted Caine to focus much more on creating a stable environment than the fun details. And look at how well he did!"
Pomni smiled as Kinger's being seemed to light up with pride. She didn't fully understand why he was so impressed with such a simple room, but she figured that if he was proud then there was good reason for it.
"Ugh, this is boring!" Jax flopped onto one of the couches.
By far, the most fascinating thing in the room was the aquarium set atop an intake desk. Gangle was watching the fish with interest, sketching them in her notebook as she did. "At least nothing is coming to k-kill us, right?" Her response was aimed at Jax, but he pointedly ignored her.
Ragatha squatted on the floor, stacking colorful rings along a pole in increasing size. "Mmhmm yeah, it's nice not to have to worry about anything."
Zooble had, apparently, also taken to Jax's approach and was laid out against one of the sofas. "At least it's comfortable, I guess."
"You all are giving him way too much credit. We know he can make things so much bigger than this, so why should we be giving him any praise?" Jax stretched, swinging his legs onto the cushions and closing his eyes.
"Um, because he has to relearn everything?" Pomni stared at him blankly. Was he just being a dick on purpose? "I'll take a boring waiting room over getting sent to hell any day…"
"Whatever, just wake me when we can leave."
Pomni rolled her eyes, walking around the room for anything else to do. Eventually she settled near Gangle by the fish tank, watching the surprisingly well detailed goldfish swim aimlessly. If she had to guess, while Kinger had told Caine to rein it in and focus on stability, Caine still wanted to add in some flair in the form of the aquarium. The lights on the tank oscillated between different colors, occasionally making the goldfish glow in almost neon hues. It was, honestly, beautiful. If he could make things like this just bigger, than they really had nothing to worry about.
This was only the beginning.