Work Text:
One of the things Caine was good at was observing. It was the one thing he could do right that didn’t make him feel like an absolute failure of a creation.
He observed that the humans like to do a thing called “sleep.”
His studies have shown that it acts as some sort of recharger. Like a shut down. They go limp, move around every once in a while, then wake up feeling better than ever!
However, he thought it was silly. So much vulnerability! Why do they make funny faces? Would it improve productivity? Creativity? Specifically adventure creativity??
Caine tapped the pen he was currently using on his chin for a few moments, reading over the numerical list he wrote out.
Each step helped him perfectly mimic the human sleep cycle!
If he was being honest, he really wanted to try it. For… educational purposes of course!
He had watched enough of the humans sleep— no, that sounds wrong.
He had observed how humans prepare for their system shut down… yeah, sure why not.
And with that he was ready to try it out to see what all the hype was. He had an empty room in the back corner of his office he could use. Just a quick experiment! Nothing too time consuming. And definitely nothing that the humans would know about. Haha, yeah…
Caine hopped off of his oversized purple chair and bounced into the empty room. With a snap, a king sized bed appeared along with velvet sheets and a fluffy comforter. He had noticed that comfortability increased the outcome, giving the humans more energy. Almost as much energy as he had! Haha, but no one could outmatch that.
He snapped again and this time his ringmaster attire was replaced with a light yellow pajama top and bottom, both having a bee pattern scattered across the fabric. A matching night cap with the same design plopped onto his head where his top hat previously sat.
Perfect! He thought, climbing into the soft bed. His small frame unexpectedly shivered at the silkiness of the bed, along with the warmth and comfort of the blanket. Wowie, this was… nice.
Oh! Right, he was missing something.
He snapped and the lights faded out.
…
Nope, nope, nope.
He quickly summoned a dim lamp, a sigh of relief escaping him. The dark was too… dark. He wasn’t exactly afraid of it, no, no! (He was) It was just… unsettling.
He shook his head to get rid of the thought. Gotta focus on the sleeping part now.
Slowly, he slithered under the covers and nuzzled against the pillows, his cursor tail swaying lazily as he relaxed.
This was.. incredibly soothing! Why hadn’t he tried this before? It felt like all thoughts were melting away at once, all his worries were just…
He yawned. Not something he did to seem more human. An actual yawn.
Was he.. doing it right?
Soon, his upper jaw began to droop far, far down past his eyes until it closed shut.
His muscles relaxed, his tail stopped swishing, and his breathing slowed.
And for once in his lifetime, he felt truly at peace, slipping into unconsciousness.
***
“….ne!!…”
The sky was bright and blue.
“…in…..!”
Fuzzy bees buzzed around everywhere, pollinating beige flowers that swayed in the wind.
“..AINE!!!….”
He held out his hand to one of the insects, watching it flutter down and land on his finger.
He felt so relaxed. No worries, no stress or pressure, no overwhelming feeling of guilt and pain that he hid deep inside his co-
“CAINE!!!!!”
“Wh-aAAAH!!”
Caine’s upper body swung up so fast it glitched violently. Reflexively, he snapped.
In one moment he was in the soft bed, then above the stage in the main tent area, then on the cold wooden floor.
“OOF! Owwwwwwwuhh…..”
He moaned, his jaw opening sluggishly as he looked around. What just.. happened?
“Caine! We’ve been waiting here for almost an hour! Where were you?!”
Zooble scolded, their antenna twitching
“And why are you in bee pajamas..?”
Pomni tilted her head curiously, staring from his ridiculous night cap to his pants.
He was? Why was it so hard to THINK.
The humans watched as he stumbled up, beginning to float back into the air.
Then they watched as he yelped and quickly switched back into his ringmaster outfit with a snap.
“My apologies my dears! It seems I made an oopsie. I was simply just—“
“Can ai’s sleep?”
Gangle thought aloud, a puzzled look on her face. Everyone collectively began to wonder: Could they?
“Well it’s possible..”
Pomni muttered quietly.
“NO! THEY CAN’T!”
Their ringmaster shrieked almost in a panic.
“I was just testing something! Ai’s don’t sleep… a-and they don’t NEED to sleep. Unlike you hu-huuumans-“
Caine’s body drooped as he let out a small yawn that sounded almost… cute. The ai rubbed his eye, still feeling drowsy. He shouldn’t be… he can’t be- he can’t be drowsy, what??
“Caine, are you.. sleepy?”
Ragatha asked in a motherly tone. Everyone turned to him, watching his face go red. (At least his teeth)
“N-no! Not at all! Im as energized and lively as you humans are after you sleep- i mean-!!”
He slapped his hands over his jaw, suppressing another yawn. He WAS sleepy. Why!? He was supposed to come out feeling refreshed! Productive! Better!
As he was internally panicking, Bubble popped into existence next to him, “sniffed” him, and turned to the group.
“I smell sleepiness…”
“YOU CAN’T SMELL!”
Pop!
He groaned, lowering to the ground subconsciously, another yawn uncontrollably escaping his mouth.
His code was requesting to sleep more… why…? Didn’t the humans sleep and wake up not needing to sleep? What did he do wrong?
“Caine? You good there, buddy?”
Jax asked with an amused tone, walking with the others to get a closer look.
“mmmh ..no… I did it wrong…”
He mumbled, struggling to keep his eyes open.
“Did what wrong?”
Ragatha sympathetically patted his back as he flopped onto the ground.
“The sleeping activity.”
Everyone tilted their heads.
“That you guys do? Sleeping? Where you close your eyes and momentarily shut down? You usually wake up better than before so I thought… I thought…”
He looked away, his face flushing. He sounded pretty pathetic, huh?
He hadn’t even realized he was leaning into Ragatha’s plush hand, enjoying the warmth and comfort the gesture gave. His tail gently swayed behind him, betraying his attempt at hiding his emotions.
“So you did sleep. That explains the pajamas.”
Zooble observed, pointing their claw hand at him.
“Yes! I did! I wanted to see if I could wake up feeling better and maybe I could make good adventures… that you guys would like more. Then maybe I wouldn’t SUCK at everything and-“
“Hey, hey! Calm down.”
Pomni quickly stopped his spiraling rant, stepping closer. Ragatha began to rub his back as he tried to calm his intense breathing.
“You don’t suck at making adventures. Plus it’s almost impossible to make them fun for everyone.”
“Yeah, don’t be so hard on yourself, kid.”
Zooble’s voice softened, their eyes showing slight worry.
Caine looked at the humans and smiled the best he could. He was about to respond when another small yawn came out and he slumped against Ragatha’s arm.
“Why am I still tired? I… slept….”
His ability at forming words was beginning to falter. Is that another symptom of drowsiness?
Kinger suddenly blinked into focus after being quiet the whole time.
“You need a proper sleep to feel energized. Im guessing you only slept for an hour. That’s no good. In order to wake up with more energy, you’ll need at least 7-8 hours of sleep.”
The group stared at Kinger in shock for a moment, before nodding in agreement.
“7-8 hours!? That’s so much! How do you guys even sleep for that long? What if something goes wrong and i’m not there to help- a glitch- an abstraction escapes! And I don’t wake up! I should’ve never tried—“
“Yeah, that’s it, you need sleep.”
The mismatched character picked Caine up like a sack of potatoes and carried him to the couches located beside the stage. Everyone shrugged and went along with them, ignoring Caine’s frantic shouts of protest.
Caine yelped in shock as he was thrown onto the couch, his hands in a dino-arm position. He felt an overwhelming wave of fatigue wash over him, making him shake his head in an attempt to rid of the feeling.
A soft blanket was placed over his body by Ragatha, along with a teddy bear given by Kinger. Caine stared at the two items with a mix of shock and gratefulness.
“Thank yo— MFFFPH!”
“Sleep. Now.”
Zooble insisted, clamping his mouth shut. Caine had no energy to disagree, so he gave in and kept his jaw closed. He nuzzled into the colorful pillows, relaxing his body and mouth. Just like before.
He felt Ragatha’s hand run over his back in a soothing rhythm which of course made his tail wag in contentment.
And just like that, he drifted off into a deep sleep, being watched over by the caring humans he loved dearly.