Chapter Text
A siren blared through the residency halls of the circus tent, harsh and grating. There was still hours before the next day’s adventure, the in-game clock reading 3:07 AM. The Moon was high in the digital sky and the members of the circus all deeply asleep.
Well….. not anymore.
“CAINE I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Jax screamed over the blaring noise, kicking open his door and gripping his ears in attempt to block out the noise.
Zooble stumbled out of their room, retorting to Jax, “NOT IF I DO IT FIRST.”
Pomni was next, her door flying open and the blanket-covered Jester darting out, an almost prey-like look in her eye. She ran straight into the wall across the hallway and fell to the ground, curling into a quivering ball.
Then was Ragatha and Gangle, both looking equal parts concerned and exhausted from the sudden blaring alarm. Gangle was visibly fighting off panic, retreating to the enraged Zooble’s side, while Ragatha dashed to Pomni to make sure she was at least a little okay.
Caine appeared with a poof of cartoon smoke, his demeanor cheerful as ever. “GOOD MORNING MY LITTLE SUPERSTARS!” he shouted over the siren, not even seeming to notice the terrible, grating sound.
Kinger’s door flew open, the robed chess piece bolting out and shrieking, “We have to get to the top! THE FOG IS COMING!” before crashing directly into Jax.
The rabbit curled his lip. “The only fog around here is in your stupid head.”
“What’s in my head?”
“Caine, this better be the best $%^@&*# news I’ve ever heard to warrant you waking us up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE @&#%$* NIGHT,” Zooble snarled, shaking so hard with rage it looked like their pieces were about to pop off.
The siren ended with a tap of Caine’s watch.
“Oh, it is dear Zooble!” he grinned. With a wave of his gloved hand the group was warped to the main floor of the circus tent, most of them falling on their faces from the jarring change in location. Caine shot up into the air, ignoring the groans from the humans below.
“I sounded the Wacky Siren because I have an extra special announcement that simply couldn’t wait until morning! I was doing a bit of reading after finishing designing another hit adventure, and I discovered this thing called psychology! Apparently it’s a whole field of research dedicated to understanding your weird little minds!”
“I don’t think I like where this is going…..” Pomni trailed off.
“It said that having good mental health is very important to keeping humans functional. Who knew! It listed a bunch of boring stuff about ‘relaxation’ and ‘reducing stress’, and I knew that simply wouldn’t work for you adventure-hungry hooligans. Instead, I decided that— Bubble, drumroll please?” he prompted.
The sound of a drum came from the middle of the group, the lot jumping back as they noticed Bubble floating among them as if he was there when they first arrived at the stage.
Caine wound up, unable to contain his excitement, then shouted, “We are getting a therapy animal!” The words appeared in colorful letters above the stage.
The humans were quiet, not seeming to share Caine’s enthusiasm, only careful curiosity present in their demeanor.
“A….. therapy animal?” Pomni cautioned.
“Yes! Apparently having a fluffy, huggable creature around gets rid of stress and anxiety in those that interact with it!”
The group glanced among themselves (Bubble unceremoniously popping for no reason) as Caine continued.
“I’m hoping that having one around will delay or maybe even prevent you all from abstracting. It’s caused by a buildup of negative emotions, so I’m willing to bet that having a way to vent it will help. Plus rewriting the theme song every time one of you loses your mind is getting old.”
“Caaaaan we get a dog?” Pomni asked.
Zooble shut her down in less than a second. “$&@# no, it’ll steal my pieces right off of me.”
“I think it should be a horse,” Ragatha suggested.
Jax rolled his eyes. “Of course you would want a horse. That’s stupid.”
“Fine, what do you want then?” she snapped back.
“I don’t want one at all. I’m fine.”
Kinger stared at the ground nodding to himself as he added, “It should be a really big ladybug.”
As the chatter grew progressively more hostile, Caine shut it down.
“Too late, everybody! I already got one!”
He snapped his fingers, and a new entity popped into existence.
Before them stood a bipedal gray and white stuffed cat, reminiscent of a Webkinz plush if it was seven feet tall. It wore a checkered sweater vest in an array of blues, and a large golden bell was affixed to its neckline. It had short whiskers and little black glass eyes, though no mouth was present on its face.
After a few moments of the six scrutinizing her, Jax rolled his eyes and said, “Great, was I not enough fur-bait for this $&%# show?”
Caine’s pupils had dilated to where the whites of his eyes were almost entirely gone. “For user agreement and licensing purposes I have no idea what ‘fur-bait’ is,” he stated robotically.
The new entity finally spoke, her voice warm and friendly, “Allow me to introduce myself: My names Kitti! Your on-site therapy animal! I’m an AI Caine created in hopes that having a therapist around would help better your mental health. I’m here to listen to whatever struggles you’re going through judgement free. If you need to vent, ask for advice, or even just get a hug, I’m your cat!
Jax sighed, drooping at the sentient play on words. “I get it. ‘A therapy animal’. You made an animal that gives therapy. You think you’re clever, don’t you Caine?”
“Quite so!”
“I was hoping it would be a cat,” Gangle mumbled to herself, her tragedy mask’s mouth turning up for a moment. Zooble looked almost interested and gave a small nod of approval from the back of the group.
“So, um, Kitti. What are your…. Qualifications?” Ragatha asked, awkwardly, clearly not knowing what else to say.
“I’m trained off of data sets from studies Caine pulled from real world medical archives. Psychology is my specialty; I’m coded for it from the paws up.”
“And how sentient are we talking here?” Pomni added, looking to Caine. “Aren’t you afraid to let AIs run for too long?”
“I already have sentience. I’m also designed to be as human-like as possible. The more realistic I am, the more help I’ll be.”
“Plus Kitti is designed to be a permanent installation in the circus. I made her with that in mind, so we don’t need to worry about her suddenly gaining sentience and experiencing a complete emotional and personal breakdown like a certain gummy crocodile.”
Pomni’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to speak, only to be continued over by the excited ringmaster.
“As if this isn’t exciting enough, I’ve added a new room to the circus tent! Kitti will have an office you can access at any time by just asking to visit it! Excetionsapplyincludingbutnot-limitedto:duringadventuresinthevoidorinthecellaradditionalfeesanddataratesmayapply.”
Kinger blinked. “Data rates?”
“What do you say we all check it out together!” Caine cheered, ignoring Kinger completely. He didn’t wait for an answer. With a wave of his cane the world around them shifted, the colorful tent being replaced with an unfamiliar square room.
The warp was dizzying, poor Pomni about to puke for what was likley the millionth time.
Kitti was instantly at her side with a trashcan, catching the vomit just in time. “I gotcha!” she chided with a comforting smile.
“Th-thanks…..” Pomni mumbled, bleary-eyed.
“It looks like a kindergarten classroom,” Jax scoffed, looking around the colorful room.
In a way, he was right.
The room’s walls were a playful blue with white trimmed baseboards, and bookshelves filled to the brim lined about a quarter of the overall wall space. A desk sat facing away from the far wall, creating an alcove for the AI to work. In the center of the room was a large armchair and a blue couch facing each other, a small coffee table sitting between the two pieces of furniture.
Diplomas hung on the walls alongside various pieces of art and motivational posters. Surprisingly, there was no ‘hang-in-there’ poster featuring a cat clinging to a tree branch. A fishtank sat near one of the windows, small fish swimming through the plastic plants and rocks.
The entire room felt…. Calming. Relaxed. There was nowhere in the circus that held the same serene energy.
“Caine this is…. Weirdly normal for one of your creations…..” Zooble stated as the group began to look around.
“If you’re talking about the room, I decorated it! Having the right environment is important for personal growth! I wanted to be happy and cute, but not overstimulating.”
“And I created the AI that made it so, really, the credit goes to me,” Caine added with a prideful expression.
Kitti merely chuckled.
“Why isn’t there anything outside the windows?” Gangle asked, the group turning to look at her. She was at the window next to the fish tank, pointing out into the blank emptiness
“And how even are there windows?” Pomni added. “Aren’t we in the tent?”
“I suppose you would call this a non-Euclidean space. We’re technically not in the circus grounds, but we aren’t outside of it either. The windows are purely for aesthetic purposes. And you can change the weather outside to whatever you like!”
The members of the circus blinked at her, all varying levels of confused and mildly disturbed.
Kitti took a breath and met the gaze of each of the humans. “I know this is probably overwhelming for all of you. Having me around might be an adjustment, but I promise I’m here to help you. Whether you need help with a personal problem, need a hug, or just want some quiet company, my door is always open.”