Reset AU Chapter 5: A Cracked Crown
Kinger really hoped his point was getting across. They could not make Caine understand them better by attacking him or by completely ignoring him. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Elementary school knowledge. They had to show him, truly show him what it meant to be human. Kinger was well aware of Caine’s limits. There were specific firewalls up just so that Caine was unable to feel the full spectrum of human emotions, he could feel dulled versions of them yes, but not at the capacity of a regular human. That combined with Caine practically being a god within this digital world guaranteed that he wouldn’t be able to understand the players within his circus.
It was an unfortunate irony that the limitations originally put in place to keep those within the circus safe now only cause them and their ringmaster more frustration. Hopefully that would all come to an end soon.
The other member’s reactions ranged from shocked to angry. To be more specific, Ragatha, Pomni, and Gangle were all shocked while Zooble immediately made their stance on the issue known.
“Kinger, what do you even mean by that? Break down barriers, taking away admin powers? Number one, how would we do that? Number two, why should we do that? I just- can you explain further?” Zooble did seem irritated but also confused, they obviously wanted him to elaborate.
He supposed that was fair, it was a new situation for all of them. “Okay I suppose some more context is needed. Caine has limitations on what he can feel emotionally. So for example, he can feel the basic emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and excitement. He can’t really feel anything beyond that. More complex emotions such as grief, betrayal, horror, hate, regret, and perhaps most importantly, love, he cannot feel. If we want Caine to truly understand us, to understand what it means to be human, he must be able to experience these feelings as well. They are fundamental to being human after all. Taking away his admin powers is necessary because well..” That one didn’t need much explaining. After all, how was a god supposed to empathize with humans?
Zooble’s brows were furrowed together, they were tapping an irregular rhythm on the plastic material that made up their left arm. They seemed to both be contemplating and still irritated. It was no problem, Kinger knew of their issues with Caine. Pomni also seemed to be in a deep state of contemplation, chewing on her lip as she sat there. The two other girls were reacting similarly to the jester. It seems like they were understanding it. There was only one more to talk to.
A soft voice spoke up. “I agree with this, but how are we going to make Caine more human? I doubt he’d just let us riffle through the settings of the circus…” Gangle’s comedy mask had been long broken, the tragedy on her face matching the lingering hopelessness in her voice. That poor girl couldn’t catch a break. Maybe he should talk to her later to see what was the matter.
“I have a basic plan outlined, there will need to be tweaks to it since when I first came up with this idea the circus was… much different.” His ever wandering mind brought up memories of a different time, one he just recently could recall. The period of time after Scratch had abstracted was a dark era. Focus, this is not the time for recollection. “May I suggest that we move to my pillow fort? My lucidity seems to be slipping a slight amount.”
“Oh Kinger! Of course, we probably should have thought of that. Here, let me help you.” Ragatha’s soft hands grabbed onto his arm to help lead him to his pillow fort. It was important that he was lucid for this.
Every member of the meeting all got up and headed over along with the doll and king. Once everyone was situated within the fort and the entrance was closed Kinger removed the bucket from his head. He felt around until he found the small switch that turned on some very dim fairy lights. They were enough light to be able to make out basic shapes and expressions but not take away his awareness.
“The most important part is that we must obviously make Caine unaware of what we are doing. The area we need to access is behind the stage curtains, not particularly difficult to find but if we venture there Caine will definitely find out, there is an automatic alarm system to alert his Wacky Watch. We will need a specific person to be able to heavily distract him enough to where they can remove the watch either without him noticing or by doing it with his consent.” He assessed the general mood of the cast again. They all seemed to be following along quite well.
“Once that is done me and one other person will venture beyond the curtains and into the developers room in order to try and dismantle the firewall and get rid of Caine’s admin abilities.”
“Wait!” He looked over to Pomni who had interrupted his speech. She seemed to have a question. “Try and dismantle the firewall? So this plan isn’t foolproof? What happens if we don’t succeed?” The jester seemed quite nervous. She had just begun to fully settle into the circus but he supposed the ‘Escape the Circus’ adventure had greatly diminished any progress she had made.
“It’s true, this plan is not foolproof. There are risks involved but it is still the best option. If we don’t succeed, I can’t guarantee anything but most likely everything will simply go back to what it was. But we will not allow that, we will succeed, for the good of us and anyone else who enters the circus in the future.” A look of new determination washed across the faces of those gathered. He could physically see each member straightening their back and pushing aside their nervousness. They weren’t just doing this for themselves,they were doing it for potentially dozens of future circus members.
“This other part of the plan is just as important as the dismantling part. Everyone else should try and contain Caine somewhere where he won’t get hurt once his admin powers are gone. For example if he is far up in the air he could fall and get injured. Or if he is alone in an area of the circus you have to teleport to he might get stuck and panic, etcetera.” The final part of the plan, the most important part. He leveled his sight at each person in the room one by one. “Then, we will talk with Caine, we will show him what it means to be human. We will help him understand.” Various agreements echoed around him. Great, now time for the last person to convince. Jax was extremely important to the plan. He could put a good act on whenever needed and would be very important in retrieving the wacky watch.
He explained Jax’s importance to those gathered, he himself could not go out to convince the rabbit due to his memory issues and lucidity. Neither did he want to force the role of convincing Jax onto someone who did not enjoy his company. At first no one chose to speak up to volunteer which was expected. No one here was on good terms with the volatile prankster. Many of them Jax has abused and harassed. Luckily for him one voice spoke up.
“I’ll do it. I will convince him.” Pomni regarded Kinger with a resolved stare. Kinger searched her face for a second before nodding. This girl would not give up, just what he needed.
“I believe in you Pomni, you are strong. After Jax is convinced we may continue discussing the finer details of the plan.” Pomni nodded at Kinger before exiting the fort to look for the bunny boy. The others all said their goodbyes before leaving as well. Each left with a new sense of hope. They had a plan, they had a potential future.
Kinger sat for a second before turning off the fairy lights. He stared into the pitch black, waiting. It didn’t take long before he swore he could feel it staring back. Familiar coloured eyes popped into his memory. A feeling of regret and grief coursed through him. It had been too long since he had seen her. He hoped she was comfortable.
His hands tightened at his side as he shut his eyes, he reclined his head until it leaned against the pillowy wall. “Don’t worry honey, we’ll meet again soon. I won’t break my promise. I’ll make sure we are reunited.”
It felt as though the darkness responded.
Also what’s this? CHAPTER ART?? IN THIS ECONOMY???
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