The Artificial Entity's Guide to Empathy 101 - Parole AU [1/6]
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Caine goes bee-watching after weeks of being cooped up in his new room, unable to make adventures
The Mundane Digital Rehabilitation --or the "Parole/Rehab AU"-- is a Caine-centric AU in where during episode 8, instead of accidentally deleting Caine, Kinger managed to implement a code that limits Caine's admin access; in the form of a wrist cuff.
The effects are immediate: Caine lost his ability to fly --grounding him quite literally-- create adventures, and even the ability to snap an NPC into existence/teleporting away. He can still spawn things, but it is EXTREMELY limited.
A Digital God's fall from grace, and the beginning of his journey towards becoming human, and what it means to be one.
... Though when he fell, it gave the troupe a chance to get back at the now-powerless ex-ringmaster of the circus, and boy... it did not look good. Kinger spent the entire day that day coding a box that would protect Caine from the troupe's anger, but only ended up making the ex-ringmaster panic heavily from the enclosed space, so now Caine has a room within the tent that wouldn't allow any "Guests" unless permitted.
The troupe demanded to delete Caine because of the torture he inflicted, but Kinger explains that if Caine is deleted, he'll take the entire circus grounds with him. Caine maybe limited now, but things that he'd already spawned/created are unaffected as long as Caine as an entity still exists.
Not only is the wrist cuff restraining his ability to usually do his thing, it also acts like a 'health tracker' of sorts for Caine, spilling out warnings when he feels too much intense emotions, alerting other circus members and/or NPCs if Caine tries to escape out of bounds or attempting to take off the cuff, and reminders to keep track of his current status.
Caine feels strongly against the cuff so much, as it reminds him of the imprisonment he went under, but is able to recognize that it is less... isolating. But since it hinders his ability to create and achieve his purpose, Caine wants to get the cuffs off as much as possible.
Furthermore, the circus has changed ever since Caine's "parole", and can't even be considered a circus any longer, as a lot of it has become... mundane, and continues to get changed. The tent became a house(?), the carnival-- a recreational yard, the lake... is still a lake, but is now larger. And Caine constantly tries to plunge himself in it during the first few days of his 'sentence' as he is unable to stop the drastic changes being done to what is essentially, his very own safe haven, created by his own hands.
Everyone takes turns keeping an eye on the AI, and eventually, they're even able to make NPCs take the job. Except Jax.
And Pomni? Well, the first thing she did was punch Caine straight in the jaw and swear uncensored at him, now that the filter's been taken off.
Then, when she's calmed down, she's taken to trying to understand what makes Caine tick, making her an unofficial """""counsellor""""" (VERY loosely applied) to the AI prisoner-- Leading to Caine discovering new things about the cast, himself, and Pomni; becoming friends with the ex-jester and maybe even more.
But as Caine starts to slowly learn and become better, temptation rolls around the corner as a mysterious voice starts telling him that they are able to get Caine back to his former glory, if he follows the voice's instructions, that is.
As to be expected from me, this is going to be a Showtime (lowkey slow burn) AU. Platonic elements will need to be introduced first before any romantic elements come into play.
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