I think Jax was very close to abstracting here—and the way he wakes up with such panic and anxiety—he knows it too—and who is the one to interrupt his possible abstraction?
Ahem, now presenting: My crack theory based on absolutely nothing
Spoilers for Episode 7 ahead
So. It’s been brought into question whether Caine can actually control people’s minds or not. It seems that he can do so for short periods of time, but doing so long term lead to… whatever is up with Kinger.
Another very interesting point is that Caine might be what causes people to abstract. I don’t think this is entirely true, as we see Jax on the edge of abstraction and Ribbit and Kaufmo in his head, people whom I doubt Caine would realize Jax was close with. As much as I love him he’s not the most… emotionally aware.
He hardly gets human emotions and actions, he himself is such an incredibly flawed attempt at mimicking humans.
But it begs the question, how is he able to create such lifelike, realistic npc if even he doesn’t understand human mannerisms and feelings.
It’s almost as if the npcs are more human than he is. As if the npcs are humans.
So, here’s my theory.
After someone abstracts, they are thrown into the cellar to rot. But having a big pit full of insane humans is so ominous and such a mood killer for someone like Caine whose one goal is to keep the humans happy. Wouldn’t it be nice to just get rid of them?
Wouldn’t it be nice to… recycle them?
Caine does love recycling assets, as proven multiple times in past episodes.
So here’s the idea.
When someone abstracts, the body is gone, and the mind is supposedly still there- albeit holding on by a string. That dormant little human mind that knows all the ticks and movements of a human, but a blank slate for Caine to mold into the perfect npcs to make the game truly feel alive.
So he changes up their personality and memories and puts them in a new body, and sends them off to entertain his guests. These npcs obviously don’t know they were human of course.
Sometimes though they get a bit too smart for their own good, so Caine poofs them away before any existential crisis can occur. A perfect plan!
Caine has tried this trick on humans who are still sane, and it… didn’t go well, as we see with Kinger.
So. I think Abel genuinely was a C&A employee, genuinely was a human, just one who had abstracted long ago and was brought back by Caine to play a part in his adventure. Just tweak a bit of his mind here and there, make him a big Caine fan, and it’s perfect! The perfect ploy.
Abel is a dead man walking. Caine is shoveling up bodies and using them as puppets. There is no rest for the weary. There is no escape, even in death.
The fact that Jax is not only preying on Ragatha’s insecurity about not being liked, he’s also showing his own insecurity that he *wants* to be liked by Pomni!!!
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