Tadc Hospital coma AU
If you have watched my last two or three posts, you might remember I was talking about an AU that could Really explain what is happening in the TADC.
In my opinion, to explain the lore of a certain setting, you, as an author, should explain these questions- i will use TADC's setting for an example:
What is C&A? Who is its founder, and what kind of people are working in this company?
What are the exact criteria for a successful AI? Why exactly was Caine abandoned -- was he too chaotic or didn't do what the company was going for? If so, how much did he and Abel really matched the criteria?
If Caine taking over Abel was intentional -- who, out of all the employees, did this, and why? (We were told that Scratch was the one whose projection of thoughts influenced Caine, quote, "He was trying to do something" because of a brain tumor, yet we never got an on-screen explanation why Exactly did he do this) WAS it even intentional to leave Caine somewhere and not delete him?
Why the circus and not anything else? Why was this setting chosen by Caine (or Scratch)?
How were brain scans taken? How did Caine get them and got them to work? What happened to the people who were scanned exactly in this moment?
Finally, how was the thing with forgetting names even made? Why does the circus cast forget nothing but their names and a bit of short-term memory?
Now that we've made things clear about the very important lore criteria, I want to introduce you to my AU. It will be changing the concept and almost all of the lore, however, the main setting will be left as it is.
Basically, the only two things that are different are the hospital lore and the fact that Pomni (here) is an artificial mind. Not an AI, but yeah, I'll explain now
The thing that makes all these people the Digital Circus cast -- EVERY single person in it is a someone who is, in real life, in a coma, and is taken care of in the hospital. Except Pomni. Well, not actually- her brain scan was real, as well as everyone else's.
In my AU concept, when people abstract, they die, basically. They don't die because they've abstracted, it's the opposite -- they abstract because they die. When the brain stops working and dies, it affects their last hours in the circus. That is why abstracted people act mostly instinctive and mindless.
Pomni, on the other hand, started dying even before she joined the Circus cast. She was in a coma at this point too, but it was obviously too late for her. Caine (i will make another post about the deep lore if people will like my concept) saw this and went for a full brain scan, doing it in time just before she passed away.
Now, to understand the next conception, you need to know about a game named Creatures. It was released in 1996, with the conception of artificial life. The creatures named Norns have been programmed to actually learn like humans do, as they had simplified neural network and a hormone system. These creatures were more than actual living beings, not AI with just the algorithms. That's what I wanna do with Pomni.
What we see is an actual recreated human mind, the only difference is that this brain is fueled and ran by a program, just as a Norn -- she has an actual mind and personality, and she fully controls herself, but she can't work without help, a base that she could be placed on to get her brain and neurons working.
I find this an interesting base for a moral dilemma and it will make Pomni even better (in my opinion) as a character. What do you guys think? Please let me know!