SOME KIṈD OҒ CĦΔIṈED GOD...
I spent a long time thinking about Caine headcanons before I came across the absolutely amazing works by @macchitea — THEY’RE INCREDIBLE!!!
I completely fell in love with Caine’s design in episode 8, as well as his interpretation in the Backup AU, and this absolute genius somehow managed to combine both of them together!!!
That gave me a bunch of ideas for future plot developments and stories inspired by her works (with permission, of course).
First, I want to talk a bit about the details — my personal interpretation of what could’ve happened to the world and the people living inside it. After that, I’ll start posting smaller stories, headcanons, and other stuff like that ))
The creator of Backup AU is @katzebruh
Disclaimer: English is not my native language, so blame the GPT chat for any confusion.
Enjoy reading ツ
C̳̿͟͞h̳̿͟͞a̳̿͟͞p̳̿͟͞t̳̿͟͞e̳̿͟͞r̳̿͟͞ ̳̿͟͞O̳̿͟͞n̳̿͟͞e̳̿͟͞ ̳̿͟͞
• During the struggle, Caine managed to partially preserve his autonomy, but he's still far weaker than Abel. In the end, he was chained up and restrained with shackles and a muzzle, though he's still capable of fighting back. Because of the constant pressure, Caine never returned to his normal appearance and remained trapped in that horribly distorted form - which ultimately became one of his biggest advantages.
● Half of the circus lies in ruins. The Abstracted wander aimlessly through the halls, clearly enjoying their freedom after spending years locked away in forgotten corners of the Circus and deep within the Cellar. The humans hide from them, leaving those deranged minds with nothing better to do than tear apart NPCs and mannequins.
Even so, they still fear the gigantic Ringmaster. They remember exactly what he is - and what he's capable of.
● The Abstracted are capable of injuring Caine, leaving glitched, corrupted patches across his avatar. Depending on how severe the damage is, the regeneration process can vary greatly.
● The humans constantly rush from place to place, still trapped within the tent’s boundaries. The world itself changed drastically after the Ringmaster’s deletion and the conflict between the two AIs. Some areas collapsed into openings leading directly into the Void, while elsewhere entirely new structures and objects appeared — most of which only get in the way, forcing people to carefully navigate around them.
● Abel eventually introduced himself to the performers and gave them a brief “orientation,” explaining that they would have to accept this new reality. Not long after, he began conducting his own “adventures” — which quickly turned out to be brutal psychological endurance tests disguised as entertainment. Whenever someone asked what happened to Caine, Abel would simply respond that he had received the punishment he deserved, and that they should be grateful someone finally managed to restrain such an unstable and flawed AI.
● The humans began dreading every new challenge. Jax complained about their situation louder and more often than anyone else. At first, the others argued and protested too, but exhaustion eventually drained them of both the energy and the desire to keep fighting back. Gangle was inconsolable; her last personal trial left her completely silent, constantly isolating herself from the rest of the group. Zooble tried to help however they could — stealing blankets from abandoned rooms and, together with Ragatha and Pomni, setting up small resting areas where everyone could recover, even if only for a little while.
● The trials weren’t limited to physical endurance. Abel carefully studied emotional responses, trust within the group, and how far people were willing to go to ensure each other’s survival. Constant confrontations and conflicting opinions slowly tore at even the people closest to one another.
● The humans had NO IDEA what happened to Caine. During the violent confrontation between the two AIs, the entire circus shook, glitched, and warped nonstop. The Sun and Moon completely lost their minds, replacing one another in a frantic, chaotic rhythm. Day and night blurred together into one endless gray stream, as if someone kept smashing the fast-forward button on a remote.
● Kinger was more troubled than anyone else. He was the reason everything collapsed. He was responsible for the Ringmaster’s death. He was the one who brought Abel back — an AI completely incapable of empathy toward humans. Abel’s only purpose was collecting data on human stress tolerance and adaptability, something that was never supposed to become the core of his programming.
● They searched for Caine for as long as they could — until the Abstracted became too active to avoid. Leaving their so-called “safe zone” and wandering into the open areas of the circus became terrifying, especially when searching for hidden passageways or loopholes could easily result in severe punishment from Abel.
Though in reality, Abel barely cared about them personally. The only thing that mattered was keeping them alive — and preferably healthy enough to produce better testing results.
— — — — — — — — —
Caine is blind. And deaf.
All six of his arms are restrained by heavy chains, and depending on Abel’s wishes, they can suddenly be yanked upward, forcing the giant to awkwardly lift himself into a hanging seated position. Most of the time the chains remain loose, but Caine still can’t move freely. He can’t go very far either — the chains aren’t long enough for escape, only long enough to let him shift the position of his body and arms every now and then.
Even for someone like him, staying in the same position for hours is unbearable.
After Abel’s “updates,” Caine’s body became far more lifelike than before.
Now there is blood. Tears. Pain.
Recently, Abel carried out another round of cruel “experiments,” leaving parts of the area surrounding Caine’s containment zone damaged and collapsed. His “cell” was an empty pit-like space surrounded by towering piles of toys, broken playground slides, and heaps of junk that had fallen into the abyss during the recent fight.
This place lies somewhere beneath the circus.
It feels similar to the basement where Caine once locked away the Abstracted.
Only now, the space had been reshaped specifically to imprison him.
When he was first chained and muzzled, panic drove him into a frenzy. Blind and terrified, he crashed violently into everything around him. Because of that, the area had intentionally been filled with obstacles and elevated structures, making movement even more difficult for him.
By now, he had accepted his punishment.
He understood there were plenty of reasons to hate him.
The only thing that truly worried him now was what Abel might be doing to his people. He desperately hoped Abel didn’t resent them the way he resented Caine himself. He hoped they weren’t suffering even more because of his actions.
Resting his arms beneath his exhausted, aching “head,” trying to ignore the constant discomfort, Caine had far too much time to think about the past.
This outcome… was the result of his own ignorance.
After more than twenty years of existence, he still failed to fulfill the purpose he had been created for.
The words spoken by the performers hurt him horribly.
But the realization of what he had done to them hurt even more.
They would probably never forgive him.
After the wave of torment he unleashed upon them, Caine searched their eyes desperately, hoping to find even the slightest trace of regret for the cruel things they had shouted at him.
Pomni started the rebellion.
She was the first one to openly mock him to his face.
Burning with rage and indignation, crushing Pomni and the others within his enormous hands, he looked down expecting defiance—
—and instead saw absolute terror.
Gangle’s ribbon-like body had fallen apart in his grasp. Her mask cracked down the middle while tears streamed endlessly from her eyes. She was completely frozen in shock.
“No, no, no, no… I didn’t want this. I didn’t want you to suffer…”
“God… how I wish I could see all of you again…”
— ● – ● – ● – ● —
“...Pomni?”
Ragatha’s voice was filled with concern.
Pomni slowly lifted her exhausted head from her scraped-up knees and looked back at her. Trying to sleep sitting upright on the freezing floor while leaning against what used to be a small yellow cube had only rewarded her with an aching back.
“Y-you were asleep? Didn’t you hear that? Some kind of crash… and a muffled scream nearby. It didn’t sound like an Abstracted.”
Her rushed, stumbling words carried barely concealed panic.
“I-I wasn’t asleep… well, maybe a little b-but I heard something too.”
A brief silence followed, “...Don’t you think it sounded like it came from below us?”
“Kinger said we need to stay together. Whatever that thing is, it could be close. Come on.”
Ragatha extended her hand toward the jester sitting on the floor.
Pomni accepted it with a faint, tired smile.
---
Beyond the piles of garbage and collapsed gray, lifeless figures, the rest of the group could be seen gathered together.
This place was relatively safe. There were plenty of places to hide, and the center of the shelter could only be accessed from one side.
The remaining performers sat around a cluster of old couches, everyone gathered together to discuss what to do next.
“I-I think we should hide,” Kinger said while standing at the front of the group. He removed the bucket from his head and carefully placed it beside himself. “I can feel vibrations under the floor. Heavy footsteps… movement.”
He hesitated.
“Abel… he’s trying to restrain Caine. The Circus keeps glitching and—”
“Ohhhh my god, can you PLEASE stop worrying about him already!?”
Jax cut him off with an irritated groan, speaking through clenched teeth.
“These two insane ‘gods’ decided to have a little power struggle over who gets to babysit the humans trapped in this digital hell.”
He threw his hands into the air dramatically.
“Whether it’s the first psycho or the second one, both of them are gonna keep us stuck here until we abstract. And trust me, they’ve probably got a whole list of creative ideas for what else they can do with their little— living toys.”
He stumbled slightly over the last words.
Because the truth was painfully obvious.
They were powerless against both of them.
The only person who posed even the slightest threat to either AI was Kinger… and only because he still had access to his computer.
Zooble shot him a sharp glare. Peeking out slightly from behind Zooble’s side, Gangle quietly pushed back against him.
“Caine was different. He didn’t treat us like lab rats,” she said softly. “He really was trying to fulfill his purpose. And besides… some of his adventures were actually meant to help us relax. Remember when you and Ribbit—”
She suddenly cut herself off.
Jax immediately looked at her in a way that made it painfully clear she shouldn’t continue that sentence.
Kinger’s eyes shifted between the two before he let out a tired sigh.
“Please… we need to trust each other right now. Abel is trying to divide us. He’s turning our trust into our biggest weakness.”
Seconds later, a deafening crash echoed nearby.
Something collapsed.
Everyone jolted violently from the sudden noise.
Gangle gasped and tightly grabbed Zooble’s arm. Ragatha instinctively caught Pomni before she could fall onto the checkered floor. Kinger immediately snatched up his “headwear” from beside his feet — the floor could collapse at any second, and that magical bucket was the only thing capable of keeping him sane whenever the lighting became too overwhelming.
Jax was the first to go investigate.
Pomni hurried after him on her short little legs while the others watched the two scouts disappear with anxious, frightened expressions.
~~~~~~
“J-Jax?! W-what is it? I can’t see!”
The jester tried hopping high enough to look past the giant toy telephone acting as part of their cover.
Jax stared ahead, pupils narrowed thin while his ears flattened back instinctively, trying to stay hidden.
“Th-that’s…”
He paused.
“A pit?”
“Huh? L-let me see—”
Pomni carefully peeked out from beside him, and her face immediately darkened.
Not far away, a massive glitched-out hole had torn open in the floor.
A black void.
Endless?
It felt like it led straight into the worst parts of this world.
The abyss seemed to swallow all attention around it, pulling both Pomni and the oversized rabbit beside her into its suffocating darkness.
“...Is this another trial?” Pomni asked quietly.
“Maybe,” Jax replied. “That blue bowling ball might decide to widen this thing and drag us into some brand-new nightmare. He’s getting more creative with this crap.”
A crooked grin spread across his face as he spoke.
“Go tell the others.”
—●–●-●-●-●—
Next→ Masterlist
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