Headcanon: Caine can "sense" data, specifically if it's one conjured/manifested by humans. By "consuming" or just being around the humans' output, he's able to "taste", "hear", "touch", and even "smell" it.
Whatever it is that the humans conjure up, Caine CAN eat; whether it is realistically inedible or edible-- because both are the same to him, being made up of "Macroverse data".
He might be able to peer into others' minds and see what these outputs are, but it's the equivalent of seeing a mouthwatering burger on paper; there's no texture, no smell, no taste. It's all a flat, 2d image.
Only IF a human conjures it because they know how it should feel/taste/smell like, is Caine able to truly comprehend it; and soon, he might even be able to mimic it.
Besides that, Caine has been fed nothing but negative data over the years, and because of that; he's able to sense the data Pomni conjured up from a mile away, since he's been "starved" the past 2 decades and can't really contain himself. His mouth also can't stop drooling once he senses there's a human-input data in the circus.
Anyways, I sacrificed my hand for this I will be taking my leave now
This is an AU I've been cooking up for the past few days, and I'm ready to share it now! Keep in mind, this is a Showtime AU, cause uh, surprise, I really like that ship as I do with Checkmates. And I thought, what better way to draw the ship than to combine it with my favorite anime of all time (cause robot boy, young girl with strange eyes, and all, you see the vision, right?)
More characters and stuff will come from this soon enough! For now, I'll take some time to explain these two a bit more right here if you're interested:
For Pomni, I kinda wanted her personality to shift a bit from Riko, the character she is playing—it's basically about when you wanted to do something really bad as a kid, but the dream kinda falls apart as you get older. Then something reignites your passion for what you loved, and you decide to just take the plunge and go for it. Literally, in this case. As much as the Abyss called to her, she grew distant from it as time went on, showcasing her typical anxiety before she later became more confident. She still has extensive knowledge of the Abyss, but y'know. She uses it more when she's assisting new cave raiders until the plot starts.
And for Caine, I imagine he has two sides to him: his goofy ringmaster persona, and a more serious, but contemplative self. Not exactly having a god complex, due to his lack of knowledge of his purpose. There are supernatural forces at work surrounding the Abyss—more Lovecraftian than magical. Some relics can have world-bending abilities, and as for Caine, he's mostly mechanical, aside from the fact that he is nearly indestructible and has a laser canon that can destroy anything. Inexplicably, he is made of these relics, while also having very human properties and functions.
So in a way, he's powerless in this AU, but he's not without abilities that make navigating and surviving the Abyss way easier. Ultimately, he finds a new purpose in trying to protect Pomni down into the netherworld, because together, they're all they have to make it down there at all.
