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dreari-daize · 3 days ago

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The Exit. (Episode 6 Spoilers Ahead)

I'm finally giving into the urge to theorycraft about Caine

This has probably been talked to death already but, I've been thinking back to the fake exit from episode 1 now that we've been given a few extra scraps of information through the visuals of other episodes. And, this might be me reading too much into things, but I think we've been given these scraps all the way back in episode 4! Specifically with Caine's choice of "decor."

Because this is where we see him while the other two adventures are going on:

It obviously fits the theme of the fast food adventure for him to have an office where the players could call "upper management" if needed, so I never thought too much about it. BUT, as of this episode airing, it's the only other time we've seen an office-like area, and it's exclusively for Caine himself to lounge around in. It's not as barren as the fake exit office - there's tons of little trinkets scattered about the room that makes it clear who it belongs to. It almost feels like this office existed prior to the adventure, but probably not. Anyways

Most notably, there's that C&A in the corner, written on a sticky note. There's also another sticky note that I CANNOT make out for the life of me and it's driving me a little crazy but I digress

Then episode 5 rolls around, and in the last adventure with a stadium, Caine makes himself the announcer! Positioning himself where he can keep a distance from the players, but still lording over them and dictating how the game goes with his commentary.

Again, probably reading too much into it, but. Glances at that exit sign and C&A logo

It's not quite a pattern yet with only two instances, but it's always been interesting to me that Caine's choice of rooms meant only for him to interact with fits that corporate office aesthetic (with the exception of the performance review room! Nearly forgot about that one.)

But then there's the fake exit. Because a detail I often forget is that, according to Caine, he intended for the players to use it.

He knows it's something important to them. He mentions they've been asking for one all the time, so he likely knows it has to live up to the hype. Whether he acknowledges it or not, players have abstracted over trying to find one. Whatever he makes behind that door, it has to be worth it.

And what does he make? Another office.

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE. I lost my MIND when this happened. I still have a million questions about how he got these pictures and what they depict and just how much Caine knows about them, but there's too little to go on for me to concretely decide on one answer for anything. The few things I'm mostly positive of are:

1. These depict the outside world. I considered the idea that they're not, and this is hinting at some future adventure with an office theme, but that feels like a stretch. The next episodes may prove me wrong though!

2. Caine understands that these are important.

Whether he knows where they came from, or what they depict, or whatever, I think this was his blueprint for the fake exit. It would explain why, out of everything he could have made for the players, he chose an office. (The slightly messy desk also perfectly captures the vibe of each office area Caine has made for himself in the past, which makes me believe these pictures are a blueprint for those as well)

I have to assume these pictures are the ONLY glimpses he has of the outside world, which is why the office is an endless maze: he has no evidence that anything else exists. Was the fake exit his genuine attempt to recreate the real world?

Whatever his reason for making it an office could be, I'm left with one question. If the exit recreates what he's seen in those pictures, as I'm assuming they do for the purposes of this post...

What was THIS doing in there?

I assumed for a long time that this was a recreation of where Pomni put on the headset, and it was a reflection of her own memories. We even see at the end of the episode that this exact setup exists. It's a 1-to-1 recreation of an actual computer, possibly in an old abandoned building (Pomni mentioned she would explore those as a method of thrill-seeking.)

This has all made me lean even more into the theory that Caine used the pics as a reference to make the exit. Because I originally assumed it had to be a remnant of Pomni's memories of the outside world, but if it is, why is everything else a plain, perfectly clean office? Why has nothing else in her memories affected the exit's appearance? You could argue that the memory of her finding the computer would be the most pressing one, and therefore be the first to pop up, but there's also another possibility.

We only got a good look at ONE picture. There could just as easily be a pic of that old dilapidated computer, hidden somewhere in that stack. Of course, considering the one picture we DO see looks like a well-kept and clean office, with evidence that people are working there, maybe not.

I don't have some big revelation just yet regarding all of this. All I can say is that I'm now more concerned than ever about what Caine knows. I still feel like he's just as stuck in the circus as the rest of the cast, but he's CLEARLY got something going on. I just wonder when the others will pick up on it. We might be waiting quite a while for that to happen, considering how nobody seems willing to talk to him.

#tadc #caine tadc #the amazing digital circus #ranting #<- i guess i need a tag for when i have to talk about stuff so there we go lol

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dreari-daize · 4 days ago

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I feel like we need to realize the fact that Caine is almost perfectly following the process that leads to abstracting as Ragatha explained to Pomni in Episode 1.

#SO LIKE #it's generally assumed that caine shouldn't be able to abstract #but there's no confirmation of that afaik #for all we know! he could be just as vulnerable to abstraction!!#i might be getting into crack theory territory with this one but idc LMAO #tadc #the amazing digital circus #reblog #rb

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dreari-daize · 4 days ago

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