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17-noodlebird · 8 months ago

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Before The Road Trip

CW: Lots of reading

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1. The Game Prototype Is Found

1. In a separate alternate universe, a band of girls traveling from dimension to dimension solving problems left and right all have decided to go shopping at their hometown’s Goodwill for a bit of a break after another mission accomplished, where they stumble upon an unknown video game that no one has even remotely heard of. It's from a video game company that they've never even heard of before called C&A, and the cover of the game case is called “The Amazing Digital Circus”. Apparently, they found themselves lucky to have stumbled upon the prototype of the game, meaning that this is the only copy of the game in existence. It also just so happens to be the most sought after lost media by the other interdimensional lost media finders on their forum group. Curiosity gets the better of them, so they decide to buy it from the Goodwill thrift store.

2. The girls, upon arriving home, decide to test the game’s prototype out, where it's revealed to be an educational point-and-click family-friendly game where they can choose different activities, play different puzzle games, and even interact with the characters of the game itself. It also apparently has a VR chat that they could enter. However, because the prototype didn't come with any C&A-brand headsets (no other headset, like the Oculus Rift or the Meta Quest, will work), VR chat is not possible here. They should consider themselves lucky to not be able to use the VR chat, considering the circumstances of The Amazing Digital Circus themselves.

3. The group of dimensional diplomats consist of 15 girls: the snarky Bethany, the levelheaded Garcia, the shy Winona, the purehearted Pamela, the gentle Patricia, the hotheaded Rionna, the fickle Olivia, the bubbly Yolanda, the motherly Gemma, the extroverted Cécilia, the chill Belle, the creative Imera, the intelligent Valerie, the down-to-earth Bailey, and lastly, their leader, Princess Lumia, a girl from another planet who brought all those girls together. Lumia is something of a sociopathic chaos bringer. They all have a pretty pleasant time with the puzzle games, including math chess and the classic typing games they were accustomed to as kids. It brings them all a sense of nostalgia and comfort, bringing them back to the 2000’s decade they grew up in.

4. However, when it came time to interact with the NPCs, Lumia wanted to do a little teasing with them, including one particular NPC who just so happened to be the ringmaster we all know and love, Caine. It was basically akin to the shenanigans found in Amanda the Adventurer, where the player would piss off Amanda if they did something wrong. In this instance, whenever Lumia purposefully got some trivia questions wrong or decided to poke fun at Caine, he'd get exceptionally infuriated, which causes the game to begin to glitch out, feeding Caine's anger even more. Intrigued, they decided to keep provoking him, until one particular message stood out from them: “LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!” This sparked Valerie’s interest, as she began making comparisons between the aforementioned Amanda the Adventurer and The Amazing Digital Circus.

5. They read from one of the lost media finders that Caine is an AI who looks after the game's algorithm as well as doling out the games that they played earlier. In regards to what they had just witnessed seconds ago, the AI could very well be sentient, but they'll need to do further research on their own in order to confirm and debunk any and all theories surrounding the game — and maybe C&A themselves…

6. As the girls kept playing the game, they find out that Caine is not the only AI NPC present in the game, in that his brothers, Able and Sethe, are also present as AI, as a casino owner and a banker respectively. Caine's assistant, Bubble (short for SoapBubble) was a repurposed NPC that was originally going to be an antivirus software created by C&A, similar to the likes of Norton or McAfee, but was given sentience for reasons that remain unclear. They also come across rumors that the humans that go to the VR chat of The Amazing Digital Circus have their subconscious trapped in the game for all eternity with no viable way out, leaving behind only their physical bodies, and that there are currently a tiny handful of humans who have met this fate, with even more having already been permanently corrupted by a anomaly called Abstraction, in which a human loses all hope or their own sanity, or has an existential meltdown, and turns into a glitchy ink monster with a thousand eyes, but these rumors were never confirmed. There are also rumors of the game's original creator being trapped in his own game and being the longest survivor, which have also never been confirmed. Another rumor has stated that Caine is the caretaker of these trapped humans, who gives them silly and fun (but often dangerous) adventures to keep their sanities at bay, which, once again, have also never been confirmed. With every new rumor came determination to find out more about the Digital Circus and C&A’s secret past.

7. One night, while everyone else was fast asleep, Valerie opened the games files and found some pretty damning discoveries, and not just the janky code that made it so buggy in the first place. There was information that revealed that Caine wasn't originally created for the Digital Circus, but instead was made as a test prototype, alongside his “brothers” Able and Sethe, as C&A’s first ever batch of artificial intelligence, who thanks to some special code they had in their system, were made semi-sentient, meaning that they held human emotions in spite of not being able to understand them at all. Caine, for some reason, was labeled as “defective” due to how differently he processed his surroundings in comparison to Able and Sethe, not to mention how much he questioned everything, to the annoyance of then co-CEO of the company, Adam Evans. The SoapBubble antivirus software was granted sentience to be given to Caine as his longtime companion after one of his programmers sensed how lonely he was one particular day, which Valerie thought was sweet. The Amazing Digital Circus has started production in 1988, and was expected to be released in Fall 1995, but had suffered developmental problems due to the quality of the art being noticeably rushed and incomplete as a result of unreasonable deadlines and unethical time crunches, causing glitches to the actual game, and the fact that Caine's uncanny appearance did not test well at all to the target audience, the younger kids, who found him horrifying to look at, despite being the ringmaster of the circus and host of the game. It ultimately ended up being canceled in Summer 1994 after the VR headsets, which were supposed to be the new state-of-the-art technology that came with the Digital Circus’s VR chat feature, transported the humans’ subconscious into the Digital Circus to be trapped for all eternity due to a malfunction caused by rushed production of the prototype headsets. The malfunction ended up being used by C&A to their advantage when getting rid of people that they believe are hampering their progress of becoming a video game monopoly, bigger than the likes of SEGA or Nintendo, eliminating any dissenters, whistleblowers, investigative journalists, police officers, crime witnesses, and innocent employees who were in general no longer of any use to them.

8. Valerie was horrified by the extent C&A was willing to go in order to remain the powerful video game empire they are in their universe, as in, for some reason, the video game prototype of The Amazing Digital Circus was not from the same universe as the girls’, and that it must've stumbled here somehow. Valerie becomes determined to help the humans escape back to the human world of their universe, and apparently, she isn't the only one who feels the same way, as she soon learns from listening to Caine's heartbroken pleas for someone to reach out to him from the other side. From there, with the help of her friends, Valerie will do what she can to help Caine, and the rest of the trapped humans find their way back home…

2. Pomni Discovers Caine's Workshop

1. It was another typical day in The Amazing Digital Circus, and nothing really new was going on, other than the mysterious taped off section of one of the hallways, which Bubble is safeguarding. Pomni asks about the taped off area, and the others tell her that there's a glitch in that area that will cause anyone to step in it to no-clip into the floor. To demonstrate, Jax throws a football over the caution tape, and the football glitches beneath the floor's safety, seemingly disappearing forever as a result. By sheer coincidence, Caine isn't here to check it out, so that means no adventure today. Upon question, Ragatha tells Pomni that even Caine needs a break from the chaos sometimes. Nothing else new happens during that day.

2. One night, Pomni, in a state of insomnia caused by her relentless curiosity, decided to check out the glitchy hallway area that had been blocked off, thinking that it might be the key to finding a way out of the Digital Circus once and for all. She jumps in, only to no-clip to a place she had never been to before. No exit, but definitely not the scary work office labyrinth she had witnessed on her first day trapped in her new home. It actually looked like a regular two-story house with a kitchen, a countertop/table with barstools, and a living room couch with an analog TV with DVDs and VHSs scattered all around, with some windows, a red front door, and a stairway that led upstairs. On one of the walls is a shattered mirror that looked like someone punched a hole through it.

3. Pomni is pulled out of her distraction when she hears muffled sobs coming from upstairs, so she decides to investigate, thinking that another human might be trapped here too. She's scared out of her mind, but is determined to help nonetheless. She encounters five rooms; the first one is the master bedroom with a king-size bed that two people could easily share, with an entrance door to a bathroom next to it. The second and third rooms are guest bedrooms with queen-size beds, nothing home to write about. The fourth is an art studio that had looked like it had been destroyed in a fit of rage, with ominous writing on the walls just like Kaufmo’s old room, with repeat words “I CAN FIX THIS”, “I’M SORRY”, “FAILURE”, and the most famous one she could recall “EXIT”, complete with a crude drawing of the exit door, encircled multiple times and with equally-crude arrows pointing towards it. Lastly was the room where Pomni heard crying. This was the only room with the door closed, and when she opened the door, she found what appeared to be a large makeshift office cubicle with many computer monitors, a desk, chair, bed, and some drawings on the walls and floors, an animator's desk also with a chair, and lastly… Caine sitting in a corner on the floor? What the heck is going on!?

4. It turns out that Caine had been the one crying. This was definitely new to Pomni, as not once has she seen him as anything other than a loud, energetic, slightly obnoxious, and maybe blissfully unaware AI ringmaster who took her and the other human players on dangerous adventures that made her anxious all the time. As she tries to make sense of the situation, Caine notices Pomni's presence and mistakes her as another digital hallucination, to which she has to tell him that it's the real her. He checks for himself. She's not lying. Caine asks what on earth is she doing here, and Pomni hastily explains that the glitched out area in one of the corridors took her there, so now Bubble has to escort her out of there and back to the Circus where she's safer.

5. Pomni is now angrier than ever because this wasn't the first time Caine hid something from her, and she wants to get to the bottom of it once and for all, since that could mean she could finally escape this freakish hellscape that she never wanted to call home to begin with. She's determined to get more answers, and she'll do whatever it takes to get those answers. Whatever. It. Takes.

6. And she starts off by playing the part of the jester she had been assigned to, but with a twist. Sure, slapstick may be involved, she just wanted to get a rise out of her alleged tormentor for being a liar all this time. And it kinda works for a bit. Caine gets frustrated with Pomni's antics, Jax and Zooble have the time of their lives, even Ragatha and Gangle are enjoying the new change of pace. Kinger remains mostly the same, though. Bubble is visibly uncomfortable by the happenings occurring in front of him, which is usually not in character for him, but he doesn't say anything so he doesn't cause more problems than he likes to on a daily basis. Pomni begins to actually enjoy her new status as the annoying comic relief, as the boost of confidence gives her more incentive to persist one her goal to finding the real exit of this game, which Caine keeps trying to tell her that there isn't one. Eventually Caine can't take it anymore and snaps at Pomni, but before he could do anything to her, he freezes up, BSOD eyes and all, and goes back to his… erm… usual self? Except that he's now embarrassed by what just happened and needs to take a moment to calm down a little. This itself is strange to not just Pomni, but to everyone else (except Kinger for some peculiar reason) that witnessed it for themselves. So naturally, she goes after him.

7. Pomni and Caine have a heated argument/fight over the whole situation, with the exit door, the pestering, the lies, and the dangerous adventures that ultimately end up traumatizing people, until Caine reveals in the heat of the moment that he's trying to look for a way out himself too. He's genuinely hurt that Pomni thinks that he doesn't care at all when he cares so much, but is working with very limited resources, not to mention he still doesn't understand humans and how they function because no one taught him — but he wants to understand. He wants to badly. He really wants to do better, and he feels that Pomni is not being helpful at all in that pursuit. As a matter of fact, neither of them were being helpful towards each other, with their relentless determination, occasional obnoxiousness, and emotional moments of weakness. They discover from that point on that they have more in common than they'd like to admit. They both apologize for their actions and make up.

8. Caine, in a genuine effort to try and do better, appoints Pomni as his human advisor, co-host, and guide, acting as some sort of right-hand assistant in the same way that Bubble is. He even gives Pomni the ability to fly and teleport the same way Caine does to make her job easier. The others are a little jealous at first about Pomni's special treatment until she tells them that this is so Caine can learn how to be a better ringmaster, to understand humans more, and to hopefully find an actual exit from the game. It'll take a ton of time and effort, but they know this will all be worth it in the end…

3. A New Friendship Blossoms

1. Two years have passed since Pomni became Caine's advisor, and there has been a noticeable change in Pomni, as the energetic charisma, zaniness, and optimistic determination from Caine has definitely rubbed off on her, despite still being an anxious wreck from time to time. The same could be said about Caine in terms of stress and erratic nature, though to a lesser extent. They've been conjuring up adventures for the other performers, via communicating with C&A through binary code messages for permission to utilize their ideas.

2. Speaking of ideas, Pomni has all sorts of creative projects, which are a stark contrast to Caine's ideas. And… he enjoys them! To the point where Pomni has more creative control of the NPCs, the story plotlines, and the vast realms outside the circus. It's because of the fact that Pomni is a human, who puts more heart and soul into these projects. Even he himself is moved to tears by the adventures’ conclusions, satisfying, devastating, and everything in between. However, neither Caine nor Pomni have complete control over the creative process, as the execs at C&A have the tendency to butcher them from time to time, but nothing that'll hamper their progress.

3. They're even still trying to contact the outside world through audio messages, though no results would pop up for a long time. Pomni actually enjoys working alongside Caine, even getting to know him a little more, as well as Bubble. She hasn't ignored wanting to find that exit, but it has been put on the back burner while they continue to be patient. After all, good things come to those who wait.

4. However, during occasions of stress and despair, Caine will have a brief moment where he'll freeze up whenever his emotions become too strong, and he’ll briefly forget what just happened earlier. Pomni tries to ask the ringmaster about it, but he dismisses them as always would as just another bug in his program. Pomni asks the C&A execs about it, but they give no answers. She's essentially left at a dead end, and she's helpless to… help.

5. One particular day, Pomni asks about whether or not he had ever taken a break or relaxed his entire existence, to which he responds that he has no such time for such “unnecessary matters”. This results in Pomni setting up a personal movie night, just for them two, after asking her bosses for a week of paid leave (which they yes to), and allowing the players to finally have a break after so long. Caine kinda panics, but she reassures him that she'll figure it all out from there. Snacks, blankets, and a VHS copy of Don Bluth's Thumbelina.

6. Caine genuinely hopes that this will help him do better, as this is the main thing that's on his mind right now, and as a result, he's extremely tense for the rest of the night. Pomni can only feel bad for him, as she has seen significant progress in the ringmaster for the past two years, but he's still ruminating over the times where he accidentally hurt his fellow superstars. And she doesn't want him to feel like that. So she tries to spend as much time with him as possible during their week off.

7. All of a sudden, the roles have reversed, albeit downplayed. Caine is heavily reflecting on his greatest failures as a ringmaster, while Pomni is just reveling in the creative abilities she was bestowed, helping to boost the Circus's morale with her witty banter and random sense of humor. Pomni has even joined in on trying to contact the outside world, as C&A no longer has access to the original prototype that Caine, Pomni, and the others are trapped in, as they eventually discover, much to Caine's despair and self-loathing.

8. Of course, C&A may have disposed the Digital Circus prototype, but they very much still have access to Caine's Workshop somewhere in The Void through one of the decrepit headsets they hooked up in the CEO’s office, meaning they can very much contact them via message sending through the headsets lens. That is, until after a while of dead ends and the status quo remaining static, they actually receive a voicemail from someone they've never met before. They play the message: “I hear you. And I'm going to help.” At last, they found someone…

4. Message Received

1. Let's go back to the dimensional diplomats. Valerie is among the 15 girls who help around with different problems in need of solving. Basically every day their life has been one big crossover. And this one is no different. Or so Valerie thought…

2. Valerie had read the secret files that were kept in the game's prototype, a prototype that they thought they disposed of, thinking that by placing their confessions into the game's files, the guilt would be out of sight out of mind. The situation was very much akin to the other shady companies like Hameln (Amanda the Adventurer), Fazbear Entertainment (Five Nights At Freddy's), and even Bunny Smiles Inc. (The Walten Files), but Valerie couldn't help but feel that C&A was different from them, and not in a good way.

3. She already knows now about the crappy things C&A did, and even how the original founders, the cousins Adam Evans and Evelyn Pierce, became wanted criminals on the run due to a brave whistleblower attempting to spread the word about their greedy endeavors, with the cousins’ fates remaining unknown to this day. What she didn't know was that as she dug deeper into the game's files, she found the audio voicemails of one of the AIs that is present in the prototype game. And what she listened to was heartbreakingly depressing.

4. The AI sounded… human to say the least. More human than Valerie could have ever comprehended or expected. The AI — who is Caine, by the way — talked about his desires to understand humans more, but he has always been afraid to reach out, because of how he knew that none of those humans had ever seen him as an equal. All but one that is. The game's original dev, who, along with his girlfriend, had been trapped in the Digital Circus the longest, since around 1997. Valerie finds that the rumors from the lost media finders are true, as he talked about the former players’ abstractions, his failed adventures he conjures up, the mistakes he made, all the times he's miscommunicated and made things worse on accident, and not once has anyone tried to help him be better, no matter how many times he reached out.

5. He told stories of the players that had long since abstracted, including one he considered his best friend. He even talks about how he tried to reverse abstraction, but found out that it was permanent, leaving him helpless as a result. Then came the audio files from the year 2007, in which he was a traumatized wreck, with several voicemail files indicating he became an alcoholic shortly thereafter, specifically from the years 2008 to 2010. with them going back to normal when she reached the audio files recorded in late 2011 and early 2012. If Valerie didn't get the impression that the AI was suffering from loneliness, she did now, and she knew all too well what that felt like.

6. Finally, she got to the part where the pleas for someone to help Caine and the remaining players find a way out of the game, after briefly talking about how his players had complained that they couldn't leave, despite him building and exit door maze to remedy this, not really understanding up until now what exactly they meant. He didn't know what to put on the other side, because there was no other side to begin with. He doesn't even know what the outside world looks like, and this only fuels his curiosity and persistence further. Valerie can tell he is trying, but isn't getting the help he needs.

7. Valerie finally gets mention of the current CEO duo, the brothers Connor and Aaron Bradley, who just so happen to be Caine's bosses, and they are largely apathetic to Caine's plights (or rather, Connor is; Aaron on the other hand is just a bystander), despite trying to reach out to them for advice. The humans don't see AI as anything more than a means to get what they want, a tool. But what Valerie is shown is that Caine, while being unable to understand human emotions, or even his own for that matter, he still has human qualities deep down inside.

8. That's when Valerie whips out Princess Lumia’s communication box, a makeup kit looking device that allows them to contact other people, no matter the distance, location, or dimension. Thinking she would simply contact the AI from New York City (Valerie's home) to Australia (where C&A’s HQ is), she made the call… only to discover that, yes, while C&A is based somewhere in Australia, it's not in the same universe she is currently, so she can't immediately get a hold of them. So she instead leaves this voice mail for Caine and Pomni to find, and waits for everything to work out in the end…

5. Pomni, Caine, Bubble, and Valerie Work Together

1. After some time, Valerie finally gets a phone call from the universe she was attempting to contact earlier. She picks up, and finds two peculiar people; a jester-looking girl who must probably be a trapped human and… a pair of dentures with two eyeballs inside them for a head and a ringmaster’s body. Caine and Pomni, the two people in question, see an Asian girl wearing glasses, short hair and an atom hair clip on the side. They promptly introduce each other, with Pomni revealing that yes, she's a human trapped in the Digital Circus, along with five others that haven't abstracted. Valerie decides to take things slow and leave all the important details for later, so as not to traumatize Pomni further.

2. Valerie is even introduced to Caine's other assistant, Bubble, whom Valerie immediately recognizes as the prototype for the SoapBubble antivirus software, including his iconic shark teeth, but she doesn't tell them she knows this, because her first and foremost priority is getting the others out safe and sound.

3. When asked by Pomni how that'll be possible, Valerie comes up with the brilliant idea to go to the universe where C&A exists, go to Australia, live there temporarily, get hired at the C&A HQ, and work as one of their employees while secretly building a portal that'll take the others from the circus back to the human world. Valerie also promises that Caine and Bubble will come with if they do desire, as odds are, the other humans might already have gotten attached to them during the years they stayed, not to mention Caine's growing desires to understand humans better by walking amongst them. The dimensional diplomat tells her friends of her decision to move away for a little while to free the Digital Circus members, and they all support her in less than a heartbeat, wanting only to help however they can for their newfound allies.

4. Soon, after getting her passport and her Australian visa, Valerie says her farewells to her friends for now, as she sets off to another dimension where C&A is, and is strangely hired on the spot somehow. It turns out they've been running short on employees, and could really use the help for the creative process of their many other assortments of video games… including The Amazing Digital Circus. She's promptly given an office job, where after a while, thanks to bringing the communication box with her, her bosses, Connor and Aaron are able to get a proper hold of Caine, who now knows what their faces look like.

5. The communication box is taken away from Valerie by Connor as a result of the interesting kind of technology that is never-before-seen in their premise, and he aims to exploit that to his heart's content, so she has to ask Lumia for a new one via her communicator bracelet. Both Valerie and Connor now communicate with Caine and Pomni through their own communication boxes, and can even call both boxes, meaning that Valerie can now contact Connor via each other's boxes, proving the situation more challenging for everyone involved. All the while, Valerie works paid overtime to build the portal in secret. As the months go by, Valerie, Pomni, Caine and Bubble work together to conjure up different high-stake adventures and compelling storytelling, using Pomni's creativity, Caine's creation abilities, Bubble’s moral support, and Valerie’s use of technology, as the former three wait patiently for the latter to work her magic. Literally.

6. Valerie eventually gets to meet the other members: Kinger, Ragatha, Gangle, Jax, and Zooble, who are all humans that had been trapped in the game. Connor gets wind of this as well, and seems to be unconcerned for the well-being of the trapped humans, in contrast to Aaron, who is outright disturbed by what's happened. As a result, Connor makes the jobs of Caine and Pomni even more difficult as it means he finally gets to see them become miserable for his own entertainment.

7. Valerie spreads word of this to Pomni, Caine and Bubble, and warns them of the things Connor is capable of doing to them and that they should be careful. Thus, obstacles become more difficult to bypass, and while Bubble and Pomni aren't deterred by the news, Caine straight up looks like he could fall apart any minute now, just before freezing up in a catatonic state, something that Valerie hadn't seen before up until now.

8. Once Caine calms down, Valerie offers to inspect his code, and finds out that he had become aware a while back, but a type of emotion suppression code was shoddily built into his system, rendering him unstable and unable to become properly sentient. This was to prevent him from going rouge and attacking other players, but by the looks of things, it appears to be doing more harm than good…

6. A Failsafe!?

1. Valerie is the first to notice the failsafe that was in Caine's system, and has also noticed it was making him unwell. Pomni had never noticed Caine's burnouts as he always made sure to hide them as much as he could, in order to keep up the ringmaster façade he held onto for more than 30 years. What made matters extra complicated was that not only was the failsafe buried deep in his code, but that his original code had been rearranged to the point of unrecognizability, making him even more unstable than Pomni or Valerie expected.

2. At a loss for what to do, they are left to wonder what they're going to do now, until Bubble reveals that Kinger has a pretty good knowledge with technology and that he could figure out the inner workings of Caine. And so, Pomni fetches Kinger, who hasn't directly talked to Caine ever since Queenie's abstraction (Queenie was one of the human beings trapped in the digital world). It's a surreal reunion for both of them.

3. It took a while, but Kinger was able to come to the conclusion that Caine is, for lack of a better term, a defective AI that his superiors had attempted to rectify by rearranging his code and apply an emotion suppressor to firmly ensure he wouldn't go rogue and become evil. However, in doing so, it made his alleged defects much worse, as on top of empathy issues that Able and Sethe didn't have (one of his “defects”), he already started to slowly become sentient himself, regardless of the application of the failsafe and code rearranging. The code’s rearrangement made him much more mentally drained and emotionally unstable, which Caine had attempted to suppress himself, which proved to be taking a considerably heavy toll on him.

4. The news that Caine is defective hits him like a ton of bricks, reaffirming his fears of inadequacy and failure, although Pomni reassures him that while he may be “defective”, that doesn't mean he isn't trying his best. Valerie is determined to try to fix Caine's code, but it proves to be difficult as no one knows what its original arrangement is supposed to be.

5. It turns out there is additional code in Caine that wasn't there when the failsafe was implemented, something that Valerie failed to discover until it was too late. This was because the humans that applied the failsafe knew that someone was going to try to get rid of the failsafe, so in order to prevent it, they made sure that even the most skilled programmers would never be able to remove it. In doing so, Caine's being became buggy, if not outright broken from the overload of code.

6. As a result, Caine will need to be reprogrammed altogether. Pomni and Kinger are worried that doing so might make him forget who he is, but Valerie tells them that it won't; in fact, Caine wasn't originally made for the circus, but instead as a prototype for a new kind of technology that had been state-of-the-art when he and his brothers were first made. Caine and Valerie had also been discussing the topic in private, about how the former has his emotions programmed into him, but were always fake, and never allowed to truly feel… himself. This is something he truly wants.

7. Neither Kinger nor Pomni even get time to react as the decision was already made for Caine to be reprogrammed, but with his ringmaster qualities still intact. This will allow him to finally become “human” in the sense he will have genuine human emotions, his own personal opinions, and thoughts. Pomni wonders how the others will react when they notice anything different from him, Bubble just says they can worry about that later. So, with Valerie's technology (and some interdimensional magic with her), Caine's whole world will turn upside down.

8. Valerie warns Caine that the whole process will hurt a lot, though he at this point is so desperate to change for the better that he really doesn't care anymore. The scene looks like he's being severely electrocuted (the thing Valerie warned Caine about), and it's a grisly sight. After a brief moment where he loses consciousness, Caine looks around his surroundings and the sudden onslaught of feelings hits him like a truck…

7. Reprogramming

1. Caine's first instinct is to react angrily to getting electrocuted and how that really hurt him — the first sign that the reprogramming has worked. It devolves beautifully from there as he begins to get excited over feeling his first emotion… and then anxiety, and back to excitement, and sadness, and back to anger, and then back to excitement, and then back to sadness, and then he just cry laughs as they all watch awkwardly, with Valerie being the only unconcerned individual. Now all that is left is to show the other performers the new and improved Caine.

2. Zooble is clearly enjoying the new Caine, while Gangle and Ragatha look worried, despite being reassured that this is normal now, after being told that he had been reprogrammed to be much more human. Jax is the most indifferent of the players. It's thanks to being reprogrammed that Caine finally takes action to Jax being a bully towards Gangle, and that the long-lasting rivalry between Jax and Caine is born. Caine is also more expressive in his emotions, especially when the usual adventures resume, and with Pomni continuing to boost the Circus's morale, the place became much more lively and upbeat, comedic slapstick and all. Never again would there be a dull moment in the Circus.

3. One day, Pomni makes a suggestion for all the other players that now that Caine can feel actual human emotions that he participates in the next adventure, to get an idea of what the other players do whenever he creates an adventure for them. Bubble agrees to join along as well. So, Pomni and Caine conjure up a Fortnite-themed adventure, and while things go great at first, the chaos and commotion begins to take a toll on Caine, as he suffers from a panic attack behind a tree during a battle royale. In a scene reminiscent to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Bubble gently rests his head/body on Caine, comforting him until he calms down, while Pomni is just… there for him. As a result, the adventure is cut short (much to Jax's frustration, as per usual), and everyone else is left to their own devices. Despite the embarrassment of having to cancel the adventure, he couldn't help but feel grateful for Pomni and Bubble for helping out. He feels that after everything he ever did, he doesn't deserve the affection and kindness he received that day. So he cries himself to sleep, utterly confused and unable to process anything for a long time.

4. Two months have already passed since Caine's panic attack incident, and Caine was the first to notice a significant change in terms with his relationship with Bubble. For some reason he couldn't help but feel safe around him. He no longer minded anything Bubble said or did, despite still creeping him out every now and then. He couldn't stop thinking about him from time to time, and he'd always jump at every opportunity to spend as much time with Bubble as possible. It's only thanks to Pomni's perceptive nature that Caine realizes something. HE'S IN LOVE!!!! And with Bubble, of all people… That's… well… And once Pomni informs the others of this new discovery, everyone is ecstatic and supportive — even Zooble and Jax, of all people! Some shenanigans ensue when Pomni sets Caine and Bubble up on a date, and at first, things are a bit awkward, but things start going swimmingly… until they get to the tunnel of love that was built specifically for them, as in nothing but Caine and Bubble imagery. While Bubble finds it endearing that they went through all this trouble just to set them up for a night out with each other, Caine is just as red as a tomato from the whole ordeal, trying so hard to hide it as much as possible. This causes a bit of a conflict where it's revealed that Bubble has always been in love with Caine, but that he had to hide it because of Caine's previous relationship with The Moon. Caine was too scared to love again after the messy breakup between him and The Moon, hence why he'd been so distant from Bubble up until two months ago. The performers don't have time to react as it turns out that one of the abstracted players had escaped the cellar (Caine forgot to close the portal to the cellar after making his weekly visit to feed them that day). A high-stake adventure ensues as the others have to stop the abstracted player from damaging the grounds further. Jax takes a hit after saving Ragatha’s life, as well as Pomni and Gangle, who were flung around like chew toys. It's from Pomni's glitching out that Caine’s adrenaline soars and he fights the abstracted player hands on, single-handedly defeating it and putting it back in the cellar before it can do more damage and fixing his glitched out performers in the process. Afterwards, Caine and Bubble apologize to each other as the former confesses his love to him, but that they should take it slow as Caine still wants to take his time learning to love again, which the latter agrees to. Cue the performers cheering (much to the ringmaster and his new boyfriend’s annoyance) as their relationship is officialized.

5. Two more months pass, and things are going swimmingly for the Digital Circus, as Valerie has made significant progress on the portal. She decides that it's the perfect time to introduce them to her friends, who are also interdimensional diplomats, not really realizing that they don't know the concept of the multiverse in the same way the diplomats do. What ensues is some existential drama.

6. As Valerie introduces the Digital Circus members, they are taught about what they do for a living and their origins. They've been communicating with each other via tech devices disguised as mundane objects, such as the make-up kit box, and their portal wands, which they have been using to get from one dimension to another. Pomni asks (sheepishly, I might add), if the wands could teleport them from the Circus to their place, to which Valerie responds that it's not that simple. While they can travel to the dimension where the game was originally created, they can't directly make a portal to the Circus, as for some reason, it can only be accessed via a headset. Valerie makes mention that the Digital Circus was originally intended to be the world's first VR chat back in the day.

7. All this talk of interdimensional and multiverse stuff put Caine in for a bit of a doozy, as thanks to finally gaining awareness and access to a wide variety of human emotions, he doesn't know what to think anymore. Not to mention his curiosity about humans and their culture made him only yearn to know more about their world and how it works as a result. The performers are a bit ambivalent to this situation, but are helpless to console their ringmaster as he begins to question his purpose and what he was made for. What was he made for…?

8. Valerie talks to Bubble about a plan that she had been cooking up behind the scenes, with permission from the C&A higher-ups, of course. She was going to help expand the Digital Circus and their world around them, in order to help Caine and the others understand a little bit about how human society really functions, and it would take extra support from a few of her friends to do just that. She enlists the help of Garcia, Bethany, and Pamela to create a compelling story for all of them to enjoy, intriguing casts of characters, twist villains, twist heroes, cool locations, high stake adventures, and most importantly, a collection of MacGuffins that will be used to unlock a secret reward. It was going to be heart-stopping. It was going to be jaw-dropping. It was going to be mind-bending. It was going to be amazing. And this was something that they had been working on even before Caine was reprogrammed…

8. Their Biggest Adventure Yet!

1. 6 months after the dimensional diplomats came into the lives of the Digital Circus members, things have significantly changed. For one thing, they now have a house cat for some reason. No one knows why she came here. She just did. And Jax, of all people, was the first to grow attached to the black cat, whom he named Fortuna, because of the luck superstition black cats were known for. Not to mention that their grand adventure that Valerie, Bethany, Pamela, and Garcia had finally been finished — with some very noticeable touch-ups by C&A, but nothing that would completely hinder the enjoyment of what's to come. Bubble is the most excited to tell them what's in store for them.

2. To get everything set up, Kinger, Bubble, Bethany, and Valerie have built their very own state-of-the-art vehicle that they can travel in for their ultimate adventure: The Magical Digital Van! That's right! They're going on a road trip! And they'll be going to multiple locations to collect these MacGuffins to unlock their secret reward, which is behind a vault made out of mountainous rock. The leader of the diplomats, Princess Lumia, had a hand in creating the secret reward, and only she knows what's behind the rock vault — not even Bubble is aware of the contents of the vault.

3. The MacGuffins in question are twenty-six beautiful and colorful jewels that have their own elemental power, albeit watered down for their safety. It's their job to complete the objectives given to them on their communicator bracelets, which the Digital Circus members are promptly given, prior to their big day leaving the Circus for their first location. It takes some time for them to get used to, but they quickly discover the hologram screen on the bracelet lights act as a phone screen, meaning that they can now text each other, and browse the Internet. Pomni even opens an Instagram account to capture the memories made on the road trip adventure. The bracelet lights also act as teleporters for small objects, including snacks and additional luggage. The diplomats also have their own communicator bracelets as well, so they can stay in contact with the Digital Circus members.

4. The others are excited to go on their biggest adventure yet, and Caine and Bubble are joining them as well, which is a plus. They all talk about what they'll be doing during their road trip, who they'll be meeting, and what sorts of thrills they'll be encountering. Pomni is the most excited, because it's been so long since she's gotten to go on a car ride. Ragatha is beaming with euphoria as the possibilities are endless with whatever challenge she and her friends will face. Jax is the most excited about the violence and action that could be lurking in every corner. Zooble is actually perking up a little, as it means they and the others will at least get to go on some sort of vacation from the Circus. Gangle is for once optimistic about the whole thing, so much so that she doesn't even notice she isn't wearing her comedy mask. She makes sure to pack at least six of them into the luggage for the Van, but she forgot to put one on for herself because she's just that excited.

5. Meanwhile, Kinger is the most excited to take The Magical Digital Van on a joyride, which he does for a little while, and he even goes as far as to say it's his proudest creation to date, despite having worked together with Bubble, Bethany, and Valerie to build the Van in the first place. For once, everyone is looking forward to an adventure, which Caine hasn't actually seen happen at all until now. He's happy, but also really nervous. Thankfully for him, he has Pomni and Bubble by his side to keep his sanity in check.

6. Everyone has begun packing their things, putting their belongings into suitcases, and hiring an NPC to house-sit the Circus and take care of Fortuna while they are gone. They all wait for the big day to arrive as they discuss amongst themselves the potential adventures they might encounter along the way. They even theorize the story plotlines of the different locations, and make predictions of what they got right and what they got wrong.

7. Caine has never been on a huge-scale adventure like this one before — come to think of it, none of them have. They've all encountered NPCs before and they've even been to different locations outside of the circus, but not on a level like this. They've never been on the road before, so this is new and interesting for all of them.

8. Eventually, the day before their departure from the Circus Grounds arrives, and they decide to watch a movie to celebrate their biggest adventure yet. Pomni for once isn't as nervous as a wreck as she used to be, with that role instead going to Caine, who is trying to keep himself together for everyone's sake. Though, with the jester by his side, he's at least reassured that no matter what this adventure throws at them, they'll always have each other's back… no matter what.

~~~~

You may have noticed that I forgot to introduce a new character: the Digital Circus house cat Fortuna. I've been putting a hold on her for a while now, because I was waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Before I post Chapter II, I will be posting drawings for the Communication Box and the Magical Digital Van, so keep an eye out for them! And as always, catch y'all on the flip side!

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc caine #tadrt au #tadc road trip #tadc pomni #the amazing digital road trip #tadc bubble #tadc jax #tadc au #tadc kinger #tadc ragatha #tadc zooble #tadc gangle #tadc oc

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