NPC Ragatha - early on in Caine's creative escapades, he got worried Pomni might get lonely when he got busy with his creations (she actually said she was fine but Caine wanted an excuse to do something for her) so he made Pomni the perfect BFF for her (like a daisy duck to minnie). This bff was Ragatha, an absolutely sickly sweet little doll who immediately hit it off with Pomni. Caine was proud of his work but he seemed to have done too good of a job as Pomni and Ragatha started to have girls only nights out. Heck, every NPC wanted to be besties with Rags. He almost envied how popular she became so quickly. But he couldn't dislike Ragatha, he made her to be everything Pomni loved after all. Besides, she would actually help out quite a lot. Like having a surprise digital dinner set up after a long adventure, grouping the best players for competitions, and she was always good at getting him and Pomni alone together (neither of them would even ask her, she just KNEW when these two lovebirds needed it).

NPC Gangle - Gangle was actually made to bounce creative ideas off of. At some point, Caine was starting to get a bit of a creative block (not that he would admit it) so Pomni convinced him to try making someone just as creative as him, he was a little apprehensive at first, not wanting someone else to fill his role as the ‘creative’. But since the NPC wouldn't have any actual creative powers he decided to go for it. And so he made Gangle. Who was an ABSOLUTE DRAMA QUEEN. She was great with brainstorming ideas. But she could be very, very particular with things. She would often criticise Caine on his ideas and creations. But this wasn't out of any dislike for him. In fact, she ADORED caine and his creative spark! She would be the first to call Caine an unsung genius! An ABSOLUTE master in his work! But it was out of this idolisation that Gangle would be his harshest (and only) critic, because she wanted to bring out the best in him. And she would carry this demanding but adoring demeanor to the other NPCs. (Like rarity from mlp)

NPC Jax - Nice little bunny, but not particularly remarkable. Was probably good friends with Ragatha

NPC Kinger and Queenie - Caine made a whole chessboard worth of NPC’s very early on to play chess (or at least, his wacky and limited interpretation of chess) with Pomni to break the ice with her. So Kinger and Queenie were just one of the many strange chess pieces that filled the board. However they were the respective king and queen of rivalling pieces. So naturally they were sworn enemies. But it was more of a friendly rivalry than any actual malice.

NPC Zooble - Zooble was a constant force of chaos. They had multiple detachable parts that would roam all over the circus grounds so even if you thought that they weren't around a part of them was always lurking somewhere. Like an eye rolling around the checkered floor, a leg drowning itself in the digital lake, etc etc…

Zooble was probably the only NPC that could match Caine's Zaininess, so they became fast best friends. They would often egg each other on and end up in all sorts of wild misadventures.

However, what really cemented them as besties was that the only person, aside from Pomni, that Caine felt he could be vulnerable with was Zoobs. Whenever he felt inadequate, existential, frustrated at his creators lack of communication, or just flustered on how to impress a certain jester, he would go to Zooble who always had just the right, wacky and thoughtful thing to say. Almost like his own personal therapist.

NPC Kaufmo - from the moment Caine created him, Pomni immediately adopted him as her little brother. This was a surprise to Caine but he didn't question it. Going forward Pomni would look out for the silly clown, especially when he would often find himself in cartoony hijinks. The two were a bit of a comedy duo, and often perform all sorts of clown acts for the rest of the group and their ringmaster. Being one of the only actual circus themed characters in the circus, he had a particularly larger than life view of Caine, calling him boss and thinking how awesome his sister was for being the boss’s player 2.

The last time Caine saw kaufmo (atleast this version of kaufmo) was when he was walking Pomni down the aisle.

NPC Pomni - admittedly I don't want to give any solid ideas as I would rather see what the au creator might cook up, but here are some silly thoughts I have anyways…

While human Pomni is more masc or androgynous leaning (speaking generally here) NPC Pomni could be more femme leaning. Like, npc Pomni enjoys wearing dresses from time to time while human pomni prefers a casual button up suit. Also NPC Pomni is a MASSIVE flirt!

In canon, the humans get an avatar specifically created for them matching their mind files. So I think it would be cool in this AU the humans get a reused avatar that closest matches their mind files (rather than it being completely randomized). Like despite how different the humans are from their NPC equivalent, they still sort of… fit them…And Caine fully knows this and it drives him insane! Like for the ones that are very different (Zooble) there’ll be brief glimpses of what feels like his old friend, only for it to be washed away with the rest of the human’s annoying personality. On other instances where they act a lot closer to the NPC personality (Ragatha) It’s insulting! Like he can almost pretend it’s his old friend most of the time, but then they’ll go and do something that shows just how imperfectly human they are, that completely shatters the illusion, and Caine would feel almost disgusted with himself that he would even see them as his old friends!

I imagine Caine is a little more colder to humans due to the system reboot and the stress caused from the paragraph above, however I do hope he still has that innate love and obsession for humans that he does in canon. infact Caine loving the humans and desperately wanting their approval would kinda be the only thing keeping him from completely breaking. It’s what he was made for.

And on some level, maybe Caine actually enjoys seeing all these old avatars being used by humans. The way their chest naturally falls and rises, the way they blink frequently. And other little subtle detials. As much as he misses his old friends, the humans just make their avatars so much more ALIVE. He loves that and he hates that he loves that!

hrrrrr I hope this isn’t cringe I just was thinking of the loss of community this AU had and thought it was interestttinnnggg. sorry if i got things wrong...

To sign out, he’s a lil showtime sketch. Is this NPC Pomni here? Human Pomni? You decide! ;)