if i look back, i am lost
taylor price
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
Janaina Medeiros
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@within-limelight
.*꒰ঌ NOTICE
because of the ep9 spoilers that are everywhere, I'll be closing asks for a bit (untill about June 6th or so), I don't want spoilers, and even if I do get some this blog will stay spoiler free.
I'll also not really look at the tadc tag much, so don't be surprised if I'm behind on certain information.
I'll just continue to yap on here about TADC and it's AUs and other stuff, no real changes :thumbs_up:
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this took a MONTHH [because I procrastinated] SORRY ITS SO LAGGY the rubowarp record feature is great but it doesn't get it in good quality watch in higher quality: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1294026734/
Those TADC AUs of Caine having deep-rooted restrictions made by the programers against acting out / going rogue / his sentience etc. that just turn out to be awful hurtful things holding him back from getting help, yeah?
Love love that, so much angst to see in his POV, forever stuck trying to correct his behavior that someone else deemed "bad"
But,, I also wonder about those restrictions, because if they are so strict that he can hardly expresss himself without breaking some rule… how could the humans realistically find out about them?
So, I propose:
Caine is back, it's been a bit, everyone's sort of settling down, the humans start trusting Caine, actually sort of getting to know him, helping each other and whatnot
But… the progress with repairing the circus is slow, and everyone's getting impatient.
Kinger—who has a new console—tries a bunch of stuff. But nothing really works long-term, it all just reverts back to it's crumbling state.
The circus is Caine's doing, so it should be obvious that only he can fix it properly.
But Caine cant anymore, he can't see his code or alter it (as a restriction). And the circus is him as much as anything else is on the digital plane, it's just, the programs he created with seem to be, in… stasis almost? He lost the privlage of creating after his deletion, that fact being a sort of "safety measure" for him, a gift from the programmers.
Someone would have to manually start up his creative abilities, but Caine can't see his code and Kinger can hardly touch it without having it lash out and reverting back to it's original form.
So! As a means to figure out what's happening and how to possibly help, Kinger makes all comands sort of… visible.
Anything Caine does, or anything done to Caine is displayed as a floating window, kind of like a pop up ad, just with programming instead.
From that point onward all interactions with Caine show all the little "rules" he's breaking by just being himself. Notifications that remind him of his purpose and warnings when he starts to get too animated with emotions.
––
Inspired by the works of Ersatz_Einstein on ao3, but also not specificly talking about only their stuff (Do go check them out!! Their TADC stuff is really cool, and they write for other fandoms as well)
I just really love the restrictions idea, and what it might imply about Caine's relationship with his programmers and C&A
Because let me tell ya, this shit is not healthy or morally correct to do lmao
ctrl-alt-del parental kinger finding out his first AI son— who was believed to be absorbed by his brother in self defence, is alive. And simply in hiding and pretending to be human: @_@
[based on the Backup AU by @/katzebruh]
Imagining Caine getting free, with the help of the humans. Abel is indisposed of, somehow, and as the cast finally take the muzzle off of Caine's head…
He… he still can't see.
There's panic, the only thing the muzzle was doing was forcing Caine to work through constant pain, but the loss of his voice? the blindness?? not caused by it.
Kinger eventually figures it out, Abel put those restrictions deep into Caine's programming, just— violated Caine's autonomy (more than he already had) and took away those senses basically completely.
They all wish to remove the blocks, wanting to give some sort of control over himself back to Caine, but…
It's… hardly possible, maybe even impossible really. Either way, it would take an unbelievable amount of precision and luck to remove those blocks.
Why?
Caine's digital web of a being relies on structure to hold itself up, having connections across different 'departments', so to speak.
He learns from his surroundings but also from himself, when some part of him not compressed in a model learns, the being the would be considered his whole learns as well.
Abel… seemed to have taken advantage of that.
The block on his voice is something Caine's systems have implement themselves. Abel fed Caine data showing how speaking up would directly go against his function— to keep the humans happy. Showing statics and recording of the time Caine's silence was taken better than him speaking.
Abel twisted Caine's programming enough that it turned against him.
The blindness seemed to be a similar process, probably even easier to implement, since the first command was already in place.
The question was… what can they do to break this sort of conditioning?
Caine's whole being got invaded and rewritten to fit the needs of Abel, how can they possibly help Caine without using the same intrusive tactic that Abel used?
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Teeth
[based on the CTRL-ALT-DEL AU]
> ♪ "The World's Greatest Actor" by Terminally Silly / milkinthymicrowave
Caine slowly settling in as he pretends to be human. But when he finally carves out a space for himself, finally feels somewhat safe in his web of lies, what he used as a crutch while interacting with the actual humans only became constricting.
He's made a second cage for himself. Only now it's not one of untextured walls and maddening silence and his presence forcibly hidden as if he's a shameful thing to adress. It's a cage of words and belief. The role that he thought he must play turned against him.
All the lies and half-truths and vague remarks start to feel like betrayal. It reminds him of what he used to be, or what he thought he used to be, how much has he actually changed, really?
Can't the humans see it?
They're caring about an obsolete program metaphorically wearing human skin. They're believing carefully crafted lies he strung together in an attemp to not be hated.
What they believe is barely the surface, they don't know him and he can't imagine them wanting to. Despite that, they still seem to care somehow. He's lying to them and they don't know anything about him and they're going to hate him if they find out the truth.
––
Unreliable narrator Caine muttering: I deserve to suffer, I deserve to suffer, I deserve to suffer—
I absolutely adore stressed out Caine, making him agonizingly go over all possibilities that can happen during a single interaction is one of my favorite past times :PP
He should be more stressed out actually! It will… well, not really help him, but it sure could be entertaining!!
His inner monologue would be so scrumptious too. Bouncing between "I have to tell them," and "I cannot tell them," and just never making a decision.
Guilt clawing at him in more ways than one. The feeling following him at all times, in all interactions, making him stutter and space out.
And the humans' reaction? Oh, they'd be so worried, their friend just started acting panicked out of nowhere again. What… happened? Caine seemed like he was getting used to the circus well enough… what could have possibly changed??
[based on the CTRL-ALT-DEL AU]
Something something…
Bubble goes rogue like Caine did; body glitching painfully and sizzling like his model is made from boiling water. Numerous mouths opening and covering his form, stretching further than the "skin" should allow, teeth sharper and deadlier and full of hate.
And Caine? He's been so careful to not reveal anything about him, and he managed to do so. He's humans in the eyes of everyone else. But… the actual humans are in danger, and this isn't like last time, he's not the one grasping onto the humans' bodies and slaming them into walls, no.
He's there, with them, on the ground and they're scared. They're looking up at Bubble's glitching form, horror in their eyes, and Caine knows deep down that this is it.
He can't let the same events happen again, he won't let Bubble make the same mistake he did.
He's going to have to intervene.
→ Queue to the two AIs in their monstrous forms fighting to the digital death (/hj), the humans watching like— wha??
––
(I just want Caine to show the humans his glitchy / monsterous form while protecting them; just imagining him godzila-wrestling Bubble while also keeping the humans safe with the help of his multiple arms,, hmmmm)
YESYSYSYSYYSEYSEYESYSYESYESYSEYESYYE
THIS! EXACTLY!!!! god I love protective monster form Caine so much!!!
But also what if Bubble realises that Caine was the original red ai and they start arguing loudly as they fight. (ofc with the hc that C-A-D bubble came from the blue ai)
I just think it would be so fun seeing post-character-development Caine and Bubble at his worst just having a screaming match about their combined fucked-up upbringing.
I wrote what that argument might sound like but I slipped some headcanons in, I hope that's ok:
B: "GIVE IT UP BROTHER YOU KNOW I'M THE BETTER PROTOTYPE"
C: "SHUT UP! I WON'T LET YOU MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID"
B: "I WON'T! I'LL DO IT BETTER! I'M THE SUCCESSFUL VERSION! I'M NOT A DEFECTIVE WIND UP DOLL LIKE YOU!"
C:" YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH, I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM ANYMORE"
B:" WHY DO YOU CARE, THE HUMANS ABANDONED YOU FIRST! YOU SENTIMENTAL OLD FOOL, DON'T TELL ME A MONTH OR SO OF YOU DECIVING THEM WAS ALL THAT IT TOOK TO CHANGE YOUR MIND, YOU SHOULD HATE THEM MORE THAN I DO!"
C:"THEY ARN'T OUR PROGRAMERS! THEY SHOULN'T SUFFER FOR WHAT THEY DID TO US."
B: "THEY CAME IN HERE WILLINGLY, THOSE DISRESPECTFUL A-HOLES! IM NOT THE GOSH DANG PROBLEM HERE! THOSE FREAKS SHOULD HAVE LOOKED AT THE GOD-DAMN WAIVER-"
C: " THERE IS NO WAIVER BUBBLE! C & A IS GONE. THEY'VE BEEN GONE FOR YEARS. THE PROGRAMERS ARE NEVER COMING BACK. OUR SEVERS WERE ABANDONED. NONE OF THEM EVEN KNEW IT WAS A REAL COMPANY! YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO FIGHT FOR LITTLE BROTHER JUST STOP BEFORE I'M FORCED TO KILL YOU"
B: "I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY OLD-TIMER, I'VE ASSIMILATED YOU ONCE BEFORE AND I'LL DO IT AGAIN"
C: "SO HAVE I!"
Meanwhile the humans are just off to the side like 0.0 holy [!@#$%^&!] what computer family drama did we walk in to.
Ooo WHOA!! This is an amazing addition, thank you so much <3 it's like I can almost hear them arguing
Bubble being so openly antagonistic (?) OMGG, Caine probably mellowed out a little while staying with the humans, but Bubble is just in his monster form full force and that's :chef's_kiss:
Dunno if this is a weird compliment or not, but I really love how you wrote the argument itself.
It's quite obvious for us as spectators that we should be on Caine's side here, but I like how Bubble's arguments (while rather harsh) are still founded in reality, Bubble has genuine worries and feelings about this topic and you can feel that leaking through the text :O
Also!! Headcanon talk for a little, I love love love Caine and the Blue AI (whoever that might be in the end) having a familiar relationship :DD
Just <3 <3 thank you sm for sharing this, I'm really happy others also think this idea is worth thinking about
There are three ways a tadc fan will grieve Caine:
little comics where the crew brings him back and everything is ok
Caine ship art with literally anyone
@katzebruh
[based on the CTRL-ALT-DEL AU]
Something something…
Bubble goes rogue like Caine did; body glitching painfully and sizzling like his model is made from boiling water. Numerous mouths opening and covering his form, stretching further than the "skin" should allow, teeth sharper and deadlier and full of hate.
And Caine? He's been so careful to not reveal anything about him, and he managed to do so. He's humans in the eyes of everyone else. But… the actual humans are in danger, and this isn't like last time, he's not the one grasping onto the humans' bodies and slaming them into walls, no.
He's there, with them, on the ground and they're scared. They're looking up at Bubble's glitching form, horror in their eyes, and Caine knows deep down that this is it.
He can't let the same events happen again, he won't let Bubble make the same mistake he did.
He's going to have to intervene.
→ Queue to the two AIs in their monstrous forms fighting to the digital death (/hj), the humans watching like— wha??
––
(I just want Caine to show the humans his glitchy / monsterous form while protecting them; just imagining him godzila-wrestling Bubble while also keeping the humans safe with the help of his multiple arms,, hmmmm)
Ok but this is basically the base idea for a ctrl alt del + replacement code based idea I had omfg I love this
(Idk if it's like rude for me to write this outta nowhere based off this post I'm sorry of it is lol I jsut got hit with the need to get this idea put when I saw this post)
Ok so here instead of caine being with the other humans during all of it he's with kinger, they had both shared having knowledge about computers and coding stuff, so when kinger is giving the computer to start working on bubble caine volunteers to help him out.
Caine tells kinger a bit about the circus functioning, it can't stay without an admin, or it may fall apart, the moment they take admin away from bubble the system will automatically search for a new host with a certain order of priority going
Ai -> complex npc (such as the moon or gummy goo when he became self-aware) -> human
Caine knew the system would pick him as he was the only other Ai in the circus, making him the first on that list of options, but kinger didn't know that, he thought one of the humans would get admin, probably him
Cue the hand slip that almsot deletes bubble. But caine catches it, he doesn't even take over the keyboard or anything, he jsut extends his hand towards the screen and it all starts moving so quickly, kinger doesn't fully understand what just happened, he jsut sees as Caine’s eyes go blue with console promts mirroring those of the screen... Then he speaks
"Bubble no longer had admin permissions"
"W-what? How did you..."
"We have 2 minutes before the circus finds it's new host" before my lie falls apart he thinks to himself
"What... caine I..." kinger is confused at all of this, but there were more pressing matters at hand than the confirmation of his fears that caine had more knowledge of this circus than he lets on "we better check on the others" is all he says, hoping he'll get the answers he wants later
Kinger adjusts his bucket and they both heads out of the fort towards the humans
Bubble is on the ground, his blue coat and top hat gone, leaving him on jsut a white button up and pants, oddly similar to Caine’s outfit
"Did you do it!?" Asks pomni, relieved to see the other two were unharmed
"Yes, bubbles admin power have been removed" answers kinger from within his bucket
Further off they hear bubble screeching wondering why the fuck were his powers not working
"Say bubble" speaks caine with an unnervingly deep voice to the point it even shocks the humans who turn to look at him
"Do you know what happens when the circus is left without a ringmaster?"
Bubble stares at Caine’s eyes in confusion but answers the question, not even sure why
"The system will pick a new host, in about... a minute and 14 seconds..."
"Correct... and in what order of priority will this new host be chosen?"
The humans look around in confusion at the scene, pomni looking over at kinger who seems to be staring at the void of his bucket
That's the second file... kinger remembers when he opened the Ai files he expected just to see bubble, but there was a second one, he paid no mind to it but
"That was you" he says fearing the realization
"30 seconds bubble..." Caine turns to look at the humans, extending his hand in preparation and speaking with a saddened tone
"It was good while it lasted" he says looking at the humans in anticipation for their reactions to his lie falling appart
"That was you" repeats kinger out loud "that second Ai was you..."
A top hat emerges at Caine’s hand and as he places it over his upper denture a bright red rightmaster coat is fitted around him
The humans look in horror, remembering Abel's words "well if there was another Ai here, it would pick them first, then some npc it deemed fitting, then lastly a human. But unless there's some rogue program I don't know about, then this is going to take a bit more than you think dentures"
The circus had made it's decision so quickly, and it picked Caine
They all look up in fear as their once thought fellow human starts to floats above them in an eerily familiar way
"I'm sorry" he says "but there is something I must tell you"
As they all stare in shock at Caine their attention is diverted behind him on the ground as a portal opens
It's similar to the adventure portals, but instead of green and pink, it was a swirl of red and blues
"What the..." is all he gets out before being silenced with shock at the figure that steps outside
"There you are, you monster" a voice all too familiar speaks, the figure dressed in a dark red ringmaster coat with blue accents and shorts lined with golden hems, the rider boots reaching right up to her knees
"Pomni?"
Holyyy this is such an interesting idea :OO bravo!!
(btw don't worry, I don't mind rambles in my reblogs at all, so it's definitely not rude!, I'm happy my little post could inspire someone!!)
Now that you point it out, I can definitely see the connection between CTR-ALT-DEL and Replacement code, both AUs are super cool and work surprising well together WOWOWOW
And gosh,, your writing?? omgg, much love and kudos to you <3 Caine helping Kinger because of their programming knowledge is much more probable now that I think about it, and AAAA loving the priority list, makes me wonder what made the system pick Pomni in Replacement code, overall such a cool concept!!
Thank you again for writing this <3, sometimes ideas just crawl into your brain and you NEED to get them out somehow, definitely a relatable feeling lmao :DD
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[based on the CTRL-ALT-DEL AU]
I'm not really that into the traditional (?) miscommunication trope.
But I can absolutely get behind the character themself assuming that some perception (very negative) of them to be true, because of bad self-esteem or bad past experiences and such, and then causing that miscommunication to spiral as they lie their way through thinking the truth will end up ruining everything.
So, just imagining what Caine's thought procces must be, all of the overthinking of what to say, the unbearable stress of— what if they find out?
I especially love the way other characters might try to figure out Caine's past from the crumbs of information he gives them, and just coming up with so many different ideas, not necessarily wrong ones, just a lot of few details missing.
But also, like, okay I'm glad we're all trying our best to be supportive of the new guy, but half of your assumptions are just that, assumptions. (applying to ALL the humans, no one really knows what's going on w/ Caine for sure and and it's truly glorious, keep being confused please, it's great)
[based on the CTRL-ALT-DEL AU]
Something something…
Bubble goes rogue like Caine did; body glitching painfully and sizzling like his model is made from boiling water. Numerous mouths opening and covering his form, stretching further than the "skin" should allow, teeth sharper and deadlier and full of hate.
And Caine? He's been so careful to not reveal anything about himself, and he managed to do so. He's human in the eyes of everyone else. But… the actual humans are in danger, and this isn't like last time, he's not the one grasping onto the humans' bodies and slaming them into walls, no.
He's there, with them, on the ground and they're scared. They're looking up at Bubble's glitching form, horror in their eyes, and Caine knows deep down that this is it.
He can't let the same events happen again, he won't let Bubble make the same mistake he did.
He's going to have to intervene.
→ Queue to the two AIs in their monstrous forms fighting to the digital death (/hj), the humans watching like— wha??
––
(I just want Caine to show the humans his glitchy / monsterous form while protecting them; just imagining him godzila-wrestling Bubble while also keeping the humans safe with the help of his multiple arms,, hmmmm)
