Chapter Text
“Kinger—what if we could bring them back? What if we just try? We have Caine, he can pull me out and fix me if it gets too risky,” I say, 100% expecting him to say no immediately.
But he doesn’t. Instead, he puts a hand on his chin, looking down like he’s deep in thought.
“…Kinger?”
“Actually…” he says before looking up at me. “I might have an idea.
”Wait… actually?” I am more than shocked by his answer.
“Yes, I believe if I can rework his code.. we might have a change at stabilizing his files enough to reset his avatar.” He says calm as ever, as if this was an everyday statement.
I stare in disbelief, too afraid to let my hopes grow.
”This world is a lot like a video game, our avatars are separate from our other files. I need to play around with the command prompts and really get to understand the file system, but from what I saw when I was trying to work on Caine, it’s pretty likely. It would actually be a similar procedure to overriding Caine’s permissions. I know didn’t go well, but seeing as Jax is already so calm, we have much better chances.” He pauses, suddenly realizing I barely know what he’s talking about.
”Pomni, were you ever into computer science?” He asks with a chuckle.
”..kind of? It’s been a while, and the most I know now is how to conjure in here.” I say, still trying to catch up to the possibility that my crazy plan might not actually be that crazy.
Kinger gives me a soft smile. “Well, you sure have picked up conjuring pretty well, and I’ll bet that will come in handy. But right now, we need to gather the others and tell them our plan. I’m honestly not sure how they’ll react, but I definitely want everyone in on this.”
“I agree.” I nod. “I’m done keeping secrets, I feel bad enough for not telling anyone about my dreams anyways.” I sigh.
”Don’t feel bad, we’ve been through a lot lately. It makes sense you didn’t want to burden anyone with this.” He gives me a big papa bear hug.
”I’m glad you opened up to me, though,” he puts a hand on my shoulder. “I have a feeling it’s going to lead to positive changes.”
We wave goodbye to Queenie, and I see three other abstractions in the distance. I hope we don’t end up ruining the peace they’ve found.
We go back to the main circus tent, and find everyone in the sitting area brainstorming ideas for the new section Caine has been developing for us.
Me and Kinger share a look. I give him a little half smile, and he squeezes my hand before leading the way over.
”Hey everyone,” He announces. They all turn and acknowledge us with smiles.
”Hey guys! We were just wondering what you two would think about our current idea! It’s pretty out there compared to everything else we’ve worked on so far!“ Caine glides over with a blueprint. “Kinger, would you mind helping me structure this properly? I still struggle with cube collisions-“
Kinger smiles at Caine, then holds up one hand, and gently pushes down the blueprint with the other. Caine’s own smile falters a bit.
”If there’s something wrong with it-“ Caine starts.
”No, Caine.” Kinger reassures him. “Me and Pomni actually have some important news. I do acknowledge your idea, and I’m willing to help. But I have a more pressing matter.” Kinger takes a deep breath.
”Pomni and I came up with a pretty extreme theory. We might be able to unabstract Jax.” He pauses, waiting for everyone’s reactions.
I see many emotions flash through all four faces. Everyone has shock written pretty clearly, but Ragatha and Gangle seem to be more wary.
“Pomni, is this true? I know Caine’s removed the block on Kinger’s mind, but this is pretty insane.” Zooble looks like they’re grasping for straws.
”No, yeah. I’m actually the one who first asked the question. He said by using the same interface he used when he was working on Caine, it might work. When he was in there the first time, and saw our files, he got a glimpse of how we work. Our avatars are technically separate from our mental files, even though Caine made them using the mind file data.” All but Caine look at me like I’m speaking an alien language.
Caine rubs his hands together, clearly uncomfortable with something.
”But, Kinger—“ Caine’s expression shifts from uncomfortable to embarrassed, “—you couldn’t fix me without deleting me.”
“That’s because you were actively fighting me.” Kinger responds reassuringly. ”You are very ingrained into the program, so much so that you pretty much are the program. Jax is just a mind file. we aren’t going to jump straight into the rescue—“ he gives me a look “—but I do want to play around in the interface again. Caine, can you give me a computer and we can study the program together?”
Caine now wears shock on his face. “Really? You want my help?”
”Of course.” Kinger puts an arm on his shoulder. “You are the creator of this place, and the one who found a way to get the brain scans to work in the first place. I need your help.”
”Wait, hold on—“ Zooble interjects, “I’m still stuck on ‘we might be able to unabstract Jax,’ are we sure it’s a good idea? It could just make things worse.”
”Yeah, and while I am sad he’s gone—“ Gangle adds, “I’m not sure.. that I want him back.”
She gasps immediately after, realizing the full weight of what she said.
“I’M SO SORRY, that was totally inappropriate! Of course I miss him, but he also hurt me for years, who’s to say he’s going to change once he’s back?”
“I agree with Gangle..” Ragatha says, barely above a whisper. “I miss him too, and I want to give him a second chance, but is it worth the risk of hurting the peace and rhythm we’ve found? We created peace for the abstractions, is it even fair to take him from that?” I try meeting her eye, but she avoids my gaze.
”I was thinking the same thing.” I say, still trying to get her to look me in the eye. “We’ve all found a new rhythm, and it’s scary to try to do something that sounds a little messed up. But when I was in his abstraction, he told me he didn’t want to abstract.” She finally looks at me.
“He was genuinely scared, and it tears me up that I couldn’t save him.” I feel the tears forming. I straighten up and shake it out of me while continuing the eye contact. “And of course, when I go back in, I’ll ask him for permission before having us start on the unabstraction. We wouldn’t do this without his consent.”
I look up at Kinger. “Is that.. okay? Would I be able to go in just to ask, and come back out before we really start?”
”I don’t really know, in all honesty.” He responds. “Let me check on the stability of your own files first. You’ve already been infected by abstraction a few times, and I don’t know the true effect it has on us.”
”That’s completely fair.” I give him a little smile.
”I know this is all sudden, but I want to reassure you all that this plan will not happen if anyone is at risk of any harm.” Kinger announces.
Everyone nods in agreement. It seems like they still feel weird about the idea, but are willing to give out a try.
“Okay, so here’s the plan.” Kinger starts. “Me and Caine will study the inner workings of the circus files to see if reversing abstraction is safe, let alone possible. We will also check on Pomni’s files and run some patches if her code is showing signs of wear. I need you all to pull back together the tent we made to contain Jax again. We won’t bring Jax up here until we are completely set up to start the reversal process.”
He turns to me. “You need to rest up. I wont let you go in if you aren’t completely steady. I’m sure that if we have to run a patch, it will make you tired anyways. Leave the prep work to the others.”
”I understand.” I give him a thankful smile. “Could I try sleeping in your pillow fort? I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep in my room.”
He nods understandably. “Anytime Pomni.”
I go down to Kinger’s renovated room that holds only his pillow fort. I don’t allow myself to think as I flop onto the pillowed floor.
For the first time in a long while, my dreams were silent.
I wake up to Ragatha bringing in a tray of food. It’s lemon garlic salmon, which is actually my favorite food.
”Kinger saw in your files that you like salmon, so I figured it would make a good meal before your… task… later today.” She stands awkwardly, just inside the fort.
I pat the spot next to me and she sits down and hands me the food.
“Thank you, it’s perfect.” I try to not scarf it down because of how dang good it is.
We sit in some silence while I eat.
”So how’s the prep been?” I pause my feast, my curiosity overcoming my hunger.
”It’s been good, we got the tent back up fairly easily. Kinger said everything looks better than he expected. He did run a small patch on you, just to boost ya so there’s less stress to your code.” She fiddles with her hands while talking.
”He… also said that Jax was self repairing. Kind of. His mental files were nearly as stable as non-abstracted ones. Of course, he can’t repair his own avatar, so Caine has been working on mending that file. They mentioned reverting to a backup, and considered making a new one from scratch, but I think they’re trying to patch the file, like they did for you.” The techie words feel foreign coming from her.
”Yeah, I wondered about backups, if Caine backed up our files at all. I figured he didn’t or we wouldn’t have abstractions to worry about.” She looks at me, clearly not understanding.
”If we had backups, like when you back up your phone in case you break or lose it, we wouldn’t have all of our memories and we’d basically be a past version of ourselves.” I try to explain. “It would probably lead to due to realizing we are digital clones and other data loss. That’s probably why Caine never developed that.”
Her eyes widen and she nods with understanding. “I get it now. I wonder why he never told us we are clones in the first place.” She zones out for a second, but snaps right back.
“Anyways, we want you to be with us to get Jax from the aquarium.” She stands up and reaches her hand to help me up.
I take it and give her a hug.
“Everything’s going to be okay. Just like you told me when I first got here.” We separate and share a smile.
It will all be okay.