The CTRL-ALT-DEL AU is a The Amazing Digital Circus webcomic created by CTRL-ALT-DEL.
It begins with Caine dying like in canon, only for him to find himself right back in the circus shortly after the events of "Candy Carrier Chaos!". However, it isn't the circus that he remembers, as it has Bubble for a ringmaster and inhabitants that have no idea who he is. Believed to be another trapped human, Caine becomes a full-fledged member of this alternate circus and starts going on adventures.
The AU has a dedicated blog on Tumblr, with the masterpost being found here
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The CTRL-ALT-DEL AU contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Bubble, due to being the Ringmaster of this universe, has all of the powers that Caine used to have in the original universe.
- Alternate Universe: After his death, Caine finds himself in one where he doesn't exist and Bubble serves as the circus's ringmaster in his place.
- Brought Down to Normal: Well, as normal as someone in the circus can be. Rather than the god-like Virtual-Reality Warper that he used to be, Caine now has just about the same influence over the circus that the humans do.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
- Each character's speech balloons use different colors for the text inside. Pomni's are divided in half between red and dark blue, Caine's are dark red, Ragatha's are blue, Jax's are purple, Zooble's are pink, Gangle's are dark gray, and Bubble's are cyan. Kinger hasn't received any speaking roles yet, so his color is currently unknown.
- Bubble's speech balloons have a black background in order to further set him apart from the rest of the cast, who all have white balloons.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The rest of the cast all think that Caine is a human trapped in the circus rather than an AI native to it (or one version of it, at least). Justified since it's the most logical conclusion with the information they have.
- Flipping the Bird: One of the doodles has Zooble flipping Bubble off (behind a censor). Bubble, in turn, flips them right back.
- Floating Limbs: Caine apparently doesn't have visible arms, as his glove hands just float in mid-air when he's wearing the Spudsy's uniform. It's not clear if his legs/shoes work the same way or not.
- Forgot About His Powers: Inverted. Since he's had them for his entire existence, Caine regularly forgets that he doesn't have his admin privileges. One ask has him sprawled flat on his chest after trying to fly.
- Hugh Mann: Between his lack of social grace and poor understanding of the real world, Caine's human guise leaves much to be desired. Luckily for him, the humans all think that he's just neurodivergent.
- If Only You Knew: Jax likes to joke that Caine is actually an NPC that got into the circus, completely unaware of how close to the truth he actually is.
- Insistent Appellation: When Zooble greets Caine, they call the Digital Circus a "digital hellscape", which Bubble finds annoying because apparently they're still calling it that.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Caine is utterly horrified by his actions during "hjsakldfhl", but his new predicament means that he doesn't really have a chance to dwell on it.
- Mythology Gag: When Jax asks Caine if he remembers his name in an attempt to freak out the newest arrival, he first gets Caine's attention by calling him "Dental Plan". Dental Plan is what Evil Pomni called Caine in one of the merchandise ads for the actual web series.
- OOC Is Serious Business: Zooble, the human who butted heads with Caine the most in the original timeline, is notably concerned about Caine's well-being after he ends up in the alternate circus and sticks up to Bubble for him. Naturally, this just serves to confuse Caine even more.
- Reincarnate in Another World: Caine gets reincarnated in a parallel dimension where he doesn't exist.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Caine decides to roll with the assumption that he's human since correcting it would cause him to get deleted by Bubble.Caine: [internally] They all think I'm like them... I-I can work with this! I'll just pretend to be human until I figure out what's going on!
- After Ragatha mistakes his name for a reference to canine teeth, Caine all but falls over himself to agree.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: The artist drew two pictures of Caine working at Spudsy's. In the first picture, he excitedly gives two thumbs up, looking forward to the shift. In the second, he embodies this trope with a traumatized look on his face.
- Wham Line: Jax lets Caine know just what his situation is with five words.Jax: Yo, who's the new guy?