Pomni: We think your ideas suck.
Caine: Huh?
All: Huh?
Pomni: Isn’t it obvious? We wanted to bait you into testing your new ideas on us so we could make fun of them behind your back!
Caine: Ha! That’s not…true.
Pomni: Yes it is! You’re a horrible host! You don’t care about us at all! You care more about stroking your own ego than giving us anything we’d actually enjoy.
Caine: D-do you know who I am?
Pomni: Yeah. You’re a failure! We’re all gonna abstract someday, and what will you have then? Nothing.
Caine: Stop that.
Zooble, a character who has gender/body dysphoria: And this whole stunt? Just torturing us because we hurt your feelings? Pathetic! You’re like a child! What kind of all-powerful being has such a fragile ego!
Caine: I-I’m–
Ragatha: You never let us feel like we’re at home. You don’t comfort anyone when they’re upset and you’ve never bothered to understand what it’s like in our shoes!
Gangle (this is what really tipped me off): You discourage us from thinking outside the box and doing things our own way!
Jax: You lie to us constantly!
Pomni: And on top of it all, you just don’t LISTEN!
And then he promptly proves their point by torturing them briefly, and is then deleted accidentally by Kinger, which I think is supposed to reinforce the allegory by showing what it’s like to live in a post-religious society. Parts of the circus literally crumble and fall away, like parts of old societal cliques did after the Church lost popular control of much of the world.
If it is an allegory for religion, then it’s well-written. If not, it’s even better-written because it’s compelling regardless. ♦