And even in its whole cosmic horror... the circus is still a better place for Jax than real life.

What the author did is an actually legit way to disrupt the narrative and throw you out of your comfort zone by unexpectedly showing a 3D image in a 2D environment.

You can see this being used, most popularly, in Courage the Cowardly Dog.

3D is not only too close to home, but it is also an inherently incomprehensible concept for a 2D character. It shows how Yoshiki can try to assimilate what he felt inside of 'Hikaru' but still is unable to fully wrap his mind about it.

That's why Able didn't want to have him in the adventure; he would have spoiled it.

He looked at the admin pass like he knew it was fake; he would have told Pomni something important if he hadn't gone out to the light.

Pomni worked a job she hated

Gangle was depressed with a dead-end job

Jax has no one waiting for him

Zooble struggled a lot with, seems like, juggling a lot of things at once

Ragatha was under her mom's iron fist