His eyes light up with hunger when the ringmaster proposes a snack, shining through his sad, lost boy act. He's certainly an eager thing.

"Yeah." He nods, seeming like his excitement is overtaking his usual uncertainty. "I've been working-- I can drive a crowd wild now."

(A lie. He always could make crowds go crazy, that's nothing new.)

It's a shame. He really does like Fenix. The flash, the showmanship, the way that, frankly, their priorities probably align a lot more than Jeff's do with the ADI's. He may not be into the whole fire thing, and the Desolation doesn't click with him in any way, but...

He does have more in common with Fenix and his troupe than he does the ADI. And if he had gone through with running away from Gloucester, who knows, maybe he would've tried to join the circus for real.

If it wasn't for the fact that Aelwyn asked him to do this, he wouldn't even be here right now. But there's opportunity in this betrayal (the mirror, getting the ADI off his back...), and really, will Fenix even be able to blame him? Or will he get it?

"Yeah... Let's pick up a meal. Dinner and a show. Almost like a date."