[ few performers thrive on scorn; but fewer still would reject it, sight unseen. scraps are better than starvation, as every beast and showman knows -- and doesn't a curse carry just as far as a prayer in the right hour?

so he doesn't avert his gaze as aventurine conducts his transactions -- only waits with the glassy disfocus of a spectator sitting through a tiresome interlude.

and arguably this, too, is performance of a kind -- but how else could anyone communicate with a man who only thinks in gambling stakes and stage cues? ]

Far be it from me to stop you from lavishing yourself with delusions. Nevertheless, you might at least choose ones that haven't been debunked several times over.