You all know what this post is for...

[Damask the Minstrel]

Diana's uncles do the same thing -- I think it is a sworn duty of all uncles to find the noisiest, most obnoxious toys. ^.^

And I would fear Diana with a battle axe. She does enough damage with normal toys!

[Suellyn]

When my nephew was under ten, I would give him the noisiest toy I could find.  As an added present, I gave him a pack of batteries that fit that particular toy.  Did I mention that I gave him this "special gift" just before I went back home?      :evil:

You, my dear Mr. Hog, are evil!

[Bellona Littlebrush]

You wanna know something really evil? When my sister had her first child, I offered this curse/blessing: "May your children be exactly like you." And I tend not to get noisy toys because my mother and aunt help out A LOT with taking care of my sister's terrors and that would be mean to them.

Thing 1
Thing 2 <- the most bratty little princess in the world who can squeal at just the right pitch to shatter glass. -_-!

[Erethas]

Well, they do look rather charming; now that you have mentioned it, it is probably a good thing I haven't heard them.
The afternoon seems to be the witching hour for little ones if they haven't had a nap. Once I was in a restaurant and this one little girl kept trying to get out of her highchair, and if she succeeded she would proceed to wander around the tables and make a lot of noise. Several times her mother, who rapidly lost what little patience she had, took her aside to give her "a talk" and wasn't doing a good job of it. It was about that time in the afternoon when kids have break downs.

[Suellyn]

You wanna know something really evil? When my sister had her first child, I offered this curse/blessing: "May your children be exactly like you." And I tend not to get noisy toys because my mother and aunt help out A LOT with taking care of my sister's terrors and that would be mean to them.

Thing 1
Thing 2 <- the most bratty little princess in the world who can squeal at just the right pitch to shatter glass. -_-!

and now you know why i'm glad i have all boys. :D

[Nallmian]

More Questions for Mr. Damask:

*What is one choice that Damask made during the contest that might be interesting to revisit, with Damask making the opposite choice this time?  How might this have created an alternate version/differently developed version of Damask?
*Are there any things about Damask that you feel like critics and/or other writers misunderstood?

[Damask the Minstrel]

Well, the obvious ones are:

1) Fallen in love with a different lady. Bells or Revel would have both been really interesting, though less likely. I think Revel, especially, would have led to a lot of hilarity. "You're pretty! I like when you, err... kiss vigorously my leg like that. But less teeth, please." Also, the effect that might have had on Liza would have been funny. "He likes that roly-poly slob over me?" (She might never have said it, but she'd think it!)

2) Killed Venny/Verand/Medjool/Rath. In the first and last, well, it wasn't their time to die, but it would have been interesting, story-wise, if I had gone the crazed, obsessed-murderer route with him, aye?

3) Not made him crazy. If I hadn't made him go nuts, my other option was to have Matty smash his throat, making him, for all intents and purposes, mute. He would've been an unfun ball of angst, then.

4) Not leave. If I hadn't gone, we'd have a much different Dammy, who is struggling to stay in love with Liza, even though he's come to realize she's much like his last flame: manipulative and somewhat horrible. I think, in the end, he'd have defended Bells against her, had it come to fighting. It would've been tragic, and I might've had him die to protect the mousey, but he'd have done the right thing.

Or not. I contemplated having Damask go, "Well... It's killing me to help you, Liza, but I love you more than these Fritters. I'll help you enslave them."

Second question:

-- Well... a lot of people just assumed the treasure story was a lie made by Damask -- it was. Doesn't mean it's not true, though! We planned a treasure of sorts down there anyway -- Dammy didn't realize it when he made the lie up, but there is.

-- Thank goodness no one (except our FF.net commenter) saw Damask's love as sexual. It isn't. The birdy might as well be a eunuch, as he's gone a full 50 or so "years" without sex. It's Don Quioxte-style courtly love, through and through. Since romance-era stories always end with, "... and so they went into the boudoir together," Damask  just assumed that after you found the maiden, you both nap or sommat. Well, crazy-Damask assumed that. I think old-Damask was less naive. ^.-

-- I kind of feel everyone wrote him more... "archaic" than I meant. He sounds very Shakespearean in other posts. However, since I vetted everything beforehand, it was more an issue of: I didn't think of a way to correct it.

-- Finally, I don't know if anyone got all the layers of Damask, since I barely did. I mean, everyone read him as comedy, which in a way he was. Still, though, he's a batty 50 year-old virgin who is following around a woman who is just manipulating him. He's a classic fool, but I feel that when I mull over him, he's rather tragic. He's like life's doormat, despite being handsome (for a bird), talented, and charasmatic.

In a way, that last description was a perfect example of what I wanted to write with him. Most beginners go for "lithe" characters (I did, I'll admit). Ones that are smart, funny, good-looking, strong but never too bulky, and winners. In other words, we almost always play the star QB first, as RPers. Then, we begin to gradually play more and more flawed characters, and most of them live awful lives, but turn out okay in the end -- more interesting but still a heart-warming story and whatnot. I wanted a winner who stunk at life. That... would be Damask.

[Damask the Minstrel]

All right. So... this is all Liza's fault, with her explanation of titles that I'll follow:

And For His Encore... and Exeunt Omnes and Off the Script -- all theater-related, obviously, pre-song post-title. Exeunt Omnes, for the curious, is a classic stage direction that means "everyone leaves the stage". Fitting for the flight scene, I thought.

"It's Twice as Sportin'. Goin' Courtin'." -- This is all because of my wife, it's a line from one of her favorite musicals, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" from the song, surprise, "Goin' Courtin'". That whole song is full of fantastic lyrics that fit for Damask. "Goin' courtin', goin' courtin'/ Oh, it sees your senses in a whirl/ Goin' courtin', goin' courtin'/ Duddin' up to go and see your girl." It's, well, it's a blast.

"There's Evil in the Air and There's Thunder in the Sky" -- This one is when I went through a small Meat Loaf phase. And, well, a couple of the songs from "Bat out of 'Heck'". This is from the song of the same name, and really fits for when Damask goes bad.

"And We Smiled, Our Faces Like a Mirror" -- From "Antebellum" by Vienna Teng. She, more than anyone, influenced Damask, I think. This song is a conceit, comparing a degenerating relationship to a warzone (and the piano in it is gorgeous). Another lyric from a different song, "Eric's Song," almost took over as post title, and described the Damask/Liza relationship perfectly, I thought: "strange how we fit each other..."

"Both Sides Now" is an amazing song by Joni Mitchell (the version I have, and used more often is sung by Hayley Westenra). But, while it is great on its own, I fell for this song because of the movie "Love Actually". In the scene where it plays, an older, married woman's facade she had put on cracks and she starts crying as she realized her husband is slinking sideways out of their marriage (played by Emma Thompson = win). Just the image of her trying to fight to keep herself together has stuck with me, and sometimes still gives me goosebumps. The verse on love:

"Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As ev'ry fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all"

Yeah... fits perfectly for Damask in this post -- which is why I used it.

"I Gave You the Best of My Love" is a fairly famous song by The Eagles, and I altered it to the past tense to fit with his leaving. It's a song that's actually about a couple coming apart, but the title just resonated with me: Damask did give the best love he could. And, taken by itself, it sounds like he's resigned himself to failing.

(Those are my only real Easter Eggs -- Liza beats me, there. The only other one was Liza's name in her sonnet, which was pointed out in the poetry one.)

[Sycamore]

Compare your birdies!!!

[Jarrtail]

Did you and Liza develop this idea together, or was there some weird quirk of fate that caused two contestants in the same contest to follow similar naming conventions for their posts?

[Damask the Minstrel]

I think I used song titles for ROCS3, too... I just love music and always use it for inspiration. (And I think Revvie used 'em, too. It's a pandemic!)

Compare my birdies? Well... you can't compare Tibs a lot -- she died before she got to develop much. Either way, she was nothing like the boys. Save for Rystan, she never cared for anything but #1.

Shytalon was, well, Damask without the crazy. None of you knew Akasha, my shrike, but she was like Revel. But a shrike. And about 7 in people years. And pals with a little wolf who was just as much trouble as she was. It was fun.

So... that leaves Sturny and Damask. In terms of enjoyment, I don't think I've ever had this much fun. Damask rivaled my favorite moments with my MUCK character, Keithe. The writing was certainly better -- rereading ROCS3 gave me fits. XD

But most of all I think Damask was better because of what he gave back to the story. Sturnus most palled around with and followed Cinder. It was a good role, but it meant I got to the Top 3 on her coattails, and /really/ had no chance to win. Between Revel and I, we gave the story comic relief. I liked the uniqueness of writing poetry. I had more subtleties as Damask, in my writing as a whole. I felt that Damask gave more to the cast than Sturnus did. Also, and this is what kills me, now, everyone I've talked to said Damask was a favorite to get to the top. Looking back, I don't feel that way about Sturnus. I do about Damask, though. It's a big "what if" that's fun to banter, in my head: could I have won with Dammy?

Well, we'll never know. What I do know if that after Sturnus, I was drained and left writing for 5 years. Now, however, I'm motivated to write again. So, that's a huge positive.