There had been some lingering admiration for a fellow manipulator left in Donovan up until the point that Diego opened his big mouth and the words that spilled from it were nothing short of insulting. Back handed thanks for help that indeed he did not need to offer and without which the stupid little peon would have likely wound up beaten to a bloody pulp for how well he handled himself with the help he did offer. But what really sealed it was the coin he slapped onto the counter. Not only was he insulting him with words but now some pittance as if the bard needed any charity from the likes of him. Donovan has to stifle the urge to slap the coin away and tell the man to fuck off but honesty is not the face he wears, not around strangers. Instead he picks up the coin with a warm and friendly smile turned towards the dim witted white knight. Though it was a trying task indeed when the buffoon slspped him on the shoulder as if he'd at any point earned the right to be so familiar.<br/><br/>"Help you? My friend it wasn't just for your sake that I aided your efforts in driving off those scoundrels." He says as he motions toward Loretta and offers her a warm and compassionate expression. "They would have victimized this poor girl like a pack of wolves had you not stepped in." He then places a hand on his chest and motions to the proprietor of the tavern and his waitress with the other in a rather theatrics yet still reserved enough to come off as authentic display of false passion. "And who knows what would have become of these lovely people and their charming place of business had those ruffians not been put in their place." He looks back to Diego with that same charming smile spread over his face and an air of admiration for the man hanging about him. The act was quite well put on and would take an inhumanly keen wit to see through for its hollow falsness. "My good man, you stepped up and did what was right and just when no one else would. What sort of man would I be not to lend my aid to your righteous endeavor." He flips the coin back over to Diego off his thumb with a wink. "And what sort of scoundrel would I be to accept payment for merely doing what is right. After all, my spirit did give out right when you needed it most towards the end." He bows his head in a show of humility and regret that is just as carefully practiced as every other bit of his performance. "I will strive to improve so that such a mistake is never made again sir, on this you have my word."<br/><br/>It was a performance fit for a lavish stage indeed. The bard, an actor, poet and musician with few if any peers being quite adept at using the whole of the world as his stage and playing whatever character duties him at the time made the truth of who he was and what he really thought all but impossable for others to grasp. He showed Diego and the repugnant charlitain woman an image of a man, one that was kind, caring and most of all easily befriended for he wanted them to find him approachable and likeable. He wanted tgen to take an interest in him so he could get close enough to them to take out his frustrations on the both of them for the crumbly people he now thought them to be and for lighting his life with their unsightly presence. Diego, a foolish man so compelled to jump to the defense of a woman hi clearly did not and likely coukd not comprehend and one who insulted Donovan with such disrespectfuly passive aggressive comments for not doing more to aid in his hubristic and fool hardy errand. And the woman, sewage given form and wrapped in pretty flesh who would likely cause immeasurable amounts of trouble and havok merely for her own ammusement and selfishly expect others to clean up the mess for her. They were both oh so very ugly, repulsive even. And Donovan resolved to see them both suffer for their offputting and burdensome existance. Perhaps through the strife he laced into their worthless lives they would learn to shed their ugliness. But Donovan couldn't care less if he did. He just wanted to give them what they had coming.<br/><br/>"Ah but where are my manners." He says as he joins the two in assisting with the cleanup, leaving his lute sitting upon the bar counter. "So many words and not a one of them has been a proper introduction. I must surly have lost my manners somewhere on the long track here from the north. They call me Donny, I trained at the collage of glamour and now seek to fill the world with wondrous art and beautiful song hence what brings me to an out of the way little tavern like this." He handles the pieces of broken clay ware carefully as he gathers tgen up do as not to injure his hands, such a wound would be devastating for a bard indeed. "I also happened yo have a little... chat of sorts with this Rufus. The gentleman invited me to call on him st his mansion should I have need of him. I intended to come and sit with him first thing tomorrow morning as a man like him surly has information that I might make use of. Perhaps you would care to join me if you seek to have words with him as well?"