An Awkward Situation
The screen shifts to the palace of justice, the sounds of whips cracking against something echo through the air.
It shifts to inside facing a door, Phoebus opening it to Frollo in the corridor of a dungeon.
Frollo holds his hand up causing the punisher to come out of the room, the whipping noise stopping.
"Stop" Frollo commands. "Sir?" The punisher walks in confusion. "Ease up. Wait between lashes. Otherwise the old sting will dull him to the new." Frollo explains with a sadistic smile. The punisher smiles in glee "Yes, sir." He responds before heading back into the room with a smirk.
"Ah, so this is the gallant Captain's Phoebus, home from the wars." Frollo greets, coming closer to him.
"Reporting for duty, as ordered, sir." Phoebus responds, standing with both his arms behind him, covered by his cape. Frollo circles him like a predator would for its prey, continuing to talk. "Your service record precedes you, Phoebus. I expect nothing but the best from a war hero of your caliber." He stops circling him, choosing to stand slightly in front of him. "And you shall have it, sir. I guarantee it." Frollo smiles in satisfaction "Yes. You know, my last captain of the guard was a bit of a disappointment to me." He frowns, a whip cracking is heard, a man crying in pain causing Frollo to smile while Phoebus looks back and forth with a look of bewilderment.
"Well, no matter. I'm sure you'll whip my men into shape." He joked, walking away with a smile with Phoebus following behind him with a confident step, but nervousness was apparent in his face. "Uh, thank you. It's a grea- Tre- uh, tremendous honor, sir." He stuttered.
The screen shifts to them in one of the halls with glassless windows.
"You've come to Paris in her darkest hour, captain. It will take a firm hand to save the weak minded… from being so easily misled." Frollo tells him as they walk. "Misled, sir?" Phoebus questions. Frollo motions to the city below "look, captain. Gypsies. The gypsies live outside the normal order."
The screen shifts to Esmeraldo and Damica dancing on one of the streets, trying to get more money to be able to feed themselves.
"There evil ways inflamed the people's lowest instincts. And they must be stopped." This specific sentence causes Frollo to think of Mira. He then turns towards Phoebus with a scowl, clenching his fist tightly at the mere thought of a gypsy tainting Mira.
Phoebus looks at him in shock and annoyance "I was summoned from the wars to capture fortune tellers and palm readers?" Phoebus looks at Frollo unimpressed as Frollo waves a finger at him "Eh, the real war, captain, is what you see before you." He motions back down to the two Gypsy's dancing, a crowd now around them.
"For 20 years, I have been taking care of the gypsies," he pauses as he sees three ants on the ledge, he smashes them one by one as he talks "One…by.… One"
"And yet, for all my success, they have thrived." He then lifts up the stone, showing a colony of ants below it. "I believe they have a safe haven within the walls of this very city. A nest, if you will. They call it the court of miracles." He chuckled in amusement.
"What are we going to do about it, sir?" Phoebus questions. Frollo smirks before smashing the stone down on top of the colony of ants, killing all of them.
Phoebus narrows his eyes "you make your point quite vividly, sir."
"You know, I like you, captain. Shall we?" He asks, putting his hand on Phoebus's shoulder while Phoebus looked at him with narrow eyes. A cheer from below draws their attention. "Oh, duty calls. Have you ever attended a peasant festival, captain?" He asks, frowning from the thought of going to said Festival.
"Not recently, sir." He answers him.
"Then this should be quite an education for you. Come along." He calls to him as he walks away, Phoebus doing as he says with an unsure look on his face.
The screen shifts to the church of Notre Dame where it shows Quasimodo with a cloak over him, climbing down the statues to where he sees Mira waiting for him with a smile of encouragement.
"Come one~"
Quasi looks up at the Gargoyles as he stops for a second, smiling.
"Come all~"
The gargoyles wave at him with encouraging smiles.
"Leave your looms and milking tools. Coop the hens and pen the mules."
Quasi swings to one of the lines with parade linings, sliding to the pole causing Mira to smirk and head towards said pole, thanking the gods that she was close to it.
"Come one, come all! Close the churches and the schools~"
Quasi looks excitedly towards the crowd before gasping as the rope unwraps itself, causing him to grab a hold of it and swings into the crowd. Mira gasped in surprise, pushing through the crowd as she followed Quasimodo.
"It's the day for breaking rules.
Come and join the feast, of-"
Clopin emerges from one of the men's cloaks "Fools!" He laughs joyously, confetti surrounding him.
Mira finally reaches Quasi just as he starts to freak out. She grabs him by the arm causing him to tense and gasp, looking to see who grabbed him, only for him to sigh in relief seeing Mira. Then a gloves hand grabs Mira's arm causing her to gasp in surprise, before giggling as she sees Clopin. Clopin, keeping his arm linked with Mira's, grabs Quasimodo and spins him around as he sings.
"Once a year we throw a party here in town"
He releases them and jumps onto a pole, swinging around it before stopping and looking at a puddle underneath him.
"Once a year eternal Paris upside down"
He jumps into the puddle.
"Every Man's a king and every King's a clown"
It shows a king walking before he flips upright, causing the king costume to transform into a clown outfit.
Quasi watches in fascination while Mira smirks at the performance. Clopin glances behind him with a smirk, seeing Quasimodo and Mira.
"Once again it's topsy-turvy day"
Quasi sees Clopin smirking at him, causing him to grab Mira and run in another direction.
"It's the day the devil in us gets released"
Quasi hides behind some balloons he found with Mira looking at him with a stern expression. She looks over at Clopin and smirks, pointing to Quasi. Clopin gets the hint, bringing his scissors out and clipping the balloons, causing them to float into the air.
"It's today we mock the Prig and shock the priest"
Quasi gasps before dragging Mira with him to hide behind a curtain he found. Only for it to be Clopin's wagon, as the veil is drawn back showing the two and a puppet of Frollo. Clopin hits Quasi with the puppets Wacker before revealing himself to the children.
"Everything is topsy-turvy at the feast of fools"
Mira and Quasi burst through the curtain and back into the festival where it shows humans being walked by dogs. Mira raises a brow at this.
"Topsy turvy!"
"Everything is upsy-Daisy"
Quasi turns behind him to see more people around him and Mira.
"Everyone is acting crazy, drose is gold and weeds are a bouquet."
Quasi drags Mira, yet again, to another tent to hide, causing Mira to sigh in disappointment. The sigh of disappointment turns into a yelp as she and Quasi are grabbed by a line of Gypsy girls and Clopin. Mira blushes at the close proximity. They line dance away from the tent into another tent.
"That's the way on topsy turvy day!"
Quasimodo backs into the tents, causing him and Mira to slip out. Only for them to stumble into the tent behind them.
Mira yelps as Quasi trips on a stool, causing her to try to grab onto something to steady herself. Only for her to yank a curtain down.
"Whoa!" Quasi cries as he too grabs onto a curtain to steady himself, ending in the same fate as Mira.
"Hey!" Two voices cried out, one male and one female. Esmeraldo goes to scold the person who yanked the curtain down as he wraps a robe around himself, only to pause as he sees a tuft of red hair poke through the curtain. He then lifts the curtain off of the person, his suspicion right. It's Mira, who appears to be red in the face with embarrassment. "I-I am so sorry!" She tells him, still looking down.
He smiles at her, gently reaching down and softly grabbing her chin, bringing her face up so she could look at him. "Who knew the graceful dancer I danced with this morning could be so clumsy?" He teases her before smiling at her "Are you okay?" He asks, removing his hand from her face to instead hold his hand out to her.
She grabs his hand, causing him to pull her up to her feet. "I-im alright. A little embarrassed, but alright." She tells him with a soft smile, a blush still present on her cheeks. Esmeraldo smiled at this before looking over to see Quasi and Damica who were in the same position as them, except the whole flirting thing.
Mira looks over as well, slightly glaring at Quasi as if saying 'we're gonna have a talk later' causing Quasimodo to smile nervously at her before his attention turns to Damica as she asks him in concern "You're not hurt are you? Here, let me see." Quasimodo turns away from her as she grabs his cloak to check on him.
"No,no! N-no!" He yells in protest only for Damica to not listen and unveil his face.
"There"
Djali bleats in disgust causing Esmeraldo and Mira to glare at him in a way that says, 'be nice'.
Mira's ferret, Bandit, pops up from his hiding spot, aka Mira's hair, and hops on Djali's back. Djali bleats in happiness for seeing his friend, hopping around.
"See, No harm done." Damica tells him, causing Quasi to smile at her.
Mira rolls her eyes before looking back at Esmeraldo, "By the way, I never got your name." She tells him, looking up at him with a soft calming smile causing his heart to beat erratically. A blush appears on Esmeraldo's face, his eyes slowly becoming half lidded as he softly tells her "Esmeraldo, my names Esmeraldo.".
Mira's smile brightens as she hears this "What's your name, little dove?" He asks, coming up with the nickname as he sees a feather tattoo on her left shoulder.
Her blush deepens at the nickname, she slowly opens her mouth about to reply when Quasi catches her attention.
"Ray, c'mon we gotta go." He motions to her at the opening of the tent. She turns back to Esmeraldo and smiles, reaching up and pecking his cheek with a soft kiss "I'll see you later." She tells him before going to Quasimodo and leaving the tent, Bandit jumping off Djali to climb up his owners skirt, back to her hair.
Esmeraldo brings his hand up to his cheek with wide eyes, a blushing creeping up his neck.
"Ray." He whispers softly.
Damica chuckles at his lovestruck expression "Wow, Mira's got you wrapped around her finger." She chuckles, bringing Esmeraldo to look at her in confusion.
Damica sees his confused expression and looks at him with a raised brow "what?"
"You said Mira?"
"Yeah?" She tells him confused, before realizing what he meant and bursts out laughing.
"Ray isn't her name! Mira is! Ray is probably a nickname that she has!" She says between chuckles.
Damica then stops laughing as she thinks of the boy Mira was with "That guy had a great mask though."
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And this is chapter four! Once this is publish immediately work on chapter 5 cuz I have the time and motivation to. Plus the festival is my favorite part of the movie.
Mira: Yeah Author was excited while writing this chapter.
Cuz the two of you finally learn each other's names! And there's a bit of flirty action 😏.
Mira: 😳