Ananta thought about how to answer Esmerelda's question and took into consideration Aislinn's rebutal from earlier. She decided to open her mouth and reply. "We come from a town quite a bit away. We heard about the feast of fools and saved up enough to take a cart into town. Never thought we'd end up fugitives..." she sighed.
Daeni followed Relli along, watching in front as they finally made their way to the back of the crypt. Luckily, nothing was messed with as far as they could see. Although, they did see the stone on the ground and Cerdic managed to find the journal that probably came out from behind that stone. Daeni listened to him and nodded. "We should leave, but we need to see what this journal says...if we can even understand it." she said, stepping forward and taking the journal. She then opened it and saw the name Aevum. "Aevum again..." she said. She flipped through it and saw the newer ink written around things before she closed it. "This book belongs to Aevum. That person who Ria mentioned and Alder seemed to recall. We better find this person and return the journal." Daeni suggested. She tucked the journal in her pocket and turned to the stone. She reached down and strained to lift it before placing it in the hole. She then pushed it back in and wiped her hands. "We gave back the stone at least." she said, sounding triumphant.
Ananta followed behind Esmerelda and found that she had lead them to a river. When Esmerelda mentioned a Court of Miracles, Ananta thought it best to say something. Like, introducing herself first. "I...can't thank you enough, honestly. Truth be told, we aren't really Gypsies, we've just come from out of town is all. I've no idea why we'd be branded as a Gypsy in the first place. They've done us no harm." Ananta said, sighing. "This is just a mess, if I've ever seen one."
"Quasi" Ananta said as he started to try and shoo them out. Guards were coming and, honestly, she had no desire to be captured today. So when he suggested scaling walls and rooftops, she gladly followed where he sent them. Ananta was glad Quasimodo had accepted Esmerelda's apology. She was also glad that he was able to talk to Esmerelda and maybe get some confidence, but she was sad that it was cut short so soon. Regardless, Ananta hurried after and watched Aislinn go down the wall and land on the roof below. Ananta cracked her knuckles and turned around, hopping down and hoisting herself with ease. She finally landed below and looked at Aislinn. "Climbing lessons." she smirked, looking up at Luna. "Come on down, I'll help!" she said, waiting for Luna. Once she had come down, Ananta ran after Aislinn and Esmerelda, helping anyone who had trouble.
The whispering was getting louder, but more coherent. Daeni stuck close to Relli, but when Cerdic came back, she jumped. "Eep!" she exclaimed, tripping on a flashlight and falling down. "W...A...A flashlight?" she said, staring at it from where she fell. She stood up and rubbed her butt. It was sore and now it was dusty from this crypt. Daeni picked up the flashlight and handed it to Relli. "You can carry it since you wanted to come down here anyway." she said.
Daeni listened to Cerdic for a moment before she crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "Didn't you just do what you said we shouldn't do?" she asked, motioning towards the keyblade in Cerdic's hand. "In any case, don't chastise me if you're just gonna do it anyway!" she retorted, looking to see Relli and their other party mate had walked towards the crypt. "Anyway, you're right. We better follow them. Put that thing back!" she said, turning back to Cerdic.
Ananta glanced around the room and was amazed at all the bells. They were all quite beautiful and came in many different sizes. She followed Quasimodo up some more and saw him pat 3 gargoyle statues. Ananta waved to them and followed him until she heard Esmerelda behind them. Of course, Aislinn had to pull her keyblade out. Ananta moved to stand in fron to Aislinn. "Hey, wait, why are you getting mad at her? She came to apologize. At least she knows she wronged Quasi." Ananta said. "if she didn't care, she would have stayed away and never came to apologize."
Daeni was literally shaking in her boots while waiting for the rest of the group. She looked at Cerdic and watched him head for the grave that had a keyblade. She then looked to see a crypt was open and darkness was quite literally pouring out of it. She decided that maybe staying close to the group was a good idea, so she wandered over to Cerdic and watched what he was doing. "Should...should we try to pull it out?" she asked, reaching for the keyblade.
Ananta was thankful that the crowd finally stopped. She watched Esmerelda disappear in a puff of smoke. Ananta started to cough and gag before she looked up to see the crowd dispersing and Quasimodo was trying to avoid eye contact. When he mentioned sanctuary, Ananta knew that'd probably be a good idea, considering this was the second time somebody had assumed they were gypsies. Whatever that was. Ananta turned to Steel. "Steel." she started in a low tone. "Track down this Phoebus and see if he manages to find that woman who saved us. Or even Frollo. One of those. Okay?" Ananta said. She then turned and hurried behind Aislinn, taking cautious steps as she followed into a winding tower.
Ananta watched Aislinn and Luna. She wanted to fight back, but what could she do that didn't mean actually harming the soldiers? Ananta wracked her brains a moment before she saw Luna toss a tomato. "Oh, well that's something." Ananta laughed to herself, waiting for an opportunity. When a guard threw a tomato next, Ananta managed to grab it and smirked. The guard was surprised and wasn't really expecting her to catch it, so he was surprised when she pelted him back. "Take that!" Ananta laughed manically.
Daeni walked and felt her feet kick up dust as she looked onward. She barely blinked, scared that maybe she'd accidentally look at a shadow wrong and find it's claws in her flesh once more. That was something she didn't want right now, especially since she could only make the silhouettes of her comrades out. Even then, they were barely visible among all this darkness. Eventually, they found a large gate with a large lock on it. Cerdic apparently decided he would just...unlock it. Daeni was a little surprised, but she looked at her keyblade and remembered something. It certainly had the word key in it, so the unlocking thing shouldn't have been so much of a surprise. Besides, she remembered unlocking something with her own before. Whatever it was, Daeni was more concerned with Relli just sort of....being there. They didn't respond to anything and just kind of stared. The whispers were even louder now that the gate was open. Daeni listened to them and wondered what they were saying. Why did they sound so...inhuman? Were they the whispers of the darkness, begging them to become it's victims? Relli seemed to be drawn in by them, seeing as they were going first. Daeni followed behind, looking at Cerdic and jerking her head towards Relli. It was a motion of saying 'Come on.'
Ananta finally jumped up and helped cover the other side that Aislinn was unable to protect. She looked around and blocked as many vegetables and eggs that she could, but of course she was dirtied by just as many. She looked back at Quasimodo, who was just staring confusedly at them and still trying not to get hit himself. Ananta looked into the crowd to see Luna. "Aw, no!" she muttered. "Luna, please, stop!" she called. Aislinn and her both were telling her to stop, but she didn't know if Luna would really stop. "Aislinn, we better focus on these tomatos for now....Luna can handle the crowd." she said. 16/20
i didn't even know this existed
She watched Kara almost get carried off by Cerdic. Daeni stepped forward to try and stop him, but luckily she wasn't needed. Kara managed to get away from Cerdic and that didn't help Daeni in trying to make her decision. She wanted to say something, but others were voicing their opinions and soon enough, a quietness befell the group. Daeni spoke up and looked at everyone. "Just because something looks easy, doesn't mean it's gonna have the answers we want. I wanna know what happened and I really hope that sunny path will have my answers, but I have a strange feeling that this way will be better." she said, looking to see Relli heading down that path. Reluctantly, Daeni stepped behind them, watching behind her before turning to face forward and ignoring other events as she tried to catch up to Relli. "Well, I'm here at least." she said to Relli, walking beside him.
Watching the singing and dancing, Ananta clapped along. She was enjoying the show and really liked all the crazy things the people had come up with. Especially the trio who exchanged heads. Now that was a funny sight. Although, she was soon distracted by the jester singing once more about someone named Esmerelda. In a puff of smoke, the jester disappeared and a woman was left in his place, dancing around and entrancing the crowd. Ananta was amazed at how easily she moved, rushing over to a man sitting on a throne, who just watched up until that point. She chuckled at the reaction from the man and turned back to the dancer. Esmerelda soon disappeared and the jester was back, singing about some new king being crowned. "Ugly?" she tilted her head. "Maybe this is how we'll see the monster...." Ananta thought, crossing her arms. On the stage, a line of contestants were being butted off, one by one, until Esmerelda started to try and remove the 'mask' of the last one. Ananta listened to the horrified gasps of the crowd and she had a feeling that this was the monster that they had to deal with. But, how was he a monster? He sure looked monsterous, but that wasn't something that neccessarily meant he was a monster. Ananta shrugged and watched them carry him off to a smaller stage in the crowd. But soon, the cheering turned into jeering as fruit started to fly and people were trying to tie down Quasimodo. "No!" Ananta yelled, fighting her way through the crowd and trying to get to him. Aislinn was already there and deflecting some fruit, but Ananta was busy enough getting blocked out by the crowd. 4/20
Ananta had followed along with Aislinn and Luna when she stopped. She looked forward at all the people gathering around and cheering. Many were dressed oddly and looked like their own kind of monster. But if they were the monsters they were tasked with defeating, that was something a bit too easy. Though, behind her, she heard a voice and turned to see a clown. He told a quick story about some type of monster in the bell tower. He pointed off and Ananta looked up. "Do you think that's Notre Dame?" she said, watching Luna hurry off. "I'm following her, then." Ananta said, walking after Luna.
Ananta nodded at Aislinn and took a look around. She tried her best to find a way to get higher up, but there was no way she could just climb up. She eventually gave up and met back up with Aislinn, noticing the music was getting much louder as they walked. "Think we're almost there? The music's gotten pretty loud now." she commented, seeing more and more...oddly dressed people appearing.
Daeni looked between the two paths and tilted her head. She heard strange machinery from the paved road to her left. She also saw some birds and honestly, if Ria was any example, going that way was probably not where they ought to go. "I feel like going an easy way might not take us to where our answers are. Ria looked dark and mysterious like this other road." she said, looking towards said road. It was full of darkness and odd whispering. "The dark road looks scary but, uh....it....it's probably a better path to take." she gulped, playing with her fingers and vest. She was still scared, but she didn't feel as scared as previously. Maybe getting her memories gave her some more courage. Maybe having Kara nearby helped. Either way, Daeni took a deep breath and nodded to herself.
Daeni listened to Kara and gulped. She could almost feel the fakeness in Kara's voice. Or at least, that's what Daeni thought she heard. For whatever reason, Daeni just couldn't bring herself to believe Kara, but she didn't want to outright say she didn't believe her. That'd certainly not fly by anyone's standards. In any case, she looked at Cerdic and actually agreed with him. "Yeah I uh...don't really wanna be here anymore...it's scary..." she mumbled.
Ananta played with her braids as she listened to Aislinn. She replied with a nod to Aislinn, but stopped short of following to watch Steel. "Be careful, okay? I can't see the others....so tell them to be careful too." she said to Steel, turning to follow Aislinn. "Do you suppose we ought to climb high to see if this Notre Dame is really big or really small? I'd imagine it's a big landmark considering Phoebus saying you can hear music from it." she said. "I can't imagine something small letting off a lot of music..."
