Busty, red-haired Madame Serpente made her rounds with a few other barmaids, serving drinks, picking up empty plates and tankards, and collecting coin. She kept her sharp, hawk-like eyes and bat-like ears out for any sign of trouble beyond tolerable means.

This Gaston fellow was a spectacle, but he hadn't broken anything, hadn't gotten into any fights beyond arm-wrestling, and her chairs and tables were still standing, so for now, she allowed his boorish displays and rowdy songs as her other guests were entertained, paying up (and handsomely, thus far), and making merry. She'd already had to throw out a few patrons who'd had too much, or drag them to their rooms if they'd paid for them. In fact, she had to leave the main floor for a moment to bring one such guest up to his room - at the very end of the hall, much to her chagrin - to unceremoniously throw him inside and lock the door with her spare key. Let his drunken ass figure out the bed if he didn't pass out on the floor right then and there. She trusted her barmaids to handle things in the meantime.

While Cassim reigned in his horse, Esmeralda escorted Lock, Shock, and Barrel to the tavern, with a quick promise to the skeleton - whom she learned was Jack on the way over - to keep an eye on them, now that their guardian had taken to the roof. The trio promised to behave...and made sure their backs were to the tavern wall as they crossed their fingers.

Phoebus's greeting and literal sweeping Esmeralda off her feet gave the three little terrors the [i]perfect[/i] opportunity to slip away. Djahli bleated in alarm as he trotted after the three, trying to keep at least one in sight. While Phoebus twirled her, Esmeralda only caught sight of Shock's tall hat disappearing between two patrons, and a flash of red - was that a [i]tail[/i]? - slipping under a nearby table. She saw no sign of Barrel, but with how quickly the three scampered, she doubted any of them would be where she last saw them for very long.

"Neither can I," Esmeralda said, once she pulled herself from Phoebus's arms, "and now you can practice handling any little ones we may have."

She waited for the inevitable confused look, before explaining.

"There [i]were[/i] three children with me - two boys and a girl. They should be easy to identify; they're all wearing masks and costumes."

Esmeralda did a quick glance around the room to try to locate even one of them.

"And while I'm trying to help them find someone, it seems their main priority is getting into trouble."

She noticed Cassim had since caught up to her. Esmeralda excused herself to talk to Cassim, and was about to ask him if his bird could possibly spot the tricksters from above, when--

[Quote=Not a normal bird after all][color=red]"No one needs to blow it out their ear like Gaston! For the love of Allah, shut! It!"[/color][/quote]

[quote=Talking lizard?][color=#CC5500]"Stop that horrible racket. I thought we were going to an inn, not a Karaoke hall.”[/color][/quote]

The entire tavern went quiet for a moment. Gaston was in the middle of yet another show of strength: two giddy women sat in his hands and enjoyed the view from over his head, though their giggles quickly became gasps.

[Quote=Bird who would probably rather be made into soup right now][color=red]"Shut it, rawwwk!" *whistle*[/color][/quote]

Gaston turned to see who had interrupted the merriment...only to be beaned in the chest by a nearly empty tankard. He set down the women, who quickly made themselves scarce.

"Who did that?" he demanded. "[I]No one[/i] throws tankards at [i]Gaston[/i]!"

Many patrons pointed toward the tall, hooded stranger in the blue cloak, with the red bird on his shoulder. A few pointed to the soldier in strange black and green armor, though Gaston noticed the cloaked stranger first, so he was the one he strolled up to.

He grabbed the front of the stranger's cloak and easily lifted him to eye level. He gave a sharp glare and gritted his teeth.

"And we were all having [i]such[/i] a good time."

Esmeralda quickly tried to step in.

"He didn't do anything!"

A barmaid was about to try to de-escalate the situation, when the strangely-armored soldier requested a room. The barmaid glanced to - him? her? - and held up a hand. Strange; wasn't the soldier's voice different just a moment ago? And what was a "karaoke"?

"Just a moment, er, good soldier," she said, more concerned with stopping a potential brawl than worrying about the soldier's change in voice.

But it turned out the barmaid's assistance was temporarily unneeded as Gaston took in Esmeralda, and not-so-subtlely eyed her from head to toe.

"Well, [i]hello[/i]," Gaston said, his anger quickly melding into dashing charm.

He kept his grip on the stranger's cloak, lifted him higher and struck a pose. Gaston placed his free hand on his hip and suggestively cocked it to the side. While it was apparent he was trying to impress, several of the tavern patrons looked on in amusement as they picked up on what caught Gaston's attention. Esmeralda had once taken out ten of Frollo's men on just wit and the occasional assistance of her fellow Roma entertainers.

And her fiance, Captain Phoebus - a formidable man in his own right - was [i]right there[/i] beside her.

A few whispers went through the tavern as small piles of coin were placed for bets.

Esmeralda crossed her arms and glared, obviously not impressed with Gaston's boorish display. The children never left her mind, and she occasionally stole a glance to try to find one of them, but right now, Cassim was in immediate danger.

"Put him down," she said. "He's done nothing to you."

Esmeralda caught movement by the fireplace in one of her glances and saw the red boy - Lock. She watched him in the corner of her eye, though she kept a lookout for the other two.

Unbeknownst to her, Barrel managed to sneak into the kitchen and was already stealing food off of trays and plates to eat. Shock was surprisingly difficult to spot, even with her tall hat. Accustomed to accounting for it, she picked the largest patrons to hide behind as she scouted the room for the best place to start causing trouble. The silence bought her a moment to calculate how to get someplace not many would expect her to be...and with most of the room focused on Gaston, she had a clear shot to get where she wanted.

Madame Serpente came back down to an oddly quiet tavern, when she spotted a wild-haired, finely-dressed redhead making her way over to the drinking game corner. She did a quick survey of the room for the source of the trouble, and would have [i]happily[/i] ignored the redhead had she not heard the distinct sound of a blade smashing through wood.

With the potential brawl in a current standstill, Madame Serpente made a quick detour to the group, where the girl made her drinking challenge. If the drunken entourage was silent before, their silence was even more palpable in the presence of the Madame. One or two even shrunk back in fear. The middle-aged woman loomed over the younger redhead, and leaned down until her sharp gaze met hers.

"That was a [i]solid[/i] piece of fine oak," Madame Serpente said, her tone calm, but fierce. "Strong enough that even [i]that[/i] buffoon--" she pointed to Gaston "--could dance upon it with all his might, and it'd hold strong."

She looked the redhead over for even the smallest sign of weakness.

"So you'd better drink up," she continued, "because I'll either be taking the repair costs for that table out of your winnings, or a week as my scullery maid."

Madame Serpente motioned for a nearby barmaid and made a few quick hand signs, before she started to push herself through the crowd towards Gaston and the other newcomers. The barmaid went to the bar, got two tankards of her strongest mead, and set them on the table.

"First round's on the house," she said coldly. "Madame's orders."

The challenger grinned as he grabbed his tankard.

"Hope you've got coin, girly," he said, "because a sip of this can weaken the hardiest men."

~~~

From the rooftop, and especially from the contrasting light of the moon, Jack would be able to pick out something: namely, dark [i]things[/i] were shifting and moving in the alleyways and over some rooftops in the distance, picked out only by eyes - or eye [i]sockets[/i] - trained to see in the dark. Yet as they moved and gathered together, even an untrained mortal eye would notice how parts of Paris seemed to disappear in shadow from this height.

More than that, something scampered over the rooftops in the distance, practically heralding the shadows gathering like a small storm cloud behind it. Some sort of cloth billowed behind the forefront creature. Sometimes, it would disappear behind taller buildings and reappear again, but one thing was clear:

It was headed towards the tavern.