The sunken city of Daemonos. Home of a bustling metropolis that boasts infrastructure in such close quarters, not even a mouse could fit down what would be an alleyway. Due to this community being built in a massive sinkhole, off the edge of the higher class Angelus City, this place is quite literally shrouded in shadow. At all times, it remains dark, and dangerous. Here, the government fails to reach them, and crime is rampant. However, some find Daemonos as a blessing. Because just as much as authority struggles to grasp its people, the casual weekly calamities do as well.
Each new threat up top on the 'surface world' is either exhausted or defeated well before it can effectively touch this city. Unless of course, the calamity starts here first.
"Watch where you're going," shouts a dwarven bearded man, "You blind, or stupid, chick?"
He shoves his way past the lady he was speaking to.
"... It's not like I could see you all the way down there."
She glares back at him with scarlet eyes, before continuing to pace the sidewalk. As she walks, person after person bumps into her seemingly on purpose. Not one expression she sees is of pure intent. Either she was shoving off an attempt at a pickpocket, or some creep trying to catch a feel. However, this experience isn't much new to her. She looked more exhausted than concerned, or afraid.
"Home, sweet home," she mumbles as she rounds a corner, stopping her walk in front of a trash bin.
Once she could see no one else was around her, she lightly kicked the metal bin twice. It reverberates with a deep sound, and tilts at a limp angle. She leans back, and almost at the same time, a sharp and rusty looking grappling hook shoots up from beneath the bin. The hook of the contraption narrowly misses gouging one of her eyes out, as she watches it travel to the top floor of the building above.
Smoothly, it latches on to a barred window on the fifth floor, and the rope attached to the contraption relaxes. She tosses her bag over her shoulder, and firmly grips the rope, tugging on it to make sure it was seated securely.
"Hup!"
Using the grapple, she scales the side of the building rather quickly, and removes a section of the window's barring. She slips into the opening, and peeks her head back out. Unlatching the grapple hook from the window, and allowing it to fall back down towards the trash can. She watches as it reels itself back in, and the bin falls back upright over top of it.
With a sigh, she takes off her bag and cloak. Tossing it onto what looked to be a bed, and was really cardboard stacked up about ten inches high. Her room is cramped, dimly lit, and it smelled like rotting meat due to it being on top of an old industrial slaughterhouse. Though, with all of that in consideration, she still felt at home. After all, this has been her home for all of her life.
"Fuck… Still no signal," she says, staring at the static on her television, "Guess the antenna finally gave out."
The woman looked towards the window, where four buckets of water were sitting. Collecting the rain leaking from the ceiling. Or, whatever the rain had become on its way down the sinkhole, and into the city.
"I figure that'll be enough," she says, picking up two, "I worked up a pretty good sweat today."
. . .
In a corner of her room, the lady drains water out of a hole in the floorboard as she stands on a damp, soapy tarp. She covers herself with a towel made from a window curtain, just long enough to cover her chest and down, to her upper legs. Her brown hair was weighed down flat by moisture, and her pale skin was dripping wet. After all the water was carefully drained, she folds the tarp back up, and presses it against the hole in the wall. Empty buckets are put back under the window, starting the leak collection process all over again.
A thump at the window catches her attention. She approaches carefully, and peeks at it from the corner.
"The hell was that?"
Out of her peripheral vision, she notices a glimpse of a blue glow. She turns around, looking at the television thinking maybe the signal had come back for a moment. Though, there was still nothing but static on the screen. Visible confusion appears on her face.
"Elenore, huh? Pretty clever, I'll admit that," Leila's voice projects from the cardboard bed, "So, you do remember?"
The girl, Elenore, screams bloody murder. Clutching her makeshift towel closer, consequently loosening its wrap around her body. Her eyes widen, as she sees Leila sitting on her bed with an identification card of hers in hand.
"How the hell did you find me?" she panics, "And how did you even get in here!?"
Leila's eyes narrow at her, "You confuse me…"
Elenore stammers to keep her curtain covering her body. About to render her makeshift bath useless from the nervous sweat building up.
"You're one to talk, lady!" she points towards the window, "Get out!"
"Yeah, she has no idea," Leila sighs, "This is going to be awkward…"
Leila stands up, and dusts herself off. Glancing around at Elenore's room with a very peculiar eye. She wasn't disgusted by this place at all though, even if she comes from the upper class city of Angelus.
"This won't do," she mumbles to herself.
"Did you not hear me? I said get. Out." Elenore says, clearly flustered.
Leila picks up a picture frame. The glass that held it was shattered, and barely hanging on. However, she could see the image pretty clearly. It was a young Elenore in a juvenile sports uniform. Next to who she assumes to be her parents. Both of their faces were scribbled out by a permanent marker.
"I wouldn't call this the coziest of homes," Leila remarks, "I'm sorry you've had to live this way."
"Look, lady, I already spent that money I took, alright?" She says, "What do you want from me?"
"Oh, don't worry. I don't want the money, I want answers," looking back at Elenore, Leila sets the picture down, "Pack what you've got. You're coming with me."
"Huh?" Elenore replies with confusion, "'Coming with you'? Where? Are you taking me to the feds or something?"
She starts to cautiously back track.
"No," Leila says, "I'm going to take you shopping. On my tab."
Elenore is speechless. Though, it wasn't like she had nothing to say, it was more like she wasn't sure what to say. Hundreds of thoughts run through her head, mostly questions, others comment on how weird this lady is. In retrospect, she came all the way here to offer a shopping trip to Elenore, the thief who tried robbing one of her cafe's customers.
Thinking of this reminds her of that kick to the face she endured, the mark of which had long disappeared due to her natural fast healing she never quite understood. She glances Leila up and down.
"Meet me outside the building when you're ready to go," the blue haired woman approaches the window, but not before looking back at Elenore, "... And put some clothes on."
Leila's body then strangely dissolves into a silvery blue mist. Seeping out of the cracks in the window like a cold draft of air. Elenore was left standing still, silent, and starting to feel a little cold due to her air drying skin.
"... What. The. Fuck."