[center][h3]Peacock[/h3][i]In which our plucky heroine wakes up in the slums, causes a stir, and meets a fellow stranger - Heilong Yu, as played by [@Nerevarine]. Action![/i][/center]

 Peacock woke with a start in a room that had seen better days, and it was only the complete lack of artificial lighting that let it avoid seeing better nights too. The air was so thick with the stench of human habitation that other odours had to form an orderly queue in the room next door to wait their turn to get in. A handful of other guests were were seeking shelter here, and it looked like there'd been some kind of fight for the a pile of hay the previous night. Whoever won, the pile of hay was the loser, judging by the blood and hay scattered throughout the room. Sunlight illuminated, mercifully, a small patch of the floor, but it was only a matter of time before the whole scene would be bathed in the warm glow of morning proper, and no doubt somebody would be sick at seeing such a sight.

 [i]Still,[/i] Peacock considered, [i]I've woke up in worse places.[/i]

 With all the grace of a car crash at fifty miles per hour, Peacock went to the door and burst through into something approximating a communal kitchen. A pair of men huddled around a small fire, a curious choice for indoor decoration, and the pot of [i]something[/i] bubbling away on top of it could have been today's breakfast, the regurgitated mess of yesterday's dinner or, most alarmingly, a bit of both. There was no hint of generosity in their eyes, and they didn't seem keen to share any food with the young girl that they'd pulled in from the streets last night. Especially as the scrawnier looking of the two had assumed that the girl was a corpse.

 "[color=fff200][i]Good morning[/i],[/color]" Peacock grinned, "[color=fff200][i]what's cooking?[/i][/color]"

 The pair abandoned their meagre possessions and bolted towards the safety of the outside world, leaving a trail of hay, dust and an upturned pot of stew in their wake. The wooden door swung gently backwards and forwards in the rotting frame before deciding to give up the vertical lifestyle entirely and fell off it's hinges. More light penetrated the building now, and it wasn't a pretty sight, as generations of people had lived here over the years, and not one of them ever thought to bring in a comfy looking chair, grab a potted plant or do much of anything except watch the building collapse slowly around them. The token bit of greenery came in the form of [i]something[/i] growing on the wall; the mouldy patch was probably the healthiest resident the building had ever known.

 Stepping over the door, Peacock peered down the street. Buildings leaned on one another for support here, creaking and aching in their old age. To her left, the pair of corpse-gatherers were busy screaming and running away, shouting something about the dead coming back to life and bemoaning the lack of opportunities for the lower classes to get much of anything done. To the right, further down the street, it looked like a small crowd had gathered to watch a pale, axe-wielding lady look for [i]something[/i]. Of the two options, the latter seemed like the most amusing, so the two men who put her up for the night got to live another day of crushing, depressing poverty.

 The plan was to barge through the crowd to get a better look at the lady, but Peacock's odd appearance did a remarkably good job at easing her passage through the group of slum-dwellers. A few of them muttered about the end of days, and foreigners, and [i]monsters[/i], and Peacock briefly wondered which of the categories the axe-carrying lady came under. Compared to everyone else around here, Heilong Yu was rather differently dressed, and looked just about as lost as Peacock was. The red eyes arrayed down Peacock's arms stared at Heilong Yu, as if trying to work out where this incongruous figure came from and how it fit into the grand scheme of things.

 "[color=fff200]I betcha you're lost too, huh,[/color]" Peacock began, keeping a respectful distance from the lady, just as the onlookers were keeping a respectful distance from the pair of them, "[color=fff200]and good luck getting any answers out of these clams, their mouths are shut [i]tight[/i] when they're not shrugging or sleeping or screaming for help. Who are ya, then?[/color]"