[center][h1]The Valhalla Chronicles[/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/h6pyGYh.jpg[/img]
[sup]9:30 PM - Sunflower Street, Minako Family Apartment.[/sup]
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27EHTwiY9EA&index=45&list=PL1Uj0cNo6vn3oAxrduZt8VXpMsGqka0hZ]Music[/url][/center]
For Hisano Minako, and the rest of her family, home for the last few years has been a shoddy apartment- more like converted loft- above a local bar: Ray's Dive. It was better off than most of the city's Micro-partments or Coffin Motels, New-Hong Kong's response to the low-income population boom. Micro-partments and Coffin Motels literally fit thousands of individuals into a comparatively tiny amount of land space. Beds fit into tiny squared tubes, linked from their door to the building's front door by a network of omni-directional elevators, it was hardly an elegant living solution. The Minako resident wasn't much better- it was small, single room relying on curtains and dividers to give its inhabitants any semblance of privacy. Bedrooms, kitchen and living room all in one, on creaky patch metal and wood floors and faulty ventilation. But on the bright side, it was legal, and sure as hell beat squatting in the crumbling walls of a slum hoping no one bigger than you walked in to kick you out.  

Working at Vitality MacroTechnology was a chore, to say the least, and though a shift was a typical 9am-5pm, VMT liked to work its employees hard during their shift hours. Not that the low level work was particularly hard, but it was incredibly dull, boring, and samey. Enough so that it wasn't uncommon for some unwitting employee to fuck up, and end up getting sacked and kicked out of the building- a desperate-for-work replacement popping up in his place within the hour. All of this for little more than a meager paycheck- after taking out her rent and utilities, for this month, as well as medical costs for her sick mother, Hisano had little more than $150 for pocket money- which wouldn't go far with today's economy. 

As far as things go, business as usual. Between work at VMT, and helping out at the bar downstairs, tonight was one of the few nights Hisano had had to herself in a while. She was relaxing, or perhaps preparing to go out for the night- It was a Friday after all, or doing what it was she did to kill time, when her phone gave a buzz.

Checking the Caller ID, Hisano could readily see that the message was from Tommy DeGarro. An old friend, one who helped her get this job in the first place. Tommy was an argumentative hot-head or a lovable rogue depending on the day, but he was the closest thing Hisano had to a sibling. Her parents loved him for some indiscernible reason, he helped Hisano get her job at VMT, and knew the owner of the bar well enough to convince him to discount the Minako family while they lived there. When they were younger, they'd run together. He was there the day she got shot, and half dragged, half carried her to the local street-doc. Sometimes it seemed like he wanted to be more than just a childhood friend, but nothing really happened.

Tommy got switched into the HR department several months ago- surprising enough seeing as all he did was talk shit and get drunk on his off time- and has been rather out of touch since. This is probably the first time he'd messaged her in almost two months.

[i]'Hey 'Sano, uhm, probably not the best time, but I'm in a bit of shit. Swing by the office- 7112, alone. Hurry.'[/i]