Aya wakes to the sound of her arm clock going off the m, she groans, rolling over to smack the devitil it quiets.
Groggily she falls out of bed, rubbing her eyes and wishing it was the weekend already.
Aya showers, noting her heater was broken again, not that she could afford to fix it with how little her job paid.
She sighs, rexing into the cold water, letting it wake her up. The end of the month, so close at hand, yet so far.
"I just have to make it through another month." she says in the quietness of her shower.
The girl goes about her daily routine and after a helping of breakfast cereal, grabs her backpack to head out into the world.
On her way down she passes her bitter aunt, the woman sneers at her, turning her nose up as Aya passes her oairway.
The brue pays her no mind, rag past her aunt and nearly flying dowaircase to make her bus.
"Made it." she says in relief
----------
She sits on the bus still thinking about the book's words on the Gods of Moon Valley.
"When you think about it, Fate, luck all those things are all left up to d that's pretty chaoti't it?" she says to herself.
Aya puts a hand to her mouth in thought.
"One must always be dising. Did you write that mom?" she asks. "What are y to tell me?"
The girl sighs, resting her head against the bus's worn headrest. One mystery after another. Oh well, everyone loves a good treasure hunt.
Aya arrives at the Nue Corp building just in time for her boss to drop a stack of letters into her arms.
"I literally just got here!"
"Urgent deliveries." he says curtly, the sternness in his voice let her know something
"All of them! Did something happen?"
"Above my pay grade, and yours I might add. Now skedaddle, The president wants those on his desk pronto!"
Aya squeaks, rushing to load the letters into her mail cart and take them up the elevator to the top floor, whatever this was it had to be super important if it had her rushing around.
----------
Aya arrives at the top floor to a flurry of whispers, a group of men surround the President, talking in unison much to the man's ire.
Ats grimaces at the voices surrounding him, all his father's yes-men trying to tell him how his old man would have run the pany.
He would fire them all if they didn't have majority shares at Nue Corp and now his test idea to sponsor the rising giant Lumos inc would have to wait.
"Gentlemeleme us calm ourselves." he says pstering a fake smile. He looks over their old, wrinkled faces, pushing down his seething pt for them all.
'Nothing but cowards and users.'
"I know you have s but if you would follow me to the boardroom I illustrate my three-step pn to enlighten you on how we -" something or rather someoches his attention.
Aya pushes the mail cart in hoping to go in and out of the top floor's lobby without drawing any attention to herself.
The men, she notes, by their well-tailored suits and brand name shoes are all very important people, so important Ats himself seems pressured by their presence.
Their eyes meet, and Aya smiles encingly at him. Ats returns it, going back to his discussion with the majority stakeholders and leading them into the boardroom.
She leaves the stack of letters on Viviana's table once more, the woman sits quietly, the two of them i. The blonde snatches the mail out of Aya's hands.
"I'll be taking those." she hisses, much like a cat spshed with water.
Aya huffs, walking back to her cart away from all the fancy people and Ats.
She had better things to do anyway.
----------
"That was fast." her boss says as she returns to the pany's basement. Aya sighs, propping the mail cart into pce befoing to rest on her seat.
"Nue Corp is a fancy development pany, why don't we have hovercarts like some of the other corporations do?"
"Because the CEO is a cheap ass." her boss hisses, she watches him flip the page of the neer he's reading. "Besides have you noticed what city we're in?"
'He's right.' Aya thinks.
For all the love her mother had for Axen, it was and still is one of the worst pces to be in. Behind in all aspects, from tech to news, and with the crime rate skyrocketing far beyond what anyone predicted.
The only reason the wealthy stayed was for the cheap bor they khey could get away with hiring. Aya balls her fist, breathing out slowly.
"Hey boss," Aya starts.
The man grunts in aowledgment.
"How e you've old me your name?" Aya asks.
"It's been a year since you started w here and you're asking this now?" Aya hears the amusement in his voice. She stammers, trying to e up with some sort of excuse.
"Rex, I don't think you o know my name." He says cooly with unusual seriousness. He flips his paper again, turning to read the page. "Sometimes a name is a burden, Miss Brown."
"You got a shady past or something?" she asks jokingly. "You 't have always been mail room boss."
Her boss chuckles deeply, hinting at something sinister. Aya narrows her eyes in suspi, he 't have been someone dangerht?
"Call this my ste." he says. "Everyone's running from something," he says the st part softly under his breath, almost remorsefully.
What could he have done? What was he running from? Aya thinks.
Then again, what was Mars running from?
'I have to leave this city.'
----------
Aya is on her way to the Seelim bus stop wheices a figure standing u.
Ats ands uhe awnings of the bus station taking long sls from his cigarette. Aya approaches slowly, trying not to startle the man.
"Hi."
Ats jumps, turning around to find the girl standing beside him.
"Oh, Aya." he quickly douses his cigarette, stepping on it faster than she say anything.
"I don't really mind." she says. There were many smokers around her apartment, generally, all friendly people just dealing with life anyhow they could.
"It's a bad habit I'm trying to kick." He chuckles.
A moment of silence passes between them.
"So what was that meeting about, you looked rather frazzled." Aya says.
"Frazzled!" Ats burst out ughing, being caught off guard by her humorous words. "I wasn't frazzled."
"I beg to differ!" Aya retorts. "They were a gaggle of old men and you didn't look fortable at all!" she says poking him and joining the ughter. It takes a moment for their ughter to subside
"Ah it's just pany business, I have some ideas but they're not really taken seriously." Ats says sadly.
"I know what that's like." Aya sighs."When you are young they assume you know nothing."
"Ain't that the truth." Ats sighs.
He takes a moment to observe her. He stares at her, taking in the way the setting sun reflects on her skin, how her dark hair falls over the curve of her cheek.
The president's face grows hot the more he stares.
Aya feels his eyes bore a hole into her and looks up to see Ats staring at her, his face is set in a grim expression, but as their eyes meet again it softens.
"Is there something on my face?" Aya ughs. "You were staring a lot."
"So about that that food-"
The bus pulls up before he finish his sentence.
"I've got to go, if you py Moon Valley you friend me on there!" Aya says giving him her pyer ID.
The bus drives off and Ats is left to stand in silence. He lights anarette taking a drag and blowing out smoke.
"Great."
----------
Aya arrives at her apartment building to see a darkly cd man cirg the building. She pauses, shifting to a more stealthy pace as she walks towards the building.
She stops at a wall, hiding with her back pressed against the dusty brick surface. After a moment she peers from behind her hiding spot.
'Isn't that the guy I saw b Mars?' she thinks, her eyes s the man's face taking note of his ashen fad sunkehe hood hides his face but not well enough that she couldn't reize him.
Aya, retreats behind the wall again, not wanting the man to see her.
'What should I do?'
Aya waits for mao leave the premises, she watches him speed off in a nondescript bck car g a lise pte.
"I hope they aren't sg out the pce for a robbery." Aya says finally finding the ce to walk up the steps of the house.
She runs up to Mars's apartment, knog frantically at the door. The irl pulls it open.
Mars stands staring at her ued guest.
"What? Aya?"
"The man from Saturday came back!" Aya blurts as fast as she , the girl crumples, panting hard from her run to Mars's floor.
Mars's eyes widen at the news.
Earlier today, something told her she was being followed but only now after hearing Aya's words does fear slowly creep up her spine.
Mars gres, f down her fear and rushing down to the ground floor of the apartment. Aya tails after her.
"They're gone, he hopped in a car a!" Aya says. She grabs the girl's arm.
"Mars, who are they?"
"I don't know." Mars says slowly, but Aya knows it's a lie.
"It's alright if you don't want to tell me, but I worry about you." she says hugging the taller girl. Mars hesitantly puts an arm back around her.
"I know you're running from something, but I don't care. Everyone's running from something you know." Aya says.
"It's plicated." Mars says. Aya hugs her tighter.
"It always is."
----------
Aya walks Mars back to her apartment before returning to her own. She gets into bed, thinking about the day's events while setting up her gaming gear.
"One must always be dising." she says to herself.
She puts on the Revista and finds herself in the world of Moon Valley.