Boston, Massachusetts... once home to little more than colonists dumping an ass-load of tea in the water to protest high taxation while dressing like Indians/Native Americans, today it is home to megacorps, Renraku Japanacorp, Mafia, Yakuza, IHA, ghouls, gangs of every shape and size and power, and millions of the strife-ridden with but a mere handful of people well beyond anybody's rightful means.  Wrought with fighting amidst ethnicities, metatypes, crime organizations, corporations, classes, and just about anything else you can think of, with a couple of Z-zones thrown into the mix just because... and you have the home to the Eastern Financial Market based out of North Central Boston and one of the bigger trade-centers on the eastern seaboard of the UCAS.  Nobody here can really complain (though many do anyway); this place is one of the 'safer' places to live thanks to the exclusive security contract with Knight Errant, a Detroit-based security company, though that's assuming you don't piss them off or go somewhere you really shouldn't, and that's for your sake not theirs.<br/><br/>With all the the different forces at play here, and all the hands in the pot not necessarily 'so to speak' if you know a ghoul, even the poorest, dumbest, lamest sap, decker, whiz kid, or street samurai can find something to do around here...<br/><br/>...so waking up in her apartment in South End, right in the middle of the urban sprawl that Boston had become, she is privy to natural sunlight peaking into her bedroom, which while not the most elaborate, provided enough comfort to call it a 'home,' but still was not the greatest place in the city (though that could be improved if she had the funding).  As you awake you hear the sounds of what sounds like a substantial beating occurring in the street outside, a man begging for his assailants to stop.  By the time you could get up and look (if you so chose), you'd see a man on the ground, a bloody mess, and a couple of big, tough orks loaded with cyberware walking away.  Even if you don't look, you know what it is: someone was<em>late</em>with their rent and 'security' payments to the Mafia that essentially owned this area and a number of others.  Not that they'd ever admit it...<br/><br/>Speaking of rent; it was the end of the second week of the month, meaning just over two weeks for her to get her own rent together... and she currently didn't have any extra funds at all...