-DAWN - Part 1
-EAGLE HAS FALLEN
Rosa Rivera, the once proud foreign ministress of the bayan
Ever since she fled the Philippines for Kirishima, she has been living her life with the fake name of "Pokey Magiting", obviously not the prettiest name anyone could think but she has been using it repeatedly that it had stuck. She has been wearing a different shorter hairstyle, donning contacts in place of the spectacles she is widely known to be wearing and with clever makeup tricks, she looks like a totally different person. When she first landed at Heiwa she used to receive cash deposited into her bank accounts as assistance from the rich aristocratic Tiazon family but that has since been terminated as Rosa's bank accounts were frozen on orders of the Kalihiman in their quest to persecute the Asigna party's political enemies. Because of this, she has been finding it difficult to find a place to stay since the hotels are either very expensive or very strict with one's legal status. She went to Kirishima with a tourist visa confident she can renew it anytime by going to the Philippine embassy but she's now in big trouble since the embassy has been closed due to the war (Kirishima is a S.A.C.T.O. nation) and because she doesn't have the money to process a proper immigration visa she has been effectively been living in Kirishima (due to Kirishima's relatively higher standard of life than the bayan, the visa process to Kirishima is notoriously known for having one of the most painfully difficult visa application process) as an illegal.
The first place she stayed in was at the Seacoast hotel which is one of the more posh hotels in the city and she was only able to afford staying there when she was funded by Tiazons but by the time she was cutoff. Staying at Seacoast really did made her feel like she was a tourist since the amenities were indeed as 5 star as the internet reviews say. All the massages (by hot mixed race French-Asian men who offered happy endings and all sorts of activities that would make the fabled Jesus, the saints, the angels and the holy spirit weep), the hot tub baths, the pool parties, the balls and tasty Cantonese food really helped her take her mind off the fact that she is effectively a political refugee escaping a regime of racist murderers who ironically call themselves "progressive". However, the relaxation for the young Filipina was only temporary as it was cutoff abruptly by the Kalihiman's freezing of her bank accounts. She immediately checked out of the hotel realizing she only has enough money to last her a few months before she moved on to the part of town where the more cheaper budget hostel were located such as Songpa hostel which she thoughtlessly had chosen by playing "inny minny miney moe" on google maps not minding the bad reviews from that hostel she saw on the internet about the rooms being more like prison cells rather than proper inns (the second most liked review said "Songpa is the shittiest hotel in Kirishima but it's also the most affordable) as she hoped there could be a chance those reviews were simply exxagerated. She was desperate when she chose to stay there.
Rosa's room at Songpa
"Um..." Rosa stuttered as she inspected the room, the uncaring lady who was apparently also the receptionist waited for her by the door to answer questions if she had any.
"Where are the pillows?"
"There are no pillows, the mattress is comfortable enough." The lady growled before she slammed the door. The door didn't even have a doorknob so it bounced open again. Rosa couldn't help but grimace in disgust at the chamber that was her "room". There weren;t even windows so light was only provided by the lone sometimes flickering light bulb at the ceiling. The young woman sat on the mattress to think realizing she had been wrong about the thought she had earlier that it was impossible for her to be homesick since she is the foreign ministress and it's her job to adapt to everywhere as a citizen of the world. Here she is now sitting on a dirty mattress blankly staring at the wall in front of her with no thought about her future. She went to Kirishima thinking its government would receive her and protect her as an asylum but it's been two years and she's still waiting. Previously she didn't care if the Kirishiman government would make her wait since life was good in the Seacoast but it doesn't seem like a possibility she can bear the same amount of time in this derelict hostel. She then reluctantly laid down the mattress as soon as her eyelids started to feel heavy. She was already a few minutes in her sleep when she felt that the mattress was beginning to become moist. Waking up, she checked under the mattress only to discover that there was a puddle underneath. Good grief. Looking around, she discovered that the random bits of dirt that were scattered around the room weren't just diet but rather they were insect legs remembering the creature she encountered on the lobby, suddenly, her appetite for sleeping was gone replaced by fearfulness that a scorpion might pounce on her in her slumber.
Hours couldn't pass any faster for Rosa who spent it by singing a few songs and thinking where the heck could Karten had gone. The bastard left her alone once he joined his family to live in the countryside islands of Kirishima. Karten's message was him apologizing that he couldn't bring Rosa with him since it was for the sake of "safety" but the Filipina thought other things like Karten not wanting him to be seen by his wife with her as there were already rumors that Rosa was either having an affair with him or doing drugs, sometimes both. It was only natural, Rosa did spend some days of her early life as an exotic dancer when she was kicked out her parents house after having what to them was "unacceptable relationships". Oh well.
Reading the news from the internet on her cellphone (reception was bad since the room had only a few openings from which the wifi signal from the hostel lobby can even get in), she discovered that Heneral Eluide, the chief of staff of the Hukbo had launched a coup against the Asigna party. Further news reports tell of the KK and half of the Hukbo remaining loyal to Timente, who was taken as prisoners by Eluide's clique which was condemned as illegal by the loyalist forces, who made no real organized effort against Eluide since none among them could agree with each other who should lead the attack against Eluide. Rosa then thought this will mean that the downfall of the bayan is a step away as with the Hukbo paralyzed by this power struggle, S.A.C.T.O. can literally just step in and invade without opposition.
The following few days was spent on finally making a solid plan to survive in the wretched city, realizing she's so close to being effectively broke, she then went on a quest to employ herself in a series of several greatly unrelated part time jobs. She had gained the job as a hair dresser, singer, night club dancer, makeup artist, cook and soap saleswoman (she was recruited by a local multi level marketing company called Kirilife and truly believed she could turn her life around by simply joining an MLM and inviting people) before she realized she knows nobody enough to recruit to her MLM scheme and she basically had lost 1,000 dollars of her own "investments" to said soap company.
After a bit of crying, wailing at her own stupidity, Rosa contemplated self harm but decided she was not edgy enough to do it.