Rats — Episode 1 (Stage: 2)Location: Somewhere in the BackstreetsPete(Rat)Hey! Hurry up and scrape them up, now! Those Zwei goons might arrive any second!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit1"Lenny(Rat)I’m doing my best here!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny1"Lenny(Rat)I just can’t seem to get a clean rip of his guts, the contents of this guy are weirdly different. Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny2"Lenny(Rat)I’ve never even heard of a body modification procedure that does this…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny3"Mang-chi(Rat)Something’s off about these organs. They’re looking really strange…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi1"Pete(Rat)Damn it! Their footsteps are getting closer.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit2"Pete(Rat)Forget about clean cuts, just pull ‘em out and take ‘em!!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit3"Pete(Rat)At this rate, our heads are gonna get nicely chopped offa our bodies.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit4"Lenny(Rat)Why does he have this kinda stuff in his body…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny4"Pete(Rat)Whatever, just take ‘em! We’re out of time!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit5"Mang-chi(Rat)Just about done!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi2"Pete(Rat)Now, run!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit6"Location: A Backstreets HideoutLenny(Rat)Phew… That was close.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny5"Mang-chi(Rat)You’re a bold one, Pete. Going for a gut-harvest in a territory managed by the Zwei.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi3"Pete(Rat)These are the only jobs we have left.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit7"Pete(Rat)We have to climb up by any means necessary. Whatever it takes…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit8"Pete(Rat)You know my dream, right? To become one of the Fingers of the Backstreets.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit9"Mang-chi(Rat)I’ll admit, it’s rare to see someone with a dream these days.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi4"Mang-chi(Rat)Let’s sell off these guts we’ve hauled first.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi5"Mang-chi(Rat)We gotta prepare enough cash to offer to the Stray Dogs.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi6"Pete(Rat)True… This could be our chance to join an Urban Legend-class Syndicate…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit10"Pete(Rat)Alright, time to check out the harvest.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit11"Pete(Rat)Hey! Is this a joke? You sure you scraped up the right stuff?!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit12"Lenny(Rat)I told you. This guy didn’t have a single proper organ inside him.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny6"Pete(Rat)I expected innards soaked in drugs like Enkephalin at worst…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit13"Pete(Rat)These are damaged too badly. It’s almost like someone already blew them up.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit14"Mang-chi(Rat)We only doused him with anesthetics. Didn’t do no harm.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi7"Pete(Rat)This doesn’t make sense… How could he have even walked around with these messed up organs…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit15"Mang-chi(Rat)…What if it’s one of those? Y’know, rumors say there’s a guy who skewers and threads people alive to turn them into dolls…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi8"Pete(Rat)Yeah, I’ve heard of that, too. But look at the state of these things! Not the case at all.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit16"Pete(Rat)I hear those dolls are made by threading flesh and bones together. But this sonofabitch didn’t have any scars or stitches showing outside!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit17"Mang-chi(Rat)…Now that I think about it, there was a round orange symbol on the back of his neck.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi9"Mang-chi(Rat)I thought it was a tattoo at first, but he didn’t seem like the type to have one. He was a desk-working dweeb.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi10"Pete(Rat)Symbols? Tattoos? Damn it, please don’t tell me we poked the wrong beehive…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit18"Lenny(Rat)Besides that…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny7"Lenny(Rat)He also had this envelope in his body.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny8"Pete(Rat)What the hell is an envelope doing in a human body?! This keeps getting worse… Gimme that!Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit19"Pete(Rat)An invitation to a library? What’s this about…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit20"Mang-chi(Rat)Books? We can get books from the library? What a bunch of nonsense.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi11"Lenny(Rat)It was a flop after all. …The payment is due tomorrow.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny9"Lenny(Rat)We’ve got 7 hours, to be exact. That’s too little time for another run of gut-harvesting…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny10"Pete(Rat)…We’re heading to the library as the invitation says.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit21"Pete(Rat)I don’t know what this ‘book’ thing is, but we’re out of options. We gotta take any chance we get.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit22"Mang-chi(Rat)Isn’t this just suicide? We don’t know what kinda place it might be.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi12"Pete(Rat)Can’t be any worse than dying to the Stray Dogs or the Zwei Association; we’re screwed anyway! Shut up and follow me if you want to live.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit23"Location: Inside the Library - 1st Invitation SentRoland(Servant)What was that we just saw…?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland1"Angela(Library Director)Fragments of the invitation process.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela1"Angela(Library Director)We can take a peek at the stories of our upcoming guests.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela2"Roland(Servant)Didn’t take you for a peeping tom.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland2"Angela(Library Director)It’s more convenient to know what kind of guests will visit us in advance, isn’t it?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela3"Angela(Library Director)Besides, this is the invitation’s will, not mine.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela4"Roland(Servant)That’s a splendid thing you got there, ma’am. Pries upon people and kidnaps them, too. A perfect tool for crimes.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland3"Roland(Servant)Heck, if the invitation can do all that, why don’t we just skip the whole reception part?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland4"Roland(Servant)Can’t we just teleport them right into a room full of traps or something?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland5"Angela(Library Director)I cannot do that. We can only take a peek when it has been decided that the guests are coming here of their own volition.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela5"Angela(Library Director)And the invitation’s power isn’t wholly mine, either. I am simply borrowing it.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela6"Roland(Servant)Yeah yeah, no way anything can go so smoothly in the City.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland6"Angela(Library Director)They’re desperate guests.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela7"Roland(Servant)Tell me, was the invitation responsible for that symbol and internal damage as well?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland7"Angela(Library Director)What? Not a chance, it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela8"Angela(Library Director)The invitation simply finds a way to those who need it.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela9"Roland(Servant)That means those weird happenings were someone else’s doing… Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland8"Roland(Servant)I’ve never seen that kind of phenomenon back when I was a Fixer. It’s like something from the Ruins…Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland9"Angela(Library Director)Ruins?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela10"Roland(Servant)…I don’t know a whole lot, either. I only heard stories of it. Should I describe it as… magic?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland10"Roland(Servant)That kind of stuff exists in the Ruins, apparently.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland11"Angela(Library Director)In any case, we simply greet our guests. They seem to be low class, but oh well. Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela11"Roland(Servant)Those are probably a bunch of lowly gangsters from the Backstreets. We call them ‘Rats’.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland12"Roland(Servant)Groups of half-assed thugs that barely qualify as a Syndicate. They don’t have money or power.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland13"Roland(Servant)They’re losers who only think about making ends meet day by day.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland14"Roland(Servant)Hmm… I might have just roasted myself here.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland15"Angela(Library Director)The Backstreets… I know of them.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela12"Roland(Servant)You do?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland16"Angela(Library Director)Someone I know was from the Backstreets.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela13"Roland(Servant)Well, that’s nothing special, really. The Backstreets stretch all over the city like veins.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland17"Roland(Servant)Heck, it might actually be tougher to find someone who isn’t from the Backstreets.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_roland18"Location: Library EntrancePete(Rat)So this is a library. Looks fancier than I thought.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit24"Lenny(Rat)Could be a bunch of valuable things here.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_lenny11"Angela(Library Director)Greetings, dear guests. This is the Library.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela14"Angela(Library Director)And I am Angela, the librarian of my role’s namesake.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela15"Angela(Library Director)You may find what you desire here, but you also may end up yielding your precious possessions to us.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela16"Pete(Rat)You the owner of this place? We’re allowed to take whatever we want here, right?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit25"Angela(Library Director)Indeed. You may earn books, to be exact.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela17"Angela(Library Director)If you’re able, of course.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela18"Mang-chi(Rat)Are those book things really worth a lot, though…?Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_mangchi13"Angela(Library Director)Of course they can be, if the information they hold is valuable. Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela19"Pete(Rat)Mang-chi! Beggars can’t be choosers. We gotta cling on to anything we can find.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_pit26"Angela(Library Director)May you find your book in this place, then.Audio: "ch1_rat_ep1_angela20"
