Act 1, Scene 4: The Holy of Holies

RATS Setup

TECH PREROLL [EMOJI_TOILET_ROLL]

LX 0099 - Work Light OFF (Static Playbacks)

LX 1300 - STANDBY for GO:

Check Levels
Unmute Desk

Tani: ON
Eisfuchs: ON
Lynard: ON

Runo: OFF
Pan: OFF

DIALOG

Curtain - open

Lights on

AMB-1401 - The Lab! Humming machine sounds, low bubbling noises

Open trapdoor in [2-3]

SND-1401 - Open Hatch

Marconi climbs in from below

Honeyberry climbs in from below

Close trapdoor in [2-3]

SND-1402 - Close Hatch

Scoobie sits on Honeyberry's back.

Honeyberry: "*sniffsniffsniff* Ah, I love the smell of dying power supplies in the morning."

Marconi: "May I present to you: The Pillars of Creation."

Marconi leads Honeyberry to the pillars

Honeyberry takes in the room with all her senses, listening and sniffing, and touching the devices.

Honeyberry: "Holy mountain! What is this?"

Marconi: "The most important monument of our civilization."

Honeyberry: "Wow! Can you say that again, please?"

Honeyberry activates the crystal and points it at Marconi

SND-1403 - Tinny computer voice: "Start Recording".

Marconi: "Eh ... And what by the Ghosts IS that?"

SND-1404 - Tinny computer voice: "Stop Recording"

Honeyberry: "It's a voice recorder. That's how I keep my notes. Being blind and all, remember?"

SND-1405 - Tinny computer voice: "Start Playback"

SND-1405 (cont) - Marconi: "Eh ... And what by the Ghosts IS that?"

SND-1405 (cont) - Tinny computer voice: "Stop Playback"

Marconi: "Cooooool!"

Honeyberry: "Now, again!"

Honeyberry activates the crystal and points it at Marconi

SND-1406 - Tinny computer voice: "Start Recording".

Honeyberry: "So what are we looking at here?"

Marconi: "The pillars of creation, the most important monument of our civilization."

Scoobie slips off her back, and does the same, "reporting" back to Honeyberry with cute critter noises.

Honeyberry proceeds to touch and feel the tube_human [6], tube_hybrid [4] and tube_anthro [2] with her paws.

Scoobie tries to climb up one of the tubes, gets halfway up, and slides back down. After a while she moves towards the air vents in [6].

Honeyberry: "Pillars of glass ... I can hear some kind of fluid bubbling. What's inside?"

Marconi: "There's a body inside each of them."

Honeyberry takes a step back

Honeyberry: "Eeww!"

Marconi: "It's like a weird piece of [EMOJI_AIRQUOTES] artwork [EMOJI_AIRQUOTES] that's supposed to show how our Masters created us in their own image. The left one looks like one of them, the right one like one of us, and the middle one like ... something in between."

Honeyberry (in awe): "Oh ... my ... god ... a complete human?"

Marconi: "Just like in the textbook, only slightly more ... crumpled."

SND-1407 - Tinny computer voice: "Stop Recording".

Honeyberry kicks into indiana-jones-just-found-the-holy-grail mode

Honeyberry knocks the tube_human like a used cars salesman

RATS-5 - Knock knock knock

Honeyberry: "Wow! Do you even realize how important this is?"

Marconi: "Of course! It's our Holy of Holies. Mere mortals like us are almost never allowed in here. Only the priests, and newly wed couples may come in and pray to our Masters, so they will receive their blessing. Oh, and the cleaning crew. I guess that means they're blessed, too. I'm not sure though."

Honeyberry: "Markie, this isn't a piece of art. These pillars are LITERALLY part of our creation."

Marconi: "No way!"

Honeyberry is feeling out one of the screens next to the tube [2]

Honeyberry: "This surface ... does it glow? Or does it have any writing on it?"

Marconi: "It flickers a bit, but nope, no writing."

Honeyberry: "No surprise here. The screens are usually the first thing to die. Let's try something else."

Honeyberry (loudly): "*ahem* Computer, activate accessibility mode."

SND-1408 - Computer: "Fffrzrzrbbtzttztbtbtbbbbbtt."

Marconi: "Wah!"

Honeyberry: "It's still listening! After all these years!"

Honeyberry blows into the air vents in [1], and a cloud of dust comes out the other side in [6].

The cloud of dust gets blown directly into Scoobie's face.

Scoobie: "*sneeze* *sneeze* *cough* *sneeze*"

Honeyberry bangs her paw against the case a few times.

RATS-7 - Bang Bang Bang

Honeyberry (loudly): "Computer, activate accessibility mode."

SND-1409 - Computer: "Accessibility mode activated. Available input methods: BRRRRGGGT, ZRRRRRGT, BRMMMMMMM"

Honeyberry: "Activate Screen Reader."

SND-1410 - Computer: "Specimen 2-6-E-F, DNA integrity 87% critical, Body Temperature 20 decimal 5 external critical, Pulse Rate zero decimal zero critical, Respiration zero decimal zero critical, Blood Pressure zero decimal zero critical.".

Marconi (shocked): "How in The Great White did you do that?"

Honeyberry: "This is a Unix system. I know this."

Marconi: "WHAT?"

Honeyberry: "These machines were built with people like me in mind. The discovery that human devices can read things aloud for me literally changed my life!"

SND-1411 - Steps in the Hallway

Marconi: "Oh crap, someone's coming! Let's get out of here!"

Marconi takes Honeyberry by the paw and leads her to the trapdoor

Marconi and Honeyberry open the trapdoor and jump in

SND-1412 - Open Hatch

Scoobie scrambles flintstone-style and jumps in last

Honeyberry closes the trapdoor

SND-1413 - Close Hatch

Tani: OFF
Lynard: OFF
Eisfuchs: OFF

Runo: ON
Pan: ON

SND-1414 - Door is getting unlocked, Door Opens

Silverclaw enters from [7], carrying a shock rod 3

Blackwood (off): "And there we are. Isn't it amazing how far something as simple as a bag of beef jerky can get you."

Silverclaw: "Can't blame them. If all I had to eat was kelp and Bonechiller, you could bribe me with a head of lettuce."

Blackwood storms in from [7] enthusiastically

Blackwood (nerdgasming): "By the mother of all that is fluffy, look at this! This is freaking AMAZING! The amount of preservation .... all three specimens ... they're so fresh, if they were pickles, you could take them out and straight up ...."

Silverclaw (to herself): "I don't know what's creepier, these things or you."

Blackwood: "What you see here is nothing less than the origin of our species. Riversong of Ferndale single-handedly ended the reign of the Keepers, but what remains of him? A plaque on the door of his birth house, and that's it. When I get to open the Blackwood Museum of Humanology, people will come from all over the world to see our work for generations to come!"

Silverclaw: "And pay good money for a ticket."

Blackwood: "I'd say! I wouldn't complain about that."

Silverclaw: "But how are we gonna get them home? We can't just put these on our shoulders and walk out of here."

Blackwood: "No, that would probably require a much bigger bag of jerky."

Honeyberry opens the trapdoor

Tani: ON
Lynard: ON

SND-1415 - Open Hatch

Honeyberry jumps out of the trapdoor

Scoobie sits on her back.

Honeyberry closes the trapdoor

SND-1416 - Close Hatch

Honeyberry: "You should be ashamed of yourself, Professor! Trying to scam the people of Polaris out of their most valuable possession, DISGUSTING!"

Silverclaw (to herself): "Oh look, if it isn't the rat keeper and her little vermin!"

Honeyberry: "Inhabited sites are strictly protected by the statutes of the Institute!"

Blackwood: "Well, then maybe the habitation status needs to change."

Honeyberry: "What? Who are you and what happened to the Professor I once knew?"

Blackwood: "There's a lot to unpack here. Why don't we go back to your room and have a little talk?"

Honeyberry: "Oh hell yeah, I'm going to talk! Hawking will be THRILLED to hear about your plans!"

Honeyberry takes the crystal into her hand

SND-1417 - Tinny computer voice: "Start Playback"

SND-1417 (cont.) Honeyberry: "Inhabited sites are strictly protected by the statutes of the Institute!"

SND-1417 (cont.) Blackwood: "Well, then maybe the habitation status needs to change."

SND-1417 (cont.) Tinny computer voice: "Stop Playback"

Blackwood: "I had hoped that you could be reasoned with, but now you're basically forcing my hand. Silver, would you be so kind?"

Silverclaw walks towards Honeyberry

Scoobie jumps off her back, and growls at Silverclaw, defending her momma!

Scoobie: "GROWL! HISS!"

Honeyberry raises her cane

Honeyberry: "Stay away from me, Silverclaw, this time I'm not going to give up without a fight!"

Silverclaw (bored): "Nah, I'm not the kind of girl who beats up blind nerds."

Silverclaw shock rods Scoobie with shock rod 3

RATS-22 - Shock Rod

Scoobie squeaks and drops

Honeyberry: "NO!"

Silverclaw picks up Scoobie

Silverclaw holds up Scoobie over her head and walks out towards [7]

Blackwood: "So are you coming with Scoobie or would you rather stay here?"

Honeyberry: "YOU BASTARD!"

Silverclaw: "He he he he ...."

Honeyberry uses her cane for orientation and follows Silverclaw out to [7]

Blackwood laughs and follows Honeyberry out to [7]

Lights out

AMB-1401 FADE

Curtain - close