Act 2, Scene 2: A Fork in the Road

RATS

TECH PREROLL

LX-2200 GO

LX-2201 STANDBY for GO

Check Levels
Unmute Desk

Eis: ON
Orun: ON
Feo: ON

Runoratsu: OFF

DIALOG

STANDBY Stage left [1, 1st, off]: Jeffrey

STANDBY Stage left [1, 2nd, off]:

STANDBY Stage right [7, 1st, off]: Borax, Thomas, Warin

STANDBY Stage right [7, 2nd, off]:

STANDBY Stage:

AMB-2201 - Inside the Building

Curtain - open

LX-2201 GO

SND-2201 - Door L opens

LX-2201 A_all on, B_all down, warm, inside temple,

LX-2202 special on B6+2

Borax enters from [7], wearing the cult robe 2-2 (no face visible etc.).

Borax: "Please follow me."

Thomas enters after Borax.

Thomas: "Wow. This place is a lot fancier than I was expecting."

Warin enters after Thomas, also wearing the cult robe 2-2.

Warin: "Welcome to the City of Lost Souls."

Borax, Thomas and Warin stop in the middle of the room, Thomas ends up precisely in the middle, flanked by the two monks with ample distance.

Thomas: "Thanks for your invitation! What exactly is this place? You call it a 'city', but to me it looks more like a cross between a castle and a temple."

Borax: "It is a little bit of all of those things."

Warin: "It is the home of the Order Of The Blinding Star. Many human souls live within its walls, and maybe so will you."

Borax: "We are glad you came."

Warin: "But before we can continue, you will have to make a choice."

Borax: "You can either be one of us ..."

Warin: "... or them."

Borax: "You cannot ..."

Warin: "... be both."

Thomas: "(turns left) How many times (turns right) did you guys have (turns left) to rehearse this before (turns right) you got it right every time?"

Borax: "Many times. But seriously ..."

Warin: "... you can join us. Only then will you be allowed into the inner sanctum of our city and live true to your human nature and past. "

Borax: "You will have to swear by your life, that you will not disclose any of our secrets to the soulless."

Warin: "In turn, this place will become your new home. You will want for nothing, as long as you act in good faith and for the good of human society."

Borax: "Or you can walk out right now, and choose to live your life as a cursed one among the soulless. We will never bother you again. However, the burden of your past will be yours to carry until the end."

Thomas: "Okay ... uhm ... that's a lot to ask for. I was hoping I could ask you a few questions first. Like, how many of us are there? For how long has this been happening? And ... does anybody know if there's a way back home?"

Warin: "In this world, we carry on the flame of human civilization in our souls. It is what makes us who we are, it is our holy of holies."

Borax: "We built this city within a city to preserve our culture and to make sure we never forget who we are."

Warin: "We can't share our secrets with anyone except our own, or our race might one day be diluted to nothing more than a side note of this world's history."

Thomas: "That sounds a bit extreme, but okay. I want to know how I got here, I want to talk to people who share the same experience, and see how they're coping. But the people I met so far are really nice, and I even have a new girlfriend. You're asking for a lot here!"

Borax: "How old are you again?"

Thomas: "37. Human years. Not dog years."

Warin: "So, Thomas, what would you say ... what has been the more relevant part of your life so far?"

Borax: "The 37 years of life in human society?"

Warin: "Or the few weeks among cats and dogs?"

Borax: "Which would you rather lose?"

Warin: "If you had to choose?"

Thomas: "What kind of weird interview is this?!"

Borax: "It's about who you really are, Thomas. You have to make a decision!"

Thomas: "This isn't fair, I am totally not prepared to make a decision like this! I can't just dump all my new friends - friends are the most important thing in life! And these friendships were hard earned! I had to weather storms, save lives, earn their respect!"

Warin: "But with us, you'll have the chance to meet even BETTER friends! Human friends!"

Borax: "To talk about human things!"

Warin: "And to do real human work!"

Borax: "We have science!"

Warin: "And jobs!"

Borax: "Toilets with running water!"

Warin: "Antibiotics!"

Borax: "Cards against Humanity!"

Warin: "Football!"

Borax: "AND COOKIES! LOTS OF COOKIES!"

Thomas: "No, I ... I ... I can't. I just can't. Cassandra is going to hate me. I gotta go. Good bye."

Thomas walks toward the door near [7].

Borax and Warin look after him ...

Thomas walks out.

SND-2202 - Door L Closes

Borax: "There he goes."

Warin: "Bummer. I really need to work on my pitch."

Borax: "Next time we should start with the cookies."

Warin: "Definitely."

SND-2203 - Door L Opens

Thomas rushes back in.

Thomas: "Alright, alright. Goddammit. You're right. Yes! I might be a mangy mutt, but inside I'm still human. I belong here. Among humans."

Warin: "EXCELLENT! Then do you swear, by your life, that by joining The Order of the Blinding Star, you will not leave the City of Lost Souls without permission?"

Borax: "And that you will keep and defend our secrets 'til death do us part?"

Warin: "Be aware that breaking the oath will be considered a crime against humanity, punishable by death!"

Thomas: "*sigh* Yes. Yes, I swear."

Borax, Warin: "WOHOOO! WE DID IT!"

Borax and Warin take their cult robe 2-2s off, wearing clothes of modern design under their hoods.

Borax: "Phew, for a moment I really thought we'd blown it."

Warin: "Welcome to the pack, Thomas!"

Borax: "So, where you from?"

Thomas: "Halborrow, UK. Full name is Thomas Garfield Holdworth."

Warin: "I love the UK! Some of my best friends were from the UK. I'm Warin Aubagio. Used to clean windows for a living, but here I'm head of the welcome team!"

Thomas: "Cool, cool."

Borax: "And I'm Borax Sarasvati, research chemist. I usually don't do onboarding but Horace called in sick today, so yeah, we're still a bit low on staff here and there, everyone has to do a bit of everything, you'll see what I mean."

Thomas: "So you got people from all trades, right? I used to be an electrical engineer."

Borax: "That's so awesome! You know, there's a BIG research project going on at the Hissing Isles, and we're desperately looking for people like you!"

Warin: "Jeffrey will be delighted that we finally found someone useful for a change. We just had a big streak of web developers, and their biggest skill was making other people dumber just by being in the same room with them."

Borax: "Hey! I'm sure they're not all like that."

Thomas: "Okay, sorry if I'm too nosy, but I gotta ask. How did you get into this world?"

Warin: "I got hit by lightning cleaning the windows of a high rise in Milano. I didn't want to go out there, but my boss didn't care. Well, it's his loss now!"

Borax: "I got zapped to this place during a thunderstorm at the beach on the Maldives. That's it, no fancy story. How about you? Let me guess, thunderstorm?"

Thomas: "Yup! Lightning struck the road right in front of me while I was on my way to work on my bike. Then I woke up on a pirate ship."

Warin: "Fits the bill perfectly. We call it 'the zappening'. The stories you hear are all pretty similar. Whatever makes this dimensional jump thing possible seems to depend on big amounts of electromagnetic energy. Jeffrey's been trying to replicate the effect for a long time, but the technology isn't there yet. But hey, electrical stuff, that should be right up your alley, right?"

Thomas: "Absolutely."

Borax: "I'll go and bring Jeffrey the good news! I'm sure he can't wait to meet you."

Borax leaves towards [1].

SND-2204 - Door R Closes

Thomas: "Okay, uhm, sorry for asking, but who exactly is this Jeffrey person?"

Warin: "Jeffrey Arkenstone! He wants to be seen as the big spiritual leader, but he's really more of a CEO."

Thomas: "Wait, what ... THE Jeffrey Arkenstone? The CEO of Synapse General? He died on the roof of his penthouse ... like ... 10 years ago or so. It was all over the news!"

Warin: "Yeah! That one! He's a genius."

Thomas: "Oh hell yeah, I'm really hyped now,"

Runoratsu: ON
Feo: OFF

SND-2205 - Door R Opens

Jeffrey comes in from [1], dressed in an opulent outfit that would make both a high priest and a king jealous.

Borax follows behind Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: "Thomas Garfield Holdworth! You were sent by the heavens!"

Thomas: "Hello Mr. Arkenstone, it is an honor to meet you!"

Jeffrey: "No need to be so formal. Welcome to the team my friend!"

Jeffrey shakes hands with Thomas.

Thomas: "Thank you! I can't wait to get to work!"

Jeffrey: "You couldn't have arrived at a better time. Electrification is one of the number one goals right now. Knowing how to build a generator in theory is one thing, getting it done when all you got is wrought iron and a big hammer is another."

Thomas: "I heard you've got a big project starting up on the Hissing Isles ... the logistics must be a nightmare. Why settle on such a remote site?"

Jeffrey: "We've been mapping the 'zapping incidents' as good as we can for the last 5 years or so, and there's some very peculiar clustering going on, especially around the Hissing Isles. No wonder the soulless think it's cursed. It must have something to do with the magnetic fields or something. Hard to say without the instruments to measure it."

Thomas: "Oh, I SO want to be part of that research team."

Jeffrey: "You're more than welcome to. I'll make sure to book you in on the next ship. But first, let's get you properly onboarded. Borax, can you show Thomas the way to HR and get him his bracelet?"

Borax: "Sure thing!"

Thomas: "A bracelet?"

Borax holds up one arm showing his color coded wristband level 15.

Borax: "Yeah. It's basically your ID and it also shows what your trust level is. The higher the number, the trusty-er you are."

Thomas: "Woah, fancy. Before we go, uhm ... is there any way I can go home real quick and fetch a few things?"

Jeffrey: "Of course. But don't forget you're under oath now. Borax will lend you his cloak. See you soon!"

Thomas: "Alright! Thanks for having me!"

Jeffrey and Warin leave towards [1].

SND-2206 - Door R Closes

Borax (to Thomas): "YES! Congratulations! Only the best of the best get to the Isles ... it's a tropical paradise! And it's where they do all the cutting edge stuff!"

Thomas: "Will you be going, too?"

Borax: "YES! We're going to have so much fun!"

LX-2202 GO

LX-2203 AUTO

LX-2298 GO

All Mics: Off
AMB and MUS: Fade out
Mute all except AV-Playout

Curtain - close

LX-2299 GO

Microphone handover from ROLE to OTHER ROLE