Act 3, Scene 3: Balancing Act

RATS Setup

TECH PREROLL

LX 0099 - Work Light OFF (Static Playbacks)

LX 3300 - STANDBY for GO:

Check Levels
Unmute Desk

Eisfuchs: ON
Tani: ON
Lynard: ON

DIALOG

Curtain - open

AMB-3301 - Abandoned Factory

Lights on (not a whole lot of them, though)

Marconi emerges from behind the platform at [7] as if climbing up a ladder

Marconi is completely out of breath

Marconi: "Okay, the ladder ends here. It's safe to step forward, the platform seems to be solid."

Marconi stands up, full body, his feet on the platform, holding on to the the rusted truss above / before his head.

Marconi leads Honeyberries paw to the rusted truss

Marconi (exhausted): "Whew ... man ..."

Honeyberry emerges from behind the platform, Scoobie is sitting on her head

Scoobie jumps off her head, making special seeing eye possum noises

Scoobie is completely unfazed by any kind of danger and immediately begins to scuttle along the dangerous pipe bridge, examining everything

Honeyberry stands next to Marconi, and doesn't seem to be exhausted at all

Honeyberry: "What's up? You don't sound so well."

MIND YOUR BREATHING

Marconi (exhausted): "It's okay ... I'm just feeling a little bit dizzy ..."

Marconi sits down on the edge of the platform

Marconi takes a deep breath

Marconi lies down flat on the platform

Marconi: "Meh!"

CAN WE TRY TO MAKE MARCONI SCRATCH HIMSELF WITH A HIND PAW?!?

Marconi scratches himself, and a bit of fur falls out and flies through the air

Marconi: "What the hell ..."

Honeyberry: "What is it?"

Marconi: "Oh it's nothing. Just give me a moment to catch my breath ... okay?"

Honeyberry: "Okay!"

Marconi: "So, we're on a platform that's maybe 5 meters across ... and there's another one maybe 20 meters away. There used to be a walkway between them but it's long gone now. Looks like this is a dead end."

Scoobie calls from across the pipe bridge

Honeyberry: "But Scoobie says there IS a way!"

Marconi groans and sits up, shaking his dizzy head

Marconi: "Yeah, there's a rusty pipe, but that would be way too dangerous for you."

Honeyberry (angry): "Markie, what the hell, if you give me descriptions of places, you can't just randomly leave things out because you think they are not [EMOJI_AIRQUOTES] for me [EMOJI_AIRQUOTES]."

Scoobie: "*affirmative Scoobie noises*"

Marconi rolls his eyes and grrrrrrrroans

Marconi: "All right. Fine. But I'll go first."

Marconi stands up, and sways a little, feeling all sick and dizzy

Marconi holds on to the truss above his head, and coughs and retches as a wave of nausea sweeps through him

Marconi (suppressing the urge to throw up): "Damn ... *hurgh*"

Honeyberry: "What?"

Marconi: "I'm fine! Hang in there, Scoobie, we're coming!"

Marconi takes a few wobbly steps on the very beginning of the pipe, then stops

Marconi tries to balance himself, flailing his arms, almost falling off

Marconi holds on to a broken piece of metal hanging above him

SND-3301 - Metal Crunch

The piece of metal breaks off, and ALMOST takes Marconi with it

SND-3302 - Metal Impact

Marconi balances on one foot for a short moment, then rushes back onto the platform for safety, sitting down.

Marconi: "Fuuuuuck ... fuck ... fuck ..."

Marconi holds on to the safe part of the truss above

Honeyberry: "What are you doing?"

Marconi: "It's a very slippery pipe, and it goes down a really long way!"

Honeyberry: "Are you saying Sir Knight In Shining Armor is chickening out?"

Marconi: "Well, why don't you give it a try then, Princess Responsible? Maybe it's less scary if you can't see it."

Honeyberry: "Hah!"

Honeyberry squeezes past Marconi, and begins to confidently balance along the pipe.

Scoobie gives directions from the other side

Bonechiller_larva_1, Bonechiller_larva_2 appear on the front playrail, crawling towards the place below Honeyberry

SND-3303 - Bonechiller larvae noises

Honeyberry: "Wait ... what's that noise? Are those ... Bonechillers?"

Honeyberry suddenly gets a panic attack, shaking, not being able to move any further

Marconi: "Looks like it. But they're really small and all the way at the bottom."

Honeyberry (shaking): "How the hell did THEY get in here?

Marconi: "Just keep going! They can't hurt you!"

Honeyberry (shaking): "Nope ... nopenopenope ... NOPE! AAAAARGH!"

Honeyberry rushes back to the platform and sits down next to Marconi

Marconi rushes towards her, catching her

Honeyberry squeezes Marconi so hard that you can hear ribs crack

Honeyberry: "By the holy mountain, this is so embarrassing ..."

Marconi: "And here I thought that nothing scares you."

Honeyberry: "Oh, I'm just really good at hiding it. You wouldn't believe the shit I'm afraid of basically all the time. Sometimes I'm afraid when I'm just walking. I mean, I could walk into a hole. And I'm so freaked out by the snow, believe it or not. If there's a lot of snow, I'm completely lost. And then I'm afraid of what I might touch. One time I was outside and I touched some Pigrat poop all of a sudden and ..."

Marconi: "Honey! It's alright! You don't have to be ashamed!"

Honeyberry: "Sorry, but you're always so strong, and so smart and you always know what to do next, and ... "

Marconi: "Honey, I also got a confession to make. I'm really, really sick right now. Even without trying to balance over a pit of Bonechillers, I'm feeling so dizzy I can barely stand. Every step is a struggle. My skin feels like it's on fire, and part of my fur is falling out. It's really bad."

Honeyberry reaches out for Marconi, and a hand full of fur pulls right out.

Honeyberry: "Oh no ..."

Marconi: "Let's stop trying to impress each other. We all have our weaknesses."

Honeyberry: "But we also have our strengths. Maybe we can do it together! I can help you keep your balance. And you can keep an eye on the Bonechillers in return. How does that sound?"

Marconi: "Let's do it."

Honeyberry (taking a deep breath): "Okay. Here goes nothing. Take my paw."

Honeyberry and Marconi slowly begin to balance across the pipe bridge, sometimes losing balance, regaining balance, etc.

SND-3304 - More Bonechiller larvae noises

Bonechiller_larva_1, Bonechiller_larva_2 are VERY interested in what's going on upstairs, following the two along

BigMama suddenly shows up, swooping up in an arch from the deep, and disappearing again - like a whale jumping or a sea serpent

SND-3305 - Big mama appears

Marconi: "Fuck! It's Big Mama!"

Honeyberry: "Aaaaaah!"

BigMama appears from below, shooting straight upwards, sinking her teeth into the pipe bridge, shaking it

SND-3306 - Big mama bites and shakes!
SND-3305 STOP

The pipe bridge shakes, and eventually breaks, tilting downwards on the side they came from [7]

SND-3307 - The Pipe breaks
SND-3306 STOP

Marconi slips off the pipe bridge, and dangles underneath it, only holding on with one paw

Honeyberry drops to all fours, hugging the pipe bridge

Scoobie runs over to Big Mama's head (just running all over everyone in the way) and pummels, bites, hits, and hurts it as much as she can

Honeyberry: "Markie!"

Marconi: "Aaaaargh!"

Honeyberry: "Where are you?"

Honeyberry feels around with her paws around the pipe to find Marconi

Marconi: "Down here ... can't ... hold on ... much longer ..."

Bonechiller_larva_1, Bonechiller_larva_2 are jumping up trying to bite Marconi, who tries to kick at them as good as he can

Honeyberry gets hold of Marconi (neck bite)

Honeyberry (muffled): "I got you!"

Honeyberry puts in an enormous effort, and eventually Marconi is up on the pipe again

Honeyberry lifts up Marconi, and carries him the rest of the way along the pipe bridge, then collapses on the other platform with him.

Scoobie picks up a comically large piece of debris and keeps smashing Big Mama's head with it until ...

RATS-3 - Punch

BigMama decides it's better to retreat

SND-3308 - Big mama Retreats
SND-3307 STOP

Marconi: "Well, you can't tell me you're not strong enough anymore!"

Honeyberry: "Shut the fuck up."

Marconi forces himself up, and pushes a barrel of radioactive waste over the edge

SND-3309 - Waste Barrel Empties
SND-3310 - Hungry Bonechiller Larvae

The barrel falls down and emits a bunch of glowing slime onto the playrail.

Bonechiller_larva_1, Bonechiller_larva_2 go "OH FOOD!" and are now exclusively interested in the glowing slime, no longer being a threat

Marconi and Honeyberry sit down next to each other, legs dangling from the platform, arm in arm

Marconi: "I think we're safe for now."

Honeyberry: "Thank you."

Marconi: "No, thank YOU!"

Honeyberry: "No, YOU!"

Marconi: "No, YOU!"

Honeyberry: "No, YOU!"

Honeyberry puts a paw in front of his mouth

Marconi: "No, HMPG!"

Honeyberry: "We gotta keep moving. Think you can?"

Marconi: "At least I'll try. I wish I knew what's wrong with me."

Honeyberry: "Don't worry, we'll figure it out, I promise. Come on, we can't be far from the radio room."

Marconi: "I love your optimism."

Honeyberry stands up, then helps Marconi up.

Honeyberry leaves towards [1]

Marconi leaves towards [1]

AMB-3301 FADE
SND-3310 FADE

Lights out

Curtain - close