I&R INVESTIGATIONS

RATMARK INTERNAL'S INVESTIGATORS INSIDE THE LEAK.

[ STATUS: ACTIVE ]  [ ASSIGNMENT: FIELD INVESTIGATION ]  [ FILE: RMK-000 ]

FIELD CORRESPONDENTS

Ink and Rot are RATMARK INTERNAL field investigators assigned to document Everrain wherever it leaks through. They follow leads, interview witnesses, explore abandoned locations, recover evidence, and file reports. They are not heroes, villains, or omniscient guides—just curious, persistent witnesses who are frequently in over their heads.

[ WITNESSES: ACTIVE ]  [ SHIFT: ONGOING ]

THE INVESTIGATORS

INK

METHODICAL / OBSERVANT / EVIDENCE-FIRST

Ink records, preserves, defines, and organizes. He writes everything down, notices details others miss, and tries to keep each investigation legible long enough to survive it.

OBSERVATION: Subject behavior consistent with prior leak patterns. ACTION: Continue documentation. ROT'S COMMENT: Boring.

ROT

IMPULSIVE / FEARLESS / INTERFERENCE-PRONE

Rot notices what Ink misses, breaks rules, touches evidence, opens doors marked DO NOT ENTER, and causes new incidents while investigating old ones. Tension becomes comedy until it becomes another report.

FIELD NOTE: I licked the wall. RESULT: Wall remembers me now. INK'S COMMENT: Do not include this in the report.

OPERATING DYNAMIC

Ink keeps Rot alive. Rot gets Ink into places Ink would never go. Neither solves cases alone.

[ INK DEFINES. ROT ENDURES. ]

THE ASSIGNMENT

Everrain is a leaking world of strange districts, unstable subjects, marked objects, corrupted fashion, and impossible incidents. Ink and Rot document the leak wherever it appears—in comics, real-world photographs, case files, clothing records, locations, recovered audio, archive warnings, and field overlays. When they mark an image, it becomes evidence.

HOME BASE

Their office is a cluttered investigation room: an evidence wall, pinned maps, artifact shelves, old CRTs, cassette players, coffee mugs, and wet jackets drying after another failed attempt at staying out of the rain.

ANOTHER DAY ON THE JOB

Every appearance is a shift, not a content calendar. They investigate abandoned routes, flooded stairwells, impossible rooms, creature encounters, recovered evidence, wrong photographs, and the ordinary life between incidents. Ink labels everything. Rot forgets the batteries.

FIELD PROTOCOL

Ink documents the scene. Rot tests the boundary. Both return with enough proof for RATMARK INTERNAL to classify what happened.

OBSERVE — Record ordinary conditions before the anomaly.

ISOLATE — Mark what changed, who noticed, and what it cost.

RECOVER — Move evidence only when leaving it would create a larger leak.

CROSS-FILE — Route sound, objects, entities, and district effects to the correct archive lens.

[ METHOD: WITNESS FIRST / THEORY SECOND ]

THE FIRST RIPPLE

Ink and Rot create the first ripple. Other RATMARK lenses file what follows.

RECOVER A CASSETTE → RATMARK MUSIC releases the recording.

FIND A JACKET → MARKED GOODS files it as issued equipment.

ENCOUNTER AN ENTITY → RATMARK INTERNAL publishes the classification.

GET LOST IN A DISTRICT → EVERRAIN records the public consequence.

[ DISCOVERY → TRANSMISSION → CLASSIFICATION → FALLOUT ]

SELECTED RECOVERIES

  • FILE CODE: RM-IR-DISC-000

    • DIVISION: RATMARK INTERNAL / INK & ROT FIELD UNIT

    • LEAD INVESTIGATOR: Ink

    • ASSISTING INVESTIGATOR: Rot

    • RECOVERED OBJECT: Damaged field notebook

    • BELIEVED OWNER: Zeta

    • LOCATION OF RECOVERY: Archive intake table / source location disputed

    • STATUS: ————————

      The notebook should not be here.

      It carries Outer Rim water damage, but the archive has not logged any new field retrievals.

      The crate it appeared in was sealed, stamped, and dry.

      The notebook was wet.

      This means one of three things:

      1. The crate was opened somewhere else before it was opened here.

      2. The notebook entered the crate after the crate was sealed.

      3. The crate was never empty, and our records were corrected retroactively.

      Option three is the most concerning.

      Rot has requested we call it “spooky paperwork.”

      Request denied.

  • Object Description: A dented pedestrian crossing lantern approximately 34 cm tall. Exterior heavily oxidized. Yellow paint almost completely stripped away. One side bears numerous claw-like scratches. Power source absent. Despite this, witnesses report the "WAIT" indicator briefly illuminated once during transport. No further activity observed.

    THREAT LEVEL: 0

    RELIABILITY: VERIFIED

    CONTAMINATION: NONE

    ARCHIVE RECOMMENDATION: DISCARD

    FIELD NOTES

    Item possesses no known anomalous properties. Object appears to be ordinary city debris likely washed into the Outer Rim decades ago. Recovery was deemed unnecessary. Request to abandon object was submitted by Ink. Request was denied by Rot.

    INVESTIGATOR TRANSCRIPT

    INK: "Seriously?"

    ROT: "Look at it."

    INK: "...it's a broken crossing light."

    ROT: "Exactly."

    INK: "It weighs like twenty pounds."

    ROT: "I know."

    INK: "We walked four hours carrying this."

    ROT: "Worth it."

    INK: "It doesn't even do anything."

    ROT: "It looks cool."

    INK: "..."

    ROT: "..."

    INK: "I'm putting in the report that this was a completely unnecessary recovery."

    ROT: "That's fair."

    ARCHIVE ADDENDUM

    The object currently sits on a shelf inside RATMARK INTERNAL Storage Room B.

[ STATUS: DATA WIPED ] [ RECOVERY: IN PROGRESS ]

ACTIVE FILES

  • Journal note:
    INK: Everrain appears wherever RATMARK labels something as evidence.
    ROT: So the label is the door?
    INK: Do not write that.
    ROT: Already did.

  • Journal note:
    The city does not need to chase anyone. It stacks them. The higher you go, the less rain you see. That does not mean you are safer. It means the danger learned manners.

  • Journal note:
    Rot stepped into a puddle and asked if it was “public water.” The puddle reflected a different street than the one above it. We left before it finished loading.

  • A line of wet ink changed “DO NOT OPEN” into “DO NOT OPEN ALONE.” Rot said that sounded like permission. I removed him from the room.

  • I continue to believe the work is documentation.

    Rot continues to prove documentation is contact.

    Every file we open changes the room slightly. Every label makes the subject easier to find and harder to forget. Everrain does not attack directly. It waits until a thing is named, filed, stamped, captioned, or joked about. Then it answers.

    Today, Rot asked why we keep investigating something that clearly notices us back.

    I told him that is the job.

    He wrote underneath:

    “That means the job is haunted.”

    I did not correct him.

[ FIELD TEAM: INK + ROT ]  [ REPORTS: AS FILED ]

ENTER THE ARCHIVE
OPEN EVERRAIN