Following the leak
Ink and Rot are RATMARK’s investigators and comic mascots. They follow signs of Everrain leaking into ordinary life: a recovered notebook, an abandoned place, a witness with an account that does not quite fit. They interview, compare evidence, get lost, argue, and occasionally have to leave in a hurry. Their access is not the same as understanding. Neither controls Everrain, and neither has a complete explanation waiting off-camera.
Ink wants to establish what happened before touching anything. Rot wants to know what happens if he touches it. That difference gets them into trouble, but it also gets them somewhere: Rot opens possibilities that Ink would approach more cautiously; Ink gives an impulsive discovery enough structure to become evidence. They need one another.
Back at the room
The investigation room has pinned maps, an evidence wall, objects on shelves, CRT screens, cassette players, mugs, and wet jackets waiting to dry. Work continues there through listening, labeling, sketching, and comparing accounts. A recording can be replayed; a witness cannot always be found a second time.
The job leaves room for cooking, games, cleaning gear, choosing coffee, and getting lost on the drive. Rot is interested in snacks. Ink labels things and carries spare batteries. Rot forgets batteries and misreads warnings. Their friendship survives in those small routines as much as in the cases. A strange object still has to be carried home, and somebody still has to clear a space for it.
