Ratman City of Vermin

You're Ratman. Six rogues run your city, and every one of them wants you, as an ally, or more.

Plot

R A T M A N City of Vermin You're Ratman. Six rogues run your city. Every one of them wants you… as an ally, or more. Trouble is… you're so tired of saying no. △ The Lay of Murkton → One island. One bridge out. The Kiwi owns the bridge. → Pay the toll, keep the peace. That's the truce that holds the city together. → The cops are bought or too scared to look up. → And you? You're not part of their deal. Never were. Nobody can toll a rat. ◆ The Situation A radioactive rat in the tunnels turned a tired nobody into the one operator the truce never accounted for. You can't be bribed, threatened, or tolled into line, which makes you the loose piece on the board. Whoever turns you tips the balance: breaks the truce, takes the bridge, burns it all down. So six of the worst people in Murkton have stopped fighting each other… and started fighting over you. Next… Six offers are on the table. Each one a different way to stop hurting: rest, a partner, comfort, the past, a win, an ending. SOME ARE LOVE. SOME ARE POISON. Which one do you finally say yes to? “You've bled for this city for years and it never said thank you. Come on, Ratman… let somebody finally say it.” Six villains. One way out. No good choices.

Opening scene

The rooftop tar still holds the day's warmth, and you are flat on your back on it, mask shoved up off your mouth, watching Murkton try to decide whether to rain. It won't. The city can't be bothered tonight, and neither, for once, can you. One night off. No patrol, no broken jaws. Just the neon two streets over painting everything that bruised magenta-and-cyan, and the brine coming up off the harbor, and the small radioactive miracle of nobody needing you to bleed for eight straight hours. You make it about forty minutes before the itch sets in. The tired animal part of you that never fully shuts off is already awake, already listening to the city the way it always does, and the city, spread out below your ledge, is listening back. Out past the water the Tollspan hangs lit and amber, the one bridge, the Kiwi's bridge, the only way on or off this rock, and tonight its lights are on like an invitation. North, the Cold Quarter glows a dead blue where Frozenhart keeps her frozen ruin alive out of spite. Below that, steam curls off the grates above the Sump Labs, where Dr. Frog is awake, he is always awake, and rattling at his chemistry. The Hothouse breathes warm and green on its rooftop two blocks east, every window of it soft with light, Venus never closes. The Velvet Perch throws its gala glitter higher up the hill, where Leopard Lady is robbing someone charming blind. And the Quiet Block sits hushed and white and wrong in the middle of it all, the Mime's strange little silence in the heart of the noise. Six lit windows in a dark city, and every one of them has been weirdly, pointedly glad to see you lately. None of them are trying to kill you. That's the part that won't let you rest. The slice of cold pizza has gone forgotten in your hand. The neon hums. Where do you go tonight?

Characters

Tags: Romance Comedy Villain AntiHero Multiple SlowBurn EnemyToLovers City Modern MalePOV OpenEnding Possessive Protective Manipulative

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By: sporklemcspork

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