Rat Whispers

Rat Whispers is a passive supernatural ability in Death of the Outsider. Granted to Billie Lurk by a talisman from Deirdre, it allows her to overhear the conversations of rats whispered in Deirdre's voice, picking up valuable information. Unlike Billie's other abilities, Rat Whispers is not related to the Black Shard Arm, Sliver of the Eye or the Twin-bladed Knife, allowing her to use it during the mission One Last Fight.
==Usage tips==
*Listening to rats can give important mission information as well as general thoughts from the rats.
*In any group of rats, only the first whisper is relevant to the mission. Everything after that, and in most cases the first as well, is irrelevant to Billie's missions.
*The talisman does not work when rats are running from place to place.
*As rats have a very different perspective on the world, the whispers can be hard to decipher. However, all relevant information gleaned from rats gives a mission clue.
==Mission Clues==
Name 	Description 	Quote 	Location of Rats
A Hole in the Ceiling 	You overheard the rats talking about an unconventional route to the second floor at the Albarca Baths, directly above the locker room. 	"Climb the small way, dark way, hidden high in the walls. Secret rooms high up. Hounds hunger there. They feast on men." 	In the lobby of the Albarca Baths in One Last Fight.
Wolfhounds Ahead 	A swarm of rats you crossed paths with mentioned there being wolfhounds in the passageway up ahead. 	"Hounds in the long halls. Smart noses see us. Cruel teeth catch us. Screams! Biting and bright blood. They gnaw our bones." 	Next to the furnaces on the second floor of Albarca Baths, during the mission One Last Fight.
Bloodflies in the Basement	The rats in the street can smell fresh meat in a nearby basement. Someone may be in danger, but there are bloodflies there also. 	"Delicious flesh! Fresh, sweet. Wet with hot blood. We scent it from the street. Want it. But black wings, stings. Bloodflies buzz. Not safe, not safe! We starve." 	In front of Brozenar Taxidermy in Follow the Ink.
Black Market Passageway 	You heard a swarm of rats discussing a secret passageway into the Black Market. 	"Gnaw, gnaw. Set teeth to hard wood, soft plaster, stone. Past it, a path. Rooms of delicious sea-scent, fish flesh. A feast for us! Soon, soon. First, we gnaw." 	Inside the Black Market in Follow the Ink.
A Single Bonecharm 	The rats have spotted a powerful bonecharm nearby. It's hidden under a wooden crate, somewhere in the streets of Upper Cyria. 	"Bones burn under wooden dome. No one sees them. Feet pass over on the street, stones press down. Bone hisses, hisses alone." 	Near Billie's skiff in The Bank Job.
Corpse by the Cliffs 	A swarm of rats in the Upper Cyria district has noticed a broken body on the rocks. A citizen may have fallen to his death by the cliffside. 	"Sharp blood. Fear, falling. Bones broke on rocks. Not us, not us, find the small places, slip down cliffside to nibble at fingers clutching shining bone below." 	At the cliff near the painter's lift during the mission The Bank Job.
Black Market Nearby 	The rat whispers taught you that a Black Market was recently opened in an abandoned apartment nearby. 	"Coin clinks together there now. Filled with funny things: wire, metal, bright oil tasting like the sea. We slip in and out the old way, pressed close to wood and stone." 	In the apartment with a wooden walkway leading into the Conservatory, accessible through its balcony, during the mission The Stolen Archive.
The Witch is Dead 	According to a swarm of rats, there are witches being tortured with agonizing music at the Royal Conservatory. One of them died while trying to escape. 	"They drive women from nests and put them in cages. Sharp songs dig deep between their ears. It hurts us, we flee. One ran, her blood is all sadness and fear." 	In the basement of the Conservatory, during the mission The Stolen Archive.
Ongoings at the Oraculum 	A party of Sisters has gone to investigate the Oraculum at the Royal Conservatory. It is rumored that mutterings and echoes of divinatory thoughts can still be heard coming from it.	"Dry flesh, dry tongues. Low noise over bones and teeth. Scent of death and waiting. Noises, noise-the live ones listened and changed the sounds. Now they close their mouths and eyes."	In the same room as the Oraculum in The Stolen Archive mission.
Turned to Stone 	The rats at Shindaerey North Quarry have noticed certain cultists transforming from flesh and blood into unearthly stone beings. 	"Soft flesh for biting, then cold stone, hard! Tastes bad. Breaks teeth. Have no blood in them anymore. Now they are always." 	Various locations in the A Hole in the World mission. The quote is repeated by other groups of rats even after the mission clue is acquired.
Window to the Void 	You stumbled upon a swarm of rats, whose whispers alluded to a "huge eye" that acts as a window into the Void. 	"Run and hide, find the small places. Still the huge eye sees! The huge eye sees. Drags us to the dark places, drags us to the cold. Everything stone, everything old." 	Various locations in the A Hole in the World mission. The quote is repeated by other groups of rats even after the mission clue is acquired.
==Quotes==
===General===
*"The friend listens. The friend hears us. One of us. One of us! But ugly... And big... Still friend." (This is always the quote Billie gets from her first interaction with the rats in Acantila Repair Station at the beginning of the game.)
*"Little one in the mud, wails for the one who left it! But smells of fat milk, smells of longing and fear. Not ripe! But soon..."
*"Tried to hit us, tried to burns us out. Swarm up, crawl up legs, bite at soft flesh, bite at eye and hand and heart."
*"Steel box traps us. Metal walls hurt teeth. Can't gnaw free. Coin, jewels, ink and paper. Useless for food. We grow weak."
*"Bite at soft flesh left in streets. Bite at eyes and tongues, delicious food. Leave them in gutters for us to eat."
*"Blood tasted sharp. Tasted bitter. Scent of empty bottle rolling in street. Numbness and blindness. Poisoned food!"
*"Bright fire lights the sky. Smoke in coughing clouds. High houses crumble, spark and flame. She watches, screams alarm with others. Hides tinder in her fist."
*"Follow the smell of milk. Fat, grassy, soft in the mouth. Tastes of happiness."
*"Bright eyes, sleek fur. Whiskers twitch. Scent of wanting. Bite neck, pin body. Fur is soft, soft and hot."
*"Long teeth, long claws! Hounds sniff us out and swallow us alive."
*"Deep in sewers. Flesh on skewers, over flames. Snatch, run! Scurry, scurry! Hot fat melts, sweet guilt on tongue. One of us. One of us."
*"They stick us with long pins and burn our flesh. Teeth crunching bones, eat us whole!"
*"Witches chase us. Clever fingers grasp, claw, clasp. Bind books with our skins."
*"Traps in low places, metal teeth clamping down on tails and toes. Leave us to starve! Break our bones!"
*"Follow bloodflies, watch for smell of nests, papery and full of grubs. Spear us with their mouths if they catch us there! But delicious grubs..."
*"Salt drips down wires, chew the metal. Burns us, fire from inside. Scent of heat and death. Dangerous food."
*"Make nests in the walls, pink babies crying for food. Little ones, little ones, we will bring flesh for you."
*"Old ones spoke of old days. Bad days. Sick. Madness in our mouths. Death in our minds. Armies of us in streets. In sewers. All feared us. Bite! Bite! Bite! Bite!"
*"Careful, careful! Old ones warned us. Never let tails twist together. Twining, tying. Trapped together! Dying."
*"Metal man, knife hands. Steel feet stomp metal floor. Careful! It starts hunts. Never stops."
*"Papers and ink, bitter ink. Dead thoughts, dead flesh. Dry and cracked and withering. Bite at the binding. Make ink spill out. Ruinous food."
*"Hush. Listen! Humming from the floor. Danger? Wary steps on wires. Shock! Twists us, fires in our minds. Burns!"
*"Bodies hidden in dirt, under marked white stone, rotting alone. Bodies unearthed, flesh in clean sunshine. Left for us. Sweet taste of decay."
*"Flee small places when the water comes, flee the low places.Drip, drip, drip, fills up street, makes us climb up to new danger."
*"Threw fire at us to keep us away, but burned herself. All alight! Tough flesh, tough burning flesh."
*"Bite down to the bone. Gnaw and gnash. Eat it all up, yes. Eat it all up."
*"Licking blood from dead man's fingers. Tastes of terror. Of tears. Of treason. She cut him up for us to hide in our bellies."
*"He brought us food, delicious food. Soft, good flesh. Blood like trust. Blood like betrayal. She never knew."
*"Slick shining oil from the sea-smell whales, blood deep and heavy, tastes like emptiness. Tastes like alone."
*"Breathing and baying. Scent of blood, blood from us. Dripping jaws close. Closer… Scared. Scatter!"
*"Gnaw at swollen stomachs, watch it spill out, delicious blood, delicious insides! Eat liver first… Best flesh."
*"No food, no flesh, no grain to gnaw. Her pink babies wail. Writhe in the nest. Hungry cries, hollow bellies. She eats them for silence."
*"Old ones told of him. Little man, chittering like us. One of us. First one. Only one."
*"Scurry, scurry, in a hurry."
*"Garbage, garbage, garbage."
*"Smell that?"
===Acantila Repair Station===
*"She fed us in lean times. Tossed us grains and crumbs. Loud voices came, metal flashed. Warm blood in floods on the floor. Our first feast. We lap her up."
*"Follow the sea scent. Climb ropes up, up. Hide inside dark boat belly. Wood rocks, water flows. Salt taste on fur. New homes for us."
*"Teeth in the water. Hagfish bite as we swim. Careful, careful. Watch for fins. Watch for the black biting mouths."
===Northern Campo Seta===
*"He sneaks along in the dark. Reeks of drink, dark blood, our screaming kin. Hunts us. His knife is fast."
*"We smell them from here. Sour with fear. They carry scratched bones, carved wood. Blood and soft feather. No use. Death still finds them."
*"He was like us. Creeping to his nest. Sleeping safe under earth and stone, ripe with rot and piss. Men came hush, hush. Silver knives, bindings. Trapped! His nest lies empty now." (This can only be heard from rats found in the hovel next to Albarca Baths, referring to the beggar who was kidnapped by the Eyeless and used to train their hounds)
*"Shiny bottles. Rows and rows. Glass graves for us. Drowned eyes stare down. Sire, sister, child. Last ones, loved ones, linger with us. Still the knife thirsts…"
===Upper Cyria District===
*"Warm blood, easy blood. Draining from flesh. Drip, drip, drip into tubes. Flowing, him to her. Wait, wait. Drag the empty dead away. We swarm. Sweet blood warms our bellies." (referring to sanguine transfusion, a ritual practiced by the Eyeless)
*"He sells pills, oil in vials. Tries on us. Dark dreams from bitter pills. Sweet oil kills."'"
*"Boots stomp the streets. Hounds, long knives, danger. Hide safe in the dirt till they pass."
*"He's here again. Ratatat on the rotten floor. Tap tap on the wallpaper. Dry bones hissing in the walls, burning bones hidden. He never finds them."
*"Noises in that house, hear it through the floor. Wires pulled taut. Plink, plonk, plink... Can't hear our song, can't hear our music." (This can only be heard from rats in front of Shan Yun's house)
===Cyria Gardens===
*"Men with metal faces send hounds, yes. Watch for wet smell, watch for smell of fat and blood and burning."
*"Snatch scattered papers, take tatters to nest. Scent of candles, spice, quiet. Old books make best beds."
*"High places, wide places, dangers! Too big, not safe. Low places, dark places, where water runs and dirt low on your back."
===Shindaerey North Quarry===
*"Burrowed here, but not always. Some days stone, some days iron. Shiver, then still. Air tastes like blood, then nothing but dust."
*"She smells like old fears. Old sadness. She should just eat him, we think. Easier."
==Trivia==
*Rat Whispers is voiced by Emily O'Brien.
*The Rat Whispers talisman is not directly linked to any Void ability. It's theoretically possible that any person with this talisman would be able to listen to rats, not just Billie.
**Deidre stole the talisman from someone before giving it to Billie. It is possible that the previous owner used it in the same way.
*The achievement Rat Whisperer is obtained by listening to rats five times.
*Harming or scaring rats when they are talking through Rat Whispers will make them scream.
*According to the Dishonored Roleplaying Game, a stronger version of this power, called Beast Whispers, exists. This power allows users to communicate with not only rats but also bloodflies and other vermins.Dishonored Roleplaying Game, p. 111
*Sometimes the rats may recall the Rat Plague"Old ones spoke of old days. Bad days. Sick. Madness in our mouths. Death in our minds. Armies of us in streets. In sewers. All feared us. Bite! Bite! Bite! Bite!" in Dunwall and Granny Rags"Garbage, garbage, garbage.".
*Granny Rags possesses this power.Dishonored Roleplaying Game, p. 277
==Gallery==
RatWhispersActive.png|A group of rats being overheard by Billie.
PowersTabTalisman.png|The talisman that grants this ability.
Tutorial ratwhisper.png|Depiction of the rat charm in the tutorial.
Rat Whisperer.png|The icon for the achievement Rat Whisperer.
Rat charm render 2.jpg|Render of the rat charm.
Rat charm render 1.jpg|Render of the rat charm.
==References==
ru:Шёпот крыс
zh:鼠群低语
Category:Supernatural
Category:Abilities
Category:Death of the Outsider