singillatim | #LoveWins

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#LoveWins

Who: Cornelius Hickey & OPEN
What: hey. hey guess who's married. guess. take a guess. bet you can't guess, OKAY it's Hickey
When: early October, post Forest Talker attack
Where: Milton

Content Warnings: as always, the possibility of canon-typical Terror warnings (mentions of gore, cannibalism, period-typical homophobia, murder, all of Hickey's crimes. etc.). Will mention in the thread if they occur.

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Hickey's basically married now!

Yeah, sure he's considered himself basically married ever since Billy arrived here. They're living together, after all, and as long as Hickey's got Billy, he hasn't really felt any lust or desires towards any other people (except Crozier) (that's different). And he does love Billy. At least, he's pretty sure he does. Love's a weird feeling and it's something that Hickey has never really been able to put a name to or identify in himself, so yeah, it might as well be love! And Billy's been wearing the ring that Hickey gave him. And they've both been upfront about it with each other, to the point where Billy said that he and Hickey were together during that awful town meeting.

So yeah, they've been basically married already. But Billy gave him a ring (looted off some corpse, not entirely romantic but something the ever-practical Hickey approves of), so now they're officially married! What do you mean most marriages involve a priest or signing a contract in front of the law, they don't have either of those here! This is as official as it's going to get!

So naturally, Hickey's going to gloat.

He goes about his day to day life in Milton. He'll check out the notice board, he'll rummage through what abandoned buildings he hasn't yet rummaged through, he'll go on a little walk. But every time he spots someone, he adjusts his hair, brushing it behind his ear. And then brushing it behind his ear again. And then he'll lightly scratch his neck. Or he'll wave them over. And hey, just ignore the fact that all of Hickey's obvious stupid little tells are with his left hand and just ignore the fact that all of his obvious stupid little tells are blatantly him just showing off that ring finger. With a ring on it.

Hey did he mention he's married???

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There was a larger part of Rorschach than he wanted to admit who was petty enough to take delight in causing Hickey exasperation. He was smirking behind the mask, the black dots clustering around his mouth area and remaining there as he continued to speak with his mental voice.

"I'll never die. Too stubborn. And there's nothing here tough enough to keep me down for long. Must be the same reason you're still around. You're like a cockroach in human form." He shifted from a crouching to a sitting position, keeping his legs bent up at the knee towards his body rather than dangling over the edge. "But who knows? Maybe I'll find a can of bug spray big enough for you yet."

Hickey's still frowning, looking over Rorschach, as he asks, "Who's feeding you? Doubt you're comfortable enough to go out in the woods and kill your own dinner. So who's doing it? Nazarova? Kate? We've got plenty of people here who'll help out the hopeless cases."

Hickey gestures vaguely at Rorschach, telling him straight up that he feels he's a hopeless case.

"That's none of your business," Rorschach said coolly, not at all bothered by being called a hopeless case. He knew he was no good at being an actual human being most days. Even if he was on good terms with Hickey, the less people knew about him on a personal level, the better. He tried to keep everyone in town at arm's length, though after a year there were now definitely those who were closer to being something like friends to him than he ever would have liked.

"I'm surprised they still let you and your--" There was a deliberate pause as if Rorschach was swallowing his distaste for the word. "--husband stay in town. You cause trouble. If it was up to me, I would have had you driven in the forest with the other animals where you belong."

As far as Hickey's concerned, that non-answer is totally an answer. Someone is helping him take care of himself. Someone is looking out for Rorschach. Who, he's still not sure, but he'll find out in the end. He's good at rooting out the truth and this? It's something he can do.

Besides, if he keeps talking to Rorschach, he can keep saying the phrase 'my husband' and make the man feel aggressively uncomfortable. Win for Hickey!

"If you've got a scenario where people can vote on it, you need to abide by the results. My husband and I are only following the decisions of the whole. You can't blame a man for sticking with the law and order of it all."

Rorschach heard what Hickey had to say and it produced the most unlikely reaction it could have in Rorschach. He started laughing, a harsh sound even if it was full of amusement. It was a quiet, brief sound that stopped almost as soon as it had started but laughter nonetheless. He hadn't laughed in months, not since the last time Kate had managed to get him to.

He looked down at Hickey with contempt. "You think someone like me abides by the rules society sets down? I became the way I am--" And there he gestured to his face. "--because I saw law and order doesn't mean shit when good men do nothing while the bad ones are left to still breathe air. Places like this fester and rot like a limb full of gangrene when people try and use the same rules normal civilization does. I don't follow the rules everyone else here does and don't plan to anytime soon. You just watch yourself." It was a warning. Billy wasn't around all the time to protect his husband by setting his attackers on fire and Rorschach knew for a fact he could take Hickey out if he really needed to.

When Hickey speaks, he speaks with a deliberateness. Yeah, he let Rorschach get all that out. He let him say his fun little speech. But Hickey is certain he knows what that man is.

"You became the way you were because you're a stubborn little freak. You were like this back home, yeah? Applying your useless brand of justice, only surviving off of the kindness of what few friends you've got and what you can steal. Can you even start a fire? Plan on running to Goodsir the next time someone hurts you because you can't patch yourself up?"

Hickey shakes his head as he points out, "Mate, I don't need to watch out for you. Give it six months and you'll end up dead in a ditch."

Rorschach was thankful it was impossible to know what he was thinking by virtue of anyone being unable to see the expressions on his face because Hickey's words hit home. It hurt because that was sometimes how he felt, someone who was only able to survive with the help of others, that he was too weak to be on his own. After all, he had run to Goodsir a number of times when he'd gotten hurt, being reckless in the way he'd handled himself in a number of situations.

But then Rorschach got angry and his mood suddenly turned nasty. If Hickey wanted to get under his skin, he'd give it back as good as he got. He laughed again and this time it was a grating sound like sandpaper running over a rough panel of wood. It was a cruel and disconcerting sound to hear. Rorschach leaned a little over the edge of the roof and his mental voice snapped out as if it had teeth seeking flesh to bite.

"Ever heard we hate the things in others that remind us most of ourselves? Because Hickey, you're looking into a mirror. Billy is clearly the one in your relationship with the brain and also the man. Everyone would be better off without you because you already know you can't stand on your own two feet like a real man would be capable of. Just another housewife waiting for her husband to tell her what to do. You're a lazy waste of space, a sponge and a leech sucking everyone around you dry including your husband. But you're also too weak to even try to be different, a coward willing to hide behind everyone else's skirts but never try anything himself. If there was any justice in the world, you would have been hanged a long time ago, but since there's not maybe the Darkwalker will catch up with you eventually instead. Billy will be better off without you."

Internally, Hickey's bristling at his words. But there's something about what Rorschach says that catches his attention. Billy has the brains. Billy can do better. This could be just Rorschach trying to get under his skin, using whatever words and whatever ammunition he has at his disposal. But why bring up Billy like that? There's plenty of other things he could use to attack Hickey.

So Hickey pushes down his ever growing anger (even though he really wants to stab that asshole and watch him bleed, it would benefit him to be the wounded party here) as he instead just points out,

"You keep mentioning Billy. Even if we weren't together, you'd never have a chance with him. Billy prefers people who bathe. Who keep clean. When's the last time you washed that mask of yours, hmm?"

He could tell what he'd said had stung Hickey. The part of him which could often be petty and mean was glad to see it after the way Hickey had been trying to get at him with the truth.

Rorschach let out a contemptuous snort when Hickey made a guess, trying to get under his skin from a new angle that definitely wasn't going to work. Behind the mask, he rolled his eyes. "Grow up. I have as much interest in your husband as I do a rock on the ground."

That, at least, was the truth. Had Hickey mentioned the name of some other men in town like Jopson or one of the vampires, well, maybe then he might have had a better chance at getting an actual reaction from Rorschach. There was a good reason he kept his private life under lock and key. He never discussed anything he truly felt inside his heart, fractured and battered as the damaged thing already was.

"Then why do you keep mentioning him?" Hickey idly muses, with a little shrug in his voice and a smirk of a smile on his face.

"Makes a man start to wonder, you know?"

"Wonder all you want. You're like an idiot child, thinking everything comes back to sex simply because that's the way your own perverted mind works." Rorschach, at least, had a mind that flinched away from any mention of sexuality due to his own hang-ups. Anyone who did less than that was lesser in his mind by default.

Rorschach shifted around on the roof, trying to keep the cold from getting into his bones by sitting for too long. "Mentioning him like a good idea to give you a reality check. Which, judging by the fact you didn't argue with what I had to say, means on some level you know I'm right."

Hickey idly starts to walk away from Rorschach, towards the foresty outskirts of Milton. He knows that no matter what, he's more durable than that man. Plus, he suspects Rorschach might not be inclined to follow once there are less buildings for him to hide behind.

"Mate, nobody thinks you're right. You're a disgusting little creature who people either pity or barely tolerate. As far as I'm concerned? Your opinion doesn't mean shit."

Rorschach didn’t follow when Hickey started to walk off. He’d had just about enough of the smug bastard as he could stand but he wasn’t keen on getting in a pointless fight that would only end in him wanting to smash the other’s head in with a rock. The last thing he needed was Billy tracking him down to light him on fire because he’d been swiftly made into a widower.

Rorschach waved him off with a gloved hand as if the boatman’s word hadn’t had a single effect upon him. ”Likewise, you cockroach. Although once again you seem to be confusing me with yourself.” Then he got back to his feet and scrambled up the rooftop again, pointedly going in the opposite direction of Hickey as he fixed another roof as his next target to jump to.

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#LoveWins

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