Scars are souvenirs you never lose ; Catch-All OTA

[moralabsolutism]

Who: Rorschach and you!
What: Catch-all for various stuff in the past month or so.
When: When the characters are interacting.
Where: Where the characters are interacting.

Content Warnings: Rorschach's far right-wing views, others as they come up



I. Patrolling

Rorschach needed a sense of purpose. No matter whether that was in NYC or stuck in a snowy hellscape, he needed to be doing something or he would go even crazier than he already was. To that end, he continued the patrols that he'd had for twenty years now. At least now it was a lot easier. He was able to patrol the entire thing from one end to the other in a single night instead of having to pick a single neighborhood as he would have back home.

Since he did (contrary to his own personal wishes) had to sleep occasionally, he usually reserved his patrols for the night. He'd wake up a few hours before dusk, do whatever he needed to for the day, and then start with guarding the town. He could often be found rapidly climbing up to a rooftop, where he'd stay watching the town from his perch, or descending just as fast to the ground. Oftentimes, he'd jump down while still a good ways off, landing in the snow on his feet. In lieu of having a building to climb, he'd make do with a tree instead.

He had no care for if he freaked anyone out climbing around or watching over them with the intensity of a stalker. Someone had to do this, so it might as well have been him.

II. Library

One also might have seen a curious sight regarding the strange masked man. He would wander into any home that hadn't already been claimed and be searching with a clear purpose. That became clear as he started hauling books back to one of the homes he'd claimed as his own. After being here for several months, he'd begun to realize in-between the struggle for survival, things were awful boring in town, especially without being able to use the TVs or radios for entertainment. To that end, he was beginning to organize a library.

The amount of literature varied greatly from house to house, given the previous occupants' tastes, so he was attempting to organize them all out in such a fashion that it would be easy to sort through them all quickly. Alas for himself, the most books had been found in the home of what he assumed had previously belonged to an old man, given he had owned approximately ninety volumes of Louis L'Amour cowboy stories. Determined to bolster up this literary "junk food" with other works, he was currently scouring another house to find anything that was worth reading.

III. Guilty Party

Rorschach immediately started to struggle when he woke up in such an ominous place. He'd been in the superheroing business long enough to know nothing good was going to come from here. His gaze snapped over to where the other person was when he heard them start to move around. He remained silent rather than engage in any sort of conversation, instead trying to figure out how to get them out of this situation.

When the jackal appeared, he remained stubbornly defiant. This person just screamed villain in that getup and with the weapon they were wielding. Well, he wasn't about to do play their little game, not even if they were carrying a scythe that looked wickedly sharp. What he had done in his past was for him to reckon with and him alone. No one was going to get him to talk unless he wanted to.

It would be in everyone's best interests if they convinced Rorschach to talk before he ended getting carved up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey.

IV. Off The Beaten Path

When Rorschach met the black dog, he went completely stiff. His hands immediately balled into fists and he looked supremely uncomfortable. It was clear he didn't find the creature cute or endearing. If asked why, he'd only say one thing. "Don't like dogs." For that reason, he wouldn't be following the dog no matter how insistent it was in trying to get the vigilante to go after it.

However, he was good for helping anyone else who had fallen for the dog's tricks, helping them get out of any perilous situations that may have befallen them. While he might not say anything directly to the person, he'd be judging them internally. Still, he was determined to help even if he thought the people around him were being morons.

V. Wildcard

[Want to do something different or a specific scenario? Poke me at Light_shade or .lightshade on Discord!]

Comments

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach shifted the books so he could point with a free hand towards the house he'd just come out of. He'd hit the jackpot upon scouring this home, finding a pretty good one with large bookcases just ripe for the taking this time. "Been gathering some all together," he explained.

[solitarysoul]

"What kinds are you looking for? I was checking for books soon when we first got here." He only sorta remembers the kind of thing he found, and there's a good chance this guy's taken any of it already. But maybe he'll let Levi look sometime.

[moralabsolutism]

"All kinds. Building a collection. A library." This was the first time Rorschach had been doing something that would require him to interact with the community as a whole in a willing manner. Protecting the town had meant he could keep a fair distance away from them all but this was going to bring him into much more contact with them.

He just hoped he'd be alright with that level of contact.

[solitarysoul]

A library? "Oh, um...would it be a shared library?"

Hopefully Rorschach wouldn't just horde it all.

[moralabsolutism]

"Of course," he said. That had been the idea from the start. The idea of hording books like some sort of possessive book dragon hadn't even occurred to him. Rorschach figured everyone could use something to do in-between the basic art of survival every day. Nothing dampened spirits faster than having nothing in the way of entertainment to look forward to.

[solitarysoul]

"Oh!" Good, he'd never had much luck finding anything worth reading, and he was getting sick of cheesy romance books. "Um, could I maybe borrow something? Sometime. I wouldn't keep it long."

Patrolling and weapon maintenance were the only things that really took away from reading time.

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach nodded. He tolerated Levi as well as he did anyone in town, so he wouldn't have minded having him borrow anything. "Still setting it up. Once done, I'll put up something on the board in the Hall."

This would require interacting with people more but perhaps a very small part of Rorschach wanted that. The bits of him that were still very much human craved being around others, even if other parts of him wanted nothing to do with them.

[solitarysoul]

"Do you, um, I haven't really found many books. But I brought a few to the community hall. Do you want me to bring them over? They're, um...not what I would usually read."

He has found little but trashy romance novels in this place.

[moralabsolutism]

"Any books given are welcome." Trashy romance novels wouldn't have been to Rorschach's tastes either but there was a number of people in town and they all had different ideas in what they liked in reading material. If he cultivated as large a quantity as he could regarding the books, there would be something for everyone.

[solitarysoul]

"Somebody's bound to like them. People here bought them. Um, where do you want me to bring them?"

[moralabsolutism]

"Got a cabin I'm using." He described the building to Levi so he'd know where to bring them. It had looked like a warm, cozy little place from the outside, which was one of the reasons Rorschach had decided to use it for the library. It had to be welcoming if people were going to want to use it.

[solitarysoul]

He nods. He's pretty sure he knows that cabin. "I'll bring them by later. Do you want help with those?"

Rorschach probably does not need help.

[moralabsolutism]

It was true Rorschach did not need help. He was strong enough to get the load of books he was carrying back to the library by himself. But there was a very small, repressed part of him that very much wanted to be in the company of people, even if he despised having to talk to them. So he nodded and shifted some of the stack he was carrying into Levi's hands.

[solitarysoul]

Levi takes the books offered and waits. Once Rorschach starts moving he'll follow.

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach led him to the cabin he was using. He got the door open and managed to maneuver in through the doorway. Inside, it was organized chaos. He was in the middle of sorting everything out and there were books piled in precarious stacks that reached up to four feet in some place.

"Set them down.....there." He pointed to a specific spot where there was still room on the floor.

[solitarysoul]

Wow, he's already gathered so many. Levi takes a moment to be impressed before putting the books down where indicated. "I didn't think you'd have done this much already."

Well, if Rorschach had been gathering books since they got here it made sense. It just took him awhile to get into any sense of normalcy and not just 'survive until tomorrow, repeat.'

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach shrugged modestly. "Have a lot of time on my hands." Not socializing with people did leave one with plenty of time to do whatever they wanted when trapped in a snowy hellscape!

He still needed to sort the soft from the hardcovers and figure out the different genres to put them under, but once that was all sorted out, he'd be pretty much done except for building the bookshelves. That was one part of the project he'd need help on. Rorschach was many things but a carpenter wasn't one of them.

[solitarysoul]

"Yeah...we all do." He tends to spend most of his patrolling over and over. Looking into every building that didn't seem to have someone living in it.

"I could help you go through all of this, if you want."

Sadly Levi has no woodworking experience either.

[moralabsolutism]

He thought the offer over and nodded. He'd be able to go through quite a number of volumes if he had someone helping him. He gestured to the ones they'd brought in. "Go through. Been making general categories: romance, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, non-fiction, and Western."

The last would have been a bit odd all things considered if Rorschach hadn't first taken up residence of what had once been the home of an old man obsessed with Louis L'Amour novels. Rorschach was certain he'd organized at least a hundred volumes by now, though he wasn't sure if anyone would actually want to read them, given the books were pretty much the same four plots told over and over again.

[solitarysoul]

"Alright." He kneels down and starts going through the books. Any he wasn't sure the genre of went in a separate pile. He'd go through those later and do more than just look at the covers.

He doesn't bother to chatter while working. He was never good at small talk and he's positive this guy'd hate it anyway."

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach went about his own business as he organized. It was nice to have someone who didn't care much for trying to get him to talk. Chit-chat was for people who actually liked interacting with one another and Rorschach most assuredly did not. As he fixed the space up, he was well-aware of the irony of his own living spaces looking like a dump while he fixated on keeping this space organized. As usual, anything to do with his personal life was usually left in shambles while he focused on other things he felt were more important.

After a certain point, he stopped what he was doing as he became distracted by a certain volume of literature. He soon got absorbed into it, giving into the disease of all those who worked with books were prone to catching in the form reading something they were supposed to be organizing instead.

[solitarysoul]

Levi ends up flipping through a few of the books as well, but doesn't give into reading them. They weren't really his, and he felt like until the library was ready he shouldn't read them.

He finishes his pile and one other, though, and stands up.

"I'll come back with the books I've found later. Thanks for doing this."

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach waved him off with a hand without looking up at first, absorbed as he was into the books. Then he looked up with more interest when Levi thanked him. He felt surprised. Never in his life had he been thanked for just doing what needed to be done as much as since he'd come here. It was a.....curious feeling.

He found he liked it.

[solitarysoul]

Levi nods at the waving off, not put off by it. He was interrupting and he should get back to patrol. He leaves without a goodbye; one really didn't seem necessary.