singillatim | Scars are souvenirs you never lose ; Catch-All OTA

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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rorschach was a bit amused by the idea of this little slip of a girl being able to harm him at all. Fat chance of that happening. He thought that even Silk Spectre II wouldn't have been able to beat him in a fair fight and she was the best female fighter he knew.

He nodded. "Patrol every day." He had his routine by now and it had helped him feel centered as the days had passed. No matter what else went on, he could keep the people of this town as safe as he could.

She considered that briefly and eventually the wariness shifted into a bit of a smile.

"That's pretty cool, you know? You sound like a super hero out of a comic book." Or like a Huntress like her, but you know she had learned that they don't really have those around here.

"Have you seen anything suspicious tonight?" There's no sense of mocking in her tone. It's a genuine sort of awe and interest.

Rorschach felt uncomfortable with the praise. Much as when Kate and La'an had thanked him for various reasons, he wasn't sure what to do with a genuine compliment. No one at home thought he was making a difference by doing what he did. They all just thought he was a nuisance, a remnant of an old era that no longer matter, someone who deserved to be in prison with all the criminals he'd put away.

He didn't respond but his body language showed what he was really feeling. He'd been standing very still but now he fidgeted a little, hands moving to be inside his pockets of his trenchcoat before taking them back out again. He didn't know how to respond to that and so he just didn't.

He shook his head no at Ruby's question. Fortunately, things had been quiet. He knew it wouldn't stay as such forever. Things here had a habit of turning bad at the worst possible times and so he planned to be prepared when they did.

"...Right." It comes after a long pause but there something about that body language, she had an inkling for her Rorschach must have felt. Her uncle tended to behave in the same way, treating himself as more of an awkward burden than the truly capable man that he was. She didn't quite have the same relationship with Rorschach so it felt a little awkward to try and delve into that right away, but it was something they could pick at.

"Well- I don't know if you're more the work alone type or if you'd like a partner. But I'd be down to get a lay of the land with you?"

Rorschach had done both types during his career. For the last eight years, he'd been solely on his own. It hadn't been too bad. Lonely. But he was used to that. Still, he knew he'd always felt most content when he and Nite Owl had been partners together.

But there was a big difference between teaming up with a grown man who had trained for fighting bad guys and a little slip of a girl. He eyed her, wondering what had possessed her to make the offer. "Sure you can handle it?" His voice sounded dubious. He didn't have much faith in her being able to keep up.

Ruby was pretty used to being underestimated. Her age had caused a lot of friction when she first got accepted into school. It was hard being younger than everyone by roughly two years, but she had managed to prove herself and live up to the role she had been given. She didn't mind doing it again.

"Pretty sure. Back at home I was fully licensed to this kind of work. But hey- If it doesn't work out. We can always go our separate ways, deal?"

"Fully...licensed?" Rorschach asked. There was a note of confusion in his voice. What did that mean? Was she from a place that actually gave licenses to vigilantes? It couldn't have been anywhere in America. Mexico or Europe maybe? He made a note to see if he could find out the laws of such places later on by reading some of the old newspapers in this place.

He gave a curt nod at her words. "Deal." He felt he'd probably have to keep an eye on her just in case. She was tiny, like a little waif, and such a little thing was bound to have a struggle with taking on opponents of any size. A girl like that needed someone older and wiser to keep an eye on her.

She catches the confusion in his tone and rubs at the back of her head sheepishly. "Oh right. So you need a liscence so take on jobs as a Huntsmen or Huntress where I'm from. When you do you gain access to a kind of job board. Where you can get paid to take on missions to take down monsters, protect caravans, or basically anything. Kind of like a mercenary but with a little more prestige?"

She gives a bright little smile when he agrees. "Great! I'll do my best not to let you down!"

"Huh." The way she talked about her home confused Rorschach a little bit. He'd never heard of anything like this before. "Must tell me more about it." Now he was getting intrigued about where she was from. It didn't sound like anywhere on Earth that he'd heard of before.

She was such an earnest little thing that he couldn't help but be a little charmed by the vibe she was putting off. He smiled a bit after Ruby assured him she would do her best. The black dots clustered around his mouth for a few moments because of that.

"I can do that. I'm probably not the best person to talk to about the finer details. But I happen to know a few secrets that no one else does." Sometimes you accidentally learn the hidden truths about your world, and other times you fall right into them.

Either way she notices the black dots forming into something that resembles a smile and she returns the favor. "But you'll have to do the same about yours. I'm still learning the basics about it."

"Can do that." Granted, Rorschach's own version of Earth was far different than the other residents of Milton came from, but at least the important parts all remained the same.

"Come on," he gestured for her to follow him. While they spoke, he would continue patrolling, looking around to make sure the town stayed quiet.

Scars are souvenirs you never lose ; Catch-All OTA

HE CERTAINLY HAS THE SAME LINE OF THINKING. cw: misogynistic thinking continues

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cw: misogynistic thinking

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