Application for Rorschach / Walter Kovacs (The Watchmen)

[sugarcube_nazi]

A slight figure in a trench coat and fedora stepped warily into the room. He looked around. Where one would expect to see a face, there was instead a white fabric with symmetrical black markings, which shifted slowly, creating different shapes that might resemble any number of things, depending on who you asked: now a pretty butterfly, now a dead

Comments

[cardarchitect]

Near let the remark about 'intellectualism' slide for now. Surely Mello would have something snide to say about it.

"The last person I met who thought he could cure the world of evil died like a rabid dog," he said calmly. "He told himself he was a god but he was nothing more than a mass murderer. Your ideals seem similar, although I gather your methods are more direct."

[sugarcube_nazi]

Rorschach grunted dismissively. "You're right about my methods. I don't kill masses. I hunt down the guilty. Not murder if they deserved it. Justice."

[cardarchitect]

"And what is your standard of proof?" Prepared for debate, Near sat on the floor and began arranging legos into a low wall. "Or do you claim to be an infallible instrument of divine wrath?"

[sugarcube_nazi]

He watched the young man's lego construction curiously. "Obvious when guilty. Facts add up."

[cardarchitect]

"Indeed. But there are so many facts, and presumably one of you. How much time do you devote to each malefactor before choosing to mete out your self-proclaimed justice? If you are intelligent enough to make such decisions swiftly then you would also know that violent reactions to violent behavior is as effective as stamping roaches."

[sugarcube_nazi]

"Hurm. Maybe can't bring end to crime. But can punish those that need punishing."

[cardarchitect]

"Without trial, I assume? Without the need for absolute proof?"

[sugarcube_nazi]

"I get proof enough. Too many get away on technicalities, manipulating a system weighed down with laziness and greed."

[cardarchitect]

" 'Proof enough' being your own whims, I see." Near shrugged. "Just another delusional murderer with pretentions to grandeur. A sorry example of a sorry sort of person."

[sugarcube_nazi]

"Has to be somebody's whims. You'd rather I poll a jury. No guarantee a jury's any more careful than I am." He paused, tilting his head slightly as he watched Near. "You've known many 'delusional murderers'?"

[cardarchitect]

"A few." Light, Misa, Takada, Mikami, and the pathetic C-Kira, to be precise. "They didn't die well."

[sugarcube_nazi]

"Hmm... Shows frailty of character. Lack of conviction and integrity." Rorschach folded his arms. "May not approve of my ideas and methods, but I'm not the men you knew, in this at least: I intend to keep fighting until the last moment, even in the face of certain failure, and when my time comes, I will accept without complaint or regret."

[cardarchitect]

"Do you think you would be able to say that in the face of certain failure, in the knowledge that your ideals had deserted you? Easy to just say you could."

[sugarcube_nazi]

"Ideals won't desert me, even in failing. Not founded on hope of success. Founded in spite of knowledge that success is impossible. Stamping cockroaches, like you said. Has to be done, all the same. Imagining the end and facing it are very different things... but I am prepared."

Vote: Gryffindor

[cardarchitect]

"Hubris and determination. A dangerous mix." Near eyed him thoughtfully. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."