Log:Like a Blister in the Sun

Like a Blister in the Sun
...I don't want all we fought for against them to have been for nothing.
Participants Rorschach, Jonah Joseph	6 April, 2017 Two Harvestmen discuss ongoing events and a dream.
Location Rooftops of The Ambassador
The roach left an encoded message... okay crappily encoded message for Jonah in his apartment saying 'meet you on the roof. Knock three times before coming up. Once....two-three. Diid we mention it was a shitty encoded message? Still though how the bug got two lawn chairs up there was anyone's guess. There were two though, one of which had the gaunt roach, arm still in a sling, hood pulled up, welding goggles on to protect him from teh late afternoon sun. The message was read, as expected, and the instructions were followed. Mostly. The knocks come in their proper rhythm, and after a beat the door's opened. The sight of Rorschach elicits a pause, and doubly so for the time of the day. The Ogre turns his head to steal a glance up to the sun, and then loosk back upon the bug with surprise that's rarely seen nor heard of. "Okay," Jonah says while crossing his arms. "You're the last person I would've expected to be awake this early in the day." Rorschach tapped teh side of his nose and handed Jonah a small moleskin notebook that had little bookmarks made out of it from the edges of one of the fliers for Damion's place the Iron Church. To be fair the bug looked a tak 'rekt' as the saying on teh stret goes but was none the less operational it seemed. He let the man handle business before reaching into his own backpack and slowly pulling out....oh, two Dr. Peppers unopened. Well that wasn't threatening at all. He set one down to let the affected hand hold while the better one popped the tab and pointed to the notebook with two fingers. The front page read: Shit you should know you might not be hearing about, Vol. 1.. Two thin, black eyebrows arched (one mostly missing but this wasn't a fucking beauty pagent) over the goggles. It was apparently broken into three parts: The exercize broken into several parts, The death of a strange woman known as Beth, and possible movement of the Silent Whatsits. Page one simply was blank but for one question: How well do you know Yorik? The bits of the ad used as a bookmark are the first thing to draw Jonah's attention, and he looks away from the book back to Rorschach for a moment. He moves to sit in the empty hair of the pair as he continues reading it over, but after a thought he opts to simply sin on the ground. Clearly, the man doesn't trust most chairs. He does take the offered Dr. Pepper, but for the time being sets it to the side. Just the title is read first, though, and he looks back over to Rorschah with a slight lift of his brow. Slowly he turns his attentions back towards the notebook, and continues reading along. "Beth, I know of. I was with the party that found the body, and Ice Queen's done most of the reporting. However, I do appreciate you telling me of it nonetheless. I don't know what the Silents are. Is that the Soundless?" And then that last point that seems to piss him off enough that a rumble of a growl catches at the back of his throat. "I know Yoric well enough," he flatly stats. Weird, that Yoric appears to be the only person Jonah ever calls by their real name. Rorschach nodded. Yes. Soundless he knew well enough. He addressed their fellow Harvestman first. The note was scratched simply, 'Got my hands on some of the relics, and bartered for a memory of the event of 'Beth'. Going to see if I can pick up a who or a where and follow it up. I can find most things with a name or article. Interesting to see if SOundless are attached. Maybe motivations. Love to know what you know. Woman presents her self as 'Nana' has dog., was looking for help from Harvestmen as looks like the Waykeepers are either swamped, unaware, or under equipt. Either way, knowing is knowing.' The roach sipped the Dr. Pepper not addressing his injuries nor any personal business at hand. He snerked, Taking the journal back he flipped to the discussion on Yorik ans simply wrote, 'Yeah, I know him well enough too, not that I'm sure he'd care to remember. It's specifically why I'm asking why you have reason to trust him. We spent too fucking long trying to kill one another and he owes me. I get why he wouldn't like me but why you?' One could imagine the bugs eyes honed in on the massive man. Maybe he was overstepping his spot, but he was brought on to find shit out and apparently this struck up a concern for him of note.' Jonah's surprised when the notebook's taken back, but doesn't seem to get it until Rorschach hands it back. He muses aloud, "I should've taken those ASL classes they were offering when I was in New Hampshire in retrospect. As for Nana, if I don't meet her I want you to give her the message that she has the aid of any and all Harvestmen to sort out this mess in anyway our Second, Stones, sees fit if I can't be around. That's one of ours that died, and she was tortured for who knows what." Ah, the joys of an Ogre's kindness. After a grunt he goes back to reading, and becomes rather confused. "If you can excuse my French, Yoric is a self-serving piece of shit I'd have killed ages ago if I had my way, but he serves the Freehold and doesn't get in my way. Most of the fucking time anyway." He clears his throat then, betraying his relative old age despite his appearance. "Sorry about that, but what do you mean trying to kill one another? Did you two fight? The report I got back from him talked about insubordination and unsatisfactory results, but he grades on a curve of far up his rear end you're willing to go." Rorschach etched out on the paper, "Have no idea what the report saidWe investigated, were descended upon. He waited back at the damn fountain. Damion and Kerrigan got me back. Apparently fromt eh local fauna there a lot of Lost ran through making bad deals. Couldn't find out more because goddamned squirrels. Yorik did enjoy bitching about you though. As far as I'm concerned? He and I are square and I paid him back for what he did or tried to do to me. I don't like him trying to insite insubordination in teh lower ranks to the upper ones. I report to him. I fucking work for you no less than he does.You tell me to do what he tells me to do I'll do it, but you deserve to know he's been talking shit. That respect you have of me." He paused and hesitated before writing anything else, but passed the book back and slouched into the chair. Whatever it was he was letting that rest. Jonah doesn't appear to have anything on hand, but does go for an obvious sign of recall for a Watcher. His eyes lid over for a few seconds, and when he snaps back to reality he says, "You, Knights, and Hunts didn't do as instructed. You all back-talked every order, disobeyed a command when in the Hedge, and that you specifically were harmed due to incompetence." And in the next moment he's back to his usual stoic bearing with about as much joy as the grey of his flesh. "The mistake made was that your named was mentioned in back-talking." Jonah jabs a finger at his throat, and states the obvious. "Everything I've seen, everything I've heard, and everyone that has spoken your name has made mention of the fact that you don't speak. While it's not impossible that it could all be a ruse, and you are a courtier of Moon - you're either a special brand of crazy to keep up the act this long or, I can do as I've already done, and take that report with several grains of salt. However, I think there's one thing I can't agree with you on. I don't think he hates me, nor does he hate you. I think he just wants the job, and I'm in the way. Despite being around for three decades now, people presume my next bout of violence to be my last." Rorschach held up his notebook , the other notebook from his pocket. It was fair to assume anyhting he's ever said, unless he ate the note was on record. He scribbled "I might have mentioned that talking shit about someone who has put in more time than I have was a shitty way to keep cohesion in the ranks. Aside from that I translated what teh spiders had to say.' He considered and wrote only, 'I would have experience that might suggest otherwise, but hey, if he's not holding the grudge on me, I'm not going to dredge shit up. Serving the freehold meansdoing what is healthy fo it. WHen I am-' his pencil eraser tapped on the page and he considered his words very carefully, 'retired I don't want all we fought for against them to have been for nothing. Egos don't win wars, and we need you out front as much as I know it will confuse you to hear me say that, I have a plan for all things. You are what is best for them, and for our joint survival. So unless Yorik wants to see a surgeon again, I'm glad to hear he's being civil at least.' The bug rubbed his face and tapped the flag on the nightmare note was. He waited. Jonah's eyes are focused notebook held up. He's slower to read it all this time, his expression still as stoic as ever. He doesn't talk on those last points, but appears fixated on something else. "What do you mean the bugs said something about broken promises. Did you all promise the beasts something? There wasn't a word about any bugs aside from you, Jitterbug. I feel like there's something I'm missing, and I'd rather hear it from your mou-" He clears his throat, and ammends, "I'd rather see what you have to say." Rorschach looked up at Jonah and made that awful sound like an angry cicada battling a malfunctioning toaster. Yeah. That shit wasn't pleasant. Apaprently bug speech didn't require larnyx the way human speech did. So he talked to bugs. He wrote and looked irritated. 'Dunno. Happened so fucking fast they were in a panic. I hear things most don't. There wer spiders in the cave and those spiders were scared. We had to defend against squirrel bats. Couldn't find out more but it was confirmed that others have been there before. No I offered no deals.' The sound gets a measure of surprise from Jonah, but he remains silent. Rorschach may not be speaking, but it appears that old habits die hard. He begins reading again, and when done looks back to Rorschach even more confused than the first time. "Okay. Problem. Several problems. Unless some Marketeer's lost their nut I can't think of who would've been making any kind of deals with the beasts near that cave. I know there hasn't been a caravan through there either. Not in three weeks, and that group of people did fine enough with the protection they had. And you're sure it's a broken promise or some such? 100% sure?" Rorschach took a deep breath and tapped teh thing. APparently this was so. Scarred lips pressed together and he dug out his old notebook. He started flipping because he did convey this intel back to Damion to relay back. Ah! He summed showing Jonah his translation written in haste: 'Many times. It comes with several descriptors, never the same one heard twice. Many times here. Many times around. Many times seen. Many times lied.' Rorschach points back to the part where he referenced they were not the only foot traffic for what it was worth. On another level? That too was useful information. Jonah might be looking at Rorschach, but it's difficult to tell with those eyes. He does fall to silence for a time as he processes all of this. He eventually comes back around to speaking, a tinge of anger catching at the back of his throat. "The rat bats you mentioned. What happened with them? They're usually harmless if you don't go near their nests. I don't get what you all did that could've gotten them angry enough to kill. The report said you all followed by Yoric, but were too slow." Rorschach rubbed his face and shook his head. His pencil tapped the page and the furrow bent over the goggles under the hood. Apparently it didn't make sense to him either. He wrote only: Set up? Nest we didn't know about? Bugs seemed agitated as hell. They descended on us and were wicked accurate. Separation or not those fuckers were on me.' Fingers went up under his collar and showed Jonah the wound as standing forensic evidence. It was still aggrivated, and possibly gangrenous or... or he had black blood. Right. He added to teh list 'rabies?' The stone-faced Ogre goes back to reading when presented with another message. Whatever he may be thinking is left up to uncertainty beyond the obvious vein beging to bulge on his forehead. Must be something about the mortal world as he doesn't appear as apt to fly off the handle as he does in the Hedge. "You won't catch rabies," he finally does note. "The most their bites'll do is mark you for their young until you're completely healed up." Rorschach actually cracked a smile and scribbled "It'd take a hell of a lot more than that to get me sick. I'm prolly more toxic than they are." His better arm exctended and he gave the Ogre one pat on teh shoulder. He noted teh last item though more soberly. There was an inscription in that section. 'Something cropped up dream side. Don't trust it with the Soundless and Beth's execution. Too close. Going to lay some traps and see if I can bag soemthing crawling aorund in there for answers. Took me eleven hours just to be certain this isn't still my goddamned durance and I don't appreciate that. I'm certain other's don't either' Attached looked like the ever loving scrawlings of a raving lunatic. That Rorsch was an artist was helpful as well as a sort of unwelcome site. Ther were halls of tile, the ceiling a harsh canopy of timbers and piney arms. Many of the tiles were popped up out of their grout and everything slightly out of focus here and there like it was vibrating at high speed; drawn in a graffiti pop art style with pencil. Several of the tiles were holes with something crawling in it while others were reflective and shattered withthe messages scrawled in every open space like a man possessed reading: The truth is a myth. The myth is reality. Reality is the mirror. The mirror is broken. This goes on... for fifteen... more pages... The pencil lines got beavier and heavier until the back of the notebook was reached and it descended into entirely chaos theory about worlds within worlds and this one maybe still needing to be flipped inside out to prevent 'us' from being found. You'd preseme the lost. The bug's elbows rest on his knees. Long, spidery fingers rubbed his face and back to his temples folded uncomfortably where he sat. He seemed pretty lucid and alright presently. For what it was worth. Apparently he really did not appreciate someone, or something playing that card on him. By the time Jonah was done withthe madness he held up a small noet in that other notebook. 'That shit is getting looked into. I seized the dream and woke my ass up, but I can catalogue a few things that would make the dream make the brain hurt the body and I'm not woldly fond of those things. If I get something to torture for answers you'll be hearing about it.' The bug's gaunt face rarely looked so damn serious. Jonah turns his head to look at that shoulder Rorscach touched, and then back to the bug himself. Despite being a fellow watcher the most Jonah can offer is a slight shrug. "Maybe it's because of the longer days as of late or something else, but I haven't really slept. When I have I can't completely recall everything I've seen. The only theory I can give you is I lost focus." Another shrug follows that. "Or it just isn't the right time for me to see anything." Rorschach was left haggered, but standing. Well we found one of his nerves at teh very least. He left only smaller words on the page in teh book still in hand, 'Either way, we can't defend on half the information. I wanted you to know. I wanted what I knew coming from me. Don't want power. Longrun it is useless to all of us. I want us to be okay when I'm gone.' "I'll take what we have over nothing at all," he gruffly responds. "At least it ensures we aren't going into anything blind. Either way, I really appreciate this, Jitterbug." And then he's rising to his feet along with the still unopened bottle of soda in his hand. "I have somewhere I need to get to, and a few spirits to talk to. You stay safe, and try not to do anyhing cra-" He stops himself, and shakes his head. "Try not to do anything as crazy as what you would be doing if you weren't messed up." Rorschach turned his head sharply up to JOnah when the Ogre caught himself. After sharing haranguing dreams and the sitgmas they already had the Moon Courtier relaxed a bit as Jonah rephrased. He held out a fist in salutation and paused. Nah, Jonah was smart. He could get a note to him. That said he did what he did best. Gathered the darkness and got gone.