A teaser from Rorschach in Gotham's "Thy Lips to Hers" fic:

Rorschach shifted uncomfortably against the soft pillows, as a fevered sweat poured down his skin, and he jerked his head back and forth in a delirium. He balled his fists tightly, forcing his fingernails to press crescents into his palms. Small shivers coursed through his body which changed into violent tremors, as he began to writhe and thrashed underneath the bedsheets. Tears ran unchecked from his eyes and a loud groan passed through a pair of clinched teeth as he spoke a name that haunted him all his life — "Mommy!" Suddenly, he felt a foreign hand flattened against his bare chest, its fingers stretched across his skin, his muscles tightened at the strange sensation, and he was startled out of his dream. Awareness returning to him, his eyes blinked opened to focus at the familiar figure in front of him.

"Hiya, handsome," hushed Catwoman, softly smiling over him. "I thought I almost lost you back there."

His breath caught in his throat, as he studied at her for a long moment. Her body was a map of finger-shaped bruises of varying shades of blue that deepen to purple. Her wrists were a raw and burned an angry shade of red. One eye was blackened and the skin on her cheek beneath had split open from the impact of the blow. She was still beautiful.

His hand reached out instinctively to touch the swollen cut upon her face and, although she didn’t pull away, he lowered his eyes, recoiled, and turned his head away from her, pulling the blanket closer as a kind of makeshift shield. The damn whore had taken his clothes...

Her hand sprawled still against chest, so warm and so soft, arched and her fingertips caressed as delicate like feathers upon his skin, making his chest hairs stand on end. He twitched and stirred uneasily again and he propped himself on his elbows, despite his weakened state, and attempted to pull himself to a sitting position, burning out what little strength he could muster. He winced in pain, biting down on his split lip, which began to bleed, and grabbed the bandages over his fragile ribs with a loud yelp.

"Uh-uh, let that be a lesson to you," taunted she, as she stood and submerged a fresh cloth under the warm water of her bathroom sink.

He scowled at her with a pair of icy blue eyes. How dare this whore try to mock him!

Catwoman appeared to ignore this, as she often did, and returned to his bedside and tried to clean the droplet of blood that trickled down his chin and he pulled away. She grimaced in annoyance. She grabbed his chin to hold him in place and tried again, but he pulled away more violently, shoving her away, and grunted his insult under his breath:

"Whor—ugh!"

And she slapped him across the face before he could finish the word and launched off the bed, throwing the towel at him at his thick head in aggravation. That was the last straw!

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Hey, guess what? I've been writing Rorschach in Gotham down? Aren't you proud? I want to thank everyone who voted Rorschach in Gotham on the poll — and I’m still in shock that over a hundred people have taken the time from their busy schedules to vote, wow! — and supported Rorschach in Gotham every time you faved and commented. I really do appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. It truly touches me that you have embraced this project so much, particularly since my drawing arm has been such an inconvenience to me recently, so I've been concentrating primarily on writing a Rorschach in Gotham fic due to this.

What can I say about this piece? Well, I said that if I ever got the stylisation down that I would clean it up and coloured it — two out of three ain't bad! I drew this back before I broke my arm and coloured it after I broke it. I found that it's extremely difficult to colour, particularly cel shade, in Photoshop with one working arm, but I think it turned out rather well after three weeks and a gimpy arm. Her costume is directly based on Bruce Timm's original designs for Catwoman for the animated series before WB execs asked him to change it to fit the style of Michelle Pfeiffer's look, thus the grey costume. I personally love the "retro" look of that costume (and thought it looked closer to Batman Returns than the grey one) and I wanted to go for a style of Darwyn Cooke (original artist on the Catwoman reboot comics), Jim Lee (who does some of the most beautiful Catwoman art I've seen in Hush), Adam Hughes (whose Catwoman covers make me drool, also love that he makes Selina a composite of 70% Audrey Hepburn, 20% Elizabeth Taylor, and 10% Trinity from The Matrix), and my own (sadly) cartoony style, try as I might, cannot escape. I also added Michelle Pfeiffer's crazy eyeshadow from the film, which I felt really "sexified" her the eyes. I accidentally made Rorschach's coat too long, I didn't realise I was going to colour this far down, and I made Catwoman rather too tall; she's only a half-inch or inch taller (sans heels). I wanted a background and opted for an abstract silhouette of Batman, as Batman is the "holier-than-thou" antagonist in the series, always the party-pooper, and the blood is really the representation of the ominousness of the series. (I drew and coloured this while listening to Pink-inspired Catwoman music videos, "Trouble" and "U + Ur Hand".)

Between the years of 1977 (after the passing of the Keene Act) and 1985 (the main events of the story), we have no information about what Rorschach did, except that he was still in costume, still fighting crime. All the events in Watchmen, such as the destruction of New York, will happen. It doesn't go against anything that happens in the book/film, it just "fills in the blanks." Gotham City, 1977, directly after the Keene Act, is the worst place to be in! It's in chaos! It's a war zone! If the Keene riots happened in the other DC universes, Gotham be hit the worst of all. It is Hell on Earth! Even with the passing of the bill, anti-vigilante riots are still going on strong in Gotham because Batman refuses to hang up the cape and cowl — the people are against him, the council is against him, the mayor, the news, the police, and just everyone else hate him! And this situation is not helped when Rorschach appears — and begins fraternising with Catwoman.

The story? I’m currently writing the Poison Ivy story because this is one what the majority of the fans have asked me, prodded me, poked me, begged me, and even threatened me (with love) to write about. I have written first part of the beginning and most of the ending, all I need is to fill up the the middle. However, this is technically "Episode 3" of the series and because I’m writing it out of order, I feel it necessary to write an "introduction" to the series in general, so everyone knows what the hell is going on, which will be posted when I get nearer to finishing Part One. This story is a turning point in the Rorschach-Catwoman relationship.

Please tell me what your think by commenting. Tell me if you hate this or love this. Any opinions are welcomed! Don't make me beg!

Medium - Photoshop, HB mechanical pencil.

Rorschach in Gotham © Diane N. Tran.
Rorschach, Catwoman © DC Comics.