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.SAVROU.
OUT OF CHARACTER
Player Name: Qing
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact: queen_qing@plurk
Current Characters: Bucky Barnes
Tag: matt murdock
IN CHARACTER
Name: Matt Murdock
Canon: Daredevil
Canon Point: Post Season 1, before Season 2
Age: About 30
History: here
Personality: Matt Murdock is, in a nutshell, complicated. At the core of it, however, he is a good man who wants to make the world a better place. He wrestles with what he has to do to bring justice to wrongdoers and their victims. He operates from the starting point of goodness, values-focused with a powerful desire to help innocent people. The majority of what Matt is and why he does what he does can be summed up in the following conversation between himself and Fisk.
Matt Murdock: I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm just a guy that got fed up with men like you and I decided to do something about it.
Wilson Fisk: That's what makes you dangerous. It's not the mask, it's not the skills, it's your ideology. The lone man who thinks he can make a difference.
The truth is that he is not looking to be a hero; he doesn't think that far ahead (Matt's not much of a planner, generally). He's just willing to take a hell of a beating over and over and over again to do what's right by his city and its people. He's fed-up of the lapses in the justice system, and is willing to do what it takes to do something about it instead of turning a blind eye. He is a good man pushed to action under extenuating circumstances, called to protect the helpless and the innocent people in a city where the rich and powerful are determined to mow them down. He is extremely dedicated and focused on this particular goal, to the point where he doesn't tend to consider the consequences of his vigilanteism, ie what would happen if he gets caught. Another telling indication of his incredible dedication to the people of his city, and the fact that he would do and say what it takes to protect them is this:
Claire: when we were on that roof you told that Russian that you hurt people because you enjoy it.
Matt: And you said you didn't believe that.
Claire: I can't believe that. Because if I do, that means you're not the man that I believe you to be.
Matt: I need to be the man this city needs.
While Matt can be creative when it comes to torturing people to get the information he wants and needs, it's obvious in Claire's observation that he does not enjoy hurting people, and pain for him is just a mechanism for how the world works. He also tends to react very instinctively to injustice without putting very much thought behind it, which is obvious in his first outing as the man in the mask -- he went out there and put that mask on to punish a father who was molesting his daughter in the night, when he was the only one who heard her cries. He brutally beat on him until he could only "eat from a straw" in the hospital, and after that had said that he "never slept better". Matt is a man who takes action on injustice instead of simply stewing about it, taking it upon himself to deliver punishment where the law fails.
However, what keeps him from being a cold-blooded murderer no better than the criminals he faces down is his strong sense of right and wrong. His sense of moral goodness and self-sacrificial nature is apparent even as a child, when he pushed an old man out of the way of an incoming accident. It is also this powerful sense of moral goodness that creates problems and dilemmas for him later on in life, especially once he acts on that desire to defend the innocent against the unsavory characters of Hell's Kitchen, becoming the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.
But even as a child, he's had an abnormal, fractured upbringing which could take him either way -- his father was a boxer, and in one of his stories, he told Foggy that at nine years of age, his dad gave him a sip of alcohol so his hands wouldn’t shake as he sewed him up. At nine, Matt was much older than his age. He was already tasked with sewing his dad’s skin back together, tending to his wounds when he comes home. His world is an intensely brutal, unforgiving one -- and the hits keep on coming. His father's death (Matt's tremendous guilt over his perceived part in it), him becoming an orphan, and him training under Stick. Nothing in his life had been particularly kind to him, but Matt had grown up wanting to protect and help people anyway, become a lawyer so that he could use the legal system to defend them, only taking on the mask when he realizes that the legal system has limits.
His hard years did not make him a hardened criminal, nor did it make him self-pitying, only made him stronger, and more compassionate towards innocent people. He made something out of the shitty hand life dealt him, and it did not make him cynical; it has only made him more determined in believing in the goodness of people while being aware that bad people exist, in doing what's right, even if it's not through the very right ways. Even so, it must be said that very gentle when dealing with potentially traumatized victims, especially children. One example of this is shown where he pretty much mows viciously through a small army of human traffickers, then takes his mask off so the little boy he's rescuing won't be afraid of him.
Unlike other superheroes, however, Matt's day job is also actively all about helping the helpless. Helping the innocent and saving them isn't just something he takes on at night, it's very actively his day job as well. He was more than willing to give up a potentially lucrative position and his law firm, Landman and Zack, starting a firm with Foggy Nelson (Nelson & Murdock) aimed to defend innocent people in court, to help good people who cannot afford to be represented -- although an exception was made when he took on Healy (the hitman's) case, but it was only just because he could get deeper into Fisk's organization.
As a person, Matt has a very layered personality; he is a gentle soul, generally mild-mannered and kind when he's out of the costume, still as selfless with a soft spot for disadvantaged groups of people. However, one learns never to mistake his kindness for weakness; there is a bite to him that keeps people from overstepping their boundaries or pushing him around. He is usually polite until someone rubs him the wrong way, as can be seen when Wesley walks into their office to hire them. Matt asks sharp questions and is borderline rude to Wesley when he suspects something isn't right, making biting little comments. His reluctance to take on this case reveals a man who is quick on the uptake, likes to be in control, who hates being under another's thumb.
On the other hand, he's snarky, witty, charming with a self-deprecating sense of humor, and has a taste for falling in love with ladies who tend to get him into trouble. In addition, he has a knack for using people's perception of his disability to his advantage, whether it's charming a realtor or pretending to be just another hapless blind man when the situation calls for it, or, as Foggy calls it, the handsome wounded duck routine. Matt also has a tendency to be warm without being close or emotionally available, putting people at an emotional distance no matter how he cares for them. Matt has issues, a lot of them. He has abandonment issues stemming from his father dying when he was a kid, to Stick (someone he saw as a father figure) abandoning him later on.
This, of course, leads him to be pretty terrible at forging emotional connections with people. It's quite clear in the way Matt keeps secrets from Foggy, believing that he would have done the same -- only to be proven wrong by his angry best friend. It's also clear that he cares very much for him; it's just that he doesn't quite know how to show it. He also tends to ignore advice given to him, charging ahead on his own, but as the show continues, he's shown to take other people's advice to heart, mulling over them instead of casting them aside. He is capable of changing, of growing as a person thanks to the people around him.
He also has emotional weaknesses, being a loner at heart, but he struggles against this and is unafraid to show his vulnerability to the people that he loves, namely Karen and Foggy in the later parts of the series. Matt is, in the same vein, protective of them and hypocritical at the same time, telling them to be careful while at the same time donning a costume after that to recklessly beat on criminals. While he's generally quite a patient person, he's definitely Brooklyn born and raised: the man has a temper when he's pushed to it, and is dangerous when he's pissed off. He tends to be rash and reckless at certain times, letting his violence get the better of him and dangerously skirting the line when it comes to people hurting the ones he loves: as can be seen when the Russians kidnapped Claire, pressing hard on his berserk button as he lets loose on them and has to be pulled back from going over the edge. Another instance where this can be seen is when he tosses Detective Semyon into a dumpster, only checking for a pulse when she asked him to. Matt has rage issues, to be sure, and he pretty much is one bad day away from being no different from the people that he goes after.
There is almost a duality in him that war with each other, the mild-mannered, soft spoken and collected lawyer, and there's the grittier, darker alter ego that uses extreme violence as a tool to morally correct villains. Even though he draws the hard line at killing them, believing that he's not their executioner, he has no pity or compassion for the pain that he puts them in, which puts him at odds with his faith. He is a devout, unashamed Catholic who looks for moral guidance with Father Lantom, slowly opening up to him through the course of several episodes and eventually considering himself a part of his flock.
Matt: Yeah, he made each and every one of us with a purpose, didn't he? A reason for being.
Lantom: I believe so, yes.
Matt: Then why did he put the Devil in me? Why do I feel it in my heart and my soul clawing to be let out if that's not all part of God's plan?
While he struggles greatly to reconcile with his dark, brutal side and the devout Catholic side of himself, questioning his purpose, he also believes that he's in the unique position to do something about the crime rate in his city, and is willing to damn his soul (so to speak) for it. He suffers an incredible guilt for his violent, brutal, and often merciless acts, and he is almost constantly a man in pain. He might be a lawyer by day, upholding the law for people -- but at night, he breaks it with the conviction that he's doing it to protect people and make his city a better place to live in. His greatest advantage is the fact that he can take an incredible amount of punishment and is determined and tenacious enough to keep on going anyway.
Despite Matt believing that he has the devil in him, he's perceptive, empathetic, genuinely kind with the desire to do good, and his naturally charming ways allow him more savvy to have other people trust him. Matt also largely understands how to read people (aided in large part by him being a walking lie detector) and people work, and to an extent how they think. He is also sharp and very clever, as can be seen in the fact that graduated summa cum laude from Columbia. There is a deep, buried anger to him that he keeps a tight lid on until he doesn't, and it's apparent in the way he wields violence very comfortably as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, whether it's beating a human trafficker into a bloody pulp, breaking a person's bones, torture, or beating up another man and tossing him into the dumpster. Still, he wars with himself when it comes to dealing with Fisk, with whether he should kill this man to prevent any more deaths from happening. Eventually, his conscience wins out, and he leaves him alive to be incarcerated.
He's stubborn, with a tendency to martyr himself, and the obvious fact that he has no problem sacrificing his nights, enduring brutal, savage beatings night after night for his city. It's not an ego trip for him, it's something that he sees as necessary, being the helping hand in a city of people who don't know who to turn to. Similarly, his firm is largely the same; cashflow and income doesn't matter to him as long as he's serving justice, much to the chagrin of his best friend Foggy. Matt is self-aware, for the most part; he knows that he's only human, and that he has weaknesses, and he also believes in pushing himself to his hard limits. Throughout the series, it shows that he cares a lot about people, constantly, selflessly putting them above himself. He goes to extreme lengths to uphold justice, ostensibly because Matt sees himself in others, and he sees a self he can save in others.
Abilities/Skills:
- Greatly enhanced senses to the point where it can very nearly be superhuman. Hearing (human lie detector, can even hear when wounds open up, able to know when and how someone plans to move, whether to attack etc), taste, smell (can smell blood in the air, and a man's scent of stale cigarettes and cheap cologne three floors above him and through several walls), touch (cotton feels like sandpaper against his skin, he can feel vibrations in walls, floors from great distances and track people's movements using that, and can even feel the heat generated from gunshot wounds, blood). He also has a greatly enhanced sense of balance.
- Extremely skilled martial artist, master of using a staff in combat
- Master acrobat
- Expert marksman
- Extremely proficient at processing a great amount of sensory information in an instant
- Able to heal himself quicker through meditation
Strengths/Weaknesses: Only human, but can take an incredible amount of punishment and pain and still come back for more. He's a great lawyer and he's very good with words, a tactician when it comes to fighting, although he likes to keep up the whole normal blind man thing. Weakness: his sense of morality, his soft spot for children and the vulnerable people, and the fact that he often doesn't actually have a whole lot of foresight. He tends to jump into things recklessly based on emotion and his sense of right and wrong, and sometimes doesn't think of the consequences for himself / the people he loves.
Items: Walking stick, red shades, suit and tie, shoes.
SAMPLES
Network Sample:
audio -> video;
I never actually thought it would ever be possible to be taken onboard a spaceship, [ The words are pleasantly, mildly spoken. The Incident was one thing; at least those things rained down on them, not the other way around. Matt's tone is mildly amused, hiding an undercurrent of frustration and annoyance. He's not supposed to be here, not when he has work to do in Hell's Kitchen. Fisk might have been put away, but crime never sleeps. ]
or contracted into labor to help this vessel advance to its ultimate destination. [ Does it sound morbid to anyone else? It sure as hell does, to him. ] I would assume that not all of us came here at the same time. [ Based on the lack of general chaos, and all that. ] But with that said, my name is Matt Murdock; and I have a favor to ask.
Would anyone care to show me around this ship? [ Not that he expressly needs the help, but it's nice to proactively suss out the crew, get more information however he can. He flicks the video on to reveal his face, lips tugging up in a wry little smile, his eyes behind vivid red shades. He taps his cane lightly against the screen, head tilted, gaze seemingly just beyond the frame of the video.
Matt's very aware of what he looks like, presenting himself as just another blind man -- he's not a threat until he decides to be otherwise. ] As you can see, my ability to do so on my own is... limited. I would be very grateful, of course.
Prose/Action Sample:
here and a continuation here.
Are you 16 or older: Yes
Contact: queen_qing@plurk
Current Characters: Bucky Barnes
Tag: matt murdock
IN CHARACTER
Name: Matt Murdock
Canon: Daredevil
Canon Point: Post Season 1, before Season 2
Age: About 30
History: here
Personality: Matt Murdock is, in a nutshell, complicated. At the core of it, however, he is a good man who wants to make the world a better place. He wrestles with what he has to do to bring justice to wrongdoers and their victims. He operates from the starting point of goodness, values-focused with a powerful desire to help innocent people. The majority of what Matt is and why he does what he does can be summed up in the following conversation between himself and Fisk.
Matt Murdock: I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm just a guy that got fed up with men like you and I decided to do something about it.
Wilson Fisk: That's what makes you dangerous. It's not the mask, it's not the skills, it's your ideology. The lone man who thinks he can make a difference.
The truth is that he is not looking to be a hero; he doesn't think that far ahead (Matt's not much of a planner, generally). He's just willing to take a hell of a beating over and over and over again to do what's right by his city and its people. He's fed-up of the lapses in the justice system, and is willing to do what it takes to do something about it instead of turning a blind eye. He is a good man pushed to action under extenuating circumstances, called to protect the helpless and the innocent people in a city where the rich and powerful are determined to mow them down. He is extremely dedicated and focused on this particular goal, to the point where he doesn't tend to consider the consequences of his vigilanteism, ie what would happen if he gets caught. Another telling indication of his incredible dedication to the people of his city, and the fact that he would do and say what it takes to protect them is this:
Claire: when we were on that roof you told that Russian that you hurt people because you enjoy it.
Matt: And you said you didn't believe that.
Claire: I can't believe that. Because if I do, that means you're not the man that I believe you to be.
Matt: I need to be the man this city needs.
While Matt can be creative when it comes to torturing people to get the information he wants and needs, it's obvious in Claire's observation that he does not enjoy hurting people, and pain for him is just a mechanism for how the world works. He also tends to react very instinctively to injustice without putting very much thought behind it, which is obvious in his first outing as the man in the mask -- he went out there and put that mask on to punish a father who was molesting his daughter in the night, when he was the only one who heard her cries. He brutally beat on him until he could only "eat from a straw" in the hospital, and after that had said that he "never slept better". Matt is a man who takes action on injustice instead of simply stewing about it, taking it upon himself to deliver punishment where the law fails.
However, what keeps him from being a cold-blooded murderer no better than the criminals he faces down is his strong sense of right and wrong. His sense of moral goodness and self-sacrificial nature is apparent even as a child, when he pushed an old man out of the way of an incoming accident. It is also this powerful sense of moral goodness that creates problems and dilemmas for him later on in life, especially once he acts on that desire to defend the innocent against the unsavory characters of Hell's Kitchen, becoming the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.
But even as a child, he's had an abnormal, fractured upbringing which could take him either way -- his father was a boxer, and in one of his stories, he told Foggy that at nine years of age, his dad gave him a sip of alcohol so his hands wouldn’t shake as he sewed him up. At nine, Matt was much older than his age. He was already tasked with sewing his dad’s skin back together, tending to his wounds when he comes home. His world is an intensely brutal, unforgiving one -- and the hits keep on coming. His father's death (Matt's tremendous guilt over his perceived part in it), him becoming an orphan, and him training under Stick. Nothing in his life had been particularly kind to him, but Matt had grown up wanting to protect and help people anyway, become a lawyer so that he could use the legal system to defend them, only taking on the mask when he realizes that the legal system has limits.
His hard years did not make him a hardened criminal, nor did it make him self-pitying, only made him stronger, and more compassionate towards innocent people. He made something out of the shitty hand life dealt him, and it did not make him cynical; it has only made him more determined in believing in the goodness of people while being aware that bad people exist, in doing what's right, even if it's not through the very right ways. Even so, it must be said that very gentle when dealing with potentially traumatized victims, especially children. One example of this is shown where he pretty much mows viciously through a small army of human traffickers, then takes his mask off so the little boy he's rescuing won't be afraid of him.
Unlike other superheroes, however, Matt's day job is also actively all about helping the helpless. Helping the innocent and saving them isn't just something he takes on at night, it's very actively his day job as well. He was more than willing to give up a potentially lucrative position and his law firm, Landman and Zack, starting a firm with Foggy Nelson (Nelson & Murdock) aimed to defend innocent people in court, to help good people who cannot afford to be represented -- although an exception was made when he took on Healy (the hitman's) case, but it was only just because he could get deeper into Fisk's organization.
As a person, Matt has a very layered personality; he is a gentle soul, generally mild-mannered and kind when he's out of the costume, still as selfless with a soft spot for disadvantaged groups of people. However, one learns never to mistake his kindness for weakness; there is a bite to him that keeps people from overstepping their boundaries or pushing him around. He is usually polite until someone rubs him the wrong way, as can be seen when Wesley walks into their office to hire them. Matt asks sharp questions and is borderline rude to Wesley when he suspects something isn't right, making biting little comments. His reluctance to take on this case reveals a man who is quick on the uptake, likes to be in control, who hates being under another's thumb.
On the other hand, he's snarky, witty, charming with a self-deprecating sense of humor, and has a taste for falling in love with ladies who tend to get him into trouble. In addition, he has a knack for using people's perception of his disability to his advantage, whether it's charming a realtor or pretending to be just another hapless blind man when the situation calls for it, or, as Foggy calls it, the handsome wounded duck routine. Matt also has a tendency to be warm without being close or emotionally available, putting people at an emotional distance no matter how he cares for them. Matt has issues, a lot of them. He has abandonment issues stemming from his father dying when he was a kid, to Stick (someone he saw as a father figure) abandoning him later on.
This, of course, leads him to be pretty terrible at forging emotional connections with people. It's quite clear in the way Matt keeps secrets from Foggy, believing that he would have done the same -- only to be proven wrong by his angry best friend. It's also clear that he cares very much for him; it's just that he doesn't quite know how to show it. He also tends to ignore advice given to him, charging ahead on his own, but as the show continues, he's shown to take other people's advice to heart, mulling over them instead of casting them aside. He is capable of changing, of growing as a person thanks to the people around him.
He also has emotional weaknesses, being a loner at heart, but he struggles against this and is unafraid to show his vulnerability to the people that he loves, namely Karen and Foggy in the later parts of the series. Matt is, in the same vein, protective of them and hypocritical at the same time, telling them to be careful while at the same time donning a costume after that to recklessly beat on criminals. While he's generally quite a patient person, he's definitely Brooklyn born and raised: the man has a temper when he's pushed to it, and is dangerous when he's pissed off. He tends to be rash and reckless at certain times, letting his violence get the better of him and dangerously skirting the line when it comes to people hurting the ones he loves: as can be seen when the Russians kidnapped Claire, pressing hard on his berserk button as he lets loose on them and has to be pulled back from going over the edge. Another instance where this can be seen is when he tosses Detective Semyon into a dumpster, only checking for a pulse when she asked him to. Matt has rage issues, to be sure, and he pretty much is one bad day away from being no different from the people that he goes after.
There is almost a duality in him that war with each other, the mild-mannered, soft spoken and collected lawyer, and there's the grittier, darker alter ego that uses extreme violence as a tool to morally correct villains. Even though he draws the hard line at killing them, believing that he's not their executioner, he has no pity or compassion for the pain that he puts them in, which puts him at odds with his faith. He is a devout, unashamed Catholic who looks for moral guidance with Father Lantom, slowly opening up to him through the course of several episodes and eventually considering himself a part of his flock.
Matt: Yeah, he made each and every one of us with a purpose, didn't he? A reason for being.
Lantom: I believe so, yes.
Matt: Then why did he put the Devil in me? Why do I feel it in my heart and my soul clawing to be let out if that's not all part of God's plan?
While he struggles greatly to reconcile with his dark, brutal side and the devout Catholic side of himself, questioning his purpose, he also believes that he's in the unique position to do something about the crime rate in his city, and is willing to damn his soul (so to speak) for it. He suffers an incredible guilt for his violent, brutal, and often merciless acts, and he is almost constantly a man in pain. He might be a lawyer by day, upholding the law for people -- but at night, he breaks it with the conviction that he's doing it to protect people and make his city a better place to live in. His greatest advantage is the fact that he can take an incredible amount of punishment and is determined and tenacious enough to keep on going anyway.
Despite Matt believing that he has the devil in him, he's perceptive, empathetic, genuinely kind with the desire to do good, and his naturally charming ways allow him more savvy to have other people trust him. Matt also largely understands how to read people (aided in large part by him being a walking lie detector) and people work, and to an extent how they think. He is also sharp and very clever, as can be seen in the fact that graduated summa cum laude from Columbia. There is a deep, buried anger to him that he keeps a tight lid on until he doesn't, and it's apparent in the way he wields violence very comfortably as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, whether it's beating a human trafficker into a bloody pulp, breaking a person's bones, torture, or beating up another man and tossing him into the dumpster. Still, he wars with himself when it comes to dealing with Fisk, with whether he should kill this man to prevent any more deaths from happening. Eventually, his conscience wins out, and he leaves him alive to be incarcerated.
He's stubborn, with a tendency to martyr himself, and the obvious fact that he has no problem sacrificing his nights, enduring brutal, savage beatings night after night for his city. It's not an ego trip for him, it's something that he sees as necessary, being the helping hand in a city of people who don't know who to turn to. Similarly, his firm is largely the same; cashflow and income doesn't matter to him as long as he's serving justice, much to the chagrin of his best friend Foggy. Matt is self-aware, for the most part; he knows that he's only human, and that he has weaknesses, and he also believes in pushing himself to his hard limits. Throughout the series, it shows that he cares a lot about people, constantly, selflessly putting them above himself. He goes to extreme lengths to uphold justice, ostensibly because Matt sees himself in others, and he sees a self he can save in others.
Abilities/Skills:
- Greatly enhanced senses to the point where it can very nearly be superhuman. Hearing (human lie detector, can even hear when wounds open up, able to know when and how someone plans to move, whether to attack etc), taste, smell (can smell blood in the air, and a man's scent of stale cigarettes and cheap cologne three floors above him and through several walls), touch (cotton feels like sandpaper against his skin, he can feel vibrations in walls, floors from great distances and track people's movements using that, and can even feel the heat generated from gunshot wounds, blood). He also has a greatly enhanced sense of balance.
- Extremely skilled martial artist, master of using a staff in combat
- Master acrobat
- Expert marksman
- Extremely proficient at processing a great amount of sensory information in an instant
- Able to heal himself quicker through meditation
Strengths/Weaknesses: Only human, but can take an incredible amount of punishment and pain and still come back for more. He's a great lawyer and he's very good with words, a tactician when it comes to fighting, although he likes to keep up the whole normal blind man thing. Weakness: his sense of morality, his soft spot for children and the vulnerable people, and the fact that he often doesn't actually have a whole lot of foresight. He tends to jump into things recklessly based on emotion and his sense of right and wrong, and sometimes doesn't think of the consequences for himself / the people he loves.
Items: Walking stick, red shades, suit and tie, shoes.
SAMPLES
Network Sample:
audio -> video;
I never actually thought it would ever be possible to be taken onboard a spaceship, [ The words are pleasantly, mildly spoken. The Incident was one thing; at least those things rained down on them, not the other way around. Matt's tone is mildly amused, hiding an undercurrent of frustration and annoyance. He's not supposed to be here, not when he has work to do in Hell's Kitchen. Fisk might have been put away, but crime never sleeps. ]
or contracted into labor to help this vessel advance to its ultimate destination. [ Does it sound morbid to anyone else? It sure as hell does, to him. ] I would assume that not all of us came here at the same time. [ Based on the lack of general chaos, and all that. ] But with that said, my name is Matt Murdock; and I have a favor to ask.
Would anyone care to show me around this ship? [ Not that he expressly needs the help, but it's nice to proactively suss out the crew, get more information however he can. He flicks the video on to reveal his face, lips tugging up in a wry little smile, his eyes behind vivid red shades. He taps his cane lightly against the screen, head tilted, gaze seemingly just beyond the frame of the video.
Matt's very aware of what he looks like, presenting himself as just another blind man -- he's not a threat until he decides to be otherwise. ] As you can see, my ability to do so on my own is... limited. I would be very grateful, of course.
Prose/Action Sample:
here and a continuation here.