application. the pines.

[theirmutualfriend]

PLAYER

NAME: Erin
CONTACT: illusen
OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE PINES: Malia Tate, Katherine Pierce

CHARACTER

NAME: Matthew Murdock
CANON: Daredevil
CANON-POINT: 2.13 "A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen"

DOSSIER

HISTORY: Wiki Link

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S STRENGTHS?:

Matt's Catholic roots define how he lives, including his practices when he's playing the role of vigilante. He has a strong set of moral principles, trying to opt for what's right, what's good. He doesn't kill: he knows he's not meant to make that critical of a choice with human life. His purpose is to take the prisoner in to the authorities, so they meet the justice they deserve. The law system isn't perfect, but he knows his own decisions wouldn't be either.

Graduating with high honors from law school, Matt is very intelligent, in both book and street smarts. He looks at any dilemma he faces from multiple facets, showing him to be a problem solver and quick thinker. He's also prone to going to the right people to get the necessary job done: to police officers, to the right detective, to an associate of someone he's tracking, etc.

Matt perseveres through anything thrown at him. After being blinded when he was nine, he rose beyond it and quickly learned to read braille. An example that helped to define how he never gives up is his father, who was a boxer; Matt witnessed how he took beatings and never stopped trying, going for it all (which wasn't entirely accurate to reality, but how a young Matt saw it.) When fighting for what he believes in, Matt will go to any length necessary, without breaking his rule of no killing. Even when his life starts to rip apart, he never wants to stop being Daredevil. Matt's dedicated to that choice he made, to what he does for the city.

WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER'S WEAKNESSES?:

Matt compartmentalizes every aspect of his life. Daredevil is a solo act, and that gets him into trouble with his best friend, with his girlfriend, with the ex who returns and integrates back into his life. He tries to do everything alone, not wanting to involve others so they're not put at risk. This attribute of his personality was spurred by being abandoned by the mentor who came into his life after his father died, an old man named Stick. Matt's mother was also never in his life, for reasons that are unapparent but seem to be summed up to her simply not wanting to have been (possibly because of his father's lifestyle.)

In addition to Daredevil being an intentional secret identity of his, the double life that Matt leads constantly causes stresses and drama the more time goes on. Relationships and friendships halt. He shirks on his responsibilities as a lawyer over time, leaving Foggy alone in the Frank Castle case. He lies and makes his friends lie for his benefit, all to serve the purpose of enacting that which he needs to as Daredevil. While what he does as Daredevil is technically meant to help, he creates ticking bombs as he goes, his life as he knows it at risk, spinning a web and complicating everything for himself (and others.) Through it all, too, Matt tries to defend his actions, that he can handle doing it all, even when he so clearly cannot.

Matt believes that he needs to do what's best for his city, to make the city a better place. Does Daredevil do that, even when his vigilante actions indirectly cause destruction and chaos? When fighting, Matt often takes on more than he's able to. While he does come through and recover from physical injury in the end, he fights too many guys at once, gets tossed into dumpsters, is nearly killed on several occasions, comes out bloody, bruised, almost fatally wounded at times. He can be too cocky. To get difficult jobs done, he walks the line of being a hypocrite too, breaking the law at times but only when it serves the purpose of a greater good.

For someone who believes in doing good, Matt isn't afraid to do what needs to be done to get the information he needs, to stop a threat. He uses excessive violence, torturous at times. He breaks bones to interrogate. He agrees that, sometimes, he's "so damn close to becoming what he hates." In fact, Matt likes hurting these bad people, wants to kill them, sometimes. He doesn't. There have been a couple of occurrences when he's pushed past the point of rationality, when people he cares about, loves, die, that he goes past his own line. It's only in the most of extreme emotional periods that Matt does this though, like when Mrs. Cardenas was murdered, and when Elektra died.

WHAT EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES IN YOUR CHARACTER'S PAST HAVE IMPACTED THEM THE MOST?:

Losing his sight as a child, which resulted in his gaining special abilities and eventually understanding them albeit through trials. His father was killed within the year after he was blinded and Matt became a ward of a Catholic orphanage.

Attending law school, resulting in meeting his best friend (Foggy Nelson) and slating his life course. They interned together at a law firm before realizing they weren't doing what they wanted to, which was to actually help people, and they decided to establish their own firm.

Taking up the mantle of the vigilante Daredevil. Matt knew his abilities were being wasted, and he took up this position to try to make his city a better place. With this comes the balance of living two separate lives and sets up his life, interpersonal aspects especially, to crumble.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOUR CHARACTER?:

Doing what's right above all else. Protecting others, the helpless, and bringing criminals to justice, using his abilities to do such. The concepts of good versus evil, as expressed in the Catholic canon. Law and applying it to society, for the betterment of all.

WHAT IMPRESSION DO OTHERS TEND TO HAVE OF YOUR CHARACTER?:

People see Matt as a handsome, clearly blind, man who exudes confidence. He's smooth in his speech and fits well into any conversation. While confident, he's not at all against guidance from a helpfully offered arm and takes advantage of that. People aren't aware that he's anything other than blind. That with disability comes vulnerability.

As Daredevil, Matt is even more confident. Too confident. He's seen as a nuisance by some citizens, definitely all of the criminals, but also a threat. To many, however, he's viewed as heroic: as any vigilante in any story. Since people aren't aware of his identity, they see him as a man in a mask, strong, but sometimes reckless.

In a third category are the people who know both sides of Matt. These people can see the imbalance of his life, though they go along with him being 'blind' when in public. Everyone has a different reaction to learning that the guy they thought was blind isn't, but these people are the ones who see the truest version of Matt there is. To these people, Matt is even more honest, too, holding very little in. Why do so, when he's an honest person in general, and they already know the truth?

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THAT IMPRESSION DIFFER FROM WHO YOUR CHARACTER REALLY IS?:

Matt keeps his heightened abilities a secret from virtually everyone, but there was never ill intent behind doing so. He didn't openly discuss it because he knew that no one could understand. He never even told his father. He's only chosen to willingly talk about it with two people; Stick, and former love interest, Elektra. He lets everyone believe he's actually completely blind, because technically? He is blind.

Matt doesn't put on a facade of personality, though. With him, what you see is what you get. Whether he's acting the part of lawyer or Daredevil. Yes, he separates the two, living a life in the day and one at night, but again, it's not done for any reason other than to do what he believes is his calling. He also uses his abilities to be better than the criminals, to learn information that others couldn't. All in all, his true character always shines through. Confident and with purpose. Importantly too is how defined he is by being Daredevil. While he works to balance being a lawyer and Daredevil, when his day life shatters, through it all, he has no intention of giving up being Daredevil. He expresses how important this is to Foggy, although not even his best friend seems to quite grasp why he would risk everything to be Daredevil. Matt can't convey that to anyone other than Elektra.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER HANDLE CRISIS OR ADVERSITY?:

Matt doesn't back down. He'll fight to the point of nearly getting killed.

Emotionally, Matt tries to handle everything in his life alone, and he breaks under that self-inflicted pressure. Through the trial of Frank Castle, after Elektra comes back into his life, while his relationship with Karen Page falls apart, everything in Matt's professional life becomes frayed, and as a result, he becomes on the outs with his two best friends, Karen and Foggy. Matt firmly believed he could balance being Daredevil along with being a lawyer, but they came at odds too often. With his friends at odds with him, he didn't push to get them to move toward more understanding: no, Matt doesn't push his friends. Instead, he lets the distance grow, because he put himself in the position for it to.

Matt tries to handle everything on his own, and it comes back to bite him on the regular, more so the longer that he's Daredevil.

As a lawyer (when he actually shows up for his cases), with the adversity of criminal cases, Matt is on point. He handles his job expertly and is a damn good at getting his side to win.

WHICH 5 THINGS WILL YOUR CHARACTER REMEMBER UPON ARRIVAL, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?:

I chose the following so that Matt is not completely thrown off about his unique blindness, to give him definition of self and purpose, and because I thought all five would be interesting and fun.

1) He was blinded when he was young.
2) The understanding, the ability, to comprehend that his abilities exist, and how to focus so they don't become overwhelming.
3) He went to law school.
4) Being Catholic and how important it is to him.
5) His favorite type of scotch. Macallan.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU FEEL WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER?:




SKILLS, ABILITIES, & PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES:

Matt graduated summa cum laude from Columbia Law. He's very intelligent, perceptive, clever, and a problem solver. With his disability comes the knowledge of reading braille. He's bilingual, also speaking Spanish.

Matt is highly skilled in a variety of mixed martial arts, able to use a variety of melee weapons. Through being Daredevil, he's also learned how to be an expert at stealth and subtlety.

While blind, his vision is different to the point of being indescribable by himself. As he puts it, the way he sees the world is as if it's on fire. He can't read or see intricate detail, make out what someone's face actually looks like, see the spectrum of colors. But he's able to see the number of fingers Foggy holds up; to see the bulk of objects before him, to navigate. Comics canon might have a better explanation overall of this, but I'm basing it off the television program and my own understanding.

His other four senses are extremely heightened, very acute. There are many examples to list, many on the Wiki I linked, and I'll list a few here. Matt uses his senses to thoroughly gain an understanding of a situation, to learn more about a person and their motives, to experience the world around him. Everything is apparently more intense, extreme, and it heightens his view and scope of the world, of the people around him.

-Hearing (including echolocation and lie detection): Matt can hear heartbeats, which allows him to determine if someone is lying. If he doesn't center his focus, he'll become overwhelmed, too. He can hear voices from far away, if he reaches his sense out to do so, picking up full, clear conversations. He can also determine where objects are around him though echolocation. He gauges a good deal about a person's intent and their location through their breathing, as well.

-Touch: he uses silk sheets because cotton "feels like sandpaper on his skin"; he can detect minute changes in temperature around him.

-Smell, he detects a guy's cologne from several floors away, walls separating them.

-Taste: he's able to pinpoint very specific details, flavors, and elements of food (such as a type of ice cream being made from milk from multiple dairies); he references being able to taste copper in the air when someone is bleeding.

Agility + Reflexes + Balance: Matt can make great leaps and bounds, jump high distances (up and down!); can catch objects that fly at him and dodge bullets. Included in this is a honed physical strength and prowess.

Matt is able to accelerate his body's natural healing speed through the art of meditation.

Matt is human, even if he has heightened physical abilities, and thus has the resilience of one. His body goes through a great deal on the regular, so he has marks and scars and will be coming into the game with abrasions on his face.

INVENTORY:

-a white button up shirt
-a white undershirt
-a black tie
-a black suit
-a black jacket
-a pair of black dress shoes
-a pair of boxers briefs
-a pair of dress socks
-a black leather belt
-his glasses
-his foldable cane (that also serves as multi purpose weapon, although he won't initially remember that)

(1) a bottle of Macallan
(2) two wooden escrima sticks (as pictured here; meant for use in martial arts combat)
(3) a dark blue hoodie

SAMPLES

PROSE-HEAVY: here

DIALOGUE-HEAVY: here + here