Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 8:09:15 GMT
[PTabbedContent][PTab=GENERAL INFORMATION] CHARACTER INFO: NAME: Matthew Murdock ALIAS: Daredevil, The Man In The Mask, The Devil of Hell's Kitchen AGE: 27 OCCUPATION: Attorney/Vigilante MEMBER GROUP: Superhumans POWERS AND ABILITIES:
PLAYBY: Charlie Cox OOC INFO: PLAYER NAME: rez AGE: 26 GENDER: F TIMEZONE: GMT -5 (Eastern) OTHER CHARACTERS: None [/PTab][PTab=PERSONNEL ASSESSMENT] PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT: LIKES: Records. Matt has a fondness for vinyl, which makes up most of his somewhat eclectic music collection. There's a certain warmth to it that he doesn't get from CDs or digital files. Helping people. Matt's always been the type to stick up for the little guy. The cases may not pay, but money is never the point. Whether it's in the courtroom or on the streets at night, Matt's commitment is to justice, to protecting the innocent, to cleaning up his city. Women. He's not a playboy, per se, but Foggy remarks about how he always seems to find the pretty ones. Matt's circumstances mean any kind of meaningful long-term companionship is out of the question for the time being. So he has to make due with the temporary kind to alleviate that loneliness, even just a little bit. (The enhanced tactile sense certainly doesn't hurt, either). Training. Matt spends many nights at Fogwell's gym, laying into the heavy bag. It's part practical, keeping in shape, another part stress relief, and to some degree it helps him feel closer to the father he lost... Even if his father wouldn't want him fighting in the first place. Josie's. It might be a dive bar, but it's Matt and Foggy's dive bar. It's part of the character of Hell's Kitchen, and Matt appreciates the atmosphere. Dogs. Well, he can't argue. Everyone likes dogs. Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Though he hasn't been the best Catholic, and religion often brings him conflicted feelings of guilt, he finds the Cathedral to be a calming place. Somewhere he can think, and clear his head, and refocus his thoughts and feelings. He also very much appreciates the spiritual guidance of Father Lantom. DISLIKES: Corporate law. Matt had his fill of it as an intern at Landman and Zack. Defending faceless corporations is a soul-sucking endeavor, and he was all too eager to exchange that ivory tower for something a little more street-level. His own anger. That seething rage - the devil in him - is something he's having a harder and harder time coping with. It wants him to cross his line in the sand, and he can't deny that some of the arguments in favor are far too compelling. Touchscreens. They've been nothing but annoying in their newfound ubiquity. He's sure they're nice if you don't have to rely on touch to read things. He'll just be over in the corner pining for actual buttons. Garbage day. Even though he can focus his sense of smell... Well, it's garbage day in New York City and he has a nose like a bloodhound. On those days, a dab of Vick's goes a long way. Especially in the summer. Lying. He hates having to keep his best friend in the dark, but he can't see how Foggy could understand his situation, and he doesn't want to risk him getting caught in the crossfire for his war on Wilson Fisk. STRENGTHS: Matt's willpower might be his greatest strength. It's not just his ability to take a punch that keeps him going, but sheer stubborn force of will that keeps one foot moving in front of the other. Of course, this could tend towards single-mindedness, but Matt isn't one to leave things unfinished. When he starts something, he will see it through all the way to the end, no matter how bad it gets. This doesn't mean that he doesn't have moments of weakness or self-doubt or times when he wants to give up... But he's a Murdock. Like his father before him, he'll pick himself up off the mat, refocus, and keep swinging. Matt's intelligence, fostered by his father's constant urging to use his brain so he wouldn't end up boxing for a living, has been the primary reason for his success in life. He has a sharp mind, a good memory, strong deductive reasoning skills and a thirst for the truth. He's also quite clever and quick-witted, with a sometimes surprising sense of humor. Matt has a kind of quiet, low-key charm. His demeanor makes it fairly easy for people to feel comfortable around him. He jokes just enough, but not so much as to be "the funny guy". He's confident but certainly not cocky, and can be self-deprecating without seeming pathetic. His easygoing nature puts his clients at ease and on occasion allows his rivals to underestimate him. WEAKNESSES: The most obvious of Matt's weaknesses is his blindness, although he's lived with it long enough that it doesn't bother him anymore. His senses allow him to perceive the space and shape of things, but the details - the look in someone's eye, the contrast in colour on a painting, the cinematography in a film - are lost to him. It's also necessary for him to use various screen readers and braille attachments when dealing with technology. To some extent, it's more the facade of blindness that gets in his way rather than the actual disability. He doesn't need to use his cane and he could probably still get by touch-reading even without braille, but he has to keep his gifts a secret and thus stay under the radar. On the topic of his gifts, it's possible for sensory overload to get the better of him. For the most part he's learned to tune out the general background noise of the world and only focus on what he needs to hear, but various circumstances may lead to this control getting disrupted and Matt essentially being "blinded" by the excessive sensory input. His stubborn insistence on carrying out his crusade alone is also to his detriment. He doesn't want anyone else involved, he doesn't want to turn his friends into targets, and so he lies to them and keeps them in the dark and even pushes them away. A part of him realizes he needs the support, but if anything happened to his friends he wouldn't be able to handle the guilt. He wouldn't want them to see the devil in him, anyway. His anger is definitely a weak spot. If it gets the better of him, it prevents him from thinking clearly. He's far more susceptible to traps if provoked into a rage. GOALS: Primarily, Matt wants to save his city. He wants to make Hell's Kitchen a safer place. He wants to make it so there aren't so many sirens at night, and so many unanswered cries for help. He wants the innocent civilians to sleep without fear, and the criminals to be paralyzed by it. And mingled in with all of that is his personal vendetta - he wants to take down Wilson Fisk. FEARS: Matt fears his anger, and how it might bring him to cross that line and turn into the very thing he hates. While breaking bones and leaving men in comas isn't exactly a stunning example of morality - and he is fully aware of that - his refusal to kill is his line in the sand. It's the one thing he can point to, definitively, and use to separate himself from the criminals he fights. The temptation to kill certain criminals - and the strength of that temptation - terrifies him for what it might mean about him. OVERALL PERSONALITY: At his core, Matt Murdock is a man concerned with justice. He's a man who wants to do the right thing, who wants to be one of the good guys. This informs everything about him - from his career choices, to how he interacts with everyone around him. At his best he's a sympathetic ear and morally upstanding, even incorruptible; untouchable by the dirty money that's bribed so many judges and bought some of the best legal defense in the world. He genuinely wants to help the innocent. He wants to do everything in his power to make his city a better place. But that high-minded idealism doesn't make him some intolerable moralizer; he's still more or less a down to earth guy, professional in the workplace and easygoing with his friends, pleasant to be around (usually), and a good and loyal friend... when he isn't lying about his extracurricular activities. There's the problem. Matt can be a hypocrite. For all his talk about faith in the justice system, he's the guy donning a mask at night to punch people in the face. For all his talk about teamwork, he's the guy lying to his friends and taking this crusade upon himself with no thought to having somebody to share the burden. For all his thoughts of morality and his faith in God, he's the one who feels the Devil inside him and wonders just how much of Hell's Kitchen's problems would be solved if he killed Wilson Fisk. Under the guise of the young, successful lawyer there's a lonely, angry, guilt-ridden man trying desperately to keep himself on the righteous path. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: BIRTHPLACE: Hell's Kitchen, New York City, New York RESIDENCE: Matt has a corner apartment in Hell's Kitchen. It's outrageously spacious for New York, but the rent is cheap because of the bright white light coming off of a billboard across the street, shining through the living room windows. But it's not like Matt notices. PARENTS: Jonathan "Battlin' Jack" Murdock - father, deceased. His mother has been out of the picture since before his accident. SIBLINGS: Matt's an only child. IMPORTANT RELATIVES: Matt is estranged from whatever blood relatives he might have. Though not related, Stick became something of a father figure to him in his youth, and his best friend Foggy Nelson is like a brother. IMPORTANT PERSON: Matt doesn't currently have a significant other. His romantic entanglements tend not to be very long term. OVERALL HISTORY: Matt Murdock never grew up with much besides his father and his intellect. Battlin' Jack was no Mayweather. He couldn't even afford the doctor's bill to get stitched up after his fights - that duty fell to Matt, not even in the double digits at the time. Mother Murdock was out of the picture, and Jack was left supporting Matt and paying rent by getting punched in the face for a living. But Jack Murdock always had his son's best interests in mind - he pushed Matt to use his head, to do his homework, to work hard and learn so he wouldn't end up some dumb boxer like his old man. If there was one thing Jack Murdock never wanted, it was for his son to fight. Matt was only nine when he lost his sight. He saw a man crossing in front of a truck that couldn't stop. Like a good Catholic boy, his first instinct was to help. So Matt pushed the man out of the way, the truck overturned, and its chemical cargo splashed in Matt's eyes and took away his sight. After that accident, Matt began having bouts of sensory overload - everything seemed painfully loud. His father was always there to help him focus, and to keep him on the right track. Jack Murdock did everything he could to help Matt adapt to his new circumstances - paying for it all by taking dives in his fights at the behest of Irish gangsters. Matt overheard them making one such arrangement, a fight against Crusher Creel, where Jack was ordered to go down in the fifth. Matt hadn't realized until then just what his father had to do to make ends meet. Matt couldn't tell his dad what he'd heard, but the night of the fight he spoke with Battlin' Jack and reminded him - Murdocks get back up. No matter what. Jack Murdock defeated Crusher Creel by knockout. He was murdered on his way home, leaving behind his son Matt and a bundle of cash from his betting on the fight that would last Matt for a long, long time. Matt found his father's body, and never forgave himself for what he saw as causing his father's death. After that, with no one to take care of him, Matt went to live at the St. Agnes orphanage. Without his father to focus him, Matt became overwhelmed by his enhanced senses, unable to do anything but cover his ears and lie on his bed wishing for it all to stop. One of the nuns at the orphanage reached out to a man named Stick who was also blind and, like Matt, possessed 'gifts'. Stick took it upon himself to train Matt to not only handle and hone his senses, but to fight. Stick was preparing for a war that Matt knew nothing about. Matt just wanted a father. Eventually, this growing attachment caused Stick to abruptly end Matt's training and leave him, never contacting him in the intervening 20 years. From then on, Matt was able to live a mostly normal life. He channeled his gifted intellect towards the study of law, appealing to his sense of justice. Perhaps he'd be able to put men like those who killed his father behind bars. Perhaps he'd be able to clean up the city he loved. Still supported by the money his father won prior to his death, Matt attended Columbia where he met his new roommate and future best friend, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. The two bonded quickly and became inseparable, vowing as graduation closed in that they would go on and practice law together and one day have their own firm. Following graduation and a soul-sucking internship at Landman and Zack, they did just that. But in the interim, Matt had taken up another job. At night, his senses allowed him to hear the city... the cries for help, the distant sirens, the screams. The horror of a man molesting his daughter. Matt attempted to remedy that situation through legal channels, but the wife didn't believe it and the man denied it and the abuse continued. One night, Matt followed the man to work, seething with rage, and ambushed him. He beat the man bloody, broke his jaw and his nose, and told him that if he ever laid a hand on his daughter again he was dead. That righteous anger gave birth to the man in the mask, the future Daredevil. Matt realized he really could make a difference, beyond the red-tape of the legal system. He could save his city street by street. [/PTab][PTab=IMAGE][/PTab][/PTabbedContent={width:485px;border:0px;margin-left:-2px;}] |