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User Name/Nick: Laus.
Alternate method of contact: blackspire or PM.
Other Characters Currently In-Game: Tim Gutterson, Ken, Gale Dekarios.

Character Name: Matthew "Matt" Murdock.
Series: Daredevil.
Age: 33.
From When?: Season 3, Episode 4. After escaping during a prison riot incited to attack him, Matt gets into a taxi. He momentarily passes out inside the cab, and upon waking up, the driver is gone and the car is heading towards the river. Matt does not escape in time and the car goes under.

Inmate Justification: Matt is, at his heart, a good person. However, it's his methods and his personal issues that put him on the side of inmate. Matt believes that the best way to do things is to do it himself, often taking this to the extreme of believing that he is the only answer to a problem. He shuts out people by lying to them, whether blatantly or by omission, and finds it difficult to unburden himself from the both the Catholic guilt and responsibility he's put on himself. He also, by his own admission, enjoys when he gets to beat up criminals, to the point where it's becoming harder for him to keep from crossing the line into taking a life.

Working with someone on the barge will help Matt learn that it's okay to trust people, and that he doesn't have to do things alone. It's never too late to turn over a new leaf, and he'll probably find some of the peace he's looking for if he lets others in.

Arrival: Matt almost arrives against his will, but decides to see some higher meaning in being saved from death again, so ultimately agrees to come on board.

Abilities/Powers:

Athleticism: Matt's trained many years to be in peak physical condition. Not only is he an excellent boxer, he can also perform feats of parkour, and even do all that fun ninja stuff (flipping, spinning before kicking, etc.). This is all just inherent physical ability that can't be nerfed, but, due to what's stated below, he won't be able to perform with as much precision as he's used to.

Super-heightened Senses: Thanks to a chemical spill, Matt lost his eyesight but the rest of his senses increased to hypersensitivity. His hearing is accurate enough he can pick out a very specific tick of a watch a block away on a crowded New York Street. He can taste particles of blood in the air and smell the difference in meats from across a restaurant. His touch is sensitive enough that he can feel letters printed in books, or lines printed on blueprints. All this combined means that Matt's senses give him a clear enough picture of his surroundings that he can walk into a space and act like a man with actual sight, convincingly, and it certainly gives him a boost when it comes to being a hero. That said, upon arriving on the Barge, his senses will be completely normal. Nothing special here.

Inmate Information: [cw: brief mention of abuse, suicidal idealization]

Despite being raised by a single father in a not-so-great neighbourhood, Matt was a good kid. He was studious, curious, and believed in doing good in the world. Around the age of eight, he saved a man from getting hit by a truck during an accident. The truck crashed and spilled some sort of chemical, which got into Matt's eyes and blinded him. It also gave him peculiar abilities, though he kept those to himself. It was around this time that he also learned that the world isn't full of good, too. Thanks to his superhuman hearing, he discovered that his father - a well-known boxer - was getting paid to throw fights, something he started doing to make sure he could take care of Matt. One night, his father wanted Matt to hear cheers for him winning just once, so he didn't throw the fight and ended up dead for his actions. At the orphanage where Matt was raised, he was found by an old blind man named Stick, who's the one who taught him how to hone his powers and began to train him to be a part of a special army. When young Matt showed affection for Stick by giving him a bracelet made of an ice cream wrapper, Stick abandoned him.

And so Matt's life progressed as normally as it could despite his abilities. He went to law school, he got amazing grades and graduated top of his class, though a girl threatened to change that. When he met his girlfriend, Elektra, she convinced him too easily to bend the law in the name of fun. They even broke into a house, which Matt learned belonged to the man that killed his father. Despite his anger, he couldn't bring himself to kill the man, but that sparked the spiral Matt would soon find himself going down. Not long after, Matt heard a little girl crying because her father abused her, and Matt hunted the man down in the night and left him beaten to a pulp by some train tracks.

Following that incident, Matt began to believe that it was what he had to do. No one in his area of the city was doing anything to help. By day, he'd be the lawyer, doing things by the book, but by night he would dress all in black and continue to bend the law like Elektra had taught him. He feels his self-imposed burden acutely, and when confessing to his priest that he felt guilt over his actions, he followed by saying, "The guilt means the work isn't done." The cycle is vicious - fight bad guys to absolve guilt, feel guilty for enjoying it. By Matt's own admission, he feels empty if he's not Daredevil. Being a vigilante makes him feel alive and he doesn't know to live without that part of his life. Matt has tried several times to give it up and he continues to go back to it, backing up his claim.

It's probably not out of the question to say that Matt's addicted to being Daredevil. He displays common addiction behaviours when it comes to that part of his life. The first and most obvious one is his dishonesty. Part of this is, of course, born out of the idea of having a hidden identity. But even once his closest friends know that he's Daredevil, he continues to spin tales. He tells them small lies about his behaviour to keep them from knowing what he's truly up to (in his mind, it's to keep them safe). At a point just before arriving on the Barge, Matt actively stole his former best friend's law license to break into a high security prison. He puts his own wants first, often shirking promises made. This is another sign of addiction, seeing Matt pull away from his career and abandoning people depending on Matt Murdock in favour of pursuing Daredevil's actions. For example, when Elektra returned and needed Matt's help in some subterfuge, and Matt chose her over his firm's first major trial. This led to the breaking of the partnership of his firm. Matt actively sought to push away those closest to him and he achieved it. And like any addiction, it is always escalating. It's not uncommon to see Matt smirk beneath his mask before taking on a fight, nor is it surprising that the simple act of beating someone up isn't enough. Each fight he goes a little further, he displays a little more violence and a little less consideration. When Matt suggested to Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher, that "maybe just this once" he put someone down permanently, it was Frank of all people who had to talk him down. In Frank's words, Matt's only one bad day away from being just like Frank, and once that line's crossed there's no going back.

But the vicious cycle comes around again. Matt truly feels like he's the only person that can solve the problems in Hell's Kitchen, that no one else understands his burden or his calling or the importance of it all. Everyone has heard Daredevil call it "his city". But, again not unlike an addict, when the high wears down, he feels the crushing weight of emptiness and guilt. This is where self-nihilism starts to settle in. When Matt sees an out to it all, he tells his unlikely friends to take care of his city and lets himself go under a collapsing building. He had accepted his end, but he somehow survived. Matt's behaviour from there changed, from seeking out big fights to chase a high to seeking out big fights to find an end to it all. It was the first time, too, he full let Daredevil seep into his day-to-day life, and the first time he renounced God. He began to have hallucinatory experiences involving his father and his number one enemy, Wilson Fisk, where he would even interact with these figments of his mind.

Matt's first 'death' came about as a result of him feeling his work could finally be done. Matt's second 'death' wasn't, surprisingly enough, intentional. A new purpose had lit his path and the Barge is his new means-to-an-end. He's spent his whole life adapting to the twists and turns thrown at him, and it shouldn't be shocking to know that he relishes a challenge. Yet, here's here because there's still hope for him. Ask anyone and they'll tell you he's a good person, just misguided. He works pro bono for multi-million dollar lawsuits simply because he doesn't want to take advantage of anyone, and before then he worked for pastries to help those who couldn't afford legal aid. He's not unlikeable, either. His self-depracating humour makes it easy for a person to lower their guard around him, he's a man of conviction, he's full of good-intentions no matter how misled they are. His closest friends would probably be the first to admit that all that is just buried under the other life Matt's created, and he needs help finding it again.

Path to Redemption:

Matt needs to achieve a few things on the Barge to be considered redeemed. The first is, of course, learning how to find fulfillment from other aspects of his life. He's a successful lawyer, he has a group of people who care about him, he has so many other aspects to his life that he seems incapable of appreciating. There's not much reason for him to put on a costume and fight crime here, which means that Matt might feel inclined to find ways to foster his self-destructive or self-sabotaging habits. When he starts to make the choice to avoid conflict for the sake of conflict, that will be a good sign he's heading in the right direction. Another good milestone for this would also be him actively reflecting when those urges creep up, along with knowing when he should intervene with things and when he shouldn't.

Matt also needs to learn that it's okay to ask for help. Historically, he only does when his back is against the wall and he has no choice. Also historically, it works out well for him, but he still continues to shun the opportunity to open himself up. Matt plays his cards close to his chest. He needs to allow himself to be vulnerable. Most importantly, he needs to see himself the way other people do, which is the good guy and the hero, not the terrible version of himself he thinks he is. Finding a way to live as both Matt Murdock and as Daredevil, learning how both sides of him can balance each other out, is the final piece to Matt's journey.

Being on the Barge will be a shock, not least of all because there's no need for Daredevil here. Without his abilities, Matt will feel out of his element. For the first time in his life, he'll be at a true disability, and will need to learn how to function without his heightened senses guiding him. But he's smart and a quick learner, and he'll learn quickly ways to overcome challenges. He's going to be reluctant to ask for help more than he needs it, but that will be a jarring experience for him, too. He doesn't want to seem helpless unless it's on purpose, and his pride is going to take some hits. He'll accept a warden but, given his independent nature, he may brush off early attempts to help him. There will need to be a build up of trust before Matt lets his warden in enough to start working out all those problems.

A good warden for Matt is going to be someone others might consider gruff. His father was kind but rough-and-tumble, and Stick, Matt's other mentor, was a no-bullshit kind of guy. Matt responds best to people that are blunt and don't hold back their opinions, even when it's tough to hear, but it can't be someone who's an asshole just to be an asshole. Matt respects good people. Still, he needs a warden that will push back at him and will call him out. A warden who sugarcoats things or walks on eggshells around him won't have much success. Matt doesn't like to be coddled. He'll be more annoyed than grateful towards someone using a more gentle approach. A good way to get results from Matt is to set him with a challenge, but not simply saying it's a challenge. While he'll see through the tactic, there has to be a degree of him coming to the conclusion to pursue it himself. Finding ways to utilize his persistent nature, and giving him distractions, will help him focus and stay busy. Matt isn't driven by rewards or praise, so while getting his abilities back would be nice to help him feel more comfortable, using those to motivate him wouldn't inspire much. The end-game would be his warden helping Matt realize that everything he's afraid of letting go will actually be the most beneficial to saving the people he's trying to protect back home.

History: Here.

Sample Network Entry: Here.

Sample RP: Here.