[ Matt udoesn't really ever stray from Hell's Kitchen. Usually because he doesn't need to, but there's also the very apparenty fact that he doesn't know other parts of the city to the extent he knows his own neighbourhood. But sometimes, a Devil's gotta do what a Devil's gotta do.
He just didn't think it would take him all the way to Greenwich.
While the trip isn't a total waste of time, in the end, Matt's not exactly successful. Already exhausted from a long chase, his guy get the jump on him, and there's a good chance that he'd finish the job if it weren't for some distant sirens that scared him away. Good, Matt thinks, as he drags himself to sit against the wall of the alley. He can smell the blood seeping out of him.
Just a couple more minutes, he tells himself, then he'll pull himself up and drag his ass back to Hell's Kitchen and deal with this there. ]
[ the funny thing about being a local sorcerer who has to grapple with cosmic realities on a minute-to-minute basis is that you still need to get your own groceries. they don't just appear in the cupboard, thank-you gifts from the universe you have to safeguard. stephen thinks sometimes the least the world could do is get him a free pizza now and then.
he also has to deal with jet lag not infrequently, from all the teleportation. that's why he's making his way back to the sanctum late at night with takeout. as he passes by the darkened alley he uses to cut across a city block he catches out of the corner of his eye a flicker of movement. for a moment he thinks it's just a cat—
it's someone collapsed against the brick, which isn't abnormal for new york, but stephen knows what an injured person looks like. and even though his medical license is due to expire any minute now he stops, squints to make out the darkened figure in the light. ]
You're far from home.
[ it's the loftiness afforded someone who isn't easily frightened, but for people who don't know what he does he mostly just sounds a bit too forward. ]
[ Matt cracks a smile, and he laughs - well. Wheezes. It's not particularly funny save for the fact that people generally freak out either because he's Daredevil or because he's bleeding out or both. Maybe it's a little refreshing to have someone be so blunt.
And calm. ]
I thought I'd do some sight seeing.
[ Now that is funny.
In an attempt to keep up appearances, Matt wraps an arm around his stomach, as if somehow that might hold the blood in and give him some extra strength, and uses the wall to push himself up. Even in the dark, the way he staggers and sways is impossible to miss. ]
In Greenwich Village? [ he steps over quickly and sets down his takeout bag, one hand on matt's back and the other on his front to steady him out as he staggers back against the wall. ]
Hey, easy.
[ there's professional gentleness in that voice, someone who wasn't trained to coddle but rather to instruct. he leans matt against the brick and guides his hands away from the wound, brushing his own fingertips over a tear in the more flexible strip of the man's armor. he pulls his hand back, unsurprised and dismayed to find it wet. he looks him over, jaw set, thinking. ]
[ kind of as a weird nuance, as he's not sure he has the time or inclination to explain, especially since the flow of blood doesn't seem to want to stop anytime soon. his fingers in the dark fold in and then fan out. there's a funny bloom of warmth in matt's side, a trace of magic to slow down the free spill of blood in his side, but his ability to heal the wound altogether isn't instantaneous. ]
Come on. I'm right around the corner.
[ he isn't, technically: the sanctum is still a block and a half down bleecker. but he can reorient reality a little to make it so, and that's just as good. ]
[ Matt seems to always run into a medical professional exactly when he needs one. Normally he'd argue but he can feel how lightheaded he is, and he's not really sure he could figure out how to argue anyway. ]
You're not gonna .... Take my picture and plaster it on social media, are you?
[ He makes it sound like a joke, but it's obvious that he's serious. It's the only thing that makes him hesitate before he follows. ]
I don't really have an online presence right now, if that helps.
[ and then he curves his arm around matt's back to help him walk. as they turn the corner and pass an apartment building there's another alleyway where there normally isn't, and the path leads to a place that it shouldn't necessarily, but it's indistinguishable in the dark until a streetlight crackles ahead: the way out spits them on a sidewalk like any other sidewalk, just across from the sanctum sanctorum. even if matt could see the path they took doesn't seem like magic so much as it just seems like they took a back way. ]
[ Luckily, Matt's none the wiser. He stumbles along, grateful to have the devil's luck on his side. All he can do is vaguely nod that he understands, his breathing getting shallower as he tries to push his body to hold on just a bit longer.
Once they're through the door of the home - Matt notices it echoes a bit more, that they don't walk any stairs or get into any elevators, but it's not a townhouse. Too big. Too different sounding. His brain is too foggy to sort it out. ]
[ and then, a little ways to the side of the massive foyer, there's a bench. to most it will have seemed as though the bench was always there.
he eases matt down on top of it and hunkers down beside him. ]
I need a look at your injuries. I understand your type doesn't like getting undressed in front of others, but you also shouldn't be dripping blood, so ...
[ He huffs out something that is probably supposed to be a laugh. Matt knows he can't really weigh his options here. The mask comes off first, and he drops it carelessly to the floor by his feet before he starts fumbling around for the buckles that keeps everything in place. It's definitely harder than usual with the pain spreading through his abdomen. ]
[ stephen looks, because of course he can look. the man is handsome, easily, all cheekbones and a ready smile. there's plenty to like there, but there are more pressing matters at hand. ]
Well. Since you showed me yours.
[ he puts his hands out, turns them in air, and the various straps and buckles that hold together matt's armor start to unravel themselves. there's odd atmospheric pressure shifts near his hands, ebbs and flows in some kind of energy he pulls from thin air.
and then it's easy work, manual work, to help push off his clothes. a first aid kit pops up too, out of nowhere. ]
[ Were he in his right headspace, Matt would let out an incredulous laugh. Instead, he settles for: ]
Of course.
[ Leave it to him to find the super powered doctor living in Lower Manhattan. He can't quite feel it the way Stephen does, the way the magic moves, but Matt's hair stands up on his arms as if there's something in the air. ]
[ but his voice is extremely dry, in a way that suggests empty threat. ]
I'm going to close this up. I don't suppose you have a ...
[ needle phobia, he's about to say, but then he gets his first good look at the man's eyes: unfocused, unseeing. stephen blanches, fixates for a second, just to see if he can tell whether it's temporary, but. huh.
he shakes himself. there it's all manual, the way he pops open the kit, starts to staunch and clean up that unusual bloodflow. he's quick about it, the way only a medical professional can be, and that's even well before he pulls the suture kit out next. ]
[ Over the years, Matt's gotten very good at pointing out the moment when someone realizes he's blind. He exhales, then inhales sharply at the sting of antiseptic. ]
It's permanent. The blindness. Don't worry.
[ It's easier to talk through this part. Keep his mind on something else other than the inevitable but familiar discomfort. He and his dad used to talk, too, when Matt would clean him up after a fight. ]
I think ordinarily that would raise more questions than it answers.
[ his voice lackadaisical as he stoops down to start on those stitches. for precision work there's a matrix of light that climbs over his hands, thin and angled threads that hover over his skin at a distance, detectable mostly as fluctuations in the air. it helps with the tremors. ]
You're not planning on running out the door as soon as I'm done here, are you. I would advise against it.
Something tells me a guy who makes the news beating the tar out of criminals isn't an especially skilled listener.
[ it's good to keep him distracted from the pain and also from passing out on the lounge outright. with the aid of the spell stephen's work is quick, efficient - it's almost no time at all before the last stitch is snipped off. he dabs up the rest of the blood with the wet cloth and lifts his eyes to matt again. ]
I'm going to move us to a place you can lie down. For most people it's disorienting, so I'm going to take your hand. Okay?
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@sorserer
He just didn't think it would take him all the way to Greenwich.
While the trip isn't a total waste of time, in the end, Matt's not exactly successful. Already exhausted from a long chase, his guy get the jump on him, and there's a good chance that he'd finish the job if it weren't for some distant sirens that scared him away. Good, Matt thinks, as he drags himself to sit against the wall of the alley. He can smell the blood seeping out of him.
Just a couple more minutes, he tells himself, then he'll pull himself up and drag his ass back to Hell's Kitchen and deal with this there. ]
no subject
he also has to deal with jet lag not infrequently, from all the teleportation. that's why he's making his way back to the sanctum late at night with takeout. as he passes by the darkened alley he uses to cut across a city block he catches out of the corner of his eye a flicker of movement. for a moment he thinks it's just a cat—
it's someone collapsed against the brick, which isn't abnormal for new york, but stephen knows what an injured person looks like. and even though his medical license is due to expire any minute now he stops, squints to make out the darkened figure in the light. ]
You're far from home.
[ it's the loftiness afforded someone who isn't easily frightened, but for people who don't know what he does he mostly just sounds a bit too forward. ]
no subject
And calm. ]
I thought I'd do some sight seeing.
[ Now that is funny.
In an attempt to keep up appearances, Matt wraps an arm around his stomach, as if somehow that might hold the blood in and give him some extra strength, and uses the wall to push himself up. Even in the dark, the way he staggers and sways is impossible to miss. ]
no subject
Hey, easy.
[ there's professional gentleness in that voice, someone who wasn't trained to coddle but rather to instruct. he leans matt against the brick and guides his hands away from the wound, brushing his own fingertips over a tear in the more flexible strip of the man's armor. he pulls his hand back, unsurprised and dismayed to find it wet. he looks him over, jaw set, thinking. ]
I take it you don't do hospitals.
no subject
[ Matt cracks jokes in an effort to pretend everything is okay. Like he isn't bleeding out and chatting so casually to someone who's holding him up.
His head tilts a bit as he tries to keep his mind focused on anything but the shock threatening to take over his body. ]
You know any good doctors around here?
no subject
[ kind of as a weird nuance, as he's not sure he has the time or inclination to explain, especially since the flow of blood doesn't seem to want to stop anytime soon. his fingers in the dark fold in and then fan out. there's a funny bloom of warmth in matt's side, a trace of magic to slow down the free spill of blood in his side, but his ability to heal the wound altogether isn't instantaneous. ]
Come on. I'm right around the corner.
[ he isn't, technically: the sanctum is still a block and a half down bleecker. but he can reorient reality a little to make it so, and that's just as good. ]
no subject
You're not gonna .... Take my picture and plaster it on social media, are you?
[ He makes it sound like a joke, but it's obvious that he's serious. It's the only thing that makes him hesitate before he follows. ]
no subject
I don't really have an online presence right now, if that helps.
[ and then he curves his arm around matt's back to help him walk. as they turn the corner and pass an apartment building there's another alleyway where there normally isn't, and the path leads to a place that it shouldn't necessarily, but it's indistinguishable in the dark until a streetlight crackles ahead: the way out spits them on a sidewalk like any other sidewalk, just across from the sanctum sanctorum. even if matt could see the path they took doesn't seem like magic so much as it just seems like they took a back way. ]
That's my place. Slowly, now.
no subject
Once they're through the door of the home - Matt notices it echoes a bit more, that they don't walk any stairs or get into any elevators, but it's not a townhouse. Too big. Too different sounding. His brain is too foggy to sort it out. ]
Need to sit down -
no subject
[ and then, a little ways to the side of the massive foyer, there's a bench. to most it will have seemed as though the bench was always there.
he eases matt down on top of it and hunkers down beside him. ]
I need a look at your injuries. I understand your type doesn't like getting undressed in front of others, but you also shouldn't be dripping blood, so ...
no subject
Might need some help here.
no subject
Well. Since you showed me yours.
[ he puts his hands out, turns them in air, and the various straps and buckles that hold together matt's armor start to unravel themselves. there's odd atmospheric pressure shifts near his hands, ebbs and flows in some kind of energy he pulls from thin air.
and then it's easy work, manual work, to help push off his clothes. a first aid kit pops up too, out of nowhere. ]
Hold still.
no subject
Of course.
[ Leave it to him to find the super powered doctor living in Lower Manhattan. He can't quite feel it the way Stephen does, the way the magic moves, but Matt's hair stands up on his arms as if there's something in the air. ]
no subject
[ but his voice is extremely dry, in a way that suggests empty threat. ]
I'm going to close this up. I don't suppose you have a ...
[ needle phobia, he's about to say, but then he gets his first good look at the man's eyes: unfocused, unseeing. stephen blanches, fixates for a second, just to see if he can tell whether it's temporary, but. huh.
he shakes himself. there it's all manual, the way he pops open the kit, starts to staunch and clean up that unusual bloodflow. he's quick about it, the way only a medical professional can be, and that's even well before he pulls the suture kit out next. ]
no subject
It's permanent. The blindness. Don't worry.
[ It's easier to talk through this part. Keep his mind on something else other than the inevitable but familiar discomfort. He and his dad used to talk, too, when Matt would clean him up after a fight. ]
no subject
[ his voice lackadaisical as he stoops down to start on those stitches. for precision work there's a matrix of light that climbs over his hands, thin and angled threads that hover over his skin at a distance, detectable mostly as fluctuations in the air. it helps with the tremors. ]
You're not planning on running out the door as soon as I'm done here, are you. I would advise against it.
no subject
[ If he can still be a smartass, he must be more or less okay. ]
Mm. People advise me against things all the time.
[ He doesn’t look like he’ll be running, though. Even while he’s being stitched up, Matt looks ready to pass out. ]
no subject
Something tells me a guy who makes the news beating the tar out of criminals isn't an especially skilled listener.
[ it's good to keep him distracted from the pain and also from passing out on the lounge outright. with the aid of the spell stephen's work is quick, efficient - it's almost no time at all before the last stitch is snipped off. he dabs up the rest of the blood with the wet cloth and lifts his eyes to matt again. ]
I'm going to move us to a place you can lie down. For most people it's disorienting, so I'm going to take your hand. Okay?
no subject
Thanks.
[ He reaches vaguely for Stephen's hand, gripping it as hard as he can. Which isn't a lot right now. ]
I'm Matt.
[ That seems important to say. ]