Matt Murdock

PHASE 1

Matt Murdock
File:Matt-wiki.jpg Portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones
Codename:	Ping (trainee name), Daredevil
Affiliations:	X-Men
Birthdate:	May 10, 1995
Journal:	I dare you to tell me to walk through the fire, wear my soul, and call me a liar
Player:	Maureen

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon

Details

Character Journal: x_daredevil

Real Name: Matthew Michael Murdock

Codename: Ping (trainee name), Daredevil

Aliases: Matt Murdock, Jack Batlin (AoA)

First Appearance: 3/29/2011

Date of Birth: May 10, 1995

Place of Birth: New York, New York

Citizenship: USA

Relatives: Father: Jonathan “Jack” Murdock (aka Batlin’ Jack), deceased; Mother: Margaret Grace Callahan (aka Sister Maggie), unknown to Matt as his mother

Education: high school graduate (2013), Pace University (freshman fall 2013)

Relationship Status: Single

Occupation: Student, X-Man trainee

Team Affiliation: X-Men

Former Team Affiliation: New Mutants

Biography

Murdock Family

Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Some people…aren’t. Matt Murdock was one of those people. His father, Jack, was a high school dropout, alcoholic, and a wannabe professional boxer who never amounted to anything serious in the ring. His mother was a high school girl who thought she was in love with a boxer until she discovered that she was pregnant and realized, she did not want to be married to a man who was barely able to support himself, much less her and a child and did not want to be a mother at 18. However, she was Catholic and did not believe in abortion either.

Nine months later, she left the baby with Jack hoping that a child would be the impetus that he needed to get his life together. It had been that or putting the child up for adoption, an option she did not favor as she would have no way to check up on her child or know how he was doing. Her parents had insisted though, a closed adoption would be best. Yes, there were other options, she recognized that peripherally, but she was a good daughter, or at least she tried to be, and she was scared. In regards to her child, she did what she hoped was best.

Having a child did help Jack, to an extent. He still boxed, but he also got a job working construction and sometimes for the local mob, and while his drinking continued, it lessened and it was more likely to occur at home instead of at the bar. It was at least something. Over the next several years Jack worked a number of odd jobs in an attempt to put food on the table with varying degrees of success. He pushed his son in school to always do well, helping him as much as he could with very limited means. He enrolled him in after school tutoring programs, extended day programs, free Y camps for gymnastics and vacation bible school in the summers, anything he could that was free or Matt could get a scholarship to so that he would do well in school and stay out of trouble. Jack did not want his son to be the loser that he was.

Childhood

Matt grew up getting taunted for how much studying he did, even at a young age and it frequently meant that he was in fights with the other kids. His father forbade him from fighting, the only time that his father had ever hit him was the day he had come home with a black eye and crowing about how he had punched the other kid and how he had gone down, TKO!

Shocked and bewildered by his father hitting him, Matt ran, staying away for two days. He was on his way home, crossing a busy intersection in New York when he saw a blind man ahead of him about to be hit by a truck. He pushed the man out of the way and was hit by the truck instead. The truck belonged to Stark Industries and the driver had been running late, taking a short cut and driving faster than he really should have been, especially with barrels of chemicals in the back.

Some of the barrels tipped and broke open, the entire situation was a mess from start to finish, and 12 year old Matt woke up in the hospital a few days later, his father by his side, blind. Permanently. Over the next few weeks, Matt began occupational therapy, learning to use a cane and read Braille. At the same time, he kept hearing things, getting pounding migraines and complaining that everything was too loud. The doctors thought that this was a side effect from the chemicals that blinded him or from Matt hitting his head and having some sort of traumatic brain injury. Despite all their tests all the doctors were able to do was prescribe Matt pain medication to help with the migraines.

Even with the generous settlement that Stark Industries gave to the Murdock’s to help cover Matt’s medical expenses and whatnot, Jack had to work hard to keep the family together. He stopped drinking entirely, training hard for boxing matches even though he was over 40 by this point and well over the hill for a boxer. Jack tried to make himself an example for Matt who was working hard to relearn the most basic tasks and dealing with crippling migraines. Jack thought that if Matt could do it, rebuild his life, he could do it too. Simple enough.

During this time Matt had taken to stealing his father’s pain medication to help supplement his own when it didn’t work, taking more than his prescribed dosage. Nothing was ever that simple though. Jack’s games were being fixed by the local mob boss and he wasn’t winning out of ability, strategy or talent in the ring. After weeks of consistent wins, Jack was ordered to take a dive. To lose. Matt was in the audience like normal, cheering his father on from the front row even though he hated the noise and smells there, he never missed one of his dad’s matches unless he was in the throes of a migraine so bad that he couldn’t stand up without puking. Jack couldn’t do it. He couldn’t intentionally lose with his son sitting right there, cheering him on. Matt was the reason he had stopped drinking, the reason he had gone back to boxing. No. He wouldn’t lose.

After that match, after he had showered in the locker room and gotten dressed to meet Matt so they could go home, he left through the back door and met two goons that worked for the mob boss. He wasn’t too surprised. He had expected to get worked over, maybe bust a rib or two. They beat him to a bloody pulp, then shot him, all within Matt’s hearing.

Jack was unrecognizable to Matt when he was taken to the city medical examiner to identify his father’s body. He ran his fingers over Jack’s face slowly, trying to identify his features, but they were too disfigured. In the end, the priest of the church made the identification along with finger prints. Without any family that Matt knew of, and the nun his father was friends with and who helped him sometimes at religious school or as an altar boy, Sister Maggie, he was remanded into state custody.

Fostercare

It only took a couple months in foster care before Matt got into trouble for stealing medication and less time than that for him to get in trouble for fighting. The home he was in had several children of varying ages and with different needs and he was the second oldest. There was another girl a year or so older than he was. Coming home early one day, he found her upstairs in the bedroom with their foster father. When he said something to his foster sister, she denied any sort of inappropriate relations and made him promise not to say anything. It took a few months, but he caught them again one night after everyone was asleep. This time, he didn’t say anything to anyone and just got a baseball bat and beat the crap out of his foster father.

He was arrested and sent to juvenile hall. Spending a couple weeks there, mostly in solitary due to his disability, Matt was released from juvie and put into a therapeutic group home and ordered to counseling. His dependence on pain medication to help keep the migraines away increased in juvie with the stress both physically and emotionally, but also on his enhanced senses. The group home wasn’t a bad place though, Matt actually liked it for the most part. It was…stable. A lot more so than some of the other places he’d been.

After being arrested for attempting to buy drugs to help ease the pain in his head, Matt was sent to rehab to get off drugs and receive therapy. It was there that a doctor considered that there might be more going on than a traumatic brain injury leading to migraines due to noises and smells. Familiar with Dr. McCoy and Dr. MacTaggert's work, the doctor evaluated Matt and a test revealed that he was a mutant. A battery of tests later, Matt’s pain finally eased as he was placed in a sensory deprivation chamber for the first time.

When he was released from rehab, he was sent to Xavier’s School to try again without getting into trouble. With Xavier’s able to teach him what he needed to know about powers control, he would hopefully be able to stop taking all the pain medication that he had been dependent on for so many years. He is still in the foster system and meets every 6 weeks or so as needed with his case worker(s) to determine that everything is still okay and is subject to random drug tests. He is also able to be adopted should anyone be interested.

Living At The X-Mansion

Matt was brought to the X-Mansion in March of 2011, convinced that he would mess up and be sent away from there too - it was just a matter of time. What he has found however is a place that bends over backwards to make his life more easy; from a custom room that is soundproofed and has a deodorizer installed and sheets with a high thread count to a section of braille books in the library, Matt couldn't ask for better. With the sound proofed room he has found a place he can retreat when he has sensory overload.

He has also begun making friends, first with his roommate Artie Maddicks, then with the other students. Things took a backward turn though during My Long Forgotten Son. After all that was resolved, Artie's attitude was inappropriate, especially with how he spoke to Molly Hayes. Matt took it upon himself to deal with his roommate, beating him up. Since then, they have not really interacted beyond the necessary.

In order to try to make up some of the education he missed due to his accident and being in juvie and rehab, Matt is currently working through summer school to try to graduate closer to 18 years old. While out celebrating Yvette's 19th birthday, Matt was affected along with the others at Silver (Mortimer Toynbee's Electric Funkedelic Boogaloo). He managed to not fall back into his addiction, though it was not an easy thing to resist.

Matt found a sister-figure in Molly and a father-figure in Wade Wilson, though he still studies all the time and reads incessantly.

Genosha and Addiction

Kidnapped along with the others at the rally, Matt woke up naked and powerless in Genosha, a prisoner and labeled as a terrorist. For the first time in his life, he was truly blind and was terrified. Even when he hadn't known he was a mutant and hadn't known how to use his powers, they were still there, but with them gone, he had no idea how to deal with his blindness. The torture only began there as he was selected to become a mutate. The process did not finish and he was able to regain his powers and escape with Meggan and Fred, though at the cost of being sealed into a mutate skinsuit.

Once escaped, Matt, Meggan and Fred did their best to get out of the city, eventually meeting up with Wade and Jean-Philippe and stealing a truck. Outside the city, they were able to make camp, though they were no less safe. This entire time, Matt was overwhelmed and trying to hold it together. A repurposed stick became his walking cane, which helped alleviate some of his anxiety about everything and gave him a weapon he knew how to use should he need it. He did, as he and a couple others played bait to a magistrate patrol. Stopping the patrol didn't end their problems as another group of magistrates came upon him and Wade. Wade killed a man who was about to kill Matt, which Matt was grateful for. This sent his faith into a questioning spiral.

When they meet up with the others at the Citadel finally, Matt has to face mutate Callie and her plants. His powers come in unexpectedly handy as he can hear where her roots are growing and about to break the surface to attack people. When the fight against Moreau began, Matt ducked out of the way since he did not have an offensive power or much training. Despite that, his lockpicking skills came in handy for detaching the tail. Angelo's days as a delinquent came in handy later as he, Angelo and John disrupted the electrical system in the exoskeleton by making impromptu molotov cocktails.

The aftermath of Genosha took it's toll on Matt though. He was reluctant to discuss anything that happened with anyone since he felt that they were going through their own hells of nightmares and problems and he didn't want to add to that. Matt renewed going to church more often and did talk once with Scott a little about what happened with Wade. It wasn't enough and he quickly turned to drugs again to help him deal with everything.

A few weeks after starting to use ecstasy, Matt was caught by Amanda and turned in to the professor. At first, Matt was terrified that he was going to be kicked out of what was now his home and sent back into the system to rehab and probably juvie again. Instead, he was allowed to detox at the mansion and was sent to counseling with his movements highly restricted. Matt lost any trust the staff had in him and had to take random drug tests to prove his continue sobriety.

In the middle of his recovery, despite all steps and advice, Matt began to date Sue Storm. He was upfront about his addiction though and his desire to remain clean, though trying to manage an addiction and a girlfriend is sometimes very difficult.

College

In March of 2013, Matt was accepted into Pace University Westchester Campus, after being rejected from several other schools in Manhattan including Columbia University. This occurred shortly before Frank Ludlum's arrival and he agreed to move upstairs to the grad suites early so that Frank could have his room in the boy's suite. He does not yet know what he wants to study.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 6'3" (no longer growing)

Weight: 175lbs

Eyes: blue (milky appearance)

Hair: red

Other Features: faint red/white scars around his eyes from the accident that blinded him, five perfectly circular scars on one shoulder

Powers

Matt’s powers are very similar to Wolverine’s in a lot of ways. He has enhanced senses (hearing, touch, taste, and smell) though not eyesight for obvious reasons. He also can use his hearing as sonar like a bat to determine what is around him and get outlines of images as the sound waves bounce off. This being said – he gets outlines of objects; he doesn’t get detail, texture or colours. He also has a full 360° perception. He discovered the sonar aspect of his powers during My Long Forgotten Son.

In terms of sensitivity, he can hear a heartbeat and use it to determine if a person is lying or not, he can hear police sirens a couple blocks away in New York or feel the indentation of a ball point pen on the paper below the one that was written on. He cannot see TV, movie or computer screens and while he can read a printed book, Braille is much easier. Anything printed on glossy paper like high end comic books he cannot read. He cannot see colours at all.

His biggest weakness is loud noises. The louder the noise, the more it hurts his senses. He does not do well in large groups or in loud places where he can be overwhelmed, though he has made significant strides on his own in dealing with these things as he lived in New York City for most of his life.

Because of the sheer volume of input that his brain receives from his other senses and that has to be processed for him to understand it, any psi that tries to read his mind will encounter a sort of "static" similar to white noise on a TV which makes his mind difficult to read at best. The psi would need to be able to understand the static and/or cut through it to read his mind. It CAN be read; however, it is incredibly painful for both psi and Matt and generally not worth the effort.

Equipment

Matt is never without his white cane.

In Something Slender (and Awful) Matt was given a billy club by Marie-Ange.

Trivia

Matt is a big fan of the blind rapper "Blind Fury".

He does not like hot or spicy foods.

Took gymnastics as a child until his father died, even after becoming blind.

Favourite colour is red.

Learned to pick locks as a child when he lost his housekey and got better at them once he became blind.

Began learning Trapeze in 2012 and continued with the Circus Arts in 2013

Matt's in-game Twitter handle is @ikenhear and first appears in the tweets for an in-game event.

Plots

2011

Afterlife

My Long Forgotten Son

Mortimer Toynbee's Electric Funkedelic Boogaloo

What Goes Around, Comes Around

2012

Times They Are A-Changin'

For Free Trade

The End of the Beginning

Stemming the Tide

Savrola

Onwards to Victory

The Dawn of Liberation

2013

Something Slender (and Awful)

Somewhere I Belong

Deal With The Devil

2014

Red-X Mission: King Tide

Meta

Player: Maureen

E-mail:

AIM: darkladymo1

Player Icon Base: Caleb Landry Jones

Meta Trivia

Matt was brought into the game by Maureen in March 2011

Sean Berdy was the 3rd Matt-PB since he entered the game. The previous two were Mat Gordon and Caleb Landry Jones.

Sean Berdy is a deaf actor.