matt_murdock: (086)
Matt Murdock ([personal profile] matt_murdock) wrote in [community profile] sixthiterationlogs2016-09-22 03:23 am

into the belly of a whale; [Arrival]

WHO: Matt Murdock
WHERE: Fountain, then along any street
WHEN: 22 September
OPEN TO: Frank & OTA
WARNINGS: Nothing yet
STATUS: Closed



For Frank;

For Matthew Murdock, there is no gentle upward tug, no gradual pulling back of the pleasant mantle of sleep, not on this day or most others, anymore. His torpor is stripped from him with ruthless efficiency, the image of Wilson Fisk's red smile still swimming hazily in his mind as he trips, body heavy and graceless, and knocks face-first into concrete with a rattle of his teeth.

Blood fills his mouth as he hisses a curse, hands instinctively rising to palm against the curved barrier, a wet smear beneath searching fingers as he swallows the taste of copper and shudders out a breath. His head tilts jerkily, birdlike, catching sound like cotton, everything a crimson blur pulsing with his own rabbiting heartbeat.

He drags in another breath, and then another, and takes an outward step. Trembling hand at the end of an extended arm, his fingertips at last brush against another wall, more subtly curved and cool to the touch. Slowly, he walks the circular perimeter, listening to the soft scuttle of leaves against the lip of the hole he's found himself so suddenly at the bottom of.

The darkness pulls in at his periphery, a creeping, misty threat, a window fogged with shadows.

There are cracks spidered along the outer wall of the cylinder, but nothing substantial enough for a handhold. A running jump is not enough to angle off the inner wall and out; his feet are sluggish and he tumbles, back smacking solidly to the ground.

"Fuck," he bites out with the breath left him, and pushes himself to his feet, frustration threading through his already precarious composure.

"HELLO?" he raggedly calls at last, bracing himself, prepared for the worst.


OTA;

Matt is still not convinced he has not, at long last, cracked his thick head hard enough to produce an incredibly convincing hallucination. He likes to think that if he were in a coma, he'd be nice enough to let himself see, or at least to not shack him up with Frank Castle, but in truth, that sounds like exactly the sort of masochism his subconscious would cook up when let off its leash. His everyday dreams are filled with Wilson Fisk beating him bloody; it isn't that far a leap to where he's at now, when you think about it.

But more to the point: Coma or otherwise, he is diminished, curtailed, knocked down about a hundred pegs, senses constantly straining for acumen they no longer contain. He is scuffing down a dirt street with a branch in hand, the bark still on and a few leaves, too, far too short for the job of sweeping before him so that he has to hunch like someone's granddad just to put one foot in front of the other.

Somewhere, Stick is doubled over laughing at him; this Matt is utterly assured of.
upinhisnest: (pic#4142747)

ota: YO MURDOCK

[personal profile] upinhisnest 2016-09-22 10:39 am (UTC)(link)
"You need something better'n that," Clint calls out, watching Matt move down the street with his barky branch. He's not trying to be a shit or insulting, it's just a fact as far as he can see it.

And it's not like he's not sympathetic to those who need a little bit more assistance to fight their way through life - he gets that on a number of levels. At the very least he can try to help this guy out.

"You wanna sit down for a minute? I don't gotta knife on me, but there's enough rocks, I can find one to scrape the worst of the bark off for ya."
womanofvalue: (holding back a thought)

ota

[personal profile] womanofvalue 2016-09-22 11:26 am (UTC)(link)
Peggy sees the man's strange walk from where she stands, understanding quickly enough what he's doing. She's seen enough men who've been robbed of their eyesight from shrapnel or other causes thanks to the war and she can even halfway understand the branch. Still, it doesn't look properly fitted to his height, which is why she vanishes inside of one of the nearby houses where she knows a decent sized headboard to live.

Once she's broken off the large post that seems to be long enough, she's back on the street and it takes her a bit of a run and an estimation of direction, but she finds him easily enough, slowing her step as she gets closer. "I'm going to put out something in front of you," she tells him. "It might suit you a bit better."
dnr: (11)

[personal profile] dnr 2016-09-22 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Up above, there's a scrape of boot heel against dirt and pavement, muffled by heavy weight but even and unrushed. Then a shift of a hand balancing a lean against the same concrete Matt has just gotten up close and personal with, ten, maybe twelve feet higher.

A beat passes. There may be some squinting involved.

"Oh, for Christ's sake," comes a familiar lament. "How'd you even--"

No, you know what, never mind. He's pushing off from the side of the fountain again.
hawkeyesniper: (Military Woman)

OTA;

[personal profile] hawkeyesniper 2016-09-23 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
What Riza lacks in cooking skills she tends to make up for in her ability to organize and clean. She's a well put together woman and presents herself in a certain way. It's because of this that Riza had taken over some of the cleaning duties of the Inn so she could feel like she was contributing something to its upkeep. Granted, it was difficult to convince Kate sometimes to let her help, but she'd managed all the same and was even now using Kate's impromptu broom to sweep the front area. It may seem silly to clean a place like this, but Riza reasons that it keeps her occupied and makes the other people stuck here feel a little more like they're at home and not trapped in some unfortunate experiment. Besides, it's times like this that make her think of the more pleasant memories from Manhattan, like Giselle cleaning the Strand from top to bottom and singing her happy song.

Riza isn't one to hum though, she keeps her ears peeled for approaching visitors. Everyone tends to make it by the inn at least once a day and Riza likes to keep her ear on the latest finds from the surrounding woods and river. The village, as always, is quieter than where she's from, so she picks up on the sound of someone approaching fairly early on. She looks up though because the footsteps sound unsure and there's more than just feet on the road too. Her eyes immediately fall on the stooped man making his way uncertainly down the path. At first she thinks he's injured and is using the staff to help himself walk. However, after watching for a moment she realizes he's using the stick to help navigate a little and that must mean he's blind.

It takes her a minute to assess the situation and decide what she will do. He must be fresh out of the well and is likely trying to get an idea of where he is by walking the village. She steps forward, gauging the distance and then speaking in a clear voice that he could probably pinpoint fairly easily, "If you turn to your left about 15 degrees and walk 20 paces you'll be at the town's inn. I'm not sure if that's what you're searching for, but it tends to be the place everyone congregates eventually."
seekingcrocodile: (at your service)

[personal profile] seekingcrocodile 2016-09-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
He hasn't been paying as much attention to life in this place as he knows he should be. There was a meeting, he knows that, but mostly he's been focused on returning his life, and Emma's, back to some state of relative stability after the earthquake.

So he may have missed a few things in there, like the fact that there even are new arrivals. Which he's assuming this man is, given that he's not familiar at all, and by now he figures he's come across all the residents of this place.

He's not sure what the point of the branch is supposed to be, either; his best guess is as a walking stick, and it doesn't seem to be effective enough at that right now.

"Do you need some assistance, mate?"
dnr: (28)

[personal profile] dnr 2016-09-25 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
"You wanna talk, or you want a rope?" comes the answer from a distance. Talking is apparently not on Frank's to-do list, apart from cursing under his breath as he walks out of earshot. It's lucky Matt isn't the first to turn up in an empty 15-ft hole; it takes a few minutes, but eventually those footsteps come tromping back with a new mass of cloth.

"On you right," he says, before a wumph marks the drop of the end of a sheet rope down beside him. Boots shift against concrete again as Frank braces a foot steady against the edge of the fountain.
Edited (iconsss) 2016-09-25 00:22 (UTC)
upinhisnest: (pic#4142749)

[personal profile] upinhisnest 2016-09-25 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
Clint doesn't bother to muffle the chuckle that prompts. "Man, if I had one, you could have it," he says. "Sad to say, I don't think there's anything like that around here. That's why I offered to make that a little less rough, you'll get blisters using that one much."

Whoever brought them here is a serious dick. For a number of reasons, but come on - a blind guy?

"I'm Clint, by the way."
womanofvalue: (soft and happy)

[personal profile] womanofvalue 2016-09-25 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
"And if I did?" is her curt reply, furrowing her brow as if she's being called to task for her choice of walking aids. "I can always bring it back to the bed, if you don't like it," she says, but she's still there at his elbow to watch him carefully, unable to help herself as she hides a smirk on her lips.

"I thought maybe it suited your height better than what you'd found, but if the bed is in truly more dire need than you, we can swap back," she insists.
womanofvalue: (over the shoulder)

[personal profile] womanofvalue 2016-09-27 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
She can't help the way she ducks her head to smile at the notion that she pried it off with her bare hands. "Well, lucky for me, the earthquake already broke off more than enough furniture to give us a whole fortress' worth of walking sticks. And I'm Peggy," she says, staying by him cautiously to make sure that he won't trip over anything. "It's good to meet you, Matt, and I assure you, if I do have freakish strength, I would be putting it to far more use."

"I haven't seen you around, have you been here long?"
seekingcrocodile: (to arr is pirate)

[personal profile] seekingcrocodile 2016-09-28 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
If Killian were at all aware of that particular reference, he'd be making it himself right now. Thankfully he's not.

"There must be something longer around here. Would you like me to take a look?"
womanofvalue: (not happy)

[personal profile] womanofvalue 2016-09-28 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"It was a rather nasty run of them, but they all led to quite a large disaster," Peggy shares, as if it's just an everyday thing. She's removed enough from the destruction of her home and the frustration it had caused that she's able to look at the situation a little more clearly. "Any strength that I do have, I imagine I would be using to try and clear the remaining rubble. You're half lucky you can't see the disaster. We're all a little worse for the wear," she jests, knowing it's quite the exaggeration.

She lingers, cautiously, worrying how he's going to navigate this place without his vision. "I don't mean to be forward," she says hesitantly, "but can I get you somewhere on flat or firm ground? A place to sit down perhaps? I'd hate to leave you be and you're off to be injured."
hawkeyesniper: (Default)

[personal profile] hawkeyesniper 2016-09-29 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Riza can't help but appreciate the smile. It's hard to believe someone can smile like that after climbing out of the well and walking around hunched over a tree branch. Somehow that's what makes it even nicer.

"That makes sense," she replies, considering it had been one of the first things she had done as well. "Well, there isn't a lot to run into on the path you're on. If you continue the way you were going you'd wind up passing by more of the homes around here. A few of them are claimed, though there aren't enough of us here for them all to be occupied. Quite a few of us have even opted to just stay in the inn here."

As she spoke, she moved a little closer. There was no sense in shouting from the Inn's entrance to have a conversation. "My name's Riza Hawkeye. I take it you recently climbed out of the fountain?" That or there had been a blind man hiding out under their noses for a very long time.
womanofvalue: (pleased)

[personal profile] womanofvalue 2016-09-29 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
She still feels a touch awful about leaving him, so when he asks for a tour, she's glad that he's relented. She reaches out for the arm that isn't secured to the post, cautiously moving it so that he can rest it on her hand, like she's seen nurses do before, and waits until he seems ready to walk. "I've been mapping it out nearly since I arrived," she admits, so she does know the layout.

"Do you have any particular interests? Something you'd like to see?"

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