manwithoutfear: ([ba] like a secret identity)
Matt Murdock ([personal profile] manwithoutfear) wrote2011-04-27 11:21 am

[for Steve] sticks and stones

I don't like hospitals. They're an assault on the senses. The monitors beeping. The astringent smell of anesthetic. The coughing and the crying and the hurried footsteps and the sirens and the oppressive presence of death and all that that entails around every corner. I appreciate the work of hospital personnel (despite Foggy's adoptive mother's accusations that her son is the only member of Nelson & Murdock to find injury, my life has been in someone else's hands more times than I have fingers) but the environment in which they do that work is hostile. It's my understanding that the room I'm in now is just a simple clinic, an off-shoot of the local laboratory, but the trappings are more or less the same.

I'm not here for myself; I probably should be, with the amount of minor injuries I've racked up over the past month, but I've lived through worse. I'm not recovering from surgery. I haven't been shot. Not like the man I intend to visit. The tap tap tap of my cane gives me an idea of the room's layout (that it's relatively small and that it's not empty). It hits the edge of something to my side (something with give, most likely a bed), and I stop to listen.

"Captain Rogers?"

His real name. I trust him to take the hint and use mine in turn.

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-27 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
If there's any argument to be made for the island being sentient or for it being controlled by someone with an agenda, the sheer number of people from home, specifically my version of it, would be it. Daredevil is less of a team player than Wolverine, so I can't say we're close, but I know him, and it's good to see Matt Murdock.

"Mr. Murdock," I reply with a slight smile.

"I think half of New York is on this island."

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-27 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"I haven't been lacking for it," I reply.

"There are lulls- you happened to find me during one. I have to admit, I'm out of practice. There hasn't been much time for socializing, the past few months." Which is putting it mildly, perhaps, but the nature of time here begs caution when relating recent events to people from home.

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-28 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"I was," I say, absently rotating my right shoulder a little.

"An old enemy saw an opportunity to make a very... public statement." If I hadn't been in the condition I was at the time, if I hadn't been surrounded by people, I could have dodged it, could have taken Crossbones down myself, but that doesn't matter because that's not what happened. No matter how many times I run the scenario over in my head, the result will still be the same for the world I left behind, and I'll still be here.

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-29 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
It's jarring, to see Matt Murdock anything less than perfectly sure-footed, and it strikes me that whatever preternatural ability he had is gone, or at least faded. This sure is a hell of a place, in some ways.

"Yes. The Red Skull, apparently, hired Crossbones to do it-" I almost say as I was being led to my arraignment.

"When about are you from, Matt?"

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-29 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"It seems to be a fair toss up," I say. "Bucky and Wolverine are from after my time, you and Spider-Man are before. It makes casual conversation feel a little like wading through a mine field." I fold my arms, frowning thoughtfully at Matt- which is rude, since he can't see me doing it, so I stop, turning my focus instead to the doorway. It takes just about everything in my not to up and leave every five minutes, but out of respect for the doctor's orders, I haven't.

Yet.

At least not that frequently.

"I'm sure you'll run into it eventually, though, so unless you have an aversion to being told future events, I can explain better. I wouldn't blame you, however, if you did."

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-04-30 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes," I say.

"He survived the war much like I did. His... resurrection wasn't publicized the same way." That's enough. More than. Anything more than that, Matt can find out elsewhere. What's important is that Bucky is alive, and here, and after all- I survived the plane crash, it can't be too far a stretch for people to believe Bucky did, as well (a hope I'd chased for years after my own awakening).

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-05-02 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
"I am... deeply grateful," I say, because it's true, although of course the truth is complicated.

"This island may be misleadingly quiet, but I owe it a thing or two, regardless."

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-05-04 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"Agreed." It is- as ready as I was to take what the trial and the fallout dealt, I certainly wasn't looking forward to it.

"I've never been forced to this much inactivity, maybe, at least not while I was conscious- but I do have to agree with you on that point."

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-05-06 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't bother to hide my look of confusion. Aside from the handful of people I'm already acquainted with from home who stopped by, I can't imagine my arrival having much of an impact on anyone. I have a brief mental image of news reports, which is still an old-fashioned association for a world that has twitter, which I still don't understand the purpose of. I haven't seen the makeup of the island, though, I don't know what gets information around, here.

"How so?"

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-05-09 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Right," I murmur, "it must have been... fairly dramatic. Apparently I appeared on the compound steps?"

There's probably still a stain.

[identity profile] onlyforthedream.livejournal.com 2011-05-10 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"Like I said, Matt," I tell him with a slight, solemn nod.

"Whatever circumstances may be, I have to be grateful for a thing or two. How long have you been here, now?"