september catch all

[catholica]

Who: matt + open and closed prompts
What: catch all for september things
When: september
Where: around cadens, horizon, questing

Comments

( closed ➤ frank, questing )

[catholica]

( while matt had wanted to go to libertas and see what helped he could provide, he hadn't planned on going with frank castle, of all people. but, he knows that there's no changing things up now and they're both stuck.

which would either make this a very quiet trip because they both refused to talk to each other or they'd end up fighting each other well before they got to help anyone else. matt remembers the promises he's made to wanda and he also knows that his issues with frank are not important right now.

the people of libertas are and that's what he tells himself over and over.

frank, at least, seems to have a handle on the dog they've been given which is good since matt's gotten the feeling that it doesn't really like him.

he rubs a hand over his eyes before settling his glasses back down. )

Suggestions on where to start first?

( is he talking to frank or the dog? matt's not going to specify. )

( cadens — ota | cw: violence )

[catholica]

( ever since he took on the task of helping the refugees from libertas, his free time has been scant. he tells himself that it's worthwhile, that he's able to actually do something helpful for those that need it and that he's able to use the degree he went to school for.

but it takes a lot of work. between having to learn an entirely new system of law and then spend hours on paperwork, he finds himself working long hours and sleeping less and less.

when he falls asleep in mag's in at a table downstairs, he's none the wiser about things going on around him. his cheek is pressed against sheafs of paper and he sleeps fairly soundly for him.

the nap doesn't last long though before he's awake and trying to focus back on what he was doing once more.

at other times, he'll find out and around cadens, maybe sitting on a bench with a book open on his lap or moving briskly, walking stick sweeping out in front of him with folders tucked underneath his arms. he spends a lot of time going in and out of official buildings in cadens, trying to file paperwork for various libertas refugees before he heads right for the library to sit and study some more.

he falls asleep in the library too. he falls asleep everywhere but his goddamn room, honestly.

despite his busy day, when night falls and the moon hangs high over cadens, a different version of matt comes out. the mask comes on, tucked low over his face and he moves almost silently, going from rooftops to alleys.

when he comes upon someone standing over one of the refugees, threatening him, that's when he steps in, grabbing at him from behind and throwing him into a wall. paying no attention to the other man, he follows the perpetrator with a flurry of fists and kicks, pressing his face into the brick of the wall, teeth scraping against the rock. he can feel the man's blood on his hands, moving down his wrists and when he feels the man go limp, matt let's him drop.

he's not dead but he's unconscious and he's going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes up. matt leaves him there and disappears. some nights, he just finds himself on top of one of the buildings of cadens, standing on a ledge, head tilted down while he listens to the sounds of the city.

sometimes, nothing needs to be done. but those nights are rare. )

Mid-month

[tobeclosetohim]

[ Jo's finds herself back at Mag's late for who knows what night in a row this is. She's been out in Libertas since they opened the roads almost all her free time. Helping find those still alive. Bringing out the dead bodies for identification. Clearing rubble. Helping guard other groups from looters and bandits thinking this was their time.

She passed the guy asleep with hardly a look, all of her mind on a hot bath. Scrubbing off the newest layer of dirt, ash, and blood from her skin. Like each time didn't reveal even more scrapes and bruises on her skin. Like there'd ever be enough soap to get the smell of it out of her hair.

When Jo's headed back down—hair pulled up messy on top of her head and still dripping, semi-clean clothes—the dude is still there. Still asleep. And Jo frowns. Even if she feels too exhausted for more, she's down her trying to get food, and obviously, she's not the only one feeling that way. She holds in the urge to sigh and, instead of ordering first, walks over to the guy.

There's a moment she raises an eyebrow at what are obviously law books everywhere across the table under and under the guy. Then, there's a hand, lightly touching on fingertips only, to shake his shoulder. ]

Hey, you probably don't want to sleep here.

No matter what the table is saying, it lies.

[catholica]

( the table is not a comfortable place to sleep, it's true. and the only reason that he has fallen asleep is that he hasn't really been allowing himself sleep at regular times when he should be in bed.

and it's caught up with him here, while trying to read over various statutes because they were not...exciting. he doesn't know how long he's there before he hears someone above him and then that same person touches him.

he shoots up suddenly, eyes blinking blearily like he might somehow be able to see except...there's nothing. )

I wasn't asleep.

( a terrible lie. )

[tobeclosetohim]

Sure, I totally believe you.

[ Except for absolutely not on her life. Between that sudden jerk-snap awake that any hunter knows better than their salt (her hand had pulled away instantly as soon as he started moving) and the woozy way, he didn't seem to be able to focus or hold himself straight. ]

But, like I said, the table's here telling lies about your honor.

[ Beat. ]

I was about to get a coffee. You want one, too, or is this more an 'I should be shooing you off to wherever it is you have a bed that you definitely don't need, why would you ever be asking, Jo'?"

[catholica]

No, I've still got —

( work and all. he starts shuffling his papers, reaching for the dark glasses on the table beside him and sliding them onto his face, stretching and sitting back.

he straightens his shirt a bit. )

So, I should probably go for a coffee or something to at least get some energy in me. That table's not really comfortable.

[tobeclosetohim]

[ Jo's got a rye expression for that. The shuffle of papers. The amount of all there is to shuffle through. Need to organize. The way he started straightening that shirt all rumpled up even worse by the table, that she bets been getting a run for its money while he was doing whatever this is. ]

I'll get it. Just try to keep your eyes open over here.

Do jumping jacks or whatever.

[ Jo being Jo, she walks off toward the bar, not waiting for his answer or his permission. She'd asked; he hadn't answered but said he needed it. And she did, too. To calm her nerves before she decided to turn in for an hour or two before repeating the whole cycle at some point not too long after dawn. When she gets to the counter, she orders two, strong, black.

Then, a side tray of anything they have that can be added in. For him. In case. ]

[catholica]

( do jumping jacks, she says and he almost considers it at least to get his blood pumping again. he does do that but he does get to his feet and stretches a bit, working out muscles that had kinked up while he'd been dozing.

when she comes back, he shrugs apologetically. )

I don't usually fall asleep in public places. Good way to get pickpocketed and while there's nothing in my wallet worth taking, still would be a pain in the ass.

[tobeclosetohim]

[ He's standing by the time she turns and walks back, and there are glasses now. Yeah, she hadn't missed that, but it was interesting. He oriented without any issue on where she was coming back at. ]

Could still take the wallet, too.
Never know what someone might get for it.

[ Beat. ]

I didn't know how you took your coffee, so I brought a little of everything.

[catholica]

I'm sure I've had worse so a little bit of everything is fine.

( maybe the combination would give him a pep of energy he didn't have just yet. he smiles, nods his thanks. )

Don't think I recognize you. Or your voice, at least.

[tobeclosetohim]

[ Jo took a drink of her coffee and closed her eyes, letting out a breath similar to the one she had let out when she first sunk into the hot water of her bath. Hot water. Clean. Coffee. They are very tiny things compared to the hell still clinging to her, and that she'll head out into tomorrow morning. It's the small things. They ground you. ]

Jo Harvelle.

And what exactly are you reading, for someone who looks like they wouldn't be, at least not this prolifically, without the glasses?

[ There's no insult in the phrasing. Just the same acknowledgment he placed into correcting to recognizing her voice rather than her face, and hers to upping to the level of what this research level would entail in his not-so-obvious, but entirely unmissable to her right now, skills. ]

[catholica]

Well, the last thing I managed to process was a statute on what the Free Cities does to people who don't pay some tax that I've never heard of. All very exciting stuff.

( and while that's not something he would ever focus his legal career on, he supposes he does have to know it. so, he's doing his best to process. )

It's legal stuff. I'm trying to learn their legal system.

[tobeclosetohim]

[ Jo's not new to a table, or even several tables pushed together, covered in materials, whether for research or even just the accumulation of even more study into something that's driven someone, for better or for worse.

This at least looks like an attempt at the for better category. ]

You got plans on what you're going to do with it once you have?

( horizon - ota )

[catholica]

( fogwell's. he doesn't know why that place finds its way into his thoughts but it's such a strong memory, one that he can't shake that when he makes his way to his horizon, it's to the gym that he'd spent so much time in as a child and then as an adult.

he'd watched his father train in that ring and, after he'd been blinded, just listened to his father fight.

he's not dressed to train but he finds himself in the middle of the boxing ring anyway, leaning against the ropes and closing his eyes. this isn't fogwell's, he knows, but it's close enough.

matt's hands curl into fists as he stands there, imagining what his father might have felt while he was training, what might have been going through his head, how he dealt with a son like him and trying to keep things afloat.

he blows out a sigh and then slides down, leaning back against the corner of the ring. )

why hello there

[vengeanceinside]

[It's not Nero's big thing to cruise around the astral plane; Wanda might be into the thing, and maybe he's met up with her a few times there, but he doesn't really get it. Not in the wild, wide conception of it. Like, the point. It's like dreamwalking, but he can give himself anything he wants.

But it doesn't mean anything. It's just... stuff. None of it is what he really wants.

It's a distraction, though. A good one. Shit going down, and at least his family ain't part of it. (He's pretty sure, anyway. Dante's gone back to Thorne, and it's like... what's he supposed to do about it? Not his problem.) He managed to make the van, splashed over the side with a glowing neon sign reading Devil May Cry, and even if he can't be home, with Kyrie, with Nico, the van's close enough.

It rumbles and roars, splatting down road as it goes that comes outta nowhere. It blows big puffs of black smoke out the tailpipe, directionless. Eventually it runs into something, and Nero checks it out.

This time it's a regular ol' building. A kinda shitty lookin' one, but nothing that would be out of the ordinary in Redgrave.

So he steps out of the van, his tail dragging behind him. (Yeah, yeah. He's got the fuckin' thing out there, and yet he can't figure out how to get rid of it in here. It's just. There. Making him look like an asshole.) He doesn't knock before he pushes the door open, taking in less of a gym and more of a boxing ring..

And a dude in the corner. Alone. Nero whistles, low.] Probably make a lot more sense if you actually had a sparring partner.

[catholica]

( he hasn't ever had a lot of visitors besides wanda just showing up in his horizon. so, to have it happen now jars him even if he had heard the door open and listened as someone stepped into fogwells.

the footsteps were unfamiliar, the sound of something being dragged along not one he'd heard before. he hadn't moved, letting whoever it was think that he hadn't realized.

and then the man speaks and he doesn't recognize the voice from any of his time in abraxas thus far. )

That right? Wow, and here I thought I'd just sit here in silence and imagine myself in that ring there.

( he says it dryly, no real snap in his voice as he moves to get up and come closer. )

[vengeanceinside]

I mean... kinda the point of this place, huh?

[Jeez, touchy. Now he sees why Wanda must be into him -- 'cause this is definitely the guy he saw her with in Nocwich. Not that he'd meant to, like, watch them together, just -- needed something to focus on that wasn't the party.

Besides, plenty of shit to do after.

(It was nice, seeing Wanda look a lil happy.)]

You were with Wanda, right? The lawyer? [He looks around, stepping towards the ring. He doesn't invite himself in, yet. Weird that it feels kind of home-y. Maybe he's really just missing the city.] I'm Nero. Live on the same farm as her. Didn't realize this was your place. You some kinda boxer on the side of all the... lawyering?

[Must've made it for a reason, after all.]

[catholica]

The lawyer, yeah.

( and he doesn't say anything about wanda but he doesn't deny it either which is pretty much all the answer that's needed. yeah, he'd been the one that was with him. he listens to nero get closer, approaching slowly, not with uncertainty, just with...idleness. )

I spent a lot of time in a place like this when I was a kid. Good memories.

( but yeah, he was kind of a boxer too. )

You fight?

[vengeanceinside]

[Luckily Nero's already convinced he's right, so it all works out!]

In a gym? [He takes it in again. Yeah? Yeah, actually. He could see it. Not anything like what he was raised around, but any place that's warm, got people you care about -- in the end, doesn't matter what it is, as long as you got a few good memories.] Explains it.

[He doesn't expound on what it explains, but what he means is that home-y feel. Nostalgia, even for something he doesn't have himself. Though it does give him a quick laugh, thinking of dragging Credo to a place like this. He would've hated it.

Taking the answer as invitation, Nero lifts a rope and steps in, taking the lawyer in. Yeah. Handsome. Sort of quiet. Calm energy. He can see why she likes him, at least on the outside.

Nero nods, realizes a second later, then adds out loud:] Oh, yeah. Anything that moves. I mean, not in a weird way. [He really didn't explain that well. But he's guessing he's right, because the lawyer doesn't exclaim, like everyone else, "whoa, you've got a tail?" Thank fuckin' god.] Wanna spar? Just a friendly lil' thing.

[Unfortunately he doesn't know a chill way to ask someone if they want to fight, so it might accidentally come off a little sinister.]

[catholica]

( matt raises an eyebrow but if he's had any sort of conversation with wanda then he has to know he's blind. but, maybe he knows a little more too or maybe he senses something different.

matt hasn't really done a lot of fighting in front of anyone but wanda without the mask but —

why not.

he gets to his feet and rolls into the ring, using the ropes to pull himself up. )

You sound pretty scary when you say that, you know.

[vengeanceinside]

[Maybe he can't see, but obviously he knows his way around the place. Which... makes sense, if it's his place. From childhood. Nero's only got about one brain cell rattling around at the moment, because he just thinks: look, there's a place to spar. Why not offer?

Guy's human, either way. And he's not here to tear Wanda's beau's arm off. (Not that he would anyone else's, but --)

Nero clears his throat, scratching the back of his neck. The tail thumps the floor.] Yeah, in retrospect, sounds like I'm pickin' a fight. It's just cool. Don't see many places to fight out here. Just... jacuzzis and shit.

[Okay, he hasn't actually seen a jacuzzi, but a hot spring he passed by in the van was close enough. Nero sizes him up, head to toe. Yeah, handsome, and a little quiet... but the little he knows about Vision was kind of like that, too.

He remembers what she said at Nocwich. A nice little dream to hold onto for a while. He's no matchmaker and he's the last guy to force anything, but... yeah. He hopes it works out.] Let's be real, Wanda'd kill me if I really came by to pick a fight. And it was an accident, anyway. Didn't know this was yours. [He moves in a little closer, bouncing from one foot to the other. Ooh. Springy.] The outside just reminded me a little of home.

[catholica]

Yeah?

( matt can't not laugh at the thought of him putting in a jacuzzi or something equally as luxurious. it's not really his style even if he thinks one of those might do wonders on his aching muscles.

but, he much prefers fogwells to work off tension and he's somewhat pleased to hear that someone else likes it. )

My, uh, dad used to do a lot of boxing here when I was a kid. Spent a lot of time around it, doing homework and wondering if I'd ever get a chance to fight.

[vengeanceinside]

[Nero's not impressed by jacuzzis or luxurious stuff like that, so it only kind of annoys him. That's why he ended up in that one guy's weird caves. Just... things that remind him of home, in their own weird ways. Redgrave City's not home like Fortuna, but he was there so long that... it sort of found its way in him.

Nero cracks his knuckles, tail whipping around him as he warms up. The guy didn't say no, after all...]

Better than my old man. [It almost feels like a taunt when people bring up fathers, but -- not like this guy has a clue. He'd trust Wanda would never. But he can't completely hide that side of sour bitterness to his tone.] Not because of him, but I grew up fighting. S'about all I know.

[Putting it lightly. He never really had a choice when he was adopted into the Order, but then... he never really fought it, either.] Did you get your chance?

[catholica]

In a way.

( it's fairly vague but he doesn't choose to elaborate either. he shrugs a shoulder and moves to lean against the ropes, bouncing a few times. )

It's not something I do on a daily basis since not being able to see is a hinderance even if I can figure out other ways. But —

( he shrugs. )

I can fight in other ways.

[vengeanceinside]

[Yeah, yeah. A dime a dozen, these mysterious answers from the other Summoned. He's gotten used to it. Not everyone can be an open book (look at him.) He asks questions, but isn't interested in prying. It's just...

Seein' some people actually had childhoods, maybe.]

Guessed as much. [Still interesting he chose a gym, though. Does he know what it really looks like? Does it matter? Even Nero doesn't have all the details of the van right, and he lived in the damn thing for months. It's not how it looks. It's... a feeling.

And the ash of those the feelings leave behind.]

Like a gun? A few bombs? [He grins, even if Matt can't see it, stretching both arms and his tail. Guess he's not inviting this guy over to the demon arena, huh?] No, wait, let me guess. [Feels too easy if he guesses what Wanda might like in a dude.] You're gonna say words. The pen is mightier and all that.