THERE WERE THOSE WHO DWELLED IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH,

[catholicisms]

characters: matt and hopefully other people
location: all over
date/time: septemberish???
content: matt is doing stuff??
warnings: i forgot how bad i am at making open posts. other than that not so far

THE INVINCIBLE. ( if there's one thing Matt has really come to miss, it is access to easy takeout. he's not a cook and never has been, even though he can manage it if he tries to. he just doesn't care to try and has always preferred to pick the easy way out. so he hits up the Invincible once a day, give or take, to scrounge up something to eat. mostly for breakfast, paired with bad coffee, but he'll mix it up and take his dinner or lunch there on occasion. he's quiet, keeps to himself, usually eats and heads back out again. occasionally he'll stop and make small talk. he might even ask someone to read the bulletin for him, because he really hates having his tablet monotone it at him. on other occasions, though, he'll make good on what the sign behind the bar commands and will do the only job he feels suitable to complete. if you sit at the bar, he will make you something, and god bless you for being brave enough to give that a shot. Matt seems oddly amused to pour drinks, so are you going to tell him he can't? ) What are you having? ( he'll ask, and no matter the order, he'll probably just give you a shot of whatever bottle he has. good enough, right? better than when he somehow distinctly avoids giving people what they ask for, it's almost like he's messing with you... but go ahead, order something. maybe the blind guy can help you out. ) HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS. locked to 1 response, please! ( shortly after the arrival of new recruits, Matt is having his breakfast as he usually does, only there's something a bit different. his tablet is with him and let me tell you, that's a rarity. he pretty much only touches the damn thing when he's got nothing better to do, and when he's completely alone. sadly, he's tried and failed to figure this out on his own, and he's forced to concede defeat. whatever is on the thumbdrive left for him, he can't figure it out without help. Matt even gives it a last ditch effort, blindly tapping and even making a mutter of frustration. before he throws the tablet and the thumbdrive both for annoying him, he forces himself to do what he hates the most. whoever makes the mistake of walking past him will just have to suffer the consequences. ) Sorry, can you help me? Do you know anything about how to use this? ( Matt taps on the thumbdrive, to make his question obvious. ) I can't figure out what is on it, I can't get the accessibility features to work. THE GYM. ( Matt has done his fair bit of exploring, yet he hadn't known about the gym until it was mentioned at the meeting. and of course, despite the small crowd of people mentioning their desire to know how to protect themselves, he'd said nothing about it and just creeped off in the dark to check it out on his own. he's intentionally avoided visiting when people are present, though Matt knows there's plenty of opportunity to be walked in on. he's not doing anything remarkable, just wandering the place with his walking stick and feeling the place out. literally, he's touching everything, and occasionally making a face about how dirty it is. the only thing mildly remarkable is the drill he runs on the punching bag. though his form is somewhat lazy and one handed at that, the easy way he does it screams it's not his first set and probably not his last. but what's wrong with that, right? even blind guys should be allowed to exercise! ) THE WOODS. ( Matt likes a routine, and another he's grown into since arrival — especially recently — is wandering the treeline. the insects make the place seem a little less vacant, and while it's not the pleasant noise of his city, it is practically enjoyable. he also figures if anything is approaching, it'll probably come from the woods, and the proximity means he might just hear it. that said, if someone wanders a little too close, Matt will lift a hand in warning. ) Careful, ( he suggests gently. ) Not too noisy. ( the reason might not be readily apparent, but, look around a bit and you can spot the spirit that is probably blending in incredibly well with the foliage. Matt has no idea how to be a plant spirit parent, though he figures communing in nature is a part of the deal. so yes, he brings the baby out here frequently. ) WILDCARD. not feeling any of these? feel free to wildcard me or hit me up via pm or meowed to chat about something else! also, if you haven't, please fill out matt's permissions!!!

Comments

nothing weird at all esp when a mandrake tree baby is there too

[catholicisms]

You'd consider that going well? ( Matt wonders mildly with a half smile, because as far as he'd call it that adventure hadn't worked out the greatest, and that was putting it lightly. then again, Jason hadn't been incapacitated by the encounter, so perhaps from his perspective it'd been much less of disaster.

it's nice to have a name to the heartbeat, though, so Matt nods in agreement. ) Nice to meet you properly, and while I can still hear with both my ears. ( Matt clearly isn't holding it against the spirit, considering he was willing to crawl back into the woods on his own time to check on it a second time.

that said he is not going to comment on how he's made a connection with the mandrake, because it's rather hard to explain how he managed to get that deep into the woods on his own..........

the spirit child does seem to appreciate the song, pulling its hands away from its face to listen. Matt tilts his head to listen as well, and adorably, the mandrake seems to have picked up on Matt's confused dog head tilt habit and does the same. ) You're pretty good with that, ( Matt notes. most of the residents seem to squeak more than they play actual notes, and for someone with sensitive ears? it's a little bit painful. )

[notthatjason]

[Oh if only Matt could see the face Jason was making right now. It was the face of a teenager who had survived far too many things for someone of just 16.]

I mean...considering all the ways it could have gone? We only encountered one spirit, it was small, and it only attacked us the once before hiding again. Neither of us passed out or died, that's a pretty good turn out.

[Sure, there had been the initial "attack" but that was a one-hit and there had been no pursuit or follow-through. The little thing had been more scared of them and while there had been the stumbling back out of the forest, they were both recovered now. Most quests Jason went on at least resulted in a prolonged chase with multiple enemies and multiple close-calls with death. Usually someone was seriously injured, knocked out, or worse by the end of it.

This had been cake.]

Thanks. [Jason is pleased with himself, especially to get the compliment from Matt who would likely be more sensitive to sound. He'd played the correct notes, even if it had been slowly. Still, better to go slow and get it right than play fast and "say" something insulting.] I don't have a lot of musical experience, but Davina gave me some pointers on how to practice. If it can help us communicate with the spirits it seems worth it.

[catholicisms]

I'm not sure I'd quantify "could have gone worse" as "good", but otherwise you have a point.

( Becaon can be quite dangerous, Matt knows they're lucky to have made it out of that situation as relatively unscathed as they did. while the mandrake had been disorienting and had certainly done a number on his hearing for a good few hours, neither of them had died or even been at much risk of it.

and the situation hadn't seemed so dangerous that Matt wasn't willing to wander back alone to try and see if he could get through to the crying spirit if he used a little more caution. turns out, he could, and he's glad he took the risk. Winters had implied that the spirit was usually not alone, it troubles Matt slightly that its general company was apparently missing. in the meantime, though, he's been looking out for the mandrake the best he can. )

Agreed. It's clever, I wonder concise we'll be able to get. ( Matt doesn't enjoy the sound of the ocarina, though he's learned to play it out of necessity. )

[notthatjason]

Good question. The Spirits seem to make it work, so I don't see why we can't...

[Of course there would be a steep learning curve. This wasn't like learning Spanish or Greek, this wasn't even really a spoken language so much as one resulting from various musical notes. Jason didn't quite have the ear to decipher a pattern in the messages they had been given yet, but maybe if he knew a bit more of the language he could figure it out.

He also didn't know enough about studying another language to understand that some of the communication might come from nonverbal cues that would be difficult to replicate with an ocarina on his lips. But maybe that would occur to him eventually.]

I guess what we can't say in song we can always try to get across in other ways?

[catholicisms]

( Matt is surprisingly good with languages, considering the hurdles he has to overcome. he speaks spanish, french, and a good bit of latin, though the last was mostly based in law vernacular and not particularly helpful outside of it. (it's fine... who speaks latin anyway.......) he catches onto sound quickly, he sort of has to with sight not being a viable resource. it's been a bit of a learning curve to learn to communicate with an ocarina, though he's actually pretty good at it when he tries.

he just wishes there were more they could say, and that the communication was less unbalanced. they could communicate with the spirits, but they didn't have much of a way to answer. )

I'm told plenty of them communicate through gesture. ( Matt can actually parse plenty of gestures, though he's not about to admit it. ) I've met one that could use morse code. The vendor.

[notthatjason]

[Certainly not demigods of Roman gods who speak Latin like it's second nature. Jason's eyebrow twitches at the mention of gestures as he's immediately reminded of his very pleasant conversation with the other Jason in Beacon.]

You're not the first to suggest that to me. I guess some gestures can be considered universal...

[Though he wasn't sure how much more effective that would be. He's a little surprised to hear that one can use morse code though.]

My friend knew Morse Code. He taught me a little when we had some down time.

[Which wasn't a lot between Leo's inability to focus on anything outside of machines for long and the fact that the quest they had been on meant they were almost always under attack. Now he was wishing he'd made Leo focus more, though of course at the time it hadn't seemed like a necessary skill. Thinking on it now, he honestly probably only knew a few more phrases than what he did on the ocarina to begin with.]

Which, admittedly wasn't a lot. I wonder how a spirit learned Morse Code anyway.

[catholicisms]

It's a good question. I have no idea.

( that said, when Matt has such trouble sensing spirits, at least compared to humans, the fact at least one spirit can communicate with him in a way he can respond to is appreciated. he even asked for an app to help reteach himself morse code, not solely for the purpose of communicating with the vendor exactly, though refreshing his skills certainly isn't going to hurt. )

If you're interested in picking up more morse code, I was given a thumbdrive with a translation program. I'm not sure if any other spirits use it, but it doesn't seem impossible.