Get your gen texts here!!

[1sts]

texting meme You’ve got your TFLN, you’ve got your sexting, now here’s the meme for all those gen texts, phone calls, voicemails, pictures of your cats, and whatever else your little heart can come up with, because who doesn't like a little old fashioned friendly texting. (Or enemy texting, if that's more your bag.) instructions: What it says on the tin! Leave a comment with your character, include preferences, a start, absolutely nothing or whatever you want. Run around and reply to others. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Comments

[badluckwithplanes]

I'll just bet you are.

[He says this sardonically, to prevent himself from slipping into a growl.

He's not sure where this is coming from, honest. Feeling like he has something to protect is still utterly new to him. But jealousy, he always thought, comes from insecurity: and he has nothing to feel insecure about. He knows Jessica wants to be with him. She's had plenty of opportunity to express otherwise. And he would never suspect her of stepping out.

So what is it that's crawling under his skin like this, digging his guard up? He tells himself he has no logical reason to feel this way.

Unfortunately what he's learning lately is that logic rarely has anything to do with emotions. Real emotions.]

[lawyerbyday]

Love isn't something to give up on easily, Mr. Shaw. I had it, and I miss it. I regret not being able to keep it. So yes, color me envious that you have it with someone I care about and respect.

[badluckwithplanes]

[He staggers mid-swing, almost missing the bag. His punch lands cockeyed, barely transferring any force to his target. If this were a real fight he'd be in trouble after a move like that. He stops and hisses between his teeth, as appalled as he is still stunned by the word.]

Shit...

[He takes longer catching his breath, gasps audible, shoulders rising and falling. He feels abruptly winded all of a sudden. Or at the very least his heart is beating very fast.

He glances to Matt, feigning obliviousness.]

What did you just say?

[lawyerbyday]

[That reaction was surprising. Not just the miss in the hit, but in the way his body was sounding like it was going into panic mode. Brows furrowing, he tried to direct his face towards Owen.]

What? That I'm jealous you're in love with someone?

[badluckwithplanes]

[Dammit, Matt. Lay off it with this "love" business.

This time he doesn't try hiding his grimace.]

Look, do you have to go throwing around that word?

[lawyerbyday]

... Love? Really? What are you, ten? Don't tell me you don't love her. That kind of possessive jealousy doesn't just crop up because she's 'yours'. I've heard the way she talks about you. And how you talk about her. If you can't admit it...

[He sighed shaking his head.]

Wake up, Shaw.

[badluckwithplanes]

I didn’t say — look, I’m not into how you keep saying that, is all.

[He feels irritation because he can’t argue that he doesn’t love Jessica, or think that she loves him. Either would make the situation seem something it’s not.

He does...care about her. Very much so. But he’s only just gotten to the point where he feels all right admitting that even to himself.

And now Matt wants to go and talk about love.]

[lawyerbyday]

[He might not be able to see, but he could still give people looks, and he was giving Owen one right now.]

And exactly how am I saying it?

[badluckwithplanes]

[He's incredibly peeved by how that look still manages to work even though he knows the eyes giving it can't focus on him.]

You know. You know exactly what I mean.

[He's just going to double-down on this, stubbornly.]

[lawyerbyday]

I know that you sound like a ten year old who's saying that girls are icky and have cooties. There's nothing wrong with being in love, Shaw. Frankly, I'd be inclined to knock some sense into your head if you claim otherwise when you have someone like that.

[badluckwithplanes]

[He stands, stretching to his full height and shooting Matt with a look of his own, taking a few steps back from the bag, taped hands swinging at his sides.]

You really don't get it, do you.

[His impatience with this situation is overt.]

Easy for you to talk like this is something so simple. So easy. Without complications, or repercussions. But it's not.

[lawyerbyday]

You know you're not making any sense, right? You're acting like I just told you you had a terminal disease.

[badluckwithplanes]

[His mouth twists. For a second he's on the verge of humorless laughter before he reins it in again.]

Well, Mr. Murdock. Maybe for someone like me, it practically is. Did you ever stop to think about that?

[lawyerbyday]

Why would I? I can't see how being in love would be anything worth getting as angry over it as you seem to be. Uncomfortable, maybe, but you seem ready to actually throw down over this.

[badluckwithplanes]

If you don't understand then I don't know how to explain it to you.

[His voice creeping lower, more closed-off. He does in fact want to "throw down" very much now, but Matt going and saying it like that took all the fun out of it.]

I've made my way in this life alone, as much as I ever could be. And I prefer it that way. Attachments, growing sentimental, taking things personally...it's a weakness. It makes you soft. It's the kind of unnecessary problem that I can't afford to take on as a risk, and so I don't. I never did and that kept me alive and at the top of my game for years.

And then I met her. Now it's all starting to come apart.

[lawyerbyday]

If you really feel that way, then I feel sorry for you. Being in love isn't something to... it's not something to waste, Shaw. Maybe you were able to go through your life without it because you never found someone that suited you. Hey, I get that. But you have it now. You have someone worth being with. Someone who knows you're kind of a prick and still seems to want to take a shot. Don't sit here and talk to me like I should feel sorry for you because someone loves you.

[badluckwithplanes]

I don't want you to feel sorry for me.

[Anger bubbling to the surface, making him extra defensive. He takes a breath to try and calm it back down.]

I'm not walking away from her. I can't. I'm in too deep now. And I won't deny, it feels good. Better than anything I've ever known. But don't stand there and try to tell me that is easy. Being tied down when you're always used to running. Being unmade.

[lawyerbyday]

I knew someone like you. I loved-- love her. She thought it was all just bullshit and that I was living in a dreamworld thinking that it was something that could happen. And yet it did. Even when she-

[He stopped, taking a deep breath as he thought about Elektra. As he felt her in his arms dying all over again.]

Trust me, Shaw. Whatever uncomfy cold pricklies you feel about the notion of love or of being in love, get over it. Life is short. More so if you're involved in what you say you are. There should be one thing in it that makes it worth living besides just being the best at something.

[badluckwithplanes]

[He stops short at that, pressing his lips together, drawing his head back almost as if Matt just tried to take a swing at him.

Because now he can't help thinking, didn't Toretto say something exactly like that to him once? Defending his choice to care so much about his crew, his family, with the knowledge that when he went "at least he would know what it was all for".

It's a real kick in the teeth to think he might have been right after all. That he still gets to win, in the end.]

...Right. Yeah. But what if that one thing gets in the way of being at your best?

[lawyerbyday]

Then maybe you need to ask yourself if it's worth being the best at something that would otherwise leave you to be alone. Love isn't a burden. If your... lifestyle makes it feel like that but you don't want to give up what you have, I'd say that's time to take a good look at your priorities and what you really want for yourself.

[badluckwithplanes]

Seriously. Are you a lawyer or a therapist? Because I can tell you right now what it is you're sounding like.

[Being all sardonic as a defense mechanism, trying to brush off Matt's words and how they hit him too deep.

He never got into this expecting he would change. But he has, and like anything in the process of evolution he has to adapt if he wants to survive. He's just not finding it easy to accept how much of him may have to change. How...flawed his living was before. Compared to what he has now.
Compared to what he could have.]

[lawyerbyday]

I could argue that a lawyer has to be a bit of both. But I'm also Jess's friend. And if you're going to be a part of her life, then it's probably likely I'll be yours too. I'd prefer that to an alternative.

[badluckwithplanes]

You mean me being your enemy?

[Of course at that he can't help but shift his voice to challenging. And cold.]

[lawyerbyday]

Enemy? No, more like some asshole that's dating my friend. I'd rather get along with someone she's close to. Doesn't mean I'm going to add you to my list of arch nemesis, Shaw. You're her boyfriend. You're not Fisk.

[badluckwithplanes]

No, I'm not some chubby businessman trying to buy his way into a whole city. But just for the record, Murdock? If you ever did get on my bad side: don't underestimate what I can do.

[The posturing is habit he can't quit, it seems. But he wants to be taken seriously. He's worked too hard to become what he is. He resents having any or all of it taken away.]