raylan_givens

Regular Activity
Character: Raylan Givens
Journal: raylan_givens
PROOF #1: 10/28 (4 Log)
PROOF #2:

Raylan's Posts
- Gemma Teller Morrow - February 2, 2014
- FDR - January 28, 2014
- Vala Mal Doran - August 22, 2013
- Megan Dougherty - July 22, 2013
- Arisato Minako - July 18, 2013
- Winona Hawkins - June 2, 2013
- Bill "Hoosier" Smith - May 19, 2013
- Megan Dougherty - May 9, 2013
- Claudia Donovan - May 9, 2013
- Bill "Hoosier" Smith - April 24, 2013
- John Winchester - April 22, 2013
- Ava Crowder - April 21, 2013

Logs:
Jack Harkness (February 10, 2014) - Raylan catches Jack rifling through Kate's files.
Brooke, Ava (February 10, 2014) - Raylan's hit by the February curse.
Winona Hawkins (January 20, 2014) - Winona and Raylan have a Talk.
Winona Hawkins (December 1, 2013) - Winona returns from the forest.
Ava Crowder (October 26, 2013) - Meeting up with Ava for drinks.
Boyd Crowder (August 20, 2013) - Boyd and Raylan fight the morning after their threesome.
Winona Hawkins, Ava Crowder (June 22, 2013) - Winona, Ava and Raylan all find themselves collared together during a curse.
August Booth (June 9, 2013) - August and Raylan have a chat about their living situation.
Winona Hawkins (May 20, 2013) - Dinner at Winona's.
Ava Crowder (May 8, 2013) - Raylan goes to get a haircut.
Megan Dougherty (April 30, 2013) - Raylan and Megan meet in a bar.
Winona Hawkins (April 17, 2013) - Winona comes to check on Raylan after he fails to report in as promised after his visit with Ava. NSFW
Boyd Crowder, Ava Crowder (April 16, 2013) - Attempting to convince Ava to leave the dangerous third district. NSFW
Boyd Crowder, Juliet Starling, Tyler Durden, Maggie, Shane Walsh (April 15, 2013) - Raylan open log at The Doll House. NSFW

PLAYER
» Journal: raylan_givens
» Birthdate/Age: July 3, 1984/28
» Characters Played: Kaylee Frye (Firefly); Kira Nerys (Star Trek: Deep Space 9)
CHARACTER FACTS
» Name: Raylan Givens
» Canon: Justified
» Reference: Justified Wiki
» Canon Point: End of season four.
» Gender: Male
» Age: 43 (May 20, 1960)
CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
» Appearance: Raylan Givens is 6'0 with brown hair, brown eyes and a shit-ton of swagger. He's got a natural charisma that rolls off of him that you can't help but notice and that's saved him more times than he can count. It comes from a natural confidence that's belayed by his posture, by the casual way he'll rest his hand on his hip. He uses his facial expressions more than his words to convey how he's really feeling about a situation, though he can be pretty adept at hiding those too if you aren't overly familar with him. Winona, for example, rightly pegs him as one of the most angry men she's ever known whereas to the casual observer his demeanor paints him as someone who's cool-headed and relaxed.

He has a mole just under his left eye and wears his hair slicked back; it's getting a little long now, curling up at the base of his neck. He alters between clean-shaven and stubble that may or may not be purposefully groomed. He can always be spotted with his trademark hat, a custom made Stetson with a leather hat band, and has a kind of casual, lazy fashion that works very well for him. Well-fitted tight jeans and boots, a solid or print button up top (sometimes with a tie) and a well-tailored jacket are his typical duds.

» Suitability: N/A

» Orientation: Heterosexual. Canonly Raylan only has relationships with women, and he's been married previously.

» Personality: "You're like the hillbilly whisperer. We oughta put you on Oprah." -Art Mullen, Season 2 Episode 5

Raylan is known for his charm, his swagger and his big ol' hat. He's a laid back southern man who has the tendency to glide through situations due in large part to said charm (and sometimes swagger-- rarely the hat). He takes pride in being a lawman and all that entails, pride in having pulled himself out of Harlan and made something of his life beyond the standards expected of Harlan men-- mining and crime. But even as a lawman rules are only useful to Raylan as long as they're aiding the cause of justice. If the rules gets in his way, he smudges the lines or outright ignores them. He's also not above bending the law for those he cares about, so long as they're truly remorseful and don't take undue advantage.

"Raylan: [after telling Loretta he's going to allow her to keep the stash of illegal money they found] I drive by your place and see a brand new Lexus in your driveway, or hear about Van Halen playing your goddamn birthday party, I will drop on you like a piano, throw your ass in hock and take every bit of that money with me, do you understand?
Loretta: Marshal, I strike you in any way as a Van Halen fan?" - Season 3, Episode 12

Raylan's an old-west style Sheriff in a modern age, gaining the trust of his community and ruling over those who break the peace with varying degrees of compassion and a no-bullshit attitude depending on what the situation warrants. He's a good man but a notorious rule-breaker, a man who loves what he does and despises the way things usually have to end up as a result, and a man who's led by the seat of his pants in more ways than one.

He's prone to making snap decisions and going with his gut, though that's certainly not to say he's not smart enough to already be four steps ahead of you when he does. He may look slow, ambivalent, laid-back and completely unaware, but his mind is always working, always searching, always solving problems and creating road blocks-- or trying to at least, and this is certainly occasionally to his detriment.

"Raylan, you do a good job of hiding it. And I s'pose most folks don't see it, but honestly, you're the angriest man I have ever known." -Winona Hawkins, Season 1 Episode 1

Those who know Raylan, though, know that he's not all smiles and kicked-back boots. He's got a seething, bubbling anger constantly simmering below the surface. Very rarely does it burst out, but when it does it's with no consideration for who's in his war path and no real sense of constraint. He's a man with a lot of issues and a man who doesn't like to acknowledge any of them, especially not the ones he gets directly from his father. A good example of this is later on in season two, when his Aunt Helen is shot and killed by Dickie Bennett. There's no arguing with him-- he's immediately off to interrogate his father, ignoring any condolences, refusing to grieve until he's found the man who murdered her and brings him to justice. His own kind of justice. He arranges for Dickie Bennett to be brought into the woods alone with him, planning to execute him in cold blood. At the very last minute, though, his conscience gets the better of him and he turns him in. But if it hadn't been for the memory of his Aunt, his Aunt who worked hard to make sure Raylan didn't become another gun-thug or drug runner of Harlan, Raylan may well have done it. And no one, not even the badge clipped to his waistband, would've kept him from doing it.

For all his common sense and street smarts, Raylan's a moron when it comes to love. He's horrible when it comes to women, having both an ex wife and a long string of women he's slept with. Love and sex make him do very stupid things, such as sleeping with a key witness in a case. With one exception Raylan is loyal, however, and isn't the type to cheat. That exception would be named Winona, who was his wife for many years and a woman he never quite got over. When she shows up wanting him, all bets are off. In the series she shows up while he's seeing Ava Crowder (the aforementioned key witness) and she's married-- but it doesn't seem to matter too much. The two of them resume seeing each other, only to break it off permanently early in season three.

Outside of Winona he's mostly the love 'em and leave 'em type. His life is somewhat nomadic and he certainly doesn't plan on staying in Kentucky any longer than he has to, so anything involving roots in that area is something he tends to avoid. He's liberal with his casual friendships and very conservative with his close ones. His job is his life.

And more recently that's come under a lot of strain. With both the end of his and Winona's relationship (again) and his upcoming baby, Raylan finds his time divided. He wants desperately to be a good father, above all things he wants to avoid turning into his father. But he can't help himself when it comes to getting tied up in his cases, in beating the bad guy. He'll do everything in his power to avoid having to choose sides, and he's clever enough to pull it off most of the time. For example, in the season finale for season four Nicky's men stage an ambush at Winona's house, holding a gun to her and threatening to kill both her and their baby if Raylan doesn't do what they ask. After the situation is resolved (by both Winona and Raylan killing the invaders) Art warns Raylan that if he goes after Nicky, who has threatened to murder his family and is very likely to keep on trying, that he will lose his job. Raylan solves this problem by making a back deal with Sammy, the man to take Nicky's place, and arranges for Sammy to murder Nicky for him.

"Did you not wake up this morning thinking this was another opportunity to mess up some bad guy's day? I did." -Raylan Givens, Season 4 Episode 12

But when he has to pick sides, he errs on the side of victims. In season two Winona begs Raylan not to go off and risk himself to save Loretta, a girl he'd been looking after that had been under the care of a crime family that murdered her father, and though he obviously struggled greatly with the choice he ultimately chose to go and save Loretta. Raylan has no problem with self sacrifice so long as it's for the greater good. He was willing to give up his relationship with Winona, the stability and family he wants so badly, to save a girl who needed him. But when the choice was between losing his job and letting a man who threatened to murder his family continue to loom over them, Raylan had no problems at all going down the dark path he needed to to make sure they were safe, risking his job in the process.

As much as Raylan is a lone wolf, there are some people in his life that directly affect his mood, actions, and really where he is now. One of them I mentioned a few times above is of course his ex-wife Winona, who he is still madly in love with. He would do several very stupid things to make sure both she and his unborn daughter are safe. It also took him awhile to acknowledge that their relationship is over, though they finally seem to have settled into a kind of peace. They both love each other but don't work as a couple, but Raylan is both welcome and encouraged to be an active part in his daugher's life, which he's very excited about. It's safe to say that good portion of his motivations at this point lay in ensuring their safety.

His boss Art Mullen is more like a father to Raylan than Arlo ever was, and their relationship stretches back to years before Raylan came back to Kentucky. He's strict with Raylan because he's a man that requires a stern hand, but he obviously cares about Raylan and his well-being too. He's got a soft spot for the Marshal which gets him into all kinds of hot water and gives him more leeway than he ought to.

Boyd Crowder is a friend of his from when they dug mines together, and though we don't know much about what happened back then aside from them digging coal together and Boyd saving his life in a cave-in, it forged an immutable bond. Even though they're on opposite sides of the law, they feel a kind of camaraderie that has them constantly standing at the other's back, saving each other's lives and at the end of the day relying on each other even though they have no real reason to.

"Boyd Crowder: Where you going?
Raylan Givens: I'm going after the young lady with the automatic weapon.
Boyd Crowder: I'll get her.
Raylan Givens: What are you gonna do after you get her?
Boyd Crowder: I ain't quite figured that out yet. Are you gonna shoot to stop me?
Raylan Givens: Maybe.
Boyd Crowder: I'm pretty sure you're empty.
Raylan Givens: You gonna bet your life on that?
Boyd Crowder: No Raylan, I'm gonna bet my life on you being the only friend I have left in this world." - Season 1 Episode 13


SAMPLES
At least one sample MUST demonstrate your character's feelings about or reactions to sex!
» First Person Sample Choice: [Prompt 1]
.. Well. [Raylan's managed to flip on the video, putting on his hat as he winces a little into the camera. He's obviously standing outside the temple, having taken a walk around to try and orient himself.] Of all the strange places I've woken up this may make the top of my list. If I am to believe the locals, I've managed to land myself on some kinda sex island.

[a small snort and a quirk of his lips] Sounds like somethin' I read in a Hussler when I was a teenager. If there's a Volkswagon full of cheerleaders around here, don't bother wakin' me up.

[he rubs his chin a little, glancing around] But still, I oughta try to figure out a way back home. Got pointed to this device as a means of talkin' to those who ain't local who've been around for a bit, so I'm hopin' one of you are more helpful than said natives. They seemed a touch upset, and while that ain't an entirely new situation for me, usually I at least have a clue as to how I earned it.

» Third Person Sample Choice: [Prompt 4]
Adjusting to this place hadn't taken as much of a learning curve as Raylan would've liked. Sure, the whole collars-and-sex bit was new, but Raylan wasn't a stranger to moving around. His life had been pretty stagnant as a kid; not a lot of vacations when you lived in Harlan County. But he'd more than made up for it when he entered the Marshal service. Utah, Texas, Florida, just to name a few. Moving within cities, apartments within cities, he had a hard time settling much of anywhere.

So no, adjusting to living here instead of back in Kentucky wasn't what he'd call a life-altering event. Hell, it was nice to get a break from the place. He didn't exactly have a mountain of fond memories stashed away in his home state. The big adjustment had been the loss of his daughter and the inability to escape. It wasn't like he could just get on a plane and fly home, and even though Winona was here she didn't seem to know anything about being pregnant.

He leaned into a shop window, flexing his jaw and nostrils flaring on a long exhale, focusing on nothing as he tried to calm himself, think. Adapt. Raylan was good at surviving in almost any culture; he could do it here. And honestly if it wasn't for his unborn daughter he wasn't sure he'd care much about going home.

He had time, he told himself. Time didn't move back home until he got there, according to the information he'd gotten so far. He'd bide his time and figure something out. He always did.

It wasn't until his eyes re-focused that he noticed that the shop he'd been leaning against was a hat shop. Raylan chuckled, allowing himself to appreciate the irony. It wasn't that much different from when he'd picked out his trademark hat during the first weeks he'd found himself in Texas.

Maybe it was time to find a different hat.