I like the changes in centers of balance between more than one character than Raylan makes simply because he is such a badass good guy. He is much more Buffy's equal than Angel or Riley ever could dream of being. That's what it looks like, anyway.

ETA: It could get mighty interesting - Raylan facing off against his rival for Tara's mother's affection, together with the rest of the Scoobies, when her dad shows up. Muddy up the issues, and maybe cut to the chase a lot sooner. I dunno. Were you planning on writing a bit of that?

Maybe eventually...that was more of an accident. Just cause I could picture witches gathering up herbs and stuff in the hollers. But I could see that, because Raylan does so want to be a Hero with a H that he does stuff that's, from a bureaucratic perspective, at least, insane. Like going up to known mobster Tommy Bucks in Miami and telling him he has two days to get out of town. Or else. In front of people. Then waiting exactly two days(because, what? A deal's a deal?) and using his mad sharpshooter skills to end the man to protect some low-level bookie.That's how he ended up back in Harlan in the first place. The whole first season people are like "Who *does* that?" And they have a point.(But that kind of insanity saved Loretta McCready and I love that story, so...) He'd like Buffy's world too. Less paperwork. Paperwork is not Raylan's friend, much like court testimony.

Ok, this is embarrassing, but I'm doing the Merry Month of Masturbation challenge. It's a little Justified fic, and once again, can't stay away from the maim story. But I also think it's funny so I want you guys to read this one. [link] (I won't post all 31. Just, you know, the cream of the crop.)

Well, I thought it was pretty funny. And I don't know how it seems to readers who have watched the show, but you do a great job creating enough of a picture of who these characters are for the story to make sense out of context without resorting to the annoyingly elementary descriptions that occasionally plague less skillful fanfic writers - "The brown-haired woman whose life is so difficult because of x, y and z reasons that you would totally know if you ever watched the show but for some reason I as a writer am assuming most of my readers never have."

I think people getting caught out is hilarious.I also think it's funny that Boyd Crowder sometimes talks like Ashley Wilkes. If Ashley Wilkes was a street-preaching bank-robbing explosives freak. Ok, Cliff's notes..Ava and Raylan finished off season 2 shot. They...got together while he was supposed to be protecting her till she testified.(Worst idea ever, though a staple of the genre.) She also shot her abusive husband Bowman with her twelve-gauge while he was sitting at the dinner table. Bowman is Boyd's brother, but he still has a crazy crush on her anyway...in fact, the fact she's lethal might be what Boyd likes, but she's had the hots for Raylan since she filled out a training bra( So much happens on Justified, I don't remember if Bowman is what Ava testifies about.) Boyd love/hates Raylan because they grew up together, in despised families but Raylan chose law and Boyd chose...not. Or more correctly, Boyd went in the family business. They both mined coal and faced down strikebreakers for a short time. They are sort of like the sheepdog and the wolf in the cartoons, but I don't think there's much Sheepdog/Wolf out there.

Something else funny...all my lj notifications get sent to gmail, who does the targeted ads...that story prompted gmail to send me modified-shower ads.

I don't think there's much Sheepdog/Wolf out there.

Thanks for the mental image. It makes you almost deserve the modified shower ads.

And now I kind of want to write ... no. No, no, no. Get out. Get Out! GET OUT! of my brain. There will be no Looney Toons fic.

well, there probably is...what am I saying? It's fandom. Still a smaller group than Raylan/Boyd.

Riffing off of Erika's casual remark about Raylan (in another thread) that "Death is his gift".

Justified does not map well (IMO) onto Buffy though xvers like Erika's work well. But if we force the mapping, making Raylan Buffy, then Ava/Boyd are Spike/Drusilla. And yes Ava is Spike and Boyd is Drusilla. Because Boyd has the really deep crazy all the way down. Does not map well. Boyd makes better plans than just about any character on Buffy or Angel ever did. Whereas Drusilla was never a planner at all, and Spike learned bad planning in the Angel school of bad planning. But as good as a Justified/Buffy mapping gets.

And he is way more interconnected with them(and I swear I don't mean porn, though, dear Lord, the three-ways that are out there) than Buffy was with Spike during his time with Dru. Sometimes Boyd might be like chipped!Spike though, if you're heathen enough to accept someone being chipped by the Lord. Which doesn't bother me at all to say, personally. And there's always "It's because you didn't have a strong father figure, isn't it?"(Although I get the feeling none of those people did.) And he is like Spike in that having Ava blow his brother away after feeding him all his favorites only added to what I'd bet a million dollars he'd call his ardor for her. But, yeah, Boyd schemes, he bides his time, he makes himself essential to Ava in her recovery instead of sniffing her sweaters. Art could be Giles, though, that'd be awesome.I'm still sorry I didn't write the episode with the chase of the old guy and the oxygen tank. Man, that was beautiful..."You sure your ticker's up for all that?" ETA: and it's okay, Gar, if you thought the crossovers didn't work, as long as you were not all "What a shameful waste of time!1" about it. I mean, it's a diversion, most of all.