GIVENS, Cash Emmett

CASH EMMETT GIVENS


i'm the owner, i go by HEIDI.
you know you love me, don't deny it.
my hook-up's at indecisive much, so stay in touch
my little family consists of ALEX, ALLIE, MIKA, LINNEA, PAX, PENNY AND LANNY.
i came across this dandy little place behind the couch
am i under fourteen? NO sir!



I M A G I N E D . I D E N T I T Y



...EVERY STORY HAS A START...

FULL NAME: Cash Emmett Givens
NICKNAMES: Cash is short enough for most, though some call him C. His little sisters call him Crash, because May consistently mispronounced his name when she was little, and Lizzie thought it fit, so it stuck with him. No one but his sisters is allowed to use that pet name, however.
AGE: 34
DATE OF BIRTH: April 28th, 1977
OCCUPATION: Works at Simmons Security, a small company based on East Side... and he's not entirely opposed to a bit of crime to make ends meet.
LOCATION: East Side

...JUST A MAP OF THE WORLD...

EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Brown, starting to go gray at the temples
HEIGHT: 6'4
BUILD: slender
ANYTHING ELSE: Tattoo on the back of his neck. (click)
PB: Jensen Ackles

...WITH THE POWER TO BE...

GENERAL PERSONALITY:
Morals. They're funny things. Little angels and devils sitting on our shoulders, whispering in our ears and guiding our steps. On every shoulder in the world, they've found a spot, even on Cash's. Only, his angel is a little soft spoken, and his devil's much too loud. Or maybe they just haven't read the textbook right. Either way, Cash doesn't deal in right and wrong like most other people do; some would say that he doesn't have much of a conscience, but that's not true. Rather, he has his own code of conduct, one that's more important than any other law.

Take care of your own, that's rule number one. No matter the cost, no matter the consequences, no matter who else you have to hurt, you protect those you love. Cash might not love easily, or a lot of people, but he does love fiercely, though the ones it touches may never know just how deeply. He doesn't say 'I love you' to anybody, and he's not generous when it comes to affectionate gestures. In fact, saying he's rough around the edges is putting it mildly. Coaxing him to talk about what's going on inside his head is like drawing blood from a stone, and if you try, you're likely to get an unwanted response, ranging from just mild sarcasm to a punch in the face.

He does have a tendency to let his fists do the talking for him, and he's no stranger to violence, although he would never hurt a woman or a child. In his eyes, beating up someone who's got no chance to get you back, that's the lowest of the low. Of course, there is a fair bit of hypocrisy in this belief, seeing as he has no problem hitting a man whom he is physically superior to: that's different. In essence, he's of the opinion that men are men, meaning that they take care of themselves, and when they step out of line, they get what's coming to them.

He has a very well developed image of what it means to be a man, and ironically, much of the view has been taught to him by his father, whom he hates and respects in equal measures. Noah Givens was never a prime example of manhood though; in fact, many would argue that he was a walking, talking What Not To Do guide, but no matter his flaws, there was one thing he never did: leave. Plenty of the kids Cash grew up with never knew their fathers at all, and still more saw their backs before reaching adolescence. His mother, always quick to make excuses for her husband, said over and over again that that would have been the worst sin of them all.

Already from a very young age, Cash had a turbulent relationship with religion. His mother and father both came from very strict Irish Catholic families, and they were firm believers themselves, though perhaps not as pious as Cash's grandparents might have hoped.. Every Sunday, without fail, the Givenses made their way to Mass, and Cash, much like any of the other boys whose parents dragged them to Mass, couldn't wait to be free of the somber atmosphere. Still, as a child, he believed unquestioningly. The doubt didn't start to set in until he was in his late teens.

That was when he first kissed another boy, or rather, was kissed. The other boy ended up with a black eye and a split lip, but it stirred up a lot of feelings that Cash had no way of dealing with. Despite having put fifteen years between himself and the incident, he still doesn't know where it leaves him, because, as much as he would have loved to have hated the kiss, the truth is he didn't, so he hates this aspect of himself instead and spends vast amounts of energy trying to shove it so far into the closet that it gets lost in Narnia.


LIKES:

men
whiskey
black coffee
his sisters
playing hockey
Sopranos
being alone in church
quiet nights
watching sports
Rubik's cubes

DISLIKES:

fags
sissies
stupidity
snobs
broken bones (his own, that is)
people who hurt children
pop music
metrosexuals
clingy people
romantic notions

STRENGTHS/TALENTS:

intimidation
protective of those he loves
hockey
street smart
quick thinker
manipulative
fighting (lots of practice)

WEAKNESSES/BAD-ATS:

narrow minded
overprotective of those he loves, and will do stupid things to keep them safe and happy
reading
hit first, ask questions later
talking about anything meaningful

...BORN IN BLACK AND WHITE...

PARENTS:
Noah Givens - father - 52
Theresa Givens - mother - 51
SIBLINGS:
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Givens - sister - 28
Maybelle "May" Givens - sister - 27
OTHER SIGNIFICANT FAMILY:
A slew of aunts, uncles and cousins, most of whom he has little to no contact with.
PLACE OF BIRTH: New York
HISTORY:
Theresa was sixteen, Noah was seventeen. They both came from Catholic families with more children than could be kept close track of, which was probably at least partly why they ended up in the mess they got themselves into. Curious about forbidden fruit, Theresa and Noah's cow eyes at one another escalated into flirting, which then moved on to kissing, which developed into heavy petting, and then the rest is history, as people are fond of saying.

Less than a year after their first meeting, Theresa found herself pregnant. She was terrified of what her father would do, and rightly so. She emerged from the conversation - which Noah had refused to be a part of - with a burning hand print on her cheek and strict instructions to marry. At first, Noah was entirely opposed to the idea, but eventually his parents talked him into it, with threats, wheedles, and not least, a small apartment in the building across the street from them.

It was this apartment that Cash was brought home to, six months, almost to the day, after Theresa had spoken to her parents. The young couple had been married for just over four, and already the relationship had turned rather sour. Divorce was, however, not an option. Nothing should ever separate those whom God has joined together in holy matrimony. That much, at least, they agreed on, even if disagreements were frequent in the Givens household.

And so the little family trudged on, and Cash grew older. If you asked him, he wouldn't be able to tell you exactly when he realized that his parents were hardly the picture of marital bliss. In a way, he was probably always aware of it on some level, even if he couldn't put any words to describe how his family was different. To him, it wasn't strange that his mother wore sunglasses in the house, and long sleeved sweaters on hot days. That was just the way of things, just like shouted arguments were his constant lullaby when growing up.

The first time Noah laid hands on Cash, Cash was six years old. His first sister, Elizabeth, had just been born, and she was a colicky baby that cried a lot. Tempers were short all around, thanks to lack of sleep and the constant wailing that grated on everybody's nerves. Cash was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, being too loud, being too much in the way, being too much Cash.

Later that night, his mother tucked him into bed, brushing gentle fingers across the bruise that had appeared across his cheek. His father was just tired, she explained, because the baby kept him up all night. This, Cash found to be perfectly reasonable. He was amazed that someone so small could produce such a racket. So far, having a sibling was nothing like his expectations. He had been so excited to see his mother's belly grow, because he hadn't really believed that there could be a baby in there, but it grew and grew, and his mother said that he would have to take good care of the little one when he or she was born. He imagined that the two of them would be like the twins across the street; you never saw one without the other. But of course, when Lizzie finally arrived, she was much to small to play baseball in the street, and Cash wasn't allowed to go outside alone with her anyway. The promise he had made to his mother was one he would never forget though.

Sadly, when Noah had gotten the first slap out of the way, he had opened floodgates that he couldn't easily close. At first, he tried to restrain himself, but Lizzie had barely started sleeping through the night before Theresa found herself pregnant once again. She gave birth to Maybelle when Cash was seven years old, and having to parent three young children was hardly the blessing that the old women at church always said that it was as they patted Cash's head, their faces graced with wistful smiles and their eyes clouded with memories.

On top of the stress of raising three children under eight, Noah also lost his job shortly after the birth of May. He had hardly been raking in the bacon before, but it was a huge hit for the family, and for a long time, the only reason they stayed afloat was by the grace of stray jobs and occasional handouts from Cash's grandparents. There never seemed to be enough money for anything but the bare necessities, and sometimes, not even that.

The final humiliation for Noah came when Theresa found work as a secretary for a local company. The roles had been reversed, and he was the stay at home husband to a wife that was supporting him. Needless to say, this did not make for a better home environment, and the marriage deteriorated even further, as did Noah's relationship with Cash. Although still quite young, Cash had found the purpose of his life: to protect his younger sisters, no matter the cost. Sometimes this meant taking them to the park when he could see a storm brewing. Other times, it meant making sure that there was nothing to cause the storm to break out.

But as Cash grew older, more and more often, it meant that he picked a fight with his father to distract him. At thirteen, he wasn't much of a challenge for a full grown man; he was a scrawny kid, short for his age and bordering on underweight. The only thing he had going for him, was a unquenchable will to always get back up again. Which, at thirteen, wasn't really something that worked for him, because it meant a much rougher treatment than what would have otherwise been in store for him. It sure toughened him up though, and, as time went on and Cash got stronger, it added another element to his picking fights with his father: revenge. He was still very protective of his sisters, but he wasn't fighting just for them. It would have been easy to put all the blame on Noah, because he started it all when Cash was only six years old, but the truth was that Cash became more and more like his father with every fight.

The combative personality permeated most aspects of his life, and it was especially detrimental to his academic "career". He was never much of a scholar, and often scraped by the skin of his teeth. He could hardly be called stupid, but he sure felt it when he slowly worked his way through the passage of The Great Gatsby that he had been told to read out loud, a pause punctuating every word he spoke.

In his sophomore year of high school, he had finally had enough of the sham, and dropped out. His mother scolded him half-heartedly, while his father snorted and said he had better find work so that he could help support the family. For seven years, Cash continued to live with his parents, working a dead end job at a bodega around the corner from his building. The relationship he had with his father didn't improve one bit, and it wasn't unusual for either one of them to have to laugh off various bruises when friends asked what had happened. One might ask why Cash stuck around for so long, but the answer would be obvious: his sisters kept him tethered to his father as securely as if they had used chains.

Then came the long awaited explosion. What started the final fight, Cash doesn't even remember anymore. It wasn't so much one single spark as it was countless embers crackling in dry grass. In any case, Cash ended up leaving the apartment in a rage, and soon after found himself at the train station, where he bough a ticket to the first train out of New York. It didn't matter where it was going to, he just had to get out. At twenty one, he had no education, no money, no possessions, no prospects, so it hardly mattered. He ended up in Bishop City, and he figured it was as good a place as any, so he stayed.

For months, he didn't contact his family. He hadn't bothered to even grab his cell phone when he fled, and he thought maybe that it was for the best to sever all ties completely. He found himself a homeless shelter on East Side where he could sleep while he looked for work. For a while, he only found stray jobs here and there that paid next to nothing, but with each stray job, he found connections and gained trust. The types he worked for weren't always the most upstanding members of the community, but Cash was hardly going to complain as long as he was paid.

One of his occasional gigs was acting as bouncer at a strip club, which is where he met Chuckie Simmons. Chuckie was getting a bit to handsy with the girls, Cash tossed him out on his head, Chuckie started a fight, and they both ended up in the ER, which was the beginning of a very unlikely friendship. Chuckie's wife had just left him for another man, taking their two daughters with her in the process. Thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed that night, he was fairly chatty - and also very forgiving. Despite the fact that he had broken his arm, Cash found himself on the receiving end of Chuckie's whole life story and also a job offer for a position in Chuckie's company, Simmons Security. "I can use someone with your right jab," he had slurred, and Cash had laughed, thinking that Chuckie wasn't serious.
It turned out that he was, however, and Cash started working his first steady job. Being fairly newly established and based on East Side, Simmons Security was hardly the most prestigious of employers, and the wages were accordingly low, but Chuckie had - and still has - ambitions for the company.

Then, late one night, there was a knock on Cash's door. He opened it to find both his sisters in the hallway, looking like something the cat had dragged in. He had abandoned his 'no contact' rule on May's birthday the same year he had left, but for various reasons, calls home were few and far between. He was utterly surprised to see them standing there, and Lizzie had had to ask to come in - in a sarcastic tone that he could not recall ever hearing from her before.

They had done a Cash, May laughed, and they needed a place to stay. In his one bedroom apartment on East Side, Cash hardly had room for two more bodies, but he let the girls have the bed and slept on the couch while they searched for jobs. Both of them having high school diplomas, the hunt was a little easier than it had been for Cash, but it still took a few months before he was able to install the girls in their own apartment in a building not far from his.

...I COULD BE A TOWER...

MEMBERSHIP TITLE: dancing with demons
ANYTHING ELSE?: PAAAIN! (Somebody get this man an aspirin!)
SAMPLE POST:

- In weaknesses, you say that he's protective of those he loves. Do you mean it's a weakness because he gets overprotective?

Who is Sammy?

VERDICT: ACCEPTED
He. Is. Awesome. -fangirls all over him- The sample post is also a thing of beauty.