auryn

[do_what_thou_wilt]

	{| auryn connor. |} real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. you must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back." - peter beagle age/dob: 28 species: witch sexual orientation: intentionally undefined occupation: busying his hands (currently at oceanside auto) pb:alexander vlahos this one is made of flint and steel, and the tinder waiting for them to spark. of lightning over water, dogtags and rings, the howl of wolves crying and the rustle of pages turning. the feeling of letting out a breath. he has been summoned from that space between loneliness and solitude. he does not forget. he cannot go back.

	{| personality. |} Auryn Connor is a quiet adult with a lot of distrust even for those he finds interesting. He’s learned to suspect the motivations of those around him, and moreover their prejudices. Still, despite the fact that there’s a lot of fear and a lot of anger to him, he’s not outwardly malicious. He’s kind to strangers, if wary. He just doesn’t let very many people in. While he truly craves love and acceptance -- more than he is aware of -- Auryn has learned to rely only on himself. He has small groups of acquaintances and an even smaller circle of trusted friends.. While Auryn isn’t a Satanist, it’s probably easiest to understand the way he considers others if you’re familiar with Laveyan Satanism. He’s respectful upon first meetings, he commands respect, and he demands respect be shown to others, especially those with less privilege. He doesn’t hurt things for pleasure or fun. However, he has no tolerance for disrespect and has no fear of handling things himself. Because he’s quiet and unassuming, it’s easy to suspect that he isn’t dangerous, but this would be a bad mistake. He’s both powerful and physically capable, and he has little to lose. There’s no stronger example of this than his opinion on witchcraft itself. Auryn believes that external restrictions on witchcraft, and bigotry against both natural witches and pagan/witch-identified humans, is not just intolerance but the continuance of hundreds of years of hatred, bred out of jealousy and fear. He’s against any kind of bigotry but this one is personal. He’s seen it destroy his family. He is absolutely an activist on this point, and he isn’t above – in fact is set on - the idea that sometimes violence or inciting fear is a necessary and appropriate reaction: sitting by peacefully and trying to convince people that magic is always Good and “we’re not the bad witches” isn’t going to do anything because it never has, and because magic’s not that simple and it’s a lie to calm the sheep. Magic is Natural, with a capital N. It’s not something you can control, and it's taunting powers you can’t understand to pretend you can. . pet peeves: people who interrupt, wasting things, snap judgments favorites: reading, dark beer, knives, handwritten letters, lightning habits/ticks: smoking, wearing his father's dogtags, answering questions with questions, tossing things from hand to hand

	{| history. |} family history: Auryn was born in Jacksonville, FL to Jay and Ellie Connor. The two were highschool sweethearts and grew up not far away in rural southern Georgia. Jay is a witch; his entire paternal line has the tendency, some more than others, traced back to their ancestors centuries and centuries ago in Ireland. Ellie meanwhile is human, but a practicing pagan. Auryn grew up with ritual and magic as part of his life. Jay joined the Marines out of high school: the chance to be part of a team, earn money for college and see the world appealed to him. When Auryn was very little, Jay found himself deployed to Iraq as part of support during Desert Storm. He returned disabled both mentally and physically; though naturally stoic, his whole life had to change. Ellie took on odd jobs to help support them while Jay struggled with pain and deep depression. Magic became a center for him and for the whole family; something of ritual, something bigger than himself, a brief respite from hypervigilance. Auryn was never far when Jay practiced, finding it one of the times he could count on his father being around and calm. Jay and Ellie were open with him about this part of their lives, teaching him about the principles of magic, intent, nature and including their young son in their practices. However, while they struggled to make ends meet and stay sane, the Connors weren’t simply accepted by everyone else in the community. When a babysitter followed Auryn into the back room, strewn with Jay’s spellwork, books and magical herbs and potion materials, as well as Ellie’s altar, with athame and ceremonial knife – the rumor mill came to a head and she reported them to authorities. Pending investigation, Auryn was taken from the home and placed in temporary foster care, but not before Jay snapped, pure emotion unleashing an uncontrolled magical assault on the social worker taking his baby away until his wife was able to stop him. It didn’t help things. Auryn’s foster parents were an older set of devout and evangelistic Christians, and tried their best to wipe 9 years of teaching from Auryn’s mind and replace it with what they thought would save him, taking him to church with them, insisting on his practice, and insisting on referring to him only as “Aaron”. At first he fought it but after a few weeks, he realized keeping quiet was the best idea. Meanwhile, however, the investigation wreaked havoc. The stability was gone from the Connors’ life; Jay grew more and more paranoid and angry, drawn to darker magic. He lost his job, leaving them dependent on Ellie’s unreliable income and both of them searching for work. Unable to reliably make appointments, they were declared unfit parents. Ellie’s older sister, Karen was awarded custody of Auryn. Not a fan of Jay at all, and (partially because of this) not on good terms with her sister, she moved him to Georgia where she lived to be near his grandparents. personal history: Auryn would live in Georgia for the next eight years, and was allowed no face to face connection to his parents. He eventually was allowed to write to them - through the intermediary of his aunt - and began exchanging heavily oblique letters and practicing his magic in secret. He was quiet and untrusting, though he instinctively found those he could talk to and sought them out. As a teenager Auryn spent as little time as possible at home, and would spend long hours alone or with friends. He slowly developed pride in what he could do, to see himself as special and unique, rather than shameful, for what he could do, and cherished the connection to his father. He read everything he could get his hands on about witchcraft and magic, whether history, practice or fiction, absorbed it, threw it out for his own ideas. Auryn also grew angrier and angrier at the dictates of “normality” forced on society, and his friends were generally the outcasts who shared these ideas. Often the instigator and rarely the perpetrator, Auryn joined his friends in various acts of rebellion. On the occasion this lashing out was actually his handiwork it was often quite a bit more destructive. Auryn managed to make it to graduation without getting himself expelled, and got the hell out of GA. He used the savings he’d accrued from jobs here and there to travel the United States with very little means: at times hitchhiking and train-hopping. This was a good experiment for him, as it forced him to be self-sufficient, allowed him open space to explore and fine-tune his powers, and also exposed him to a variety of people, incredible cruelty and uncommon kindness. It also helped him discover that he, like all the Connor men in his line, has a special closeness with canids, particularly wolves. He isn’t skilled enough to compel them to do his bidding against their own will, but if they’re around he can call them to him, and can communicate intent nonverbally. He’s lived in various places, but he’s still looking for a place where he feels safe and welcome to practice openly and as he will. Siren Cove may have gotten hyped up a little bit too much in his head and he won't be pleased to find out that there's heavy restriction on public witchcraft.

	{| powers and abilities. |} Auryn is naturally inclined toward magic and as such, dabbles – he has at least moderate ability in a range of things – but his strength lies in intent. Convincing something to be or do something else. This is easiest with base structures, exciting molecules or changing forms. He finds creating fire one of the easiest things to do and is highly skilled in pyrokinesis, but it's by no means his only application. He’d like to be more proficient at mental and theoretical applications of this (such as creating or changing dreams, persuading thought or even altering time) and is always trying to learn more. He calls on a variety of deities, entities or physical forces as needed and discards them when he finds them less useful, not paying tribute to any one pantheon as much as recognizing that they all represent aspects of extant forces or particular intent. Because of this, he has a variety of tools he uses and calls upon, and also views himself as ultimately a mutable tool. Auryn believes in magic as a neutral, higher force that exists and holds together all aspects of the universe. A physicist might say we’re made of stardust; Auryn would say stars and we are both made of what we call magic. Good and Evil are parts of this, but are inseparable and irrelevant without each other. alignment: true neutral or chaotic good

	{| lifestyle. |} Auryn lives simply and prefers it that way. He’s never been well off, and he doesn’t like depending on others. He’s responsible for his own survival and he doesn’t like having to put faith in others to get things done. He does have quite the fancy collection of ceremonial and ritual implements, and they are probably the most valuable items he owns. Though his powers don’t require ritual and he can easily access some of them at will, he definitely prefers the formality of ritual and they’re quite a bit stronger when formally called upon. In terms of sexuality and gender, Auryn respects others’, but doesn’t personally ascribe to the idea of single genders (though he uses the pronouns assigned to him) and sees gender more as a useful concept that can be accessed in different ways if necessary: sometimes masculine energy is more necessary, sometimes feminine, or neither. Sex is similar: why limit yourself? He thinks of sex as both physically and mentally useful and also magically useful at times. He can be a bit of a hedonist for someone who lives sparsely: if he has an urge, he sees no problem in satisfying it as long as it’s not holding him back. Love is its own separate thing in a lot of ways.

	{| ooc. |} "go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. build your wings on the way down." - ray bradbury name: faye age: 29 timezone: CST email: ask plz twitter: winged tumblr:winged Pretty much always open for rambles, ideas, private threads, slow time, pre-plotting or most other things. Usually slightly prone to slow tagging myself.

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Comments

[neriumoleander]

Ooooooooooooh.

Is this the character you were telling me about?

Because I want Nerium to get to know this guy. There is ripe potential here.

[do_what_thou_wilt]

He is! As I mentioned on Twitter. (I was planning to get a plot post up yesterday but didn't, maybe today?) But yes! I would adore any and all plotting with the two of them. If you have specific ideas brewing (ha ha) throw them my way.

I had the idea that her family might be well known enough in witch circles that he'd maybe try to seek her out anyway?

[neriumoleander]

I DMd you. But I have the feeling Nerium may find him very... alluring on a lot of different levels which is a whole new game for her. I will probably send you rambling plot ideas at some point soon unless you have them first :)