#c. Arynn St. John

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Amusement twitched at her lips at the familiar voice, gaze shifting from the horse in the stall she was currently tossing hay into and allowing it to drift to Arynn before giving a playful roll of her eyes. "In their own way," Jenny quips before turning her attention back to the horse as it approaches her and her hand raises to scratch beneath its chin. "One of the few places, yeah," she admits softly, glancing back over at him, noting the healthier look to him, much like the version of him that she had fallen in love with. "You look- good."

"Do they ever talk back?" Arynn called out , tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans and giving a small, smiling nod to the stranger she had been speaking with; watching them stroll away. He paced forward some and glanced around the barn before looking over the animals in their stables. "So this is where you've been hiding out?" He questioned in a lighthearted and gently teasing tone. All traces of the exhausted man she'd spoken with months ago were absent now, leaving behind only the Bennett witch oozing with St. John charm at every opportunity he could find.

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Closed Starter - @arynnstjohn

"Good thing my entire career is centered around fires," Ares muses, amusement dripping from his tone as he blows but the fire that was currently burning his marshmallow. "Can't say it's ever helped me in the kitchen or roasting marshmallows area of my life though."

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Closed Starter - @arynnstjohn

She was still buzzing wildly, frame jittery with adrenaline from the spell that had only worn off moments ago. Battered and most definitely bruised from her altercation with Klaus Mikaelson himself as she settled herself down on the couch in the compound, hands visibly shaking as she tried to talk herself down from the high that was lingering far too long. The taste of enjoyment that lingered around her from the darkness that had been coursing through her left her viciously nauseous and she wanted nothing more than to sink into the couch, to become one with the furniture and never be seen again and it wasn't until her older brother came into view that the nausea that had been building had finally worked its way up and the contents of her stomach was emptied on the ground in front of her, gaze rising after a moment to find Arynn before offering a sheepish grin, hands still viciously shaking. "Hey," was all she could manage, voice feeble and weak.

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Tell me a story. (Arynn to Charlie)

"Once upon a time in a big old wooded swamp of Louisiana," Charlie muses, an amused grin pulling across her lips. "Lived a big hairy man that thought he was a big scary ogre but really he was just an annoying talking donkey. His name? Jackson Kenner."

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"Be careful. You're too beautiful to die." (Arynn to Xavier)

A brow perked upwards at the others words, a faint laugh rising from his chest as he shook his amused features. "That I already knew," Xavier jests. "And as flattered as I am, I'm a taken man. Due to be married to a Mikaelson. And for the record- technically I'm already dead."

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now... for a cold shower. (Arynn to Dominic)

"Way to make it awkward, dude," Dominic practically snorts, head shaking as an amused grin tugged at his lips.

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it's my system! so i know where they all came from! (Arynn to Oaklee)

"Okay, Jesus," Oaklee states quickly, hands rising in surrender. "You don't have to yell about it."

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Closed Starter - @arynnstjohn

"I don't like to do what people expect," Roxy shrugs lightly, dark irises finding the males. "Why should I live up to other people's expectations other than my own?"

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She remains silent as her gaze pulls from her brother, head dipping slightly as she stares down at the sand between them, lower lip tugged between her teeth as she contemplates whether or not she actually wanted to reveal what plagued her mind to her brother or not. Her family knew that she had been held hostage by Triad for months on end in the future but she hadn't exactly told them of what all had transpired before and during her captivity. She'd been trying to avoid even thinking about it but lately, with everything that had been happening, she was starting to feel like she was drowning.

So, she released her lower lip from her teeth, sucking in a breath before releasing it on a soft, almost defeated sigh as the wind blew the locks that had fallen from her ponytail across her features. "Triad killed Mason right in front of me," Abigail finally speaks though her voice is soft, barely above a whisper. "When they captured me. They had restrained in these anti-magic cuffs of some sort and there was nothing that I could do to protect him or save him. Those months that they held me prisoner were the worst kind of hell. Tormented by the nightmares of what they did, tortured for being what I am, for information on those I love and care about, trying to get me to give them up. When they took Evelynn and I was able to get her out I had one of the worst anxiety attacks I've ever had going into their holding cells. I've hurt people, there is blood on my hands and sometimes it's so vibrant and no matter how much I scrub it won't come off but then there's all this fucking anger inside of me that I don't know what to do with."

Her gaze slowly rose as she paused her words, meeting her older brother's with dark, glossy irises, brows dipped slightly, giving away just how much guilt and heartache she had been holding in all this time. "Using the dark magic was- it was like a part of that weight had lifted off me- off my chest. I don't- I don't want this life, Arynn. I don't want to feel like this, I don't want to be always looking over my shoulder. I can't- I don't think I can keep up this fight. I feel like we are just headed right down the same path to what our future holds and I really don't think I can go through all of that again."

Arynn was quiet for a moment. It was obvious his little sister was struggling, but he couldn't tell if it was still due to experience of the dark magic she'd been forced to use on Halloween; or if something new had happened to have her so shaken. "Hey..." He offered softly and just as quietly as she had spoken to him. "Talk to me, Abs." He tried to encourage her before shaking his head some. "I... don't know that I could cope without magic. Not if I had to go with the knowledge I once had it. Maybe if I'd never had it to begin with it'd be different?" He shrugged slightly.

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"Not entirely sure that it was all the wolf with my dad if I'm honest with you," Lorelai jests softly, an amused smirk plastered to her lips. "Yeah, our moms were forces to be reckoned with weren't they. Don't think that'll ever change no matter what time line we're in."

Her gaze follows the gesture of his hands before her eyes roll and she shakes her head. "Oh yeah just the typical male that doesn't know how to take no for an answer," the hybrid muses. "Think he got the point that time though. Basically told him that my boyfriend would eat him and my girlfriend- your sister- would do far worse than Sebastian would. Wouldn't you agree?"

Arynn smirked. "Oh, trust me, I remember. Your dad I always just chalked up to being a wolf, but your mom? I always tried to be on my best behavior around her whenever she and my mom were together. Contrary to what my sisters would say if you asked them, I do know how to behave myself sometimes." He laughed.

Gesturing at the male that had sauntered off, he pursed his lips slightly. "So what was the deal with him? Just a run-of-the-mill idiot?"

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"I mean- if we didn't have magic," Abby muses, her voice no higher than a barely audible whisper, her gaze finding her brothers in an almost helpless way. "If we were just-- human? There's be no running from Triad, no fighting a battle that it seems like we're losing *again*, no need to constantly pretend like we're normal around other humans, to not crave the darkness that balances the light." Her gaze slowly travels back to the water, arms crossing over her chest in a comforting way. "Yeah, sorry, I'm fine," the younger witch shrugs. "Just-- tired."

Arynn looked at his sister quizzically and just shook his head some. "What do you mean?" The question was gentle. "This is normal to me. I don't really know how to crave a life I don't even remember having. I was real little when my powers started awakening, so I barely remember what it was like to not have them." He shrugged some. "Everything okay?" He added lightly.

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A soft, inaudible sigh leaves her lips as she nods in agreement. "I suppose you're right about that," Abigail hums. "Normalcy has never really existed for us, has it? Do you ever just- crave it? To be normal? To live a normal life?"

"Normal is extremely overrated. Besides, I don't think I would know how to be normal, even if I wanted to. We weren't exactly born into normalcy." He mused and trotted down to where his sister had set up to enjoy the sunshine and waves. "How's it hangin', baby sis?" He smiled once he was close enough.

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Lorelai's tongue clicked as she turned to face the male, a grin cracking across her lips as she offers a simple shrug. "That should be a give in, St. John," Lorelai counters. "I mean mom's Olivia Parker and dad's Tyler Lockwood. Neither are exactly the pristine picture of well-tempered."

"Damn." Arynn chuckled quietly as Lorelai rejected the stranger's advances - for the second time, from the sounds of it - and he sulked away muttering under his breath. "Remind me never to get on the bad side of you Lockwood girls." He cracked a small grin. He didn't know Lorelai and Riley that well, but he'd been around them a few times when their father and his mother would hangout with their friends.

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Her eyes almost immediately found her brother as he approached, eyes rolling playfully as her lips curled upwards into a grin. "Always gotta find a way to use magic, don't you," Abby jests playfully. "Can't just take a break for a one day and enjoy a day of normalcy."

"Y'know... give me a good fifteen minutes and a couple of witches from the Boarding School and maybe we could make our own waves." Arynn's voice called out jokingly before he approached the younger woman.

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"I would not burn down the place," Ares defends with a chuckle. "I'd start the fire but then I'd get it put out immediately after. Probably why I eat so much take out when I'm not on duty."

Arynn scoffed lightly and kicked back in the folding chair he'd been seated in for the past five minutes watching Ares struggle to toast his marshmallow. Their impromptu camping trip in the woods had sprang up out of a random conversation, but Arynn was at least thankful that there weren't a ton of annoying bugs to be dealing with. "That's probably for the best. I think you'd burn down the place if you tried to do anything that required too much flame."

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"I was the Queen of Darkness, Arynn," Abigail counters matter-of-factly. "Who is the one person in this town that claims to sit on the 'throne' of New Orleans? Besides- he kind of had that karma coming to him wouldn't you say?" A soft sniffle was given as the back of her hand rose, swiping across her features as she wiped the tears that fell away and her gaze dropped to the ground.

She's silent as her older brother speaks, brows furrowing for a moment before she allowed her gaze to find his own. "How would you even know," she questioned. "I don't want power or revenge. I just want peace. That's all I have ever wanted. Darkness isn't peace it's- lonely and it destroys people. Using that dark magic makes me no better than Triad."

Jittery digits fall, palms flat against her knees as she shakes her head again and inhales a deep, albeit shaky, breath. "I want it to stop," the younger witch softly pleads. "The buzzing, the jittering, the need to use it again."

A part of Arynn twisted in pain hearing the way Abigail spoke - the way she recounted the surging aftereffects coursing through her from dark magic. "Klaus Mikaelson? Damn, you couldn't have picked someone a bit easier to go after?" He remarked, but the joking tone fell flat as he sighed and simply stared at his baby sister for what felt like the longest time.

"Dark magic..." He started carefully, "...has nasty after effects. The magic has a way of finding all the parts of you that you either didn't even know were a part of you to begin with; or that you always quiet and supress - desires for... for things like power or revenge or the simple desire to use more and more magic.." He explained in a quiet, almost defeated tone. It was the only way he knew how to try to comfort her; to share his familiarity with the subject.

"Witches like the Mikaelson witches - they can probably use it endlessly and not suffer any of its side effects. Maybe it's their bloodline, or they're just used to it... but, people like you -- like us? We don't always get that luxury." He gave her a small smile and lightly squeeze her hand.