application

[sylla]

GENERAL

NAME: Sybilla Iolanthe Borgin
NICKNAMES: “Sylla”, “Sybs”. Personally she doesn’t mind Sylla as much.
AGE/DOB/ZODIAC: 17 / 4 December / Sagittarius
BLOOD STATUS: Half-blood/fullblood, Daddy is a Borgin so they’re not pureblood, but it doesn’t quite matter to her.
GENDER/PRONOUNS: She/her
SEXUALITY: Demisexual - her attentions are spent on a certain bloke at the moment, but she has never ruled out an attraction to girls.
HOMETOWN: Lancashire, Northern England. (Just outside of the village of Lathom is the Borgin manor house.)

CONCEPT: Dark arts legacy daughter with a dangerous edge hidden in blonde sweetness.

PHYSICAL

APPEARANCE: If Guillermo Del Toro directed a Disney princess movie. Accuracy. Pale blonde hair, cold blue, distant eyes, stoic expressions, a mouth that has a pout as a neutral pose. Her style of dress relies on floaty, lacy fabrics paired with grey, dark, straight-lined coats. Slightly old-fashioned is an understatement. Strays away from modernity, as if that’s any surprise. She almost always looks like she’s going to a funeral. Also a notable trait of Sybilla’s is her accent - far removed from the posh English accent she looks like she may have, she instead has a breathy Northern accent, muddied and regional. She sounds less Mary Poppins and more Beatle, many have said. She's very feminine, and looks a great deal like her mother, and presents herself as delicate and dainty.
HEIGHT: 4’11, very slight and short. A teeny little wisp of a girl.

PB: Elle Fanning

PERSONALITY

LIKES: Greek mythology, Shakespearean tragedies and histories, muggle boxing matches, dueling, spell theory, Astronomy (not really for finding things, just how they named the stars), reading, Lancashire hot pot, letters from Daddy and Mummy (she just likes talking about “her daddeh and her mummeh”), wool, winter coats, the Falmouth Falcons, ancient art, anatomy, funerary traditions, Florence and the Machine, dark arts.

DISLIKES: Potions, procrastination, large cities, hormones, group projects, flying herself, Divination, musicals, hamburgers, burned crisps, compromise, a neutral stance, dark arts taboos, ghosts that only talk and don't listen, being doubted because of her size and demeanor, modern art, comic book superheroes, meninists, rap music, swearing, going for too long without an owl from her family, height jokes.

PERSONALITY:

At first glance, Sybilla Borgin seems like the classic English rose type of girl - tiny, blonde, wide blue eyes, and a little pouty expression. She is always impeccably dressed and poised, even if there is something slightly off about how she carries herself, and that would be a good summation of the girl in general. She looks perfect and prim and proper, but there is an edge there that you can see, but quite can’t tell what it is at first. Underneath the sweetness and light, there is a sinister, intense edge that comes out with more time spent with her.

Living with the Borgin & Burke’s mantle on her shoulders and in the middle of seven other siblings has been a good cauldron from which this little girl bubbles up out of. She’s had to fight and strive to be better and perfect to get noticed in a household of needy, often codependent siblings led by their equally emotionally-connected and codependent parents. She quickly learned there is no middle ground, that intensity and passion is a virtue that sets one apart from apathy and mediocrity. Everything in life can be explored, picked apart, inspected and analyzed, which has been transfered over from the Borgin parents in their work with dark artifacts to the children, and no more than Sybilla. There is no point in merely existing and accepting things; in order to truly live, one must be passionate and interested and involved. This has manifested in an obsessive focus on those things that Sybilla loves - her Slytherin ambition and her Ebonhide tenaciousness have given her a powerful and intense focus on that which she takes to heart, whether it be her studies, a particular project, or her animagus training. She can work herself to the bone, often neglecting her health or social life until she has achieved what she wants. Especially at Gooseberry, without her family to check on her and look after her, she works herself into a frenzy to make everything just as she wants it to be. While she knows how to do this with herself, it’s working with others that proves more of a challenge, as she has impossibly high standards. She has a habit of looking to her family for an example, and the fear of not being as talented as Daddy and Mummy terrifies her and keeps her motivated. They are her sun and moon, just as they are eachother’s; their names on a shop in Knockturn, in the creation of a legacy almost lost to time and war and conflict. Her perfectionism doesn’t just hinge on unattainable, but legendary - and when she falls short, Sybilla can get moody, self-resentful, sensitive, and falls into spells of loneliness and self-loathing. But of course, she keeps it all to herself, not wanting to involve just anyone in her troubles. She has a select few that she can really open up to, but it has been a slow process opening up to anyone outside of her family in this way. Her family is her safe space, her comfort zone, and away from them she feels just a bit adrift and lost.

Sybilla thinks very hard on things, needing to pick them apart, see if she can make them better, to fully understand the opportunities given to her. It’s not so much a competitive streak in that she doesn’t often see others as a conflict or competition - she’s her own worst enemy, her own self expectations and not achieving that which she has set her goals on. Her parents say they will love her and support her, but it’s just not good enough. She wants to make them proud, she wants to be important, influential, and known, if not to others than just to herself and her parents. She doesn’t want to just be good at dueling - she wants to be the best dueler in the school. She doesn’t want to simply learn her animagus abilities - she wants to master them. She is indeed hardest on herself, having imagined how she should be and what she should aspire to. When she doesn’t meet them, she retreats more into herself, and can be slow to come out of it, as she doesn’t often open up to just anyone. This guardedness makes her tough and resilient through the struggles, but if it falls short she goes to pieces. It’s been a slow process in learning not to feel lonely and misunderstood, as she is so heavily reliant on her family always being there to support her and put her back together. But with her parents and siblings so far away in England, she is hardest on herself. Rather than spew out every negative feeling to any listening ear (that’s hardly the proper English way of doing things, after all), she beats herself up over things.

She’s not withdrawn, cold, and antisocial all the time - rather the opposite. She knows how to put on a good face and make everything seem like it’s all right, even if just on the surface. She is slightly more easygoing than her other housemates, at least in a public sense when she is not broody and sullen to herself. She is always polite to everyone, with that classic English ettiquette and composure she has practiced for her entire life. Even when speaking her mind and putting someone in their place, for Sybilla, it’s more of “show them, don’t tell them.” She would much rather let her accomplishments speak for themselves, rather than bother to stoop to someone’s level. As much as she tries to bottle things up, there are things that are hard to conceal. She is intense, driven, and ambitious, and can get downright fearsome and obsessive. She is an excellent duelist, which one rarely expects from such a pale, teeny little English girl. When she finds that rare person that she can speak her mind to, it is hard to talk her down from her precipice. While she knows balance and proportion are the goals to aim to, being a teenager really does get in the way of that. She really just wishes for someone to really speak honestly to, that isn’t going to think her interests are strange and offputting, and that is very hard to come by outside of her own family. If she can just hold on for a little longer, and truly find herself as she set out to do in leaving her family, then she knows she will reach that level of self-actualization she dreams of. But for now? It’s quite difficult.

Her junior year at Gooseberry was one of great change for Sylla, and a certain level of that self-actualization did come to pass. She opened up more to her cabinmates, and wasn't afraid of what people would think of her. She has used her pride as a Borgin as a ways to define herself away from them, in a school where she no longer has several siblings around her, and opened up to her small group of friends as a result. She has shared her passions and true feelings and been unafraid of showing who she is and what she likes. However, the kidnapping was traumatic and forced her out of her comfort zone, and the danger the spirits brought to her world has made her realize some uncomfortable truths, and a dark streak in her she was afraid of surfacing. She can be manipulative, callous, and unsympathetic when faced with something that does not ultimately benefit her or those she cares about. She enjoys toying with people and picking them apart as she would an ancient protective spell on something in Daddy and Mummy's shop. She has a strange idea of justice in serving comeuppance to those who have slighted her, paired with a sense of Borgin superiority. She cares little about anything else other than that which is important to her, which is admittedly myopic. To those she doesn't know well or choose to know, she can be cruel and distant and unfeeling. To those she has chosen to see as a perceived enemy, she can harbor an icy, cutting grudge. She holds grudges with a strong ferocity. She has high expectations for things in her life, but at the same time can forgive those she loves very easily. Perhaps this year she can learn to be a little more easy-going and roll with life's punches, but she sees everything as something she can control as master of her own fate. Once again, there's no happy medium. She either hates or loves, and is aloof to most else. Paired with a feeling of cheating death and invincibility, the coming year should be quite interesting.

SKILLS

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English, speaks limited Welsh and Latin (conversational Welsh thanks to Daddy and his Selwyn family, Latin due to studying the language for spell theory, but practices and speaks at home - and after all, who speaks Welsh and Latin anyways?)

PATRONUS: Successfully cast a corporeal patronus in her junior year - a raven. Symbolic of trickster figures in mythology, a harbinger of death, but also the ability of ravens in ancient lore to navigate between the worlds of the living and the dead. Also the animagus form she hoped for.

SKILLS:
Dueling: No surprise. She’s quick, resilient, has sharp reflexes and persistent stamina. She packs a powerful, formidable punch - figuratively and literally. She’s quite athletic and coordinated for her small frame and delicate appearance.

Stealth: She’s tiny, fast, and easily forgotten. She doesn't draw a lot of attention and likes flying under the radar. It’s for this reason she usually does decently well in mandatory bonding activities. Or stealing things from boys at cookouts.

Wand magic and spell theory: She takes after her father and his skill for dismantling ancient curses and hexes on objects to be sold in the store - she has been groomed to have a great understanding of spell theory and the way magic works on a fundamental level, and even designs her own spells and troubleshoots others. It fits well with her obsessive personality and drive to understand everything about anything she throws herself into - even if that is the very magic she uses every day.

Strong fighting skills: Mummy has taught her the powerful force of women, even at traditionally masculine exploits. She can defend herself and doesn't back down from physical altercations she may find herself in.

HISTORY

FAMILY MEMBERS:

- Larkin Borgin: Father, halfblood, proprietor of cursed artefacts at Borgin & Burke’s, Knockturn Alley, London.
- Serena Borgin, nee Burke: Mother, pureblood, owner of Borgin & Burke’s. Runs the show.

- Bedwyr Borgin: Older brother, magical art and artefact historian. Consultant to wizarding museums, dabbles in restoration.
- Phoebe Borgin: Older sister, assistant editor of The Daily Prophet.
- Ariadne Borgin: Older sister, Potioneer.
- Daphne Borgin: Older sister, Rookie on the Falmouth Falcons.
- Penelope Borgin: Older sister, apprentice to her mother.
- Elizabeth Borgin: Younger sister, third year Hufflepuff at Hogwarts.
- Margaret Borgin: Younger sister, first year Gryffindor at Hogwarts.

Distant relatives in the British Rosier and Welsh Selwyn families.

HISTORY:

Somehow, Borgin & Burke’s survived the second wizarding war, and undoubtedly by navigating a neutral transparency of the work they did, claiming “intellectual balance and freedom of education and understanding in wizarding artifacts.” Of course, most around Diagon and Knockturn just read that as “dodgy.” It helped that Larkin Borgin and Serena Burke retreated to themselves and their young family during the war, in their reclusive compound-like manor in Lancashire. Their allegiance was to eachother, their children, and the home and business they wished to keep safe. While their names were naturally linked to aiding and abetting Voldemort’s forces, just by reputation and past history, ultimately nothing could be found incriminating them. The reputation remained, but that hardly concerned Larkin and Serena. Their brave new world would be found in eachother, and the eight children they had together. They found strength in eachother, and in the winter of 1997, Sybilla was born.

Serena's interest in ancient and arcane magic was reflected in a fascination with archaic conception rituals to ensure a healthy family, which Larkin sought out to ensure the safest start to the fledgling, resurrected family line, often rumoured to be threatened by curses and affected by the dark magical items they dealt with. . .but resulted in one son and many, many daughters - all with pale blonde hair like their mother, their father's wide blue eyes, and fair skin. There was always something off about the Borgin girls, but the family was always old-fashioned, to themselves, reclusive, secretive. That was just the normal that Sybilla was born into - shielded away from the outside world being ravaged by war, taking strength with themselves. The light, airy girls all grew up thinking the darkness their parents dealt in for a living was just the way things were. They saw nothing wrong with it, and her sisters all seemed to share in the same interests, whether it be dangerous poisons, strong and brutal Quidditch playing, dissection and preservation of dead animals found on the grounds, the small family plot from centuries ago. Larkin and Serena had a feeling such interests and the dynamics of darkness played in their daughters all was a result from their unconventional creation, but paid it no mind. They were a happy family, comfortable, and supportive of one another. Sybilla was no different, and from an early age she found herself drawn to duelling and the dark arts, something forbidden and locked away to her, and was guided and demonstrated to by her father and mother, who were very careful to teach her how to balance it. For after all, the consequence of giving too much over to the darkness was apparent in all the dead relatives and family acquaintances. Her parents indulged her interests, only wishing the best and happiest of lives for their children, no matter what those strange interests were. Their children were their lives, the most important parts of them.

Sybilla soon followed the path of her siblings, even as more were born after her, and came to Hogwarts. The sorting hat had a mind to put her in Ravenclaw, but saw some ambition and cunning in the young girll, and thus placed her in Slytherin. While four of her siblings were older and already in school with her, she found herself confronted with the rumoured past reputation in the house, but the older Borgins made sure to protect and watch over their baby sister. She was lucky enough to not face abandonment by them, and the first year was always invited to sit with her much older sisters with the other fifth and seventh years, and a cold, threatening expression usually silenced those who objected. She was a quiet, calm girl, if a little chilly and cold - but never impolite, always very matter-of-fact, logical and calculated. She minded her business, she kept her head down, didn't instigate problems, even with those who held her family history against her. The balance of her meaner impulses and interest in the dark was ever present in the back of her mind, and self-control was of utmost importance to the young girl, as a defense mechanism. Mostly, she came across as quietly attentive, curious, and carefully determined to better herself. Though to some, there was always the thought that one didn't really want to make her angry - perhaps it was the cold expressions, the strange questions asked in class, and a sense of unease that seemed to follow all the Borgin daughters as they walked together in the halls. They always seemed "too something" - too blonde, too chilly, too calm and unaffected. But nobody could quite put their finger on it.

As Sybilla grew older, and her elder siblings graduated and went on into their own lives, she came into her own more. She began thinking of her own future, guided by her parents' owls and influence, but was always encouraged to take whatever path she wished to. Namely, that was duelling. She was a tiny, slight girl, but very talented in spell-casting, theory, and surprised many when she joined the duelling club in her third year. She looked easy to overpower, but proved exceptionally mighty - lots of power held within a teeny, fragile-looking package. There's no doubt she is extremely powerful, but she accepted defeat and possible hostility towards her gracefully, unaffected, mostly aloof. Of course, she was very critical of herself and her own performance, but she couldn’t show this to anyone. She was more interested in the balance, in the self-control towards her impulses, which was chiefly more important in this learning stage of her life. Some thought she lacked ambition and competitiveness, but coming from a supportive and talented family, she simply doesn't think that's the most important thing when she should be honing her skills. Over the years, this self-actualization obsession overwhelmed her, caused her to be competitive with herself and her own goals, becoming almost intensely perfectionistic, to an unhealthy degree. She struggled on her own, without her older siblings to help her, and she came to realize that perhaps she had to be put further out of her comfort zone. To her, this wasn’t just changing how she carried herself at her own school - it was taking it to the extreme, in leaving the school and the country she had called home for her whole life.

With her grades, skill with transfiguration and spell theory, and dueling promise, she was invited to study at Gooseberry High in America to start her fifth year. Her parents didn’t like the idea at first, didn’t want their darling little Sylla leaving and being so far away from them, but had started to notice what their protectiveness had done to her coping skills. They tried to talk her into staying, enticing her with a holiday abroad for the summer, but she had made her mind up. She had always wanted to go to America and meet new people, see how they lived, and felt she needed an extreme change to jolt her back into whatever idea of normalcy she was looking for. With that, to start her fifth year, she left Hogwarts and came to Utah and Gooseberry.

After a bit of a row with the emblems, she was sorted to Ebonhide, which she of course studied and read about before she got there, and it seemed a good match - even if she was concerned about a new reputation that would be stamped on her upon arriving. But this way, at least she was with a group of people who didn’t know any of the other Borgins, who may not have even known about what her parents did, and the idea of reinventing herself was incredibly freeing. . .for a time, until her perfectionism and self-criticism started to manifest more in herself now that she was so far away from her family’s safety and strength. She no longer had any idea of herself to others to answer to, that was true, but a different side emerged. To the new classmates, she stared at things too long, examined them and their behavior too closely, looking at the world around her with wide eyes and interest that seemed to be bursting at the seams. There were always hints that the Borgin girl was strange, whether it be a rare morbid joke or a gleeful smile whenever a Quidditch player suffered an injury during a game. She picked strange topics on which to write her papers, slightly disturbing on top of being thought provoking. There was always a dark undercurrent running through the girl, despite their blonde haired blue eyed gentle "English rose" appearance. Even on her own, Sybilla was no different - a tiny girl with a soft voice, who seemed to disappear into crowds and not want to stand out too much. Sometimes it would burst out, when the small girl won a match in dueling club, producing much more power and skill from her wand than anyone would have guessed such a little thing could. But hiding in the crowd was lonely and stifling, and soon felt like she was trapped in a cave, with only faint glimmers of how the real world was. Her fifth year was spent lost in perfectionism, self-competition, and almost unattainable goal-setting - and much of it sick with a cold as well.

Getting accepted to start Animagus training helped her in coming to her junior year, as well as the hope of being able to practice magic on her own at home, and she came back to school refreshed and ready to make the most of it. She spent the entire summer with her parents and her siblings, and it gave her the drive to carry on and make another school year her own. And in fact, her junior year was one of great change.

She made her animagus transformation, after telling her parents she had made the decision to return for her senior year. She went to parties, Quidditch games, and school events, and made closer friends with her cabinmates - while her social circle is still smaller than most everyone at the school, this is still a vast improvement for a homebody girl whose best friends were her parents and siblings. She met a boy, had her first kiss and dance date, and it is the first time she's ever really felt attracted to anyone her own age. . .or anyone she's met. Her junior year brought much to her life.

However, when she found Antonia Papadakis had been kidnapped by the forest spirits, it also brought the most traumatic experience to date in her life. She drew a wand on a senior girl, she physically fought a malicious spirit, and she stabbed herself in the stomach with a pair of scissors in the. . .dream state, nightmare, whatever they found themselves in. Ultimately, she was able to not give in to the ghost's taunts, or so she thinks, and she found and rescued her single-handedly.

Sybilla hasn't told anyone about what happened, not even her family. She doesn't know what to make of her actions, but is both proud and horrified at what she did. She knows it was ridiculously foolish and hasty and that she very well could have died there, but at the same time she feels as if she has cheated or outwitted a self-preservation impulse in herself. . .or death itself. She both feels triumphant and afraid of herself. She should know it's a sign of selflessness, but her confused mind and emotions are interpreting it in a variety of different ways. She doesn't know whether to think of it as a point of pride or stupidity, that she would even die to protect one of her best friends. In a way she wants to know what the others went through, if they had to do what she had to do, but also feels like she's stronger than her own impulses. But she has other things on her mind - missing that one bloke, Dueling and Fencing club, and protecting herself and her friends from whatever else the school can throw at her.

SCHOOL

YEAR: Senior
HOUSE: Ebonhide (formerly Slytherin sorted at Hogwarts)
SORTING: As the emblems argued amongst themselves, Sybilla cleared her throat and stated she was a Slytherin, and was met with what she took as dismissiveness, which the girl hardly approved of. She crossed her arms and said it was rather short-sighted of the emblems to not take past sortings into account, if they wanted a most precise answer, causing Ebonhide to claim her for their own, as her perfectionism and demand to have a most concise and thorough answer was recognized. She didn’t leave until the rest agreed. She wasn’t going to leave it to be left to a toss-up by any means.
WAND: 8 inches, aspen and unicorn tail hair - short and rigid.


FAMILIAR: A Scottish fold cat named Madoc


CLASSES: Charms, Hermeticism, History of Magic, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Artificing, Animagus Studies.
ADVANCED STUDY Animagus Studies - completed her transformation to an albino cobra in her Junior year. Her progress was squandered as she kept focusing more on what she wanted to become rather than what her true form was, being as stubborn as she is, and she accidentally transformed in the middle of the library for the first time - and has an unending grudge on the girl who called her out for it in the journals, as well as the girl who screamed and complained and drew attention to what Sylla considered to be a very embarrassing faux pas on her own part. She is still not entirely comfortable with being a snake even just by virtue of “of course a Slytherin turns into a snake,” but has become very comfortable with certain aspects of it - as a very feared and worshipped creature, considered sacred by Indian and Ancient Egyptian cultures, and Sylla no doubt wishes to be worshipped and feared by those around her. At her worst she can be considered a “snake in the grass,” and she quite likes this about herself. But she is also a fierce protector, a brutal fighter, and aims to be both deadly and beautiful. Her form suits her well. She also enjoys her mother heaping praise on her when she transforms for her, and spent a great deal of time being carried around the house and wrapped around her mother’s arm during the summer holidays - despite her father being slightly scared by snakes.
SENIOR PROJECT: She is currently considering designing various dueling curses for exhibition for her senior project, as spell theory and hermeticism is her greatest skill and favourite subject. She may have already created one and tried it out on her father in a duel. Exploring the very basics of spell creation is of great interest to her, and she wishes to demonstrate her process from start to finish.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Very well, as she is willing to sacrifice her well-being emotionally and physically for it. She was a stellar student at Hogwarts, and has carried on her good marks at Gooseberry. (Of course, she has cast off Potions and Divination, which were some not so bright points in her grades.) She loves Transfiguration and Hermeticism most of all, along with Animagus Studies, and tries to get through Defense Against the Dark Arts (though she takes it just to better understand it, don't tell anyone), but she doesn't altogether enjoy it. She also finds Artificing terribly dull, because she is much more interested in studying things people have already made, but naturally, to understand something one must immerse themselves.

EXTRACURRICULARS: Dueling and Fencing, in which she is the club president.

OOC

NAME: Madeline
EMAIL: maddawg88 @ gmail
CDJ: sazerac
OTHER PREFERRED CONTACT: getmeacampari at aim
TIME ZONE: US Pacific

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
8:00	B R E A K F A S T
8:30
9:00	Hermeticism		Charms		Transfiguration
9:30
10:00		Animagus Studies
10:30
11:00	History of Magic		Defense Against the Dark Arts		Artificing
11:30
12:00	L U N C H
12:30
13:00		Transfiguration	Hermeticism
13:30
14:00	Charms		Artificing		Defense Against the Dark Arts
14:30
15:00		History of Magic
15:30
16:00
16:30					MONTHLY BONDING ACTIVITY TIME SLOT #1
17:00
17:30
18:00	D I N N E R
18:30
19:00			Duelling & Fencing Club		MONTHLY BONDING ACTIVITY TIME SLOT #2
19:30
20:00