SYBILLE HENDRIKS
MAGIC MIRROR ON THE WALL...
STATISTICS
NAME Sybille Hendriks
NICKNAMES Billie
AGE 37
SPECIES Gifted Human
DOB February, 24
HEIGHT 5'7"
BUILD Long limbed with surprisingly well defined muscles hidden beneath the fabric of her clothes. Unquestionably feminine.
HAIR Blonde
EYES Blue
THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE
Beautiful, spoftspoken wallflower with an old soul.
ABILITIES & SKILLS
CATOPTROMANCYCatoptromancy is divination through the use of mirrors or reflective surfaces. Sybille has the gift of clairvoyance through these mirrors, allowing her to see events as they are happening in real time. She is only able to do so as long as she has an object of the person she's trying to view. Being a seamstress, this could be something as small as the thread from a piece of clothing she's mended, or a lone sequin that's fallen off a costume.ONEIROMANCYOneiromancy is divination through dreams. While she lacks the ability to see the future while she's conscious, her dreams often consist of fragmented clues about what could be. While not always the most reliable, her dreams allow her to keep an eye on those she believes may be in danger. For the most part, she dreams of people who are close to her, but every now and again she'll dream about the person she met at the market, and more rarely, total strangers.LIFE SKILLSSewing is at the top of the list, but she's picked up other useful skills as a kid trying to survive. She's surprisingly strong and athletic, despite her meek demeanor. She's a decent pick-pocket, but her siblings were always more proficient at thieving. She is fluent in English and Afrikaans, and is remarkably good at calculating numbers in her head. Years of living an active lifestyle means she has a lot of stamina and can outrun most who aren't supernatural – she prides herself on her speed due to years of being dragged around by her older family members when she was a kid.THINGInformation blurb
CURRENT INFORMATION
Currently, Billie has a small team working under her as the circus's head seamstress, making sure the performers have their costumes ready and wearable before showtime. She's also the go-to person for employees who just need a rip patched up, or an adjustment made on a suit or dress they need for a special event. She joined the circus with Max and has been there ever since.
PERSONALITY
Billie is a true introvert, falling into the INTF-J category when referring to Meyer Briggs. Aptly labeled 'The Advocate', she is the person people feel comfortable going to whenever they have a problem, knowing she'll lend a listening ear. Never one to judge, always one to try and offer perspective if the other person is receptive to it. She's been a wallflower her entire life, only really showing her true colors when she's around the children she grew up with in Soweto - her chosen family. They encourage her to step outside her comfort zone, which would be terrifying if she didn't know they'd never let anything or anyone hurt her. While not the oldest of the group, she tends to 'mother hen' the lot of them, always checking in to make sure they'll taken care of. She comes across as a delicate flower, but she's had plenty of time to toughen up over the years. Living on the streets for so long made her resourceful and resiliant.
APPEARANCE
There's nothing particularly special about Sybille's appearance - or that's what she tells herself, at least. Born with wheat colored hair and cornflower blue eyes, she's always seen herself as 'average'. It was hard not to while growing up around people who looked like they belonged on the covers of magazines. She genrally wears her hair, which falls in waves just below the middle of her spine, in a long braid draped over her shoulder, or clipped up to stay out of her eyes while she works. It's rare to see her wearing makeup, so used to spending years in South Africa picking up jobs where being invisible was a virtue. She's usually seen wearing clothing she's made herself - generally long, flowy, modest dresses with boots. Occasionally she can be seen walking around in a pair of jeans and a top, though she rarely shows off her figure. She's self-conscious about the parts of her she thinks of as 'flaws', such as her small breasts and the bump on her nose, but her family always tells her that her smile - toothy, genuine, and almost child-like - lights up any room.
Currently, Billie has a small team working under her as the circus's head seamstress, making sure the performers have their costumes ready and wearable before showtime. She's also the go-to person for employees who just need a rip patched up, or an adjustment made on a suit or dress they need for a special event. She joined the circus with Max and has been there ever since.
PERSONALITY
Billie is a true introvert, falling into the INTF-J category when referring to Meyer Briggs. Aptly labeled 'The Advocate', she is the person people feel comfortable going to whenever they have a problem, knowing she'll lend a listening ear. Never one to judge, always one to try and offer perspective if the other person is receptive to it. She's been a wallflower her entire life, only really showing her true colors when she's around the children she grew up with in Soweto - her chosen family. They encourage her to step outside her comfort zone, which would be terrifying if she didn't know they'd never let anything or anyone hurt her. While not the oldest of the group, she tends to 'mother hen' the lot of them, always checking in to make sure they'll taken care of. She comes across as a delicate flower, but she's had plenty of time to toughen up over the years. Living on the streets for so long made her resourceful and resiliant.
APPEARANCE
There's nothing particularly special about Sybille's appearance - or that's what she tells herself, at least. Born with wheat colored hair and cornflower blue eyes, she's always seen herself as 'average'. It was hard not to while growing up around people who looked like they belonged on the covers of magazines. She genrally wears her hair, which falls in waves just below the middle of her spine, in a long braid draped over her shoulder, or clipped up to stay out of her eyes while she works. It's rare to see her wearing makeup, so used to spending years in South Africa picking up jobs where being invisible was a virtue. She's usually seen wearing clothing she's made herself - generally long, flowy, modest dresses with boots. Occasionally she can be seen walking around in a pair of jeans and a top, though she rarely shows off her figure. She's self-conscious about the parts of her she thinks of as 'flaws', such as her small breasts and the bump on her nose, but her family always tells her that her smile - toothy, genuine, and almost child-like - lights up any room.
HISTORY
On the evening of February 24th 1983, the child who would come to be known as Sybille Hendriks was born. Her mother, a victim of assault with no intention of keeping the child, gave birth in a hospital in Johannesburg. Only days after her delivery, she placed the child on the doorstep of a convent in the slums of Soweto. The nuns found her in the early hours of the morning, crying from hunger and cold. Nameless and alone, they assigned her the name 'Sybille' and took her in to attend to the baby's needs. She'd go the first few years of her life without a surname, taking on the name 'Hendriks' when she was adopted by a couple who wanted to show her the love she'd never gotten from her own parents. This would have been a wonderful thing for Sybille, but one afternoon when she was 4, they left to go to the market and never came back. She kept peering out the window, waiting for them to come down the walkway with that night's dinner. It began to get dark, and she grew worried. Going to find something she knew would bring her comfort, and took her tattered bear and wrapped herself up in the blanket her adoptive mother had been making. There was a mirror on the far side of the wall, but instead of seeing her own reflection, she saw a horrific scene. The woman who had taken her in as though she was her own child was desperately clawing at a man who had a knife to her throat.
Sybille ran from the house screaming, tears streaming down her face. It'd begun to rain, and the blanket she had thrown over her shoulders fell into the mud, but she kept the bear close. What she'd seen had scared and upset her, and she knew if she could just find the people she'd come to know as parents, they'd make it all better. She ran until her little legs became too tired, forced to find shelter from the storm. With her knees pulled to her chest, Sybille cried into her bear until a boy's voice drew her attention. After what she'd seen in the mirror, she wondered if maybe she was imagining him too. It was only when he went to help her up that she accepted his realness. She'd come to learn the boy's name was Max, and he was about to change her life completely. He introduced her to a different kind of family - children, the lot of them, not much older than she was.
The kids got by the best they could, stealing and foraging. Sybille was usually the one who'd distract the merchants, using those innocent, big blue eyes to keep their attention long enough for someone older to grab a few items. She was smaller than the other children, meaning she wasn't quite as fast. Iminathi and Roux usually had to pull her along, but things changed when she hit puberty. She shot up like a weed, eventually coming to be the same height as her older pseudo-sister. Puberty changed other things as well, such as the way she viewed Max. He'd always been her savior, the one who'd rescued her, but he'dseemingly grown into his looks overnight. Sybille, who the other kids began calling 'Billie', remained in an awkward stage, and felt her cheeks burn hot whenever Max was in the room. She didn't understand what she was feeling, but this was one of the less confusing things she had to deal with in her adolescence. While she was folding some clothes, working on Roux's pile, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. There was a pot of water boiling on the stove, but it looked like the metal was reflecting someone else's face. Being the only person in the room, she moved closer to investigate, her jaw dropping when she realized what she was seeing.
She thought she was going crazy. Roux and Max were working a job, but she could see them in the pot - not only that, she could hear them, too. Squeezing her eyes shut, she thought the images would surely be gone once they opened again. Instead, she saw more of their journey. Her feet carried her backwards away from the pot until she backed into the kitchen table. Gasping, she let go of the shirt she'd been holding. When she looked back at the pot, the images were gone. Telling herself she needed to get more sleep, she reached down for the shirt only to see and hear the movie-like images of the two males reappear.
Sybille wasn't a stranger to the supernatural. She'd watched Max shift when he was 11, but she always thought she was so…ordinary. She helped out however she could, taking on jobs as a seamstress once she was old enough to earn money. She made clothes out of scraps of fabric she was able to pocket, or Von Trapped a few pieces out of curtains or blankets, but she wasn't special. She kept what she'd seen to herself for a while, finally confiding in Nat when she was ready. She thought she'd tell her she was crazy. Instead, she helped her figure out how to hone her skills and put them to use. It took some practice, but Billie was able to see a person in real time so long as she was holding something that belonged to them. It was a useful skill to have for a bunch of kids who were constantly putting themselves in dangerous situations. She was a living, breathing security camera.
She went years thinking this was the way she could make herself useful to the group, but a series of events that came to fruition after she'd dreamt about them made her wonder if there was more to her abilities. This time she turned to Roux, telling him what she'd experienced. He advised her to start jotting down her dreams to see if there was more to it than coincidence. After about a month, they discovered her dreams contained hints to possible futures. They were always fragmented, but if she paid close enough attention to the signs, she could often help people make decisions based on what could happen if they chose a certain path.
Billie regrets not being able to read the signs better when Max made a choice that changed everything. She cried for days when he left, but she always kept an eye on him and Roxi through the mirrors. There wasn't much she could do for them, but nothing felt the same once they were gone. She had a stronger connection to Max than the others, so once they settled down in Miami, she told Roux and Nat she needed to go to them. It took her a while to get her papers in order, but she was soon heading to the states to reunite with the ones she'd lost. It'd come as a surprise to both of them when she walked through the circus gates, but being able to wrap her arms around them made her sure she'd made the right decision. She kept a close watch on the family she'd left behind, stuffing something that belonged to each of them in her suitcase, but she had faith they could take care of themselves.
That ratty old bear also made it to America with her. She'd patched it up more times than she could count, and even made it a little shirt out of fabric from clothes Max had grown out of when they were kids. She knew her powers were rather invasive, so she tried not to use them on her family whenever she could, but a series of nightmarish dreams made her feel like there was lead in her stomach. She went to check on Max and Roxi every morning, just to make sure they were safe, trying to believe Max when he told her she didn't have to worry about him the way she did. He didn't know about the feelings she'd developed when they were teenagers, or that they'd gotten stronger during their time building lives together in New Orleans. He'd become even more handsome, and other, more beautiful women took notice. She knew she didn't have a chance in hell - she imagined he'd always view her as a sister. With this in mind, she'd tried to find love elsewhere. There was a time she'd convinced herself she'd found it, agreeing to marry the first man who asked. They were engaged for almost a year before she ended up giving him back the ring he'd slipped on her finger. It wouldn't have been fair to marry him when she knew her heart belonged to someone else, even if it was someone who didn't love her the way she wanted him to.
One night in 2019, Billie woke up gasping for breath, covered in sweat. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a vivid dream. Throwing off her sheets, she ran to Max's room, pounding on the door, waiting for him to answer and tell her again she had no reason to worry. When there was no answer, she turned to her mirrors. The images were dark and distorted, making it hard for her to make out what she was seeing. She kept straining her eyes to make out shapes, knowing if she lost the image completely it'd mean he was gone. He returned days later, unable to answer her questions about where he'd been. He looked like hell, but he was still alive.
Or so she thought.
The year is now 2021, and things have become complicated. She'd been having dreams in 2020 about a frozen palace, the wendigo from the labyrinth, and one of the aerialists. She'd known James and Adria for as long as they'd been with the circus, but they'd never showed up in her subconscious before. Then, one day, the courts arrived and everything changed. Within a few days of them being there, they'd somehow figured out what she could do – her powers weren't common knowledge; she was simply a seamstress as far as most people outside her family were concerned, so it was startling to be called out by someone she'd never met before. They asked her to be their envoy, be a set of eyes and ears for the court. She refused at first, but threats towards her family made her changd her mind. She didn't know much about the courts, but she knew they were powerful, and she couldn't risk it.
Story Hooks
Reconnecting with members of her found family from Soweto. Figuring out who in the circus knows about what Billie can do - I can see her helping someone out if a loved one had gone missing or something like that, so long as they have a belonging of theirs to give with her. Connections with those involved with the Winter Court. Plenty of opportunities for interactions with colleagues who might need something mended. She's probably formed some friendships during her time with the circus, so there's plenty of room to play around with that. Fun premonition dreams, possibly of someone she hasn't met yet.
On the evening of February 24th 1983, the child who would come to be known as Sybille Hendriks was born. Her mother, a victim of assault with no intention of keeping the child, gave birth in a hospital in Johannesburg. Only days after her delivery, she placed the child on the doorstep of a convent in the slums of Soweto. The nuns found her in the early hours of the morning, crying from hunger and cold. Nameless and alone, they assigned her the name 'Sybille' and took her in to attend to the baby's needs. She'd go the first few years of her life without a surname, taking on the name 'Hendriks' when she was adopted by a couple who wanted to show her the love she'd never gotten from her own parents. This would have been a wonderful thing for Sybille, but one afternoon when she was 4, they left to go to the market and never came back. She kept peering out the window, waiting for them to come down the walkway with that night's dinner. It began to get dark, and she grew worried. Going to find something she knew would bring her comfort, and took her tattered bear and wrapped herself up in the blanket her adoptive mother had been making. There was a mirror on the far side of the wall, but instead of seeing her own reflection, she saw a horrific scene. The woman who had taken her in as though she was her own child was desperately clawing at a man who had a knife to her throat.
Sybille ran from the house screaming, tears streaming down her face. It'd begun to rain, and the blanket she had thrown over her shoulders fell into the mud, but she kept the bear close. What she'd seen had scared and upset her, and she knew if she could just find the people she'd come to know as parents, they'd make it all better. She ran until her little legs became too tired, forced to find shelter from the storm. With her knees pulled to her chest, Sybille cried into her bear until a boy's voice drew her attention. After what she'd seen in the mirror, she wondered if maybe she was imagining him too. It was only when he went to help her up that she accepted his realness. She'd come to learn the boy's name was Max, and he was about to change her life completely. He introduced her to a different kind of family - children, the lot of them, not much older than she was.
The kids got by the best they could, stealing and foraging. Sybille was usually the one who'd distract the merchants, using those innocent, big blue eyes to keep their attention long enough for someone older to grab a few items. She was smaller than the other children, meaning she wasn't quite as fast. Iminathi and Roux usually had to pull her along, but things changed when she hit puberty. She shot up like a weed, eventually coming to be the same height as her older pseudo-sister. Puberty changed other things as well, such as the way she viewed Max. He'd always been her savior, the one who'd rescued her, but he'dseemingly grown into his looks overnight. Sybille, who the other kids began calling 'Billie', remained in an awkward stage, and felt her cheeks burn hot whenever Max was in the room. She didn't understand what she was feeling, but this was one of the less confusing things she had to deal with in her adolescence. While she was folding some clothes, working on Roux's pile, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. There was a pot of water boiling on the stove, but it looked like the metal was reflecting someone else's face. Being the only person in the room, she moved closer to investigate, her jaw dropping when she realized what she was seeing.
She thought she was going crazy. Roux and Max were working a job, but she could see them in the pot - not only that, she could hear them, too. Squeezing her eyes shut, she thought the images would surely be gone once they opened again. Instead, she saw more of their journey. Her feet carried her backwards away from the pot until she backed into the kitchen table. Gasping, she let go of the shirt she'd been holding. When she looked back at the pot, the images were gone. Telling herself she needed to get more sleep, she reached down for the shirt only to see and hear the movie-like images of the two males reappear.
Sybille wasn't a stranger to the supernatural. She'd watched Max shift when he was 11, but she always thought she was so…ordinary. She helped out however she could, taking on jobs as a seamstress once she was old enough to earn money. She made clothes out of scraps of fabric she was able to pocket, or Von Trapped a few pieces out of curtains or blankets, but she wasn't special. She kept what she'd seen to herself for a while, finally confiding in Nat when she was ready. She thought she'd tell her she was crazy. Instead, she helped her figure out how to hone her skills and put them to use. It took some practice, but Billie was able to see a person in real time so long as she was holding something that belonged to them. It was a useful skill to have for a bunch of kids who were constantly putting themselves in dangerous situations. She was a living, breathing security camera.
She went years thinking this was the way she could make herself useful to the group, but a series of events that came to fruition after she'd dreamt about them made her wonder if there was more to her abilities. This time she turned to Roux, telling him what she'd experienced. He advised her to start jotting down her dreams to see if there was more to it than coincidence. After about a month, they discovered her dreams contained hints to possible futures. They were always fragmented, but if she paid close enough attention to the signs, she could often help people make decisions based on what could happen if they chose a certain path.
Billie regrets not being able to read the signs better when Max made a choice that changed everything. She cried for days when he left, but she always kept an eye on him and Roxi through the mirrors. There wasn't much she could do for them, but nothing felt the same once they were gone. She had a stronger connection to Max than the others, so once they settled down in Miami, she told Roux and Nat she needed to go to them. It took her a while to get her papers in order, but she was soon heading to the states to reunite with the ones she'd lost. It'd come as a surprise to both of them when she walked through the circus gates, but being able to wrap her arms around them made her sure she'd made the right decision. She kept a close watch on the family she'd left behind, stuffing something that belonged to each of them in her suitcase, but she had faith they could take care of themselves.
That ratty old bear also made it to America with her. She'd patched it up more times than she could count, and even made it a little shirt out of fabric from clothes Max had grown out of when they were kids. She knew her powers were rather invasive, so she tried not to use them on her family whenever she could, but a series of nightmarish dreams made her feel like there was lead in her stomach. She went to check on Max and Roxi every morning, just to make sure they were safe, trying to believe Max when he told her she didn't have to worry about him the way she did. He didn't know about the feelings she'd developed when they were teenagers, or that they'd gotten stronger during their time building lives together in New Orleans. He'd become even more handsome, and other, more beautiful women took notice. She knew she didn't have a chance in hell - she imagined he'd always view her as a sister. With this in mind, she'd tried to find love elsewhere. There was a time she'd convinced herself she'd found it, agreeing to marry the first man who asked. They were engaged for almost a year before she ended up giving him back the ring he'd slipped on her finger. It wouldn't have been fair to marry him when she knew her heart belonged to someone else, even if it was someone who didn't love her the way she wanted him to.
One night in 2019, Billie woke up gasping for breath, covered in sweat. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had such a vivid dream. Throwing off her sheets, she ran to Max's room, pounding on the door, waiting for him to answer and tell her again she had no reason to worry. When there was no answer, she turned to her mirrors. The images were dark and distorted, making it hard for her to make out what she was seeing. She kept straining her eyes to make out shapes, knowing if she lost the image completely it'd mean he was gone. He returned days later, unable to answer her questions about where he'd been. He looked like hell, but he was still alive.
Or so she thought.
The year is now 2021, and things have become complicated. She'd been having dreams in 2020 about a frozen palace, the wendigo from the labyrinth, and one of the aerialists. She'd known James and Adria for as long as they'd been with the circus, but they'd never showed up in her subconscious before. Then, one day, the courts arrived and everything changed. Within a few days of them being there, they'd somehow figured out what she could do – her powers weren't common knowledge; she was simply a seamstress as far as most people outside her family were concerned, so it was startling to be called out by someone she'd never met before. They asked her to be their envoy, be a set of eyes and ears for the court. She refused at first, but threats towards her family made her changd her mind. She didn't know much about the courts, but she knew they were powerful, and she couldn't risk it.
Story Hooks
Reconnecting with members of her found family from Soweto. Figuring out who in the circus knows about what Billie can do - I can see her helping someone out if a loved one had gone missing or something like that, so long as they have a belonging of theirs to give with her. Connections with those involved with the Winter Court. Plenty of opportunities for interactions with colleagues who might need something mended. She's probably formed some friendships during her time with the circus, so there's plenty of room to play around with that. Fun premonition dreams, possibly of someone she hasn't met yet.
FAMILY TREE
MOTHER ????
FATHER ????FOUND FAMILY Roux Khoza, Max Van Den Akker, Roxanne Hanse, Iminathi Elias
SPOUSE n/a
ROADMAPBIRTHPLACE Johannesburg, South Africa
CURRENTLY IN New Orleans, Louisiana
TIMELINE1983Born1987Found by Max Van Den Akker2004Moves to the states to be closer to Max and Roxi2020Recruited as an envoy to the Winter Court
◇Kristin
◇21+
◇MST
◇PB: Brit Marling
◇CODE BY TESSISAMESS