SHE'S A PYROMANIAC, MANIAC—
Name: Syndra Ashburn Occupation: Burn Coordinator Age: 44 Sexuality: Lesbian Species: Witch Coven: Circle of the Phial Hometown: Cologne, Germany Relationship Status: Single Personality Traits: Jealous, immature, daring, observant, dutiful, confident, adaptable & surprising
Gretchen doesn't know her family. Not her biological family, at least. Her biological parents ditched her as soon as she was born, at least - that was the story the orphanage had given her. Syndra doesn't know the real story, she doesn't care about finding them either; if they didn't want her, she didn't want them. As a young thing, she moved around from foster family to foster family. Most of them she doesn't remember, or rather aren't worth remembering, not until she found a steady home. Born in Germany, she changed last names all the time. Schneider, Becker, Hoffmann. In the mix of changing foster parents all the damn time, Gretchen had no steady childhood. She was cruel, stole from stores, was behind in school, fought other kids her age or older just for fun. In other words, she became a young rebel. Hung out with the wrong people on the streets, all blurry memories now.
A loving family that took her in when she was twelve. They showed her the ropes of life, rewired her brain into being a good girl. For however short that lasted. She had a foster mother, a foster father and a foster sister, a real sweetheart. Wouldn't harm a fly. Over months, they decided to adopt her for real. She would be a Richter now. Gretchen Richter. She and her sister Anne got close, real close. Obsessive wise, almost. For a while, Gretchen came to know what love meant. This fairytale went on for a couple of years. She was fifteen when she experienced with fire for the first time, her first real obsession.
Happiness wasn't meant to last. The walls were thin and Gretchen could hear her foster parents argue in the kitchen. She and Anne both did. Anne tried to comfort her in the best way she could; by touching Gretchen when she clearly wasn't in a state to be touched. Gretchen lashed out with a paring knife she kept for craft projects, slicing her sister's neck. In the episode she was having, she attacked her foster parents too, leaving them wounded inside the burning house she had set aflame. No one had seen the murder scene happen. The fire had been ruled as an accident, caused by an electronic failure in the house. Gretchen got put back into the foster system. She went back to shitty families, having fire as her only comfort.
Restless fingers found out again what it was like to pickpocket, to steal from thrift stores, to play with the lighter she'd kept in her pocket at all times. The library was her place to go after school, she picked up an interest in reading. And then experimenting in her room with the door locked, with stolen vials, herbs and spices she got her hands on. Mesmerized by her own creations, she went towards the woods, for days to come, instead of school. She skipped many classes to only grow further into her obsession of creating potions and see what she could do - see how far she could go. It started small, fires set aflame in barrels in the woods, change their colors, see how long her potions would last. When her knowledge, skills and power grew, she didn't just stop at that. She started forest fires, and when that wasn't enough, her interest expanded towards empty buildings. It wasn't enough, it was never enough, her curiosity of knowledge was not satisfied, not as a sixteen year old teenager. Her life only consisted of fire, everywhere she went, the flames licked at her feet. She couldn't stop, like a craving left unsatisfied, she needed to torch the place she hated most; the orphanage she was sent back and forth to most of her life. The building smoked in the deep of the night, too many colors flamed through the roof, affected by the potion she had mastered, each living soul in the building had its own color of flames licking at their body; a masterpiece of a show, truly one of her best works at the time. Flames that lost their colors and turned back orange by the time help had come, and Gretchen had long run back home.
At 18 she left the country, changed her name to Syndra Ashburn and left the foster life behind. Syndra explored her magical ability further on her own, getting more powerful each and every year. She landed a job as a burn coordinator, which was perfect for Syndra to stay on the move, play with fire and test how much she could do surrounded by nature. She'd left her past life behind, in trade for a great new one, where she was alone. Well, not entirely. Syndra's memory is clouded. She has no memory of the wreckage she caused, of killing her own sister, setting the house aflame of her beloved foster family. But that didn't come without any consequences; for Syndra is forever accompanied by a hallucination of her own young sister. For no one else to see, but for Syndra a consequence, a reminder, a curse or blessing. A convenience when she is alone, having no one around to obsess about. When she has no one to obsess about, she sets things or beings aflame, quenching her thirst.
Five years ago she moved to Port Leiry and joined the Circle of the Phial coven, settling down for the first time in her life, Syndra is rather excited to fuck around and find out in any way she can.
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DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS; her newest obsession. Someone who contains a lot of power and is willing to do anything for Syndra. Or not at all, all the more fun for Syndra...
SISTER, OH SISTER; Syndra has never met her biological family before, and never felt the urge to try and find them. But surely her power must come from strong familial ties, and mayhaps her sister is willing to look for her... Name and country are UTP of course
BURN BABY BURN; a victim whose family, friends or any other relations have been turned to ashes and either does or doesn't know, yet is in Syndra's life for the better or worse...
