there once was a girl who found the end of everything

there had once been a heart that beat, lungs that breathed. there was a girl who laughed, who loved. a girl who lived. but that girl was buried beneath a rose garden by the shaky hands of a father who feared losing everything, so he took what he thought was rightfully his. a grave beneath the flowers. despite how cold it was, it was not lonely. wrapped in the arms of her mother, there was a girl who was not ready to die and a family that was not ready to let go.

the mind was a curious thing. what it remembered, what it was made to forget. false memories stitched together through magic and machina could only do so much, there were still gaps, emptiness stretched in the places between what was real and false. there was a dread that settled deep in her chest, a pain that she couldn't pinpoint, a grief she had never been given the chance to process. something felt wrong, though she didn't know what.

a docile thing unaware of her own truth. of the clockwork mechanisms that replaced the heart that once beat. a secret kept by those around her, a lie to keep her as she once was. a girl who laughed, a girl who loved, a girl who lived. but there were glimpses. ghosts that felt like memories, phantoms that haunted the clockwork keeper. the shell of her body was a haunted house with more grim ghouls than she could count.

 THE DOLL    
Mholi is a modern marvel. the masterwork of an archon, if it were not for the noticeable joints or the occasional whirr or click or hiss of gears and cogs and pistons, one might not even know she was not what she seemed. even her eyes, unnaturally bright and freckled with stars like the cosmos, seem both natural and unnatural. her perfect, porcelain features are what some might call angelic, but for others drifts into the uncanny valley, so close to being real, but simply not. THE SHARLAYAN    
The nbolo family is one that is steeped in tragedy. from the prodigal archon delphine, mholi's cousin, who is currently banned from stepping foot in old sharlayan, to her parents. vish'ra and pimoh nbolo were greatly loved by their peers, they were pioneers in their field of chronomancy, feared as well as respected time mages. those familiar and knowledgeable about the sharlayan forum may also know that the nbolo family had served the bibliothec as steadfast stewards to their ideals by whatever means necessary. they seemed to have the perfect life. so, when pimoh's affair was discovered and vish'ra took the lives of his wife and promising teenage daughter before ending his own, it rocked their community. when their daughter reappeared some turns later, they were certainly shocked and even appalled, though none have had the courage to tell her of the terrible fate that befell her and her parents. the chronomancer    
the nbolo family, for all their flaws, possessed one inherent talent, one that made them as frightening as they were respected. their skill at manipulating the threads of time itself. mholi is no exception. in her youth, she was called prodigious. a great future undone when her father killed her. a talent she retained in her rebirth, honed even now though she will rarely speak of it. the clockwork machinery within her serving as both foci and catalyst for her trade. though do be careful, for her magic is not one for making, but for unmaking.

 NAME  :   mholi nbolo.
 ALIAS  :   Anakritis Nbolo, the black inquisitor, the timeweaver
 AGE  :   twenty-one.
 GENDER  :   female, she/her.
 SEXUALITY  :   demisexual.
 SPECIES  :   miqo'te, keeper of the moon.
 NATIONALITY  :   sharlayan.
 OCCUPATION  :   assistant to her cousin, delphine, agent of the bibliothec.
 FAMILY  :   delphine nbolo
 EYE COLOR  :   one blue, one gold.
 HEIGHT  :   5' 7''.
 BUILD  :   slender and dainty.
 DISTINGUISHING FEATURES  :   mechanical, ball joints, what appears to be floral tattoos along her shoulders, chest, and back, pierced ears, ethereal glowing eyes, furry white peets.
 MBTI  :   ISTP.
 AETHER  :   peculiar, unaspected but abundant.
 ETC  :   mholi is a living doll. a doll that is unaware of her true nature. while her form is synthetic and made from advanced clockwork machinery, her aether, spirit, soul is very much that of the girl that once lived, the real mholi. she is unaware of this and seems to have no profound memories of her death or rebirth.