Lucia
Human - Chronomancer, Flower Collector, Keeper of Moments

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Backstory

Lucia was born in a lighthouse that faced out towards an endless sea, surrounded by lush green forests. A tower of brass gears, warm candlelight, and no windows, but it was home. Her mother was a watchmaker, her father was a bell-keeper. They lived in quiet harmony, each day filled with little rituals, morning tea by the fire, birdseed scattered outside on the cobbled steps, bedtime stories about stars that hung in the night sky, always present and never moving. The lighthouse turned, but no ships ever came. The bell rang, but no one ever heard. It was a quiet life.

And yet… the days were perfect.

Each one unfolded like the last, but never quite the same. Her mother always smiled at breakfast, her father always hummed a tune while winding the great clock. Sometimes they laughed at new jokes. Sometimes they played different games. Lucia never noticed anything odd. Children rarely do. She was happy, safe, and most importantly loved.

Her days were cheery, full of love and laughter, until the day she turned twelve, and it was then she noticed...

The chipped teacup was always unbroken by morning. The bird with the torn wing never healed, never changed. She found drawings she didn’t remember making, books she had read before, with notes in her handwriting. Her journal entries repeated themselves. And worst of all these things, she began to dream of her parents’ deaths.

A fall from the ladder, a sudden illness, a storm that tore through the lighthouse. Each dream felt real... too real. And when she woke, they were alive again, smiling, just like always.

That’s when she started watching the shadows on the wall.

They never moved.

She wasn’t growing older, the lighthouse wasn’t aging. Even the flowers in the pot never wilted. It was if the day was repeating... a single day, lived over and over, each loop slightly different. And somewhere deep inside, she knew, she was the one doing it.

She had bent time into a cradle, rocked herself to sleep in the arms of her own unbroken yesterday. Her powers had been with her since birth, quiet, intimate, responsive to emotion. When her parents died, she rewound the world without even knowing. Again, and again...and again.

To live one more day.
To not be alone.
To not say goodbye.

At first, she was terrified, she tried to stop it. But when she let the day end, the world blurred... her parents died again, in a dozen different ways. Each time she panicked, her magic pulled her back. Reset the sun. Rewound the clocks.

Until finally, she stopped fighting it.

She lived in that loop for years... maybe decades. Painting different pictures, asking different questions, pretending... hoping.

Then, on one quiet morning, her mother, who always made her toast with jam, looked at her and said, with eyes just a little too knowing, “You can’t stay forever, Lucia.” She smiled at her, and gave her a hug, "You can't stay, but we'll always be with you. I love you dear."

That was the moment she broke the loop.

She cried, and for a moment time truly stood still. She cried in her mothers arms, her father wrapping her in his as well. It was time to let go, to face reality, but she was finally ready.

She stepped outside, the bell stopped ringing, the gears slowed, the forest was still, and behind her, the lighthouse remained. It stood, unmoving, almost distant, but she couldn't help but capture it in this moment. She took her journal and sketched it, she took her time, and when she was finally done, she closed it and walked... to where... she didn't know.

Lucia never went back, never turned around, for fear of going back, just so she didn't have to live with the reality.

She wandered alone, stepping into a world that had long moved on, learning what it meant to live in time instead of hiding from it. Her powers were strange, but they were beautiful, they gave her a moment longer, long enough to finally say goodbye.

Time had always been with her, she never commanded it, but it became her friend, sheltering her, and giving her a chance to grow up.

It was an odd day, she happened upon an old dock. The fog hugged the water, clinging onto it, like it too, didn't want to let go.

Lucia stood at the edge watching the waves lap against the old wooden pillars that held the dock up. But she saw it, cutting through the fog like beacon of light... a ship.

The Emberwake docked, and Lucia watched in awe. A gangplank was lowered and a voice called out to her, a stern, but soft voice, "You lost child?"

Arden stood atop the gang plank staring down at her, and Lucia finally spoke, "No... I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be."

She walked forward onto the Emberwake and Arden muttered once more and nodded, "Then let's get going."

And just like that, she never left.

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Life on the Emberwake

Lucia became the ship’s unofficial “keeper of moments.”

She didn’t patch sails or swab decks like the others. Instead, she wandered with a satchel full of mismatched hourglasses, loose paper, and pocket watches that ticked backward. She recorded things, the way Pickles grunted when a dish came out right, the lullaby Bones hummed without breath, the exact time Ryona smiled without realizing.

Sometimes she’d pause time just long enough for someone to finish a sentence they were too scared to start. Other times, she’d stretch a peaceful night just a few minutes more, so Lorelai’s dreams could last.

She wasn’t loud, she wasn’t strong, but the crew quickly learned that time seemed to flow differently if Lucia was there. If you were having a moment worth remembering, Lucia was probably there, quietly watching, quietly keeping it.

She's still afraid of battles, her footing is still unsteady during storms, and she still feels sick sometimes when the boat lurches in the waves. But somehow, in all that motion, she felt safe for the first time… because now, she was moving forward.

“You don’t have to stay forever. Just long enough to know you were loved.” - To Dax during a quiet night

“There was a morning I looped a thousand times, just to hear her say ‘I love you’ again. I think she knew, she would always smile the same way, but each time I could see her holding back tears.” - To Xidayn about her mother