#liaposting

"Hmm?"

Euthalia looked up from the thick, dusty tome on cursebreaking to see her new apprentice, an excitable young girl with bouncing orange pigtails and gleaming red eyes, unrolling a long leather pouch she was quite certain had been left safely on the back corner of her disorganized table. Inside was a series of silver prongs, each poking out from its own separate compartment.

"Those are tuning forks, Emma," she said simply.

"What are they used for?" the girl asked, pulling one out to examine it.

"Teleportation, primarily," Lia responded. "Each is attuned to the magical frequency of a specific plane, and they are all sorted in a precise order, so if you could please—"

Pong~

A low, clear tone rang out as Emma flicked the prong with her finger. Lia winced at the sudden sound.

"—put that back before they get out of order, I would appreciate it," she continued.

"What does being attuned to a magical frequency do?" Emma asked, returning the fork to its pouch and pulling out a different one.

Why did I agree to this again…?

"It provides a target for the teleportation spell to aim for, essentially," she explained. "Without something like this, you could end up teleporting to the wrong destination, directly into danger, or simply dying outright."

"Oh."

Bong~

"Teleportation sounds scary."

"Good," Lia nodded. "It isn't something to toy with unprepared."

"So where do these take you?"

"This one is for returning to the material plane." She pointed to the first fork on the left. "Our plane, in other words. Then are the four elemental planes, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, which you are holding. The others beyond that theoretically should be attuned to the outer planes, but I've yet to test them."

"Can we test them now?" Emma asked, pulling out another fork. Lia snatched the one for the Fire plane from her other hand and quickly returned it to its spot.

"Absolutely not."

"Aww, why not?"

"I just finished explaining to you the dangers of unprepared teleportation."

"But Miss Lia, we're not unprepared!" Emma protested. "You have the fork and everything!"

"Yes, and it has yet to be tested, so it very well may shunt us directly into the pits of the Ten Hells," Lia said. "So until I know for sure, I won't be gambling either of our lives on day tripping.

"Isn't there only nine hells?" Emma corrected her.

Lia sighed. "Thank you, Emma. Go put those back, alright?"

"Fiiiine," she said, rolling her eyes.

As the girl scampered away with the precious silver artifacts, Lia returned to the book. Not that she was expecting to find anything of use in it. It was clear that the author had only a smattering of knowledge regarding cursebreaking. But she couldn't exactly afford to write it off as useless without reading more. Surely a tome this thick wouldn't be completely use—

"Miss Lia, what about these?" Emma called as she hurried back from the table, another leather pouch held in her hand. This one looked much, much older than the previous one.

"More tuning forks," she replied.

"Yeah, but where do they go?"

Reluctantly tearing her eyes from the book, she turned to look at the pouch. The forks in here all looked different from each other, as if made of slightly different metals, though most were close enough to be called silver. Several sections on the right end of the pouch were left empty. Lia pointed to the fork furthest to the right.

"This one is attuned to this world here. And the others…" She gestured indiscriminately towards the rest of the forks. "Lead to other worlds, though I can't quite remember which is which at the moment. It's been quite a while."

"Worlds?" Emma asked, cocking her head to the side. "Is that different from planes?"

"Yes," Lia said. "A plane is fundamentally part of this universe, and most are spatially tied to this planet, in fact, through naturally-occurring portals and such. A different world, however, is a place one can't reach in any natural way, where even the laws of nature and magic are different."

Emma's eyes sparkled with interest. "For real?"

"Of course."

"Wow, that sounds really cool!" she exclaimed. "Can we go to one?"

"I'm rather busy at the moment, so no, we cannot."

"Aww, come on, pleeease, Miss Lia?" Emma put on her best puppy dog eyes and looked up at her. "I promise I'll be good!"

"Unfortunately, we do not have the time regardless of your behaviour."

"You don't even look that busy," Emma pouted. "You're just sitting there talking to me."

"I'm supposed to be reading this book," Lia said, tapping it with her long finger. "If you like, I can get back to it and ignore you?"

"No, thank you!"

Lia nodded. "As expected. Perhaps once I've solved your conundrum, we can visit one to celebrate. Would you like that?"

Her face lit up. "Do you mean it, Miss Lia!?"

"I don't see why not," she shrugged. "You'll be safe so long as you don't leave my side."

"Okay!" Emma began examining the forks. "Can we go to…"

She trailed off as she pulled what was clearly a four-pronged dining fork from the pouch.

"Does this take us to a world, too…?"

"I… am not actually certain," Lia admitted. "But even if it did, we would not be going there."

"Why not?"

"Because getting back would be extraordinarily difficult."

"Can't you just cast the spell again?" Emma asked.

"I mentioned that the laws of magic are different, yes? In that world, it would perhaps be better to say they are 'nonexistent'."

"Wha—" Emma looked puzzled. "Like magic has no laws there?"

"No, there simply is no magic there at all."

Emma looked at her suspiciously. "…That's not true. You're lying to me."

"I am not lying to you," Lia said. "There is no such thing as magic in that world. Or elves, as it happens."

"No way, you're lying for sure," Emma argued. "Otherwise how did you leave?"

"With a lot of very hard work, effort, and misappropriation of government resources," Lia explained.

Emma narrowed her eyes, but didn't probe further. She ran her fingertip across the handle of the fork.

"What's this say, anyway?" she asked, holding it out to Lia.

The fork was engraved with several stylized characters in a language utterly foreign to this universe.

"'Plum Blossom Maid Tavern'," Lia said.

"They have a tavern just for maids?"

"No, no, it was a place where one goes to be served by maids," she explained.

Emma scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion as she tried to process this idea. "So… how is that different from like a regular tavern waitress?"

"It's a whole elaborate playing of roles, really. In that world, maids are a relic of a bygone era, mythologised over time to become an object of fantasy. The wait staff take on the garb and demeanor of the mythological maid, and patrons spend money to experience being served by one of them."

"Um, okay, that's weird," Emma said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Why would they mythologise maids instead of like, the king? Wouldn't people want to be served by the king? Or the queen?"

"Perhaps such things cannot be understood by those who have had maids for their entire lives," Lia mused.

"So why do you have a fork from the maid tavern in here?"

Lia shrugged. "I was rather fond of their extensive tea catalogue."

"But it's just a normal fork, right?"

"Correct."

"And you don't really plan on going back, either, right?" Emma asked. "So why not just leave this slot empty?"

"It simply doesn't feel right," Lia said. "And who knows? It might work."

"I guess?" Emma slid the fork back into the pouch. "You're from this world, right, Miss Lia?"

"No, this is in fact the most recent world I've visited," she said. "Though I've certainly been here the longest."

"Oh! Which one's yours, then?"

"The one on the far left." Lia pointed to a particularly aged tuning fork. Unlike all the others, this one was made from a dull, bronze-like material.

"Why's it a different colour?" Emma asked.

"My world was much less advanced than this one," she explained. "We lacked metallurgical knowledge of most metals commonplace here. Of course, both worlds pale in comparison to the world without magic, but that's neither here nor there."

"The maid world is better than mine!?"

"By leaps and bounds, frankly."

"That's… annoying." Emma shot a glare at the engraved maid tavern fork. "Do you go home a lot, then?"

"I've not been back since I left, actually."

"What!? Well, we should definitely go visit some time!"

"I wouldn't be opposed to taking you, once we've got time, but why there?" Lia asked. "There are other worlds that are much more interesting."

"I wanna meet your family!" Emma smiled. "I bet they miss you! Don't you wanna see them?"

"Ah, I was unclear," Lia said. "It's been over 900 years, Emma. Everyone who knew me there has long since passed."

Her smile froze in place as her eyes filled with horror. "Nine hundred—what!? And you never even went back to visit!?"

"It isn't as though we were particularly close," Lia said. "I expect my mothers were glad to see the last of me. And my sister… well, I suppose she might have liked to see me? But again, we weren't particularly—"

Well, we are definitely going back to your world to find their graves so you can apologize," Emma declared, folding her arms in front of her chest. "And we can go see all the interesting worlds after."

"It sounds to me as though you are just looking for an excuse to do a bit of world hopping."

"It can be both!" Emma argued.

"I see you've inherited your mother's wanderlust," Lia said wryly.

"My mother was an explorer?"

"Well, something like that," Lia said. She snatched the leather pouch and rolled it up. "But if it would make you happy, we can go spout empty platitudes at weathered graves before pressing on. Now go take this back where you found it, and leave me to my research, please."

HIKARI - you could actually convince hikari to do basically anything if you framed it as needing help or assistance, but she probably wouldn't stick with it without continued requests. 2/10 difficulty.

AOI - aoi actually knows a few traditional designs, so she'd be easy to convince, especially if youve got nice paper. i dont think she would make a hobby out of it, though. 1/10 difficulty.

LIA - really it depends on what stage of her life you meet her. she's often busy and won't really give you the time of day in that case, but if she's not doing anything she'd love to learn something new. keeping with it depends on your ability to convince her that fucked up squares are a form of magic notation. 6/10 difficulty.

NEST - if you make her fall in love with you, she'll do anything. how convincingly do you need a strong and handsome girlknight in your life? she'll stick with it as long as shes in love with you. 6/10 difficulty.

VIOLET - violet gets weirdly neurotic about it. she loves the concept and you can convince her in a heartbeat to try it, but there are some folds (squash, probably, among others) that she will just categorically refuse to use. she'll definitely keep doing it as a hobby though! 1/10 difficulty.

VALYRIE - largely uninterested. if you catch her in a very specific mood, she'll indulge you, but god you'll have a hell of a time catching her. 8/10 difficulty.

DR. MARION - hmm... how would ann feel about origami..... i think you could convince her to give it a shot, but she probably won't keep with it. 4/10 difficulty.

CASSIDY - eh. gives her somethin to do i guess? the hardest part of this is getting her out of her own head long enough to think about it. she'd probably keep the designs in her head but not really stick with it in a meaningful sense bc its hard to come by square paper in the woods. 7/10 difficulty.

ADELA - i know this is the one you've been waiting for. unfortunately youre not convincing her to do any origami at all. theres no way. *maybe* if you met her when she was still alive and sane. but thats ancient history. shes too far gone. 10/10 difficulty.

ELYRIA - i think she'd love it if you show her the right designs. something cutesy or romantic. her whole vibe is like a playful cute veneer over a darkly ominous and corrupt heart. so yaknow, if you teach her to make something cute that she can use as like, an assassination calling card, or some shit, she'd be way into it. of course, getting her to like. spend enough time sitting still with you to learn is the real hard part. 5/10 difficulty.

ETOILE - a doll will play with you, sure, but it won't play on its own. 1/10 difficulty.

CAROLINE - of *course* she'll learn one or two simple things. but no more, and she definitely won't keep it up. it'll be a neat little trick she occasionally does with napkins at the bar to make her friends think she's cute and interesting. 2/10 difficulty.

ROBIN - eh i mean she'd give it a shot, she'd probably be into you. but its 100% ulterior motives, she doesn't keep with it on her own. 3/10 difficulty.

ANGEL - ahahahahaha girl get out of there....... she's watching your fingers *so* closely... 9/10 difficulty.

MEL - mel is uh. gonna have some mechanical difficulties here. 10/10 difficulty.

PEACH - you can absolutely get her to try it. she may or may not do it occasionally to pass the time. 2/10 difficulty.

ELTAH - she can't see the paper. 10/10 difficulty.

VASCH - oh shes *so* into it. she thinks thats the coolest shit. but then she only uses her skills to make increasingly fucked up paper airplanes and throw them at her sisters. 1/10 difficulty.

LEFAH - she'll probably try it? but she won't stick with it. 4/10 difficulty.

REESE - she's got better things to do honestly. 8/10 difficulty unless you can convince her there's money to be made.

VANA - she has to be better at it than you. but she won't continue it. 1/10 difficulty.

IRA - you should probably just back away slowly. 9/10 difficulty.

ERIN - she doesn't have the attention span for such delicate work. plus her fingers are probably wet. 7/10 difficulty.

ALETHA - if you make yourself annoying enough she might do one to get you to go away. but you KNOW she won't do it on her own. 8/10 difficulty.

ORCHID - easily. the hard part is getting her to let you leave afterwards. she won't do it ever again if you leave her though. 2/10 difficulty.

ZALEA - eh maybe. probably won't keep at it tho. 4/10 difficulty.

Hikari Finalfantasy - Hikari's a pretty mid-level melee fighter. she uses a sword and shield for quick attacks and a scythe for more powerful ones. she has a position-dependent block with her shield, and her . idk the term for these. fatalities? her Big Attack is summoning a series of divine blades and piercing you to death.

Aoi Furukane - Aoi summons one of three creatures: one focused on playing defensively, one focused on quick, light attacks, and one focused on big, heavy attacks. aoi herself, as an accountant/shipping worker, uses paperwork-based attacks. she has a block on both sides where she sits at her desk that has big stacks of forms and papers piled on either side. her Big Attack is that her creatures pack the opponent up into a crate while she signs some paperwork, then the crate is loaded onto a boat which sails off the edge of the earth.

Mel - Mel is the hardest character to play. she has no ranged attacks, no block, and no magic. she relies entirely on fluid swordplay and very precise dodges. her dodge *can* be used without sacrificing movement speed, but nailing enough dodges to close the distance to a ranged fighter can be nearly impossible. her attacks aren't flashy at all, but she's quite powerful in the right hands. her Big Attack is anticlimactically just dashing past in an instant and cutting the opponent's head off

Lia - Lia is a versatile ranged fighter who uses magic. she uses Ice, Lightning, and Fire to augment basic spells for different effects. Lightning has higher knockback/stun potential, Ice slows the opponent, and Fire deals higher damage without any knockback. her shield is omnidirectional and her Big Attack traps the opponents soul in a gem or labyrinth, which kills them.

Nest - Nest has two forms. One is a fast-paced, unarmed fighter with high speed, high damage, and no defense, and the other is an armoured sword and shield fighter that plays more defensively. She can wrap her blade or fists in magical energy for her more powerful attacks. Her block is directional in both forms (form 1 uses arms, form 2 uses shield), and the shield block is stronger. Her Big Attack is a flurry of fast-paced punches to knock the opponent into the air, then pinning them to the ground with her sword as they land.

Violet - Violet is a complicated time and probability magic fighter. many of her attacks involve setting traps to be activated later, though she does have some more normal ones. her block surrounds her with spectral clocks, and getting hit causes her to warp backwards, but if she doesn't get hit, she gets dizzy and is temporarily stunned, so be careful. her Big Attack speeds up time on the opponent until they get old and wither into dust.

Valyrie - Valyrie is a very short-range melee fighter who fights using a knife. her attacks are augmented with divine magic and there's a mechanic involved that lets her deal extra crit damage, but idk what it is. she relies on maintaining a debuff on the opponent that marks them for vengeance. her block is a precise, directional block with her holy scriptures. it's not very powerful though because youre supposed to dodge attacks better. her Big Attack is freezing the enemy in place with a piercing glare, walking up to them, and slitting their throat.

Anarcha Marion - Dr Marion is. fuck it we'll make her a grappler. she Gets you and quickly does a dangerous surgical procedure on you for big damage. her other attacks are like. spells that rot the body, and quick slashes with a scalpel. she doesn't block, but she can heal damage. her Big Attack is a grapple that lets her do magic brain surgery on the opponent to make them no longer want to fight and the battle ends.

Cassidy - Cassidy is , i think, what one would call a zoner. she fights with a bow at long distances and sets traps on the field. she can temporarily become invisible due to camouflage, and this also functions as a powerful dodge in place of having a block. her Big Attack sends a fairy to daze the opponent while she takes aim with several arrows at once.

Adela, Witch of the Veil - oh god oh fuck. we're using Original Adela for this since her corpse form can't fight. she's a versatile fighter who wields a very large sword in one hand and a staff in the other. she has powerful, sweeping melee attacks and quick flurries of dark magic. her block is omnidirectional, but stronger from the front because she uses her sword too. her Big Attack is lifting her veil to reveal a Horror Face with glowing red eyes, and the orifices on the opponent's face bleed black ichor as the camera pans back to reveal she's stabbed them through the heart.

Elyria - god. whats the most annoying kind of character? Elyria fucking sucks to fight against. she's fast and slippery and really good at interrupting your attacks. she fights with a variety of weapons for different attacks, though primarily she uses twin daggers. she dodges instead of blocks, but if youre precise you can block more powerful attacks with her own weaker dagger strikes. her Big Attack is that she puts on a nun's habit and strikes a sexy pose, and while the enemy is distracted she appears behind them and slits their throat. if the enemy is canonically ace, they will be distracted by confusion instead of arousal.

étoile - étoile is a short-range magic fighter. it's very small so it can duck under a lot of attacks. most of its magic attacks are in the form of mana blades, like an attack that causes a ring of blades to spin around its body, for instance. the blade attacks typically have that kind of vibe you get from like, snes-era games where there's a single one, then in motion several move one after another like an after-image, and then they combine into one at the end of the animation. its ranged attacks are slow but powerful starfalls, and it has an omnidirectional block. its Big Attack shows the Witch of Ascension watching through its eyes, then the opponent is struck by lightning and turned into a lifeless doll.

Caroline - Caroline is a music-based fighter! attacking in time with the beat empowers her attacks with music notes that hit the opponent an extra time, and doing it multiple times in a row stacks extra music notes, up to 4. this *does* mean that she has an advantage on maps with specific music, which i will not apologise for. its funny. most of her attacks are like, thrown weaponry like knives, but she also has some gimmick attacks like a loaf of bread that heals the opponent but slows them. her block is directional, with her pulling out a giant millstone. her Big Attack is her putting on a concert for a crowd, including the opponent, and a hail of arrows rains down on them all as she thanks them for coming.

Robin - Robin is just a powerful scythe wielder. Her attacks are difficult to manage, but her actual playstyle is pretty simple. she has good reach and her animations feel satisfying. you'll get out of her what you put in, basically. her block is directional using the scythe, and her Big Attack is just a flurry of spinning scythe attacks that kills you.

Angel - Angel is a very slow, devastatingly powerful dual greatsword wielder. Her swords are wreathed in holy flames, and she can use her wings for short bursts of flight. she does more damage the lower her health is. she uses the swords to block on both sides simultaneously, and her Big Attack knocks the opponent on the ground, where she looms over them ominously and the screen goes dark. when it lights up again, she's sitting in a dark room with her chin in her hands looking at the opponent's eye in a jar by candlelight. the flaming swords are leaned against the wall in the background, crossed over each other and releasing no light.

Peach - Peach is the floating weapons girlie! we'll call her midrange? she's got four of her blades floating around her and she sends four more off for attacks that do low damage but hit 4 times in a row. her wheelchair seems to move on its own bc she can use her powers to move it. her block is omnidirectional and uses the four defending blades to guard against attacks. this doesnt interrupt her normal attacks, but you might be limited in which ones you can do since you have to be hitting block. her Big Attack is sending out all 10 blades for a devastating storm of attacks. the elemental girlies have secret bonus animations for if you do their Big Attack when theyre at 1% hp or lower, and in peach's she uses her power to tear her bones out of her arms, legs, and ribs and launch them into the bladestorm, impaling the enemy.

Eltah - Eltah's relatively straightforward, using mostly short and medium range water attacks. if the map has no water on it, her attacks are red because they use her blood. her attacks are mostly piercing types, and her block is directional, using a sweep of water. her Big Attack is grappling the enemy and, in most cases, cause their blood to burst out of their eyes and extremities, and in lowHP cases, she pierces them with dozens of spikes of her own blood.

Vasch - Vasch floats and does a lot of lightning attacks! the vertical ones all have very specific and tight ranges, but they hit really hard, and her horizontal ones are weaker but easier to hit with. she can create patches of the map that are charged, and use her wind powers to knock opponents into the charged patches, causing powerful lightning strikes on them. her block is an omnidirectional wind sphere that deals minor lightning damage to anyone attacking her with melee weapons, and her Big Attack captures the enemy in a tornado and electrifies the whole thing. at lowHP, she places herself in the center of the tornado and calls down an enormous bolt down through the vortex.

Lefah - Lefah has a mechanic where using her makes the map dangerously hot. Enemies constantly lose tiny amounts of HP, putting them on a timer. she relies on maintaining very long range and hitting enemies with her laser guns. she has a weak directional block with her guns, and getting close to her increases the damage enemies take from the heat. her Big Attack amplifies the sun's (or the moon's) light into a huge, destructive beam that evaporates the enemy, and at lowHP she holds them in place as she creates it, and they blow up together in a massive explosion.

Reese - a gimmick fighter. she flicks gold coins onto the field and summons some schmucky cutthroat you can kind of control to attack the enemy. she can have up to 3 at once. they die pretty easily but she can summon more of them if she uses an ability to restore her gold. she can also attack herself by flicking gold coins at enemies, or slashing at them with solid gold weapons that don't do a lot of damage. her block calls one of her summoned goons to take the hit for her while she escapes, and her Big Attack is her examining a treasure map, looking out at the enemy, and pointing at them to send her whole gang digging for treasure. they all stand around your eviscerated corpse leaning on their shovels and sighing dejectedly bc there was no gold in there.

Vana - a swashbuckler type. fluid motion, short range, annoyingly cunty animations and poses. she temporarily disappears if she leaves the enemy's line of sight, so she can use that to get some cheap hits in. directional block with her sword, and her Big Attack is some annoying bullshit where she covers the screen with roses and bishie pictures of her face and sparkles and when it clears the enemy's lying dead on the pavement.

Ira - Ira has a rage meter that slowly builds over time, increasing her damage. her attacks are short-range unarmed types, but she also has instant-speed projectile attacks that don't necessarily do a lot of damage but are hard to predict. she can increase her rage meter by meditating and taking a hit. it fills more the longer she's been meditating and the more powerful of a hit she takes. rather than a block, she has a precise counter that can deal devastating damage if timed perfectly. her Big Attack makes her eyes burn with dark red flames and she unleashes a combo of attacks that ends with her punching right through the enemy's ribcage.

Erin - another gimmick fighter. her "attacks" are just flirting attempts, and if you pull off a combo the opponent will become seduced and you can do a.... "grapple" attack on them, for big damage. she can also do ranged attacks by throwing heavily pixelated objects at her opponent. her block is directional with a very long pixelated object, and her Big Attack shows her dark, swirling, half-lidded eyes with the opponent falling into them, then a collage of heavily pixelated images appear one at a time of her and the opponent in compromising positions as the sun and moon pass quickly overhead, and the last image is her with what is clearly a corpse lying in bed while she has a cigarette.

Aletha - the slowest character on the roster. she doesn't have any attack animations besides the flashes of her sword attacks bc she herself moves too fast to see. extremely short range, but massively damaging. her block is directional and very precise, and her Big Attack is just a slash that cuts the screen and displaces the top portion, cutting the opponent in half.

Orchid & Zalea - These two fight as a team bc Orchid sucks by herself. Zalea can only attack while she has food, and you have to use an ability that makes Orchid put like a stick of jerky or squid tentacle or some shit in her mouth. Zalea's attacks are slow magic spells with long range, and Orchid does close-range stabbing attacks with light knockback. Their block is directional, using a comically oversized piece of food, and deals damage as Orchid stabs the enemy three times if theyre in range. Their Big Attack is a flurry of knife attacks from Orchid as the screen goes white, and when it clears they're sitting together at a table sharing a plate of worryingly bloody meat.

and, since i promised boy girlies for marketability, heres some uh. less girl girlies.

Chase - Cassidy's identical twin brother, a wildly successful merchant. Another gimmick fighter. attacking enemies increases his Money meter, and with the money meter you can buy giant powerful weapons to use against your opponent. All of them are extremely ornamental and gaudy. directional block through a huge heraldic shield. his Big Attack requires a maxed out Money meter. theres an animation of him going to a car dealership, buying an extremely expensive sports car, and running the opponent over, sending them careening into the sky team rocket style. it freezes as he drives past the camera giving it a thumbs up.

Ano - a very tall, androgynous black elf with longer ears than you normally see on elves. they wear a snappy red ensemble with gold trim, a big matching hat with an even bigger feather, and they wear their hair in long dreadlocks. A versatile fighter with long-range bow attacks and short range unarmed strikes. they can charge up power for later attacks by playing music if theyre out of the enemy's range. their block is an omnidirectional parry, and their Big Attack creates a massive earthquake from which a mountain rises, knocking the opponent into the air. They wink at the camera and shoot the opponent as they fall.

Achrann - an imposing, very androgynous human figure. rivals Adela in height, dresses in a thick black fur cloak and boots, has very long, straight, pink hair, and carries a massive double-bladed war axe. more feminine than Ano, but still distinctly Not Girl. their attacks are huge and powerful, and they have a lot of animations with superarmour so its harder to knock them out of attacks. Omnidirectional block using the axe. Their Big Attack is leaping up off the screen and landing as a flaming pink meteor, obliterating everything in sight.

Curtis - a huge, powerful green orc dressed in fine black robes about to burst at the seams over their bulging muscles. Wears a pair of round glasses that seem way too small for their face. Very polite posture. melee attacks somewhere between the quick, fast type and the slow, powerful type. can attack with unarmed strikes or a wooden gavel, and throws a book of law at the opponent for their ranged attack. omnidirectional block using a force field around them as they leaf through a book. their Big Attack summons a tribunal of judges who all pronounce the opponent guilty, smashing them with a giant mallet.

The Ice Dragon Lia Fucked Once - what is gender to a dragon, really? anyway have you ever wanted to be a wall boss? now you can! Ice Dragon is locked in place at the edge of the stage. uses ice dragon attacks, claw attacks, wing attacks, etc. Blocks to the only relevant side with its claws and wings. its Big Attack is to freeze you in a massive block of ice and add you to its hoard.

HIKARI - hikari is a notorious dumbass. and! she largely doesnt *actually* speak the language of eorzea. her comprehension is a consequence of the Echo, which (in canon) gives her the ability to understand even animal languages. she knows a bit of eorzean from her time in the military but only enough to like, get by, if necessary, and she definitely didnt learn to read it. with the echo, spoken language i imagine is fine, but reading is a lot more mentally strenuous. so she just isnt interested unless she needs to read something for a quest.

AOI - aoi likes reading! she likes steamy romance novels and non-fiction stories about heroic exploits and such. she also likes to keep up with tabloids just to see if there's any hilariously false stories about hikari in them.

LIA - basically nonstop reading, but exclusively magic theory and spellbooks.

NEST - she'll act like she doesn't read because she needs to be training, but she secretly stays up late reading really trashy knight romance.

VIOLET -

(thanks lico)

VALYRIE - despite carrying a holy book around with her, she doesn't read it. or anything else.

DR. MARION - she is like *deep* in the weeds of medical textbooks and magic theory.

CASSIDY - nah. not much for reading.

ADELA - absolutely not (sorry)

ELYRIA - i think she's perfected the art of Pretending To Read but she doesn't do it properly.

ETOILE - theres not much to do in the tower after she's cleaned everything, so she'll read some of the witch's books when she's free.

CAROLINE - she reads! it's hard to really pin down what exactly she reads because she kind of just reads whatever, but she likes fiction. she also keeps a field guide in her bag that she looks through if there are animals around.

ROBIN - im gonna be honest i do not know if she *can* read.

MEL - im gonna be honest i am pretty sure she can't read either.

ANGEL - at the risk of repeating myself....

PEACH - hmm... i imagine she's prone to reading since she's often chair-bound and doesn't have much else to do. i think she likes low-stakes calm slice of life type stories, though who knows how many of those exist as books in her world. i think they do exist, for her.

ELTAH - provided she can read with braille, she would absolutely rip through science textbooks, particularly chemistry and engineering.

VASCH - nah

LEFAH - *definitely* reads sappy romance novels.

REESE - not so much anymore, but in her youth she read a lot of books on finance and governance in preparation for taking over after her father's retirement. she used to be quite ambitious!

VANA - vana definitely reads, but mostly to keep up appearances

IRA - she tried it as a meditation exercise, but it mostly just frustrated her.

ERIN - i mean. is there an in-universe equivalent to the kama sutra?

ALETHA - actually reads quite a lot, as part of her immutable routine is studying history and etiquette. she's read through the manor library a couple times so far.

ORCHID - doesnt really read so much as she squirrels away zalea's books whenever she's left alone. but she probably looks through them.

ZALEA - ravenous reader. if she's not teaching at the university, she's reading. sometimes she's doing both. while also chewing on something. easily the most prolific reader per day out of any of these girlies.