Lani Difonia Character in Where the Heart Is | World Anvil
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Lani Difonia

Lani Vera Difonia

After her older sibling, Nerez, disappeared during her childhood, Lani was left with their prized harmonica and a flower shop to keep her afloat. For years, she's lived alone, never taking the time to trust anyone. After all, who would she be if she couldn't shoulder the world's burdens by herself?   Born in Noarata, she comes to Aitaran after her prized harmonica is stolen.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Despite being slightly underweight due to not having a ton of money for food, she's extremely quick and agile. Not a heavy lifter.

Body Features

Lani has pale skin and a somewhat angular body with sharp edges. She's also got a lot of freckles.

Facial Features

Lani has a freckled, squarish face with angular blue-green eyes.

Physical quirks

Her dominant hand is her left. When she's bored, she plays with her hair or the straps that hold her harmonica around her neck.

Special abilities

Lani is something known as an Even Keel . These people aren't quite one in a million, but they're a bit rare. They're capable of housing far more magical energy than the norm and can actually absorb and balance two different people, making her an ideal candidate for sealing away certain people.

Specialized Equipment

Lani keeps a small pocket knife on her at all times. During the course of WTHI, she gains the ability to use light and air magic and also gets a sword.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

For a long time, Lani lived in Noarata with her older sibling, Nerez. They both managed a flower shop together, earning meager wages but still managing to survive. Nerez taught her everything she needed to know about survival before they disappeared without a trace when Lani was 12. Before they left, Nerez left her with one thing: their prized harmonica.   7 years later, she finds herself wondering where her sibling went and why, but doesn't act on these thoughts until Ísja and Num steal her harmonica for goals that they won't tell her. With that, she charges head-on into Aitaran in search of her harmonica.

Gender Identity

Female; She/her

Sexuality

Lesbian

Education

Limited homeschooling

Employment

Lani has worked at her sibling and her's flower shop for many years.

Mental Trauma

Lani has an acute fear of public speaking and will freeze up when she has to speak publicly. She also built up her walls fairly high because she's afraid of losing people again and is also partially unsure of how to initiate good contact with others.

Intellectual Characteristics

Being a self-taught harmonica player, Lani is extremely musical. She has a lot of street smarts and is able to think quickly, oftentimes being able to guess what others are going to do before they do it and she aligns her actions with her predictions.

Morality & Philosophy

As someone who distrusts most everyone else and has lived alone for a good portion of her life, Lani believes that one's own survival should be prioritized above all else. She is unlikely to help others in a pinch if she is in a pinch as well. She also believes that it's important for everyone to carry their own weight and gets frustrated when they don't.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Truthfully, Lani didn't have any huge motivation before her harmonica was stolen. She was drifting through life, unsure of what she wanted and whether she was even capable of accomplishing anything big. Her stolen harmonica was a wake-up call. It showed her that there was more to life than just sitting at a flower stand and waiting to die. Her biggest motivation is to get her harmonica back and go home.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Despite her background as a flower shop owner, Lani has never been good with plants. Try as she might, she can never quite get them to thrive like Nerez could. She's quite good at mental math and skipping rocks.

Likes & Dislikes

Lani likes working with plants, playing her harmonica, and sweet things. She dislikes people who don't mind their business and those of whom would make trouble for her and her friends.

Virtues & Personality perks

Lani is patient and extremely intelligent, though most of it is street smarts. She isn't naïve, so she doesn't tend to get into trouble by trusting people too easily. Her quick wits allow her to create escape plans quickly if needed.

Vices & Personality flaws

She's slightly self-preservative as a result of the place she lived for so long. She's also untrusting. When she gets genuinely angry about something, which is rather rare, she can act rashly.

Personality Quirks

When she focuses on something, she tends to squint or shut her eyes completely.

Hygiene

Despite the fact that she didn't have a lot of access to soap and things like it, she makes sure to keep herself looking at least relatively nice, bathing when she can. The inside of the RV that she calls her home is fairly clean, but she tends to leave clothes lying around.

Social

Family Ties

Nerez is her only known relative. She can't remember either of her parents, so Nerez is all that she ever had.

Religious Views

Up until the incidents leading up to her going to Aitaran, Lani didn't believe in the gods by any means. Now, she can't help but wonder why they didn't help her if they were supposedly so great.

Social Aptitude

Because she hasn't had a lot of interaction with others over the years, Lani usually ends up tripping over her words quite a bit when she meets new people. She gets nervous easily around those she doesn't know very well. Once they know her a little bit, she starts to come out of her shell and tries to impress them in any way that she can.

Hobbies & Pets

Lani enjoys playing her harmonica and sewing.

Relationships

Ísja Delelska

Younger brother figure (Vital)

Towards Lani Difonia

4
3

Honest


Lani Difonia

Older sister figure (Important)

Towards Ísja Delelska

5
3

Honest


History

The two first met when he and Num stole her harmonica under the guise of simply buying flowers. They met again when he and Num helped rescue her from the Madinizi. There, Lani viewed Ísja with some suspicion but trusted him more than his brother, while Ísja thought she seemed nice deep down and desperately wanted to be friends. The reveal that he and Num had stolen her harmonica, however, led Lani to be infuriated with the two.   After a while, Lani managed to track down the brothers and almost brought them to justice before realizing just what would happen if she did. Thus, she decided to bring them with her instead. This caused Ísja to be thankful to her.   Over time, the two became good friends, Lani trying to impress him with tricks that she could do, looking out for him and giving him advice while he started idolizing her a little and viewing her as the person he wanted to be when he was older. He genuinely thinks she's the coolest person in the world.

Nicknames & Petnames

Lani calls him sprout/kiddo sometimes while he calls her Nahveeksee (big sister) often.

Commonalities & Shared Interests

Both enjoy music and are sorta opposites of each other.

Num Delelska

Younger brother figure (Important)

Towards Lani Difonia

4
2

Dishonest


Lani Difonia

Older sister figure (he'd never admit it) (Important)

Towards Num Delelska

3
4

Honest


History

The two first met when he and Ísja stole her harmonica under the guise of simply buying flowers. They met again when he and Ísja helped rescue her from the Madinizi. There, Lani viewed him with a fair deal of suspicion and dislike since he was fairly snarky to her. The reveal that he and Num had stolen her harmonica, led Lani to be infuriated with the two. After a while, Lani managed to track down the brothers and almost brought them to justice before realizing just what would happen if she did. Thus, she decided to bring them with her instead. This caused Num to be somewhat thankful to her. Over time, the two became good friends. Lani realized that he wasn't the type to enjoy cool magic tricks or anything. As long as the two could sit and hang out, not necessarily chatting, that was fine by the two of them. The pair earned more and more of each other's respect as time went on.

Shared Secrets

Num knew for quite a while that Lani liked Siriun, since he seemed to be the type that wouldn't tell anyone. In turn, he told Lani that he liked Eukos.

Yunvei

Friend (Vital)

Towards Lani Difonia

5
5

Honest


Lani Difonia

Friend (Important)

Towards Yunvei

2
-2

Frank


History

Yunvei and Lani first met in the Dreamscape when Lani was first chasing after Ísja and Num. He was extremely excited to have finally found someone to talk to after so many years and didn't know what to do with his excitement, causing Lani, who wanted to get a move-on, to get a little annoyed. Soon enough, he lost the energy to maintain a corporeal form and collapsed and disappeared.   In Firan's castle, Lani learned that Yunvei was responsible for a wide array of awful things, such as supposedly releasing monsters unto Aitaran and killing entire races. Infuriated, in their next encounter in one of her dreams, she yelled at him and refused to let him try to speak, though he wouldn't have been able to speak at all since Fosru had destroyed so many shrines in order to deplete some of his magic power reserves.   Later on, once Lani figured out that Fosru was the one in the wrong, she began to forgive Yunvei and worked towards bringing him back to corporeality. Their first physical interaction was a little awkward due to how their last interaction had gone, but they quickly made up. Soon after that, Yunvei told her that the only way to beat Fosru required his and Fosru's absorption into Lani's body and for Lani to go comatose. She realized that she wanted to protect her friends and went along with it.   Lani is not afraid to call Yunvei out for being a complete clown. She can see through his happy and calm facade for the most part and is capable of telling him the truth and forcing him to tell her what he's thinking. While she may not show it, she respects him deeply and acknowledges the fact that he made a lot of difficult decisions to get where he is today. She thinks that he can be a little irrational and goofy at times, but deep down, she thinks he's a genuinely good guy.   Yunvei wants so desperately for Lani to be his friend. He purposefully tries to make her laugh with jokes and stuff, but when things get bad, he knows that he can trust her with sensitive information and be honest with her. He admires her inner strength, but wishes that she'd loosen up and realize just how much people care about her. He sees his own cynicism in her and wishes that she'd learn that the world can be good sometimes.

Commonalities & Shared Interests

The two of them can be a little cynical at times and their character arcs mimic each other - Yunvei learned that the world is good after his coronation while Lani realized that the world can be good after getting more friends.

Fosru

escape method (Trivial)

Towards Lani Difonia

-2
4

Subversive


Lani Difonia

puppet (Vital)

Towards Fosru

2
1

Honest


History

One of the first things that Lani does in Aitaran is that she goes to the castle to see Fosru and request to be sent home, since they supposedly have a lot of power. They state that they don't have enough power to send her back, but if she balances the magical energy of Aitaran again, they'll have the energy to send her home. This is what sends her on her quest, along with her desire for her harmonica.   Her opinion about them doesn't begin to start changing until mid to late story. Before then, however, she views them in a good light since they take care of the people of their country and seem to want to defend their country from evils such as Yunvei. She respects them deeply. Fosru, on the other hand, only sees her as yet another pawn, especially after identifying her as an Even Keel . They don't care about or respect her at all.

Lonan

Guide (Vital)

Towards Lani Difonia

5
1

Dishonest


Lani Difonia

Friend (Important)

Towards Lonan

3
2

Honest


History

Lani was the first person that Lonan met after being created. As a result, she sort of set the bar for them as humans go. Lani was stunned by their intelligence and prowess in battle, but felt as though something wasn't quite right with them from the get-go, leading to some tense moments.   The first time that Lani questions Lonan's behavior is when the two capture Ísja and Num. She believes that, since they're children, they deserve a little leeway with their actions. She refuses to believe that they've done anything that could possibly hurt Fosru and advocates for them, allowing them to stay with her and Lonan instead of killing them straightaway. Lonan, irritated by this, continues to believe that Fosru is in the right.   As time goes on, the gap between Lani and Lonan deepens. More things happen that force Lani to take new views on the pair's relationship with Fosru and Lonan refuses to have their opinions swayed. Despite this gap, however, the two continue to believe in each other, Lonan admiring Lani's inner strength and kindness while Lani admires their decisiveness.

Randy Iardor

Father Figure (Vital)

Towards Lani Difonia

5
4

Honest


Lani Difonia

Daughter Figure (Vital)

Towards Randy Iardor

5
2

Frank


History

Lani and the gang were directed to a certain port town by Hotshot after they were unable to find Randy in his old home. They were looking for a way to cross the ocean in order to find one of the monsters housing a good portion of Aitaran's magical energy. Randy proved himself helpful immediately by offering one of his larger fishing boats and helping the crew along.   He and Lani hit it off pretty quickly after the two found out that they were from the same Universal Plane and that that they could've met each other had Randy not gone to Aitaran. He felt awful to know that he couldn't help her track down Nerez Difonia , but promised to help her find them when the opportunity arose. Lani quickly began to see him as a trusted friend and even father figure, particularly when he clearly began expressing concern for her and her friends. Randy also trusted her rather quickly, though he worried that perhaps she was taking on more than she bargained for.

Wealth & Financial state

Lani, like many others in her hometown, hardly has any money or any assets at all. Oftentimes, she won't have enough money to buy food for herself. In recent years, she's started trying to get a bit more money by playing her harmonica for anyone who'll listen. Because of her lack of money, when she finally does have money that she knows she can spend freely, she goes all out with it.
lani vector.png
Alignment
Neutral Good
Conditions
Ethnicity
Year of Birth
1956 E.A.E 19 Years old
Birthplace
Noarata, Mestneric
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Noarata
Gender
Female
Eyes
Teal
Hair
Short, dark brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale, freckled
Height
5'9"
Weight
128 lbs
Aligned Organization
Known Languages
English

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