Personality
The current President of Spina di Rosula, who is lovely, dutiful, and a great boss.
As the head of the Spina di Rosula, Navia is devoted to helping people of Fontaine, being likened as a "big sister" who checks in on everyone. She has a sharp mind and knack for investigating, being able to analyze events from different angles and find answers that other parties may miss.
Due to the struggles Navia had while growing up, she sometimes struggles to comprehend her own existence and wonders if she did anything meaningful. Despite having lost many loved ones throughout the years, particularly her parents Callas and Clementine, along with her trusted subordinates Melus and Silver, Navia still pushes on for a brighter future, not wanting their sacrifices to be in vain.
She had a good relationship with Clorinde in her youth, but following Clorinde killing her father in a duel, their relationship has been strained as she finds it hard to forgive her even after understanding his sacrifice. However, after solving the "young women disappearance case" with the Traveler and Paimon, Navia and Clorinde have started to talk and meet up with each other again to reconcile their relationship.
Outside of investigating, Navia enjoys baking, particularly macarons.
Appearance
Judging from her appearance, there's no doubt that Navia is the very picture of a Fontainian lady.
She likes to accoutre herself in ornate dresses and fine hats, and carries with her a ribboned umbrella encrusted with jewels.
Thus bedecked, she flits around the streets of the Court of Fontaine, the slopes of Mont Automnequi, as well as lesser-known spots along the Fleuve Cendre.
She's never before been hindered by her long flowing dress, nor by her deceptively heavy umbrella. Spry as a sparrow, she is the bearer of glad tidings from the Spina di Rosula for those in need.
Perhaps this is why Navia has become one of the famous reporter Charlotte's favorite subjects.
At the exhibition hall of The Steambird, there even hangs a photo connected to her called "The Soaring Yellow Rose."
But there's no need to worry — for it goes without saying that the photo's subject not only consented to its showing, but also gave her enthusiastic support.
Character Stories
Fontaine's laws are very strict, but its people are quite free-spirited. Fontainian society contains all manner of social organizations, clubs, or factions, all of which have their own origins, development, goals, and style.
For example, the short-lived Hat Jellyfish Association ostensibly promoted the protection of the waters and those living within, but was in truth founded by a band of explosives enthusiasts.
By comparison, the Spina di Rosula are a law-abiding, reliable lot, their overly rambunctious young President notwithstanding.
In official statements, the Spina proclaims itself to be a citizen-oriented society that involves many walks of life and focuses its efforts on solving difficult issues amongst the common folk, and that it will cooperate with the Fontainian authorities where needed.
If you ask Navia, she'd tell you that the Spina serves as a business partner with all sorts of people in it, that will help with any problem, using the velvet glove or the iron fist as appropriate.
Neither of these descriptions are mistaken, at least in broad strokes, so you may choose the one you prefer — though it is worth noting that those who choose the latter wording will find it easier to make friends with Navia.
Character Story 1
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 2
In Fontaine, to say that you grew up watching the theater is no different from claiming that you were raised drinking water: Simply so ordinary that it barely bears mentioning.
So it was with Navia. So enamored was she with the scenes on stage that as a little girl she would pester her father to buy her tickets so that she could experience each part of the tale alongside the characters.
These feelings would take on a different note after she became involved in the affairs of the Spina di Rosula. The staged conflicts seemed fewer than the twists and turns at the negotiating table, and she could see the cosmetic scars imagined by makeup artists permanently carved into the bodies of those dwelling in the Fleuve Cendre.
Gradually, her visits to the opera house became less and less frequent, and she instead spent more and more time on those around her. Tragedy onstage was captivating, of course, but Navia did not wish for such tales of misfortune to befall real people.
How might one mediate between separated lovers mired in the battlefields of differing perspectives? How might one in middle age robbed of their ability to work by an accident find a new way to be the breadwinner?
The world is filled with problems of this sort, and while they bring little profit when resolved, unlike the core businesses that sustain the Spina, Navia throws herself into solving them.
And if anyone should accuse her of being a busybody, she will counter thusly.
"Such presumption, to call such matters trivial," she'd say, using lofty language to stymie the other party's reply. "This is called 'a stitch in time saving nine.' And wouldn't you agree that we're doing the Palais Mermonia a favor by preventing someone from being hauled up onstage at the opera house?"
At such times, Navia will not identify herself as the Demoiselle, President, or any fancy title, but as simply as Navia, an enthusiastically civic-minded citizen.
Character Story 2
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 3
Navia, presently the one helping people out of trouble, used to be the one getting into it as a child.
President Callas, busy as he was, had to rely on Spina di Rosula members to take care of her, which was no mean feat when their charge could disappear in the blink of an eye. After much searching, they would at most find the barest hint of a fancy hat's rim visible on some rooftop... only for them to find naught but the hat itself upon finally climbing up.
The hat's owner would at that time already be playing somewhere on Mont Automnequi. Her curiosity was so intense that she could easily enjoy and entertain herself even without any companions. Give her a pond, and she could stare at it the whole day, watching birds flapping about as they bathed in the shallows and otters rising from the bottom to do the backstroke. Just this alone could bring her great joy for quite some time, and she would give gifts in gratitude for those who brought her such happiness — millet for the birds to eat, and shells for the otters to play with.
Sometimes, she would also seek out playmates. The children of Fleuve Cendre owned no toys for the most part, so she would play hide-and-seek with them, dragging her silk skirts with her through the pipes. Win or lose, she would always gain a little extra compared to the other kids. She would emerge from her hiding place brandishing a component or two she found in some nook or cranny, a few lost Mora, or a fifty-percent new portable toolbox, and bask in the admiration of her companions.
Though she would often run off on her own, most of the adults were exceptionally tolerant of her behavior (her father being the exception). Spina members would help bandage her bruised knees, and the women of the Fleuve Cendre would help mend her torn clothes. Navia would think, Ah, I am loved by so many, and such thoughts would make her happier still.
At one point, Navia heard an elderly lady next door say gossipingly thusly with others: "...That girl only has her father, and he's got no time to accompany her... Poor girl, always having to roam outside by herself..."
Such words made Navia unhappy for a while. She thought herself quite fortunate. Her father loved her lots, and the adults and children around her also liked her. So why would someone regard her as one to be pitied? Perhaps, Navia thought, it was a matter of unclear communication leading to confusion. In which case, that wouldn't do, not at all.
From then on, whenever little Navia felt loved, she would loudly declare: "Thanks for liking me so much. That makes me very happy!"
Character Story 3
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 4
Navia's original intention behind combining a gun with an umbrella was quite simple: she just didn't want to carry too much around, as this would affect her ability to conduct other business.
It rains often in Fontaine, and the rain gives way to merciless sun, so umbrellas are a must when going outdoors. And it would not do for the Demoiselle of the Spina to go without a gun, for surely none would think it an ornament in her hands.
Her sharpshooting skills are born of much practice, with her principle being that any stance will do so long as you hit your shots — even propping your barrel atop a Blubberbeast is fine.
Clorinde, trained in the art of Marechaussee Hunter marksmanship, tends to shake her head at this, even as words of affirmation tumble out of her mouth. "I find your optimism regarding battle is quite admirable."
Navia takes that as praise. She met Clorinde when she was a (self-proclaimed) big girl of something over ten years, and is thus quite used to the latter's mannerisms. Yes, those are accurate words of praise, indeed!
Optimism is indeed a rare psychological quality not to be undervalued. Many are those who intentionally seek to cultivate such a characteristic, yet prove unable to smile amidst life's struggles, while Navia appears to have been born with this ability. To her, there are only two types of trouble in this world: The solvable, and the unsolvable. Immediate action is the panacea to problems that can be eliminated, and as for those problems beyond one's power to change, then change yourself and learn acceptance.
Apart from optimism, Navia finds tolerance to be a value that brings real improvement to one's quality of life, and it is a virtue that extends to the Spina. Why, look at all the varied business ventures, and the people of all sorts — indeed, even a Tent Tortoise calls the place home!
It is said that this creature was a friend of Callas's named Consigliere, roughly meaning "Counselor." Navia has also taken counsel with it in the past, finding it patient, quiet, and long-lived — just the sort of person you'd confide in. One day, Charlotte happened upon Navia babbling away to Consigliere, and out came her Kamera. The next thing anyone knew, many would come to speak to the Tent Tortoise on the picture's account. Navia herself would seek it out less from then on.
"Others should have a chance to chat with Monsieur Consigliere too," she would say with a straight face.
Character Story 4
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 5 • UI Quest Masquerade of the Guilty
This world was probably full of contradictions from the beginning.
Take Navia's father Callas for example. If the Spina di Rosula was more influential, a lot of things could get done more easily, but Callas stubbornly refused to accept the honorary title that the Palais Mermonia sought to grant him after the completion of the aquabus lines.
Again, Callas would never intentionally hide what the Spina did from his daughter, and would speak to her of all manner of business techniques, even personally or engaging others to teach her how to use weapons, as well as bringing her to the negotiating table, as if intending to groom her to be his successor. But at the same time, he never spoke of the cause of her mother's death, nor would he ever share his feelings with her. For a time, Navia was even confused as to whether she and her father were close or distant.
Later, Navia slowly came up with a theory: That her father may have treated her so to protect her. He let her learn and build up wisdom in the hopes that she would become independent and be able to survive the crushing stresses of life. As for why he would not speak of his own pressures or pain, or even Clementine's death, it was most likely to spare his daughter sorrow or unnecessary guilt. And so he remained silent, never having a heart-to-heart with his own daughter, no matter how much he missed his wife.
As for his rejection of the title, this was possibly because he felt that Spina di Rosula would often be working with the common folk and a title like "Duke Callas" might create the perception of a difference in status between them, causing the Spina in turn to lose the trust of the people.
Still, all of these are just Navia's own conclusions.
This is another area where Navia found herself conflicted. She was in all things valiant, and in business straightforward, but she never did seek her father out to confirm her conjectures.
—Did you make those choices to protect me, Papa? Did you underestimate my ability to sort out my feelings, even though you trusted me?
She never spoke these thoughts aloud to her father. After all, she thought, they had time. Could she not wait until her stubborn old man stopped being so closed off, or until she had found better footing of her own, for them to have that conversation?
It was time that would answer her question, and teach her that which her father could not.
Some things in life are like that, leaving only time for on-the-spot learning and no time for preparation, just as she would go on to organize her own memos after Melus's departure.
Well, everyone makes mistakes at first, right? But don't worry — Navia's a fast learner.
Character Story 5
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 6 • UI Quest Masquerade of the Guilty
Fontaine is the Nation of Hydro, and thus, from time immemorial, many tales about water have been flowing through it, such as the belief that the rain that falls is the Hydro Dragon Sovereign's tears and that the Great Terrestrial Lake holds the emotions of humanity...
The former is regarded as a ditty meant to pacify unruly children, while the latter is regarded by most to be unprovable, but as the matter of the "prophecy" progressed, people gradually turned to it for emotional sustenance.
As Fontaine's post-disaster reconstruction work steadily progressed, Navia found that more and more people began to stay a while and tarry by the water, especially around Poisson.
After her accession as President, Navia was never one for slowing down or taking breaks. But once, when she was walking by the waterfront, she glimpsed her reflection in the surface and was suddenly struck by the desire to stop and stare, just as she had gazed at ponds when she was little.
She stooped down and scooped up some water, and watched as it drained away through the gaps between her fingers, till there was but a little left in her palm. Navia felt little from the water cupped in her hand, remembering only the traces of blood washed out by the rain, and the clothes left behind when the waters had retreated.
She had always been one to see the bright side of things, and did not wish for her sorrow to spread to her companions, and so she seldom cried. But thus did the unshed tears swollen with the river of the years at last find their outlet.
Those tears were blown dry by the wind, and did not fall into the waters, but Navia believed that they would not fade with time.
Her tears were utterly insignificant, but a drop in the ocean, but just as all other waters in this world, they would evaporate, condense, and fall as light rain, and with the wetness of each rainy season that came, they would meet again.
The Right Time
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 4 • UI Quest As Light Rain Falls Without Reason
When Navia no longer needed to tiptoe to touch the shelf tops, Callas gave her a notebook. The book contained no dates and had no format, and even contained some text without punctuation — and was written by her mother, Clementine.
While it was initially a welcome surprise, frustration and gloom took root in her heart as she read on.
The short essays began from the time Clementine went with Callas to visit the Fountain of Lucine. It seemed that from the moment they became intent on having a child, her mother would often think about her. In the golden sunflowers, she would see her child's hair, and in the bright lakes, her child's eyes.
She wrote down every last one of these hopes and blessings: May our child brim with beautiful virtues, try the many adventures and lovely cuisines the world has to offer, and experience all manner of joy and happiness.
This was not the first time Navia had read things her mother had written, but this instance certainly made her the happiest and angriest all at once. Why had her father only chosen to give this to her now!?
But her fury was not to last. She soon finished reading all the thin book had to offer, and its ending was one of devastating simplicity.
"Though I have written much about our child, I suppose these are, in the end, just my own wishes."
For some reason — their connection by blood, perhaps — Navia immediately understood the meaning of those words. Her mother had not wished for these hopes become a burden upon her growing child, and thus, her father had given this book into her keeping only after she had already grown into an adult by following her own path.
That day, Navia, did something quite rare, and did not go out, instead spending a long time in her room. Equally rare, also, was her acknowledgment of her father's arbitrary exercise of authority in this case.
Perhaps her mother had once intended to give her this notebook herself, once she was grown... when the time was right.
Vision
Item Companionship EXP Friendship Lv. 6
At a birthday party many years ago, Navia took her favorite tabletop game out.
Perhaps it was because this was also her coming of age, but the participants playing that day were especially numerous. Amid this lively atmosphere, everyone — apart from the birthday girl, the star of the show — racked their brains coming up with characters exceedingly ill-suited to themselves.
Melus, the steady hand, became the rash and careless commissioner, inviting all present to solve — or suffer under, more like — the ancient curse afflicting his family. Sonny, ever elegant in speech and etiquette, would play a potty-mouthed petty thief, even making the grand sacrifice of shedding his pale outer coat, which usually stuck to him like a second skin. The nervous rookie, Silver, having been dragged into this by dint of passing by, was made a mighty, mysterious mage.
The most lethal blow came when Clorinde, who usually took charge of proceedings, decided to "band together" with the famed adventurer known as "Demoiselle" as a private doctor who missed every shot she fired. Someone had to do the healing, she reasoned — but alas, this left the role of game master open, with Callas unfortunate enough to be the only one left to fill that post. Thus was he forced to put his soft drink aside, and leave the audience stands (the bench) for the crowd of players (the sofa).
Navia was most pleased with this start.
The game, however, got off to a bumpy beginning, with the strange commissioner bursting his way into Demoiselle's residence during her birthday party, only to misjudge and crash head first into a triple-layered cake, nearly drowning himself in dessert and ending the millennia-spanning family curse by his own hand within the first five minutes.
Demoiselle would quickly get the good-hearted doctor to save the man, with the doctor musing if letting him live on was tantamount to helping their enemies as she rolled the dice.
The game master's expression did not change as he went faithfully about his duty in a low voice:
"The young man, having braved the rain, was soaked to the bone, and both his hands were set a-trembling."
"He did his best to clean the cream off his face and body, though he missed a few spots."
"'Thank you, kind souls, thank you, for joining in my battle against this curse most wicked!'"
They were unusually lucky during the middle portion of the game. To solve a problem, one must investigate its source. According to the mage's hypothesis, the commissioner's ancestor must have made a contract with a demon for some reason. "Ah, if I had only rolled higher, we would already know that reason..." grumbled the mage. "Bloody signed a high-interest contract without a care for his descendants, didn't 'e, the blithering idiot?" The thief blurted out. "Well then, can we steal the document and destroy it?" Demoiselle asked offhandedly.
The inexperienced game master would regret allowing their actions for all time, for the thief's luck was truly ludicrous.
"...Demoiselle was clever indeed, and the thief just as profoundly skilled."
"No one thought that the contract would fall into their hands so easily, and yet the words written upon it were nigh indecipherable..."
The ending, too, was unusually happy. Thanks to the hardworking and kind (and also sufficiently rusty) game master, Demoiselle would finally drag the rest of the party, riddled as they were with status effects, into a confrontation with the ancient demon. The battle was as chaotic as ever, with the mage losing his sanity first, and the doctor not landing a single shot. But just as everyone's hit points were about to bottom out, the adventurer Demoiselle would hazard a venture. Using up a turn to move beside the demon, and tanking a full round of its attacks head-on, she knowingly gave the doctor a desperate order, as everything was going to hell: "Shoot me instead!"
The doctor's dice were rolled before the game master could say anything. Callas counted the dice in silence, before taking three deep breaths.
"...The bullet pierces the demon’s weak spot, and the giant creature collapses into the abyss."
"It returns to the darkness, and into slumber, taking that absurd curse with it."
"Rejoice, rejoice, for the adventurer's courage and for her ill-omened ally!"
Perhaps it was to go with the President's flow or out of genuine emotion, but there was indeed much rejoicing. Amidst the din, only Callas, who had begun to sort out the various items used for play, was stunned. He retrieved a golden-yellow jewel from within the dice box.
"Navia... I think this is yours."
There were many people present, but this Vision did indeed belong to Navia, for it was with a flash of her thought that a great blade of Geo would slice her birthday cake in two... along with the table.
Later at night, when the party and her excitement both had settled down, Navia would lie on her bed, unable to remember what she had been thinking when she had obtained the Vision. Had her mind lingered on the final victory, obtained only after much struggle and hardship? Or had she wished that her birthdays henceforth would be spent surrounded by friends, just like this one?
If it was the former, that seemed to obliquely indicate that a happy ending must be preceded by many tribulations... so best to go with the latter.
Thus were her thoughts as she lay at dreamland's door, still clutching the Vision.
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