Shop Staff
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Current
Lydia Truffleshroom
The dark gnome proprietor and manager of the original store. Currently runs the Curious Curios area of Truffleshroom Labels.
- Chef of Iron: In the "food fight" against Wallace McDougal, Lydia makes Sumi, a Kamen Rider Warrior Princess made with a combat-modified version of her grandfather's "Sensational Sally" ice cream recipe, not to mention an entire army of gingerbread soldiers that end up buying Sumi crucial seconds to cool against his sandwich Kaiju.
- Determinator: When Sir Robin ran after being confronted over his loan from Lydia, which he couldn't pay due to ditching a quest against Overlord Bob and getting blacklisted (although, ironically, he was possibly the only adventurer to remain who he was before the quest, as the rest of the loans are collected from his victims,) she chased him through a whole town of Trauma Conga Line before finally stuffing the gender-bent "Shasha" into a genie bottle and fitting her into a coin-operated case to Work Off the Debt.
- Noodle Incident: Before her cooking competition against Chef McDougal, Lydia hadn't cooked since... the incident. Her brief flashback divulges only two vague details; Lydia was trying to wield a "microwave toaster skillet," and the result was a monster that rendered her grandfather allergic to fried chicken and shrimp for a year.
- Viral Transformation: Not quite a virus, but untreated minor exposure to the energy field of the mysterious, ditzy Claire (only being so minor because of her crystal's energy shield) culminated in her turning into an airhead. Thanks to Ebonii extracting the energy, the only remnants of this time are her hairstyle and the lighter shock of blue hair.
Lana Truffleshroom
The first of various clones that resulted from Lydia drinking a Mitosis Potion, all of whom have somewhat different personalities and are treated as sisters. Lana is the most tech-savvy, running online distribution in addition to managing their book collection, while also being the closest to Lydia due to her "age".- Color-Coded Characters: When Lydia first asks her to change outfits so people don't confuse them, she decides to go with a blue to contrast Lydia's purple outfit.
Lola Truffleshroom
The 35th "sister", who decided to become a blacksmith using dwarven forging techniques.- Color-Coded Characters: Her outfit is primarily yellow, to differentiate her from her other sisters.
- Interspecies Relationship: Lola's a gnome, and following an arc where she saves a dwarf from a mana crystal mine when its magic goes out of control, they started dating.
Luana Truffleshroom
The 42nd "sister", who decided to work as a tailor. The most laid-back, though she's sometimes frustrated having to repair Linda's adventuring outfits.- Color-Coded Characters: Her outfit is primarily green, to differentiate her from her other sisters.
Leota Truffleshroom
The 51st "sister", who decided to focus on spirituality and fortune-telling mainly because her other sisters had called dibs on other positions. Despite honing her skill, she can never fully predict the antics of her siblings.- Color-Coded Characters: Her outfit is primarily red, to differentiate her from her other sisters.
- Enlightenment Superpower: Created at the tail end of the mitosis, her sisters taking all the game consoles and computers in the store left her open to pursue spiritual ability by expunging all unneeded things from her mind. Because of this, she was able to succeed at something Lydia could not decades ago: becoming a Grand Master Sorceress on the Board of Reality Control. This allows her to remedy issues outside a physical purview, such as the blockage that rendered the pop-up shop teleporter unusable.
Linda Truffleshroom
The 58th and final "sister", who tends to be hyperactive but is able to concentrate when it comes to trapping and hunting monsters.- Color-Coded Characters: Her outfit is primarily orange, to differentiate her from her other sisters.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Despite going toe-to-toe with dragons, giant wolves, and other beasts, she's deathly afraid of bugs, having once ordered an exo-suit and flamethrower to deal with them but, when that would've cost too much, settled for a bazooka.
Past Employees
Jennifer
Lydia's first employee, a redhead who fell afoul of a malfunctioning genetic splicer and turned into a blonde... after being reverted imperfectly from a spider.Jennifer was initially indebted to Lydia due to the high price of the necessary (infinite) supply of curatives needed to keep her from fully regressing back into a spider. However, the high hazard pay led to a somewhat brief extension on her tenure at the checkout, before a look into other universes convinced her to take a chance on Shasha the Genie.
- Eternal Butt Monkey: She typically ended up subject to most of the magical mishaps at Bayou Bargains, and other universes have shown this to be constant. Even a wish on Shasha hasn't stopped this, as the strength of the wish subjects her to strong Wild Magic that has changed her multiple times. The last time she was seen, she was a two-headed drider named Jen-Mei.
Rachel
Lydia's second cashier, a gorgon.- Taken for Granite: A typical effect of a gorgon's gaze. Her Luna Rosa glasses avert this, but before that, she used a blindfold. It worked about as well for travel as you'd think, though her mother can navigate by smell.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: As shown in the Olympus Academy stopover, Rachel has a far better grasp of her paternity than her mother. Considering said mother is Medusa, and bears clear neck scars, her interactions with Perseus likely didn't leave her all there in the head.
Sammy
A creature from the Screaming Abyss, Sammy did part-time work for Lydia while Rachel was enlarged.Selkie
A woman with a fur coat that can turn her into a seal. When Lydia accidentally created a bunch of sisters that decided to help take care of the store, she decided to find work elsewhere.- Government Agency of Fiction: After leaving Lydia's employ, she's hired by a government agency top-secret enough that she has to claim she's taken a "delivery service" job whenever asked about it.
- Must Have Caffeine: She admits that the sole reason she doesn't want to just return to the sea after deciding to quit her job is because of a coffee addiction she's developed.
- Selkies and Wereseals: Selkie is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, being able to transform between seal and human forms with her fur coat.
Associates
Bob
A spirit inhabiting a wooden mask that hangs in Lydia's store.Harmonii Ming-Zou
Lydia's mentor, who typically appears as a red and blue geisha.- Morphic Resonance: Harmonii's form, be it a fairy, a Leviathan, or a nekomata, retains her red and blue Duality Motif.
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis: Goes through one in the middle of the resource gathering arc, after revealing that anything removed from her if they tried to use her as the source for the ingredients would revert to her Shapeshifter Default Form, and that it's been centuries since she's taken said form. The most we know of it is Harmonii's vague recollection of "squishiness" and the Dragon's mention of a "strange wooden ash quality."
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Harmonii was designed, according to
Word of God, with great skill in self-transformation, and isn't shy about disguising herself as other species for traversal or trickery.
Summer
One of Lydia's "sisters" originally just known as Teal Lydia, who felt it was impossible to find her own identity when surrounded by all the others. After a journey of discovery in the worlds of Lore that led to meeting an Author Avatar of Ted Bishop himself, she transformed herself into a living Muse with the body of an owl.- Shapeshifter: After the settings of Lore and Trader Lydia are merged back together, she visits Lydia's new shop in a form closer to her original gnomish appearance, and is able to alternate between it and her owl form at will.
Retra
One of Lydia's "sisters", who is occasionally mistaken for Lydia because she resembles Lydia's original design.Echo
One of Lydia's "sisters", who set up business in Lore during a period when the two works were in separate canons.- Small Role, Big Impact: Although she's only briefly mentioned in Trader Lydia, it's her ability to conduct business without causing irreparable damage that convinced Paige that merging their settings back together might not be a bad idea.
Fiddle
A dwarf that's the child of bard parents. Lola first meets him in the form of a gopher, due to a magic-eating monster causing a mana crystal mine going out of control, and they start dating after the Truffleshrooms save the day. The Draglins
Named for their draconic appearance and short stature, Draglins were first created from an earthquake-derived mashup of potions and spoiled food. Although many Draglins were created from the initial incident, Lydia only maintains five as permanent fixtures in her shop - in addition to Big Mama, the fridge itself (although after the airship explosion, not much has been heard from her.) Each has their own unique ability.
In general:
Zilant/Zil
The first Draglin, and Lydia's favorite.- Big Eater: Zil's unique power is the ability to eat through anything. Even the borders of reality.
Pixie
The "big sister" of the bunch. Pixie's ability is Blink, which allows her to teleport to any place she can think of.- Drunk with Power: When Pixie leaps into a rift in the teleporter and swallows the missing Dragon talisman of an incomplete Lunar New Year talisman set Lydia received (which got stuck in the folds of reality,) she turns into a gigantic dragon that attempts to eat Bob.
Midnight
A lazy black and red Draglin that spends most of his time sleeping. Midnight's "Breath of Life" turns any inanimate object he breathes on into a Draglin, which makes keeping track of their numbers difficult.Yuki
The most knowledgeable Draglin, and the only one capable of speech. Yuki's ability is "Knowledge Absorb," which allows her to consume text rather than reading... which, as you might expect from sucking words off the pages, makes it hard to sell books around her.- Discard and Draw: When Pixie ends up on the other side of a dimensional warp and Yuki's called in to make sure she's alright, it turns out Yuki lost her understanding of Beast Tongue years ago to replace with other knowledge and can only make assumptions based on Pixie's tone.
Pytho
The last off-sale Draglin, and the most puzzling, as he is the purest expession of Superpower Lottery among them. The staff petition to have him sold off, but Lydia constantly refuses.Lore Characters
This is about how The Book of Lore interacts with Lydia.
Book of Lore
Paige
Akina
Lorecrafters Yvette and Lloyd
Seats Y and L of the Order of the Last Page Lorecrafters. Yvette is aloof and reasonable, while Lloyd is foolish and brash.- Know When to Fold 'Em: After reading Teacher's notes on comic strips, Yvette wisely decides to cash out. Lloyd isn't so willing to abide, so Yvette uses perspective (a.k.a picking him up due to her proximity to the viewpoint making her appear larger than Lloyd) to drag him away.
- Reality Warper: Lorecrafters in general have the ability to influence the Book using their ink and Edyts. The cartoonish nature of comic strip format, unfortunately, eludes their firmer grasp.
Other Characters
Roya Balogh
The middle princess of Harmonia.Ashley
Alice
A mischievous Creepy Cute computer virus connected to Ashley.Miscellaneous Characters
Characters that aren't from Lore or Lydia, but tend to show up often. From Other Artists
Ebonii Eshu
- From: Wrenzephyr
- Amplifier Artifact: Yuki fashions one from Lydia's gem, in order to solidify the reversion. Without one, Empress' Word fades outside her range.
- Reality Warper: Downplayed. Empress' Word can alter beings within close range... but those changes revert outside Ebonii's range. Yuki gives her the use of an amplifier, which allows her to suck out Claire's magic permanently.
From Other Series
Angela Morgan & Winifred Pale
- Crossover: They originate from the comic series The Underburbs.
- Forced Transformation: The majority of times either or both of them have made an appearance, it results in them being unwittingly transformed by something in Lydia's stop.
The Debtors
At least three brave adventurers that wished to confront the dastardly Overlord Bob... and ended up changed beyond ordinary recognition. When Lydia was just starting out and traveling worlds to learn the customs of the trade, she worked with their local traders' guild, and did quite a bit of business. Not everyone could pay, but Lydia gave them loans. After uncovering the retroactive contracts, Lydia sets out to claim them.
In general:
The Prince/Maid
An egotistical prince who was turned into a French maid by being forced by his shadow in an Inverse Chamber to unequip all his accoutrements, equip an enchanted maid outfit, and drink potions that stripped away her will and replaced it with desire and servitude.The Wizard/Usa and The Magnificent Rei
A wizard who was turned into a bunny girl after firing a spell at a Mirror of Illusion, and a jester working for her.The Dragon
The Bard/Kura
A bard who was turned into a cat girl by a kitty slime that was immune to his musical deterrent.Sir Robin/Shasha the Genie
A rogue scout that, thanks to his cowardice, was blacklisted for life. Ironically, he's the one that escapes the fate of so many others... until Lydia came to collect.- Amnesiac Resonance: Lampshaded. While Shasha does not remember being Sir Robin, she takes well to piracy after being freed by Captain Lowtide, becoming first mate in short order.
- Freeing the Genie: Literally and financially. Lowtide not only liberates her from the bottle, he uses it to send back enough plunder to remove her debt... although he words it as a hostage note to preserve his reputation.
- Trauma Conga Line: His whole pursuit by Lydia. First, he runs into a Gender Bender free sample. Then, Usa vanishes his clothes at the public bath house. Finally, he gets cornered in a harem bazaar, puts on mind-altering clothes, and gets stuffed into a bottle.
- Wild Magic: As an artificial genie, Shasha is subject to this in droves, to the point that Lydia outright refuses to take a flood of ten million dollars summoned by it.Lydia: Magic granted by an artificial genie like Shasha can be chaotic and unpredictable the stronger the wish is. I would have otherwise used some lawyer-written wishes and sent all the money back.
