Nico Taylor

## Background

Nico is a rebellious and influencial 20 year old Reborn, who makes their debut in the very first episode as Callie's tour guide of all things 'Earth' after she accidentally ran into them shortly after her arrival to the planet.

After running away from their rich and abusive family at the age of 16, Nico dedicated their time to their work as an assassin and merc, doing odd jobs around the town and gaining recognition from people of importance and skills in many areas. Rumors of them being an untraceable assassin due to them being a Reborn Hellion has gained Nico a rather large following, culminating into a cult called 'Devotees of the Red Mask', dedicated to worshiping them as a Patron of Death and nicknaming them as 'Nex'.

When first introducing themself to strangers, they describe their job as someone who helps Jeevas escape Jeevan, find a Haven, and learn how to live on Earth. While they aren't necessarily lying about this, they are purposely keeping their career as a merc, assassin, and cult leader a secret so they don't scare them off.

They later help the other main characters that end up finding their way to Earth and provide their own home as a sanctuary, showing them what life on Earth is like while hiding quite a few things about themself. Nico is often the reason that the main cast go on any adventures because of how often they cause trouble with the law and other powerful groups of people, including Zoe and her army.

### Personality

Nico is a very charismatic, rebellious, flirty, and impulsive person who loves causing a ruckus and fighting. While they are a self trained assassin who takes joy in killing, they also show themself to be a genuine caring individual towards their close friends, helping them with whatever they need and lending an ear whenever they need to talk about personal things.

They strive to make connections with as many people as possible so that they have plenty of resources available to them, future jobs and alliances in particular. They're very extroverted and won't hesitate to approach anyone that catches their eye.

They're a very touchy person due to their raccoon Hellion and they don't really understand personal space; often standing too close to people they're particularly interested in, as shown in "Castel Part 1" when after Castel yelled at Nico, *"They closed the distance between them again and leaned down so their faces were even closer than before."*, signaling that they were very interested in Castel, despite being scolded at.

Nico prides themself on being able to read people very well and being an expert at lying, showing off these traits whenever they land themselves in trouble with the local police or the bounty hunters on their tail. Their favorite thing about reading people is being able to pinpoint their insecurities or their fears and use it against them, as seen in "Nico Part 2" when they pinpointed one of Zoe's insecurities and said, "'Don't have super strength, do you? I thought *all* Aries were supposed to!'". While this did cause Zoe to punch them and it didn't give them much of an advantage during the interrogation, they still said it because flustered reactions are entertaining to them.

They also tend to be very impulsive; often diving into situations without thinking or preparing beforehand. They make up for this with their exceptional improvisational skills, using whatever they have in their pockets and their people skills, they often make it out of a situation relatively unharmed, which fuels their god complex and massive ego.

### Physical Appearance

Nico has pale skin with vibrant and messy red hair gathered into a ponytail. The stripes on their hair and the shape of the ponytail look similar to a raccoons tail, hinting that they're definitely not human. The dead giveaway is the darker mark covering their eyes like a raccoon's mask.

They have ice blue eyes and stand at 5'10, making them the 3rd tallest main character and they also wield their trusty baseball bat as a weapon.

They wear a black t-shirt with a white rebellion symbol on it. The shirt is under an open bomber jacket gifted from Axel and dyed purple with a pair of dark blue jeans. They also wear black fingerless gloves and white sneakers.

### Powers and Abilities

Most of their abilities are left unknown due to them being a Reborn, a supernatural phenomenon that hasn't been studied much due to their rarity.

* according to others, has 'supernaturally' good luck
* can teleport to those close to them when they summon them; it takes up quite a bit of energy, though
* very durable to even fatal injury
* high pain resistance
* supernaturally fast reflexes
* can reach into Hellions' minds and communicate with them
* no fingerprints
* unknown DNA- can't be traced back to them

## Relationships

The Starcress Effect Wiki has an article focused on Nico's relationships.

## Habits and Mannerisms

* runs their hands through their hair when uncomfortable or stressed
* swings their bat around aimlessly when bored
* leans against someone or something when tired

## Trivia

* Nico is of australian descent
* Their chosen name means "victory of the people"
* Nico is canonically bisexual
* They have cyanophobia due to their mother forcing them to always wear it as a child despite it being their least favorite color
	+ this is why they dyed their hair red
	+ they used to wear red tinted glasses to prevent them from seeing it
	+ Castel dyed his hair blue and started wearing more blue to help Nico with exposure therapy. This caused them to associate blue with him and they stopped fearing it
* They gave Zoe the nickname "Roux", which means "little red"
	+ Zoe often calls them a cockroach because they're "unkillable"
* Its a universal experience for someone to think Nico is something other than human when they first meet them- just something about them seems ‘inhuman’
	+ In "Castel Part 1" in the "The Starcress Effect Shorts", Castel mentions that *"Nico was studying his very soul with eyes that didn't seem to belong to a human being but rather... something else."*
	+ In "Nico Part 1" in the "Starcress Effect Shorts", Meena says *"'But I thought you were an Aries! You're human for sure??'"* when Nico tell her they're not a Jeeva after she pointed out their 'color palette'
* They’re the only character that can do the typical ‘cartoon character pulls something random from behind their back’
* One of the producers stated that if Nico were a Jeeva, they'd be a Sagittarius with fire, good luck, and teleportation powers
* Nico loves giving nicknames to their friends and family