Idia and Friendship

Idia and Ortho seem to have different definitions of the word “friend”: when Ortho compares students kidnapped to STYX as equivalent to “having friends over” Idia says that “forcibly dragging acquaintances into a lab and making them test subjects” is not the same thing, insisting that the “troublemakers” are not his friends.

This conversation is repeated at the end of Book 6 when Ortho says they have experienced “hanging out at a friend’s house” (though he then corrects his own phrasing, calling the prefect an “acquaintance” instead).

Ortho encourages Idia to attend Lilia’s farewell party but Idia refuses on the grounds that they are not friends (“We’re like, acquaintances at best.”)

Ortho encourages him to make a new friend at the NBC social and Idia says, “I don’t even have any friends here.” Ortho follows with, “just try to make any friend, then. Even someone from the Night Raven group.”

Ortho refers to the students as Idia’s friends during Phantom Bride, to the group of Sebek, Epel, the prefect, Jade and Grim as Idia’s “school friends” during Harveston and is excited to think that Idia has befriended Malleus in a vignette, but at the end of Book 6 he admits that Idia doesn’t have any close friends and possibly never will.

When Marja refers to the Harveston group as Epel’s friends Idia is the only one who corrects her, saying, “I barely interact with him, TBH.”

In Book 6 Idia says that he has no friends, but he possibly wasn’t counting his online friend Muscle Red, whom he has never met in person. Ortho says that a “real live human friend” like Muscle Red is a rarity for Idia (not knowing that Muscle Red is fae), and when Muscle Red retires from online gaming Idia says he will never make another friend again.

He and Muscle Red (Lilia) also refer to one another as “war buddies.”

Idia is more vocally resistant to friendship that most other characters: when a Harveston villager comments on the NRC sled team’s show of friendship he responds, “Friendship..? That’s the LAST thing we have!”

When Ortho describes Rook, Epel, the prefect and Grim as “caring friends” for hunting down Vil Idia says, “Nah, is that just being a caring friend? It’s just plain scary,…”

In reference to his relationship with Muscle Red, however, he says “This right here is what friendship’s all about!”

Lilia explains that the Watchman of the Island of Woe is not an enemy of the fae, but “just as they are no one’s enemy, so too are they no one’s friends.”