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cawaii Name: Niko Lovell. Birth name, Nikolas Wolfe.
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Physical Description:
The most accurate way to describe Niko is the tall, mean-looking, and "broody". He stands at 6'3 and has wavy dark brown hair and light hazel eyes, the latter of which has heavy bags due to chronic insomnia. It's not uncommon for him to look dead tired from day to day or to sneak rest breaks against whatever's convenient when he thinks no one's looks. He's got a killer smile but getting a genuine one out of him that's not sardonic or from battle-lust is hard. Usually, he's more likely to look "broody" (to his chagrin), scowly, or pissy.
Outside the school uniform or special occasions, he tends to favor casual and easy to move in clothing which usually might be whatever he grabbed off the floor that didn't stink or look a mess. Though not a slob, he prefers utility over appearances and as long as he doesn't look stupid. If/When he regains it, it's not unusual to see him with his clip-on headphones looped around his neck.
The most striking thing about Niko, however, is his burn scarred right hand. The scars have faded slightly but it can still cause significant pain on some days depending on what he's doing and in the worst cases it freezes up on him, to his deep frustration. As per Inugami's setting, however, his hand will be normal and have no ill-physical effects until if/when he regains it. Aside from this, his fingers have callouses from guitar use.
World (note: Niko shares OC canon with Kaitlyn Eri Marshall, which was co-written with Eri's applicant. World information has been reused between both apps with mod-approval):
Niko is from modern-day New York, 201X. Though the world is largely normal and true to the real world, the biggest difference is the presence of a spiritual or 'unconscious' world alongside the normal world.
This operates on three levels: first, the material or 'waking' world, which is the main world for normal beings. This is pretty much the world most people are familiar with and live in a day to day basis. Second, the in-between or 'unconsciousness', which is usually accessed by normal beings through dreams or brushes with psychic phenomenon (seeing or feeling something from another level out of the corner of your eye, experiencing de ja vu, premonition, children's games like Bloody Mary, etc). Normal beings will occasionally and naturally dip into this level but are rarely capable of interacting with spiritual aspects or beings on this level easily and vice versa. Lastly, the immaterial or 'beyond', which is the main world for spiritual or psychic aspects and beings, both created from normal beings and from beyond. These include everything from ghosts, to demons, to gods, to manifested psychic phenomena.
For the most part, the levels remain separated from each other. However, there are occasionally dips. Casual dips include dreaming (particularly lucid dreaming) or small brushes with spiritual aspects but those dips are ultimately non-harmful to normal beings. However, it is possible to increase susceptibility to those dips (such as, accumulating negative energy by breaking certain 'rules' or making opening yourself up to spiritual beings or aspects). The higher susceptibility a person has, the greater chance these dips will increase and become dangerous to a normal being. If it happens enough, a person may: one, become stained spiritually and have their 'door' between the material and the in-between opened, allowing them to experience levels simultaneously and making them much more susceptible to spiritual or psychic influences; two, be dragged between levels and trapped. Should they fall to the third level or the immaterial, they will experience ego death and become permanently disconnected from their bodies, ultimately resulting in their body becoming an empty shell and worse for their soul.
Spiritual or psychic aspects and beings may also dip through levels. Though they can cross into the in-between more easily, it is difficult for them to interact with normal beings unless given an opening, such as a susceptible person or an invitation or vessel or high amounts of negative energy. At their peak, they can pour into the material level, which often leaves spiritual staining, creating the possibility of near-permanent levels of negative energy. This can affect places and people, as what happened to Niko.
While most normal people have their doors 'closed' between the material and unconscious planes, keeping their perception and ability to interact with the planes separated, the staining left a permanent impression of negative energy on his psyche. Because Niko was still on the material plane when he was stained, his door was only partially opened - not quite open enough loosen his anchor to his physical body but not closed enough to keep him from perceiving spiritual/psychic aspects. As such, while he is technically less susceptible to possession or from slipping between levels, he cannot interact with spiritual/psychic elements as freely as someone who can easily slip between the levels and he can still hear whispers from things tempting him to finish 'opening his door'.
History:
Niko is the first born son and current heir to the Wolfe family, which run a pharmaceutical company. Despite his former social status, Niko's reputation is more than a little rocky and ill-fitting of what you would expect of someone from a prestigious family.
Early on, his family's plan worked: Niko was a mostly well-behaved kid, he did well in school, and he seemed to breeze through life perfectly fine. However, as he got older, Niko started chafing against the neverending expectations and strict rules of the family. He was repeatedly told he was the heir of the Wolfe family and he had to be worthy of the name but the increasing demands were becoming harder to swallow. He wasn't interested in the business, he hated having to schmooze with people he either had no interest in or hated, talks of possible arranged matches grated on him, and, above all, he hated that his life was being railroaded into his parents' ideal. Any objections he voiced were shut down and he was simply told that when he grew up he'd understand. In response, he pushing back, subtly at first. He started going by 'Niko' and increasingly refused to answer to 'Nikolas'. Then he starting making tiny choices about his life his parents wouldn't notice but wouldn't approve of. Then he started hanging out with people who his parents definitely wouldn't approve of, including a group of wannabe delinquents who liked finding ways to throw their weight around for various reasons.
At the time, Niko justified it as it wasn’t like most of them were terrible people, there were worst things to kill time, and their activities gave him an outlet to blow off steam. However, there were the exceptions, particularly a budding sociopath with a superiority complex named Slade. There were little things, such as his know-it-all attitude, his habit of calling Niko infuriating nicknames like "Broody”, his casual cruelty towards people he considered ‘below’ him, and how he seemed to enjoy watching Niko lose control. However, deeper than that was how he pushed and baited people into doing dubious activities that crossed lines Niko felt were unjustifiable. To Niko, there was a fine line between something like punching someone in the nose for being an asshole and deliberately, meticulously hurting someone who couldn’t even fight back just because. The first time Niko pointed out as such, Slade derisively laughed and asked what was the difference between what Niko and Slade did? It didn’t matter what the motives were - it was still the same thing and they were both getting their kicks so what do it matter? When Niko kept arguing back and began stepping in on Slade’s activities, even threatening Slade to make him stop, their already less-than-civil relationship became outright antagonism. For Niko, it was an affirmation that Slade was a sadistic piece of shit and a waste of skin trying to push his twisted logic on others to justify himself (even if, deep down, some of Slade’s words hit too close). For Slade, it was a personal affront and downright hypocritical that Niko could be self-righteous and in that much denial just so he could act as though he were somehow better than Slade. The more Niko denied it and attempted to act otherwise, the more it both infuriated Slade and made him certain the two were the same. The only difference in Slade’s mind was that Slade was at least honest about what he was while Niko was just a hypocrite. This bred a one-sided fascination and desire in Slade: he didn’t just want to drag the self-righteousness out of Niko and make him accept they were alike.
However, before their relationship could escalate too far, Niko’s habit of getting into fights to blow off steam were finally came to the notice of his parents and teachers. Having no choice but to intervene, Niko’s parents tried fixing' him by increasing the restrictions, keeping a closer eye on him, and forcing him to pick other activities to keep him busy. To even Niko's surprise, it seemed to work. Niko not only quickly stopped hanging out with the group (and, by extension, away from Slade long enough for Slade’s interests to go elsewhere) but, restrictions aside, he was drawn into much healthier outlets.
Niko got into playing the guitar, originally only picking it because he was told he had to pick something. However, he he quickly grew to enjoy it and he was told he was actually pretty good at it, too. Even though he still enjoyed fighting and kept up physical activities, he found he didn't feel like he needed to do what he used to. Slowly, he began picking up other interests, outlets, and connections, including an annoying younger brother to awaken reluctant brotherly feelings. With better influences in his life, even though the pressures and rules were still there, Niko felt himself 'balancing' and could deal with it better. A scuffle or two and his trademark grumpiness aside, Niko stopped acting up much on the outside but on the inside, he was starting to think about where he really wanted to be five or even ten years from then. He even started thinking that he could get out from being the heir with Dominic around and if not him, maybe his next soon-to-be sibling. However, doubts remained.
Any hints he made about deviation in his future were, as always, met with the same dismissals. In one particularly hard push from his end, he found out that he had an uncle he never heard of. Niko was told his uncle should have been the one to inherit instead of his father but once he left the family cut him off entirely and basically erased his existence from the family. No one was in the family was allowed to talk about Niko's uncle and as much physical evidence as possible was gone, at least within their family. Niko wasn't told outright but the warning, no matter how well-intentioned it was, was clear: the same could happen to Niko.
Despite this, life continued as it had before, until his third year of high school, which brought about the catalyst that sparked tensions over the direction of Niko's life and caused his hand to get burned. By chance or the machinations of match-making friends, Niko met a girl named Eri. His initial impressions of her was that she was a weirdo, the energizer bunny incarnate, and probably a weeaboo but, awkward first meeting aside, he found he didn't find her too annoying, just odd. After a few more meetings, her oddness stopped feeling like a bad thing and they found themselves hanging out more. Whether it was through one of her 'adventures' (such as, going ghost hunting at the old building behind the school) or her coming to sit in on one of his band rehearsals, it was slowly becoming a reliable sight to see them together. However, Eri late into the year, Eri started being bullied by someone - both mentally and physically.
Niko instantly went to investigate and found the culprit was Slade, who had only gotten more refined in his petty cruelties and twisted logic about dealing with people who were below him (in the case of Eri, Eri having ‘earned’ it for being ’stupid and weak’). It was almost too easy for Niko and Slade to fall back into where they used to be but, unlike before, Niko managed to keep his self-control in-tact. This infuriated Slade and reignited his one-sided fascination: in his mind, not only had Niko stepped into his business again (over a stupid girl who couldn’t even protect herself!) but Niko was still hung to the pretence he had standards, still had the self-righteousness to pass judgement despite being no better, and was acting like he’d changed? Like he’d somehow outgrown his “bad days”? Like he was better than Slade? In his mind, Niko was probably only using this as an opportunity to pretend helping someone somehow made him even less of a hypocrite. Slade’s thoughts about Eri were instantly replaced by his older desire prove to Niko that Slade and him were still on the same level. Though Niko tried ignoring Slade and brushed off any of Slade’s invitations to do anything like they used to, Slade continued to hound him with attempts to rile him up, engage him, and remind him of what they used to do. Niko wasn’t sure why Slade was going out of his way but Niko held a very firm stance to keep himself in-check: he wasn’t like Slade, no matter what Slade did and said to try and get Niko to believe he was. It didn’t matter what Niko might’ve done before or how he still sometimes handled things. Niko was different. He’d changed.
When harassing Niko didn’t work, Slade tried a different approach and turned his attentions back to Eri, worse than before, because that was a sure fire way to get Niko's attention. Though Niko had suspicions, Eri internalized and kept what was going on to herself at first, both because she didn't want to take it seriously and because she still wanted to believe she could work things out between her and Slade. When it escalated to the point of Eri having her wrist broken, Niko almost lost it, almost resulting in the exact outcome Slade wanted. However, Eri kept talking Niko down, attempting to convince him that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, and when that failed she told him it was her business and she'd solve her problem and if he was her friend he'd respect that. It stopped Niko's break down for the moment, however, which is why Slade immediately escalated things. Niko never found out all the details but he knew that Slade kidnapped and hurt Eri in a way that completely broke down her seemingly invincible mask of optimism and that was enough to make his control snapped clean through. Rather than doing the smart thing of handling things properly like alerting people better equipped to deal with the problem, even if it meant he'd lose one of the few close friends he had, he took things into his own hands. After making sure Eri was safely home, he immediately went to confront Slade.
He lost himself in a state of complete anger and rage as he dealt with Slade, which was exactly what Slade wanted. To Slade, it didn’t matter what Niko did to him because Niko’s control what shot and he was only proving Slade right: Niko hadn’t changed, was still the same as Slade, and his ‘standards’ were self-righteous bullshit. Niko didn’t care about any of that. He didn’t care if he was giving Slade what he wanted or if he was wrecking his ‘reformed’ image or the fact Slade even told him where to find him spelled obvious set-up: all he wanted was to shut Slade up and make him hurt. Slade kept saying things to push him further off the edge and Niko walked right into it, only pulling back when his hands were around Slade's neck and he was squeeze away from going too far. What he’d done hit Niko like a freight train, the gravity of his actions and the parallels he’d denied hitting him to the core, yanking him out of his rage and replacing it with deep self-shame, self-loathing and, subsequently, denial as his conscious mind was unable to cope. In response to Slade’s choked assertion this was proof they were the same, Niko could only repeat the same things he’d said before to prevent breaking down: him and Slade were not the same and they never would be. Unknowingly, Niko had ‘won’, at least in Slade’s mind; in Niko’s, there was only his shaky walls and justifications to keep himself sane and the hollow satisfaction he’d mad Slade pay.
However, what he did to Slade had consequences. Not everyone knew exactly what had gone on or the full extent of what happened but there was enough to know that Niko had ruined his 'reformed' image. There were rumours and looks, which not even Niko could easily shrug off, and it aggravated the thoughts Niko attempted to repress. He pushed it and the memory of what he’d done down, forcing himself not to think about it, put Slade out of mind, and checked up on Eri when he could finally bring himself to face her. Eri still out of it and unresponsive most of the time but the least Niko could do was be there for her (and when he couldn’t, he asked a mutual friend, Jack, to keep an eye on her). However, the biggest consequence was with Slade, which manifested less than a week after their confrontation. Slade cared less about the lingering physical pains and more about how everything he’d planned and done had gone to shit. He was left no better off than he’d been before - unable to take satisfaction in what he had been able to get out of this, let alone how he managed to succeed in breaking down Eri - and fixated the fact he’d wasted all his time and effort just to ‘lose’ the one thing he wanted to most. His bruised ego, rage, and superiority complex festered within him and seeing Eri and Niko back on their feet (at least, in his mind) like they weren’t hurting or humiliated like him didn’t help. It pissed him off and crystallized into an impulsive desire to make Niko hurt in some way, if only out of sheer spite. Slade took Niko’s guitar, put it in the school dumpster and lit it on fire for Niko to see, well-aware it would draw an immediate reaction and cause Niko enough hurt to salvage some of Slade’s wounded pride. However, as he later tried to defend himself, it wasn’t like he expected Niko - driven by an immediate sheer, reckless impulse to save one of the things he treasured and stop Slade - to jump into a flaming dumpster to try and save a stupid guitar. Niko succeeded but, in exchange, he badly burned his hand.
Niko's family took care of issues with the other boy’s family – mainly through ‘strong encouragements’ that a transfer would be a good idea - while Niko was recovering. His right hand had been his dominant and the pain and how he couldn't control his hand properly anymore was nothing but frustration. Even with proper care, recovery was slow. He had to be home schooled for a while and during the time there was more of a push of what he 'should' be doing rather than what he 'wanted' to be doing. His family was concerned, in their own way, but the incident had been an embarrassment and caused up a lot more of a stir than they wanted to deal with, especially in how it made them look to important associates. There were soon questions about if they'd made a mistake in letting Niko pick things like which school to go to or what to do when they weren't keeping an eye on him. He was going to be entering his third year of high school soon and then college and then the real world. Where would he be then? They'd hoped he was maturing and would be more accepting of his future but this incident reminded them of Niko's previous misconduct and it gave them doubts. After a 'leniency' period, they cracked down harder on Niko, even renewing talks about him learning more about the business or where his focus should be or even the mostly forgotten 'perfect' arranged matches for him. They started cutting other supposed distracting activities too, initially under the excuse that it'd impede his recovery. It didn’t come as a surprise that music was one of those ‘distracting’ activities but it infuriated Niko all the same on top of his other lost freedoms. His attitude took a nosedive and he started lashing out worse than before, even when he got a chance to return to school for his fourth year. However, things weren't the same, there or at home. There were those looks, whispers, and rumors that riled him up to the point he couldn't ignore it and the fact he couldn't do much about it made him feel worse. The fact Eri transferred while he was away – and subsequently, their loss of contact through other means - didn't help. Meanwhile, his other few friendships suffered too. He wasn't completely blameless, as he wasn't the easiest person to put up with even when he was normal, but some also proved to be on the fair weather side. On a normal basis that'd cut but with everything else it was like the universe was doing everything it could from every angle to kick him.
One of the few things that kept him sane during then was music. Though his parents frowned on it, his doctor thought playing guitar would for Niko's fingers to get use back into them. It was hard when he started again and he almost rage quit several times at his inability to get back up to what he considered competent level but practice, pain killers, and stubbornness made a difference, and the progress affected him both physically and mentally. However, it only went so far. Tensions and arguments ran high in the Wolfe house. The more he pushed for even the smallest freedoms, the more they tried putting more restrictions to try forcing him to be as he 'should'. He started picking fights again to blow off steam and increasingly went behind their backs, particularly regarding plans for his future. Unlike a few years ago, his plans about the future weren't about a tentative hope but an unconscious resignation: he couldn't stay there. That in itself was almost a balancing force in Niko's life. He focused on keeping sane, saving his money, living as peaceful a life as he could manage, and began pulling further and further away from the Wolfes, even from his younger siblings.
Sure enough, near the start of first year university, things blew up in the Wolfe household. His father was far from satisfied that Niko had chosen to go into music rather than an appropriate degree and felt that Niko's attempts to pull away from them had gotten to a point they couldn't ignore it any longer. His father thought they'd made a mistake giving Niko so much freedom and that at this rate, Niko would never learn to mature and understand. Old arguments and resentments were dragged up and thrown between Niko and his parents until finally, his father gave Niko an ultimatum: finally accept his duties to the family or leave the family and have his existence within the family, his rights of inheritance stripped, and be forced to leave everything of the Wolfe family behind. Niko was floored. Despite being aware of the consequences, despite already deciding he couldn't stay there, there was always some things holding him from leaving entirely. When faced with the ultimatum however, he chose to leave.
He stayed with a friend's family for a while until he had enough to support himself and found a place. His mother's family, to his great surprise, reached out to him and offered to help him out where his father's side of the family, the extended branches of the Wolfes, dropped him entirely. Niko was still bitter and burned shy after what happened but the support, what little he was willing to accept, was enough to let him continue his studies. It was still a difficult transition period and despite what he refused to admit to himself, he missed his siblings and others to a degree. However, the fresh memory of how easy it had been for the Wolfes to just toss him out without a blink kept him from completely regretting his choice. To cement this to himself, he officially changed his name to Niko Lovell.
Just as his life began to regain some form of stability, however, another catalyst arrived to change the direction of his life again and introduce him to the spiritual/unconscious world: Eri. It was a chance meeting on campus - he was between classes, she was on a school trip tour - but it was almost like picking up where they left off. Almost, as the awkwardness and uneasiness was still there, especially given how they had last seen each other. However, after an adjustment period and talks, things steadily, quickly began clicking back into place. Certain topics about what had happened while they were a part were still off the table for them, let alone the specifics of what had happened with Slade or why Niko's last name was 'Lovell' now instead of 'Wolfe', but they managed. Eri was still in high school while Niko was in university but they found time to hang out, even if it was just between breaks at his job or getting dragged on an 'adventure'. For Niko, it was both a distraction from what was going on and a reason to be with Eri after the time apart. However, they made a mistake.
During the time they were apart, Eri had taken to playing games and rituals from places like creepypasta, such as Midnight Man and Hide and Seek Played Alone. Niko didn't think much of it, writing them off as fiction that probably wasn't intended to actually be attempted to begin with and a long, complicated way to scare yourself when you could just watch a horror movie. She did it multiple times, occasionally calling him while in the middle of her 'games' but one time she asked his help. She said it was a game that involved going through doors in your mind and it required a partner to lead the participant through. With some persuasion, Niko agreed. He didn't think anything would happen anyway and it wasn't any different from their other experiments or adventures, contributing to what went wrong. They not only found the one ritual that had been a real one in a sea of fictional rituals on the web but neither of them took it seriously enough until it was far too late. In their flippancy, they broke serious rules, inviting large amounts of negative energy and causing Eri to fall deep into the unconsciousness. Niko managed to wake her up but they did not end the ritual correctly, causing a the negative energy to spill into the material plane and permanently stain Niko and Eri, opening their 'doors' between the material and the in-between.
At first, nothing was amiss, except a sickening feeling. It was easy brush aside what happened and write it off as getting way too involved into that game. Niko was far less stained than Eri had been too, his door only partially opened because he was still on the physical plane when he was hit, but the damage had been done. It only took more time for the changes to manifest. Slowly, steadily, he began to perceive and hear things that did not exist on the material plane (at least, that normal people could perceive), chiefly out of the corner of his eyes. His dreams started to become more lucid and he was more aware of things in there, whispering to him. At first he couldn't make them out but over time he started to catch snatches of words and shapes. However, Niko still refused to acknowledge the changes, which caused friction between him and Eri. Eri kept insisting that what had happened was real and there was something happening to the two of them that they needed to figure out. Niko insisted otherwise and began avoiding her - partially out of denial, and partially because that 'sensation' he was trying to deny felt strong around her.
However, though he tried, as time passed, that sensation only grew stronger. He began to feel things enough he didn't need to look out of the corner of his eye to know something was there. Sometimes it was simply an echo of an aura or some past event that had left its mark on the area. Other times, it was something sentient and stalking him. Worse, he became hyper aware able to perfectly distinguish between the unconscious and the material levels but often unable to experience true sleep. He could make out the words of the whispering shapes clearly now. They wanted for him to let them 'help' him. For him to stop struggling to keep things straight while he was awake. For him to let them open his door. For him to be able to sleep again. The voice they often took was Slade's and occasionally Niko's own, but that only made him reject them more. The one advantage he discovered of the unconsciousness compared to the physical plane: he could actually interact with and push back against the things haunting him.
His grades dipped and he began facing increasing problems with his 'everyday' life. He finally reached out to Eri about it. After a tense conversation, Eri showed him a mark on her arm that caused a spike of 'sensation' in him. It was a scratch, seemingly, but it didn't match anything he'd seen before and all he could feel was how 'wrong' it was. For the first time in months, Niko felt a strong bead of certainty he hadn't wanted to accept: Eri was right and something had happened to them and that freaked him out more because he didn't know what to do about it. It was like Slade again but worse. Niko wasn't proud about what he did but Slade was someone you could drag out into the open and throttle. What was following them wasn't something that could be solved simply. Or at all.
They still tried. Using Eri's research, they tried counter-rituals but the effects of what had happened to them stuck. Eri was more acceptant of the possibility they might be cursed forever while Niko was less eager to stop looking for something to stop it. Regardless, they had a goal: they needed to protect themselves and keep themselves sane, at least long enough to come up with a countermeasure or curse. This had mixed results: while Eri managed to find a relatively uneventful holding pattern with her shadowy stalker, they could not make it go away permanently; Niko could somewhat adapt to the voices and shapes but he still suffered insomnia and the being still wouldn't leave him alone.
This continued until after Eri graduated from high school and Niko finished his first year. Niko's last memory before waking up in Inugami was being at a graduation party Eri invited him to.
Previous Game History:
N/A
Personality:
At an initial glance, Niko's quiet, reserved, and seemingly the "brooding" type. When you get up close enough, it becomes quickly apparent he's actually a cranky bastard with misanthropic tendencies and a black sense of humour, making his default personality "prickly" to say the least. He's developing more control over his tongue and impulses recently but he can still be brutally honest and very stubborn about his views. He tends to dislike nosey or overly idealistic people, almost as much as he hates manipulative people or users. He also loves a good fight and is highly competitive if you can get him riled up enough.
However, he also has a few odd 'quirks' that become increasingly obvious the longer you're around him. For one, he seems to have an aversion to mirrors. Second, he has a habit of constantly, surreptitiously looking out of the corner of his eye. Third, in worse cases (and likely not until he regains his spiritual sense), he has a habit paying attention or reacting to something that (seemingly) isn't there. If asked about any of these, he'll either deflect or deny it. Though he has been exposed to the spiritual, he remains a skeptic and is reluctant to accept unnatural things for face value, often applying practical or real-world logic even when it doesn't necessarily apply.
That said, despite what his prickly personality and habit of pushing people away, he possesses chronic Knight in Sour Armor syndrome, especially involving females, and attempts to keep up a set of firm standards (or, as he refers to it, ‘common courtesies’) to keep himself in-check. This ranges from small things (such as always show gratitude when someone does something for you or holding the door open) to larger things such as: be as honest and straight as possible; don’t gang up on or pick a fight with someone who can’t defend them self; don’t knowingly use or throw someone under a bus; and don’t just abandon someone who needs help, even if they dug their own hole or are among your least favourite people. Though Niko doesn’t always follow these perfectly (particularly when dealing with people he thinks don’t deserve ‘common courtesy’), he maintains them when possible, if only to avoid being like the people he hates. However, he's awkward with dealing or expressing his emotions at times, making it difficult for him to openly express overt kindness or care at times, let alone deal with people. Despite that, he tries, in his own way. To the people he cares about (or a least people who stick around long enough to grow on him) he can be protective and loyal, sometimes to a fault, especially if he feels they're about to slip up badly. Niko's justification is he likes individuals more than 'people' but he will often try to do right by even strangers if he knows it's the 'right' thing to do or if it's basic 'common courtesy'. Despite what he might think about himself he’s not as uncaring or unaffected as he'd like to believe he is.
Though Niko states he's an honest person and prefers straight-forward, blunt approaches, often telling himself there's no point thinking about things that'll never happen (for better or worse), he's far quicker to push on others than accept people pushing back on his own insecurities, doubts, or weak points. When it comes to straight-forward or outward problems, Niko has no problems aiming towards what he considers is the quickest way of dealing with things regardless of the consequences. When it comes to inward problems or issues with himself, he's often at a loss of what to do or represses it, usually doing whatever he can to not have to face it in a meaningful way. This is sometimes just because he finds it embarrassing or because he's dense about sometime but other times it's because it would involve thinking on something painful, something he doesn't want to accept, or something he's not mentally prepared to deal with. This often results in Niko repressing things, acting aggressively defensive to people who press on his points too hard, and not dealing with important things about himself until its far too late. This, at best, can be considered prideful and, at worst, self-control issues with a side of hypocrisy.
He does have his calmer moments, usually when he's playing music, but they're not as common as his default state. Ways to his his buttons are to call him on his broodiness, keep pestering him about his hand (when regained), or just generally being nosy (especially about family or his odd 'quirks').
Personality Changes:
N/A
Abilities:
Physical:
-Supernatural abilities aside, Niko has a normal human body. However, he's fairly strong (particularly arm strength), has good reflexes, and enough endurance to take more than a few hits.
-When he was younger, before his 'blowing off steam' activities reached his parents, he took practical self-defense lessons for just-in-case situations. He used to get into more than a few scraps when he was younger during his "bad days" and to "blow off steam" which, while he's not proud of now, has given him some experience in fighting.
-In terms of more mundane abilities Niko: is a music major, fairly talented with a guitar a decent singing voice; is a decent cook and knows basic first aid; and had almost completed his first year's college education before ending up in Inugami.
Supernatural:
-Due to his spiritual staining, Niko had his 'door' between the material and unconsciousness partially opened, causing his perception of the material and spiritual to bleed into each other (in a panfandom setting, this would apply to ghosts or beings without a physical form, strong or abnormal auras, and illusions). However, due to the relative newness of his abilities and his lack of knowledge and proper control, intentional usage can be hit or miss and his abilities often manifest without him wanting them too (and even if he picks something up, chances are good he won't know what it is specifically). Usage - intentional or not - also causes mental strain and exhaustion. With more practice and acceptance of his abilities, Niko may lean to improve his control and usage.
-His abilities manifest three main ways:
Samples
Dialogue: (Test Drive) Yato; Eri ; Noda
Third Person Sample:
Niko knew he was dreaming instantly.
It looked like his apartment: the subtle smell of coffee, mineral oil, and smoke (not from Niko but from the previous tenant); books on musical theory, sheets of music, textbooks, and a book on parapsychology lay stacked on his table according to 'shit done' and 'shit left to do'; pieces of clothing lay absently left on the floor from where he missed tossing them in the basket or from where he took them off before dropping to sleep; his alarm clock and phone's alarms were set to the correct times, his phone having four extra alarms set just in case; his headphones were neatly looped around his headboard; and his guitar case was zipped up in his bag with his shoulder bag looped around it, within easy reach for the morning rush to get off to class.
Niko still knew it wasn't real.
It wasn't because of how the clock's time was frozen in place - holding on 3:45AM despite standing there for at least five minutes (or what he 'felt' was five minutes) - or how the door had twice more locks than it did in reality or how he couldn't remember what he'd been doing moments before. It was the fact he stopped feeling the too familiar contradiction between the physical and spiritual as he looked around, feeling only the latter. Once he had that settled, it wasn't hard to fill in his missing moments was the gap between falling asleep and into dreams.
The question was what sort of 'night' was it going to be for Niko.
A good night was one where the dreamscape remained stable. His apartment was a default place for Niko to end up in his dreams, probably because it was a space he was familiar with and because he had more control there. Aspects of it were prone to change but if Niko concentrated he could keep the space under relative control and ignore things scratches at the edges of his dreams, even if it made him feel more tired than when he went to sleep. If he was really luck, if he was worn out enough and the space remained safe and uneventful, his senses might let him sneak a scrap of true sleep.
A bad night fucking sucked. At least a good night left him with some rest, even if he was still tired. A bad night meant the dreamscape could change without him intending it, meaning other things could creep in more easily, meaning he'd have a lot more to block out and fend off. Those things knew it too.
The fact his laptop was now on the bed and starting to boot up when it wasn't there before wasn't a good sign.
"Fuck."
Niko quickly walked over to it. When the screen started flickering to life, he began jamming the power button down into force shutdown mode, his brows furrowed in concentration as he willed it to work like a normal laptop. "Stay off, stay off, stay off-"
He felt a small spike of energy and pushed back,both physically and mentally, in the latter willing the laptop to be a laptop. It caused the screen to flick rapidly, alternating between flashes of letters ('you', 'Broody', 'help', 'why', 'listen', 'saw you', 'here for you') and the black screen, before letting out a loud pop and a cloud of smoke from the vents. Niko coughed at the smoke but he didn't feel that spike of energy anymore. It was just him and his smoking laptop, like his laptop had just overheated instead of something try to hijack it.
Next, his phone started to ringing. He growled, both to himself and whatever might be listening, "Of fucking course - can't just fuck off for more than one fucking night in a row."
His right, burn-scarred hand clenching and unclenching, but he didn't move to pick it up. He stood there, eyes locked on the phone, as it continued to ring and ring, waiting. He only slightly untensed when the phone stopped ringing and the voicemail symbol appeared. It was only after several moments of silence that Niko reached for the phone, deleted the voicemail without listening to it, and turned it off. That was part of the trick, he'd learned. Outright ignoring it or throwing it somewhere else invited something else to keep trying to press through it. If he kept treating it more like it was something in reality, it became more stable, less likely to change, and gave less openings.
He was already doing that with the rest of the dreamscape while things were peaceful. He held a firm image of how things should be, down to the corridor outside and his neighbours' rooms. That'd keep something unpleasant from deciding it could build itself a place beside him and smash through the wall or something. Likewise, he imagined trees outside his window, giving a different reason for the occasional scratching.
That still didn't stop the ringing, banging, and growling that came from behind the front door shortly after. Or his headphones from squealing messages despite not being plugged into anything. Or the heavy breathing outside his window.
Bad night it was.
