Niko

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"But at this point, I’ve accepted my death" -- Niko NOTE:  Additional backstory and personality information to be added soon.   A runaway human teenager/firefly hybrid that escaped his lonely and chaotic home with his one friend Rikka to find a new home to build a new life.  Though Rikka wishes to use the wish to save him from the curse that’s killing him, he wishes to guarantee the two of them will have a new, safe home far, far away from the mages that cursed him to spend his last days in peace with her.     Table of Contents Backstory Personality Abilities Strengths Weaknesses Gallery Author's Notes   Backstory Niko grew up one of seven siblings in a both lonely and chaotic home.  Niko would frequently fantasise about moving somewhere more peaceful.  He had no friends growing up except for Rikka, who he eventually decides to run away with after his home life became completely unbearable. Along the way, Rikka got kidnapped by an underground mage cult who intended to put a curse on her that would turn her into an energy source for their staves and machines.  Niko used a flashbang attack to blind the mages at the last second to save her.  However, as a result, he ended up cursing him instead of Rikka.  The curse now is slowly killing him, causing Niko and Rikka to attempt to find a way to lift it on top of their original goal and avoiding the cult.   Personality Observant and curious, Niko tends to pick up details in his surroundings most don’t, this extends to his ability to read people, with his perceptions of them usually being accurate.  He’s shy and soft spoken, so it's hard for him to express himself but he does try to speak up when his input could be useful.  Niko has always had an interest in learning about different people (though Rikka’s the only one he’s ever gotten close to) and a desire to explore new places, which despite his acceptance of his fate he hopes to use some of his remaining time to do while in Crossroads.

Niko Hikari Profile Data Race Human/Part Firefly Hybrid Pronouns/Gender/Sex Male, he/him Age 16 Height 5′ 2″ Hair Colour Purple Eye Colour Yellow Distinguishing Marks Anthenas  Firefly Bulb Abilities Light Beams Healing Light Spark Glow Flight (Heavily Limited) Cursed Electrical Blood Flashbang (One time use) Strengths Observtion, Naviagation, Strategy, Healing, Status Afflictions  Weaknesses Physical Combat, Flying, Authority  Creator Yoshoka

Abilities

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[Light Beams]

Niko fires beams of light horizontally or vertically that do small, repeated damage as long as they’re touching the enemy.  Can inflict negative status effects such as dizziness,dizzy, confusion or impaired vision.

[Healing Light]

Niko can summon a large healing light that slowly heals anyone or anything caught in it and inflicts positive status ailments like regeneration and slightly increased strength and speed.

[Spark]

Quickly causes a small flash of sparkling light that can disorientate opponents.  Does little damage.

[Glow]

Niko’s firefly bulb is often glowing, making seeing and navigating dark spaces easier. He can turnHowever it onhas orthe off, but a weird side effectdownside of hisrisking curse is it’ll sometimes flicker on/off involuntarily.

[Poison Blood]

Like actual fireflies, Niko’s blood is poisonous to consume just in case any competitor wants to try that.  This is NOT a result ofrevealing his curse;location it'sif alwayshe beenuses likeit that.at the wrong time.

[Curse]

Niko’s curse from the cult mages.  Slowly fills his body with aan mysterious substanceunknown that will start weakeningeating himat andmany putting a strain onof his bodyorgans before it kills him.  After which his whole body will turn into a crystal-like material that can be cut up or used for energy soon after.  Physical symptoms it (so far) induced in him include coughing, physical weakness, low energy, skin turning pale and weight gain (despite ithim makingbeing himas thin as a stick)  Niko’s blood, if touched, will electrocute opponents as a result of the curse.  His blood is dark purplish crimsonpurple instead of red.  

It’s unknown how long he has to live.

[Flashbang]

Niko’s ultimate attack. A massive ball of light is fired ahead of him before it explodes causing massive damage, possible blindness and major status ailments for anyone hit by it. Niko’s The amount of magic Niko can use is already limited, espeically in his physical state already severely limits how much magic he can use so this attack will only be able to be used once in the entire tournament.

[FightingFlighting Style]

Due to his physical state, it’s basically guaranteed he’ll be in the Assist role the whole OCT but that doesn't mean he’s useless.  He actively tries to provide Rikka with strategy whenever he can, and his observant nature helps him identify weaknesses in both fighting style and character of his and Rikka’s opponents.  Whether Rikka listens or not can vary, but Niko generally tries to stand back for obvious reasons and will cast heals and his AOE and DPS attacks whenever it's safe to. 

Strengths

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• Observant and a good strategist.  He’s good at reading people and predicting opponent’s behaviour.

• Good listener and empathetic despite his background, makes it easy for people to like him.  Might even attempt to use these skills to negotiate with some opponents.

• Bulb increases his ability to help him and RIkka navigate in dark spaces.

• Spells have a long range.range and have good utility.

• His spells don’t actually use that much energy (forbar the most part)Flashbang) so despite his physical state, he can still use them for a while before he gets too weak toto.

  or uses up his magic for the day.

Weaknesses

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• Physically extremelybasically weak,useless, has little mobility and energy.

• Niko sometimes will start to give up on trying to provide strategy to Rikka after she hasn’t listened to him for too long.

• Since he’s gottenheavier physicallythan weakhe from the early stages of his curse,looks, his flying ability is limited to a fewcouple of minutes at a time (three at most,)time, as a result he wears a jacket that doesn’t have holes for his wings to fit out of.

• Spells are more support oriented than attack oriented with the exception of Light Beams, Spark (which is weak) and Flashbang.  MakesThis makes it hard to break Rikka out of dangerous situations she gets into.

Gallery

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[Ref Sheet]	[item description]	[item description]

Author's Notes

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I

• may

  draw a ref for this down the line, but Niko stuttersactually oftendoes duehave towings, nervousnesshis andjacket social awkwardness.  He also more often than notjust doesn’t usehave shortenedholes wordsfor them to fit through like don’t and can’t.

• Niko’Rikka’s gestures and facial expressions tend to be much more subtle and less overly expressive than Rikka’s. 

• As far as seriously injuring/killing is concerned, I don’t want either to be too seriously hurt in Round 1 and killing is off limits 100% too.does.  It’s very unlikely I’d allow it if I were to make it to later Rounds. 

• Niko doesn’t swear.  If he ever did, it’d take a profoundly emotionally intense situation.

• Currently don’t have this ready, but underWith his puffyphysical clothes,state, he’s bothbarely skinnyable andto hasfly a bit of purple skin discoloration on his wrists, lower forearms and abdomen.anyway.  ThisHis sweatshirt is plannedlong tosleeved spreadunder asthe rounds progress.coat.

• Feel free to play with how Niko’s bulb works with his clothes.  I know it’s a bit illogical (and usually I like to have those sorts of features on characters make some sort of sense) but I played a little loosely with it here.

• His wings are retractable, his bulb and antennas aren’t.

• Niko’s antennas can move independently.  They often correlate to his emotional state but I don’t have a set “sad athena angles, surprised athena angles” etc so feel free to play with how they express his emotions.  Just note, they always curve even if only slightly.  They are never perfectly straight.

• Though I didn’t heavily worldbuild (since they are OCT made characters) hybrids like RIkka and Niko are fairly normal, though you may get teased or bullied depending on what animal you have features of.  As well as their respective shadow and light magic, it's just banned in some places.  (Schools, shops, cinemas.)