Nikolai losing to my wife gives me chills, like “you go baby get the mastermind!”
Nikolai and Zoe moments that never made it in:
- Previously, Niko got along best with Remy and Vivienne because they went back the longest, Jett drove him crazy, and Nikolai drove Leon crazy. But Zoe's "application" (hacking their system) made him stand up and physically point at the screen and like 2 days after she arrived she kicked his ass at chess and he has adored her ever since. He can still only beat her maybe 20% of the time, and has to manufacture distractions to even get that much.
- Zoe's shit talking never stops and Nikolai sulks about it because she DID win so he can't stop her. Plus he'd do the same if it were him. He has a rolodex of planned taunts but never gets to use them. Eventually she finds them and reads them aloud to the others in her best impression of him.
- "I wanna see you dance, boy" was the true indicator that Zoe possesses all of the soft power in the entire Gilded Poppy
- Zoe saves every unhinged tweet she finds for times that Niko is enjoying a quiet moment, so she can go up unprompted and read it to him to deal psychic damage
- Once the secret of his backstory is revealed, Nikolai likes to find old school Soviet/Russian consoles and video games for Zoe. Sometimes Poppy Movie Night becomes Poppy Game Night where she plays the game while he's translating the text for her. The others tune in for Zoe's commentary.
- the first time Zoe made a pumpkin pie, niko tried it but was baffled by it. In fact, everyone was baffled by it, except Vivienne, who loves sweet things and especially Zoe. Now fellow American MC is a Poppy so pumpkin pie is for the girls only.
- Niko and Zoe love to be petty together and will send each other internet drama they come across to entertain each other. Sometimes they jump into forums just to troll and stir the pot.
- They are so good at making Vivienne so mad. The wind-up is that Nikolai teases Vivienne and pisses her off, then while she's feeling combatitive, Zoe says something nice, which makes Vivienne blush, which makes her angriest of all.
- they spend most of their time together just Being In The Same Room, Not Talking. Reading the book club book in silence on opposite sides of the common room. Walking through town for heist stuff with no discussion. Nikolai drawing design documents while Zoe brings them to life with code--they never need to ask each other questions because they grok it the first time. The quiet is a blessed relief from being with anyone else, and why they get along so well

















