#crainduo

my cNiki used to be a bobcat hybrid, but i changed her to a lynx, hence the long tufts of hair around her face (the raccoon stripes are hair dye, as is the pink). naturally she’s brunette, so her ears and little chin tuft beard are brown. her eyes were meant to be more gold than orange, but i decided i liked it better this way. she’s got a lazy eye from the scar going through the right one, and her hands are human with retractable clawlike nails. she also has lynx legs and feet below the knees (like a satyr) and a short little tail, as well as a couple more patches of fur to keep her warm. she has a curved spine and a detached collarbone, which causes her some problems but also enables her, along with her lynx legs, to run on all fours. i always liked the idea of scene kid cNiki with huge spiky hair that would guarantee her free entry into any emo punk band, so that’s the story there. i also think her little chin tuft beard is cute. 

before l’Manberg, cNiki, much like in canon (i like her canon lore a lot and don’t have too many notes), is kinda quiet, a bit standoffish maybe, but comfortable and confident. she hasn’t seen much fighting in her life, except for a one-time entry into a fighting ring. a pair of friends convinced her to do it, and she lost, receiving her scar. that experience made her far more wary of violence and keen not to get mixed up in it again. losing half her vision all of a sudden was terrible for her. for months afterward she had difficulty navigating everything; judging distance and depth perception were suddenly impossible. she hurt herself a lot by colliding with things she couldn’t see, wasn’t expecting, or thought were closer/further away. the actual fight wasn’t that bad, and the pain from losing her eye wasn’t either, but it was the sudden loss of such an essential sense that traumatized her and made her more reserved, for a time.

like in canon, the moment she steps foot into the server, cWilbur sweeps her up and whisks her away to l’Manberg. my cWilbur is very well spoken, and after long periods of self-imposed solitude, everything he’s saying, and all the people around him (because cTommy is loud as hell), is all pretty overwhelming, but also exciting. she finds herself liking the other members of l’Manberg, particularly cFundy, who she becomes fast friends with. above all, she starts to idealize cWilbur. she loves the picture he paints of a free, powerful, independent nation, she loves the fight for liberty, she loves having something to be loyal to and to go to war for. very rose-tinted glasses sort of thing.

just like in canon, Manberg is awful for her. she despises Schlatt and everything he’s doing to her country. she can’t believe that Fundy would betray her and Wilbur, and she sinks into a spiral of rage and hate, withdrawing and isolating herself, constantly insulting Schlatt and his administration. but nothing she does seems to matter; Schlatt brushes her off like she’s an annoying insignificant fly, and so does everyone else, which only makes her angrier. she tries to help Wilbur and Tommy, but WIlbur has the time and patience for no one but himself, and sometimes Tommy. Tommy has his hands full dealing with Wilbur, which makes him short-tempered with Niki, which again, makes her angry. 

Wilbur’s subsequent death shatters her, because even as he mistreated her, she still held on to that idealized notion of her friend and leader, and to see him limp and dead on the ground is for that shining ideal to collapse like dust. her spiral stops, a bit, but she doesn’t get back to where she was before. she has a hard time trusting people, and she’s angrier, more aggressive.

i don’t have a whole lot of notes for the rest of her lore, i always thought her canon lore was really good, just insanely ignored. that’s always been an interesting parallel between cNiki and cFundy for me, one who’s written to be ignored, and one who wasn’t but is completely ignored anyway. 

joining the Syndicate is absolutely her healing arc. at first, she doesn’t trust Emduo as far as she can throw them, but they’re persistent, and she likes that they see and affirm her anger and offer her healthy ways to let it out (which Phil has been doing with Techno for forever) rather than trying to shove it away or make her be quiet. she rediscovers baking, a hobby she hasn’t touched for a while, and is able to sit down and start to untangle her complicated feelings about l’Manberg, Wilbur, Tommy, Fundy, Jack… pretty much everyone. she gets stronger and faster than ever before, and finally starts to climb back up that spiral. she will never get back to where she once was, but there’s a way for her to be uncomplicatedly happy again, and she’s working towards it.

couple of important relationships:

Puffy: loves her so much. their relationship is fraught at times, particularly over Niki’s attempts to kill Tommy, but when Niki reaches out looking to reconcile Puffy is there to listen. Niki is afraid of the water, like most cats, but Puffy’s ship seems safe and solid to her, and she finds that when she’s on it she can relax and enjoy the vista of the sea.

Jack: again, a complicated relationship. Jack still has a lot of negative feelings about Tommy, Technoblade, and Philza, and he wants revenge against all of them. Niki’s new stance frustrates and hurts him, but in the end, despite where they disagree, Jack and Niki both agree that their friendship is worth more than other people, and that they don’t want to lose each other.

Fundy: Niki was such good friends with him, and still misses him (and he misses her), but she doesn’t trust him anymore. she still feels betrayed and hurt by him, and he’s become so unpredictable that she doesn’t feel entirely safe with him. either way, Fundy’s hiding away in the woods somewhere, and she sees him only rarely, so that’s a relationship she’s just gonna push to the back of her mind to become an old wound. 

Technoblade: finds that he is surprisingly funny and cares a lot for his friends. at first, she treated him a bit like a new Wilbur, but realized pretty quickly how different he was. she likes how he always listens to her and treats her like she is strong and dangerous, not insignificant or annoying. she has always been a giver, that’s never changed, but with emduo she gets something back, too, without asking for it.

Philza: had a hard time getting over his killing Wilbur, but like Techno, the more time she spends with him, the more she likes him. he is full of fascinating stories from all over the world (Techno is too, but mostly about mythology), and he likes to have long conversations with her. despite his age he is a very good fighter and she likes sparring with him. both Phil and Techno are decent cooks, but she teaches them how to make all kinds of things. it’s kind of funny to see how excited the supposed fearsome warlords get when they succeed at a difficult recipe she taught them to make. 

Ranboo: thinks they’re very strange, but finds herself enjoying their company. neither of them really know what to think of each other at first, until one night Niki catches Ranboo enderwalking and they have a lot to explain. knowing that secret of Ranboo’s makes Niki feel a bit closer to them, and a bit guilty that she saw them so vulnerable without them wanting it to happen, so she reciprocates that vulnerability to make them feel better. this confuses Ranboo at first, but they’re both in the Syndicate, so Ranboo eventually reciprocates too. they start to become friends. 

Connor: complete mystery to Niki at first. she thinks he’s an unpredictable wildcard like Fundy, revises that to a socially awkward jokester whose insecurity and feelings of being insignificant echo her own. he’s actually very funny and reminds her a bit of Fundy. she likes hanging out with him.

Tommy: still thinks a lot of shit is his fault, but doesn’t want to murder him anymore. chances of reconciliation are slim, but now at least there is a chance.