Niko

Niko is the playable protagonist of OneShot. They are a child tasked with returning the sun to the Tower and saving the World from dying out.
Niko contacts the Player throughout most of the game when in need of help or simply conversation about Niko's and the Player's origins.
== Bio ==
=== World Machine Edition ===
In OneShot: World Machine Edition, Niko's bio reads: 
"The erstwhile protagonist and unfortunate victim of the forces set in motion by The World Machine. A bright-eyed child with a curious heart, Niko was summoned to play the role of the Sun-Bearer and Messiah to a broken world.
Now that the machine has been healed and the cycle broken, Niko is finally free to return to their home. Niko can once again chase through golden fields of wheat under a warm sky, taste fluffy and syrupy pancakes, and most importantly: hug the mom that they've missed so much.
Thank you."
=== Steam Trading Card ===
"The bearer of the sun, summoned to a dark, dying world to restore its light."
== Appearance ==
Niko is a child with blue hair with three "whiskers" jutting out from the sides, large yellow catlike eyes, and tan skin/fur. They wear a brown overcoat extending over their arms, a long light blue scarf, a brown hat with catlike ears, and grayish-purple bottoms that appear to be leggings.
Due to having many features and similarities to a cat, other characters often confuse Niko for one, which they consistently and repeatedly deny.
== Personality ==
Niko is a very kind and caring kid. Being the messiah that the prophecy had foretold, they become determined to reach the Tower and bring the sun back to it in order to save the World, even despite various other people stating that the sun won't stop the World from dying. Niko is also helpful, which is shown when they repair the Rowbot at the dock in the Barrens, and volunteer to find Alula and return her to Calamus in the Glen.
Upon reaching the Refuge, they begin to express indecisiveness, as seen where they have trouble choosing whether to bring back the World's sun but lose their only chance to return home, or to shatter the lightbulb, destroying the World instantly and have them return home. Niko also tends to be curious. They often turn to the Player to ask questions, most of them regarding information about the Player.
== Background ==
Before arriving in the World, Niko lived in a small village, with around fifty residents. The village is surrounded by a wheat field, which appears as the setting in most of Niko's dreams. The tallest building, a clock tower, is only two stories high. There is a well in the middle of the town.http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/167241186561/ahoy-night-me-and-a-few-friends-are-working-on-a The village is not on Earth.
Niko's second favorite food is pancakes. Their favorite food is the pancakes made by their mother, who grinds hazelnuts into the batter.
Upon interacting with Alula's fox plush more than once, Niko mentions that they have an owl plush back at their home. The owl is brown and yellow, and its name is "Mr. Banana Bread".http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/161150434416/did-niko-name-their-plush-toy-i-remember-when
Niko mentions they are afraid of ladders whenever they examine one.
== Plot ==
=== Main Story ===
Niko first wakes up in the bedroom of an abandoned house. They encounter the "Entity" from inside a computer in the room, who tells them that the World isn't worth saving and asks them if they still want to try to save it. Niko soon finds a lightbulb and uses it to unlock a door, which mysteriously teleports them to the Barrens. They encounter the Prophetbot and ask him about the World, the lightbulb, the Player, and for directions on how to return home. After receiving answers, Niko continues on their quest.
Niko ventures through the Barrens, the Glen, and the Refuge, collecting three pieces of the old sun along the way. They bond with the World's people and learn that the World which was once vibrant is slowly decaying away.
With the three pieces of the old sun at hand, Niko enters the first room of the Tower, which bears a window's close X button as its floor design. The Player closes their game window and opens the program again, which teleports Niko into the Tower. The Entity manipulates Niko and the Player, tricking Niko into falling asleep and kicking the Player out of the game program. The Player can open the game program again but is unable to control or wake Niko.
Whenever the game program is active, the Author sends the Player a message via their desktop to open the ♣ (clover) program within Documents/Oneshot. Doing so and then re-opening the game program wakes Niko, who finds a clover within their inventory. The Entity is displeased with this outcome and attempts to trap Niko within an endless maze. But while using the clover program, pages of the Author's journal manifest and lead the correct way forward, while also displaying important messages for the Player to read as they discover the true nature of the final choice.
The Player learns that the sun is Niko's connection to the world. As long as the sun remains intact, they are unable to return home. Shattering the sun is the only way for Niko to return home, but shattering it would terminate the World. The Entity desires to protect Niko, and it also desires death, which is why it so adamantly wants the Player to shatter the sun.
Niko is blissfully unaware of this fact as they ride an elevator to the summit of the Tower, thinking that they will be able to return home after returning the sun. The Player informs Niko of the true nature of the final choice, to Niko's horror. When Niko reaches the summit, they ask for the Player's guidance in whether they should shatter the sun in order to return home, or whether they should return the sun to the Tower. The Player makes their choice.
=== New Game+ ===
Despite the session only being designed to last for one shot, the Player can remove the restriction, returning Niko to the bedroom of the abandoned house as if the previous session never occurred. Niko remembers the Player's name and says it unconsciously but does not comprehend its meaning. They have no memories of the previous session as the Player guides Niko through the new one. They start off with the strange journal already in their inventory, the one that they obtained during the initial session.
=== Solstice Update ===
At the computer within the abandoned house, the Player inputs the password "solstice", the key to unlocking the strange journal's power at specific locations.
Going against the Entity's wishes, the Player guides Niko deep within the mines of the Barrens, discovering Prototype. After restoring his memories, he informs Niko of the true nature of the World and the death of the Old World, as well as the existence of sessions. This newfound knowledge confuses and worries Niko, who takes to the circumstances of their situation poorly.
Nevertheless, after being separated from Prototype, Niko makes their way to the Glen via a secret path between the areas. There, they meet Cedric and provide him with the necessary materials to repair his flying machine. They fly together to the Refuge, where the two part ways as they explore the city separately.
After Kip escorts Niko to the library, Niko learns that the factory that Cedric rushed into collapsed, upsetting them. They convince Kip to let them roam the city, and they locate Rue in an alley room with a single tree. Niko brings her to the clock room, though without Prototype and Cedric, they are unable to advance further. After Niko and Rue share a conversation outside, they return back in and reunite with Prototype and Cedric, who were able to survive the factory's collapse.
Niko and the Solstice trio progress into the next room, and the trio creates a portal which leads to a copy of the Author's study, as well as the World Machine. Niko is teleported into the Tower, where they meet the World Machine itself.
== Trivia ==
* Niko is 8 years old.http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/154580998976/responsible-grownuphttps://twitter.com/NightMargin/status/1476016597504565250https://bsky.app/profile/nightmargin.bsky.social/post/3la62ahydlx2m
** Niko (as a character) was created on December 28, 2013.http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/106396275451/for-meeee-its-been-a-year-since-i-made-niko If this were their canonical date of birth, Niko would be years old.
* Niko's height is around 4 feet (~1.2 meters).http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/169878096221/hey-since-canon-heights-were-brought-up-a-few-days
* Niko has been stated by Eliza to have an ambiguous gender,http://elizavq.tumblr.com/post/113737817876/hello-i-really-like-this-game-but-one-question-i and by Nightmargin an unknown gender.http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/140577597251/what-is-nikos-gender-if-they-have-one-i-heard 
** Niko is referred to using they/them pronouns in their OneShot: World Machine Edition bio and in the World Machine Edition trailer.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaAA0GkSv4&t=41s
* When playing the game in Japanese, Niko refers to themselves in the first-person ミー (mī), forgoing the usually gender-specific first-person pronouns common in Japanese, such as 私 (watashi), which is informal female or formal ambiguous, and 僕 (boku), which is informal male. 
** The use of ミー (mī) is also a pun, since it is also an onomatopoeia imitating the meow of a cat.
* Niko's name was originally "Nico", chosen because it was a gender-neutral name. It was changed to "Niko" after Nightmargin realized the name could be a reference to Nikola Tesla and his work on lightbulbs.http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/144534736816/holy-crap-wait-a-minute-is-niko-a-play-on-neko 
** The name is also similar to the Japanese words 日光 (nikko, meaning "sunlight") and 猫 (neko, meaning "cat"), but Nightmargin has said that these similarities were unintentional.
* Niko is not a cat or a person, but rather, a cat-person.https://www.twitch.tv/videos/240726575https://www.twitch.tv/videos/240726899
** One of the tracks in the OST is titled "On Little Cat Feet", presumably referencing the thumping sound of Niko walking on the Refuge's catwalks.
** At one point during a Solstice run, Niko makes "*confused cat noises*".
* Niko thinks that coffee is for grown-ups, and prefers to drink milk with syrup.https://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/167492149321/does-niko-like-tea-or-coffee-what-about-george
* The Steam game release contained a sprite error with Niko having human ears during the chess and pancakes cutscenes, like in the original game release. This was fixed in an update.http://steamcommunity.com/games/420530/announcements/detail/282996386412208752
* Nightmargin has made several joking headcanon statements about Niko:
** Niko is actually really tiny and the seemingly huge lightbulb they carry is the size of a regular lightbulb.
** Niko has 100 ears.https://twitter.com/NightMargin/status/748984660609396736
** The game taking place in a coma.
** Niko has a love for throwing Molotov cocktails.
** Niko is "Ness", a combination of Niko and Tess,https://twitter.com/LordSaytenn/status/797668055127969792http://nightmargin.tumblr.com/post/154781704906/game-theory referencing the infamous Game Theory video "Sans's SECRET Identity!" that claimed that Sans from Undertale is Ness from EarthBound.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYdDUXyFocY
== References ==
ru:Нико
fr:Niko
zh:Niko
Category:Main characters