#Niner also strikes me as someone with a very strong sense of purpose/goals and what's supposed to be done

[stuffedeggplants]

1. I’m at the point in True Colors where Fi is in a coma floating in a bacta tank and it just... really made me want to stop reading for a bit. I had to put the book down after the chapter where Darman and Niner visit him aboard the ship because of how that chapter made me physically and mentally feel. I also related to it a little too much for a variety of reasons, especially right now, and I wasn't expecting something like that.

2. This may sound odd, but I think losing Niner’s POV (as far as I’ve seen) after Hard Contact is, in a way, actually part of his characterization, or at least it can be read that way. Because we’re not privy to his headspace in the same way that we’re there for a lot of the worries, anxieties, and doubts bothering men like Darman and Fi, when we do see Niner, we see him in the role that he fulfills for Omega as a unit, and I don't mean that in terms of the "describe your role in this position" way. He's providing something very grounded, like bedrock all his men can stand on so they can keep walking forward. That's who he wants to be and the only person he has ever been.

There's a part in the first book where he's having some doubts about their ability to execute their upcoming plan, but he cannot show he's feeling that way to the rest of Omega. They'll pick up on even the smallest behavioral cue from him. Fortunately Etain is able to sense how he's doing, and she gives him a little boost in the confidence he needs so that he can provide the leadership that Omega needs. So after we lose Niner's POV and our characters are exposed to more and more of the reality of their situation in a way that affects them mentally, we now mostly see Niner as the person he wants and needs to be for other people. Darman wasn't in Niner's head in the first book to learn that he might've wanted to sigh in doubt, but we were. We're not there anymore, and only see into things that bother him when something big enough happens that he shows his own frustrations or worries to somebody else, like his conversation with Darman after everyone decided not to report Sull for desertion. So we see him being the person that his entire identity hinges on him being, the person he needs to be for Omega. That's his biggest priority, and keeping of us out his head makes sure that 90% of the time we're seeing him living out that priority instead of focusing on his worries as an individual.

So though I'd love for Niner's POV to show up again, losing it has still kind of worked surprisingly well because of the unique position he's in as Omega's NCO and how he takes on that role for himself.

The fact that Niner has picked up some of Kal's habits also says a lot, and this quote of his encapsulates things pretty well because he tells us exactly who he is:

All I know is that I go out each day trying not to get killed and making sure you guys don’t die, either, nothing more than that. So … what fills that space when you leave your brothers behind?

[If I repeat myself a lot and belabor the point, that's because I'm typing this after I should've fallen asleep.]