I guess I'll post this as the answer. So, Ubuntu does apparently not by default ship with the Unicode supporting version. So you first need to install it with
sudo apt-get install libncursesw5-dev
then you can compile this
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include "locale.h"
#include "ncursesw/ncurses.h"
using namespace std;
int main()
{
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
std::string str = "(☞゚ヮ゚)☞"; // String
initscr(); // Start curses mode
printw(str.c_str()); // Print
getch(); // Wait for input
endwin();
return 0;
}
and it'll work without a hitch.
Mind the #include "ncursesw/ncurses.h"