Stormcrow

Name

Face, Aspected Enchanter, Occasional Bird
(The Terror Bird)
Player	Malibi
Metatype	~~Falconine~~ Corvine Shifter (Dryad)
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	4
Public Awareness	0
Titles and Awards	0
D.O.B.	Sometime in Summer, 2074
Folder	PDF Chum5
Priority	Metatype - C Attributes - A Magic/Resonance - D Skills - B Resources - E Prime, from Extra Life 2016

Character Information

Summary

Nature's very own avenger, just over a kilogram of feathers and suppressed rage.

Goals

To instill in metahumanity a healthy respect of nature... by any means necessary.

And to collect shiny objects.

Background

The raven has long been considered a bird of ill omen. Difficult to distinguish from one another in their black plumage, these intelligent, vocal birds have no care for metahuman mores about respect for the dead: food is food, and burying a corpse is just a massive waste of valuable meat. Indeed, several cultures associate the raven with bloodshed and battle, opportunists profiting from human misery. A rare group of such uncanny creatures was once known as an "unkindness" or a "conspiracy" -- perhaps just a projection of this deep-seated cultural misunderstanding between the species.

Sometimes, though, the old words fit.

In this world where magic has returned, where mundane examples of everyday animals sometimes produce offspring that are much more, it seems inevitable that an even more unsettling and baleful raven should be born. And so, seven years ago in Snohomish, one mating pair produced a hatchling more intelligent than its siblings.

For most of their lives, ravens defend a given territory with their mate. They nurture their young until adolescence, at which point the young birds leave home and join a "conspiracy" of their peers, looking for love and an unoccupied place to call their own. This is the one time in their lives that they will truly roam. For the subject of our story, this represented the first true taste of the wonders of the metahuman world.

Most corvids get along very well with metahumanity. After all, like most people, they are intelligent enough to be adapt to their circumstances, but not so concerned with the bigger picture. In this case, the price of progress was too easy to see, and too hard to ignore.

And that is how a young bird awoke to its true nature and found its true calling. Observing metahumans enough to understand their basic behaviors, their strange calls and rituals, the being learned enough to attempt to blend in. As its small flock of friends travelled the city, it began to fake a metahuman fledgling, confused and far from home. By using its small stature and exotic looks to appear innocent, in much the same way that cowbirds take advantage of other species to nurture their young, the "young man" let a succession of sponsors educate him on the rudiments of Seattle society.

As just another SINless in a city that teems with them, the society that the "young man" saw was a raw reflection of the worst aspects of metahuman greed and excess. The Matrix allowed him to see the willful blindness of those with the power to change their circumstances. As metahumans are fascinated by names, the Matrix also allowed him to find one that he thought suited him: Raum, the Great Earl of Hell, a demonic crow who could walk among men as one of them... and destroy their cities.

Four years have passed since. In an abandoned barn in Snohomish, not far from the power-line tower that birthed the uncommonly intelligent hatchling, a pair of ravens roost. A careful observer might notice a line in the distinctive ruff of feathers on the male's neck. The comforting explanation is that the beast managed to get some cast-off detritus of civilization stuck around his neck, but the true one is that he wears a commlink and trode net in an elastic band. Likewise, the barn conceals a new van, painted an anonymous white. In this case, the comforting explanation might be that this forgotten corner of a larger agricultural concern's land is home to smugglers, but the true one is far more sinister. Our observer might notice that the male sometimes leaves the nest for extended periods of time... is the male foraging for food, or carving a swath of destruction across the industrialized parts of the city? Which is the comforting explanation, and which is the true one?

Narrative Significant Qualities

• Mentor Spirit (Wolf (Alt)), Sense of Direction, Symbiosis & Hobo with a Shotgun: Stormcrow has lived outside all his life, and feels at home there. He does not understand how anyone can be happy eating soy and breathing processed air.
• Bad Rep: The way Stormcrow sees it, metahumanity has been fighting a pretty one-sided war against nature for quite a while, and definitely hasn't been fighting fair. Metahumans do not seem to appreciate him trying to even the scales.
• Poor Self Control (Compulsive III, Public Single Aspect) (Fascinated by Shiny Objects), Barrens Rat, Uneducated & Down the Rabbit Hole 3: For all his intelligence, Stormcrow still has a raven's sense of aesthetics, childlike curiosity, and caching instinct.
• Too Pretty to Hit & Social Appearance Anxiety: Stormcrow is very particular about his appearance, in both his forms. Nothing about him screams "hardened criminal;" "fop" maybe, or perhaps "dandy," sure.

Affiliations

Contacts

• Chloe Park - Connection 2, Loyalty 5 - Fixer
• Yogi - Connection 3, Loyalty 4 - Sensei
• Nana Baa - Connection 6, Loyalty 1 - Alchemist/Talislegger
• Dr Elijah "Snowflake" Turing - Connection 4, Loyalty 3 - Doctor Specializing in Exotic Physiologies
• John Manuelito - Connection 3, Loyalty 1 - Drug Pusher, First Nations Street Thug
• Miss Moon - Connection 3, Loyalty 1 - Construction

In Character Information

Symbols and Signatures

As a Red Mage, his magic is often very raw (as in, still bloody). His alchemical lynchpins are either natural (e.g., a feather, a rock), beautiful to his eyes (e.g., a piece of copper tubing, an old coin), or sometimes -- if he's really lucky -- both (e.g., a piece of mica!).

SINs

• Corbin Bartram (UCAS, Mobile Magical Makeover Artist) (R5, with Driver's License, Mage License)

Appearance

Clothing

To human eyes, Stormcrow is pretty unremarkable in his natural form. Ravens are far better at distinguishing between humans than the reverse. However, when he wants to blend in with metahumanity, he's a lightly-built caucasian Dryad of average height, with extremely dark eyes and raven-black hair. In both forms, he is very fastidious about his appearance.

Matrix Persona

A very fetching, well-groomed raven. (If metahumans cannot appreciate true beauty, they do not know what they are missing out on.)