#Magpie looks like Raven but acts like Price

[gomzdrawfr]

I MAY BE PLOTTING EVEN THO I REALLY SHOULDNT—

new baby…Magpie’s lil brother…Sparrow….

[dies]

[diejager]

Crow

Pairing: Monster TF 141 + Horangi & König x Eldritch horror!reader

Cw: blood, gore, canon-typical violence, injury, mutilation, tell me if I missed any. Wc: 1.9k

They hadn’t expected to have another specialist join them, none of them even knew what Price had in mind when he brought you in. You were normal in every way - as normal as a soldier could be - and unassuming under your dark clothes and gear. You smiled and waved when greeted, you took orders well and you spoke when spoken. You were like a ghost, there but also not there, invincible unless you made a sound or movement. Excluding all they saw in you, you were simply uncanny, with weird mannerisms and habits that made you seem inhuman - as inhuman as you could be to hybrids. 

The only words Price had given them before you landed were: “They’re good at what they do, just don’t cause any trouble, understood?”

They were vague and as unassuming as you first seemed, like any warning for any person that could easily become annoyed or mad. Ghost certainly hadn’t put much thought into it as he should. Gaz had elbowed Soap in an attempt at reminding the werewolf to heed their captain’s words. Rudy and Alejandro wouldn’t have to worry, they knew and learned the limits of any man’s patience, smart and intuitive. Horangi was as weary as he would with any new addition, eyes narrowed in annoyance and curiosity. Unlike any of them, König hid any emotions from his stoic face, shoulders broad and back ramrod that emphasised his height and broadness, he couldn’t be sure if you would be easy to ignore or irritable.

Granted, they all had expectations for you since Price seemed so proud and confident when you first joined them, acting like a child given his dream, famished to have you by his side as professionals as possible. Yet here you were, normal looking, of average height and average weight, and simply there. Although there wasn’t anything inherently abnormal to you, the simple presence of your being made their hair stand on end. There wasn’t any reason to be so frightened or chilled about you, you hadn’t done anything deserving of such fear and suspicion, and Price trusted you with his life. If he trusted you, then the rest could, no? After all, dragons are the most protective of monsters. 

As Price promised, you were good at what you did, never a flinch, never any hesitation, never a moment of weakness. You were too normal and good to be a human, especially not with the way corvids flocked to you. Ravens, crows, magpies and jackdaws followed you everywhere you went, simply standing or cawing around you as if you were a memener of their murder. Going to London would be dreadful with how many corvids called the British Isles their home, which - coincidentally - was where you lived. 

All but Price had a hard time forming a bond with you, your eerie presence made it difficult to relax, and apparently, you knew it as well, since they had an equally difficult time finding you on the base. If you weren’t beating a sand-filled punching bag, you would be at the shooting range, and if you weren’t there, then you’d be somewhere on the roof of a structure, taking in the cool, stormy air of the UK with your bird friends. 

You only smiled when they all blew up in cackles and jokes, never laughing with them or cracking your own jokes. Your voice never raised over a certain point, a murmur or a raspy growl. It was either human or inhuman to you. If Soap, Gaz and Rudy were having a hard time making you open up to them, then the rest would have an even harder time doing so. They were failing miserably. 

That was until Soap caught an airy chuckle from you when he passed Price’s office, the older man having probably said something amusing to you which had you laughing. And as loud and rowdy the werewolf was, he couldn’t stop himself from telling the others, his excitement and enthusiasm bleeding into the rest. It had somehow made them more determined to bond with you, you were, after months of work, a permanent member of Task Force 141. 

Unfortunately, the most they got were snorts and huffs, snorts from Ghost’s dark humour and huffs from Soap and Gaz’s poorly made-up jokes, theatrical performances of failures and defeat in the face of an unflinching and unusual being. Questions started piling up on Price’s desk, wanting to know if you were human, if you were a hybrid, if you were a monster, if you were even a living being seeing as you hadn’t taken a single breath or eaten (not that they’d seen you eat.). 

“That’s classified, ” Price stopped their musing with two simple words. “Unless they tell you themselves, I don’t think it’s any of my business divulging that to anyone.”

Price’s secrecy and respect for you only sowed the seeds of curiosity and intrigue deeper. What had you hidden from them that was so classified that Price couldn’t tell them? Even Alejandro didn’t have the clearance to dive into your files - not that there were any. The question lingered in their minds, unanswered and famished for one: What were you?

Somehow they’d gotten separated from you, being caught under heavy fire from Russian ultranationalists and backed into a building with most exits blocked or surrounded by the enemy. They worried about you, being left to yourself in a situation like this one was dangerous for even the most skilled and wary soldier. Whereas they all had their backs, one watching for the other, you were alone. And whereas you had the possibility of using your powers of shifting - if you were a hybrid or monster, they still hadn’t found the answer to that question - they were in the confines of a restricted building, letting loose would either damage the already-damaged-building or become a danger to their own teammates. 

Ghost’s fog was deadly. Soap could come under fire from them shooting. Gaz couldn’t fly freely in a tight place. Price’s fire could be devastating. Rudy couldn’t risk getting tired. Alejandro could be unknowingly shot by them. König was uncontrollable and unpredictable. Horangi was a danger to himself in the secret of darkness.  

They were fucked, caught in a dire situation that could mean the end of them, but regret and panic wouldn’t be of any use to them, they had to concentrate and wait for backup. 

“Backup from what, Price?!” 

What could possibly reach them in time to support them? They were too far in for any help to arrive quickly enough. The closest naval ship was thousands of miles away, the closest ocean was hundreds of miles away and any military support even farther. What would they even be waiting for?

“Cap! We can’t-”

A scream shattered the skies, howls of pain and panic filling the once booming sound of foreign guns. The sound of bodies being broken and bones cracking brought their attention elsewhere. The Russians weren’t aiming at them anymore, shooting at something bigger and more dangerous than any of them. They were looking at a creature that picked them off one by one, the shadow of a monster covering the white snow. The fear in their eyes tainted the sky as their blood sullied the fresh snow, turning white into red and pink.

Whatever that was was dangerous. The ability to rip men apart and incite terror into well-trained and hardened soldiers was anything but amiable, safe and good. Their bodies were tense, muscles contracted to move at the flicker of movement from the monster outside the building. Their weapons aimed towards the entrance, fingers laying restlessly on the trigger and shoulder screwed with suspense as the screams and cries slowly died down to howling winds in the night. 

Price raised a hand, holding them back from firing at the entity, they lowered their guns, following the captain as he walked towards the door. He hadn’t flinched or froze when clawed fingers gripped the wide opening, a giant, black hand cloaked with feathers. Another landed on the ground farther away, letting them see the blood staining the show, seeping from its fingers and dirty feathers. With a low rumble from the beast, it lowered its head to the doorway, where Price had stopped. 

He smiled at the gigantic head of a crown, its black beak sharpened with pointed teeth, as black as its skin and feathers. An oval eye blinked at them, white as the snow and piercing as the cold. It sent chills down their spines, ready to jump away if it attacked, but Price patted the skin under its eye.

“Thank you,” Price spoke your name so reverently, thanking it - you - with a grateful smile and proud eyes.

That monster - it - was you, the unassuming, perfect and eerie human. You, who was always around corvids, were one yourself, albeit a gigantic, crooked version of a crow. You crooned at Price’s touch, soft and loving like he was. You moved away from the entrance and they left. It was as if they walked into another world, blood, bones and guts littered the ground, as if a cat had had its fun with something breakable. Ghost and König thrived in this scene, the blood and gore feeding them. Unlike the rest that either recoiled or stared off, preferring to look at your bird-like form than the ground. 

In all your glory, you stood high and mightily, toppling over the trees by hundreds of metres. Covered head to toe in black skin and black, glistening feathers, you held your head high to look at the Russian field. Four horns curled over your head, sprouting from your crown and curling at the tip, they mimicked a crown of bone. Bones also grew from your back, the protrusion of your vertebrae growing along your back like a ridge, sharp and deadly, like the sharp-looking feathers that protected your back. If any of that were shocking then your second pair of wings would be frightening, an equally big pair of wings help support your weight on the ground, besides two legs, clawed perfectly to inflict lethal damage. And at the end of your back, a flared, serpentine tail with feathers curled upwards.

While Price acted with such ease and comfort around you, the rest simply couldn’t. If they were bothered by your presence before, now, after having shifted and showed your true skin, it grew tenfold, becoming unbearable and suffocating. You saw their discomfort, cooing at them before you shrunk, bone and feathers sinking back under your skin, your beak turning into the face they knew, but your white eyes remained. It was all knowing and powerful.

You were an Eldritch being, an all-knowing and powerful creature, perhaps one of the last horrors that lived. It made sense why Price was so trusting of you, believing you to be unable to betray them. Why he warned all of them to never stray into your hate and annoyance. Eldritch horrors, after all, were the strongest beings alive (if they could be called alive), old as aeons and unmoving by time. Dragons were second to them, the proud and respectable monsters knowing the worth of Eldritch creatures and respecting them. 

Everything fell into place. It clicked, why everything was simply so. Perhaps, after knowing your secret, you’d open up to them, let them in your colossal and dark and unbeating heart.

Taglist: @saelkie @yeoldedumbslut

[wistrea-a]

It had taken some digging and a favour from teia to secure kira's gift - a necklace, the chain a black metal, shimmering with purple in the right light, a magpie made of sugilite hanging off the end. Tucked in a rectangle box, the necromancer holds it out the woman with a bright smile. "Happy birthday."

amidst the tumultuous state of thedas in it's southern lands, things such as celebrating the anniversary of one's birth seemed like such an inconsequential thing. kira has occupied herself with preventing the blight from devouring more than it already has, as death and decay continues to plague meadows once green. this was different from when she had sealed the breach nearly a decade ago : the breach had a strange yet tangible solution, a remedy by which kira was able to act 'pon and paid the price for in the end [ ... ] but this? elven gods of old, and the magic that not even she the archmage could begin to comprehend? far from the reaches of her study, and even moreso from what little time she was able to spare amidst her efforts. to call it dire times would have been an understatement.

even now, she would have loved to be at the lighthouse simply to see her children [ letters that ryo and aki send to her whenever they were able have done little to soothe the ache of her worry for them whilst they remain apart ] she had instead traversed through the eluvian to bring news of what had transpired recently within the south. it comes to her as a surprise when bar'en brings to her a gift instead of news.

the inquisitor can only stare for a moment, the awe within her lilac gaze akin to a crow's stare when seeing something that glittered in the light.

❛  did the twins put you up to this?  ❜ there was an amused tone in her voice as she looked at rook. surely one of them would have told him what today was. still, it was a sweet gesture. when she first heard of bar'en, it had been in the stories aki would tell her whenever she visited the necropolis, or in the letters brought by ravens. nothing but good things were written about him, which has been proven right in the time they have known each other now. she was glad that her children found someone as lovely as bar'en to fight alongside ... there was a certain affection between him and aki, once that made her happy to witness. the inquisitor can only smile as she took the gift, ❛  now i wish i'd brought you something other than dire news ... thank you for this, dear one. i swear to cherish it.  ❜

@mcurnwatch

[thecosmicjackalope]

A CAVALCADE OF RANDOM THEORIES FROM SOMEONE WHO JUST ENTERED THE “AVA’S DEMON” FANDOM

in no particular order. some are a little dark. tw: suicide mention, sexual assault/abuse mention spoilers below. 

-Gil’s demon is Nevy, who represents Envy. He is confirmed gay and seems to have a small thing for Odin, if his blush at the snacks Odin gave him is anything to go by. He will eventually fall for Odin, who will eventually fall for Ava, and thusly, Gil will end up making a pact with Nevy to “save Odin from Ava” (AKA get rid of Ava so Odin can fall in love with him instead). He won’t quite understand his driving motivation is romantic love, and instead believes that he simply “deeply cares” for Odin.

-Nevy will either lie and manipulate Gil into killing off both Ava and Pedri in revenge for them having broken her heart in their complicated love triangle, or she will be completely for Gil killing Ava so she can have Pedri instead. 

-it’s no coincidence that Gil’s color scheme is the exact same as TITAN’S. just as TITAN serves as an antagonist to Ava and Odin, Gil, in his lovesick jealousy, along with Nevy’s baggage, will be an antagonist as well. There might even be a chance that Nevy and Gil will partner up with TITAN in order to go up against Ava and Odin. After all, if Gil can’t have Odin, and Nevy can’t have Pedri, then no one can.

-Gil being gay and being unable to see Maggie in a romantic light will lead to Maggie’s pact failing and her and Tuls fusing together into a terrible monster.

-Tuls is lying to Maggie when he is explaining the magic of his flowers to her. They aren’t “love potions” that induce romantic feelings. He’s the demon of lust, not love. His flowers are just potent aphrodisiacs that could MAYBE guarantee a night of passion between Maggie and the flower’s recipient, but are unable to guarantee a healthy and lasting relationship in the long run. Maggie is doomed to have her heart broken, no matter what goes on between her and Gil, or her and whoever her flowers are for. And once she doesn’t even have the hope of falling in love, and Tul’s magic is gone, it’s up to her to save them both from becoming a fusion monster by finding Ranunculae and letting Tuls speak to her.  Though, if the above ever happens, Maggie MAY just intentionally fail the pact out of spite, so she AND Tuls are doomed forever with no one to love.

-Maggie’s pact is doomed to fail no matter what happens in the story. She chases love but doesn’t understand what it really is and will therefore not have a happy ending, no matter how hard she tries.

-Alternatively, Maggie’s pact might be to find someone who loves her. She might fail with Gil, but since Ava is still with her and trying to help her because she too, in some way, loves Maggie, Maggie might already be protected from failing the pact because there is one person around who legitimately loves Maggie, even if it might not be in the way she had hoped for.

-Whatever happened between Maggie and Ava in the past led to Maggie having some very dark thoughts. In Maggie’s dream world, we see that she has a necklace made of her own hair around her neck. At first i thought it was some sort of odd keepsake, but it’s actually a cut noose. Maggie once experienced a point in her life so grim and so low, she made a noose out of her own hair and tried to hang herself.

-Maggie’s past involves being the victim of sexual abuse/assault. Maggie is 15 years old, but would be what some might consider hypersexual with some of the things she says and does, i.e. making innuendos, making sexual advances, having a long string of romantic partners (at least six, according to Tuls), and getting very attached to people she doesn’t know due to her attraction to them. Though this could easily be chalked up to Maggie being 15 years old and in the throes of puberty and all the hormones it brings on, it should be noted that a common response to sexual trauma at a young age is becoming too focused on sex and relationships than is normal.

-Odin’s sisters represent the two ravens from Norse mythology who acted as the god Odin’s eyes and ears and messengers. Crow and Raven are both loyal to Olai. Olai knows something about the disappearance of Magpie. It will be revealed that Olai sold her to Titan, killed her, or otherwise did away with her. The other two triplets will be so heartbroken and enraged by this, they will defect and join Odin’s quest in finding their/avenging their lost sister.

-Olai, Odin’s brother, is based off of Loki from Norse mythology. 

-Magpie’s real name is Magdalai. Magdalai sounds a lot like Magdelene, and the most popular Magdelene was Mary Magdelene of Bible lore. In Bible lore, Mary Magdelene was “cleansed of evil spirits” and became a follower of Jesus, following him and serving him until his resurrection. Magpie was very certain she was a Vessel and carried within her one of Wrathia’s warriors, and she was so sure of it, she even told Olai. However, that proved to be a very big mistake. Olai sold her away for - something, possibly more scavenger tech to work with - and Magpie eventually wound up with some of TITAN’S followers, who recognized her for what she was and forcibly removed the “demon” inside of her. Magpie is now a brainwashed follower of TITAN. If they found a way to control the demon inside of her, along with her, then she could be a powerful warrior for TITAN, possibly a dangerous antagonist that the four, especially Odin, will have to fight in the future.

-A very common theme with TITAN is mice, or rats. All the elite soldiers are given “ears” and a mask that makes them resemble mice/rats. TITAN even refers to Strategos Six as “my little mouse.” This might be in order to showcase that TITAN sees everyone beneath him as “lesser beings” or even “vermin,” and it might also align with the technology motif (Labs have rats that they use for experiments to further their knowledge), but it might also be a clue to who he’s based on. There are lots of gods, some goddesses and even characters in literature with mice/rat motifs, but I have yet to find someone that “fits” TITAN. (MAYBE Apollo? but i feel like that’s not quite right). I mean, TITAN is supposed to be the “Crystal Dragon Jesus” of this world, but that doesn’t mean ALL of him is based on Jesus, right? maybe looking more into this motif will clue us into his true nature more.

-Nevy’s whole character is partially based off of The Little Mermaid, from H.C. Andersen’s story. She, too, sacrificed all for love and paid a high price for it. One could say that The Little Mermaid was driven by envy for legs and the world above the ocean, and was punished for her foolish actions. There are a lot of similarities between the two characters. Nevy, like the Little Mermaid from the fairy tale, loses her voice and cannot speak for some time. She also, like the the Little Mermaid, is trapped in the afterlife after her great loss and cannot move on, just as The Little Mermaid becomes an air spirit in the original tale and cannot enter heaven/earn a soul until she does 300 years of good deeds. At one point, she even dissolves into sea foam, which was also part of the actual Little Mermaid’s final fate.

-Ava made a pact with Wrathia for a new life once she helps her defeat Titan. Over the course of the story, Ava will forge the life and experiences she wants with Odin, Maggie, Gil and everyone else around her she considers an ally. When they eventually do defeat Titan, Wrathia will uphold her end of the pact, and gleefully so, thus causing Ava one last bit of pain before Ava is gone forever. HOWEVER, Ava will then be reborn as Wrathia and Pedri’s offspring in their egg, and the multi-galactic kingdom that Wrathia sacrificed an innocent child’s entire life for will then belong to the reincarnation of that innocent child. poetic justice, and Ava has a whole new kingdom to keep her friends safe and happy in.