#shrike answers

[shrike-nest]

JOHN EGBERT?

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[abyssal-ilk]

is anyone going to write a tragic, homoerotic vivienne fic where she recruits a bard who was sent to kill her and said bard falls in love with her but forever yearns silently because she knows they can never be together. is anyone going to do it or do i have to do everything in this house

[goldenshrikecomic]

I find myself wondering what Kasko did for Cutlass to kick him in the nuts xD

[wyn0rrific]

the guy who only draws shrike would like to file a request. u wont be able to guess who its for

shoves this to u and runs

[fanby-fckry]

If Alastor had bird traits, what would bird species would they be?

Ooh, this is a good question. Very much in the spirit of random anons. (This is a compliment, I promise.)

My first thought was that it’d have to be something intelligent, something capable of mimicking human speech. Alastor’s voice is very important to him, so I think if he had traits from an animal in a class where some are extremely good at mimicking human speech and some aren’t, he’d be one of the talking ones.

That narrows it down to mostly parrots and corvids, but I’m willing to throw in Australian Magpies (not corvids, despite the name) because they’re such menaces, and I think swooping season is a fun parallel to the fanon idea of Alastor going through rut.

I like the idea that rut isn’t necessarily sexual for Alastor, that he just gets extra combattive and irritable. It’d be similar for swooping. He wouldn’t be protecting offspring or a mate, he’d just get extra territorial about his radio tower for no apparent reason, snatching up any demons who get too close.

Now, back to corvids and parrots.

For parrots, I narrowed it down to two species based on intelligence and speech, as well as the additional criteria of having some red on them, somewhere. This leaves us with African Grey Parrots (red tail feathers) and Scarlet Macaws (mostly red).

But deer aren’t exactly red, so I don’t think that should exclude our next contestants, the American Crow, the Fish Crow and the Chihuahuan Raven.

One of my favorite things about Alastor being a deer is that the particular species I believe him to be (a White Tailed Deer) is native to Louisiana. Now, you’re not exactly going to find Australian Magpies, African Greys, or Scarlet Macaws flying around in Louisiana unless somebody’s pet got loose.

Meanwhile, American Crows, Fish Crows (the two species of crows most often observed mimicking human speech) and Chihuahuan Ravens are all birds that Alastor would’ve been fairly likely to encounter during his lifetime.

And then, after all that research, I remembered the existence of the shrike…

The Loggerhead Shrike fits none of my original criteria, but is native to Louisiana and is famous for hunting prey that is sometimes as large or larger than they are and impaling them on sticks.

You see this bird?

This bird is a serial killer.

Ok, so that’s anthropomorphizing a bird that’s really just hunting to eat, like most carnivores do, but like. If you know this bird, you know I’m not wrong.

They’re nicknamed the butcherbird, and they’ve fucking earned it.

Bonus points for two of their common prey items being spiders and snakes, for all your RadioDust, RadioApple, and RadioSnake needs, platonic or otherwise.

I have some choice sections from their wikipedia page that I’d like to include, but I’m putting them below the cut in case anyone’s squeamish about details of animal death in a predator-prey context.

Loggerhead shrikes have been repeatedly observed killing prey larger than themselves by spearing the neck or head of the animal and twisting. The speed at which this occurs causes a whiplash injury to the animal. The neck strength of the shrikes compensates, making their talon weakness inconsequential.

Although loggerhead shrikes are passerines, they are a predatory species that hunt during the day. They primarily eat insects, but also consume arachnids, reptiles, amphibians, rodents, bats and small birds. They have even eaten venomous snakes such as the water adder. The size of prey ranges from 0.001 g (3.5×10−5 oz) insects to 25 g (0.88 oz) mice or reptiles.

They are not true birds of prey, as they lack the large, strong talons used to catch and kill prey. Instead, they are sit-and-wait hunters that stalk prey by hawking and diving from elevated perches.

Due to the shrike's small size in proportion to the size of its prey, it must rely on specialized adaptations to facilitate its hunting. The powerful, hooked beak of the loggerhead shrike allows it to sever the neck of a small vertebrate. Larger prey are subjected to impaling, in which they are pushed down into a sharp projection, such as a thorn or barbed wire. The bird can then tear off flesh by using the projection as an anchor. The shrike may also use the thorn to fasten and store its food to return to at a later time.

The motion of impalement appears to be instinctive, as parent shrikes do not demonstrate the behavior to their nestlings.

Yeah, I think we have a winner here, folks.

[bardic-perdita]

Shrike Reference Sheet

Name: Shrike

Pronouns: They/Them

Class: Oath of Vengeance paladin -> Becomes an Oathbreaker after their reunion with Gortash in Act 3

Romance: Astarion and Halsin (and in an AU Breoch as well)

Personality: At first, they are unnervingly still and quiet. They only speak when spoken to, only act when they need to act, and fight like a blade forged in the heat of a thousand battles. Though once you have moved beyond the hard exterior, Shrike is a kind and caring soul, with an unwavering sense of justice. For Shrike, violence is their chosen form of protection. They choose to be the sword that vanquishes evil and the shield to protect those that cannot defend themselves. They still don't talk very much, but their smile and their actions speak far louder than any bard's song ever could.

Act One Introduction here

More info under cut:

Camp clothes and body markings:

Slayer form (pre-tadpole):

Chosen of Bhaal armour:

Other details:

Spotify Playlist

All content for Shrike is under the tag "Durge! Shrike"

[loobydoopoppycock]

Love the fact that shrike is fearful of old salad finger, Also salad's eyes are unnerving yet cute?

Mr Finger’s eyeballs are my favourite part of him to draw, aside from his hands of course. I’m glad I managed to toe the creepy-cute line with them, though I don’t think Shrike can see the cute side lol

[unknownarmageddon]

vampire . groundfinch .

IVE HEARD OF THESE GUYS ACTUALLY

Genuinely cool as hell augh augh

[wordstome]

Hi, Bucca!

I just wanted to let you know that Shrike was such a life-changing fic for me 🥺❤️ I love Alex and Thorn so much (Of course, I do adore your other stories! Your writing is so beautiful, I think about it a lot, and I'm extremely fond of your perception of König!)

I know you've been occupied with Kingdom Come and Now That We Don't Talk recently, but if it's alright, could you share a bit of how Alex and Thorne lived after that? How did the traveling go? Did they settle down permanently one day? I'm completely enchanted by the way you write second-chance romances <3

ANOOOOOOOONNNNNNN thank you for sharing this with me 🥺 I'm so glad you connected with Shrike so much. I'll take any excuse to write about Alex and Thorn >:3

They had a great time. It's kind of an opportunity for Thorn to come out of this shell she's been in for a long time and be with someone who doesn't constantly put her on high alert. Obviously, emotional abuse doesn't go away immediately like physical abuse does. It's a state very similar to depression, which she likely did have as well. You don't really think about anything outside your immediate day-to-day and become unable to think about the future. Getting her out of her old environment helps her a huge amount.

I do think they settle down permanently one day, but not for a while, actually. Alex probably wants to immediately marry her, but she's not ready to commit to that again so quickly, even though she trusts him absolutely. She probably spends a few years figuring out what makes her happy and keeps her engaged, maybe starts a career. I don't think she'd even live with him at first, which of course drives him nuts. He's worried she's going to find someone who's also bad for her, but he's equally worried she's going to find better than him—someone more emotionally stable who doesn't have a pattern of murdering abusive husbands, maybe.

Alex gets deployed and is away for weeks or months at a time, which of course makes him even more paranoid, so he probably does do a little bit of creeping on her. (This is still König we're talking about here.) He tells himself it's just for her safety as a single woman living all alone, but he's also watching to make sure she doesn't bring anybody home. She never does, because she's busy living a life that doesn't involve any partners, and especially not any men. She's having a very healthy journey to recovery and he's checking the cameras he left in her ceiling lights between ops 🙄

They meet up and spend a ton of time together when he's on leave, and eventually it kind of becomes a forgone conclusion for her to just live in his house instead of having her own place as a formality—she's always there anyway because it's her job. They have the kind of relationship where it's difficult to point to a specific date when they started officially dating: being a part of each others' lives is just the status quo. So I think when they do eventually get married, nobody is surprised except for Alex. This is totally influenced by Salome's highschool sweetheart au where she proposes to him, so Thorn is the one who pops the question. Alex would never do it because he understands that not only is she going anywhere, but getting married is something she needs to be ready for first.

I don't really want to say whether or not they have kids, it's up to the individual reader :3 But I do think they live a very happy, quiet life together, which they deserve.

[lifeserieswarriors]

anyone related to each other? like siblings, parents, etc?

yes!

sunfeather and canary(paws)tumble are littermates!

they used to travel with each other and some other cats, until, well.

their names were shrike and canary.

they don't talk much anymore. running away from omnipresent gods and changing your identity does that to a family.

(more under the cut)

nobody in the main cast has parental relations with each other however npcs? fair game. irl cats of the ccs?? they're kittens now. they do not speak dialogue they are still literally just cats.

sunfeather's got copperpaw (maui) & pearlpaw (pearl)!

canarytumble has bigpaw (norman) and flickkit (flick).

and, naturally, ivytalon's got jellie. jelle's name is not changed you cannot change the jellie name.

as for actual npcs:

sunfeather and redmumble are happy fathers to random stolen kittypet mouse toys! (grumbots!)

[image text: Sunfeather-- these aren't kittens?? (in faded text, cut off:) where did you even get these things what in the name of (st)arclan. the text pointing to the mice: Jrumbouse (top) & Mumbouse (bottom).]

tiny tom? a baby squirrel. sludgepond takes good care of him. and hermes is an entire bobcat kitten! for some reason! claycloud completely ignores how he is clearly not normal cat sized and loves him anyways. sheephop's fully aware, does not care, as he was raised by a warren of rabbits and that's the least weird thing he's seen in his life.

[infinitcnexus]

Codex for Colette, from Shrike

(art by @/retromissile)

My most recent mark...or at least, she used to be. Regular people would've tried to flatline an assassin as soon as they see one on their tail, but not Colette. Not only did she save my life from an asshole rhino who can tough out hits from a Stygian steel hammer with his diamond-hard skin, but she also invited me to dinner and let me treat her pad like my second home without needin' to pay rent.

It still scares me that I don't know a lot about the "guest" in her body that is her warlock patron. It definitely had somethin' to do with the grudge "Mr. Now" had towards her, but until then, Colette is by far the closest thing I have to a friend. I'm...not sure if I can do it when that moment finally comes...

[lesbeansoups]

love that you have a shrike tattoo! what does the song mean to you?

You know the people who make their tattoos their entire personality? It's me, I'm people.

No but seriously, I just love this song a lot and this is one of my most complimented tattoos. I got it mostly because I love the duality of this cute little feathery animial vs. it being a gruesome murder bird that impales it's prey on thorns. It's kind of a "things aren't always what they seem" thing which I personally relate to a lot as a trans person. I also put it on a hawthorne tree which symbolises protection or love depending on the culture (which ties it back to the song and is the natural habitat of the northern shrike).

Shrike is just one of my comfort songs that I listen to when I'm ✨in my feels✨ or when I'm trying to communicate with my inner teenager. The song feels like a gentle hug, idk if that makes sense. It's a great reminder of the way I found community here online when I was a closeted and confused teen.

[fanby-fckry]

Hello! It's me, the bird anon, now with more confidence and new bird lore. While not particularly pointed out in loggerhead shrikes, shrikes in general are described being able to mimic sounds to lure their prey closer, and part of their courting is showing off their "larders", aka places where they hang up their kills to eat later!

Aww, hi, bird anon! I’ve had this in my inbox for a while now (and actually still have one more ask from you on anon), because I got behind on answering asks, but I’m happy to see you off anon! And we’re mutuals now, too!

Ooh, shrikes mimicking their prey definitely gives them more Alastor points, especially if we get into the whole, “Alastor keeps his victims’ voices” theory/fanon.

And I can totally see Alastor bonding with friends and/or partners by showing off his kills and the places he stores their corpses. :3

Rosie and Vox have definitely been given the tour, and I bet sometimes Vox still looks somewhat fondly upon Alastor’s snack hoard through his Voyeur-Scopes and sighs, waxing poetic about the time they shared together. To which Val replies, “I don’t kink-shame, except when I do, but getting nostalgic over Alastor’s leftovers is kind of pathetic.”

[bardic-perdita]

Aoough I have too many questions I wanna ask. 4, 29, 41, 91 for all your guys?

Thank you for the asks once again lovely! I am incapable of writing short answers for these asks, so hopefully this is still interesting to read.

I'm still answering the other asks in my inbox, but they're taking a tad longer than I'd expected ^v^;

Answers under the cut

4. Is there a reason why your Tav starts out as Level 1?

Shrike is a durge, so they start out at level 1 due to Orin.

Zeke’s powers come from his fiendish patron, but when he is infected by an illithid tadpole, his ‘father’ temporarily limits his power until he can figure out what’s happened. The presence of the Emperor also disrupts the usually strong connection between the two. 

Breoch was a relatively powerful sorcerer (level 14 or so) before he was killed by his ex lover. When he was resurrected 100 years later (by the same ex), he was resurrected with a new body and therefore it takes some time for Breoch to confidently wield his innate magic once again. 

29. What does your Tav do about the Goblin camp? Do they free Halsin or side with Minthara? What's their opinion of them?

Shrike is fully embodying their oath as a paladin at this point, so is determined to avenge the tieflings by destroying every single goblin and Absolute cultist that dare get in their way. The goblins were no real match for them and they reveled in the massacre. As a fellow paladin, they respected Minthara’s skill, though found her taste in company abhorrent. They had a kind of kinship with Halsin and they shared in his drive to fulfil a duty to protect his land and people.

Zeke also wished to help the tieflings as he is caring by nature. He was less willing to fight the goblins, although he felt an indescribable pleasure from satiating his bloodlust. Destroying enemies of his father was a regular pastime when he lived in Maladomini. Fighting enemies of his own choosing is a little more difficult for him to comprehend. The only reason he sides with Halsin over Minthara is because he met the tieflings first. If Minthara and the Absolute had captured him before he met the refugees, then his story would have gone very differently. 

Breoch had a lot of mixed feelings about the goblin camp. On the one hand, he found the goblins disgusting– not even fit to take as slaves in the usual Lolth-Sworn fashion. On the other hand, having swathes of creatures calling him ‘Master’ and treating him like the drow nobility he is did stroke his ego significantly. He instructed Astarion to poison half of the goblins, and threatened those goblins that tried to avoid their fate with a more excruciating death. He immediately identified Minthara as being from House Baenre, and took great pleasure in denying her the information about the tiefling camp that she so desperately sought. Being both a male drow and from one of the lowest ranking noble houses in Menzoberranzan, the flipping of the power dynamic is too enticing an opportunity to pass up. Breoch was less interested in helping Halsin or the tieflings; choosing only to help out as a means to freeing himself from the tadpole. It didn’t take long for him to notice that Halsin was drawn to him, even if he didn't know the reason why until much later, and he exploited that obvious attraction to keep the archdruid around. 

41. Which way did they take? Did they run into Elminster? What was their opinion of his news for Gale?

(in game I did both paths, but for the sake of this I’ll explain which would have been their preference XD)

Shrike would have chosen the Mountain Pass to appease Lae’zel. They felt strangely at home within the Crèche due to their military background that they had forgotten about. Despite not being particularly close to Gale, they empathised with his devotion to his goddess and supported his choice to decide which path was best. They made no secret that they would rather he chose to live, but respected his choice to follow Mystra’s wishes. 

Unsurprisingly Breoch chose to go through the Underdark. He’s a city dweller, so has no idea how to actually survive in the Underdark but he found the constant darkness and familiar fauna comforting. He didn’t realise how much he’d missed the Underdark until he returned. He was never particularly close to Gale; the sorcerer and wizard rivalry was too strong. Breoch did express feeling a little smug that the supposedly 'good' goddess of magic was capable of demanding such a sacrifice from her former chosen, after Gale had lectured Breoch on the evils committed in his goddess Lolth's name. Despite his bluster, Breoch is not entirely heartless and would only consider using the orb as a last resort. Not that he'd tell Gale that he actually sort of cares...not yet, at least.

Zeke also went via the Mountain Pass. There was an immediate attraction between Zeke and Gale (because purple I guess), so Elminster’s news was devastating for them both. Growing up in the Hells raised by two devils, Zeke holds no fealty to the Gods and has no qualms fist-fighting with Mystra. His soul and subsequent afterlife has already been promised to his father, so he doesn’t fear death nor the wrath of deities. He doesn't really know all that much about gods anyway. Despite not having known Gale for very long, he fell fast and hard; there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his beloved wizard.

91. Does your Tav get a happily ever after?

I still love the idea of all my Tavs and Durges living in camp at the same time, so that’s the ending I’ll explain for this particular question because I'm just cringe like that. 

Context: Shrike and Breoch would be in a four-person poly with Astarion and Halsin. It started as Astarion trying to play both ends against the middle, but realised too late that he didn’t want to have to choose between them…so he didn’t. Shrike was the one who brought Halsin into the relationship, and it takes some time for both Breoch and Astarion to be open to physical intimacy as a poly of four. 

After the events of the game, Shrike moves between helping Breoch and Astarion in the Underdark and helping Halsin with his rebuilding efforts. They never fully recover their memories, but they work hard to rekindle their paladin oath and support their elf boyfriends to create safe communities for those that need it most. Eventually they can spend more time as a poly in the Underdark: adventuring, relaxing, and generally enjoying the life they have made for themselves. 

Breoch would go back to the Underdark with Spawn Astarion and 7006 vampire spawn. He would draw upon all of his former connections in Menzoberranzan, as well as reconnecting with his family, to build a 'city of immortals' where the vampire spawn could live in relative peace. All of his energies would go into making the city a success, and it would often fall to Astarion and Shrike to get him to stop and breathe every once in a while. Despite the gargantuan task, Breoch could not be happier: he’d be using all his negotiation skills (minus the sex) for a meaningful cause whilst surrounded by his family and the three people he loves more than anything in all the realms. 

Zeke would move to Waterdeep with Gale. The wedding would be an interesting affair as Gale has to explain to poor Morena Dekarios that her future son-in-law’s parents are a devil and his erinye consort, and they insist on attending the wedding. Caedes (Zeke’s father and Patron) and Solaris (Caedes’s partner and @critical-goat ’s OC) would surprisingly get along rather well with Mrs Dekarios as they share tales of their sons’ childhood mishaps. For the most part, the purple husbands would live in peaceful marital bliss. However, the ‘permission for Caedes to treat Zeke as his own flesh and blood’ clause of his pact is never far from Gale’s mind. One day, Caedes could theoretically choose to control Zeke’s whole body and mind, thoroughly destroying their happiness and every memory of their life together. Caedes said that he wouldn’t, but he could. And that alone terrifies Gale. 

[freeusemuses]

Squishy! (for Shrike from a confused Caine)

"Rougher~"

[unknownarmageddon]

I FINISHED CROSS'S SKETCHY REF

( Also Killer is gonna officially be a loggerhead shrike and Chair gave me some banger ideas for art LMAO - Killer is also the only bad whose feathers change for the seasons ! )

OUGHH ohh my god i love him……. what a guy….