Alan

Personality
“Don’t make me ban you from the kitchen.”

Taught manners and politeness from an early age, Alan rarely deviates from this demeanor when he first meets someone. If that someone happens to be rude or conniving though, then he isn’t against a little underhandedness to set them straight. After all, he’s well aware birds aren’t regarded as intelligent, but he finds little reason to refute it. It’s better to be underestimated and slide under the radar than overestimated in his eyes.

Once he deems he’s among proper friends, Alan shows that perhaps not all of his naivety is wrong. He grew up in a very studious and hardworking family and, though jaded from hearing tragic news and events, knows very little about pop culture and a regular everyday life. This leads to him having preconceived notions of quite a few things but either being disappointed or thrilled once he finally gets to experience them. He also tends to attach himself to a few people one at a time thanks to some trust problems he’s accumulated.

It’s not hard to draw his ire and be the victim of some of his mischievous acts though. They’re light-hearted and fun to witness however, and perhaps the best example of Alan’s true nature peeking out. He can come across as rude or snappy as a result, but it’s as a result of pushing away people for most of his life.

Abilities
''“Haven’t you heard the stories? I can certainly ‘sing so like a lark’.”''

Nachtrabe Form: His original and preferred appearance is of a four foot raven-like bird. He possesses claws hidden in his wings (like a bat’s) and multiple eyes red he keeps to a single pair to look normal.

Has a natural singing voice and doesn’t exactly hunger for humans anymore

Can shrink his form further to a regular juvenile raven where he can communicate with birds, but can’t talk to others verbally because...well, he’s literally a bird

Knight Form: Though his species has no correlations with being humanoid, his mother’s side has relations with the Valravn of Dutch myth. They can transform into a knight after consuming a child’s heart. Having eaten one, he does have a body available to him if he needs it. Aside from it being human-like, it’s mostly covered in feathers, has additional eyes he keeps shut for vision reasons, and sharp nails.

Damage will transfer to his bird form and enough harm will revert him to a Nachtrabe or a plain raven if it's very bad

Finds the form uncomfortable and only uses it for cooking, even though it’s made for combat

Magic: While older Nachtrabe gain the ability to spread disease after one peers into the holes in their wings (as well as steadily growing more skeletal), Alan has no powers at the moment aside from transforming into his humanoid and smaller raven form.

Glamour: He is particularly good at maintaining his glamour, a necessity his parents urged him to practice, but grows increasingly sick and will become nauseous until he faints if half a day passes by without rest.

History
“Quoth the raven, ‘Aren’t you being awfully nosy?’”

Though Alan grew up with a few brothers and sisters, he was only one of two eggs to hatch from his parent's initial clutch. It was a sad occurrence when they lost their other children, but Irene and Alan had little qualms being twins. Their childhood wasn't quite filled with all the joys and freedom that typically comes with being a kid, but it wasn't horrible either. They were close and did most things together, even as a few more fledgelings joined their small family. It was clear Alan wasn’t quite interested in intense studies though, but was expected regardless to be. Both parents were busy after all and held these high standards for a certain reason.

His family has strong connections with the Hugin-Munin Tribune. His parents work with the intelligent ravens who lead the news and delivery station on different parts of the business. His mother is the chief editor while his father helps manage the influx of deliveries to the main headquarters. Being one of the first born, Alan was aware he had expectations his mother particularly enforced. His father was the calm to his mother’s fiery storm, supporting her in her climb up the tribune and her strict opinions on bringing up the children. She had each of her fledgelings attempt to awaken their Valravn lineage, knowing it was part of her bloodline, through consuming a human heart. Irene refused from a moral stance, leaving only Alan and another younger sibling to succeed. Because of this, his mother’s focus on a potential heir centered on the young raven.

As a result, he was kept under watch at home with a strict routine centered around studying and little opportunity for friends. The raven cherished the few family vacations they took and learned to bide time at home. This typically involved hobbies like reading until his nanny introduced him to cooking when he was eight.

From then on, Alan grew to have a love for various cuisines. Though birds don’t typically care much for taste, he found the meals his caretaker would cook interesting and soon began helping out in the kitchen. It was the first hobby that he and Irene didn’t share, but she supported her brother nonetheless. Though she was ignored in favor of her twin and jealous as a result, they held a close relationship and knew this was the one thing they couldn’t control his opinions on.

Naturally, they disapproved and his mother did her best to sway his mind from cooking to studies, but relented to this presumingly side hobby. So, they didn’t think twice about his slowly accumulating collection of cookbooks and repeated attempts to master various cuisines. They only cared about his studies and his tutors had good reports to tell after all. Little did they know, his Mathematics teacher, who saw the raven children as their own, suggested he use his connections to apprentice at a restaurant. Knowing his parents would never approve, he decided to hide this part-time job from his parents by claiming he was finished with tutoring and wanted to get a degree in Journalism.

For the first year, all was well. He managed to juggle the pressures from his parents, his homework at school, and hiding his apprenticeship. Recognizing his prowess, the chef insisted he check out the job opportunity that opened up at La’Lune. It was around this time that the secret was let out when his picture was taken at the restaurant by a passerby. Since his family dealt in news, it took little time for this to reach his parent’s ear. Alan initially intended to give up, but Irene insisted he run. She helped him pull a simple switcheroo, since they were similar looking, and faced their parents alone while Alan flew as fast and far as he could.

Packing up a few suitcases, he didn’t hesitate to leave as fast as possible. He moved to Pinelight with the advertisement in mind and, curious about the culinary job, decided to move in and submit his application to a few restaurants in the area under his middle name, Edwin.

It’s only been a couple weeks since his arrival but he hopes to prove his ability through his interview and be accepted into the job. He doesn’t know much of what’s happened since he left his home, having heard nothing from his siblings or Irene, but it’s in the back of his mind for now.

Likes & Dislikes
 Likes   Dislikes 
 * Rock n’ Roll
 * Shiny things
 * Anything edible
 * A smoke after a hard day
 * Journalism
 * Getting his feathers wet
 * Improper Kitchen Etiquette
 * Having his tools moved around
 * Any bird predators
 * Condescension

Trivia
“Perhaps you’ll learn why a raven is like a writing desk.”
 * Since ravens are omnivores, he’ll eat anything that’s edible.  He enjoys experimenting and transforming an ingredient that disgusts people into something delicious
 * Is well-versed in German, Danish (though can recognize other Scandanavian languages), and Latin thanks to his upbringing ( Yes, I will be google translating thnx )
 * He has an interest in the macabre thanks to his journalist background despite being a scaredy bird and gets easily frightened if the atmosphere is right
 * Finds cats, dogs, and any other avian predator detestable but enjoys mocking prey animals
 * Prefers walking barefoot in his humanoid form since clothes in general are pretty annoying
 * Tolerates humans thanks to a past run-in with them
 * Though he tries his best not to show it, it’s sometimes a little too obvious he’s a bird brain
 * Absolutely adores Rock n’ Roll and similarly loud music, but he’s too afraid to actually embrace the subculture. So, he pretends to like jazz while humming to the latest rock albums by himself
 * Pretty good at holding his alcohol, but at the risk of him getting clingy and annoyingly loud
 * Though he didn’t actually go to college, Alan is still well-educated thanks to tutors his parents hired.