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Role: Junior Operative, Corvid Cognition & Linguistic Transmission Team

Background:
Anika Rao entered the FDG through academic channels, her early research flagged for its unsettling precision. With a first-class BSc in Zoology from Oxford and a master’s in Bioacoustics and Neural Mapping from Imperial College, Rao was already an outlier. Her postgraduate thesis—“Intraspecific Alarm Signalling Among Corvus Species in Northern Europe”—noted semantic irregularities in crow vocalisations near known folkloric boundary sites. It earned attention not only from peer reviewers but from the FDG.

Recruited into the Corvid Cognition & Linguistic Transmission Team, she now works on decoding repeated phoneme structures in corvid distress calls—structures believed to represent linguistic interfaces between birds and the fae.

Skills:
Expert in audio-linguistic pattern recognition, with specialisation in:

• Corvid vocal semantics
• Cryptobehavioural mapping in avian species
• Folkloric linguistics and cross-boundary call analysis
• Field-grade surveillance using parabolic microphones and spectrographic wristbands

Rao is also trained in covert audio capture and quick deployment field tech. Maintains an extensive personal library of annotated birdcalls.

Personality:
Quietly driven and intellectually intense. Rao is meticulous in both observation and analysis, prone to late-night data reviews and long bouts of silent listening. She is not easily rattled and prefers to let her findings speak before she does. Has a dry, observational wit and an almost empathic connection with corvids—some of whom have been known to follow her between assignments.

Birdwatching is her primary coping mechanism. She often records roost calls long after mission hours, whispering poetic fragments into her encrypted audio diary.

Motive:
To uncover the latent language of corvids and their role as fae intermediaries. She believes that the birds are not just messengers but participants in a complex cross-species communication network—one that humans have barely begun to hear.