I see him riding around the rails, usually the 4-5-6, ya know. I know you've seen him to...the Cuckoo. Or maybe you've just heard him - the man likes to entertain the tourists when summer hits. To them, he's just another black beggar doing a routine - 1001 bird sounds and all. Mixed in with jokes about how his wife wants him to get a real job, you probably wouldn't make much of the man. 

I know the Cuckoo, I've seen him when he's alone in the Park or at Washington Square in the deep night. I've seen how he whistles to the Rock Doves and House Sparrows, and how they whistle back....perching atop his shoulders and whispering to him the secrets of the city.

And just once i've seen the Cuckoo angry.

It was 3am on a Wednesday night, and there he was on the platform whistling his bird calls and humming his tunes. Not a care in the world - alone. We thought we had ourselves an easy meal, but he knew we were coming. He jumped the turnstile and ran up the broken steps into the Park, but some of us were just to hungry to let him go.

From the subway entrance i saw them descend upon my friends - hundreds and hundreds of birds. A maelstrom of Doves, Sparrows, Pigeons, and even an Eagle, ripping their flesh with beaks and talons.

After they had done their bloody work, they flew around him, waiting for us to make a move. And as we retreated to the safety of our world below, we heard him say a single phrase:

"Let my army be the rocks and the trees, and the birds in the sky."


For over twenty years, William “Billy” Battle has watched the Occult Underground from the safety of the sidelines.  And in that time period, he has made it his number one priority to keep tabs on all of the major players in New York’s occult scene.  In fact, one could argue that Billy, known to those who play this dangerous game as the Cuckoo, is probably the best source of gossip and information in the underground, outside of the Fate and the elusive fortune teller Madame Endor.  
 
From the lowliest initiate or curious investigator, to some of the most powerful living (or otherwise) sorcerers of the Big Apple – Billy seems to know them all… or to know of them at least.  No one doubts where the Cuckoo has been getting his information: it’s the birds, which never seem to be too far from him wherever he travels.
 
It’s been whispered that Billy’s connection to avians is the result of some sort of childhood event that occurred in the South Bronx (or Jamaica Queens, or Washington Heights, no one can seem to keep the story straight) involving a very young William Battle saving a carrier pigeon and a strange tropical bird from the predations of an extremely bored street gang.  From that time on, the birds kept on coming – nesting on his window sill and on top of his roof.  Furthermore, if we are to believe the story, The Cuckoo started to receive messages via carrier pigeon from points unknown.*
 
The Cuckoo is an extremely easy-going man, a born comedian more apt to talk about the weather or the latest Knicks game at the Garden than to plunge an investigator into the intricacies of the underground, much less the various cults of the Mythos.  This is done out of both a concern for shielding people from the horrors that lay at the other end of the looking glass  as well as a general distaste for those in the Underground.
 
However, for all his claims of neutrality, the Cuckoo has been known on several occasions to interfere, directly or indirectly, in the politics of the Underground.  There is one rule has never violated: His continuing avoidance of representatives of the Network and members of the Fate.
 
In recent years, the Cuckoo has become far more willing to trade pieces of information with other individuals, so long as they can provide some sort of compensation in return.  His expertise lies in two eras: obscure myths and the living patterns of people, or rather their daily activities.  He can tell you what Anton Merriweather had for breakfast this morning, which people in the city are surviving members of the Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight,  what restaurants are owned by descendants of the Tcho-Tcho, and the last time Belial’s been seen outside of Club Apocalypse.
 
Many have remarked how the Cuckoo has grown more anxious with the end of the last millennium.  He’s been seen frequently at the home of the infamous Buddha of Brooklyn and the shop of rare book dealer Lionel Tobin.  He’s also been searching for signs of Madame Endor, but not even his birds can seem to find out where she’s hiding.
 
Modus Operandi: Hide in Plain Sight. 
You know the reason why the Fate or any of the other various cults working around the Tri-State area have never touched you is because you’ve purposely made yourself insignificant.  Undoubtedly some have grown suspicious over time, but without a shred of evidence to prove some sort of master plot they’ve let you go.   Just keep playing the part of the Fool – the world’s about to take a pretty awful turn, maybe one that’s inevitable, but you’ve got to wait for the right opportunity to strike and perhaps buy the Earth another century or two.
 
*-   Pigeons aren’t the only birds that carry messages to the Cuckoo.  Lionel Tobin let it slip that a variety of birds native to the South Pacific have shown up at the Cuckoo’s flat.  Incidentally, the Cuckoo met his Polynesian wife somewhere in the South Pacific during a brief tour of duty with the Navy. [Shame on you long time CoC Keepers if you can’t put this one together!]

Critical Skills: Speak with Birds 65%Speak Other Language 32% [The Cuckoo has learned a smattering of other languages by talking with the Birds]

Critical Spells (or at least the ones that people know he has access to): Call Giant Sea Eagle, Command Bird, Enchant Spear, Elder Sign 
 

Rumors in the Underground – Coming Soon (Watch the DG List!)

“So you hear about the Orthodox Rebbe in Flatbush?  His followers whisper that he’s almost discovered the complete name of God…”

“They say the only person who has ever beaten “the Snob” in an Auction War is Stephen Alzis.  Funny how those two always seem to be going after the same thing....”
 
“You’d best steer clear of Kim the Twice Exiled.   The bastard has been licking his wounds in Flushing, Queens ever since he escaped Los Angeles.  I’m sure one day he’ll cross the red lines with the Fate and end up as another unsolved homicide.”