
Candidates at Nidus Otykaii, Darkling Dawn, and
Images contain artistic
nudity
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Triptych Character
Ramon Arryanto
Angela Corsair
Tracy Downing
Wade Harton
Wolf in the Moon
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Prime One
Horned Owl
White Ermine
Little Black Bat
Anhinga
Grey Squirrel
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Prime Two
Jaguar
Great Heron
Ringtail Lemur
Bengal Tiger
White Necked Raven
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Prime Three
Quetzel
White Unicorn
Okapi
Black Elk
Grey Wolf
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Abilities
Accuracy, eventually teleportation/tk
Healing
Stealth (Hiding), Dexterity
Size and Strength
Nature commune, Stealth
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Sad eyes look back at me when I see myself in the
mirror. What have I done? It if hadn't been for Rita and Angela I'd be
dead now.
I don't know, maybe that's not such a great loss.
Sometimes the pain is so bad I nearly go back to the rocks, but I know
which is worse. Madre Dios, how can I live with this pain?
When I am soaring with Rita, sometimes she'll come with me at night because
the light's too bright for my owl-eyes, she reminds me how freedom is
better than any fucking damn rocks. I know she doesn't love me the way
she loves David, she is like the sister I needed so long ago.
Half the time I write -- it turns into a suicide note. I don't want to
do that this time.
Downstairs right now the Phoenix boys are messing with Diva and Caroline,
I can hear them pretending to shake Diva down for the stuff she steals.
I used to steal to buy my crack, but I don't need to any more. She steals
'cause she's a klepto, not because she wants to.
Drake in the next bedroom slithers around like a snake in a pit, I wonder
what he's thinking. I know he thinks I'm a stupid mexican halfbreed, but
hell, maybe I am. Maybe because I left home when I was 11 I screwed up
my whole life, I know it's why I got into the Redsides. Least I didn't
get the tattoos when they offered. I get enough strange skin when I shift.
I don't like doing the panther-cat any more. Not since what I did to Rita
with it. And the snake is like Satan anyway. So I am left with the owl
flying at night, and the monster I become when I change into all three.
Music at night is beating wings
Drowning out my pain
Satin flesh and needle sharp stings
Who needs to cry
Tears fall in rain
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Angela is my name, though I have no idea why my
parents played such a horrid joke on me. They are not to blame for my
original deformity -- they`re perfectly average Port Wine Stain birthmarks.
My parents are however to blame for what they did to try to remove them.
When I was little, I remember it quite clearly, my mother and father took
me into the basement and told me to get into the big barrel they had set
up. They made it seem like I was going to get to swim or something. It
was bleach. They made me stand in bleach for an hour or more at a time
-- yes, they did this many times -- and I now dread both basements and
the scent of bleach. This continued until I was about ten, sporadically
after that, and it stopped completely because I got away from them when
I was sixteen. Notice that I did not say `ran` away, because I did not
run.
My name is Angela. Angela. Angela. I am known as Heron or Unicorn or Silvermink
by the others. It took a long time to get used to people again. When I
had gotten about thirty miles away from my home, it began to rain, and
I was left with the choice to either try to get home, or somehow get farther
away. I had no money and no friends, and a horrid feeling that I was going
to die. I had developed two out of my three Primes by then, a white mink
and a pure white heron -- these things are not affected by my skin somehow
so I usually spent more time as one of those than human. A sixteen year
old walking the rain slicked dirt road outside of a small town is one
of those things that usually winds up on the evening news, after the fact
and the hideous murder. Believe me, I was quite aware of the danger I
had placed myself in. I was prepared to take the chance.
I kept walking until I reached Bluffside. More than an hour by car away
from my home and dead tired, I collapsed and then remained where I had
fallen through the next day. Once there, I called my parents and told
them I was not returning. I found a job and some clothing and a room to
live in. There I stayed for nearly a year before I felt the need to leave.
I found my third Prime on the way to meeting Ramon for the first time.
A silvermaned unicorn with a red horn, of all things, the most unique
thing in the whole world, why did it have to be me?
It was raining again, when I was sitting beneath a bridge in their town.
I was hungry and sulking and didn`t have any desire to hunt as a bird.
Then I noticed a girl right about my age sitting beside me. How she got
there is beyond me, I thought I had been paying attention. She sat there
and then smiled, and offered me a piece of raisin bread. I love raisins.
When Ramon came by, he didn`t say anything to me at first. He and Rita
sat and watched me, like I was going to run away or something. Then Rita
slowly shifted into a cat. I couldn`t believe my eyes. Ramon did the same
thing into his wonderful jungle colors. So I didn`t have much choice but
to go ahead and change into my mink. We slept curled up in a big furry
ball like that with the rain dripping down over the sides of the small
bridge. When we woke, Rita had gone for food or something, and Ramon looked
at me and told me I was beautiful, that I was the most beautiful woman
he`d ever met.
He is the only person who has ever said that. He is the only one I would
ever believe. I know he has a drug problem, but that went it`s course
and we`ve seen through worse. I`ll love him forever.
When we got to the housing project where we live now, David was already
there. The Phoenix brothers came with us when we found them at the lab
park. They aren`t nearly as innocent as they claim to be, surely not Andrew.
He is going to be formidable in the future if only he`d open up. Drake
is civil to me, and no more -- so that is what he gets from me in return.
Wade is Wade. Diva and I argue about petty things, it isn`t likely we`ll
ever be true friends. Caroline is about the most frightened girl I have
ever met, she should listen to people when they tell her to eat, but the
way she sees the world I guess is different. She`ll kill herself someday
over it. I thought about that for a while, killing myself, but I have
a little too much pride, or is it bitterness, in me to do it. I`d rather
inflict myself on the world.
What are you staring at?
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As if Stripe is a decent name. As if I care. It
took me so long to figure out what the hell a lemur was, at least I got
the okapi right off.
When the others ask me about where I was from before the labs, I can`t
tell them anything. It isn`t that I dont want to, I just don`t know. I
can`t tell them that either. Rita knows, she doesn`t try to pry it out
of me, like she won`t test David`s patience with questions either. I have
the patience. I dont have the memory.
I maybe wanted to be called Black Bat or something, well, that was last
week`s stupid name. Stripe fits my looks, not my damn heritage like Drake
thinks. (Drake, she shudders, is a bastard and a half}
It`s none of his business if anyone in my family was white or whatever.
He isn`t the vision of Aryan godliness he wants to be, after all, he is
an Italian of what I consider questionable morals. I really do just want
to ignore him -- maybe he`ll go away. Right.
When I woke up in the labs, there were about fifteen people waiting. I
freaked and shifted as fast as I could into whatever it was that Stripe
is -- odd, isn`t it, that I can`t come up with a decent title for the
Triptych even though it looks so good -- and ran smack into a wall. A
glass wall. I realised I was on display about a second later, and then
I went back to being human. Naked. Thanks, doc. How can they do this,
I asked myself. But at least when David left he came back for us later.
Me and Dane, that is. And breaking the glass in my enclosure was not hard
for him, but for Dane`s, I can`t imagine all that water tumbling over
him. Dane must have had to shift pretty quick if he didn`t want to die
in the open air. I feel sorry for him. No wonder he smokes. I would.
Anyway, about me -- I`ve been told that I am twenty years old, which I
suppose I ought to believe, I`m about as dark as a Hershey`s milk chocolate
bar, I like having my hair straight not afro, I do not enjoy hanging upside
down as a bat, but I do quite like being able to chirp-locate in the dark.
I like my coffee black, like my men (Wade -- yum}, I believe in God and
Heaven and hard work, but I don`t know how we got to be the way we are.
I don`t believe in miracles, I don`t believe in Deux-Ex, nor in alien
visitations.
I took a caligraphy course sometime before the labs, but I don`t remember
it. The results are obvious, when I'm writing - better than all the others.
Ramon, bless his soul, writes better poetry when he is depressed than
when he isn`t, but I write down all I can when he speaks it aloud. And
Alexander fearlessly tells me he`s going to be a politician when he `grows
up`. Quaint, that a boy of fifteen who can change into a burning pillar
of feathers wants to be in that line of work.
Myself, I`ll settle for secretary or whatever can make me decent money.
My monkey fingers (as Rita calls them) work so quickly I don`t see how
anyone can resist hiring me. We`ll need the money, once David`s runs out.
Others seem to want to become some kind of Superhero, saving the world
from what? Us? Heroes? I don`t know. Drake fancies himself one already,
and I`ll give him that he looks good and impressive in the heat of battle,
but Wade is better, and I`d rather be rescued by a guy with horns than
scales any day.
Sometimes, I have dreams about the days before the labs, I suppose that`s
what they are. Last time I did, I woke up screaming because I`d just been
in a traffic accident. Blood dripping from my hands was my mother`s not
mine, but I knew I was injured as well.
Maybe that`s a dream. Maybe it`s a memory. I hold on to those dearly,
if only I could tell the difference.
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If I went to the bar last night, I'd remember,
right? Besides, they usually kick me out at around 1 AM, and I didn't
wake up in the park.
My name is Wade Harton, and I'm an alcholic. Seventeen years old and
I've been drinking since I was twelve, since before I've been able to
shift.
If I didn't know better, I might think the guys send me into a fight
first on purpose. I remember playing some stupid dungeoncrawl game and
we always sent the big fighter in first. It was a joke then. It's no
joke now.
Not that I'm afraid to go anywhere first. Or start the fight, or finish
it. I know there's always somebody backing me up, I'm pretty sure noone
hates me that much.
What's to hate? My winning smile? My dashing good looks and fine ebony-mag-cover
skin? Certainly not my Trip, it's about the best thing I've got going
right now. There's a reason they call me Buck, buck, because you don't
mess with the big ones. I guess it'd be pushing it if I was to suggest
calling me 'Top Buck', huh? Or the tiger. Or the cool diving bird. Really
like being this way. I think I'm the only one.
David and I go way back, I mean not as far as Rita and Ramon go back,
but I guess we've got about the same amount of history as they do. When
he disappeared I went looking for him, and sure enough it was back to
the labs to get his bro and -- heavy sigh -- Tracy. I was there at the
gate when they needed me, and I guess we've been there for each other
ever since. That's cool by me.
Diva I can't stand. She ought to have her head checked, or at least
her fingers tied up or something. Girl is dangerous. Can't take her
anywhere without getting into trouble.
And ever since Angela finally started using her Trip she's got mostly
over that self-image problem of hers. Me, maybe I wish I had that ability
but the drink takes me in every time. Wish I could go to more meetings,
but David insists that I keep to myself more, like he insists the others
stay close too. I know why, everyone does, but still.
One thing I really like is being able to fly with the rest -- we must
look pretty bizarre from the ground -- all these wildly different birds
swooping around and diving and stuff. We wind up flying into the forest
and playing tag or like that, until the Phoenix bros start frying things
with their wierd flame eyes. Those guys give me the creeps.
Listen to me. For all I know this could all be a really fine drunk vision.
But I wake up in the morning and my hands make hooves when I think about
it. Sometimes I wake up scared.
Sometimes I'm afraid I won't wake up at all.
I wish I had a chance to go to college, my dad always wanted that. If
he knew how I wound up he'd probably shit a brick. Remembering my dad
gives me some hope, I remember he hit the bottle pretty hard a lot too.
Never hit me, though. Or mom. Broke his hand against the wall a couple
times, nearly crashed the car into the house once. When I started changing
I split.
I knew he couldn't take this. It'd probably drive him over the edge.
Speaking of the edge, there's a good club near here called the Edge,
me and some of the others go there when Davie's not watching. Maybe
he'd go too if we invited him. Or maybe if Rita did. It's about time
David found someone like that.
Maybe Tracy will be that for me. Maybe she just wants me for my body.
Big-ass surprize there, Buck.
One time, Andrew mentioned these guys he calls Persuers. I've seen them,
I didn't tell him that, maybe I should. Kid needs a break. His brothers
are both pretty hard on him, but then again he is pretty strange otherwise.
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Read the Triptych Prequel for information on Wolf...
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