Images may contain artistic nudity | Candidate at Caer Mystrach
** 2025 note this was across 3 different pages, diva, diva2, and cardiv,
will have repeated info on carol's pages
Diva and Carol only truly become outwardly Triptych after leaving Alskyr**

Triptych Character

Name: Diva laFontaine

Gender: Female, age 14 at search

Height/Build: 5'1" / muscular and small

Appearance: Diva's hair is a rich brown-black, and is always cut short around her neck. Her eyes are a dark green color, and her skin is a milky yellow-tan, her mother's looks are strong in her, even if her personality is that of her father.

Prime One

Sandpiper

Size: ~10" long

Abilities: Speed, Flight

Prime Two

Red Fox

Size: ~3'8" long

Abilities: Stealth, Cunning

Prime Three

Welsh Pony

Size: 5' at head

Abilities: Endurance, Health

Triptych

Flying Fox Pony

Size: 5'4"

Abilities: Fast in air and ground moves

Shift: with confidence moves between Primes and Triptych, for whatever is needed

Quirk: holds on to items in fox mouth, and ... they appear in her hands later

.

Daughter of a Clan Triptich engineer and a Tsan Nu weaver, and given at an early age by her mother quietly and permanently back to her father Marcel. There was something "odd" about this child that Marcel had sired, and her mother knew it right from the start.

Marcel escaped Faustas' shortly before he met Diva's mother, and she harbored him at Tsan Nu when House Faustas was looking for him. His whereabouts are unknown at this time, though he stops in with the rest of the wandering Trippers from time to time.

Diva lives for these little moments with her family. Her mother is adamant that Diva never return to Tsan Nu, however. Her little problem with kleptomania is embarrassing, however rarely is it serious. She has stolen from everyone in the Triptych clan nearby at least once, but it's when they come into proximity to other Houses or Clans that it becomes a problem for everyone.

Diva wants to try stopping herself from stealing, though she's not going to have an easy time. She might have better luck helping her best friend Carrolyne with her weight problem.

**

Diva sat in her hut, the sparkling glass inset to the goblet she'd... found... entrancing her eyes while enraging her gut. How could she have been so stupid? Stealing this from the passing lords? Well, they stayed long enough to unload a lot of money gambling with the others, so ...

But this wasn't gambling, and Diva knew it. She looked at her strong fingers. They were too quick, too easy to move. In fact she wasn't certain she even really had to touch something to get it into her hand anyway. The rumor was that she could move items with her mind - or more likely her deeper desires would do it without any hint at asking her 'mind' about it. She'd just wander through the encampment, and things would appear in her pockets later.

It was an embarrassing secret - one which she dreaded anyone learning. But that was where Carrolyne was such a pal. She didn't seem to know - or care - about it. She always just brushed off the obvious 'where did you get this from it's not yours' comments that others would say, and go straight to just returning whatever she'd stolen to its rightful owner.

At least Diva didn't tend to take anything twice.

So here was this lovely goblet. The wandering lordlings were already well on their way to their next destination and Diva knew that the Trippers would be heading the opposite direction within several weeks at most. That was both a relief and a concern for her. Maybe she would be able to sell it, claiming that it had merely been left behind - but then again... no one ever believed that line.

No one. But Carol did. Okay, so maybe Carrolyne wasn't really the brightest of the bunch, but she was a good girl. And she always had something new to wear - and Diva never had to steal those things! They were hardly the same size, height wise, but if Diva wanted a dress she could always try on one of Carol's skirt-shirts. They'd fall lower and still be snug around her hips and chest. That girl was so thin...

She heard something at the leather flap to the hut, as usual it was the exuberant Carrolyne.

(shared)

Carrolyne looked around and ticked her tongue, "that's where those scissors got to," she said, and carefully pocketed the small pair of sharp scissors. She knew that Diva had 'borrowed' them, but never could remember her asking what they'd be used for. Many people would find things they had lost in Diva's hut.

"Do you like it? I just finished it up!" Carol said, spinning around in a circle and fluffing out the hem of the dress. "I think I need to take it in a little more - there's always so much material left over."

Diva looked up from her 'work', and grinned. "It looks great!" She said, and before she realized it, or caught herself, she said, "you could fill it out a little more, get some meat on those bones --" Then she clamped her dark fingers over her mouth.

"MEAT?!" Caroline yelled, suddenly quite angry and her head spun. "Meat? You want meat? Here- nobody likes me the way I am, how about this?" She concentrated and in her anger she managed to shapeshift into a half-human half-antelope creature. Her dress, with so much hard work into it, slid to the ground near what appeared to be hooves instead of Carol's bare feet. Diva knew her friend was a shifer - but she'd never seen her do it so abruptly before.

But then, as Carrolyne's horned head turned on Diva to angrily look at her, oddly sounding words came from the muzzle-mouth of her friend - "oh... I don't feel so--" and Carrolyne dropped to the floor in a bony heap - still shaped like an antelope-person.

"Carrolyne!" Diva yelled, and lept to her side. It was all her fault, if she could only learn to control her mouth as well as her darned hands - always saying the wrong thing or stealing something else -- "Carrolyne, please be okay! Wake up!"

Barely aware, Carrolyne looked at Diva with dark horizontally-slitted eyes, and whispered, "don't tell..." But then dropped into unconsciousness.

Diva frantically moved around Carol's inert body, and finally decided that she'd get her into the bed. Hefting the strangely-shaped girl up to her shoulder, Diva muttered, "Well at least you're easy to lift this way. Too light. Oh, girlfriend, what is gonna happen to you..."

In Diva's mind, there were few things she could do to help. She was no healer, no medical skills had been taught to her. She was a thief, and the worst kind too - the kind who couldn't even control her urges to take. There was nothing to remove from Carrolyne's body. She drew her fingers across her friend's furry brow, and whispered, "hold on Carol, I'm going to get some help."

She bolted from the hut, hoping that no one entered it and found a half-human creature there...

"If Drake were here -- oh why did you have to go to Talor?! Drake!" Diva yelled, as she stumbled around the rocky terrain looking for someone to help. She gasped when she heard someone else's voice.

"Drake's still at the Caer, Diva. What's up? Why are you so--" It was Wade, known as Buck to some of the people around but he only allowed his 'closest' friends to call him that. The big black man looked worried.

"Wade! It's Carrolyne!" Diva blurted out, "she..." dare she say it? Well, they were supposed to all be hunted for a reason anyway - "she shapeshifted and then passed out! She can't shift back to human!" Her voice rose high, squealing, "what are we going to do!?"

Wade stood there blankly wondering what in the world she could mean, and then lowered his head close to hers. "Show me."

They arrived back to the hut to see no one else nearby. Out of breath, Diva panted and sat down near the bed again. Her friend had not really stirred, and had not come back to her human shape. If it startled Wade, he made very little deal of it.

"She's breathing, so shallow," Diva said, "do you think ... she'll die?"

"Not while I'm on guard duty," Wade announced. "Stay here. I'm going to get Angela. Maybe she'll know what to do. If I can't find her, I guess we'll have to figure something else out..."

Diva sat with her hands clenching around each other, concern for her friend destroying any hint of composure that she often wore. Within minutes, Wade had returned with Angela in tow.

The pale skinned woman with the big red birthmarks stood with her eyes wide, and Diva slid out of her way. "Can you help her?" Diva asked, her voice shaking.

"I'll see. It's not..." Angela knelt beside the bed, and placed her fingers on the furry shoulder. There was only a flicker of amazement in her blue eyes when she saw the odd inhuman girl. She furrowed her silver-colored eyebrows and said, "this is not a wound. I cannot do anything for her, Diva." Angela whispered. There was sorrow in her voice, more than anything.

"But she'll DIE!" Diva yelled, standing frantically. When she did so, one of the local elders threw open the flap to the hut. There was a moment of stunned silence, as everyone realized that he'd be seeing Carrolyne in her half-human form.

"What's going on here?" He asked sharply. He was clearly related to Dave and Dane, with his blond hair and striking blue eyes. He looked at Carol, and frowned when Diva explained what happened.

She did so carefully, and used simple words - but she left nothing out.

"How long has she been like this?" He asked.

"More than an hour," said Angela, "she's sleeping, or in a coma."

The clan elder nodded, his medical experience was obvious. Dean looked at Carrolyne as the others held their breath. "Diva, Angela, relax. I have an idea." He rose and left the hut, and came back quickly enough. He held a long rubber tube in one hand and what looked like a funnel in the other.

"Go get some broth, there's always some cooking in the gather-yard," Dean instructed Diva. She was loathe to leave her friend - especially now, but... She did as he asked. It seemed like the only solution - to get food into Carrolyne's stomach they would have to actually put it there themselves. Force feeding her sounded so ... barbaric. But...

Diva bolted out, and ran to the center of the Triptych caravan gathering. It was true, there was always something brewing. She decided that colder was better - hot liquid going down Carol's throat might hurt her too much, and that would probably end their friendship. Diva grabbed the first jug of it she found, one which was placed on a sill to cool, and she heard a vague yell from the inside of that caravan. She didn't care. This time, she wasn't stealing it, she was using it as per Dean's request, and if she got into trouble it would be on his head this time, and not hers.

Diva came back, breathless, to the hut, where Dean had pushed the finger-thick tube down the still-unconscious Carrolyne's throat. It looked horrible, but they'd only this chance. As he attached the funnel to the other end, Diva opened the jug of broth - it smelled quite good and it obviously had only been made hours before - and handed it to him.

"Pour it, carefully," Dean said, not having enough arms to go around. He instructed the others to hold Carol's head up, and Angela was certainly interested in this all from a medical point of view - plus she could tell if Carol was choking.

"She's doing fine," Angela said, a moment later, "she's breathing all right." Her eyes were closed, there was a strange tingling sensation coming from her. Diva felt it, probably everyone there did. She carefully started pouring the liquid into the funnel, and they waited for the results.

(read that on Carol's page)

(had been Diva2)

Diva stayed with Carrolyne (well, Carol stayed in Diva's hut) for the whole night. They would sleep over anyway, switching off, but this was different. Diva found herself mothering the other girl, ticking her tongue whenever Carol would bring up how thin she should look and this and that.

"You think I must be a total tub of lard, then," Diva announced, dressing for bed. She waggled her (admittedly rounded, but not fat by any means) rear end at Carol. Carol giggled.

"You're ... healthy?" Carrolyne said, trying so hard to be better.

"You still actually think I am fat," Diva said, sliding into her night dress. It would be a windy night, if not cold. "Well get over it. You're way too skinny to judge. When you're a little healthier, girlfriend, you can tell me if I'm a blubber butt."

Snorking a laugh and throwing a pillow at Diva, Carol and she went to sleep - and for the first time, Carol didn't make herself throw up the contents of her stomach before doing so.

Diva said nothing about that. It was tacky, and besides, it was gross! She knew she wasn't fat, in fact the way the boys would look at her said volumes otherwise.

"Did you get FUR in my BED?" Diva laughed.

In the morning, it was hard to get out of bed. There was a windstorm coming from the center of the Isle, crossing south onto the hilly area where the Clan had camped down for the season. Dust was brought with the wind, but at least it wasn't terribly cold. The savannah was always warm - at least that was what they were told. The Triptych Clan didn't actually cross the open plains unless they were with the Nsomekans, and that was rare these days. They had been so thinned out by Faustas and scattered, that if they appeared in a place where dragons or gryphons roosted Faustas could follow them more easily.

Diva helped Carol up, she was still quite weak. But at least her dress was still in the hut. "You look fine, now," Diva said, lying a little. Carol's eyes were sunken and dark, and as always she was a little gaunt. But she was up and smiling and that was good.

"Thanks," Carol said, "do you hear something?"

"Other than wind? Yeah, it sounds like breakfast." Diva nudged the skinny girl and then had to drag Carrolyne out to the center of the caravan complex. It was breakfast, yes. Smoked meats and scrambled eggs... Carol couldn't stomach more than a little bit of it, before she actually started looking a little green. So Diva made sure that she was at least halfway fed, and then they began their daily chores.

The woman whose jug of broth had been stolen glared at Diva the whole time, but said nothing. Diva didn't shoot her the glances of anger that she could have - she was so totally justified and they'd all heard Dean's speech. Diva had to put to memory where the caravan was, though, so she could replace the jug when they were done with it. She estimated that would be tonight, if anything.

Carrolyne had sewing to do, thread to spin. Diva washed dishes and clothing. Until the mid morning rest period, they did these things without comment and apart from one another. Diva hoped that Carol didn't backslide quickly and upchuck her breakfast.

She needn't have worried. When they caught up with one another, Carol actually complained that her stomach was full and she could hardly bend over with the food in it. "So that's what it's like," Diva suggested. "And when you're used to it, you'll probably be able to put some muscles on those bones." She pinched the soft-down covered skin on Carol's arm, "I didn't mean any insult, you know that. I mean, you need to get strong."

"Lookit," Carrolyne said, her eyes drifting upwards. Over the trees there was movement. Dragon shaped movement. So Dean had been right - there was a dragon coming!

How he'd known was something to think about later. Maybe someone else told him. But for the moment, Diva and Carol cleaned themselves up and bolted down to the flats where the dragon had landed. Near the little pond, the ground was almost perfectly flat - it was muddy but dry right now, as the winds from the savannah dried out all these small watering holes. A large blue dragon had landed, and some other clan members had started to arrive. Carol and Diva were the first on hand.

A bellow of another dragon caught everyone's attention, and it was bronze Saoith, Dave's big dragon. He was curious, apparently, about the search. And naturally, Dave would want to know which of the Triptych Clan were to be carted off to Mystrach, right?

Dean conferred with his dragon riding son, apparently at a distance. How he could do this was a mystery, but that was fine. For the moment, Diva and Carol were both entranced by the blue dragon.

"What's his name?" Carol asked, finally curious about them instead of self-conscious.

"Karlan," answered the dragoner, "say, why don't you two come closer. He certainly won't bite." The girls did so, as Dave and Dean watched in half-smirking silence. There were other young clan members around, but they were all but ignored by the dragons.

"If it's all right with your clan leaders," the rider whose name was Tremlin tossed his head toward them, "I'd like you two to get packed up for a trip to Mystrach. There are eggs on the sands and it'll be a quick wait - they've been there for a while, and the dam of the clutch is rather eager to get some candidates there."

"Who wouldn't want to go?!" Diva excitedly said, clutching her friend's shoulders. "Come on!"

With a little more reluctance Carrolyne agreed, and they went to stand before Dean and his son. Though Dean wasn't the only elder who could say they could go, he was certainly the only one who had no trouble in saying yes. Though the girls provided their skills, they were still young and one of them a thief, after all.

"Then they will hopefully return to your clan on dragons of their own," called Tremlin, "I'll be back tonight, if that's all right? I might find other bonders around the countryside."

"They'll be ready," Dean called back, and the blue dragon took off. Dean smiled a very fatherly expression toward the pair. "You see, I told you you would be needed up and well."

Diva went to her hut, while Carrolyne to her own. Both of them wanted to pack essentials - but only Carol really HAD any. Almost everything Diva owned had been taken inadvertantly from someone else, after all. Diva packed the goblet that she'd lifted from the lordlings. She'd easily be able to actually sell it at the Caer, no one would ever know where it came from anyway.

So that evening, with a bit of a teary farewell and sternly given instructions from Dean about Carol's eating, they waited for the dragon to arrive.

It would be a long, somewhat precarious ride, without assistance. The other search rider from Mystrach was called upon to take one of the girls. So two dragons, blue and green, went off with a shapeshifter and a thief...

(from carol's page)

The trip to Mystrach was windy and exhilirating. Neither girl showed any signs of fear from the height or of the dragons themselves, and that was a good thing. They landed on the coast of the isle, both girls were stunned to see this gigantic almost vertical peak towering over everything. They'd never seen a land like this, they had never been off Paniya.

"It's huge!" They whispered, clutching each other. They were led into the Caer's lower underground entrance, and wandered a bit before finding where they would sleep. They could share a room, and they each even got their own bed!

It was while they were exploring after a tense dinner - tense because of course Diva glowered at Carrolyne every time she would try to get up and leave for the restrooms - that they located a little alcove with someone sitting in it. She looked old, out of place, and she had a basket.

"Here, here girls," she said, old bony fingers finally making even Carol wince with how thin she was - "this Caer don't have any good feathers... Them eggs'll only hatch dragon. How 'bout these?" She waggled her fingers at the tiny eggs in the basket.

"What are they? I mean," Carol asked, "they're eggs, but what kind?"

"You'll have to hatch one and see..." the old woman gave Carol one egg, while Diva declined. She would just be accused of stealing it anyway...

So while they waited the few days until the hatching, Carol intently watched the egg. Diva assured her that it would require actually feeding whatever came out of it, and not to spare any expense for her own meals - but not to share just because whatever hatchling would be hungry. "It should get its own meals..." Diva warned. Not too much later, and with a little bowl of scraps from dinner sitting nearby, Carrolyne watched as the egg hatched open to show a gangly long-necked alisGryph!

"You're so cute!" She exclaimed, and Diva handed her friend the bowl. "I wonder what your name is going to be..." Carol pondered for a minute, and then the little half-feline hatchling cried out in a honking hiss. "Honker- too loud! You'll keep everyone awake!"

Diva giggled, and they settled down to wait for the dragons to hatch...

(from Cardiv)

Carrolyne drummed her fingers on the table, beside her plate. Diva had looked away and in the moment she did, Carol popped another piece of potato-crisp bake into her little Honker's beak.

The alisgrif gobbled whatever she had for him right down, and rarely got caught.

However, Diva looked at the bird-flit and then back at Carol.

"Next bite had better go into your mouth, my friend," Diva cleared her throat and waggled her eyebrows.

"... Fine... you win..." Carol muttered.

"Good. That's what I like to hear." Diva chuckled. "That, and the sound of your teeth chewing something..."

"I know... I know..." Carol ate the meal and found that this time, even though she *wanted* to refuse more, she was actually... sort of hungry. She still ate by picking pieces off her plate and slowly sampling each one. Honker on the other hand wanted anything it could get its beak or claws into.

The days went by at Mystrach, and Carol kept her promises to everyone. She worked hard on some of her clothing pieces, and took some comissions to do other skirts and cute dresses for the locals. Diva ... found herself in a room that belonged to a scribe, and her hands on something they shouldn't have been. She put the expensive looking pen set back where she'd gotten them, and hustled out.

When the bright sunny day came that neither of them would ever forget, the hatching started abruptly. The eggs were already shaking and riddled with cracks in some cases. Apparently Myrath had nearly forgotten to notice something like that.

The first dragon to hatch was a small green, who bonded to the big blue dragon who had been unbonded at his birth. Then, a brown and a brilliant cream hatched out, two eggs smashed into one another with their forceful wobbling. A bunch of sand obscured the pair of hatchlings until it settled down, and then everyone gave off a bit of a laugh.

The pair of dragons were piled together among the shards of their shells, hopelessly tangled. Oh dear, Carol heard in her mind, Carol, dear bond, I seem to be stuck.

Only she had heard this, and suddenly Carrolyne stopped laughing. She said, "Kathra!" knowing the name of her dragon instantly. She giggled a little more, as she carefully extracated the cream from her brown brother. Diva caught her broad grin and applauded loudly. This was Carrolyne's moment!

Another egg broke, a red. He bonded and then a bronze hatched. It walked toward the brown who had been left alone when Kathra bonded. A voice came from the bronze, yet it was very female in sound. Do not worry, One will come for you. But for now, I must find my bond.

She strode out to the other candidates, through the shells and eggs. She looked over everyone equally, but her decision was, Diva, no one will doubt your actions now. I will help you and together, we will be great.

Kneeling and taking in a surprised breath, "Saitra, you- you're bronze!"

Of course I am, silly. But you don't have to steal my metal.

Diva picked up the hatchling, a tough job for the tiny girl, and they went to find Carol and her cream. Both of them congratulated each other on a bonding well chosen, while their dragonets shared their first meal. They were ravenous, and for the first time in her life Carrolyne worried that there wasn't *enough* food for her dragon!

(carol's dragon is on carol's page of course)