Triptych Character

Pastor Dave

Prime One

Keeshound

Shift: quick, often
Abilities: adorable, fast ground move

Prime Two

Harpy Eagle

Shift: slow, rare
Abilities: flight, remarkable sight

Prime Three

White Tiger

Shift: slow, uncommon
Abilities: strength, surprising camouflage

Full Shift

As Shown, retains floof and curly tail of P1, full head, wings, talon hands of P2, muscle mass and coloration, feet of P3

Shift: quick, frequent, circumstantial (meetings, escapes, etc)
Abilities: Empathy, Emotion Sway (from calm and pleasant to terrified or impressed)

Dave may have been his real name, before arriving to Snow Rising, but no one knows his original last name. He is a kind man, who had plenty of friends and followers while he was living on the coast. But even as a teenager he knew he was different, radically different, and likely entered the priesthood because he wanted to either control or hide these shapeshifting abilities. Unlike others among the Triptych group - such as Drake - he never found himself worried that he was 'evil' because of his shapes. It was more that he knew other people were going to be picking him apart if they knew about it. And sure enough once Polygen got wind of it, somehow, his life was forever changed.

He was captured on only one occasion, drawn to a group of 'wayward youth' to help them sort their lives out. He meant well, and he knows that he touched at least one of their lives in a positive manner. But another of them was a Polygen spy, a triptych who had been grown and 'born' (a clone of another employee) and fully indoctrinated in their rather undesirable experimental studies. Under the guise of a faked self-harm call, Pastor Dave rushed to their 'home' - which was definitely not a home... A warehouse with a crew of Faust's awaiting guards. Like many who had been captured by the company before him, Dave's full Triptych form emerged only under the stress of being captured. While he'd toyed with his other shapes, truly only loving the keeshound shape, he burst into his biggest fluffiest form, ripped their nets to shreds, and flew off into the night.

That night he packed his bags and stuffed everything he could into his van, removed the van's licence plates, and rushed off without another word. Unfortunately that meant that his own small bible study group was left without a leader, and his sudden disappearance prompted a search, but... after a while they gave up. He had headed out with that van and wandered eastward in a panic, but within a few days he calmed himself, and started flying around overhead to scout his way before continuing. Something was drawing him to New Mexico, so that was where he went. And without so much as knowing the name of the place, he arrived at Snow Rising to stand before their beautiful purple lake.

He met the locals and felt immediately at home here. Many of them were Native Americans, and every one living here were Triptych themselves. So he was able to ditch his vehicle, and gain a new small home, where he holds study groups here to some modest success. It was somewhat surprising, given that he was nominally a Christian pastor, and here he was surrounded on all sides by spirits that predated his religion by... who knew how long? In the time since he arrived, Pastor Dave has learned quite a bit about local ideology and spiritualism, but he was always the type to be accepting of all faiths - or lack of faiths. Perhaps that's why he fits in very well here, he isn't trying to push anything on anyone. If someone of another faith brings a new idea to him and his group, he encourages discussion of it and perhaps even starts incorporating it into his sermons.

With other Triptych in certain spots around the country, and some of them in reasonably well-placed positions, he was able to finally give his old friends some closure more than three years later. Officially he is listed as 'missing, presumed dead' - so his home, possessions, and anything else to his name are all gone. But the few truly close friends he had were given the very quiet knowledge that he is safe and sound - but cannot come home. That is fine, because this is his home now!

**

Xia Shan showed up at Lake Ataga'hi, in the Snow Rising reservation, kind of out of the blue. Or more accurately, out of the violet - she emerged from the lake itself, looking for ... something. Some one, more accurately. And she found them, in the form of Pastor Dave.