call me the world's sexiest killing machine; any

[Kerberos]

It may be edging toward winter on the mainland, but here on Ischia it’s still so damn lovely. Tropical islands, man, they’re where it’s at. The weather’s gorgeous, the ocean’s fuckin’ delightful, and life is good. It’s been so quiet, so blissfully fucking quiet lately, and while fine part of me is maybe waiting for something to go wrong, most of me is pretty damn content to just roll with the good luck, nod and smile and take each day as it comes.

The kids are getting older, and in a rare turn of events, I find myself staring out over the ocean without any of them at my side, without my good friend Roma keeping me company or my buddy Reilly to joke around with and have a drink at the end of a long day of kicking back and wandering along the beach making sure nobody’s decided to poke their noses where they don’t belong.

I should go talk to Lacey. But every time I go there, I seem to make things worse. For her, I mean. So I put it off a little bit longer and just soak up the sun. Tomorrow. I’ll track her down and have a good chat with her tomorrow. Today...today I’m just gonna revel in the quiet for a bit.

Bite my shiny metal ass.

[Kerberos]

Probably before she dropped in on a disastrous diplomatic encounter as a narwhal, a basically giant purple and green water dragon thing showing up on the shoreline would’ve made me...well maybe not nervous. I’m at least reasonably difficult to damage, after all. But cautious, maybe, at least for the kids. Now it doesn’t seem like such a strange sight, especially since she’s quickly shifting to horse shape--though good call on keeping the fancy accessories, yeah? Colorful’s a fun way to go, and purple’s pretty much never a bad choice.

I grin over at her as she approaches. “Oh, I dunno about that.” I do a little crafty rearranging of the iron that makes up my body, shaping scales along my skin instead of hair, pulling fins out of the smooth surface and decorating myself to match. Can’t change my color to match her, but I’m already shiny lavender splashed with white, gleaming in the sunlight and arching my neck to show off my impressive talent. Granted hers is a lot more useful, mine’s mostly for show. Details. “Not such a huge stretch.”

I shake myself, and my body goes back to normal. Well I mean fabulous and sexy and all, of course, but normal for me. “How are you enjoying Ischia so far? Caw, right? My daughters seem pretty taken with you. I hope our island’s treating you well. Also yeah, that trick is shiny as fuck.” Another grin, and I look back out over the water. “I never thanked you for your impeccable timing on the beach, did I?”

Bite my shiny metal ass.