Latte

Latte (a.k.a. Squish)

"So, are we gonna talk about the-?"
"Nope. She'll explain when she wants to."

— Conversation between Cody Ulfft and Tyler Boll 

"It needs to leave because I can't explain what this is and I definitely won't be able to find the food for it, so please have your pet go somewhere else. Anywhere else. I know you have the technology."

— Robert Sanabria

"I knew we should have gotten her a puppy when she was little."
"She would have given it wings and we would have just ended up with a different mythological creature living on our roof."

— Chelsea and Nicholas Onager

"Well, aren't you a terrifying creature. I don't suppose you eat your enemies? And if so, I really hope your enemies are the same as mine."

— Juliette Jardine

"SHE'S NOT A DRAGON!!"

— shrieked by Ruby Gray

Definitely not a dragon. Designed from a combination of the assorted DNA of several different types of animals, Latte is Ruby Gray's cat.
A/N: "Cat." Don't forget the quotes. You can call her a cat, and you kind of have to or else Ruby will scream at you, but we all know she's not a cat. She doesn't even really behave like a cat. I have no idea why Ruby settled on that particular term. Latte is way too lizard-y to even look like a cat.

Genetic Tampering As Art

Most of my creations are crafted with a purpose. I design their genetic code with particular results in mind, run a few simulations, redesign, and then generate a progenitor. The entity is then grown to adulthood using a concoction that includes Rosa Vitaelo to allow for safe and speedy growth.
Latte did not have that care. She was a slapdash, a haphazard effort on an off day that I did because I was bored. And because gene therapy is more art than science anyway.
A/N: Don't try this yourself. In Ruby's case, this statement is somehow true. Seemingly at random, she can splice genes together and create a functional species. They just work. For everyone else, you will hurt more than you create, leave it alone.
Latte started as a string from a preying mantis that I didn't use for another creation. Not that data stored on a computer exactly needs to be used up, but it seemed a fun challenge. Add a few predator birds, stick in some Gila monster, mix in a few healthy edits, and finish it off with a healthy amount of cat DNA that I got from a feral Persian. A few adjustments to stabilize it, and voila. Latte.
Her, I let grow normally. No growth accelerant. I just wanted to see what she would become.

My Only Consistent Companion

In the wake of Ethelyn Suthmeer betraying me and generally disrupting my schemes and plans and making my life much harder, Latte was one of the few consistent elements in my life. Things got a little awkward when she got too big for the lab, but once I found a space for her to live and figured out her diet, it worked quite well.
She grew from a rather gnarled gray-green fuzzball into a magnificent winged creature, rather like a butterfly stretching their curled wings, fresh from the cocoon. I didn't even really train her, she just stuck with me. Cunning little sweetheart that she is, she got into a lot of trouble in that first year.
A/N: Based on what I knew at the time, I probably should have taken Latte with me when I left Ruby. She wasn't interested in having a friend, practically a sister, so what would she do with a twisted, ugly little monster of a pet? Fortunately for all of us, I wasn't much of an animal lover. When I left, Latte creeped me out, with her over-large eyes and crooked teeth and spiny back. Next time I saw them, she was a massive fire-breathing "lizard." Can't even really say that, because she is something closer to a mammal. Maybe like a platypus?
Latte didn't have to put up with me. I'm not entirely sure why she did. Probably because I fed her. And was literally the only person she knew for the first year of her life.
A/N: And probably because Ruby always manages to mother each and every one of her creations. She could design an eldritch horror that causes nightmares just from looking at it, and yet she will coo over each one like a baby. She adores them, and they pick up on it. Latte's just smart enough to reciprocate in more specific ways.

Temporary Loner

There was a point after which I was rather distracted by my ongoing revenge, and Latte ventured out into the world on her own. I did my best to keep track of her, but she's surprisingly sneaky when she wants to be. Once fully grown, despite her size, she was fully capable of vanishing into the wilderness. It didn't help that I'd treated her scales with a solution that rendered her nearly invisible to security cameras.
As far as I know, she traveled the world. Probably a few ecosystems were a bit disrupted, but she moved on quickly so that would probably limit the damage. I hope. I haven't found any real traces of her path outside of some damage on an ancient palace in Thailand.

And Then She Returned

Latte came back in the knick of time, as she usually does. I'd suspect some kind of telepathic connection, but she doesn't have any psychic qualities. Diving in at the last possible second to save me seemed like something where she might have simply waited for the most dramatic possible moment to reappear. Everyone else was very impressed, even more so when she stopped from eating Jude Markos at my command.
It still doesn't mean she's a dragon, even if she did burn the soles of his shoes off.
A/N: Based on the number of times Latte swoops in to pluck Ruby from danger, I suspect that Latte sees herself as the protector in this relationship. Only at the last second, though. She's perfectly willing to let Ruby get to the brink of disaster all on her own. She also has a remarkable sense of when she'll be useful and when she should hold back because a massive winged lizard-ish animal can occasionally make matters worse.

Species Propagation

So, after proving to be such a wonderfully loyal little friend, I had to find a way to reward Latte. After some work, I was able to complete another variation on her species and since she was already over a year old at that point I did accelerate his growth just a bit and voila, Nacho was created.
And within about two weeks of them getting to know each other, so were the eggs that eventually became Taco Sauce, Farfalle, and Lemon Cucumber (Lucy for short). Whoops. Hopefully they're able to find a niche in the planetary ecosystem.
A/N: In her limited defense, I don't think "genetically viable mate" was one of the qualities she had in mind. It just sort of turned out that way.
And anyway, Latte has been a wonderful mom.

Scales and Flame and Stubbornness.

As a baby and adolescent, Latte had green gray fur mixed with patches of what I would term to be carapace. She had soft spines on her back, and a bit of a tail, as well as a set of protuberances on her shoulders that eventually became wings. Her face looked squashed before she properly grew into her snout and teeth.
Now, she has a combination of bronze scales on most of her body, combined with dark fur on her belly and legs. The spines on her back hardened into a defense, and her tail grew out until it was long enough and agile enough to wrap around someone's waist.
Latte is an incredibly stubborn lady, who only just barely follows the laws of society as they pertain to her. She even knows to stay out of the major flight paths for commercial flights. She also avoids property damage when landing. But also she will just sit on you when she wants and you cannot stop her.
She is loyal, and less zany than her mate and children, much more willing to sit still and listen to me rant about laser eye design flaws and such. This is possibly because it was how she was raised.
Fire breathing is in fact something she can do, but it doesn't make her a dragon. It makes her a superpowered animal. She also has pretty nasty claws, when she lets me trim them properly.
She's fantastic at rescues, but not so great at letting strangers ride her. She can also be a bit lazy sometimes, according to some people, but consider that it's exhausting to fly everywhere and it's perfectly acceptable for her to hang out in my lab.

Species

Not a Dragon

Date of Birth

14

Sex

Female

Presentation

Dragon

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Gorgeous shiny bronze scales