"Now," I began, looking over the notes I had scribbled down, "you have been practicing your exercises on your own?" I looked up in time to see the shifting umbral mass, more a suggestion than an actual form nod one of its many nodes. That particular node retreated into the quivering mass of its body before a slash opened on a different node, one some 110 degrees from the first.

"Yessssss," The Abomination (arch rival to Captain Vigilant) hissed, tongues lolling out.

"Good," I said, my lips pulling back, exposing my teeth, nowhere near as impressive as the fangs stained carnelian. A tuft of dark gray fur was stuck to one serrated edge. Squirrel, I thought to myself. Not long or fine enough for any of the larger pets it (it had been very clear about its preferred pronouns in our first session) sometimes feasted on. "Which one do you think helped you the most?"

"Thiss one," another of its mouths said, "the one I held the 'S' and 'Z' sounds for thirty sseconds."

I jotted that down quickly. "Any exercise you feel was the most challenging to you?"

"Presssing my tonguess to the back of my teeth," it enunciated. I nodded. Considering those teeth routinely ripped through steel, concrete, and yappy Chihuahuas, I couldn't say I was particularly surprised.

"And what about the mirror exercises?" I asked. The Abomination sprouted a new tentacle, which gave a quick sinusoidal wave before it went to investigate the pile of magazines on the refurbished IKEA table between the two of us.

"Not too ussseful, but not too bad. With the way my mouth keepssss sssshifting..." it trailed off. This time, the mouth was somewhere in the center mass, flashes of white blinking briefly in the abyssal body. The stain was turning the distinct shade of rust known only to ancient cars and puddles of dried blood.

"Well," I said, laying my notebook to the side, swatting at one of the tendrils wrapping itself casually around the heel of my Condora Sling heel, "when you're ready, we're going to start with some tongue twisters and some basic oral aerobics."

I was used to the sighs of the chemically altered, spliced humans, mad scientists, and parasitic aliens (like the one before me), but I had lost no fewer than five assistants to that particular sound. Still the Abomination began trying to shape its mouth(s) and tongue(s). It had a 5:00 battle with Captain Vigilant at the bank and I had to help a sentient Venus flytrap with its stutter at 5:15.

We both had other things to do and knew our time was limited with each other.