Meph shall indeed join Graham and Shang-Da in Wander's mini-harem! Lucy wants to up the gold tiger population a bit so she'll want Meph to do some stud-horse work, but modern technology means he doesn't necessarily have to have sex to breed---turkey baster tiger cubs for the win! And yes, it does sound like gold leaf, doesn't it? I try instead to imagine it like Sati's golden skin tone (though that's probably too ~ethnic~ for LKH) or as a normal golden suntan (the shade you get before you start actually getting tan or brown...unless you just burn like me, lol) instead.