Character :: Kurl Tszargon
"What! That mutant lizard wants to play chess with me?"
Kurl had been Ponce’s boyhood friend. He walked a different path than others, managing to arrive first while having exerted less energy; a metaphor Ponce attributed to Kurl’s brilliance in physics and astronomy. Most male acquaintances kept their distance from the self-absorbed astrophysicist but scary was the word used by female acquaintances. Any attempt, and there were many, to engage the well-proportioned male specimen in conversation ended in his walking away. He’d give no excuse, just walk away. He preferred exercising his brain and body to idle chatter.