The boy made his way down the street in a tattered black shirt with a slightly less tattered grey shirt on over it, and pants of some sort. Someone's old boots, and someone else's media device completed anything of note. Aside from all the metal in his face. But, whatever. People envy those who dare to stand out? Probably. He found the Inn without consequence and took up position on the porch swing to watch the people come and go.

Two men approached the Inn, from the sound of their voices. One was walking backwards, judging by the sound of his footsteps. The forward-facer kept pausing for some reason.

?I?ll have you know, Salvador, that flying uses all the big muscle groups.?

Salvador. He knew that name. One of Father?s acquaintances. It could be a coincidence, but then again?

The other one, Salvador, snickered at the first man. ?All the big ones, sure. Which is why your legs are sticks, amante.?

Teshid could see them now, walking in front of the porch. The backwards-walking Salvador was dressed in jeans and an open green dress shirt, exposing a plethora of scars and strange inky patterns. The one walking forwards was also in jeans, but with a plain white T, sleeveless. His hair was long and light. He looked a little bit like a Drow. Both were in startlingly good shape. Salvador walked backwards onto the first step of the porch, and paused.

?Your as* is gonna get flabby too.?

The other man stopped short of the stairs and set his hands to his hips. Instead of approaching his companion, he loomed. ?Come here, Sal. I want to show you how good my muscle groups are.?

Teshid stared at them until the other man looked him over, with purple eyes.

"Ngk," Salvador made the noise of someone caught in a trap, before he answered the other man?s bidding. "Just don't hit me in the mouth. If you bloody my lip, I swear to God I will spit on you." He put his hands on the other man?s hips. So, they were involved.

Teshid decided that a show would be perhaps the least positive outcome of a visit to this Inn, and so he brought up a hand and greeted the pair in his usual, friendly tone. ?Hi.?

Salvador?s head ticked back, and he still wore the grin he?d put on for his companion when he made eye contact.

The other man grabbed his hands, and turned his eyes back to Salvador. ?I?ll hit you somewhere, and it won?t be your mouth.? His attention shifted back to Teshid the very next moment, with a shark?s grin. ?Hey.?

"You guys come here a lot?" He smiled. Greetings had never been his strong suit.

Salvador leaned in close to his companion. "Nn-hn-hnnnnn. Promises, promises." He looked quite comfortable. Almost comfortable enough, in fact, that Teshid was a little surprised when he managed to pull himself away and face him. "That sounds like a pick-up line," he remarked.

The other man wrapped his arms around Salvador?s shoulders and pulled up behind him. "Is it a pickup line?"

Teshid laughed, true and honest. "No way! You guys are like a hundred." His smile remained, however. "You," he pointed at Salvador, "you smell like someone I know." He slipped from the swing, rose to his full, terrifying height of five feet and six inches, or maybe seven in the boots. He walked calm and casual up to the door, and smiled again. He held it open for them, for what is the world without manners?

They both looked like the youth had been sucked out of their very souls, for a few somber moments.

The other man murmured to Sal. "If you punch him in the mouth on the way by, I'll break his knee with my foot." Salvador chuckled. Teshid?s smile spread, if just by a fraction of an inch.

Eventually, the other man broke the silence. "S'get a drink, yeah?" He nudged Sal forward.

Salvador grunted a protest, but started moving forward. Though, after two paces he planted an elbow in his companion?s belly and wriggled to disengage himself from the other man, so that there were no mishaps on the stairs. Besides, he was suddenly drawn to the boy holding the door open like the flame to a moth, or something. He wanted to invade his personal space, suddenly.

Teshid's smile was predatory, even if only in appearance. His eyes started to cross as Salvador moved into his space, until he was almost literally on top of him if you count the looming over thing. He stuck his nose into Teshid?s hair and took an incredibly deep breath.

The other man crossed his arms over his chest, took up a lean against the opposite doorjamb, and waited.

Teshid smiled, and told him of his familiarity in that oldest of venerable tongues.

Salvador straightened up, grumbling a noise deep in the back of his throat as the scents and flavors rolled around in his nostrils, over his tongue, and swirled in his head. A flare of light spilled out of his rusty eyes. He snorted, turned his head to the right and spat out a big glob of phlegm like a true and proper not-gentleman. He had come to the one and only proper conclusion, and growled the name: "Skid."

He grunted, stepped back, and grumbled, "So you're the other one."

"Yes, I am."

The other man squinted suddenly and tipped his head to the side, sniffing, taking in the scent. He noted the name dropped. He noted the flare of light in those eyes which held his attention. "The other one?"

Salvador tipped his chin toward his shoulder, "Kid."

"Skid has kids?"

Teshid began to lean on the inside of the door, instead of holding it. "Two. I'm Tes. Don't tell anybody." He put a finger to his lips.

From within, a Dragoness? attention drifted toward the open door.

One of the other man?s silver brows winged up as he watched Teshid. "Two. Right." He looked as though he were calculating something, and then worried at Salvador. "Hnn. Let's get a drink, Sal, before it's tomorrow."

Salvador relented, commenting in passing on dear Suturi. "The other one fcked up my chess pieces." He slipped by Teshid and turned back as he walked "Beer?"

The other man turned into stride right behind Salvador, not missing a beat. "Beer sounds good. Can you make more pieces?" He glanced toward the chess set, which gave Teshid all the information he needed.

As he made his way inside, he saw the chess set and Icer. As he offered his own little greeting to the Dragoness he heard Salvador commenting on the chess set, ?Yes. If I can find the right wood again.?

Teshid set off through the whirlwind of people and their complex problems to find the chess board, and he managed it after only a few moments of being berated by voices and emotion. A woman emerged from the restroom, upset. A man and another woman were discussing something, heatedly. Salvador and his companion were drinking beer, while Icer snooped towards them. All these things were happening, but he had found his goal and settled before it.

He searched through the pieces, until he found one that was something and something else all at once. Something wrong, so to speak. A pair of pawns fused together in a horrible mishmash from which they might have never returned. Teshid took this piece in both hands and closed them around it. He settled in, and began to whisper words of rebirth and regrowth to the wood.

Around him, people had appeared and entered into the argument with the man at the bar. He gave and received, but after a while a number of people left and the few that remained were sharing a tense silence.

None of that mattered, while the two pieces began to grow and twist out. The tiny crackling of the branches together, the leafy shields and pieces of armor growing in tiny little bushes out of the shapes bending into place, all this coming together to form the two new footsoldiers.

The man seemed to have lost his argument, and he went upstairs. The woman arguing with him left as well, however, so he may have actually won. Salvador and his companion were being assaulted by Icer.

The important thing, here, however, was that Teshid?s work was nearly completed. The two little soldiers were finished being breathed into life, and he gave them their orders. When given the command, they would fight for their King. They would cut down (as best they could with blunted little tree swords) their enemies, leaving them beaten and bloodied (more accurately, knocked to the side) before claiming their place. They would grow into whatever piece they were ordered to if they?d reach the other side of the board, and grow back into themselves when checkmate was declared.

A Minotaur entered at this point, and Teshid became a little distracted. Luckily, however, he had finished his work and he was quite proud of it. The man that had won his argument came back downstairs and left, followed quickly by another woman. The Minotaur was drinking out of a bucket, as far as he could tell, and this was incredibly interesting to watch. He did, however, have to make note of the fact that the room had so effectively cleared while he was busy.

"Did something happen while I was away?" He didn't ask anyone in particular, but his eyes did catch those of Salvador?s companion watching him. Surprisingly enough, he replied. ?Think some folks had words. Don't know why.?

"Oh." He pondered for a moment. "How sad for them. Well, I feel pretty much done."

Tes glanced towards Icer, and she rumbled something to him. ?I owe your mother gumdrops..?

He frowned, hearing mention of the woman he hadn?t seen in so long. "Give her my best if you see her, then."

?Ye have nae seen her, have you??

"Not in a long time."

After a moment, he smiled again, and looked over the three at the bar, as well as the Minotaur Andu, and offered what amounted to half a wave, almost a salute. "Well, bye." He offered the man entering while he exited, Benjamin, a smile on his way out, as they spun around one another to make sure everyone had room to get where they were going. He paused at the door when he heard their responses.

"Later, Tes." Salvador?s companion left him with a truly Rhy?dinian farewell. "Watch out for monsters."

?Sweet Dreams & Restful Sleep, when that time comes, Sir.? The Minotaur gave him something quite cordial.

The man he?d shared the dance of the Sugar Plum Doorjamb with offered a smile and a wave, along with Icer. Salvador seemed to be wrapped up in finding the most comfortable position possible.

He laughed, just a little, and waved again before letting the door swing shut behind him. These people, these creatures, when they showed up here they all seemed to lead such comically laidback lives.

He left before hearing Icer?s reply.

?I have nae, either.?

((Adapted from live play with a huge number of people but most obviously Delahada and Elemmiire Rei and Icer and Andu and I think Morgan Wright and Anya M and Serah Farron and Lenore and Benjamin Piers and sorry if I missed you in there somewhere!))