The Continuing Adventures of Rack and Ruin - Story Thread

[Ninurta]

"There's still the answer of why we need you" Tibbs softly said towards everyone sat at the flame-lit pow-pow and

picking up his plate, he began to eat.

Ninurta grunted in an acknowledgement of sorts to Tibbs' comment. "That right there is a question AND an answer, all in one statement. I see ye've not lost yer flair fer riddlin' by understatement" he then commented around a mouthful of fish. Wiping his grizzled chin with the back of his hand, he continued after swallowing said fish. "As I see it, you need me, by yer own admission. That generally means you need something or someone blowed all to flinders or otherwise rendered inoperative, seein' as that's pretty much my only function and use. I DO have a flair for it, ah reckon, and pap always said 'do whut ye do best'. The question part comes in with the 'why', which also implies 'who', 'where', 'when' - I kin supply the 'how' - an' prob'ly a couple other questions I ain't even thought of yet."

Tibbs, for his part, rather enjoyed keeping the gun-hand in the dark and puzzled. It may have been a perverse pleasure, but Tibbs took his pleasure where he could find it, and keeping Ninurta dangling was one of those times. "You just said we should discuss it after we ate" Tibbs responded to the implied queries, adding "and I'm not finished yet" just to sweeten the prize a bit.

Ninurta, not wanting to display that the little Vithian had rankled him by using his own words against him, stretched his boots towards the fire, patted his stomach, and responded  "S'all the same to me - I got forever to wait it out" and sat his hat a bit farther back on his head to get a better view of the alien stars. "Thanks fer my duds, by the by. They beat hell out of that poncho. Drafty thing it was - I dunno how yer missus kin stand it" - the last added just to tweak Tibbs a bit. The Time Keeper - or Time Herder - Ninurta was never sure which was Tibbs' proper function - was acutely aware of his wife's propensity to make use of her attire's shock value. Ninurta just wanted to make a point that it never went unnoticed.

Mucklebones, for her part, shifted to her left hip to better give the right one a vigorous scratching, necessarily exposing it to punctuate that point.

BIAD squatted across the fire from Ninurta, arms crossed on top of his knees, listening to the banter. He was waiting for story time to begin, and seemed to have an infinite store of patience - a quality that Ninurta aspired towards, but had never really mastered. Nin fleetingly wished BIAD would sit more lady-like, or else wear a longer skirt, but that was just not BIAD's way. That's why Ninurta always stationed himself on the far side of the fire - such that the fire's glare drowned out most of what he didn't want to see at such moments.

It WAS good to have his clothes - and accustomed equipment - back. He wondered briefly how the Vithian had gotten them, seeing as he himself had no idea where he had left them, but Tibbs had a knack for such things. that and planning out these escapades. Ninurta saw it as a sacred duty to at times muck those plans all up. Maybe that was HIS perverse pleasure.

"take yer time, runt" Ninirta directed at Tibbs. "Ah've got all of that I can stand, and prolly more".

But he didn't. He was snoring before the diminutive Time Wizard had finished his fish.

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