09-13-2018, 06:03 AM
Ninurta awakened next morning, and as was his habit he didn't stir until he had scanned the area around from beneath the brim of his hat. He never really slept thoroughly. There was always some sensory part of him sampling his surroundings, scanning for dangers, even in the deepest sleep he could muster. It had become habit when he had been mortal, and now that he wasn't, well, it was habit already.
Finally, satisfied that all was well, he stirred from his supine position and poked the fire back to life with some of the firewood that the Boy in a Dress had gathered the night previous. Mucklebones andd Tibbs were entwined in a lump of arms, legs, whiskers, and disheveled blanket, appearing to be pretty soundly asleep. BIAD was nowhere to be seen. Thinking back to their first meeting, Ninurta mustered a grin and decided the man-girl was probably out and about scaring up some food to be in place before the rest awoke. That one was all efficiency, in his own scatter-brained way. You just never knew what he would do next, or where his seemingly random thoughts sprang from. There was always a logic to those thoughts, but at times you had to really dig to find that logic... but it was always there. He merely thought in a different manner from everyone else, but the thoughts were always solid if one cared to dig deeply enough into them.
Ninurta rose, grunted, and set about making more coffee, lost in thought about Tibbs' fable of the night before. So "Old Horse-Face" had a mirror image, somewhere, did he? Generally speaking, a mirror image is exactly the same, but entirely reversed. Exactly the same, but exactly opposite. Ninurta filed that thought away for future use. If there were anything to Tibbs' Tale, finding that individual who was the mirror image of Ba'al would probably be a good idea. You don't fight fire with fire, you fight it with water. Having Ba'al's precise opposite on the payroll would be a good thing for anyone endeavoring to counteract his inimical adventures.
Then there was that business of destroying entire solar systems for just a few seconds of worm hole. Clearly, creating a wormhole under the laws of physics extant in Ba'al's dimension required a great deal of power. that's probably what kept the rest of the multiverse safe from his depredations. How would one ever get into such a universe... and perhaps more importantly, how would that one get back OUT? It seemed to Ninurta that because of those considerations, the rest of the multiverses ought to be fairly iron-clad safe against Ba'al - so why the ruckus?
Muckebones coughed and scratched an exposed part of her anatomy that had gotten thrown out from under the blanket, breaking Ninurta's train of thought. He fleetingly reflected that it was a good thing that Tibbs and Muckles had found one another. Tibbs, for all his genius, probably would not have survived the multiverses without Mucklebones' homespun brand of "street smarts".
If Ninurta were running the show in any hunt for Ba'al, he would first find Horse-Face's mirror image. After that, Nin thought, the best way to stop an unstoppable horde was similar to the best way to stop a snake - you cut it's head off. Once any body of anything lost it's thinking and directional apparatus, the rest generally became useless, milled about, and then dissipated into harmlessness. So, after finding the mirror image, Ninurta would then figure out a way to find where Ba'al's breakthrough into another universe was going to occur, and he would then position that mirror image at that point and set an ambush to take out Ba'al himself. The followers would become useless and without direction after that.
The trick, of course, would be in locating the Mirror, and then locating the breakout point.
What he wouldn't do would be to go into Ba'al's home universe. That would be too dangerous, given the energy requirements to get back out again. One might get in, vanquish Ba'al in his own den, and then discover he could not escape that cage himself.
Ninurta shook his head as if to banish such thoughts. Why would he be planning a solution to a problem only found in a fable? It was just his way. When presented with a problem, he usually started planning a solution to set the universe back to right as "right" existed in his way of thinking. Just a habit, and one - like most of his habits - that he found difficult to shake away. The problems with Ninurta's plans always came in with his final solutions. Being drafted into the position of "god of war" by sheer happenstance, his solutions generally involved a lot of bloodshed and explosions. Like it or not, that sort of solution was usually terribly final. If it worked, it worked very, very thoroughly, and if it didn't, there was generally more bloodshed and explosions until it DID work.
Which almost always left a mess... but a solved mess.
Just as Ninurta was reaching to pour a cup of the now finished coffee, there was a tremendous crash somewhere behind him. Startled, he reacted as always - swiftly and with gun in hand by the time he had stood and spun to face the menace. The crashing noise had occurred as BIAD exited the spacetime craft and dropped a tray of what Ninurta presumed was unidentifiable foodstuffs.
BIAD was chasing an insect resembling a butterfly across the meadow in which they were encamped. Ninurta swore he heard the man-girl in the red frock gigging as he ran after the intruder.
Ninurta grinned, shook his head, and returned to the coffee pot. Eating could wait, he supposed. A man has to set his priorities, and at the moment his friend had set his in catching a flitter-fly.
.
Finally, satisfied that all was well, he stirred from his supine position and poked the fire back to life with some of the firewood that the Boy in a Dress had gathered the night previous. Mucklebones andd Tibbs were entwined in a lump of arms, legs, whiskers, and disheveled blanket, appearing to be pretty soundly asleep. BIAD was nowhere to be seen. Thinking back to their first meeting, Ninurta mustered a grin and decided the man-girl was probably out and about scaring up some food to be in place before the rest awoke. That one was all efficiency, in his own scatter-brained way. You just never knew what he would do next, or where his seemingly random thoughts sprang from. There was always a logic to those thoughts, but at times you had to really dig to find that logic... but it was always there. He merely thought in a different manner from everyone else, but the thoughts were always solid if one cared to dig deeply enough into them.
Ninurta rose, grunted, and set about making more coffee, lost in thought about Tibbs' fable of the night before. So "Old Horse-Face" had a mirror image, somewhere, did he? Generally speaking, a mirror image is exactly the same, but entirely reversed. Exactly the same, but exactly opposite. Ninurta filed that thought away for future use. If there were anything to Tibbs' Tale, finding that individual who was the mirror image of Ba'al would probably be a good idea. You don't fight fire with fire, you fight it with water. Having Ba'al's precise opposite on the payroll would be a good thing for anyone endeavoring to counteract his inimical adventures.
Then there was that business of destroying entire solar systems for just a few seconds of worm hole. Clearly, creating a wormhole under the laws of physics extant in Ba'al's dimension required a great deal of power. that's probably what kept the rest of the multiverse safe from his depredations. How would one ever get into such a universe... and perhaps more importantly, how would that one get back OUT? It seemed to Ninurta that because of those considerations, the rest of the multiverses ought to be fairly iron-clad safe against Ba'al - so why the ruckus?
Muckebones coughed and scratched an exposed part of her anatomy that had gotten thrown out from under the blanket, breaking Ninurta's train of thought. He fleetingly reflected that it was a good thing that Tibbs and Muckles had found one another. Tibbs, for all his genius, probably would not have survived the multiverses without Mucklebones' homespun brand of "street smarts".
If Ninurta were running the show in any hunt for Ba'al, he would first find Horse-Face's mirror image. After that, Nin thought, the best way to stop an unstoppable horde was similar to the best way to stop a snake - you cut it's head off. Once any body of anything lost it's thinking and directional apparatus, the rest generally became useless, milled about, and then dissipated into harmlessness. So, after finding the mirror image, Ninurta would then figure out a way to find where Ba'al's breakthrough into another universe was going to occur, and he would then position that mirror image at that point and set an ambush to take out Ba'al himself. The followers would become useless and without direction after that.
The trick, of course, would be in locating the Mirror, and then locating the breakout point.
What he wouldn't do would be to go into Ba'al's home universe. That would be too dangerous, given the energy requirements to get back out again. One might get in, vanquish Ba'al in his own den, and then discover he could not escape that cage himself.
Ninurta shook his head as if to banish such thoughts. Why would he be planning a solution to a problem only found in a fable? It was just his way. When presented with a problem, he usually started planning a solution to set the universe back to right as "right" existed in his way of thinking. Just a habit, and one - like most of his habits - that he found difficult to shake away. The problems with Ninurta's plans always came in with his final solutions. Being drafted into the position of "god of war" by sheer happenstance, his solutions generally involved a lot of bloodshed and explosions. Like it or not, that sort of solution was usually terribly final. If it worked, it worked very, very thoroughly, and if it didn't, there was generally more bloodshed and explosions until it DID work.
Which almost always left a mess... but a solved mess.
Just as Ninurta was reaching to pour a cup of the now finished coffee, there was a tremendous crash somewhere behind him. Startled, he reacted as always - swiftly and with gun in hand by the time he had stood and spun to face the menace. The crashing noise had occurred as BIAD exited the spacetime craft and dropped a tray of what Ninurta presumed was unidentifiable foodstuffs.
BIAD was chasing an insect resembling a butterfly across the meadow in which they were encamped. Ninurta swore he heard the man-girl in the red frock gigging as he ran after the intruder.
Ninurta grinned, shook his head, and returned to the coffee pot. Eating could wait, he supposed. A man has to set his priorities, and at the moment his friend had set his in catching a flitter-fly.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’