It was a good thing her power was back on. It was an even better thing that her neighborhood wasn't as badly hit by Tuesday's terrible storm as other parts of Brisbane were. Ninkasi had gone to look: there were trees down all over Queensland and some buildings in Brisbane were smashed up. What the hell kind of storm at hit the coast? Seriously?
She'd only lost one window to a rogue tree-branch that crashed through it, and that wasn't into any important room. The hail had been insane, and she'd lost power at one point, but she'd texted a few photos to Kratos saying she was fine but holy-shit storm. Time zones. Work. Bleh. Then later, when it passed, gave a followup: the beer has survived. She didn't have to clarify if she meant her stores, what was currently fermenting or herself... the answer was thankfully, just yes.
Though, in hindsight, some of the photos and texts may have been alarming. Even after the storm was over. “That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes and aeroplanes...” “Funny. Brisbane weather only called for a light rain. Not -stay away from windows the clouds are lobbing branches at them, sort of rain.” “Actually, in Australia, that is a light rain. I stand corrected.” “Who needed a window in the guest bathroom? Certainly not me.” “Shit. Powers out.” “Those frat guys down the road... are running up and down the street in their underpants, challenging the storm to a fight. When did I get to Scotland?” “And... cue the hail.” “Well, that was a whole lot of excitement. Going damage surveying.” “Neighbors are okay. They are sweeping their hail into piles and singing Winter Wonderland. #shitaussiesdo” “Ha! Snow angels are for pussies. Here... we make hail angels!” “I love this country so much. Lol.”
Now, she was cleaning up. The tree that fell out back had been sawed into a gazillion bits by the underpants-wearing storm-challenging young men who had previously snagged all her old furniture. She didn't even have to ask, they just showed up with a bunch of chainsaws and went at it. Now... she had a ton of wood to dry for a future epic bonfire. The window that had blown out in the guest bath... had a tarp nailed over it for now on the outside and a sheet of plastic on the inside to keep the more evil of creatures out; and all the glass had been picked up.
Today she was sweeping all the leaf and branch debris off her back porch. Ninkasi was barefoot with cutoff shorts and a grungy tank top as she swept everything off the porch onto the ground. She'd burn it. Later. Right now, her doorbell was ringing. Which normally was unusual, but the weather had brought all sorts of folk door to door looking to help out or get a story and she was more than prepared to shuffle whomever was on the other side to one of her neighbors that had been hit worse.
“Actually, I'm quite alright, thanks,” she said as she swung the door open, since all her friends wouldn't have been bothered to ring the bell if the door was unlocked. “But if you go down...” She stopped. It was her aunt. What was Ereshkigal doing here? “Reshi?” She asked, obviously startled and confused. “I... I thought you were another person looking to help with storm cleanup. Sorry. Maybe I should put a note on the door.”
Then, she smiled, because it was her aunt and she loved her family. “This is unexpected. Come in.”