milliways_bar | (no subject)

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An exile wanders into the bar, carrying a loaded crossbow and wearing an animal skin that doesn't cover very much of her at all.

She has just bid farewell to a good friend and a great warrior whom she suspects will soon die in vain, so her mind is uncharacteristically elsewhere as she walks through the portal. It takes several seconds before she notices the change of lighting and the absence of foliage.

Leela blinks several times. Her eyes narrow as she hefts her crossbow to waist height and scans her environs.

"What is this place?" she demands of no one in particular.

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"They already know," Leela says quietly. "They have cast me out."

"Shit, that's harsh," says Corazon. "I mean, unless you did something really bad, like murdered someone. Although if you did, I guess you wouldn't tell me."

"I did not kill anybody," she says. "I was exiled for profaning the god Xoanon."

"Oh, you mean for heresy," Corazon says. "I've heard that happens in some towns back in Mexico, but only the really fucked-up ones."

"The leader of the tribe has a great assault on the Tesh to free him from the Evil One. It will fail, many will die, and Xoanon is not real."

"I get it," Corazon says. "It's that kind of thinking that caused the Great War way back. And you got yourself in trouble for being the only sane one in the room."

"I do not understand why none of the others speak against it. There are elders in the tribe who remember many of these attacks. The man who was leader before Andor took charge after one of them. He was fourteen."

She swallows deeply. It was going to happen again. But it hasn't happened yet.

"And your Great War was similar?"

"Kind of. It happened a very long time before I was born. But basically there were these two big tribes, the Americans and the Chinese. All the other tribes were kind of divvied up between them, because they'd either allied with or been conquered by one of the big tribes." That actually took a few generations and was rather complicated, but Corazon's trying to summarize here.

"Anyway, the Americans and Chinese both developed these really powerful weapons - weapons that could burn and flatten miles of land in the blink of an eye, and leave deadly poison in the air and water for years to come. They built lots and lots of these weapons, and eventually, after a couple of generations, the leader of one or the other of the tribes got stupid enough to use them. Nobody's really sure who fired first, but it doesn't really matter."

"Your world is very different from mine," she says, "But I think I understand. Few would be left alive after such a war. At least the smallest of our children are spared from participating in our attacks."

"Yeah, so they can grow up to die in a stupid war when they hit puberty," Corazon says sourly. "Sorry. Now and again I say things I really shouldn't, on account of getting shot in the head a while ago."

"No," Leela says. "You are right. It is a battle we have no cause to fight and have no chance of winning. That the village will still stand after the attack is of little comfort to the motherless children left behind.

"You have been wounded. Are you a warrior as well, then?"

"I wasn't when I got shot," Corazon explains. "I was a courier. Just carrying messages and things from place to place. This pendejo named Benny jumped me - well, two of his thugs did - and stole the package I was carrying. Benny's the one who shot me. I've been tracking him ever since. And I've been doing some other stuff like killing Raiders and helping people out," she adds.

"If that happened to me, I would find him, run him through, and show him his own entrails as he died!" Leela says, a bit too enthusiastically.

Then a short, thoughtful pause.

"I hope you find him."

Corazon smiles. "Thanks," she says. "Hey, I just had an idea. When you're able to get back home, maybe you can bring someone who can help convince your people not to go ahead with that crazy suicide attack plan. There are a couple of actual gods here who could pretend to be Xoanon and tell them 'you shall not' and so on,"

"There are actual gods here?" she asks. "You've seen them?"

Leela thinks on this for a moment. "I do not think the High Priest Neeva would be convinced no matter what he saw. Though the other villagers might."

OOC: I'd love this as an idea, were this problem not already one about to be canonically solved by a certain tall bescarved fellow with curly hair. With a major assist from Leela, of course.

"Yeah, the padre from back home might have a heart attack if he saw this place. But he's a Jesuit, so maybe not.

"There are gods, all right, of all kinds. Also sorcerers, mutants, and people from other planets. Also people from other versions of Earth, which is the planet I come from. It's a little loco sometimes, but really interesting. Also you can get good water for next to nothing." Which is practically unheard of where Corazon comes from.

[OOC: I figured, but Corazon doesn't know that! :) Also, she hasn't met The Doctor here, although a couple of my other pups have.]

Leela ponders her next words for a moment before speaking.

"Let me see if I understand what has happened. I have been summoned by magic into this hall, which serves food and drink but belongs to no tribe. Sorcerers, people of strange tribes, and even gods eat here. But none have seen the man responsible for this sorcery."

She frowns slightly. "I would think that this is some sort of trick, but you seem trustworthy. And you would have tried to kill me by now if it were."

She pauses again. "You mentioned something called tequila. This is a drink among your tribe?"

"Yep," Corazon says cheerfully. "My ancestors have been making this stuff since the days of the Aztecs. C'mon over to the Bar, and we'll share a bottle."

"Very well," she says. "And since you are my host of sorts, you may tell me something of the history of your people. What are the Aztecs?"

"My ancestors," Corazon says, walking towards the Bar and gesturing for Leela to follow her. "Or a tribe that was part of the Aztec empire, at least. They're all gone now, but a lot of the things they built are still around - temples and cities and stuff. The padre said they used to practice human sacrifice, so it's probably better that nobody follows the Aztec religion anymore."

Leela follows Corazon to the Bar but does not sit down.

"How did they fall?" she asks. "And what do you mean by sacrifice?"

As manipulative as Neeva is, he hasn't dreamed up anything like human sacrifice. Yet.

"They fell because of the Conquistadors - the conquerors - who came over from Spain," Corazon says. "Although it wasn't exactly the Conquistadors' military might that brought them down. They also brought over diseases that the Aztecs hadn't been exposed to before and it wiped a lot of them out. Not that the Conquistadors infected them on purpose. That's just the way it happened.

"Now as for the human sacrifice thing...once a year, the Aztec priests would basically choose a guy to put on the altar and cut out his heart and kill him. You know, to please the gods. It was considered a great honor to be chosen. But when all the Aztecs were getting sick and dying, they made a lot more sacrifices because they thought the gods were angry at them, and that made things worse." Corazon shrugs and rolls her eyes, as if to say 'people are dumb, what can you do.'

"Anyway, most Mexicans are Catholic now. Again, because of the Conquistadors, because they colonized Mexico after the Aztec empire died out. That's what the padre told us in school, anyway."

"Oh," she says. "The Sevateem do not do this. We have the Test of the Horda, and that is brutal enough.

"It is stupid. No wonder they were conquered, if they killed so many of their own when their tribe was in danger." A more nuanced understanding of the history of colonialism is probably going to have to wait for another time for Leela.

"What is a Catholic?"

"It's a religion," Corazon says. "A sect of Christianity. Basically if you're Christian you worship one god and follow the teachings of his only son Jesus Christ - that's why it's called 'Christianity' - but the other stuff can be different, depending on what sect you're in. It's..." Corazon scratches her head. "It's really kind of complicated. Thousands of years of history and lots of people killing each other. You know. Typical religious stuff."

"Yes," she says. "That part is very familiar. Do you believe it?"

She looks around the bar. "Is there a jar or bottle behind the furniture?"