milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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?"

Corazon grins. "Hey, Bar! A bottle of 1800 and two glasses, por favor."

The requested items appear on the bartop. Corazon expertly pops the stopper from the bottle and starts pouring.

"Dunno that I believe all of it," she says. "I mean, I don't take everything in the Bible literally. But the essentials? Sure." She holds out a glass to Leela. "You might want to start with small sips, just to test it out." Although Corazon will have her knocking back the stuff like a pro in no time.

Leela's eyes widen as the items materialize. "More magic? This place is even stranger than I had thought."

She grabs the glass and sniffs the contents. It doesn't smell poisonous. "It is good that you do not believe everything you are told," she says. "I don't know what to believe about gods. If anything. I only know what I do not believe."

She takes a tentative sip.

And begins coughing almost immediately after it's down. It's a lot less sweet than the janisberry wine she's used to back home.

"You drink this?" she asks, before taking another sip and wincing. Leela has never been one to back down from a challenge.

"It's an acquired taste," Corazon says. She takes a hearty swig. "There's a word, you know, for people who believe everything they're told - gullible."

She takes another sip and wrinkles your nose. "If you say so."

She nods. "Yes. And they make themselves prey for the devious."

Like Neeva. Or Calib.

"Although you gotta be able to trust somebody," Corazon says. "You gotta have compadres, otherwise you're very lonely and shortly after you're very dead." Corazon finishes off her tequila and pours herself more.

"Also there's some types of people you can always trust. Doctors, for instance, are generally okay. I mean, if they're the crazy kind that will do experiments on you, you can usually tell straight off. Any member of the Brotherhood of Steel who'll give you the time of day will also be straight with you, although they won't generally go out of their way. Mormons are all right, generally. And you can always depend on the Followers of the Apocalypse. They're good people."

L"I do not know of any of these people," she says. "But you are right. The forest is not kind to those who go out on their own. But I will have to manage somehow."

eela takes another drink. It's not so bad now that she knows what to expect. She supposes she could see how someone could get used to this, if they had nothing better to drink.

"This place will help, I suppose."

"Yeah. And if you really want to, you can move to a whole other world from here. I've kind of thought about doing that myself, but there's just stuff I gotta take care of, you know? People too. So I can't just leave my world behind."

"Part of me does not know if I want to go back," she says. "Time stops on the other side, correct?"

"Well, yes and no. You return to the same time you left. It's not like you leave your universe hanging until you go back."

"Then to me it would mean they are still alive, if I stayed here," she says. She shakes her head. "I should not say such things. A warrior should face what is in front of her no matter how terrifying it is."

"So you're thinking of going back and trying to stop the whole stupid war thing?" Corazon says. "If you do, good luck with that." Corazon might just be stuck in a similar situation herself.

"I don't know what I will do," she says. "It will be enough of a challenge just to survive in the forest alone. There are invisible creatures outside the barrier."

Corazon was in the process of drinking more tequila: she does a bit of a spit take. "Who huh invisible what now outside the what?"

"There is a barrier outside our village," she says. "There are invisible creatures beyond it which the priests say belong to the Evil One. For whatever reason, they do not cross the barrier."

"Okay, two questions: first, what's this barrier like, and second, what exactly do the invisible creatures do? It's okay if it's really graphic - I've developed a strong stomach by now," Corazon says.

This barrier thing sounds like it might be some kind of Old World technology, or the equivalent thereof in Leela's world.

Leela finishes her glass of tequila and clears her throat.

"It is invisible. One may walk through it. But for whatever reason, the beasts will not cross it. There is little to describe about what they do. Those who cross the barrier, as when chasing game, are set upon by these creatures and torn apart."

"Okay. So as soon as someone crosses this invisible line they get shredded," Corazon says. She picks up the bottle and refills Leela's glass (just Corazon's way of being polite). "What about other things? Like animals? Do they get the same treatment when they cross the barrier?"