(IC) Lost In Dreams [Peter]

[ericthered]

Peter answers vaugely, and subtly tries to steer the conversation away from the danger zone, but Luisa is undeterred.

Luisa: "Oh, I get wanting to help people, believe me. I'm just surprized that they're letting someone as young as you out here. Shouldn't you be in school? And even if you weren't, sending you out into plauge country during the middle of an invasion? What's the story there?"

Peter tries to feel if there is any difference between the world he is on know and worlds he's been on in the past. He has four worlds he spent time on to compare it with: the world with the Riders, the world with the cow-bears, the transport hub, and this world. Five, if he counts his own. Though that's far enough back that... best stick to this one.

He mulls over differences he feels between the various worlds. He can certainly tell the difference between the world with riders and the other worlds. That might just be magic though. He's not sure. For best results he'll need to wait for the next world change.

[the_matrix_walker]

"What better school is there than life? I'm surprised you're surprised, this isn't the first outbreak zone they've sent me into... and in the last one the natives were all trying to kill me when I wasn't waving a gun around... this gig seems pretty tame by comparison."

[ericthered]

Luisa is deterred from further questions. She seems to accept that Peter either doesn't realize his odd situation or won't be drawn into revealing what's going on.

After 34 hours of bouncing through the jungle, up small mountains and across streams, they arrive at the city. Or rather, they arrive at the valley of Mitla. Jungle has been cleared out in massive swathes, revealing wide fields of corn. off in the distance are the buildings of the city.

Luisa: "mitla: capital of the Zopatec empire. Not defeated until 6 years after the aztecs."

Kumar: "And one of the last cities untouched by plague on this continent"

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter asks,

"So how should we proceed Kumar? Will these people have heard of us?"

[ericthered]

Kumar: "They will be aware of the plague, and aware of the invaders. They won't know anything about us specifically, and we won't be able to impersonate any organization they're aware of."
Luisa: "Neither the plague nor the invaders should have hit them yet -- at least not on a large scale. Or at least that's our best guess. Our goal is to convince a large portion of the city that we know how to stop the disease and set up people who inoculate others."
Kumar: "Without getting sacrificed to the gods"
Luisa: "Yes, Thank you from bringing that up. These aren't the Aztecs. That shouldn't be a huge issue."
Elena: "It is an issue though?"
Luisa: "<clears throat>The biggest issue is going to be avoiding being treated with hostility."
Elena: "And to avoid being treated like crazy prophets from the jungle who warn the people but too late."
Luisa: "Someone please knock on wood."
Kumar: "The first step is to get our bearings and catch up with the news. Then we decide on the best approach and publicly present ourselves accordingly.

[the_matrix_walker]

"Sounds like we have to start small and get a few people talking to us... we're going to have to start a local movement... maybe play some politics!"

Peter furrows his brow and thinks hard on just how to do that...

[ericthered]

Kumar: "Start small but think big. I don't know how much time we have."

Peter thinks about politics. For a moment, he thinks about how senarich would have handled this -- get close to the folks in power and get some sort of law passed. There's always just giving out your message and hoping people see reason. Politics...*

The first part of the mission is pretty darn boring. Kumar and Luisa just talk to one of the local farmers while Peter and Elena watch from hiding nearby (Their skin color will be very noticable here). After the talk, they throw around a number of ideas. Many of the ideas revolve around louldly announcing a cure and then trying to manipulate for a given end: starting a craze to get the cure or government confiscation and widespread use are both desireable ends to this.

*I really don't know how Peter thinks about politics. This is a great place for color.

[the_matrix_walker]

Spoiler:  

Originally Posted by ericthered

*I really don't know how Peter thinks about politics. This is a great place for color.

He doesn't have allot of insight in the area, given his youth and lack of experience.

Unless he sees some opportunity, he'll likely just do as he's told until something more "adventurous" presents itself.

[ericthered]

The general tactic decided upon is trying a marketing blitz of sorts: going for a fad. They visit one of the local doctors, who feels very much like a native american medicine man (which technically he is), but much more 'urban'. He is not so keen on the idea -- He prefers his practical traditional medicine, despite assurances that this technique has worked and that its how to combat the plauge that the invaders have released. They refine their pitch and try again. They finally got a well known and respected healer (a woman, unusually) to listen to them and accept their cause. For him, it somehow made sense, and he is willing to present the idea to the local leaders -- once he makes good and sure that he trusts them. They spend much of the day working out the exact details of everything, getting terminology right, and so on. In the evening, a 'guild meeting' of sorts is held, with more demonstration and a lot of argument. The grand dilema seems to be to get proof that it works without actually experiencing the disease.

That night, Peter is struggling to sleep when he hears Luisa talking sharply to Kumar. She is asking about Peter, and just why a minor is on this mission, and doesn't seem to like the answers she's getting. Kumar isn't telling exactly what's going on.

When he finally falls asleep, Peter dreams of an army. The army has brown skin and black hair -- Peter can't tell where in aisa they are from, but its from the southern parts. They are armed with guns, horses, and steel armour. with them are locals to this world with local weapons, but following behind.

[the_matrix_walker]

Peter tries to talk to Kumar privately the following day, asking him if he has heard of other so called "Parachronics" who have dreams and visions like his own. Peter describes what he saw in his dreams the night before, hoping Kumar may be able to shed some light on the Asian army.