Leave the bag, take the cannoli (Leviathan)

Picture posted on twitter by Iffrithiel.

## Recurring NPCs

Tsarin, Leviathan ship

Aryutta Nefta Tsarin Zjo, Voice of Tsarin

"Leave the bag, take the cannoli" is the second episode of the second season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the thirteenth episode in total.

## Summary

### Thoughts on the Genius Bar Planet

Xe'anna didn't like the place and certainly didn't have fun there, despite the 4.8 stars on Sp'elp: *Not by me!*

Lizzie imagines a J. J. Abrams film, Lauren confirms that they use transparent alumin(i)um. Or, as Dan says, *They keep up with the models*.

### On to Maera

They leave for Maera, which is close.

Xe'anna who has gone to the gym, goes more and more annoyed by Oxana's repeated *You have no new messages.*

Theea goes to study the language a little more. Her roll (best two out of Intelligence, Know and Diplomat) of 11 allows her to pick up conversational things and, due to the nature of the sources she has access to, jargon. She lacks cultural context to hold conversations. She improves on swear words, because *They're practically my own language.*

Conrad, in the pilot's chair, prepares the short thread jump. As usual, he hums his song. Oxanna, who has recorded it, plays it on her own.

### Kika's hanging room

Kika, who can't put the finishing touches on the incomplete fighter work, has to work on her other side project, which implies getting Conrad's, and now also Theea's, weight. Kika tries to trick Conrad thus: given that a pigeon's weight is 5.32 grams, how many pigeons does he weigh? Because *I need to know your approximate pigeon weight ... Give me your weight.*

Conrad first replies that his weight is on file.

Kika goes on explaining that she is building a hanging room for him. Kika demands:

> *Give me your weight, I'm your ship's doctor.*
>
>

Conrad remarks that:

> *You seem to find a new excuse.*
>
>

and finally spills the beans, sort of:

> *My pigeon weight is 5 pigeons*.
>
>

Kika then asks Oxana, who is her usual sassy:

> *Body fat 0%. 100% Carls.*
>
>

Kika fumes, goes to the cargo bay, where she'll hang the room and plays loud music.
Xe'anna then goes down the Salmon Ladder, looks down at Kika, and asks her what she is building. Kika reiterates that the room needs to hang so as to save cargo space, but *What if we have tall cargo?* But what matters most to the captain is how long this will keep her occupied. Kika explains mentions a lack of supplies and painting, and she'll need a week or two. Xe'anna likes this answer, tells Kika to:

> *Go ahead. I leave it in your capable hands.*
>
>

### Good captain. Less good counselor.

Xe'anna goes to shower then knocks on Theaa's room. Theea lets her in. Their conversation, which is tense at first, doesn't improve much after they open a bottle. Xe'anna inquires about Theea and Conrad copulating, wonders if it that is all they were doing, thinks they're both human and therefore compatible. Theea won't talk about the rest of her anatomy. Xe'anna only wants to know if that relationship is emotional, stresses that Theea doesn't have to answer, and that she's interested as a friend. Theea is surprised:

> *You consider me a friend? I thought you tolerated me...*
>
>

> *I 'm very aggressive [...] Theea, I would not want you here if I didn't like you [...] I've come to appreciate the sort of code you live by.*
>
>

> *Cool ... .... So I don't have ... I don't know ... I don't mean.*
>
>

> *To talk, you have Kika. You also have me.*
>
>

After Xe'anna leaves, Oxana tells Theea she doesn't hate her. Unsurprisingly, Theea has already tried to hack Oxana several times. To get Oxana to stop watching her, Theea deactivates all of her own cameras.

Kika, meanwhile, has started building her hanging room: she has welded pillars to the ceiling, and used them to attach a cube to the ceiling. She is confident that there will be no swinging, no shaking in it, unless the ship has been destroyed.

### At Maera

Nothing else happens until they arrive in the Aneste System ... not even significant research about the place where they're going, apparently, beyond looking it up on Wikipedia and Sp'elp. Xe'anna's patience doesn't go as far as letting Oxana read even one review on Sp'elp.

Anyway, the crew of the Bat'leth is headed for a city called Maera, on a large continent of planet Maera. Oxana has already told them that is a pleasure planet. Conrad remembers it as a spring break planet that he avoided, as well as the people going there, during his time at the Academy. Captain Carls may have spent Christmas there with his kids. Returning tourists all say they have an amazing time, it is *a place where you can lives your wildest fantasies.*

During their approach, the crew see Maera as a very dense, cyberpunk kind of city. Its spectacular high-rise buildings with gorgeous views, contrast with sections in disrepair. They dock the Bat'leth at a Motel6 space dock, one with a code.

The location they got for Anio is the Starlight Lounge. They learn that is part of the Starlight Chain, that also includes such places as the Starlight Pavilion, the Gazebo, the Dungeon, the Cabin, the Ranch. There is also the Starlight Express, a train that goes all the way around the continent. Kika remarks that she has never been on a train.

### Getting ready to look for Anio

The time comes to leave the ship and explore. Xe'anna takes her sword. She dons a sleeveless armor, because of the arid climate. Xe'anna makes it very clear, especially to Kika, that she would like to have the whole crew with her, essentially to keep an eye on them. Theea and Kika would like at least a few hours of *self-choice time* to get "supplies" and "services" the latter referring to *an experience that's memorable and necessary*.

Because Theea is the most eloquent and convincing of everyone here, in Hexie's absence, counts on her to employ Hexie's methods if Chalean Anion is resistant. Resupplying can wait until later. This talk prompts Oxana to search for shopping centers.

Xe'anna disagrees with the other method to secure Anio's help, the one involving a large sack. Oxana supports her, somewhat, in that she can't find a sp'elp review that mention *non-consensual kidnapping*. Kika actually fears she may be kidnapped herself: you are red and glorious in your size. *I am smart, they want me for my brain*.

Conrad doesn't hear the part of the discussion about him: he is packing up his bag. Xe'anna would rather he left his uniform on the ship, despite the location's popularity with people at the Academy. And also that he didn't carry his rifle. He's ready to settle for a sidearm concealed in his belt, as per ICA's motto: *Be ready for every situation with a smaller firearm in your belt*. At any rate, he is still bringing the duffel bag to put Anio in. Or not, because Xe'anna orders: *we'll come back for the bag if we need a bag*. Even ICA's other motto: *To try to avoid bad situations but to be prepared for them with a duffel bag* can't sway her. They still go as far as trying to agree on a code phrase, such as Theea's *Hey, bag time,* before Xe'anna shares her real intent, which is to not resort to bagging in any case.

Meanwhile, the doors of the ship open and close as Oxana realizes they are not leaving yet.

Xe'anna speeds things up:

> *Just leave the bag, take the cannoli and let's go, alright?*
>
>

Conrad finally goes and changes into his civvies. A discussion about Vegas dress code and being in Vegas ensues. Conrad insists on wearing slacks and a T-shirt. He has no camera on his neck.

To recap: Xe'anna brings a sword, Conrad brings the cannoli and a backpack. Theea takes her knife and line shunts, leaves her throwing rifle. Kika kind of imitates her, leaving her bow and taking her switchblade mono-blade instead. All in all, the only visible weapon is Xe'anna's sword.

### Greasing a palm

The guard who scans their IDs once they're out Xe'anna notices they start just looking the other way:

> *Excellent*, she says, *And I proceed*.
>
>

The guard makes a subtle suggestion:

> *So you know ... Not everyone ... not everyone looks the other way*.
>
>

Theea insists, and says to Kika:

> *We will proceed.*
>
>

Conrad gives his military ID. As the guard ask if he has a different identification, Theea hands over her own ID explains that he his her nephew, whose ID is not in order yet because he's come from far away. She slips some GUC with her ID, the GUC equivalent of $20. Theea rolls only 6 in Talk + Charisma and the guard hands back both the ID and the GUC. Theea repeats the procedure because it may have scanned wrong the first time. She gives more GUC this time. The guard is satisfied this time and doesn't give the GUC back:

> *It clearly did. Again, not everyone has the same care in their job as I do*.
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Theea follows the guard's logic:

> *I'm so glad that you care about your job the way that you do. You know, there are just not enough people like you in this world*.
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>

Conrad now owes Theea G100.

### Taking in the city

Xe'anna takes in their environment, takes note of local security, is reassured that they don't look out of place.

There is still daylight here. It feels like many people are still asleep. There is a lazy, slow feeling to it right now. The locals probably come out when the heat subsides. They can see stores, and a cluster of skyscrapers in the distance, incredibly tall buildings. It's like a mall, but very condensed. Many food vendors are closed at this time. It's like Vegas, where it's open 24/24 but it feels different in daytime or nighttime. It's a hot planet; a lot of people do not spend a lot of time outside, except aliens from hotter planets, aliens such as Xe'anna, who is pretty much in her element right now, enjoying the sunshine.

Kika is panting. It was a good idea to bring water, to *keep the little bat well hydrated*.

They see ads for the equivalent of lower quality, off-Strip casinos: *Here is what you want*, *The Want Store*, *Dreams R' Us*...

It may take them up to one hour to reach their destination on foot.

After many cues by the GM, Xe'anna scans relevant information at the tourist kiosk in the docking area and picks up information about the Starlight Lounge, which is just one of many local Starlight locations. The Starlight Lounge is in one of the skyscrapers they see. The Lounge is on the 53rd floor. It is schwanky, with an entire wall that looks out over the city. It was designed to have quite aesthetically pleasing views. It serves fancy drinks in glasses that are shaped in very strange ways: some of them might be on fire. Everyone does appear to be very well dressed.

Then, she directs the group to a taxi stand and asks Theea to find less above-board areas.

Xe'anna says to her crew: *Don't move, I'll be right back*, and bolts back to the Bat'leth, which is very close by.

> *Once on her ship, Xe'anna is going to, first off, leave the sword and put on a nice pair of boots she has, and she's gonna put a dagger under those.*
>
>

> *And she puts on a slightly nicer outfit they've only seen that one time Hexie dragged her into a clothing store and made her up like some kind of giant Barbie doll.*
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> *It's a pair of close-fitting slacks that can go under the boots, and a nice-fitted shirt with high-cut sleeves and a three-buttoned vest over that.*
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> *It'll take fifteen minutes or so because she fucking hates it.*
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>

Kika and Conrad have stayed where they were because the place is air-conditioned.
While waiting for Xe'anna's return, they can see trains, and a subway system. There are above-ground car equivalents. Kika asks the kiosk's clerk:

> *Where is the tour where I can look at the engine? I am assuming I can fix it. I'm a very good fixer.*
>
>

After Kika explains the clerk, who wonders if she works for a mechanic company, that *I'm curious about your engines*, the clerk hands Kika flyers for several museums that might interest her. Kika takes three of them, but:

> *This is the worst, I can't read these*.
>
>

Conrad sits on a bench and reads the flyers for her: one is for a museum of transportation, one says they have *all experiences mechanical*, and the last one claims that *You can be the train!*. Kika is so happy with the last two, she starts kneading the back of Conrad's head without realizing it. Conrad and Kika keep talking about the Be the train experience.

When Xe'anna is back, Kika, who is in her overalls, doesn't agree with her captain that she looks fine. Conrad opines that he'd look great if he could wear his ICA uniform.

While Xe'anna is away, Theea looks (with a Notice and Wisdom roll of 10) for someone who looks like they're distracted, and looks like they might have a reasonable amount of GUC in their wallet. She sees two such people, follows the one who has a pocket where it's not expected to be. She rolls Sneak and Dexterity. She has a lots of bumps on that and gets a total of 9 with *not my greatest roll*. The mark moves, shuffles, eventually freezes. Theea slides out a couple of credsticks, or rather GUC sticks, pockets them and fades into the background.

Kika and Theea are reminded of Shark Boy.

Theea, with a Notice roll of 7, finds nobody at the information booth *that might be aware of or understand this city or side of the planet*. She should probably go off of the main street for that. When Xe'anna is back, before she can do anything else, Theea looks like she was just keeping an eye on things, she looks nonchalant, like she has stayed there as per Xe'anna's instructions.

## Notes

1. ↑ See Ep 12.
2. ↑ See Ep 12.
3. ↑ Which is not much, even when accounting for Oxana's precision that a pigeon weighs more like 360 grams.
4. ↑ Lauren explained at this point that the cargo bay is 2-story, 20 to 30 feet, high.
5. ↑ During the conversation with Xe'anna, Theea had told Oxana: *I really dislike you.*
6. ↑ Thanks to the 9 she rolls on Program and Intelligence, she doesn't destroy the cams.
7. ↑ Very possibly a reference to this line in *The Godfather*..
8. ↑ Which don't include sweats. He dons slacks and a T-shirt. As he already did on a previous occasion. Or maybe they include sweats, after this injunction by Lauren: *You're overruled. He wears sweats.*?
9. ↑ Which worries @AnnaGeeks in chat: ...This is going to end up being a GSTV field trip and I REFUSE TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE. X)
10. ↑ Which is a small firearm. Maybe a reference to this game rather than this Sicilian specialty.
11. ↑ *NftE*: This is my summary of Lauren's narration.
12. ↑ *NftE*: One learns new words every day.
13. ↑ Theea says she also tries to *Notice marks around with wallets worth re-appropriating.*
14. ↑ NftE: This is pretty much a verbatim transcription of Lizzie's narration.
15. ↑ *NftE*: This slip of the tongue, along with the soft music in the background, made for a nice CorpSINs-like moment. The Shadowrun vibes of this episode had actually just started.
16. ↑ While Dan jokes about traps, and chattering teen, and being kicked off the pleasure planet.
17. ↑ At that point, Sarah looked at Lauren and noticed that *Oh, she rolls the dice, I don't know if it's good or bad*. Dan, with more experience, stated that *It's always bad*.