On to Cupertino (Leviathan)

"Wanna make out?" Picture by well\_dipper

## Recurring NPCs

Tsarin, Leviathan ship

Aryutta Nefta Tsarin Zjo, Voice of Tsarin

Klaariskees, Iratos leader of the refugees from Gennus Landing

Lt. Wendy Santiago, ICA officer and longtime rival of Conrad's

"On to Cupertino" is the first episode of the second season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the twelfth episode in total.

## Summary

### Dead or alive

Xe'anna replies to Lt. Wendy Santiago demand that Lt. Conrad be surrendered to her so that he be court-martialed for deserting his post with a lie: he died a hero in the explosion of Gennus Landing. This, despite Conrad's own insistence to surrender that results in an unsuccessful attempt to leave the ship and after Xe'anna offers to be his champion in a trial by combat and Theea's eagerness to wipe out Lt. Santiago's ship. Theea also considers crashing the ICA frigate's system and even putting Conrad on one of the two fighters ships they got on Gennus Landing. *Wendy, Wendy still unbendy* accepts this explanation; she doesn't change her mind when Conrad himself contacts her and offers to surrender.

After this incident, Kika and Conrad discuss what is right or wrong, and agree that they like each other. Conrad wonders whether all the Treeko are as optimistic as Kika, to which she remplies: *No ... you're optimistic when you're on this ship.* Still, it's hard for the ex-Lieutenant to adjust to both being officially dead and feeling like he may have become *a weird shell being controlled by the ship*, when he has *tried to make a difference in the first place*.

### Diplomacy

Klaariskees approaches Xe'anna: her 20-odd group of refugees is looking for a new world bigger than the cargo bay. Besides, the Iratos volunteers to help form a local coalition against the Raze, whom Klaariskees understands want to conquer and destroy more than Gennus Landing. She also expresses her regrets the bad relationships between the Iratos and the Andartans, and thanks Xe'anna again, before leaving with a *click, click* and a *waddle, waddle, waddle*. Conrad goes help the refugees.

### About Theea and Conrad

Kika and Theea meep-meep about Best Boy Conrad. One likes him and worries about him; the other one would have been fine if Conrad had left but also says that *next time we're in ICA space I'm gonna find that bitch*, and has started working on shooting a gun, and she was just going to ruin her anyway. Kika wonders why she can't let this one go and reminds her of the extreme prejudice with which she once ran after a patron who had forgotten to leave a tip. Theea doesn't like how Kika uses air quotation marks to refer to her "justice" but grudgingly accepts to let the go of her Santiago vendetta.

In an interesting roleplaying moment, Claudia has Kika roll Talk and Charisma in an opposed test against Theea to read Thea's mind, but doesn't want to hear the truth in case she rolls badly. The GM kindly reminds her that she, Claudia, knows exactly what Theea is getting at, and given that Kika and Theea end up rolling similar numbers, Claudia gets and has to decide what Kika knows.

Incidentally, Sarah finds it hard to read her dice after the long time off.

The conversation continues, with Kika asking whether Theea is making choices that are best for her. Theea hesitates, and replies:

*I am making choices that feel good.*

before concluding that the thinks she is making the right choice if she solves this problem for Conrad and offering Kika to have  mochi balls as a 2 AM dessert.

Theea, who is in Tsarin's comms area because she first wanted to hack Wendy Santiago's ship from there, is approached by Ary, who thinks she is frustrated and looks mad at Conrad.

She asks:

> *Do you like Conrad?*
>
>

> *No, I don't like anybody.*
>
>

> *That seems patently untrue.*
>
>

They keep talking about mochi and how, if she could tell Conrad and the others what she feels for them, maybe they would be less likely to want to leave. This goes on a little, and in the end, this one thing is clear:

> *So, purple inside mochi balls, er?*
>
>

### What next?

On her side trip to Duranga, Theea acquired knowledge about getting high-grade weaponry for Tsarin. They also know that installing these weapons is outside of Kika's area of expertise, for that job they'll need a cyber surgeon such as can only be found in ICA space, like the professor Conrad knew at the Academy. Conrad reminds the group that he is dead now, which leads do a discussion of the merits of the situation.

Before the crew reconvenes, Xe'anna convinces Hexie to go with the refugees to get outside help against the Raze when they drop them off. Because she is the only one of the crew who is persuasive, and charismatic and knows how to talk to people and convince them. *The music totally swells* as Xe'anna takes Hexie into her arms and they prepare for the upcoming separation.

> Hexie: *What about the massages? Who'll stop you from murdering the rest of the crew?*
>
>

> Xe'anna: *That's a very real concern. But you'll be back and then...*
>
>

> Hexie: *I'll send updates...*
>
>

> Xe'anna: *All the time, please.*
>
>

> Hexie: *In song [...]*
>
>

Xe'anna wants Hexie to have everything she needs. She would give her the Bat'leth if she wanted it.

Xe'anna is slightly disheveled when she leaves Hexie and announces that Oxana is looking for a suitable place to drop off Hexie and the refugees.

After that, all they have to do is set course to Duranga and get the weapons. Except that Xe'anna is not sure how the Cartels that serve as government in that *hive of scum and villainy* will react to Theea's return. Suffice it to say that Theea would like to be called Neea while they're down there.

Ary is the one who suggests that they get the expert first, with Theea adding that they may have to leave fast after grabbing the weapons. Conrad thinks that the professor and cutting-edge researcher into neurobiology he befriended at ICA Academy headquarters is still there, at the Genius Bar planet in the Cupertino System. Kika, again, insists she is up to the task, even when Theea likens the procedure to *putting a spleen into a person.* Kika:

> *I could do that! Give me a spleen, I'll do that right now!*
>
>

Ary also intervenes, first by pointing out that Tsarin doesn't have a spleen, then by reminding Kika how she had to be cut out of the heart of the Raze inside which she had climbed. And, if Tsarin dies, she dies too. Conrad is surprised to hear for the first time Ary being angry.
What ultimately convinces Kika is Theea reminding her that this trip will leave them with time to repaint the Bat'leth and her own realization that:

> *Fine! You bring this expert and I will ... I will learn from them and I will become the new expert and I will write 17 blogs about it and then I will become ICA professor.*
>
>

To which Ary replies:

> *And then I will let you near Tsarin's organs.*
>
>

### On to the Cupertino System

Their next objective being settled, should they go on Tsarin or the Bat'leth? It would not be advisable to enter the Cupertino System on Tsarin, but Tsarin will discreetly get them in a nearby system twice faster. It is also worth noting that sending a message would take roughly the same time. But, Xe'anna asks,

> *Is any of us wanted in ICA space?*
>
>

To which Lauren replies:

> *The highest risk, I think is Theea.*
>
>

So, on to the Cupertino System it is, with Tsarin leaving them in a safe place in ICA space before the Bat'leth completes the journey with its crew.

In the meantime, Oxana found a safe place on the way to ICA space, from which Klaariskees her group will be able to get a ship. Xe'anna also tries the more affluent among her crew to part with some GUC to give to the refugees. Conrad is ready to share whatever GUC he has with him, but can't do more because he no longer can access his accounts, thus prompting Theea to sigh: I should have scrubbed your accounts. Hexie, for her part, relishes the opportunity to hitchhike her way through this sector of space, to *convince people to let us go on their ships* and *entertain them for passage*.

Xe'anna forces Hexie to accept a GUC stick and then *there is hugging and there is kissing and there is goodbyes*.

### Refueling

Tsarin's first jump on this leg of this journey ends in a pretty empty part of space where they pause. Ary messages over that *Tsarin needs to stop to refuel*. They are in a pretty dense nebula.

> *On the outside kind of edge, the whole backplate of Tsarin's body lifts up and opens and these large fanlike frills sort of open themselves up and from what you can tell, begin collecting material.*
>
>

Theea puts on a vacsuite, after failing to convince Kika to come along, because, Kika explains,

> *I'm feeling it so I can be its spleen.*
>
>

The goes out on the back of the ship, is warned by the suit of high levels of solar radiation in this area, and comes back inside as Tsarin closes the frills.

### Cheryl's take on the episode

From chat, during the break:

> *krellen: Hexie would totally try to hitchhike across the galaxy, wouldn't she?*
>
>

> *MuppetAphrodite: @krellen She already has. She was nomadic before, kind of sp'vaudevillian - that's how she met Xeanna.*
>
>

> *MuppetAphrodite:* *so it all works*
>
>

> *MuppetAphrodite: totally in character*
>
>

> *MuppetAphrodite: but ... you know, it wasn't her first choice, leaving Xe*
>
>

> *MuppetAphrodite: I'm not sure we've ever reaaaaaly talked about Hexie's past like that but that was always my head canon, so this works perfect.*
>
>

### On a five-day long jump

The crew has five days to spend on the way to Cupertino.

While at the helm, Theea continues trying to learn Pramissan on her own, and making a point of not asking Ary for help. Ary steps in, teaches her the word for Hello, and keeps speaking in what remains mostly gibberish to Theea.

*Shit!*, Theea exclaims, then rolls 6 on Intelligence and Know (still relearning the dice): she's not sure whether Ary just offered help or used the word idiot instead and adds: *I'm learning!,* followed by all the expletives she is thinking of. This in turn leads Ary to teach her new pupil expletives in her language, such as the words to *refer to someone's, er, delicate areas as being insufficient*, or the word for spleen (that is, a useless piece of the body). Theea successfully memorizes a handful of them, but her accent is pretty terrible. Theea's conclusion:

> *I've taken good use of my time.*
>
>

She keeps studying with Ary and later does maths, struggles with ages and time and gets to use all the new swear words she has learnt.

Kika realizes at some point that the captain needs a distraction. She finds Xe'anna scrubbing the paint off of the outside of the Bat'leth and trying to make the ID number under the name more official: *scrub, scrub, scrub*. Kika keeps politely tapping (or, as she did at Xe'anna's door, scuttle-knocking) until she gets her attention. She asks for permission to rip apart the two small fighter ships they took back at Gennus Landing. She wanted to check because she is working on listening and she is the Head Engineer Only (with the emphasis on only) of the Bat'leth.

Kika proceeds to explain her plan, which involves one ship's  badading badaboom and the other's  zip-zip. Xe'anna would like to take advantage of the fact that the crew has two pilots to keep one of the two fighters, with a bit more firepower. Kika may also salvage parts to upgrade the Bat'leth:

> Kika: *You want the zip-zip.*
>
>

> Xe'anna: *and the boom-boom [...] one fighter with the maximum zip-zip and boom-boom.*
>
>

> Kika: *This thing is gonna growl.*
>
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> Xe'anna: *Growling would be good.*
>
>

Kika gets even more from this conversation, after she suggests:

> *If you let us paint THIS one, then we will probably not paint THAT one.*
>
>

Xe'anna puts her giant purple hand on Kika's tiny furry shoulder, and says:

> *You have my permission to paint the fighter in whatever way you want.*
>
>

Kika is overjoyed and contacts Theea, who reacts thus:

> *I've just learnt some swear words, so this is gonna be awesome.*
>
>

Kika still has to repair the Bat'leth too.

Kika rolls 14 on her Fix and Intelligence to repair the fighter, which takes four days. Given that she repairs the Bat'leth first, she only gets to do three-quarters of the fighter job during the jump.

The specs of the fighter (once the repairs are finished):

* No thread drive,
* Speed: 5 (it is very zippy),
* HP: 8,
* AC: 14 (like the Bat'leth),

* Armor: 2 (like the Bat'leth),

* Clumsy Reaper Battery (3d4 damage, negative to hit other fighters).

Kika also upgrades its wings.

Meanwhile, Conrad spends most of his time on his Salmon Ladder or pacing around the entire ship. He has a lot on his mind and seems aggravated.

Xe'anna keeps checking her messages, threatens Oxana to uninstall her, a threat she has made almost every day since Oxana was installed anyway, if she tells anyone.

### More "studying" for Theea

On the fourth day, Conrad goes to Theea's large quarters, the room she simply chose for herself when she first explored Tsarin. She lets him in, and has a hard time trying to do small talk and offering him a drink.

Awkward silence. Theea tries to speak, until Conrad asks:

> *Do you want to make out?*
>
>

Reactions ensue. Claudia just disappears. Lauren starts laughing.
Thee skips a beat, but replies:

> *Uh, yeah.*
>
>

Lauren concludes the scene:

> *And they do. Vigorously.*
>
>

They don't stay together long enough to be interrupted by the arrival to their destination. Eventually, Conrad leaves the room and goes back to normal, to more Salmon Ladders. Later on that night, he returns to Theea's room. The door opens, she lets him in, the door closes.
Somehow, because Theea would not put a sock on the door, Kika doesn't return to the closet she has in the room:

> *I don't go. I don't.*
>
>

She is so busy working on the ships anyway, she'll be in her Bat'leth cave.

### Approaching Cupertino

On the fifth day, they emerge at the edge of the Cupertino System. Ary and Tsarin will wait there while Xe'anna and her crew enter the Cupertino System on the Bat'leth, which is a one-day jump away.

Dan thinks that the name he chose for the system was a dumb job. Lauren is kinda surprised that, to him, this one, and not his character's name, or his character's brother's name, is the joke that was too far.

Xe'anna success her Piloting roll. They are at their objective in one day, *unless anything "lieutenant" happens ...*

Conrad is in the cargo bay. Xe'anna makes it clear that nobody offered him Hexie's room.

Kika realizes she hasn't taken Conrad's measurements yet for the hanging room she wants to build for him. She tries to explains the rationale for this to Xe'anna, who asks:

> Xe'anna: *How is he gonna get to it?*
>
>

> Kika: *He likes ladders.*
>
>

> Lauren: *She's not wrong.*
>
>

> Xe'anna: *I can't argue with that.*
>
>

Oxana, who has access to the cameras Theea herself planted everywhere on Tsarin for her own *borrowing* purposes, and who is still her sassy self, rats out on the new couples activities, which from then on are referred to as *studying,* before offering to sound an alarm to get them out. Xe'anna declines this offer, lets them *study*.

Kika and Xe'anna keep discussing the new ship. Kika opines that *In their youth, they have to become sexually active to then get strength...* while Xe'anna remarks that Theea *has been carrying the torch for him for a while*, and lists all of Theea's odd behaviors around him in particular: *stalking, spying, defensiveness*.

Later, Oxana gives Xe'anna an update on her messages:

> *Captain, you've no new messages in your inbox.*
>
>

Lauren gives details about the Cupertino System, the planet and the headquarters.

They hail the planet. Before Dan has time to name to the person they are here yo visit, hurries and says *Professor Brian Regal*, at the Burke Science building.

### Meeting the professor

They are allowed to dock, will be let on the campus provided they have their credentials in order. Conrad doesn't believe they have his death on record yet, but the GM confirms Xe'anna's suspicion that this is the place where the information would go. Conrad eventually accepts to stay on the ship and keep his presence secret. So will Theea. Conrad asks them to fetch his favorite breakfast for him, which doesn't go well with Xe'anna. He goes as far as asking that they get it on the way back.

Kika and Xe'anna find their way to the professor's office.

Theea wants to study for a while, and then go out. Lauren: *We'll come back to you after you're done studying.*

They knock, the professor, a human, lets them in. Long story short, he gives them a reality check on everything, including how he was requested to change Conrad's grade, and how the researchers who got killed on the wreck had been foolish. Kika is aggressive from the start.

In the end, the professor is steadfast about not joining them on their errand, and a former student of his, a Chalean Anio, who was last seen on planet Maera in the Aneste System.

The professor also insists that, no matter what he may think personally, he has chosen to always defer to his leaders, because ICA provides stability and peace and has created a thriving, prospering civilization. Xe'anna, after Kika, also gets angry. Kika is the one who smashes his nameplate once they leave him. She still remembers their breakfast errand.

Meanwhile, Theea is rebuffed when trying to enter the campus with her knife and just returns to the ship when she notices Xe'anna and Kika on their way back.

Back on the ship, Theea is angry at Oxana who's ratted out on her again, Xe'anna is just angry, especially after Conrad snags the breakfast bag, and Conrad fails to understand while they didn't use the professor's weakness, as in: *knock him out, put him in a duffel bag and lug him back to the ship*. Theea admires him in this moment: *Theea is, like, so proud of him right now*.

### A new plan

Xe'anna the new plan with involving Anio, is hopeful that greed may work.

Theea, who has something to get done in ICA space, is glad that Aneste is located within the current sector. She declines to give details to Xe'anna, and changes the subject: *Nothing big. These are really good*. With which last statement Conrad agrees.

Kika reacts to Xe'anna's and Theea's tense talk about trust:

> *Only one of us can be grouchy. I'm the new Hexie ... I shouldn't have said that.*
>
>

Oxana intervenes, otherwise unprompted:

> *There are no messages in your inbox, captain.*
>
>

Xe'anna grabs Kika, who has been on her back during their visit on the planet, firmly, at the back of her outfit ... takes her down, lets go and walks away. Kika doesn't resist. *It's only been five days but there is a definite tension.*

On hearing where they're headed next, Oxana remarks that she's sure they'll have fun there, because it's a pleasure world.

## Notes

1. ↑ Ary blocks him.
2. ↑ The latter proposal prompting this comment in chat from @Galforc: *Exactly! Fire Conrad at ICA!--I mean, wait, w hat?*
3. ↑ As Conrad refers to her.
4. ↑ *NftE*: In kind of a *We need to talk about Kenny* moment.
5. ↑ *NftE*: I see a possible reference to Ep 0 here.
6. ↑ This is what they look like.
7. ↑ *NftE*: I'd need to go back and watch again to do this insightful talk more justice.
8. ↑ Tech level 4-5.
9. ↑ Played by Lauren. Cheryl can not be on the show this season.
10. ↑ *NftE*: Yes, please.
11. ↑ See confirmation of the spelling here.
12. ↑ Two interesting reactions here: Dan/Conrad's *We all know that* and Sarah/Theea's indignant *Whaaaat?*
13. ↑ With this precision from Dan: *the brain*.
14. ↑ Xe'anna later tells Ary that as long as they are on the fighter they'll do nothing on the Bat'leth or Tsarin. Ary is glad that Xe'anna understands her crew.
15. ↑ *NftE*: I think that Theea names the fighter *the organ that you throw away*, in Pramissan.
16. ↑ See these two clips: Iffrithiel's and Galforc's.
17. ↑ *NftE*: Thanks for this "major" pun.
18. ↑ *NftE*: This word elicited a few comments in chat. You get the picture ... I don't need to add that they mentioned Theea.
19. ↑ *NftE*: pasted from Lauren's answer to my spelling enquiry.
20. ↑ *NftE*: Or Challan, according to Lauren's response to my inquiry.
21. ↑ *NftE*: Or Meara (same source as above).