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The Diadem ([personal profile] thediadem) wrote in [community profile] diademlogs2025-06-08 10:11 am
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MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

Mingle ∞ Log
No Lifeguard on Duty
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Jump ⇅ :: IntroPromptsNPC Interaction
Summary
What's going on?
An unexpected heat wave in mid-June, coupled with the cycling shutdown of all air conditioning units in motels across the Blocks, has made the summer unbearable. Meanwhile, the ever-eager storm chaser, Felix Bjurstrom, has uncovered a fancy resort with a pool in a diffusion zone only 1 hour out from Panorama. Lucky, right? Well...kind of. It's got some quirks.
When is this happening?
June 10 - 30
What should I know?
  • This area is one of many diffusion zones that appear throughout the planet.
  • A storm chaser is someone dedicated to studying the cosmic phenomenon in the Diadem. Felix is a pioneer in his field.
  • A winding highway filled with old empty barrels will take you to the zone.
  • Characters can travel with a friend to save on gas! Parking's limited, so it might not be a bad idea.
  • At any given time, there's max several dozen visitors. Most work long hours, some are traveling through the diffusion zones, and others prefer not to risk the drive or waste precious gas, so it won't draw a huge crowd (but there's still a crowd!).
  • This is a mingle rather than an event. Plot-heavy elements will be minor. The game's first proper event will be posted in July!
What does my character know?
  • Having lost his phone, Felix will spread the word using good old-fashioned printed posters that he's put up around Panorama. A young woman is seen helping him. They appear to be close. Some say that's his daughter.
  • Though the timing is impossible to predict accurately, Felix believes that due to this zone's unusual proximity to an anchor point, it has a high chance of persisting for 2-3 weeks.
  • Directions are printed on the posters, though characters are also free to stumble across the zone by accident.
∞ Links ∞
TravelMapSetting
Introduction
The resort looks like your typical upscale vacation spot: a beautiful pool, lovely cabins, and plenty of pool chairs. The sky is perpetually nighttime and there are two moons. One moon is smaller than its sister and glows purple. The other looks like the Earth's moon. The weather is pleasantly warm. In fact, conditions are almost too perfect.

Other fluxdrifts are here, too, and you might come across them, all of whom are taking advantage of the pool. They'll converse superficially with you and will come and go randomly. You'll want to keep a close eye on your belongings. Other than cooling off, this isn't a bad place to start making connections. Life in the Diadem is better when you've got allies if not friends.

Just outside the resort is a spacious parking lot, designed for visitors. Nobody's following parking rules so put your car anywhere it fits. If you get blocked in, well, that's a problem for when you leave.

At the end of June, the diffusion zone will flicker and morph into an unremarkable overgrown park, long abandoned to the decades.

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Prompts
As you wander around, you discover deactivated androids in many of the poolside huts. These androids cannot be mistaken for any organic species: their chassis is metal, and their heads are shiny. Circuits and wires are visible. But each is dressed distinctly human in a way that borders on disturbing. You spot lipstick drawn on some of the metal faces, as though they're playing dress up...or as if they don't realize they aren't human. One android is frozen in place with a diary clutched in its hands. Another has a hairbrush for its nonexistent hair.

Something seems to have destroyed them—perhaps a powerful EMP wave that knocked them all out. All except one.
The Bartender
The poolside bar is at the eastern end of the resort. There are plenty of seats. A few are occupied by deactivated androids. The bartender is also an android and appears to be the only functional one in this place. He speaks with a modulated voice and has a neutral accent. He exhibits the following behaviors if you sit at his bar:
  • Icebreaker. Whether you're alone or with a companion, he'll try to get you all to be friends, asking random self-generated icebreaker questions. He'll be visibly disappointed if you don't play along.
  • Bartending. While cheerful, he can't make the correct drink: it's always too strong, incredibly weak, added salt instead of sugar, messed up the ice. He's obviously doing his best, but it's just not working. The harder he tries, the worse he performs until it becomes a comedy of errors with stuff falling over, ice dumped in your lap, champagne corks flying, and any number of slapstick mishaps. You can help him out by mixing the drink yourself.
If you're nice to him, he'll introduce himself as Thomas Lustras. He's happy to tell you about his son. Strange, you think, but who says androids can't have paternal instincts? Yet, when the android takes out his wallet to show you a photo of his son—named Edward Lustras—the picture is that of a human child, roughly 5 years old, in the arms of his human father.

The driver's license in the same wallet confirms that Thomas is (was?) a real person. The picture on the license matches the human male in the photo. A half-scorched business card states that Thomas was a consultant at Outer Rim Resettlements. Thomas believes he's on a company retreat and wistfully declares he's eager to return home to his son.

Maybe don't look too closely. After all, this place will soon disappear. And so will he.
The Grill
It's not a vacation without a grill! Not a grillable item is in sight, though, so you'll have to rely on what you can bring out of Panorama. Some of the visiting drifters will pitch in to share, unloading hotdogs (some synthetic, others authentic, and some far past expiry), burger patties (same) and buns, and "kebabs" made of blocky frozen vegetable squares. The squares vaguely resemble corn, mushrooms, and pineapple. The texture is passable, like a flavor-infused block of tofu.

Fire up the grill and take turns grilling. You'll also have to manage the propane. The grill's also prone to sputtering out, requiring regular minor repairs to get it back up and going. Any loose bolts or screws can be taken out of the dead androids to replace the rusty ones in the grill. You're unsure if you should feel uncomfortable doing that or what, but it is a solution.
Parking Woes
Like any crowded event, the parking lot can get chaotic, and the lawlessness of the diffusion zones doesn't help. While some are happy to help barbecue, others are more interested in picking fights over who got to the parking space first. It won't take much for a fistfight to break out, and a knife fight isn't out of the question, either, though nobody'll be killed (this time).

You can let the troublemakers beat each other, or you can try to intervene if somebody who doesn't deserve it is getting harassed. Just avoid causing too much of a scene. Breaking noses is acceptable; gutting someone head to toe is not. There are Enforcers visiting the zone, and if you interfere with their nice pool time, they won't hesitate to haul away everybody involved and make you sit in jail for a few days.
Questions? Ask here
carcajous: (091)

[personal profile] carcajous 2025-07-11 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The concept of other realities has floated by him before. Hank and his theories, for one, but also—he did travel back in time to try and alter one timeline to another. And that sorta thing already feels out there as it is, but since he's landed on the Diadem, he's run up against more than alternate realities or timelines. This isn't somebody from a different version of New York where they've got a bunch of fuckin' aliens or something instead of Sentinels. This is someone who's never heard of New York to begin with, isn't even from the same planet, as far as he can tell.

Gives him a damn headache.

Though apparently, there's still enough parallels. The Sentinels aren't sentient. They didn't take on a life of their own. He knows it's something they were beginning to worry about—that one day, those robots were gonna wake up and somehow be worse—and for good reason.

Not that it mattered. World was dying as it was. ]


Guess people are always gonna turn machines into weapons.
longtooth: (009)

[personal profile] longtooth 2025-07-11 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That's not the response Fern had been expecting, and she tilts her head, watching the man for a few seconds as he looks away from her. There's a weariness in his voice, as if he speaks from direct experience. She hadn't quite known what to make of him beyond his gruffness, but maybe he was some sort of soldier. There's this faraway look in his eye that makes it feel entirely possible that he's seen battle. ]

You've dealt with something similar, then.

[ It's not a question. It doesn't really need to be. ]

... I suppose they tell themselves that it's preferable to using people as cannon fodder.

[ And maybe that would be true, if it weren't for the fact that they were being deployed against people. ]
carcajous: (062)

[personal profile] carcajous 2025-07-11 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Something like that. What powers the warforged, though? Well. Nah, come to think of it, she's probably gonna give him an answer that can be summed up as magic so...might not be worth asking. If she's never heard of a computer and she's got fairies fluttering around, he can see where this is going. ]

Their people, anyway.

[ Lines are drawn pretty clearly where he's from. Maybe she can relate. But he's not really here to get into it, either. It's a long story. ]

So what, they started giving themselves names and things, and now they just hang around?

[ That's what she's implying, right? The way she says it, it doesn't sound as though they're still aggressive war machines. They sound like...people. ]
longtooth: (008)

[personal profile] longtooth 2025-07-12 11:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Their people, yes. Fern may not know much about the conflict that led to the creation of the warforged and it seems to be relegated to the history books at this point, but it's not as if it's difficult to draw that conclusion.

He doesn't directly address the fact that he's seen something like the warforged, at least in the form they were originally created. Fern can gather that it's not a topic she should press on, so she's fine to let it drop, knowing that anyone who's seen war has their own ways of dealing with it in the aftermath.

Look at Adrian. ]


Something like that, yes. Each with their own personality or proclivities. [ She makes a small tilt of her head, indicating Thomas without directly look at him. ] Unlike what we've seen here, there isn't a sense that they're following orders or some sort of... programming. They simply are, just like the rest of us.

[ There's a pause before she shrugs her shoulders and lets out a breath, the facsimile of a laugh. ] Far be it from me to judge them. I tend to earn even more looks than a warforged.

[ It's precisely because he hasn't said a word about it that Fern feels comfortable acknowledging her own physical differences. ]
carcajous: (254)

[personal profile] carcajous 2025-07-13 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
[ Thomas clumsily polishes a glass, metal features drawn tight in concentration. Maybe the questions were programmed but the rest of him is something else. Maybe he started to evolve, too.

Guess they'll never know.

Logan glances back at her, then tips what's left of the bottle into his glass. The sky makes it hard to gauge how much time's been passing. Every time he looks up, it's dark, twin orbs hugging the stars. ]


Yeah? [ Can't say he's surprised to hear that. She's, you know. Got ears. What is she, anyhow, a werewolf? Is that a thing where she's from? Does she run around on all fours when the full moon comes out? ] I had an old friend hairier than you. Shed all over the couch.

[ That's probably a joke. ]