Mingle ∞ Log
No Lifeguard on Duty
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 ∞
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.
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.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thediadem) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
diademlogs2025-06-08 10:11 am
【 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 】
The android is too chipper for him and though Joel makes conversation lightly in the typical southern way when the questions game starts with a banger:
Tell me the story behind one of your scars
Joel levels the automaton with a look that could kill, and that look lasts an eternity between the two of them and whatever poor unfortunate soul happens to be at the bar alongside him. ]
Give me the fuckin' bottle.
b:
[ It's weird that the damn thing shares a name with his brother but it's something he stows away for later. Now with a bottle next to him and the drinks flowing, Joel despite taking the edge off still wears the same typical blanket of tension. He's got a book open in front of him, just scrap paper with notes, all cyphered for his use in a self-practiced shorthand. Trying to make sense of this place hasn't done him a damn bit of good but old habits die hard and not even the alcohol can quell the oncoming headache. ]
B
[ Jack drank some of it, made a face, and didn't drink it again, but he also didn't throw it away. It seemed impolite to do that so he kept it in his hand while he spoke pleasantly with Thomas for a time. He didn't want the android to know that he messed up so much, he seemed to genuinely want to help out other people. Being a bartender is probably hard.
Jack thinks that when he goes behind the bar and he looks at the various bottles. His family usually only has beer. He doesn't know anything about the harder liquors. He picks up bottles and curiously reads the labels, although some of them are in other languages. He sets one down and glances up, curiously watching Joel. ]
What are you writing?
no subject
[ A whiskey neat was far from a difficult drink to pour, but it came out sour and watered down, and after that, Joel saw to his own drinks and needs. It just saved him time to warn the others, but despite this guy's age, he had a greenness to him that smacked of youth, younger than he seemed at face value. ]
Keeping track of where I've been and what I've seen.
[ The answer is gruff, deadpan, and veiled in the 'mind your business,' southern tone of lackidasical politeness. It's a little more than that, but he doesn't owe him an explanation to the meat of the matter simply because he asked. ]
no subject
[ No wonder Thomas seems so interested in talking to other people. Maybe he's been in this place a long time, before it was transplanted here, and he's been alone. Jack hasn't made sense of what this place was, only that it seems like the robots all 'died.' He's theorizing an EMP. He knows what it's like to be the only one of his kind. But it seems like an overall tragedy and it's probably why he so readily answered all of Thomas's questions. Jack understands being the only one.
He does have a young feel to him, green and new and innocent. Jack's not innocent in terms of the short and tragic life he himself has led, but he has this open honesty and curiosity about him that gives that naive energy. So he doesn't understand the 'mind your business' tone, it goes right over his head. ]
You mean in the whole world so far? I think I've been to most of the city by now. It's bigger than any place I've ever been.
no subject
[ Robot or otherwise, not that Joel considers the barkeep to be sentient or alive in the technical sense. Operability was debatable, but as long as he was talking, he was off the chopping block for loot and salvage.
Green was right, and Joel regards him with a look of resigned interest barely there on the fringes of concern or curiosity. ]
What're you from a small town?
no subject
[ Jack himself is damaged goods to an insane level. Only three years old and already drowned in mental anguish and violence. He's never had something nice and simple like sitting by a pool or having a drink casually, without fear hanging over him. He isn't afraid right now, not even of himself. It's calming.
He is much more interested in the man. That reminds him of something his father Dean would have said. Although maybe all three of them would, they all are damaged in one way or the other. Castiel assures him it's normal, at least for their family. He bobs his head. ]
Yes, Lebanon, Kansas. There are less than three hundred people who live there.
[ It's the epitome of small town USA. Jack has only occasionally ventured out to meet the people there, and it hasn't gone terribly well, so he's stayed isolated in the bunker more frequently. ]
So something that might have a million people, that's huge. I've never been able to imagine it before.
no subject
[ Joel's familiar with Kansas, it had the same small town vibe before the outbreak as a lot of the smaller towns in Texas. Being from Austin, his exposure to small towns wasn't the same, but there's a naivete here that even being in a town of hundreds versus millions can't quite define. ]
Never been, but in my experience, more people mean more problems.
no subject
[ So very underground. Even more sheltered than living in a small town with other people around him. It probably makes them sound like they're apocalypse shelterers although that's not entirely untrue. It's more true than a lot of other definitions that could be lobbed at the Winchesters. ]
Lebanon is the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states. It's perfectly central.
[ And that's why they lived there. Or why he assumes the Men of Letters chose to put their bunker there and headquarters, so it'd be the center of everything. Jack hasn't been to most of the rest of the world though. He's not well-traveled, but he wishes that he were. Coming here has been exciting for that one reason. He tilts his head as he considers what Joel says and he shrugs. ]
Or more people mean more opportunities. [ Jack smiles. He's naive and optimistic, that's for certain. ] I mean, this isn't ideally where I'd like to be, but it's interesting, isn't it?