MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

[thediadem]

Mingle ∞ Log

No Lifeguard on Duty

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Jump ⇅ :: Intro — Prompts — NPC 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 ∞

Travel — Map — Setting

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

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Comments

[pse]

[ Something Kimiko definitely doesn't have the bandwidth for is explaining Compound V — too many variables, too much tied to the lopsided world she came from and its profound unkindness. But she did bring a pen, at least. It wouldn't help her to be without one.

She scribbles on a napkin and passes it to him. ]

Human experimentation for a terrorist group.

[ And then she goes back to sipping her ridiculous drink through her equally ridiculous straw. ]

[opticular]

[ Scott's eyes went wide after reading what she has scribbled inside the napkin, not that Kimiko would be able to see given his ruby quartz glasses. His brows do furrow, though, both in concern and disgust of what happened to her. ]

I'm sorry. That's awful. Nobody should've had to experience something like that.

[ Not that mutants aren't immune to this. Stryker has been capturing and experimenting on them. ]

Are you generally okay, though? [ Because he knows these things come with side effects. Like what happened with Senator Kelly. ]

[pse]

[ Generally? Sure. She misses Serge and Hughie and Annie, but everyone here probably has people they miss. This place is odd and not always friendly, but it doesn't hold a candle to the brutality of growing up among the Shining Light.

So — a shrug, a smile, and a thumbs up.

Another little message is scribbled on a napkin: ]

What year is it for you?

[opticular]

[ Scott tries to scan her for any injuries or scars but he can't really see much from here. Her demeanour seems generally fine - she's a bit chipper even - so nothing off about that, too. Concern bubbles within him, though, because no one deserves to go through any of that. Whenever he learns of a fellow mutant getting experimented on (sans Logan because he's an ass), Scott can't help but feel empathy and disgust for the perpetrators.

But when she smiles, though, he also smiles and reads the napkin. ]

2003 for me. So yeah, like I said, pretty behind. [ He's already apologizing ahead of time for his next question, but he's curious. ] This terrorist group, are they still operating back in your world?

[pse]

[ It's strange, to glance at the napkin on the table — human experimentation, terrorist — and realised she just... shared that. Scott hasn't taken umbrage, maybe that shoe is going to drop in a moment. The kindness in her voice makes her adjust a little in her seat. She wishes she could see his eyes.

As for the Shining Light? She nods, a short and shy little thing, and then tries to change the subject.

More words on the napkin. Any day now, she'll have enough money to buy a phone. ]

I was 13 in 2003.

☺

[opticular]

[ Reading the next words on the napkin has Scott chuckling for a bit. Wow, this just makes him feel slightly old. She could've easily been one of their students at the Institute has she not gone through what she did. Somehow, it makes this conversation a bit sadder, also knowing that the terrorist group that did this to her is still operating.

Settling down for a smile, he tries to tell her this. ]

13, huh? You could've easily been one of our students. [ With a broader, prouder smile. ] I'm sort of a teacher back home. We teach super-powered individuals like you, called mutants, how to better control their abilities.

[ What's left unsaid, but heavily implied, is that he's one of these mutants. He doesn't feel like he has to hide it from this young woman who clearly shares the same experiences as them. ]

[pse]

[ That word again — mutant — causes her brow to furrow with recognition. Grabbing a clean napkin, she pulls it close and spends a few moments scribbling.

Eventually, Scott sees this pushed across the bar toward him. ]



[ There's an expectant, quizzical tap of the pen. Do they know each other? ]

[opticular]

[ When she passes another clean napkin back to him, Scott adjusts his vision to see what's written this time. He's not prepared to see a drawing of Logan, which he thinks is fairly accurate by the way, that he wasn't able to fight back the small chuckle and grin that comes out of his lips.

He notices that expectant tap of her pen, and he really just couldn't hide his amusement. ]

I know him, yeah. He's... [ Scott pauses. How does he even begin to describe Logan to someone else? What kind of relationship do they even have? ]

He's an ally. Grumpy, hairy guy who smells like cigar all the time, huh? [ He glances at the napkin again, and then back at her. ] May I? [ Keep the drawing, he means. He'd like to show it to Logan. ]

[pse]

[ Nodding, she pushes the napkin a little further away from her and towards him. She doesn't really understand why he wants it, but she isn't about to tell him no.

An ally. A grumpy, cigar-chomping ally. It reminds her of Butcher. They even have similar hair. And that—

Kimiko gestures to herself, mimes stabbing Scott's arm with a single thrust of her fist downward, and then toward the picture. It's followed up by steepling her fingers and then lacing them together. She's trying to explain that she stabbed Logan in the arm and it healed almost immediately, both puzzling her and not. The word mutant is so different from supe — it's biological, not derogatory. It takes the fact of the too-powerful other and makes them a product of natural evolution. If it's a circle they want to include her in, they won't when they find out about Compound V. She's convinced of this.

And maybe the reminder of Billy Butcher is what had thrown her into a tailspin in the barbershop. Even in the face of Scott's smile, his kindness, she feels clumsy and stupid and dangerous. ]

[opticular]

[ Concern washes on Scott's features the moment she mimes about stabbing Logan. He doesn't understand the context of this. Did an altercation happen between them? Pretty sure it's Logan's fault, knowing how he is. His brows knit together as he tries to parse things out. ]

Wait, what? You stabbed Logan? Why? You alright?

[ At this point, Scott only knows she's strong so he's more concerned for her well-being. Logan heals quick. He'll be fine. ]

[pse]

[ A quick nod, her head bobbing.

On yet another trusty napkin, she scribbles down — ]

Misunderstanding

[ Yes, she's fine. She's solid. But Kimiko isn't sure how well her gesture for healing got the message across. If everyone here knew the language she and Kenji had created, things would be so much easier. Far from the first time, she wishes she could flip a switch and make words come back. She wishes talking didn't scare the hell out of her, leave her rooted to the floor and voiceless with panic and disgust. She doesn't have to tell Scott anything else, she knows, but she wants to. ]

He can't hurt me [ Punctuated with another little smiley face. ]

[opticular]

[ He can't hurt me. It takes a split second for Scott to understand what she means by this, and when he does, he's finally seeing the bigger picture. He nods as he closes the napkin and places it to the side. ]

You mean you're invulnerable or do you also heal fast?

[ He didn't particularly get that she can heal fast from her earlier message, but he's starting to realize the answer to his question might just be the latter. There are far too many similarities for Scott to think it must be.

Got experimented on, too. Just like Logan. He wonders if the terrorist group she's referencing might be Stryker's. Because they sure as hell is to him. ]

[pse]

[ Invulnerable is an interesting word. English is either her third or fourth language, depending on how you look at it, and sometimes she can get a bit tripped up on nuance. She's always gotten back up. Could that be considered invulnerable? She thinks about Stormfront's hands on her throat, the edge of a grotesque crack that had trailed off into sticky, impossible silence—

No, she suspects he means impervious to damage. And Kimiko definitely isn't that.

With a quick glance around the immediate area to make sure Thomas isn't hovering, she grabs a glass and smashes it against the bar top. It fragments neatly, if loudly, into loose shards of glass. There's no hesitation as she plucks up a shard and draws the sharp, shear edge along the outside of her forearm. Blood from a three- or four-inch gash wells up immediately, a vivid line of fresh red against her pale skin.

In seconds, the skin around the gash has closed back up. There isn't even a seam of scar tissue.

Grabbing the he can't hurt me napkin, she uses it to wipe up the blood. Leaving bits of shattered glass all over the bar is one thing, but blood is unhygienic where people eat and drink! ]

[opticular]

[ Scott watches this without a hint of surprise, even when she smashes the bottle and cuts herself with it. Especially even when her wound from it heals. He has the same trained gaze all throughout, as if he has seen this countless of times. As if he has seen weirder things.

When one's a teacher in a school filled with mutants, there are far stranger stuff.

After a bit of a pause, he puts a hand on his chin, as if in contemplation. ]

So, you heal fast. Like Logan. When you met him, did you see it for yourself? That he healed?

[ He has an array of follow-up questions, but he doesn't want to bombard her with them. Scott's going to approach this similar to how he approaches potential recruits. ]