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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
©
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
tricorn: (🏴‍☠️ 004)

the bar

[personal profile] tricorn 2025-06-12 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Jack ended up with a rather unpleasant mix of substances – it tastes, to him, like slightly fermented lemon juice that may have once seen a bottle of rum – and he's in the process of carefully poking it away from him when he overhears her reasonably withdrawn response to the "robot" and his endless questions. He snorts. ]

He's been struggling to get that message all evening. [ How long have they been here? And it's still dark. Well, whatever, that makes 'evening' correct. ] I do have a question, though, but hopefully one that won't require you to bare your soul to a stranger. What's a burrito? [ Pronounced "burr-it-oh". ]
nadine_he_loves: (small smile)

[personal profile] nadine_he_loves 2025-06-12 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, if science fiction TV has taught me anything, it's just his programming.

[His weird, weird programming. But isn't that always how the stories go? Some scientist starts getting weird with robots and it goes wrong. At least this one seems benign, if easy to frustrate.

Nadine offers a small smile to the English (or at least English sounding) guy who's addressed her, and is glad to have something to do other than be bothered by the bartender.]


A...? Oh, a burrito. Um, it's a kind of food. Beans and cheese wrapped in a soft flatbread.

[Hopefully that explanation is bare bones enough for anyone to understand. With people coming from all different worlds and times, she's had to readjust her concept of 'common knowledge'. Greatly.]

It's from Mexico, if you know what Mexico is...?
tricorn: (🏴‍☠️ 059)

[personal profile] tricorn 2025-06-12 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He understood some of those words. Look, he'll cycle back in a second. First he needs to make clear he's not a complete dullard. ]

Mexico City, capital of New Spain?

[ They're on almost similar wavelengths here, unless they're both talking about entirely different Mexicos, in which case he's very lost. It's not outside the realm of possibility. ]

I'm afraid you'd have to define "science fiction". And "teevie". [ A considered pause. ] And programming. But I recognise you're not a living library. I'm sure you've more interesting things to do than explain what I must assume are pedestrian concepts to an out-of-timer like me.
nadine_he_loves: (ponytail smiling)

[personal profile] nadine_he_loves 2025-06-12 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[The use of 'New Spain' is surprisingly helpful in figuring out a few things. Not that history is Nadine's area of expertise, but she has a general grasp of when things happened. 'New Spain' was, if she remembers right, a time of the conquistadors thing. So fifteen hundreds or around there.

But from Earth.]


Yes, actually, that Mexico. Just...not under Spanish rule in the time I come from.

[His further questions only solidify her assumption. He's a past guy. Which is a little easier for her to wrap her head around than alien or whatever.]

And actually, I'm a teacher, so that's pretty much what I've spent my adult life doing. Explaining basic concepts. Science fiction is a type of story that deals with space and fictional technology, TV is a kind of visual entertainment like a play or an opera, and programming...if you've ever heard stories or legends about golem, it's like that. You put words inside them to tell them what to do and how to act.

[Look, she misses teaching. It had been the best part of Boulder, getting to be back in the classroom. She has no outlet here, and those were pretty easy things to give a vague explanation of.]
tricorn: (🏴‍☠️ 095)

[personal profile] tricorn 2025-06-15 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He's digging in his pocket as she starts to speak, and eventually he emerges with a small notebook and a biro he'd managed to source. He's already written some notes in there, about other things he's learned along the way – his handwriting is intricate calligraphy, which is a lot easier than he thought it would be at first sight of the pen, but he's grown to appreciate it perhaps more than anything else in this strange new world.

As she speaks, he jots down notes:



Once he's finished, he taps the pen on his lower lip, frowning. It's hard to decide where to begin. ]


When did that happen? With the Spanish.
nadine_he_loves: (ponytail smiling)

[personal profile] nadine_he_loves 2025-06-16 07:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh he's a smart one. Nadine hasn't seen anyone else taking notes, though she imagines some people are like her. They write things down at home - or whatever passed for it - rather than in the moment.

But in the moment notes are more likely to be accurate. She approves.]


Uh...sometime in the early 1800s. 1820, I think. The people of Mexico rose up against the Spanish and there was a war for independence and the Mexican people won. That's about all the details I can really offer. I'm sorry, history isn't something I studied beyond what I had to.

[She knows Cinco de Mayo does not celebrate Mexico gaining freedom, but there ends her knowledge of the whole thing.

A part of her wonders if it's a bad idea to share all of this. Isn't it something every movie about time travelers says not to do? But if what everyone claims is true, and there's no way to leave this place...what harm can there be.]


I know a lot more about British and American history. I'm from one of the original English colonies in America. Just...much much later. I'm Nadine, by the way.
tricorn: (🏴‍☠️ 099)

[personal profile] tricorn 2025-06-23 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah – Jack Rackham. Pleasure to meet you.

[ He's still jotting notes on her minor history lesson, but he makes sure to put his pen down so he can hold out a hand for her to shake. Common decency, isn't it? ]

How much later? Compared to, say, 1715.
nadine_he_loves: (small smile)

[personal profile] nadine_he_loves 2025-06-24 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
[She gives his hand a brief but friendly shake, not about to be impolite. There's a faint tingle of memory at his name, but nothing she can place.

Maybe it just sounds like the sort of name someone famous would have.]


Compared to 1715? Three hundred and five years after that. I'm from 2020.

[They may as well come from different worlds, with that much time between them. Her country didn't even exist at that point, technically speaking. It's such a strange thing to think about, really think about. This man is from three centuries in the past. And here they are, in some alien landscape, chatting at a bar.]
tricorn: (🏴‍☠️ 087)

[personal profile] tricorn 2025-06-29 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It sounds so futuristic as to be unreal, some sort of bizarre fantasy. Science fiction, perhaps. He looks at her very intently for a moment, quite openly giving the impression that he's scrutinising her. Would he have been able to tell that she wasn't from his time, that she was from so far away? ]

Incredible. And how is 2020 treating you?