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.
no subject
It doesn't seem he has human taste so that might be part of it. He wouldn't know what it tastes like. I wonder why he is the only android working.
[ The others are all frozen in place or in various states, seemingly having stopped exactly where they stood, in whatever world this all was originally. Jack couldn't really guess at the why. But it does seem strange that only one of them would be working, and that one says he has a son, so maybe biologically androids can have them. He doubts he'll get answers so he'll just wonder.
Jack means specifically the resort is wonderful, although really he means everything when it comes down to it. It's an exciting new place and he's not back home dying for the cause, so it's a temporary reprise and he's decided to just keep going for now. He plans on going out to the middle of nowhere at some point and testing out opening rifts, but no where anyone else could get sucked into.
His eyebrows furrow, frowning.]
That sounds exhausting. You never can relax or have peace? Even we have that, sometimes.
[ The hunters are busy but they have downtime. Jack's had pockets here and there where he could sit in the bunker and read quietly or even watch television if he was lucky. Normally he would look on the computer for more cases to be a good member of the team, but the option was there. ]
But ... you don't sound thrilled to be here despite it being much quieter. This doesn't feel like a reprieve? I know it's strange, but you can probably rest without being hunted.
[ Jack listens carefully to people's tones and watches their expressions, and he would have expected Benny to be happy to be temporarily outside of such a chaotic place. ]
no subject
He shifts on the barstool, shoulders loose, but there's still that faint tension beneath the surface. He feels like a man who hears footsteps long after the chase is over. ]
Rest's a funny thing. [ His voice is low, a hint of amusement threading through the gravel. ] You get used to livin' with your teeth bared long enough, you forget how to unclench.
[ He sets the glass down and pours a little more for himself. ]
Guess I'm still learnin' how to sit still. Might need a tutor.
[ Then, with a faint smirk, that familiar drawl slipping back in-- ]
You takin' students?
no subject
[ Dean rests, kind of, but there always is that tension too, that he's bracing himself for the next bad thing to happen. Jack spends a lot of time watching Dean, he has from when he was only a few days old. He knows Dean a lot better than Dean probably is aware of, or would like. He can see why Benny was an exception. He doesn't seem anything like any vampire Jack has ever heard of.
He looks a little surprised and then smiles, figuring that Benny is both joking and being sincere at the same time, a quality he's only seen in a few people. ]
I've never been a teacher but I would try my best. I sit very still.
[ Jack is not a twitcher or someone who moves a lot. He doesn't have the typical small tells that other people do in their body language. If anything he's too still, like he hasn't gotten fully comfortable in his body despite being three years old. Just now, he's even less comfortable with all of Lucifer's energy in him. ]
Relaxing is not my strong suit. I was on a serious mission when I came here, I feel like I am not living to my potential.
no subject
He watches Jack for a moment, watching the stillness. Kinda uncanny, but Benny reckons people get that feeling about him, too. ]
Well, you figure out how to enjoy it, you let me know. I’ll be takin’ notes.
no subject
[ Jack looks around a little wistfully. It was usually work or some supernatural drama for them to worry about. They only occasionally had nice quiet times together, but they didn't travel for something nice and pretty. No beach days with his family. It feels surreal to go somewhere as a 'vacation' although they also came here to curiously see what one of these storms was like. He suspects this won't be the usual.]
I'm not sure how to relax but I have gotten to meet a lot of new people. I think that helps, giving yourself something to do. Like a goal. Maybe you need a goal.
[ Jack doesn't have a number goal like he has to meet one hundred people in the next month, but he does have a 'meet at least one other person' goal, and therefore he's always succeeding. ]
Oh maybe you can meet another va---person like you. [ He doesn't want to shout out vampire here for Benny's sake. ] There have to be others, that blood drive was suspicious.
no subject
Maybe I do.
[ Fifty years in Purgatory left a lot of grooves carved into him, patterns he still slips into without meaning to. The main goal there had been survive. Here, he has no idea what the hell to do with his hands. Or teeth.
At the last part, Benny snorts into his glass, setting it down with a soft thump on the bartop before snatching it away when Thomas draws near with a too wide grin. He grabs the liquor bottle, refills his own damn glass. The drawl thickens slightly, like molasses, laced with humor. ]
Suspicious as hell. You're not wrong, though. I'd be curious if there was another like me.
[ Jack certainly exists, and that changes what’s possible. It’s not all that ridiculous to think there’s others like Benny here, hiding in the shadows just the same. ]
Always good to know if I'm not the only thing lurkin’ in the woods.
no subject
[ He doubts that there were a whole lot of nice monsters in Purgatory for Benny to befriend. Jack doesn't know what his life was like before that, so maybe he had friends back home before it all went wrong, but Jack is someone who seeks community. He hates being alone. Even if he and Benny are new to each other, he doesn't feel alone when the vampire is there, and that has value to him. ]
You're unique, but I doubt you're the only one. Especially with other worlds here. Maybe in another one, they're all like you.
[ Just because monsters are evil in theirs doesn't mean it's the end of the story in the universe. Jack is very open to the idea of meeting people here who are different in their world. It would be a relief, really, because he has no intention of continuing on his hunter ways, and he would feel obligated to do something if there were bad monsters here. This way he can hope for the best. For Benny most of all, now that they're talking about it, so he doesn't feel alone himself. ]
Stranger things have happened than us being wrong about an entire species.
no subject
I had a friend. [ He cocks his head, outlining the lip of his drink absently with his finger. ] Then Dean was my friend.
[ The term 'friend' in the case of the vampire previous to Dean is loose, but Dean genuinely was his friend. Only one he'd really had in a long, long time. ]
...And now you're my friend. [ He supposes, anyway - maybe more like allies right at the moment, but it'll grow in time. They are indeed new to one another, but Dean is a solid common denominator for it to transform into actual friendship. ]