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

[magike]

( oh, dear boy, she tells dean all the time that his beer isn't very good. that's why there's whiskey and she's very grateful for it. it's also why she's not intending to subject jack to something terrible, waving the bartender off with her hand.

she slips around the other side of the bar once he's gone, disposing of her drink and pouring herself a better whiskey first )

Any particular flavour?

( does she knows much about mixing drinks? no. but she does know what pairs well together from having cocktails over the years, and figures she can make something without the salt the android had put in her drink. jack deserved something decently tasting )

[godjr]

[ Jack waves at Thomas as Rowena shoos him off. He likes the android, they had a nice talk, but he definitely shouldn't keep serving people drinks. Jack's pretty sure he watched him put rocks at the bottom of one, maybe thinking it was ice. He managed to stop the person from drinking it, but it's a concern. ]

Coconut! That's something people like on beaches, right?

[ Jack's only experience with this kind of thing is through movies and television. So much of Jack's knowledge of things relies on outside media because he doesn't get to go many places. He thinks maybe if he survives this fight with Chuck, and he doesn't go back to the Empty, he'd like to go to another country. Maybe one with elephants. It's unlikely he'll get to do that, but it's a nice idea. ]

Castiel's here. [ Jack looks a little glum. ] I'm learning a lot about him, but it's still hard knowing he'll never love me like my father did.

[ It's almost like his Castiel is dead for real, but he has his ghost walking around. Jack likes getting to know him, he's been able to ask all kinds of things he wouldn't ordinarily think of with his father, but it's at the cost of something he values deeply. ]

[magike]

( there's a slight shrug at his request before rowena searches the bottles to find something good with coconut flavour, pulling a couple of the bottles out and placing them on the counter. which is where his statement pauses her, rowena raising an eyebrow at him )

What do you mean?

( as far as she's aware, he thought of castiel as his father, one of them anyway. why wouldn't castiel love him after all they've been through together?

she goes back to mixing his drink, pouring it into a smaller glass to let him decide if he likes it before making more. or trying something else )

[godjr]

He doesn't know me. I guess ... people can come here from different times. And he's from before, when they were still fighting Amara.

[ Jack doesn't understand it fundamentally but he doesn't get a lot so he just accepted it without question. There is no reason that Castiel would lie to him and he does feel very different. Rundown. Broken. Not the confident and together father that he knew and counted on. It's strange for Jack to feel like he's the one who is more secure. Enough that he felt like he had to take care of Castiel, not the other way around.

He takes the drink and tries it, and this one tastes good, he smiles at her. Some of the harder things make him cringe but this is okay. He offers it back to her for more. He wishes a little bit that he could get tipsy because talking about his father not knowing or loving him hurts so much. He knows humans often drink their troubles away, but he doesn't have that option unless he downs a few bottles in a row, and even then it's iffy. ]

I learned something I didn't know before. Castiel is who let Lucifer out of the cage, he is responsible for my eventual birth. I wonder if that's part of why he felt that it was his duty to be connected to me.

[ If Castiel didn't do that, Jack would never have been alive. And so it was Castiel's responsibility to take that child if he refused to kill him and make him the opposite of Lucifer. Jack doesn't know if this makes him feel better or worse about their relationship. He knew Castiel always felt obligated to him, but his love was sincere. ]

He didn't like what I told him. I don't think he likes me either.[ Said glumly. ]

[magike]

( she ends up spilling her own drink slightly as she picks the glass up, surprised by jack's statement. her eyes widen a little, the glass goes back down, but she lets him finish first. it's a troubling statement, and what comes after ends up much worse.

rowena avoids his gaze at first, drinking some of her whiskey after mopping up the spill, sighing when the glass goes back down. there's more to the story than jack knows, or even castiel at that point. they'd gone into limbo expecting rowena to cast the spell without opening the cage, a thing she'd lied about )

Castiel won't want to know I'm here.

( not knowing that jack's already told him that. if they truly are from different times, as samuel also was, castiel only knew her as the witch who'd tried to kill him, and had some blame in charlie's death. she wouldn't be trusted in his eyes, no matter what jack said, and likely even if samuel vouched for her.

she makes jacks drink as she finally speaks, explaining at least some of it )

Castiel isn't the one who let Lucifer out of the Cage. He gave him a body to possess but the door was open before Castiel had gotten there.

( rowena finally looks at him as she passes the drink over, a regular sized drink this time )

I regret ever having a part in Lucifer being free then, for what it led to. All except you.

( it was the first time she'd ever connected jack's existence to that moment but it was true: if lucifer hadn't gotten free jack wouldn't have existed. they all played a part in that: castiel walking him out, her opening the doors, and sam for wanting to talk to him. if one of them had done something different, everything would have been different. and they had used him with amara, as little as he'd done )

I don't know if Castiel's connection to you is because of what he feels, but from what Samuel told me, he protected your mother. That may have been part of it also.

[godjr]

I told him you are so he wouldn't attack you if he saw you, and that we were living together. I remembered that you used to be enemies with them. I told him that you were different and you were one of us now, and that you were very brave and saved our lives. I don't think it mattered to him, but at least he knows.

[ Jack was pretty strong in his support of Rowena and that he would protect her from harm. He was staying with her for that reason, and Sam was nearby them now. Jack doesn't sleep anymore so he's content to be on the couch or out at his work, and that he can look after her if she needs it. Castiel didn't like that Jack lived with her, but this isn't his father, so he's not allowed to tell Jack what to do. Rowena is his family now, she's under his protection.

Jack is surprised that there's more to the story or maybe he shouldn't be. It wasn't so simple as just opening a door for Lucifer to get out of his prison. He did always wonder because he knew some facts, but not all of them. His father told him a little bit, but Lucifer was trying to win him over at the time, manipulating all the facts to make himself seem more innocent. ]

I can't argue with any of that. I wouldn't be here if he wasn't free. I do like existing.

[ It's not always an easy existence, but it's still what Jack has. Maybe it's selfish to think his life was worth everything bad that Lucifer did to get there though. As if his life is more important than all that was lost. But he lets that go for now. He feels grateful. That is enough. ]

He swore an oath to my mother. Even if he never loved me, he would have fulfilled it. But I remember before I was born, a little bit. My mother taught me a lot so I would be ready, and I remember Castiel's presence.

[ It's strange to admit that Jack was aware from the womb, but it's the truth. He saved his mother, he helped Castiel survive, and he accidentally opened a rift to another world. He remembers that time because that's the reason he came out fully formed into this vessel, his mother's suggestion. It's why he has pockets of knowledge and even some glimmers of wisdom between blind ignorance. ]

[magike]

( she fights the impulse to scoff or roll her eyes, knowing that jack's words would have made no difference to castiel. he hadn't lived it; he only knew the witch that had tried to kill him. if they hadn't even yet stopped amara... well, he wouldn't know she could be helpful.

it didn't matter. jack had tried, and she wasn't about to tell him his efforts were worthless. his heart was in the right place, and that mattered to rowena more than she could express )

Perhaps he'll learn that bond from you here. It may not be the same but you can still get to know him.

[godjr]

[ Jack's words don't mean much to Castiel in general, as far as he can tell, given their lack of actual connection. But he tried anyway, and he said it in a way that he hoped warned Castiel that any aggression toward her would not be treated kindly. Castiel knows how powerful Jack is, and while Jack would never lift a hand to his father unless necessary, there are ways to stop him from hurting Rowena that wouldn't require killing him. Like just flying him away or locking him somewhere until he calms down. Either way, Rowena is under his protection. ]

I hope so. He isn't my father, but he is my uncle. Even he pointed that out, although I've never heard him refer to Lucifer as his brother before.

[ It's an interesting detail that Jack did know technically, but it wasn't said out loud. Lucifer seemed to only consider the other archangels his true siblings, but that's very Lucifer of him, only caring about the most powerful. There was clearly a hierarchy of angels vs archangels going on. It is nice to think that he and Castiel do have more than just adoption between them. He is family. ]

I don't think I realized how little my family told me about their past. [ Jack has a very hard time being critical of his fathers in any way, so this is probably the closest he can get. ] I don't really know them like I thought.