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.

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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

[longtooth]

Or some people have different ideas of how to survive.

[ Maybe some would define it as offering good will to others for the sake of the wider community, including food donations such as this. But it could just as easily go the other way. Some would do whatever it took for their own survival, turning to criminal acts as a result. Or at least taking means to protect themselves.

As he starts going on and on, Fern simply listens while gnawing on her skewer. It does give her time to eat it, given that dragging the individual pieces off of the stick with her teeth can be tricky, though her fangs make it a great deal easier. ]

That's quite considerate of you. [ Her tone is one of mild surprise. She isn't used to someone just being kind like this, especially lately, which almost makes her wonder if there's a catch. ] I did try one. I wasn't expecting an egg to be a dessert, but it was good once I got past that.

[ Fern understands taking the food you can get, though. She's certainly been there in her life before. She fans herself as she eats, and while she could wander off now, she can't help but be curious about this man who isn't one of the "new folks" previously mentioned. Idly chatting with someone like this reminds her a little bit of being back at Quara's inn. ]

How long have you been here? ... Assuming you're also a flux-drift.

[diademnpc]

Too right, too right. Everyone figures it out eventually.

[ Or they die, but there's no need to point that out, he figures they both are smart enough to know that. Not everyone survives being here or adapts in time for it. It's a shame but that's the world. No reason to pretend otherwise. He shrugs about being considerate but it is true. He's made himself a community here and he doesn't take it for granted. It's natural to want to look out for others in his point of view, but that's not a popular mindset. ]

Some thirty years or so. I was young at the time, probably around your age. I got started with the storm chasers early on, it was hard not to be fascinated about the world ever changing around. I wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere else, though there are some who get into chasing thinking it'll be a road back to where they come from.

[ There is no proof that it works. Felix knows of people who have disappeared chasing that very dream and maybe it means they got back after all, and maybe it means they're dead or out in the winds of the universe never to be seen again. No real way of knowing.]

People come and go here, don't be surprised if the population changes on you over time, as in flux as these here diffusion zones.

[longtooth]

[ People either figure out how to get by, or they don't. Yes, Fern knows that all too well herself, as someone who's survived against all odds. That won't change no matter what world or plane one ends up on.

Thirty years, though. Fern turns her gaze away for a moment at that, literally chewing on that information as she takes another bite from the skewer. She tries to imagine what it would be like to be in this place or Barovia for thirty years and it's frankly impossible to imagine, especially when she's been living one day at a time ever since she arrived in Strahd's realm.

She continues to stare out at nothing when she speaks up. She's looking in the general direction of the pool, but not truly looking at it. ]

... You were never interested in returning to your home, then?

[ No doubt he's been in countless diffusion zones. If there had been a way back, wouldn't he have found it by now? Then again, others had disappeared, but if they did make it home, it's not as if they would be able to confirm that for anyone still here.

But then something else clicks for her. If he's a well-known storm chaser, then— ]

Wait. [ She turns back to him. ] Are you the one who put up those fliers and posted on the... [ She gestures with her free hand to her cloak, where her phone is tucked away in her pocket. ] That... forum?