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

[godjr]

Jack is genuinely happy to see most people, yes. Anyone who has been even a little kind to him gets on an automatic level of 'maybe friend' and he clings to that possibility. He is glad to see Amos specifically because he was nice and interesting, but he would be as pleasant if they were strangers, like the first time. In the start he was even more awkward than he is now, and during that time when he was only a few weeks and months old, it was when Dean was the harshest on him.

"Oh no, my fathers Castiel and Sam would never think that. They are very forgiving of me, they think I'm good." They made excuses for all his mistakes and loved him despite them. He has a lot of blood on his hands, Lucifer said to Sam, and he said flatly I don't care. Jack killed his mother and he still forgave him. Sam and Castiel's constant support is the only reason he's this person and not another kind.

"My biological father is a monster, and the most evil creature to ever exist. Dean was just looking out for the world when he distrusted me, it is his responsibility to be ready to kill monsters." Meaning that Jack doesn't blame him. It hurt him greatly, it made him afraid and confused and lost, especially when so young, but he came to understand and respect that sometimes forgiveness can't be expected. It can't even be earned all the time. Sometimes the person will never love you again.

Jack gets serious and somber and holds the tray of food tightly against his stomach, looking down. "I am dangerous. I know I don't look it, but I am. Someone has to remind me of that or I won't be as conscientious as I have to be about being good."

[churnback]

Amos isn't in the business of doubting someone when they point blank say they're dangerous. For him, it doesn't matter if there's a disconnect between that statement and his own perception of someone. If they say it, it's for a reason. He may not get why, exactly, but Jack knows himself; Amos wouldn't push back on that statement, at least not until he understands this better. He briefly looks around, just to see if anyone seems like they're gonna suddenly come up on them, wanting bites of food, but people seem to be hanging in the pool right now, so it's just them.

It's — something, though. Hearing words that aren't close to anything he has a personal frame of reference for, alongside words that hit real close. He wouldn't say he's conscientious about doing good, being good, the way Jack seems to be. When the kid says it like that, he believes he takes it that seriously, that it kind of takes over his whole being, the way he just does everything he can to help others. Amos wants to do good — tries — but he's nowhere close to Jack, to anyone he's clocked as being genuinely righteous. In that way, he'd personally consider Jack far more righteous, whether he believes it or not. Amos' instincts are all skewed, and he's more likely to do the wrong thing left to his own devices. But it's why he tries so hard to lean on the people he knows are good, to consider what they would do in the kind of situation where hard choices have to be made.

"Jesus. Jack —" This is another situation where Holden would be better at this. Naomi — the support and comfort they could give, it would be easy for them. Is comfort what Jack even needs right now? That shift in his voice, the way he holds the tray closer, to Amos he looks a little — like he needs something, at least, something other people would be so much better at giving. That doesn't mean Amos' instinct to protect Jack isn't strong, though. It is. Even more now.

"What makes you dangerous? You're sayin' it's in your blood from this — evil creature you came from?"

And what the hell is that even, exactly?

[godjr]

It does take Jack's whole being. It's been the focal point of his life since the day he was born. Lucifer's shadow is powerful and everyone around him expected the worst. His natural state of being is good but that could easily be nurture vs. nature, being surrounded by good people who focused him and his strength. But from the start Jack had fears and doubts about himself, and Dean was the first voice in his head. A negative one, a hateful one, but it kept him grounded too. Having someone tell him point blank he planned on killing him when he was only a few days old was heavy, but it made him pay attention. He had something to prove.

"I told you that my family kills monsters to protect others. I was born one. My father is Lucifer, an archangel, the Devil. It was my family's job to kill me so I could never hurt anyone, but they raised me instead. I'm very lucky."

The world is lucky, truthfully. The wrong person getting their hands on him would have been catastrophic. That was proven almost right away with a demon from Hell almost causing him to tear a hole open by sheer willpower. Left to his own devices, who knows how much damage Jack could have done, and he's so difficult to kill. He only gets stronger. This is all information that Jack internalizes and keeps in mind every day of his life. That he's lucky to be alive, he shouldn't be but he is, and that he owes it to them and the world to be better than Lucifer.

He doesn't know if Amos comes from a world where Biblical references like the Devil and Hell would mean anything to him, but that's the truth of his own life. In his world at least, this is all very real.

"Don't be scared, it's just to show you." Jack focuses and his eyes light up into a brilliant gold color, inhuman. Many people get a sort of underlining awareness of threat, like the animal in them saying the creature in front of them is dangerous. The gold eyes flash, bright lights, and then fade back into his gentle blue.

[churnback]

Some things are just instinct, no matter how you've been conditioned and what's happened in life; the way the body reacts maybe before thoughts in the mind catch up. And seeing Jack's eyes shift like that, it has him more alert, more cautious, like hackles going up and being ready to make a move if he needs to. But Amos is different, too, in the way any fear that might be a natural response is just — not close enough to be felt, separated from him. Amos wouldn't have made it long if he couldn't quickly figure out when he's in danger himself and needs to act, or he can just observe, so despite Jack saying he's dangerous and now answering his question with a demonstration of exactly what he meant by that — Amos doesn't feel like he's at any actual risk of harm.

What he does get from this, though, is a very clear answer, an obvious reason Jack could easily hurt someone, many someones, in just a flash. Quick as that. Like a switch turning on and off, maybe. Something he has to control, like he said — he has to know he's dangerous, that he could do these things, and he needs to keep himself in check. There's something he understands deeply about that, even if the reasons and circumstances are completely different.

Like — Jack being the son of the Devil, apparently. Shit, well, no other origin story exactly compares to that. Religion isn't something Amos has ever bothered with personally, but he has a passing understanding of the overall concepts. It's fucking wild for this to be real, like not just myths and shit in stories. Or, real enough for Jack. And how could Amos refute what he's seeing in front of him? The instinct to say things like angels and devils and vampires were all just stories is in the back of his mind, and he might have pushed back once before all the shit he's lived through recently. Other worlds are out there, and he doesn't have a single clue what exists on all the other worlds beyond his frame of reference, so it might as well be possible.

"Shit, so —" He lets out a breath, his tense jaw loosening. When he sees Jack's eyes go back to his normal blue, he thinks again about the stuff he's done, the way he can snap in a moment, be pulled back, and feel — so much of the time — nothing. Not regret for bashing a man's head with a can, punching a guy's throat to get information out of him, beating some guys in the shower when that swell of grief over Lydia's death was a thing he couldn't handle in a normal way, the way it just burned and burned his throat and he had to get that feeling out. And when he did, he felt better, and so there's this monster in him, too, this possibility of danger. It's not a struggle for him, in the sense that he knows he's not a good person, he's accepted that, but what he does struggle with is trying to do the good thing, the right thing, the choices that don't come naturally to him. It makes it harder when he can't feel the way other people feel and that can't be fixed, he thinks. Whatever Jack thinks of himself, he can feel so much more than Amos can. From that angle, at least to Amos, that makes him think Jack has less to fear about himself than he might realize. But he also thinks he can understand some of what might be churning around inside of him.

"You're carryin' all that, every day."

[godjr]

When Jack gets dangerous - not if, when - there is a shift in the air and most people can feel some animal part of their brain warn them they are in danger. It's instant; he can move and attack so quickly that even the supernatural can't react in time. All it takes is someone witnessing his violence once to be cautious around him, and Jack actively tries to warn people too. He doesn't want anyone to be afraid of him but he also feels like he has a moral obligation to mark himself as a threat.

So Amos reacting with caution rather than fear is appreciated, and Jack feels that now his new friend understands that he is dangerous and won't be blindsided by him later. What Amos might be surprised by is that despite how competent and dangerous he himself is, Jack's instinct to protect the people he cares for doesn't acknowledge that. Someone doesn't have to be harmless to be protected, Jack will swoop in and save his friends no matter what.

Jack is obsessed with the idea of being a good person, it consumes him, but he is far more forgiving of other people. He thinks as long as they try their best, their mistakes are only natural. Not him, though. If he steps an inch out of line for his strict mentality of goodness, he is a monster deserving of negative attention and he has to control himself or he should be killed. It's not a very healthy mentality but he knows no other way of being, that's been his pattern for the three years he's been alive.

The way Amos says that gets him a little bewildered because the heaviness on his shoulders and weighing down his chest is his natural state of being. "I have to, until I fulfill my purpose, and probably die in the process." Jack shifts the food in his hands. "It's okay, though, it's for a good cause. And I have this place for now, until I do that."

[churnback]

There's an expression on Amos' face that's a little skeptical, a little like...what the fuck. "So, you — probably dying — that's for a good cause?"

This place is just putting on hold the inevitable, then, from the sound of it. Look, it's not his life, not his world. That's a whole reality he doesn't inhabit at all. No frame of reference for anything close to that. So, okay, the kid's born to some literally evil being in his world. This Dean guy thought he'd be evil, the others think he's good. Somewhere in between all of that is just Jack, just — trying to do his best, from Amos' perspective. More than that, really, he's so damn earnest about being good and helpful. Everyone dies, everyone leaves unfinished business. Just seems like — Jack's life as he knows it right now, it doesn't fit with what seems like the right thing.

Destiny, fate, all that — it's not Amos' life, not his business. He just thinks someone like Jack should stick around the world a little longer.

The way he talks, it's like he's only here for this — purpose he needs to fulfill. That guy he needed to stop, and save everyone from? Jesus, he shouldn't be...living like this.

[godjr]

"Yes. I have to kill my grandfather and save the world. He's almost done destroying everything, we have one more chance. I'm the only one who is powerful enough to do it." Jack sounds very sure of himself, which is rare, as he's often questioning himself and everything surrounding him. But in this he is certain. This is his purpose. There had to be a reason for him to exist, because he shouldn't have, but now it all makes sense. No one else could match God in power but his own grandson.

"I've already died, he killed me the last time. I was brought back solely for this reason, to get stronger and stop him." So he and God have a bit of a back and forth already. Chuck saw him for the threat he was but at the time Jack wasn't powerful enough fully to go up against him. It was very easy for Chuck to take him out then. Jack's twice as strong now, although he still lacks that killer spirit that makes him as dangerous as he could be. (Luckily for Jack, he finds a non-lethal way of ending it, which is very him, but he doesn't know.)

"It wasn't so bad, being dead. The afterlife for us isn't like Hell, it's basically eternal nothingness. No pain or misery, just the Empty." It is, in fact, a terrible afterlife. Endless emptiness, some say it's worse than Hell. Jack looks wistful for a moment. "I did get to go to Heaven once and meet my mother, which was nice, but the ruler of the Empty insisted I belonged there." He liked Heaven, although it wasn't as perfect as people said it was. But meeting his mother was everything to him. He can die happy knowing she's happy.

He says all of this very calmly and earnestly. It's the sort of acceptance of someone who has already passed all the stages of grief, or never bothered to have them at all. "These three years with my family were better than nothing. I'm okay with it."

[churnback]

The little food sample he'd taken is, by now, completely forgotten. He's just turning all of this over in his head. He hasn't lived Jack's life, or a life anything like the rest of his family even. It's hard to take what he's hearing from Jack and neatly slot that into things from his own perspective, and concepts he has about right and wrong — which are already fucked as it is. He doesn't trust himself to know a lot about these kinds of things without the guidance of others, but there's at least one truth Amos has been able to tether to in his life, and it's that good people should be protected. They should get to be. More of people like them, and maybe he would have had a different chance in his own life. But he didn't.

Doesn't mean he won't try to stick to that idea that he's held real tight to. And whatever all of this is — killing his own grandfather to save the world — he can still hold onto that and think something just isn't right about a kid so casually accepting his death.

Under any other circumstances, Amos would generally think, hey, it's your life, do what you need to do. But this is — something else. Is that really the only answer?

So, he hears it all, takes it in, tries to understand his own world is nothing like Jack's so of course it's gonna sound like self-sacrificing bullshit that doesn't need to happen, but he doesn't know this family or what they've already tried and done. His expression is mostly impassive, other than a slight tensing of his jaw.

"And your — dads. They're okay with this? That's just how it is?"

[godjr]

Jack knows intellectually that it's all basically wrong and unfair, and that it must seem that way to people on the outside, but it doesn't change what it is. Him wishing that he could have been a normal human with a human life, him dreaming of a situation where he could survive and go on the ocean and see a dolphin, something simple and nice, it's all a fantasy. That's not a life that he can ask for himself. Dean has told him to man up and get over it enough times that it sinks in. This is how it is.

"Not all of them. Castiel and Sam were very against it. They were upset about it and tried to research everything they could to find another solution. They refused to help me finish my mission. I understand, they love me." It's a beautiful thing to be loved and Jack does feel like he is by them. He accepted they wouldn't go with him to meet Adam and get the final piece of the God bomb that he was making. They stayed home and researched helplessly, knowing it was pointless, but they couldn't support him either.

"Dean felt differently. He was grateful I was willing to do whatever it took to save everyone. I know that he would have done the same." He turns the tray in his hand. "Sam and Castiel would if it was their own lives, but not me." And that makes them good parents, he thinks. They would give up their own but the idea of their son dying was too much for them. Jack likes that they tried.

"Dean and I haven't been getting along for a long time. I did something unforgivable, but ... I think I can finally solve it." Jack looks hopeful at that. He is desperate for Dean's approval, that's always been true. It used to break his heart that Dean believed he was evil and dangerous for so long. He came around on him eventually, and Jack was so grateful, but he lost that love. "Dean doesn't love me the way the others do, he said I'm not his family, but maybe he will after this."

[churnback]

Jack did something unforgivable, from his perspective, and that feels familiar, too. Amos is willing to bet whatever this 'unforgivable' act was, it's not really. At least, not to Amos. Maybe he's wrong, but the few things Amos would find unforgivable don't seem like anything Jack would ever do; killing for pleasure, harming a child — but maybe that's exactly what he did. Amos doesn't ask, though. To him, he doesn't need to know right now, maybe ever. Jack will show him who he is. If Jack wants to tell him, he'll listen. And if Jack did try to do those things here, Amos wouldn't hesitate to put him down. He'd like to think his instincts about people haven't gotten fucked since he arrived here, though.

"Sometimes you got one choice left and it's a real shitty one. You're gonna be a hero, sure, but I still think it's fucked up. All of it."

It's not Jack's fault, it's not the fault of any of his family, from the sound of it, except that asshole of a father — the one related by blood, the one who set him up with this life and can't be bothered to give a damn, apparently, to fix it. Amos can't do anything about this situation, he realizes that. If the family who loves him thought through everything they could and came up short, Amos sure doesn't have anything much left to offer. But Jack's not there now, he's here. However long. And while he can't say he's suddenly feeling like Jack's his personal responsibility — some part of him, the last part of him left that openly feels things (maybe), wants to protect what he can about Jack's life here.

"So what are you gonna do here? Think you should ease up a little, at least. Do some livin'. That mission — that's back there. Forgetting it ain't an option for you, I get that, but it's not everything, it's not the only thing left, Jack."