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.
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thediadem) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
diademlogs2025-06-08 10:11 am
its perfect!!
But he’s practiced at control, and there’s no slide of teeth, no reaction beyond a subtle shift of his body on the creaky pool chair. It’d be nice to relax in the sun - he wouldn’t combust, but the sunburn would go from mild to really damn annoying before long, so this atmosphere is perfect for him.
He doesn’t sit up, but those senses narrow in like a camera lens, focused sharp on the stranger taking a seat a chair or two down. Not a threat that he’s aware of (yet, everyone here seems to be some breed of bagged cat), but definitely something alive in a way that’s hard to ignore.
He lifts his drink, takes a long sip of something way too sweet (he’s more experienced in straight liquor, the syrup in his drink is his own damn fault this time), and finally speaks. ]
I can almost hear you thinkin’ from here. Have a drink, stay a while. [ He might have a syrupy sweet little cocktail, but he’s easing up a bit to rummage in his own duffle to produce a bottle of liquor he’d ‘procured’ from the pool bar. ]
sorry for this delay!
There's a lot about this whole resort that would probably warrant a lot of thinking if he were to even barely scratch the surface. That would mean caring enough to know, and really, he's more a man of moving from moment to moment, acting and not thinking. Just doing. Taking a page out of this guy's book, maybe.
For now, that action is sitting here for a minute because he's invited and there's the promise of a drink that looks decent enough. Coming straight from a bottle is always his preference. So he edges the chair closer, the legs just scraping a bit on the concrete. ]
You got the right stuff.
[ Said with a little nod to the bottle before he glances back at that cocktail he'd been sipping on. ]
That other drink as shitty as it looks?
no worries!!
The bottle promptly gets offered to Amos. ]
That thing tasted like somebody melted a cough drop in dishwater.
He leans back again, one arm resting behind his head, lazily watching the flickering reflections on the water. While he wouldn't say 'this is the life', it's certainly a far enough cry from Purgatory that he'd at least think it. ]
But it was cold, and it came with one of those little umbrellas, so I let it slide.
no subject
While Amos has caught on to the fact that the drinks here seem to be plentiful for as long as this all lasts, and the supplies magically don't seem to run out, it's still decent enough for the guy to offer up his bottle like this. Well, he can always get more, he figures. And he sure won't turn it down. He takes the bottle silently, lifts it, takes a long sip before setting it back down between them. ]
So — still shit, just dressed up prettier.
[ With the umbrella.
Amos loosely folds his hands, settles back just a little in his chair before glancing at the pool. Guess it's almost kinda — peaceful, the way the moonlight shines on the water. These are the kinds of things he doesn't tend to notice a lot, or get to notice a lot. When you live most of your life out in space, you stop seeing it all like this. He wouldn't be able to frame it well, the way it makes him feel, just because he's not good at figuring out how much of anything makes him feel. But this ain't bad, really, for a moment. ]
You stayin' in one of the cabins?
no subject
Benny just likes the little umbrella, to be honest. Only reason it's still in play. ]
Yeah. Motel’s got the charm of a punch to the gut. Figured I’d take my chances out here. Less weird stains.
[ He doesn’t press with questions, doesn’t really need to. Just lets the conversation roll with it. ]
You? Or you just passin’ through?
no subject
Yeah — you get any three in the morning wake up calls around your room?
[ Either he knows what Amos is talking about or he doesn't. Depends on which "charming" motel he's at. One night, it was someone screaming, another night someone knocking on the door, supposedly, but no one was there. Then, randomly, someone throwing rocks at his window, and when he'd gone to check, again, there was nothing there, save for a random can of Blitzo Cola. Strange to some maybe, but it didn't really unsettle Amos so much as just annoyed him. ]
And me, I'm just passin' through. Worth checkin' it out, I figured, and see what I could pick up here.
[ He wouldn't consider himself to be an explorer or anything like that, and he's not motivated by a need to mingle and get to know people or make connections; if he happens to, well, that's fine. Like the guy sitting opposite him. But ultimately, Amos isn't here out of interest or curiosity, necessarily, it's just some fact-finding to see what's out there, what this place they find themselves in is like, and what supplies he could snag and take back to Panorama. ]
no subject
Yeah. Got a real welcoming committee hanging out. Vents rattling, lights flickering. Someone knockin' like they want a pot of gumbo at four a.m. then disappearing like some asshole playing ding dong ditch.
[ He swirls the liquor in his glass and shrugs, like what can you do? ]
These cabins might be old, but at least they don’t scream at you for fun.
[ He won’t say he’s hadn't been a little curious about the sudden appearance of Club Med, but mostly, he’s in the market for parts. Something’s knocking around under the hood of his car, and while he can tear down a boat engine with his eyes closed, this problem’s been a little more stubborn.
He glances back over at his companion. ]
Makes sense. Some strange shit out here, but the liquor’s free and the company ain’t bad.
[ A beat, then with a little smirk; ]
Present company included, of course.