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
no subject
no subject
[ he could go back to his car and grab his underwear, but that would mean walking all the way back to the parking lot, and at that point he probably wouldn't come back. there are clothes to be found out here, and though he feels a bit bad taking from the androids, he knows they'll eventually disappear with the diffusion zone anyway.
clint is welcome to follow him as he moves away from the edge of the pool, tracking toward one of the cabanas. there's a changing booth nearby. ]
Did you come here to swim?
[ what do you have on today, clint? ]
no subject
No, not here to swim. [The pants and boots and tank top are all staying on, thanks. He's not going to start changing into someone else's Hawaiian shirts or whatever capris are hanging out in bungalows.] Here to look whatever isn't nailed down and sell off in the city, more like, but plenty of the stuff in question is actually being used, so. Not gonna kick people out of chairs just to try and stuff them in my trunk.
thanks for going on this journey with him 🙏
[ that's a useful avenue to explore for those who might need money. castiel doesn't have to worry about eating, he doesn't even have to worry about sleeping, so the paltry amount he makes bagging groceries is enough to get him by.
at the cabana, castiel finds a number of preternaturally still androids, posed like statues. abruptly, it reminds him of the city of pompeii. ]
I think a disaster must have happened here.
[ it feels a bit grotesque, removing their clothing, so he opts to search the changing stalls instead, and is lucky enough to find one inhabited by an android who was trying on several different swimsuits at the time of their deactivation.
he searches through the bikini bottoms until he finds something a bit like connor chose, in a bright turquoise print decorated with monstera leaves. as it happens, the bikini fabric is much more comfortable than spandex. somehow it seems to fit him just right, too. ]
I found something better.
[ he announces as he emerges from the stall. ]
it is possible mistakes have been made
Impossible to tell, it seems, if these people were just borrowing bodies, their own laid back thousands of miles away in some little VR pod thing like from a movie, or if they somehow got put into the bodies. Did they die, or just get disconnected like when the wifi goes out?]
I'm starting to think these bits of other worlds might not show up if there wasn't a disaster.
[Makes him wonder if a bit of his own world might show up. The Compound's remains, but barren of life.
He shakes his head as though to dislodge the morbid thought physically, examining one of the androids. Even if he could find some kind of manufacturer's stamp, it wouldn't mean anything, would it--?
He turns, looks, stares, blinks. If one well-versed in shades of exhaustion translated into colloquialisms, Clint's face would be along the lines of "life is already so god damn weird, this might as well happen", or something to that effect. Somehow this guy found something worse than a speedo and yet likes it better. Both of these choices have shown him entirely too much of this confused gentleman.
His eyes go back up to face instead and stay there.] Whatever's comfy for you.
very very possible
he would probably find the thought unsettling. ]
It is, thank you.
[ castiel inclines his head, completely ignorant to clint's inner turmoil. ]
I was going to try getting back in the pool.
[ but he's slow, picking his way over. ]
I think you might be right. The disasters themselves could be a catalyst for whatever causes the diffusion zones.
no subject
[Big universe, though. Could be any of these places are technically from home, just not Earth.]
Makes you wonder how the bartender made it. Y'know, for a given definition.
no subject
[ he doesn't think that it would be safe for anything to come crawling out from his world.
castiel's arms hover awkwardly at his sides without pockets to tuck his hands into as he picks around the still figures decorating the landscape. but at least he isn't crab walking around now that he has a more comfortable wedgie-less (and, in his opinion, much more attractive) bathing suit.
he casts his gaze toward thomas. ]
... It is strange.
no subject
[he asks a fucking spn angel of the lord unknowingly
But it's gonna bother him. The lingering questions about every place that shows up out of the blue and fades away again like a dream. The abandoned diners. The flooding office. This.]
...You probably don't need these questions. We're all getting enough as it is from the bartender, huh.