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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diademlogs2025-06-08 10:11 am
no subject
[ Jack has removed himself as a responsibility. At this point, it is very clear that Castiel is in no position to take care of anyone else, so himself is the best that he'll be able to do. Jack is not used to being the one who (mostly) has it under control, even with his father's swirling power inside him, radiating. He hasn't lost control yet. ]
Maybe you don't want to exist right now, but you do, so you have to take advantage of that, and live.
[ That's what Jack usually tells himself when he's forced to exist so he keeps doing it while he is. It seems like both of them are not very good at living. ]
no subject
there are so many things he could say, and they all amount to the same thing. it's meaningless to argue. it's even more meaningless to argue with jack. he sits there in his half slump, coat wrinkled up around his hips and clinging to his thighs, legs dangling off the end of the bed. it makes him look like a little kid wearing his father's too-big clothes. a child after a tantrum, his dignity shed like his sobriety.
but children have no need for dignity. an angel does. he wonders if that's the advantage of allowing them their pride— not that it's ever helped more than it's harmed. castiel takes a deep breath, one that lifts his shoulders. they slump when he breathes out. ]
How is Dean?
[ back home, he means, of course. ]
no subject
[ Jack is just there to finish the job and he grieves the loss of everyone around them, but at least he has a focus, and a task. He doesn't care the way everyone else does. But Dean is taking it very personally and Jack knows that for a fact because of what he said to him in the car. They made some peace between them because of Jack's willingness to die to end it all, but he knows that there was a very serious conflict between the brothers over him and over Chuck. He was about to explode at the time so he didn't catch all of it. ]
He was the only one of the three of you that was supportive of me dying to stop him. It was my choice, I wanted to. He thanked me. I guess he hadn't felt like his life was his own recently because of Chuck controlling so much of it. He thought that being without him would finally feel like freedom.
[ Jack's already displayed that he believes fate is real and free will is therefore an illusion. Toward the end there, it's also what they all started to deal with as a possibility. When up against a power like God, what were a handful of people really worth? They had to do their best. It was the closest he and Dean had come to understanding one another and feeling good about their relationship since Mary died. He would have done anything to keep that. ]
None of us had given up, despite everything.
no subject
something in castiel's face crumples then, stricken with grief. ]
Oh, Dean.
[ he wishes that he could be there for him now, even though it's a ridiculous notion to entertain. of course he doesn't know what the shape of their relationship will be in the future, or why he'll never be able to offer dean that comfort, but he can imagine his own uselessness. castiel considers that maybe dying for dean was the only way he could offer anything at all.
he rubs a hand over his face, digging his fingers into his eyes, suddenly prickling and hot. they gave up everything for that freedom. if it meant nothing, what then? was it all a lie? he tried to teach the angels better— was he always doomed to fail? and everything else— the future castiel might have been prepared for this. but the current castiel is winded with the knowledge.
several minutes pass before he speaks again: it's something he feels he has to explain, because of how little jack seems to know. isn't it important? he doesn't understand why they— why he— never told him. ]
You know that we stopped the apocalypse together the first time, don't you? Dean was... He was willing to give up his brother for that freedom. For himself. For all of us. He let Sam cast himself into the Pit.
no subject
[ But not a lot of the details. Jack doesn't know why his family sheltered him so much but he suspects a lot of it has to do with them not wanting to relive all their mistakes. So much of their lives after he was born was about keeping him from becoming Lucifer, and then about getting everyone from Apocalypse world, and then defeating Michael, and etc. etc. There was always the next disaster and the next case and he didn't ask a lot of questions.
He regrets it now, not sitting down and asking about the past in detail, learning more about his parents than who they are in relation to him. In a way, he was shy about it, like if they wanted him to know something they'd tell him, and otherwise he shouldn't ask. But he feels now that he was wrong, that he could have asked. Even if he doesn't love what they say, like learning all of this about Castiel, it still is better to know them as people. ]
Dean refused to let Michael in then, but he did eventually. You don't know that because it hasn't happened yet, but don't worry. I killed Michael so Dean's safe now. He doesn't have to worry about him or being controlled by him ever again.
[ Jack is proud of that. It was costly, killing Michael, but it was one of the best things he ever did. After Michael tortured Dean and ruined their lives, and the world he was in before, he deserved worse than what he got. He wanted to protect Dean most of all when it came to Michael. ]
no subject
[ the word bounces around inside his skull like an echo.
eventually.
he knows what it means.
but some part of him, for a skip in time, refuses to return the logical answer and remains blissfully unaware. eventually. later, he'll wish he could have held onto this moment. eventually. and then it clicks. that means, after everything— castiel goes still as a statue, staring down at his drink. it appears far away, like someone else is in command of the hand holding it. he reaches out to set the glass down before realizing there's nowhere for it to be put. eventually.
eventually.
like it was inevitable. like it really was a lie, all the scrabbling they did in the dirt to mark their own paths. dean is, apparently, fine. and michael dead. but it doesn't change much about this new reality that he's being introduced to. dean, alive is the only thing he can hold onto out of all of it, and even that has its caveats. dean will not, of course, live forever.
castiel's mouth opens and closes softly before a minute or more later, he finally speaks. ]
Lately, I've been... wondering, if it might've been better not to rebel.
no subject
[ Jack did know the basic foundation of how they all connected, and that Castiel used to be a loyal angel and eventually changed priorities over time. He was at war with Heaven in a lot of ways in Jack's time, even killing some of the last remaining angels to protect Jack. But Heaven was a shadow of its former self, almost all the angels are gone now. Jack doesn't know what happened to the ones he made. ]
I don't think it would have been better. I know things are difficult but the person you are now is better than being one of the average angels. You think for yourself, you love people.
no subject
[ of course it's not realistic. but for a moment he lets himself imagine a simpler world, one where things didn't turn out this way. no purgatory, no leviathans, no naomi, no metatron— no amara and no lucifer. ]
What good has my love ever done anyone? [ castiel snorts. then he waves a hand, as though to dismiss the question. ] That was rhetorical. Don't answer.
... I'm gonna lie down.
can wrap here or on yours he'll go away haha
[ Jack doesn't ordinarily string so many words together in a row, he is typically a quiet person, but it's also because there isn't a lot to encourage him to speak more. It's not a lack of interest, but he normally gauges every word he uses, and every time he's spoken out of turn, he learns from it. But he is emotional and his words are precise, from the heart. ]
I'm sorry that you're sad, Castiel, and that things didn't turn out the way you wanted them to, but life is like that sometimes, even I know that. You should drink all of this water and lie down, and I will check in with you when you're less drunk.
SOB... i'm sorry jack
[ there are a lot of reasons why jack is here, but his love is— just part of the problem. whatever he may have given him, he also gave him this burden: to believe he deserves to die, and that the world would be better for it. if he is jack's parent, how can he say he hasn't failed? this is not the life he would want for a child he's meant to care for.
this isn't the life he wanted for anyone.
castiel kicks off his shoes and pulls himself up into bed, ignoring the water. of course he can't sleep, only lie in silence and stare at the far wall. if jack wants to stay and watch him, he won't ask that he go. but he won't stop him from leaving, either. ]
And wrap here! RIP
[ Jack wouldn't see it as a failure but he'd probably understand too. Life is just hard, like he said. Castiel wanted to give him something good and real, he truly did, but they aren't able to have nice things like that. Jack will never say a bad word against his parents. He knows in his heart they always tried to do what they could for him, in their own ways.
Jack takes the water and puts it next to the bedside. He does leave the cabin so Castiel can have some privacy, he knows that his presence can be intense, but he doesn't go far. He'll keep an eye out and stay until he sees Castiel emerge sooner or later, so he is sure he is okay. ]