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MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

Mingle ∞ Log

No Lifeguard on Duty

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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A wry little smile creeps across Strange's face as he muses, "Alas, I do not. My magic has never gotten to the stage of creating carpentry tools out of thin air."

Because that's what a screwdriver is, right? You use it for construction. Strange hasn't seen it as often as he has other construction tools (lathe, saw, hammer, and so on) but he knows it exists. He knows what it should look like.

"Do you need to pry something open? I cannot manifest a screwdriver, but I could help in a different way."

Viktor's magic does not extend to spontaneous creation of material--though now he sort of wonders if he could, given time. What he does know is that matter simply cannot be formed from nothing, as nice as it might be to pull a screwdriver out of thin air.

There's something to be said, too, for doing it without magic. Getting back to his roots, maybe.

"I have access, through this panel. Do you sense anything inside that could be the heart of it? Perhaps a place where all these wires terminate."

"Give me a moment," Strange muses. Honestly, he has no idea what sort of spell to cast—this is a situation far out of his depth. But frankly, he's felt rather useless so far and his ego would like to be able to say he did something. This eight foot tall whatever might not be impressed but dammit, we can give it a try.

He places his hand on the android's chest before murmuring a few words under his breath. It's a patchwork spell, cobbling together remnants and fragments of others as well as a fair amount of hope, but it works. Nothing visible happens, but the air shifts a little, like the sensation one gets before a storm. After about a minute, Strange removes his hand.

"I wouldn't call it a heart, per se. But so many of these wires connect to a piece of equipment. It is about the size of a small chapbook and just as thin. It is in what I would call the chest cavity."

A circuit board. He's describing a circuit board.

He watches this carefully, certainly interested in seeing what other kinds of spellcasting might look like. It's hard to tell if he's impressed, but Strange at least has his attention. Attuned to the Arcane as he is, it's not difficult to feel the flow of magic, and with his enhanced perception follows the course of it into the android.

Yes, he sees what Strange means. Carefully, Viktor reaches inside the android, feeling for the connection points and freeing the chip. He'll withdraw it with the same reverence, turning it over in his palm. Viktor has never seen something like this before, but he can make a few guesses.

"Some of these connections are damaged. I could try to reroute them."

Strange watches Viktor's magic with just as much interest. It feels different from his own. He can't really describe it, but something of the other man's magic reminds him of these androids. It's only a feeling, as Strange hasn't spent much time poking at the androids, but it's noticeable nonetheless.

As for the statement, he gives the other man a little shrug. "If you can do it, you might as well. We certainly won't get any answers just sitting here and poking at the damn thing."

What do you mean 'maybe you should poke at the damn thing just to learn a bit more about the android' and 'it's foolish to jump straight into reviving it without any say so,' that's crazy talk.

"Sometimes you can get answers that way."

A joke, maybe, because it's most certainly going to look like Viktor is poking. He won't be able to repair it without understanding it, and though he's never seen a computer chip like this before, he can understand the principles of a circuit board and recognize where the damage is--where the flow of electricity is supposed to go.

He'll start to rewire the configuration, his fingers deft and precise, despite their size. After a moment, he'll offer Strange a nod.

"You may want to stand back."

The third arm, which had previously been idle, will arch over his shoulder, purple electricity crackling between its three fingers.

Strange absolutely does not stand back. Instead, his eyes widen as he looks over at the third arm (what?) that has started to spark (what?????) with pure excitement. This is interesting! This is something new! Why the devil would he stand back? He wants to see what Viktor does next up close, right near the man as he does...whatever this is.

(You back up so you don't get shocked, dingus.)

Upon closer inspection (despite warnings to stand back), Strange will see that there is a convenient slit cut in the cloak for said third arm--and that the limb in question seems to be made of some kind of dusky purple metal, gold accents throughout. The rest is fairly inhuman, three clawed fingers generating an ominous glow that seems fit to explode.

It does not explode--it focuses into a pinpoint beam of light, severing and re-fusing the connections, acting almost as a soldering iron.

How interesting. That limb seems remarkably inhuman. But he hadn't gotten a good look at the man before, thanks to that cloak. Strange looks over at Viktor, trying to catch a glimpse of any other non-cloaked part of the man (was all of him made of that metal?) as he muses,

"How powerful is that light? To have it concentrated in a beam like that...it must be tremendously powerful, but I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it before."

This is going to be the nosy questions hour if Viktor isn't careful.

Viktor busies himself, the laser beam just as precise as if he was using traditional tools. He swaps between functions with a flurry of projected runes, pausing only to check and see what else he needs to repair.

"I can adjust it. Right now I am welding the connections together."

There is, also, the part where he can use it as a weapon--but that goes unsaid, for now.

"I would not imagine you have."

Strange is continuing to be such a horrible busy body. He's looking in, he's focused on the laser, he's just so damn interested.

"How can you adjust the intensity? Hell, how can you create that light in the first place? It doesn't feel like a spell, it feels like something else entirely."

It is a spell, technically, though he might not describe it as such. Viktor is generally good at multi-tasking, but trying to solder a computer chip while also explaining how the Hexclaw works seems unwise. The beam dies down, and Viktor's head tilts, slightly.

"The runes dictate function. I can use them to adjust the intensity as well. It's possible the magic system from my world is different than yours."

More than possible--entirely likely.

"Oh, I'm certain it is different," Strange says, with a little shrug. "To start with, you used the word 'runes.' That is the trade of con artists and vagabonds, not proper magicians. And secondly,"

He reaches over to lightly rap his knuckles on Viktor's large metallic third arm, seemingly not caring or noticing that a gesture might be seen as rude.

"Something like this does not exist where I am from—though I suspect it might be 'when' as well as 'where.'"

At the touch, Viktor flinches and recoils, the gesture clearly unwelcome. The third arm poises defensively over his shoulder, looking as though it might strike of its own accord. He says nothing for a long moment, hoping that this is enough of a do not.

Viktor will readjust, slightly, an attempt to move out of range. When he speaks again, it's measured.

"The Arcane, as we call it in my world, is omnipresent. It needs instructions, and a conduit, to be wielded."

Or the inborn ability to do so, but Viktor isn't exactly going to confess to his own lack of it--that raises too many questions.

Strange gives Viktor an annoyed little look, as if Viktor's inconveniencing him by not letting Strange touch his third arm. Well! That's quite rude (no it isn't, Strange baby, you're the rude one).

The definition, however, makes sense. An omnipresent force that needs instructions and a conduit to be wielded? The name is different, but the description fits.

"Oh, so it's magic!" Strange brightly laughs. "A different shade of magic, but magic nonetheless—ah, that is what we call it in my world. Magic has always been in England and always will be. But if one forgets the words or the connections, it can be quite hard to cast."

Rest assured, Viktor would give an annoyed look if he could--as it stands, the yellow glow of his eyes lingers on Strange from within the shadow of his hood for just a moment too long.

"Yes, it's magic." They also call it magic, when appropriate. "But you need a way to harness it. Is that the case where you're from? Spoken words seem similar enough to runes."

Which are written words, essentially.

Edited 2025-07-18 23:02 (UTC)

"We have incantations, if that is what you're asking. Some magic can be cast simply by reaching out with one's will, though others require spoken words."

If Strange is aware that he annoyed Viktor, he's not making mention of it. Instead, he simply gives the man a little shrug before continuing.

"You can write the words and instructions of a spell down, of course. But the words mean nothing unless intent is behind them."

It seems increasingly to Viktor like a matter of semantics. He supposes that when he executes runic sequences, there is intent behind it. As a living conduit, though, he can't say it's particularly deliberate. It comes as easily to him now as breathing.

If he had to do that, anyway (he doesn't).

"And anyone can access magic? It requires no inborn ability?"

"I believe that any one can. Of course, some people might still be better at it than others. Think of it like singing—we all can do it, but some are better at carrying a tune. But with enough time and practice, a mediocre singer can become great."

Granted, this is all just hypothesis: for the longest time, there were only a handful of magicians in England. But Strange desperately wants this to be so, he adores the idea that anyone, no matter who they are or what their circumstances in life are, can be a magician. And that desperation is coming through clear as day in the tone of his voice.

"I see."

It's an apt comparison, though of course he feels somewhat complicated about it, to know that magic in other worlds might be so easily accessible. He and Jayce upended the natural order of things, he knows now, and it's difficult not to wonder how things might have been different, were that not the case.

"You must be uniquely talented, where I'm from." Which he imagines Strange can guess, though Viktor does not reveal how he might be involved. Instead, he pulls back slightly, satisfied with his handiwork.

"I think I'm ready to try turning it on."

Strange will happily take the compliment, preening a little at 'uniquely talented.' Because yes, he'd like to think that! He is uniquely talented. However, any attempt at further preening and luxuriating in praise is stopped, as Viktor gestures to the android corpse.

"If you are ready, then let's go ahead and do so. I will admit—I'm very curious to see what happens."

It's a good distraction, at least, from further questions about magic and what his third arm does and if spells are just spoken runes. He will offer a curt nod, replacing some of the tangle of wires and components, then presses something within, withdrawing from the access panel and

The android shudders to life. One might imagine, in the shadow of his hood, that Viktor seems entirely pleased by this turn of events.

It lasts only a moment, though--no sooner does it straighten and gain some awareness then it decides it's in a hostile situation. The automaton winds up, and swings a wild punch, one that might certainly hit a target if said target is not in possession of good reflexes.

Strange can't help it: he lets out a bark of laughter as the android shudders to life, a grin spreading across the magician's face. This joyous mood lasts all of ten seconds as the automaton immediately swings a punch at Strange.

Thankfully, he's watching the thing and manages to mostly duck out of the way. Unfortunately, mostly. The punch clips him on the cheek, hitting in a way that certainly hurts and will possibly leave a bruise.

Strange immediately moves to scoot out of the way, shifting to a defensive stance, ready to cast a spell to restrain the automaton if it just keeps on swinging.

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MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

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