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MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

Mingle ∞ Log

No Lifeguard on Duty

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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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Do you ever wish you'd been born human? As much as they might look for it, they don't need purpose to justify their existence.

[ but jack is half angel, and they both know what it means to be an angel. castiel will never let go of his duty, even if he's coward enough to want to run from it— to die. he shakes his head, answering thomas under his breath, ]

I used to sing with the other angels. It'd probably sound terrible, now.

Wh-what's one of your favorite comfort foods?

Um... Cheese and nachos.

[ finally, something he can actually answer. ]

All the time. I used to hate myself for being a Nephilim, but doing that is a waste of time when I can't change it.

[ Jack had dreams of being normal. For the brief time he was human, he felt useless but that's because he feared not being important enough to his family without his powers. If he'd always been a human being, he could have a normal boring life. His mother would be alive, he would be a human child growing up day by day. ]

I'd like to hear you sing! Were they hymns?

[ Castiel's not talked about singing before. That sounds wonderful. Jack hasn't learned much about being an angel either. They were on bad terms with them. ]

I love breakfast cereal! Sam says the sugary stuff is bad for me, but you let me have it.

[ jack is right about that, at least. though he supposes it's understandable. castiel might never be on board with the idea of siring a nephilim. even if jack seems curious and kind, allowing something half human to wield that much power is... well, there's a reason why they don't allow it. perhaps jack is destined to kill god and die. perhaps that's how this thing will balance out. though considering god's death with any seriousness makes his heart drop deep into the pit of his stomach.

he and his father may not be on good terms, but he doesn't want him gone.

ah, what a terrible mess. ]

They're nothing like human hymns, but... yeah. I guess since we've lost all our leaders, there's probably no one left to conduct them. In Heaven, I mean.

[ and whose fault is that, castiel?

he pours himself another drink. ]

I liked it too.

[ Jack can try every day to be good, and he does, but even before he lost his soul, his power was too dangerous. So much of his life, and the life of his fathers, became about mitigating his potential disaster. He owes them everything that they gave him love instead of hate, but he has been a burden since the beginning, and he knows that. Luckily Lucifer was killed shortly after absorbing his Grace. Who knows what his father would have been capable of after that? Only the worst possible options. ]

I know almost nothing about angels. They wanted me dead for a long time, and then they used me to make more of them. I wish it didn't have to be that way.

[ Jack's archangel side is what all his misery comes from, and it would be gratifying for him if he thought that there were good things about angels too. If he understood the home they were from, what drove them, who they were before things got so complicated. It's lost to him. He doesn't know what happened to the angels he created. God probably destroyed them with everything else.]

Edited 2025-06-09 20:56 (UTC)

[ jack can make more of them? castiel's eyes widen, but the shock passes. it doesn't erase the deaths he's caused. it doesn't change anything at all.

the stem of his glass clasped loosely between his fingers, castiel almost smiles. ]

Despite all our mistakes, I've never stopped believing in what we are. We were created to watch over the Earth, and humanity, and that— that's a cause more worthy than any other.

I've never really wanted to be anything but what I am. I just wish I was better at it.

That's a good thing, Castiel. You want to do good things. I know it's not the same as doing them, but I have to believe that intentions matter.

[ Otherwise Jack's failures mean he is simply incapable of his hopes. And that's probably right, which is why he should be dead, but he has to be alive here. He needs to think that he can do okay in this place. There's less pressure on his shoulders. That's something. ]

Lucifer told me he was the only one who could understand my struggles as an archangel. He told me many lies and hurt me, I know he is evil, but I wonder if he is right about that too. You tried, but you didn't know what to do with me either, outside of love me and hope for the best.

I think it must be worse for us that you're half human.

[ castiel looks down at his hands and wonders if intentions really do matter. but even here, like this, he can't bring himself to dash jack's hopes. maybe they don't, but he won't be the one to tell him. it's a lesson that has to be learned through painful experience. ]

I hated it. Being human. But that's exactly what Dean fought so hard to save— the singularity of that experience. Even through all the pain.

I'm not sure I'll ever really understand.

[ a part of him will always long for paradise. the easy way out. ]

When I first lost my soul, I didn't really see why it would be a problem. Angels don't have souls, why did I need one?

[ They both can guess at the why. Jack isn't an angel. His soul is one of the things that helps stop him from becoming more like the other archangels. They don't have the capacity he has. It also is why he was so dangerous and terrifying without it. At the time he couldn't understand why everything had to change. ]

I am glad I have it back, but it hurts too. It's the only thing really human about me. All of this.[ A wave to his body. ] It's not underneath.

You might be more human than you think if you need your soul to be yourself.

[ castiel tips his glass this way and that, watching the alcohol ripple across its smooth, clear surface. ]

I was... still me, even without the grace.

I think it was like a world full of color became dim. The feelings I had before were muted and I didn't care as much anymore. I could intellectually understand everything was wrong, but it wasn't here.

[ Jack presses a hand to his chest, over his heart. It wasn't that he felt nothing, it was almost worse that he did, they were just echoes of things he used to know. Jack was loving and loyal and kind, and he didn't remember how to be an of those things. There'd never been a Nephilim, so there was no guidebook to follow on what to do if they turned soulless. They learned as they went. ]

How did you lose your grace? How did you get it back?

[ it's interesting. a similar but opposite experience to his own. life without his grace was too bright, too sharp, too loud. too much, and simultaneously dulled without the acuity of his angelic senses, without his ability to see beyond this world into the next. he was a living raw nerve, useless for anything.

but jack asks questions he can answer, and painful as the answers are, that's simple enough. ]

I listened to someone I shouldn't have, and he stole my grace to cast the angels out of Heaven. I... managed to track down the rest of what he'd hidden eventually, but only after stealing other angels' grace to temporarily regain my power.

[ he became an abomination. even now, he still considers himself such. there's no excuse for what he did, no reason good enough. but he did it anyway.

it's like he said: he's never wanted to be anything but an angel. ]

[ This is all new lore to Jack. He knows that obviously his family has a long history before he came into the picture, so many years of experience together and also separate. Castiel more than the Winchesters, given his age, and he's learning so much already. Jack was hesitant to ask so many questions before, or he just didn't think to press. His Castiel was more interested in guiding and taking care of Jack.

He's learning that Castiel's kindness toward him comes from making his own terrible mistakes in the past. Sam once told him he understood where he was coming from too, but didn't give him details, and Jack wonders now if he asked Sam, if he would tell him all of it too. ]

I see.

[ Castiel isn't going to get judgment out of Jack. He processes the information seriously, because it deserves that. ]

Why would he want to cast the angels out of Heaven? That's where you all belong.

[ castiel can only assume that he doesn't understand what it means to take another angel's grace. he won't be elaborating. jack's lack of judgement may in many things be a kindness, but in this it's only a burden— if jack is so permissive, what does it mean for his future? for his potential? will he excuse his own actions as long as they're done with good intentions?

he could burn the world to ashes with good intentions.

castiel shrugs. ]

He wanted to take our Father's place. He wanted to be better than Him, and be loved by Him.

[ Jack's always been kinder to other people than he is to himself. Castiel can do no actual wrong in his eyes, at least not in terms of anything that is unforgivable. He has done wrong, that much is clear, but he still turned into the father that Jack needed. He stepped up. So he will get endless leeway. ]

Billie, the Grim Reaper, wanted to do the same. And from what I know of most people, like my uncle, all they wanted was Chuck's love too. He created all these beings to love him and it somehow wasn't enough for him.

[ Jack would settle for being loved by a handful of people. He thinks the love between God and his creations is toxic, based on what he's seen of his grandfather. ]

It makes me sad. He couldn't always have been bad, right? But that's what I had hoped about Lucifer, and I was wrong.

Chuck isn't like us.

[ castiel continues to stare into his drink, before finally finishing it and picking up the bottle to pour another. he looks to jack, asking silently if he wants a refill. ]

Chuck isn't like anyone. It could be, our love just isn't enough.

[ Jack sips a little more so he could use a refill. It's mostly a gesture because he's glad to be having a drink with his not-father and learning all about him. It feels like an adult conversation, almost! ]

Amara seemed to be the only person to understand him. I guess that's normal of siblings. I know she's still the evil Darkness to you, but ... she didn't seem that way at all when I met her.

[ That was some time later after her grief and rage turned to reconciliation for her and Chuck, and for a time it seemed like genuinely they both were better for it. That is why it was hard for Jack to wrap his mind around it. Could Dean refusing to kill Jack really make him so mad? It seemed so small compared to everything else. ]

She said she wanted to get to know me. No one other than Lucifer said that to me from my family. I have all of you, and I think it was hurtful to you, that I still was interested in my genetic family regardless of being raised with love.

Aren't we still technically related? [ he tops off jack's drink absent-mindedly. not that it matters. he understands what jack is getting at. but, still— ] If we're going by human definitions. Being my brother's son would make you my nephew.

[ and him jack's uncle.

castiel shrugs again. he may be approaching a slight buzz. perhaps because, a few years ago, he only recovered part of his grace from metatron, as the rest had been used. at the very least, he knows he's been weakening, slowly, over time. little by little by little. it usually makes no discernible difference. and, at least in this case, is an advantage. ]

I was probably jealous. It's very convenient to have a child that loves you unconditionally.

[ even if you absolutely don't deserve it. ]

That's true. You've never called Lucifer your brother, I don't think.

[ Probably because no one wants to claim him. Jack feels disconnected from that side of the family outside of Castiel, for the obvious reason of he's not supposed to exist and they wanted him dead. Until Duma, and then that turned out even worse. He is not buzzed at all. He can drink and drink and it's really nothing more than a soda to him.

His eyes widen at that possibility and he considers it. He's always put Castiel on a pedestal, and that didn't give him much opportunity to be a person with Jack. While he misses his father greatly, he is appreciating meeting a version of him who will speak to everything else. ]

There's nothing Lucifer could say or do to make me love you less. But he did fool me. I almost ran away with him. I wasn't thinking clearly. I felt out of control and lost, and that it was inevitable I would hurt you. He was convincing, that he was the only one who could help me.

[ Jack feels very stupid over all of that. Obviously he learned better and Lucifer showed who he was, but he wonders how long it would have taken him to see that, if they had left. ]

[ he doesn't want to claim him. but it's stupid to deny the truth, isn't it? lucifer is inside him, puppeting his body right now, and he can't even take the moral high ground, because he stole jimmy's life first.

it's probably for the best that jack can't get drunk. ]

I can't judge you. I ran away, too.

He didn't even have to convince me— It was my idea.

I always thought we were a lot alike. I just didn't expect us to be alike in our flaws too.

[ It's not a bad thing, in Jack's eyes. Maybe it should be, but it makes him feel closer to Castiel too. Even if this one doesn't want to be family to him, he still feels like he's learned a lot. They both run, they both make mistakes, they both did stupid things because of Lucifer. He'll cling to anything that makes him feel less alone and close to someone else. ]

But you said it was to help deal with Amara, right? And you needed an archangel. I guess you could have asked Michael ... Gabriel probably would have been the best choice.

[ Jack only met his uncle briefly but he seemed like the easiest of the brothers to handle. And the family seemed to like him the best, although that's not asking for much compared to Michael and Lucifer. The point is that Castiel didn't have many choices. There were only three of them left at the time. ]

[ it makes him feel odd, knowing jack is looking for things to tie them together. he isn't wrong in the conclusions he draws, but castiel can't help but want to reject it. he doesn't want a child. he doesn't want the responsibility. he doesn't want something else to fail— especially knowing that he has, unequivocally, failed him, whatever he might say to absolve his actions. there's no forgiving the mistakes he's made.

maybe that's why he goes on to elaborate, rather than moving the conversation along or ending it altogether. ]

I spoke to Amara before I said yes to Lucifer.

She told me I wasn't even worth killing. That was was weak, expendable, afraid to die— And she was right about all of it.

[ Jack frowns at that. He doesn't like that Amara said that to his father. Maybe she was as bad as Chuck after all, and she was only nice to him that one time because they all needed each other. It is not uncommon for Jack to mistake people's brief kindness for a mark of them as people. ]

I don't like that mindset. If people are seen as expendable, it just gives someone the justification that they can kill anyone they want. No one should be seen as expendable.

[ Especially not Castiel who is a special and important person to Jack, but that's not the angle he's coming from, because Castiel already knows what he means to Jack. He hasn't been subtle. That should go without saying he can't see his father in such a callous way. But it's more than that to Jack, it's the way some superpowerful people see everyone. ]

Most people are afraid to die. Everyone can be weak. And she was all of those things too.

I'm not a person. I'm an angel.

[ jack's sentiment isn't wrong, but...

it just doesn't apply to him.

he stares at his hands where they're curled around his cocktail glass. his thumb taps the side. ]

If I have no use, what good am I to anyone? What point is there to being here?

Angels can be afraid and weak too. God created you just as he did humans and everyone's a reflection of their creator.

[ To Jack, blasphemy isn't even a thing. He's never been faithful, he's not an angel, he's not religious because he is religion. He can create angels, he's the closest thing to God there is in existence. He feels that he can see his grandfather more closely because of that. He was afraid of Jack. He should be. He thinks that Chuck created truly beautiful people and things, even if he made many of them flawed, and for that, he should be respected. But that doesn't mean revered for him.

Those two questions though, those make him fall quiet. ]

That's what I want to know too. I think killing God is my entire point. I'm in his Death Book for a reason. And once I do, it'll be over. So until then, I'm just ... not fulfilling my purpose? I'm here. It's strange.

But He created us for different reasons.

[ still, there's not much heat to the words. it's not meant to be an argument, just another observation. unfortunately, most of castiel's tend to be miserable, his words reflecting his mood.

another drink is knocked back, another poured. castiel watches thomas as he talks animatedly to a couple of fluxdrifts down the bar, rattling off more icebreaker questions. castiel still doesn't really understand the custom. ]

Do you really think that? There's nothing else?

[ nephilims aren't even meant to exist. what should jack's destiny look like? ]

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