diademlogs | MINGLE ∞ LOG

Entry tags:

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.

∞ Links ∞

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.

⇅ Top

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

Main Navigation ::: ⇅ Top

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PARKING LOT;

[ If you've met him in the past month, you probably wouldn't be surprised to find that Jayce often travels in the company of an eight foot tall creature. They arrive together in the same truck - the creature riding in the back, although later Jayce can be found on his own returning to the parking lot to grab some tools. ]

Need something?

[ Maybe you're the one checking out the scrap haul in the back of the truck, or maybe you're watching him confront some opportunists. His demeanor is mildly wary - during his first few nights alone here, he learned that not every fluxdrift has good intentions. ]

There's people grilling food down there, if you're hungry?

[ He's not looking for a fight, but he holds his back straight. There's a scar on the inside of his left wrist, a strange kind of fractal webbing in reds, purples and golds - it's visible since he's shrugged his cloak off in the warm weather. The next most immediately noticeable detail about him is that his left leg set in a metal brace. If you met him in those first weeks, this brace seems different than before - where the original was bent and damaged in places, this one seems newly made and better designed, his limp is barely noticeable. He's not carrying any weapons, though his size might deter some folks from starting a fight. ]

POOLSIDE;

[ It takes him some time, but Jayce eventually strips out of his clothes and his brace down to his boxers, lacking any proper swimwear. There's a large, diagonal scar across his back starting near his left shoulder, another between his right shoulder and neck, the one on his left wrist and finally the one on his left calf. There's something off about each one, that same colorful, fractal patterning across the scar tissue.

Feeling oddly exposed, he's quick to slip into the pool once he's undressed, dunking his head under the water and swimming to reemerge some meters away, tossing his head and pushing his hair out of his eyes. Despite living on a river and near the ocean all his life, he can't remember the last time he went swimming. The cool water feels good after days of suffering in the humidity back in Panorama, and it eases some of the ache in his muscles.

When he's done lazily swimming, he'll try to float on his back, staring up at the twin moons above them. This is the most relaxed he's felt in weeks, though he'd be hard pressed to admit it. He can blame the heat for why he hasn't been sleeping well, why he almost constantly has dark circles under his eyes. He works at night at a warehouse trying to tire himself to exhaustion, but finds it difficult to sleep more than a few hours at a time once he gets back to the bed in the motel.

Out of the pool, he drifts in and out of sleep on one of the pool chairs. The noise of someone shuffling nearby or the beep of a cell phone will startle him awake, the plastic and metal of the chair creaking with his shifting weight. It takes him a second or two to catch himself and reorient, gaze landing on whoever stopped nearby. ]

Sorry - I can move. [ How long was he asleep for? His heart is still pounding in his chest, and he starts looking around his chair for his things. ] Shit.

[ His toolbelt is gone. Great. Did it get knocked under a chair - or did someone take it? ]

ANDROID;

[ Whether he finds his tools or borrows new ones - at some point Jayce can be located hunched over one of the deactivated androids. He's opened up a panel in the back of its head and another one in the chest, messing around with wires and parts.

Something he's done seems to work, and all of a sudden life sparks back into the humanoid machine.

Unfortunately, it uses that brief moment of consciousness to sucker punch him or the nearest passerby in the face. ]

WILDCARD

[ Feel free to mix and match prompts, or hit me up here for questions! ]

[[The androids were all very... interesting. An Zhe had noticed that most (all?) of them were quite still, save for the bartender that never seemed to rest no matter what time it was. When he noticed that someone was doing something with one of them, het let his curiosity get to the better of him.

He gingerly made his way over, leaning over with a curious look.]]

Are they alri--!!

[[POW.]]

[[OHKO. Down he went.]]

[ The aggressive android quickly follows An Zhe to the ground, deactivated and lifeless once again. Jayce, who had been working on it while seated on a chair, scrambles to his feet in alarm - ]

Hey - [ crouching down next to An Zhe, eyes wide: ] are you alright?

[ He gingerly touches his shoulder, concern etched across his expression. Another fluxdrift, a middle-aged woman with a shock of grey hair, crouches down next to them. "What the hell was that?" she asks Jayce, followed by - "Hey kid, you hit your head?"

The android remains motionless behind them. ]

[[An Zhe laid there like a spilled sack of potatoes for a few moments, eyes squeezed shut tight. Ah, ah, his face throbbed in a way he’d never felt before and everything was ringing. Ow. Owwwwwwww.

He eased his eyes open just in time for a dribble of blood to come leaking out of his nose.]]

… I’m… sorry?

Wait with him for a minute, please - [ Jayce will say this to the woman, who shrugs and nods as he strides off toward the grill. She picks some tissues out of her pocket and handing it to An Zhe. "Here - sit up and put this under your nose. Tilt your head back."

She'll shove the tissue in his hand if he doesn't take it immediately, and move to help him sit up.

Jayce returns not long after with a frozen burger patty. ]

Jayce Talis | Arcane (open!)

android : )

no.... the babby....

rest in pieces

no subject

poolside!

no subject

no subject

drive-by

no subject

charles; (tdm)

no subject

no subject

android :')

no subject

no subject

parking lot.

no subject

no subject

parking lot!

no subject

no subject

android

no subject

no subject