MINGLE ∞ LOG — June 2025

[thediadem]

Mingle ∞ Log

No Lifeguard on Duty

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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.

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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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Comments

[tataille]

[ Benny tips his head slightly, watching Jack with a sort of quiet amusement before flicking his eyes back to the pool, scanning it like it’s a museum exhibit and not a weird liminal pocket of time and space. That wonder, that need to believe something good might come of this...Benny doesn’t have it. Not really. But he sure as hell envies it. ]

Maybe I do.

[ Fifty years in Purgatory left a lot of grooves carved into him, patterns he still slips into without meaning to. The main goal there had been survive. Here, he has no idea what the hell to do with his hands. Or teeth.

At the last part, Benny snorts into his glass, setting it down with a soft thump on the bartop before snatching it away when Thomas draws near with a too wide grin. He grabs the liquor bottle, refills his own damn glass. The drawl thickens slightly, like molasses, laced with humor. ]

Suspicious as hell. You're not wrong, though. I'd be curious if there was another like me.

[ Jack certainly exists, and that changes what’s possible. It’s not all that ridiculous to think there’s others like Benny here, hiding in the shadows just the same. ]

Always good to know if I'm not the only thing lurkin’ in the woods.

[godjr]

You didn't have a lot of friends in Purgatory, right? Outside of Dean? So maybe we can both make new friends, like each other.

[ He doubts that there were a whole lot of nice monsters in Purgatory for Benny to befriend. Jack doesn't know what his life was like before that, so maybe he had friends back home before it all went wrong, but Jack is someone who seeks community. He hates being alone. Even if he and Benny are new to each other, he doesn't feel alone when the vampire is there, and that has value to him. ]

You're unique, but I doubt you're the only one. Especially with other worlds here. Maybe in another one, they're all like you.

[ Just because monsters are evil in theirs doesn't mean it's the end of the story in the universe. Jack is very open to the idea of meeting people here who are different in their world. It would be a relief, really, because he has no intention of continuing on his hunter ways, and he would feel obligated to do something if there were bad monsters here. This way he can hope for the best. For Benny most of all, now that they're talking about it, so he doesn't feel alone himself. ]

Stranger things have happened than us being wrong about an entire species.

[tataille]

I hope they're not all like me somewhere else, kid. [ Benny's done a lot of bad things in his life, things he hasn't mentioned to anyone else. That's a secret he's keeping close to the chest. A world full of vampires, doesn't seem like a good thing, not in his book. Not with the way they act, the things they do. ]

I had a friend. [ He cocks his head, outlining the lip of his drink absently with his finger. ] Then Dean was my friend.

[ The term 'friend' in the case of the vampire previous to Dean is loose, but Dean genuinely was his friend. Only one he'd really had in a long, long time. ]

...And now you're my friend. [ He supposes, anyway - maybe more like allies right at the moment, but it'll grow in time. They are indeed new to one another, but Dean is a solid common denominator for it to transform into actual friendship. ]

[godjr]

You know what I mean. I get that you have a past, but Dean looked past it because so does he. And so do I.

[ Maybe Benny did do bad things, he could've been a normal vampire before, but all it takes is someone to make a different choice, and go down a different path. Jack himself has been on that road, albeit one young in life and with an excuse that he doesn't use as one. Other people manage without a soul. His actions are his own. He wants Benny to know he's in good company. Jack's not innocent either.

He thinks that has to be why Dean looked past it. He can see when someone is trying to do better. His father is very hard on people, but he's hardest on himself. If he saw someone with a similar regret, he'd sympathize. Dean might be bonding the two of them, but Jack sees something in Benny all on his own. There is a light in him that he doesn't know.

Benny calling him a friend though causes a very fast shift and Jack gives him a bright smile.] I would like to be your friend, Benny, thank you.

[ Benny's very cool, so it automatically makes him cooler to be his friend. ]

It's good to know some mons---people can choose differently, so you've helped me. I'm one too, after all.