DOWNTIME MINGLE #3

[synfluxmods]

DOWNTIME MINGLE #3

CONTENT WARNINGS: natural disaster, forced scenarios.

▶ 001. A JOB WELL DONE.

As Outsiders head back from Okinawa (or, perhaps they are already back, characters were able to leave Okinawa through the dataportal whenever) with plenty of coconut crab and mutated fish, Outsiders can expect to have the cafeteria filled with crab and fish food for the next.. well, undetermined amount of time. The power outages have been restored on the LILITH base, and while Outsiders have been enjoying their change of pace in Okinawa, there has been some celebratory news across the Outsider's ocular implants. It looks like it is a message from the big guy himself! Whoever that is. Wasn't his name.. Eiji something? Elijah?

"I'm not going to waste my time with introductions, because we have more important matters to discuss. First of all, good work. Second, while we have been met with several successes, don't let it get to your head. Third, continue following the lead of Yamakawa. ... This is why I don't do celebratory speeches. CODENAMES MONEYBAGS, DUELWIELD, BUSTERMOVE, CHAINSAW MAN and CURSE... great work. You'll see the rewards of your hard work momentarily. Report to me for a payout."

The announcement won't leave an Outsider's implant until it has been read, but just as the voice said, Outsiders will find a Sampo themed pachinko machine installed by the cafeteria near the vending machines. It looks like it's ready to be played! Why not give it a go? Because who wouldn't want to see this charm willingly.

A lot of toy companies are also wanting their skin in this game and have introduced the set of several actions figures based off Yzak and Dearka's gundams, which can be seen distributed on base. The caveat, however, is that you will need to build them piece-by-piece. Alongside this, there will also be Denji-themed plushies, even if it looks like a cross between a dog and human.

Thanks to Choso, hair care on the base has also gotten a lot better. Due to sponsorships, Outsiders are readily able to access more shampoo and conditioner options. Though, maybe thanks to the pictures on the bottle— buns are now trending.

Maybe give the pachinko machine a spin? Or try Choso's brand of shampoo your team's wing communal shower?

▶ 002. TRADITIONAL TANABATA.

The sun is hot but summer is traditionally festival season in Neo Tokyo; these old traditions have managed to hold up in this gritty society in attempts to keep a positive morale, so some citizens and organizers try to keep the tradition going and lift spirits by celebrating local festivals. Many districts and neighborhoods have their own festivals as well. One day, you might stumble onto a shopping district’s wind chime festival and the next day, you might find flyers for a neighborhood’s morning glory festival.

The largest festival of the month is the Tanabata festival. Since the holiday falls in an odd weekday this year, the main celebration is held the next weekend. Civilians and Outsiders can find various shrines, shopping centers, and community buildings with bamboo branches on display with holographic slips of paper that alternate colors. Characters that pass by may submit their wishes on their implants; a new way to keep the old tradition.

On the weekend, some stalls have been set up for people to celebrate. Attendance is low because of the heat and due to a food shortage, the options are lacking. However, there are plenty of games such as a toy shooting range with laser guns and kaiju targets. There are also goldfish catching games where people can catch a cheap goldfish drone that can “swim” in the air and water and shoot bubbles. As a bonus, LILITH will provide Outsiders with an outfit upgrade to help lift spirits. The outfit consists of a traditional summer yukata or jinbei.

Fireworks have gone out of style due to attracting kaiju attention. However, at the festival’s end, there is a drone light show. Hundreds of customized hummingbird drones take to the sky and create elaborate illuminations and shapes in the sky while music plays.

▶ 003. DR. RATIO'S RENOVATIONS.

Festival season means LILITH also has to get in on the action, and while a certain Outsider named Dr. Ratio has raised concerns over the stated of the LILITH base Library, LILITH has actually listened to his desperate plea to renovate the library. What a perfect opportunity for LILITH to use the festival as a way of raising funds so they don't have to dip into their kaiju payout funds (and pizza party fund.) It's time for LILITH's annual SUMMER FESTA. Every year, LILITH comes together with local organizations like fire stations, police stations, clinics, and nonprofits to promote public safety and awareness. It's a one day festival where people can get information about what to do to stay safe not only during kaiju attacks but in their daily lives. The funds raised at the festival will go to training, supplies, research, and maintaining services.

As usual, LILITH is raising money for disaster relief supplies and renovation projects across Neo Tokyo. Per request, LILITH has agreed to set aside some funds to help renovate the facilities on base, including the library. However, they will task the Outsiders with raising the money.

It's a festival so how they raise the money is both up up to them or they may take the suggestions according to their team placement below. Either way, Outsiders are required to work with other people on their same team but they're encouraged to make it fun. Set up game stalls, sell food, do performances, and ask for donations to raise as much money as possible for their projects. The team that raises the most money is promised a prize while the losers will be punished. Here are the team suggestions below and some of them may have some new, modern twists:

Everlight: Kingyo-sukui, which is goldfish catching with a paper scoop. Managing the takoyaki stands.
Revelation: Yoyo-tsuri, fishing for water-filled balloons with a “fishing pole” with a paper string. Managing the mask stands.
Brimstone: Shateki, shooting at targets for prizes. Managing the sparklers stands.. sparklers shouldn't catch kaiju attention, right?
Redemption: Wanage, ring toss. Managing the onigiri stands.

Outsiders will be given a week to prepare for the festival and they only have a single day to raise funds. In the evening, the winning team is announced: Revelation. All team members will receive can badges and a pizza party. A special donation will also be made to the library on their behalf: A stack full of self help books, yes, REAL books and not holograms or digital books, such as "Overcoming Your Depression for Dummies" and "How to Make Friends 101." Thank you for your effort, Team Revelation!

As for the losers, they will be given options: Sign up or the final fundraising event of the night or help clean up at the end of the festival. The final fundraiser is a punishment game where volunteers from each organization are dunked in tubs of water or pied in the face. It seems like a certain person (Seok Dang) was supposed to be LILITH’s tribute but he is nowhere to be found… maybe one of the other losers will step up and take his place to be dunked in water or pied in the face? Characters may also sign up a loser character without their consent. Come on, be a good sport!

▶ 004. MONSOON SEASON.

Despite the celebrations and attempts to raise morale, the heatwave persists in Neo Tokyo and with it, the problems from the beginning of the month. Food continues to go bad quickly and while fundraising attempts have provided some relief, the city is huge and shelf stable supplies begin to run low again. The energy crisis improves slightly with blackouts occurring less frequently as emergency personnel attempt to intervene. Though the weather is dreary, the renovations must press on! Fortunately, most of the things to do around the Library consist of staying inside. Dr. Ratio has given the following orders which Outsiders may help with in the Library:

- Install better lighting.
- Organize and add more books.
- Set up and secure tables and chairs.
- Add couches to once section of the library to convert it into a lounging area.

Characters may work together to help, or maybe they prefer to laze around and give the newly renovated Library a test run!

After a few days, finally, the rain meteorologists have promised arrives. The skies darken and heavy rain falls on the city which brings much cooler temperatures. People stay inside more often as it becomes too inconvenient to go out when the rain and wind are so strong. The rainstorms grow stronger and eventually become fully fledged storms. The ground shakes from thunder and lightning strikes light up the sky.

Everyone’s ocular implants will frequently give warnings about the weather. LILITH will task Outsiders with assisting across the city. Help evacuate citizens to higher ground during flash floods. After the storms subside, help clear the streets of debris and trees. Some neighborhoods will lose power because of lightning strikes and need their generators restored. However, every time they finish their tasks, a new storm will occur a few days later and they’ll have to repeat.

At first, it seems like the typical summer storm season but meteorologists become concerned when more storms begin to happen without following clear weather patterns and even the locals remark the season seems very active this year… could it be another kaiju? The last time Neo Tokyo had floods, it was sea water, but this is caused by heavy rain. Like clockwork, LILITH's investigating team is on the lookout for energy from a rift or any leads to what could be causing all of the heavy rain. Outsiders are instructed to keep an eye out for any emergency messages.

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

Welcome to our third downtime mingle! While we would typically have a texting prompt, we instead have player plots for this event! Thank you Abbel and Eski for the Tanabata and festival player prompt and Sky for the Library renovations plot! We appreciate Eski for spending 500 bonus points to provide everyone with something to wear for Tanabata. For the character-run stalls as part of the renovation prompt, players are not limited to the suggestions given by the mods and are free to come up with their own stall ideas. Additionally, for characters signing up other characters for the dunk tank, please make sure you get OOC permission from their players first.

Please note also we have added new rewards: the Poison Dagger, Cat Ear Visor, and the Elemental Swords now come in the models Ice and Lightning. Please see the REWARDS page for more information.

All tags on this log are worth 2 points.

EVENT BREAKDOWN (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. A JOB WELL DONE: The kaiju heavy hitters get recognition with.. a pachinko machine and shampoo sponsorship? Outsiders can react to their fellow colleagues about this development, or maybe even talk to the winners themselves around the base.

2. TRADITIONAL TANABATA: It's Tanabata season, even in a post-apocalyptic world! Put on some old, traditional attire with your friends and enjoy a drone show.

3. DR. RATIO'S RENOVATIONS: LILITH has teamed up with the local safety personnel to get in on the festival season. Characters are encouraged to fundraise for renovations at the LILITH base Library. Teams may also visit other teams events and stands to donate, partake in, and.. maybe deliver some competitive harassment.

4. MONSOON SEASON: With the weather being hot and renovations needing done, LILITH works together to improve the Library. A few days later, the weather gets suspiciously intense and Outsiders are instructed to help civilians with power outages, flash flooding, debris from heavy wind and rain.

code

Comments

Dr. Ratio | Honkai: Star Rail | Redemption

[curingidiocy]

 001. Wishes Fluttering in the Wind 
 — "This is the beauty of humanity."

[ Ratio isn't one for celebrations. When his research team celebrates their successes, he joins only for the dinner but nothing else, citing work that still has to be done. When Pier Point celebrates holidays, he stays at home to work on personal projects or catch up on smaller tasks that were left to the wayside. There is always more to do and not enough time in his short life to get them done.

Here, he had expected his routine to stay much the same. There were kaiju to research, drones to modify and plans to conceive in his constant bid to help this planet. He didn't have time to relax. But he is human, not an unfeeling machine. He is not like Nous, the ever calculating Aeon of Erudition, or the members of the Genius Society, whose focus on the search for knowledge to the exception of everything else is almost inhuman. Because that's what it takes to be one of them, and he can never be like that.

Which is why he's found himself standing in front of one of the various bamboo branches with wishes tied to them, staring contemplatively. He is in a plain dark blue summer yukata, in a rare act of indulgence. He stands, solitary, hand to chin and eyes gazing into the distance as he simply thinks, an almost melancholy figure among the colourful, fluttering paper, physical and holographic.

Feel free to disturb him from his contemplation! ]

 002. Punishment Game 
 — "I refuse to be humiliated."

[ Despite being the one to suggest the renovations, Ratio does not participate in the fundraising whatsoever. His original plan had been to simply make a request on the network and use the supplied funds to proceed with his idea, whether or not LILITH agreed with him. But to his surprise, they had heeded him and even come up with this elaborate setup to raise money. How nice that they were finally cooperating once he proved his value.

His job was to handle the renovation itself, so he opted not to join in on the festivities, instead only observing everyone's efforts from the side, ignoring the way a part of his heart seemed to yearn for something whose identity he could not quite grasp. The smiles, the loud screams of joy, the bustling noise of the crowd—they should be unpleasant, grating on his ears, but instead they reassured him—that his hard work helping this planet was more than worth it, and that he had to keep pressing on.

At the end, Revelation winning came as little surprise to him. It was the team his favourite gambler was on, after all. That man never lost when he put his heart to it, and he was certain Aventurine was trying, if only because the funds were going to the library renovations, Ratio's idea. What was unexpected was the punishment game afterwards. There was no choice: either clean, or suffer humiliation.

He stands there with the slow, sinking feeling that he knows which choice is going to be made for him. If not by other Outsiders, then by the one man he cannot deny. Maybe if he just... quietly sneaks away...

Either convince/drag him into the punishment game or show up when he's already given in and let him have it! ]

 003. Library Renovations 
 — "I shall see this project to completion."

[ This was his work. This is what he came up with, so it shall be him who sees it through. Though he asked for other Outsiders' assistance, Ratio does not expect many to turn up, so he can be found personally handling all aspects of the renovation. Anyone who stops by the library during this time can catch Ratio doing one of the following:

a. Standing on a ladder to install better lights for the library. He's wearing his typical outfit minus the top layer, which means as he reaches up to fiddle with the lights, his sides are fully exposed for all to admire...
b. Hovering tables and chairs into place with Imaginary energy one by one. Makes for a very quiet renovation, and almost looks like magic, the way he waves his hands to guide the furniture into place.
c. Taking a break on one of the couches in the newly designed lounge area. He has some water, a plate of snacks and an open deck of cards on the table next to him. Maybe join him in relaxing for a moment?
d. Fiddling with his hummingbird drone, which has been modified to become a projector for the library. He tested lesson slides and educational material earlier against a blank wall in the library meant for it, so now he's testing the projector in the lounge area with a random movie he obtained from Neo Tokyo. Come and sit in for a movie? Ratio isn't actually watching though, busy making software tweaks for the drone as the movie plays on. ]

 004. Working to the Bone 
 — "There is too much work to be done."

[ This city can never catch a break, can it? If it isn't a heatwave, it's a monsoon turning the place upside down and storms destroying the city every few days. Ratio is of course helping with the relief efforts where he can, but his main focus is on trying to determine the cause of this weather and developing a better solution against the neverending onslaught of the environment. So broken that it is, even the planet itself seems to be wishing for humanity's demise... he will not allow it.

So after a few days, Ratio will be found holed up in the newly renovated library, papers and books scattered around him, eyes lit up and scribbling calculations, ideas and other scientific jargon furiously as he tries to brainstorm a solution with the materials and means they have on this planet. Unlike before, where he was careful to keep himself well rested, he looks less so this time around, having already spent hours upon hours digging as deeply into what little information he can procure as he can. Someone tell the man to get some rest... ]

 005. Wildcard 
[ Always down for some wildcarding! Feel free to hit me up at tenkomi or on the unofficial discord to plan something! ]

004

[penaltypoints]

[ Yesod has been returning to the library without fail throughout the renovation efforts to contribute to each objective's completion, welcoming the addition of more that can be done here to achieve lasting improvements. Cleaning and tidying it are merely routine tasks, after all, but Dr. Ratio has successfully coordinated organization on a much larger scale once again. The fact that he was able to secure LILITH's support is also significant.

And today, too, though the renovations are finished, Dr. Ratio appears to be no less busy, surrounded by his work.

Ordinarily, Yesod would consider the scene something not to interrupt, but he thinks of things not to overlook, noting some visible signs of fatigue. As irritating as it can be to have one's concentration broken, he approaches the other man. ]

Could I speak with you? I'll keep it brief.

[curingidiocy]

[ It is the painful crick in his neck as he lifts his head up towards his interloper that has Ratio realizing he's been working for far too long for his own good. Still, this calculation must be completed first, and he only gives Yesod his index finger in a universal gesture to wait while he's looking at pages of papers on energy generation through his workplace's research portal. So rudimentary, but with the planet's resources lacking, using them as the basis for his solution is more effective than dreaming up some variation of black-body energy generator or nuclear fusion generator, which has been discovered here but is not usable in the planet's current state.

A few more minutes of scribbling on his notes and then he sets his pen down and leans back with a heavy sigh. ]

Yes?

[penaltypoints]

[ Waiting is no issue — especially since no suitable moment could exist for an interruption during an ongoing task — and Yesod waits quietly, patient until Dr. Ratio looks up once more to address him. It is strange to be the person intervening to recommend a break. However, he can't help but linger on the consequences of people shouldering the weight of too much for a single individual to bear, no matter how capable and brilliant. ]

Thank you.

[ Turning back to face Ratio, Yesod casts the papers and books in front of the man a glance. ]

...Prioritizing your research is clearly necessary. Yet you also directed others to collaborate effectively during the recent kaiju encounter, as well as the library's renovation. Is there nothing to delegate in this instance?

wheezes i'm sorry i'm so late

[curingidiocy]

[ It is strange to be on the receiving end of such concern when he has been operating the same way for years now, having long ago solved the equation to maximize his efficiency, which included rest. Though on occasion he slips up, like today, it is fact to the intergalactic community that Ratio is a strong proponent of a healthy work schedule.

He idly scrolls through the research papers through his ocular implant as he replies. ]

Certainly, the work I am currently doing would usually be given to a junior researcher. However, as should be evident, I do not have a team to delegate work to, nor am I under any illusion that I can command Outsiders to heed me. The situations you refer to either benefitted of all of us, or complemented our main directive.

[ He remembers Yesod being one of the more efficient individuals he has worked with. Perhaps... well, he is overdue for a break. It could be spent chatting with this man. ]

it's all good, welcome back and ty for the backtagging!

[penaltypoints]

[ Ratio has a point. Without a common goal or the prospect of some sort of reward, many people would be inclined to question or disregard instructions given to them by a stranger. Even Carmen's speeches didn't win over every person who heard them, for all her charisma.

That said, all Outsiders should know of Dr. Ratio by now, and it must have made an impression that LILITH didn't dismiss his plans for the base's library as unnecessary, resources better used elsewhere. ]

That may be so, but it would surprise me if the purpose of your current research differs considerably from that of your previous efforts. Moreover, it's likely that you have in fact established yourself as someone better equipped than most to lead others and achieve worthwhile results.

[curingidiocy]

I am currently looking into a solution for Neo Tokyo's unstable energy generation. It would be of great concern if the city were to suffer another power shortage while we're away on a mission. Incidentally beneficial to us, but it is not same as being able to take direct action to remedy the issue.

[ Anyone who is as enthusiastic about research as he is should have revealed themselves to him by now. The only conclusion he can make is that none of the Outsiders specialize in research, which isn't a surprise, given the reconnaissance and combat oriented missions they are assigned to, but it's a disappointment. Even though most of his colleagues back home weren't very competent, he has never acutely felt the lack of support until now. ]

My leadership qualities may be proven, but I do not officially command anyone. Even if I did, I do not wish to force individuals to work on assignments they have no interest or specialty in. That would be wholly unproductive.