synflux | DOWNTIME MINGLE #3

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.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, not like this. Think, like. Maid outfits.

[ She'll just say it outright. ]

That's what I had to deal with when I first came here. Because they wanted to encourage us to turn in paperwork or something.

[ Terrible. Absolutely terrible. ]

Anyway, I'm the Patron Librarian of the Floor of Language. When I wasn't receiving guests, I was picking up pronunciation and dialect tricks. Maybe that's made me listen a little more to how people say things.

...Ah. Yeah, uh, that's a stupid outfit.

[ There's sympathy in his tone even if he doesn't directly say it. He's grateful to have gotten off with the yukata/jinbei option, because even if it took a little time to get used to it, they're still nice. Part of the blessings of being the god of beauty is that he (probably) looks good in everything, but this is much more his speed than a maid outfit. ]

But a librarian, huh?

[ He makes a noise that's approving and warm. That's good civilization, etc ]

Respectable profession, especially for language. Plenty of 'em get lost. Hell, mine isn't doing so hot nowadays. [ Ignoring the bleaching, anyways, since with that, they're pretty much all extinct... ] It's Nahuatl, if you're curious. "tezcatl" and "ipoca", literally "the smoking mirror".

"Smoking"? Really went for the literal meaning, huh?

[ eyebrow raised, tapping the cigarette comfortably smug between her lips. It's rarer to see her without it, honestly.

She could go into further detail with the librarian thing, but you know. Sometimes it's best not to go into detail with the librarian thing. It's never really what people assume, first off. ]

What about the mirror part?

[ It shouldn’t be a surprise that she’s interested, considering what she’d just said about her work, but he still finds himself quietly pleased. He’s still waiting on that damn fish, but… This conversation isn’t a bad one, and it helps soothe his frustration. ]

Heh, sort of. My penchant for nicotine came later. Or maybe it’s just natural?

[ Well, technically the smoke he’s associated with isn’t from tobacco at all, but copal isn’t exactly something you puff away at. In a crowd where it could be noticed, it’d be no good to summon it either. So, a linguistics lesson instead. ]

Nahuatl is big on double meanings in its poetry. So, tezcatl ipoca is the literal—it’s a piece of obsidian, the dark, smoked mirror. But it’s a metaphor too. It’s the concept of everything you can’t see, but still touches the world. The wind, a reflection, the gaze of gods… It’s all of that, stated poetically.

[ You've got that fish.

Eventually. ]

Obsidian... [ Hm. So like the stone. Calling it a dark, smoked mirror sounds fitting. But also, there's so much poetry in that name, not something anyone from the Backstreets would speak, even when they'd made their own simplistic dialogue their own-- ]

So an overarching meaning, too. That's a pretty all-consuming name you've got.

Well, got a pretty all-consuming position. Fits pretty well. I'm omni—

[ He starts to explain, but he cuts off abruptly as a fish is very much swimming into his reach. It's a good thing he has the sunglasses, because while it might not be extreme, his pupils still dilate, and with a quick, elegant swipe into the water—

Up comes a fish!

Even he seems surprised for a moment that it worked, but he's quick to break into a grin. ]

Ha! Finally! Piece of shit!

[ even cussing up a storm, his joy in this moment is pure... ]

[ Wow. What a joyous way to celebrate a win in a manner that is definitely not what you'd expect someone full of delight to express.

Then again, if she were the type, she'd probably say something along the same lines. As it is, there's a lightly amused smirk on her face. ]

Congrats. I hope that's not your naming sense after that explanation you just dropped off.

[ Guy named after that in the world that exists and touches the world in a non-tangible way, proud owner of "Piece of Shit." ]

[ He laughs, and that jostling is enough to break the delicate paper. But he's at least quick to catch his prize, since his other hand shoots out to grab the drone fish before it splashes back into the water. ]

Why not? For as much as it cost and all the trouble, feels like it's about right.

[ He looks at it in his hand curiously, then ends up holding it up by the tail instead for a better look. It wiggles, but more like it's continuing to try and swim in the air rather than a fish would be panicking. ]

Huh. Funny lil' things. You need to keep 'em in water, or, what, do I just pocket it?

I think it's one of those things where you can keep it wherever and it'll be fine. I know I saw a few of them just floating around in the air without any actual trouble.

[ And likewise it can be in the water without issues! ]

[ Tezcatlipoca nods, since that's good to hear. But with a laugh, he sets the little guy back down in his palm before just. Putting it in the sleeve of his yukata. He's laughing because even he knows it's ridiculous, but hey. If it's going to be fine in there, it all works, right? ]

Then he'll have to deal with the temporary home, I guess.

[ It seems like Tezcatlipoca might be a bad robopet owner, but he'll actually end up buying a pretty cute fish tank... Though now that he's had a success, another idea occurs to him, so he smiles mischievously. ]

Any limit on how much I can play? Know a guy that would never do this, but it'd be funny for him to have one of these.

[ She checks the water, where the fish are just chilling. ]

... Well, until I run out of fish, so eight more times unless you're terrible at this or you get more than one with the net before it breaks.

[ We'll list all the options! ]

Well, now I wanna do the latter option there.

[ It won't happen. But he wants it. So, with a snicker, he'll swipe for another try at this game, but at least as he readies himself for round... Don't ask which round this is, actually. But he'll explain. ]

Guy I know is real sour. I dunno if a pet will cheer him up, exactly, but makin' him take care of this sounds funny as hell.

Spoken like a pain in the ass. You two must get along amazingly. [ Matter-of-factly, as she once again hands him another paper net.

It has nothing to do with her and he's not trying to give her extra responsibility, so hell. Why not let him just go to town with it? ]

[ WOW??? how dare you be correct ]

Tch... Now, that's uncalled for. Have I been a pain in the ass?

[ This isn't a genuine question, of course... It's very much just an expression of his annoyance at getting called out. ]

Not to me, but that plan of yours is peak pain in the ass. You could have at least said it was to teach him responsibility if you wanted to try and hide it better.

[ Sorry. She has to point it out. ]

DOWNTIME MINGLE #3

▶ 001. A JOB WELL DONE.

▶ 002. TRADITIONAL TANABATA.

▶ 003. DR. RATIO'S RENOVATIONS.

▶ 004. MONSOON SEASON.

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

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god talk? no. fishie,

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