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.

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Comments

[bemist]

I guess we're proof of that.

[ With a soft, almost amused huff. ]

I don't think anyone would drag a bunch of strangers to a world that was giving up, after all.

[wheft]

Yeah. I mean, could you imagine if anyone gets brought into the City to fix it? Not that the City would ever do something like that.

[ ...right? ]

[bemist]

I think that would only work if the Head was able to acknowledge that the City needs fixing in the first place.

[ Which will never happen. [

[wheft]

Right.

[ SIGH. ]

You mentioned being on an island recently. Wanna talk about that?

[bemist]

..........

[ Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. ]

Sure. Why not.

[wheft]

[ whoa, did not expect her to go along with that... ]

Who were you with? I didn't watch the entire thing, so I missed out on a lot of details...

[bemist]

[ If she's avoidant about it, it gives the wrong idea. ]

You didn't miss much. That new haughty prince guy decided to keep trying to act like he knew me until I shut him down. I only wound up there in the first place because Malkuth wanted someone she trusted, in case anything happened.

[ A sigh. ]

I had to grab Yesod out of the ocean and I got off the island because Siffrin didn't want to be there dealing with people either, so we just left.

[wheft]

Sounds like you Librarians were truly out of your depth. Did those books you collected not teach you guys anything?

[ genuine question, since she's always assumed that a book would contain every aspect of a person's life. ]

And ugh, don't talk to me about that prince guy. He gives me the creeps and then some.

[bemist]

Glad you also have a sense of self-respect. [ wryly. ]

But those books weren't all-knowing. Half the time they were incomplete and only gradually filled out over time and a lot of them only talked about one aspect in particular. It wasn't just someone's life detailed out in a book.

[wheft]

[ she did fuck toji so idk about self-respect... but she did get a friend out of it so it's okay i guess. ]

So what's the point of getting all those books if they aren't even complete?

[bemist]

Oh, our illustrious Director was looking for the One Book and the chances of that happening only increased with the more Guests we had. Depending on the guests, more of the books would be filled out too.

[ Ah, what a time. ]

[wheft]

And I guess that plan of hers didn't go as planned if people that were booked were released into the world and the Library has fucked off to nowhere.

[ jeez, their director sure is a piece of work!! ishmael would've despised the fuck out of her. ]

[bemist]

[ She snorts, lightly. ]

She released them herself after a change of heart and then the Head decided to pay us a visit and relocated us after I helped hold them off.

[wheft]

[ a change of heart... ]

Did someone convince her?

[bemist]

Not in the straightforward way you'd think. I think she just finally saw what the world was like and learned that it wasn't all about revenge. Which we all know is easier said than done, to accept. And she saw for herself what feelings of revenge could truly do to a person.

[wheft]

[ her face turns pensive for a moment. ]

...It's always revenge, isn't it? A never-ending cycle.

[bemist]

Yeah.

[ With a very heavy sigh. ]

I don't think there's anyone who's lived long enough in the City who hasn't perpetrated it or been a victim of it. The way you think that things will finally end, if you have it in your grasp, only to realize it's not quite as simple as that.

[wheft]

It really isn't. It takes a lot of gumption to break yourself out of it. It's not necessarily wrong to kill those who wronged us, but...

[ she leans her cheek on her open palm. ]

Anyway, we could go all day with our own experiences regarding revenge, but that's not really an ideal topic of conversation to have at a festival.

[bemist]

Well, we've talked about romance [ GRIMACE ] and revenge, what's the next big one? Our goals?

[ She is saying this so dryly. ]

[wheft]

Please don't ask me about that, I haven't figured it out yet.

[ she's really just here vibing for now....... ]

How 'bout you? Now that the Library's pretty much gone from the City.

[bemist]

I don't know.

[ Wow, they're so good at this. ]

Because of how it all went down, I'm still unable to leave the Library. So I guess we'll be stuck in the Outskirts as some kind of legendary mirage or something similar, but... [ She shrugs. ]

At the very least I won't be cutting down people who don't know any better this time. Here, I haven't figured out what to do with a life that's more or less my own again. More than it's been in a long time, anyway.

I still don't even know if it's a good idea to even think about letting trust exist with the people here. [ And she admits that quietly, because at the very least, Ishmael is from the same place. She probably understands what has her so reticent about it. ]

[wheft]

[ ishmael does get it, perhaps even more so than other people gebura's talked to so far. the two of them had lost so many people, had seen so many of their peers die gruesome deaths while they're too helpless to do anything about it.

and yet. ]

Mm, I get it. We only have so much time with certain people that it only seems wasteful to get to know them, knowing that they might be gone the next day. I know that all too well.

[ she is the girl with the three-month time limit with her cr, after all. ]

But I can safely say that not everyone here is out to stab us on the back, Miss Gebura. Nor are they physically weak. In fact, some of them might be more resilient than most Color Fixers, or even the Arbiters of the Head themselves. Crazy, right?

[ a chuckle. ] I dunno. Maybe it's because I put a lot of trust on my fellow mates back on the ship I used to work in, unlike most typical Fixers. And they did die in the end anyway, but I... was able to move on. And just because I was willing to move on doesn't mean that I'll ever forget the impact they had on me.

[ it's been something she's been thinking about for a while, now that this world has given her more time to let it sit. and for now, that's the best conclusion she can make. ]

That's my take on it, anyway.

[bemist]

[ The amount of people who call her "Miss" here is still so weird to her. Just like the employees, who still called her "ma'am", and she has long since given up on telling people to just call her directly by her name. It's their preferred language, in the end. ]

I'd have to be an idiot to think that most of them were weak; they've been through different experiences and I'm pretty sure a lot of their fighting expertise has made them more than a match for me, if I had to deal with them. [ She's paid attention. Though she doesn't happen to think she's all that weak in comparison herself.

But she at least understands what Ishmael is trying to say, comparing them with her crew. Despite losing them, she'd been able to move on, and despite that, she would never forget them or how they'd changed her irrevocably. She could say the same for those who hadn't followed her and the other Sephirah-turned-Librarians into the hell of a ten-thousand-year-old loop. ]

... Whether I can trust them or not, even I couldn't tell you what could get me to believe in them. It might just be a matter of time. I know they don't all think the same way that most City resident do.

[wheft]

[ LISTEN she knows where she lies in their hierarchy, okay. even if gebura is a retired color, there's still no doubt that she retains her expertise in combat and overall breadth of experience compared to ishmael. ]

They don't. At least, most of them don't. Just goes to show how far the City's gone.

[ there's no helping it though, despite vergilius confiding to her that he'd like to change the city inside out. that's probably why he's in limbus company, huh... ]

Well, we've got some time to kill now. [ a grisly thing to say after coming from t corp, lmao. ] You did approach me from out of the blue, so that's already a good start.

[ heh. ]

[bemist]

As we both know, you get it. I don't really have to deal with pleasantries or a lot of enthusiastic chatter from you.

[ Unlike. Other people. ]

So I don't mind walking around with you a bit.