synflux | DOWNTIME MINGLE #10

Entry tags:

DOWNTIME MINGLE #10

DOWNTIME MINGLE #10

CONTENT WARNINGS: none

▶ 001. WINNER'S CIRCLE.

The return to Neo Tokyo is a quieter affair than usual, but that doesn’t mean that LILITH isn’t proud of her angels. After dispatching them to deal with smuggling rings and bringing in their latest set of Outsiders, there’s a little celebration in the cafeteria; sushi, yakiniku, tempura and other various seasonal foods are on offer, just… Don’t ask where the meat comes from.

The celebrations of the victories in Mexico are not to be ignored, however, and the traditional celebrations of the winning outsiders is business as usual:

GOOD JOB:
SOBA & R.A.P.H (K.O.)
JUSTISH (600) & GODDESS OF DEATH (600)

And, as might be becoming familiar to the Outsiders, the celebration of the victors comes with its own impact on the cityscape of Neo Tokyo.

The more fashionable of folk might notice a new trend flooding the market, especially popular with teenage girls who lean towards the more lolita fashion. The trend is a simple gothic one, nicknamed zen lolita, with black on black, thick earrings and zori shoes with sharp designs that all seem to call back to traditional Buddhist monk style. The sparks of colour in this style come from white and silver accessories - finger and nose rings, dangling chains with small, animal charms. While much of the style can be found in thrift stores and downloaded through the style chips, a significant amount of it can only be bought in high end, expensive boutiques.

Meanwhile, in the arcades of Neo Tokyo, a new game has become popular. Players enter a virtual simulation room and can use dual virtual swords to slash at incoming targets while listening to music. Targets can take on the shape of alien spaceships, asteroids, and even space robots. To win, you have to fight to the beat with certain songs having greater difficulty. Hardcore players can also purchase upgrades for their virtual swords to trigger special effects. The upgrades are all named after famous swords with some of the most impressive ones being Excalibur and Arondite.

Another emerging hit teen trend is a brand-new pizza from one of the bigger chains in Neo Tokyo. Painting their windows with reds and greens, little cartoon turtles and party balloons and celebrations, with mascots that are being sold as keyrings and plushies alongside the food. The main attraction is the new dish on offer: a Mutant Turtle Pizza! It’s a fairly simple dish, designed as a calzone (you can customise some of your fillings!) with a turtle shell crust, wrapped in paper matching their cute mascot design. If you come in cosplay, you get 10% off!

Those in Redemption might notice something… Odd going on outside room 006. In the weeks after the return from Mexico, deliveries have been made almost around the clock, the weary drivers dropping off box after box and bouquet after bouquet. It seems as if word of a certain someone’s hard work in fighting the kaiju has been heard, and they want to show their affection. Various bouquets of sunflowers, roses, tulips, daises and orchids can be found littering the floor, in various shades of blues, purples, yellows and white. At least it smells wonderful.

▶ 002. LOST IN TRANSLATION (TEXT MINGLE.)

Auto-translation software allows everyone in the world to communicate with each other, regardless of where they are from or what language they might speak. Everyone has it automatically installed and for the most part, this allows for seamless and instant translation no matter who they are talking to.

One day, everyone will receive a system message that consists of broken characters, code, and gibberish. After that, they will find that they have some trouble communicating with others. For some people, it might just be a few words not translating correctly, but for others, the miscommunication is more extreme.

The translation software might completely fail, resulting in Outsiders not being able to understand each other at all. They will have to rely on vintage translation services or body language Synthia will issue an explanation:

"We all know the results of modern projects. We are now solving the problem. Thank you very much."

"It seems instead of translating to multiple languages, she translated through multiple languages. Sorry. There is currently a problem with the translation software. We contacted support and they're working on it."

For the next few days, everyone will have to make do with broken or incorrect translations when speaking to each other. Even characters from the same world and country might find themselves suddenly speaking a completely different language. This might result in people saying the opposite of what they mean or the things they say might end up translated through multiple languages before the final result. They might even accidentally confess a secret that they did not mean to say. Eventually, a patch will be issued and things will resume as usual. This effects both text messaging and normal speaking.

▶ 003. CAULDRONS & KAIJU.

It seems as though September is for fun, and with it comes a rush of people in Neo Tokyo taking part in an exciting craze that seems to ebb and flow in popularity throughout the year: a class-based, live action role-playing game that is all the more exciting thanks to technology permitting light shows, downloadable costumes and guild systems. LILITH is quick to encourage the Outsiders to take part, in the interest of team-building and developing connections across the four groups on base.

The game itself is simple: organise yourself into a ‘party’, download your costumes and class features (such as light shows for magic users, custom weapons for your melee and ranged) and various upgrades to transform your features into different ‘races’ - your bunny and cat people, lizardfolk, and so forth. Once your party is together, you travel through a scavenger-hunt style series of games, puzzles, PvP and PvE fights to get to the final ‘dungeon’ - raid a dragon lair and get some gold and various other prizes. Try to create a balanced team of tank, magic user, support and damage dealer!

LILITH is more than happy to help set up the Outsiders with what gear they need, and makes the following recommendations for the ‘style’ of play for each team - and they recommend a mixture of all four for the best “party-comp”:

BRIMSTONE are the tanks. Ranging from dedicated, focused Paladin-style warriors using various different weaponry to Barbarians who use their rage for offensive purposes, they’re encouraged to don armour, get their HP buffed and lead their party into their quest. They can take more damage than the rest of their party and have special abilities to get monsters to focus on them.

EVERLIGHT find themselves as physical based damage dealers. This could be archery, swords, knives or their bare fists to hit for as much power as they can muster. They’re encouraged to do what they can to bash their enemies to pieces, and are more adept at 1:1 combat than groups. Their skills focus more on high damage ceilings for those who get to grips quickly and critical hits.

REDEMPTION are the support. This can range from straight-up HP healing skills or using buffs and debuffs to make it easier for the tanks (and those unruly DPS!) to survive whatever fight comes up ahead. Regen or shields, they could also be the Healer-DPS and heal by killing the enemy before it kills their party - with a little bit of poison and strength sapping magic, they’re nothing to scoff at.

REVELATION get to enjoy the fascinating and wonderful world of magic users. This could be using a wand, a book, or sheer natural talent to cast a variety of spells to get rid of the enemy as swiftly as possible. Elemental magic (your fire, ice, earth, lightning, etc) mixes with staggering areas of effect skills to try and make quick work of any threat that might lie ahead. Mages are far more useful for groups of enemies than single target, but are still devastating.

The actual ‘roleplay’ part of the event takes place with a series of different ventures for Outsiders to get themselves busy with across Neo Tokyo:

Various puzzles and riddles to crack between different markers on their maps.
Traps to trip players up and make them question everything.
Mysteries that need to be solved before they can move on to the next location.
Nature itself fighting back against the questing parties.

There are various fun elements uploaded onto their implants to make the game more engaging as well, as if they were playing in the simulation room: a HP tracker, item lists, spells and mana, party group chats and various other features. This will help when one of your party gets poisoned and loses -1HP per step they take… Uh oh! Feel free to have fun with whatever your imagination can come up with.

At the end of the trail is the dragon’s lair, where they’ll face various lair-based obstacles: smoke and fog, 'toxic' fumes and clouds, dragon breath (of various elemental flavours), terrain difficult to walk through, etc. All of this is created via a holographic simulation, of course, but it feels very real! Winning parties will win a treasure chest of “gold”... It’s chocolate, and therefore fake, but you get a really cool certificate and a place on the leaderboard for how fast you beat the dragon!

▶ 004. AFTERWORD.

This is Downtime Mingle / Team Building #10. All comments in this event count for 2 points towards September AC. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask them below.

EVENT BREAKDOWN/RECAP (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. WINNER'S CIRCLE: The winners of the Mexico mission influence Neo Tokyo with lolita fashion, simulation videogames, flowers in the Redemption wing and a new pizza to try!

2. LOST IN TRANSLATION: LILITH's auto translation gets a bug and Outsiders must communicate by other means until it is fixed. Some effects will cause people to speak in a language they don't know or even confess a secret they did not mean to say.

3. CAULDRONS & KAIJU: A dungeon & dragons style simulation game! Outsiders must build a team and work together through various puzzles to reach the dragon's lair, slay it and steal the (chocolate) gold.

code

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[ There is already regret, but still. It's the right thing to do, correct?

Anyway, he's floating, keeping a safe distance from the creature as he settles his chin in his hand, doing his best to allow his glasses to do some sort of analyzing on the animal. Hal gives him a report followed by a snarky remark for Dirk's eyes only: Looks like something a yeti coughed up. Truly an unearthly cryptid. ]}

It doesn't carry any sort of fatal disease, does it?

Edited 2025-09-17 15:23 (UTC)

All of the tests I've run on him have been negative so far!

[Dirk doesn't have to know that the type of rabies test that doesn't kill the animal takes longer. He's PRETTY sure that Takumi isn't rabid.]

It's probably fine to grab him! He's just a little scared!

Normally that would be comforting to hear. Coming from you, I ain't too sure.

_{[ cautiously approaching this creature. Goddamn. This is definitely more of Jake's territory; dealing with monsters and shit. ]}

Okay, going in.

_{[ he really wish he could captchalogue this thing but he's found out the hard way that doesn't work in this world, so like,
he dives in and just kinda yoinks it before flying out of the tree and holding it kind of awkwardly. ]}

[Takumi does continue to growl at first, but eventually his possum instincts kick in. Maybe this scary flying ape will leave him alone if he's dead. Not good for eating!!!

Unfortunately Dirk then swoops in to grab him so it doesn't work but he has no control over this, apparently it's an involuntary reflex. So now Dirk jsut has this smelly, limp animal in his arms. At least it should be easy to get it down now?]

You got him! Thank you, Dirk. You can set him down, he'll come out of it in a minute or so.

_{[ You know, he didn't ask for this life. He didn't even ask to be ectobiologically born and sent to two different universes as a baby, one in which he ends up in an alien dominated apocalypse where all manner of the animal kingdom is eradicated besides those that can survive in the ocean and some in the sky. He didn't ask to be in contact with an opossum, let alone one that has been physically altered in some way.

Although Dirk has read a good bit about certain animals, he thinks that maybe he killed this thing by handling it because he's unaware that opossums play dead.

You can imagine the way his heart sinks when he holds it lifelessly in his arms as he floats back down to the ground. Once Yugamu reassures him, there's a twitch in his brow; some release of stress. He sets the creature down and takes a step back. ]}

Your pet smells like ass.

[Takumi lies on the ground limply, drooling with his mouth hanging open. As one does. Even the wings that shouldn't be there are limply half splayed. Yugamu crouches down to pat the creature. There there.]

Oh yes! As part of their "playing dead" reflex, opossums can secrete a fluid that makes them smell like decay to further make the predator think they're already dead.

[Biology fun facts with Yugamu.]

Edited 2025-09-17 22:51 (UTC)

Man, that isn't an opossum. True, I have never seen one before but I know for a fact they don't have wings. What are you doing to this thing? Why does it look like that?

[Unfortunately with Takumi playing dead, the shaved belly and sutured surgical incision is very visible and he can't claim to be doing nothing.]

He's partly an opossum! It's one of those illegal hybrids we were asked to get out of the black market. I got permission from LILITH to keep one for research.

_{[ scrunches his nose and makes a face ]}

_{[ But okay, he will give Yugamu the benefit of the doubt. His arms cross over his chest, almost like a guardian wanting explanation from their child. ]}

Ok.
So what have you learned so far?

He doesn't have any easily testable diseases AND he has all the organs I'd expect him to have. Mostly. As I suspected, he wasn't just grafted, and thus was generically modified somehow, but I'm going to need more work to get his DNA tested.

So nothing exciting! But I'm only in the preliminary stages at this point.

[Takumi starts to stir, though he's still clearly recovering.]

_{[ He hates he suddenly cares about the welfare of this mutant creature, but you know..

It seems unharmed, and if Yugamu was telling the truth in his conversation before, he took the proper measures to analyze him. He seems attached to it, also. ]}

You're not going to do anything that could possibly kill it, are you?

I mean, any surgical procedure technically has some risk involved, but no, I don't plan on anything high risk if I can help it. Don't tell anyone though, I don't know if LILITH or Mr. Silco expects me to terminate him after I've done all the research I can, but I'm certainly not planning on doing that.

[Takumi stirs, and finally twitches back into normalcy, sitting up and just sort of staring up at Dirk with his beady little opossum eyes.]

_{[ Well. He's being honest about this at least. ]}

Yeah, fuck that noise. Let the little thing live. But if things go too far and he needs some help from robotics, let me know. That's sort of my thing.

_{[ not dirk offering to make this thing more of a monstrosity than it already is. ]}

Your secret is safe with me.

Oh really? You should make him a turret he can wear like a backpack.

[He's already trying to weaponize his science project.... Anyway he crouches down to pat The Creature. Takumi summarily clamps down hard on his hand. Yugamu doesn't react.]

Only if he can obtain his turret permit. I take my turret legality very seriously. He's gotta clock in 500 hours worth of Turret Ed.

_{[ He's joking. Obviously. ]}

The way he's trying to infect you with a fatal disease, as I suspected, is kind of adorable. My turn next.

_{[ oh, he's crouching now too. ]}

[Yugamu assumes that's a joke but also turret talk can resume later, they're bonding over his horrible creature. Yay!]

Oh don't be silly, these are just love bites!
[He's literally bleeding. Anyway Takumi dislodges himself, hackles up as Dirk moves, but at least he doesn't play dead again. He's just watching Dirk.]

Do you want to feed him? He'll like you better if you do.

Ok. Sure. What's it eat? You think he would like orange soda?

_{[ his fave ... ]}

[Good lord.]

Well, that's a drink and not food, but regardless I don't think that amount of sugar would be good for him?

Anyway, he's a hybrid of several animals so I'm still trying to work out his optimal diet, opossums eat almost anything while he definitely has a lot of carnivore spliced in as well between the ocelot and eagle... but so far I think his favorites are grasshoppers and hard-boiled eggs!

[He pulls a small jar out of his sleeve. Unfortunately it is live grasshoppers and not eggs. He holds it out to Dirk. Takumi is sniffing the air, interested.]

Nah, bro. Orange soda is like, a fucking whole ass food group if you ask me.

_{[ Fortunately, Dirk isn't really picky when it comes to stuff like this despite the fact he's immensely clean and pristine. Catching bugs is definitely more of Jake's thing, but Dirk can't help but be fascinated considering he's never seen one in real life before. He holds up the jar and looks at it for awhile. ]}

He eats them while they are alive or dead?

I mean, generally him biting them to eat them will kill them, but he'll still eat them if you want to kill it first, I suppose?

[Otherwise Takumi can just hunt it or whatever?? What a weird question. He's not touching the orange soda issue because it simply is not a food group but he can gather from context that Dirk is a fan of it so he shan't.]

Alright. You got it. One live grasshopper coming up.

_{[ Easily, he pops open the jar and reaches inside, pinching a grasshopper by the wings. Much like with Yugamu, he starts to egg on the little guy, holding it close then pulling away. ]}

Beg for it.

[HELP NOT THAT AGAIN.]

Now now, Dirk, Takumi's just a little boy, you can't go putting your kinks on him!

[Irrelevant, because Takumi is pouncing on Dirk for his grasshopper treat, flapping his wings for a little extra reach on his jumps, making his strange noises as he does.]

I'm not doing anything. Look, if you're gonna train him, you need to start right away before he gets too old and smart.

_{[ Dirk just also really likes.. manipulating things (and people.) Eventually, though, he does give in, and allows the little thing to eat. ]}

You shouldn't teach animals to beg for food! They should understand that you decide when they get fed, otherwise they will start begging at all hours of the day.

[Also Dirk. Look at that face. It is not the face of an animal that is ever going to be smart. Three different sets of animal instincts are at war in his tiny triangular head. Anyway he is enjoying tearing into this grasshopper now.]

▶ 001. WINNER'S CIRCLE.

▶ 002. LOST IN TRANSLATION (TEXT MINGLE.)

▶ 003. CAULDRONS & KAIJU.

▶ 004. AFTERWORD.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject