Monday, May 18, 2015

#TakeBackTomorrow: Part 1

Disney has done it again and I am back in their alternate reality game to promote their new movie Tomorrowland. Perhaps this will explain to those who know me what I have been up to. It's quite the epic game and lots of fun

This journey started two years ago at D23 when Helen handed us a map and said, "Follow these clues!" Armed with a symbolic map of Disneyland we ran around from clue to clue and encountered some familiar faces. At the end we got initiated in to the Optimists society. We got our pins of membership inside the Main Street Cinema. It was one of the best afternoons I had ever spent inside Disneyland and I still talk excitedly about it whenever I recount the day to people.

Optimists
That was two years ago and it was time to fall down the rabbit hole again.




This past Sunday, 5/17/2015, I was wandering around Disneyland alone. I messaged Ashi (@venusivy) to tell her about the new Cinderella coach popcorn buckets. She messaged me back not too long afterwards about the bucket and asked if I could go to Main Street Cinema. Ashi is much more up to date on Disney stuff than I ever could be so I knew it had to be for a good reason.

I walked into the cinema and looked around at the cartoons. I hadn't even been in there since the day I got my Tomorrowland pin. Reminiscing about it I walked over to where I had grabbed my pins from.

That's when I saw the plaque.

Commemorative plaque at Main Street Cinema

I smiled at the phrase and snapped a picture for Ashi.

I thought it that was the end of it until she messaged me back.
"Sweet! The code number on the bottom unlocks something else! Thanks!"
"What website? Can I get a hint?"
"http://plusultrasociety.com"

My cell phone signal inside Disneyland is terrible. I waited and waited for the site to load before I could finally enter the code at the bottom of the plaque - W08102013.

It unlocked an album of photos including one of a telegram addressed to Athena, one of the main characters in Tomorrowland.

Note to Athena

Ashi also told me about @StopPlusUltra and @BlastFromPast who were also involved in this. It was @StopPlusUltra that had mentioned the clue at Main Street Cinema. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.

But what did it all mean?

----------------------------------------

That night I went home slightly curious but otherwise thinking to go about my night doing some laundry. I looked up @StopPlusUltra and saw a new tweet had just popped up.
If you look closely at the obituary you'll notice certain characters are misaligned. Collecting all of these up leads you to tinyurl.com/NYFairLady , a photobucket album.

Clicking through the clues there you'll notice one particular journal entry about NYFairLady having buried RB's pin in the north most corner of Triangle Park in Cheviot Hills. I Google mapped it and found that it was 15 minutes away from my place. It was a clue to Ray Bradbury's Tomorrowland pin

Clue to Ray Bradbury's pin

I messaged Ashi. What should I do? I'm alone. It's 9:30pm at night. BT wouldn't be pleased with me if I left the house alone in the middle of the night. Ashi encouraged me to go since I was so close.
With my adrenaline rising I got out of my pajamas and headed out the door hoping that I don't get kidnapped. I had to find out what was in that park!

I parked near Triangle Park and as I walked up the hill I saw someone else had pulled up and was getting out of their car. Just us two? We started talking and he introduced himself as James (@jbowen55). We turned on our phone lights and started looking around the ground.

Nothing was obviously pointing us to what we should look for but the clue was very specific.

Soon afterwards Jay (@AgentBacardi) showed up. The three of us, stupidly without a shovel or any tools, started looking around. We quipped to each other that we hope the City of LA doesn't mind that we start digging up public property. But hey we pay taxes right?
I was messaging Ashi on the side to see if any other clues were showing up online. Nothing new. And we were starting to feel discouraged as time dragged on without another clue or hint.

#crazysquad at night in Triangle Park, Cheviot Hills, Los Angeles, CA

About an hour later around 10:45PM Jay found a sparkly pink mechanical pencil.
"Hey this could help us!"
"Great! But I don't understand. Nothing looks like a clue here. Just grass and lots of tree roots," I lamented.
"It has to be where the trees are," says James.

I had my back turned to look up at the tree when suddenly I hear Jay exclaiming, "I FOUND IT!"
There it was. A blue box.

Plus Ultra Society symbol on tree root pointing to location of buried box
We all converged on the blue box as Jay opened it. As indicated in the clue there was an old Tomorrowland pin inside. There was also a note which contained another code to put in to plusultrasociety.com

Eureka!

Vintage Tomorrowland pin (Yes the member number was scratched off)

NyFairLady's final clue

Back of note with picture of young Ray Bradbury

We all took some photos which I excitedly sent off to Ashi. Since she had the only public Twitter account amongst the three of us she tweeted the news out to everyone else. My phone started exploding with retweets and follow requests.

Excitedly we input the new code which lead to a telegram talking about a book titled, "Conspiracy Queries: Uncovering the Secrets of Secret Societies." A quick Google search led us to a craigslist ad which led to an eBay auction. The auction ends on Saturday at 12:33PM.

The three of us were so excited to be the ones to have found the clue to share with everyone else. We exchanged twitter handles and went home exhausted but giddy.

Though excited I eventually found sleep a few hours later. Thankfully BT wasn't mad at me and was happy that I was back safe at home.

I didn't know it at the time but the rabbit hole was about to get deeper...











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