Super Vote by Meta tron
November 19th, 2007 2:36 PMThis started out as part of another task; Honest Mail. Officially this was the second task I undertook with Charlie Fish (Sing being the first and War of Escalating Dares the third - all in one night!) But my Drive had failed me - I needed to pick up my game.
I decided to multi-task
I deposited these cards on ley line points throughout the city.
I made a mess.
I tried to make a guard laugh
I failed
I left postcards which could be assembled into a treasure map.
I installed a door and photographed it in the dark.
I used a secret code
I caused someone to stop working by my playing. She helped me hide my Super Vote for Charlie Fish! (That's 445 points worth of effort, which I think qualifies me for this one too)
The Mission
Leave postcards around London which would eventually lead Charlie Fish to his Super Vote hidden somewhere within said city.
: )
Ley Lines Survey
Find out where the ley lines are in your locale and mark them both on a map and in the physical world.
I chose a Ley line called the Strand Ley which runs through a busy section of Central London. I left a postcard addressed to Charlie Fish at each of the places of 'power' along the ley.
St. James' Palace
This is where I tried to make a guard laugh and failed. He wasn't allowed to talk to us, but he did nod subtly when I asked if it was OK to take a photo of my postcard near his foot for a scavenger hunt. I attempted to be funny, but his soldierly resolve upheld (Shane was a little too intimidated by the razor sharp bayonet on his gun to approach and I was a bit nervous of disturbing an armed royal guard myself to try to hard to be humourous).
St. Martin's in the Fields Church
This church is hidden under a mass of scaffolding but had a very nice cafe in the old crypt that served bread and butter pudding with custard (yum!) The floor was paved with old tombstones, which was kind of creepy once you realised.
St. Mary Le Strand Church
All these churches were pretty easy to find, the good thing about a ley line is that it is linear.
St. Clement Danes Church
This church had a large statue in front of it of a mother and child reaching out. We decided to put the postcard in one of the outstretched hands. It blew away almost immediately.
St. Dunstan's Church
Just outside the door was a fountain in the shape of a fish - What better place?!
Map Piece
Draw an imaginary map.
Put a goal mark on the map where you want to go.
Go walking on an actual street according to your map..
I didn't really do this task to the letter but it's the closest there is to making a treasure map (I was sure I'd seen a task for it, but hey).
The Map
Making a rectangle out of four cards I drew a treasure map under the writing on the cards. The map was broken into four pieces by being on four cards. Most of the information was on the top right card with the rest being more just to corroborate the location. I made two copies of the map, and left the rest blank so I could redraw in if necessary.
I left the top right card (the most important one) out first and very near to a post box! The plan being to keep re-drawing the map until one got through. I intended to put out the three companion cards the same week, but only ended up leaving one other. Happily Mr. Fish soon told me that the cards had arrived and he had straight away recognised a building on it as 'probably the OXO Tower'.
The Installed Door
I made a teeny tiny door on the back of a postcard which I tethered to the inside of a boat/sculpture behind the OXO Tower.
The Secret Code
Inside the door was an address to a blogspot which holds a message to Mr. Fish along with handy hints on how to decrypt it. The Keyword was taken from a story he had written to me on one of the postcards he had left me as part of Honest Mail.
Mess It Up
Make a big mess.
This was easy, messes occur naturally wherever I happen to be.
To make the Super Vote I cut a hole in the bottom of an empty peanut tin and etched around the hole so it looked like an eye. Inside the tin I wrote the words SUPER VOTE so they were just visible through the hole. Swimming inside the tin in a sea of blue plastic and scrabble tiles was a my super vote - a little pet paper goldfish of his very own!
And now to abandon her in the big wide world and hope Mr. Fish would find her.
The Hiding Place
The secret coded letter tells Charlie to go to the National Theatre and ask at information if there is a parcel for Mr. Fish.
I had left the little fishy in a big box, with the final post card strapped to it, in the care of a very lovely lady called Gemma. She (quite understandably) seemed to think I was crazy, but said that she thought creativity should be encouraged. I think she was quite excited about the idea of a being at the end of treasure hunt!
I'll leave it to Charlie Fish to tell how he found the fishy.
n.b. Shane came with me but I don't think he should get any more points off me until he gets off his arse and does some tasks by himself. I'm not adding you Shane. So there.
16 vote(s)
The Revolutionary
5
Tøm
5
anna one
5
Charlie Fish
5
Malaysian Eddy
5
Spidere
5
The Vixen
5
Flitworth
5
Lincøln
5
Loki
5
Jellybean of Thark
5
teucer
5
lara black
5
Bex.
5
Burn Unit
5
Fonne Tayne
Terms
(none yet)5 comment(s)
Here's a bit of the story from my end:
I received the first two postcards, and I noticed that there were fragments of map on them, and that there were arrows pointing at what seemed to be the OXO tower with a fishy symbol next to it. I sensed treasure map potential...
But the OXO tower is an entire shopping mall, so I decided to wait in case a few more postcards arrived in case they gave me better clues.
Last week, I met Mink to play Werewolf under the arches of London Bridge, and she confessed that she was getting antsy waiting for me to start the treasure hunt!
Armed with the knowledge that the clues I already had were apparently all I needed, I headed for the OXO tower during my lunch break from work. (I should say that I got four more postcards that morning, but they didn't contain any different clues!)
Based on the fishy symbol, I was looking for something fish-related, or at least sea-related. So I walked up the pier (nothing there), I wandered through the pretentious design shops (no fishy shops), I went up to the 8th floor viewing balcony (it was closed).
I was about to give up and call Mink for another clue, but I thought I should make sure I had been as thorough as possible first, so I went around to the back of the building.
There, I saw a boat randomly sticking out of the wall, with a postcard in it...
Back at work, I went to the website indicated on the postcard and applied my (limited) cryptology skills to the secret message. The message directed me towards the National Theatre, where I had to ask at the information desk for Gemma.
I happened to be meeting Mink again that evening to have dinner with Cameron, who was in the country for a work conference. So I thought I should stop off at the National Theatre on the way. Turns out, Gemma was on duty and she was very excited that the mysterious Charlie Fish had finally come to pick up his package!
Most impressive, Mink. Most impressive. I am honoured that my mentor should think me worthy of a Super Vote. Thank you.
A found object treasure hunt through London's public spaces. Sure sounds like your group's trajectory of desire to me.
Wonderful stuff, Meta, as usual.
I look forward to hearing the rest of CF's experience.
I'm honoured that you think me your mentor. If I remember correctly your completions were pretty stellar before we even met!
i am so enamored with this completion! each segment is wonderful in and of itself, and watching them come together in such a well thought out manner was better than viewing a hitchcock film. bravo.
The only person on SFØ who deserves a present this incredible is Charlie Fish.
My dear, this is fantastic tasking.
A toast to the both of you!