Mental Preparation

by Deathkitten

"So tell me again how this works?" Mauth said to me as we were approaching the city. "Heh... where do I start" I thought to myself, recalling the events of last year's ordeal. Before the words hit my mouth, the reminiscent feelings overtook my body. The hunt, the chase, every one of my senses at it's peak- an awakening. "You start out as a regular player with a blue band, and your goal is to cross the finish line without getting caught by a 'chaser'. Chasers are players that were caught by other players with red bands."
"Hmm... Sounds easy enough," Mauth replied, obviously intrigued.
"Heh. You say that now."
I closed my eyes and I was back to my own first experience. My adrenaline surged.

First Impressions

by Mauth and Deathkitten

Mauth: This was my first Journey ever. I was told by Deathkitten and The Animus that this event is the most bad ass thing ever. I must say that they were correct. I have never had so much fun walking around the city as I did with this event. Deathkitten and I traveled together down to the city to rock this out. All the way down to the city I was being told stories of last years event. The crew was Deathkitten, Moothebunny, The Animus and [insert that name of the guy who left early cause he couldn't handle it. He shall not be named.] Players, chasers, it all sounded like so much fun. I was asked if I thought I would be able to keep up, how fast could I run, was I ready. Of course I thought I was up for the task. We were early and had to wait around for things to get rolling. So to be in tip top condition I thought a bio break was in order, so we walked over to the fountain to use the facilities. Walking back I was in awe at the number of people that had shown up in such a short amount of time. When we left there were like 10 people tops waiting, when we came back almost 200. It was right about then I was getting excited.

Deathkitten: Dax took center stage. It was nice to see him again. And what a 'stache! (side note: It's too bad I wasn't able to give him mad props for it too... Totally slipped my mind with the whole "run for your life" thing... *ahem*). As Dax went through the ritualistic speech, I took the opportunity to scope out the competition. "Lots of characters this year," I thought, noting the guy walking around with the gorilla mask. It occured to me that there were many first timers, as was evident by the group sitting behind me wearing very flamboyant attire. "Are you TRYING to put a target sign on your head?" I chuckled to myself. Time to get serious. Need to map it out, need to strategize. "There are DOUBLE the amount of players than last year!" Dax announced excitedly. "Holy shit... am I really staring at a crowd of almost 300 people??" "If I can ask everyone to grab one red ribbon, one blue ribbon, and a map, please, " were Dax's next instructions. I fought my way through the crowd to grab the necessary materials. It was then, as I struggled to simply grab a map before it was pulled out of my hands, that I got a taste for what this year's game had in store for us. I forced my way out of the sea of grabbing hands, materials for 2 in hand, and returned to my seat.

Mauth: We got our maps and our bands and now knew what was in store for us. I was told that a good strategy was to stay in high populated areas when possible, "they will not chase you in high population areas" I was told. I started to think about how to do the night and I was ready to agree with people about that. Then the time came, we started at the same time as DC started. Everyone was running, chasers were on bikes in pursuit of the first few people they could pick off. We got to the Mag Mile and then started to walk, keeping an eye out for chasers and noticing how many blue arm bands were all around us running, jogging or walking fast frantically checking over their shoulders for chasers. Now I knew how this game was to be played. I knew that if I was a chaser I would try to ambush people or hide the fact that I was the enemy till it was too late for them to take action. I thought this is the way the player should be playing as well, keeping a peeled eye out for the chasers but staying calm and collected and looking as normal as possible. The key was to blend in with the world. It was the words of Dax that jumped into my head, "You are playing the game in the real world, if you jump in front of a car it will fucking kill you." We had to appear to be a part of that real world. If you look like a player you get chased as a player, if you look like a NPC, you get ignored. It was true. We had many close calls with chasers but because we stayed calm and collected they did not notice our blue bands. Also, bands had to be placed on the upper arm and needed to be visible. Our bands were on our upper arm, they were visible, but we made sure to tuck any dangling parts around the band so they were less noticeable from a distance. This was a great idea because I was able to notice other participants in the game by their loose bands flying in the breeze.

Game Time

Deathkitten: He had a point. It was a common rule for those involved in animal behavior that "if you act like prey, you'll be prey." We had to blend in. What elements did the other people on the street have that we were obviously lacking? I reached out to hold his hand, rested my head on his left arm, and we slowed our pace just slightly. While every fiber of me was screaming "strength in numbers", I tried to put myself in a chaser's shoes: Large groups of people that looked like a herd of cattle going in for the slaughter, with dangling arm bands. "If it came down to it, we could probably be ok to out run 1 or 2. But we can't expect to rely on speed and win. Not this year. Not with this many people," I admitted to myself. I knew full well that less than half of us would make it through. But which side would we finish on?

As we were leaving checkpoint 2, the sheer amount of people around me told me we were still at a good pace. "Do you have a goal for this year?" asked Mauth. "Yes," I responded quickly, my eyes darting about for chasers, "I want to finish in the top 50%...of those who actually cross the finish line that is..." I acknowledged another fact: We didn't have to run fast, we just had to be faster than everyone around us. As long as we set a good pace, we won't be picked off. The sun was setting. I was dizzy. I was out of SHAPE! "Here's the deal, and something to keep in mind," I said to Mauth in between heavy breaths, "if you're at the front of the pack, chasers that are waiting will, well, be waiting for you. If you're at the end of the pack, whoever was caught at the front and middle will be waiting for you. We need to make sure we stay ahead of the game, but we can't just run into areas all gung ho. Does this make sense?" "Yes," he replied. The response was simple and concise, but I knew more strategies were sinking in. "There's a Whole Foods. You wanna get something to drink?" Mauth had it right. We were already ahead of the game, but I was dizzy. I needed to replenish my fuel (and take a potty break). "Is it in the safe zone?" I asked. "I think so," he said as he pulled out his map. As it turned out, we weren't the only ones with the same idea.

Two organic "energy booster" drinks by Odwalla, and a container of UNSALTED cashews later, we were sitting at the cafe area filling our fuel tanks. The strategizing continued. We knew that if we were on canal for too long, there would be a good chance we'd run into chasers. We needed to stick to the back roads as much as possible. Something caught Mauth's eye. "Where do you think that stairway goes?" he wondered. "Parking garage?? It's gotta be. In which case, SCORE!" I said excitedly. A parking garage would undoubtedly lead to a street, but it would provide us with enough cover to get us out safely. (Side note: this proved to be the right call. In the end, Whole Food was NOT in the safe zone, and stories circulated of people being chased through the store. Had we gone out the front entrance, I'm sure we would have run into our fair share of unwelcome guests.)

Mauth: Check point three found us changing direction a lot and doubling back to walk away from chasers, but we found and opening and got to the safe zone. We were met by a few other groups of players as well. In all, there were 3 groups that welcomed us to the checkpoint. 2 of which played around with the idea of taking a bus. The option was appetizing, but not for us. We continued to checkpoint 4 on foot. I could see the look in her eyes, Deathkitten thought I was nuts.

Deathkitten: I THOUGHT HE WAS NUTS! "Are you INSANE?!" I screeched, "YOU SAW how many players just came back, telling us this area is crawling with chasers. A group of 6 of them JUST wandered through here! If we take the bus, we'll be safe for all those blocks. We can bypass them." I was frantic. "No," he said. He was solemn, and certain. He pulled me to the edge of the safe zone. "Trust me. Once they get off that bus, the chasers are going to be waiting for them. They'll get picked off. We're better off going on foot. Trust me." His words rang in my head loud and clear, even amongst the chaos of my thoughts. He was right, and I needed to trust his senses as much as he trusted mine. We've made it this far with our strategy, let's see if we can finish. In the end I knew that no matter what happened, we would finish together. The uneasiness settled, we got in character, and we continued on.

Mauth: Deathkitten and I played the entire night this way, we were a couple walking down the street, nothing out of the ordinary and it worked great till we hit check point 4. All I have to say is holy pink. Deathkitten took off running, not because she was in pursuit, but because she was all too happy to see a familiar face- this was The Animus' checkpoint. She lept into his arms, screaming with glee. It was a good thing too. Had she not ran, we would have been picked off by the pinks in hiding. Too many chasers waiting to pick off the prey. It was a great time to wait for them to get bored and move on and plan our next point. We lucked out and a bunch of blues ran off in an attempt to break free and a lot of chasers went in pursuit. We ran out the other way and then quickly jumped back into character when we were out of sight. We noticed chasers coming from the right so we took a left into a parking lot as though we were a couple getting our car. They walked by us without thinking twice. There was no back exit to the lot so we had to double back. More chasers. We thought we were boned. Made it look as though we were just leaving our car, they were too far away to notice the blue and walked by. Then we saw the chasers on the opposite side of the fence to us, but we walked out of sight unseen. But we had to go toward them to get to the next point so we got into character, walked to the corner, and crossed the street walking away from them. We started crossing the other way to beat the light to have traffic between us and them when we think one of them noticed us. We stayed in character, walked till they were out of sight and booked it for the first shop we could find and walked in. Although we were technically hiding from the enemy, I thought we should look around. We both might be making a stop back there to get some things in the future. When we thought the coast was clear we walked out. To the right of us there were two chasers.

Deathkitten: "SHIT!" I screamed to myself. I should have looked out of the window BEFORE I opened the door. Any LOGICAL person would have done so! And now, I've put us in danger. There, on the other side of the street approaching us, were 2 chasers. Mauth ducked behind a pillar, but it wasn't going to be big enough for the both of us. I pleaded with him to come back in, but as the pink ribbons came closer, I ducked back into the shop. I hid in the back, out of view from the windows. I was alone. "Is he ok?! Did they chase him?!" I was a-wall. Mauth was leading us this whole way, his sense of direction is IMPECCABLE. If we were to get separated, I'd be boned. I peeked around my make shift hide out, made of bamboo walls and little Buddhas. There he was, safe and sound, hiding behind the same pillar. He motioned to me that the coast was clear, his face wore 1 expression: You're a dork.

Mauth: Our bands were on our left arm out of site of them. Deathkitten almost blew our cover, but they didn't notice as she ran back into the store. I watched them around a pillar I was able to stay hidden behind until they were far enough down the block to continue. From this point on we did not break character. If we saw a chaser we discretely changed direction to walk away from them staying in character the whole time and we ignored them.

Deathkitten: Checkpoint 5 was a breeze. There were no sign of pinks. Surely they were still having their fun around checkpoint 4... This meant we were ahead of the pack of pinks that were at the last checkpoint. Perfect. If we could stay ahead of them, we wouldn't have to worry about them hiding out somewhere and chasing us down. They were together in a group of about 6, we didn't stand a chance if it came down to it. They would have just herded us. We took a short break and sat down. SO CLOSE YET SO FAR!!! We weren't sitting down for long before my worst fears came around the corner. It was the group of pinks, and they were escorting 2 blues! "THE NERVE!" I said to Mauth. He confirmed my anger with a nod. As the blues in the group got their papers signed, we took the opportunity to make our move. We slipped past them, got out of sight, and into character for the home stretch.

Mauth: It was at the end that things got really fun, there were several ways into the last safe zone and there were going to be a lot of chasers to deal with for sure. Fortunately for us we did not encounter many. There was only one, and he was walking the same direction. I thought, "we are right there, one block to go. Lets follow." We were on the opposite side of the street anyway. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Deathkitten screamed under her breath, "You're FOLLOWING a chaser??" Her eyes were wide with fear. Then a group turned the corner from the safe zone toward us. We crossed to the same side of the guy we were following. Deathkitten's reaction was expected. "ARE YOU INSANE?!" she screeched again. "IF HE TURNS AROUND, WE'RE BONED!!! We HAVE to turn somewhere!" "We're almost there! He's not going to turn around!" I replied. She looked at me in disbelief. "He'd have to be a complete MORON not to turn around!" I turned to her, smiled, and said, "He's a moron." It was an epic way to finish the game, we literally followed a chaser into the safe zone unnoticed. It was a great night with few encounters for us thanks to playing the part of a normal.

Deathkitten: I couldn't believe it. We stalked a chaser ACROSS THE FINISH LINE! It was epic. It deserved an epic finish. We finished. We finished TOGETHER. And here we were, crossing the finish line hand in hand- as we had done for 5 checkpoints before. "You wanna sprint to the end?" I asked Mauth. "Why?" he responded, a wee bit confuzzled, "we're not being chased." I smiled at him. "I know. But I'm so happy we're done! Let's finish strong!" We jogged our way over to Dax, surrounded now by familiar faces. He didn't know if we were checking out the scene, or if we were runners who had crossed the finish line! We held our cover to the end! After a "Holy Crap!" and a "Nice way to stay incognito!" we were awarded our Awards of Merit. There, displaying proudly, were our numbers- #25/277.

Of the 54 who finished, we finished in the top 50%.