AM: Totals as I recorded them:

Pioneer Square
Remy -- 80, ten of which were windmills, one of which was a food cart guy.
Pixie -- 84, two windmills, two bandmembers, one statue, two camera guys in a moving car.
Sir P -- 31, two fistbumps, one statue of a person.
AM -- 33, two windmills, one Jesus-sign guy

Pioneer Place Mall
Pixie -- 85 (many of whom were store keepers)
Sir P -- 2 (designated cameraman for this portion of the afternoon)
AM -- 22, one statue of a bear, two dogs.
Remy -- 105, one guy who gave him a water bottle cap in the high-five, one staff member, one security guard who made Pixie put on shoes.

One conversion!

Total: 445 high-fives plus added value from specials as listed above and one new SF0 member.

Oh, goodness, I forgot to mention that the other team in this contest is the AK0 folks. Also, our outing in total took about two hours.

AM sez: We gathered in Pioneer Square as a band was just wrapping up their set. We were able to catch a lot of the crowd as they left, including a summer camp of five-year olds.

My strategy consisted of walking up to someone with my hand up and saying "Can I get a high-five?". I realized partway through that I probably sounded like I was selling something (there are a lot of people working crummy activist jobs in downtown who have opening lines like this), and I think that may have set a few people off, but as you may recall from my Sunscreen proof, I fear strangers, and I knew that the only way I was going to do this was if I had a designated line.

Sir Pinkleton sez: I was pretty much the same way. I kinda slowed to a stop once people started getting angry at me, because I don't like angry people. They're scary.

AM sez: I was surprised at the makeup of who would give me a high-five. For example, a lot more old people gave me five than I was expecting. I was also totally expecting to get shut down by the guy in the Jesus Christ sandwich board, but he did not leave me hanging. I was thrilled. I was also surprised at myself -- normally, I won't even ask a stranger for the time, or directions I desperately need. So for me to walk up to probably over a hundred people and ask for a high-five was waaaay out of my comfort zone. Especially after getting ignored or shut down so much. I found myself just bouncing back and heading for the next person.

After we had saturated the square with high-fives (I got a couple people who had clearly already been high-fived asking what we were doing), we headed to the nearby mall. Now, I grew up in the suburbs, so maybe my perception is skewed, but this mall barely counts as a shopping center to my eye. Malls are just bigger.



Anyway. I fretted a little, because Pixie was going Lincoln, and I feared that we'd get thrown out, but I supressed my neuroticism and sailed forth.

Sir Pinkleton sez: Pictured: Pixie going Lincoln.

AM sez: I had kind of worn myself out in the square, so I got fewer high-fives this time. I did go up the down escalator though! I've always wanted to do that, and there seemed to be no better time than this outing.

On the top floor of the mall we encountered Matt.



He not only gave us all high fives, but played a clapping game with Pixie, and then danced with her (there is video down with the rest of the pictures).



It was rapidly becoming clear that he was our sort of person, so we invited him along on our expedition.



The first place we went was an art gallery of surprising awesomeness. I usually think of boring class trips when I think of art galleries, but this place was bizarre and cool. For starters, there was a huge chair sculpture right in front of the door.



After a serious look at it, I asked the dude in charge if there were nails in it, and he told me that not only was it nail-free, but they took all the chairs down and re-did it every day. This was my second clue that this was a cool place.

The dude, whose name is Gabe, was interested in our mission, and took a picture of us, along with information about SF0, and promised to link the site when he posted about us on his blog. I will update this proof with a link when it goes up.

Sir Pinkleton sez: Also, we toyed with balance of our own while we were there:

AM sez: We continued around the mall, eventually fetching up outside a Starbucks (via a GameStop where a man asked what I wanted the high-five for, and after listening to my explanation, deemed it worthy and high-fived me) for a sit down. Emboldened by my mission, I told a guy that I loved his outfit (Sir Pinkleton sez: it was like a sweater, but also a business casual thing underneath. He had a purple tie!), which I would not normally have done, and then collected high-fives from everyone at his table. Pixie was told by a security guard, for the second time, that she had to put on shoes, and sadly, this time there was no escaping him. We also burst into song a couple of times, especially after discovering Matt's harmonica-playing talents.

Sir Pinkleton sez: Pictured: Mall shenanigans
AM sez: At this point, Pixie remembered we that were supposed to meet Cymbal Monkey, and we decamped, minus Matt, to meet him in the square.

Sir Pinkleton sez: Leaving Matt:

AM sez: After some more high-fives, including one from the tiniest, fluffiest, squeakiest puppy



(Remy sez: Delivered by me...), we decided to head to the Chit Chat Cafe for bubble tea and PD0 planning. We hung around for a while, scheming for upcoming tasks, and then scattered like dandelion fluff on the wind.

Remy sez: I had this pretty freakin' sweet outfit, which included a top hat, waist coat, frilly shirt, and monocle.

Sir Pinkleton sez: and people were suitably impressed:

Pixie: This was one of those days which makes me know that SF0 is one of the best things that could have happened to me. It was a perfect sunny day. A concert had just ended (i ended up getting two of the band members) and i was surrounded by friends from all different aspects of my life. i found out that all of us not only play SF0, but read pokemon developer horror fan-fiction. All excluding AM, i've recruited, and i was dying to know how we'd all get along.

Thankfully we all seemed to get along splendidly! And i can't wait till we do it again. The high fives were easy for the most part on the square, and they got much more difficult inside of the mall (being that many of the people were much more pretentious and lame.)