SF0 / zer0gee / Ariadne Unemployed

20 + 52 points

Ariadne Unemployed by zer0gee, Morte, Inspector Hound, Cristos Bryer

January 28th, 2009 9:56 PM / Location: 41.891521,-87.60331

INSTRUCTIONS: Play in a labyrinth.

Morte:

When Zer0gee sent out the email for this task I absolutely knew that I had to be there to do it. I've always wanted to go play in that maze, but I either never had the money or no one wanted to go with me. I got there an hour early, so I ended up sitting on the bench in front of the entrance reading a book until Zer0gee arrived.

She hadn't known I was coming and was pleasantly surprised to see me there, I think. We sat and chatted for a bit, and then Inspector Hound showed up. My phone was in the process of dying, so I had just enough power to call CristostheBetrayer and see if he was going to be able to make it. He said he was, so the three of us sat on the bench and chatted until he got there. When he arrived Zer0gee got us all in for free because she works at Build-A-Bear so that was teh awsomez. We all went piling into the first area, where a very geeky guy who had apparently consumed *WAY* too much caffeine did a short intro about being careful and it being his first tour etc. and so forth.

We got on the elevator and I hit the button for the observation deck. We made fun of some of the signs that were on the walls while the guy went through this whole thing about the elevator failing and it dropping to the 'basement' level. By the time we got off of the elevator we were already laughing ourselves silly. We got into this area that had some signs about the history of Chicago which was fun, and a dummy in an alcove that was covered in black light paint complaining about being lost in the underground and being attacked by rats.

After that we got into the mirror maze, which was pretty cool. It had all of these really gorgeous Greek Revival style columns, and we got a bit lost trying to find our way through. I ended up finding the exit to it by dint of leaning against the wall that wasn't there and nearly falling on my ass in the process.

Then we had to squeeze through theses two huge bolsters, pretty much you had to go through sideways. Again, much giggling.

After that you go into this room that's all about the Chicago Fire and there's 30 or so punching bags that are painted with flames hanging from the ceiling.

You have to run around punching them to find the one that sets off the fire bell. We ran around like goons bumping into all the bags. I finally found the one that set off the bell, and when I looked up I realized that the bell was actually attached to the chain that the bag was hanging from. You could have gone directly to that bag if you had looked up. *snerk*

We ran around running into the bags for a bit again. Cris suggested that if the dancefloor at Neo (a Chicago Goth Club) had the same set up it would make dancing a hell of a lot more interesting. After that we went into a room that had a projection on the floor that had all these balls of flame. You had to run around the floor stomping on the flameballs to get them to go out. We did that a bunch of times, still laughing like crazy. I think the best time we got was 48 seconds.

Then you go down a hallway that has airjets at various intervals.

I got in front of one of them and pretended like my coat was being blown off by the air, and Zer0gee tried to do the Marilyn Monroe thing with her skirt but the material was too heavy and the jet was at the wrong height to really make it work. At the end of the hallway was a spinny star-tunnel which had a sign warning of cougars if you touched the sides.

There were no cougars and I was very disappointed. I wanted to see a cougar, damnit! We all hung out in the tunnel for a bit, making ourselves dizzy.

Right after the star tunnel was 'Dan, the Puker'. 'Nuff Said.

Then we went on to the last room where it's set up like the observation deck at the Hancock Tower. They have some fireworks and everything, and then the observation deck 'collapses', which was fun.

Just before you leave there's a door that lets you get back into the maze, so we went back in and moshed around in the fire-bag room for a while, then stomped out some more fire, then hung out in the star tunnel until we were all dizzy again. Did the observation deck again, and then finally left.

I had a really good time running around and being silly. Unfortunately my camera batteries died right as we walked into the maze, so I'm gonna have to rely on Zer0gee and Inspector Hound's pictures. Lots of fun, and all y'all in Chicago should have come with. You missed out. Nyah!

zer0gee:

I think Morte pretty much covered everything, so I'll let you guys check out my photos and captions rather than post a bunch of redundant text. I'd just like to say I had an awesome time - it was really fun!

Inspector Hound:
Like zer0gee, I think most of what I could add to Morte's text would be me typing "Yeah, me too!", so I'll just content myself with the pictures with my snarky captions and descriptions (which begin with "Our Introduction"). I had a great time, which surprised me since I had no idea that it would be that entertaining. Thank you guys for bringing me along.

- smaller

A*mazing Chicago at Navy Pier

neon tube tunnel to "elevator"

And the back of Cristos' head.

orientation

Inspector Hound, Cristos, and Morte listen to some manic guy rave on about the maze.

sewer tunnel

When the elevator "dropped" us to the basement, we emerged into an absolutely gorgeous mirror maze designed to look like old brick sewer tunnels.

Cristos lurks!

pretty!

murky shot of mirror maze

Unfortunately, it was too dark to not use flash, and who wants to use a flash in a room full of mirrors?

many Mortes

column and arch

The design of this room was awesome.

self portrait

emergency exit

ceiling detail

squeezy room

This absolutely delighted zer0gee for no apparent reason.

squeezy Cristos

Inspector Hound about to be squeezed

Morte argues with her camera

being squeezed

Morte taking photo of zer0gee taking photo of Morte

Great Chicago Fire

Sound the alarm!

Blaze Maze

firey punching bags

here is the bell!

Stomp it Out!

Inspector Hound saves the city

firefighters

Psychedelic Mine Shaft

This is your mine on drugs.

Cougar!

We all wanted to see the cougar pretty badly. We were very disappointed at the lack of said cougar.

spinny star tunnel

We spent a lot of time in here trying to make ourselves sick by doing really stupid things like twirling around on the catwalk. It was ridiculously fun.

Animatronic Dan, the puker

There was a sign about Dan spending too much time in the star tunnel. And he hurled into a garbage can. Repeatedly.

Morte and Cristos push buttons as instructed

The manic guy congratulated us for reaching the observation deck

Lake Michigan in miniature

That's Navy Pier on the upper left. Lights on the ceiling of this room created reflected fireworks in the "water" below.

skyline and countdown clock

When the clock reached zero, the observation deck we were standing on suddenly lurched forward, as if to toss us into the lake below.

get lost again

You can play in here as long as you want to, so we went back again.

disco Cristos at the exit

Our Introduction

We get a brief description of what we're heading into. We are assured that nothing can go wrong. Pay no attention to those lurches the elevator is making... and weren't we supposed to be going up?

Oops

That's reassuring.

Oops

I have to say that at this point I was getting pleased with this. I had been expecting a certain amount of cheesiness, but the expectation of morbid humor lifted my spirits.

zer0gee Schemes

Honestly, you can tell she's up to something.

Or Maybe She's Just Amused

At this point the elevator is "plummeting" to our doom.

Stepping Out Into The Maze

The first thing you see as you step out of the elevator is a remarkably realistic (with the possible exception of cleanliness) replica of Chicago underground. It's really well done.

What You're Getting Into

Educational, too.

More Of The Tunnels

We wander. We're not yet in a real maze, but we don't know where we're going either.

Uh-Oh

And of course at this point "unknown gases" jet at us.

Don't Touch!

Beware of hot pipes kiddies!

We Enter The Mirror Maze

I was genuinely impressed with this. I've been in lousy mirror mazes before, but this one was genuinely tricky (it helps that the glass was very clean) and we went down a lot of wrong turns.

Which One Is zer0gee?

The flash on my camera gives it away, but if I hadn't used it you would have seen multiple zer0gees, and been confused.

Morte Is Happily Confused

As I said before, wrong turns were really easy to make.

Okay, Follow Me. I'm Getting Us Out Of Here

Morte, the only one with a sense of direction, takes charge.

And I Was Never Seen Again

It's endless!

If You Look Closely, You Can See The Exit

The flash does spoil the effect, but on the other hand you can also see the exit for the hopelessly lost. Fortunately we were never as lost as that.

Leaving The Maze... Or Rather, That Maze

We're out! But there's more confusion to come.

Do You Smell Smoke?

Don't go past that curtain...!

The Skinniest Guy

Cristos slips through with ease.

Local Pride

The maze is also occasionally educational.

Fire!

This was fun. We ran around like crazy people (which wasn't to far from the truth) punching the punching bags to find the alarm. We also had to figure out where the exit was.

From Above

This is the view you'd have if you were over seven foot (I held the camera over my head).

Fire Bell

Found it!

The End Game

This is the end of a game that was surprisingly fun. Little fireballs are projected onto the floor. Your job is to stomp them out. I honestly wasn't expecting that level of interaction, and it had us running around like loons stomping on the floor. I did manage to get the flash on my camera off in time to take this shot.

Get Ready!

The beginning of the game.

Why Are We Tilted?

This is another example of when I should have turned off the flash. You can't tell, but the lights are spinning around in a dark tunnel. Here's a suggestion: stare down the tunnel for a few seconds, then turn around. No really, you'll be fine.

And When You Exit The Tunnel...