4.08.2015

Wow. What a weekend, on the heels of Wondercon, we had a new adventure, some new 'evidence', and an update from Stop Plus Ultra. These adventures are getting interesting, and it seems like they are starting to weave together.

Wondercon Adventures

We arrived around 9:30, and waited outside the area for the rally to start. When the time came, we didn't find a rally at all, but creepy agents holding large signs, with Plus Ultra's eyes blacked out, and protest phrases.

The Greatest Minds Abandoned Us for Tomorrow

Everyone Deserves a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Handed out from the agents was a hand fan, with Walt Disney and his eyes blacked out. On the other side was a statement, and a dot-dash code (not unlike the one seen on the Trylosphere in the 1952 box). SPU says that it's parody of the "preferred" style of Plus Ultra.

The Morse decrypted to SLASH CON.

The SLASH CON that the morse lead to was clearly a website. www.stopplusultra.com/con.

That site had a page with a letter:

A letter to Stop Plus Ultra indicated there was something Locked in 2840.
The first group I was in knew right away that it was the lockers, and the XO on the letter perfectly matched those locations.

We checked the inside lockers first, but the numbers didn't match. We realized there were additional lockers outside, in the picnic area!

Found it! 2840. The locker opened with the code from the founding of Plus Ultra (at the Eiffel Tower), 1889,
Inside the non-descript box (with a +U on the label) was a tape player. On it was a tape, labeled "Tape #37 (Archival Copy)".
@JackACummings (pictured) immediately took a video and uploaded it to YouTube:


The tape was an account of some mystery woman's visit to the fair, and from what it sounds like, her successful attempt to access Tomorrowland. Here's a full transcript:

Woman: Testing, Okay.
Man: How many in your party?
Woman: Just me, do you think I could ride by myself?
Man: You want your own row?
Woman: Actually, I'd love my own boat, if I could.
Man: Lady, I've got a capacity to maintain, unless you're....
Woman: (Inaudible), What?
Man: Never mind, you're not.
Woman: Look, I'd really appreciate it if you could make an exception, just this once.
Man: All right, but it's only because I've seen you on here like 30 times. I guess you've earned it.
Woman: Thanks doll!
(It's a small world starts playing in the background)
Women: (Sighs) That was close. I hope I don't get him into too much trouble - like that sweetheart of a Janitor. (This janitor?) I can't feel too bad for (inaudible). He got PLENTY for showing me around.
(Static)
Alright, just about ready to cross into the Europe section. This is where the alternate VIP narration would sync up, I might not have a recording (paper crumples), but today, I'm a VIP - I'm going to read it myself.
(Clears throat)
As we cross the second threshold of our international tour, I ask you to imagine a world much like the one you see before you. A world without boundaries, a world in which you are free to reach beyond any ocean, over any mountain, across any continent - and connect with others at any point on the globe.
Oh, I've imagined it.
Technological advancements are quickly reshaping our world, in a sense, making it (emphasis) smaller than the one we're accustomed too (laughing during talking).
(Giggles) Small World, that's the name of the ride. (Giggles)
We've graduated from watching recorded news reels in movie theaters, to live news programs on television, bringing the rest of the world right into our living rooms. But advancements won't end there, imagine sending a quick message from remote mountain tip in the Bavarian alps to a friend (?) pedding her bike past buckingham palace.
Ooh.
Imagine simultaneously exchanging photos of the moon, and london bridge with a stargazer at the Eiffel Tower. Imagine showing live music from the Moulin Rouge (or a) puppeteer in Barcelona. Imagine sharing motion pictures of yourself singing and dancing at the tower of pisa, the Taj Mahal, the shores of easter island, to everyone around the world in a single instant. Imagine everyone being able to do all of this and more on a device that fits in your pocket. Potentially uniting this world through the infinite power of communication.
Woah.
(Static)
Oh, I better put this on. Alright, there's the Eiffel, here goes nothing.
(Electronic noises, and some sort of clunking)
It worked? It worked! (Ecstatic laughing.) Thanks for the pin, Ray!
(Splashing)
Oh my god. Is that, an old subway car?
(Noises - and a ding)
I've gone this far, can't turn back now.
Announcement by woman: Good afternoon. Please step aboard the transport, the site is active.
(Peaking noises - inaudible)
Here we go! (ecstatic)
(Static)
Man: You have reached the end of this archival recording. Please rewind now.

Fascinating. The text reminds of us of the VIP scripts that we saw during The Optimist (can't confirm they are the same - as those sites are offline), and the 'old subway' car might be the same one we saw at Destination D. There's also only one Ray in Plus Ultra that we know of, Ray Bradbury (who's membership was proudly announced over the telegram at Disneyland).

Rally Recap and Comic Alteration

After the rally, Stop Plus Ultra posted a recap. Most interesting, is the bottom part, with a couple of images that are the same as the Comic in the Before Tomorrowland book (which Stop Plus Ultra claims is just a propaganda):


Follow the signs, find the launching pad, take the journey. He also talks about how he was able to insert a "defiant, single-letter alteration" to the puzzle. He then posted that the correct puzzle was located "in the gap". If you notice the image URLs in the post, you'll see that there is one missing (rally4.jpg), that leads to this post from his comic:


It's a fairly easy puzzle to solve. 

PUZZLE SPOILER (highlight to reveal):

It's a one letter shift puzzle, meaning that B becomes A.

PUTONYOURG
LASSESLOOK
OUTTHEWINDO
WBRINGTHECO
MICWEAREWAI
TINGFORYOU.


Upon receiving their copies of Before Tomorrowland, people jumped to Twitter to post the comic in the book. Notice the single letter change:
Wow. I'll let you figure out the change. That changes the message quite a bit. I wonder how this 'typo' made it into the comic. Did Stop Plus Ultra really change it - or was it specifically designed to throw 1930s puzzle solvers off the trail? Or was it just a typo in production? How would Stop Plus Ultra know it had changed?

We'll have a full review of Before Tomorrowland up soon, and see how any and all of this Stop Plus Ultra stuff plays into it.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the recap and for keeping us far away sideliners in the loop. I can't wait to finish the book and get more missions from SPU!

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  2. You are correct Hastin, what she was reading off WAS Carlos' VIP script for IASW:
    http://tomorrowland.wikia.com/wiki/It%27s_A_Small_World_Alternate_Script

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    Replies
    1. Perfect. Glad the Wikia has some of the old documents! I'll reference it in the future.

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  3. P.S. I am MMcF, and I uploaded those documents to the Wikia. I have a huge trove of stuff taken from the Optimist and the 1952 Box.

    ReplyDelete