| Arrived: 10:41 | Solved: 11:04 | Hints? No | Official Game Control site: Petition |
In the van, Team Mystic Fish looked at its first clue of the day: an envelope containing a copies of a small petition. This joke petition advocated the banning of dihydrogen monoxide (water). The envelope had a DRUID code on it. Entering this text in the DRUID gave us some useful information:
"Arrival code accepted! Your first mission: Get public support to ban DHMO! I'm sure there are many people around Ghirardelli Square and the nearby cable car turnaround who who are willing to support this worthy cause. Remember to enter your confirm code when you complete your mission!"
Alexandra drove the van a couple of blocks and idled he van while the rest of the team jumped out with petitions--and there were plenty of other teams there, milling through the crowd.
We were unclear on our goal. Were there people planted in the crowd who'd give us information? Were we supposed to fill up our petitions and call in when done? I looked around the crowd of tourists for any obvious weirdos--obvious weirdos who weren't on competing teams. Someone from Blood and Bones went by saying "I assume that we're gonna get a signature from some plant from Game Control, and they'll tell us something..."
There were a lot of people. I went around, got some signatures, got turned down by other people. I wondered--who would be most willing to support a petition to ban water? I walked up to a pretzel vendor. Would she sign my petition? If water was banned, she could sell more soda. She said no. She seemed aggravated. How many other obnoxious gamers had asked that same question? I looked across the street. There was a liquor store there. They would certainly be against water--I shook my head. I thought, Don't stray from the cable car turnaround. Keep your eyes open.
It took too long to explain the petition's premise. It was quicker to say, "Will you sign my joke petition?" One guy said, "Let me get this straight. This petition--the whole thing's a joke?" I concurred. "Give me that shit right now, brother, and I will sign it." "Great!," I said. This guy must be a Justice Unlimited plant: he was into it. As he signed the petition--he asked: "Do you know why the monkey fell out of the tree?" "Uh..." The guy answered his own question: "Because he was dead!" This was an old joke. Was he a Justice Unlimited person? Was there a hidden message in his joke? Probably not--he was walking away from the cable car turnaround. I looked at his signature and address--no obvious hidden message there. He was just some guy, some guy who hated monkeys.
Someone from another team was talking to a little kid who seemed a little too eager to talk about the petition. I got interested and sidled over. Was this kid a plant? Maybe. The kid was still talking to my competition. While I waited to talk to the kid, still eavesdropping, I noticed someone next to me getting a signature from a guy on a bench. Unlike most of the people I'd talked to, this guy didn't seem annoyed at being pestered. He seemed tickled. What the heck. As I waited for the obvious-GC-plant kid to stop talking, I asked bench-guy for a signature. I looked at his signature: "Justice Unlimited". Oh my gosh. He wrote an address. Oh my gosh. I thanked him very much.
I wandered across the plaza, Mister Nonchalant. I peered around, as if I was still looking for that special signator. When I figured I'd gone far enough, I squealed into my walkie-talkie: "I got it! I got the signature!" Now we had an address: 66B, East Wahlberg. We started back to the van. I was troubled--I'd never heard of an East Wahlberg. On my way to the van, I stopped by the bench and pretended to look off down the street as I asked bench-guy: "You live on East Wahlberg?" He said, "No, 'Walkway'". "OK, thanks!" I said, and jogged off. I realized I didn't know where East Walkway was either.
We called up Game Control with the address "66B East Walkway." Game Control said that was actually "GGB East Walkway", where "GGB" stood for Golden Gate Bridge. Oh! Oh yeah.
Close enough. We were on our way!