This topic has 195 replies, 57 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 5 months ago by 
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This is the unofficial (I can’t say official because I’m not @thegilded or @thebuz) place to post you spoiler fueled recounts of what happened in person today.
Specifically remember every single detail, through all 5 senses, and try to recall it as best as possible from the point you clicked “get tickets for showtime” on the link posted on the lust facebook.
Some of us couldn’t make it due to physical location differences, and it looks like a lot of you might not get to due to there not being enough “showtimes”.
Post away. I doubt I come back on here until I get an email saying more than one person has replied to this thread. I’m very anxious to see what this may bring for more than one person, because we all have different paths.
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There is no embargo as far as we know discussing days events so let’s just be cool and not post spoilers until later in the day.
That being said…
Woweee.
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Welp. So much for hoping I could create a place for *when* it’s appropriate to post (with proper labels to avoid ruining it) spoilers. I do not understand how someone could post a spoiler until later tonight when it was over, but okay. There goes my plan to post something on here that wouldn’t piss everyone off.
Later, yall.
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@tyson – That was in no way meant to be a dig at you. In fact, I support the idea of using single topics for conversation and support this specific topic to be used as the primary source of spoiler conversations once the meeting is over.
However, a large portion of the userbase if not the majority of them use the activity feed as their way of finding information. That means that if people post to this topic, even though it is flagged for spoilers, it will still show up on their feed.
To get around that, we ask kindly and unofficially to not post spoilers anywhere until the event is over in a few hours. NONE of that was meant to target you for doing anything wrong and you have not pissed off anyone. You’ve provided a place for people to discuss, we just ask that they wait a bit to do so.
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Putting my elbows on the table I answer, “No, I’d like a cerebral experience, I’d be okay with that. But online I’m nice, on the phone I’m nice, so I’m not surprised at my experience. But I would like something Cerebral. What happens if you push me beyond being nice?”
OMG I THINK I LOVE YOU.
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Wow very productive day you guys got there and cool
Pix @jaredWill read the recaps tomorrow and kicking my ass why I wasn’t there but that is okay
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Both recaps from @theladyj and @macbethinabathtub were GREAT – thank you!! Don’t apologize for length!
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Great sneaky picture @jared!!!
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@coryphella
<3 <3 <3 -
More…
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@jared nice work on the pics.
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I agree with @coryphella. @macbethinabathtub and @theladyj never apologize for being to detailed. I’ve been waiting for this all day! Thank you so much for sharing. Sounds amazing!
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@jared, Straight up Paparazzi Status. What a GREAT picture!
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Cool pics ? @jared
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I had about the same experience as others, Steph took my hand after saying hi and walked me infront of the four desks. “You are def going to her table” and pointed me to Nicole.
My interaction with Nicole is was all very flirty. She kept telling me how cute/sweet I was and what a shame it was that I was in a relationship, asked to look at my hands and then asked, “wow big hands… you know what big hands mean right? Big balls! Do you have big balls?”
Haha Too much sus.
She asked about my shirt and then went on her rant about people wearing her clothes, however in our convo it was just something that disgusts her. No real reason except that the idea of a “fat pregnant bitch wearing my dress” was absolutely revolting to her. We had chatted about my relationship and if my girlfriend would be upset I was talking to her, when I told her no she asked “why? Do you not think I’m hot?” I told her that wasn’t it, we just have trust in each other and I know nothing would happen, in which she replied “yea I suppose so” and sipped her Starbucks. The man with the stick was behind the desks at the time (all the desks were lined up, not across from each other), she asked if he was hot because she was “totally fucking him”. Eventually she brought me to the side room and I waited I the small bench. I would catch her staring and we do little dances lmao.The door opened and I walked in and sitting at the table was none other that DLB. He tried to stand up when I came in only for the man with the stick to yell, “SIT THE FUCK DOWN. YOU LEAVE WHEN WE SAY YOU LEAVE”. Then I was sat down on the couch and the man with the scent told me he has been there for 17 hours, he told me my heat was that of a warrior and I should never loose it, he got in closer to my ear to whisper, “I’m not sure you will make it through”.
He signaled for the door as he opened it, but within an inch from it he slammed it closed, “NOT YET… thank you.” And then opened it for me once again. As I walked out I shared a wave with Nicole and was on my way.
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A group of us arrived for our 1pm appointments – me, Morgan, Haley, Jackie, Bryan, and Allison. As we were waiting outside, we saw a woman on the phone in the parking lot, pacing frantically. She had bangs and an updo and wore glasses. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but she seemed to be defending herself to someone. Eventually she hung up and approached us, seeming flustered. She introduced herself as Tina, and explained that she had found the space for today’s event. She sounded apologetic, although it was unclear what she was apologizing for. She looked behind her at the closed door, awkwardly, and said she thought Stephanie would be out in a moment.
Sure enough, Stephanie emerged, seeming pissed. She greeted us brusquely, saying she’d gotten a very last-minute call to show up at this location. She was so terse that Morgan and Bryan teased her about it, and then she capitulated and gave us some quick, oddly stern hugs.
When we went inside, there was some merchandise laid out on a table – hoods, T-shirts, jumpsuits. They were even selling Sabrina’s red dress, for a starting price of $500. Morgan offered $100, and surprisingly, Stephanie said she’d check with the producers. (She did, later, on the phone. The answer was no.)
She led us to two extremely comfy seating areas with cushions, and we took a look around.
– There was a reddish room in the back – the reddish door to it was closed. (I say “reddish” because I don’t want it confused with the Red Room. The color wasn’t the same shade, it was more maroon.)
– There were three tables, each with two seats facing one another. One seat was empty, the other held a man or woman with a laptop. It was not entirely unlike the Processing Room setup on a small scale.
– There was also a sort of cobbled-together stage area.
– Tina, Stephanie, and a woman named Nicole were walking about, making sure everything ran smoothly, occasionally talking on their cellphones.
– There was a staircase leading to a higher area, overlooking everything, but I didn’t see that being used.
Presently Stephanie returned and began pulling us aside for our interviews/1:1s. At one point she offered me, Jackie, and Allison a single water bottle, saying there was only one left but that we could split it among ourselves. She seemed put off.
Later, after Jackie had been drawn away, Tina came over to talk to me and Allison. She confided that she was being berated for finding such a shabby space. We assured her that the space was lovely, and she thanked us and asked us to bring it up with “them” that we had liked it. I was ok with that, but then she got a bit dismissive, saying she didn’t get what the big deal was, why such a fuss was being made over a little theater thing. At that point I was no longer Team Tina.
Eventually I was directed to sit across from (interview with?) a man named Ramin. He had seemed irritable earlier, shouting about his missing pen. When I sat down, though, he seemed calmer. On the table was a ballpoint pen, a salad, a sandwich, a black folder labeled “LA Models,” some papers under that, a laptop, and a carton of cigarettes. He was smoking heavily. He also had his phone and its charger.
I don’t remember the exact order our conversation went in, but here are the bullet points:
– He asked me if I was lonely. He followed up by asking if this experience had helped me to meet good people. I said that I’d met my BFF through it.
– He said that he had been brought in this year to help after the financial disaster of last year. He said they’d lost so much money last year, and added vaguely that it was a mess and that there had been so much “confusion”. I asked, “Confusion?” but he didn’t elaborate.
– He said that there is a plant in China with extremely valuable leaves, worth more than their weight (in what? he didn’t say), and that weekly shipments went for $25K. Now? “They give me Diet Coke.” The way he phrased it made it sound like he was paid in Diet Coke, so I teased him a bit about that, but he ignored me and demanded, “Do I look like a Diet Coke kind of person?” I had to admit that he didn’t. (Although I didn’t even see any Diet Coke on the table.)
– He squinted at me and said that I seemed part Asian. I confirmed that I was.
– He asked if I’d seen the merchandise table. I said that I had, and that I already owned the T-shirt. He seemed a bit scornful of the merch, and asked me, “Why do people do that?” He asked why people wore brand T-shirts, why they wanted everyone to know what they like and what they do. I said I thought people want to share a bit of their identity that way. He said, “But why? Why do they need that? From strangers?” I said that they wanted to feel seen. It was odd but refreshing – his job was apparently to make more money for the production, but he was openly scornful of the merchandise.
– Then he said, “I don’t do that.” When he enjoyed things, he didn’t talk about them. I said, “Because it makes it more special?” He simply said that not everything needed to be shared. Then he added, “Remember that,” and said again that some things are better kept to myself. Again, it seemed at odds with Lust’s themes so far. After all, Never Silent, and all that.
At one point, I was tilting my head: he reached over and took my chin, straightening my head, and took a picture of me. Then he fiddled with the folder, the LA Models folder. I didn’t ask about it, I wanted to let him take the lead.
Later, he held his phone up to his laptop, as if he were trying to scan a QR code or a barcode. He seemed to be having some difficulty.
While this was going on, I noticed Nicole standing on the makeshift stage, posing for Tina, who took pictures with her phone.
Ultimately, Ramin handed me a sheet of paper on which a single sentence was written: paraphrased, it said “I hereby completely surrender myself to The Lust Experience.” There was a line below for me to sign, but he didn’t have me sign it – he simply motioned to someone (I think Stephanie?) and they brought me over to the door near the red room to wait.
On the back of the page, there was a series of dots. It looked like part of a picture, that would have to be taped to other pages in order to be completed. I believe it was part of the LUST symbol (the one with the eye, key, wings, flame), based on the backs of some other pages that I saw. The pages were also numbered: mine was number 27.
Eventually I was beckoned into the reddish room. There were boxes of processing papers – papers from Tension, complete with photographs – and the papers were scattered about. Gordon was there, seated on the couch and looking at some of the papers, although he didn’t pay any attention to me.
My attention was mostly occupied by the man in front of me, who took my paper from me and set it aside.
Again, I don’t recall the exact order of the following:
– He asked, “Do you know who I am?” I didn’t.
– He asked how old I was. I told him.
– He put his hand on my wrist and felt my pulse. He remarked that my pulse was quickening.
– He sniffed my hair, and remarked, “No perfume.” “No.” “You don’t like it?” “It makes me sneeze.” This seemed to be the right answer.
– He said that I was beautiful. He didn’t say this in a creepy way, more in an approving way. (Was he the one who said this, or Ramin? I’m distrusting my memory here.)
– He said, “Do you think I like being in this room?” I said, “I don’t know, I don’t know you well enough.” We made uncomfortable eye contact. I added, “You can tell me if you don’t.” In response, he suddenly whirled around, grabbed a box of papers, and threw it against the wall. Gordon got up, calmly, and walked out of the room. He didn’t look at either of us as he stepped over the box of papers. I think I said, “I guess that’s a no.”
– He said, “Thank you.” “For what?” I think he said, “For being here, for participating.” I told him I was grateful to be here.
– He gestured toward the door, and I left.I thought for some time about whether or not to post about this, given Ramin’s comment about not everything needing to be shared. I wasn’t sure if he was giving me some sort of hint. But given that it was just a fluke that I was able to attend at all, I wanted those who weren’t able to make it to hear about the experience.
My main thoughts afterward:
– Was the man in the reddish room being held there against his will? Why did he seem to hint that he didn’t like being in that rom?
– Who was he, and why did he think I might know who he was?
– I was interested in Ramin’s thoughts on loneliness and on marketing. When he asked about whether I’d met good people through this experience, he seemed to know that I had gone through Tension. I wasn’t sure if this was a reference to what I’d written in the Tension book or in Darren’s scrapbook, or something he asked everyone about.
– What was the deal with “LA Models”? Were they casting for Lust?
– Welp, Michelle may have burned our questionnaires, but those were definitely our Tension processing forms. That information is still out there. -
At that point I was no longer Team Tina.
@daela, Girl, yes. -
HOLY CRAP. Sooo as a newcomer who didn’t get to attend the original Tension event, this was probably one of the weirdest things I’ve done. Got interviewed by Remy, who was just grumpy the whole time and complained about his chair and how shitty Wal-Mart is. Then he screamed at a different woman interviewer about his chair being shitty… He kept making comments about Nicole. Calling her a spoiled brat, and that she had no right sitting at the same table as them. He pulled me in close and said every word that comes out of her mouth is a lie. She will do anything for attention. He seemed more enraged at her being there than anything else. I might have this wrong, but it sounded like she was the daughter of someone who couldn’t attend, so they sent her in his place. After Remy complained about her for what must have been five minutes, I was told to stand up, and go inside another room.
Then the dude inside the room with the stick…Got all up in my face and put his hand on my heart and says “yes…I feel the heartbeat of a warrior. we are looking for warriors like you for whats to come. you are strong. you will need that strength to make it through…” Then he makes me look at myself in a mirror and asks me what my biggest fear is. I answer. He says “good” then he screams “NOW GET THE FUCK OUT” Annnnnd that was it. Other thoughts: The “location manager” lady was definitely sketchy. Anyone else see that cat just chillin on the stage??lol
Looks like the investors are now in play!
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Hah I totally forgot about the cats, @confuseddude
Nicole actually asked me at one point, “Have you seen our pussies!?” I told her I only saw the one and she mentioned there was a second one somewhere around the room lmao
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I’ll keep this limited to things that were different from previous posts, as @macbethinabathtub, @theladyj, and everyone else have done such great jobs setting the scene. (Thank you!)
I was part of the 1PM group as well. When the door opened and Stephanie Hyden came out, she immediately gave @111error a hug and I made a joke about Stephanie not giving me one as well given how brusque she was. She leaned in, gave me a hug, asked how the Overlook Film Festival was (I was there this past weekend). We all then went inside as @theladyj described, and I was the second to be pulled away from the couches, after @111error.
I spoke with the one and only Marcos, who proceeded to ask me what can only be described as market research questions. What did I think of The Tension Experience on a scale from 1-5? How much merch had I purchased? What could they do to make merchandise more appealing, and spread the word to an even greater degree? Was I aware of any ethical violations during Tension? Would I have any problems getting completely nude during The Lust Experience? There was a lot of ground covered, and I gave him some honest thoughts. He said he had never gone through Tension himself, but it was clear that he was part of the group (The Investors) that had been behind it.
At a certain point Remi came over, and Marcos whispered something to him. It appeared that Remi was his superior.
At another moment, Nicole came over, standing in front of an industrial fan and running her hands through her hair like she was in a Robert Palmer video. She started to not-so-subtly flirt – telling me she really liked my hair, touching my face, etc. Commenting that I was a ginger like her; wondering if the carpet matched the drapes. Given that I’ve been through the whole blackmail thing, I tried to give nothing back, which seemed to amuse Marcos when she finally walked away.
Then conversation turned to other ways to promote Tension — I asked him if he was asking about just Lust, or just Tension, and he clarified that he meant the entire collective enterprise. We discussed some ideas, and then I mentioned media coverage would need to be part of their strategy. He asked if I’d written about the show before, and if I’d interviewed Darren or Gordon before. He asked me how each of those interactions had gone. He was particularly interested in my conversations with Gordon, and he asked me if I had asked Gordon any “tough questions.” I mentioned discussions we’d had about Tension as a business venture. Marcos took particular note of the fact that Gordon had said during the SXSW panel that Tension hadn’t turned a profit and was just a “proof of concept,” and Marcos asked me several times if I had ever written any stories spreading that idea.
Then things started to get a little weird. He asked me if I had ever received any awards for writing, and then when the panel thing came up, if I did a lot of public speaking and had received awards for that. I don’t have the exact wording, but the sentiment he then expressed was along the lines of “Sure, writing on blogs is great, but if you were any good you would’ve received some kind of recognition.” It was subtle, but he was definitely taking a shot.
Later I moved to the (new) Red Room waiting couch. I struck up a conversation with Tina, who told me some of the same things she told @macbethinabathtub (she wouldn’t be able to help my wife and I look for a new house, unfortunately). Then Stephanie walked by, and I asked her what was going on. She said that Gordon had called her that morning, freaking out and asking her to help him out. (FWIW, I’d noticed her complain about this call on Facebook earlier this morning.) I told her that I’d picked up tickets for @larry’s play that she’s in, which she thought was great, and then we talked about the Overlook festival and the general situation at registration more. The sense I got was that The Investors were super angry with the way Gordon had been running things, and were stepping in to make it right – and he was appropriately panicked. I asked her if she knew how Darren was, and she said she hadn’t spoken to him in a while. She seemed scattered and harried, but Stephanie Hyden isn’t someone that I associate with either of those two words, so I couldn’t shake the feeling that something more than just an annoying favor to Gordon was going on.
Back to the couch, and then Nicole came to the craft service table to eat an orange. She noticed my wedding ring, and asked if I was married. When I told her yes, she said “too bad,” and then asked if my wife was a redhead. I said no. “Us redheads need to stick together,” she said. “I agree,” I said. “Otherwise we’ll get burned at the stake.”
After a bit more small talk, she finished up her orange and said, “I like you. You’re a good one. Be careful.”
“Why do say that?”
“Guys like you…” she said, and then quietly walked away. The implication was clear: guys like you get fucked up.
It was then my turn for The Man With The Stick, and we locked eyes. He leaned in. I didn’t look away. He then stepped to my side, never blinking. He put a hand on my chest, and one on my back, gauging my heartbeat. (I’ll cop to it: it was definitely elevated.) “You are gentle and kind,” he finally said. “And proud. I wish I could erase that pride in one stroke.”
His stick tapping began. “Do you think I like being here? I’m supposed to be somewhere else!” The tapping built to a crescendo until he smashed a box on the table, screaming “I don’t want to be here!” He almost instantly collected himself: “But thank you for understanding.”
He then told me that I was “one of those special people that will help us succeed in the future.” He turned me towards the mirror. “The answers are here,” he said — pointing to my head — “and here” — pointing towards my heart. After that, there was a brief back and forth with some door slamming like @rizzzoooooo encountered, and then I found myself in the supply room.
General takeaways?
Tension must have lost money in a serious way – serious enough that the money people are now stepping in and taking over because they’ve lost faith in Gordon. And whatever project they had planned is now undergoing some serious focus group testing so they can monetize it as best they can. They want customers — a lot of them — and they want them paying and happy. But is this creating a fun working environment? Far from it. If anything, it’s miserable.
Secondly, it seems pretty clear that Tension was indeed just an immersive theater show. And with both Marcos mentioning Noah’s different roles, and Noah himself telling @mike that he remembered him in a bloody bathtub, it also stands to reason that the entire Sinclair storyline itself is also just immersive theater.
They’re both fake. Bullshit. Made up. Productions produced by this mysterious group for reasons unknown. (Darren himself told me that both The OOA and OSDM were “bullshit” the night I was blackmailed.) And with that, I’m again inclined to think that much of the mythology of Tension as we knew it was fake too. Stephanie being there is almost proof of that: she’s alive, just an actor in Los Angeles, because the show was just pretend. And if you throw out the show, you have to throw out its backstory as well.
Except for that Anoch connection from Nicole that @macbethinabathtub heard about. Is Anoch an actual entity co-opted for the narrative that we were told last year, much like various forms of folklore were combined to tell the modern day story of Santa Claus (or, if you want to go down that road, many traditional religious figures)? If so, why? And what do The Investors want in the first place?
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The theme of the day seemed like the Tension investors needed to recoup money. The merch stand with Addison’s dress ($500 opening bid!) seemed like a very desperate attempt by them to get paid back.
Everyone there seemed angry and upset.
I first spoke with Tina, the owner of the building. She said everyone there was very grumpy that this space was not what they imagined it to be. She said she thought this was a good space for an immersive theatre event and asked me if I thought so. I told her the Creators were probably used to much bigger spaces (like the OOA compound) but that this was nice compared to a lot of other shows I’vd been to. I told her I would put in a kind word with the investors.
I was then paired with “Abi”, who told me how frustrating it was to put money into these operations. I asked her why Darren and Clint were let go and she refused to answer. As she was wrapping up, I noticed an attractive woman named Nicole smiling at me from across the room. She motioned me over to her where we sat on a couch and she started coming onto me like crazy. Just when she started getting extremely sexual, I was pulled away, much to her protest.
Wound up in the cat-piss smelling room with the European stick man. He told me how their last operation (at this point, I can only assume he is OSDM and referring to Ascension) missed one important thing: my heart. He talked about how at the end of this journey, he will get to know mine.
And then I was shown the door.
One other thing to note: I tried to talk the Gordon, but he was having none of it. And he was on TWO cellphones simultaneously. Weird. (Which perfectly describes the whole event)
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@bcbishop Weirdly enough, one of the biggest post event discussions was whether Nicole was a redhead or a brunette. Good to know I’m not color blind!
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These are all so amazing recounts and I cannot thank you all enough for posting them.
At another moment, Nicole came over, standing in front of a fan and running her hands through her hair like she was in a Robert Palmer video.
But this quote from @bcbishop wins him an award for his writing, albeit an award I just made up. But hey, that counts for something.
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Ok, so here is my experience (I was in the 3pm group):
-I won’t go into what the place looked like, as I feel it’s been covered very well by the above posts, but if there’s very specific things I remember, I’ll include them.
-APPARENTLY before I got there (I was one minute late) the real estate woman (can’t remember her name,) came out told my group that she was sub-leasing this place to these people and they had asked her if they could put sound proofing up and drains in the floor. I saw her come out again when I was there and she was very nervous/anxious.
-While our group was outside, the girl in charge of bringing the other groups in came and told us “I’m really sorry, it’s going to be 10 more minutes. We’re having some PERSONALITY PROBLEMS at the moment.”
-She looked very distraught and depressed (to me) and went back inside.
-About 5 minutes later @hazelverse came out and left.
-A few moments after that, the girl returned and invited us in. We went in and she presented us merchandise to buy.
****In the background by the canopy couches, the black southern woman who questioned certain people was YELLING at a very tall, lengthy black man with a clipboard. She specifically said “YOU’RE FIRED! YOU’VE DONE THIS SHOT BEFORE, AND YOU’RE DONE HERE, YOU’RE OUT OF HERE.” and they parted ways.***
-While this was happening, the woman showing us the merchandise payed it no attention.
-They sat us on the couches and I saw the tall black man near the table on the right of the room (I think where they had food.) Doing something and then he walked by us and left.
-They called me over first and paired me with Nicole (I think. She was very pretty in a black dress, brown hair, brown eyes.)
-When I went over to her, she was checking herself out in her phone. I sat down and we had the following conversation:
N: WHY ARE YOU HERE?
A: CURIOSITY.
N:CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT…
A:WELL, HOPEFULLY NOT THIS TIME.
N: OH, LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE SOME PUSSIES HERE.
A: (LAUGH)….LONG PA– USE….
A: SO WHYA RE YOU HERE?
N: FAMILY BUSINESS…..MY DAD IS INVOLVED IN ALL OF THIS. YEP, THAT’S WHY I’M HERE…. (SHE SAID THIS WITH A SLIGHT TONE OF DISDAIN.)N: DID YOU DO OUR LAST EXPERIENCE, TENSION?
A: I ONLY DID ASCENSION, THE FINAL EVENT.
N: DID YOU ENJOY IT?
A: YEAH, I LIKED IT A LOT, THAT’S WHY I’M BACK.
N: I THINK THIS ONE IS GOING TO ATTRACT A LOT OF **PERVERTS** (SHE SAID THIS WITH SEXUAL INCLINATION)
A: EHH, MAYBE. I THINK BASED ON THE NAME, YES. BUT ONCE THEY SEE WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING, NO.
N: ARE YOU A PERVERT?
A: NO.
N: WHAT ARE YOU INTO?
A: SEXUALLY?
N: MHM…
A: WELL, I’M STRAIGHT- I’M INTO WOMEN.
N: ARE YOU IN A RELATIONSHIP?
A: NOT AT THE MOMENT. WORKING ON IT. I’M TALKING TO A GIRL RIGHT NOW.
N: WOULD SHE BE JEALOUS YOU’RE TALKING TO ME RIGHT NOW?
A: NO. WE’RE NOT IN THAT PLACE YET. IT’S STILL CASUAL.
N: WHAT KIND OF KINKY STUFF ARE YOU INTO? LIKE, THE REALLY DIRTY STUFF?
A: WELL, I’M PRETTY INTO THE IDEA OF THREESOMES.
N: OH, REALLY!? THAT’S SEXY….WHAT ELSE?
A: NOTHING TOO CRAZY BESIDES THAT….I TEND TO BE PRETTY MONOGMOUS WHEN I’M WITH A GIRL, COMMITTED. IF WE WANTED TO EXPLORE MORE SEXUALLY-SPEAKING, WE WOULD TALK ABOUT IT AND COME TO A DECISION AS A COUPLE.
N:WOULD YOU LIKE BEING PUNISHED?
A: LIKE…PHYSCIALLY, SEXUALLY…?
N: SEXUALLY.
A: EH, I’M NOT SURE.
N: SO, IF I PUNISHED YOU, YOU WOULDN’T LIKE THAT.
A: (HAHA) NO, I’M PRETTY SURE I’D ENJOY THAT.
N: OHHH, REALLY? SO WOULD YOU BE INTO BONDAGE, BDSM?
A: IT DEPENDS.
N: LIKE, BEING TIED UP, SPANKED, WHIPPED?
A: BEING TIED UP AND SPANKED, BY YOU, SURE HAHA. WHIPPED, IT DEPENDS HOW HARD.
N: VERY HARD.
A: THEN, NO.
N: AW, I THOUGHT WE WERE HAVING A CONNECTION….
(PA– USE)
N: ANYWAYS, SOY OU WANT TO SIGN UP?
A: YES.
N: ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE YOURSELF COMPLETELY TO US?
A: YES.
N: OK GREAT, JUST SIGN THIS THEN:-She handed me a piece of paper that said “I willingly give myself completely to The Lust Experience” (or something along those lines.)
-I signed it and she brought me to the RED ROOM/OFFICE.
-I went in and the man inside was banging a large walking stick on the ground and threw my paper haphazardly on the desk and then threw the stick down. I looked around and saw a mountain of paperwork on the desk, boxes, etc. I also saw a couch on the left side of the room.
-The man got extremely close to me, like 1 inch away and we stood like that for a few minutes, and placed my hand on my heart.. I finally asked “what’s your name?” to which he smirked and replied- worriedly-
“I can feel your heartbeat. It is fast….You worry about things…”
Me: “Yes, sometimes.”
Him: “So you want to be apart of this?”
Me: “Yes.”He walked over to the door on the opposite side of the room and opened it and said:
“I’d really like to see you again.”
And I said:
“I’d like that a lot.”
And then I exited and left.
THOUGHTS:
Not sure what to think of everything. But it seems to me that the four people that were questioning everyone are investors of some sort (or in Nicole’s case, her dad is an investor.) and that they’ve all lost money from the prior experience, and they’re trying to recuperate their loss, and have since taken control away from DLB.
I would imagine that they also hired The System for a specific reason, and it has failed them. I can;t help but think back to The System website saying:
“You only move forward once there is money in my pocket.”
This seems to be ringing true a bit now….
A lot to think about. I look forward to seeing everyone else’s recounts.
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@hazelverse – you were kicked out??
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@hazelverse, you god damn rebelrouser!, what did you do!?
It seems that SOMEONE, at least ONE person, is going to be kicked out of each event. like @mike.
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Maybe kicked out is too severe…
A bald man (I hadn’t noticed before) seemed to come out of no where and ask if I was Hazel. When I said yes, he told me I had to go.
There was a little confusion as Marcus was mid sentence, Tina was hovering with the laptop, and Stephanie came over to confirm that yes, I needed to leave now.
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@hazelverse
Remember when meeting Sarah? You were periscoping her and she asked you to re-introduce yourself and repeated your name like committing it to memory?Or! You rebuffed iConfidant. Maybe it’s as simple as that.
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My experience was quite odd… I find it uneventful but intriguing and important. First and foremost the girl who was guiding everyone in and trying to sell merch is my friend Stephanie. She was Stephanie not a character and she was incredibly unhappy. They called her at 1130 last night to do this and she was quote unquote “a fuckin PA” As most of you recognize her from The Tension Experince she is way better than a PA and merch girl. Anyways after saying my hellos, she placed me with Nicole. She asked me the same questions that everyone else.Then Remy, the guy on the stage grabbed me. Nicole looked really upset from taking me away. Remy guided me into the room that was lit red. He asked me if I have ever lost anything. Had me count out $1000 and asked what it would be like to lose this amount of money. Then he said he lost a million dollars investing in The Tension Experience and is using Lust to gain that money back. He told me when I left to remember “always stay safe”.
My take away is these are all the investors and they are angry about Tension Experience so they are trying to do something that will gain their money back. They may not care too much about us but selling the product is important hence the name Lust! All of this fits in with the real life narrative that is going on too and that is what baffles me.
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I’ll mention the notable parts since some were similar to other experiences:
– Was in the 5:30pm timeslot
– There were only 3 tables and 3 people processing
– I ended up being processed alone with Nicole
– At some point she asked if I was half Asian (which is odd since @daela mentioned that as well) and shortly after her and one of the male processors asked if I was uncomfortable. I said “sort of” because of the line of questioning and attention in general and they both implied “was it the Asian part?” lol it was really funny.Insides the ‘reddish room’ (I was in this room with 2 others).. quotes paraphrased
– the guy (who was chain smoking throughout most of the experience, pacing, on the phone, generally busy) asked 3 of us “have you ever lost something?” – he let all of us answer
– he asked @lilmsfancpants to count a wad of money she answered “1000 dollars”
– he said “how would you feel if you had that money and lost it?” – we all answered
– he then said “well I (or we?) lost over a million dollars on The Tension Experience.. we are the investors”
– I *think* he implied that they were looking for someone (or something)..
– he let us leave telling us to “watch out for ourselves” and something to the effect of “if you know what I mean”Random thoughts:
– my line of questioning during the first part seemed to start with my experience with “Tension” and quickly changed subjects almost as if she had determined I was not what they were looking for. I almost feel like they are looking for someone through these interviews
– Tina was showing us pictures asking which looked similar to the venue for Tension since no one seemed to be happy with the current space she had chosen for today’s experience
– Tina was asking for some help with a venue with these requirements: large space, sound proof walls, and drains
– @lila mentioned “maybe a meat packing warehouse!” and Tina legitimately was happy for the suggestion and went to her laptop and was searching for some on Google
– Nichole asked me generically “were you a part of the experience?” and I had flashbacks to game jacking since they called their thing “the experience” as well.. but it’s probably nothing
– Stephanie mentioned to us on the way in “if you need to you can use this nasty bathroom” and when I asked to use the bathroom she said “be sure to wash your hands before and after you use it” -
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My full conversation with the Stick Man:
SM: “Do you know who I am? I am the man who cares. I am the man who cares about how you feel and what you are doing.
Maybe you have met some of my colleagues. But they don’t care. They don’t really care. They don’t feel that we have the answers, you and me.
On the last journey, we learned a lot of things. But the new division missed the HEART.
*he holds his hand on my chest*
Very important, the heart. I can hear your heart beating. I can feel things when I’m close to you.
Me: “What do you feel?”
SM: “Too many words…… Maybe we can work on that.”
With that, he opens the door and lets me out.
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@bcbishop @kasch I went into the reddish room with Kelsey and Shaun and we actually got a dollar amount of how much money was lost on their last venture.
I was given a wad of hundreds to count. He asked me how much was there. I said $1000, and it felt real. He asked all 3 of us how we would feel if we lost $1000. We all responded that we would be upset. He said “I lost $3,000,000. Imagine how I feel.”
As far as my actual processing went, Marcos went into GREAT detail with my likes and dislikes from Ascension. It felt like a real-life version of @theladyj’s call with him. Nothing about LUST at all. Just Ascension.
One tidbit about Nicole’s family potentially: Marcos said everyone hates her and that she is a salacious liar. (Pretty sure @thebuz kept his hands to himself today, so I’m with Marcos on this one) He offhandedly said that she wasn’t even supposed to be here today because of how unreliable she is. She was only taking part in all this because her father wasn’t able to make it.
I didn’t get a chance to dig for more info there because he then went back to asking me about Tension. He said that people had complained about being taken advantage of in the show. I joked about being in my underwear way longer than I would have liked to be and how I was forced to touch other participants who were also in their underwear. He seemed shocked by this and asked if I had called the cops on the show, lol.
After he was satisfied with my review of Ascension, he handed me the paper to sign. Immediately after I finished signing he playfully covered the text with his hand and asked me if I remembered what it said. His phone was in his hand and I could see a tiny part of the phone screen. He had just received a text from a contact in his phone named TIM.
I seriously doubt he’s being contacted by a grade schooler…
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Since everyone has described the opening moments in detail and mine didn’t vary much from it, I’ll jump right into my appointment. Stephanie directed me to follow her. I was brought to Marcos. After introducing ourselves, he quickly jumped into questions about Tension.
I am horrible at recounting things in order. I apologize for that.
He began by asking me if I had participated in Tension and followed up with if I had enjoyed myself. He asked me how I thought we could reach more people with Lust. I explained to him that I think social media is huge way. Facebook seemed to be mostly participants though. He asked if I had shared my experiences with anyone who had not participated in Tension. I brought up my sister and cousin. He asked if I thought that they would be interested in Lust. I said for sure.
He asked me if he could some sensitive questions as well. I told him to ask away.
First, he asked if I had brought anyone to Tension. I told him my daughter. I had said that she loved it and would mostly likely return for Lust. He asked me about my experience bringing her. Now, for anyone who isn’t aware, my second trip was based upon my sacrificing her to OOA. A lot of what I went through the second time was that narrative. I also pointed out to Marcos that myself and @jakeo were the first second timers to go through. He asked me what I thought of that second experience. Of course, I told him our minds were blown. We had no idea what to expect and it had exceed everything we could have imagined. He asked if I had brought my husband and I said no with a kind of nervous laugh. He then he rephrased the question to her father. And I said no and explained we’re divorced. “Did you bring your partner?” was the next question. I told him I was single and damn myself for blushing at this because of his smile and stare. He wrote on the piece of paper before him I was divorced.
He reminded me that he was going to ask me some sensitive questions. I thought they would be sexual lol. Nope. He asked me if I had be aware of anything that was inappropriate during Tension… did I know if anything had occurred that should’t have. He asked if I knew of any rumors of things going on that shouldn’t have. Umm. weird. I told him I wasn’t aware of anything inappropriate going on.
He went back to branding from Lust. He called Tina over and asked her to bring her laptop. He showed me a series of photos of warehouses. He asked me to pick one that I thought was cool and modern, which one I liked the most. I picked and he asked her how much it was. I think she said 3.8. He told me I had expensive taste and he liked that. We started talking about Lust branding again. He asked if there were any other ways that I knew of that Lust could be brought to others attention. I had told him my friend @kasch had made a short documentary about Tension. It was a perfect introduction to what this all was. He asked where he could see it and I told him I believe that it was on the Tension FB page. But, that this showed the excitement of creators, the actors, and the participates. It really was a perfect intro and that they should somehow use it to promote Lust.
I believe before we started talking about this he asked me about community. This mindfucked me again. He asked me if I really made friends in Tension. Yes. He asked if I still talk to them. Yes, some on a daily basis. He asked if I see them outside of all this. Yes, I even hung out with some over the weekend. He seemed to be pleased with this.
Now all of this, I’m not sure if it’s coincidence or not. He asked me if I was in the documentary. I said yes. Then, he asked me about immersive theatre. He asked me if I had done a lot of immersive theatre before Tension. I had said no. The only other thing I had done was Blackout and it’s more haunt/horror. He seemed to agree with me. He told me in two sentences to say what Tension was. I basically had said how This was an experience unlike anything I had ever done. That it was mind-blowing and would stay with you long after it was over. We talked a little about that. But, what I found weird was that he asked a direct questions about what I said on Kasch’s documentary. On the documentary, I had said that Tension introduced me to a whole new world of immersive theatre and that I became addicted. Tension changed my life. Probably a coincidence but who really fucking knows.
Then I was lead into the rebirthed red room. hahahaha. I was asked what I fear most. I didn’t go with philosophical. I went with something physical. I always do. Dark, tight, confining spaces. I don’t like to be confined. He put his hand on my wrist and checked my pulse. He brought himself right against me and using complete eye contact told me that he knew it turned me on. He said there was a fire in my eyes and inside of me. I needed to burn everything inside and allow my turn self to show. He then smelled me. Commented on my perfume. Then, walked away. He threw a box of papers across the room and came back to me. He held my hand and told me he hated being in the room that smelled like cat piss. I told him I would hate to be stuck in there as well. I didn’t blame him. He looked me in the eyes again and said thank you. He walked me to the door and told me he hoped we would meet again soon. He watched me leave. Stephanie greeted me at the next door and he was still watching me as I turned around for one more glance.
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@shaun am I remembering my dollar amounts wrong? My brain is fried.
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@lilmsfancpants I forgot the exact amount I thought it was over a million but less than two lol.
Was Marcos the only guy doing the processing when we went? I thought people said Marcos had an accent (on the phone) they guy totally didn’t have an accent IMO!
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@macbethinabathtub – I just got home and am catching up, but after reading your recap, I noticed this. WHAT???
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@mike @macbethinabathtub Wut.
@shaun Marcos was the guy in the navy shirt that grilled me. Not the man in the second room, correct y’all? -
@mike yeah… I know what he deleted, it was a direct quote from Nicole, I’m sure it was exactly what she said. I asked @thegilded what he thought, haven’t got a ruling back yet. @clint-sears only removed two words from my entire post, but they were an extremely evocative two words. Maybe they just represented an OOG over-enthusiastic ad lib by Nicole… If not, I have absolutely no idea why he would choose to omit them. But that part of my story definitely makes no sense without them.
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The Lust cat
https://image.ibb.co/iNDy35/image1.jpg -
A note on Remy… He hates Walmart, McDonalds, American sports, with a passion. He also hates cheap metal chairs so much that he shouted at the interviewer to my right as if it was his (Marcus?) fault that such cheap crafstmanship even existed in this world. He had me help him list all the shitty things Americans buy at Walmart. We decided on: Cheetos, guns, ammo for the guns, above ground pools, fishing supplies, fireworks and these cheap fucking metal chairs. Basically he was a snob, but we got along well regardless. He said the things he does enjoy are those things one does in the shadows. I pressed for an example but he played coy.
Like others, I got Remy’s story about the bush in China with the valuable leaves. His distaste for diet coke and shitty salads that come in a box. Also the questions about immersive theater, the discussion about merchandise (including his disgust that people would pay $500 for an old red dress), and the comments on improving the experience from what it was last year. His job, as he put it, was to meet the people who have been supporting this project and find out where all their money hds gone and how they can improve on their investment.
At the end Remy checked off a mental list: 1) we shook hands, 2) Got to know each other a little, 3) Shared personal connection, and now 4) time for registration. I found his list on how to relate with the public to be quite amusing.
At this point Remy walked me over to Stephanie’s staging area, handed me the registration form but did not have me sign it. Stephanie came to chat a bit about how Lust is going and what brought her to be a PA for today’s event. She wasn’t happy. I couldn’t blame her. She was being treated poorly and working in an uncomfortable environment. She mentioned Gordon as the one who hired her for the day. She said she had thought she’d been brought on as an actress, not an assistant. She was sorely mistaken.
When I entered the reddish room, Darren was sitting at a desk off to the right side. He looked defeated, eyes cast downward, glasses off. I walked towards him but it was quickly apparent he wasn’t in any state to interact and even if he had tried the other man in the room wasn’t going to allow it. Anytime Darren started to move the man yelled at him to SIT DOWN, etc. At some point during my exchange with the man Darren was able to sneak out.
I asked the man his name 3 separate times. He avoided answering the question. He had me sit with him on the couches off to the left. He told me he had a family, a life… Because of these mother fuckers here… Because of their incompetence, I am here, LOCKED, he said. He grabbed my hands and leaned in close as we spoke. I didn’t shy from him, leaned in, maintained eye contact. I wanted him to see I was open to the exchange. As with others, he talked about my heartbeat that he could feel via the pulse in my wrist. He finished the conversation by telling me: I want you to keep that courage, that strength, that fire. Your fire will burn everything away and leave nothing but your “true self.” This is what we need. You have to try… We’re here to make this work. Thank you for being here. Then, still holding my hands he kissed my wrists and the side of my face, and escorted me out.
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Another angle from the lounge chairs. You can see the first of four processing stations and a webcam.
https://image.ibb.co/hVW7wQ/IMG_0653.jpg -
Alright, I apologize in advance but I haven’t read all the entries here. To start, I was part of the 4pm with @kingkill33 @electrichippo @rizzzoooooo and his buddy Anthony. As we waited in the parking lot (I was so warm I needed shade) this young woman came out and totally threw us some shade for being in the parking lot before 4pm–yeesh sorry! Occasionally I saw Tina come back outside looking FLUSTERED AF on her cell phone.
4pm rolls around and she introduces herself as Tina. She asked us “so did you guys do the last event?” and I straight up said “The Tension Experience”? In all fairness I have done plenty of events by now that clarity warranted but Tina never explicitly acknowledged TTE. She just referred to as “the last event”. So I said “if you’re talking about TTE then yes, I have done those events”. She was all like “oh ok good I’ve been working with (inaudible) for years but I have NO CLUE what is going on here” and goes back to the entry door hailing Stephanie. Keep in mind this is based off what I heard/recall.
Stephanie comes out and gives us all friendly waves and escorts us to the entry door. She offered the restroom to me but I declined. I probably should have taken up on it just to see what I could find. Anyhow we were shown the merch at a desk. T-shirts, books, Sabrina’s dress (which is up for auction to the highest bidder, current bid is $500?) but all of us silently declined to buy up more merch. At this point I took a bit more note about the room we were in….
The room we were in was large, high vaulted ceilings and old. What threw me was the music in the background. It was from jazz era style music from 1930-40s. It had that same feel as the donut mixer or when we’d see ~four in all her videos leading up to her untimely death. So that immediately made me wonder–is DLB still behind this or is it OSDM? Someone who is leading this has a taste for old timey jazz, that’s for sure.
Stephanie lead all of us to some comfy looking chairs and I think Michael Gray (Bob!) and I immediately saw there was a kitty cat on the chair and I went nuts that kitteh was just chilling there and gave no f*cks about our presence. Most chill cat ever.
Very quickly people got picked out of the group and were sorted. Kim got Remy, Rizzo got Nicole and Anthony got sorted to Abigail. @kingkill33 was left by himself with Stephanie or the cat.
I got sorted to Marcus. Some people say Marcos but idk it really sound like Marcus. Marcus was very nice, shook my hand and had me take a seat. He wanted to get right into discussion about how the TTE needed some refinement in order to get more audience so I was there to help him out with that. First we talked about merch and how this time around more people can buy stuff. I actually argued not to dilute out with so much merch because that will paralyze people with too much choice. It was incredibly awkward to have this conversation because I’m not in marketing at all so I’m like the last person to talk to about stuff like this. If we all wind up with olive green shirts sorrynotsorry, I’m tired of black. XD
Next he offered up two places for location and I would get to choose but we never got to the end of that conversation because Remy lost his shit and shouted at Marcus. Marcus then moved the discussion onto quantifying my enjoyment of TTE. I went into reasons why second time around was actually not a “5” (strong 4 though!) and I’ll fully admit my answers were getting wishy-washy, making me even more uncomfortable. And it was hot. And Nicole was taking f*cking selfies from every angle you can think of. Nevertheless I think I gave Marcus an answer that satisified him and he offered up a hug. Very nice but…..also very awkward.
After the hug Marcus offered up a monologue (?) about how in ancient times there were plays that were made people feel–a catharsis. He sited specifically Oedipus and he said it multiple times, I know I heard Oedipus correctly. I’ll side track here to theory time…
Here’s now where my mind immediately goes to theory:
After a bit of memory refreshing Oedipus is the guy that married his own mother, had a kid by his mom (Jocasta?) and killed his dad. In the end Oedipus’ mom kills herself and Oedipus blinds himself. OKAY….so where I’m going with this is…What if Marcus is alluding to Oedipus to the Sinclairs? I’m also not by any means a literature expert so I’ll hand this off to you guys to discuss or not. AT MINIMUM Marcus was alluding to how these theater pieces would make people FEEL/cathartic release at the end…DLB certainly promised us that our hearts will be destroyed in this. Marcus could simply be reforcing what DLB said all along about Lust.
Marcus then had me sign a document. Simple page but it had additional pages underneath that looked like a puzzle but it was too little time for me to figure stuff out. I signed my life away to Lust–what have I done now? As Marcus lead me to sit next to @kingkill33 Nicole called out Marcus and those two got into it. Not loud but it was obvious. I walked back over to kinda see what’s up but Marcus back and said “ya we used to be a thing”. Nicole was like “don’t do this here” to Marcus. Him and I both shrugged it off.
I sat with @kingkill33 for about 10 seconds until Stephanie opened up another door that seriously looked like the Red Room. Dude was standing in the door looking PISSED OFF and loudly tapping his walking stick. Stephanie or someone slammed the door behind me and I had a one-on-one with this pissed looking dude. The room btw was trashed, hot and smelled like someone microwaved fish. BLAH.
Pissy dude asked me “do I look happy here?!!!!” (he had a E. European/Russian accent)
ME: “nope”
Pissy dude: “do you like it here!!??”
Me: not at all
Pissy: (((throws garbage bin))) ARRRRRGGGGGG THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS! I hate it here!
Me: why?
Pissy: I had a FAMILY AND KIDS BACK HOME!
Me: how come they took you here?
Pissy: ((feels my pulse–with his thumb*)) “you have a heart of a warrior, we need people like you”
Me: who is we
Pissy: I hope you stay with us
Me: who is us
Pissy: no more questionsHe then opens the door and shouts “GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” and slams the door.
Stephanie escorts me out and it’s over.
*makes me wonder if he was actually sincere with his statement since he took his OWN pulse AND I know for a fact he said that to other people….
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So I was a part of the 4:30pm group.
I’ll leave out the intro as it was pretty much the same as everyone else’s experience.
The four other people that were a part of my group we interviewed first so I had a lengthy conversation with Tina that consisted of a lot of small talk about work, what I thought about the venue etc… Then she opened up to me about how rough the day was. I sympathized with her situation and just listened to her problems, Apparently her cat has to be put down soon =(
I then was ushered off to talk to Ramin, who really didn’t seem like he wanted to be here or talk to me. I got the same spiel most people got, “I’m too good for this,” “I’m not a panderer” “I hate the other people here, they are all incompetent” “Can you think of a worse situation than this?” etc
I basically told him things could be a lot worse, and that the homeless people outside of this warehouse have it a lot worse. He brushed off my reply by saying that being homeless was not a thing that could happen to him.
At the end of the interview Ramin gave me the signature sheet with no pen and I was told to shit with the rest of the people waiting for the red room. (Something of note, my sheet had the # 55 on it.)
Here is where I decided to go off rails. Instead of waiting my turn, I got up and introduced myself to Marcos, Nicole and Abe. Nicole complimented my goatee, asked me if I ever met Noah Sinclair and proceeded to gush about how she was into him. (She likes older men, the older the better)She also suggested that I hook up with @lasalle, who was a part of my group,(Part of me thought it was a little racist… Just cause we’re both Asian huh? /All of me thought her racist comment was hilarious…fucking white people) and she told me I was cute. Abe, the black woman on the far right side was really pleasant and she warned me to stay away from the others. She actually said “Run away!’ which I totally ignored 😉
Eventually I was led to the red room where I met the scary looking sniffing dude. I shall forever call him Mr. Sniffer. He told me I had come to find answers, and that I would find them. He then took my pulse by placing his hand on my heart and told me I was gentle and that he was happy I was a part of the Lust Experience.
He then led me to the door and told me to “Get the Fuck Out!”
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OK guys I am absolutely drained from talking about this all day with everyone lol but here it goes for the people that weren’t there I’m gonna push through! ? haha Today was so much fun not only for the event but mainly because of getting to hang out with everyone for hourssss!! ?
The Registration from my POV:
12:30 time slot. First group in.
Got there and the first thing I notice is Gordon Bijelonic outside pacing around non-stop on his phone. OK so Darren and Clint got kicked off but Gordon is obviously still on. Noted.
Stephanie Hyden is there. Surprise surprise and is the one who leads us into the building. However, she is like her fb status has stated “Not Happy.” She looks pretty tired and bothered and never once smiles. She awkwardly asks us if we want to buy merch, like it was her job and she had to ask. Tension shirts, jumpsuits, Addison’s red dress for $500, etc. No one in my group buys anything.
Inside this big open space are four stations each with a different investor and a waiting area where we are first led to sit. While sitting there a woman named Tina comes over a bit frazzled and @macbethinabathtub proceeds to ask her what’s going on and what’s wrong. She says that it is her job to find the locations for these events and everyone is upset with her and hates the space. She asks us what we think of the space and doesn’t understand why there is a problem. She asks Chris to put in a good word for her. She is so distraught about having screwed up. She had one job… lol jk poor Tina.
Then a tall dark haired man in a blue button down shirt walks straight over to me, looks me in the eyes, reaches out his hand, introduces himself as Marcos and leads me to his station. I introduce myself, he thanks me for coming, I thank him for having me. He never takes his eyes off of mine. His look is intense and he is all business. He asks if I’d participated in Tension, how I liked it. He asks me if I have a vr system and I say yes. He says vr is great but nothing compares to real life interaction like the one we’re having right now. I agree. He tells me that immersive theatre is the next big thing in entertainment. Then he asks but why do we do it? I asked do you mean why do we do it as audience members? And he said no why do we (referring to himself..producers..investors..creators, etc) put on these shows. He said he’d found the answer. He didn’t tell me what it was but he called over Tina to bring her laptop. He told me that the location of these events needed to be modern, and interesting and he told me to flip through the photos and choose which location I liked best for their next event. The photos were of different spaces. Big empty warehouse type spaces. I chose photo number 18 out of 21 and he asked Tina how much that space costs. She told him 3million and a half. He told me I had expensive taste and told her to put that location on the short list. Marcos’ demeanor to me was like a customer service rep. All smiles, extremely nice, attentive, and it was about getting a little bit of feedback. As Tina walked away with her laptop, he called out for her to bring him a sandwich. She looked annoyed and he checked her by getting a stern tone and said “I’m going to make you very rich, now the least you can do is get me a sandwich!” Or something to that nature. She grew very timid again and walked away really distraught. Again, poor Tina. He was so nice to me but so rude to her! How embarrassing to be talked to like that, especially in front of other people.
Marcos had a clipboard of papers with him and asked me to sign a page that simply said “I will submit myself to the lust experience.” I signed, he gave me the sheet of paper, then we got up and he walked me to a back room. He knocked, the door opened, the room was dimly lit in red, he handed my paper to someone inside that I couldn’t see. The door closed, he shook my hand and thanked me again for coming. I was left in front of the door so I assumed I should go in.
Inside was a mess of an office (pretty sure I saw the forms from tension with people’s photos on them but it was so dim) with a tall man inside (everyone is tall to me..I’m only 5’2″ & a half…). The man looked older than Marcos, maybe 40s? It was dim but I’d say silver fox status (older men..? ahem..sorry sidetracked..lol) anyway, he had a tall staff that he hit on the ground in a rhythmic way, then faster and faster until he threw it onto the floor. The whole time never taking his eyes off mine. His gaze was intense. Intimate. Like he was trying to see inside my soul. He got close to me and gently removed my glasses to see into my eyes better (note to self: wear contacts next time so you’re not blind..) he stood close to me and grabbed my wrist to feel my pulse. He was mostly silent and took long pauses between thoughts. He thanked me for participating in their project and I thanked him for having me as I’d done with Marcos…I kind of smiled because he was making me nervous being so close to my face (I was half expecting him to kiss me he was so close and it felt that intense)…he said he liked my smirk…long pause…He said I had the heart of a warrior…long pause…I’d need strength to get through what they had in store for me….long pause…but he didn’t think I would make it….long pause….I worked up the nerve to tell him that I thought he was wrong…long pause (u get the point). He said “I like that. I like to be wrong” and continued to stare in my eyes and hand my back my glasses ever so gently. He led me out. Watched me from the door then slammed it shut.
That was pretty much it for me. Didn’t get a name for the man in the red room but he seemed like the boss. I mean, he had his own office!
Takeaway after hearing everyone’s versions at the bar afterwards:
This event was for the investors who had put millions of dollars into Tension and weren’t happy with the lack of revenue. They kicked off DLB & Clint because they didn’t bring in money and their plan is to fix the problem and bring in cash this time around. Hence the merch sale when we walked in. They wanted to meet some of the participants to see who their clientele was.**I haven’t read any of these posts because I talked to everyone for HOURSSSS today at the stocking frame about what they experienced so I don’t feel like rereading everything but if anyone wants to ask me something please tag me and ask away otherwise I probably won’t be reading these anytime soon lol**
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I don’t think I’ve read this on the forums yet, so I’ll add:
Remy didn’t like much of anything, including Nicole. He said all she did all day was take pictures of herself and flirt. He said she was like one of those Trump kids, stating the only reason she got the job is because she’s the daughter of an investment supervisor type.
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I will skip over repeat info.
I sat with Tina at the lounge chairs as the first 4 of my group were directed to the registration tables. She knew they weren’t happy about the location and asked me I had seen their previous building and asked whether it was better or worse than here. I said this one was better.
I felt bad for her, but she was out of her depth and thought she might be better off to not be involved with these people. When it was my turn I got to sit with Nicole. She complained about getting the wrong Starbucks drink which was just delivered and also complained about Tina getting her salad order wrong earlier. Her salad came with chicken for God’s sake. Catty superficial stuff. I asked her if this would be Tina’s last day working with them. She then said something about I don’t even know why she’s here. Maybe she screwed Gordon. (I am liberally paraphrasing). I then lied and said that Tina called them cheap.
That somewhat stopped the presses and at least 2 other processors stopped and joined in.
Nicole called Tina over and told me to repeat what I said. They berated her and then I was escorted over to the bench by the reddish room.
For my turn the guy crumpled up my signed registration and threw it across the room. He then stared at me and stood really close. He sniffed my neck and removed my glasses. Then he told me I was kind and something about beware the one you yearn for, they will eat you alive. Something like that.
He then slammed the door open and screamed at me to get out.
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Wow, @genghistwan – very courageous move! It looks like you were rewarded for going off the rails.
This is all so much to take in from everyone…
I have the feeling we aren’t supposed to know what everything means.
One could be driven mad by it, searching for clues as if it could bring something, only to fall deeper down the rabbit hole……
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I was in the 5pm group. There were 4 tables/chairs lined up next to each other. It looks like moved things around from earlier based on the pictures.
Our group was waiting outside and Stephanie opened the door and called me in. She gave me a hug and then apologized for the “sweaty hug”. She definitely seemed frazzled. She told me to go through that door and which led me to the dark room with the red lamp and the man with the accent. He had no stick when I went in there and I didn’t get him checking my heart or telling me I was a warrior. Instead he got super close and asked if I knew who he was. He told me to sit, but since I had just come from outside, my eyes hadn’t adjusted and had to feel my way around for the couch. I finally did and he sat next to me and then spoke very close to me. He asked me if I knew why he was here. I did not. He told me he was there to “fix” this. Then he said that he wanted me to help him. He asked if I would and I said yes and that’s when I left that room.
After that room, Stephanie told me to go sit with Marcos/Marcus and the fun began. He asked me if I had bought any merch from Tension and if I bought it in person or over the internet. I told him I only knew about it being sold online. He then asked me what I bought. I told him and then he seemed interested in the posted. He asked where I have it and how do I explain it to the people that see it and what do they say when they see it. He then asked for marketing ideas on how to push the brand and I gave him a bunch of ideas and at one point, I brought up how Debz created a recruitment flyer and how we flyered LA with it. He perked up and asked to see a picture. I showed him the picture of it and he seemed impressed. We also asked me about buying Lust merch and if I would buy some now/before I saw the show and I told him no. I explained that I didn’t know if Lust would be good, so why would I want a shirt for something I know nothing about?
He asked if I had seen or heard about anything unethical happening within Tension. I told him that I personally did not, but I know of some things that happened that people could construe as being unethical and I told him about the bathtub scene…and how I was completely naked thanks to Mr. Sinclair (which that name didn’t seem to phase him). He asked if I would do it again and why and asked if what I would tell my parents/what they thought about Tension/etc.
After that, he called Tina over with a laptop and wanted my opinion on which space I thought was “cool”. He showed a bunch of pictures, I picked one and Tina said…”Well that one is 3.5 million dollars” and he said to me “You have expensive taste”. While Tina was walking away, he wanted her to get him a sandwich. I couldn’t hear exactly what she said, but he got REAL agitated with her and as she was walking away, he told her “You know we’re about to make you very wealthy right? So is it too much to asked to get me a sandwich?”
After that, he looked at me and said he wanted a Cuban finger sandwich (or something along those lines) and I had made a joke about…a lot of people being in Cuba recently…but then I realized it was Columbia where everyone was and he made sure to point it out to me that it’s difficult since both words start with C. I do believe he is aware of the Columbia connection. At that point, I mentioned how I almost went to Cuba, but decided against it. I told him the story about how I travel with a horror tour group that takes you on ghost tours and told him how I went to Romania and he cut in and asked…”Romania? Like…Transylvania?” YES! I told him about the Dracula tour and all that. The funny thing was, we started having an actual conversation about ghost hunting and EVPs. It was great! I was telling him how we believe EVPs work and he was like “Well if they’re saying hello on a recorder, why don’t they just tweet?” haha So I was trying to explain the theories of all that to him. After that, he gave me the sheet to sign and asked if I read it.
I was then led out by Stephanie and as we were saying good bye, she hugged me and said “Mike…these people are FUCKED.” and out the door I went.
Who’s fucked? Are we fucked? Are the investors fucked? So many things spinning in my head right now!
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@mike good eye with “Clint Sears” doing some edit work on @macbethinabathtub post.
WHAT THE HELL?!?
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As a preface I’ve been a lurker on the forums and took part in Ascension and just recently found my way over to Lust (and trying to get caught up with everything).
I was part of the 5:30 group. I got there early, just as the 5:00 group was going in, and met some forum members outside during the wait who were very welcoming. I registered this account yesterday with a nickname, but I introduced myself to everyone with my actual name, Kelsey. I’ll try to recount things as well as I can, but nervous excitement tends to cloud the memory. In fact, I had been expecting something more whackadoodle, as I like to put it, to happen but this was quite different.
As with many others’ experience, we were ushered in by a rather harried Stephanie. We all actually walked right past the merch table, were beckoned back, and asked if we wanted to buy the merch. Addison’s dress was pointed out as having been bid on by Megan for $500 but if we wanted it we could bid $501.
We were all shown to the seating area with what looked like patio furniture with fold over canopies. A man with a salt and pepper beard, smoking a cigar was standing on the makeshift stage at the far end of the room. Tina was quick to come over and introduce herself with the problem of not having procured a good enough location. After being shown images of warehouses, she mentioned that she had to find something large with soundproof walls and floor drains. I suggested an old meat packing plant, which she excitedly looked for online for a bit.
One thing that I loved about the atmosphere of The Tension Experience was the old music. I noticed right away that they were playing some standards from the late twenties (specifically, Are You Lonesome Tonight). Later I thought I recognized a Lee Morse song but I’m not entirely sure.
I was one of the last two of the group to be called over to the tables (with Marcos, Nicole, and Abe). I was told to sit across Abe (Abigail). She introduced herself, asking how I liked the building. I said it was interesting but I wasn’t sure if it was what I had expected. She said that she had wanted to take part in the Tension Experence, but her husband had passed away around that time. She sent her nephew in her place and he apparently enjoyed the experience so much he wanted to go a second time. She then informed me that she had invested a million dollars (!) into this experience and was there to make sure that her money was being spent well. (She very much didn’t want people to give $100 worth of work for a million in payment.) I was asked if I’d participated in Ascension, which I had. After that she asked me where I was from, which I answered. She recognized the city (which overlaps two states and she got the specific state wrong, but I didn’t correct her) and said that she and her husband passed through on road trips and that the countryside was very flat (which is very true).
I signed the paper and was lead over to the seat outside what seems to be called the red room. After a few minutes it was me, Lia, and Shaun by the door. Tina came over and informed me that empty meat packing plants weren’t very common in LA and the only one she found was still in business. While we were waiting, the man with the beard was on the phone. He eventually called the three of us into the room. The room was positively stuffed with smoke and I tried to discreetly hide my coughing. We handed our papers over and were told to sit on the couch in the corner. I won’t go into too much detail since this has been covered already, but he asked us if we had ever lost anything (come on, now) which we all answered yes to. Lia was asked to count the stack of $100 bills. We were told the man had lost upwards of a million dollars in the Tension Experience (I think I remember it being three million but I also can’t remember it accurately). I don’t recall if much else was said, but we were shown out of the room and told to be careful. We exited the building through a kitchen area that led back to the main room and the door we entered.
All in all, pretty different to what I was expecting but no less interesting. I find the implication that The Tension Experience was a financial failure to be interesting. I have no idea if this has been speculated before but I wonder if that’s meant to tie in to the ousting of the creators of The Tension Experience during the book release party. I wasn’t present so I’m not sure of all the details on that.
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Just as a general comment to all that went today and are reading the recap…. anybody else getting that weird feeling every time Remy, Marcus, Nicole, Abigail and all others are mentioning “making a load of money” or anything “lotsa money”. Idk I know this is a business and profit has to be made to make this viable….I just wish they weren’t so in our faces about it because we’re probably their source of revenue? :-/
Anybody?
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I’m in the middle of making dinner but want to specifically address some things in regards to @macbethinabathtub post.
What Nicole said about me is completely and utterly false, and quite honestly I am a little taken aback that you would not address the fact we spoke after, Chris. Really not cool.
I’m honestly disturbed and alarmed to have that kind of behavior even remotely attached to my name. And I am not speaking IN GAME. This is a line that I’m not fucking cool with crossing.
If anyone’s curious, I have the entire audio of my discussion with Nicole in which none of what she says happened. I was only going to use this for transcribing purposes but now I’m forced to use it to defend myself.
So yeah, Nicole’s a garbage person.
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@thebuz so, they knew right where they could get you, eh?
Personally, I did not believe it. I did not believe that @macbethinabathtub believed it either. Having not met either of you, I can’t speak in regards to your actual friendship – – but maybe take a timeout? It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve tried to drive a wedge between participants.
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I’ll keep mine brief as well. I was part of the 5:30 group and was running late so when I entered everyone was already seated in the lounge area and speaking with Tina who was showing them photos on her laptop. I couldn’t hear very well because there was loud jazz? type music playing. I introduced myself to the others and Stephanie heard my name and very sweetly called me out and directed me to Abe? Abe introduced herself and asked me about immersive theater and how I liked it and told me she thought she was too old for it at first, but her nephew did Tension and loved it. She asked me where I was from then told me her husband passed away and left her quite well off so she invested one million in Tension, but had only gotten back hundreds. She was very sweet and seemed genuine. She had me sign the “full participation in Lust” paper, then led me to the sitting area by the back room. Stephanie came by and asked if I wanted water and was very nice and calling me by my first name. During this, Remy was chain smoking and pacing around and coming in and out of the back room. (I guess the other guy with the stick had left at this point and Remy was doing the back room stuff). He had me enter the room which was very dark and told me to sit on the couch which had processing papers with people’s pictures scattered about. I noticed a dry erase board with a few months of calendar plans and oddly a metal “Kokopelli” symbol on the wall (the southwestern trickster god playing the flute?? Did anyone else notice this??) He asked me if I had ever lost something? I said yes, a family friend who died. He said he was sorry and spoke about the circle of life. Then he handed me a wad of cash and told me to count it. I counted ten 100 dollar bills and told him it was 1000 dollars. He asked how I would feel if I lost it, and I said that would suck. He said yes, it does and he lost a lot more than that…over a million gone. He was smoking the whole time and the room reeked of cigarettes. Someone also kept banging on the door. Finally he led me to the other door and showed me out and told me to be careful. I asked be careful of what? and he told me that only he asks the questions. I turned back because I left my purse near the couch and as I left he told me I was a very beautiful woman. Then I was alone in the supply room and noticed kitty liter, then Stephanie got me and showed me out. During my time no-one seemed irritated except maybe Tina at the beginning and Remy a little when he was pacing.
I also have a picture, but will post tomorrow when I can figure out how to do it! Nice to meet you all tonight as well!
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Last group of the night… I’ll add what I can free flow. For more, see my periscope: https://www.periscope.tv/w/1vAGRblplvRGl (Periscope has been viewed by Sinclair Industries… )
Tina came out flustered. Asked us about the space for the previous experience. Also asked if we’d met Noah…
Stephanie called my name and took me to Remi. Remi looked at me like he knew me. Said “Julie…” shook my hand and then said “I’m a huge fan of your periscopes”.
Remi asked me if I considered myself a lonely person. He said most people are. He then asked if I bought merch. I said I had it all. He started pondering why people have the need to show off in public the things they enjoy through t-shirts, etc… He said the Tension experience was confusing and convluted and they wanted to fix it. I told him I disagreed. I found Tension comforting. I found faith in Anoch…
He then told me this story about a tree in China with leaves worth 10 times their weight in gold. He has them delivered to him on a weekly basis to drink tea with. Then he points at a can of Sprite and says this is the shit they give me here. Do I look like I drink this. I mentioned he seemed more of an Evian kind of guy.
He asked why I do these experiences and I said it’s because of a need to feel something. He then asked if I was ready to give myself to them. Every on of the investors stood up and watched me attentively as I signed the paper.
Then Remi took me to a back office… a RED office. He sat me down on the couch. The couch was littered with processing forms and pictures from the OOA. Not like one or two. An entire mountain of these files.
He asked if I’d ever lose something. I said it’s easier to list what I haven’t lost at this point in my life. He had me count $1000 and asked me how I’d feel if I had it and then lost it. He then told me he lost millions on Tension and was doing this to right the wrongs and make back his investment.
He walked me to the door. He said he wanted me to be careful and I’m a very nice woman who deserves to be taken care of.
I walked out the other door and saw Stephanie. I asked her how she was. She said much better now that she saw I was there. She said it was hot and she was tired. I gave her an emotional hug and off I went…
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You’re absolutely right, @thebuz, I apologize. I was focused on reporting only what I had experienced as it happened and assumed you would be reposting your own account immediately to refute it. I should have prefaced that part with what we had discussed afterwards. Certainly this is firsthand proof of what the other Investors were saying– Nicole lies. I listened to a portion of Buz’s audio and can confirm that, although I of course didn’t actually believe Nicole in the moment either. Next time I’ll push back. There was no reason for her to slander you– I guess she just wasn’t used to someone turning her down.
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I honestly didn’t have any of the crazy shininigans that others had. I had some lovely chats with Tina (who may not necessarily know what she’s getting herself into), and met the lovely Abe. I never got to meet this Nicole woman and it sounds like it’s probably a good thing. Maybe being so much #BurnItDown with The System, they wanted to have me interact with some more… pleasant people?
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All good, was just a bit shocked to read the detail of what she said and not have it followed up with “This didn’t happen.”
At the end of the day, Nicole is a garbage human being. She can skoot her open legs straight out of town.
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Hey guys! Really awesome to meet everyone. I’ll go over my experience pretty briefly. I’m also wicked new so forgive me for my ignorance
I got there with little time to spare, about 3 minutes. I was introducing myself to the 430 crowd when Tina came out on her cell phone yelling about how she needed a place with drains and sound proof walls. Apparently she hadn’t found one that fit those specifications yet. We were then invited in and offered merch. We all sat down and one by one we were escorted to our various investors. Had a lovely chat with Abe about passion and people that have it. I signed my life away on a very strange contract and went to sit down on the couch. Some people had received a contract but hadn’t signed it. Someone asked Tina for a pen and she got extra flustered as she went to go get one from an investor. While that was happening someone’s phone began to ring over the Bluetooth speaker and remi lost his shit. “Can we get the phone off the fucking speaker?!?!” Very rude. Finally the door to the room cracked open and a man was standing there just staring at us. There was some confusion as to who he wanted in there first (it wasn’t me). He slammed the door shut and I was left to try and listen to what he was saying. All of a sudden he bursts out “get the fuck out!” Another slam. Then the door opens again and there’s no mistaking he’s looking at me. I go in and hand him my sheet. The room is bathed in red and smells entirely like fish. he takes off my glasses very gently and stares at me deeply. He puts his hand on my chest and says after a pause ” you have the heart of a warrior, hold on to that. You’ll need it for what’s to come. Although I don’t think you’ll make it.” Then he gave me some real good sniffs. The guy could probably pick me out of a lineup based on smell alone. He put his hand on my chest again and said “I am very grateful for this” I said I was too and tried to shake his hand. He snuffed me and showed me the door.
Can’t wait to see what happens next!
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I had Remy, and so as not to be repetitive, here are some random things I noticed/experienced that I haven’t seen yet:
– Tina told us that she had only spoken to the “team” over the phone, and when she met them she was surprised…to say the least. Interesting ambiguity.
– Remy was playing with a sheet of line items and associated prices. I think I spotted “STEEL”.
– Remy, re: his shitty chair, “Normally, I sit in a $15,000 art piece.”
– I attempted to ask Remy about what registration meant to him. He said (paraphrasing) that he doesn’t care, and I shouldn’t care…I mentioned how many millions go into theme park design and the like, and I think I struck a nerve, as can be imagined from others’ encounters with him.
– In the anti-football discussion, he said he likes to do the things he enjoys privately, and people “profit”
– In “red room” guy had me look in mirror and tell the guy in the mirror (aka me) the answer to the question I’ve never allowed myself to ask. I won’t say what my question in my head was, but I just said, “You are.” He seemed satisfied, I guess?? -
I’ll try not to cover much of the same ground that others have covered. The last two paragraphs have stuff that hasn’t really been covered and the first two talk about the cats.
I was in the 2:00 PM group and I think we were one of the first groups with the tan cat in our session. We saw him go in through the window while we were waiting around and @moustachemax named him Jeremy.
Same intro, offered the Tension merch, sat down in the big lounge chairs with everyone while waiting. Tina came over and talked to us a bit about the real estate stuff that others have mentioned. She also said they were calling the tan cat Garbage Kitty and didn’t mention what they were calling the black cat.
I ended up Remy’s table. He didn’t say much when I first sat down, but asked me if I had any questions. I asked him what this all was and what he was doing. He mentioned being an investor in all of this and asked me about the appeal of immersive theater. I got his name out him at this point too, which was basically the last answer I got out of him. He went on about he was used to sitting in $12,000 chairs and complaining that he was sitting on a folding chair now and then proceeded to yell at the Nicole about the chairs.
I tried to ask him about some other stuff, including the Sinclairs and he was kind of dismissive and never gave a firm answer. He told me that he was the one asking the questions, despite asking me to ask questions a few minutes earlier. I got the Walmart/McDonalds rant that @electrichippo mentioned. He asked if I liked football, I said I did and then asked what sports he liked. Told me he was the one asking questions again. Handed me a registration form but didn’t have a pen for me to sign with and sent me over to the waiting area outside the red room.
They sent Max over after and we compared papers. Both of ours had a different design on the back and we tried to fit them together, but were clearly missing pieces. Max said he saw all the papers put together in the red room to form an eye. While I was sitting there alone, I asked Tina for a pen to sign my paper with, but before she could come back I got called in.
Inside the man mentioned that he didn’t like it here, and I asked if he meant the room, the dark, or America (given Remy’s seeming distaste for the country) but he never answered. Did chuck a box of paperwork across the room though. Got the eye staring/hand on the heart bit and I honestly don’t remember what he was saying at this point. He did say I was kind and gentle before sniffing me. He told me the heart was important and then spun me around to face a mirror. He pointed to my heart again and then my head and told me they were both important. While looking at the mirror, I did notice the Kokopeli on opposite wall that @sfire8 mentioned. He asked me to admit a secret to myself that I hadn’t told anyone or even myself. I asked if he wanted me to say it out loud or just think it, but he never said that I did, so I stood there staring at the mirror and thinking on it. He seemed satisfied anyways. I was a little shaken at that point so I don’t remember exactly what he said next. It was something to the effect that he was glad that I was with them/would stand with them/would support them. I was a bit shaken and can’t remember exactly what he said to me. He led me to the door and slammed it before I could walk out (“Not yet.”) and then opened it again (“Okay, now.”) And that was that.
Here’s a picture of the form and you can see the design on the back:
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Here’s my two cents:
We came in and @birdiesrunamok and I sat down on the big goofy chairs while @winstonsmith and Alyssa (sorry I couldn’t find the tag) went and sat with Remik and Marcos, respectively. Stephanie told me I was next and could choose wheee to sit, I looked around and saw a cute girl in a tight black get up cooking herself in front of a fan. One of the processors chairs was empty and I assumed this was hers, so I chose to sit down.
She (Nicole) came back over and introduced herself. “isn’t the light GREAT in here right now?” I agreed and she asked if I wanted to have her take my photo, so she did. She said I was cute and asked to take a selfie with me so we took the cutest photos ever.
We went and sat back down and between obvious attempts to make Marcos jealous (it worked,) she asked me why I was there. “I’m curious.” “Oh, sexually?” ?
She asked me some pointed questions about my relationship history, and asked about my boyfriend, if I thought I would marry him. If there was something that made me hesitate before I answered.
We connected really well, honestly. I thought she was bitchy and hilarious. She kept telling Marcos they’d slept together once and she wished he would get attached.
Then she asked me about Noah Sinclair, I said we’d met. Did I think he was messy in a hot kind of way? I didn’t say no but before I could answer she announced to everyone that she and I both wanted to sleep with Noah. I gave a thumbs up. Sure, whatever.
She had me sign the standard paper, we walked over to the waiting area near the Red Room door and sat down. I watched Nicole berate Tina over film tempwrature water and argue with Abe about keeping the fans on instead of the fridge. She continued to peer out at Marcos.
Eventually Remik brought me into the room and I’m sure this has been said. Counted money. Told me he’d lost several million dollars on Tension (ugh.) and wanted to recoup with Lust. He then led me out and told me to be safe. I can’t quite describe it, but the room smelled of burning things.
Hope that wasn’t redundant for anyone. Today was very interesting.
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I was in the 6pm group.
While waiting to get in, Tim a came bargeing out of the warehouse on the phone. I couldn’t overhear much but it seemed to be about real estate. When she finished, she ignored us and stormed back into the warehouse nearly running into Stephanie who was coming out to get us.
Stephenie tried to get us to buy merchant but there were no takers. She then assigned me to Marcos’ desk. I sat and he started the VR conversation that other have written about. But Nicolas was taking selfish and trying to get Remi to help her take photos.Remi was completely ignoring her so Marcos tried to smooth the situation over by getting up and snapping some photos for her. He sat back down and started asking me about Tension and did I know or hear rumors on any underhanded or shady things that had happened during Tension.
While I was answering, Nicole called his name to while he replied “Yes Babe?” This upset her so he revised it to “Yes love?” To which she replied “we have only slept together once and he thinks he’s in love” (paraphrasing). They bickerson for a few minutes and then Marcos got back to work and had me sign the paper. Then he called Tina over and had her show me some pictures of building interiors and asked me which one I thought was cooler. I picked one which was 3.5 million so he said I had expensive taste.
At this point Nicole starts shouting that she and christen would both fuck Noah. Marcos responded about how he is much better in bed than Noah to which Nicole intimated that Marcos was just so so in the sack.
Then I was sent over to the red room where Remi asked me about loosing things and had me count the $1000 (and yes it was real money). He asked how I would feel if I lost $1000 and then told me how he had lost 3 million on Tension and he was going to get it back.
I was then led out the Room and told to be careful.
I headed back into the main room in time to see Marcos storm out of the building. Stephanie told me there had been some drama over fans and I should go.
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How many of us didn’t sign the “I promise to fully submit to The Lust Experience” form?
Were all of the non-signers processed by Remy?
Did anyone who was assigned to Remy sign? If so what were the circumstances. (For example, sought out your own pen and signed without direct instruction to do so…).
Maybe Remy just doesn’t like contracts or following rules? Could it be that simple? I doubt it.
This is especially interesting to me because the moment I was handed the form I began quickly running through all the ways I might get away with not signing. Turned out I was never asked to sign anyway.
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I think everyone I talked to who got Remy today didn’t sign the form. I think @sirhuxleywiseass (think that’s the right handle) even mentioned the had a pen on him to try to sign, but Remy didn’t particularly care. Please correct me if I’m wrong there.
@macbethinabathtub Are you trying to summon Chris Hardwick? -
@electrichippo I too had remy and he never asked me to sign. At one point he was trying to write something in his notes and his pen stopped working. I happened to have a pen in my pocket and pulled it out and set it on the desk for him. He grabbed and then paused and out it back down because it wasn’t green ink.
@druzicka I too noticed the Line Item list on Remy’s desk. I was trying to read it without
Looking too nosey or obvious. The only thing I could make out was “Pleasure Chest – $5000” . -
@kevin I’m sure Chris Hardwick would host Talking Lust for nothing more than Nicole’s day old chicken salad and a few wax covered jump suits.
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I just got home from a long day of hanging out and meeting fellow members (which was totally worth the two hour drive!) so I can finally post my account of what happened. I’ll keep it short and sweet because I know a lot of repetitive information is being posted (and I’ve told this story like 100x today haha). I was a part of the 1:00 time slot, and when it was time, we were welcomed inside by Stephanie who seemed distraught and immediately introduced us to the Tension Experience merch table including T-shirts and the infamous Addison dress that they were auctioning. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this break of the fourth wall threw me off. We were told to be seated in the waiting area and then one by one were given a person to speak to. I spoke to an older woman named “A”/Abe/Annie (everyone was a little unsure, and heard different things) and she was incredibly sweet. She asked me about my experience with Ascension and began speaking to me about what my passions are. We spoke briefly about the Friday the 13th movies and whether I told her I was more of a Michael Myers girl myself. She then started giving me a “life lesson” on passions. She told me that her husband had died and that he left her a ton of money which she invested 1 million of into Tension/Lust. She spoke about how she didn’t really need to know the full details on what she invested in, just that they were passionate about it. She gave me a lecture on following my passions and staying true to myself regardless of what happens and told me not to let anyone make me stray from what I believe in. BY THE WAY- all the while the sweetest lady ever was giving me a pep talk on life and I was trying to maintain concentration and eye contact, Morgan was taking his shirt off at the table behind me… Anyways, she then asked me about if I wanted to pursue and go forward in the Lust Experience to which I, of course, replied yes. She gave me a piece of paper with a single line and told me to sign it and then escorted me to a bench to sit and wait. The locations manager for the event then came up to me and asked if she could pick our (Jackie and I) brains. She asked if we could understand why the investors would be so mad at her choice in location and seemed visibly upset. She asked us to put in a good word for her, to which I promised I would. The door next to me suddenly opened and a hand appeared inviting me into the room. The room was dark and lit by a single red light. There were two men in the room, neither of which I recognized (oops). The man standing asked me if I knew who the other person was and I replied honestly that, no, I didn’t. He told me that it was “the fucking producer” and that he was “making him stay here. Does it LOOK like I want to be here? This place is a shithole!” Because the locations lady asked me to earlier, I tried to throw in a good word: “I think it’s kinda nice…” He wasn’t happy with that answer. He began mocking me “Kinda nice!?” and slamming his cane against a box of papers and on the desk behind him. He got up in my face and stared me in the eyes for a while before taking my pulse and telling me that he could feel my heart beating rapidly. He then told me I was strong and said “I want you…. to work with us. But I don’t think you’ll make it.” I told him I thought he was wrong and he just stared me down again and then walked to the door to let me out. Aaaaaannnnnnddddd, that was it! Hopefully that was helpful to someone 🙂
I’m super grateful that I got this opportunity to register in person, and I feel even more grateful that I got to meet and spend my day with all of those who went to the meet up! You all were lovely! 🙂
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@macbethinabathtub I think if you call it Talking Lust he’s just contractually obligated.
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Finally catching up. I experienced similar things that have already been listed. I was in the 4:30 PM group.
I wanted to point to a key difference for me. I sat with Nicole. Afterwords, when I compared notes with other people, it seems I got a rather different personality then everyone else. At the bar, @thebuz asked me if she had been very overtly sexual with me. I was surprised at his question.
Nicole was extremely self-centered. She hated the location, but she did not complain that it was anybody’s fault – she simply said ”If I were running this show, and, oh, I HAVE the money to run this show. We would not be in a hellhole like this. This place smells like dirty pussy! And piss! It smells like pussy piss!
Rather than being overtly sexual, she asked me why I was there. I said I simply wanted more information about what this experience was going to be. She was curious as to why I wanted to participate in events like this. What was I lacking? Was my life boring? She said she did not understand the purpose of all of these theatrics. If she was in charge she would simply plant microchips in all of our heads and just scramble our brains and be done with it – better than this whole charade.
She did ask me a few mildly sexual questions, but did not behave sexually. She asked if I was currently dating someone, I responded I was not. She asked what was I “into.” I told her that I didn’t know her well enough to reveal such secrets. “So,” she said, “you are hiding something.” I said, “oh yes, I absolutely I am. I have to know you very well before I reveal my secrets to you.” (I muttered something like “we all have kinks” to see if she would react, but I don’t think she even heard me.)
At one point during our conversation Tina came over and interrupted to ask me if she could take my picture. I said yes and she moved behind Nicole. She said, “Russell look directly at her.” When I did look at Nicole, she stood up and decided to join me in the picture that was being taken – which did not please Tina. (I have not heard of anyone else having their picture taken. That’s odd.)
Nicole asked me about my shirt but then immediately changed the subject to talk about her wardrobe and how she wanted to change it. I heard similar conversation to what @kasch heard. She mentioned being disgusted by the idea of her donating clothes to benefit others less fortunate – “I would kill someone if I were somehow to see them wearing something that used to belong to me.” She looked directly at me to emphasize “I would kill them, you do you know that I would do that, right?” Nicole struck me as extremely childish, bratty, self-centered and entitled. Near the end of the clothes chat, I believe she pushed the form forward and asked if I was into this and if I was interested in joining. I said yes and then I saw the statement about “I will completely submit to The Lust Experience.”
I pointed to the word submit, questioning it. She smiled and indicated it could mean many things.
At the bar afterwards, @maxzumstein (I believe that’s who said it!), pointed out that I may have received a different personality from Nicole because when I got her name, I made it a point to stand up from my chair and shake her hand, then sit down again. Also, I did not take a seat until she invited me to join her. She said, “My, you’re a gentleman.” Is this behavior why I got a slightly toned down Nicole?
After moving to the waiting couch. A couple people were called ahead of me. I sensed the door open but I could not see it from where I was sitting. I heard the question “who’s next” and I pointed to someone else thinking they were there before me. The Russian(?) gentlemen stepped out, pointed directly at me and says, “You! You’re next.”
I followed him and he slammed the door behind us. He tells me to sit. @mike, I have to say I did the exact same thing as you – my eyes had not adjusted and I felt like I was taking forever to just finding the sofa in the dark, ha ha!
The big difference I sensed in this scene from what has been described earlier – a sense of camaraderie. Yes, the man is intimidating. Absolutely, I am confident this guy could kick my ass in three seconds. But, I felt some sort of connection to this guy… I sure as hell felt safer with him than in the first room.
He took my form. He explained that he was frustrated because he had traveled up to “17 hours away from his family to clean up this fucking mess.” He indicated the other room with a gesture and explained that “they” had made a mess of everything.
He asked if I had participated in the Tension Experience at all. When I said yes he had a moment where he studied me, then his face lit up and he said, “Oh! You have a podcast?” I said I did.
He moved in close as others have described, his face was inches away from mine for most of the rest of the conversation. He explained to me that all of the associates I had met so far did not appreciate me. HE appreciated me.
I had a brief moment in front of the mirror with him, he spoke philosophically to me, then asked me to leave. He would not give me his name.
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To clarify, reading back through, I think I had a similar clothes conversation as @rizzzoooooo heard and a similar conversation about how the mysterious guy “Cared” about me as @kasch did. (Could not edit earlier post, but wanted to point out I think I had that wrong.)
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I have little to add, mostly stuff some of you have already heard, and more on the comedic side.
First, I was surprised (not surprised) to see Stephanie open the door, considering she’d told me some time ago that she’d be in Las Vegas this week with her in-laws. She told me to wait. “Familiar face,” she said. Which got me thinking for the next 15 minutes — familiar as in, we know each other in real life, or you are the character from Tension who is in fact not dead and are the same person from that, or you are the actress playing Stephanie in this world and…or…uh…
Nicole asked me many of the same questions, but I took my time answering them — partly because the questions were provocative and I wanted to answer honestly and thoughtfully, but also guarded considering the world I was in. At the conclusion, she said that she liked me because she said she was high strung and I was a calming presence.
The fellow in the back room had an Eastern European accept, perhaps Russian or Bulgarian, and we had a brief visit regarding my heartbeat and pulse, and that I “would be good, and would return”. He ushered me out.
In the storage room, I…well…see…the old private investigator trick is that the most valuable stuff is always in the garbage. So I may have poked around a bit in that little white garbage can, at which point, Stephanie appeared in the door, looked at me like George Constanza, and asked, “You’re looking through the trash?”
…uh…
“You can look through the trash if you want. You can go through the kitty litter, too”.
That felt like a cue to leave. We hugged and I asked, “So…weren’t you supposed to be in Vegas this week?”
“I was supposed to see Elton John with my in-laws but he got sick and cancelled the concert”.
To which bells rang because MY FRIEND BOOKS ELTON’S CONCERTS. Which I mentioned, to which she casually asked, “for real?” AH HA!!! NOW WE WILL FIND OUT WHAT’S WHAT!
My friend tells me that Elton has been sick for several weeks and cancelled concerts.
Later, via text, I explained my trash-hunting routine, and that “One just usually isn’t caught doing it”.
To which she replied, “Better caught by a person then poked by whatever the hell was in that trash bag.LOL”
Yeah. LOL.
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Whew! Got through all the posts and I will try to keep mine brief and bring up somewhat different info:
I was 3:30 time slot and actually when we were being brought in poor frazzled Tina was outside on her cell phone seeming really stressed. Stephanie walked us in and briefly mentioned the merch but basically seemed super over it.
Sat down in the red couch circle and saw that precious tabby just straight up chilling on the floor. Poor thing barely moved I almost though it wasn’t real!
The minute I sat down Steph called my name and brought me over to Marcos.One thing I will note about my particular convo with him is I seemed to have thrown him off. He wanted to talk to me about what I thought of Tension because “obviously I had been through it so that’s why I was here” and I had to tell him that I actually was entirely new. This caught him off guard but legit this guy NEVER BLINKED his stare was so intense, so then he asked me how I got involved with this so I told him about how my friend told me about it. (Sorry @lilmsfancpants I def name dropped you)
Well then he just asked me basic questions about what immersive theater I had done and was mainly concerned if I had ever purchased any Merch. He was REALLY pushing the merch y’all. He had Tina show me the pictures and of course the one I picked was also 3.5 million.Ok now here’s where it changes a bit. Tina goes back to put her laptop away and as she does Marcos calls out after her to get him a burger because the sandwiches were disgusting. Then Remi gets pissy and comes up to Marcos and whispers things in his ear. Marcos seems really irritated and pretty soon just gets up and storms off. So I’m just sitting there at the table by myself. I decide to check out Marcos’s clip board to see what’s on it but it’s basically just all of the investment type questions nothing really out of the ordinary. Eventually he comes back in and just pushes the paper to me and just hands me a pen. I sign it and head back toward the long couch by the reddish room door.
Stephanie then approaches me and asks me if “that guy did anything weird” to me? I said no not really, and she explained that she really didn’t want to put me with him because he has so much money so he thinks he can do whatever he wants. She then talked about how shitty her day has been and how she was just doing “this as a favor for Darren and Gordon” but now that she was seriously regretting it. I told her I hoped she would have a better day and she seemed to genuinely appreciate it.Whelp went into the “Reddish” room, and it was just me and stick man. Same stuff: deep eye contact, pulse feeling, “I’m special and have a fire and am one of the ones to keep it going”, some smashing of things on the desk and then of course the sniffing.
All in all a pretty interesting day! Next time however, I’m wearing perfume ?
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Hahaha remember when I said I would try to keep it “brief”! Whoops! I’ve always been a talker folks…sorry! ?
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My overall experience was fairly similar to most others, and I honestly found the whole thing very affecting. I thought the merch thing sent such a strong and disorienting opening statement, and Nicole really did a number on me in terms of pushing me out of my comfort zone. Maybe it is or isn’t a good idea to state this where any number of eyes might have access to it, but the best and easiest way to knock me off-balance and make me uncomfortable is to put me in sexual situations with pretty girls. As a big, oafish fellow, I find that violence and intimidation don’t scare me nearly as much as interactions with pretty girls can. Nicole must have picked up on that a bit and chosen to follow that thread, because it was only the sexual stuff for my registration. I got no info on her clothes, no sense of her wealth, I only got asked about my kinks, graphic details about my sex life, was called a “pervert”, etc. Through all of the graphic talk I kept my composure pretty well and remained very honest (she complimented me on my honesty), but then the silliest little interaction totally knocked me out:
“Would your girlfriend be made if she knew you were here?”
“No, not at all, she knows I’m here”
“Even if she knew you were here…talking to ME?”
“No…I don’t think that would upset here”
“Even if I had my legs spread just a little bit under this desk?”
I don’t remember my exact response to this but I think it went something like “oh! I…uh…well, I…I don’t know if…um…I…”Some fun stray observations:
I’m very interested by the fact that Nicole told someone that they are all family in a way that apparently ISN’T figurative. Not just for the obvious reasons that none of them look anything alike, but also because she pointed to Remi(? Was that his name?) and said “I fucked him.” This was followed by a conversation about Remi’s age, which apparently she didn’t know, and when he said “Guess” she responded “I don’t fucking know, you could be 70 or you could be 30”.Similar in the “Nicole Contradicting Herself And/Or Lying” is the fact that she complained to @russell about how shitty the venue was, but when I said to her several hours earlier “I really like the space” she responded with a “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” To be fair, Tina was in earshot, but based on what we’ve heard it doesn’t seem Nicole would do anything to spare Tina’s feelings.
And most importantly, finally, CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS CAT?
I was with a bunch of others outside the venue when we first saw this cute little orange cat (who looked fairly clean) walking across the parking lot. Someone jokingly asked “Is that cat IN GAME?”, only for the cat to quite literally become In Game by jumping up onto an open windowsill and entering the venue. By the time I got into the registration room, the cat was adorably lounging on the stage area (Nicole used this for her opening line: “Do you like my pussy?”). At first I thought maybe it was just some random cat and they decided to go with it, but then there was all this talk about the cat:Tina talked to me a bit about cats but for whatever reason it’s all a blur. Her cat (or someone?) had a name that was Mrs. Something, and she told me that the cat was 7 and she was trying to get “one more kitten out of her before we sew her up”. I asked if the orange cat that I saw wander in through the window was one of hers, and I think Tina said it was one of her kittens. I haven’t read every word of every recap yet, but did Tina talk to anyone else about the cats being hers?
So this could still be explained away as just Tina improvising based on the cat showing up, but then when I found myself in the ReddishRoom, Mr. Reddishroom himself asked me “Do you think I like being in this room? It smells like piss. Like cat piss.” And it DID smell like cat piss.
Then when Mr. Reddishroom gave me the boot into that room full of garbage (did anyone aside from Larry go into Escape Room mode in there? I poked around but couldn’t find anything), I noticed kitty food on the floor.
So, yeah, cat is totally IG. But my question is, what was it doing just wandering around freely in the parking lot? Wasn’t whoever it belonged to worried that it would wander off into the street and get hit by a car or something? How was it so calm in such a brand new environment? What are the kitty logistics!?
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“What are the kitty logistics!?” LMAO! I’m dead. Best end line ever.
PLEASE let that be the next poster. -
@maxzumstein @clairebuch
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@bcbishop To jump on your point that OSDM, OOA, etc was all bullshit — that they were pushing merchandise jibes with your insight that Tension appears to be regarded as just what it was — an immersive theatre experience with nothing to do with this new world.
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@theladyj This might be the best poster yet.
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@izryn Right?! It looks like a TV poster for some crazy show (that I’d watch) “What are the Kitty Logistics!?”
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@theladyj @clairebuch Welp, I guess it’s time to announce my official retirement from Lust, because life will never get better for me than seeing this poster<3333333
(Lovely to meet both of you today by the way!)
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I think it’s been covered pretty heavily but there was one moment that I really enjoyed that I haven’t seen discussed. While I was sitting awaiting to enter the new red room, Stephanie approaches me and hands me some expertly folded cash.
“Tell me you want to buy a shirt, make a big deal about it.”
She walks away towards the merch table and I follow her. She begins to tell me she has hoods, jumpsuits, books, and shirts. “I’d love to buy a shirt. I was a huge fan of The Tension Experience.” I shout at her, a little too loud for standing across from her. She smiles and asks me for my size. I tell her I’m a large, and she responds that she doesn’t have a large. “Seriously? I am a huge fan and I just want a shirt and you don’t even have a large?” I yell louder this room, making sure the room has my attention.
Stephanie grabs a medium and holds it up to me. “You’re a medium. I can tell. You’d look great in this.” I tell her I’ll think on it, and she continues to tell me I’m a thin guy, it will fit me perfectly.
I give in and hand her the money. “Thank you, thank you,” Stephanie responds as she hands me my shirt. She then announces to the room, “We sold a shirt!!” A sarcastic “yay” is heard from one of the men and Nicole responds with a genuine: “Wonderful!”
I return to my seat with my proud merch purchase, ready to enter the red room.
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@maxzumstein, the cat walked across the the area I was in and walked right up to Tina to be pet. It seemed like a very sweet cat. I approached and asked if I could pet the cat and she said I could. It did look clean but has a small scrap on it making me think it was a stray that lived near the building and knew the window entrance well.
She also told me she named the cat “Garbage Kitty”–which I assumed meant it was a stray that lived near the garbage.
This was the orange cat and I saw the black on in the parking lot upon leaving.
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@electrichippo I’m a little late on this, but I offered to give Remy my pen because he was whining about his green one not working. He waved it off.
When I was sitting before the final part, I asked Tina if I should sign the paper. She asked Nicole, who made a mini-big deal out of how SHE’s been having her people sign. So I did. And that’s my exciting story for today.
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@theladyj ?????? THANK YOU! That will be entertaining for a LONG time. Hahaha @maxzumstein So great meeting you and thank you again for that hilariously amazing quote.
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Does it bother anyone else how inconsistent the story lines seem?
DLB was obviously THERE (the delivery, and people actually seeing him place him there)
Does Tina own the building? Is she managing that property? Or is she a freelance location scout that just got brought on?
Is this for the investors of the whole project, or for “THE SYSTEM,” which is what we were supposed to be registering for?
Are these people stuck in some weird loop? Why did Marcus ask Tina for a sandwich so many times before he tells her to get him something else? Are these mini sandwiches? (To be fair, I remember him asking her to bring him a finger sand which during my turn)
What was that paper about? A distraction? (I was never shown this sheet)
What is Stephanie’s true position?
So many more questions that seem like plot holes.
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@hazelverse, not trying to sound mean here, but are you seriously talking about sandwiches being a plot hole?
I think the Sinclairs might be tied up in some other things with Sarah’s calls about her safety because she could t keep Noah in line… and technically did we get a “live seminar?” Haha.
Stephanie said she was there for Gordon and Darren and it sounds like they, like, Tina is under the thumb of whoever is running the show… these “investors” and whoever the fuck Noah’s dad is…
This is all so dense, but thats why I am still here.
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First a tiny bit of history, when I went to Tension, I went the first time on the second weekend it opened and went in totally blind, the event was $125, and the ARG didn’t make any sense to me. It was sorta a daze for me, as I’ve never been involved in something like this before. It became real when we were on our knees during the BOS scene and the participant next to me screams at the top of her lungs, “what are you going to shoot us?”, that left a impression.
Now 8months later, I’m a totally different person because of where all those experiences, and developments in my personal life took me. This was my first interaction for Lust. I did what I could to prepare mentally, and even dressed up in a button down shirt and tie, also I did what I could to take it seriously. I what totally calm, going into this Experience.
One thing I did out of habit, was turn off my phone, and took no pictures, and missed out on capturing a few very cool moments. I made the mental decision to fully commit with whatever happens or whatever I was asked. I was supposed to be there for 1pm, and it’ was crazy difficult to get anywhere in Downtown yesterday after noon, and I showed up late at 1:15pm, was taking in with the 1:30pm group. Stephanie opened the door, which was a bit of a surprise, as Stephanie is the one person I know well from the cast of Tension, she said “Lucky for you I like you” and let me join the 1:30pm group.
She was very frazzled and not her usual self, and made a attempt to sell us the more Tension merchandise. I spoke up and said “I highly recommend you buy the book it’s amazing” no attention was called to that, and Sabrina’s dress was presented all wrinkled and hung haphazardly, and all the merch was extremely poorly displayed, half-assed on a table, to me it looked like no one gave a shit about actually selling any of this stuff. My impression is this is all stuff they are trying to get rid of. I should of offered $15 bucks for a shirt (they were asking for $20 for a Medium or Extra Large I think), as I would of liked another one. I’ve done a lot of marketing and promotional management work in the past, so maybe this wasn’t obvious to anyone else, I would never display merch like this if I actually wanted to sell it.
I talked to Nicole, and I really enjoyed our interaction, and it was of a total personal nature and pretty much only about sex, which I didn’t mind, there was no story elements involved at all, just deeper and deeper questions about sex, and I just answered everything honestly.
One thing that does bug me is she asked me “Why are you here”, I said “I’m here for the system” I was never corrected that this had nothing to do with The System, it wasn’t until talking to other participants later that I realized this was the investors.
Small example of how far into asking weird sex questions it got:
Examples N: See that guy over there (Remie) we had sex once, would you watch us have sex?”
Me: Sure I could watch you, that doesn’t bother me.N: What if I had sex with your father, would you watch us?
Me: Well my father is deceased, and if it was my step father no, because the sex was no longer objective it would be personal and I’m not into that.”She said she liked me, and asked me to sign and gave me a pen, which I did with out hesitation, and I actually signed before I reading what it said, it didn’t occur to me to not sign.
In the red room that guy, stared me down, and said “I can sense your pride, and I can take it away with one stroke.” He stared at me less the a inch away, and made like he was going to unbutton my pants, I didn’t move of flinch, and then fiddled with my belt and took it off and started slamming the table with it, I did move or speak.
I impressed him, I can’t remember what he said, something like “You’re the type of person we want” I said “thank you” and I was addressed out of the room.
Then I met up with a ton of participants outside, which was so much fun, meeting new people, and catching up with the many friends I made, and had to race to work, so I couldn’t hang out at the bar after.
Never Silent
@delusional Pleasure chest is a well known shop in West Hollywood that sells, adult toys, and fetish attire. That could of been the line item. -
@hazelverse Plot holes? Really?
Does it bother anyone else how inconsistent the story lines seem?
Inconsistant? Everything you listed besides maybe the sandwich thing but that’s not a narrative theme. If anything both experiences have been extremely consistent.
DLB was obviously THERE (the delivery, and people actually seeing him place him there)
Yes? And? He tried to say hi to @rizzzoooooo at one point and was told to “Sit down and shut up!” Consistant with DLB no longer being in control. There’s definitely more to the fact that he was there that I’m assuming will be revealed soon.
Does Tina own the building? Is she managing that property? Or is she a freelance location scout that just got brought on?
From what everyone has stated, she just seems to be a realtor/location scout. She doesn’t own the building.
Is this for the investors of the whole project, or for “THE SYSTEM,” which is what we were supposed to be registering for?
This was for The Lust Experience not The System. As we’ve been watching the Sinclairs and particularly Noah have been fucking up the System so the investors changed this event from a System oriented one to a “Lets check on the participants and our investment. As well as a way to get us to sign our desires a way. This tied in directly with the call @theladyj got from Marcos.
Are these people stuck in some weird loop? Why did Marcus ask Tina for a sandwich so many times before he tells her to get him something else? Are these mini sandwiches? (To be fair, I remember him asking her to bring him a finger sand which during my turn)
I’d assume this was just a way of fucking with Tina as well as showing whoever was there that Marcos and Remy were in charge. It was a power play and Tina got shat on.
What was that paper about? A distraction? (I was never shown this sheet)
We don’t know yet. New plot thread.
What is Stephanie’s true position?
Don’t know yet, but she’s moving into a bigger role than Handler that’s for sure.
So many more questions that seem like plot holes.
Hopefully this clears up a bit about what happened. I saw nothing yesterday that said “plot hole” but more so just new mysteries and story threads that we get to tackle in coming weeks.
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@hazelverse Naturally the game is confusing so I can’t speak with much authority, but here’s what I gleaned:
From what Tina told ME at least she seemed like a location scout, although I think she said her exact title was “commercial real estate agent” or something like that. The warehouse was definitely a place that she found and paid for for the event, after Googling “immersive theater”, at least according to what she told me. The investors were unhappy with her choice because they told her it wasn’t “up to their standards”, and she said she didn’t understand that since most immersives seemed to just hang up tarps. She also said to me that she didn’t understand why they would need “drains and soundproof walls” but apparently it was a consistent demand, as @waytogokody heard her yelling about those items on the phone when he was on the premises. Again, I haven’t read every word of everything, but I think that’s the fairly consistent story so far with Tina, based on everyone who talked to her .
DLB was there indeed and has been sighted both seemingly “accidentally” and “IG”. I don’t think the food order we saw get delivered was supposed to be a hint, that was probably just food, and I know someone saw him just kind of walking through the room, but at least one person (I wanna say it was @macbethinabathtub ?) noted seeing him in the Reddish Room sitting at the desk, where he tried to get up and got screamed at by Mr. Reddishroom “you leave when I say you leave!” So my inference from this is that when DLB told us that he was removed from the game, he wasn’t entirely telling the truth, it seems like he, Gordon, and most likely Clint are all still attached to the game, but may very well not be the ones in control anymore, and are very possibly working under duress. Maybe the more nefarious of the investors/higher-ups are keeping the Creators close because they can see that they know how to command a crowd or something, but the Creators definitely don’t seem like they’re in control anymore.
Remember that on Facebook it said “in-person registration for the Lust experience”. Noah and Sarah have seemingly never reached out to us via Facebook, at least not as themselves (although I think it seems fair to suggest that Noah got into the Facebook last night with the “heya pops”), so I believe this registration was a sort of R&D to make sure Lust doesn’t lose money like Tension did. The question is what IS The Lust Experience, and how much of what we’ve seen so far has been “The Lust Experience” (i.e. an immersive theater event) Based on the Periscope I would allege that it’s fair to say Noah is “real” and is definitely linked to the people running The Lust Experience in some way through his father, and the investor people may very well have Sarah captive. What I am pretty sure about is that I don’t think this was The System we were signing up for. I know we’ve been seeing the May 1st date on the Sinclair website since day one, but I think one of the main things that I think we’re going to find out is that this whole thing was hijacked somewhere along the way, so maybe there’d been a change of plans. That’s my speculation anyway.
As for the sheet you weren’t given, I know that you and one other person (I unfortunately can’t remember who) did not go through the ReddishRoom, but why is still up in the air. To me it implies that they either have something special planned for you or they decided to throw you a little curveball because they know you, but I obviously have no idea.
Stephanie is, I think, one of the most mysterious elements here, but they chose her for a reason to fuck with us, and she’s been somewhat involved in this since before, according to @larry at least, who told me that he’ll be having a casual chat with her (they work together right now I think) and she’ll suddenly seemingly slip “in game”.
I think the sandwiches and food orders constantly being redone just shows how finicky these rich people are. This is also, I think, what we can infer from Nicole’s many self-contradictions (with Buz, with her relationship to the people around her, with complimenting/insulting the performance space): she’s either a liar or out of touch with reality in some way.
Those are my best guesses anyway.
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I don’t think I was clear.
I’m up to date with people’s experiences.
What I’m getting at is that we are constantly being given competing information.
Didn’t they say at one point that the only things that matter are on the forum: it was the game board?
WTF is up with Otis/iConfidant FB pages then?
I just feel like a chicken with my head cut off, and I think that’s the goal.
Things seem more haphazard than planned… if that’s the plan, I don’t personally get it.
It seems to be working for all of you though.
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I wish I could remember the exact thing my person said to me about Nicole, but it was pretty much utter disgust he mentioned that the little girl still has no idea what this really is. During my maybe three minute ‘interview’ he made numerous jabs at her, and her family.
Anyone else get this? Wanna say he said something about her “line wasn’t pure?” Is this bloodline? Maybe I am remembering wrong. I keep trying to replay things.
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Hey… just jumping on real quick from work because something popped into my head.
Totally forgot this happened… not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, my apologies if it’s duplicate info.Before our group went in, Tina came out of the door on the phone. She walked away from our area and was talking a bit heatedly with someone. We quieted down a bit and we definitely heard something about a location. She stated that there was a problem… the problem was that the location “needed drains and it needed to be soundproof.” This point was mentioned several times. Since this was before we entered, we had not heard how unhappy people were with the current location.
So, was this the location we went to that was not appropriate for their “needs” or a location they are scouting for future purposes?Hope I am remembering that right @goldtongue @lasalle @genghistwan (Cody – not sure of your link – sorry.)
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@russell We heard her talk about similar things in our group. I didn’t think much of it. Old warehouses need some sprucing up to become performance ready. What if the sound proofing isn’t about keeping outside noises out, but instead about keeping inside noises in? Like those weird iConfidant noises?
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Yeah I remember the same thing. Also Cody’s tag is @waytogokody
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@hazelverse I think the confusion was that all the points you brought up were easily explained within people’s written experiences. I wouldn’t characterize anything that we have seen as a plot hole, this is just a different type of story telling– one with intentionally missing pieces. Yesterday everyone got a unique experience, some more unique than others. Only by pooling all of our experiences together can we understand the full picture of what they’re doing. They are telling us the story as the Creators, but WE are actually also telling the story to each other. For example, my experience with the man in the red office had no mention of lost money, or a family 17 hours away, or any connection to Tension at all. He was much more vague and spiritual with me. But that is not a plot hole, because I am able to get that information from others, as it was designed. The same way now people know from me he isn’t all complaining and sniffing, he occasionally speaks to something deeper as well. As far as Otis and iConfidant, you’re right. We don’t have clear connections to that yet. But that doesn’t mean we won’t. It’s like a TV show. They are establishing parts of this world independently for the day that they are destined to collide, so that the moment they do will be meaningful to us. Last night looked to be the start of that. Before last night we didn’t know the exact connection between the Lust Experience/OSDM and the System. Now we do. It’s Noah’s dad. It always was. And we knew he had a dad from months ago. Now all of this is paying off. The same with Otis, I assume. Otis and Mike formed a bond largely by accident and we all got to know him. He seemed totally separate– until last night when coincidence again thrust Otis into the world by answering a Craigslist ad by Noah. It’s all starting to happen. iConfidant is sure to follow. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this month, but eventually. We already have had a couple breadcrumbs to suggest that Stacey has Investors of her own to worry about. Maybe we all met them yesterday? I don’t see anything haphazard about this. I see disparate pieces set up months apart coming together to form a single, surprising, exciting moment that changes everything. And yes, that’s definitely working for me.
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@lilmsfancpants @russell Yes, I think it’s keeping the inside noises in. Especially since she’s also looking for a place with good drainage, that sounds like the perfect location to be killing people. Sound proof to keep the screams inside, good drainage to get rid of the blood and mess in a clean fashion.
Of course, she doesn’t seem to know this could be the reason the investors are looking for locations with these features.
Pretty sure a fair amount of people are going to die before this is all said and done.
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@lilmsfancpants @nothenrygale The perfect “torture room” or “kill room” is soundproof and has drains.
Everyone knows that, it’s common knowledge.Wait… that is common knowledge, right? Er…
I mean… I would assume such a room would be….. oh… uhhhh….>>backing out of room now<<
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@confuseddude Thats CRAZY that the “bloodline” thing is coming into play again but separate from the Noah/Sarah story. Marcus definitely made some snide remarks about Nicole being a nuisance and a liar while I was with him. He mentioned that her father was supposed to be a part of those interviews yesterday but couldnt make it. Nicole was just the backup. Maybe his not-so-glowing opinions on Nicole are because of her family. Maybe it’s her mom that’s the issue?
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@russell Neatness counts. I can appreciate a well-drained kill room.
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The perfect “torture room” or “kill room” is soundproof and has drains.
Not necessarily. You just need to have neighbors who mind their own business 🙂
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@hazelverse – I don’t know if what @macbethinabathtub said addressed your issues but he basically hit the nail squarely on the head in terms of why we don’t all have the whole story, and it’s what I meant the other day in bringing up David Mitchell’s mode of storytelling. It’s also how LOST did it, and many, many, MANNNNNNNNNNY video games do it.
Otherwise…
Didn’t they say at one point that the only things that matter are on the forum: it was the game board?
WTF is up with Otis/iConfidant FB pages then?I think that what this means is that what DOESN’T matter are the personal private Skype/group chats that go on in various places, the periscope recounts that happen unnecessarily when they could be shared on the forums (not talking about the immediate aftermath things like Bryan or Morgan reporting in right after their encounters, before getting to a computer), or conversations and discussions that could happen out of game at meetups in real life. The game is played here. If things are shared between players elsewhere, they’re not *shared* with the community. For example, if Tom had verbally shared what happened in the bathroom between him & Noah with those he was out with that’s not enough. It has to go HERE. It’s not a condemnation of the other sites and social media profiles – those are part of the game and honestly a GREAT addition to the entire world building they’ve got going on. It’s about where WE play the game that matters.
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And just to piggyback on what @coryphella is saying about the Forum being the game board, I know that earlier in Lust there was some talk of needing a space to talk where “the OSDM can’t see us” or something to that effect, and I think the idea of “the forum is the game board” is meant to discourage that, not only because it might take away from the overall information flow to the community for those who might not be in those private group chats and side chats, but also because, speaking a little OOG here (or is it?) the creators want all that excited conversation and guesswork and fan activity to be where anyone can see it: particularly potential investors who want to see that what they’re spending money on is striking a chord
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Sorry for the late reply, got back home last night and was busy. I happened to be in the 4pm session yesterday. A couple of interesting things happened to me while I was there. First off, I got to speak to Tina. She was the really nervous lady with glasses, she also yelled at my group for coming into the parking lot a few minutes early. While talking to her, she divulged that she had been working with this company for the past two years. When asked if it was Sinclair INC., she said she didn’t know the name of the company, that she dealt directly with a Remy. Rent apparently was not happy with the location and was giving Tina tons of shit for it. Tina asked me what I thought of the location. I had told her that it seemed to be big enough and had tons of potential. She seemed to agree with me and was wondering why the company would not be happy with the location. As she spoke to me more about Remy, she had told me that he was not a pleasant person to be around and that he spoke with an accent. After all my talking with Tina, I got to choose who to be processed by. I chose Abi, Abigail from New Orleans. What a sweet and beautiful lady!! She was soo nice. She explained to me that she was one of the investors of the company and that she was introduced to Tension from her son. I’m sorry but I didn’t happen to ask for the son’s name. She explains to me that she invested $1 million into this company and life has been so much easier and prosperous since then. Talking about making $100/hr of work. She’s never had those kind of returns before. She was loving it. Now, here’s where it all starts coming together here… at the book signing a few of us were talking to DLB in private and he was explaining to me that he had to go to Panama to talk to some investors, and although at the time I figured it was all OOG talk, it is slowly making sense that his conversation was not OOG. That possibly the “Investors” that he went to talk to have gotten other investors as well. That the “Investors” are actually the ones behind all of this, possibly not OSDM or any other entity that we’ve heard about.
For as many answers I seemed to have gotten from both Tina and Abigail, many more questions have arisen, as in true Rabbit Hole fashion. That’s pretty much the gist of all the important stuff that I learned. I did have the weird guy with the accent at the end, no DLB, and he did his weird hand on my chest thing, and when hearing his accent, I asked him “Are you Remy?” I learned afterwards that it wasn’t him, but not seeming too pleased with my question, he showed me the way out. That’s pretty much it. I had a blast and got to see old and new friends which is always a pleasure! ??
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Just adding my two cents:
I’m in the group of people who met with Remy. I was given the form but no pen and was told I’d be signing it in the next room. I didn’t want to wait/was worried it needed to be signed quickly — so I asked Tina for a pen and signed it before entering the side room.
The man inside took my paper.
The man had no stick. Instead, he removed his belt and slapped it hard onto his desk.
He smelled me, commented on how fast my heart was racing then kicked me out.
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She stated that there was a problem… the problem was that the location “needed drains and it needed to be soundproof.”
Wow.. I missed this entirely.. Fuuuck!!!
My experience with Nicole is much the same as from others, except she asked me to take my shirt off within a few minutes of meeting her. She has a penchant for a familiar style of awkward questioning… That whole experience was so strange, seeing Stephanie there caught me completely off guard and I lost my confidence immediately.
Stephanie fucking hates Nicole, if that hasn’t been noted by anyone else. She was staring daggers at Nicole every time she passed by.
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@111error hey man. I’m going to be randomly honest. I have been waiting for you to post what happened to you specifically. I heard something about you taking your shirt off. Or at least I think that was you. Also, you have the right to not post anything – – as you already know. That doesn’t mean I won’t be waiting in anticipation of you telling what happened! If you already have posted it, redirect me please! 🙂
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@tyson I don’t have much time today to write, but yes, I was made to take my shirt off immediately, Nicole was a pushy and aggressive woman who obviously knows what tactics she thinks work best with us lot. Sean Decker is the guy who really gave as good as he got, his description of events sounds like he rolled up in there like Hunter S. Thompson. I was mostly bewildered and deer-in-headlights. Seeing Stephanie there really threw me for a loop.
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oooo, I am going to have to search for this now posting by @seandecker now. I was hoping there was a reasoning behind you taking your shirt off…. @111error thank you for sharing!
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Hey guys,
So a lot of us had quite a bit of stuff happen yesterday and I thought it may be interesting to compile this onto a spreadsheet. Please note that if you haven’t posted your experience here on this thread, tackle that first–then the spreadsheet.
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@111error phew now that I read this I’m glad I forgot to insist you take your shirt off at the bar like I usually do when I meet new friends. Would’ve been redundant.
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@wanda102 Even aside from the registration, you probly would’ve been like the third person to demand he take his shirt off that day alone.
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@wanda102 I’m glad there was a reason, I thought it felt a little weird being allowed to keep my clothes on for so long around everyone.
@maxzumstein We agreed to keep our time together private. -
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@mkarrett filled out your spreadsheet! Good idea
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Sorry for the late response but finals are in full force and I immediately had to study after hanging out with you peeps (which was great btw).
I’ll try to keep this brief as mine fell in line with a large amount of people. Here’s what happened to me: I was scheduled at 5:30. We walk in see the merch and were led to the chairs in the back. As soon as I sat down, Stephanie pointed at me and directed me to Abe. I had the typical abe chat about the million dollars invested and we talked about passion and college for a bit. She was great. I signed the paper (which after watching @meghanmayhem ‘s periscope sort of regret) and was led to the back. What I didn’t notice anyone talking about is that there was a laptop with what I thought was surveillance open on the counter behind the waiting chair which I wasn’t sure if it was oog or not but I regret not getting closer to it. Then I met Remi and saw the tension processing forms on the table as I walked out of the room. That was pretty much it
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Sorry to post this here but right now it seems to be the most popular thread feed.
I worked for a few hours creating this today. It’s completely unofficial. However, I’m sure if you want to share it on social media or something that the creators won’t mind. What do you guys think on this issue @thebuz @thegilded ? I’m certainly not hoping to create anything more than a little free advertisement for them! Hope you enjoy!
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@danduder I am not sure if that was brought up but I was alone for a while with all the interviewers waiting to enter the red room so I was looking around and noticed the open laptop. It was open to Facebook and appeared to be logged in AS Lust Experience.
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Alright, I’ll add to the pile.
I was the 5pm group. We were greeted by Stephanie and I genuinely can’t tell you if her warm and happy-to-see-me reaction to me was OOG or not. I trust nothing. But I like her.
After we were led in, she directed me to Remi. His table was a mess of garbage and he was looking down and eating a tangerine. I sat there for a while without either of us saying anything. Just him eating his tangerine.
Once he finally looked up, he immediately went into complaints. He complained about the incompetence he’s had to deal with.He explained that he was from New York and hated LA. That they gave him a Diet Coke like he’s the kind of person who’d drink something like that and that they’d never do that to him in New York. Complained about McDonald’s and Walmart and fat families waddling their way through the market.
He complained about the shitty chair they gave him, and how Marcus next to us had a much nicer chair. He shouted at him loudly about it. Marcus just turned and stared aggressively at him for a moment.He spoke of them having a new team this year and one of them (Nicole) was a last minute addition and is only here because she’s the daughter of a supervisor who also happens to be his partner (“not friends. partners.”) That he’s been working his ass off for 25 year and she gets to waltz in because of nepotism. That all she does is spend all day taking selfies.
We went into a discussion about “why is it that everyone wants to share how much they enjoy doing shit?” Here’s my sandwich, here’s where I went today.
I explained that perhaps some people feel afraid that they don’t have anything to offer the world in order to make a true mark, so they stick to leaving pieces of themselves all over social media in order to gain validation from others and feel like doing so leaves what mark in the world they feel they are capable of. “If people like me, I matter.”He discussed the fact that last year Tension was “a little convoluted, a little far fetched” and they’re trying to be more organic this time around.
He asked me why I liked interactive theatre (he said interactive, not immersive). I explained and he asked me to be more specific, which I was.
He asked me if I was into BDSM culture and what the point of doing interactive theater is if I can have that instead.
He asked me if I was into interactive theatre more for the social aspect, of which I said no…that it was simply a nice side effect of it, but not why I do it.This is the point when he introduced himself to me, told me his name and shook my hand.
“They told me to shake the flesh. I don’t know about that part but…whatever.”I was handed the contract, but he said he was hoping for me to sign it, but his pen had been broken all day, so it doesn’t matter.
That’s when he stood up, took me by the hand, and we walked hand-in-hand over to the bench by the red room.When I entered the red room, it was the very grumpy European man. He slammed the door behind me and glared at me silently for a moment.
He asked me if I thought he was happy in here (“I couldn’t say. I only just walked in.”)He aggressively threw a trash can against the wall and stared at me again waiting for a response. (“That looked like fun, actually. Ok fine. I suppose you’re not very happy.”)
He grabbed me by the wrist and took my pulse and then said “I can feel a flame in your veins. Don’t ever lose it.
More staring and silence.
Some things whispered about how they’re not going to make it. Then I was told to go.
He opened the door and I asked him what his name was. He just stared at me and shook his head. So I left. -
I think it goes without saying that out of everyone we met yesterday, Nicole seems to have made the largest impression. Maybe it’s because she neither flirted with me nor touched her phone/took pictures of herself, but I have a feeling she has something deeper to reveal to us. While we know she isn’t well liked by any of her co-Investors (if she even IS an actual investor, rather than simply a spoiled proxy for her unseen father) and she is clearly both vapid and a liar, she did say two things that rang as truthful to me that I think bear repeating:
1) That she felt she couldn’t leave whatever organization she was in because it was her family. She never once mentioned her father to me, but was clear that she was working amongst her family and had been apart of this from a very young age.
2) When defending her family she used the exact quote “They did some fucked up things to Anoch, but…”
Anoch, of course, is the supreme being at the center of the OOA’s belief system. At the time of The End I remember discussions about how, while Tension and the OOA were fake, members of the OSDM still regarded the Anoch belief system as true. Yesterday a number of overt connections were finally made between Tension and Lust, and this feels like a particularly tantalizing one. The way Nicole said the whole thing out loud, just tossed it off, it honestly sounded like she could have been talking about a real person she knew. Certainly not some imaginary being she took no stock in. Whatever Anoch is, he has a presence here somewhere in the periphery, and we’ve met at least one new person who believes in him. Is it possible we could soon learn the REAL way to worship Anoch? -
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Rather than drop a novel into the middle of the activity feed, I will post a link to a Pastebin where I have written a transcription of what occurred during my registration to the best of my recollection. Be forewarned, it’s pretty long, but I never know what’s important with these things, so I figure the more information the better, right?
My slot was 6:30, and assembled were myself, @monkeymuffin333, @chelsea, @nothenrygale, and @julierei.
Here’s the link: https://pastebin.com/ArxrPF18
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@prufrock5150 – That was a really fascinating read, in large part due to how different it was from what I experienced yesterday, but moreso because you’re a talented storyteller. Thank you for sharing!
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Heads up: if anyone was for some reason considering NOT reading @prufrock5150’s pastebin recap, you should really think twice. Not just because the writing is great, but also because some of that stuff seems pretty huge…like, isn’t that only the 2nd time Nicole mentioned Anoch the whole day? (With the first time being in one of the very first appointments?) And also, your ReddishRoom interaction seemed significantly less tense and aggressive than everyone else’s. And, unless I missed something, this is also the first I’ve heard of that “ready to sign” thing! This is wild!
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@maxzumstein Wait, they didn’t do the whole “stand at attention and watch them sign” thing for other groups? I figured that was pretty par for the course on the day.
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@prufrock5150 to note: your experience with Nicole and Remi, dialogue wise, was very similar to mine. I didn’t participate in Tension so questions about thatwere omitted but Nicole brought up many of he same points with me. The difference I think may have been tone; she addressed me as an extremely like minded friend (the selfies helped.)
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Nicole mentioned Anoch to me. Said “It’s pretty fucked up what they did to Anoch.”
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Okay gonna be honest- haven’t been able to read everyone’s experiences yet but I AM DOING IT. I wanted to put my experience in bullet points and can go into detail if anyone has questions.
• 5PM group, arrived at 4:15 and waited. During this I saw someone drive out of the parking lot; and the guy who was in the dark room for us also drived off after we were all done. Can confirm – the person who was the next group’s dark room wasn’t the same as ours.
• Cat came out, was orange, before we went into the wearhouse. Noticed the cat food/bowl in the cleaning room.
• They asked a specific person in our group to go in before everyone else. They called him by name; talked after and they asked him to “help him”. Different experience than us.
• Their desks were in a row, two men and then two women. The projector was on, there was a camera on a tripod to the left of them.
• When going in the Realestate chick immediately pulled me over and had me look at the photos and talked to me about the space. I’m sure it’s the same as everyone else. Note* I want to look up warehouses to rent and see if I can recognize any of the photos and figure out where those are.
• Went to the side couch things and found a business card for a “Jared Lamar”. Looked him up and seems like it was just left there, nothing important. Still have the card.
• Was told to go to the guy to the most left; never got his name but he was slightly older with a blue button up and tie; brown hair and greying beard, tan skin and bright blue eyes.
• He asked me what I thought of his table that was covered in food/trash. He lit a cigarette from a pack of American spirits, smoked it while talking to me and put it out in a dish made For condiments – there were 9 including the one he just smoked.
• (summarized talking points because I’ve already written this and it didn’t post) Asked me if I was lonely- said he thinks more people need to be like me (I said I was really independent) • Asked to look at my outfit, said it’s slightly BDSM and asked me if I’m into that- found out I’m asexual and don’t enjoy sex. • When walking me over to the red room he had me hold and then squeeze his hand. Said it was the first step towards Sex; also pulled me in really close and put his hand on my lower back when telling me instructions on what to do next.
• HE HANDED ME THE PAPER AS WE WERE WALKING* I WAS NEVER ASKED TO SIGN IT AND HONESTLY I NEVER GOT THE CHANCE TO EVEN LOOK AT IT.
• guy in the red room was same as Meghan’s; he took my paper and placed it down, got super close to me and smelled me for a long time- seemed to like how I smelled. Took my pulse and said “You do not believe.” And then when I asked “in what?” He said “We need you to believe. We want you to be apart of this.” And without another word he opened the other door and I went out.
• noted the wifi password and the cat bowl/dishes with food. Wish I had tried to go through the door that wasn’t the one you left in, but I didn’t. -
@kortneydarling I tried that door in the storage room because I had no idea where to go and it was locked. ?
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I was a part of the 1:30 crowd. I arrived early with @michelle to make sure we could get around the May Day things going on downtown. After parking and walking up, we met with some who had finished going through as well as those going in the time slot before us. We all chatted and caught up; meanwhile a woman with a braid I later found out was named Tina came outside on a phone call. We watched her pace back and forth before coming back to the door and saying loud enough for us to hear “stay by your phone” in a commanding tone. As the 1-p.m.-ers went in, we watched this happen a few more times, now alternating between Tina and Gordon. Slowly our group filed in as we waited for our time, including @mistere (who was supposed to go in with the previous group).
Finally, Stephanie came outside and took us in, showing us shirts, jumpsuits, and books, listing off prices and giving us the spiel. She stopped for a moment and rushed to the door to close it, saying “I have to close the door or Gordon will get mad at me.” She went on to display Addison’s dress, “bid started at $100 but now we have an offer of 5,” she said. I couldn’t help but think this was a weird and confusing moment; they just love blurring the lines of these things. I watched the other people in the room all depart from random places to their desks. Two were chatting with each other, joking, familiar, while the rest were getting refreshments near the makeshift kitchen area. We sat down awaiting Stephanie to take us to our consultant.
My time came, and I was matched with a gentleman with a salt-and-pepper beard. In front of me sat a few notable things: a salad in a plastic box (already eaten, cigarette butts in the dressing container), a pack of cigarettes, a folder with documents inside, a Mac laptop, and a pen to my left that I even picked up for a second, thinking I might use it before putting it down. Someone appeared, and he introduced himself as Remi – or so I thought. Someone in my group asked him to clarify and he responded “Remik… With a ‘k.'” He looked at me with disdain and started telling me about tea leaves. “Have you heard of Chinese gold monkey tea? Very expensive. I used to have it shipped in $25K a month… Do you know what they offered me not less than a minute before when you sat down? Diet. Coke. Do I LOOK like I drink DIET. COKE?” He didn’t. I laughed and said some people never learn, to which he responded you’re damn right.
He went on to mention the merchandise table and asked me if I had bought anything today. I mentioned that I had most of it at home already. “So you’re one of those people that has to post about everything aren’t you? You’ve got the insta and whatever? Why do people do that? Why do they feel the need to have recognition from strangers?” This kind of hit me a little close to home, because I do run a thing about my experiences doing all sorts of things, from regular movies to ARGs and immersive pieces, with the hashtag #mylifeinticketstubs, but I went on to tell him that I do this for me. It’s a memory thing rather than a telling-everyone-your-personal-business thing. He started elaborating, but I wasn’t finished, going on to explain that I think it’s fun to do these things – and that’s what life is: experiencing stuff, being present, finding out your own thoughts and feelings on things rather than wondering.
Sometimes people ask about things I’ve done or seen, was it good, some respect my opinion but I always tell them my thoughts… then to go experience it for themselves to get their own. He asked what exactly I get out of it and I responded that it’s fun. It’s fun to be yourself and be in situations you’d never see yourself in otherwise, fun to be other people if the mood strikes you. I don’t NEED to tell anyone about these things, I just do it for me and if people latch on then that’s their choice to listen and follow along. “I’ve got my vices, you obviously do too, we don’t advertise those, but we’re not hiding them either,” I said, making eye contact then gesturing at the spent cigarettes. He seemed pleased with that answer – or at least content. He asked if I was a lonely person. I thought for half a moment and said yes. He responded “I like you. Nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has moments of self doubt. Some people aren’t worthy of their own company.” I responded that I look at it more like I’m sharing my personality with others who need it more than I do. He smirked, then went on to tell me he enjoyed meeting me and that he thought he’d figured me out enough.
“Last year was a disaster. They’re only selling this stuff to try and make something back – lost cause, though; they’ll never be able to. You know we got rid of the the heads from last year right? It’s a new regime. Trying to make things flow.” I said I had heard that, yeah, then I nonchalantly said “Good. Make things flow better. We’re paying customers, and deserve the best product.” Though, in my mind, I reflected on how I was happy with my experience until now, and quite enjoyed it under the reins of Darren – I thought how in terms of progress, if they’re offering something “better,” then you’ll always do better by pleasing those paying you. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds” is a phrase that comes to mind, but I feel it’s the wrong application.
He went on to apologize to me. He said that things should be much better from now on. “You probably came here thinking that this was going to be some… THING… but really we’re just reevaluating those interested. Think of this as a re-meet, meeting for the first time. We just can’t trust the files we have from last year.” Then he handed me a piece of paper, standing up, and ushered me across the room to a bench. And told me “When they beckon, go.” I sat watching Gordon pace around the kitchen area with his back turned to me for what I think was a deliberate reason… We all wanted to ask him questions.
I turned my focus to the paper. Written on it was a pledge to do whatever Lust asked of me, and when I flipped it over it was marked with dots in an odd pattern. I thought nothing of it. It wasn’t even in my mind that I was supposed to have signed it until another participant came over and his was. Then came a piercing noise of wood slapping the ground. I turn to see the door cracked, a cane thumping the ground, and an outreached hand. I handed over my paper and walked inside.
I stood in front of a skinny man dressed in a well-fitting, all-black suit, but still with a range of motion. After what came next he felt dangerous, like an assassin or a mob-cleaner. I don’t know why I got that feeling, just with his next quick move and the fluidity of the motion as if it was ingrained in his DNA, a muscle memory. He stood there staring me down, and I stared back. He continued thumping his cane. Keeping eye contact, I noticed peripherally that it wasn’t an ordinary cane, it was taller than a regular walking cane and much thicker. It looked a lot like a fighting cane my grandpa had when I was younger, the kind that would conceal a sword or dagger, but I couldn’t see if there was an obvious slit in it anywhere. He stopped slamming the stick, letting it rest on the floor. Just then, he went from 0 to 60 and swung the cane into a box, making a loud noise. I didn’t move. He went back to starting me down. He then put this hand on my heart. I had my sunglasses and business cards in my shirt pocket, so he moved his hand around to find it before going back to staring. This happened a lot. Basically, you can just assume for everything that I’m telling you there was an excruciatingly long moment of him trying to mean-mug me both before and after… He spoke: “I feel pride. I feel a warrior spirit. I want to destroy it. I want it deleted.” Ok.. broken Matt, I thought. What came out my mouth was more elegant, though: “For what purpose?”
More staring.
He turned me suddenly to face myself in a mirror, which gave me flashbacks to the event last year. He pointed into the mirror and said, “That. For that purpose.” I agreed, taking it as a reference to self-betterment. He then walked to the exit and opened it for me. I walked towards it and he slammed the door screaming “NOT NOW,” then opened it again, softly saying “Now…” I thought, “Wow, coked out much?!” (the first image coming to mind being Colin Ferrell in Horrible Bosses), but really what came out of my mouth wasn’t any more elegant: “Okay.” I walked through and saw two doors, one to the street and one with a glass window and Gordon behind it. I walked towards Gordon and he took it his phone and walked outside… almost, I thought, as if he was waiting for me. I walked out, the first done of my group, and saw Bryan Bishop talking to some others. He mentioned that he was thinking we’re supposed to interact with those who step outside; I said I’d join him because of what just happened. We walked up to Gordon on the phone waiting to see if we could hear anything before moving forward, and since we couldn’t, we continued. Gordon stopped us and said “Not now. Today is NOT a good day, guys…” so we backed off, retreating to the street. Tina was coming out at this point. She said to us “Nice meeting you!” to which I replied “Actually… Can I get a hug?” She stopped in her tracks and said “What?! Did I even meet you?”
“No but you’re a part of this, so I appreciate you and your work.”
“Whatever THIS is… Wow. Hold on a second (to her phone). I needed a hug today.”
So that’s how I met Tina. She smells nice, and she needed a hug. I went back to the street to talk and decompress. Sometime after that, a car pulled up with a delivery for Darren. I asked “Derek or Darren?” He started walking toward the door with a box in a plastic bag. Looked like one of those styrofoam leftovers things from restaurants that are divided into sections. I probably shouldn’t have done what did next just due to the fact it was possibly someone’s lunch and was out of game, but I still couldn’t help but say, “Yeah, I’m Darren,” hoping the mix up would work. But just then, Stephanie came out as he was asking for Darren and took the package.
That was about it for what happened to me.
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Hi everyone, here’s my late add-ons. I’ll try not to be too repetitive.
I was in the 4:30 pm group. I was paired up with Marcus. I noticed that when he reached out to shake my hand he lightly stroked the inside of my wrists with his finger tips. I’d previously heard about how that’s a trick to get the recipient to feel at ease, relaxed, or trusting. SUS. He asked a lot of the same questions that he posed to @rizzzoooooo, @bryan, and @mike regarding my overall experience of Ascension, my impressions on how to improve the brand, which real estate location I liked most (“you have expensive taste”), what I would like to see in Lust, etc. I said that I’d rate it a 4 out of 5. When Marcus asked me why, I said that I couldn’t rate something I didn’t fully understand a 5. He asked if I’m an information person. I said yes. He then said because you think it’s good to get an understanding of what’s going on. I said yes, I think it helps to get the context and to feel more for what’s going on. He then turned and interrupted @russell and Nicole’s conversation to yell about how I like information. How having information breeds intimacy and improved communication. “SO THAT YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. AND AREN’T WONDERING WHERE THE FUCK YOU ARE AT 2AM!” (*cue eyeroll from Nicole. more nonchalant sips from her Pink Drink*). From their interactions it seemed very much like Marcus and Nicole had hooked up and Marcus was much more attached to the situation than Nicole was.
Spoke to Remy a little bit. Like others mentioned, he said he was pretty frustrated with this team. Was tired of this shit. That they’re all a bunch of lazy…well….look at them! Nicole was only there because she was the daughter of the CFO, who also happened to be Remy’s work partner. He had been working with the organization for 20 years and was tired of this bullshit. He mentioned having relocated out to LA about 2 years ago and lived in the Hollywood area a little north of Franklin near the entrance to the 101. He relocated for work to “manage this (*exasperated look*) group”.
Went to the red room. Didn’t notice a stick. Did get the intense gazing, wrist-holding, and the comment about preserving the fire in me. He did the same thing he did to @rizzzoooooo with the door slam when I tried to walk out. He opened it again and I stood there and stared at him for some time, asking him if I could leave or if he was going to slam the door again. He kept starting. More uncomfortable silence. I said “you don’t smile much, do you?” He didn’t look amused. Then I said “….well…I’m going to walk out now…” and went to that room. He closed the door behind me. Now, @wanda102 you mentioned trying the storage room door. Did anyone else look around that room. I noticed that when the man in the red room closed the door, there was a piece of paper above the door frame. It read something like “Room of Administration and Dreams.” Or maybe it was Realm instead of Room. It was just one sentence. And above the storage room was another piece of paper taped above the door frame (this one I think had 2 lines of text on it) but I didn’t get a chance to read what it said because Stephanie then made me leave.
Did anyone else get a look at those?
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@lasalle I actually did notice the two strips of paper above the door. I did not include it in my description because it seemed part of the actual location and I totally forgot until you mentioned it.
It seemed to be a wi-fi network name and a password. -
I think you may have mixed me up with someone else @lasalle 🙁
I was paired up with Nicole and had actually not spoken/met Marcus during my time there. The only talk I had of tension was when Nicole asked if I dug it and why I enjoy this sort of stuff and when Tina asked our group about past experiences in the parking lot.Also, about those two surprise guests: Gordon and DLB… I wonder if there was a reason for those two came out of the woodwork for certain groups/ participates? I say that only because instead of DLB being there for our entire group, he only was seen by @electrichippo and I. (Sus)
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I will try to keep my recollection brief because I experienced many similar things as others, but I’ll give some bullet points of each interaction.
I was in the 12:30 group, and @macbethinabathtub described the setting pretty thoroughly during that time slot, so read that if you’d like. I came in with @thebuz, @pandace88, and @sirhuxleywiseass right before @macbethinabathtub and another guy, but his name is not registering. Stephanie was visibly frazzled and asked us if we wanted to buy some shirts. we all declined and walked to the seating area.
People began getting picked by the investors, until I was with Chris when he asked all the questions to Tina, so read that if you’d like. To me, she seemed overwhelmed and nervous, and asked me how I liked the space. I said it’s perfect, and she told me tell the investors that. I said I would gladly do it. She walked away to take a call.
After a while I was picked by Marcos, who I felt was very friendly and genuinely interested in everything I had to say. He asked me if I did Tension or any other similar immersive projects, so I told him I did “Have You Seen Jake?”. He was fascinated, and asked if I bought any merchandise. I said that I bought a shirt, and his eyes lit up. He asked more questions about merchandising and talked about immersive theater being a very profitable business venture.
Pretty quickly after that, he got up without saying a word and went to grab a boxed lunch with the other investors. When he came back, he talked about how he misses the food from Cuba and asked if I ever went there. I said no, then he said I should go because it’s a lot easier these days.
After that, Remy came up, seeming very aggravated. They were whispering to each other, but I couldn’t make anything out. When Remy left, Marcos called Tina over and asked her to open up her laptop and show me pictures of different spaces. He clicked through each one asking me to pick the one I felt was the nicest and most modern, meanwhile chastising Tina for having a broken laptop. Eventually I picked one, and Marcos told me it cost somewhere around 3 million. He gave Tina a guilt trip for selling them a bad location and a few other things that escapes me, but he obviously was disappointed in her. She walked away with her tail between her legs.
Then at some point he pulled out the paper for me to sign, and asked me if I’m ready. I signed it, and said I’ve been ready for a long time. He smiled and walked me over to the seating area in front of the red office.
I sat there alone for a few moments until Nicole walked up, and sat next me. I did not know who she was at that point, and she didn’t say a word, but she looked at me very seductively as she started pulling up her skirt. I couldn’t help but look, but I moved back to her eyes, and introduced myself. I asked for her name, but she declined to answer. She broke the silence, by asking me if I had a girlfriend and I said no. She asked me why, and I said because I’m very picky because of bad relationships in the past. She got a little upset and asked if I was judging her. I said of course not. She said I’m a kind person and complimented me on my hair and eyes. It was not the Nicole that other people have talked to at all. Nothing too crazy. She hit on me very strongly, but I figured it was some kind of test so I stayed respectful and didn’t reciprocate.
Then I noticed the door open up and a hand reach out. So that was my cue to leave and enter the disheveled office space smelling of cat piss (according to the wonderful European gentleman in the room). After he slammed the door, he stared deep into my eyes while bouncing his cane up and down. I didn’t break the gaze at all, even when he smacked the cane HARD against the desk. He asked me many similar questions as everyone else. Do you think I want to be here? Doesn’t this place smell like shit? At one point he asked “What scares you?” He gave me plenty of time to answer the question, so I said I’m scared to express myself and my emotions sometimes. He nodded and put his hand on my heart. He told me that I’m very strong and powerful. I honestly felt a sense of comfort with this man. He walked me to the other door, letting me out calmly, staring at me the whole time as I walked outside and back to the group. No slamming of doors or telling me to leave. That’s pretty much it.
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@rizzzoooooo @electrichippo Could DLB be your new Sentinel?
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Brief debriefing (2:00)
-Cats (his name is Jeremy; I don’t care what anyone else says, Jeremy is in game.)
-Nicole talked about having pussy hair all over her chair.
-Made me keep my sunglasses on for most of the processing.
-Sushi was delivered by a girl referring to Nicole as “Ma’am”
-Asked me about my sexual orientation and preferences. (Leech)
-I drank an open bottle of what seemed to be tap water. (I’m not dead yet.)
-Tried to figure out where I draw the line only to quickly realize that there is no line.
-Immediately slide me paper to sign basically with a “you’re good.”
-Taken to Red Office. (Smelled like fish)
-Told I have “The heart of a warrior.” And that I will need it for the long journey ahead.
-“I don’t think you will make it.”
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@moustachemax, how did Nicole react to the sushi? Less than two hours earlier she complained at length to me about how she was hungry but couldn’t eat a salad because it had chicken on it due to her Veganism. I’m curious to know if that carried over.
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@macbethinabathtub No mention of dietary restrictions, I believe she made a comparison to the fish and eating pussy though. That was the only comment on the food.
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Okay I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and put down my experience at registration, though it may be similar to many others so I’m going to do my best to keep this brief.
Came in, saw Stephanie who looked stressed but excited to see me. She gave me a hug then offered me some stuff to buy, including Sabrina’s red dress which was $500.00. I politely declined. Would have done it if it was $100 or less.
Saw down with @macbethinabathtub, @jared, @pandace88, and one other gentlemen who I can’t remember his name and didn’t catch what his screen name is.
I was soon escorted by Stephanie over to Nicole who was busy checking herself out on her phone.
Here is the conversation per my recorded audio of the event. This isn’t an exact transcription but more so just bullet points.
She started the conversation by accusing me of staring at her “tits.” Which I wasn’t and said as much.
She responded with “So what a man would say. What’s your name?”
“Buz.”
“Buzzzzzz?! That was your given name at birth!?”
“Yes. Want to see my license?”
“I do.”
I pull my wallet out and show her my license. “Prove it, Buzzzz.”
“One z? Good job parents of Buz.”
“Yeah my mom didn’t want me to be a sound.”
“Why are you here Buz?”
“I don’t know, why am I here? What is this? What’s the registration like?”
“We’ll talk about that at the end. Do you go to this thing a lot?”
“No..? I’ve only done this and Tension. What’s your name?”
“Nicole.”
“Nicole. Got it.”
“You see Buz, I think a lot of people come to this thing look for a tits and ass kind of thing. Is that why you’re here.”
“Um, no. I assumed it was all about Lust for power. Not sex.”
“Are you a pervert?”
*Long Sigh* “Aren’t we all?”
“You look like one.”
“Oh that’s a very nice thing to say to someone you just met.”She then proceeds to ask me what kind of stuff I’m into… kink wise. I refrain from blurting out “HATE CHOKING LITTLE PEOPLE ON COUCHES.”
She then asks if I think her boobs look good in her dress. I decidedly don’t look as she already accosted me in the beginning of the conversation about staring at her boobs. She gives me permission to look and I do quick once down and up back to her eyes and say. “Sure.”
“But you’re not wanting to touch them are you?”
“That’s impolite to do.”
Then she asks me about Noah and I’ve heard of him. Of course, tell her I’m a fan. And she says “Right? I don’t know if I want to mother him or fuck him. Do you feel the same way?”
“I don’t want to mother him or fuck him if that’s what you’re asking. But I think people are attracted to powerful figures because a rising tide lifts all boats.”
This quote flew right over her head and she seemed to short circuit. Not in a robotic way but in a way when you’re talking to someone in a bar and make a reference to how China is ripping us off in trade and their face rolls over as the brain tries to catalogue some way to compute what you just said before deciding to dump the information and move on.
She then brings up my girlfriend and if she would have a problem with me being there.
“No, we’re allowed to have our own things and she’s not into this kind of stuff.”
At this point she begins to scoot her rolling chair to the other side of the table and slides up next to me. I swear on my life it was just like this:
“Would this make her uncomfortable?” As she spreads her legs open slightly. “Kind of weird she’s not here with you right?”
I am firmly keeping my eyes locked onto her eyes and not giving any of this any mind. She then scoots back to her respective side and says:
“You know it’s really fucked up what they did to Anoch.”
“You mean like create a fake Anoch to gather data on people?”
“I just think its fucked up. I mean I get it. I get you gotta be a cunt about certain things, but I just think it’s fucked up.”
Wooooweeee this girl sure knows how to make interesting conversation. At this point I’m studying her face to see if she might be one of the Bush twins and I’m being punk’d.
“Who’s being a cunt? Michelle? Surely you don’t mean Sabrina. She’s lovely.”
“I’m sorry what?”
“You heard me, she’s lovely.”
“Is that really what you’re focused on right now with my legs spread apart like this?”
“I’m focused on your eyes because I’m not about to get into a confrontation with you about your legs.”
“Confrontation? It’s only confrontation if you disagree right?”
“What? You were very confrontational with me when I first sat down about staring at your tits so you’re obviously not okay with it.”
“Well maybe I warmed up to you.”
“Oh really. Coo.”
“So Buz, are you going to register?”
“Sure thing.”I sign the paper. She says I’m lovely and fantastic and walks me over to the bench while I wait to go into the office room.
While waiting the people all break for lunch and Nicole is quite pissed off that there is no vegan option. Well there is one and she goes for it but Remi says “No that’s mine” and takes it.
Here’s all the stuff the eastern European man said to me in the reddish room.
He tapped his cane up and down and got really close and sniffed me.
“You drank last night.”
Well I just come from Stocking Frame so I responded with “I drank about 90 minutes ago.”
He drops his cane and puts his hand on my chest.
“You worry about things, Buz. You shouldn’t.”
“What do I worry about?”
“You have to let those walls down in order to be here. Do you understand.”
“Yep.”
“You’re tender. Kind. To some… You think I want to be here?” He picks up his cane.
“No.”
“It smells. It smells like piss of cat.”
Slams cane on desk. “I don’t want to be here.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t like that either. Cat piss is repulsive.”
“You feel me.”
“Pardon?”
“You feel me. You feel me. You feel what I’m saying.”
“Oh. Yes of course, 100%. No one could stand being in a room like this all day and you’re stuck here all day.”
“I can sense strength. I can sense it inside of you. I want you to take that strength and follow us to the street. We need people like you, special people, that can see ALL OVER THE WORLD. Not just a small ocean. You understand?”
“Yes. I feel you.”
“Thank you. Thank you for signing up.”And then I left. Gave a hug to Stephanie who said “I’ll see you at the next one.” And was on my merry way.
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Don’t hate me but I updated the spreadsheet a bit and added a new page–iConfidant numbers. I think people were interested in creating a spreadsheet for that too?
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Thanks for doing this @mkarrett!
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WOW. I finally caught up on all of this. What a crazy day you guys endured lol I’m interested to see where these new storylines take us and what will happen to The System and iConfidant, or if they will just fall out of the story because they are considered “failing” by the investors.
If I would have been there, I would have been distracted by the cat 100%. Probably would have carried it around with me to registration and the new and unofficial Red Room. I probably would have called Nicole out on her obvious need for attention. Girls like that make my eyes roll so hard. She sounds like the worst. Also, I agree with @thebuz, she is a garbage person.
From what I heard about Tension, they also had the “look at yourself in the mirror” scenario right? Which like @nothenrygale mentioned also played in our focus group and now in this Registration portion.
I’m curious to see what crazy lengths the investors will take to ensure they turn a profit this time. It seems as though from Sarah’s phone conversation to Buz, she is fearful for her life due to Noah’s fuck ups. I’m still a little skeptical of her based on her aggressiveness I’ve seen previously, however maybe she was so frightened by these investors that she really was forceful about making sure The System worked, even if that meant slandering her husband. The investors surely lust after money, which ties into the overall feeling of The System’s website, like @anakindrew mentioned earlier. I haven’t quite linked the purpose of iConfidant with the investors, but I guess that may reveal itself later.
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@shankfx22 Yes, mirrors totally played a part in Tension. I know that scene messed me up bad on my first trip through the OOA. Going through the physical shock of the senses stuff, right into that, I was pretty much in total shock and had no emotional responses. I have the feeling I’m once again going to have to face my reflection, maybe even digital form. I do wonder if there was any significance of my chair being the one positioned directly facing the mirror in the focus group.
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@shankfx22 @nothenrygale Yeah they had those scenes at Ascension and everything seemed to be very much a reflection on who you are, how you are handling things, society as a whole, and what you will do to change. I definitely had a flashback to the early days of the ARG when he turned me to the mirror and pointed at me telling me how he wanted to change me. For a moment I felt like maybe I hadn’t done my journey right last year. I definitely feel pushed in certain directions and toward certain actions based on what I did do last year, but for a moment I was doubtful thinking I need to take a long hard look and reflect again.
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@nosnevets He probably did that on purpose. Maybe he sensed that you felt confident in your surroundings and wanted to shake you up. And it worked, because it got you thinking, maybe I should take another hard look in the mirror. Placing you in front of the mirror and telling you what you need to change hits a rather sensitive spot for me, as my mother used to do that with me, only I’d be in my underwear and she would tell me where I needed to lose weight. I think I would feel rather uncomfortable and insecure if someone placed me in front of a mirror and told me I needed to change
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Thank you @mkarrett! I do love a good spreadsheet. We now have 25 or so entries. Let’s get some more: Lust Registration Event – survey
A couple things I find personally interesting: 1) @rizzzoooooo and I were the only ones who have reported actually seeing Darren. My theory on that is they probably wanted us to know he was still under their control, but didn’t feel a need to have him out on display for more than a brief period of time to get that point across, and 2) Am I really the only one Euro Stick Guy kissed (10 times!)?! I feel like I’m now either cursed or the chosen one… Probably cursed.
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@electrichippo you were kissed?! Oh man I really need to read all of these
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@nosnevets I just read this! DELETE DELETE DELETE!
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@electrichippo Haha, I totally missed the kissing detail! It seems like people who were particularly active in Tension got pushed a little farther at this Registration on the whole. If I’m not mistaken, Nicole demanded that Buz look at her “tits” and assess if they looked good in the dress (and accused him of sexual assault), Morgan got told to take his shirt off, you got kissed apparently. The Investors probably already know your guys’ limits and that you’re coming to the “immersive theater” event almost no matter what, so they’re testing some waters.
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@pandace88 & @maxzumstein – Yes, totally got kissed 10x in a row, mostly on hands and wrists, but it didn’t feel offensive or extreme at all. In the moment it felt like a gesture of gratitude. He did it right after saying: Thank you for being here with me today. When I first walked out of the event I assumed the kissing was just a personality quirk of Euro Man. The only reason it became noteworthy to me later was I started realizing no one else was kissed. All I can think of that might have triggered this reaction in him was my demeanor. I’d say I was kind towards him in words and actions, I leaned into the conversation rather than seeming scared or put off, and when he grabbed my hand to do the pulse thing I didn’t pull back, instead I put my other hand on top of his in a comforting sort of gesture. His energy was so intense when I first entered the reddish room. My instinct was to help him calm down, and also to get him to forget Darren was in the room. It was rough seeing Darren look so defeated. I just wanted Euro Man to stop being aggressive towards him.
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Annnnnd I’m so late to the party – apologies!
My experience at registration got all the right kinds of weird.
I was part of the 3:30 group. Although I was the last one inside, I was the first one pulled away to a desk – where I met Nicole. She had me take several photos of her with her phone.
She asked me if I thought Noah was hot, because she sure did. I told her I thought he was a good-looking guy, and she got curious if I was into men. When I said that I was into ladies, she asked if I was seeing anyone, and also accused me of staring at her tits…but she didn’t seem too upset about the attention.
After establishing that my girlfriend knew I was here (and would not be jealous about it), Nicole started asking me what I’m into sexually. I decided to go for it and told her exactly what my lady and I had been doing in the bedroom the day before, which she found completely fascinating.
I then asked her what kinds of things SHE was into, so she told me that she likes much older men in their 70s and 80s. She likes dressing up like an Asian schoolgirl and having them pretend to be her teachers. She told me everyone says she looks Asian – but I said I didn’t really see that.
Then she started complimenting my outfit, my beard, my glasses. I asked if now she was the one checking ME out. She smiled and said, “Of course, I mean, my legs are kind of opening a little right now.”
One of the best moments, though? She said that “this whole thing,” meaning the registration, was “all a bunch of bullshit.” If she were in charge, she’d just “put us all in a room, crack your heads open, and install it in your brains. I know that’s why you’re here, you know that’s why you’re here.” I said I agreed. Why waste time, right?
Finally, I asked what we were actually doing here today. She said she thought I was completely ready to sign the paperwork. She gave me the single sheet of paper which stated I’d be agreeing to give myself over fully to the Lust Experience. I signed it, then went over to the waiting area.
With that cracked-head image in my mind, I listened and heard a THWACK THWACK THWACK coming from behind the next door. After a few moments, stick man came out and pulled me in.
He set down his stick, walked right up to me, and took off my belt. As he wrapped it around his hand, I started to wonder if he was about to beat me, or take off my clothes, or…? But instead, he walked back up to me and put his hand on my chest. He said I have the heartbeat of a warrior, and that he hoped I wouldn’t lose that. Because I wasn’t going to make it.
I said: “We’ll see.”
He then silently opened the door, held out my belt, and sent me on my way.
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I made a thing: character idea by @nosnevets
“Boris the Bulgarian” or as we also know him “Man with a Stick”
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Apologies for the length, I wanted to be as detailed as possible. If you don’t want to read it all, I would recommend skipping to where I begin a paragraph with “***” and then read to the end, though some fascinating revelations are peppered in throughout, especially regarding Tina. I’m sure many people had similar experiences. Here is mine:
I was the first of the 12:30 group to arrive at the location for registration. It was a small warehouse with an attached parking lot. I walked to the side door facing the parking lot and was immediately greeted by Stephanie Hyden, one of the handlers from Ascension. Others I spoke to said they found her to be nervous, stressed, or worried about something (and during my time there she did spend a good amount of time pacing and talking with someone on the phone) but to me she came across as bored and disinterested to the point of being curt. She walked me inside a couple of steps to a small table with stacks of The Tension Experience t-shirts and a couple of the processing jump suits. She asked if I wanted to buy “any Tension Experience merchandise.” I said that I already had one of each of those and she asked if I wanted more, then gestured behind her. “What about the Addison red dress?” Sure enough it was there hanging up. I asked if that was the real one and she nodded and said “Worn by Sabrina Kern.” I found it interesting that she used both names so casually in the same breath.
The warehouse was very open and spacious, high vaulted ceilings with air conditioning and music playing that sounded somewhat Middle Eastern. There were five tiny tables with two chairs opposite one another spaced far apart in different quadrants. On the far end there was a large mass of theatrical platforms with small legs that were pushed together to create a kind of haphazard stage and runway, but while I was there it was never referenced or used. There was projector facing this back wall that was projecting THE LUST EXPERIENCE title and logo in the same color scheme as this website. On the other end of the space was a waiting/sitting area made up of a few padded benches/love seats with high backs. After Stephanie saw I wasn’t going to buy anything, she led me to this sitting area.
As I approached, it looked like I was intruding on some kind of last minute team meeting/pow wow. All five of the people who would end up doing the registering were sitting there and looking at none other than Gordon, the producer of The Tension Experience, who seemed to be leading the meeting. Everyone was getting audibly upset at Gordon for some reason, saying things like “Seriously?!” “Are you fucking kidding me?!” Just obvious displeasure and it was unmistakably directed at Gordon. As I sat down amidst complaining all of the processors stood up in a huff and walked to their respective tables. Gordon sat there for a few moments, head in hands, zoning out and obviously stressed. I watched him for a moment, then asked if he was OK. He looked up at me, scowled, then got up and walked away.
I was then approached by a friendly, stressed woman who introduced herself as Tina. She seemed very wired and a bit overwhelmed by what was happening, and it seems as though at least some of the drama may have been directed at her. Tina is a real estate agent (commercial only, not residential. I asked for a card but she didn’t have any) who has been in contact with the organization putting on the event for the last two years. Apparently they were unhappy with the building we were meeting in and were blaming her for not finding something more suitable. She was a little taken aback by this reaction, but ultimately came across as unfazed, as though she felt they were being irrational and too picky. She said that these people who hired her have “Next. Level. Money.” so they were worth the headaches. She briefly mentioned this being for a theatre piece, some kind of live performance, and asked me if I could confirm this. She said she had heard the last show this group had put on was also in a warehouse, and asked me if that was true, and I said yes it was. So we know that although she’s been in contact with them for two years, she had no hand in finding the space for Ascension.
It was at this point that the other members of the 12:30 group started trickling in and Tina excused herself to a corner of the room behind her where her laptop was waiting. We could see the screen from where we were, and she was flipping through pictures of different warehouse interiors. One by one the people at the desks walked over to the waiting area to take one of us back to their tables for registration. While I was the first one there, I was actually the last one chosen, so I continued to sit in the waiting area for some time as it emptied out again. I called over to Tina and asked if I could talk to her a bit more. As she walked over she smiled and shook her head, regarding everything that was happening. “Why not just go see a movie? A lot of effort for adults to play make believe,” she observed. I pressed her a bit more about her employers, to see if I could get a name, but she wouldn’t budge. Who her contact was, what was the name of the corporation, who appeared on her billings, nothing. Though she didn’t claim any kind of confidentiality on her end. I got the impression that whoever was hiring her had intentionally withheld any information from her not 100% vital to them conducting business. She interrupted by questions abruptly by taking her phone out of her pocket (though I heard no ring or buzz) and said “Amanda” as if that’s who the call was from, though she clearly said it too quickly for her to possibly have been able to read the screen. She walked to the other side of the room as she took the call, but I kept watching her and she frequently looked over at me as she (pretended?) to talk. Anyone know any Amandas?
Finally I was approached by a young woman in a tight black cocktail dress named Nicole. @thebuz had just been registered by her, I was her second person. She was friendly and engaging, very casual, if a little distracted. We had a good back and forth going, she was clearly not interested in giving anyone a lecture. She began with a few expected boilerplate questions. Had I attended the last Experience? I had. “Oh, so you must know Noah.” “I do, though I’ve only met him in person once.” “Do you think he’s hot?” “Well.. I wouldn’t say he’s exactly my type.. I’m afraid my wife might think he is.” “Oh, you have a wife! Where is she now?” “She’s at work, but she should be here around 5.” It was around this point that we were interrupted by someone at the other end of the space yelling “Lunch is here!” Nicole got up immediately without saying anything or even looking at me and walked towards the person passing out lunch. She stomped back a moment later, furious. She was Vegan and they had brought her a salad covered with chicken. And they were expecting her to just pick it out, but there was no way she would do that. I bonded with her over our shared belief that in these cases the food was contaminated, picking it out doesn’t help anything, the essence is still there. She had forgotten my name, so I had to remind her.
She complimented my clothes, say that she liked my style and that she could tell I wasn’t boring. I complimented her on her ensemble, which led into a whole tangent about how unhappy she is with her clothes at the moment. She hasn’t bought anything new in six months and is tired of everything she owns, she wants it all gone. Though she says she would never in a million years donate the clothes to Good Will or any place like that. She finds the idea of other people wearing clothes she used to wear bizarre. She would rather burn them then see “some fat pregnant teenager walking down the street” wearing her designer clothes. She worked for those clothes, she wasn’t about to let someone pick them up for ten bucks at a Salvation Army.
I honestly don’t remember how exactly it happened, whether it was because Noah came up again and I was making the all too common joke of comparing the two, or she mentioned him first, but the subject of Buz came up. He was sitting on the far side of the room waiting by the door that lead to the final phase of the experience, which I will get to later. She looked behind her to see who I was pointing at, and immediately went off about him. The first thing she said was “He tried to grab my vagina!” She went on to explain that he had been staring at her “tits” and was propositioning her. She was so taken aback and repulsed that she didn’t know what to do, but she wanted to see where he was going with it so she wheeled her chair around the table to be closer to him. He told her to open her legs and she did, out of curiosity of how far he would go she claimed, and actually reached towards her crotch before she batted his hand away. She was furious, but ultimately accepted it as something a woman has to deal with in the workplace. I didn’t know what else to say, so I apologized to her for what had happened. Then she asked me a number of sexually themed questions. Was I a pervert? (“We get a lot of perverts here”) Have you ever touched a woman inappropriately? Have you ever touched one without her permission? Why not? Would you do it if you couldn’t get caught? I didn’t have time to answer this last question because one of the other processors had walked over to our table. He didn’t acknowledge me, but talked directly to Nicole. He seemed bored and annoyed, and asked her how much longer they had to do this. He also asked if she had gotten the salad, which gave her another chance to scream about how it was “fucking covered with chicken!” After he walked away, she apologized and called me Bill. I said that wasn’t my name, and she corrected herself.
***She asked if I had any questions. I asked her about the fight I had walked in on with the processors and Gordon when I arrived. She smiled a little, as if to say Oh, you noticed that..
“I don’t want to gossip,” she said, “They can punish me.”
“Punish you?”
“Well they can’t kill me, or anything severe like that. But they can punish me.”
“How do they punish you?”
“But hey, that’s women in the workplace again.”
“Maybe you should find a different line of work.”
This is where things get really interesting. Her immediate response to my suggestion was that there was no way she could leave because these people were HER FAMILY. I asked if she meant figuratively and she said no. She had grown up with this group since she was a small girl. **”THEY DID SOME FUCKED UP THINGS TO ANOCH” but they were still her family.** She then asked me where I was from and presented the hypothetical that if Christmas rolled around and she said “I have this great new family in Encino. Come spend the holidays with them instead of your family.” What would I say to that? I of course said I would refuse, and she said it was the same way with her. Then our time came to an end. She reached for a paper on her desk that had a strange, incomplete symbol or pattern on it and turned it over to reveal a line that awaited my signature. “Are you in?” she asked as she handed me a pen. “Absolutely,” I confirmed as I signed my name. And with that we stood up and she walked me to the bench on the far side of the room. I’ll note that during this entire interaction Gordon had been pacing around the space texting on his phone, looking very pissed.After a short time, a door next to the bench opened a crack, revealing a hand that was open, waiting to receive my signed paper. I placed it in the hand and then walked in. The door slammed behind me and I wheeled around to see an older, distinguished looking man with a beard and a walking stick standing behind me. He looked vaguely Middle Eastern and did not speak. The room was a stark difference to the cool, white, spacious warehouse. It was a tiny, hot, cramped and cluttered office. A desk littered with papers, garbage on the floor. Actual flies were buzzing around. The whole room had an orange, smokey feel to it. He led me to the center and placed my paper on the desk. He turned to face me. He stared deeply into my eyes, our noses less than an inch apart. I maintained intense eye contact with him as he started banging his stick rhythmically on the floor. This went on for a long time. Louder and louder, ’til finally he threw the stick away. The eye contact still hadn’t broken, and when he saw that I neither flinched nor looked away after he threw the stick, he smiled slightly and nodded. He had a magnetic serenity about him, the kind of calming power that I imagine it would be very hard not to follow. To obey. He reached up with one hand to my jacket’s left front pocket, where my sunglasses were. He very slowly, tentatively, pulled my sunglasses out halfway, looked at them, then put them back. I honestly think he was just making sure he wasn’t going to break them with what he did next. He lightly placed his hand on my chest and paused as if sensing something. “You have a fire in you. I feel the flames moving through your veins.” He asked me how old I was. “29.” He repeated the number back to me. He said that I was very special, and that they needed people like me for what they were doing. He then led me towards a mirror leaning against the wall and instructed me to look only at myself. He told me that he sensed the “fear” and “anxiety” that was inside of me and that he wanted to remove it. To unleash the power that was inside. “I care about your well being. Not just now, but always. You probably met some of my associates outside. But what they forgot is that you’re a part of our ecosystem. The same universe.” He thanked me for agreeing to join them. He began to show me to the door, but then stopped and turned to me again.
“I want you to keep this,” he said as he again patted my heart.
With that he opened the door to a small but bright white storage room with a door at the other end. I turned and stared at him, waiting for him to close the door after me, but he continued to stare at me intently until I finally broke and opened the other door where Stephanie was waiting for me. I turned back one more time and the man was still watching me as Stephanie closed her door. She then unceremoniously showed me out. I found all the members of the 12:30 and 1pm groups waiting for me on the sidewalk.
Obviously a lot to unpack here. What is the true nature of Nicole and her family? What are the implications of her bringing up Anoch in such a way that she seems to believe in him? Perhaps she was upset by the way they used him as part of the fraudulent Tension narrative? Who was this man in the room who seemed to be espousing the interconnectedness of all things, and what does he need us for? Probably something we should have asked before we signed our names. Something has truly begun.
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I was in the 1oclock group.
Walked up at 12:55, yelled to go back to sidewalk. Walked up at 1:02, yelled to go back to the sidewalk. Once and only once the 12:30 group, all of them, had completed their registration, did the next group move forward.Once we went through the doorway: they offered us purchasable Tension merchandise including Addison’s red dress for an easy 500$ @111error offered 100$, and was eventually, firmly denied. Beyond the merch table was a mildly large warehouse with a trendy lounge area and a setup of 4 tables, with 4 people (two men/Two women) at each. There was no music. There was an incomplete looking stage. Lunch clearly had been served prior to our arrival.
We were escorted to the lounge and we mucked about chitchatting and were eventually plucked one by one to sit down at a table with an awaiting business styled person. I got a handsome, tan, bearded man named Remi who had an aura of general disgust for all things.
His workspace was cluttered with food, a salad, a sandwich, and a laptop. He was hamming down on this sandwich and fingering an unlit cigarette; his attention was distracted between said sandwich and laptop. He chimes up and asks, “Have you heard of this very expensive Chinese tea, the cost is nearly worth 20 times its weight in gold? I love it. And here they offer me Diet Coke. Diet fucking coke. Does it look like I drink diet coke?” As he eats this mess of a sandwich, “This is god damn lobster!” He shakes it.
“Oh right!” And he shakes my hand, “Now we’re done with that flesh to flesh bit, let’s talk. What do you think about when you see me?” he fiddles with his cigarette and throws down the last bit of crust.
I say, motioning to the chaos on his table. “Indulgent. You’re enjoying a lot.” He types something.
I look over across from me and @111error has his shirt off, talking to a beautiful woman. What’s going on over there?Remi asks about how I’m liking this Lust Thing, how he is part of this investor group, and that through today they were judging 1) how much interest there was, 2) what direction to go into, 3) Is it worth it anymore? 4)Tension was a cluster-fuck.
I perked up. “I’ve liked it. Marcos had called me, asking about how my experience was going. Everything has been nice, nice on-line, nice on the phone. I like it a lot!”
Remi types something again, “Is that it? Is that all you want from this thing is Nice? Nice this? Nice that?”
Putting my elbows on the table I answer, “No, I’d like a cerebral experience, I’d be okay with that. But online I’m nice, on the phone I’m nice, so I’m not surprised at my experience. But I would like something Cerebral. What happens if you push me beyond being nice?”
He nods a bit, has lit his cigarette and smokes it in my general face area. He grabs a folder named L.A MODEL and pulls a form from it, giving it to me. No pen. No instructions. He gets up and escorts be over to a second lounge area and sits me next to @haleywilde Beyond us is a door and violent banging, smashing, crashing is happening behind it.
Our papers read akin to “I fully submit myself to the lust experience.” With a line for a signature. Haley had her signed. I did not, and was not offered to, sign mine.
A woman named Tina, who introduced herself as the realtor and was off-put by this whole experience, that the investors were unhappy with this warehouse and had been generally complaining: It stinks. This sucks. This is terrible.
Both of us were supportive. I said the warehouse was within the theme of what Tension was like, so this didn’t seem too odd. I enjoyed that parking was convenient, especially in L.A. Tina then made a statement: “It seems like a lot of trouble for adults who want to play make-believe,” And I laughed unenthusiasticly and asked what she did for a hobby, replying, laughing, “Oh I work in real estate, no time for hobbies!”
“Hey do me a favor, tell them inside you like this location please? Please? It’d help me out!”The banging and smashing stopped, the door opened slightly and a hand beckoned @haleywilde inward. Left alone, I sat and admired the warehouse. Nicole, the beautiful woman who had been interviewing @111error, summoned Tina and used her as a photographer and took booty pictures, Instagram model-like pictures, and overall seeming very pleased with herself.
Tina seemed less impressed.
Banging and smashing come from the door that Haley disappeared behind. What’s going on there? Hope she’s okay. Once the smashing stops, the door opens and a hand beckons me inward. I skedaddle into a mysterious dimly lit red room.
Again with the red rooms?
There is the man Gordon (the Producer I’m told?), on his phone sitting on a couch. In front of me, holding a large walking stick, is a tall foreign man with an accent and an intense brown-eyed gaze. He walked around me, clicking his stick. He smelt me. He took my unsigned paper and put it with the rest of a desk covered in what looked like old Tension files and new Lust paperwork.
“I hate this place!” He stamped his stick, standing in front of me, staring downwards with very little space between us. “It smells like shit! What do you think!”
I reply, “It’s L.A, what can you do? Sorry.” But I am ready for sudden Violence. I wore shoes for such an occasion.
More staring. He puts the stick down.
He takes my wrists. He touches my chest, moreover, the area of my heart. “The old group forgot THIS is what it’s about. The Heart.” I agreed and he asked. “how are you?”
“Just happy to be here!”
More Smelling. More staring. He’s pressing his fingers into the pulse of my wrists. I don’t know if this dude blinks. “You don’t wear perfume. How old are you?”
“28!…More like a body mist really.” I ask, “I think I know your name. Can I tell it to you?” He only shook his head, with almost our noses touching. I finish my statement, “Oh? Oh. Okay, we’re not there yet? Oh okay, I get it.” And I curtsied a bit? With him still holding my hands? What? Stupid.
He smells me again. “What are you afraid of?”
“Drowning.” I say instantly. I am very afraid of it.
“What about mental drowning.” He asks, massaging my wrists, barely speaking above a whisper. I’m trying to keep my pulse under control. I try to think of cold things: Penguins. Ice cubes. Snow.
“Yes. Sure. Being Overstimulated is disastrous for me.”
“Shut your eyes.” He demands and I follow through politely.
Leaning in, he whispers right into my ear, nearly enveloping me in his large from, “Very, very good.”
He lets me go and walks away. I hear from behind me him opening a door but he never commands me to open my eyes. I twirl a bit, in place, eyes shut asking aloud: “Can I see again?”
He mutters a yes and escorts me through a door and watches me leave out the exit and up into the main area. He softly shut the door.
Violence achieved? Zero Percent.I was the third out, the next group had formed, we had formed a ‘decompression group’ over on the other side. I Shooed away someone who hadn’t gone through registration, IE: “Fuck off back to your side!” Someone asked, “Isn’t this about community!” …”No!” …Sorry: ❤ ❤ ❤
Other things:
As the day continued, and more groups were processed a car arrived with a delivery order for “Darren”. It must have freaked out that poor delivery driver as easily 10 people freaked out:
“What?!”
“What did you say!?”
“Who?”
And the food was ran inside the warehouse. The guy drove away post-haste.Also, I got sun burnt. 🙁
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