Turns out we fell victim to an ARG, which made it funnier. Now we’re dead-set on finding a real cult. We used our fake names for security sign-in to enter the building. We giggled our way up to the 16th floor, where the JeJune Institute resides. “ah ha ha, we’re joining a cult.” We get there and the lady is like “some people are already in there. you’ll have to wait and only 2 can go at a time.” There were 7 of us, so I volunteered to go alone (not because I’m a nice person but more because I didn’t want to have to go with the girl I didn’t like). As we waited, we started out cautious, and lost all control of our conversation, out of boredom, I fear. I was so scared in the back of my mind that people were going to come escort us out. As we waited, a couple came in asking for Dr. J-something. I got freaked out at the amoutn of people coming in and out. Well, just before it was my turn, a random guy comes in and says to the receptionist (who seemed to have no clue about the cult we believed her to be working for), “Hey I got a text about a free introduction…” She says he’ll have to wait, but I decided I’d invite him along for my session.

The dude seemed completely panicked. He was like the nervous guy that you’d find had explosives strapped to his chest. He asked why we were all there, and we all said “curiosity.” He was like, “It’s more than curiosity, though. I mean there’s some stuff happening,” continuing his paranoid boy persona. So we walk in to the room, a recording automatically starts and asks us to take a seat. There are some visualizations on the TV screen in front of us. The dude is just figity and nervous and sort of starting to freak me out. But then he leans over and says “Do you take shrooms?” I said, “No…” and then after a brief silence, he says “Me either.” haha which pretty much explained his state. He says this after the disclaimer on the key noting that we may be recorded. Well, if someone were watching, that clip of us is hilarious, more so if you knew we were perfect strangers.

In the room, we got a set of instructions. After playing it cool all the way to the elevator, we let loose on the trip down looking at our initiation guide. We followed the steps which basically lead us out the back entrance of the building. Patrick was like “Couldn’t they have lead us back out the front and just said ‘take a right’?” Then we realized we were supposed to be looking for clues on that trip out. Now, i was looking and I saw nothing, which basically ended the adventure for us. Since we didn’t sign out of security, we couldn’t just waltz back in. Our shrooms friend went back to the front entrance…set on finding the clues. He may still be making the rounds. We went down the street to The Carnelian Room for a drink and a nice view. A number of clues had us wondering if we’d fallen victim to an ARG. After some googling, turns out we had. We were so bummed! But it was great bonding time anyway.

We had dinner, family style at House of Nanking, which was really tastey. It was a good time, though all quite unplanned.