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[Yoruichi-san]

As the other agents carefully examined the three locks on the ivy 'chains', Orin lowered his eyes, away from the dancing leprechaun, thinking. The inexplicable leprechaun's hints had seemed to be on the mark so far, but the creature seemed to mean some his lines literally, particularly the last...

[Yoruichi-san]

Yes, the agents determined, the three locks were indeed distinctive and would require the three separate keys.

Meanwhile, Orin ran over the woman's lines in his mind once more. The second stanza stirred something of recollection in him...there was a similar phrase he'd heard before, he believed, something that seemed appropriate to this entire venture...there's no...in..

[DudleyDude]

I'm still not totally clear on the encoding, but I am starting to thing the last 3 verses are broken into the first couplet referring to a letter and the last couplet referring to a specific "green" (arrow, goblin, hornet). The last clue (there's no...in..) reminds me of "there's no I in team'. I think the first two lines of the goblin verse (You won't find it in yourselves, but to express individuality it delves) similarly refer to the letter I (not found in the word 'yourselves', the letter used as a pronoun refers directly to individuality). I is the 9th letter and 59049 is 9^5. Similarly, I think the wordplay in the final verse's couplet could refer to W (twice intoned) and W is the 23rd letter and 6436343 is 23^5. I can't explain how "goblin" and "hornet" translate to 5, but I think I'd like to try those 2 keys on the 2nd and 3rd locks to see if they fit. If so, we could focus on the final couplet and see if we can make it fit for either of 'L', 'R', 'N' or 'E'

[vistaptb]

I think I got it! The first one is 6436343 (23^5), because W is the 23rd letter, and it is in the fifth place of ARROW. The second one is 59049 (9^5) because I, the 9th letter, is in the 5th place of GOBLIN. The third one is 38416 (14^4) because N, the 14th letter, is in the fourth place of HORNET.

[Yoruichi-san]

Sorry, I've been fighting a (mostly losing) battle with a virus, and going though some strange things...and struggling with what I think are called *cough* emotions...(yes, I know, the Imperturbable Society of Machiavellian Princes is going to have to revoke my membership), so there's going to be a delay . I'll try to get the next segment up sometime when my head stops trying to explode.

For those who haven't gotten the wordplay yet, it's pretty literal .

Thanks for your patience.

[Yoruichi-san]

...To the letter...Orin’s mind reached, and he felt something click into place. “...Come this way...not be on this day...”

The other agents were on a similar line, it appeared. Confidently they approached the selected plants. As her “babies” yielded the sought-after keys to the agents’ eager palms, an expression of pain shot across her face and she doubled over.

Captain Wraith grinned at the woman as the locks were undone. “Looks like we w-i-n,” he quipped, and Orin stepped towards the gate.

“Nooo!” the woman cried, clutching her midsection. Using her last bit of strength, she threw out her arm and summoned the power of nature.

Vines flew up and wrapped themselves around Orin’s legs and torso. He grunted and jerked against them, but they held him firmly in place.

Letting out a high-pitched laugh, the woman crumpled to her knees, breathing heavily. “You...won’t...get past...I...won’t...let you...”

Suddenly Orin sensed a green glow and turned. The young man they had met before was coming towards them, surrounded by a green aura.

“It’s all right, Ivy,” said the young man in a halcyon tone.

With concentrated effort, the woman crawled towards him. She clung to his leg and stared up at him with hungry eyes. “Master...”

He placed a gentle hand atop her head and nodded. “You did well. You may rest now”. He stroked her red hair slowly, and as he did so, her image wavered and then seemed to disintegrate into a million green particles, which scattered outward for a decisecond before being drawn back and assimilated into the young man’s green glow.

The vines around Orin unanimated and fell limply to the ground. He took a step towards the green aura-ed young man. “We defeated your minions, now it’s your turn.”

The young man smiled. His own form wavered and then stretched horizontally into a green mass, from which six head shapes emerged. The six heads moved away from each other, and the forms of six identical young men proceeded to surround the group.

“Which one is the real one?” an agent asked, his glance vacillating furtively between the six figures.

Orin frowned. They appeared identical in every way he could tell...they had the same height, build, hair cut, features, skin tone, clothing, accessories...wait...

“Umi,” he said to the control center. “Their bracelets, there appears to be an inscription. Can you magnify the image you’re receiving from us and read them?”

There was only the slightest delay before the images were transmitted to him and the rest of the agents. The inscriptions read:


(Pirate’s execution unchanging) (Not old, borrowed or blue)

(Nuts’ companion + not the fairer half unchanging) (Earl grey or chamomile)

(Spanish ‘the’) (up to date, made fair) over (Latin ‘you’)

(Line) over (moderate + task)

(Sunday service) (severity) (sneeze - second person pronoun)

(Sixth state) (French ‘life’, made fair) over (not from)



“Good thinking,” the captain smiled at him, then stroked his stubbly chin. “Based on what we’ve seen so far, the doubles are probably booby-trapped in some way and I’m going to guess that guessing is not a good option. So...which of these things is not like the others...”

[flamebirde]

maybe the italicized segments mean something more than the others? Also in the first line, The second part, I think that it has something to do with "new"- the only part of the old saying not allowed.

[vistaptb]

Maybe the italicized parts are letters? I see nu (new), T (tea), V (vie), and L (el).

[flamebirde]

I see 2 pluses, 2 () right next to each other, and 2 overs. Is it something to do with 2?

[Prof. Templeton]

I have not been following along with this thread, but I saw Y-san's code here and thought I would give it an analysis

Spoiler for Analysis

(Pirate’s execution unchanging)
Plank and Constant
Planck constant
maybe "H"

(Not old, borrowed or blue)
New (or knew)
Maybe Nu which is "N"

(Nuts’ companion + not the fairer half unchanging)
Bolts and Man and Constant
Boltzmann Constant
maybe "K" or "KB"

(Earl grey or chamomile)
Tea or maybe "T"

(Spanish ‘the’)
el or maybe "L"

(up to date, made fair)
Current or maybe "I"
made fair could be equal "="

over (Latin ‘you’)
Could be the Latin word for you Agis or maybe the Latin U which would actually be "V"

(Line)
? maybe minus sign

over (moderate + task)
Average
Task could be work or Force or "F"

(Sunday service)
Mass or maybe "M"

(severity)
Severity could be degree or "O"

(sneeze - second person pronoun)
Achoo minus "you" or just Ach

(Sixth state)
? or could also be Mass (the sixth state to join)

(French ‘life’, made fair)
Vie or "V"
made fair could be equal "="

over (not from)
to or "2"

Just some thoughts