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Riddles

vexx32

By vexx32
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vexx32

vexx32

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Hm. The "hopefully never finished" part is bothering me. Implying that the completion of the goal or getting the group to work properly and perfectly would be a bad thing. Terrorists? Anarchists?

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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

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No correct answers yet. It's not any kind of organization, yet it is a group. "Hopefully never finished" means that ideally it would never end, never stop growing. The last few answers are on the right track, in that it's like Soylent Green. There is a key word in the second line.

I am one from many, with many from one.

Many related parts that make a whole, yet hopefully never finished.

Some of us work in harmony, others suffer from friction.

What am I?

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Specialist290

Specialist290

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I'm going with "family," on the assumption that the key word in question is "related," and that "finished" in this case refers to the family line going extinct.

EDIT: Soylent Green is people! You gotta tell 'em!

Edited by Specialist290
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Specialist290

Specialist290

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Nice :) Guess that means it's my turn to post one. I had one in the back of my brain a while back; let me see if I can remember it...

Alright, I think I remember how it goes now. It's a bit more of a logic puzzle than a proper "riddle" as such, but hopefully it's still within bounds.

Many years ago, two countries were engaged in a sort of undeclared war. They never clashed directly -- there would have been too much to lose on either side -- so the conflict, such as it was, was waged mainly by spies and saboteurs trying to steal each others' secrets and muddle one anothers' secret projects to gain the advantage. Both countries were fairly well matched, up until one country sent their best field agent behind the lines.

This agent had been a veteran military intelligence officer of many years, and he was always very careful to keep his cover secure. He based himself out of a small country farmhouse, and sent his messages home through a cleverly-disguised transmitter. Every weekend, he would go into the city to buy groceries; while he was there, he would receive the information for his next transmission from his contact, who would slip it into one of his two grocery bags as he walked to the bus stop for the bus that would take him to the gas station a few miles from his home. The path to the bus stop led him past a playground in a public park, and so he quickly became a familiar face to the children; they would call out to him and wave, and he would wave back with his free hand.

As was mentioned, the agent was a very clever and careful man. Nevertheless, he was eventually captured because he had made a very small mistake, one so small that even he thought nothing of it until the man who first spotted this mistake called it to his attention during the interrogation. What was the slip-up that gave him away?

This is not an open-ended riddle; there is a certain answer I'm looking for, and all the clues for it should be contained in the text of the story, though it might take a bit of thought to link them all together correctly.

Enjoy :)

Edited by Specialist290
Fixing minor inconsistency.
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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

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Some inconsistencies bother me, but I don't see how they would catch him up.

A school playground shouldn't be all that busy on a weekend.

Two grocery bags but he has a free hand; you'd expect one in each hand to balance the load, assuming plastic bags. Paper bags would be even more awkward to carry one-handed.

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Starwhip

Starwhip

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Hmm. Seems like one of the children gave him away.

Another thing that seems important: the contact gave him the information as he walked. Perhaps someone noticed?

It seems like he would have to be carrying them in one hand, as he would "wave with his free hand." Otherwise he would have had to drop one.

Perhaps... the fact that he always had two grocery bags?

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Specialist290

Specialist290

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Why does he need to to gas station when he doesn't have car? I assume he doesn't because he uses a bus.

He lives in a rural area, and the houses are spaced out a bit; you can walk for a couple miles down the road before you come to one. The local gas station (or really, it's more like a general store / diner with one or two gas pumps out front) is sort of the closest thing to a central community hub there is for the farmers there. The bus stops to take on passengers and fuel there as well, so it's basically become the jumping-off and return point for a day trip into the city.

Hmm. Seems like one of the children gave him away.

Another thing that seems important: the contact gave him the information as he walked. Perhaps someone noticed?

It seems like he would have to be carrying them in one hand, as he would "wave with his free hand." Otherwise he would have had to drop one.

Perhaps... the fact that he always had two grocery bags?

Hmm... You might be on to something here :) I'll go ahead and reveal that it wasn't one of the children, though; they wouldn't have the experience the person who figured out spy's identity out had in order to spot the clue.

Edited by Specialist290
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Specialist290

Specialist290

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Lives in a farmhouse and goes into the city for groceries.... Hmmm, probably buying things he could have grown on the farm....

Not everyone likes to have potatoes, corn, turnip greens, and eggs every night :wink:

2 bags in one hand, hmm,.. was one bag empty?

Nope. Both bags would have been full of groceries. Nothing out of place to the casual observer.

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Specialist290

Specialist290

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Maybe his transmitter was a hand watch or something in his hand and he was waving this hand every day?

It wouldn't have been anything quite that obvious. Remember, this guy was careful... Although obviously, he did let one very minor clue slip despite that.

Perhaps... um.... the transmission information slipped out when he wasn't looking?

I don't see anything that would give him away. Are you sure you included all of the information?

Nope, the thing that gave him away was something much more close at hand. And all the clues are there, although you might have to piece them together from what you know of our agent :)

Does it have something to do with the bus driver? He's the only one with enough experience, and you said the person had to have experience.

Or was the guy at the grocery store a spy himself?

It could have been the bus driver, if he had the right sort of background. It definitely wasn't the contact turning traitor, though; he already knew that the agent was a spy, since he was passing the information along, and thus wouldn't have needed to rely on the clue to betray his associate. He would have just turned himself in and asked for clemency in exchange for giving up the agent's identity.

The butler did it!

j/k

Hehe :P

Anyway, I'll give out a hint to help narrow things down, since this seems to be a bit more of a stumper than I anticipated: The clue that gave him away is tied to a particular practice that had been so drilled into the agent's head during his training and career that it had almost become a reflex.

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