Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Flamingo

I walked into the Flamingo last night. Even just this one casino was huge. I didn't know if I would be able to find anything. Everything was bright and opulent, but the people there seemed...used to everything, as if they didn't want to seem like rubes or tourists.

I walked around, looking at various places where I thought the clue might be, but had no luck. Finally, I decided to go to the roof, thinking that it was at the very top of the Griffith Observatory, so it might be the same here.

I walked into the elevator and pressed the top floor. On the second floor, a man wearing a seersucker suit walked in. He stood next to me and pressed no button. "Sola gratia," he said with a soft voice. "Grace alone. Are you alone, Grace?"

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Names don't matter," the man in the seersucker suit said. "Not when everyone has so many of them. They become things to be used and discarded. Needless to say, I am an associate of your friend the Jester."

"Not my friend," I said. "So you have the clue?"

"I do," he said. "And I will give it to you."

"So why you personally?" I asked. "Why not just leave it somewhere, like last time?"

"Ours is not to question why," he said, "though I suspect they wanted you to meet me, to know that not all of her servants are as...chaotic as the Misfits. Some of us are even subtle."

"So you're a servant of the-"

"Just call her the Wooden Girl," he said. "That's as good a name as any. And yes, though I am one of the few that has a degree of autonomy. Like the Jester. That's why my movements aren't as orchestrated as the Misfits were."

"So you serve her willingly?" I asked. "How?"

"You misunderstand me," he said. "I have a degree of autonomy. I am still entangled by her strings. If I didn't want to give you this note, I would have to do so anyway. Doing things this way is just easier on myself. To resist her is to resist the tide or the wind. If you bend with the wind, it will go far easier than if you stubbornly fight against it and break."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Everything has a reason, Grace," he said. "My reason for being here is this." He handed me an envelope. The elevator dinged. "Good luck, Grace," the man in the seersucker suit said and then walked away.

I opened the envelope and took out the note. On the front it said:

Grace:
I Scream Before Normalcy
9780375703768


I opened it up and this was written on the inside:

33:14,28,1,3,8
157:5,12,17
299:10,9,17,40,14
127:4,8,21,17,1
431:14,24,22
417:16,10,21,4,32


Grace,

15 comments:

  1. I figured it out Grace, I just need to the book. I asked your brother for help since the Jester gave him the book.

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  2. Here is what it decodes to:

    where the water waxes and wanes

    So, I scream before normalcy where the water waxes and wanes, I think.

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  3. Fellow booba interprets it to mean go to the Bellagio, the big water fountain show.

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  4. after decoding the message others found that it might link to this place in vegas http://www.bellagio.com/

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  5. You are very fast with decoding, but for some reason you keep coming to the wrong conclusions. Why assume the riddle refers to anything in Las Vegas at all? The Jester did declare that her trip wouldn't stay local, so why would it stay in one place? Perhaps he wants her to visit new places, new areas, see the sights a bit before discovering her brother.

    Or perhaps she should stay in Vegas, living off the money the Jester gave her, trying to find moore clues in every echo, every shadow.

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  6. Yeah, I didn't strongly think it was the Bellagio until I thought of proximity. If proximity means nothing, then I suggest Grace go to the Coyote Ugly Saloon. Which one? The original in Ybor, FL?

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  7. Well Vagabond, you clue was like a little general. "where the water waxes and wanes"? For heavens sakes it does that in my toilet two or three times a day.

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  8. The original is actually in New York, not Florida.
    Here's the website with the address, Grace.
    http://www.coyoteuglysaloon.com/newyork/

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  9. It is not my clue, but rather is the Jester's. I am only privy to certain information.

    As for other clues, well, I'm no good at them. The ones I do are either too subtle or not subtle enough. Take, for example, this riddle: what lives without a body, hears without ears, and speaks without a mouth?

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  10. Oh, I've heard this one. An echo.

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  11. Grace, upon further investigation, we think you need to leave Las Vegas and that your next stop should be the Grand Canyon.

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  12. That's the second time that an echo has been mentioned. I think that might be important.

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  13. Are we feeling a little Superior?

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  14. Annaz, are you one of the Wooden Girl's puppets?

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