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I'm finished. Done. Through. Out of here. Finito.

You won't see my around here any more.

I'll be a monk and devote each day to my art, starting right this stormy Saturday afternoon. It brings me peace, the flow from beginning to end, Alpha to Omega, through the day and through the night capturing the beauty of nature and language in a single symbol.

But my weekday work is at best a child's doodle. Only on Friday eve can I express myself; I take pride in Saturday's canvas too

But vanity is sinful. Shamed, I practice a bare minimum for a full week, guiltily reading scripture, until Saturday again I am enlightened: my offering of my best is not pride, but a testament to my faith and diligence. The ink flows.

Wednesday and Thursday my pen is truly blessed again. I hang the saintly pair in my growing museum.

Suddenly my world goes pale. I can't hear my own heartbeat over a growing white noise. My shrine is the last vision I see but now its story torments me.

What have I become?

Hint 1:

puzzle inspired by esoteric programming language brainf*ck

Hint 2:

but only 2 of the 8 opcodes

Hint 3:

increment and print

Hint 4:

on the first day, I draw an 'A'

Hint 5:

i drew a different letter every day but hung up only 6 of them

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  • $\begingroup$ I rollbacked because you had some inappropriate language and the hints did nothing at all. $\endgroup$
    – Mithical
    Commented Dec 26, 2016 at 18:32
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    $\begingroup$ I toned that down a bit and made the hints clearer. Thanks for the feedback! $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 27, 2016 at 0:18
  • $\begingroup$ Does your second hint refer to 3e 3c 2b 2d 2e 2c 5b 5d ?? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 16:59
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    $\begingroup$ @wildBillMunson Yes it does, and Shakespeare is also too easy. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 18:37
  • $\begingroup$ Is the 'A' literally the letter A ? Is there a sequence of letters involved? $\endgroup$
    – sriram
    Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 22:52

1 Answer 1

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What have I become?

A ghost.

Explanation:

"Alpha to Omega" suggests you're just going through the alphabet, drawing one letter per day, starting with some letter and going until you end the story. The days where you feel inspired are the days whose letters you keep. It seems certain that the inspired days are the ones you keep, and an increment/print per day seems obvious from Hint 3, whether you know anything about the esoteric language of Hint 1 or not.

At this point ...

We can track which days inspiration struck.
I'll note them in bold-capitals, and non-inspired days in italic-lowercase; thus:

$\begin{array}{ccccccccccccccccccc}\bf{S}&s&m&t&w&t&\bf{F}&\bf{S}&s&m&t&w&t&f&\bf{S}&s&m&t&\bf{W}&\bf{T}\end{array}$

Now with "Alpha to Omega" suggesting an alphabet run, Hint 3's increment/print reinforcing the idea of a simple sequence, Hint 4 letting us know we start at A (though "Alpha" told us that anyway), and Hint 5 confirming we only keep the inspired days' letters, let's see what that gives us:

$\begin{array}{ccccccccccccccccdcc}\bf{S}&s&m&t&w&t&\bf{F}&\bf{S}&s&m&t&w&t&f&\bf{S}&s&m&t&\bf{W}&\bf{T}\\\hline\bf{A}&b&c&d&e&f&\bf{G}&\bf{H}&i&j&k&l&m&n&\bf{O}&p&q&r&\bf{S}&\bf{T}\\\end{array}$

  or: A GHOST

which fits quite nicely with the overall theme -
"Suddenly my world goes pale. I can't hear my own heartbeat
    over a growing white noise. My shrine is the last vision I see" → You, dying.
"I'm finished. Done. Through. Out of here. Finito." → You're dead.
"You won't see my around here any more." → You're an invisible ghost.

There was an error in the original puzzle, leaving one day out of the sequence; while I had the right idea as early as Hint 3, I couldn't find a convincing solution. With all 5 hints in play, it became a certainty that I had the right approach and that what looked like a suspicious pattern in my results had to actually be the key. Check this answer's Edit History to see the winding path to the solution despite the error. OP has now fixed the post, so this shorter answer is now all that's needed.

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    $\begingroup$ The Case of the Missing Day? It's probably the next part of the puzzle where you figure out why that happened? $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 11:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Sid That... would actually be really cool :) $\endgroup$
    – Rubio
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 12:05
  • $\begingroup$ Thorough solution! And in spite of a huge error in the original puzzle! I'm tickled somebody solved my first submission too. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 2:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Rubio fixed \o/ $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 2:51

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