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Today I found by internet an artist that does commissions. I wanted to get drawn a map for one of my role playing games.

First I tried to call him (there's a lot personal info on the website I found it. Probably not GDPR compliant). He didn't answer his phone.

After that I simply sent him, by WhatsApp, the details of the map I wanted, and asked him what else he needed to fulfill the job.

It took him a while to answer my message but, finally, I received a couple of weird messages and nothing else.

First Message:

Flags: US, France, Spain, Colombia, Italy, Germany

Second Message:

Some hand emojis (hard to describe)

Could you help me understand his answer?

Is he doing the job? If so, what does he need?

Second message in Unicode 7.0:

๐Ÿ–๏ธ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿ‘Œ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿคž๐Ÿ–๏ธ

Hint 1:

I suspect he didn't answer his phone because he didn't hear the ringtone.

Hint 2:

This artist had worked with people of all around the world, so he probably knows many languages.

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  • $\begingroup$ If you decode both pictures, you get the same bunch of weird text... $\endgroup$
    – Rapiddagger
    Jun 13, 2018 at 15:23
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    $\begingroup$ Two fingers crossed. $\endgroup$
    – Masclins
    Jun 13, 2018 at 15:27
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    $\begingroup$ copyable emoji: ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ด๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช โœ‹๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿ‘Œ๐Ÿค˜๐Ÿคžโœ‹ $\endgroup$
    – humfuzz
    Jun 13, 2018 at 17:00
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    $\begingroup$ rot13(VFB pbqrf bs gur nobir syntf: HF SE RF PB VG QR) $\endgroup$
    – Mikas
    Jun 14, 2018 at 10:38
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Mikas: And if you squint, you can see a hidden fresco ... $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Jun 14, 2018 at 11:23

3 Answers 3

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Building off @Astralbee's answer:

The message reads:

5HOURS, implying that they are taking the job, but they'll need some time (and, presumably, however much payment they charge for 5 hours worth of work)

To read the message:

Astralbee is right on the money with sign languages, but the important part is the plural. The first message of flags/country codes indicate which sign language to use for each character.
๐Ÿ–๏ธ, in American Sign Language, indicates 5.
๐Ÿค˜, in langue des signes franรงaise or French Sign Language, indicates H.
๐Ÿ‘Œ, in Spanish sign language, indicates O.
๐Ÿค˜, in Colombian sign language, indicates U.
๐Ÿคž, in Italian sign language, indicates R.
๐Ÿ–๏ธ, in German sign language, indicates S.

Hint 1 Explanation:

"I suspect he didn't answer his phone because he didn't hear the ringtone."
This is meant to suggest towards deafness and, through that, sign language.

Hint 2 Explanation:

"This artist had worked with people of all around the world, so he probably knows many languages."
This was added after Astralbee made the connection to sign language, but used only American Sign Language in their parsing; it suggests that the first message be used to tell which nation's (most prominent) sign language/manual alphabet should be used for each character.

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The message is:

5 HOURS

Because:

I figured he didn't hear the phone because he is deaf and communicates by sign language. Sign languages differ around the world, and the second message is a mix of different sign language alphabets. The first message with the flags is a key to decode them - USA, France, Spain, Columbia, Italy, and Germany. By searching for the sign language alphabet for each country I was able to translate each hand sign.

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  • $\begingroup$ What's the first message? Because obviously, 5Y9YR5 means nothing. $\endgroup$
    – Masclins
    Jun 15, 2018 at 19:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Masclins updated answer. $\endgroup$
    – Astralbee
    Jun 17, 2018 at 19:34
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He's busy watching the World Cup. The hand emojis are his reactions to the teams of the respective countries.

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    Jun 15, 2018 at 11:20

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