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Flipping through my notebook, I found several stories I scribbled. What do they mean?

  • First one

    Samurai nagging, "Elixir agent, typewriter iamb, ultraviolet emitters..."

  • Second one

    Grenadier always shoots Evenki @Zulu range.

  • Third one

    Woo reedbuck in Gandhi opposition.

  • Fourth one

    Laura! Win Conor, ingenious ichthyosaurus

  • Fifth one

    Sec! Alexander, cause street rearrange tuba record!

  • Sixth one

    Career era: thou reverse folio - lead entrepreneur!

  • Seventh one

    Rousseau & Lovelace, roar "Ivanov", ever!

HINTS

Usefulness level 0:

A close look at the correct clues so far will give you some hints on what you need

Usefulness level 1:

There is more to the puzzle, even after ending up with pairs of words... Answer is a WORD...

EDIT: Sorry, how on earth can I miss out one of the stories!!

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    $\begingroup$ Hm, I've gotten the clear first step but haven't been able to figure out what to do with the results of it... $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 15:20
  • $\begingroup$ Very nice-looking puzzle! $\endgroup$
    – Brandon_J
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 21:15

2 Answers 2

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The method:

I built upon Deusovi's answer which identified that taking the first and last letter of each word produced two word phrases, and the fact that there was an anagram tag. I then took each two word phrase and found a synonymous two word phrase where the two words were anagrams of each other.

First one:

SINGER ATTRIBUTES = ARTIST TRAITS (from Stiv in comments)

Second one:

GRASS SEIZURE = NAPIER RAPINE (from Omega Krypton on comments)

Third one:

WORKING ION = ACTION CATION (from Deusovi in comments)

Fourth one:

LAWN CRISIS = GARDEN DANGER

Fifth one:

SCARCEST RETARD = RAREST ARREST

Sixth one:

CREATURE FOLDER = ANIMAL MANILA

Seventh one:

RULER RIVER = MASTER STREAM

Final solution:

As PilsNot3 pointed out, if you take the first letter of each answer, it spells out ANAGRAM.

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  • $\begingroup$ Pretty sure you're looking for rot13(NEGVFG GENVGF - NGGEVOHGRF vf cyheny va gur chmmyr) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 21:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv Thanks, I missed the plural. The strange thing is, that was the first one I solved to lead me to the "pattern" but it turns out it was totally wrong (yet still "right")! $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 21:49
  • $\begingroup$ No worries - I've got a few favours to repay you! ;) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 21:50
  • $\begingroup$ @OmegaKrypton Does .5 mean my original answer was right for the first one? $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Commented Sep 10, 2019 at 8:34
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    $\begingroup$ I think I see something that might help you figure out the second one... rot13(vs lbh gnxr gur svefg yrggref bs rnpu cuenfr, lbh trg N?NTENZ, juvpu vf nyzbfg pregnvayl fhccbfrq gb or NANTENZ, fb gur frpbaq cuenfr fubhyq fgneg jvgu na A). Haven't a clue as to what it could be, unfortunately $\endgroup$
    – HTM
    Commented Sep 16, 2019 at 4:38
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Partial Answer (first step figured out, vague thoughts on the second step)

If you

read the first and last letters of each word

you get

several two-word phrases: SINGER ATTRIBUTE, GRASS SEIZURE, WORKING ION, SCARCEST RETARD, CREATURE FOLDER, RULER RIVER

I'm not sure what to do next, though: it seems likely that we need to

replace words with synonyms, so the two in each pair then have some sort of wordplay pattern... thing.

SINGER ATTRIBUTE could turn into TRAITOR / TRAIT (using "singer" in the sense of "informant"), but there are better words for that first synonym and the pattern doesn't seem to work for the others.

WORKING ION could change into ON ION, which has two patterns it might fit (making a word together, or one being the other plus a letter). But once again, neither of these patterns seems to extend to the rest of the phrases.

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  • $\begingroup$ I tried to make something of rot13(NAVZNY naq YNZVAN) but no success there. I also wondered briefly about rot13(TENFF naq TENO, creuncf zrqvngrq ol TENẞ) but that seems obviously useless too. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, perhaps we could have a rot13(FAVGPU FANGPU) but I'm not seeing good candidates for the others. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:26
  • $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan rot13(YRNFG ORNFG) maybe? $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:28
  • $\begingroup$ Those aren't from the same pair. (In case it's not clear, my informant isn't the same as yours.) $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:29
  • $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan Ah, right. (I had noticed that one also being a potential informant, but had forgotten.) I agree that keeping the pairs the same is the natural thing to do. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:30

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