# Applied crossword solving

### Across

6 It's applied to the Down answers
9 An expression of mild surprise
11 Gas station fixture
12 Measure of file size
13 Eastman invention
14 A Kansan woman
16 Not bespoke

### Down

1 It's applied to the Across answers
2 Mystery on high
3 Like a racetrack
4 La sequel
5 A wizard's home
6 Part of a pangram
7 Fro counterpart
8 15D's home
10 Launder
12 Central Perk, e.g.
14 A Wrinkle in Time character
15 An eponymous Lopez
16 Hi
17 A computer company started in 1939

• My first crossword, so have mercy. :-) Seriously, I'd appreciate any feedback (perhaps in chat would be best). Feb 4, 2020 at 23:19

The crossword's solution:

What's going on here:

1-Across and 6-Down say that something's being applied to all of the answers. It turns out that those are ROT THIRTEEN and ATBASH: each answer is encoded before entry using one of those two codes (depending on whether it is Across or Down).

Luckily, these codes are self-inverses, so if you have a letter in an Across clue, you can Atbash and then rot13 it to see what the Down clue's letter should be. And vice versa: if you have the Down letter, you can get the Across letter.

The Across and Down clue answers are shown here:

• Not sure what's up with 14-down -- maybe I'm missing something?
– Deusovi
Feb 5, 2020 at 3:11
• The Wrinkle character is IT. Dangit, did I mess up?… Feb 5, 2020 at 4:18