CD-RATS02 (Nov 18, 1988)
Puzzle
"Coffee made by Eight in a Pan with help from Judy J, Chpu—it has its ups and downs.”
Cipher | 2 Words
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: Looks familiar. Like an old cipher.
Clue 2: This uses every letter of the alphabet only once.
Clue 3: Use it as the alphabet, and run it through with the regular key?
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Indrid Cold
Explanation: Given the mention of ‘Coffee’ and ‘ups and downs’, along with this being a Cipher-puzzle, it’s safe to assume this is Cafe Code involving Manager 8 and a ‘pan’ - that is, a pangram that is linked to Jack Octo. One of the more well-known perfect pangrams, a phrase that uses every letter of the alphabet only once, is ‘Blowzy night-frumps vex'd Jack Q’. When used as the alphabet as opposed to the regular ABC…, run through Cafe Code using the regular key ‘CAFE’, and switched such that instead of shifting upwards it shifts downwards halfway through the ciphertext, the word ‘Indrid Cold’ is given.
Summary of Receipt
Summary
Transcript
AND RECEIPT
RECEIPT NUMBER: RATS02
RECEIPT DATE: 11 18 1988
MANAGER TITLE: BALTIMORE
RECEIPT NOTES:
I feel it smiling at me in the dark. Fate. But this isn’t paranoia—no, it’s survival. The Sphere is bending, yes, but more than that, it’s fraying, splitting along lines I can barely comprehend without the aid of Bird and my Otherman powers. Though I’m mortal again, I still remember at least one key lesson from my time as the Otherman: there is no such thing as coincidence. Not while Fate is fighting so desperately to control the Universe.
Madeline’s quiet magnetism. Marcus’s unnerving steadiness. They’re too precisely placed to be random. And the Oracle? Well, that one is obvious—a herald cloaked in veils of certainty, brewing coffee even I won’t touch. If they are pawns of Fate, then their existence must ripple outward in a deliberate, preordained pattern.
I’ve begun cataloging them—where they appear, what they say, how events shift around them. Patterns reveal truths, and I’ve long trusted patterns over intuition. Jack taught me that. Yet so far, the patterns of these pawns are maddeningly shallow. Madeline dances on the edges of attention, charming but insubstantial. Marcus, for all his competence, feels like a placeholder—a piece biding its time, waiting to be promoted for something far more dangerous.
And yet… they don’t align with Fate’s usual methods. Fate’s pawns are sharp, precise, carving into the threads of the Cycle with intention, with a plan. These two? They are soft edges, lingering uncertainties. I’ve tested them—subtly. Questions they shouldn’t know the answers to. Scenarios designed to force their hands. And still, their responses are maddeningly… ordinary. Even the Oracle, an Augur through and through, doesn’t strike me as Fate’s usual agent.
No. Fate’s true agent is and will be Indrid Cold. And Indrid Cold isn’t here. Not yet. The Secret has yet to infect an Indrid Cold for Fate. But I know it won’t be long. I know, all too well, who their Indrid Cold was—and likely will be again. Unless Madeleine or Marcus proves more tempting. Perhaps that is their role. Certainly, Madeline’s powers would appeal to Fate. But Marcus? His knowledge—his grasp of what was and what could be—is far more dangerous. And far more valuable.