Week Two - Task #06. "Spell Residue at the Bus Stop"

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Midday. Your orders are to examine a town bench that allegedly sometimes teleports people within a few streets over if they sit on it after 3 p.m.

You test it with a sandwich in hand. Nothing. You test it again, muttering under your breath. Still nothing. Then, at precisely 3:14, you're suddenly sitting on a different bench across the park. Sandwich still in hand, but now mysteriously warm again.

You inspect the wood. There’s a faint shimmer of leftover magic, old and frayed at the edges. A modified disapparition charm, rudimentary and risky.

Someone’s practicing magic in public. Sloppy magic. Likely unsupervised.

Task:
Solve the Logic puzzle below and Send Me Your Solution through a private message.

Alternatively you can share any of your own interesting or unusual travels had in a Dream, using a minimum of 100 words for full credit.

Puzzle:
Over the following hour, five muggle residents of Bridgeton (including Tilly Copperkettle) were documented as having been teleported by the spell residue (at 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:00, and 4:15 in the afternoon). Each wound up at various other bench locations around town (including one in Puddleby Park) and noted something odd took place in the shift (including someone whose scarf had changed color). Using the following clues, can you work out who transported to where, at what time, and which perplexing change took place during teleportation?

1. The resident who wound up at Bridgeton-on-Beck Library traveled 15min after the resident who found themselves at Mug Life Café. Juniper Noyes didn't teleport at 4:00.
2. Barnaby Bragg, the resident who teleported at 4:00, and the one who landed at Mug Life Café are three different people. Juniper Noyes was transported sometime after the resident whose pocket watch started ticking backwards.
3. The resident who made it to Willowfern Antiques traveled 15min after Percival Finch. The one who teleported at 4:15 found their newspaper suddenly dated for tomorrow.
4. The person whose pocket watch started ticking backwards teleported 15min after the resident who found their teacup suddenly full again. The one who traveled to Old Clock Tower Square arrived 15min after Barnaby Bragg.
5. The resident who teleported at 3:45 found their book now to be in a different language. Of the person who found their newspaper suddenly dated for tomorrow and the resident who traveled at 3:15, one is Larkspur Twill and the other teleported to Mug Life Café.

Thank you to Prof. Maxim Trevelyan for helping check this puzzle!

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Solved by:
River Fenwick
Aisling Lestrange

[Emily Spencer]

This was a dream I had a few years ago, and I swear that it still has me questioning whether it was a dream at all. It was that vivid! And technically, it involves time travel (or alternate reality travel to be exact) rather than actual physical travel, although a car was involved, so there is that.

In my dream, my sister and I were headed for the mall, a place we had been to countless of times. (Yes, in those days, malls were still a thing!). However, with the advent of online shopping, malls were on a steady decline. Many stores in our beloved mall had closed, and the mall itself was on its death bed. However, we were not to be deterred by such petty details!

On the way, it was like we’re traveling through a shimmering mist. The best way I can describe it is the kind of haze in the air one sees in a fire (or a barbecue; I’m from Texas, don’t judge!) Anyway, it was curious enough to draw our attention, but we continued on anyway without hesitation. We arrived safely at our destination, and that’s when things got really weird.

The mall was back to its original heyday, and stores that had been closed for years were open. It was like we had stepped back in time somehow. It was seriously unsettling. We continued our shopping, and even bought a few things while our favorite stores were now open. Hey, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Anyway, we returned home and decided to head back the next day to see if the time pocket was still there. It wasn’t. The mall was back to its usual state, with the closed stores and diminished crowds. Bummer! And then…I woke up. Funny thing is, I still have some of those shirts. So dream…or a weird reality shift. I suppose I will never know.