META
Solution
To see how the 25 feeder answers can be grouped into 5 groups of 5 answers, one for each meta puzzle, refer to the solution page for “Base of Operations”.
The clues, once solved, refer to words that have the same lengths as the feeder answers from the “Murder” group. Furthermore, the clue answers and the feeder answers have a number of letters in common equal to the number of numbers shown in parentheses.
| Clue | Answer | Feeder answer | Letters |
|---|---|---|---|
| $#$#* (5) | ARCADE (Listening) | LOUNGE | E |
| Not paper or metal (1, 2) | PLASTIC (Waste Management) | PEACOCK | PA |
| 2 or more ____ Stevens (6, 3) | SOGGY (Silly Slots) | STUDY | SY |
| A piercing, high pitched sound. Shimmers and echoes. (8, 7) | TELEPORT (Sonic & Knuckles) | LEADPIPE | EP |
| non-incongruous insect after voice chat behind org. of countries (11, 9, 4, 10) | UNDISCORDANT (cryptic clue; “non-incongruous” is the definition part) | MISSSCARLETT | SCRT |
Putting the letters together in the order given by the parenthesized numbers yields the solution.
PAY RESPECTS