Variety Cryptic 16: Pathing

Pathing

By Elgel

So close, and yet so far apart; a tale as old as time.

In this grid, there are two lovers who cannot directly reach each other. You can help her safely reach him by following the path hidden in the clues.

In 15 of the clues, the wordplay yields an extra letter. These give directions; start at her, and follow the instruction of the clue that crosses her. After some steps, you will reach another one of these clues, at which point you start following its letter instead. Repeat until you reach him and reunite the two.

In 11 of the other clues, the clues themselves are missing a letter that needs to be added in before solving. These missing letters, in clue order, describe the lovers (both in the grid and in reality).

The remaining 4 clues are normal, but share a clue element that may help you find the lovers in the grid.

When you have drawn the path out, note down the 'crossroads' where you went from following one clue's letter to anothers'. In order, these junctions describe what we might consider each lover as nowadays.

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Squares filled: 0/152

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Crossword ID: xet-pathing

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Control keys:

• Tab/Shift-Tab: Jump to the next/previous clue in the current direction.
• Enter, Click/Tap: Toggle current direction.
• Arrow keys: Move to the nearest light square in that direction.
• Ctrl-q: Clear this, Ctrl-Q: Clear All!, Ctrl-B: Print crossword, Ctrl-/: Jump to notes, Ctrl-*: Mark clue as fave in notes, adding a * prefix.
• Spacebar: Place/clear block in the current square if it's diagramless.

Overwritten letters will briefly be coloured like this (before fading back to this) just to draw your attention so that you can fix any accidental typing errors.

Scratch pad: (click here to shuffle)

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Page size: Letter: 8.5in x 11in A4: 210mm x 297mm A3: 297mm x 420mm A5: 148mm x 210mm B4: 250mm x 353mm B5: 176mm x 250mm Legal: 8.5in x 14in Ledger: 11in x 17in

Margin (inches):

Show clue-solving sequence:

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Show clue-solving times:

• Ctrl-/ takes you to the current clue's notes (or overall notes).
• Ctrl-* adds a * prefix to the current clue's notes.
• Hovering over a clue's notes shows the clue as a tooltip.

Across

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Down

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Notepad:

The two lovers here are (surprise) Romeo and Juliet.

The 11 missing letters spell out STAR CROSSED; in the grid, they are both on the answer CANIS MAJOR (a constellation rather than a single star, but close enough).

The 4 normal clues all include the NATO phonetic alphabet as part of their wordplay; hinting that you need to look for J and R in the grid.

The path spells out JUVENILE OFFENDER; given that they were 16 and 13 years old, this might be an appropriate term for them nowadays.

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Down & Up

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Across

1	Top 10 missing from mixed PE assembly (6) IMPEDE. top->Stop, (MIxED PE)*
5	Delivery person to take care of partner after November passes (7) MIDWIFE. NOVEMBER, MInD WIFE
10	Die, perhaps, breaking in one's demons (6) INCUBI. E extra, CUBE in IN + I
11	Family fain to start later, after daytime (8) MONTAGUE. fain->fainT, vAGUE after MON+T
12	Intended as an alternative to Quorn (4) MEAT. N extra, D.d., MEANT/MEAT
13	Go ahead; freedom surrounds death, somehow (4,3,3) LEADTHEWAY. E extra, LEEWAY around (DEATH)*
14	Hides valley's herd (5) VEILS. herd->heArd, Hom. of VALES
16	Retiring, fastidious son to take off hat in tense situation (5-3) STANDOFF. E extra, (NEAT+S)< + DOFF
19	Often in Vienna, Wagner foully seeking retribution (8) VENGEFUL. W extra, ViEnNa WaGnEr FoUlLy
21	Severe fight on board (5) STIFF. S extra, TIFF in SS
23	Retired hero jams in a commune, except for hunting dog (5,5) CANISMAJOR. except->exceRpt, heRO JAMS IN A Commune
25	Current train holiday (4) NOEL. W extra, NOW + EL
26	House members set Paul off (8) CAPULETS. set->seCt, (SECT PAUL)*
27	Finish giving out love (6) ENDING. W extra, ENDoWING
28	Alpha male took on safe job; cycling round in a state of disbelief (7) ATHEISM. ALPHA, HEIST->THEIS in A+M
29	Maybe get fresh canines with the pop first (6) TEETHE. pop->pRop, TEE + THE

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Down

2	Repair 11, putting 5 back for table maker (9) MENDELEEV. N extra, MEND + ELEVEN w/ V moved down
3	Joyfully shut out orgy club without leaders? (5) EXULT. shut->shOut, sEX cULT
4	Offer up stuffing; otherwise, brownie (6) EDIBLE. S extra, BID< in ELSE
6	In grand, mirrored surrounding, tango after one's getting going (8) IGNITING. TANGO, T in GNI+ING (IN G mirrored) after I
7	Escape from hard work using fake louse (6,3) WEASELOUT. S extra, (LOUSE)* in SWEAT
8	Beats loud invalid after frauds twice discovered (5) FAUNA. beats->beaSts, F + frAUds + N/A
9	Hesitate to aid oaf in letter topper (6) UMLAUT. aid->Said, UM + hom. of LOUT
15	Spoil dog until getting partner with latitude (9) LONGITUDE. dog->dogE, (DOGE UNTIL)
17	Stiffen the rent the day about halfway through the month (9) FIFTEENTH. S extra, (STIFFEN THE)*
18	Sign of new river splits main problem with perfect transitions (8) SEAMLESS. river->Driver, L in SEA + MESS
20	Sister simply is not fair (6) UNJUST. N extra, NUN + JUST
22	Being enthusiastic about trig function gets nerd beaten up (6) ARDENT. N extra, (NERD)* in TAN<
24	Assume Oscar leaves for a change (5) ADAPT. OSCAR, ADOPT w/ O->A
25	Gently push Mark's number over French man (5) NUDGE. S extra, SMUDGE w/ M->N

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