Let’s shake things up, shall we, spirits?

You see a nothing at a gallows, being prepared to face public execution–presumably for some crime. All of a sudden, fourteen underscores appear in the air, magically floating above the gallows. As if by instinct, you realise you must guess the letters of a phrase, to save that nothing from slowly turning into a man to be killed. Luckily, you’re a spirit, with other spirits about–conveniently capable of speaking a single letter at a time, and assembling many letters in unison. You can prevent this nothing from turning into a very executable man.

Importantly, for some reason, you also know that spaces are not recognised as letters. That the fourteen-letter phrase could be multiple words. This mysterious voice in your head may also be playing tricks. Who can say for sure…

You don’t understand how a nothing can turn into a man, or how a trial can be held for a nothing, or even how any of this amounts to any real-world logic whatsoever. However, you do recognise an opportunity–an opportunity to do something good. Probably.

With this in mind, what do you guess?

The nothing used to be a man–Gregory McFarlane was the name. If you save Greg, you get to know his crime (by writing history, if stuff wasn’t nonsensical enough already). However, if you fail, your day will be brighened up by having to create his headstone. Oh, and his middle name, too. He won’t be alive to care what it is.

Greg looked like this, before becoming nothing:

O

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Six strikes, you realise. A letter bank below. Letters only–no spaces, numbers, specials or the like. You feel the possibility of a hint after three strikes. You also sense you can guess the entire phrase at once, if you’re daring. A response is only heard after saying “Goodbye”. Good luck, spirits.

STRIKES: 5/6

BAD LETTERS: A H I N X

HINT: Music

THE [Imaginary] GALLOWS, AND GREG BEING ASSEMBLED, DESPITE ALL LAWS OF PHYSICS:

O

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