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This is based on the Add-A-Gram puzzles by wildBillMunson. You need to find a chain of words, such that each next word is an anagram of the previous word plus an additional letter. Each one is a single word, and it must match the part of speech as the clue.

Example: a scratch inside a charge inside jackets; the solution is "rasp", "spark", "parkas".

Initially I wrote two Add-A-Gram puzzles... but in my hurry to post them, it seems I've managed to mix them up, unfortunately. The chains were made separately, each with 12 clues. The clue pairs are in the correct order; the 1-letter words are together, then the 2-letter words, then the 3-letter words, and so on. They must have gotten tangled on the way to the "Ask a Question" page.

Below is the chain for you to solve and split. Can you split it into two chains?

(a person / nothing) inside (a non-person / a non-assent) inside (an evergreen / an age) inside (a gas detector / a dirt deposit) inside (a channel / a rock) inside (an adornment / an array) inside (a devil / a device) inside (a short lesson / a foulmouth) inside (identifiers / an organic compound) inside (a pact / detectors) inside (organelles / a scientist) inside (skeleton seers / a pseudo-scientist)

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3  
This is a lovely variant on the Add-A-Gram. – Silenus 6 hours ago
up vote 4 down vote

Here's a start:

Nothing in non-assent in age in gas detector in rock in array in devil

O in NO in EON in NOSE in STONE in TENSOR in MONSTER in ...

Person in non-person in evergreen

I in IT (Thanks, Deusovi) in... (maybe FIR is intended and the OP mistook the T for an F?)

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I and IT for the second one. – Deusovi♦ 6 hours ago
up vote 1 down vote

Partial Answer

My progress so far, with some borrowing from @Mike Q:

$\small\begin{array}{rrlrl} 1&\text{ I }&\text{ a person }&\text{ nothing }&\text{ O }\\ 2&\text{ IT }&\text{ a non-person }&\text{ a non-assent }&\text{ NO }\\ 3&\text{ }&\text{ an evergreen }&\text{ an age }&\text{ EON }\\ 4&\text{ SILT }&\text{ a dirt deposit }&\text{ a gas detector }&\text{ NOSE }\\ 5&\text{ SPILT }&\text{ a channel }&\text{ a rock }&\text{ STONE }\\ 6&\text{ ?? POSTIL }&\text{ an adornment }&\text{ an array }&\text{ TENSOR }\\ 7&\text{ }&\text{ a device }&\text{ a devil }&\text{ MONSTER }\\ 8&\text{ }&\text{ a foul mouth }&\text{ a short lesson }&\text{ SERMONET }\\ 9&\text{ }&\text{ identifiers }&\text{ an organic compound }&\text{ MONOESTER }\\10&\text{ }&\text{ a pact }&\text{ detectors }&\text{ ONCOMETERS }\\11&\text{ }&\text{ a scientist }&\text{ organelles }&\text{ CENTROSOMES }\\12&\text{ }&\text{ skeleton seers }\leftarrow&?\ \rightarrow\text{ a pseudo-scientist }&\text{ }\\\end{array}$

Note that ...

"a non-person" might also be AI but I can't get anywhere with that.

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up vote 0 down vote

I think I've got a near-complete solution:

                         a person   I   O   nothing
                    a non-person   IT   NO   a non-assent
                   an evergreen   ---   EON   an age
                a dirt deposit   SILT   NOSE   a gas detector
                    a channel   SLUIT   STONE   a rock
                an adornment   TINSEL   TENSOR   an array
                   a device   UTENSIL   MONSTER   a devil
               a foulmouth   INSULTER   SERMONET   a short lesson
              identifiers   OUTLINERS   MONOESTER   an organic compound
                  a pact   RESOLUTION   SONOMETERS   detectors
            a scientist   NEUROLOGIST   CENTROSOMES   organelles
    a pseudo-scientist   NUMEROLOGIST   ------------   skeleton seers

The last thing missing are the evergreen and the skeleton seers.

I first thought the skeleton seers were something like RADIOLOGISTS, but that doesn't work. OSTEO-something? NECRO-someting?

The deposit and chanel could also be LINT and INLET. I have no idea how to connect either IT—SILT or IT—LINT with an evergreen.

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You have a disappearing U on the LHS. – Neil W 5 mins ago

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