FINALLY I get a fucking handle on this!!!
I stopped replying after my second "Aargh", because I thought BeeP was just jerking me around...
But "loose" makes *perfect* sense, if you read BeeP's instructions as, "filling in those three spaces using only *two different* letters".
As a "the letter 'o' (in the abstract), and two occurrences of it", as opposed to "three 'letters': an 'O', another 'O', and..." kind of thing, that is.
Sorry I suspected you unjustly, BeeP; and again, thank you, Ben.