Twelfth Report; Father's Day

[abstruse]

((Audio;))
Father's day! Ah, a lovely day, I will say; remembering the male who, hopefully, raised us all with love and care. No, I'm not about to ask all of you about your fathers--I'm not really the intrusive sort, though...! I do have a sort of puzzle for all of you. It's one that I would love to tell my own father.


PUZZLE 011: Two masked men

The puzzle works like this. I'm going to tell you a scenario, and using yes or no questions you must deduce exactly what is happening in this situation. I can only answer yes or no--or other variants of those two answers--so make sure to ask the right questions! No limit to how many you ask, of course... Here's your scenario:

A man leaves home and, after making three left turns, he ends up back at home, and finds two masked men waiting for him.

So, can you deduce what's happening here?

((ooc; wow i forgot to add that this is audio. Okay whatever i just like my htmls.))

Comments

[justicereigns]

Is America less corrupt? [Forgive his skepticism but he's of the belief that corruption is everywhere.]

[abstruse]

Doubted, however, it's so much easier to think the grass really is greener on the other side.

[justicereigns]

Until one goes there.

Baseball is a great sport though. For whatever that counts.

[abstruse]

I'm sure it is. It looks interesting, at the least.

[justicereigns]

You've never played it?

[abstruse]

Sport was never my thing.

[justicereigns]

Hm...

Well, if you're ever interested sometime, maybe we can find a ball and glove.

I take it puzzles are more your thing?

[abstruse]

Well, more accurately, I take the intellectual over the physical. I'm getting this impression that people think those from my universe are obsessed with only the bookish approach to puzzles. I prefer real-life application, as it tends to be somewhat more beneficial.

[justicereigns]

Do you often have a lot of call to apply to puzzles to real life?

[abstruse]

Believe it or not, yes. What would be a good example... Ah!

Let's say I need four quarts of milk for a particular cake recipe. Problem is, the only measuring cups I have are three containers, one marked 8-quarts (this would be the container my milk is in), another 5-quarts, and the final one 3-quarts.

Believe it or not, I can still get the exact four quarts that I need, though it would take a little bit of trial-and-error to figure out.

[justicereigns]

Moving the milk between the containers until you have it right I take it.

Still, if you know in advance you're going to use that recipe, seems like you could get a 2 quart cup when you get the milk. Then again, in this world, that probably doesn't hold as true.

[abstruse]

No; in a place like this, it wouldn't be easy to simply find a two-quart cup. It's only an example off the top of my head. Puzzling is useful here, though, if you know how to apply it.

[justicereigns]

I'll have to keep my eyes open for it then. I wonder if that would work for my men at G-5 too.

[abstruse]

((Careful, man. You might start seeing puzzles in dirty bottles one day....))

Keep in mind that some people aren't as receptive to puzzles as others, if you ever CAN make use of it.

[justicereigns]

[Oh god and Smoker is a man easily addicted to... anything. Everything. That could really be dangerous.]

I wouldn't be trying to distract them with it, they're too stupid to figure out puzzles. [Seriously though. They are.] I'd just apply it to figuring out how to deal with them.

[abstruse]

Ah! That could be one way to solve a problem. Though things like that are more elaborate, it's not as though you're pouring milk from container to container. ((Oh, Clive knows about working with idiots. And geniuses. What a life.))

[justicereigns]

Got any puzzles about pyromaniacs?

[abstruse]

Perhaps; none off the top of my head.

[justicereigns]

That's probably a good thing though.

[He won't even ask about their other faults because it's just too much.]

[abstruse]

((he chuckles.)) Besides that, all the good puzzles involve lighting things on fire. Perhaps you know this one...

PUZZLE 012: Which one first?

It does tend to get cold in Fortuna during the winter, and we don't exactly hve the best electrical system around here, so it's best to stock up on matches for things like heat, lighting, so forth and so on.

But let's say you weren't as conservative as you should have been, and you have only one match left. You want to light the room with an oil lamp, start a fire to warm the room, and heat the water for your bath.

In order to do all of that, which of these things should you light first?

[justicereigns]

The match, or you won't be able to light the others at all.

[abstruse]

Exactly; and as I said, all the good puzzles with fire are about setting things off in smoke.

So, really, I doubt you want to teach them or even apply any sort of puzzle like that.

[justicereigns]

If it distracts them from setting people or the ship on fire, I still might consider it.

[abstruse]

Any particular reason they're so fond of fire? or just generally asinine?

[justicereigns]

[A shrug.] They're troublemakers. If they weren't marines, marines would have to arrest them. So long as they stick to helping civilians and fighting pirates they're given some leeway so they're pretty unruly. Like the worst kind of sinner trying to be a priest in order to work on curbing those bad habits.