hisapprentice | [Puzzle 014]

[Sometimes, in the wake of a foundation-shattering event, all anyone can do is stare at what remains.

That is not true for Luke this time, and hasn't been in the entire two weeks since all of himself came rushing back. All things considered, he's been as upbeat and energetic as ever. Helpful, too - so many others seemed devastated in the aftermath, he felt and still feels like he ought to make up for it somehow.

The first thing he does with the free time in his Monday is go to the bakery and get a dozen of something. Donuts or cupcakes or similar things, anything sweet and delicious. Those treats are going to people he knows, if he can find them, especially the ones that haven't shown their faces of late.

Then it's time for the real substance of his day.

A puzzle.

He handwrites it out first, then reads it out for the benefit of anyone stymied on the writing front.]

A family gathers in a room for a party. In this family, there is a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, an auntie, an uncle, a niece, a nephew, and 2 cousins. However, there are only 4 people in the room. What are their relations to each other?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't see how it could be possible. Unless... wait, can they be related to people who aren't in the room?

Sure, they could be. That won't help you find the right answer.

... oh.

This is really confusing. I can figure out the mom and dad and kids and siblings part, but I'm not sure how the aunt and uncle and cousins all fit into that.

Well, if you can't figure it out, then the truth is you're probably doing the mother-father part wrong to start with.

... that's a nice way of saying I'm dumb, isn't it?

No! That's to tell you to start at the beginning and think about the puzzle differently.

So you're saying I messed it all up.

Of course not! It was just a hint for if you got stuck, that's all.

Then everyone in the room is related to each other? Is that what you're saying?

Edited 2013-09-03 00:37 (UTC)

That's right! I don't think any of this would work out otherwise.

If they aren't parents and children, then it has to be something else...

[Thinkthinkthink.]

They've got to be parents and children in some combination, though, don't they? Or there wouldn't be a mum and a dad and everything.

Wait, you mean they could be parents, but not the parents of the kids in the room?

No, I meant that in the room there have to be related parents and children or the puzzle wouldn't work.

[Cue a lengthy stretch of silence on Emil's end while he tries to figure this out.]

[There are enough people struggling with this that Luke thinks he would have been better off giving out a simple arithmetic problem.]

Are you still there?

... I don't think I'm very good at this kind of thing.

A true gentleman never gives up! So you shouldn't.

What does being a gentleman have to do with giving up?

You don't want to be a gentleman? I guess not everybody does, but what else is there to be that might even match that caliber of person?

No, it's not that, it's just... I didn't realize that solving puzzles had anything to do with being a gentleman. I thought it was just about having good manners and dressing nicely.

Puzzles aren't the only part of being a gentleman, but being a gentleman includes solving puzzles!

I never knew that. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a gentleman after all...

What? Of course you are! You've just got to work on it, that's all.

Which means I need to be able to solve this riddle, right?

[Voice]

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