Quincy Wright
August 19, 2020 8:19 PM
Let's test your mind. [Bertie.] by Quincy Wright
Quincy had an idea. Normally, he wasn't the one to leave puzzles in the dorm he shared with Bertie, his roommate was the more puzzley of the two. Quincy had became increasingly aware of this behavior since he'd gifted the decider book for Christmas and now found himself wondering whether one puzzle or another was due in any measure to his own influence, but it was nice. He liked that they had their own thing to sort of bond over, and that they could be interested in the other person's stuff, even if it was a little bit different stuff than their own. But he did feel a bit bad that he didn't challenge Bertie the same way as Bertie challenged him, and so he was determined to rectify that.He'd taken some time with this one, carefully plotting each step in the puzzle, making sure it was perfect - or close; he wasn't about to test it a thousand times - before taking his seat in the front row of the audience. When Bertie next entered the room, it was to find Quincy sitting on his own bed, eating cheese puffs and beaming proudly at him. On the floor, there were three notes.
"One of those is true, the other is false," Quincy explained. "I wanna know if you can figure it out. The key to the third one is in the answer." He'd considered figuring out some sort of prize for Bertie, but he was pretty sure that the puzzle itself was a prize with the two of them, and he was excited to see how it went. Hopefully it wasn't too easy for the super sneaky secret agent.
The first note read:
You are 53. I am 83.
The second:
You are 37. I am 47.
And the third:
3 14 - 24 14 20 - 22 0 13 19 - 19 14 - 21 8 18 8 19 - 19 7 8 18 - 18 20 12 12 4 17 ?
22
Quincy Wright
Let's test your mind. [Bertie.]
1495
1
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Bertie Jackson
October 06, 2020 11:12 PM
Please pay in cheese puffs for demonstration by Bertie Jackson
Today was the worst- best kind of day. Bertie quickly revised his assessment as he entered the dorm and saw cheese puffs and a puzzle. Admitedly, the cheese puffs were currently in Quincy's hands but that just added another element to the challenge before him. Probably one that just involved asking cos Quincy was a nice guy, but it was more fun to think of it in those terms.He sat down eagerly on the floor in front of the notes, unwilling to move them from their established locations lest that in itself proved to be part of the puzzle. It was very rare that people did things like that but better safe than sorry. He forgot about the cheese puffs temporarily as he surveyed the notes, keen not to waste any time in getting the ideas whirring. He tilted his head in delighted puzzlement at the first two notes. Interesting. There was simultaneously nothing he could say about them and about a million things - their solution was not immediately apparent, and that meant his mind was racing, trying to think of every possible interpretation. Of which their were a lot. It was a key, it was a key so the numbers related to letters? The numbers exceeded 26 though, so they weren't letters of the alphabet. Unless they stood for significant pairs? QW and BJ were a possibility, but the second of each pair always matched which ruled that out. Home states? Ditto. They could literally be what 'I'- but he tried not to think too loudly. He was going to have fun putting together puzzles in return, and it would never do to let Quincy in on too much of how his brain worked.
"My brain works b-b-best with sssnacks," he grinned cheekily, holding a hand out. Once it was full of cheese puffs, he turned to the final puzzle. Admittedly, he had been told the first two were the key to this one, but if it was a straight forward substitution cypher then it should be possible to crack on its own... He wondered whether that meant it wasn't, or whether Quincy would regard it as cheating to solve it backwards. Bertie mentally reviewed the instructions he'd been giving, not finding anything that said he couldn't do it that way.
He pulled a pencil and a pocket notebook out, manipulating the cheese puffs one by one out of his left fist and into his mouth, leaving his right clean and tidy for writing with, and began scribbling ideas, based on two letter words.
Pretty soon, he had 'Do you want to' figured out. This was all making sense! It was all falling into place! And there was a double consonant in the final word and he hadn't used 'z' yet, and it stood to reason that it would be 'puzzle' because what else would he and Quincy talk about? 'Do you want to solve this puzzle?' perhaps? But then no. The final letter of the penultimate word matched the first letter of the last one. Thip puzzle. That wasn't a phrase. He double checked the letters he was sure of, trying to find any other word that was t__p that would make sense there. He hit his head against that brickwall again and again for a minute or so, even considering asking Quincy whether he was sure he had got all the letters right. But he figured he should check himself first before admitting that kind of weakness. He glanced back at his 'clues' but they remained as opaque as before.
He glanced over the letters he had used, and took account of what was missing and - wait. Those gaps. Surely it wasn't that easy and obvious? Oh dear. But it was. He would almost have been disappointed in Quincy had it not been for the fact he still didn't know how the clue worked, and that it had taken him an embarrassingly long time to get this, simple as it was.
Applying that, something very different than the question of solving a puzzle emerged, though the answer was still most definitely an enthusiastic 'yes.' This showed on his face, as his head snapped up, beaming a wide grin at Quincy, though he quickly stifled his expression, because obviously he couldn't just come out and say it, he would need to find some equally devious way of delivering a reply...
But before he did that, he still had to work out those dratted clues.
13
Bertie Jackson
Please pay in cheese puffs for demonstration
1497
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5