[ House might have actually heard that quiet chuckle that sometimes came from Will.
This was part of what he'd missed. ]
I'll try to think more quietly.
Correct! It is the letter "e". I need to up my math game here.
[ There is silence for a bit, before the next riddle comes. ]
A four digit number (not beginning with 0) can be represented by ABCD. There is one number such that ABCD=A^B*C^D, where A^B means A raised to the B power. Can you find it?
Edited (html fail, all the html fail) 2018-07-30 04:20 (UTC)
you are physically incapable of thinking quietly even when you're just zoning out i can hear the river running through your head, dude
[The actual response to the riddle is several minutes in coming, though, as House has to mentally run down possibilities--he's not wasting paper for this and it's more challenging like this, anyway. Eventually, the answer slots into place, though.]
2592 2^5 = 32 9^2 = 81 32 * 81 = 2592
that was a good one! what's next?
[House wrinkles his nose at himself.]
pretend that wasn't the text equivalent of girly excitement that's basically what it is but y'know?
[ On the surface it could read as light banter, but there were layers of meaning, and unspoken gratitude in the statement as well.
However, for both their sakes Will doesn't linger on it and seeks to keep the conversation going. The riddles are fun, and he's genuinely enjoying stretching his own mental muscles in an effort to give House a challenge. ]
I think I may have to keep the 'girly excitement' memory, for when you're back to snarling at me later.
[ Again, the words might read as glib, but there was an unspoken meaning to them. An offer of support and the reminder that this death price would eventually end. ]
Alright. Since you're being a clever rat, let's make you work for your cheese.
"A 3 digit number is such that it's unit digit is equal to the product of the other two digits which are prime.
Also, the difference between it's reverse and itself is 396.
[ Oh but it was tempting to poke at that 'I like you' comment. If only because such things were nice to hear. But Will refrained, merely smiling to himself for a long moment, before he began to type out a response to House's question. ]
I don't watch television or the internet, remember? You can only fix boat motors or do so much fishing in a day.
[ He paused for a moment, then -in a show of 'too much sincerity- solidarity, he added. ]
They're a disciplined mental exercise, that does not lend itself to imagination. Or in other words, they're a good litmus test for an otherwise chaotic mind.
what i'm hearing is that you're admitting your hobbies are snoozeville after a while you need better hobbies like all around except the murder mystery thing that's cool and edgy except it's probably not good for you but that doesn't make it not cool it's like drugs for me
[Anyway. Before he rambles away too far...
Because House knows far too much about self-medicating. His response on this puzzle is much faster.]
and i'll take 5050 for 100, alex
that's a reference to jeopardy which you've probably never watched, either
[ Which had been incredibly unsettling. Even for Will. ]
We profiled a combination of obsession with being the smartest in the room and with 'Jeopardy'. From there we narrowed down a list of men who had applied to be on Jeopardy and been rejected more than once.
He'd tried eleven times. It kind of stood out, especially when we learned he had been forced to withdraw from Harvard due to exhibiting dangerous levels of stress.
It was all rather anticlimactic in the end, we caught him with his last victim before he could harm the guy. He'd gotten distracted by a "Jeopardy" marathon on some twenty-four hour game channel.
[It sounds like it would be. Still, pretty wicked, really.]
i love hearing about your cases they're so cool! i mean, creepy as hell but wicked cool like sherlock holmes, but ten times darker and not like the holmes here he's mostly just an asshole kinda reminds me of me actually and that's really not a good thing especially when his brother thinks it makes us like parallel siblings, or something
[ Despite how odd it sounds, Will understands that House is genuine in his fascination with the cases the ex-profiler worked. It doesn't come from a place of macabre voyeurism ... well, not entirely, but rather from that deep curious nature and need for puzzles. ]
Ask anyone I work with, they'll be the first to tell you that I'm a first class prick. And they're not wrong.
People don't like observation. It makes them feel naked, vulnerable, exposed and out of control. They don't like having their shadows yanked out of the convenient boxes in their minds and laid out for everyone to see.
Mycroft has a lot of sibling issues. Something tells me his overprotectiveness of Holmes the younger is coming from something in their childhood. Just not sure what. Either way, I wouldn't use him as a reliable gauge when it comes to sibling relations.
Did I ever tell you about the case of the woman who made people into bee hives?
but i like you more so, again more tolerable also, you know how to keep your trap shut at least some of the time holmes has less of a filter than i do and that's almost impressive
you're not wrong about holmes the elder i'm just saying also i live at 221b baker street at home that was a choice, tho not coincidence
you didn't tell me were they, like, actual honey bees or yellowjackets?
Sounds like that bar is set pretty low. [ For the liking part of things. ]
But that is impressive, because you make no filter into an Olympic sport.
You're kidding me. You live at 221b Baker street. Were it not for the fact that you can't seem to lie at the moment, I'd call you out on that fabrication. Did you choose to live at that address, or was it simply fate?
Honey bees. A holistic healer was lobotomizing her patients in order to heal them. A few she emptied the skull cavity completely and set up a hive.
yeah i was pretty much constantly snacking at home or popping pills or sucking on something
i actually have no idea why but i'm sure some psychoanalyst asshole'd say something like it developed because your mom stopped breastfeeding too early
and that sucks did anyone else taste it? i mean, someone had to try it honey is honey is honey oh, hey that reminds me anyone try the mushrooms mushroom-guy was growing?
It's the most available form of fidgeting. Chewing on a pen cap, smoking a cigarette, sucking on a lollipop, chewing gum. It's internalized fidgeting, a habit developed to help focus a mind that is constantly racing.
I suspect it became more pronounced when you suffered the injury to your leg and could no longer run as a way to do something similar. You fell back on the next readily available way to self-medicate.
Were I to psychoanal... never mind.
[ There was a brief pause before the next text. ]
As a rule we try to avoid tasting evidence. Of course Hannibal made a game of that. On our second meeting he feed me sausage made from the lungs of his latest victim.
okay, fair that makes sense and coming to think of it yeah it did get worse around them you're not actually bad at this even though it's srsly irritating sometimes i appreciate you actually trying to not do your thing while i'm like this
do you really make sausage from lungs? that's pretty gnarly did it taste good, at least?
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
I appreciate your acknowledgement of my charms. But I can't claim the latter. I can't turn off the lens, anymore than you can. I've just made a conscious effort not to burden you with the results.
I didn't make sausage from lungs. Hannibal did, and he fed it to me unawares. I remember remarking how good it tasted. Later on, when I realized what had happened, I drank a bottle of ipecac and spent the night throwing up.
It was much too late, months after the fact and I can't even claim I felt better afterwards. Just lay on the bathroom floor, with Winston licking the tears off my face.
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
It was one of his favorite games, feeding human flesh to guests. He was renowned in the top social circles of Baltimore and the DC area for his dinner parties. People clamoured for him to throw these parties and scoring an invitation was considered a social coup.
No one realized that every dish served, was human.
Alana, Jack ... he even fed Abel Gideon to himself. About the only way to truly avoid the risk was be vegetarian.
And with that you risked being 'rude'.
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
he kind of sucks as a bf just fyi i suck as a bf but i could at least apologize for some of the crap i put my ex through but maybe he's great in bed and you've got that whole "at least someone can understand me" thing going on with him, i guess you do you
[House has made his own terrible relationship choices, so it's not like he can judge. Mostly he is the terrible relationship choice for other people. So.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rubikscomplex) wrote2015-08-27 10:05 am
no subject
just fyi
and it's it's not "atoms"
it's the letter "e"
which is much less cool than atoms
no subject
This was part of what he'd missed. ]
I'll try to think more quietly.
Correct! It is the letter "e". I need to up my math game here.
[ There is silence for a bit, before the next riddle comes. ]
A four digit number (not beginning with 0) can be represented by ABCD. There is one number such that ABCD=A^B*C^D, where A^B means A raised to the B power. Can you find it?
if it's not*
even when you're just zoning out
i can hear the river running through your head, dude
[The actual response to the riddle is several minutes in coming, though, as House has to mentally run down possibilities--he's not wasting paper for this and it's more challenging like this, anyway. Eventually, the answer slots into place, though.]
2592
2^5 = 32
9^2 = 81
32 * 81 = 2592
that was a good one!
what's next?
[House wrinkles his nose at himself.]
pretend that wasn't the text equivalent of girly excitement
that's basically what it is
but y'know?
It is!
[ On the surface it could read as light banter, but there were layers of meaning, and unspoken gratitude in the statement as well.
However, for both their sakes Will doesn't linger on it and seeks to keep the conversation going. The riddles are fun, and he's genuinely enjoying stretching his own mental muscles in an effort to give House a challenge. ]
I think I may have to keep the 'girly excitement' memory, for when you're back to snarling at me later.
[ Again, the words might read as glib, but there was an unspoken meaning to them. An offer of support and the reminder that this death price would eventually end. ]
Alright. Since you're being a clever rat, let's make you work for your cheese.
"A 3 digit number is such that it's unit digit is equal to the product of the other two digits which are prime.
Also, the difference between it's reverse and itself is 396.
What is the sum of the three digits?"
no subject
usually not with me
but i like you
so you're one of the exceptions
[Let's focus on the numbers now. He really wishes he weren't being so nauseatingly sincere.
It takes him a while to work out this puzzle, as well. Clever rat, indeed. He comes back with the answer several minutes after his last message.]
lucky #11
236 is the 3-digit number
where are you even coming up with these
did you do math puzzles in your spare time as a kid?
no subject
I don't watch television or the internet, remember? You can only fix boat motors or do so much fishing in a day.
[ He paused for a moment, then -in a show of 'too much sincerity- solidarity, he added. ]
They're a disciplined mental exercise, that does not lend itself to imagination. Or in other words, they're a good litmus test for an otherwise chaotic mind.
[ Also known as a way to self-medicate. ]
"Evaluate 100^2 - 99^2 + 98^2 - 97^2 + 96^2 - 95^2 + ... + 2^2 - 1^2 =?"
cw: drugs
you need better hobbies
like all around
except the murder mystery thing
that's cool and edgy
except it's probably not good for you
but that doesn't make it not cool
it's like drugs for me
[Anyway. Before he rambles away too far...
Because House knows far too much about self-medicating. His response on this puzzle is much faster.]
and i'll take 5050 for 100, alex
that's a reference to jeopardy
which you've probably never watched, either
cw: serial killers
I worked on a case of a killer who used to leave the "... for 200 Alex" phrase on the bodies he left behind.
The more, shall we say detailed the horror the victim went through before death, the higher the dollar value.
[ See! He's not completely ignorant of pop culture. ]
cw: serial killers
and he wrote "daily double" on them
cw: serial killers
[ Will wasn't going to explain how that had worked. Talk about images you can put down. ]
cw: serial killers
did he play the final jeopardy clock countdown in the video
how'd you guys catch him?
cw: serial killers
[ Which had been incredibly unsettling. Even for Will. ]
We profiled a combination of obsession with being the smartest in the room and with 'Jeopardy'. From there we narrowed down a list of men who had applied to be on Jeopardy and been rejected more than once.
He'd tried eleven times. It kind of stood out, especially when we learned he had been forced to withdraw from Harvard due to exhibiting dangerous levels of stress.
It was all rather anticlimactic in the end, we caught him with his last victim before he could harm the guy. He'd gotten distracted by a "Jeopardy" marathon on some twenty-four hour game channel.
[ Not every case ended up in guns blazing. ]
cw: serial killers
i love hearing about your cases
they're so cool!
i mean, creepy as hell
but wicked cool
like sherlock holmes, but ten times darker
and not like the holmes here
he's mostly just an asshole
kinda reminds me of me actually
and that's really not a good thing
especially when his brother thinks it makes us
like
parallel siblings, or something
cw: serial killers
Ask anyone I work with, they'll be the first to tell you that I'm a first class prick. And they're not wrong.
People don't like observation. It makes them feel naked, vulnerable, exposed and out of control. They don't like having their shadows yanked out of the convenient boxes in their minds and laid out for everyone to see.
Mycroft has a lot of sibling issues. Something tells me his overprotectiveness of Holmes the younger is coming from something in their childhood. Just not sure what. Either way, I wouldn't use him as a reliable gauge when it comes to sibling relations.
Did I ever tell you about the case of the woman who made people into bee hives?
cw: serial killers
so, again
more tolerable
also, you know how to keep your trap shut at least some of the time
holmes has less of a filter than i do
and that's almost impressive
you're not wrong about holmes the elder
i'm just saying
also i live at 221b baker street at home
that was a choice, tho
not coincidence
you didn't
tell me
were they, like, actual honey bees
or yellowjackets?
cw: serial killers
But that is impressive, because you make no filter into an Olympic sport.
You're kidding me. You live at 221b Baker street.
Were it not for the fact that you can't seem to lie at the moment, I'd call you out on that fabrication.
Did you choose to live at that address, or was it simply fate?
Honey bees.
A holistic healer was lobotomizing her patients in order to heal them. A few she emptied the skull cavity completely and set up a hive.
cw: serial killers
most olympic pole vaulters couldn't clear my bar, dude
(speaking of the olympics)
so stop with the self-deprecation
it's annoying
i chose it
it's not like baker street is a weird street name
and i'm guessing the city planner was a conan doyle fan
death is a way to cure something, it guess
for a given value of cure
was the honey any good?
cw: serial killers
I was in the BSHCI at the time, so no honey tasting for me.
cw: serial killers
i was pretty much constantly snacking at home
or popping pills
or sucking on something
i actually have no idea why
but i'm sure some psychoanalyst asshole'd say something like
it developed because your mom stopped breastfeeding too early
and that sucks
did anyone else taste it?
i mean, someone had to try it
honey is honey is honey
oh, hey that reminds me
anyone try the mushrooms mushroom-guy was growing?
cw: serial killers / cannibalism
It's the most available form of fidgeting. Chewing on a pen cap, smoking a cigarette, sucking on a lollipop, chewing gum. It's internalized fidgeting, a habit developed to help focus a mind that is constantly racing.
I suspect it became more pronounced when you suffered the injury to your leg and could no longer run as a way to do something similar. You fell back on the next readily available way to self-medicate.
Were I to psychoanal... never mind.
[ There was a brief pause before the next text. ]
As a rule we try to avoid tasting evidence. Of course Hannibal made a game of that. On our second meeting he feed me sausage made from the lungs of his latest victim.
cw: serial killers / cannibalism
okay, fair
that makes sense
and coming to think of it
yeah
it did get worse around them
you're not actually bad at this
even though it's srsly irritating sometimes
i appreciate you actually trying to not do your thing while i'm like this
do you really make sausage from lungs?
that's pretty gnarly
did it taste good, at least?
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
But I can't claim the latter.
I can't turn off the lens, anymore than you can.
I've just made a conscious effort not to burden you with the results.
I didn't make sausage from lungs.
Hannibal did, and he fed it to me unawares.
I remember remarking how good it tasted. Later on, when I realized what had happened, I drank a bottle of ipecac and spent the night throwing up.
It was much too late, months after the fact and I can't even claim I felt better afterwards.
Just lay on the bathroom floor, with Winston licking the tears off my face.
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
and again
the keeping the trap shut thing
that sucks, though, dude
did he ever actually apologize?
i mean
it's one thing to force you to be a cannibal
it's another to trick you into it
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
What do you think?
[ Spoiler. The answer is no. ]
It was one of his favorite games, feeding human flesh to guests.
He was renowned in the top social circles of Baltimore and the DC area for his dinner parties.
People clamoured for him to throw these parties and scoring an invitation was considered a social coup.
No one realized that every dish served, was human.
Alana, Jack ... he even fed Abel Gideon to himself. About the only way to truly avoid the risk was be vegetarian.
And with that you risked being 'rude'.
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
just fyi
i suck as a bf
but i could at least apologize for some of the crap i put my ex through
but maybe he's great in bed
and you've got that whole
"at least someone can understand me"
thing going on with him, i guess
you do you
[House has made his own terrible relationship choices, so it's not like he can judge. Mostly he is the terrible relationship choice for other people. So.]
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
cw: serial killers / cannibalism / mental non-con of a sorts
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cw: suicidal ideation
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