To the End of Time

the point of the riddle isn’t to figure out which one is lying, in fact, knowing which one lies and which one tells the truth is irrelevant. What you want is the correct answer from the magical beast/two guards/etc. Usually this means knowing which path to take. For that, you HAVE to ask it “if i ask the other head/guard/etc which is the safe way to go, what will they tell me?”

if you asked the truth-telling one, they’ll tell you the wrong way, because the liar will always mislead you. if you ask the liar, they’ll tell you the wrong way, because they’re misleading you, so

ALWAYS do the opposite of whatever answer you get.

“who cares this is a stupid tumblr post this doesn’t matter irl–”

WRONG AGAIN! story time:

A few years ago a friend threw a halloween party, and since he dressed as the Riddler, he decided to have a riddle contest.

now, i’ve been preparing for a riddle contest my entire life, since i first read the hobbit and it got bilbo out of trouble. for some reason, i assumed riddle contests were as inevitable as quicksand.

I answered the first riddle easily (it was one of the ones from the hobbit) and then i had to answer the next one to win a bottle of top-shelf rum. it was a variation on the two-guard riddle, only i had to choose one of two paper bags. one had crappy cheap vodka, the other the nice rum. 

the host and his friend did the classic one lies one tells the truth thing, and of course before i asked everyone started shouting “ask him what color your hair is!” and stuff like that, but i already knew what to ask, so i shushed them and won the rum

remember, kids, it doesn’t matter which one is lying and which one is telling the truth. all that matters is you get the correct knowledge to move you forward, win your rum, and make you seem like a superhuman riddle-solver to a crowd of drunken party guests.

They tell you that one of them always lies and that one of them always tells the truth. And they tell you you can ask them one question.

If you ask “What’s two plus two?” than great. You know which one lies but you also still don’t know which bridge you can cross and can’t find out.

FUCK

October is ADHD awareness month! 🎉

transcript:

[id: four panels of a little cartoon figure (who looks extremely tired and has their hands spread out wide over their head) in front of an orange speech bubble with white text. the first panel says. “Remember to respect people’s MEMORY PROBLEMS”

above the speech bubble in the rest of the panels is orange text.

panel 2 orange: “How could you forget [blank]??” panel 2 bubble: “I live with a disorder which severely impacts my FUCKING MEMORY”

panel 3 orange: “Ugh, I’ve already told you this so many times" panel 3 bubble: “Please be patient, my forgetfulness is annoying for you BUT SCARY FOR ME”

panel 4 orange: If you cared you would have remembered" panel 4 bubble: “I actually care a lot but I also have a clinically diagnosed MEMORY DISORDER”