"Can you answer this?"
Summary:
If you thought that playing Cluedo with a detective was a nightmare, wait until you have him solve a chainmail riddle. Or, to be specific: fail to solve it.
John was looking through his blog in boredom.
They haven't had a case in over a week and even he was starting to feel the boredom now.
His phone vibrated, and Sherlock looked up in interest as John took his phone into his hand. "Is it Lestrade? It better be Lestrade."
John shook his head. "It's Mike Stamfort." Sherlock groaned and fell back into the sofa dramatically.
John raised an eyebrow at the message. "Can you answer this? There are 5 people in a room, you go in and kill 4 of those 5, how many people actually remain in that room. Reply with your answer. If you're wrong, you have to repost it with who you lost to.
I lost to Miriam."
John thought for a moment. "Hey Sherlock. Might be interesting after all."
Sherlock blessed him by opening one of his eyes a tiny bit.
John read the message out loud, leaving away the 'you have to repost if you get it wrong' part.
"What is the point of this?" Was Sherlock's answer.
John seemed amused by it. "What? A killing mystery, that should be right up your alley. So, how many people are in the room?"
"It depends."
"On what?"
Sherlock sits up in one fluid movement. "Does the last living guy escape? Does the murderer run after him? Does the murderer keep him hostage? Does the murderer hide the bodies somewhere far away from the crime scene? Too many variables. And at which point in time are we talking about? Right when it happens or when the police arrive?"
John pondered over this. "So basically there is no accurate answer because it changes, depending on the when and the what."
Sherlock sighed and fell back down on the sofa. John took that as a 'thank you for stating the obvious and repeating what I just said.' He started typing their response.
"There is no real answer because it depends on the 'when' and what happened by then."
He felt pretty content with his answer. After all, Sherlock had explained it and made it seem so logical.
His phone vibrates. And John wanted to take everything back in that moment.
"It was actually a 'yes' and 'no' question: 'Can you answer this?' Now you have to post it on your blog ;)"
John let the stupidity wash over him. Of course. It had been one of those 'look at every word' kind of questions.
But technically, it wasn't actually John who got it wrong...
A mischievous smile grew on his face and Sherlock suddenly looked at him with startled eyes. "What?" He asked.
John just kept grinning. "You are an idiot."
Sherlock didn't show him any reaction whatsoever. "What was the 'correct' answer, then?"
"Just yes or no. Because the question was 'can you answer this?'."
Sherlock seemed confused now. "But I told you that you can't solv- I mean, answer it."
John just stared at him with a dumb face. "You really don't get the point of this game, do you?"
Sherlock stared back at him with the same expression.
"Well obviously I don't, because that doesn't make any sense. I said you can't answer it because there are-"
"That's just IT, Sherlock! All you had to say was 'no'!" The detective started pouting now and John was actually laughing. Sherlock could act like such a child sometimes.
The detective stormed away into his room, slamming the door, and John bent over in a fit of laughter.
He had one over Sherlock, for once.
#
It was nearing 3 am when John was rudely woken from his slumber by a certain detective plopping down on his bed with a bright laptop screen shining into his face.
"I've googled it. There are at least 20 people who say that it is impossible to answer, therefore I am correct."
"Sherlock." John warned.
"John just read it! I told you, I was right!"
John sat up, gave Sherlock a death glare as he slammed the laptop closed, and snapped "it is the bloody middle of the night and you woke me up when I have to go to work tomorrow, BECAUSE YOU CAN'T ACCEPT THAT YOU WERE WRONG!!!"
Sherlock quietly vanished in a matter of seconds.
#
Revenge.
John had his revenge for that one.
He had taken Sherlock's laptop (he hadn't dared to step foot into his room again to get it) to work with him and created a new post on Sherlock's website...
#
Anyone who may have followed Sherlock's homepage probably had a good laugh at the post:
Can you answer this? There are 5 people in a room, you go in and kill 4 of those 5, how many people actually remain in that room. Reply with your answer. If you're wrong, you have to repost it with who you lost to.
I lost to John Watson.