Puzzle Reveal: February 2018

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

What: Puzzle for February 2018.

Why: For inspiration, accomplishment, and glory!

When: To enter the contest proper and receive a banner, post fics to puzzleprompts by 11pm EST, Sunday, March 4th. Give or take 12 hours for emergencies. Otherwise, puzzles may be posted wherever and whenever you want, as long as you include a link to puzzleprompts, thanks!

Content Reminder: Fics must be newly completed! If these prompts help you finish a stalled fic, that’s what we’re here for. But please, don’t submit fics completed months ago that happen to fit this month’s puzzle. As always, fics may also be answers to other comms' prompts.

Author Notes: Please use notes to clarify how you are using the pieces. Especially for long fics, metaphorical uses, and fics from original or small fandoms.

Mod Note: Banners and new AO3 archives are on the way!

Mod Reminder: There’s still time to post a puzzle for January! Deadline -  11pm EST, Tuesday, February 6th.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask below, or PM me if you feel more comfortable.

Rules and Guidelines

*All powers and attempts at magic/sci-tech, etc. can go horribly wrong, or simply not succeed, and still count.

*Possible interpretations are not limited to the below. These are just examples to stimulate your muses.

Power Hour: Cryokinesis - Snow/Ice Control

Can be magic, sci-tech, super power, etc.

Ex.: a freeze ray.

Ice Man from the X-Men or Tracy from Heroes.

A snow, cold, or winter activated magical ability.

Creature Feature: Arctic Animals

Can be mundane, a shapeshifter, alien, mythological, robotic, etc.

Ex.: Tauntauns, Wampas, and the Abominable Snowman.
Polar, ice, and winter creatures

Earth Arctic Animals

Earth Antarctic Animals

Classifieds: Aquatic/Space Law Enforcement/Military

Ex. in water: The US Navy or Coast Guard

Ex. in space: Starfleet or The Imperial Navy (Star Wars)

Other Ex.: Naval aviators

Submarines

The Spanish Armada

The Greyjoys (Game of Thrones)

Whatever they use on the ocean world of Camino.

Gungan external guards (not the inside ones on horses.)

If in space, fandom must use naval lingo, not airforce or other to count.

Ex: Aquaman counts but Green Latern Corps does not.

Pirates and privateers do not count! But aquatic/space vigilantes and freedom fighter do.

Sports and Recreation: Winter Sports

Does not have to be winter!

Any earth or alien winter/snow/ice sport counts.

Ex: ice skating, hockey, skiing, sledding.

Snow ball fights count!

Absolutely Magneto or Lex Luther attacking the Winter Olympics counts!

Does not have to be an organized sport or event.

Ex: Someone out skiing or boating around the arctic ocean.

Buffy taking Angel ice skating.

A shaman snowshoeing it to find Santa Clause or a holy ascetic deep in the Himalayas.

Geology Rocks: River or Lake

Can be a dry river bed, an active river, or a frozen one.

Can be a natural, underground, or artificial lake, frozen or not.

Streams, creeks, and ponds count.
An indoor ice rink does not count!

Mother Nature: Thundersnow

This very real but rare phenomenon is a thunderstorm with snow instead of rain - so thunder, lightning, and heavy snow fall must be present to count.

Must actually be taking place (or caused by) the main character(s) in the story, but can be shown happening to them in a dream, vision, or nightmare.

Random Descriptor: Purple

Something or someone in the fic must be purple, purple tinted, or trimmed in purple.

Lavender, amethyst, indigo, and Royal Blue/Purple count.

Random Object: Book

Must be a portable, physical object containing a fair amount of information in the written word, cuneiform, hieroglyphics, code or symbol language.

Ex: a scroll, codex, flash drive, Kindle, P.A.A.D., isolinear chip, etc.

Books on tape and braille count.

Pamphlets and technical manuals count.

Graphic novels and comic books count.

Posters, cave walls, baseball and chocolate frog cards do not count.

Comments

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Oh man... I SHOULD be able to come up with something for at least 4 of those, if my muse were still willing to veer off her current course a bit :/ Guh!
At any rate, I do enjoy simply seeing the examples you come up with to illustrate the puzzle pieces!

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy simply seeing the examples you come up with to illustrate the puzzle pieces!

Oh, that's so good to hear. I worry I've been less than inspiring lately :-/

And yay, I look forward to seeing what you come up with! Dare I hope it will be Star Wars??? I know, probably not. Maybe I should write my own, lol!

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Doesn't have to be brilliant!

Nope, sorry, the muse won't stray THAT far out of the box lol -- and yeahhhhh you should write a Zallus fic since canon has disappointingly given us zilch!

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of thundersnow. It sounds very interesting, I'm intrigued!!

It's gonna worm it's way into my puzzle for sure. . .

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I got the thunderstorm from dictionary.com's word of the day page. They had a whole article on cool, little known weather terms. I am definitely adding it to a couple of fics :-)

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter where you got the prompt from, it's an amazing prompt!

My autistic brother is into weather, so I might creep a few other weather phenomenon into my fic(s)!! (:

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

*raises hand*

Can my characters own an Arctic Animal??

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! that’s something I should have included in examples. I felt like this was sparse this month :-(

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

I just got this image of Becky with an Arctic fox curled on her lap. . . Super cute stuff!! :3

It's not sparse. I asked a draft question!! :P Of course owning an animal would count (and its an easy way of adding the piece! :P)

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

Can my book be purple to count for both?

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Yep, just be sure it’s ‘on screen’ being seen/used in some way, to count for two prompts. Or in flashback, dream, memory.

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling this would be the answer! :D But I wanted to check because that "smoking hot person that's smoking" didn't count as two prompts. . .

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

Anyways, I've had a different idea about purple. . .

And it looks like this;

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

YEEEESSSS!!!

I have spent way too much time starting at this gif! It's mesmerizing....

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

She's a Queen thou!
Bow down to the queen!!



And she knows it!!!

GIRRL LOOK AT HER BODDYYY!!

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Awwww, she is a superhero! And just non-stop gorgeousness!

[pony-express.livejournal.com]

She is!! She's perfect! ♥

[luminations.livejournal.com]

I started writing! Yay! That means I know I'll finish it. Not expecting it to be brilliant, but it's something.

It's okay to just MENTION things without actually showing them, except where explicitly stated (like the thunder snow), correct? And as long as it's not like... too obnoxious? (like the crack example... never did write that one...)

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Woohoo to writing! And something's better than nothing...or so I keep telling myself, as I am now working on my own fic for here and who contest, and I worry it's just a meandering mess :-/

And yes, you can just mention. Though, some detail/description would be nice, of course :-)

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Haha -- I feel ya! Yeahhhh... I'm thinking more about working the prompts in than about where the thing is actually going, so far.

The one mention I have so far is a brief memory, so at least it's not just like random conversation? That feels too cheater-y for me. I could get these 2 to talk about anything, lol

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Random conversation is better than what I have, which is just random slapping and snarking! But I am happy with my description of the winter games and winter creature, so I guess it could be worse...

For real, though, I think it's a very good sign to have characters who can always find things to talk about. It means you're in touch with them and they're alive! You know...in your mind...

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Ooooh Olympics-related, eh? I'd never be able to write that in with any kind of detail and have it sound authentic. And I lied, there's another mention, I just forgot about it because I was so proud of being able to use that one the way I did (power hour... challenging when no one has special powers in this world :D). But the first one was going to be part of the fic rather than just mentioned, and then it didn't really make sense after I started writing...

You think it means that? I hope you're right :) People do compliment my dialogue, I would say more than any other thing in my TLOU stories, and it's the thing I work on the least! I do "hear" them in my head. The actions, descriptions, plot and pacing -- all much harder. Funny how I assumed dialogue was the easiest thing for EVERYone. Of course different people have different strengths & weaknesses, DERP!

[katleept.livejournal.com]

I SO know what I'm wanting to write for this now!! But I'm not sure if the character would fit in with the military style you're looking for. In her kingdom, she'd be a member of the only "military" there is, and everything in the kingdom, underwater and above water and everything else, would be under her protection. Would that count or no?? And if she needs to use naval lingo, can you give me some ideas of what kind of words to use?

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Hey, that sounds great! And as long as she’s water based, any lingo would qualify.

Good luck writing!

[katleept.livejournal.com]

That's the thing. She's not water based, although she does protect all those in the waters, on land, and in air in her kingdom. Unless you count frozen water. She's more ice and snow.

[dancingdragon3.livejournal.com]

Aw, sorry! I reread the earlier question. As long as she is protecting etc a lake or water or frozen lake etc in the fic then it’s okay.

[katleept.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was thinking! :) Thanks for confirming.