puzzleprompts | Puzzle Prompt Reveal ~ February 2020

Happy February, Puzzlers!

I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's quadruple specialness - Imbolc, Groundhog's Day, Palindrome Day, and the first doble latina Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Below is the new puzzle. As per new posting guidelines, your can post your response as far into the future as you want, and continue to post older puzzle responses here or to our AO3 Archive for 2020.

Happy Creating, Everyone!

Power: Empathy

Creature: Parrots

Sports and Recc: Skating

Classifieds Section: Matchmaker

Random Object: Jewelry

Sense and Sensibilities:
Sight: shiny
Sound: string music
Smell: coffee
Taste: sweet
Touch: soft
Emotion: content

Empathy can be simply sensing others emotions, desires, or fears. Your empath may be able to influence the emotions and actions of others. Or, they could transform emotional energy into physical strength, telekinetic power, or healing force. Any of these might be used for good or ill, by a protag, side kick, or villain.

Your Matchmaker might live in the past, present, or future. They might work for the public, noble families, or alien-earth immigrants looking for a native partner. They could run an online dating service, or import “mail-order” spouses from Faerie.

They might use empathy to find likely partners. Or they may use robotic or magical parrots to send messages or spy on their clients. Roller or ice skating might be a standard date your matchmaker arranges. Matchmaking might be your unhappy protags temporary job, or how your villain finds their victims.

Jewelry could be a charmed necklace, a cursed ring, ornate scabbard, expensive watch, or crown. It could be a Macguffin, a reward, or what your hero has to sell when they are at their lowest. Or perhaps a theft is the inciting incident that starts a police investigation or hero’s journey adventure. Or perhaps, your villain matchmaker, who is some kind of emotional energy vampire, gives all their clients membership bracelets that initiate an empathic link.

Maybe your sorcerer antag, under the guise of a Matchmaker sponsoring a first date concert, and after plying everyone with sweet, stimulant laced coffee, uses harp and violin music to elicit an emotional response in the audience, that the villain’s parrot familiars empathically soak up, turning them into portable emotional energy batteries for your villain’s future magical use.

Sense and Sensibilities is a reminder to make your story come alive using the senses and emotions of the POV character.

Puzzle Prompts is meant to inspire. To tickle your muse and get you exercising those little grey cells. Maybe even try out something new in your writing. Above all, have fun!

For more inspiration, check out The Art Room and our Music Monday posts at the Black Collar Bugle.