Stretch Those Imagination Muscles!

Happy Tuesday, Dear Readers. I hope you are all okay.

This week, instead of me writing on about a topic that is current-events relevant (because I did that last week, and it's all the more pressing now), I want to set up something fun for all of you who might be stuck at home and are suffering from a case of Being An Extrovert Forced To Act Like An Introvert. This will be both a mental exercise and a writing diversion from the news and what is happening outside your houses/apartments. Come with me on this journey.

Imagine the following scenarios, and use the ones that grab you as writing prompts:

1) Cryptids are real and are seen a lot more than they have been in centuries previous, in areas they have never been seen before, and it is surmised that these species have had some sort of population explosion, so they are expanding and sharing territories. Some aspiring vloggers, sensing The Big View Numbers, have gone into the woods outside of town to figure out how to interview either a Mothman or a Sasquatch, while others are going out and trying to capture a Jersey Devil. It's been two weeks and nobody has returned or uploaded new footage remotely. You're part of the search and rescue team, and just as you look up into the thickening canopy of the forest, you spot the one thing you never wanted to; the Blair Witch stick symbol, done up in twigs and twine. You resignedly pull out your phone, report your findings to the Sheriff, and ask for a recording setup before going further into the woods.

2) Due to a wizard's meddling and a severely miscast spell, Minecraft rules about building and crafting things now apply to our world, and all the hostile creatures now spawn at night, with some staying around during the day. Do you choose to change the world outside using these new rules, and if so, how? If you choose not to change the world, do you use the rules to do personal projects (create potions, update your home interior easily, etc.)?

3) You're house hunting, and you found a house that's in the perfect neighborhood. It's beautiful on the inside and out, but the real estate agent seems resigned that you won't want it, as it's been on the market for three years without a single bid. They take you down to the basement, which is finished, with the exception of the side room which has the furnace. As you are down there, looking at the furnace, your teenage kid points and asks "Why is that door there?". You look, and there is indeed a door in the very back of the room...with three deadbolts on it.

4) Congratulations! You just won three million dollars in a mail-in sweepstakes you entered! There is a catch in all of that fine print, though; you have to spend ten percent of it on frivolous things (nothing necessary, nothing you've been saving up for to improve your house or life, nothing that will significantly improve your net worth, no giving it away, no donating it to charity or buying things that you will then donate to charity). How do you spend $300,000 in the most frivolous way possible?

5) You've been shot back in time, back into your body when you were 10 years old. There is no going back to the future for you, but you retain all of your knowledge. How much of an Agent of Chaos do you become, having all that adult knowledge in a 10 year old body, in the era in which you were a 10 year old? Shenanigans are most definitely encouraged.

Have fun, Dear Readers.

-A.M.W.