Original puzzle image is from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/creating-a-jigsaw-diagram-in-ms-word/e34a674c-0413-43bd-a7b9-3e917d0d2145 (I added the lettering).
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Puzzle (7)
Project: Comic
Known as: Puzzle
Real name: Darshita Khatri
Group affiliation: MizFits
Physical description: Darshita is a striking woman of Indian decent, with long black hair. She is in her thirties, and while saris are reserved for formal occasions her modern style is heavily influenced by traditional Indian styles.
History: Darshita was born in New Delhi but her family migrated to the United States when she was 2 years old. She only remembers life in the US, but Hindi was spoken around the home and her parents continued to follow some Indian traditions. Her family identified as Hindu but was not known for being particularly devout. Darshita did enjoy stories of gods and avatars (not knowing one day she would live among modern gods).
Darshita was always a bright child that worked hard and did well in school. However, every so often she would show absolutely staggering intuition. She would see novel answers to problems and be unable to explain how she arrived at the solution. In childhood these flashes were unpredictable. A few of them lead to her to invent useful items for use around the household. Her father sought to protect her from unwanted attention by patenting her ideas as his own. Of course, this was a bit of a rationalization, as he enjoyed the attention and wealth that came from being the second coming of Ron Popeil.
Her family’s sudden success and her father’s behavior about her ideas left Darshita conflicted. Though not devout Hindus, it was still hard to jibe the materialism she saw in her family with the tenants of their faith. Furthermore, she felt more exploited than protected by her father, and ultimately decided to stop sharing when she had her flashes of intuition (her flashes always came with a clear feeling of “rightness” so she never mistook a natural idea for a true flash). Her father was hard-working and at that point had built up his business such that he had other ways of finding new ideas, so Darshita ceasing to provide IP was not too profound of a problem. Soon enough Darshita’s flashes of intuition were seen by her family as a few moments of luck.
Darshita continued to keep her gifts a secret. Yet often times her intuitions gave her a sense of what was to come, and how to prevent tragedy. Those she helped never knew: asking a fellow student a question prevented them from crossing the street at the wrong time; the right word prevented a fight; and so forth. Acting on her flashes would keep her busy, and hiding her secret made it all very lonely.
In adulthood, it was easy for her to turn wealth from her family into staggering independent wealth (usually through well-timed silent partnerships in key businesses; she had to avoid the stock market for fear that her gifts would make others believe she was inside trading). She had begun to view her flashes as a burden and found that they occurred less frequently when she interacted with others less. Fewer flashes meant she felt less obliged to fix things, and she began to become a wealthy recluse.
When the “All Saint’s Anarchy” event occurred, however, it nearly destroyed her. All her flashes in the past showed both problem and solution. Right before the event, she had a flash of intuition where she knew a moment was coming where the world made no sense. She could intuit countless problems, but no solutions. She feared for her sanity before she mercifully passed out.
The other members of the Mizfits have always believed that this was the event that drove her to bring them all together. That the glimpse of absolute chaos drove her to be an agent of order and ended her isolationist ways.
They are close, but the reality is a bit more personal. People developing powers, demons and monsters becoming real, etc. did indeed create chaos. But during times of chaos, those who can see how things fit together have unprecedented opportunity to shape the world. However, Darshita’s first flash after the All Saint’s Anarchy event was to see how the pieces were falling into place to make her a true villain. Her efforts to avoid responsibility meant she was avoiding humanity including her own. She was on a road to view people as pieces to be placed, and herself as a goddess placing them. To avoid this future, she would need to reconnect with the world.
So while the Mizfits think Puzzle is here for them, in truth she needs them even more.
Role in the narrative: Puzzle practically IS the narrative. Team books are all about throwing characters together who might not even be friends under other circumstances. She brings them together, helps them realize their true power is in unity, and gives them purpose. My biggest fear is that, were I to ever write this, she wouldn’t be a multi-dimensional person.
Abilities: Her code/nickname (Puzzle) comes from the fact that her gift is to see how things fit together. Her conscious mind is impressive, but her unconscious mind is phenomenal. It is constantly processing stimuli, events, probabilities and so forth. The result is that every so often her unconscious mind puts things together such that it arrives at a non-obvious, but inevitable conclusion. In these moments, her conscious mind gets a flash of intuition. She cannot always explain the conclusion as a result, but she knows it is right.
This flash can take many forms. One is an inventiveness she sees how elements can come together to create something new and powerful. This is how she brought the Mizfits together she sees how they work together (InvinciBill’s invulnerability with Break’s strength; how Boost can reduce the Mizfit’s many limitations; how Swap can help get team mates into the proper positions, etc.). If they are in conflict with super powered villains and Puzzle has one of her flashes, the Mizfits are nearly invincible (she’ll see exactly what they need to do in order to win). This is crucial as without her the team is hardly a combat juggernaut.
These flashes can also take the form of a sort of premonition. She will foresee events unfolding, even sometimes when she doesn’t remember when she has seen the people involved (she has it’s just her unconscious kept track). These are not prophesy she can work to change the outcomes she sees (and often does). Occasionally, she “stays in the flash” where she sees everything around her in perfect clarity and can set off Rube Goldberg-type chains of events to get a desired outcome.
The thing she can’t control perfectly is when these flashes come. She can increase or decrease their likelihood by embracing or avoiding stimuli. Quietly meditating in complete isolation for days on end tends to greatly reduce the likelihood, while watching multiple news streams for hours increases the same. If she overthinks a problem this reduces flashes, while clearing her mind helps.
By the way Darshita is indeed CRAZY good at puzzles. She can tell when pieces are missing when the box is opened. She can put them together just based upon the shapes no image necessary. She can even see how they can go together in ways the puzzle maker didn’t intend (including making 3-D shapes out of 2-D puzzles).
Also by the way woe to the telepath that ever takes a trip into Puzzle’s mind.
Inspirations: Given this is a group book I’m wouldn’t follow the monomyth too closely, but Puzzle fills the wise mentor role (the hero role some as well, I suppose). It makes me sad that she may have to follow this pattern and that I’d have to eventually remove her from the Mizfits (her power is just too formidable for a long narrative). I have ideas for her ending and they are most noble, so maybe it is just as well that I will likely never actually write the Mizfits (so Puzzle can stay alive indefinitely in my imagination).
I remember a character from OSC’s Alvin Maker series that saw how things go together so likely my thoughts around her abilities. I’d also like to challenge myself a bit to write characters with different backgrounds than myself. I love the idea of someone with concepts like Dharma in her mind having to deal with seeing the world more clearly than others. I’m also toying with making her an avatar but haven’t studied Hinduism enough yet to know if that would be disrespectful (I certainly wouldn’t intend it that way).
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