GC SF Sp WH BV YL BT CP SA CB CC Back to puzzle

Creative Pictures Studios

Refreshment Stand

by Todd Etter, Yar Woo
Answer: 🧙‍♀️

The first step is to solve the crossword and fill out the grid, which should be relatively straightforward.

H P N O T I Q A U T A N D Y M
R E G A T T A G R E E N P E A
A T O B O E S A N G R I A L R
B I C S S G A R A G O G T L C
S T O U T I P A L S C H I O O
O E L R A J B B O O M T O W N
R E A D Y O U C O N T E S S A
B L W A T E R C O L O R S E F
B L A C K E Y E R A W M E A T
L E M O N A D E T T A E S M K
U N B L T G I L T T C R A I N
E P L Y A L E D E E K L U D O
J A E T H E N Y L J O O K O X
A G R E E S O N E A S T E R N
Y E N E M Y N E B R O W N I E

Two things should be noticed at this point. First of all, being that this is the Refreshment Stand, there are eight beverages in the grid, each of which has a distinct color.

filled-in grid with beverages highlighted

You should also notice other entries that take the form of COLOR + LETTER SOUND (GREEN PEA (P), READ YOU (U), etc.) The center entry WATERCOLORS further confirms that there’s something going on with colors and liquids.

filled-in grid with "colorful" entries highlighted

READ YOU (RED + U)

TANDY (TAN + D)

GREEN PEA (GREEN + P)

YELLOW SEA (YELLOW + C)

BROWNIE (BROWN + E)

BLACK EYE (BLACK + I)

BLUE JAY (BLUE + J)

If you go back to the grid and interpret each drink as a letter based on its color along with the color/letter phrases, reading the across answers followed by the down answers will get you the phrase JUICED UP.

After entering this phrase, you should have been asked to visit the Refreshment Stand, where you would have received a plastic block with holes, four colored drinks, and a syringe/eyedropper: cranberry juice, blue gatorade, cold brew black coffee, and a frappuccino.

The block has the same dimensions as the grid. Experimenting a bit, you may notice that squirting liquid into one hole fills up other holes internally. (The block was a 3-D printed object, with linked .stl) If you squirt blue liquid into all the squares corresponding to J, red into the U squares, tan into the D squares, and black into the I squares, you’ll get the resulting pixel image:

This represents 🧙‍♀️, the emoji for female mage, your answer.