OPEN Gnome Workshop

Interacting with @Howard White

The bit of silence that lasted for a couple minutes was broken when Bloom not only shared the name of her gnome, but Howard jumped in as well. Bloom couldn't help but the laugh at the fact that not only was his gnome a disaster, the name matched as well. "Very... Creative," she said, scrunching her nose playfully. "It will probably be right beside the Mona Lisa," she added. Bloom had never been the Louvre, but she did remember what was said about the Mona Lisa: it was extremely underwhelming in comparison to the other paintings there due to its size.

Bloom's eyebrows raised when he mentioned to sneak out together tonight. The girl did mention that she had needs, and those were to be with her man all the time. Thinking about it, a midnight swim seemed like a lot of fun. Granted, at night, there were more creatures that would be lurking about inside and outside the water, but that was just half of the fun of sneaking out. In a way, they would be in natural danger. Bloom smirked and nodded. "Let's do it!" she said with excitement. Bloom had an idea of what she wanted to do tonight, and hopefully he would be down for it. She wouldn't share it now, of course, but would keep it a surprise.

"Oh...," Bloom paused her excitement when he had mentioned about possibly meeting her parents in the winter. Their last conversation about their parents was during spring when she shared with him the reason why he hadn't met them yet. Her father was not big on creatures roaming around with humans. Even more-so, her family still did not know about Howard. Bloom felt that when she shared this with Howard, it had broken his heart. But it seemed that he wants to try again. "We could do something, sure," she said, not as excited as going swimming tonight.

Bloom finally finished her gnome, and placed it where all gnomes that were finished would go. She then went back to Howard and if he would let her, she grabbed his gnome to place it on the finishing table as well. She then went back to him again and held his hand. If he would let her, they would both be leaving the gnome workshop together.

Leaving the workshop

Plot Hook ─ Serena has been hiding her pointy ears for years hats, headbands and hair in an effort to keep her goblin heritage a secret. Her family is known to be a Pureblood family. From 1st July 2023, she openly wears copper earpieces (drawn by me) over her ears to draw attention to them. Her goblin-ness may be a surprise to some people.

Interacting with @Hugh Lowe | Closed to other interactions but you can mention her existence

Entering the Gnome workshop, she found herself instantly regretting her decision at the sight of two individuals that were definitely coupled up. But she was not here for them or to engage with them - and luckily, it seemed like they were leaving anyway, so that was a plus. She was here to challenge herself and do something she had not done before - create a gnome.

Gnome crafting was not something that was specifically in her remit. What was, however, was working with metal. She figured she could probably craft something up, throw in a bit of metal, wave her wand around a million times and eventually, it would result in something kind of cute, right?

Ignoring the others around, she went to an empty table and put her belongings on the corner of it. Before she pulled out her sketchbook, she took out a hair tie and gathered her long thick hair in a high ponytail. It was nothing fancy but it kept the hair off her face and since she was okay with not covering her ears anymore, she was taking advantage of being able to do that whilst she crafted. It made life easier.

Most students had likely started to decorate the gnome and build it straight off the bat. Serena normally probably would have too. However, she wanted to make something special today. She just did not know what exactly. She pulled out a sketchpad and started to quickly sketch up a few circles for heads, some rectangles for the body and added a triangle to each for the rough outline of their hats. She was just sketching out the base guidelines for them, before trying to doodle over them to define some potential ideas.

They were scribbles at this point but she worked for a few minutes on the design in silence. Before long, she had a couple of very rough sketches. She wanted a gnome but it could not just be any other gnome. It had to be special, it had to be cooler - because why be boring when you could be anything but? Especially for the goblin who was actively trying to be different, showing the world that she could be creative. Maybe she could make a part-giant gnome and name it after her best frie- okay, he would murder her. He would literally throw a boulder at her. Again. Maybe she ought to make it a goblin gnome… though, perhaps that was too on the nose.

Serena scrunched up her nose as she pondered, her fingers doodling over the page as she started to create some options. Perhaps it ought to have a long pointy hat like the others seemed to. Wait - would she be allowed to create it with a cute helmet instead? Oh! Maybe she could even give the little fellow need a little sword and shield to match - like a true knight!

In truth, Serena had been so anxious about the whole goblin reveal thing and feeling on edge that she was now just tired. She was exhausted from constantly pretending things were okay and that she was not on edge or she was super confident about herself - because she was not. It was a façade that she hoped she would one day end up believing in.

Crafting helped her to relax though - which was why her sketchbook had way too many designs and she had spent nearly all of her free time working on adding more to her collection of completed works. It was either forging or Broom Racing as of late. There was little else that she spent her time doing.

Spotting a figure entering the tent from the corner of her eye, she looked up. Her expressionless “do not talk to me” face broke out into a rather large grin as she raised a hand giving a wave to signal ‘over here’, even though he probably spot her before. She was used to not necessarily being seen due to her height, after all. “Fancy seeing you here,” She joked as he approached, knowing full well that she had asked him if he wanted to go make a gnome with her. “I currently have absolutely no clue what I’m doing yet - to your surprise, I’m sure,” She continued, once he had joined her. There was intentionally an empty seat near her as she had picked a table which had two chairs on purpose. Hers was a high chair that elevated her slightly and allowed her to actually comfortably use the table but she had seen a lower chair (a normal chair) nearby that she figured he could have used when he arrived. He could pull over another chair if he preferred, though.

“You know, I’m really glad you decided to come,” She said softly after a few moments, once he joined her, “To Summer Camp I mean. Not just here. Though I guess here too, so you can see my wonderful creation first hand, of course,” She quickly clarified, realising how much of the conversation had happened as a thought rather than aloud. She was just grateful that he had come to camp, his presence brought a sense of relief to her but she had not really had the opportunity to thank him for it till now.

I was excited to start working on my gnome for the gnome races! I knew very well that real gnomes, the ones that looked like dumpy potatoes with arms and legs and bit people, (I'd read about them in the library) were nothing like the friendly looking gnomes that muggles kept for them to guard their gardens and yards, but those were indeed the gnomes we were using. I wonder how the gnomes were going to race each other, or what the races would be doing...There wasn't a spell to give them sentience, was there?

I took a small wooden hat and began to paint it black. A pretty basic colour, yes, but also my favourite, since it's true what they say about black going with any colour. After that, I got all the other materials, like a small gnome head. As I did so, I heard a loud noise, like materials jangling together. I looked up to see someone sitting across from me. It was a boy, maybe around my age, maybe a year older. He had short black hair and brown eyes, and he was grinning as he said, "Hey, you alright, mate?"

It took me a few seconds to respond. "Yeah, I am. What about you?" I asked, giving him a slight smile in return. When he asked about my gnome, I looked at the unfinished gnome pieces in front of me. "Well, I'm not finished with them yet...I haven't given them a name yet, but I think that, um...'Jip Fitzpatrick' sounds good. What about your gnome?"
And then the boy asked, "Do you think he or she is going to be strong enough to carry you across the finish line to victory?"

Oh, I certainly hadn't thought about that. "Wait, strong enough to do what?" I felt a little flustered just then, I hadn't realised that the gnomes were supposed to carry us! "Well, I guess so, maybe...but I think what's most important is how long the gnome can last. You don't want them to not make it through the first 5 minutes of the game, right?" I really wanted my gnome to make it across, sure, but if it indeed did have to carry me, then I certainly didn't want to be dropped.

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RPing as Zophyr Qethnis from Uagadou

Genderfluid, pronouns at the moment: they/them

☽ Kirundi | French | English | Swahili | Arabic | Tswana | Xhosa ☾

Date: Unknown (before the 17th of July) Time: Unknown

Interacting with: X (closed to interaction) Mentioning: X

Summer camp was awesome, but also very weird. Zophyr had never heard of the concept of garden gnomes before, but it seemed like they were just (kind of creepy, in their opinion) decorations for someone's garden. Even that concept was weird. Why would you need decoration for your garden? It's a garden. It has plants and flowers and stuff. It is already its own decoration.
Despite these thoughts, Zophyr was not one to back down from a challenge, and a race sounded like fun. To enter the race, though, they needed a gnome. And fortunately, there was a stand to make just that.

Sitting down at one of the tables with the gnome-making tools and materials, Zophyr got to work. They wanted a female gnome, and hopefully one with darker skin (though they hadn't seen any like that yet). Collecting some materials - a green hat, a cute blue dress, some brown boots with golden buckles - they set them to the side, before grabbing a head and torso and beginning to paint. They weren't exactly amazing at painting, but hopefully that wouldn't be too much of a problem. First they painted the whole thing brown, before adding a mouth and eyes and a nose.

With the body done, Zophyr dressed their gnome up and added two black braids in the back, before grinning at their work. They were pretty proud, to be honest. They had just created life. Well, not really, but soon it would seem like it when she was running around on the racing track. But before that, she needed a name, which Zophyr promptly gave her. Duchess Frellington IV sounded regal and fitted her perfectly. Where the other three Duchess Frellingtons had gone, they didn't know, but that wasn't important. They had a gnome now, and they were ready to race.

I had thought that the gnome races and the gnome-making station were very well-thought and creative ideas, especially the gnome-building, since we weren't just being provided with gnomes or anything. Plus, apparently it opened up yet another opportunity for interactions between cabins, which was good because we couldn't cross cabins, apparently. "Well, that's good to hear!" I said, beaming.

When I told the boy what my gnome's name was(or would be, as soon as he was finished), he said, "Hmm.. 'Jip Fitzpatrick', that sounds nice. Sounds like he could be a fun, friendly guy?" I thought about it. Now that I think about it, it did seem accurate. "Well, yeah! You know, the type of guy you'd really want for a friend. But he's a fierce competitor too, though he's a very good sport and knows how to have fun." Now that didn't that sound familiar? Oh, it did; I just "supposedly" described myself.

"My guy... he's Flynnid Mayweather," the boy said, to which I let out a small laugh. "The name sounds very whimsical, yet I don't know if I'd want to go up against him, especially in a boxing match..." I figured that the name was not at all a coincidence. "Oh, and speaking of names, I never got yours. I'm Aurora Henderson, 2nd year Hufflepuff, but everybody calls me Ro." The boy went on to describe his gnome's personality. "And he has a temper. Doesn't like to lose, and will throw a fit on the field if anyone's better than him," he explained.

I was right. The name was definitely not a coincidence. "Oh, he's starting to not sound very whimsical anymore," I joked, briefly turning back to my unfinished gnome to paint his shirt yellow and thinking about adding green and pink designs later. At my remark about the gnomes having to have enough endurance to get to the finish line, the boy agreed, and then followed up with a rebuttal. "But if your gnome is big and strong, can't they just run into your opponents and knock them out first? You're more likely to win if there's no one else still running!" I contemplated that for a minute.

"Hmm, maybe, but what about if there's somebody on the field who you can't run into? If Flynnid happens to come across a gnome who's stronger than him, what then? And the times that you can't use your body as a wrecking ball and have to use your brain instead, maybe for something like, let's say, a maze?" Ha! The power of the rebuttal. I was no Ravenclaw, but even I knew that if you were smart enough to get through obstacle courses and at the finish line without delay, then surely you would place well in the end.

Plot Hook ─ Serena has been hiding her pointy ears for years hats, headbands and hair in an effort to keep her goblin heritage a secret. Her family is known to be a Pureblood family. From 1st July 2023, she openly wears copper earpieces (drawn by me) over her ears to draw attention to them. Her goblin-ness may be a surprise to some people.

Interacting with @Hugh Lowe | Closed to other interactions but you can mention her existence

Serena just smiled innocently at him, before giggling slightly at her rather funny joke - mostly because she could not hold back the laugh. “Hey bud,” She greeted properly. She drew a few lines on the page in front of her before hearing his words. Turning as though in slow motion, Serena quirked an eyebrow, looking over him, “Uhhhh maybe don't just smash them together,” She responded, “They'd probably like break if you do that. But yeah! I think that's the general gist!”

She was not entirely sure how it worked but she was fairly confident that she could figure it out with some time. “I am gonna assume they'll get enchanted. I wonder if I could...” She mumbled the last part of the sentence as she fell into thought. Would she be able to enchant it? She figured a professor probably would do that but if she could make magical armour, maybe she could figure out how to enchant this...? Well, that was something she would love to do but she was not entirely sure if she could so probably best to leave it to the experts.

A fake pout crossed her lips and her hands placed on her hip as he called her a little gremlin, “Excuse you. I'm almost five feet, thank you very much!” Serena responded, sticking her tongue out at him as she feigned irritation. She was a very tall four foot ten! That was basically human size. “I may as well just be a giant,” She joked, not believing her own words in the slightest.

But he was right about the second part of the sentence. She was not sure if she would last a single day without him. It was why she was here, thanking him. It was why she was so damn grateful that he showed up and why she had felt nothing but relief when she saw him. He made her feel so much safer than she probably was. “And that's why I'm thankful that you are here,” Serena continued with a smile as she turned back to her design and continued to doodle.

She started to put a gnome together after coming up with a rough idea of what she wanted it to look like. Rather than designing, she was always better at actually physically doing the craft. She learned by doing, after all. Serena hummed a little as she worked, stopping only when she heard his chuckle. Looking at him with a smile on her face, she stared at him for a few moments. Her eyes watered a little.

He should not need to be there for her but she was incredibly grateful to not be alone in this fight and she fully trusted that he would be around, before he even said it. “I know. That's why you're the best,” Serena replied as she instantly launched forward, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a squishy hug, assuming he did not dodge it. She practically threw herself off the high chair, jumping at him without much warning. However, she also did not weigh a lot or have enough strength behind her to knock him over - even if she tried.

Collecting herself, she returned to her seat, “I like the colours of some of those leathers,” She mused to herself, not quite saying that he should use them but also not not saying exactly that. She had noticed his own fondness for designing outfits and she suspected that he did prefer to work more with fabric than metal, which was totally fine. Not everyone wanted to bang their frustration out on large metal plates like she did.

“So. Hear me out here. I'm thinking this gnome needs some metal. Do you think I could make this look metallic?” She asked randomly as she looked at her design and then back at the gnome, lifting the hat to observe it. It was rather pointy. Maybe she needed to reshape it to be a bit more... well, helmet like.