Zyn: Okay, so here's where we can put ideas and conversation regarding how the draft will proceed. Here are my current thoughts:
- Right now, the gnomes don't really have much character, and seem too random. So what's their story? What's up with the moon thing? I have two ideas:
- They're tricksters who try to peddle their talents. These are the "fart in your enemy's flowers" gnomes.
- They're servants of the moon. They stand by the world's oceans and help the moon speak with the tides each night. Something something mystical. The statues are something they set up because in recent times, it's been harder to provide for themselves, what with people overrunning the planet and beachfront properties and stuff. Their culture is based on equivalent exchange: you trade for something, you never take. Even if it means paying an undisclosed favor.
- coffeepunk: Just wanted to add the note that we discussed via PM about 'mother moon' causing harsher conditions w/ the ocean etc. if her demands aren't met, or if her land/people are being treated improperly. I also liked the bit about the moon "not being just ours" - maybe there's something more there that ties into all that? Who else or what else is invested in it?
- Zyn: Hmm. Maybe the gnomes are just a small contingent that watches over the tides in their part of the world? Maybe dwarves/elves/pixies/etc have their own moon duties, but are better at getting by due to personal skills and available resources?
- The gnomes need some more character. I've got some interview logs planned out; I can write those.
- I'm thinking that the exchange will have more narrative meaning too--these gnomes live off the land, and with humans taking over most of it, they can't forage for food as well. Their first requests will be food-related items: mushrooms, lichens, a bowl of salty water. Then it moves on to plant fibers, maybe some medicinal herbs, "a warm bark hat that could fit a littler version of me". And so on. At some point, a gnome comes to collect the fee, and talks with the Foundation researcher assigned to the objects a little. Eventually the gnome doesn't ask for payment—it was good to talk about his troubles and he looks forward to seeing the researcher the next time his shift is up. (turns out, the lunar cycles thing is based on when the gnomes have time off work!)
- I'm still not too sure what the exchange would be though. I think it's easier on the reader if they don't have to remember all the gnomes having different effects, but we still need some services for the gnomes to do. Shaping stones? Maybe you give the gnome a stone, they fashion it into something related to the moon or imbued with some of "the moon's whispers" to reflect the phase of the moon in a glow-in-the-dark kind of way? Or they make little good-luck charms with the moon whispers that can do small things, like give off radiant warmth when rubbed between hands, or be used to purify water, etc?
coffeepunk: re: their description, maybe back off the occult + christian imagery. keep the robes/hats maybe but not lean too heavily on the religious stuff (i was using those for more of strange creepy element).
for their physical description, since I assume we're not making them statues anymore, maybe they still have the appearances of old men, but tiny obviously (30-60 cm tops maybe). almost all identical. maybe pale white or blue skin given the lunar theme as well as dark orbs for eyes that glow a faint yellow under moonlight.
Zyn: Yeah, re: religious imagery. That'll shave off some of the word count too, so the article can get to the good stuff without losing the reader in the initial appearance description. Robes and hats are good.
I think we can keep the statue idea you had before, but just have one statue. It'll be sort of like a GPS so the gnomes know where to show up for people who ask for twice-monthly quarter-moon odd jobs? When the right kind of moonlight shines on it, the statues gets swapped for whichever gnome has the time to take on some extra work? I like the lunar theme physical description.
I started writing the description with basic statue set-up. You want to add in the appearance of the actual living gnomes?
coffeepunk: I added the description. I think it needs tweaking to better fit the article and maybe adjust to sound more clinical but I generally laid it out.
Zyn: I've edited it for clinical tone. Mainly moved some things around for flow and chopped the sentences up a bit. I did a lot (read: TOO MUCH) of scientific writing in past years, so it basically comes down to what flows best. Let me know if you disagree with any of the new wording I used.
I'm thinking next we can have a bullet list of different appearances/names of the gnomes that showed up (it won't be rotations so much as recurrences/whichever gnome is available). Then we can have a table or text box listing transactions.
Do you have any idea for what novelty moon-whisper qualities the gnomes can imbue into stones the Foundation provides? And items in exchange? Basically it starts out with food, then progresses to building materials and clothing. Never any luxury items.
Also, I was toying with the idea of having the gnomes be German in origin, since the reference I pulled for describing the statue is German in origin, and Germany has a sea coast with tides they keep track of in Hamburg. Maybe one of the interviews can note that it's a translation? I can ask someone from the German branch to help with names and conversational phrases? The interview would still be in English, but I was thinking we could translate from English to German and then back to English, but loosely, to keep the German speaking patterns intact. (for example, SCP-1334's interview made use of this reverse-then-re-translation method to keep the "feel" of a conversation between Chinese speakers). Or we can scrap the German thing entirely. Just something I was toying with as an idea…
coffeepunk: New wording is perfect. Thanks for sprucing it up.
What are we going to differ for each gnome? What qualities should differ between each aside from the 10 cm height variations? What can we make unique about them while keeping them consistent? maybe it's different personalities? Some are friendlier, some are wiser, some are mischievous?
re: gift stones - I wouldn't imagine anything too "powerful" but still having desirable gifts would be good. i.e. a health ward that prevents minor health ailments (i.e. headaches, common cold, flu, other basic common sicknesses), maybe one allows for sight in the dark provided it isn't a "new moon" phase (user doesn't need to be outside, but the stone's quality relies on the moon phase).
re: items needed by gnomes (food etc.) I think we just need something a little unique here so that there's a reason they're relying on people to acquire the goods for them. Maybe it doesn't need to be rare but it would be something that these little dudes would need help retrieving, thusly the foundation assists.
I like the German idea, maybe we even insinuate the language originated from them opposed to the language's actual history? Or it's very similar but there's words that are uniquely theirs that have no modern German equivalent?
Also circling back to the idea of the urgency of the moon and other races of creatures, maybe there's another subset of the SCP or another separate one that is either a predator of these guys or something they're afraid of? Maybe that's also why they can't run off to gather the resources they get from the SCP, for safety reasons. Just spitting an idea out. Maybe they're the inverse of these guys. They look the same but are more feral?
Zyn: I've added more to the draft, including the basic exchange, and the table. Table still needs some material to be added, including two of the four exchanges and all the gnomic appearances. I like the idea of the personalities varying—definitely put something in there. For names, possibly German terms for stones? Maybe each gnome wears a special shaped stone somewhere, on a ring, necklace, embedded in their hat, a bracelet? That's how they denote their particular character? So the old wise guy would have a crescent moon on his hat? Then we can get into some of the culture without being super obvious about it.
I feel like the table can also show how the Foundation gets better at figuring out what the gnomes need/want, and start giving stones for enchanting that the gnomes approve of and start giving better effects for. I feel like the night vision we should save for the end interview, since it's arguably the most powerful ability out of the other entries, and the price was just being a good listener.
The urgency of the moon gnomes can be covered in the interview as well. I like the idea of there being feral equivalents, maybe "dark moon gnomes"? That's why the moon gnomes only show up when there's half the moon in the sky (quarter moons), that's when both of them are evenly-matched in terms of magical strength or something. I'm not too sure what the dark moon gnomes do, but maybe they feel like their job is more important and they're just waiting for the moon gnomes to die out so they can have dominion over both the moon's light and darkness?
I'm getting a really good feeling about this!! We've got a ton of cool cultural background things going on. I'll be contacting some of the German translation branch members to see if they're interested in helping with some text generation. Contacted. One of the admins on the German branch has said he'll help! He also suggested looking into the lore about kobolds, which are Germanic in origin. Maybe the gnomes and the dark gnomes are descendants? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold
coffeepunk: I kind of like "Galgenmännlein" (kobold name variation) for our dark gnomes. How do we integrate them in though? Will they work conceptually since only one gnome appears at a time? I think they could also look very similar to the 'real' gnomes, the differences being they have fangs, don't speak in full sentences (playing up the feral bits) and when seen in proper light their skin isn't just pale but has a translucent quality revealing veins and musculature beneath giving them a hideous quality. Maybe they show up on a new moon if the foundation hasn't met a request or the gnomes weren't able to do their work properly (i.e. the moon doesn't allow them to pass into our realm)? Something to that effect maybe. Maybe they're the ones that cause mother nature to go awry when the moon is not satisfied. Another alternative is that if a gnome can't appropriately address the moon/do their work, they become feral and wreak havoc on the moon's behalf? Just throwing a lot of ideas out at once there.
Zyn: We can probably introduce the concept of Galgenmännlein in the interview. Maybe that interview occurs on the summoning after the first absence of the moon gnome on a new moon. I've added a TBD addendum section for introducing that.
ETA: banged out a bunch of material in some sort of half-crazed writing spree. Tired now though, so going to crash. Will take a look tomorrow.
Next-day Zyn: Okay, that table was driving me insane trying to format, so I changed it to bullets. I think it looks smoother, but my formatting might be a bit inconsistent… that can be cleaned up later. My German contact told me:
""Galgenmännlein" is very uncommon and may be mixed up with "Galgenmännchen", the German name of the game Hangman. I suggest Kobold, Wichtel or Heinzelmännchen. The latter two are originally friendly and helpfull house-gnomes, working for a bowl of milk or something. The Term "Kobold" (plural: "Kobolde" itself is usually related with evil gnomes. Though all of them can be extremely harmfull if not being treated well. This varies from noises in the night or making milk sour to setting houses on fire, killing kettle and driving their victims to deadly accidents or suicide."
Also, "the moon" in German is apparently masculine. Let's make the moon a dude.
ETA again again fixed the table in another sandbox, but it here.
Grom: As for the location, there may be parks that are not in public hand but that is rather unlikely. There are bigger or smaller parks in most towns though, the Foundation may have made the town - which usually runs the parks - hire them as security service due to alleged vandalism or drug use. This could be in any town, though as you are using the term "Heinzelmännchen" it should be somewhere in western North Rhine-Westphalia, but not in Cologne (which was abandoned by the Heinzelmännchen after a woman tricked them). If you want to use a site of the German branch, point somewhere on the map and i'll see if we are already having a site nearby, otherwise i could create one ;). The parks are usually in the city centers, the security service could have their offices nearby. Also in many parks there are one or more cabins with public toilets, storage and technical rooms.
I suggest replacing the table with a log. The cells are full of text with only four rows it looks unnecessary. Like:
Name, appearance: Schiefer,[[footnote]]Listed as the first instance of SCP-XXXX-1 to have successfully bartered with Foundation personnel.[[/footnote]] 45 cm tall, slightly dark skin, arrangement of moonstones on hat forms a circumpunct
Material provided → Alteration: 10 cm flat slate tile fragment —> stone can be used as a mirror, reflects an individual's visage with excellent clarity.
Payment requested / Translation: "So viel grüner Seetang wie ich tragen kann" / "As much green Seeweed as I can carry."
Exchange made: Bulk amount of tightly-packed preserved seaweed sheets. SCP-XXXX-1 examined stock, took roughly 23 kg of seaweed.
The interview sounds a little odd, but doesn't resemble german grammar. To make it stand out I could translate it to German (or get Rikjard Regreps, who is writing outstanding dialogues, to translate it) and back to English, so it doesn't only look like translated by a German.
coffeepunk: thanks so much, Grom! I'm not well verse enough in the geography of Germany etc. to pick a reasonable place for these to be contained. If you want to insert a foundation appropriate location that's fine by me. Would you mind taking that on?
I added further descriptions for the other gnomes, probably could use some tweaking but I attempted to keep it consisted with the updated listing for our first gnome buddy. What do you guys thing?
re: the table + translations. I like the table because it keeps it clean and organized and ads some hierarchy to everything instead of one big wall of text. Sorry, just letting my designer side speak, but if it's not foundation appropriate we can do your suggestion of making it an addendum?
And the translations - not my forte so I'll defer to you on that one, Grom
Zyn: I put the table text into a quote box with the listing and put that under the table. Take a look at see what's better? I'm kind of ambivalent. I don't totally love the table, but I'm not too sure about the list. I made some edits to the list but not the table… keep that in mind. I need to leave for something soon so I don't have time to make the edits again.
As for location, does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertal this place work, Grom?
coffeepunk, you mentioned consistency with appearances with the gnomes. Do the symbols on their hats mean anything, hierarchy or character-wise? I mean, a gnome with an alchemical symbol might work with metals specifically, a gnome with scattered moonstones might be just a handy-gnome who does odd jobs, a gnome with a crescent moon might be an elder or something, like a doctor…? Dunno, just a thought. Might be cool to have some connections like that so it'd match up with the kind of alterations they can do to the stones the Foundation gives them.
Also for Grom: "To make it stand out I could translate it to German (or get Rikjard RegrepsRikjard Regreps, who is writing outstanding dialogues, to translate it) and back to English" YES YES CAN YOU DO THIS THAT WOULD BE AMAZING PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEAASSSEEEE :3
Grom: Wuppertal would be very fitting. The closest sites of the German branch (within 50 km) are Site-DE04 in an old quarry in a rural region and Site-DE19 in an old coal-fired powerplant. Both are having own MTFs and probably at least one chopper.
I'll ask Rikjard and let you know his response :)
For the arrow in the table, list ohr whatever I suggest using this charakter: →
Grom again: Rikjard has agreed and will rewrite the dialogue how it would probably be held in German, then I will translate it to English in a rather sloppy way, so it is obvious that it wasn't originally written in English.
Grom the third: I've added the translated German dialogue and dumped the German original in another tab.
Zyn: Made some more edits and got some feedback in chat. Currently, everyone I've asked has preferred the table, so I moved that to the Draft tab.
Item #: SCP-2957
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2957 is to be contained in a small windowless room with a locking door. No visual recording devices of any kind may be present in the room. Audio recording devices are permitted for monitoring purposes.
If a figure is removed from the room they must be returned before the final night of a waxing crescent moon in the current lunar cycle. Refer to Addendum 2957-01 for additional details.
Description: Objects are 6 wooden statues ranging from 30 cm in height to 60 cm in height. The statues have the appearance of 17th century Catholic bishops. The features of each figure are identical including long beards, closed eyes and mouths, and the phases of the moon carved into their mitres. Each statue holds a featureless staff in their right hand, a small brass bell fixed to the end.
The left hand of each figure holds a different object:
Figure 1 (31 cm): Holds a small jester’s cap.
Figure 2 (37 cm): Holds a paintbrush, bristles up.
Figure 3 (39 cm): Holds a paintbrush, bristles down.
Figure 4 (42 cm): Holds a small potted plant.
Figure 5 (51 cm): Holds a frying pan.
Figure 6 (60 cm): Holds a replica of a full moon.
Records indicate that the statues have slowly increased in size annually since their acquisition, with growth rate of .5 centimeters per year.
On the final evening of a moon's waxing crescent phase the statues begin a ritual. The ritual will not take place if there are any humans visually observing. The eyes and mouths of the statues open as they gather in the center of the room and form a circle from the smallest to the largest.
In their "awakened state" the statue's eyes are open with a dim orange glow. Their mouths open wide but remain unmoving even though chants can be heard. As they move in their awakened state the statue's clothes appear to move naturally despite remaining wooden in nature. When the ritual is complete, all statues will return to their dormant state except for the statue making the request, whose eyes will remain open until they receive the item.
Staff should be assigned to visit the room on the last evening of a waxing crescent phase to retrieve the parchment containing SCP-XXXX's current request. The item will be then obtained and delivered by an appropriate staff member.
After the requested item or items are left in the room with the statues, staff is to close the door and return the next morning. Depending on which statue made the request, an appropriate “reward” will be left in place of the offer. There have been no observable patterns dictating which statue will make a request. Refer to Addendum XXXX-03 for more information on rewards.
Staff is to do their best to meet the demands of the statues to keep them in line as well as prevent usage of their rewards by any outside sources.
Addendum XXXX-01: Separation.
On November 22nd, 20██, the smallest of the statues was removed from their main chamber to a second secure chamber due to abnormal activity from the statue. Instead of he usual routine, the statues could be heard shuffling about loudly without chanting. A staff member retrieved a parchment demanding the return of the smallest statue. No more requests were made until 6 lunar cycles had passed since the statue's return. It was later determined that Statue 1's activity was a "prank" requested as a reward. See Addendum XXXX-03 for more details.
Addendum XXXX-02: Request Log.
The statues make requests on the final day of a waxing crescent cycle. The request is typically written on a piece of parchment that materializes at the completion of their ritual. It is not understood why any of the items are requested. The requests range from simple items, to the more rare or peculiar.
Since acquisition some of the requests below have been made. After delivery of the items it is unknown where they disappear to. To date no item has been recovered after delivery. Audio logs have recorded a loud “hum” followed by a “pop” which researchers believe to be the moment the items are “accepted” and otherwise disappear.
Requested Items (Note: this list is just a small portion of items requested
since acquisition. For a full list please submit a request to ██████):
- 3 empty wooden bowls
- A red umbrella
- 6 bibles in Latin, covers removed
- 1 diamond, 2 rubies, 3 sapphires, none larger than a centimeter
- A baseball signed by Babe Ruth
- 35 yellow crayons, labels removed
- A lemur
- 6 Russian nesting dolls painted completely red
- 6 pairs of scissors
- 3D Printed replicas of the statues themselves
- One 4 oz. jar of sand from Ibiza, Spain
- A red umbrella, again
- Ashes of a redwood tree
- 1,000 lightbulbs of any kind
- 6 tanzanite gems
- 45 paperclips, bent
- 248 apple cores, 1 banana peel, 15 green grapes, 8 pineapples, and 25 glass marbles
- A third red umbrella
To date only 3 requests could not be met:
-3 empty wooden bowls, specifically the original 3 offered in the first request
-███████ ███
-A 7th statue
Addendum XXXX-03: “Rewards.”
Each of the 6 statues seem to return rewards depending on who made the request.
The following behavior has been noted regarding rewards:
Statue 1: The statue will perform one prank or trick at the request of the staff member. Upon returning to the chamber the morning after, the statue will begin speaking to the staff member. The prank request is typically fulfilled within 24 hours. To date every request has been met, though staff has been instructed to only submit harmless pranks to the statue.
Statue 2: This statue will leave behind a lifelike portrait of the staff member assigned that evening. If Statue 2 requested a red umbrella they will paint the staff member holding a red umbrella. Portraits have been described has “awe inspiring”, “absolutely gorgeous”, and “the best painting we’ve ever seen.”
Statue 3: This statue will leave behind a hideous and offensive caricature of the assigned staff member. The portraits left behind have been described as “cruel” and have even reduced staff members to tears, often preying on their insecurities.
Statue 4: Upon entering the chamber Statue 4 will begin speaking to the assigned staff asking if they have any gardening requests. Statue 4 has been known to restore near lifeless plants, or otherwise cause plants, vegetables, fruit, and other vegetation to grow to enormous. Director ███████ has forbidden use of Statue 4 in October’s Pumpkin Growing contest.
Statue 5: Has been known to return the favorite dish of assigned staff members without even asking what they like. Some staff have reported never having tried the food prior to Statue 5 preparing it for them. After consumption staff has gone on record as saying “This is the best thing [they have] ever eaten.” If Statue 5 makes any food related requests, their reaction can be heard in audio logs. If the presented food meets Statue 5’s standards, the smacking of lips can be heard. If the presented request does not meet Statue 5’s standards, scoffing and muttering can be heard before the standard “hum” and “pop”.
Statue 6: This Statue returns rewards at random, with no discernible patterns, ranging from copper coins to vats of dangerous chemicals. The more peculiar items returned by Statue 6 seem to be several from an alternate reality. To date, only a few of these have been rewarded including a copy of the Beatles “Abbey Road” album (featuring only 3 members on the cover, Ringo Starr noticeably absent), a history book detailing Korea as a united country, and film reel showing footage of what appears to be a man using a modern assault rifle assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.