1.3: TROUBLEMAKERS
Nearly all gnomes were content with their place in life, except a few, especially young and overly-creative, employee-citizens: such were Sammoth and Mag.
Sammoth and Mag were best friends since they began their assembly-line-production-mage-apprentice program for gifted young gnomes. While it was a great honor to be selected as a production mage, neither of the two boys let the prestige dull their youthful exuberance. By day, the boys tried to stay awake, as they used their mystical powers to perfectly glue boards, apply rivets, hold pins in place, and apply even coats of paint on finished batch-goods. When they did nod off, due to the boredom of their tasks, their junior-manager, Groawn (a real stickler for the rules) would rouse them, and then write them up.
At night, the two boys were a terror. Their skills in production magic, and the up-tight and boring manner in which the gnomes of Batch Productopia would spend their evenings, made for perfect pranking. The children would often conjure glue under a clerk’s shoes, or rivet the door to the bathroom closed after a particularly heavy city-meal of roasted yum-yum tacos. Once, Mag used a telekinetic gust to blow Groawn’s reports out of his hands, and down a long hallway. Then Sammoth, who was waiting on the other side of the hallway, glued the reports to the floor, using a conjure- wood-glue spell. This prank backfired however, as the reports clearly stated that the two children were trouble. The pages were stuck to the floor for over a week, and Sammoth and Mag’s failings were visible to all who walked over them.
The children didn’t care much for Groawn, and he was the third junior-manager they had been assigned to. The last two could barely deal with Mag and Sammoth’s shenanigans during the day, and often quit after a few well-planned pranks. However, Groawn appeared more determined than the last two.
Groawn had impeccable discipline; and was set to be the youngest junior manager ever to apply for promotion. He believed in pure efficiency as a supreme ideal, which he worshiped like a religion. Groawn strove to be efficient in his every action, no matter the magnitude. He was even given access to the Principles of Efficiency, a rare book of flowcharts and business strategies, written by Divine Management. Studies of the Principles of Efficiency allowed Groawn to cast magic of his own. But where Sammoth and Mag’s magic was used in the assembly line, Groawn’s was used for human-resource, production, and supply-chain management.
So when Sammoth and Mag acted up, Groawn often used his own magic to convince them that the best way to prank the system was to work hard for eight-to-ten hours. So day after day, the boys tried to stay awake, as they used their mystical powers to perfectly glue boards, apply rivets, hold pins in place, and apply even coats of paint on finished batch-goods. All the time, Groawn oversaw their work, and kept a careful eye on the two younger troublemakers.