Open (Unofficial) Gobstones Club Meeting

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery had hesitated about this a long time. He wasn't exactly the kind of person who organized things or lead clubs, but Hogwarts was severely lacking in the gobstones department and it was time that it stopped. Maybe if he got enough people together the headmaster would see it was stupid not to have an official club? If nothing else, it would give him some people to play against until he graduated. He hoped, at least. Emery had made some flyers and put them up around the school, telling interested people to meet up in the courtyard. He had all the supplies needed to play a few games, all he needed now were the people. He sat on the bench he specified as meeting point in his flyer and waited.

 

[Jasper Beese]

Jasper could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the flyers. A Gobstones club at Hogwarts? He was quick to show @Victoria de Lacey as it put a spanner in their plans to start their own club of a similar idea. Jasper wasn't mad that they had been beaten to it and he had to check it out. He took his gobstones set and headed to the courtyard.

There was one much older boy waiting in the courtyard who Jasper approached, "Hello! Is this Gobstones club? I love Gobstones." He held up his set of Gobstones, "I even brought my new set!" He wondered how many more people would show up after him, Tori included.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori was surprised that there was a gobstones club at the school! She wondered why there hadn't been a stall set up in the club fair. She was a little disappointed as that meant she and Jasper weren't President and Vice President of the club, but she wasn't exactly going to begrudge there being a club. She might not have loved gobstones as much as Jasper did, considering it was so far a game she'd only ever played with him, but she appreciated his enthusiasm for it, so she would go along with him. She took the one set of gobstones she had (she'd bought them after she'd met Jasper) and headed to the courtyard, seeing he was already there of course. "Hi! I'm Tori, this is Jasper, we've been playing together, we saw your flyer!" She told the older boy, just to make sure he understood why they were here. "Has this club always been here?"​

 

[Ruth Thorne]

Clubs seemed like a lot of work, thought Ruth. She'd joined the girls club, but most of them seemed like a lot of effort. And she'd been too young to try out for Quidditch, which she was also hesitant to try out for in case she wasn't very good. Then it would just be awkward. But Gobstones club seemed okay. For one, it wasn't even official so there wasn't as much expectation. For another, gobstones was kinda fun to play. She figured it would be okay if she popped her head in there, and if it sucked she could leave and if she lost she could just easily play it off as being new to it. (As long as Cyrus didn't show up and reveal she'd actually played it quite a bit). "Hey, so like, I'm kinda new to gobstones so I'm like, totally an amateur, can I still play?"

 

[Magne Kleos]

Magne was always eager to see what things this school had to offer. It was always interesting to him to see what magical things he knew nothing about. So, as he ventured outside, he spotted some kids with what looked like marbles, he approached and looked to the girl who'd just spoken. She didn't have idea what it was. Gobstones. he didn't know how to play at all, and in fact didn't even have his own set. "I..never play..but can watch?" he asked the oldest student there, keen to just see what this was like.

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah hadn't been able to spend a whole lot of time with Emery recently, she'd been busy, but when she'd noted he was doing some Gobstone club things, she decided to go along. She grabbed her gobstones, which had admittedly been gathering quite a bit of dust and approached the courtyard. there were a few students about and she rolled her eyes as two didn't seem to play. "Hey," she greeted, and looked between the students, trying to figure out how best to place herself here.

 

[Cleo Huynh]

Cleo was in a nosy mood and wanted to find out what on earth Gobstones was. It sounded like some weird Australian slang her mum would get mad about, but Cleo didn't think that sounded right for a school club. She made her way down to the courtyard to observe what was happening. Seeing one of the older boys mention that he never played, she nodded too. "Mhm, what he said." she agreed, hoping the club would let her watch for a bit.

 

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery watched as people started to arrive, nodding at the boy who asked if this was the gobstones club. A girl asked if she can still play, and he frowned at her. "If you pick it up fast, sure. I'm not going to hold your hand though." He told her. A boy arrived saying he didn't play but asking if he could watch, which Emery shrugged at. "Sure." He said, though he wasn't thrilled about it. He had hoped to find some people like him, people serious about this game. But so far, it was just a bunch of kids, half of them didn't even play. He was relieved to see Savannah and shot her a smile. Then he adressed the group. "Alright, for some stupid reason Hogwarts doesn't actually have a gobstones club. Which I think is stupid, so I figured I might as well try. But it's not a real club, we won't be in Accio or anything." He told them with a shrug. "I'm also not really interested in giving gobstones lessons, so if you can't play you're welcome to watch or play if you're a quick learner, but I'm not a teacher and have no interest in being one. Any questions?"

 

[Jasper Beese]

Jasper stood beside the older Ravenclaw and listened as he spoke, nodding along with a serious expression. He glanced around at the rest of the group, feeling a bit like Emery’s unofficial sidekick. Which of course he wasn't, but he'd like to be. This was exactly the club that he and Tori wanted to make, although they would teach newbies, he already knew he'd change that much.

When the older Ravenclaw asked if anyone had questions, Jasper raised his hand immediately. "Yeah, I’ve got one. When you’re playing a standard six round and you’ve got a shooter with a pronounced weight bias, how would you compensate for that during a curve shot without losing too much momentum?" Jasper waited for an answer, he loved talking tactics in Gobstones.

@Emery Mettlestone

 

[Raawhiti Te Rangi]

Rāwhiti knew that with the match against Hufflepuff coming up there were more important ways to spend his time than playing gobstones, but he also knew how much it meant to him when Emery came to watch his Quidditch games. He hadn't told his boyfriend he was planning to come to the Gobstones Club meeting, figuring it would be a nice surprise. He was suprised when he approached to see Emery surrounded almost entirely by children, the only person close to his age being his Ravenclaw Quidditch rival. Though he was still a little bitter about their defeat last year he gave Savannah a smile as he took a seat next to Emery, elbowing him lightly in greeting. He could sense the frustration radiating off his boyfriend, giving the younger boy a cheeky grin as he replied in Emery's stead. "You just gotta slam it as hard as you can, every time. Chuck 'em hard enough and eventually you'll break the other guy's set."
@Emery Mettlestone @Jasper Beese

 

[Jasper Beese]

Jasper gave the older Gryffindor a sorry look, he clearly had no idea what he was talking about when it came to gobstones. He replied in seriousness with a thoughtful expression "I get where you're coming from," he began, gearing up to lecture on the game, "But, if you just keep chucking them as hard as you can then you're going to get gobbed. You've got to place your shot just right to nudge their stone off course without risking your own position. If you go too hard, you might just knock your own stones out and ruin the entire game." Once Jasper started talking about gobstones, it was hard for him to stop. He glanced around at the group, which had gathered a bit of a crowd, and added, a little sheepishly, "So, uh... shall we play?"

@Raawhiti Te Rangi

 

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery had expected questions, but not any as specific as the boy asked. He raised his eyebrow, quietly impressed. He knew what he was talking about. "What's your name?" He asked, then he cast a glare at Raawhiti as he said some nonsense. "Don't listen to him." He said quickly, nudging his boyfriend. "He's just here to annoy me." He glared in his direction. The boy asked if they wanted to play, which was nice. "Good idea, everyone can pair up to play one on one, or... do groups if you want. Just do what you want, honestly. As long as you play. " He said, shrugging. He wasn't exactly good at this club running thing.

@Jasper Beese @Raawhiti Te Rangi

 

[Raawhiti Te Rangi]

Rāwhiti had just been teasing, but he couldn't help the blank look of surprise that washed over his face at the younger boy's answer. It was just like listening to Emery in first year. He wasn't surprised that Emery seemed actually interested in him - Emery wasn't interested in most people at the best of times. He pouted a little though, elbowing his boyfriend lightly. "I'm here to support you." He pointed out. "Besides, I like Gobstones!" Sure, he was mostly terrible at it, (certainly in comparison to Emery,) but he had actually grown to appreciate the game. Even though it was still pretty boring. He gave a small snort of laughter at Emery's dismissal. As much as he loved his boyfriend, it was a good thing he wasn't in charge of any real school clubs. "Alright, who wants to verse me?" He asked the younger students gathered, flexing his biceps for exaggeration and leaving Emery to what he no doubt wanted to do, which was interrogate and/or defeat this younger version of himself.
@Emery Mettlestone @Jasper Beese

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori pursed her lips as Jasper sort of basically left her and turned to the Slytherin girl who said she didn't know much about gobstones. Well, if Jasper was just going to go off on his own with the older students (and really she knew she shouldn't care as much as she did since she didn't really even like Gobstones that much if she was honest) then she could make a friend and maybe help more people be interested in the game. Just because she pretended to like it, didn't mean she didn't want to try and support Jasper, even if he was a bit of a flake. She looked towards the exit, wondering if he would even notice if she was gone, but decided that might make her look bad and turned back to the Slytherin again. "I don't mind teaching you the basics, but I will warn you it's really unpleasant when you lose," she should know, since she lost a lot. Maybe her dreams of conquest had been severely diminished, but the older boy appeared to be a seventh year, so maybe she and Jasper could still be President and Vice President when he was gone.​

@Ruth Thorne

 

[Jasper Beese]

"I'm Jasper Beese," he introduced himself with a friendly nod to the Ravenclaw, sharing a knowing grin as they talked about the novice messing around. "Would you like a game?" Jasper asked Emery, thinking they might be a good match. He played with Tori all the time, and while they both loved gobstones, he was keen to see how he'd match against someone older and probably more experienced.

"It's actually kind of funny," Jasper added, his grin widening. "Tori and I play all the time and were planning to start a Gobstones Club ourselves! Right Tori? Tori?" He turned around, expecting to see Tori right behind him, only to find her chatting with someone else. Jasper blinked, then turned back to Emery with a shrug. "Er, well, we were going to, I swear."
@Emery Mettlestone @Victoria de Lacey @Raawhiti Te Rangi

 

[Emery Mettlestone]

Emery stared at the young boy as he asked for a game. He seemed interested in gobstones and seemed to have at least some knowledge, though he was just a little kid. He eyed him for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, let's play a game. Classic rules?" He asked, picking out one of his gobstone sets. One of his better ones, though he wouldn't admit that he wanted to impress a little first year or anything. He nodded when the boy said he wanted to start a gobstones club with a friend of his, though she seemed to have gotten distracted. "It's ridiculous there isn't one at Hogwarts." He said with a frown. "Maybe you guys can keep it going after I graduate." He didn't think two second years should run a club, but it wasn't like he would still be here to see it if it crashed and burned.

@Jasper Beese