Nathan Xavier
June 05, 2015 9:49 PM
Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier
As the students had already had an official tour, Nathan lead them directly to the Teppenpaw Common Room by the shortest route between it and the Cascade Hall. He'd been the HoH long enough that he felt pretty sure of his pathfinding skills between those two locations and this way was the quickest under almost any circumstance short of a Quidditch match letting out, in which case it was always wisest to avoid the main entry hall even if that did send one through a bunch of smaller corridors. "This is the quickest way between the Cascade Hall and our Commons," he advised as he walked, "you'll probably be taking it at least twice a day, so pay attention."That was a conservative estimate, he thought. Most students would regularly go directly from the commons to the Hall for breakfast, at least, and he imagined he wasn't the only one who liked to drop his stuff off and take a few moments for himself in his private room before dinner. Of course, most of the students would have to share rooms, but he hoped they would be close enough friends before long that it was almost the same thing. If they didn't mind the walk and the jig, some might even drop their things off for lunch and need to come and go on both ends of that meal.
"Okay," he said, stopping at a particular stair partway up a stairwell not terribly far from the Hospital Wing (he sometimes wondered if that was coincidence, when he was dead tired from a long day under the hot desert sun and dancing on the stairs became even more hazardous than it would normally be for a heavy set man as uncoordinated as he was), "take note of this step with the diamond shaped chip on it. This is where we enter our common room."
He took a breath before moving on to the part of this job he liked the least of anything. Not so much the jig anymore - he was getting used to that, almost - but telling new people that they would need to dance to get inside when he knew there was a good chance at least one of them was as bad at dancing as he was. Well, that and doing the jig in front of people. "We don't have a password," he admitted almost apologetically. "We have a secret jig. You don't need to be good at it," he promised quickly, as he knew from personal experience, "you just need to put the steps in the right order. It goes like this."
As the school's groundskeeper, Nathan's job was reasonably demanding in a physical sense. He could lift heavy bags of dirt and walk around the labyrinth for hours without needing to sit down too often, so he wasn't completely out of shape. However, he had hit his forties and they hit back. He also had a good fifteen or twenty extra pounds around his middle that were not strictly necessary and 'graceful' was never a word anybody had ever accused him of being. The jig he now performed for the new students looked a bit like an elephant having a seizure. "You step like this, this, and this, then click your heels, and tap, and tap, and shuffle. And you repeat that twice more. You can get an older student to show you how to do it with the right tempo, if you'd like, but everyone just do the steps with me now. This, this, and . . . this, click, tap, tap, shuffle. This, this, and this, click, tap, tap, shuffle." After the third iteration, the wall slid open and revealed the Teppenpaws' Sonora home.
Nathan stepped through and ushered them in after him. "Getting out is much easier," he promised. "Just stand on this mat here in front of the wall and it will open right up for you." Once everyone was through, the wall closed up behind them, looking just like any other wall save for the aforementioned doormat lying in front of it.
He led the way further into a room that was definitely yellow but not violently so. Some yellows went out of their way to assault people's eyes. The decorations here were much more muted shades and were almost homey looking, especially with the maroon scattered about to add darker accents. He liked the place, it looked and felt comfortable with the soft couches and the cozy fireplace, and he occasionally came out here just to read and pet his cat if Alice was in the mood for that. (Though that was only partly because the couches here were far more comfortable than anything in his office or even his quarters; the other reason he did it was so his Teppenpaw charges would see him as approachable and not a scary authority figure.)
"This is your common room," he introduced them to the place. "Your dorms are up one of these two staircases," he pointed them out, "girls to the right, boys to the left; don't get that confused or you'd find yourself deposited right back here on your backside. Going up the correct staircase, you will find your room is the one with your year number on it."
Next, he pointed out the bulletin board hanging on the wall near where they'd come in. "That's the announcement board. It'll have important information on it like club announcements, Quidditch sign-up sheets, and so forth. "Our Quidditch Captain is Liac Reinhardt, and I'm sure he'd appreciate it very much if you would sign up to join us so we can maybe field our own team this year. Last year, we combined with Crotalus to play, so we will likely do that again if we're still short players."
"Teppenpaw also has some prefects," he nodded at the ones who were currently about, "who wear badges identifying themselves as such. They are Julian Umland, Portia Dobson, and Issac Douglas." He was please that Teppenpaw finally had three again, now that the year group with no Teppenpaws left had graduated.
"Just a couple more rules, some of which I mentioned in Orientation, but they bear repeating, then I'll let you get settled in and acquaint yourselves with your new home. Curfew is at 10. You don't need to go to sleep then, but you need to be in Teppenpaw territory and quiet. Don't tell anyone not in Teppenpaw how to get in here. Breakfast starts at seven. If you lost or forgot to pick up a class schedule and a map, I've got more in my office there," he pointed out the door to the Head of House office, "if anyone needs them. I'm also available, either in there or out in the Gardens, if you ever need me for anything. As your Head of House, I'm here to help you with whatever you need help with, so think of me like your second favorite uncle who is looking after you while your folks are away. Are there any questions?"
OOC: Welcome to Sonora and Teppenpaw House! You may reply here with questions or just chat with and get to know your Housemates. You are now welcome to post your new Teppenpaw on any board except the common rooms of other Houses, because Teppenpaw students aren't allowed there. Have fun!
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