Professor Xavier

October 07, 2016 10:28 AM
Nathan rose from the staff table as the plates cleared. Teppenpaw had drawn a fair group this year, spread evenly enough that nobody would be left without a roommate nor would any of the Teppenpaw first year rooms feel overcrowded. He felt a little bad for the Aladren girls who would need to cram five students into the same space that in Teppenpaw only needed to fit two. That, however, was Alfie Pye's problem not Nathan's.

"Teppenpaw first years, to me, please," he called gathering together the quartet of new Prairie Dogs. This would be a much more manageable group to leas down the halls that the full orientation tour group. Satisfied that he had the correct set of students who had turned yellow, he lead them out of Cascade Hall. "As I mentioned earlier, I'm Professor Xavier," he repeated his introduction, in case they had forgotten or hadn't thought his name was one that mattered to them four hours ago. "And I'm the Head of Teppenpaw, your new House. Welcome to our family. We're pretty well known for being friendly and nice, so you shouldn't have too many problems with your Housemates, but if you ever do, be sure to let me or one of the prefects know and we'll do everything we can to help you settle the dispute."

They had continued to walk down the school corridors as he spoke and he drew attention to their route now. "You may have noticed we're heading toward the hospital wing. Our House entrance is right up the stairs next to that, so if you ever get lost just, ask a portrait to point you to the hospital wing, and that should get you to Teppenpaw, too."

They walked a bit further, and Nathan pointed out a few portraits they could use as either landmarks or reliable sources for directions. "Some portraits will think it funny to misdirect you," he warned, "but if you stick to the witches and wizards labelled as previous professors, you should be safe. Just never ask Professor Clurican about the weather. He'll always tell you its raining." Nathan wasn't sure if this was malicious or if the old Irish founder just assumed it was always raining and never bothered to verify.

This brought them to the large double doors leading into the hospital wing. "Right up here," he told them, ushering them toward the neighboring stairwell. "My office is right at the top, and then some supply closets, and the elf quarters are up here, too," he explained, since this part hadn't been part of the tour earlier, "but I don't recommend bothering them on their home grounds. Elf magic is pretty powerful and too often underestimated."

"Here." Nathan stopped only about halfway up the stairs. "This is our entrance." He pointed at the step below him, "Watch for the one with the diamond shaped chip in it." His toe nudged the spot to draw attention to it.

Now it was time for his least favorite part of his Head Of House duties. "We don't have a password," he apologized. "We have a jig." Dancing on a chipped stair seemed like a terrible idea to him, but so far, knock on wood, he hadn't yet had anyone hurt themselves doing it. "You don't have to be good at it," he promised, the only reassurance he could offer. "You just need to do the right steps in the right order. Like this."

He demonstrated. Nathan was a big man with too many pounds around his middle so it was by no means a graceful or even a dignified dance, but his steps followed the pattern he described out loud, "step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle," he paused briefly, looking at the students, "do it we me, we repeat that two more times, three in total. Step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle. Getting there, one more time. Step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle." On the completion of the third iteration, the wall beside him opened up, revealing the Teppenpaw Common Room, decorated in muted yellow and maroon tones. "Go on in," he invited, and followed after once they were all inside.

Nathan found it a nice relaxing space and he often spent a couple hours each day sitting on one of the comfortable couches or chairs scattered about the room, in the hopes that familiarity bred trust and the students would voluntarily come to him if they had any issues with anything. He enjoyed engaging the students there in conversation and getting to know them. It made him feel like part of the House, not just its overseer, and he hoped the students likewise saw him as a favored uncle with whom they could be comfortable and joke, rather than being an imposing authority figure.

"While you're here, I hope we will all see each other as friends and family, but if things get out of hand, I'm responsible for getting them back in hand. I haven't had to dole out too many detentions so far, and I hope to keep it that way. So just be respectful to each other and school property, and be in the commons by ten, which is when curfew and quiet time starts.

"Your dorms are up those stairs, girls to the right, boys to the left, your room is the one with your year number on it. Going up the wrong set of stairs will just dump you right back here on your bottom so I suggest keeping to your own side."

He pointed over to the wall beside where they had entered. "The bulletin board is there, keep an eye on it for school and club announcements. Teppenpaw is proud that our Jake Manger earned Head Boy tonight. He is one of our prefects, along with Aiden O'Neil and Jemima Wolseithcrafte this year. Liac Reinhardt is our Quidditch Captain, with Ginger Pierce as his assistant. So any of those people, or myself, are good folks to go to if you have a question or problem or just want to talk to somebody. They all wear badges so you can easily identify them as House and School authorities."

He couldn't think of what else he might be forgetting, so he wrapped up his speech there. "I think that's everything. Any questions, please ask, otherwise, converse amongst yourselves or head up to bed. Breakfast is at seven, and I have more maps in my office right over there if you misplaced yours and can't remember how to get there."



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 or the Lounges, because first year Teppenpaw students aren't allowed there. You may continue your feast and orientation posts as long as you like thanks to fuzzy time, which lets you write multiple threads taking place at different tomes simultaneously. Have fun!
Subthreads:
1 Professor Xavier HoH Speech 28 Professor Xavier 1 5

Kir McLeod

October 09, 2016 8:16 AM
Kir was about ready to drop. He’d fallen asleep for a little bit on the wagon, the gentle motion making it almost inevitable, but it wasn’t the most restful sleep, and it had been a long, exciting, exhausting day. Coupled with that was a belly full of food and his body feeling it was several hours later than the clocks here claimed it was…

The directions to the common room more or less passed him by. The jig was something he was confident he could get right if someone showed it to him when his eyes were actually open… He felt very bad that he might actually have nodded off when Professor Xavier was speaking.

At the end of the speech, he dragged himself up to his dorm room. It was very tempting to just lie down on the inviting-looking bed. Just for ‘a second.’ But Kir knew he would fall asleep straight away. He fumbled through his trunk, finding his pyjamas. They were tartan - not the family one, but just whatever the department store in Boston had had. They’d been a gift from his aunt, a bit of a joke one, but he really liked them. They were nice pyjamas. They were soft. And tonight they were unco-operative, as he struggled with the buttons and accidentally put both legs down the same… what was one side of a trouser called? Was it a trouser? After all, they were a pair of trousers… He gave his teeth a quick brush and fell into bed, a brief thought about his absent room-mate flitting through his mind as he did so…

*
In the morning, he awoke to find that the other boy had, at some point, come up and was asleep in the bed opposite. Kir tried to wriggle quietly, getting his book out. Luckily it was easy to find as he’d had it out on the wagon ride. He settled back in bed, trying to to turn the pages softly until the other boy woke up.

“Hi,” Kir smiled, when his room-mate seemed to be with him. “I’m sorry we didn’t really meet last night. I just completely crashed out after the feast. I’m Kir.”

OOC - sorry not to reply to your thread and to give you more work to do, but I had the idea in my head that Kir was just pass-out tired and it wouldn’t budge, even though RP normally ignores such boring practicalities in favour of having a chat. I’m also assuming that they arrive on a Saturday or something, so that the kids don’t have classes their very first day, and therefore they have a little time to chat.

13 Kir McLeod The morning after (tag Sawyer) 366 Kir McLeod 0 5


Sawyer

October 10, 2016 7:54 PM
When Sawyer had come up, he hadn’t quite expected his roommate to already be asleep, but he supposed it was understandable. The day had been rather eventful, especially after a long ride in a wagon. At least, his had been long. He wasn’t sure where the other boy was from. For all Sawyer knew, they could have been on the same wagon, but then, it had been rather full.

As soon as he realized that the other boy was asleep, Sawyer had tried to make as little noise as possible, though it was impossible to make none. The trunk had squeaked a bit as he had pulled out his own pajamas and being him, he had bumped his knee on the blasted thing while trying to put the clothing on. Finally, when all was said and done, he had made it into the bed, which he found was quite comfortable.

Lying in bed, he had allowed his mind to think about the day. He had met some nice people and he was hopeful they would continue a friendship. Thinking about this, he had gradually drifted to sleep.

In the morning, he woke up with a pillow over his head and half the blanket on the floor. Well, that was awkward. Rubbing at his eyes, he opened one to peer over at the other boy. A good yawn later, he opened both eyes. “Morning. Glad to meet you, Kir. I’m Sawyer. Last night was quite something, wasn’t it? I’ve never seen such a Feast like that one was. And the Professor doing that jig? Too bad you didn’t stay though, you could have met Ayla. She’s in our House and really nice.”
0 Sawyer Good Morning! 365 Sawyer 0 5

Kir

October 16, 2016 2:11 AM
Sawyer seemed chirpy and friendly, no mean feat given that he’d literally just woken up, and Kir was forced to smile as his room-mate chattered away.

“Nice to meet you. Yeah, the whole day was really cool but the feast was definitely the best. At least I know one good thing about school - I don’t think I’ll be hungry whilst I’m here! I kind of can’t wait for dinner time already. I mean, I know they won’t put all that on every night but everything I tried was just delicious. My favourite was the beef pie. How about you?” He groaned slightly at the mention of the jig, although his mood wasn’t really dampened.

“My eyes were practically closing by the time we got here. I have no idea what the steps even are! Do you remember? If not, I’m sure we could get one of the prefects or someone to show us.” He was sure people took time to learn it every year, and was sure they’d solve the problem easily enough.

“Oh. Well. I’m sure I’ll meet her soon enough,” he smiled, when Sawyer mentioned meeting a girl from their house. He did regret it a bit. It wasn’t nice feeling like everyone else was further on in making friends than him. He wasn’t even sure he’d really connected with the people he’d spoken to at the feast or orientation, and now Sawyer seemed to count this girl amongst his friends already. But they were only a day into term, he tried to tell himself. Surely it couldn’t be too bad already...

“So… Where are you from? And what’s your family like? I mean, like.. You have any brothers or sisters? What do your folks do?” he elaborated. If he wanted friends, then the best thing to do seemed to be to try to make up lost ground now.
13 Kir Making up for lost time 366 Kir 0 5


Sawyer

November 02, 2016 12:31 AM
“Oh, there was this green stuff that was pretty good. I forget what it was called, but it was amazing.” He really wished that he had remembered, but he figured that he had an entire year to find out what it was called again. “Maybe I’ll be able to have it again tonight. I might try the beef pie too since I didn’t have any last night.” One of the best parts of school so far was the food. The restaurant had an amazing menu, but the dishes were more coastline based than anything else. He was enjoying being able to taste things that he didn’t really get to have back home.

“Um…” Sawyer wasn’t sure if he should say that he did or didn’t know the steps. If he admitted to knowing the steps, then he might be asked to repeat the steps, which would not be a good idea since he felt like he would make a fool of himself. However, if he didn’t, then he would be lying and that was just not who he was. “Yeah, I remember the steps. They seemed pretty easy, but I think it would be best to have someone older show us the steps.” That seemed like the best sort of compromise. He didn’t lie, but it also meant that he didn’t have to try the steps in front of anyone.

Sawyer yawned slightly. He felt like he had overslept even though he hadn’t really. It was more of a matter that he had gone to bed later and therefore woken up later than he normally did. He was definitely a morning person though and was ready to get his day going. Getting out of bed, he started making his bed. He wasn’t sure if the elves here also did things like make beds, but he had been taught to do those things for himself. “I’m from Massachusetts. My family is small. It’s my parents and my sister, Jenna. I have family in Tennessee too. My aunt, uncle, and grandparents all live there.” He wished that he got to see them, especially his grandparents more.

“Jenna will be coming here in a couple of years. So, you’ll get to meet her unless you visit us sometime over vacation.” It may have seemed a bit early to extend such an invitation, but Sawyer’s family believed in an open door policy. “My parents own a restaurant, but my mom is the one that manages it. My dad works more for our church. He’s the pastor. What about you? Family? Siblings?” He glanced over with a smile to show he was genuinely interested in what he had to say.
0 Sawyer This is the Time 365 Sawyer 0 5

Kir

November 02, 2016 6:41 AM
“You’ll have to point that out to me next time you see it,” he smiled, as Sawyer said he’d eaten some ‘green stuff.’ As descriptions went, he didn’t think it was an especially solid basis off which to explore, although the thought of tasting a variety of dishes wasn’t exactly unappealing. He expected that most of what Sonora had to offer was good. Still, he would like to know when he tried Sawyer’s particular green stuff, just because it was nice to know.

“Ok, sounds like a plan,” Kir nodded, as Sawyer said he knew the steps but it might be better to get someone older to show them how to do it properly. He guessed that recreating a jig that one had only learnt last night, in front of someone one had only met that morning, wasn’t really something everyone wanted to do, especially when they’d only just woken up. It was useful to know that if he at least stuck with Sawyer for breakfast, he wouldn’t end up locked out, even if they couldn’t find an older student, but he wasn’t going to make him dance if he didn’t feel like it right now.

As Sawyer got up, he followed suit. The main reason he’d stayed in bed this long was because he didn’t want to disturb the other boy, and that was no longer an issue. He began making his bed as well whilst they talked.

“That sounds really cool,” he grinned, when Saywer said his family ran a restaurant. He also smiled as Sawyer talked already about the possibility of him coming over the summer. It wasn’t exactly an invitation yet, but the default assumption that they would be friends was nice. He found himself glad he had been sorted into Teppenpaw. He might have some tricky conversations in the future, some people who were at odds with him, but it seemed like his room was going to be a comfortable sort of place to be.

“Little sister too, Nessa,” he commented, when Sawyer asked about his family. “At home it’s us and my parents. My aunt, dad’s sister, and her wife live near us. They’re the only family on my dad’s side. I have more relatives through my mum. We see our grandparents quite a lot but not so much of the others..” He wondered whether that made his family sound strange, or whether it just did to him because he knew there was a Deep Dark Secret at the centre of why his dad’s side of the family was so small. He’d heard Muggles didn’t live as long as wizards, so maybe if Sawyer assumed his grandparents on his dad’s side were Muggles (a thought which amused him) he might just assume they were dead by now, and then there wouldn’t really be anything odd about the situation.

“My family’s mostly involved in running a charity,” he added, as Saywer had explained what his parents did. And because he figured Sawyer’s next question would be inevitable, he pre-empted it. “It does a lot of things, but one of the main focuses is helping disowned Purebloods get back on their feet.” He wondered if his room-mate would join the dots to the lack of paternal relatives once he had that bit of the puzzle… It didn’t matter. Kir was pretty proud of who he was, and he didn’t like feeling like it was a shameful secret, which avoiding the subject always made him feel. He knew that it wasn’t it was just… complicated, and sometimes a heavy topic, and that made it not worth opening up with everyone. But Sawyer was going to live with him for the next seven years. Sawyer was going to find all this out eventually. At least, if he found it out by them talking about it, Kir would know his reaction.
13 Kir Hurrah 366 Kir 0 5


Sawyer

November 03, 2016 9:58 PM
“Oh, definitely,” Sawyer reassured the other boy to the green dish. It was definitely worth trying in his opinion. Though, he was sure there would be lots of other things to try as well. Being a growing boy, he had a healthy appetite and didn’t hesitate to try whatever was put in front of him. Thinking about food, he started thinking about breakfast, “I can’t wait to see what’s for breakfast. I hope they have sausage.” He was also thinking about eggs, toast, juice, maybe some fruit. Just the thought had his stomach growling.

Sawyer breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t be required to perform the jig in front of anyone. It would be embarrassing enough to have to try and do the steps on his own. He could just see himself falling on his bottom while sidestepping. There were times when he was willing to laugh at himself. Dancing was just not one of those times. It played on his insecurity about his awkwardness.

Sawyer paused and tilted his head slightly. Her wife? Had he heard that correctly? He wasn’t sure if he should ask or pretend that he hadn’t heard that. He wasn’t even sure what he thought about it. He had heard of people that liked their own gender, but had never given it any more thought than that. He didn’t even know anyone that was. Was that something that was even allowed? He decided he would get advice from his father as to how to approach such situations.

“That’s awesome,” Sawyer stated, meaning it. “My family does charity work too. Not like yours though. Ours is a little more traditional like helping at the food bank. Is it specifically just purebloods? And what would they be getting disowned from?” Sawyer was a little innocent when it came to the larger Pureblood world at hand. He was fortunate enough to live a simpler life.
0 Sawyer On and On 365 Sawyer 0 5

Kir

November 13, 2016 11:45 PM
“That’s really good,” Kir smiled, when Sawyer said his family did charity stuff like food banks. “The world needs as many people as possible who are willing to help each other out.

“Mostly… I mean, we cover quite a few bases like…” he trailed off, deciding it was going to be easier to give the Pureblood bit first, as it explained so many of their reasons for being involved in other causes. “So, some Pureblood families, the ones that are really focussed on blood purity and stuff, well… They want their kids to follow certain rules. And if they don’t, they’ll sometimes chuck them out. It varies from family to family… Some still practise arranged marriages. Some let the children choose but it has to be another member of Pureblood society. So, things like dating Muggleborns or Halfbloods can lead to them being kicked out of their families. Being gay is also usually a big no-no - anything that doesn’t lead to having more Pureblood babies and continuing the family line. So, we’re pretty active in civil rights for those groups too, like Muggleborns, or the gay community,” he explained, it being easier to answer Sawyer’s first question after his second. “If witches or wizards got kicked out of their families for other reasons, we’d try to help, but sometimes we’re not the best placed. We would always try to send them to someone would could help better though.

“I… I guess it’s not the cheeriest subject,” he added. That didn’t mean it wasn’t important and he was glad he’d talked with Sawyer about it, but he felt the subject definitely came with an atmosphere and, as it was his subject, he felt obliged to get them away from it again. “Shall we go get some breakfast?” he asked.
13 Kir And to breakfast 366 Kir 0 5