Nathan Xavier
May 15, 2020 8:03 PM
Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier
Nathan Xavier said good bye to the new Groundskeeper and stood up from the staff table once their conversation came to a natural lull and it looked like all the new Teppenpaws were done eating. The sorting had split out fairly evenly again this year, which he thought was a good thing. No strong bias toward one House or another meant the House Cup would be earned by the House with the most merit rather than the one with the most numbers. Nathan felt pretty secure in his belief that Teppenpaw was that House. They'd won it two of the last three years and the third they had tied for it. Not that he was bragging or anything."Hello, first years" he greeted the new Teppenpaw students, once he had collected all of them. "Welcome to Teppenpaw! I am your new Head of House, Professor Xavier, and your Herbology teacher. Follow me, please, and we'll head over to our common room, your home away from home for the next seven years while you're here at Sonora."
He pointed out landmarks to help them find their way back to the Cascade Hall for breakfast tomorrow, and made conversation to get to know them a bit. He liked to foster a familiar family-like atmosphere in Teppenpaw and that started with getting to know each student as a person as well as sharing enough information about himself so he wouldn't feel like a strange adult who had no personal investment in them. Lately, that family-like setting had become a bit more permanent feeling, now that he was formally allowed to continue living at Sonora with his young daughter, though she'd be restricted from the Common Room now, which was going to be a disappointment for her, but he understood the restriction since she wasn't yet Sorted.
"The Hospital Wing," he pointed out as they passed by its door. "With luck, you won't need it too much, but if you do, our House is located conveniently close to it. We'll just head up these stairs here, and," he stopped only partway up, "here we are." He pointed down to the step he was standing on. "Look for the diamond shaped chip," he stated, pointing at it.
"You'll need to dance a jig on the chipped stair to open the Common Room," he continued. "Like this." He demonstrated. He was overweight and over fifty years old. So it wasn't a pretty jig. Fortunately, it didn't have to be pretty. It was the steps that mattered, not their rhythm or grace, and after fifteen years of being the Teppenpaw Head, he could do those in his sleep. "Repeat it two more times. Try it with me." He offered corrections when he saw mistakes, then at the end of the third repetition of step, step, step, heel-click, tap, tap, and shuffle, the wall beside him opened up, revealing the Teppenpaw Common Room, decorated in muted yellow and maroon tones.
They went in, Nathan taking the rear, and closing the wall behind him. On this side, it just looked like a door. In Nathan's opinion, the Teppenpaw Common Room was a nice relaxing space and he enjoyed spending a couple hours of 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. Little Dora had changed that dynamic a little bit, but this year his usual patterns would resume without her.
"Your House is like your family here. As your Head of House, I'm the one responsible for your safety and well being and I take that responsibility very seriously. I just ask you all to respect one another and school property and we shouldn't have too many problems." As this was Teppenpaw, the House of diplomacy and friendship, the problems in that regard were thankfully quite few. Even when there were problems, they tended more toward implosion than explosive collateral damage. "Also, curfew begins at ten so please be back here or in your room by that time and keep your noise level to minimum so your Housemates can sleep. Your rooms are up those stairs there, boys on the left, girls to the right; don't go up the wrong one or you'll end up back down here. Your year number is on your door, and each year group gets its own room."
He pointed over to the wall beside where they had entered. "The bulletin board is over there. That's where we post school and club announcements. Our prefects are Dorian Montoir who we are proud to share also earned Head Boy this year, Nathaniel Mordue, and Katerina Vorontosov." If any of the prefects happened to be around the Commons either by intent or chance, he pointed them out as he said their name. "Prefects are students appointed by the staff to help you find your way around or otherwise be of assistance to you. They can be recognized by the badges they wear. So any of those three, or myself, are good ones to ask questions or bring problems to or just talk to if you need a sounding board for anything." Nathaniel, he was pleased to have noticed, had taken at least one of last year's new students under his wing, so most of Nathan's reservations about the effectiveness of the default sixth year prefect had faded.
"Finally," he began his wrap-up with a more personal note, "my daughter, Dora, is just over three years old, and she lives here at the school with me and my wife, Professor Carter-Xavier, the Head of Pecari. While she is not allowed in the common rooms anymore, or obviously in classes, or out and about without supervision, you may see her out in the Gardens or in the Hall with one of us, and you are more than welcome to come and say hello."
"With that said, unless there are any questions, I think that's about it from me. Again, welcome to Teppenpaw. Breakfast is at seven, and I have more maps next to my office over there if you can't find yours."
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 student on any board except the common rooms of other Houses or the Lounges, because first year Teppenpaw students aren't allowed in those places. You may continue your feast and orientation posts as long as you like thanks to fuzzy time, which basically means that while these things can be happening at the same time out of character, in character, they are clearly happening a different times, so your character can be involved in all of them. Have fun! And we are always happy to help answer questions on the OOC board or Chatzy if you have any!
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Nathan Xavier
Head of House Speech
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