Nathan Xavier
January 30, 2022 7:17 PM
Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier
As the feast drew to a close, Nathan Xavier stood up from the staff table and headed over to the Teppenpaw table to collect the new first years. It was a small year group, as they usually were, but they had split between the Houses more-or-less evenly. He hoped the new Teppenpaws would get along well, but didn't expect too trouble in that quarter. They were Teppenpaws."Hello, first years" he greeted them with a smile, once he had collected the small group of them. "Welcome to Teppenpaw! I am your new Head of House, Professor Xavier. I'm also the Herbology teacher here. We'll head over to our common room and your dorms now, so you can see where you will be living 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. He mentioned that he had a wife, a seven-year-old, and an preschooler living with him here at the school, so they'd probably meet them over the course of the year as well, particularly since his wife was Professor Carter-Xavier, Pecari's Head of House, and the on-staff substitute teacher who covered a fair number of the DADA lessons when Tabitha was away.
"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. "It goes like this." He demonstrated. He was overweight and in his mid-fifties, so it wasn't a necessarily pretty jig, but fortunately for many Teppenpaws, it did not have to be pretty. It was the steps that mattered, not their rhythm or grace, and after nineteen years of being the Teppenpaw Head - long enough ago that not even the seventh years had been born when he started - he could do those in his sleep (and was quite sure he had on a few occasions). "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 an hour or so 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. Sometimes he would chat casually with whomever was present, and sometimes he'd invite the kids to join him in a game of exploding snap or something, and sometimes he'd just pet his old Persian cat and mind his own business unless someone sought him out.
"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. "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: girls to the right, boys to the left. Don't go up the wrong one or you'll just end up back down here. Your year number is on your door, and each year group gets its own room. It does mean some of you will be sharing," he tried to keep a neutral tone at that, hoping not to prejudice them against the arrangement before it even properly began, either by being too enthusiastic or too sympathetic.
He pointed over to the wall beside where they had entered. "The bulletin board is posted there. That's where we display things like school and club announcements. Our prefects are Dathan Fischer, who also just earned Head Student, Alexander Pierce-Beales, and Valentine Duell." 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. There is one from each of the upper three year groups. They can be recognized by the badges they wear. So any of those three, or myself, are good people to ask questions or bring problems to or just talk to if you need a sounding board for anything."
"Finally, 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 and class schedules next to my office over there if you can't find yours." He gestured to a small box set next to a door labeled PROFESSOR XAVIER - OFFICE.
OOC: Welcome to Sonora and to Teppenpaw House! You may reply here with questions or just chat with your new Housemates and get to know them. 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 would like to, thanks to fuzzy time which basically means that while these things can be happening at the same time out of character, while in character, they are clearly happening a different times, thus allowing your character to be involved in any of them. Have fun! And we are always happy to help answer questions on the OOC board or Chatzy if you have any!
Subthreads: Roommates! Housemates! Friends? by Leviosa Scurlock
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Nathan Xavier
Head of House Speech
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Leviosa Scurlock
February 05, 2022 3:21 AM
Roommates! Housemates! Friends? by Leviosa Scurlock
They had been sorted, and now it was time to get settled. Levi thought it might be a while until that label could be applied fully, but she felt like things were off to a good start. The feast had been delicious, and she'd already made a friend, or at least had a nice time talking to someone. She thought that was all there really was to the process, but she'd read a lot of boarding school books where it was a lot more complicated. Or at least, where keeping friends after an initial good impression was... But maybe that was girls, or non-Teppenpaws, or... or maybe she had more work to do with Cole, and maybe sharing a room with other people was going to be a complicated process. She really hoped that being friends would be as simple as being nice to each other…She followed Professor Xavier, comforted by the fact that he seemed like a cosy sort of person. The entrance to their common room proved equally delightful. She tried to stifle her giggles, lest he thought she was laughing at him, when in fact she was just delighted. She had taken ballroom lessons growing up, and Mama had let her do ballet when she had begged to do more, because that at least was classical and graceful. Other dance styles had existed on the periphery of her knowledge. Mother liked to use tutors, but they couldn't quite afford to do everything privately, so for dance, they'd gone to a studio. It made more sense for paired dancing too. She'd seen posters, heard refrains of music drifting through doors, and seen girls in outfits which swished and sparkled, alive with bright neon colours. Jazz, tap, modern... She wondered whether the dance they had just executed fell into any of those enticing categories. Professor Xavier had referred to it as a ‘jig.’ She was familiar with that word, but she wasn’t sure that ‘jigging’ was its own style of dance like ballet or jazz. The dance had taps in it, so did that make it a tap dance, albeit a jiggy one? She desperately wanted to know, but she wasn’t sure that was an appropriate question to ask, especially as it might make it seem like she hadn’t listened. She therefore didn’t ask any questions, just nodded or shook or smiled, and said ‘yes sir/no sir’ if needed, and let her housemates ask anything they wanted to. She was more curious about these other people than she was about anything to do with the rules though, so she was pretty happy when the Q&A ended, and Professor Xavier left her to the company of her new housemates (not that the talk hadn’t been helpful, and not that she didn’t like Professor Xavier—he was kind and sweet, and she already liked him very much).
“I love our common room!” she beamed, unable to contain her excitement. “And the dance! I can’t wait to see what our room is like!” she beamed at the other two people, the ones she hadn’t feasted with, but now presumed herself to be sharing a room with. Though very quickly realised what that meant if they all went scurrying off up their differing staircases, given that they couldn’t climb each other’s… “But we can hang out for a bit here too!” she added, mostly to Cole. It didn’t feel fair to leave one person out.
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Leviosa Scurlock
Roommates! Housemates! Friends?
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Lenny Pierce
February 14, 2022 6:29 PM
Most of the above! by Lenny Pierce
Lenny was doing pretty well so far, he thought. Xander had been a good new friend who helped him find what he needed to know to eat safely at the feast (and basically the rest of his Sonora life, too). Piper was a nice person in his year group who had enjoyed that feast with him. The Teppenpaw Head of House seemed like a cool guy, too, and he was kind of excited to meet the little kids who lived at the school. Rosalynn had not mentioned that part when he'd talked to her at Christmas last year to get the lowdown on what Sonora was like these days.During the part of the walk where Professor Xavier was just chatting to them instead of telling them about himself or pointing things out like a tour guide, Lenny had mentioned he had no siblings, he was of mixed magical heritage, and he was from California. Specifically, he was Lenny Pierce of the California Pierces.
And that was when he learned his roommate was Cole Pierce of the Boston Pierces. This was going to be a very interesting seven years. The good interesting, he hoped. The Boston branch was supposed to be super liberal, so they shouldn't have a problem with Lenny.
The jig to get in was interesting. He'd been under the impression he'd need to remember passwords to get into the common room, from a few old stories Mom or Dad had told, but he guessed maybe Pecari did it differently. He was 60% sure he'd be able to remember how to do this tomorrow.
During the speech, Lenny probably did more staring at Cole than he did listening to the Professor, but he'd followed enough to keep the gist and tune in when something important came up (like his stairs were to the left - though it sounded like the penalty for being wrong was just the chance to try it again). Though . . . some of them would be sharing? It was two boys and two girls. They'd all be sharing. Unless . . . drat! He'd forgotten to give his pronouns when he introduced himself earlier on the walk over. Lenny as a name wasn't definitively male or female and he'd intentionally not used John. Everyone probably thought he was a girl.
But the Professor had already moved on so he couldn't exactly announce he was a boy in the middle of everyone waving at a prefect named Valentine.
Fortunately, the professor's talk wrapped up soon after that, and he turned to the other two who he hadn't given pronouns to at dinner, and the girl gave him a perfect opening. "I'm totally excited to see the rooms, too! I grew up living in tents, so this'll be awesome!" He turned to address Cole with a grin, "I have never had anyone complain about me snoring, so I think you're safe." Turning back to Leviosa, he added with a gentle smile, "My pronouns are he and him, so I'll be rooming with Cole. Nice even split and nobody is left alone!"
OOC: Piper has expressed interest in joining Lenny's OF thread, so I have assumed that happened and they didn't hate each other on sight.
Cole is also mine.
Valentine's author confirmed she was hanging around the common room.
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Lenny Pierce
Most of the above!
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Cole Pierce
Leviosa Scurlock
February 15, 2022 12:27 AM
Oh...kay? by Leviosa Scurlock
OOC: CW for microaggressions, in terms of being unfamiliar with gender diversity/non-conformity BIC:
"Huh?" was Levi's instant and not particularly eloquent response, before she realised that was probably rude, and tried to rearrange her puzzled features into something more friendly. She had had grammar lessons, and she knew that pronouns were a thing that stood in place of nouns, but she had never heard anyone claim ownership of them before.
The other Teppenpaw was also talking about sharing with Cole, which was nice but probably not alloweed- oh.
"Are-" Levi began, but then stopped because it seemed like that might be a rude question, and she was already worried she was being rude, even though she didn't mean to be.
During the walk, there had been a fair amount of chat, but Levi hadn't caught all of it. She had certainly not been certain what name this person had given. Between everyone's accents squeezing vowels into odd shapes, and the footsteps and chatter of people around them, it could have been Lani, or Jenny, or even Levi (one of the pronunciations of it anyway, although she doubted that was the case) or really almost anything. Given that her own name was Leviosa, she wasn't really placing limits on what people could be called. She'd also said her own name pretty quietly, because she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do with it, and because she was starting to feel sleepy, and maybe just a little bit shy.
"What's your name? I don't know that I heard it when we were walking," she admitted. "And I like your hairclip," she added, because she did, and most people felt better about you when you gave them a compliment, and she wasn't sure she was getting much else right.
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Leviosa Scurlock
Oh...kay?
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Cole Pierce
February 28, 2022 7:03 PM
Yup. We're all friends here. Pinky promise?
by Cole Pierce
Co-written With: Lenny Pierce
Cole had spent a fair amount of the walk to the Common Room trying not to stare at the kid who introduced themself as Lenny Pierce of the California Pierces. He had naturally responded to that introduction with the information that he was Cole Pierce of the Boston Pierces, and tried to be a good Bostonian by not asking if Lenny was a girl or a boy, because he was pretty sure Dad had said the Lenny Pierce of the California Pierces who was also starting at Sonora this year was a boy, but Lenny didn't really look like a boy to Cole. Which was totally fine. If Lenny was a girl now, Cole was cool with that.
It just wasn't what he'd been led to expect.
Fortunately, when they got inside Teppenpaw Commons, Levi and Lenny sorted out the issue and Cole didn't have to ask. Lenny was a boy, and they'd be roommate. It didn't quite entirely explain the long hair and hairclips, but Cole was cool and he could roll with this. Levi was about equally confused, but a little more vocal about it, and Cole gave her a reassuring smile that he hoped would come across as It's fine, I'm confused, too, but we should accept Lenny as he is.
She complimented the hairclip which made Lenny beam at her, so Cole relaxed a little bit. They seemed to be getting along. Good. Then Lenny thanked her and repeated his name, complete with Branch Affiliation, so Cole felt he need to reintroduce himself too, so there wasn't confusion and ensure everyone was definitely on the same page here. "And I'm Cole Pierce of the Boston Pierces. We're distant cousins, but different branches of the family. I'm four generations down from Derwent the Original," he said, directing that remark more to Lenny than the girls, because he was the one most likely to care.
"I'm six down," Lenny responded.
Cole nodded and smiled, feeling pleased he could now put a name to their exact relationship. "Third cousins, twice removed then."
"Yup," Lenny agreed, popping his p. He looked Cole up and down. "Similar colorings, similar builds. We could pass as fraternal. Wanna tell everyone we're twins?"
Cole laughed, but then realized Lenny was serious. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, but then grinned and nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I've been asking mom and dad for a twin since Bel adopted Mab one!"
Lenny gave him a confused look, but then shook his head, let it drop, and stuck his hand out, pinky extended, toward Leviosa. "Pinky promise to keep the secret?"
Cole copied the gesture toward the other girl - Piper, was it? "Pinky promises are a muggle convention to seal a promise, usually among children," he explained. "You hook pinkies, like this," he hooked both of his pinkies together and shook them, "It's like a handshake, but sillier." He held out his pinky to her again.
"And once we all pinky promise to keep a secret together, that binds us forever in friendship," Lenny added.
Cole nodded in agreement, and then idly wondered, if they were twins, which branch they were from, but he guessed they could figure that out later.
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Cole Pierce
Yup. We're all friends here. Pinky promise?
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Lenny Pierce
Piper Wilson
March 03, 2022 9:14 PM
Pinky promise! by Piper Wilson
Piper was so excited to finally be at Sonora! She had heard about this place her entire life from her brother and her mom and her cousins, aunts and uncles, watching as Gabriel and Lavender and Wally and Stanley all went off to school-everyone else had pretty much graduated long ago-and now it was finally her turn! Of course, Piper was sorry to leave her cousin Charlotte behind, both because she’d miss her and because the younger girl was now left alone without playmates, but she’d be here in just two years. Fortunately, Charlotte hadn’t seemed too upset when the rest of them went off to school. Otherwise, the first year would be worried.And she was especially thrilled to have been sorted into Teppenpaw. It meant that she was indisputably a good person, a nice person. The other houses had nice people too, of course, but it was, like, universal among Tepps. Piper did not understand why anyone wouldn’t think nice was the most important thing to be or why anyone would think that was boring. She was thrilled to be considered nice, even by a semi-sentient potion, and even more thrilled to be in a house with those who were nice too. That meant there would be less conflict there or at least, if there was, they’d probably be able to reach a peaceful resolution.
The only thing that was kind of disappointing was that Piper didn’t have any family in Teppenpaw right now or at least, not any close family. She was sure there were some more distant cousins but her brother Gabriel was in Aladren, while her cousins Lavender and Wally were Crotali and Stanley was a Pecari.
Still, hopefully Piper would make lots of friends and then it wouldn’t matter so much that everyone she already knew was in a different house and a bit older than her. She felt like she was off to a good start, having eaten with Lenny at the feast. He seemed pretty nice. Professor Xavier seemed pretty friendly and approachable too, putting Piper instantly at ease, not that she hadn’t been so, but it was nice to have a Head of House that she felt she could go to if need be.
She wasn’t even really put off by having to jig to get into the Common Room, as being that she was a pureblood, she’d already had years of dance lessons behind her. It had never been anything that the first year had especially loved, but she could do it.
Apparently, Leviosa was fairly surprised about Lenny being a boy, which seemed to be a fairly natural reaction. Truth be told, Piper had been too. Most of the boys in her family weren’t the most stereotypically masculine, as in they weren’t much for Quidditch, but nor did they…look like girls. Still, Lenny seemed to be a nice person-had to be, since he was in Teppenpaw-and that was still the most important thing. Besides, she could probably bond with him over ‘girl things” if he was into them too. Her cousin Lavender had always bemoaned the lack of female friendships in her life and now Piper could do those things with Lenny even though he was a boy, just as she could with Leviosa. Of course, she hoped Cole didn’t end up feeling left out then. That would be terrible! Nobody should ever be left out.
Then the two boys began to chat about their family and their exact relationship. “That sounds like my mom’s family.” Piper put in. “She’s a Brockert.” Which rather explained it to anyone who knew the magical world. “I have all sorts of cousins that are like, different degrees of distance.” She had already mentioned that she had an older brother named Gabriel who was a sixth year Aladren” I’m hoping some are in Teppenpaw, since all the ones I know are not. Of course, most of my first cousins are like, way older and graduated. One of them actually has kids older than me.” Piper paused. “I think there’s another first year I’m related to too. We can’t pretend we’re twins though since we don’t have the same last name.” Since that was what the boys were talking about now.
She nodded in agreement, beaming with happiness as she took Cole’s pinky. She had, of course, no knowledge of anything Muggle other than a little about that game that Gabriel liked so she was glad that Cole explained it to her. “Promise!” Piper exclaimed, thrilled to already have a group of friends.
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Piper Wilson
Pinky promise!
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Leviosa Scurlock
March 04, 2022 4:33 PM
Me too! by Leviosa Scurlock
Lenny was a boy. Even though he looked like a girl. That was definitely a boy’s name, in Levi’s mind. It was all very confusing, but everyone was still smiling so she guessed she wasn’t doing too badly, or they were too nice to mention it if she was. Well, she’d come here wanting to meet people who weren’t like her. That was definitely working out.It turned out Lenny was another Pierce, though not very related to Cole, and that the other girl, Piper, was related to the Brockerts. Verdillia was going to give her so many lectures on genealogy and propriety if she found of that Levi’s entire year-house group was from prominent families. So far, they seemed like people and like they were nice which she cared about much more. Levi didn’t have any complicated cousins at school, even though her dad’s family stretched a long way back in Wales. That didn’t quite feel like it was relevant in the same way, and she didn’t want to seem like she was trying to show off with that fact, especially when it probably didn’t compare to these other people’s families.
The conversation moved on to much more important things, in that they all were going to have a secret together. This was much more like her boarding school books, and she grinned widely at the promise that they were already friends—not only that, but apparently would be forever. She hooked her finger around Lenny’s, feeling like if he was making pinky promises with her, she couldn’t have messed up too badly, and tried to pour all the feelings of how thankful she was into how she smiled at him.
“Pinky promise,” she agreed.
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Leviosa Scurlock
Me too!
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