Nathan Xavier
November 25, 2023 8:56 PM
HOH 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, including his very own daughter, Dora. It was just her and one other girl this year, as it was another small year of students. "Hello, first years" he greeted, knowing Dora at least one be delighted by getting called that. "Welcome to Teppenpaw! I am your new Head of House, Professor Xavier." He glanced pointedly at Dora to be sure she understood that was what he should be called when she was talking to him as a teacher instead of her dad. "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 the other girl find her way back to the Cascade Hall for breakfast tomorrow (Dora already knew), and made conversation to help the Xaviers get to know Libby Brockert a bit. He liked to foster a easy going family-like atmosphere in Teppenpaw and that seemed like it would be especially easy this year. It did come up that Dora was his daughter, and that her mom was the on-staff substitute professor, as well as Head of Pecari, and Otto, her little brother, was an eight-year-old living here at the school as well.
"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. "There’s a diamond shaped chip on the stair you need to stand on," he stated, pointing at it.
"In Teppenpaw, we don’t have passwords. We have a jig that we dance on the chipped stair to open the Common Room," he continued. "It goes like this." He demonstrated. He was overweight and in his early sixties, 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 twenty odd years of being the Teppenpaw Head - oh, Merlin, he was old - he could do those in his sleep (and was quite sure he had on occasion). "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 (completely unbiased) 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, Alice, 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.
"Curfew begins at ten so please be back here or in your room by that time," he gave Dora a warning look here as he knew she was not great at doing what she was told when she was told to do it, "and keep your noise level to minimum so your Housemates can sleep. Your rooms are up those stairs there: girls to the right. The other stairs are for the boys' rooms. 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," he tried to keep a neutral tone at that, hoping not to prejudice them against the sharing by being too enthusiastic or too sympathetic. He doubted Dora would mind though and hoped Libby shared the sentiment.
"Beds are warded to only allow one person in them at a time, so please be aware of that. We do have some pillows and beanbag chairs available if you want some of those for comfortable casual seating in your room. Just let me know."
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 Hansel Hexenmeister, who we are proud to say is also one of our Head Students this year, Liesl Brockert and Cole Pierce." He pointed out the prefects as he said their name, as some of them had followed or preceded the group into the common room. "Prefects are students appointed by the staff to help you find your way around the school 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. Head Students are elected student leaders, with similar responsibilities to the prefects, and also wear a badge to identify themselves. So any of those three, or myself, or anyone wearing similar badges from other Houses, 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!
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Nathan Xavier
HOH Speech
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