Nathan Xavier
May 31, 2024 10:48 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 three new first years, which was a respectable group for the size of the year group. "Hello, first years" he greeted them cheerfully. "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 the new students find their way back to the Cascade Hall for breakfast tomorrow, and made conversation to help get to know the kids a bit. Nathan liked to foster a easy going family-like atmosphere in Teppenpaw, something that became a bit more natural when his actual daughter joined the House the previous year. He did talk some about his family, noting that Dora was their Housemate, as well that Nathan's wife was the on-staff substitute professor and Head of Pecari, and Otto, his son, was a nine-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 very 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 and keep your noise level to minimum so your Housemates can sleep. Your rooms are up those stairs there: boys to the left," he told Uriah, "girls to the right," he informed the two girls. "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 the two girls against sharing. Generally there wasn't a problem though. This was Teppenpaw, after all.
"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 Liesl Brockert, Cole Pierce, and Robyn Lundstrom." 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!
Subthreads: Mortified by Uriah Brockert
1
Nathan Xavier
HOH Speech
28
1
5
Uriah Brockert
July 05, 2024 2:46 AM
Mortified by Uriah Brockert
While Uriah was excited to be at Sonora, he was also kind of nervous about it. Like, he was happy to be with Libby and Alma and in a place that was completely free of Uncle Eustace. However, even though he had changed locations and was away from his primary tormentor, that did not mean there might not be others like him at Sonora and Uriah was no different than he’d been at home, therefore, people who were like Uncle Eustace would also make fun of him for the same reasons that his uncle did.Granted, Sonora did not really often have people like his uncle now, thankfully. The theory was that since Quidditch was not the highest priority at Sonora-probably due partially to Grandfather’s indifferent regime-so they wanted to go places with “better” Quidditch programs. Like ones where even the non-players got brainwashed into a frenzy of “house spirit” and anyone who disliked and/or was bad at Quidditich would be tormented night and day by the sort of person Uriah hoped to avoid. For his part, the first year felt bad for actually nice people who played like Christopher’s friends Cole and Yaniel that might want better programs, but was also so incredibly glad that Sonora just didn’t have a culture like that now, but seemed instead have one of acceptance with the exception of his cousin Desmond and maybe his friends and Desmond had never targeted Uriah about his specific difference, which was his weight. Apparently, the fourth year did have some standards. How he set them was confusing to Uriah, but they did exist.
Which really meant that as everyone else was nice, Uriah had nothing to worry about or at least it should. Nobody knew what the first years were like and while the two Pecaris-Uncle Eustace’s house and therefore, the one he was most likely to associate with rabidly sporty people-were girls, he knew that regardless of what his uncle thought, there were some girls out there who were just as obsessed. And while they most likely would be offended by Uncle Eustace’s misogyny-Uriah couldn’t imagine not being offended by someone who was anti-you-they may very well agree with his stance on non-athletic overweight types (or just plain non-athletic types regardless of whether or not they were also fat or had allergies or were nerdy or whatever extra thing that people like Uncle Eustace had a problem with.)
Still, this was the stuff that Christopher worried about every year and it was a fear that the older boy had yet to realize. Now the seventh year was Head Student and any new first year that was like their uncle should be of little consequence to the Crotalus though of course Uriah was in a position to worry yet about current first years. Chris was six years older than them and had a badge that both meant he was fairly well liked by other students and that came with certain powers but for Uriah, they were his classmates. He truly hoped that if he was going to worry about this, that it would work out the same way it had for his cousin, with this sort of bully never actually materializing. Uriah also hoped that he stopped worrying about this type of person showing up much quicker than his cousin had and not worrying about new first years being like Uncle Eustace when he was a seventh year. Uriah could not imagine bullying a seventh year as a first year, but then he wouldn’t bully anyone anyway,since bullies like his uncle were the worst.
On the other hand, he would not have put it past his uncle to bully people older than himself like Dad and Uncle Zeke. Uriah didn’t think he probably was as horrid to them as he was to Uncle Gene, who was his twin, and Uncle Elmer who was younger. Which sort of explained why Uncle Gene couldn’t fight back, as Uriah had seen a similar dynamic between his oldest sister, Allegra and their cousin, Topaz, and also why Uncle Eustace was banned from Uncle Elmer’s house.
Although, from what Uriah understood, it had been Aunt Madeleine who’d put a foot down about that because Uncle Eustace called Libby a mean name that meant she was a female dog-though Uriah did not get why that was bad since unless you were allergic to them like Miles, dogs were great regardless of whether they were male or female-when she’d started physically attacking Uncle Eustace for making fun of Miles. Admittedly, even though Uriah was against violence in general, that Libby had done this as a pretty young child was kind of awesome.Like this little girl had gone against one of the two monsters-they had never needed fictional boogeymen with Uncle Eustace and Topaz around, while Uriah had experienced bullying and fat-shaming from the former, he’d also gone through a period of time where he had been unable to resist cookies and brownies even given to him by his evil cousin since even though he should have known better, but he’d been pretty small and had not learned self control yet, and they’d had a variety of effects on him from stomach troubles to turning him various colors- in their life and that was pretty cool.
After that, Aunt Madeleine said Uncle Eustace was not welcome in their house-although Uriah had to wonder why he ever had been. Even without his being outright banned from their house, he could not imagine that his uncle had been welcome which suggested he was wanted somewhere and Uriah couldn’t imagine anyone wanting Uncle Eustace around. Not even Aunt Helena or Grandmother, who were his wife and mother, respectively. Or Uncle Gene who was his twin, Uncle Gene might not have forbidden Uncle Eustace from their house-although now that Uriah thought about it, Aunt Amanda could do so as it was Aunt Madeleine, not Uncle Elmer who’d banned him-but Uriah doubted Uncle Gene wanted him around either. After all, who wanted their bully anywhere near them, and aside from Aunt Helena and Honora, nobody had probably suffered more than Uncle Gene at the hands of his evil twin.
Still, the first year was super glad that Aunt Madeleine had done this since now Miles was alone as Uriah, Libby and Alma were all at Sonora now. He worried a lot about his slightly younger cousin. Like, while he knew Miles was capable of amusing himself on his own, he still worried that his cousin would be lonely without any of them, and would feel left out that they were all here together and he wasn’t. Although, it sounded like he was going to go hang out with Sam and Lorelei, who were the children of Cory, their dads’ cousin. Even that though…it was nice of them, but Sam was very….different from Miles,and Uriah could not figure out what they’d both enjoy doing.
Anyway, at least Uriah was in Teppenpaw, a house known for its kindness, which meant that people would most likely would be nice to him and he was also with Libby, which was awesome. Honestly, even though it would leave Alma out, and he didn’t want her to feel that way, he kind of hoped Miles would be a Teppenpaw as well. Partially because his cousin was his best friend in the whole world, and Uriah could, like, hang out with him and have sleepovers, especially since he did not have roommates, something that was sort of disappointing, though at least he would be spared problems like Topaz-who was surely 99 percent to blame for them at least- and Amethyst had. Unfortunately, he would not have the camaraderie that Libby and Isla had with theirs either and it would be nice to have Miles with him. Maybe if Miles didn’t have a roommate either and was sorted into Teppenpaw, they could share! Uriah had never shared a room but doing so with his favorite cousin-Libby and Alma were tied for a very close second and Topaz was dead last, he hadn’t thought to rank them more than that- and best friend in the world would be awesome. Uriah would even forgo having snacks in their room so Miles didn’t get sick from being in proximity to them.
The other reason that Uriah-and Libby, who felt similar to him though was even more protective of Miles than he was-was that he wanted his cousin to be in a nice place where nobody would be nasty to him. Crotalus, where some people assumed that Miles would go, was a mixed bag and while Alma was there, she would graduate after Miles’ fourth year and then he’d be alone in Crotalus for three whole years as opposed to Teppenpaw where he could be with Uriah and Libby and only have the one year by himself completely, that he was always going to have as he was the youngest of the four of them.
Although, Miles would actually be turning eleven in a few days. It was unfortunate, most of the time Uriah felt sorry for his cousin because of all his allergies, especially the food ones since the first year very much enjoyed food himself but recently he’d felt worse for his cousin because Miles’ birthday was on September sixth, and if he’d just been born a week earlier, he’d be here with them now. But he was alone and, in some ways, so was Uriah. At least the Teppenpaw felt that way a little even though he really wasn’t. He had Libby and Alma, of course. Plus, Christopher, Liesl, Jason and Krisalyn. And even his brother Olaf when it came down to it. Uriah’s older brother was prickly and the first year knew that the two of them probably would not be spending time with each other. They were not especially close, as nobody was close to the fifth year but the thing was Uriah trusted his brother. Olaf often bribed him with food to get him to go away…and while he was every bit as smart as Topaz and could come up with concoctions that would do weird things to the Teppenpaw like their cousin had, he had never done so.
Still, Uriah was feeling a little homesick and lonely now. Probably because he’d been thinking about Miles and how he missed him as well as the lack of a roommate. He wasn’t even with Libby now, just the two first year girls and Professor Xavier. He smiled shyly at his new housemates, who were cute, but would likely not say the same about him. Although they were Teppenpaws, so hopefully they would be, at the very least, nice to him. Teppenpaws, after all, would never bully anyone, and nobody who was like Uncle Eustace would be a Teppenpaw.
Although, Uriah realized with horror, that the whole “interested in the personal development of others” part of being a Tepp could actually very easily go horribly wrong, since that happened to be something people all had very different ideas about and that some people could become overzealous in
However, it was a weird thing to put in a house description when the other house traits were about being friendly and diplomatic and the stereotype was that they were all soft fluffy types, like Owen and Cory. Uriah had never seen anyone trying to “help” the “personal development” of others go well, and it could easily become bullying or abuse. What if being interested in the personal development of others was the only trait someone had that fit any aspect of any house description, and they were Sorted into Teppenpaw because of it but they were mean and horrible and not like Libby or Ruby or Owen at all!
And, for his part, Uriah did not want someone thinking that his “personal development” involved exercising and eating healthy food and harassing him about it!
Speaking of which, now they were at the entrance to their common room-and Uriah’s heart sank. He was going to have to dance a jig to get into his dorm and while he was a Brockert and obviously had to have ballroom dance lessons, he was not even remotely comfortable dancing in an unfamiliar manner and worse, in front of people He was not what anyone would consider light on his feet and having to dance in front of his two year and housemates.
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t eventually master the steps, there weren’t that many. Uriah did have a fairly good memory especially with things like names, like he knew the other two Teppenpaws were named Anne-Sophia and Edna so he was sure that he could remember the order of steps and whatnot. However, Uriah was reluctant to actually do them in front of others as he would look stupid and he was afraid that even though they were Teppenpaws-and Uriah did not know that one or both of them wasn’t sorted here due to an interest in the personal development of others-they would laugh at him. That it would turn into a thing where they got amusement out of watching the fat kid dance.
Once they had practiced the dance sufficiently enough for Professor Xavier’s taste-and Uriah was thoroughly mortified and demoralized and wanting to crawl into a hole and die-they finally entered the common room, the first year blushing and looking down at the floor. Professor Xavier finished his house orientation spiel, and Uriah stood there, wondering what to do. He wanted to go right to his room and hide under the covers seeing as he’d just made an absolute fool of himself in front of the two girls (and his HOH/Herbology professor) but to just turn and go up without saying anything to Anne-Sophia and Edna seemed rude. However, the problem was that he currently was too embarrassed to say anything.
And that included questions for Professor Xavier like if there was an alternative to doing the jig. Like going through the office or maybe the step would work if you just put pressure on the places on the stair where your feet went in the dance. Uriah was also a bit disturbed about how conspicuous the entire dancing thing was and wanted to ask Professor Xavier about what would happen if someone from another house saw them just dancing on the stairs. They would think the Tepps were either nuts or it would give away their common room. Neither of which were things Uriah wanted. He supposed that he could always ask Professor Xavier these things later, when other students weren't around.
Thankfully, before he made up his mind about what to do, one of the girls spoke up, addressing both him and her roommate.
11
Uriah Brockert
Mortified
1593
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5